Can I buy the Samsung official extended battery for the UK Galaxy Nexus? Samsung have released an extended battery for the US Galaxy Nexus.  I know the US and EU versions have a slightly different shape, so was wondering if this extended battery would fit my UK Galaxy Nexus?  Or if there's a version which would fit?

Engadget has a great comparison shot of the battery differences between the HSPA+ and LTE versions in their review of the Verizon (LTE) Galaxy Nexus. The short answers seems to be 'no'; the link you provided is to an extended battery for the LTE Galaxy Nexus and therefore wouldn't be compatible with your HSPA+ version.


How do I recover the offline feature in YouTube? I have lost the YouTube offline feature on my accounts and devices. The offline option has disappeared from settings. I have tried uninstalling updates and reinstalling them, I have tried changing countries, I have tried using online suggestions. Nothing has worked and the offline feature is still missing. Please help me. Thank you.

Offline videos are now only available for YouTube Red subscribers.
Youtube Help


Android Auto stopped working with Pixel 3 on Hyundai Elantra I have a 2018 Hyundai Elantra with Android Auto and a Pixel 3, and I use Android Auto often.  I recently upgraded my phone to Andriod 10 and after a few days Android Auto stopped working.  I have rebooted my phone and tried a new cable to no avail.  I had a friend connect an iPhone to my car and CarPlay worked normally, so I know it isn't a problem with the car's USB port.

Does anyone have another suggestion?

I would recommend trying to "restart" Android Auto in your car by disabling Android Auto, waiting a minute or two, then enabling Android Auto.  I believe you can turn off Android Auto from the touch screen under Setup, Phone Projection.

Give this a try and let me know if it works.


How does Google TTS decide which voice to use? How does Google TTS decide which voice to use? If a book is written in two or more languages, can TTS choose the language-voice pair (perhaps based on the information stored in a dictionsry app or e-book)?

I have never seen Google TTS switch languages based on the text it is trying to "read", the default language is based on the system language, meaning if you select English as the display language, English is the TTS language by default but you can change it in the Language and Keyboard settings. Are you asking if an ebook is written in English and Spanish (for example) you want the TTS engine to read each portion in it's written language? I don't think that is currently possible for the Android TTS engine to have an "auto detect" setting.

You could request this feature, see
productforums.google.com/forum/#!home and poke around, I am not sure it has it's own section... all Google products are supported in their forums.


How to add a physical keyboard layout I'm using a Logitech Tablet Keyboard for Android with Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.1).

When I go to Settings -> Language & input -> Physical Keyboard and tap on Logitech Tablet Keyboard Gen there is an option to "Set up keyboard layouts". There are many predefined layouts but the "Polish (programmer)" keyboard layout is missing. How can I add one?

I have looked at /system/usr/keylayout and /system/usr/keychars but I don't see the other layouts there.

I know there is an app that does not require root, but it's aa virtual keyboard that works with bluetooth keyboards https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper and I'm interested only in adding the layout to the built-in physical keyboard layouts.

It's quite an easy task. See the source of the InputDevices system package. Or get the ready to use Polish programmers external keyboard layout plugin from there: https://sites.google.com/site/polishhardwarekbd/

You'll find the app source there as well. Regards.


Deleted Sec. Google Account. Now I'm stuck So basically, I wanted to make an inapp purchase, but my secondary useless account would always be the default account and it was unchangeable. After days of struggling I decided to simply completely delete the account, since I didnt use it anyway. Now however, I found out my phone is linked to this google account. Then I stumbled upon a thousand loopholes.

My phone asks me to verify my account in the notification bar. It can't be removed, so I decided to click on it. It brings me to a window where I have to login to my account to continue. I can't change whatever email is in the textbox, because there is simply nothing to type. I can't edit it. All it says is "can't find google account" and leaves me hanging. The problem is that that account doesn't even exist anymore. At all. So its constantly asking me to log in, and its bugging me.

So I decided to ignore the message. I went to settings/accounts and obviously all synchronisation failed, since the account was deleted. However, I can't remove the account from my phone BECAUSE I HAVE TO LOGIN. But there is no way to login because the account doesn't bloody exist.

So now Im stuck with an account linked to my phone that I dont even bloody use. I can't make inapp purchase because I constantly am forced to login to that same account that doesnt exist.

The app I'm trying to purchase is also simply showing errors and not allowing me to do anything. I can do all the standard stuff, but the verification notification is still there.

I can't install the app anymore on the playstore either. The playstore asks for verification whenever I try to install the app, and yeah, then it softlocks, because all I can click is "try again", which does nothing since it simply shows the same screen again.

I've been trying for so bloody long now. I'm completely done. There's so many goddamn issues the very simple problem being changing the standard account on my phone, which is practically impossible, since for anything I want to do I have to login to the deleted account.

Any help?

(I tried restarting my phone, btw)

So I'm understanding that the account is still on the phone but you deleted the account from Google.com In that case go into settings>accounts>Google, press on the account and in the menu select 'remove'

You can then go ahead and add new accounts, by pressing add account.


Google Account activation: What should I consider concerning privacy? In order to be able to use google-play-store, I will need a Google Account, and activate this on my Android device. Does this give Google access to all my private data? Is there anything I can to to protect my privacy, and still use Google services?

Background: Not only recently, I've read a lot about Google collecting everything they can get hold of. While there are terms of service, it's not entirely clear to me where my data will end up. It's also reported that their latest changes weaken users' privacy, and that they are going to use my name and profile to sell ads to others. To me, this looks like really worrisome development on a system I originally thought to be "open".

On activation of a Google account on your device, you will be asked whether you want to backup your data to the Google cloud. While this must be explicitly supported by the apps to take effect for their data (which only a few do), and thus will never be a complete data backup, many of your most private data will be affected here – amongst others your WiFi APs including their (plain text!) passwords, which even might lead to other issues beside privacy. But even if you answer this with "No", your contacts, calendars, and more will be automatically sync'd with the Google cloud without you being explicitly asked for.

So here are some things you might want to consider. The list is definitly not complete, I certainly have missed some points (and might add some lateron).

"Do you want to backup …" (see above): This includes data of some apps which support it, a list of apps installed on the device – but also sensitive data such as configured WiFi APs with their passwords in plain-text (open issue #57560)
In the sync settings of your Google account, de-select what you don't want to sync. Do this before entering any of your private data (contacts, calendars, etc.), and remember you will have to re-do this after a factory-reset. Side-effect: the less you sync, the less this can eat your data-plan.
Consider switching the default storage in your contacts/calendar/... app from "Google Account" to "Device"1
Android 4.4+: Install an alternative SMS app and make it the default one (in Settings→WiFi you can chose which app to be used for SMS) to avoid your messages being mixed into Hangouts. To be on the safe side, you can also disable SMS support in Hangouts.
Android 4.4+: Install an alternative Gallery app2 to avoid your images being mixed with Google+ (looks like the separate gallery app will be gone soon as well). Side-effect: again savings on your data-plan for not automatically syncing all your photos (alternatively, photo sync/instant upload can also be turned off in G+ settings AFAIK).
Avoid services like Google+ which are quite intrusive to privacy. If that's not an option for you, check their settings thoroughly, and opt-out from intrusives whereever possible.
Disable Google Maps and replace it by a good alternative. Apps like the open-source OsmAnd, OruxMaps, or Locus Map not only offer you much better offline capabilities, but also save your device's juice by not constantly running in the background even without being explicitly started by you.
If you followed all above suggestions, you now might as well think about disabling Google Now – it no longer can tell you it's "10 minutes to your parents", or "you need to start to work earlier because of higher traffic", as it doesn't know where (or who) your parents are, and where your work place is (or what the traffic conditions are). And cannot give you advices like "buying this because your friends like it".
Just discovered: Google Settings › Smart Lock for Passwords. Enabled by default, it saves passwords of your apps and websites to Google's cloud (your account). Not sure if it honors the initial "Do you want to backup …" setting.

There are several more things you can do for your privacy, not being restricted to Google's services. If rooting is an option for you, things like Xprivacy are definitly worth a look. A good starting point are our privacy tag-wiki and other questions tagged "privacy".

PS: Turning WiFi off when you don't need it (with 4.3+, remember there's also the "keep scanning for networks even if WiFi is switched off" setting in Settings→WiFi→Advanced to be considered) could even protect you against being tracked by advertising trashcans...

1 There are alternative sync possibilities like OwnCloud, Funambol, and others available
2 QuickPic is a good candidate here


Best method to reset Android device? I own a Huawei P9 EVA-AL00 (bought in China) on Android 7 with no root. Last time I reset my device, some photos were still left.

So, what is the best way to reset an Android device?

I'm not worried about security, privacy and encryption, but I do want all junk files, photos etc. to be removed from the device.

I know the 2 methods to reset - through recovery and settings, but is there a better way? For example, can you reset through Android Debug Bridge?

Thanks,

George

While both methods (factory-reset through settings and through recovery) should have the very same effect, both also usually leave the SD cards (internal and external) alone. So if you really want to clear all things up, you should "wipe" those as well. Some devices/ROMs offer to include the cards in factory reset, with others you'll have to do that manually – either by deleting all files, or by going to Settings › Storage and chosing to format them.

If you were "worried about security, privacy and encryption", I'd instead recommend you a tool to "securely wipe" all partitions, i.e. overwrite everything with garbage.


Fail in restoring whatsapp chats I followed the steps below to restore whatsapp chats:

1) on my old phone, I backed up my chats to SD card

2) Insert the SD card on the new phone

3) Moved the whole whatsapp folder to the new phone from the SD card

4) Install whatsapp on new phone and register and then it said there is a backup file founded, asked if I would like to restore it.

5) I clicked restore, so whatsapp processes.... for around 1-2 minutes, whatsapp quits itself, prompts "Unfortunately, whatsapp has stopped"

The whatsapp version on both my old and new phone is the same..

