Pictures gone after Nandroid backup restored Recently, I made a TWRP Recovery Nandroid backup of my current ROM, and I had just taken some personal pictures. In the backup, it included the /data partition. When I went to restore it, I opened the Photos app, and nothing was there. I checked the file system, and the camera and DCIM folders are empty. Is there any way to get the pictures back?

I am on HTC One M8 GPe Android 5.1.

That is the way nandroid works. Its NOT some bug.

Yes, it does include /data partition but your data is stored in /data/media/0 which it skips during backup as this would lead it to backup everything inside internal memory increasing backup size significantly.

In other simple words, nandroid backup's /data option includes only apps and their data, not your personal data on internal or external sd.

As for restore, there are a bunch of apps that claim to be able to recover deleted/formatted data such as Undelete (you need to be Rooted for this one) but I have never personally tried one so can't say about the performance. So you will have to test those yourself.

Hope this helps.


Does Android 1.5 Cupcake support WMA decoder? I pushed some WMA files to emulator yesterday, and I found all of these music files can be played well by the music player, So I was confused.

I found that Android 1.5 didn't support the WMA codec, which is announced in the SDK
documentation. I also didn't find a WMA decoder in PV OMX.

How does this happen?

There isn't just one thing called WMA, WMA describes a whole set of different audio formats and technologies that all normally have a .WMA ending. Some of these are DRM encrypted, some have higher or lower level quality than others, some are optimized for voices. It's entirely possible that although your audio file has a .WMA extension and container, inside that it's actually a type of codec that Android can already natively handle.

See these links for a bit more explanation: Gentle Introduction to Video Encoding: Lossy Audio Codecs and Wikipedia - WMA


Why is Google maps 48M on Android 4.4.4 and 125M on Android 5.1.1? Why is Google maps only 48 Megabytes on Android 4.4.4, but is 125M on Android 5.1.1?  The Android 5.1.1 phone seems to have a 32-bit processor and the 4.4.4 phone seems to have a 64-bit processor from devicespecifications.com.  I would think the 64-bit phone would have the larger binary.

If you have root access, you can browse /data/app and that's the difference.

# Sample for Android K 4.4
com.android.vending-1.apk
com.google.android.apps.maps-1.apk

# Sample for Android L 5.0/5.1
com.android.vending-1/
com.google.android.apps.maps-1/

And if you list the content of one of them, you'll see

com.google.android.apps.maps-1/:
base.apk (54MB)
lib/

com.google.android.apps.maps-1/lib/:
arm64/

com.google.android.apps.maps-1/lib/arm64/:
libcronet.59.0.3602.4.so    (4.9MB)
libgmm-jni.so    (9.4MB)

Also, Android 4.4 implements the old Dalvik VM, while on Android 5+, Google switched to a new VM called ART. The main difference is that Dalvik compiles apps Just-In-Time (JIT), while ART compiles Ahead-Of-Time (AOT), so more code is compiled in ART than in Dalvik. That's why this one is really big:

/data/dalvik-cache/arm64/data@app@com.google.android.apps.maps-1@base.apk@classes.dex    (109.5MB)

On Android 4.4 it's much smaller, you can find it out by yourself.


Problems cutting people off I am a complete novice with these phones.  When I have a call I seem to cut people off with my cheek on the screen - how can I stop this?

If  you cannot keep distance between screen and your skin (cheek) as bigbadonk420 said. Then, in my experience, always speak from your phone with headset connected. There by not having the tension of cutting the call and giving freedom to the hands simultaneously.  Simple isn't it...


Missing application from sdcard I did factory reset. So, I lost application from sdcard but that application files still exist in sdcard.

How do I recovery my application from sdcard. I do not have back up app data file.

My phone is version 4.0.4 and non-rooted device.

On SD Card stored only application data, but some parts of applications are always stored on phone, so recovery is impossible - only reinstall.


How to reset the app icons? - They get substituted by a default icon Sometimes, the app icons just "switch" to an android icon:

For example in this screenshot, the Dropbox (center row in the left) icon is an android icon. This happens to me from time to time with many different applications.

The bad icon works properly: It still opens the application normally.

If I grab the dropbox from the all-apps folder and drag-and-drop a new shortcut, it displays correctly:

If I remove the bad icon, and leave only the correct icon it seems all normal:

Questions

Why this happens and how can I prevent it happening in the future?
Is there any way to "reset" all the bad icons in one shot?

It might be the problem of your launcher application.

Try clearing your launcher app's cache.


My WiFi does not work in Sony Ericsson My Sony Ericsson X8's wifi has stopped working about a few weeks after rooting and installing the GingerDX v030.

Even though it is turned on and scanning, it does not connect to any WiFi.

I have tried rebooting, and also resetting the WiFi antenna (i.e., either by turning it off then on, or by switching to airplane mode and then back out of it).

I have to use the stock kernel otherwise the phone hard bricks.

Alright, I have managed to solve the problem by looking at some XDA forums.

Basically summarized here: -

Go into the WiFi settings.
Long press a remembered WiFi.
Select Forget All Networks. You might need to do it a few times.
Press the leftmost button (the one with literally four squares) to bring up a bottom menu.
Touch Scan.
Voila! WiFi working again!

The only drawback is that you need to grab passwords for each one of them again. :-(


Disable chat-heads (for WhatsApp, etc.) on Samsung devices After an Android 9.0 Pie update on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, I have noticed that Whatsapp Messenger notifications come up similar to how Facebook Messenger notifications are delivered - with a chat head. This is a circle with the messenger's profile picture showing, and clicking on it opens a small window with the message shown.

I preferred when this chat head was never there, and I got to see a preview of the message for a few seconds just below the top of the screen when a message arrives.

I have tried turning off pop-up notifications on WhatsApp, but this seems to be something different entirely, as the chat heads continue to come up.

Is it possible to turn this feature off?

Follow this path to enable or disable the mentioned "chat heads":

Settings > Advanced features > Smart pop-up view

Then, toggle whatever applications you'd like to show "chat heads".


Can't connect Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 to PC after root I have a Samsung S5830 phone. After I rooted it using upd-1.zip I got a superuser icon in the app list. However my PC won't recognize it. I have Kies installed and all Samsung drivers but it seems the problem is not with the drivers, what should I do?

Your phone might be going into USB Debugging Mode on connecting to PC. After phone is connected to PC via cable, disable Debugging Mode [Settings -> Applications -> Development] and then check for Kies Connection.

My friend had the same issue and we resolved it like this.


Preloading images over WiFi from New York Times app for Android? I've set the NYTimes app to download over WiFi twice a day.  But it just downloads the articles, not the pictures.  So if I'm out and about, I either get no pictures or I burn cellular data.

How can I get this app to download the pictures over (free for me) WiFi?

There's an option as of app version 6.10 to preload images.

However it only preloads some images, leaving you at risk of using a fairly substantial chunk of data simply by flipping though sections in the app.  As of this writing, there seems no better option.

Feedback to the Times is accepted at android@nytimes.com


How can I sort contacts by date added? Is there a way to sort contacts by date added, or at least see contacts that have been recently added? I'm running android os 2.2.

This is useful if you want programmatic and CLI access to your contacts in sorted order.

If you're on Android then most probably your phone contacts are synced with your Google account's contacts which you can access using Google Contacts. Now, using the Google Command Line Tools you can return contacts in order of filing if no other sort method is set.

For example, use the following command to get all contacts in a text file in recently added order:

google contacts list ".*" > output.txt

Cheers.


How to upgrade android market to Google play I am using Micromax Android A60( version android 2.1 ) phone since two years ago.
Now the Market app is not working. When I download any other app it gives error download unsuccessful. Even the Facebook app which is already downloaded to the phone is also not working.

Is this problem because of Market is not upgraded to Google Play?

Why is my mobile is not upgrading Market to Google play? How can I upgrade it?

On Google I got following steps to upgrade Market App but not able to do 3rd step.

Follow these steps to upgrade it manually on your Android device:

Go in to Settings in your Android device and then Apps.
Look for Market under the "All" tab and then press clear data.
Now open the newly updated Play Music app (Google Music). (This step not found)
Hit that little Market icon in the bottom tray.
Confirm Google Play upgrade.

Google Play requires Android 2.2 or higher.  Since your phone  has 2.1, it won't run.  You'll either need to upgrade Android (which may not be possible with your phone) or sideload any apps you want to install from now on.


How can I use su again after OTA-upgrading my rooted phone? I had previously rooted my droid when it was running 2.2 froyo. Using the OTA upgrade, i got a gingerbread (2.3.4) for my phone. As obvious, the root privileges were gone..but the superuser app and the everything else related to it is still there in the system/bin and system/xbin folders. Now when i try to run "su" command from an adb shell to re-root my phone, it shows "permission denied".

Is there anyway that i can get the "#" shell i.e. the su privileges instead of the normal "$" shell, so that i can manually delete the previous root files?
Thanks.

In short, the OTA upgrade clobbered your root settings, am afraid to say you will have to run either SuperOneClick or zergRush to get root again.

[TECHNICAL]

The OTA reverted the original default.prop when on Froyo from this

ro.secure=0

to this after the upgrade

ro.secure=1

Thus you may still have the su binary etc, but it is the above line that is preventing you from trying to switch user to id of 0 (that's what su stands for! - S witch U ser)


How can I geo-tag a photo after I've taken it? Is there an app for that? :)

(For when automatic tagging fails)

Actually I found such an app, after a fair bit of searching.

Photo Geolocator (Google Code)

Currently you can't look up locations via an address, so it only really works for nearby locations, but that's still better than having to edit images on a PC, IMO.


stock email: activesync/exchange: selecting which folders to sync I have two devices getting email from the same exchange activesync server. same account.

One is an old 2.3.3 nexus, another is a samsung tablet with 4.1 (or newer, not 100% sure now.. it may be 4.2)

on the server i have lots of folders, in the following setting:

 - drafts
 - outbox
 - sent
 - trash
 - junk email
 - sync issues
   - server failure
   - sync issues 1
   - local failures
 - rss feed
 - FolderA
 - inbox
   - FolderB
   - FolderC
   - FolderD
   - FolderE

this is the inverse order it shows up on my outlook client... i don't think folders have an order as far as i can tell.

