my android tablet isnt tworking I had a new tablet for Christmas and it worked properly. Today it just wasn't doing so well:

I turned on the power and swiped my finger on the screen to unlock it. Then,

When I touch an app it said app isn't installed.
Sometimes when I touch an app it would come on but just stay on the title screen.
Other times on the homepage it will not let me swipe left to right but stay on the homepage.

When I went to settings and tried to click the reboot button, it froze. I cut it off and on and even hit the reset button a few times. This time I turn it off and turn it back on then the screen turn into something like a white faze and you would not see anything on the screen like something inside there is broken. Please give me some advice.

Without more details, this leaves just two options:

perform a factory-reset (see the corresponding tag-wiki for details) and see whether that helps
if a factory-reset doesn't bring it back to working order, send it for repair. Your warranty should still apply.


How to prevent Google from "synchronizing" my personal data after a factory-reset, adding a new Google account or software updates? It seems that after a factory-reset, whenever a new Google account is enabled on a device and potentially after some software updates sync will be enabled again even if it was turned off in the Android settings before any personal data was loaded onto the device.

How can this be prevented?

The approach(es) I'm using:

don't use a Google account at all (if really needed, Playstore can be accessed via e.g. YalpStore – and instead of GMS I use microG anyway). As that's not practicable for some folks:
before adding the Google account, make sure you've prepared a different "account storage", made it the default and have all your data (contacts, calendars) in there. Examples for that:

DAVDroid with some self-hosted server (e.g. ownCloud, Nextcloud, Baïkal …)
"Device storage". Either your device/ROM supports that out-of-the-box, or you've got to use some helpers like Offline Calendar for calendars or MyLocalAccount for contacts.

I've personally made very good experiences with DAVDroid. Google Sync never touched its data.


Uninstall Stock Apps on Motorola Droid! I need to know if I can uninstall the following apps without causing any adverse impact on the phone. I have already uninstalled FACEBOOK and TWITTER app.

I am with Verizon and I am planning to uninstall the following.
1) Launcher - I use Go Launcher, so don't see a point in having this.
2) Amazon MP3 - Never used this app. So don't see any point in having it.
3) Car Home - This is an annoyance that I don't need.

So have you uninstalled these apps from your Motorola Droid? Did it cause any issues?

Cyanogenmod has a barebones list of apps and the relative safety of uninstalling each.  While it's for CM ROMs, the list will be pretty similiar for the DROID.

FYI, if Verizon ever releases any OTA updates in the future for your phone, they won't install if you don't have the stock apps installed. Usually you're better off 'freezing' them with Titanium Backup.


Samsung Galaxy S4 Old Emails Showing Up as New I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, which I switched to from a Blackberry in mid July 2013.  I continue to get emails that were dealt with when first received by either opening and reading, or opening and deleting, that show up again as new and unread.  My service provider (Rogers in Canada) tells me that it is because I have too many emails on the server.  I don't believe this as when I had a Blackberry this never happened.  They (Rogers) says this is because Samsung is a different OS.  Can anyone assist in how to deal with this?  I was told that Samsung is aware of this and on their next software update, this bug will be fixed.  Does anyone know if this is true?

Thank you.

Not sure if this will work on the S4, but it seemed to do the trick with my wife's S2, and my S3: change 'recent messages' (email account settings) from 25 (the default) to 'total'.


How can I tell if I need to replace my battery? I have a refurbished Galaxy S3. Sometimes it charges to 100% while powered off, but reports 51% as soon as I start it up. Lately, it goes down to 50% or lower even right after charging.

I haven't installed many apps or used the phone extensively yet.

I find lots of links for determining battery drain, but nothing so far on how to tell if I need a new battery.

I'd like to be relatively sure it's a bad battery before replacing it.

Update:

I have eliminated the problem, but have no idea why what I did worked ;(

1) I bought an inexpensive charging-only cable. Using this, the phone charges very nicely.

2) I turned on Power Saving.

3) I bought a more expensive version of the battery.

Now the phone charges fully, lasts a long time, and keeps the charge when turned off.

None of this makes sense - especially the fact that it used to drain when turned off (not suspended). Changing the cable shouldn't have done much either because the old cable did charge the phone - or at least - the phone said it did.