So how can I restore my chat history? Thanks!

Try this, from the Whatsapp FAQ.

  To restore from a backup, follow these steps:

  Uninstall WhatsApp.
  Decide which backup file you want to restore.
  Rename that file from "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt" to
  "msgstore.db.crypt"
  Install WhatsApp
  When asked to restore, tap [Restore]


How to check if application on Google Play would work on other (not own) phone? Is there a way to (at least approximately) check if an application I have found in Google Play store would work on friend's phone.  I'd rather not suggest an app that would not work on friend's phone.

For example is there a way to check if an application would work on Android 2.3, when my phone has Android 4.1.2?

Nowadays Google Play store has (in the web version) "Additional information" section, with table (actually: divs) containing structured information about an app, with the following 'columns': "Updated", "Size", "Installs", "Current Version", "Requires Android", "Content Rating".

While usually the information I want is in "Requires Android" field (e.g. '4.0.3 and up', '2.2 and up') sometimes it is just 'Varies with device', e.g. SoundHound.

Let him try installing it via Playstore. If it's "incompatible by design" (e.g. requires Android 4.x while he has only 2.3), Playstore would refuse to install it and give the hint "not compatible with your device".

Apart from that (and if the app description doesn't give a clue):

check the comments for hints (take care for their date, compared with the "last updated" timestamp of the app; AppBrain lists the history of an app nicely on its "Changelog" tab)
Install the SDK on your computer, and add the corresponding AVDs to it to test out for yourself
Ask for the specific app on a forum, whether anyone can confirm it's running on Android X.X.X / the specific device / ...
Ask the dev (and if doing so, suggest to include such hints with the desc)


How can I diagnose if my LG G2 screen is defective? Until until yesterday, my LG G2 smartphone worked beautifully. All of a sudden, for no apparent reason (no drops or indication of damage), this occurred.

Click for full size image

Clear horizontal and vertical lines appear across the screen. Note how the very top is perfectly fine, and gets worse towards the bottom of the phone.

I am willing to buy a replacement screen an replace the entire part. I have some experience in fixing electronics, and there are lots of nice online tutorials. However, since there was no damage to it whatsoever (it sat on a desk overnight), I began to wonder whether it was the screen at all.

Is there any method or software to diagnose whether my screen or other parts of my phone are defective, other than buying a new screen and trying it out?

As far as I can tell, the problem is that the LCD is getting interference from the antenna.

To fix it, place some tape in between the white antenna cable and the circuit board. Basically, on the bottom, there are 2 parts that snap on, and then there is another square that is left "floating around". This has to be flat the same orientation as the LCD. Place the tape above it so it insulates it from the white cable that should be passing above it.


How to root the LG Optimus 4X (LG-P880)? I just got a brand new LG Optimus 4X. Feeling naked without the privacy protection offered by apps like LBE Privacy Guard, and missing good backup solutions like Titanium Backup (and no, Carbon Backup cannot really compete here), I want the device rooted.

How can that be achieved?

In fact, I never had an Android device where this was that easy to achive! Our friends at XDA-Developers offer a guide and the necessary tools in this thread. Having a "Microsoft free zone" and "only" running Linux machines (yeah, even the Android ones run a Linux kernel), I was able to follow up those steps with a little adaption here and there -- and so I will sum up the results for Windows and Linux users as well:

Preparation

First you need to download the required tools, all of them available at the linked XDA-Developers thread:

o4xr.zip is the rooting toolkit
IS11LG_SystemBackupTest.signed.apk to prepare your device
Windows users only: LGUnitedMobileDriver_Ver_3.7.2_LG-P880_LGO4XHD.zip -- the Windows drivers for the device

Having everything downloaded, some additional steps are necessary at your computer:

Windows users only: Unzip and install the drivers
Linux users: Make sure adb is able to detect the device (check with adb devices). If it's not, see at the end of this answer for some hints.
Everybody: Copy IS11LG_SystemBackupTest.signed.apk to your Optimus (e.g. after connecting it via USB in MTP mode, copy the file to the internal SDCard)
Everybody: Create a new directory, unzip o4xr.zip there, and change into this directory.

The rooting process

On your Optimus, go to Settings→Security and make sure "Unknown Sources" is TICKED (i.e. contains a checkmark)
Go to Settings→Developer Options and enable "USB Debugging"
Now install IS11LG_SystemBackupTest.signed.apk (e.g. use a file explorer to find and "launch" it)
Open the "SystemBackupTest" app you just installed. Nothing spectacular will happen, so don't be disappointed here.
Hold the power button and choose "Power off and restart".
When you can see the lock screen, you may notice that the phone is running very slowly, this is normal.
Once the device is fully started up again, connect it to your computer with an USB cable. Make sure the phone is in "Charging Only" mode.
On your PC, open a terminal (Linux) resp. command (cmd.exe, Windows) window and change into the directory you've extractedo4xr.zip` into.
(on Windows, you may need admin privileges: right click, run as administrator. On Linux it did fine for me without superuser/root permissions)
Now run the rooting script:

Windows users: type root followed by the enter key
Linux users: type ./root-linux.sh, also followed by the enter key
Any Mac users? Type ./root-mac.sh, also followed by the enter key. Don't worry, it won't root your Mac/Linux machine (Windows users: it is unlikely to root your box, either :)

DO NOT DISCONNECT YOUR PHONE WHILE THE SCRIPT RUNS! Wait while it does its job. During that process, the phone will reboot automatically a couple of times. The script will inform you about this in your command/terminal window. Once the command/shell prompt returns, the misdeed is accomplished :)
Now uninstall SystemBackupTest from your Optimus. Do not launch it again at this state, or you might have to start over from step 5 :)
On your phone, open up Google Play Store and search for "SuperSU". Update the app when prompted, then open it. Press OK to update the SU binary.

You now have root and can safely restore the "Unknown Sources" and "USB debugging" settings back to how you had them! Congratulations! Next steps are to install Titanium Backup, LBE Privacy Guard, and all the other things you might need and which require root!

Hint for Linux users to get adb recognize your Android device

These steps should work with all Android phones. The example data of course should exactly fit the LG Optimus P880 this question deals with.

open a terminal window, and make yourself root (sudo su -)
enter the following command: lsusb. Note the output in your mind.
connect your device with USB Debugging enabled using an USB cable.
again issue the lsusb command. Now it should output an additional line which has to be the just connected Android device. For the LG Optimus P880, this should read like:
Bus 002 Device 103: ID 1004:61a6 LG Electronics, Inc.
1004 is the vendor ID for LG, 61a6 the device ID of the P880 in USB Debugging mode.
use your favorite editor (still in root mode!) and open /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules (if no such file exists, simply create it). Add the below lines (first line is optional), and then save the file.
restart the UDEV daemon: service udev restart

Now you just need to disconnect your device. When reconnecting it for the next time, adb will see it -- as you can confirm with the adb devices command. So here are the lines for your /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules file:

#LG Optimus X4 P880
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1004", ATTRS{idProduct}=="61a6", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"


How can I free up more space on my Android (2.2 Froyo) phone? I have already moved all the applications that allow it to the SD card. So what I am really looking for here are some tips like clearing internet cache or something like that. (I have an HTC Desire.)

Edit: In my case the top space hogs are:

Google Reader - 19.1 MB
Swype - 10.7 MB
Maps - 9.2 MB
Contacts Storage 8.9 MB
SliceIt - 8.2 MB
doubleTwist - 6.4 MB
Facebook for HTC Sense - 5.9 MB
Handcent SMS - 5.0 MB
Adobe Reader - 4.7 MB
Gmail - 4.2 MB

and there are many more after that (TweetDeck, Bloomberg, Angry Birds, Shazam, ...).

Now I know that I have a lot of apps but that's what I want from my smart phone and I don't really want to have to uninstall anything. I've also got a 16GB SD card which is over 50% empty so if only more of the apps would allow themselves to be moved to the SD.

EDIT 2: I found this question - How can I deal with "Low on space" messages on my HTC Incredible?  which deals with the same issue and the accepted answer there is very good.

I have an HTC Desire, too, and I really had the same problem for a long while.
Until I found this post:
http://www.getele.com/how-to/how-to-install-apps-to-your-sd-card-on-android-froyo.html

You do NOT have to root the phone, or something like that. It tells you to download the Android SDK to your computer, then connect it via USB and enter only one small one-line command. After that, ALL apps (except system apps) will be moveable to SD card, and also have SD card as default install location.

Since then, I really get the most out of my phone, and have dozens more apps. At the moment about 130 apps. Some of them shrink from 23mb to 120kb, others are not so drastic, but it REALLY helps.

Hope I could help,
Heval


I accidentally uninstalled viber but I cant now re install it on the same device I accidentally uninstalled viber but I reinstalled it again. Now I cannot setup the old account on the same device. The viber version used by me is 5.3-the latest version. I previously used viber on samsung galaxy tab 2 with os jeally bean -4.0.4.  I send email to the viber forum but that did not solve my problem. I previously used the same version on my tablet. Every time I enter my phone number error message pops up. I was tninking of activating my viber account on another device and deactivate my account . And then using the same number and device I wish to setup the viber account once again. Will that help???

Go to settings clear cache, etc, n uninstall. Then reinstall as usual. :-) hope this helps.


Moving app data to external sd card Is it possible to move almost the total app size of an app to external sd? example 90% of its data will move to external and the 10% will stay...

I've tried moving the Clean Master app, its total size is 71 MB but only 20 MB was able to move in the external... not even 50% of total size has been moved...

Easy approach: Link2SD

Manual method:
If you are sure that the file attributes does not matter, then there's an acceptable way to do this. Root is required.
1. Copy the app data from /data/data/com.example.foo to somewhere in your SD card. Personally I recommend sdcard/Android/data/com.example.foo. If you are running Android Lollipop or up, there will be a symbolic link named lib, leave it alone.
2. Kill the app process. Remove the original data. Open a terminal emulator (or adb). Run

su
ln -s /sdcard/Android/data/com.example.foo/files /data/data/com.example.foo/files

That's all. To revert this job, it's a little complex. You'll have to chmod and chown the proper file modes and attributes manually after copying them back.