Anyway, on both devices, i get this:

 - drafts
 - outbox
 - sent
 - trash
 - junk email
 - sync issues
 - server failure
 - sync issues 1
 - local failures
 - rss feed
 - FolderC
 - FolderD
 - inbox

Note that sync issues was flattened. And that it choose two random folders (C and D) to display outside of  INBOX.

now, i don't care for any of those folders! but I need FolderA and FolderB badly.

I already looked on all options on both devices, and there is nothing to select more folders. All I can do is hide the folders it arbitrarily selected already. I have already went trhu the info on How can I select which folders to sync via Exchange ActiveSync?

I also do not think it is related to options on the client, as both devices have the same two folders selected. It may be something on the server... maybe a flag telling that those are to be synced? It is not based on age, or alphabetical order. i tried right-cliking all the folders on outlook and looking for anything, but the properties of them all are the same.

I tried deleting the Sync issues folder on outlook (i can't delete the others such as RSS feed even never have any use for those)... and reprovisioned one of my devices... and even though i don't have the sync issues folder on my outlook anymore, it still synced when i removed/added the account back.

I can move both folders that i want in or out of INBOX, i don't care.

Any ideas on how to get rid of the unwanted folders and sync the wanted ones?

EDIT:
I removed my account, renamed the to folders that do get synced to X_folderC... wipped all data for the stock android app. recreated the account. and bam. it synced X_folderC... i hate this phone.

So it is definitely something on the Folders meta data from exchange... how do i even check that? On the Samsung device with 4.1 or 4.2 i could generate a debug log of the app talking to exchange, what should i look for?

EDIT 2:
i created a new folder, Folder_D2, moved all mail from Folder_D there, moved the rules to move email there, and deleted Folder_D... now the phone has, Folder_D and Folder_D2!!! and still no sign of the folders i do want.

Also while doing it, i noticed that on the server email rules, the two top ones sent email folder_C and folder_D... so i thought this may be the deciding factor... so i moved the one that sends email to Folder_A to the top of the rule list... but no luck. nothing have changed.

EDIT 3:
finally found something! if i create a new folder, it syncs!!! so i can solve this recreating all folders I want synced. ...tedious but that should work. The ones not being synced are the ones migrated from the old exchange server... for some reason they have some property/flag that makes them not be synced on android. But i can't see anything from outlook.

solved while investigating to write a better question.

Apparently when the company migrated from some exchange version to another, something was set on the folders attributes that made android email application ignore it. Renaming the folder did not solve. Also comparing the attributes that are visible to the user between a folder that sync and one that does not sync reveals nothing.

Solution is to create a new folder, move the emails and updates the rules, and finally delete the old one.


Ignore crack in Android screen (and entire front panel) or take some action My Galaxy S3 was in my jeans pocket when I leaned over to pick something up that I dropped under the table. A few minutes later, when I took out my phone, I saw a long diagonal crack from one side of the phone, straight through the middle of the screen area and all the way to the further edge of the phone.
Thankfully everything still works.

My question is, is there anything I should do about it - i.e. replace the screen, layer it with transparent tape - or just leave it and everything will be fine (i.e. it can't get worse)?

Lots of screens are cracked and they still work.  Mine has had two cracks in it for over a year.  At first I put thin non glossy mending tape on each crack.  It was unnecessary no glass sticks out on it though I can feel them with a fingernail, so I just leave it bare.  For anything worse and still working you might use a screen protector, which I'd certainly do if the alternative was getting cuts on my fingers.  Would be interesting what your experience actually was as has been several months since you posted.


Use of "Mounted /system" with secret key combinations in recovery; I just discovered that after pressing a secret key combination in recovery mode, the log below shows a message "Mounted /system". What's this used for? Thank you!

mount option im recovery mode allows you to mount a partition , like SYSTEM or DATA etc. Like you would do with a computer drive.  This  allows you to modify anything in that partition. Because when you boot in recovery mode, the other partitions are not mounted, you cannot see data or edit them.

The mount /system in the stock recovery allows to mount the system for some reason. I'm sure it has to do something with debugging.


How to prefer networks from a specific country to avoid roaming charges? I've recently moved to the Geneva area on the border between France and Switzerland. I live in France where I have a French mobile (and home) phone contract, but work just over the border (within a mile of it!) in Switzerland.

The Swiss networks are stronger near my work than French ones, but I can usually get a French signal. I can use several French networks without incurring roaming charges for phone/SMS/internet use, but any of the Swiss ones will cost me a small fortune.

In Android (actually Cyanogenmod versions based on Gingerbread and ICS is what I've tried so far so far) I seem to have two options:

a) Only allow to join my home network and ignore all others, both French and Swiss. In this case I often have no connection at all.

b) Connect to any network, in which case the phone will often choose to connect to a Swiss network and hence incur costs. (And in practice will render me unable to use the mobile data connection since I've disabled data roaming).

Is there a way that I can rank networks in order of preference so that French networks (if joinable) will be preferred to Swiss ones, even if there are Swiss networks with a stronger signal?  I've looked for settings and apps to do this, but without success... other than some rather dangerous looking stuff with the Preferred Roaming List (PRL), which doesn't seem to be exposed to the normal UI.

I guess most people don't live/work on borders so this feature hasn't been that much in demand -- but the network operators unfortunately don't have any cross-country deals to help frontier-dwellers either, so a technological solution is probably needed!

Although I didn't understand your issue at all, I think this app (Roaming Control Trial
- INSADCO GmbH) would help you in some way.

It is trial, but if it functions on your tests, you can buy it - it will cost less than that small fortune...

With that, I think you won't create the priority list of network data connection, but you can simply reject all data from the Swiss carriers...


What is "Smart Standby"? My phone, a Blu Studio C 5+5 running Lollipop, has a toggle icon in the quick settings pulldown area labeled Smart Standby. I've found nothing in the phone's documentation or on Google that indicates what it does. Can somebody explain it?

Note: I've discovered that when Smart Standby is enabled, Tasker profiles which are tied to my calendar activate up to ten minutes late.

After some digging, I found a German site https://durcheinandr.de/technik/smart-standby-welch-eine-option

To save you the hassle of translating, it states that enabling smart standby allows the device to automatically lock and turn the screen off when the phone is placed in your pocket, or on a flat surface.

I barely remember my German. God, that was hard.


How to create a file folder for use with Listen Audiobook player I can't figure out how to use this Listen book player, I've Installed.

First I see this.

Hitting OK, I see this:

I can't understand how to tell it where to find my books.

I've downloaded one already, it is in downloads. I can select it (outside of the Listen app) but I can't figure out how to create a folder in which to put it.

I think I'm missing some basic file navigation ideas. I've used Android for over a year, but have not needed to move files to specific locations.

Edit: I've installed a File Manager, and added a directory, but no change.

Press the overflow menu button in the upper right.  Select the show storage option.  There will now be a new item below the Recent menu item in the slide out drawer for the devices storage.


Clean way for flashing factory image on Samsung Galaxy Nexus? Is this the correct and clean way for flashing factory Jelly Bean image on Samsung Galaxy Nexus, without using any external tool (apart from Android SDK)?

I don't want to to break my phone, so I'm asking this. I've collected these informations from various sources, but I need a confirm that all the steps and commands are correct and needed.

Step 1: Download and install Android SDK for Windows. Start Android SDK manager, select Android SDK platform-tools and Google USB Driver (this should be already selected) and install. It will take a while.

After packages installation, add the folder:

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools

to your PATH variable, to make command fastboot available in command prompt.

Step 2: Download a factory image from official Factory Images for Nexus Devices. For me is "yakju" for Galaxy Nexus "maguro" (GSM/HSPA+), file yakju-jro03c-factory-3174c1e5.tgz

Make a new folder, say C:\jro03c. Open yakju-jro03c-factory-3174c1e5.tgz and extract bootloader-maguro-primelc03.img along with radio-maguro-i9250xxlf1.img to C:\jro03c. Folder now contains two image files:

C:\jro03c\bootloader-maguro-primelc03.img
C:\jro03c\radio-maguro-i9250xxlf1.img

Then inside the .tgz file itself, open image-yakju-jro03c.zip and copy all *.img files to C:\jro03c. You will end up with six image files:

C:\jro03c\boot.img
C:\jro03c\bootloader-maguro-primelc03.img
C:\jro03c\radio-maguro-i9250xxlf1.img
C:\jro03c\recovery.img
C:\jro03c\system.img
C:\jro03c\userdata.img

Step 3: Power off your Galaxy Nexus. Press and hold Volume Up and Volume Down then press and hold the Power button; the Galaxy Nexus will now enter "fastboot mode". Connect your phone using the USB cable.

Then open a command prompt (Windows Key + R opens "Run", then type in cmd) type:

cd C:\jro03c
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-maguro-primelc03.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-maguro-i9250xxlf1.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot erase cache
fastboot oem lock
fastboot reboot

Yes, this is the correct and official way of flashing

Be aware though, that no matter which way you flash, you can still break your phone

For example, you're in the middle of flashing your device, and the USB lead comes out - bricked device.

Or you're flashing, and you have a powercut - bricked device.

So, the moral is that there is no completely 100% safe way of flashing a device.


Android lollipop Wi-Fi murders battery I have an unrooted galaxy S6, Verizon, and Android 5.1.1 on it.Each night I fully charge my phone,  and it never leaves my pocket after 6 am or gets used until 2 pm. At 2, the battery may be around 90% or it may be at 50% without any use. I discovered the battery was much lower if I had Wi-Fi on,  even though I was never connected to Wi-Fi. Battery chart in settings says Google services or Google play services used all the battery.Please help,  I've tried everything I can think of,  and I'm usually good at this sort of thing.

Google Play services runs in the background to keep applications up to date and to sync your information to Google.

One possible cause of the battery drain could be if you have multiple accounts on your device. Your device will drain more battery to keep up with the demands on the services
Another possible cause of the battery drain could be a third-party application running in the background and using data from Google Play services

To fix either of these problems, you may want to boot your phone into Safe Mode. This will ensure that the Google Play services or anything else that could drain the battery aren't running. But at the same time, you can freely use Wi-Fi or any application that you choose to run.