Li Ion or Li Po batteries don't die suddenly - their performance degrades in terms of :
a) Short Term: Ability to hold charge and deliver expected performance
b) Long Term:: Deliver upto 80%  capacity upon being charged / discharged over a period of time (in other words life of battery). The battery is considered to be technically dead if it delivers less
There is no sure way of determining and saying this battery has gone bad, but there are a couple of things you could try:

Spin Test: Since your phone has user removable battery try this. For details, see this nice answer with embedded video.

Vbatt: This app should give a fairly good indication, since it simulates discharging under screen on condition . When you charge your battery to 100% (irrespective of the reading it shows on disconnecting ), activate this app widget and it will tell you the voltage level and how long it should last under screen on condition. Let it ruin till the battery nearly runs out and compare the predicted Vs actual. Simple. From app description

Vbatt is a simple battery widget for Android smartphones and tablets. It displays the current battery voltage (Vbatt) and  the remaining battery capacity (percentage) and optionally logs these values to a CSV-file.

The main reason for developing Vbatt was the differing behaviour of replacement batteries while discharging them in daily use ... For a better estimation of the remaining phone runtime the Vbatt widget displays in addition to the remaining capacity (percentage) the battery voltage

While battery voltage is arguably not the best indicator of health of battery, running this app can help you in a couple of ways
a) Giving you the current performance which you can compare with earlier performance as you recall or from Screen On Time (SoT) which you can gather from internet or forums
b)  If you can lay your hands on a new or properly performing battery from your friends, running this app on both batteries, you can easily judge for yourself. You can even ask your friend having the same phone to install this app, run it and compare.
Since your phone is refurbished, there could be another factor at play for deterioration in performance- date of manufacture of battery. Li Ion batteries (for that matter all batteries) suffer from Self Discharge At the rate of 4% every month, which means if your battery, even if it is original, but kept on the store shelf for say an year before being sold, it had already affected the longevity of battery and it shows up in performance
IMO, looking at the battery figures shared, I would recommend battery replacement (assuming no other reason like hardware issues). It would help you to decide by running tests mentioned


Is Mobiwol incompatible with WiFi networks, e.g. my home network? I recently installed Mobiwol, following this answer, but now, my WiFi doesn't work. I haven't blocked any system apps from accessing the internet, but still, no WiFi. I looked at the FAQ for Mobiwol, which states

Why Won't My WiFi HotSpot Work?
This is not a bug. WiFi tethering and WiFi hotspots are, unfortunately, not currently compatible with Mobiwol being enabled.

I might be unclear on the definition of a "WiFi hotspot," but my interpretation is that "when you have Mobiwol enabled, your phone cannot connect to WiFi," which doesn't seem correct. It's also strange because Mobiwol's page in the Play Store lists "Fixed WiFi and Firewall Loop issues ...", which makes it sound like WiFi should be working.
But, since my router and WiFi works on other devices, so it seems plausible that Mobiwol is the problem. If I disable it, the WiFi works.
Is Mobiwol incompatible with WiFi networks? Or does blocking something like the Google App prevent everything from connecting to WiFi?

The incompatibility of wi-fi and wi-fi tethering is due to the way most "no root firewalls" work.

  Sometimes this depends on the Android version in question because some
  Android versions have a bug preventing tethering and the VPN service
  working together.

Some devices hibernate Wi-Fi, preventing tethering from working when the screen is off and this behaviour can be disabled in the advanced Wi-Fi settings.

Currently as it stands, it seems Mobiwol firewall still has no compatibility with wi-fi or wifi-tethering in which case I would recommend installing an alternative no root firewall e.g NetGuard.

Netguard has confirmed support for wifi-tethering as mentioned here:

  Can I tether / use Wi-Fi calling while using NetGuard?

  Yes, but this needs to be enabled in NetGuard's settings. Whether or
  not it works depends on your Android version because some Android
  versions have a bug preventing tethering and the VPN service working
  together.

You could also browse Izzy's F-droid repo with similar firewalls here: Internet firewalls and choose the one suiting your needs.

Reference

NetGuard: FAQs


How to resolve Instagram force close for CM9 I'm using CM9 (Alpha 14) adnroid 4.0.1  for my GTi9003. Every other app works fine except for instagram.

Picture doesnt load at picture editing/ picture filter screen (screenshot)    and instgram hangs and I have to force close every time.
It was working fine on stock ROM. Any patches?

i have cm10.2 nightly kernel and happens exactly the same. i read that some peolple with cm10.2 quarx didn´t have this trouble.
On the other hand I couldn't find any solution, so I'm thinking in testing cm9 (for motorola defy+) or go under cm7.


how to remove google + auto back up pictures Is there a way I can remove the auto back up folder from my S4. Its taking up a lot of space for the backup folder of just pictures and I dont want it there.

go to your google+ app, choose settings and the very first thing you get is General Settings - Auto Backup

you can turn that completely off, or you can specify and change the settings of the back up


Not yet getting Android Nougat update I have a Nexus 5X phone running Android 6.0.1  and I am not yet getting Nougat update. Is this normal ? A lot of people I know already installed it.