Special notices:
Never copy and link the /data/data/com.example.foo folder directly as the symbolic link lib inside will fail, which will lead to unknown behavior. Link every (or some of them at your choice) subfolders one by one.


Lost some data (specifically my voice recordings My phone started acting really weirdly lately. It would shut off by itself and turn on again, and sometimes when it just turned on, it would turn off again. The home screen would freeze, and I couldn't do anything. So I backed up everything onto my computer, and I reset my phone. Suprisingly, my phone went back to normal! So I tried moving everything back onto my phone. lost a lot of my photos and music, but it wasn't a big deal. What I'm upset about is that when I moved all of the voice recordings onto the computer, everything was there. But transferring back into my phone, I lost a few voice recordings, especially this one voice recording that is very important to me. I can't find it in its app folder, and can't find it anywhere. I looked in media, music, sub media, videos, everything I could think of yet I can't find it! Is it possible to get it back somehow?? Or do you know where the voice recording could be(stored) ? Please help!

My phone is a samsung google galaxy nexus version 4.2.1.

It depends on what application you record your voice with. But maybe it save the voices in a folder which is hidden. (the folders which have dots at the first of their names.)


Stop App from controlling the brightness of my screen I was on a flight watching movies on the United App. Around 8pm my screen dimmed. It dimmed a lot, to the point of being unwatchable.
Pulling the notification pane (where the brightness slider is displayed) would not let me move the brightness slider. I thought that maybe the auto-brightness was screwing with me. I went to settings, shut off the auto-brightness, and manually turned up the brightness. As soon as I re-entered the United App the brightness fell to the same level.
If I had to guess, the App turned down the brightness to keep you from disturbing other people. The problem is that the levels were too low.
How do I override the App so that I can actually see the movie? Is there a permission that I can change or another App I can use to turn the brightness back up? (Modify system setting is set to "Not Allowed")

try this app and set it to 100%
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arogulin.brightness
I have a similar situation with my adaptive controler. i believe my proximity sensor is f....


Without Root, why can I pull a specific apk using adb, but not everything in /data/app. Android 4+? Using: Droid Bionic 4.04 without Root.

I can use the adb to pull a specific apk file to my PC, for example,

     adb pull /data/app/com.google.android.gm-1.apk C:\my-hacks

which pull gmail's apk file. But when I try to copy the entire /data/app directory with

     adb pull /data/app C:\myhacks

the command line reads
pull: building file list...
0 files pulled. 0 files skipped.

I don't understand why I have permission to pull specific files from /data/ but not everything.

It's a "permission and privacy" thing. While the .apk does not have any privacy concerns involved (and thus can give read permission to everyone), the data do, and thus the directory is only readable by owner, group, and root (not by "other", which is what you would need -- "other" has only eXecute permissions).

ls -l / | grep data
drwxrwx--x   25 system   system  4096 Jan 28 17:51 data

Which means: Specifying the file directly, you can pull it (as it has the required file permissions, and the directory permits you to cd into due to the set eXecute bit). Specifying the directory instead fails, as this would require to change (cd) into the directory (which works) and build a list of files contained -- which is impossible due to the missing read permission on the directory entry itself.


Update Android 2.3.4 on HTC Sensation Possible Duplicate:
  How do I update the OS on my device?

I have a an HTC Sensation with Android 2.3.4. I tried to check for updates. It says that there are no new updates. Is there any way to update my system to Android 4.0 manually?

This page from HTC's website should help you. This might depend on your location and carrier. So please go through the site.

Another option, if you are ready to void your warranty, you can go for a custom ROM like CyanogenMod.


How to prioritize a 802.11ac over 802.11n? I have (at the office and at home) WiFi APs which serve 802.11n and 802.11ac over the same SSID.

My Galaxy S9+ never connects to the 5 GHz network on these SSIDs. I thought that this may be because the signal strength which is too low on the 5 GHz network and the 2 GHz looks more promising.

I created a 802.11ac-only SSID and connected my phone and tested for bandwidth which was ~90 Mbps, even in the most remote part of my home.

This probably means that the algorithm which selects the standard to use is less than optimal and I would like to help it by prioritizing the 802.11ac signal on a dual-standard SSID. Is this something which is configurable a way or another on Android (specifically Oreo on an S9+)?

When the SSID is shared, the access point is responsible for band steering.

  Dual band operation with Band Steering detects clients capable of 5
  GHz operation and steers them to that frequency which leaves the more
  crowded 2.4 GHz band available for legacy clients.
  — Source

Enable band steering in your WiFi controller.


adb backup disabled on phone I am attempting to run an adb backup to my computer from my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, version maguro, v4.2.2 (I guess it's worth mentioning I'm running Windows 7 on my computer). I have tried this with two methods, using the WugFresh Nexus Toolkit, and directly from the command line using the adb executable I got from the android sdk. Each time I attempt it, the adb backup page comes up fine on my phone, but the button to accept the backup is not clickable. I can deny the backup fine, but not accept it. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

The drivers are the most likely problem, but I am running the signed Samsung drivers that I successfully installed from the Nexus Toolkit. Could anyone additionally corroborate if they are/have been a problem? I would consider uninstalling them in favor of another possibility, but don't know which alternative is best, or how to remove the damned signed drivers from my computer so they stop auto-installing.

Thanks in advance for any help.

try a usb2 (instead of usb3) port: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2077799#6
do you have a sony? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1696320
check your command: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1851811#5


My tablet's screen has gone black My tablet screen has gone black. I have shone a flashlight into the screen and I can just about make out the display and when I move the toggle up and down to adjust the brightness it does nothing it just stays the same. I've switched it off and on a few times but it has done nothing, I am not using any custom roms. Also I haven't broken it of dropped it in any way, I have only had it since Christmas.

I'm using Samsung Note 10.1, 2014 edition.

It is quite possible that the LCD backlight has died. This would indicate a hardware fault. But before we jump to conclusions,

Make sure you don't have a screen filter like (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor) active.
Factory reset it and see if the problem persists.


Can I change my ICS phone camera trigger? I am using Sony Xperia LT18I. It's ICS 4.0.4 and I was wondering about changing the trigger of my phone's camera with the headset key press. If I connect my headset it should find and change it's default option and should take a photo when I press the key of my headset. Can anyone help on this?

You could probably give Camera Touch-Free a try.

  Solution for touch phones that did not have hardware camera button such as Samsung GALAXY S II.
  Making shots on touch phone without touches.
  Just use hardware buttons "Volume Up" or headset.
  Use "Volume Down" hardware button for exit from application.

Others worth trying:

Sensor Camera Pro:

  (New) Use the headset's previous and forward media button as focus and shutter release.

  You could also search Google Play for: camera headset


How to stop the Facebook app from updating itself automatically? I have the Facebook app installed on my Android 7 phone.

Auto-update is disabled for all applications on my Play Store account
I have disabled installation from unknown sources

For some reason, whenever there is an update of the Facebook app, it automatically updates itself even though I disabled auto-updates for all applications.

How to stop the Facebook app from updating itself automatically?

Update: The settings location was changed, now at:

Settings & Privacy --> Settings --> Media and Contacts --> App Updates --> Auto-Update Facebook

Open your Facebook mobile app and navigate to that location to turn off the option:

(From the three lines icon at the top, at the bottom you'll have Settings & Privacy which should be expanded).

S̶e̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶&̶ ̶P̶r̶i̶v̶a̶c̶y̶ ̶-̶-̶>̶ ̶A̶p̶p̶ ̶S̶e̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶-̶-̶>̶ ̶A̶p̶p̶ ̶U̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶-̶-̶>̶ ̶A̶u̶t̶o̶-̶U̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶F̶a̶c̶e̶b̶o̶o̶k̶


How to localize Android OS for new locale I've been looking for the Android "localization project", assuming that there is one (like you have for LibreOffice or Mozilla) but so far, I have only found thousands of pages about localizing apps, but nothing about the operating system itself. Which suggests it's more complicated than I expected...

Assuming that it can be localized, anyone know if end users can then download and install such a new locale on their phones? I'm under no illusions about Scottish Gaelic ever getting shipped by default :/
If the answer is yes, then does anyone know how the localization process for Android actually works and where I need to go?

Thanks!

You'll need a copy of the OS with the needed locale. Since it's part of the OS it can't be added by a simple app download or anything. You can Spoof your locale string on any device but that app doesn't actually offer localizations beyond what shipped on your phone; it won't translate system text ect unless your phone has those localizations native.

As per the Android SDK docs:

  Note: The Android platform may support more locales than are included in the SDK system image. All of the supported locales are available in the Android Open Source Project.

You'll have to reflash your device with a system image that has your locale; the Android Open Source Project includes more locales but you/someone would have to actually compile them into a working system image/ROM. Making it work on your device is also another matter; ideally if your manufacturer has another official ROM out there with the locale on it you want, you should find that ROM and use it.

Unfortunately I don't know of any sites that have ROMs by supported locale.


Rooting and unrooting Apex Launcher I read the ApexLauncher FAQ and there is this line:

Move the APK file to the /system/app directory manually.
Make sure you set the file permission properly.
Please reboot your device if the in-drawer widgets feature does not work.
To uninstall, please remove ApexLauncher.apk from /system/app manually.

My question is, is it really that easy to do? I mean, if I move the .apk to the system directory, I will have a fully-functional ApexLauncher (i.e. a rooted phone) and when I delete the file, I will be back to the OK-state?

No. To move the app to /system/app directory your phone must be already rooted. You would want to install Apex Launcher as system app i.e. install in /system/app because of the following reason.