To boot into Safe Mode:

Turn off your device and wait about 2 minutes
Once it is off, hold down the power button and the volume down button. You may release the power button when you see the screen turn on, but do not release the power button until the phone is completely turned on.

(Google Play services battery drain is from this source)


Determine app that keeps turning on bluetooth I recently got back from a holiday without internet, when I got back heaps of my apps updated and one of them now continuously turns my Bluetooth on. How can I determine which app it is?

I have a rooted Nexus 4 running 4.4.4

For me it was FireChat.

With aSpotCat you can check which apps have the permission to turn bluetooth on/off.


Fastboot commands extremely slow I'm trying to unlock my HTC U11 and I've tried to run fastboot both from the packages of my Ubuntu derivative (fastboot version 1:7.0.0+r33-2) and from the platform tools (fastboot version 28.0.1-4986621).

I can see my device both with adb in normal operation and with fastboot devices in download mode.

The output of fastboot getvar all is:

(bootloader) kernel: lk
(bootloader) product: htc_ocndugl
(bootloader) version: 1.0
(bootloader) max-download-size: 1562400000
(bootloader) serialno: xxx
(bootloader) slot-count: 0
(bootloader) current-slot:
(bootloader) imei: xxx
(bootloader) version-main: 1.27.401.11
(bootloader) boot-mode: download
(bootloader) version-baseband: xxx
(bootloader) version-bootloader: 1.0.0.0000
(bootloader) mid: 2PZC30000
(bootloader) cid: HTC__034
all:
finished. total time: 0.005s

When I try to get a token in order to unlock the phone, the command doesn't complete within any reasonable amount of time, e.g., fastboot  oem get_identifier_token did not complete after hours and I unplugged the phone:

...
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] : /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/frp
(bootloader) [KillSwitch] Last Byte is 0X01, enable unlock
FAILED (status read failed (No such device))
finished. total time: 23223.012s

Has anyone seen this or can give me any pointers as to what I'm doing wrong?

I tried the same process from a different laptop and it worked instantly. I don't know what the cause of this issue is but having the alternative solution, I don't feel like investigating any longer.


UDP communication between PC and Android via ethernet 1. I am testing with a rooted nexus 5 operating on lollipop 5.1.

2. This is all with no wifi connection.

I am trying to send UDP packets between a PC and an android device with an otg cable and ethernet dongle. When connected the PC thinks the android is an unidentified network(No internet access) and the android recognizes the device as eth0 with an IP of 0.0.0.0.

eth0   UP   0.0.0.0

I add an IP to the eth0 by running the following unix script:

#!/bin/sh
netcfg eth0 up
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.200 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw 192.168.1.1 dev eth0
ping -c 1 192.168.1.1

After running the script eth0 appears in the command line as:

eth0   UP   192.168.1.200

I am using wireshark to track packets and when I try to open an interface between the PC and android I get an error as follows:

(Error opening adapter: The system cannot find the device specified. (20)).

Also, when I try to PING the PC from the android I get 100% packet lost.

So it seems like I don't have a connection between PC and android.
Any input on the topic would be very helpful.

I think reverse tethering would solve your problem.

Android reverse tethering steps:

Note: Works only in a rooted Android phone.

Connect Android device via USB.
Enable USB tethering. To do so, go to Settings → More... → Tethering & mobile hotspot → Usb tethering.
On host machine, type:

$ ifconfig usb0 10.42.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
$ echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Command for sudo will be:

$ sudo 'echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward'

On Android device (for this step you must install ADB on host PC), type:

$ adb shell
$ su
$ netcfg rndis0 dhcp

If it does'nt get the IP address then assign it manually:

$ netcfg rndis0 10.42.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0
$ route add default gw 10.42.0.1 dev rndis0

Now internet would be working in the Android phone.

To check , try the command ping www.google.com.

It works for me.


How to setup the Whatsapp status in Bluestack on a Windows 10 notebook? I have installed a BlueStack on my Windows 10 Notebook. I wanted to setup the status of my Whatsapp account. However, I couldn't find any option to navigate through, and add a video file.

I could setup the status of my Whatsapp account with taking a new photo by my camera, but I want to add an already-downloaded video file to my status.

Thanks a in advance.

Install open camera for android.
Then, click on view picture (denoted by the most recent picture in the gallery on the upper right hand corner).
Complete action using view picture if it asks for it.
Then click on the share icon on the image. Share picture via whatsapp.
When whatsapp opens automatically, click on My status then send.
This worked for me.


uc mini's speed mode not working Something went wrong suddenly with my uc mini browser. It's speed mode has stopped working on my android phone . With its speed mode on, uc mini works well even over slow 2G network. But now, turning it on has stopped working. How can I fix it? Pls help.

Maybe your data carrier had problems or there's a bug at UC Mini. See if next updates of UC Mini can workaround your problem.


How to run SSH/SFTP server for multiple user logins with password authentication on Android? I want to run an SSH server on my Android phone so that my clients (varying between 10 to 20) can easily and securely share data with me when I'm on the go, without using any third party hosting services like email, file sharing etc. Every user should have it's own directory (enforced using SFTP's chroot) and he/she should be able to login using his/her own password (not key file) I provide them, optionally sharing credentials with other users if one needs to.

I didn't find any such flexible solution, specially FOSS. So I built sshd program from openssh source code, using gcc-linux-aarch64 cross compiler on Ubuntu. However when I execute it on my phone, it throws error:

~# sshd -d
Privilege Separation user sshd does not exist

How can I add sshd and other users on Android? My phone is rooted.

PS: I'm jotting down answer to my own question what limitations I faced and how I have been achieving this for past few years. Any other method - particularly a non-root solution through GUI for ease of a common user - would be appreciated.

Note:

Make sure your phone is accessible from internet as explained here.
You need a rooted device.

Android phones nowadays aren't those old low-end devices, they can run a full-featured SSH server happily. And it's an easy recipe:

Get fully static sshd binary for your phone's architecture. See details below.
Create /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow. To add a new user with password like we do on a Linux OS:

~# mount -o rw,remount /system; mount -o rw,remount /
~# touch /etc/passwd /etc/shadow
~# busybox adduser -D -H -h /dev/null -s /system/bin/false -u 900 sshd
~# busybox adduser -D -H -h /home/user1 -s /system/bin/sh -u 901 user1
~# toybox passwd user1
~# mkdir -p /data/home/user1/Documents /home /sdcard/home /etc/ssh
~# mount -o bind /data/home /home
~# mount -o bind /data/home /mnt/runtime/default/emulated/0/home
~# chmod 0750 /data/home/user1; chown 0.901 /data/home/user1

First bind mount is required because otherwise SFTP's chroot won't work with /data's bad ownership. Second is to easily access shared files from /sdcard/home. To set non-root permissions on /sdcard/home, use bindfs instead.
sshd user is for Privilege Separation. user1 is our first user that'll be able to login through SSH. In the same way more users can be added.
Add required configurations to /etc/ssh/sshd_config (defaults suffice in most cases):

UsePAM no
PasswordAuthentication yes
Subsystem sftp internal-sftp
Match User user1
  ChrootDirectory /home/user1

Run SSH server, may use logwrapper to get log in logcat:

~# ssh-keygen -A    # generate host keys on first use
~# /system/bin/sshd -4 -E /sdcard/home/.sshd.log

Now you can access server through SFTP / SSHFS. SSHD can also be run as an init service that's handled by Android's init. See this answer for explanation.

DETAILS:

SSH server lets you login remotely after proper authentication. Additionally it serves sharing of files and many other resource sharing securely. But there is no concept of Linux console login on Android (1) because it boots directly to GUI. However it makes use of Discretionary Access Control (DAC) of Linux kernel which is based on UIDs / GIDs and permission mode. Every installed app is considers as a *NIX user and is assigned a unique UID at install time. See this answer for more details on this.

HOW USER LOGIN AND AUTHENTICATION WORK:

Traditionally /etc/passwd contained username vs. UID/GID mapping, while supplementary GIDs were added to /etc/group. Password was also added to /etc/passwd which was later moved to /etc/shadow with the introduction of shadow password suite. Similarly /etc/gshadow contains Secure Group Account Information. These files are read by privilege granting programs such as login, su, sshd etc. and managed by administering programs such as passwd and useradd.

Most of these programs are part of shadow and util-linux package and their behavior is controlled by defining a number of configuration items in /etc/login.defs, for instance logging of different events, password expiry, environment variables etc. Also there are many files that are required or updated by these utilities, including nologin, default/useradd, adduser.conf, skel/, shells, subuid, subgid, limits files under /etc/, /var/log/faillog, /var/log/lastlog, /var/run/utmp, /var/run/wtmp and possibly others.

To centralize the functionality of these privilege granting and administering programs, a more sophisticated authentication mechanism PAM was introduced. Instead of directly handling the user login and authentication stuff, programs link to PAM libraries (called modules) which in turn respond accordingly depending on its configuration files mainly under /etc/pam.d and /etc/security.

Other than PAM, a complicated name resolution mechanism NSS also (a set of modules) exists on Linux distros which controls - among many other things - how passwd, group, and shadow databases are read depending on its configuration file /etc/nsswitch.conf. Both PAM and NSS can be configured to use remote database service like LDAP / NIS. And then there are centralized caching daemons like NSCD and SSSD. Working together, they complete the puzzle of user logins (identification and authentication) on Linux.

HOW TO SETUP LOGIN ENVIRONMENT ON ANDROID:

None of the above described configuration files and libraries exist on Android because user logins don't happen at all. But the programs built with Linux's standard libc APIs require all these files and services - including PAM - on Android too, which is near to impossible. PAM can be disabled for sshd by setting UsePAM no in sshd_config so that it directly reads files /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/shadow.

PAM be gone, still we need to provide a minimal environment that meets the least requirements of login process. ssh binary for instance, needs /etc/passwd to exist necessarily because it sets $HOME from there to read known_hosts, config and id_* key. Also if host is a domain name and not an IP address, /etc/resolv.conf must exist with nameserver for DNS to work. It's a different story explained here.