Not everyone got it.

If you want, you can sign up for beta https://www.google.com/android/beta and you will get the prompt instantly, or you can get the factory image and flash it in fastboot: https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/bullhead-nrd90m-factory-61495c8b.zip


Why isn't my Galaxy S8 popping up my Captive Portal login page? I'm dealing with a Raspberry Pi 3 that is using hostapd to create its own wireless network.

When an Android client first connects to the network, it tries to grab the page http://connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204 to see if it's behind a client portal. My Raspberry Pi redirects this request to an instance of nginx that it is running, and returns a 302 redirect to my login page.

Because Android didn't get the response it was looking for (an HTTP 204), but got a 302 instead, from what I understand, it's supposed to popup my login page. I've seen this in action using other captive portal hardware.

In my case however, Android just shows a popup that says "Internet may not be available: Connect to another network or turn on Switch to mobile data".

Am I doing something wrong? Is there something specific Android is looking for in the login page before it will make it pop up?

Most of my testing is on my Galaxy S8. I tried it on a friend's S9, and that doesn't work either. Using a Windows 10 laptop though, the login page does popup.

After some digging, it appears it's working now.

When a client tries to access http://connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204, it needs to use DNS to resolve connectivitycheck.gstatic.com first. I had my dnsmasq setup to look like this:

interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=192.168.30.20,192.168.30.60,255.255.255.0,24h
address=/#/10.45.12.1

Where 10.45.12.1 is just a random IP I chose. It didn't really matter what that IP was, because as soon as the client resolves it to that IP, and tries to get /generate_204 from it, my iptables firewall rules would redirect all requests to nginx running on the Pi.

The only limitation I was aware of was that the IP couldn't be on the same LAN (192.168.30.0/24), or the Pi would try to use ARP to figure out its MAC address, and fail, without making the actual HTTP request.

It turned out that if the IP you are resolving everything to (in my case 10.45.12.1) is a LAN IP, Android won't popup the login page. No idea why.

The fix was to change from:

address=/#/10.45.12.1

to

address=/#/1.2.3.4

where 1.2.3.4 is any PUBLIC LAN IP (an IP outside of the '10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16' range). This fixed my problem. Hopefully it fixes someone else's as well.

NOTE: My setup does NOT require the client to ever have internet. They connect to the Pi, and get a page popup for configuration purposes. If you need the device to have internet, which would probably be a more common use case, you probably can't just resolve EVERYTHING to 1.2.3.4 like I do


Push command not working says permission denied I rooted my micromax p275 and wanted to change its font by replacing /system/fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf with my desired font but i accidentally replaced it with Robot.Regular.ttf.  Now it doesn't starts.
  I want to push another font file in /system/fonts with the correct name (Roboto-Regular.ttf)  but it doesn't works saying permission denied. I have tried su command  but it just reprints the same commands i type and press enter and thus doing nothing. Any way out friends. I would be greatly helped by you. Every single hint is wanted.

If you have a backup font file and adb is working, then you can just do adb remount and try pushing the backup font again. This command is just a shortcut for adb shell mount -o remount.rw /system, which remounts /system as writable.

If adb remount doesn't work, then run adb root and try again. (i.e., run adb root, adb remount, and adb push /path/to/backup/Roboto-Regular.ttf /system/fonts/, in that order). I'm not sure how picky adb is about telling it to use root.


Custom Rom installation for defy I have been trying to customize my current ROM in my Defy which runs 2.2 froyo currently as stock.

I'm confused which how I can customize my ROM, such that my stock ROM is backed up and if I don't like my new ROM I can restore the backup.

Another question is how can I install my new ROM?

I found couple of videos on Youtube that says installing ROM via 2ndinit after Rooting and then go recovery menu wipe cache, dalvik, etc and then install from SD card. Is this a valid procedure?

Refer to this video.

Is this a valid way of installing?

So late to answer a question like this, still:

For all non-advanced users who want to root their Defy and install custom ROMS, first refer this article.