  NOTE: Due to limitations of the Android framework, you won't be able to add widgets from the drawer unless Apex Launcher is installed as a system app (root required). Please read the FAQ for more information.

If I misunderstood your question and if you were asking if installing app as system app in a rooted phone is that easy, then the answer is yes. You can do it as you have said and once you remove it, your phone will be back to the "OK" state. You can also use program like ES File explorer or use adb to install as a system app.


Why is quiet mode not abiding by the scheduled times? Ever since my phone upgraded itself to Android 4.4.2 a couple of weeks ago, it has trouble turning quiet mode on or off at the set times.

I have it set for quiet between 10 pm and 8 am, and the indicator by the "Schedule Settings" is blue indicating that the setting is on, and the moon icon with the timer remains in the top bar, but it either doesn't switch into quiet mode or if it does happen turn on at the scheduled time, it doesn't turn back off.

If I cycle the "Schedule Settings" switch, it does go into quiet mode for that night, but does not always do so the next evening.

Is this a bug that was introduced with the upgrade, or is one of my apps intercepting the quiet mode setting and overriding it?

I'm using an LG G2.

I had the same problem and found a workaround by going to settings->sound->quiet mode and repeating toggle "turn quiet mode now" until I see the notification on the notification bar. After that the scheduled quiet mode will work, but you had to do this after every restart of the phone.


MyTouch 4g MMS over Home Wi-Fi Why can't I receive or send MMS on my My Touch 4g through my home Wi-Fi? I have bad coverage at home so I have to use my Wi-Fi connection. I'm sure my settings are right - I have it set to T-Mobile Data. Does it have to be set at MMS? It works fine when I'm away from home on the 4g network.

MMS messages can only be received by your carrier's internet service (3g,4g,etc.). Sadly the capabilities to do this over wi-fi are not available yet, hopefully they're working on a fix for this!


What is this "4 white bubbles with a red dot" notification icon? I see this in my notification bar, but I have no idea what it is

Scrolling down my notification bar doesn't show what it is, and my notification log doesn't show it either.
What is this?


How to check if there is a 3G software / hardware issue with phone? I have HTC One X running Android 4.1.1 and Sense4+. Lately my 3G service has gone pretty bad. I contacted my telecom operator but there customer service representatives aren't much help. My GPRS works flawlessly. Its only the 3G where I face issues.

I would like to know if I can check whether there is a software or hardware problem with my phone with respect to 3G.

This will be my way of checking the 3G connectivity issues. Might work for you too.

First try to reset the APN and restart your phone.
If it did not work, try forcing the phone to 3G. In your
dialer, enter *#*#4636#*#* -> Phone Information -> Select WCDMA only
in the drop down menu. This should make your phone work only in 3G.
Try testing your speeds via Speedtest for bandwidth.
If both steps did not solve your problem, try using a different SIM
in which 3G is working. If this solves your problem, replace the SIM
from Customer care.
Even now your problem is not solved, try factory reset your phone.
Warning: This will reset everything in your phone including pictures, take a backup of your phone before proceeding further.
If none of the above solves your problem, take it to your HTC
customer care to check them for hardware defect.


Google Play Store stopped unexpectedly Samsung Galaxy II While running the play store I am getting the message:

  The application google play store(process com.android.vending)has stopped unexpectedly. please try again,

Force close is indicated in box below the message. I'm unable to
proceed further. I did try few tricks like clearing the data and cache
in play store, but the problem still persists.

My phone details: Android version 2.3.6, model Samsung Galaxy S II, Android 4G, Model no.SGH-T989., kernel 2.6.35.

you can  try to install an updated version of play store, it resolved my problem once.

here is a tutorial i wrote about play store issues  :

Solutions for the most major play store Problems


Leave Korean recovery mode I tried to enter the recovery mode on my LG G2 smartphone by pressing Volume Up + Volume Down + Power and then releasing Power, as described here. My goal was to clear the system cache, not to perform a hard reset.

Unfortunately, the recovery mode is in Korean (I suppose):

As I cannot read the options, I am afraid of accidentally deleting all my data.

Can anyone tell me which option refers to "clear cache"? Or, if this option does not exist, is one of the options "abort/exit"? The main goal is to leave this screen without erasing my user data.

In case this should be relevant: I think the phone uses Lollipop, but (for obvious reasons) I cannot check this at the moment.

Thanks to @Izzy's comment that the text looks Korean I could solve the issue:

A Korean OCR online tool recognized the characters in the last option as 취소 which Google translates as "Cancel". Choosing the last option actually restarted the phone (without any data loss).


Install Android to Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with GNU/Linux I'm looking forward to reinstall Android on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.

Are there compiled images for this device?
Do I have to build it myself? If so, do I need propietary drivers from Samsung?

All the tutorials I found around require Windows (for Odin software) and installing mods and stuff like that, that sounds very hacky and dirty to me.

From a GNU/Linux-based OS, you can use Heimdall, an open-source alternative to Odin which is proported to match Odin feature-for-feature while also being more reliable. Otherwise, you can follow any of the many tutorials for installing a new Android ROM. I'll provide a bit more information to help you start your journey:

If you want a custom ROM like CyanogenMod or any of the dozens which are available in precompiled packages for specific devices, then you'll need to use Heimdall to flash a custom Recovery image (TWRP or ClockWorkMod Recovery). The zipped ROM images are flashable through these recovery modes.

If you want stock, Samsung Android/Touchwiz then you can use Heimdall to flash over the entire Android image from Samsung. (Google around to find the one for your model)

If you want to compile Android yourself, you'll likely want a custom Recovery image (TWRP or ClockWorkMod Recovery) and you can download the Android source code or if you want to modify existing custom ROMs, you can download their respective source and compile it yourself. You'd need to hunt down some in-depth Android compiling tutorials in order to do this, as it's not a simple process.

Note: Before flashing anything to your device, make sure that you match the model numbers!


Message notifications stuck! I've had my Moto X (first gen) for a while, I think almost a year Noe, the whole experience has been great but lately every time I open my messaging app I get a "Two messages could not be sent" notification I can swipe it away but it will just return if I'm in the messaging app or whenever I open the app back up. This is the stock messages app I'm talking about too, so I don't have a clue why it itself would be buggy.. I've tried deleting all my messages, restarting my phone, clearing the data/cache and so far nothing has worked it continues to haunt me everytime the app is opened and its really starting to get on my nerves how do I get rid of this??

Introduction:

Heres what seems to have worked for me:

Warning !!! : The following has the potential of doing damage to your phone. Please make a full backup of your phone first and only do this if you understand what each command is doing!

The following requires some understanding of the use of ADB (Android Debug Bridge) and sqlite3 databases as well as linux permissions.

The error message I was getting in the Notification Area is similar to: Message not sent. Touch to review the message and try again.

Steps to Fix:

Reboot your phone into recovery mode. And connect your phone to your computer via USB cable.
Copy the mmssms.db sqlite database from your phone by using ADB :

adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/database/mmssms.db

adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/database/mmssms.db-journal
Download install "DB Browser for SQLite" on your computer from http://sqlitebrowser.org/
Open mmssms.db using "DB Browser for SQLite" (make sure the mmssms.db-journal file is in the same directory as mmssms.db).
Select the Browse Data tab.
Select pending_msgs table and then select and delete all records in this table with the Delete Record button. Repeat this for the sr_pending table.
Select pdu table, then insert 0 in read filter, then select and delete records with Delete Record button where the read column is 0. repeat this on sms and threads table.
Select Write Changes from the File menu.
Now use ADB to push the modified mmssms.db file back to your phone. But first check the permissions that have been set on the original mmssms.db:

adb shell

ls -la /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/

-rw-rw---- radio    radio      900000 2015-01-17 21:33 mmssms.db
-rw-rw---- radio    radio       30000 2015-01-17 21:33 mmssms.db-journal
-rw-rw---- radio    radio      170000 2015-01-17 21:30 telephony.db
-rw-rw---- radio    radio        8000 2015-01-17 21:30 telephony.db-journal

exit
Copy the modified mmssms.db database back to the phone:

adb push mmssms.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/database/mmssms.db
Change permissions and delete old database journal file using ADB Shell

adb shell

chmod 660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
 chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
 rm /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db-journal

exit
Disconnect your phone, reboot and see if this solved the problem.

References:

[1] http://puremon.egloos.com/m/2145353


How to Install our android image in laptop ? How to make android boot-able image for laptop? I have Android Source Code image and i want to install it on Laptop . I want to know how we made bootable image for laptop with android image.
What I have to do so that laptop detect the android image.
There is some site which provide android image for laptop , in which i have to download image but i want my android image been install in laptop. Is any tool is present which make boot loader for android image.GUIDE ME

You want to check out Android x86 project. They have documentation and installation instruction for installing an Android on a regular laptop/desktop.


How to rotate emulator screen (not device orientation)? Some apps run in landscape orientation, but sometimes allow you to see some picture in higher resolution by displaying it as portrait-oriented full screen image. Those are mostly games that allow you to tap character's portrait in profile to see it - Soccer Spirits, Chain Chronicle and and pretty much any other game that features character art as one of its draws.

IRL you supposed to turn your device to look at image, but how can I do that on Genymotion or any other emulator? It does have button to change device's orientation - i.e. internal state on what device thinks about it and will automatically turn screen accordingly, but it obviously doesn't help with apps that have fixed orientation.

Is there any way to just rotate emulator window?

Nox version 5.0.0.0 added this feature. Quote from changelog:

  Added Rotate button to change Nox screen display from vertical to horizontal or back with just one click.


I forgot my password I had set a security password on my Samsung Galaxy S Duos mobile and unfortunately forgot the unlock password. I tried hundreds of times to unlock my phone with many possible passwords but was unsuccessful in each of my attempts. Please help me unlock my phone and send me the master code (if any) to unlock the phone.