So we need to create the relevant files on Android manually. Or use the non-PAM counterparts of shadow-utils such as useradd and passwd to update these files. We can get a minimal set of these utilities on Android, e.g. with busybox or toybox.

RUNNING LINUX PROGRAMS ON ANDROID:

Ideally you should write / modify the source code of a program in accordance with Android environment and then build dynamic binaries / libraries using Android's NDK and Bionic libc. But due to differences among Linux distros and Android such as in filesystem hierarchy, kernel configuration, implementation of libc and other libraries (2), code written for Linux distros need heavy modification on Android, otherwise don't mind failed attempts. In case of openssh, see the list of modification patches in AOSP and on Termux. Two of these patches are no password authentication (3) and no multiple users (4, 5). Former was worked around on Termux by introducing new APIs in termux-auth (6, 7), but the later can't be achieved without setting up login environment on Android.

Other options is to build fully static binary with Linux's libc such as glibc, musl or uClibc. While it's easy to statically build small libraries, libc itself links to many other libraries. In case of glibc, all of them can't be built statically, such as dynamically-loaded modules. I'm not sure how effective --enable-static-nss is, but, e.g. gconv can't be linked statically (8). So sshd binary must not be built with glibc, otherwise it won't work without NSS modules.
Also set Privilege Separation Path to some existing directory like /data/local/tmp and disable any other unnecessary features like utmp, wtmp, lastlog etc. Or you would need to create /var directory in rootfs.

FURTHER READING:

Basic explanation on NSS , LDAP and PAM
How To Add Linux User on Android?
Linux vs. Android
How to connect two phones via SSH?


Gmail account disappeared and Google Play Store app not working on MXQ Pro Android TV Box I have MXQ Pro 4K Android TV Box. The personal Gmail account disappeared and the Google Play Store won't allow sign-in/access.

How to fix it?

I've had the same problem.
What finally worked is:

Remove updates for Google Play Store and Google Play services (
Search on your computer for compatible .apk downloads for both apps (APKmirror.com has these files as download).
In my case (MXQ Pro 4k Amlogic S905) it was Android 7.1.2
Copy both .apk files to a SD card. Put it in the TV BOX and use APK Installer app to install these on the TV Box.
Then reboot.
Hope this will be helpfull


Is it possible to change the name underneath the icons on the home pages? Just wondering: is it possible to change the name which is displayed underneath the icons on the home pages ?

I added some short cuts to internet pages on these pages, and they use way too long names . It would be nice if I could change them.

No, this won't work for shortcuts to apps.  EDIT2: Turns out this part of the answer was wrong. Thanks Bryan and Drake for your answers.

Yes, it works for internet bookmarks. From your browser, select Menu > Bookmarks. Long-press the given bookmark and select Edit Bookmark; this will allow you to change its name. You may need to delete/re-add the shortcut to your home page for the change to take affect.

EDIT1:  Alternatively, if you use a bookmark manager app (like any of the ones mentioned here), you should be able to edit the bookmark directly from there.


Is there a way to have phone screen display more contents? I moved from a 4.5 inch screen to a 5.5 one (Moto G4 plus), hoping to look at more things at once on a larger screen. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm rather looking at more or less the same amount of content even on a larger screen. It's just that everything just appears magnified - icons and list sizes are huge, instead of smaller icons and text, thereby fitting more things in the screen.

Would tweaking the pixel density help? Is it advised? Is that even possible without rooting?

The actual size of a screen is less important than the resolution, i.e. number of pixels on the screen. For instance, if you move from a 1920×1080 4.5 inch screen to 1920×1080 5.5 inch one, there are chances things will appear the way they did before, but just larger.

When choosing to buy a new device, look at the dots per inch (DPI) or pixels per inch (PPI). Higher DPI means that the pixels are smaller, or, in other words, if two screens have the same size, the one with higher DPI will have more pixels. In general, higher DPI leads to “nicer” screens, which is especially noticeable for text and vector graphics.

There could be benefits to get a larger screen with the same DPI: for instance, reading small text on a tiny screen could be very problematic; the same text on a larger screen would be more readable, even if DPI stays the same. However, lower DPI could make the text much less readable even on a larger display; for instance, after using for a year an old HTC phone at 469 ppi, I found Samsung Galaxy Tab A with its 132 ppi to be absolutely unusable for reading, even if its screen was much larger than HTC's one.

I'm unaware if it's possible to change the resolution on Android devices without rooting it, but it would be a bad idea anyway. What would happen is that a single pixel will have to display, say, what would correspond to 1.3 pixels. As a result, you will be able to see more icons and text, but it would be terrible visually.

For the same reason (as well as to reduce the impact on the GPU), most PCs do let you change the resolution, but won't allow you to set one which is superior to the native resolution of your monitor.

Another issue which appears when changing the resolution is the fact that some applications on Google Play may be marked as incompatible:

  Keep in mind that altering your DPI may cause the Google Play Store to incorrectly label your device as incompatible when downloading apps. This is caused by developers limiting their app's compatibility based on a device's DPI value.


my phone stuck in Samsung logo i am using Samsung galaxy pocket Android 4.0,but now struck on Samsung logo.i have done hard reset.but remains in same state.please help me out...

Restart the phone in recovery. Remove your battery, put it back and then turn the phone on while holding down VOLUME UP and the HOME KEY. Navigate to Advanced, then clear cache and wipe dalvik. Try and restart. If it doesn't work, download Samsung Kies on your computer and try Emergency Firmwire Initialisation. If that still doesn't work... Format your phone from recovery.


Camera app that records EXIF Is there a camera app that records EXIF information? In particular, I would need the following:

GPSLatitude
GPSLongitude
GPSImgDirection
SubjectDistance

I've checked that all these fields can be saved via android. I'm just wondering if there is a camera app that actually DOES save this information in exif for a photo. Most apps I've tried only save max the latitude and longitude.

Camera360 Ultimate works fine for me. Just, make sure to check "Record GPS Information" from Settings ~> Preferences.


Stuck in fastboot, unable to access recovery or system (oneplus 3) I've clearly done something stupid and desperately need your help!

I have a brand new OnePlus 3T that I've managed to get stuck in a bootloop. I can access fastboot but no recovery or system. OEM is unlocked.

Things I have done:

Tried to install TWRP recovery. Fastboot says this was successful, but I haven't been able to boot into it.
Tried booting directly to TWRP recovery img. This freezes the phone and it says FAILED (too many links) in fastboot
Tried installing stock OP3 recovery. Same problem as before.
Tried hard brick recovery tool. Everything lights up green with installed:ok but still I'm stuck in this bloody bootloop.
Tried installing ColorOS through the Chinese install tool. Comes up Failed every time.

I am at my absolute wits end trying to sort this out and I literally have no idea what to do. I have been Googling this all morning to no avail.

Any help anyone can give whatsoever would be really, really appreciated.

EDIT: Some additional info from fastboot screen -

PRODUCT_NAME - msm8996
VARIANT - MTP UFS
BOOTLOADER VERSION - [EMPTY]
BASEBAND VERSION - [EMPTY]
SERIAL NUMBER - b2411609
SECURE BOOT - enabled
DEVICE STATE - unlocked

EDIT 2: more weirdness. I changed the USB cable from a micro USB with USB-C adapter to the proper USB-C that came in the box, and the phone booted into the OS. I tried to download the latest Oxygen update via the software update tool but that just boots me back into fastboot.

EDIT 3: I think it's just my recovery partition that's busted. Tried reinstalling stock recovery and that didn't work, so currently I have fastboot and OS but with no recovery - given that this is a separate issue I'll do some research before asking further questions.

@EHH - thanks for helping me figure this out. Really appreciate your time :)

Boot loop was resolved by using the USB-C cable provided by OP, however the recovery partition seems to be corrupted. Phone works though so nbd, recovery can be sorted out later on.


Flashing 2.3.3 'Leaky' onto a Samsung Epic 4G What can go wrong when flashing an unstable Android OS onto a phone? Is there an easy way to reset the phone if something goes wrong?  Has anyone out there had experience flashing Android OS?

Why would I want to flash Gingerbread 2.3.3 aka Leaky onto my Samsung Epic 4G?

One benefit that I can see is that users of the Epic will be able to test their applications on > Froyo 2.2.1, which is currently the stable release for the phone.

EDIT: Also, what happens when the device wants to update again, say 2.3.4 is flashed onto the phone, and then Sprint finally releases a stable 2.3.4 in 2013.  Assuming I still have this phone then, will it upgrade gracefully from the flashed ROM?

Anything can go wrong, including issues that permanently brick the device.

That said, Galaxy S devices are compatible with a tool called Odin that can fix all but the worst problems.  Example process.

I personally flash pretty much anything I feel like onto my Vibrant, and Odin has saved me many times.  I wouldn't hesitate to flash something I wanted to try out, but you may wish to be more cautious.


Cannot take screenshots of Android L emulator No matter which method I use, I cannot take screenshots of the Android L emulator. I tried through Android Studio, using the Android Device Monitor app, and through adb with this method (first answer) which produces a 0 byte file. I can take screenshots fine with all my other emulators. However, this emulator is a bit different than my others. For the first time, I am using the X86 system image and I enabled "Use host GPU". Is there some new way of taking screenshots I don't know about?

Screen Shot of Emulator:
Firstly start the emulator then go to the DDMS
please select the emulator then left side we have button Screen Capture click this button screen Shot is taken.


How can I export the list of open Chrome tabs? Chrome's sync feature isn't picking up all of the tabs open on my Android phone.

Are the tabs stored in a file somewhere that I can access?

My intention is to export the list of tabs so that I could run a factory reset on the device.

Running Android 4.3

You can use the Remote Devices feature in the Chrome debugger to connect to Chrome on the device and access the tabs. Just expand the list of tabs visible to get the full list and then highlight & copy everything shown (including the URLs) to the clipboard:
https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/remote-debugging/

I just managed to export ~400 tabs this way.


the application Settings has stopped unexpectedly I've installed few new apps; and when I went to deinstall some of them; I got this error.
Now I'm wondering is there a way to "fix this error"? I can still deinstall apps using adb from command line

my configuration : htc hero , 2.1, unrooted

It seems that old installation of Locale was making problems; since after uninstalling it problems disappeared.