It says all about you want to know about Defy before torturing it :D But don't worry, it is almost impossible to brick the mighty Defy, so feel free to experiment.


Getting "not enough space" error even i have enough space in sd card I have a android jellybean phone [model - ETEl-I4] .i cannot install any apps anymore.i have installed lot of apps before.i can see i have enough space in sd card and i have set default write device to SD card.but when i try to installs apps like skype,viber..etc.i'm getting this error.i read some answers but i think i don't have any cashes problem i have enough space in sd card.
please help me how to fix this issue.

error

I have set default write device to SD card.

As you can see i have 5GB space and apps i'm trying to install are less than 50mb.

Have you ever been able to download apps directly to your SD card? I believe the reason for this is that you can only install apps onto the internal memory; not any SD cards. I think you can only move apps after you've downloaded them. If someone can confirm that this is the case, see if you have any images or videos that you can move to the SD card to allow for more space inside the internal memory? Let me know how you get on :)

p.s. I also think the write disk system only works for pictures and the sort.


how can I transfer my photos from glaxaxy s4 to pc? I have a broken screen and a wireless mouse. Is there another way I can transfer my photos?

If you don't have any passcode to your phone, attaching the phone to your PC with a USB cable will enable you to transfer the photos to your PC.

Also, if you had set the default storage of photos to the micro SD card then attaching the micro SD card to your PC via a reader will let you transfer the photos back.


Many apps crashing on phone after Google app disabled and re-enabled The Google app was taking up half a gigabyte of storage even though I never use it, so I cleared its data and disabled it. After I did this, Gmail and Outlook crashed, so I re-enabled the main Google app. Gmail and Outlook were still failing, however.
Since the main Google app was now an earlier version, I thought maybe I should update it. Although I can open the main Google app, it crashes as soon as I switch to the "Update" tab, so that's not an option. I also tried clearing my Gmail and Outlook data to see if that would help, as well as disabling and re-enabling Gmail, but neither had any effect.
I've also cleared all data from Google Play Services and restarted my phone to no avail. If I try to visit Google settings from the Settings app, then the Settings app freezes. What can I do to make these apps operable again? Note that not all Google apps are afflicted. For example, I can still use Drive, YouTube, and the Play Store.
For a little more detail, the Gmail is receiving data. I can see new messages for the half-second that the app is open before  it crashes. If I try to send a crash report, the crash-report-sending services crashes too.
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge running Android 8.0.0.
EDIT:
Previously I wrote of only a few apps that have crashed. As I have tried to use more, I have found that apps unrelated to Google have crashed -Stack Exchange being one of them, as well as an open source reader app (that wasn't even installed through the Play Store, it was installed through F-Droid), a game, and the built-in Samsung text messenger app.
In recent verbal conversation, someone suggested that I may have unintentionally deleted a security token, and that is causing the widespread malfunctions. However, he does not know how to get a new one if that is the case, and of course neither do I.
EDIT 2:
In the early afternoon today, about 24 hours after the initial problem, the main Google app managed to update itself without any intervention from me and everything came back online. Perhaps there is a 24-hour check for updates that Google performs for built-in apps automatically outside.of the app store. In any case, once this occurred, the other apps which had been compromised began to function as well, so now everything is back to normal.

First, instead of a few dozen little apps, each supplying an API or a service, Google changed the scheme (a few years ago) to incorporate all of them in one app.  Most Google apps depend on it, many non-Google apps depend on it.
I'd try uninstalling all the non-system apps that are crashing (you can't uninstall a system app unless the device is rooted), update the Google app (again), update the Google system apps and reinstall all the uninstalled apps.  (If that doesn't work, reflashing the ROM - and losing anything not backed up - may be your only resort.)


Why lsusb gets "permission denied" error in Termux? When I run this command in Termux the output  gets permission denied. I don't have root access, perhaps Android system allows me to get the specific access in root.

lsusb command lists entries in /sys/bus/usb/devices which is world-readable but SELinux would be denying access because u:r:untrusted_app:s0 context isn't allowed to access u:object_r:sysfs:s0.

However you can try adb shell lsusb because sepolicy allows u:r:shell:s0 to read the directory as defined here:

allow shell sysfs:dir r_dir_perms

And here:

define(`r_dir_perms', `{ open getattr read search ioctl lock }')


bootloop issue on my device I have rooted my android and installed succesfully custom recovery twrp zip through flashify.
Then tried to install custom rom but my device is now damaged totally, its is now getting on/off on its own and device is not starting only screen with lenovo androis is seen for now.