Go to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

Provided you have your phone set up with your Google account, it should show up on that page. Choose the LOCK option. It'll ask you to set a new pincode (and message if you want). As soon as you hit "lock" after entering in the new pin, the phone will lock with the new pin. Now just try to unlock your phone again.

That feature is really supposed to be a way to remotely lock your phone if it gets lost/stolen and doesn't already have a pin/password lock on it, but its a handy little workaround for resetting your pin if you forgot it.

...
...
Another option is through Samsung's Find My Mobile site.
The guide for your model shows two possibilities:

Lock my device: Locks your device by setting a 4 digit PIN to prevent
other people from operating your device.

Unlock my screen: Initializes the security lock settings such as the screen lock pattern, password and PIN to unlock the screen of your device.
Since this function initializes the device's screen lock setting, you must set the screen lock setting again. The screen lock set by the device or remotely set by the Lock my screen function will be released.

...
...

If none of this works, I'm afraid you may be looking at a factory reset.


How do I share apps between users in Android 4.4 KitKat? My kids received the second-generation Nexus 7 tablet as a gift.  I'd like to be able to purchase apps from one account and share them between the various users on the tablet.

Some articles about the topic indicate adding a different user to the play store, but I see no such functionality in Android 4.4 KitKat.

Is there a way to share apps between users?

One alternative is "Multi-User App Share", which is available from the Play Store.

You can share an installed app with other users.
Data from the app will not be shared.
Shared paid apps will most likely not be validated when used, provided your tablet has a network connection.
You will need root to be able to do this.


How to turn off data usage for all but specific App in android? I want to disable the auto sync(i.e mobile data) for all of my App ,except whatsApp when I am in mobile data connection.So basically talking , when I am on mobile data I only want to use whatsApp to connect to internet.

But when I am connected to wifi , any of App can update,sync and do things whatever they want. How can I do that ?

EDIT: MY PHONE IS NOT ROOTED

There are a number of applications (3G Watchdog for example) which allow you to restrict background data to WiFi; therefore when you've left the application it cannot continually use data.

In later versions of Android you can go to Settings > Data Usage > Apps and restrict background data, thus not needing a third party app. Both methods do not require root access.
Here are a few related questions:MMS and Restricting background data, Restrict Mobile data but exclude some apps or How does "Restrict background data" work?.

The above mentioned will give much more explanation on what to do, why to do etc. but I will just give you the means to read it. It's quite an easy process to compelte. I will, however, give an alternative which is not often used: AutoMateIt. Let me know if you manage to incorportate this into your issue!


Xposed Framework removed after manual CM update? I'm currently running the official nightly of cm12.1 on my LG G3 AT&T (model d850) with the Xposed Framework installed. However, every time I manual update Cyanogenmod (as I don't have a compatible recovery for automatic installation), the Xposed Framework gets removed/disabled, forcing me to locate the downloaded framework zip file (xposed manual installation because of reasons). This is not really a big issue for me and doesn't greatly affect myself or my phone in anyway but it will be glad if someone has found a 'possible' solution for this minor bug

Ok so this isn't a bug but in the updater script of the xposed framework, a function called install_overwrite is called upon several occasion and, hence the name overwrite, will replace pre-existing file in the /system folder. So in order to install the xposed framework, it's necessary to reinstall it with each update.


Turn off "new email" sound on boot When my Froyo phone is almost finished booting up, it makes a sound to notify me that I have new email.  How can turn this off?  Thanks.

So, based on the comments above you do need a notification solution.  The obvious one is just to turn off notifications for the email app, or to turn down the volume before you go to bed.  You could also use an app like Tasker to do the latter automatically based on profiles that you set.  For example you can have it mute notifications when plugged in to charge: http://androidforums.com/1207528-post3.html


Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent "Safe Mode"? I have a non-rooted Droid X2 that is in permanent "Safe mode", but I want to recover SMS messages.  SMS Backup and Restore will NOT work because safe mode only allows system apps to run.

adb shell will get me into the phone, but does not allow me to get to the SMS database:

[rjt@pc232 workspace]$ adb shell
$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32.9-00008-gc406305 (hudsoncm@il93lnxdroid80) (gcc version 4.4.0 (GCC) ) #2 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jan 24 22:54:19 CST 2012

$ cd /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/
$ pwd
/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases
$ ls
opendir failed, Permission denied
$ su -l root
su: permission denied
$ sudo
sudo: permission denied
$ sudo su -
sudo: permission denied
$ sudo su -l root
sudo: permission denied
$

Since SMS Backup and Restore is allowed to access my SMS messages when in normal mode, is "Safe mode" blocking my access or the fact that this phone is not rooted?

Can I root the phone without losing my existing SMS messages?

Try this:

cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db > /sdcard/mysms.db

Which copies the SMS database across to the SDCard.

For the Telephone database,

cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db > /sdcard/mytelephony.db

Its a very old trick, to pull in the databases without root. It is not guaranteed to work across all ROMs depending on how the directory permissions are set.


On devices with encryption enabled, can any apps start before the PIN is entered? On devices with encryption enabled that require you to enter a PIN before the device finishes booting, can any apps (including built-in ones like chrome or gmail) start before the PIN is entered?

If you are talking of Android N, then the answer is no, which uses File-based encryption and the following are enabled

  AOSP Dialer (packages/apps/Dialer)

  Desk Clock (packages/apps/DeskClock)

  LatinIME (packages/inputmethods/LatinIME)*

  Settings App (packages/apps/Settings)*

  SystemUI (frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI)*

  *System applications that use the defaultToDeviceProtectedStorage manifest attribute


Android lock screen password not being recognized I flashed the latest Cyanogenmod ROM for my device (Samsung Captivate) last night and after doing so I set a numeric lock screen password.  I then customized my phone and spent a goodly amount of time working on it and locked and unlocked it successfully multiple times.  This morning when I woke up and went to unlock it, my password did not work.  I have tried the password (and combinations thereof) over 100 times and it never unlocks.  I also never get the "Lost Password" button on the lock screen to use my Gmail account to unlock the device.  Does anyone know if there is a way to connect to the device using an ADB shell and reset the password? I am able to get to a shell and can run commands.  Any help is appreciated.

Yes, you can delete the PIN data from the settings database. In the below instructions, anything that follows a # or sqlite> is a command you should enter (from an adb shell):

# cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
# sqlite3 settings.db
sqlite> delete from secure where name='lockscreen.password_type';
sqlite> delete from secure where name='lockscreen.password_salt';
sqlite> .exit
# reboot

When the phone reboots the PIN lock should be disabled. If this doesn't work then try executing the following from within sqlite (second might not be needed):

sqlite> select * from secure;
sqlite> select * from system;

These two commands will simply list all entries in the secure and system tables, respectively. That will help you find the proper rows that need to be deleted in the case that they are named differently (though I don't think they will be as I just tested this on my own CyanogenMod 7 install).


Which CyanogenMod version should I use on my Transformer Prime? I have an Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 that is currently running Android Version 4.1.1; however, I am trying to update it to KitKat (hopefully 4.4.2). I found this guide to help me do that and the provided gapps zip file version is 20131119 but on the CyanogenMod wiki it says the highest gapps version is 20140105.

Also, the link provided on the tutorial page for the firmware is cm-11-20140123-UNOFFICIAL-tf201 but on Cyano's webpage for the TF201 the most stable version is cm-9.1.0.

So I have a few combinations that I can do the tutorial with. Either:

Use the latest gapps version (20140105) and the provided firmware (cm-11-20140123-UNOFFICIAL-tf201)
Use the provided gapps version (20131119) and the latest stable firmware (cm-9.1.0)
Use the latest of both
Use the provided versions of both

Obviously, I would like everything on my tablet to be the latest version of everything however there must be a reason this tutorial (and another I saw) are providing these outdated versions of the gapps and firmware (unless the posts just haven't been updated). So does anyone know which is the best option (that works) to go with?

TF201 isn't supported on CM11, so your choices are to go with official nightlies (which are not stable) of CM10.1 from here or unofficial CM11 from here. Neither of these are stable or officially supported releases.

The Google apps version you should use depends on the CM version you choose to flash. If you're using CM11, use the 20140105 GApps. If you're using CM10.1, use the 20130812 GApps.


Multitouch hardware on Android devices Are all touch-screens on modern devices multitouch capable on hardware level (if software supports it)?

If not than how to detect if touchscreen screen by itself is multitouch or not?

Are all touch-screens on modern devices multitouch capable on hardware level (if software supports it)?

This is more or less impossible to answer without spec sheets for every Android device that has ever been created (within whatever timeframe you consider "modern"). Very broadly speaking, devices from major manufacturers over the last several years will typically support multitouch to some degree, but even that overall degree of support can vary between devices.

  If not than how to detect if touchscreen screen by itself is
  multitouch or not?

There are a bunch of apps for this. I'd say pick one and try it. If you want to try to verify the results, pick several and try them all.


Dolphin Browser Stops Flash Player When Locked I'm using Adobe Flash player with Dolphin browser on my HTC One M8 which is working great, since I have Pandora One and I get the higher stream quality on the desktop site (192kbps instead of 64kbps), but the problem is that if I leave Dolphin or lock my phone screen, etc., then Flash player stops. Any way to allow Flash to play in the background?

You could use Maxthon Web Browser, which supports flash in the background. I think I saw some solution for getting Flash (YouTube specifically) to work with the screen off a while ago, but it required root.


Can a phone act as computer replacement? Given the power of current day smartphones it seems like many could work as basic computer replacements.  In the past Microsoft tried to provide a display dock to turn a Microsoft Phone into a PC. Is there something similar for Android phones?

I guess some of them allow HDMI output, but is the software adapted to work with a keyboard+mouse? Would a phone be able to power/connect to an external hard drive?

You can accomplish this with Samsung Dex.

What you'll need:

A Compatible Samsung smartphone.  As of the time of this post, this includes the S8, S9, S10, Note8, and Note9.
Either the Dex Pad or Dex Station to dock your phone and connect it to an external display, mouse, and keyboard.