I still don't understand how is it possible for app to influence android systems so badly, since every app should run in it's own sandbox, but at least problem is solved.


moto g5 plus - male to female usb cable I am in the process of planning out the 3d print of a custom phone stand for my MG5+.  I am planning that the phone, in its protective case, will slide down onto the stand and plug into the usb port, to charge and access my wifi.

Examination of the phone vs what is on the Internet suggests that the usb port is a micro standard type B.

Ideally the phone will slide onto the male plug.  That is corrected out the back of the phone stand to a female plug.   My normal MG5% charger will plug into that.

So far Google-fu hasn't turned up any cables like this.  I see lots with the correct gender that carry power, but no data.  There are lots of OTG type cables that are power only.

So apparently no one sells a micro usb type b male to micro usb type b female cable that carries power and data.  I am not keen on making one.  The last time, I soldered two fingers together :(

What other options are available?

My google fu improved today.

micro usb standard type b data cable extender  yields multiple options.


What's using my GPS? On my Android phone (a Desire HD), the GPS indicator is currently on & flashing away.

How can I find out which app is responsible for using the GPS?  I have my suspicions but would like to know for sure.

It's rooted & I'm more than comfortable interrogating /dev or somesuch.  Running 2.2.

Install Spare Parts.  Open it and click on "Battery History". Select the drop down list at the top and from it choose "GPS Usage". It will show you what apps have been using the GPS.

Note that you'll need to have your device unplugged at the time as it's actually looking for battery usage as used by apps accessing GPS.


What actually gets backed up, how many times? Say I have a photo A taken by the phone camera. It is stored somewhere, but can be seen in the stock Gallery app as well as the Google Photos app. Q1:Are both apps using the same physical copy or are there two copies?

Then, say, my WhatsApp has a photo B I received in a conversation. It is I presumed stored in /WhatsApp/Media/whatsApp Images. It can also be seen in the Gallery and Photos apps.

My WhatsApp has backup set to Back up to Google Drive Daily using Google Account X. Q2:Is this a special arrangement between Google and WhatsApp, because I cannot see anything regarding this in https://drive.google.com.

In the Photos app, Settings, Back up & Sync, the BACKUP ACCOUNT is Y, my other Google Account I have configured on the same phone. In the Back Up device folders details, WhatsApp Images is enabled. Q3:Does this mean that my WhatsApp photo B is backed up to my Google Drive in account Y as well as the special WhatsApp backup in Google Drive in account X?

Q1:Are both apps using the same physical copy or are there two copies?

They are both the same copy. Both apps scan the location the photo is stored, and the location contains only 1 copy of the file. If you have 5 copies of the same file, in the same folder, both apps will show you 5 photos, not 10.

  Q2:Is this a special arrangement between Google and WhatsApp, because I cannot see anything regarding this in https://drive.google.com.

I presume yes. On Android, WhatsApp uses Drive for backups, while on iOS, it uses iCloud.

  Q3:Does this mean that my WhatsApp photo B is backed up to my Google Drive in account Y as well as the special WhatsApp backup in Google Drive in account X?

Yes. Although the accounts are differents, both apps have been configured to access the same folder (in this case, WhatsApp Images). Thus, when backing up files, they both backup the same files in both accounts.


Closing a window within an activity using adb shell commands I have been tinkering around with adb and attempting to control an application and close popup windows using adb shell commands. I trying to close an activity window that I can identify with the following command:

adb shell "dumpsys window windows | grep -E 'mCurrentFocus|mFocusedApp"

which returns two different variables while the window I want to close is open:

mCurrentFocus=Window{4e8ee3f u0 myApp/myActivity} (this is what I want to close)
mFocusedApp=AppWindowToken{ee23799 token=Token{5208e0 ActivityRecord{4dac6e3 u0 myApp/myActity}}}

Is it possible to close the current focus window and if so how?

When it comes to closing a dialog or a window, a user uses the Back key of their device. Through command-line you can emulate the functionality of Back key using a particular key event. The key event for Back key is KEYCODE_BACK. It has the constant value 4. Use it with input command in this manner:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_BACK
adb shell input keyevent 4    # alternative

I recommend you read this answer by Rene Barbosa. It lists many useful key events. I also recommend you execute adb shell input to find out how useful that command can be.


Where do Hike and WhatsApp store their messages? Does anyone here knows where Hike/WhatsApp store their messages? I know WhatsApp's Database can be found on the SD card, but it is created every day at 4 AM, and deleted if the file is more than 7 days old I want to know where they store their messages because they also read and displays messages at runtime.

So I want to know, where do these two programs store messages? I need to format my SD card so I want to make a backup for my messages.

For WhatsApp:

Backups can be found at:
/sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/
(Use this tool to decrypt it: WhatsApp Key/DB Extractor or WhatCrypt)

Live database can be found at (requires root):
/data/data/com.whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db

For Hike:

Backup can be found at:
/sdcard/Hike/Backup/chats.backup

Live database can be found at (requires root):
/data/data/com.bsb.hike/databases/chats


Android device diagnostic application? My Android phone (LG-P930) with Gingerbread is giving "free games" for several weaks now. I recently lost the telephone application and I had to reboot the phone. Few days ago, the phone hang ringing and I could not stop it (grrrr....!)

I'm wondering if there exists an app that could be used to diagnose the device. Something that scan the memory and the different components like some apps we can find on PC.

If you have any other idea about a solution to solve the problem you will be more than welcome!

Dominique

Try wiping data and cache, and if it doesn't help, reflash ROM to your phone via KDZ Updater.


copying all files from android to microSD Phone = moto g
OS = Android 4.4.4

I was going to back up all files on phone to microSD card using EZ file explorer. However, I have been reading that latest 4.4 will not allow this due to new security.

Is it possible to copy all files from phone internal to external micro SD?
Will this capture People, Chats, Photos, etc and be restore-able?

if you have rooted your device, of course it is possible. application data lies in /data, also backup your /storage/emulated/0 I think
if you have rooted the device, then you could also boot up a custom recovery like twrp and do a nandroid backup, afterwards move it to the external sdcard
if you don't have rooted the device you only backup your internal sdcard. this also means that you may loose very much
if you don't have rooted the device, there is also the possibility of using adb backup from a pc.


Looking for list of USB OTG/USB Host officially supported in Android devices (allow connect USB sticks, etc) NON-rooted I'm looking for a definitive list of Android devices that officially support USB On-the-go (OTG) / USB Host (non-rooted).

USB OTG/USB Host means that they can be used in a similar way to a PC whereby USB devices can be attached to them for them to access. E.g. memory sticks and other USB storage (mass storage class).

I am not looking for rooted devices (I know that such procedure can make a device support USB OTG/USB Host if the hardware supports it). I am looking for official support, out-of-the box.

Some devices may require adapter cables if necessary (i.e. micro USB to female USB socket).

So far I know at least one device that supports USB OTG / USB host out-of-the-box (non rooted):

The GoTab GBT740R 7" Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, costing just 100 pounds or less in UK! This device has a full size USB female socket to support USB OTG / USB Host. A friend owns one, his USB memory sticks work in this - we can browse to the USB stick contents using Astro File Manager App on the tablet. (By the way, I don't work for GoTab). This seems to be a feature-rich device though for the price point: microSD and HDMI also supported.

Any more devices? usb.org doesn't seem to have a list, well I haven't found it yet, nor Wikipedia entries.

Acer Iconia Tab A200 (includes full-size USB A connector, takes flash keys no problem)


How can I "right click" with a USB mouse on Android 3.1? I've got a Logitech USB mouse and keyboard plugged into my Xoom, which is running Tiamat 1.4.4 kernel on top of Android 3.1. Both are recognized and provide input correctly, but I noticed that the right mouse button is treated just as a left mouse button click. I had hoped that this would instead act like a long press since that's something of an analogue to the right click concept, but I can't find a way to do so. This is particularly annoying because I'm trying out Splashtop and it makes a lot of things really awkward or downright impossible.

Is there any setting (or other method) to make the right click button actually perform a "right click" type of action, such as a long press?

Unfortunately there is currently no way to get the right mouse button working as a right mouse button. Long press is the only way to do it. Sorry.


Homescreen is blank on 2.2 Droid I have a Motorola Droid on Verizon, and a lot of times when I unlock it, my homescreen will be blank; no icons, no widgets. Nothing in my app tray, either. I have to wait for about a minute for everything to load before I can launch anything (unless the app I just used was one of the 6 most recent, in which case I can long-press Home with no problem).

I think the problem is a lack of memory; my phone is probably auto-killing the launcher constantly. When I use an option on a third-party launcher to avoid closing the launcher, I don't have this problem anymore, but I'll often be kicked out of the app in the foreground!

Now for my system details... I'm currently running Cyanogenmod 6.1, but it was doing this before I rooted (in fact, I mainly rooted because I thought it would fix the problem). I'm using ADW.Launcher as well, but again, it was doing this with the stock launcher. I'm also not using any task killer apps.

Has anybody else had this problem? I haven't talked to any other Android users who have mentioned this.

Try this from the CM forums:

If you use ADW or LauncherPro and if after using any memory intensive application you hed back to your Homescreen... you know the drill.....lag, lag, redraw, redraw, then finally you are able to function again.

MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP
In your terminal application on your phone (if you have to ask what this is, Google it, download it from the market) enter...

su (enter)
echo ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1 >> /data/local.prop (enter)
reboot (enter)

If you want to undo what this command does, simply remove that toggle from: /data/local.prop, or if you did not have this file (like I did not) prior to the mod...remove it entirely

This is also from Bryan Denny's Answer to this question.

You'll probably still have a problem with foreground apps closing when you keep your launcher in memory but I think that's just an issue with trying to use too many memory intensive apps with a phone with 256 MB of RAM.

You can also try to take the memory priority management into your own hands with AutoKiller Memory Optimizer.  It allows you to set your own custom minfree priorities for Android to follow.


Turn phone on with ADB or Fastboot? My power button seems to have busted, is there a way I can boot my phone using ADB or Fastboot or some other command line interface?

When your phone is not turned on it can't have a adb service running (Disregarding the possible technical difficulties it would also be a security issue.)