Did you try flashing the ROM again? It's possible that bootloop problems occur if you've not flashed the ROM properly or if you flashed the wrong one.
Check of the ROM is really compatible with your phone. If it is then check if there's something wrong with the ROM file. Maybe it might not have been downloaded completely or is corrupt.
Also try flashing the superSU again.


Android as WiFi adapter? How do I use my phone's USB hotspot to transfer my WiFi network connected to my phone to my laptop? Is it possible? I'm running CyanogenMod 12.1 on my Galaxy Note II. Thank you.

Yes, this is possible.

Plug your phone into your laptop
On your phone, go to settings
In the wireless & networks area, more -> Tethering & portable hotspot
Enable USB tethering


How to fix "Encryption unsuccessful" and bootloop issue on Andriod 8.1? My Nexus 6p boot looped and is showing "Encryption unsuccessful" error with a RESET PHONE button. Resetting the phone is not helping and it shows the same "Encryption unsuccessful" error again.

Device is unlocked and I am able to access bootloader and recovery. Sometimes it just bootloops however sometimes "Encryption unsuccessful" shows up after boot.

I am able to flash twrp etc. I tried flashing stock Android but its still the same.

This should be a simple thing to solve right. Any suggestions?

Thanks

This happened due to the infamous BLOD due to premature hardware failure of Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip set. All Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset will have the same fate after around 1.5 years of usage. Can't believe Qualcomm messed up this bad.

The instructions in the below linked worked perfectly.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/bootloop-death-blod-workaround-zip-t3819515

The phone is surprisingly pretty usable for daily tasks even after disabling the A57 cores.


How to prevent unwanted DBG_FMMDM spam from filling up your logcat buffers I asked this question on Stack Overflow but was advised to ask it here.

I am attempting to debug an error using logcat in Android Studio on my testing device, a Galaxy s9 plus running Pie. Suddenly I have a really weird and annoying logcat output making it hard to view events:

2019-03-01 10:49:15.024 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:55][a] xdmGetAccountRegistration : true
2019-03-01 10:49:15.024 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:47][onDestroy] XDM ALERT REAMINED, SO RESTART DM SERVICE
2019-03-01 10:49:15.024 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:2][a] FMM Application Start !
2019-03-01 10:49:15.028 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:5][onCreate] XDM Service onCreate
2019-03-01 10:49:15.029 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:20][onCreate] Device ID is null!!, service not start !
2019-03-01 10:49:15.030 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:3][onStartCommand]
2019-03-01 10:49:15.030 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:2][onDestroy] onDestroy
2019-03-01 10:49:15.037 17645-17645/? I/DBG_FMMDM: [6.9.22][Line:30][a] Samsung Account Exist !!!
2019-03-01 10:49:15.038 17645-17645/? E/DBG_FMMDM: Warning!!! [6.9.22][Line:15][a] java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to read from field 'com.fmm.dm.b.a.x com.fmm.dm.b.a.ac.g' on a null object reference

This output runs over and over, to the point that my logcat is completely populated and there is no way to scroll up to see past outputs.

I'm sure it is some OS daemon, but I have never seen one that runs so frequently.

I have no idea what I/DBG_FMMDM is and why it is attempting to read from com.fmm.dm.b.a.x (whatever that is).

Has anyone seen this type of output before?

My testing device is a Galaxy s9 plus running Pie

Yes, I have seen this before. It is a security feature and it is coming from Samsungs Find My Mobile {FMM}(com.samsung.android.fmm). Samsungs version of Google's Find My Device.

It is located at:

Settings --> Lock screen (maybe Biometrics) and security --> Find My Mobile.

If the service is not wanted it can be deactivated.

I/DBG_FMMDM is short for Debug _ Find My Mobile Device Manager.

A breakdown of what log you posted states:

The FMM app is started but when it tries to get your Device ID it cannot find the IMEI for GSM and the MEID or ESN for CDMA phones so its returning null. However, when it checks to see if a Samsung account is connected to the device it returns positive.


Turning off "charging" sound effect on Xperia Z3 Compact Is it possible to turn off the sound when the charger is connected? I have got the answer from Sony Support that this is a "feature".

No. Assuming your phone is updated to Lollipop, the sound is just always on now.