How to stop notifications from interrupting music in Android? I have Huawei mate 10.

When I am listening to music from an app called "Anghami" I get bombarded with continuous notifications interrupting the music in a very annoying way.

I want the music to be interrupted only if I receive calls.

1- I tried to set the "Do Not Disturb" mode for "Allow only priority interruptions" and I defined those priorities A. Calls from Anyone B. Messages from contacts only.

2- I cannot turn of the notifications for the mail, because I need them the other times.

How could this possibly be solved?

If your phone is set to silent, notifications shouldn't make any sounds. If it only happens in the Anghami app, this is something for the developer of Anghami to fix. If it also happens in other music players, check if the call volume is really set to zero.

The last option might be to choose an empty sound for notifications, but that's not really a fix.


Gmail app always says "no connection" even though I have a connection and can browse or do other things with connections. This happens when connected to both 3G and WiFi. Did anyone have the same problem, or know how to solve this?

the phone is galaxy s with os 2.1

Have you tried any of the steps to kick-start a truculent app?

Have you re-entered your account and password information?

Have you tried changing any of the sync options for your Google account?


S4 won't connect with usb AND broken screen. Need files from phone My S4 will not connect to my computer when plugged in using the correct samsung cord AND the screen is shattered. How can I load the files from the phone? Remove the hard drive from the phone maybe and put it in another without ruining the new replacement S4? And if there is no possible way a all to retrieve the files then what can I do to make sure no one else can retrieve them after I send the phone back to the insurance company? I have 4 days to get a solution. Thanks!

Theres nothing you can do to get the files unless your phone will connect with a usb. As for the screen if you can some how get the files off with a screen and no usb, then i advise you fix the screen for like $30-$60.


Does Google still offer free incoming/outgoing voice calls with any of their Android services? On Android, is Google still offering free incoming or outgoing voice calls to landlines/cellphones through any of their services?

It seems like they keep changing it, and everything I read has conflicting information.

Note that I'm talking specifically about VOIP to landline or cellphone, not VOIP to VOIP.

"Most" calls to numbers in the US and Canada are free through Hangouts as long as you are also in the US/Canada. This is noted in Google's support pages and you can find all of the rates on this page. You need the Hangouts Dialer app in order to place a call.

There is no specific listing of the US/Canada numbers that incur a charge (it's $0.01 per minute), but you you can look up the rate for any number on the Google Voice calling credit page (requires signing into your Google account).


"adb devices" successfully shows device, but "adb connect usb" inevitably fails, any suggestions? I have an ASUS ThinkPad, Android 4.4.2, Kernel 3.10.20.  I've checked Settings->Developer Options->USB debugging.  I've disabled Wi-Fi and BT (because I've seen some devices have some conflict there).  Now here's the command line sequence from my linux desktop trying to connect to my ASUS:

joe@OptiPlex-755:~$ adb kill-server
joe@OptiPlex-755:~$ adb usb
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
already in USB mode
joe@OptiPlex-755:~$ adb devices -l
List of devices attached
E6OKCY917549           device usb:1-2 product:WW_K011 model:K011 device:K011

joe@OptiPlex-755:~$ adb get-state
device
joe@OptiPlex-755:~$ adb connect usb
unable to connect to usb:5555
joe@OptiPlex-755:~$

Here is the documentation on usage of the adb utility.

Basically, adb connect is only needed if you are trying to connect to a device over TCP IP, i.e. wireless network.  You don't need to issue any "connect" commands for a device connected via USB if it is already recognized in adb devices prompt.  Just issue any other command, e.g. adb shell ls /sdcard/ and it should connect.


Nexus 7 does not start My nexus 7 does not start after updating the system. It is in a never ending loop. I would appreciate any help.

Probably, something went wrong during update. /data partition might be problematic after updates sometimes. Or it might be directly related to the system files that are downloaded during update. Try to boot into recovery mode using guides from here and here and factory reset your phone. It'll format /data partition clean and therefore delete every user data you have on your phone such as apps, apps' datas, SMS, call logs, etc. If the problem is related to a bad/corrupted or a non-compatible /data partition, the problem will be solved.

However, if the problem is related to other things such as bad system files or problem(s) during installation of downloaded files, flashing a clean ROM will be necessary.


Can't install app from APK I have a Jadoo4 USB-stick that runs on Android, similar to Chromecast. It has an app to watch live TV from East Asia.

I made an APK of that app, but whenever I try to install it on other devices (like my phone), it fails. This is the error that I get on my phone.

  Translation: This package conflicts with another package with the same name

On the virtual machine, the error is just "App installation failed".

Any idea why that might be?

The apk might be corrupted. Try to download it from a different source. Or if you tried to crack it try it with a new pattern(lucky patch).


How to enable real text prediction for android / stock keyboard on LG optimus one? The title says it all but i will explain a bit more.

I have a LG optimus one phone with android 2.2 froyo. It comes with two keyboards, the LG one with working text prediction and the Android / Stock keyboard (what's the official name?) that does not seem to have access to the language dictionaries because it ONLY predicts my contacts' names!

Is there a way I can fix this? I really want to use the Android/Stock keyboard with working text prediction and voice input. I don't want any alternative like swift or similar.

Thanks a lot

dmeu

I found this review of the LG Optimus One which includes this quote:

  The standard Android keyboard’s text
  prediction is disabled; it doesn’t
  seem to have access to the system’s
  language dictionaries.  So if you want
  word prediction, the LG keyboard it
  is.

Looks like you're going to have to go with a third-party app solution or flash a new ROM to your phone.


Can not edit build.prop I am trying to edit the lcd density in build.prop in /system but every time after reboot my changes are lost..

I tried to adb pull + edit + adb push in normal and recovery mode..
also i tried fileexpert and super manager but nothing worked.

I heard many people saying about root explorer but its not free.. I want to be sure if my problem will be solved with root explorer then i will buy it..

Please help me out guys..

I am using android 2.3.3 on HTC HD2. My Rom is custom one (HyperDroidGBX-v12)

Answering my own question as found the solution.
We can edit build.prop from mobile. I downloaded ES file explorer which is free. then from optin set "root explorer" and set "mount system as read/write"
Now edit build.prop and save it using ES file explorer's editor then uncheck "root explorer" and "mount system as read/write" for safety..

hope it wil help someone :)


How do I allow countdown timer alarm to go off while phone is in vibrate? I upgraded from Galaxy Mega to Galaxy S6 Edge +.

There is no menu button. In Galaxy Mega, part of the menu contains changing the settings of the countdown timer alarm.

One setting I had was that I could set my phone to vibrate while the countdown timer alarm rings when the countdown finishes.

So texts and notifications from apps make my phone only vibrate, but my countdown timer rings.

In Galaxy S6 Edge +, it seems like my phone vibrates iff my countdown timer alarm vibrates.

How can I allow the countdown timer to ring while my phone is set to vibrate mode?

Galaxy mega has option in timer to change volume. The timer indeed goes off even when the phone is in vibrate. This does not seem to be allowed in s6e+

 Click on picture for larger version

Bounty note: I think there's something in sounds and notifications, but I can't seem to find it.

Click on the volume button, you will see your ringer volume slider, drag that to vibrate, then click the arrow pointing down then you will see app volume and alarm alarm volume...

Set alarm volume to whatever you want, that is what you are looking for...

Hope I helped,

Sid


Nexus One: 3G/WIFI Not Switching As of last couple of weeks, my phone has been having problems automatically switching between wifi and 3G. When i leave home, I have to completely turn off the radio and turn it back on for it to pick up the 3G connection. When i come home in the evening, I have to turn off the wifi, and then turn it back on in order for it to kick in.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or know how to fix it?

EDIT:

The problem is that the phone doesnt automatically switch from WIFI to 3G and vice versa. If I go out of range of a known wifi hotspot, my 3G data connection should be established (indicated by the 3G icon in the top row), but it never shows up. If i work-around this by going in and out of airplane mode, the 3G connection is re-established.

My carrier is Optus in Australia, but i dont think that matters, given that it USED to work and only in the last couple of week has this problem occured.

This bug report seems to describe a similar issue.  The thread is a mixed bag of reports of various versions/apps/phones/networks either fixing or causing the issue, so you may need to dig through it and try some things to diagnose.

FYI, I don't have the problem on my Nexus One (O2 UK).


How to set As Lower Brightness as in Clock application, without rooting I noticed that with the Froyo "desk clock" application, when you put it in low light mode, it forces the back-light far darker than you can manually make it in the settings.

My question is: is there an application or a non-root hack that can make the back-light really dim just like in the desk clock application?
As that clock can set brightness lower without rooting, there should be a way to do that without rooting.

The Clock app is setting flags on its own fullscreen window that override the system default screen brightness, but this only affects that app's window.

See the source for DeskClock.java

 551             winParams.flags |= WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN;
 552             winParams.dimAmount = DIM_BEHIND_AMOUNT_DIMMED;
 553             winParams.buttonBrightness = WindowManager.LayoutParams.BRIGHTNESS_OVERRIDE_OFF;

The flags used are documented on the Android Developer site, in particular:

  float BRIGHTNESS_OVERRIDE_OFF Value
  for screenBrightness and
  buttonBrightness indicating that the
  screen or button backlight brightness
  should be set to the lowest value when
  this window is in front.

So, the DeskClock is not using anything special to dim the screen, but it can only affect its own window.


Galaxy Note 4 turns off at about 15% remaining battery capacity I've been using my Note 4 for more than 2 years now and I'm absolutely happy with it, except for that one issue: the battery indicator on top does not match the real remaining capacity of the battery. The battery is still ok in terms of its "fitness", it usually allows for a whole day of (power) use. But it is annoying to see that the phone turns off at a shown power level of 13%, sometimes 16%. When I then plug in the charging cable, the charging screen shows the last level like 13%, but I think it really is 0%, because if I turn on the phone shortly after plugging the charger in, it turns off again before it completely boots up.