Try the following instead:
 1. Take out your battery and connect the phone to a charger
 2. Your phone should now turn on.
 3. Insert your battery.

It worked on my current and on my previous phones (ZTE Blade and Huawei U8220) but it may vary by model and manufacturer.


Nexus 10 "shareable" part of Android 4.2? One of the features of the new Nexus 10 is that it will be "shareable" which, from what I can tell, means that Android will be a multi-user OS. Exactly how Android will handle multiple users I don't know, but I've been craving this feature for a long time.

Any ideas whether this feature will be part of the core of Android 4.2, or if it's just for Nexus 10? I wish I got this on my Nexus 7.

Any ideas whether this feature will be part of the core of Android
  4.2, or if it's just for Nexus 10?

Multi-user support in Android 4.2 will be for ALL TABLETS. So yes, all tabs with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean will have multi-user support.

Google is officially supporting this only for tablets as of now. However, I'm very sure that custom ROM makers will port it for phones. In fact, there are already a bunch of custom ROMs which do this.

  I wish I got this on my Nexus 7.

Nexus 7 is a tablet, so when you upgrade to 4.2, you should get multi-user support.


Switching HTC ONE M8 into PTP mode I was wondering is it possible to enable PTP mode on the HTC ONE M8. I want it to work with photo software like iPhoto so I want to enable PTP MODE. I have looked in the setting but can't find anything. I am running Lollipop with HTC Sense.

UPDATE: We still have no solution to this problem, so if anyone knows how to do this please share.

Have you enabled dev menu? Settings > about phone > press on build number 7 times. If it's not in that menu on your device, try Settings > storage > more options.


How to put all your android photos to google drive? I want automatic solution. Basically I want every picture I take go to google drive once I have wifi connection

Is there any app that can do that?

In iphone every photo I took go to iCloud automatically. I want something similar with android.

Once it's synced to google drive, I'll just copy it to my other drive

I used Google Photos now. That seems to be the solution I want.


How to determine if my phone supports AndroidOne? The HTC U11 Life got my attention when I saw androidone printed on its back. Now I got one, but this one doesn't have the androidone print on its back. Are there two versions of the phone, one to support androidone and another that doesn't?

Is there a setting I can check that would clearly tell me whether my phone supports androidone or not?

It came with Android 8.0.0 and it says there are no Software updates available...

Update: According to the HTC website there are indeed two versions of the phone: one such and another with a (T-Mobile) suffix. Upon booting the phone there is a T-Mobile screen, thus it looks like I’ve got the T-Mobile version. The question remains though: is this version of the phone not part of the android one program?

This article states that:

  Android One is a Google-devised programme for hardware manufacturers making smartphones. Being part of Android One - and labelled as such on the rear of the phone - brings with it a guarantee that it's a solid and stable version of Android that's not loaded with other apps, services and bloatware.
  Essentially, it's a stock Android experience.

Your device is an Android One as shown here, here and here.

  With Android One, your device will receive up to two years of upgrades to the latest version of Android.

In North America, it was released with Android 7.1. It came already installed with Android 8 in some parts of the world of the world and is upgradable to Android 9.

  Is there a setting I can check that would clearly tell me whether my phone supports androidone or not?

There is no such setting.


Android Nexus5X suddenly died My LG Nexus5X has randomly died this morning(it had ~70% battery). I have tried to leave it on charging for 1 hour straight and then tried to turn it back on. It worked. But then it randomly died again while being fully charged. It hasn't turned on ever since.

After shutting down for the second time I have also managed to enter the Fastboot menu (clicking Power Button+Volume Down button), although I get the menu to show and I can scroll through the options, when I click Recovery mode or Start, I get a screen with just saying 'Google' on it and then dies again. For Start my understanding is that it should turn on and as for the Recovery Mode this is not a normal behaviour as I should be seeing an Android Robot as described here. I also tried the Power Off option, left it there for an hour charging and then tried to turn it back on, this time it went past the 'Google' page to the colorful spinning/loading circles page but the animation stuck and it turned off again.

After the above failure, my goal was to enter the Recovery Mode through my PC(I use Windows10): I have attempted to set up the drivers for adb and fastboot like described in this guide. The only time I get my Android to show up in the Device Manager so I could setup the drivers is when the phone itself is in the fastboot mode and it shows up as Kedacom USB Device->Android Bootloader Interface. Since I could not see my Android under Other Devices like the guide says I tried to setup adb/fastboot one at a time for the Kedacom USB Device->Android Bootloader Interface entry. In the command line when I type  adb devices my device is not showing up fastboot devices this shows up: 0167ca36eedbc1ef        fastboot. Also, when I type adb reboot recovery I get error: no devices/emulators found .

I have ran out of options and everything I tried does not seem to work. What is the solution to bring my Nexus5X back to life?

You should try flashing the factory image for Nexus 5X in Fastboot.

Download Nexus 5X (bullhead) Factory image Android 7.1.1 here or Android 6.0.1 here. And unzip the file.
Setup all necessary drivers
For commands to succeed, you should unlock the bootloader:
fastboot oem unlock or fastboot flashing unlock. The  device will show  a confirmation screen. (This erases all data on the device.)
Open a terminal and navigate to where you unzipped system image previously downloaded.
Execute the flash-all script. This script installs the necessary bootloader, baseband firmware, and  system.

Hope this helps you out.

If the above don't work, you should try instructions detailed on this thread.


Unable To Open Google Play I've encountering a problem. The problem is that i can't access my Google Play on a my Wi-fi. It is not on a particular tablet or phone. Its all the devices me an my family own. That includes 4 phones and 2 tablets. It only says "No Connection" even when the Wi-fi signals are at full strength. I don't know if this is coincidental but recently I've been receiving this notification that says "Sign into Wi-fi Network". Guys please advice immediately because how can i download awesome apps without the awesome store and i'm not planning to let 3rd party apps populate our devices.

"Sign into Wi-fi Network" says it all: No network, no connection. You most likely changed the password/keyphrase at your router, and forgot to adjust your devices. They cannot log in to the network anymore, hence you get that notification. Fixing your WiFi configuration will solve the other problem along.

Edit: Thanks to Dan for pointing out my omission: The phrasing of the notification indeed points to a "captive network", which requires a sign-in via browser first. To automate such a login, you might wish to take a look at WiFi Web Login and comparable apps. Also see Automate web login for Wi-Fi hotspots (captive portal) on Android at our sister-site.


fail reading whatsapp backup files Kindly help,how do i read or retrieve watsup backup files stored in database folder. Everytime when im opening a file it says 'no application can support this action"

This feature availabe only with WhatsApp for Backup and Restore.

(only whatsapp can Open and use it)

for backup and restore, follow below link.

WhatsApp FAQ :
How to save and restore chat history backups


How to limit an app's access only to specific networks? I'm currently using DroidWall to limit apps' access to the Internet - and it's working great.

Recently I've started to have the need of allowing certain apps network connectivity, but limited only to the current LAN (e.g. only to communicate with IP addresses 192.168.1.x)

DroidWall doesn't seem to offer this in any trivial way (except, perhaps via its custom scripts, for which there aren't any clear instructions for how to apply them only to an individual app).

How can I limit an individual app to LAN access only?

You can use rules like this in your custom scripts:

$IPTABLES -A "droidwall-wifi" -m owner --uid-owner 12345 --destination "192.168.1.0/24" -j RETURN

Instead of 12345, you need to specify the UID assigned to the app; you can find that UID in the list of apps in DroidWall.

Remember that UIDs are assigned dynamically, and if the app is removed, the UID previously assigned to it may be assigned to a completely different app installed later.

There are some enhancement requests for DroidWall (#275, #253) requesting to add such feature, but developers did not respond to them yet.


Gmail consuming GB of data My Gmail app has a huge problem: only in this month it has consumed around 1 GB of mobile data, and 22GB of wifi data.
Today even though I haven't used mail at all, I have consumed 400MB of wifi data just by keeping the app installed.

I have already tried to:

upgrade my Android to the last version
remove all update of Gmail, and reinstall it from scratch.
stop background data (which is a workaround and not a solution)

What else can I do?

This seems the same problem these guys had solved in this 2 different 3Ds.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/310931-gmail-data-usage.html

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/gF3b9Wi-XfU

The advice given there was to reduce the number of days of messages to sync (via Gmail app settings), and avoid building up a large number of messages in Gmail inbox (archive them instead).
Although this solutions sounds good, they never worked.
Instead, I have solved the problem using k-9 mail.


No battery - 1% remaining I've recently installed cm11 (plain CyanogenMod) and the battery indicator showed 1% after a full charge and would not budge.  I decided, 10 minutes later, to wipe and go to another ROM, maybe try a new one.  I did so, changing everything including the kernel - and the battery stays the same at 1%.  The only thing I have not tried is leaving the phone to die, giving it a funeral and a tombstone and doing the "charge trick" but I've heard it's also a myth.  Can somebody please help me avoid a broken phone?

And also, just in case: Phone model is ST18i Xperia Ray.  Warranty voided due to rooting :(

I think Itzik Samara's answer is all you need. But I thought I'd add some information for people without CWM or with a version that can't delete the Battery Stats for some reason (as you had this concern initially yourself).

This can also be done less elegantly via adb

Firstly ensure your device is FULLY CHARGED. Do not do the below without charging fully!

Reboot your phone into recovery.
Mount /system and /data in the partitions menu.
Open up a cmd prompt:

adb pull /data/system/batterystats.bin batterystats.bin

This command save the batterystats.bin in the same directory as your adb.
Run:

adb shell
And finally:

rm /data/system/batterystats.bin

This removes the entire battery stats file from the device. It will be rebuilt on reboot.


Custom recovery, can it brick my phone? I want to root my phone Samsung Galaxy J1 2016 (SM-J120zn). I tried using kingroot, root genius, SRSRoot, but it didn't work so I decided to try to do rooting manually.

I tried looking for my model of custom recovery from Clockwork, Cyanogen and TWRP, but i can't find anything for my device. The closest is Samsung Galaxy J1 ace (SM-J110H).

If i use the custom recovery from the model SM-J110H, will it brick my phone? Can changing custom recovery brick my phone?

Thanks :)

Well first i will answer your question. If you want to use a recovery made for a complete Another model for your phone, yes it will brick your phone. Even though another model is very similar to your phone's model, it's not identical! There will always be some differences internally. For such cases you have to port the recovery. Before going for porting, Go to xda forums I'm sure there you will find a recovery for your model. But if you don't find it there, you need to port one from different model to your own.

For recovery porting is not easy and very risky I'll advise you to take help of someone who is well experienced in this. And proceed on your own risk.
Another part i would like to add is flashing recovery and rooting a phone are completely different concepts. Please read thoroughly on xda forums before proceeding.


How can I get rid of the guest login 'feature" of lollipop 5.1.1? I DO NOT WANT ANYONE BUT ME, to be able to log into my tablet. Can anyone please tell me if/how to "DISABLE" the guest login feature on Lollipop 5.1.1? Lots of chatter out there about how to delete the account but this does not disable it, and is recreated again from the lockout screen at the touch of a finger.

Try disabling it in androids app settings


How to find previously installed apps after micro sdcard gone bad? My micro sd card that was used to extend internal storage died. Now the apps I moved there are also gone. I don't remember precisely what I had on the card but would like to reinstall all of them.
After doing factory reset on my phones, the system automatically installs my previously installed apps after logging in to my google account. Is there a way to access this list?

Yes - your installation history is preserved in the Google Play Account associated with your device.  To see your apps, both current and previously installed, you can navigate to the Play Store App -> My Apps and Games (in the drawer) -> Library on your device.
Alternatively, you can visit https://play.google.com/apps?hl=en_US
Please note that if you side loaded apps or installed from a third-party store, the above information does not apply.


Is back up to a network folder possible? Is there a Backup App that would allow me to backup apps and application data to a network folder?  I don't mean to backup to the cloud (e.g. Dropbox) but to a shared folder on my PC or a NAS.

Over Wi-Fi would be cool, but I don't mind if that is via USB. I'm open to both.

If you combine two apps, this is possible. Of course, root is required on your device to backup app data, as you certainly know.

Now the first app you will need is Titanium Backup. This app not only creates a backup of all apps, app data, and even system data on your SD-Card, contains several useful tools for maintenance, and can schedule its actions -- it also allows pushing the backups to Dropbox.

But yes, I read you didn't target the Cloud, so here comes number two: FolderSync can sync your files/directories (and thus also your backup folder on the SD card) with several cloud services as well as with your own servers, using e.g. FTP, FTPS, SFTP, WebDAV or Samba (Windows Share) for the latter.

While there's no real alternative to Titanium Backup, there are some to FolderSync: Titanium Media Sync from the same author as Titanium Backup supports Dropbox plus FTP, SFTP, and FTPS. And FTPSyncX supports FTP, FTPS (SSL), SFTP (SSH), Samba, and Dropbox. I use the Pro version of the latter, and so I can tell you first-hand it works nice via Wifi -- you can even tell it to only sync when connected to your home Wifi, and run in certain intervals.

I almost forgot there's a tool that could serve both purposes, backup and sync in one: rsync backup for Android. But it may be a little more complicated to setup, and it requires ssh on the remote side -- not a realy show-stopper if your PC runs Linux :)


Connecting Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 to HDMI without activating Dex I own a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, and it's quite good... except for Samsung's software, which I would qualify as bloatware without hesitation.

I bought a cable that is able to move signal from USB-C ports to HDMI ports, and I connected my tablet to my TV using that cable.

The problem arrives when Samsung, in all its wisdom, refuses to just stream my screen, and insists on starting this Frankenstein thing of Dex. Even if the idea seems good, its execution is very poor, and all the software running on it becomes highly unstable, crashing all the time (when it does not have any problems running in basic mode).

And that's why I'm looking for some way to send my tablet screen to my TV while avoiding to activate Dex.

As an extra, I also considered using something like Chromecast Ultra, and in fact I did, but its streaming quality is just a disaster, and looses a lot of quality (hence my intention to go with simple cables).

Thank you for your attention.

It seems that it depends more on the TV than on the tablet itself.
In my particular case, I had to select the specific input source in the TV, and only then the tablet sends the image without trying to run in Dex mode.

To summarize, I had these connection methods:

Google Chromecast Ultra: relatively low latency, but very bad quality image for anything not being Netflix or Youtube.
Google/Samsung Smart View: it sends the image via bluetooth, with higher quality than what we have in Chromecast Ultra, but with much higher latency. Unacceptable for videogames.
USB-C -> HDMI "out of the box": The Dex mode takes control, leading to unstable applications.
USB-C -> HDMI, but controlling the input source from the TV: What I wanted.

I hope this might be useful for someone else.
Best regards.


Impossible to transfer mobile banking app data between factory resets I have two banking apps installed on my device:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.infinum.rba
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hr.asseco.android.zaba

It is impossible to transfer the app data on the same device between factory resets in a way where it is not needed to reactivate the apps using the activation process of the given banks. I've tried backing up the apps and their data using ES File Explorer PRO and App Cloner Premium. I've also attempted to copy the app data and the apps manually between system to no avail.

Since the device is the same, the IMEI is the same, the operating system is the same, i see no reason that the app data couldn't be reapplied after a factory reset, resulting in a fully functional mobile banking app - however I've found no way to do so, nor have i found which mechanism the apps use that prevents doing so.

Help me out here.

Assuming that the IT department of the bank has implemented some sort of check in their Android app to ensure that you can't restore its data between different installations (which also includes factory resets), they're probably using something along the lines of a unique ID such as ANDROID_ID.

This answer (and specifically Seva Alekseyev's comment) explains what I suspect is causing your issues; this ID also changes on factory resets. This is purely a security measure and a very good one, because it would be terrible if I could log into your Google Play account on my phone and restore your banking app's data from the cloud, allowing me to access your bank account, right?


Missing mp3 files on SD card I am trying to add mp3 files to my Toshiba Thrive trough an SD card. What I am doing is loading the SD card in my laptop and adding the files directly. I loaded around 6 GB to the (32GB) card. When accessing the SD card files trough the tablet it only shows half of the files. I've done this process a couple of times, also I reformatted the SD card but tablet only reads some of the files and some other folders that I created for other documents don't even appear when I load the card on the tablet. Any insights on this?

if you use the tablet mount function to mount the sdcard to computer, and copy some files, sometimes it has problem, it need more times, and suggestion refresh in the folder when finish copy, when you fresh you can check the copy successful or not.

if you use the sdcard reader to mount to the computer, when finish copy, need safe remove usb to ensure the copy finish.


Android Devices: use external storage as a default storage If you're running out of memory which happens a lot on low-end android devices like Samsung galaxy Y, Samsung galaxy Y-DUOS etc. and want more free space for your apps, then this post is for you..

Download and install Java Development Kit from Oracle’s website.  I downloaded JDK 7u2 for Windows x64 (approximately 87 MB)
Download and install Android SDK from Google’s website.  I preferred the recommended Windows Installer
Run Command Prompt with Administrator Privileges on Windows 7 or Windows 8 OS.  (Start Menu → type in cmd → Right click the Command Prompt → Run as Administrator.  The UAC will prompt you with a dialog which you should click as ‘Yes’.)
If you have installed the latest version of Android SDK (SDK Manager Revision 16 or later), then type in following command on cmd:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools

On your Android phone/tablet, go to Settings → Applications → Development and enable USB Debugging.  Once done, connect the phone/tablet to your laptop/desktop via USB cable.

Execute following commands in sequence

adb shell pm getInstallLocation

You would get an output as: "0[auto]". In Android, Install Location has 3 values:

0[auto] – Let the system decide the best location
1[internal] – Install the application on internal device storage.This means any internal storage provided with your device
2[external] – Install the application on external media.  This means any SD, microSD cards attached to your device or external USB Storage.
So let's change the default location to 2[external]

adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2

This will change the default installation location to SD card of all the applications that you install henceforth.  What about those that are already installed on device storage?  I am sure you were unable to move all of them to SD card earlier.  You can give it a try now!  Alternatively, you can download an application Apps2SD and manually move them to SD card.

To check if the settings changed or not, you can execute Step 6 again and check the results
Disable USB debugging on your phone/tablet. Close the Command Prompt and enjoy!

Source


Media volume automatically goes to zero when removing headphones Whenever I remove the headphone jack1 while I have some media playing2, the file stops (which is what I want and expect) but the media volume also goes down to zero (which is unexpected and I would prefer not to happen).

If I pause the media file before removing the headphone jack this does not occur.

Is this a setting I missed? Is there a way I can prevent it from happening, or do I simply need to remember to pause before removing the jack?

1 Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.4 (although this also happened with 4.0.2).

2 I have observed this with DoggCatcher and Google Music.

I was having the same problem with my phone until I uninstalled the turntable.fm app.  This is the post that clued me into the fix: https://forums.motorola.com/posts/bc23079218


McAfee Free Antivirus won't update from Play Store returning error -505 I am putting McAfee in System/app directory to prevent standard users from uninstalling it.

Once I try to update the package from Play Store, the download progress reaches 100% and when it tries to replace the old package I am getting Error -505

After a searching, it looks like Android Lollipop have an issue with Adobe Air application, but FYI this is Lollipop 5.1

This is what i am getting from bug repport: different signatures ?? any ideas??

Session 1987113136:
  userId=0 installerPackageName=com.android.vending installerUid=10018 createdMillis=1437157124890
  stageDir=/data/app/vmdl1987113136.tmp stageCid=null
  mode=1 installFlags=0x12 installLocation=1 sizeBytes=10749412 appPackageName=com.wsandroid.suite appIcon=false
  appLabel=Security & Antivirus -FREE originatingUri=null referrerUri=null abiOverride=null
  mClientProgress=1.0 mProgress=0.90000004 mSealed=true mPermissionsAccepted=true mDestroyed=true mBridges=1
  mFinalStatus=-7
  mFinalMessage=Package com.wsandroid.suite signatures do not match the previously installed version; ignoring!`

The app with this package name: com.wsandroid.suite was not signed by the same certificate as the one from the Play store.  This is a fundamental security requirement.  You will have to make sure the app you are installing originally is signed with the same key as the one in the Play store.