Is there a way to calibrate the battery level in such a way that the indicator gives correct resp. useful values again?

Is there a way to calibrate the battery level in such a way that the indicator gives correct resp. useful values again?

No . Battery calibration is a myth and you can see this question for more. While the context of question is different, it answers why it is a myth
Bought a new battery, do I need to calibrate it?

Li Ion batteries don't suddenly die ( unlike Ni Cd batteries ); their performance degrades both in terms of charge holding capacity and the performance or life per charge. Two years of usage is not really an indicator of battery life - it depends on a host of other things like how heavily it is used, how it has been charged etc. My gut feeling is that it has lived it's life and it's time more to replace the battery with a new one
HTC and some Nexus devices have a way of fixing wonky battery readings using battery reset logic, but Samsung devices don't have this feature, so to fix it battery replacement is the first step. If the problem persists ( unlikely ) you may need to get it get it checked up


How to play/record sound from Debian chroot? There's big file with ext2 with ARM Debian where I can chroot to.

There's functional mplayer (I can -ao pcm or -vo yuv4mpegpipe) there.

How to record/play sound (or video) from this Debian? Is there things that emulate ALSA/OSS/Whatever to use usual linux programs and android ones side by side? May be there's pulseaudio server for android?

I managed to make it sound by writing to /dev/msm_pcm_out:

mplayer something.mp3 -ao pcm:file=/dev/msm_pcm_out

Sound is choppy and it looks hacky in general.

Video output is something like -vo fbdev:/dev/graphics/fb0.


How to turn off WhatsApp incoming message sound in Redmi Prime 2 / MIUI 7.1? I've turned it off in

Setting > Notifications > App Notifications > Whatsapp > Sound & vibration
Whatsapp > Settings > Notifications > Conversation Tones

And it still sounds. At one point I even tried to turn off all WhatsApp notif, but it STILL sounds even when no notification shown.

I just recently noticed this because usually I put my phone in Silent Mode. But now I'm waiting for a phone call, I can't do that, and suddenly noted how annoying this thing is.

One of the sound to play in the whatsapp settings is Silent. That should work and leave notifications still appearing.
Indeed extremely quitr confusing.


Can't install apps after factory reset I have a Lenovo Tab 4 10-inch tablet (Lenovo TB-X304F). Recently I had an error on it and had to perform a factory reset, and I'm experiencing problems reinstalling some apps I had installed before.

I have never rooted this tablet. Before the factory reset I did install some non-Google Play apps, but since the factory reset I have only installed apps from the Google Play Store. The tablet and apps are up to date, and the tablet is running Android 8.1.0.

Here is the most recent app problem. I purchased "Planescape: Torment" on November 11, and I installed it on my tablet around that time. However, now that I'm trying to install it again after performing the factory reset, I've had two errors, depending on the method I use to try to install it.

If I try to install it using the Google Play app on my tablet, it says "Your order is processing, your item will be available in a few minutes." (And I did not purchase this recently; I purchased it well over a month ago.) It lists the app as being $9.99 when I view it, as though I hadn't bought it, but when I tap on the button as though I'm going to purchase it, Google Play asks for the standard app permissions and then shows that error. It does exactly the same thing when I try to install it from the library list of all of my apps in the Google Play app.

If I try to install it from the Google Play website, the website tells me it's already installed on my tablet, which is no longer true. It used to be installed; it is not now.

I've cleared the cache and the data from the "Google Play Store" app and the "Google Play services" app. I chatted with Google Customer Support and they had me uninstall updates to the Google Play Store and then update it again, but that made no difference. I have of course turned the tablet off and back on. The Google Play Store doesn't seem to have registered that the app was uninstalled, and I don't know how to trigger that, and I have no idea what to do about the message I'm getting in the Google Play app itself on my tablet.

Does anyone know how I can resolve this and get my old apps reinstalled? Thanks!

Google Support had me try a number of things that didn't help, but when they had me remove my payment methods, that seemed to do it. I had already removed and added my Google accounts from my device, which I didn't think would help because it clearly wasn't a problem specific to my device. (I had realized I also couldn't install that game or other games I'd bought to my phone, a separate device, so it wasn't device-specific.) The last thing I did was remove my payment methods and cancel a subscription in Google Play, and then I could install my apps to my tablet and phone. I'm not sure how that fixed it, but it did. It seemed to "reset" my devices with Google Play, so to speak. If anyone knows how that resolved the issue, I'd love to hear. I'm glad it worked, but I don't know why it worked.


WhatsApp Read Receipt How can I only partially disable read receipts on WhatsApp?
(ie. I should be able to see when others read my messages, but not have others know when I read theirs)

I have tried the script on https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/script-disable-whatsapp-read-receipts-t2933467, but there is no effect.
(Both parties can see when a message has been read)

The device in question has root access.

You are asking something impossible here (at least at my knowledge).

If you disable Read receipt or  Last seen, you won't be able to see other Receipt or Last seen.

Staying incognito while being able to see other activities is not possible using WhatsApp. You'll need a clone WhatsApp to be able to do that, may be.


How to fix corupted icons on home screen? ALL of the shortcuts for the apps that I installed (not preinstalled ones on a ROM), all of them sudden got corrupt. They all show upd now with "Android Logo" icon and not the icon of the program. T-Mobile TV is installed on a ROM, so the icon for that is fine, but take an app "Movies", the icon for that is corrupt and instead of icon of this program, I have a little "android logo" icon. How do I restore all of messed up icons?

Reboot does not help. I tried SD card mount/unmount with no luck

If you move an app to/from the sdcard, and you have icons on the home screen, you need to remove and re-add the icon to the home screen. when I have done this, I thought the icons removed themselves from the home screen automatically.

When you move it to/from the sdcard, it is a lot like uninstalling the application (without removing the user data) and re-installing it again in the new location.


How to stop Wifi from automatically turning itself off? So on occasion, my wifi automatically turns itself off for some strange reason. This happens on both my Lenovo ThinkPad and my Samsung Galaxy S5. Is there a way prevent this from happening?

Turn off Connection Optimizer

Settings -> More Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Connections optimizer -> TickOff connections Optimizer

Or Turn Off Wifi Timer

Settings -> Wifi -> Tap the vertical ... and then Advance -> Wi-fi timer -> Turn off any timer selected.

I hope this works for you.


Migrate Between Different Phones with Apps & Data on MicroSDHC Attempting my first migration between two phones with different Android versions has got me very confused.

All my apps and data are currently working and complete on an Android 4.4 phone. Internal storage has the core system plus Google apps while all remaining is on a MicroSDHC card. This includes everything that must be transferred intact to a new phone.

Just got a new phone with Android 7.0 in a factory-clean state. There is nothing of value yet on this phone, so it is OK if the process resets and otherwise destroys anything on it. What I am so far not able to do is get the apps and data of the old phone onto the new one.

When installing the phone with the Copy from Other Android Device option, my contacts, calendar and Hangouts get copied but pretty much nothing else. Even if I install an app which existing on the old phone into the new one, it appears blank despite having selected to Save and Restore App Data in the Backup & Reset settings of both phones.

One would have expected to be able to just insert the MicroSDHC card from the old phone, which contains all apps and data that matters, into the new one but it just does not work. The new phone offers the option to Format or Format as Internal Storage the card or to use it for photos (not sure of the exact wording right now). Of course, any type of formatting would obliterate the data which is desired but then how do I get the new phone to use the card with its current apps and data?

Is there a way I can convert rather than format the card? The point of having an SDHC card and to place all apps and data on it was, after all, to be able to port this but I have no idea how to get it to work between these two versions of Android.

How can I ensure that apps and data from an Android 4.4 phone get migrated to a 7.0 one?

This is not the Symbian era anymore, where you can have all data on an external storage and move it freely. App data resides in /data/data (which you can't access without root access) in internal storage, even if you have the apps themselves moved to SD card.

Move non-app data (e.g. media files, documents) off your SD card, have it formatted, then move them back. The card is then ready to be used as a storage only - most if not all Android 7.x phones do not offer the "move apps to SD" option anymore.

As of app data, use apps like Titanium Backup (root required) or Helium (no root required) to back them up on the old device and restore them on the new.

Note to others: it's been a while since I conducted cross-major-version backups myself (I usually wipe clean and start over), and specifically I've never used Google's cloud backup solution. Feel free to point out mistakes or make edits.


How can I get Facebook and Google contacts to sync in 4.2? In the People app (i.e. Google Contacts), the "Accounts" area has an option for adding Facebook contacts, which I've checked. In Settings->Accounts->Facebook, I've checked "Sync Contacts," yet it doesn't look like my Facebook contacts are being synced. I have the Facebook app installed and logged in. Is there something I'm doing wrong? This is on a Nexus 4 running Jelly Bean (4.2.1).

Ideally, I'd like to import/sync Facebook contacts into Google Contacts without using third-party apps, and without installing an address book replacement.

That feature was removed in the 4.x versions of Android.  I use UberSync for my contact syncing and it works great.  Haven't had any problems with it and it also has a setting to import high res contact photos.  I would recommend that.  Set it up once and forget about it.


'Car Home' in HTC Hero, Android 2.1 I've just had my HTC Hero upgraded to Android 2.1, and I have heard about the Car Home function, which sounds great for when I use the new Google Maps Navigation in my car. However, this doesn't seem to be on my phone. Is that because of HTC installing HTC Sense? If so, can I get Car Home back again?

Check out the marketplace have a look at 'CarUI' similar but not identical.  Might have to root our Heros to get it, as it probably only compatible with 2.2 sigh


"No command" in recovery mode after flashing with CF auto root Using a Samsung 5 (Model J500FN).
I used Heimdall to flash the partitions (from CF-auto-root), which completes in download mode.

I then reboot the phone into recovery mode and just get a "Installing system updates" (or a message to that effect) and then a "No command error".