There is no way to get around this security requirement (matching signatures) to the best of my knowledge.


adb shell ls giving strange results Environment:
running adb in command window on Windows XP PC
running adbKonnect on Nook Simple Touch (rooted; running Android 2.1)

When I type

adb shell ls \sys

I get a list of the folders there.

When I type

adb shell ls \sys\module

I get an error that there is no such file or directory, even though it is listed in the first step. What's going on?

Try adb shell ls -l /sys and check the output. Most likely, access to the /sys/module directory has limited access.

It doesn't matter that your device is rooted, when you're not using your root powers. To view the contents of "restircted directories":

# open a shell
adb shell
# obtain root permission
su -
# now access your target
ls -l /sys/module

When issuing the su -, you will have to approve a popup to confirm superuser access − at least on the first try. You then can tell your superuser/superSU app to remember your choice.


Can I use an Android OS card on the new Nook Tablet? I am debating between purchasing the Kindle Fire or the Nook Tablet for my son.  My main concern with the Kindle is the limited memory.  I love the fact that the Nook has the slot for an SD card.  However, I've noticed that the prices on many of the games and such on the B&N Nook store are much more than those on Kindle.  I read somewhere that there is an Android OS card that can go into the Nook MicroSD slot to make it a full Android tablet.  Is this true?  Where would I get this card and how much is it?  (I'm really totally new to this... sorry).  Would this mean that I would be able to go to any Android App store and download games and such from there?  Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

With the Nook Color it is possible to both root the tablet and install a custom ROM.  Some users have even gone so far as to setup their Nook Color to dual boot.  In this scenario, the unit will boot the stock Nook OS when allowed to boot from internal memory, or boot a custom ROM when instructed to boot from the SD card.  This is likely the scenario you read about with regard to an "Android OS card".

The Nook Tablet is quite similar to the Nook Color, but has been modified from the earlier device to have a locked bootloader that will only load a ROM signed by Barnes & Noble.  While it is still possible to gain root permission on this device, it is not (yet) possible to load a customer ROM.  Due to this, you may not boot the unit to an alternative ROM stored on the SD card.  You can, however, install the Amazon AppStore, Google Market, GMail, and other apps to get more utility from this tablet.  You can find instructions and details over at XDA-Developers:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1354487


Android Nexus 4 KitKat I am looking to buy a nexus 4. I know that the new nexus 5 is coming out, and it is being released with Android KitKat installed. If I get a nexus 4 from a store such as best buy or another one, will my Nexus 4 come with Kitkat? If not, When is KitKat expected to be realised for the Nexus 4. If I am not in a rush to get a new phone, would it be better to by the Nexus 4 now, or the Nexus 5 in a few months?

This question is both easy and difficult to answer because there's little official information about the rumored re-release. So everything I say concerning that should be considered an educated guess.

If you buy a Nexus 4 right now, you'll have Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean).

Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) Will be an automatic Over-The-Air update sometime in the middle of November (So about a week or two).

If, at any point, you buy a Nexus 4 from a retailer other than Google, it will most likely come with 4.3, and you will need to make sure it gets updated.
If you buy the (Still rumored, not yet officially announced) re-release of the Nexus 4 later, it will most likely come preloaded with Android 4.4 if you buy it from the Play Store.


Can't find location for bought app I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, running android 5.0.2 (LRX22G... if that helps). I've just bought an app from the play store. It's a GPS app where I'd like to find the location of the saved APK and then move it into sys, so I can root it. I can't find the original APK, though. Yes, I've searched in /data/app and system/app... nothing there. Any ideas?

For secure apps, You need to find the correct folder, Like data/secure-apps/apps


HTC Evo 4g LTe Jellybean (JB) charge only I just flashed a new stock JB ROM from viper boy over at xda.

What happened to the Connect to PC in the settings window? I can see my HTC Evo 4g LTE as a disk drive and media exchange, but it has no option for charge only. What mode do I need to be in to run cmd commands on my JB phone? Every tutorial for cmd says charge only.

For starters, this shouldn't be here, this should have been asked at the XDA thread itself. With all the tweaks they make to their ROM, it would have been a good idea.

Second, with MTP, there is no need for Charge only. The SD card and Phone Storage is always available when you are connected. "Charge Only" was relevant when you were on ICS or GB and you had UMS (USB Mass Storage).


GMail app not displaying signature Issue:

When replying or creating a new email, the signature does not load.

How to replicate:

From the GMail app:
Settings - mail@mail.com - Signature - set any text - create a new message

Notes: there's no Google Account set on this phone. The GMail and Google Play Services APKs were downloaded from APKMirror

What has been tried:

Setting up Exchange and YahooMail accounts
Clearing the app's data and reinstalling it
Restarting the phone
Changing the phone's language from Brazilian Portuguese to English (United States)

What else can I try?

Thanks in advance

GMail versions tested:

7.5.21.158049789.release
7.5.7.156101332.release

Google Play Services versions tested:

10.2.91 (430-144333517)
11.0.55 (430-156917137)

Device:

Moto G4 Play (harpia)

Android version installed:

6.0.1 (stock, non-rooted)

Based on the suggestions given by Gmail Help (website) forum  just double these issues:

Make sure you are not using an alias email to send your emails
Usually the signature does not show when drafting a message but is appended when sending (try tapping 3 dots at th bottom of message and check
if see the signature)
Sometimes its the way the app is designed:

  The signature does not show during drafting a message it is appended
  upon sending.

  Try checking  in your "Sent Mail" and if you don't see the signature,
  there are three faint dots at the bottom of the message, click that
  and you will see the signature.

Sources:

Why is my inbox signature not showing in my email after I send
Signature hidden by "three dots"
Adding a signature to reply and forward emails


Android Studio Emulator with both the Google Play Store and Root? https://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds#system-image says

  To ensure app security and a consistent experience with physical devices, system images with the Google Play Store included are signed with a release key, which means that you cannot get elevated privileges (root) with these images. If you require elevated privileges (root) to aid with your app troubleshooting, you can use the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) system images that do not include Google apps or services.

But what if I wanted both root AND Google services? how could I do that?

Thanks!

I think thing the best course of action would be to download and install a third-party Android Emulator. If you are on Windows, I would recommend  Bluestacks. As it can be easily rooted with this tutorial  here. If you need any help, feel free to reply to this message.

Hope this helps you out!

Red Prez


Does the Android web browser support x509 certificate user authentication? I'm attempting to determine if the built-in Android web browser supports user authentication using x509 certificates. Assuming I have my web server configured correctly, and I have added the user certificate to Android, will the browser support this kind of authentication?

I haven't tested this yet but I'm attempting to create a zero login mobile application for work.

Your help and feedback is greatly appreciated.

Matt

I can't tell you for sure, but the Android OS supports x509 so I would assume the browser does as well.


Stock rom installation using twrp? I have a rooted Huawei G Play Mini. Boot loader is unlocked. Also, I have custom recovery (TWRP) installed. And, I need to upgrade my phone from lollipop to marshmallow. But, I do not have stock recovery back up. I can't find it anywhere. Tell me where to find it, or tell me how to how to install the official stock rom by using TWRP.

Before you do the upgrade, via TWRP, select backup> the select system, data (if you want yours apps), boot, and recovery. This will backup what is currently installed on your phone. Once this completes, go ahead and install the MM update for your phone. Do this within twrp as well to keep the custom recovery.


What are CyanogenMod and MIUI based phones? Recently I came to know about some phones which are based on MIUI and CyanogenMod. I want to know if the meaning behind it is they will get lifetime updates from MIUI and CyanogenMod or something else?

CyanogenMod OS is a custom ROM derived from Google's Android OS.  It is available for large number of devices and delivers updates as nightlies, release candidates, betas, snapshots etc. Frequency of updates depends on the type of ROM flashed onto the device.
MIUI (Mi User Interface) is also a custom ROM which is based on both Google's Android and CyanogenMod but has a home-cooked and customized interface developed by a Chinese firm Xiaomi Tech. It highly resembles Apple's iOS interface. MIUI is available for some flagship phones from popular brands.

All the devices running on CyanogenMod and MIUI gets updates very frequently than others. Updates occur over-the-air (FOTA). As a bottom line they are used as stock firmware replacements.


How to make cellular phone call from Xperia Z LTE? How to make phone call over 4G or GSM using Xperia Z LTE (SGP321) tablet with SIM?  Messages elsewhere say you can't. If not exactly why not?

With stock Sony ROM you can't do phone calls on the Xperia Z, Z1 and Z2 tablets. Might work if you install an own ROM but I'm not sure.

The new Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact ( http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/tablets/xperia-z3-tablet-compact/ ) can make phone calls, even if you better get a bluetooth headset to make it useable.


Revert navbar back to the right side of the screen under 270° rotation Since Android 8.0 (Oreo), when the device is rotated to 270° rotation, the navbar will go to the left side of the screen instead of staying to the right (as in 90° rotation):

As humanized as this sounds, it conflicts with some of my launcher/wallpaper mods, and also forces me to use the left hand under 270° rotation, so I don't see the change as beneficial and would like it reverted.

The answer could be decompiling and modifying SystemUI, or even modifying the Android source code and building (I have the know-how for that) - one just have to tell me where and how.

Any ideas?

As my investigation shows, Google calls it "Seascape Navigation Bar View" and deems it as a feature. This part of the code inside the Android framework determines whether the new left navbar layout should be used if 270° rotation happens. Making it still return NAV_BAR_RIGHT in the case effectively reverts the change. Tested side-by-side on a LineageOS compilation done personally.

Unfortunately for end users without access to source code, I don't know of a way to alter the behaviour yet: on older Android versions this change is supposed to be reflected in /system/framework/services.jar, but since Oreo it has both been split into a new /system/framework/services.jar.prof file and odexed, so currently available tools can't touch it as far as I know.


When is a free app removed from your google account? I install a free app from android market, then I uninstall it. Then I still see it linked to my google account. But after some time, the app is no more linked to my account. Other apps instead are always present under the "Not installed" category... When is an app unlinked from an account?

Only the paid apps you've purchased will be listed under the "Not installed" category indefinitely.  I believe it takes a few hours (or sometimes days) for the Market app to sync with Google servers to refresh the list of installed apps.