What am I doing wrong?

Woohoo! I had issues running Heimdall as root. But it works fine as a normal user.

I also had to enable OEM unlock in the developer options.


access xperia z1 compact with broken screen? My Xperia Z1 compact runs CM12. Unfortunately it has fallen on its bottom left corner and the touch screen is completely unresponsive. The cost of a replacement screen is more than a new phone with similar specs so I bought a new phone.

Now I am trying to get access to some files that are on the internal SD card (loads of contacts that I don't want to re-type, but also the latest photos).

The phone has Cyanogen recovery on it so I booted into that, and on my computer ran adb:

# adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.31

but then

# adb devices
List of devices attached
CB5A24NPRD      offline

which I cannot seem to change. Because I cannot use the touch screen, the only way to control the phone is in recovery mode with the volume and on/off keys. Is the best thing to do just to dismantle it and get the internal SD card? If it is a physical card then that may be the best way to go?

You should try connecting a mouse via OTG. Once you enable USB debugging, photos and files can be pulled via adb. For contacts you will have to export to Sdcard before pulling.


google contacts not shown When I log onto GMail on my HTC Desire, I can't find a way to access my GMail contacts. I read that there was some link on the left of the screen. I see none. I am now at a loss

The Gmail app does not have a contacts section -- you only see you contacts when typing in the To field or whatever.  You should have a Contacts app with your Gmail contacts, if you are syncing them.  To change your sync settings, look in Settings -> Accounts and sync.

If you're referring to the website, that's not an Android question.  But the mobile website doesn't have Contacts on the left, you have to view the Full site (there's a link at the bottom of the mobile view).


Why does Sound Recorder in Cyanogenmod need network permission? It doesn't seem to be able to share sound recordings. Why does it need that permission? Cyanogenmod 10.1 although I've seen it in other versions.

There's no malicous intent you can safely use it.

This App has been part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) since at least Android 1.5 Cupcake and Cyanogenmod only adapted it.

Here's CM's source code which shows it was only copied from the original AOSP code:
https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_packages_apps_SoundRecorder/blame/cm-10.2/AndroidManifest.xml
Here's the initial AOSP version from 2007 which already has the same permission grant:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/SoundRecorder/+/e2118f54af4c5215bd988979769e383292b9c9cb/AndroidManifest.xml

Now one may ask why it has this grant in AOSP already: I don't know why, it's seemingly not needed.


Does android keeps a system log about location and networks? I'm working together with the local authorities to try to identify where a phone was during the last few days. Some pictures were taken but GPS was turned off. Is there any clue that we could get from the local logs about the location of such images, like available networks? If so, where should we look at?
Device using: Android 8.0

By default Android does not save any local logs, even the logcat log is just a ring buffer that contains only the last log elements that fit into the log buffer (often this buffer has ~65KB).
Typically such abuffer is overwritten after a few hours, if the device use not used it may last up to one or two days but that is very device specific. Some devices log dozens of messages per minute even in Air-plane mode without any app active.
First you should check if the location services are activated at all. If they are not activated there is a high chance that they aware deactivated all the time and hence no app was able to access any location.
As far as I know Android itself does not record data on available or used mobile network  bases or Wifi access points. Only if Google location services are activated such data is collected and uploaded to Google.
If you have support of the local authorities the easiest way would be to contact the mobile network provider the used SIM-card is from and use their log which antennas were used in the specified time span.


Continuously getting "Bluetooth share stopped working" error I have an HTC One running Android Revolution HD (ARHD), with Android 4.4.2, and I've been getting this error that says "Bluetooth share has stopped working".

The problem is that I have no clue what's causing this error to appear. I think it started appearing after I clicked the "share" button in an app - but even after fully rebooting my device, I STILL keep getting this error.

Does anyone know what could cause this error? And more importantly - how do I debug what app is causing this error? I just don't even know where to start investigating.

The only way I could fix this on my HTC One V was to perform a factory reset.


How is it Google Maps works without data? I ran out of data for this month so disabled it. Google maps still works in map view when I'm following my route. How is this possible? Is it that GPS can still work without wifi/data and as long as Google Maps has the map it just moves the indicator along?

The GPS sensor itself is a separate entity. It can report your current position with driver software. Google Maps doesn't need a data connection for that.

So where is the map data coming from? Apps cache data. If you've been through the area already, or if the map data has been downloaded, Google Maps will do its best with the map data it has. It won't be able to update you on traffic conditions, as those have to be grabbed in real time, nor will it work for an area for which you don't have cached map data.


Automatically cycle between web tabs on Android? I have an information board in an office which I wish to display live web data from an external source as well as data from an internal source.

I was using Revolver Tabs for Chrome but this is not supported for Android.

Is there any other way I can achieve that?

Even if you can't find a web browser with this functionality built in, it's something that would be easy to achieve by writing your own web page with a little Javascript to cycle a frame between the pages you want to see; or to add a split-screen with frames.


What is the standard voltage and current levels for an android battery? I am using Micromax Canvas Nitro A310; recently, I bought a new USB cable and it seems its not doing the job as required.

My phone is not getting charged as it was before. Either it takes too long or the battery indicator not change to even 1% after being plugged on for 2-3 hours.

I am using Ampere app to check current and voltages with different USB cables and found that the one which I bought recently is showing very low current observations (230-250mA).

Need to know what are the normal ratings.

Firstly one needs to understand C-rate or charge rate. Quoting from the linked article

  C-rate is a measure that governs at what current a battery is charged and discharged. At 1C, a battery rated 1,000mAh charges at a current of 1,000mAh. In an ideal world the battery would be fully charged in 60 minutes. At 1C, the same battery discharges at 1,000mA.

Li-Ion or Li-PO (both have same charge/discharge characteristics) -typically charged between 0.5 C to 0.8 C, more often closer to 0.8 C (as a thumb rule, depends on a lot of other factors like charging algorithm,"quick charging" ,OEM specific charging protection methods etc)
Next, one has to account for charging efficiency which is typically 90% for Li-Ion chargers, so effective charging rate would be about 0.7C (=90% of 0.8 C)
Your device battery is 2500mAh as per information on net, so the charging rate in mA =0.7*2500= 1750 or less = 900 mA ( =90% of 0.5C* 2500) if your charger is charging at 0.5C (Edit OP has confirmed in comments that his charger is 1A rated, so the charging rate appears to be 0.5 C)
This is the current your app should show using standard 2A,5V wall charger (rare to find lesser rated chargers these days)
USB charging is much slower as USB 3.0 give only 900 mA and USB 2.0 gives 500mA (refer linked Wikipedia)
Current drawn for charging is NOT uniform. Li-Ion batteries go through three stages of charging of battery charging Figure 1 of Charging Li-Ion batteries- Constant Current, Saturation Charge (current decreases), Ready (almost zero current). If you plot current drawn using your app while charging a battery from 10% or lower to 100%, you would observe this. So this had to be borne in mind while measuring. As a typical example of this graph plotted on charging my phone see  this

tl:dr;

So much for theory, coming to your question:

Need to know what are the normal ratings Explanation above should have made it clear that there is no normal or standard rating being dependent on C-rate, battery capacity, charging efficiency, charging algorithm, source of charging and in which stage of charging it was measured
It is not clear from your question whether the readings are obtained while charging from a wall charger (definitely very bad if that is the case ) or from USB charging from laptop (bad)
USB cable purchased seems to be a suspect. While buying USB cables go in for shorter and thicker USB cables (they offer less resistance to current) compared to longer and thinner cables as normally available (offer more resistance to current and hence slower charging). You can always test the current using your app before buying. Alternatively Google for 24/28 awg micro USB cable and purchase that. I would suggest latter option, though more expensive but lasts across many phones you may own over a period of time (A robust Blackberry cable purchased ten years ago is still doing good)
To estimate charging time required considering all the factors enumerated, use the Battery Charge Time Calculator


Play Store gone from my Cyanogenmod 7 Galaxy Ace. How can I get it back? Recently, the play store went missing from my apps list. I have tried reinstalling it from the apk file but the apk installation tells me I am out of space. I have deleted all my apps and have 80mb of internal space and it still gives the same error .I have tried older versions and I get the same error. I then went into system/apps and data/apps and data/data and there is nothing left over from the playstore. I have also tried to reinstall all of gapps from recovery but that didn't work either.

I am really stuck and wondering what I can do. I wanted to use clean master to get rid of all the obselete data files but that has the same installation issue. Any help would be appreciated.

Format the system Partition and reflash Cyanogenmod and Gapps in recovery. Unfortunately you will have to reinstall all apps (even ones on the SD card).

Note: Sometimes, bizarrely, it can wipe part of a SD card. I lost photos and videos and also appdata (which was ext4) but all my downloads and recovery zips remained. Not sure if that it a problem with the OS, my phone or the recovery system I use. Just thought I would mention it as a warning, just in case.


Clear a whatsapp conversation but keep the media I have got a group conversation with a lot of messages. I want to clear the messages but want to keep the pictures and videos.

All Media, Stored in below Directory :

  SDcard (Internal Storage) -> WhatsApp -> Media

For videos :

SDcard (Internal Storage) -> WhatsApp -> Media -> WhatsApp Video

For Pictures :

SDcard (Internal Storage) -> WhatsApp -> Media -> WhatsApp images

and copy or Move anything you want it in Backup Directory (like, save music in -> Extsdcard -> Music).

that's it.


Unable to delete a contact from Contact List in Android phone Phone: Nexus 5x
Operating System: Android 7.0

When I try to delete a contact in contact list of phone it displays the error message:

Contacts from your read-only accounts cannot be deleted, but they can be hidden.
Cancel Hide

When I see the details of the contact, I cannot see the number but I can see it in the Whatsapp contact details.

Go to your phone's System settings→Accounts→(select your account), then turn off Contacts sync.

After that try to delete the contacts from the contacts app.