Switching from Google Japanese Input directly to Google Keyboard? I have the following input methods enabled:

Google Keyboard, English (US)
Google Japanese Input, Japanese

I use both the Google Keyboard and Google Japanese Input depending on what I'm doing. Going from Google Keyboard to Google Japanese Input is trivial, I simply click the language button and it automatically switches. However I am running into an issue with switching back. Here is a screenshot of the keyboard in use:

There is a button on the bottom-left that switches between Japanese, numeric, and QWERTY. However the QWERTY is awkward to use and I would prefer to switch it to the Google Keyboard instead. I can accomplish this by holding the button down, but the "Input Options" doesn't list the Google Keyboard as an entry. Instead, I must choose "Select Input Method", then I can choose Google Keyboard.

While this is a minor inconvenience, the extra time certainly adds up especially when switching between various contacts in the same application, or when I need to use both Japanese/English when talking to the same person (such as translations, etc...).

Is there a way that I can have it automatically switch to the Google Keyboard when I hold down the button? If not, is there a keyboard that could offer this functionality?

AFAIK, this is impossible to do in KitKat and previous version. There is no globe (input method switch key) icon, and there is no setting related to it.

However, recent update added this feature, BUT it's only for Android 5.0 Lollipop (as of writing). From "What's New",

  (Lollipop) Introduced input method switch key.

On Lollipop, there will be a globe icon on each type of keyboard:

12 Keys: On Japanese mode, to the left of 'わ'.
QWERTY: On Japanese mode, to the left of the spacebar
Godan keyboard: On Japanese mode, between 'O' and 'W'


How to keep two versions of an app installed? Android Market has just updated an app in my device. I liked the update, but its fully different from last version which was also my favorite. So, I want to keep last version too. I have last version's apk thanks to Titanium Backup. But, I can't install it without replacing current one (Android architecture sucks). Is there any way to do this? Hacks etc..
Note: I want to keep current version which must be connected with Market to receive future updates.

It can be done, but not simple for the reasons eldarerathis mentioned.
You need apktool. Refer to this guide on how to use it. And this on signing the apk after you're done.

You need to modify the AndroidManifest.xml file. Find the line that looks like this:

manifest package="com.example.app"

and change it to something like:

"com.example.app.foo"

After you're finished, recompile then resign. To restore your data, try the following via adb:

adb rm /data/data/com.example.app.foo
adb push /data/data/com.example.app /data/data/com.example.app.foo

Where com.example.app is the package name of the original and com.example.app.foo is the modified.

There's always a slight chance that the app will break, or depending on the way the app is structured you may receive a dialog every time you change the screen prompting you to choose which app you want to launch, but it's definitely worth a try if you want it badly enough.

Of course, the two apps will not share the same settings and data.


Apps download but do not install I'm using a two-week old HTC Sensation. A number of times now, I've tried to download apps (this is happening on multiple apps, not just one) and although they download, they never install. I can see the download happening and getting to 100% in the status dropdown, but it never continues on to install. I don't get any error messages; it just never goes any further.

This happens regardless of whether I download the app from the Market on the phone, market.android.com on my computer, or the Amazon app market.

Android version 2.3.3.

Any ideas?

I also had similar problem on HTC Desire and I've made a blog post about its solution in here.

Basically you have to open "Manage Applications", and clear cache of "Market" and "Download Manager"


How to display, hear, and control an Android device using PC? I used Mobizen. However, only the screen shows up. The sound doesn't come from my PC. Also I do not think I can control my Android device from my PC.

Any way to do that?

I want to connect via Wi-fi. Mobizen seems to be web based which means information would go through Internet first before showing up on my PC.

If you want to control your android device from you PC you just have to install "AirDroid" app from play store you can control all you media of your device from PC and read/write/send/ SMS messages live screen control use device camera from PC and so many features.
You just have to connect your device with a WiFi also with the same WiFi your PC !


"Webpage not available" for some webpages but not all I can not access all webpages on my phone. While some are working fine, others simply show "Webpage not available".
This appears to be independent of the webbrowser. It's always the same webpages that won't work and they won't work with neither mBrowser nor Tint Browser and I have also experienced this on my mother's smartphone with the default browser.
This is not a matter of misspelling or being temporarily not available: I have been experiencing this for months now (not always - there were times when I was able to access those pages) and the webpages are reliably accessible from a computer.
This happens both when I am entering the URL manually as well as when clicking on a link from google.

Removing the battery or clearing Tint Browser's cache did not help.

some pages that are not accessible:

https://wiki.archlinux.org
https://github.com
https://jisho.org

some pages that are accessible:

google
leo.org
wikipedia.org

I am using Android 4.0.4 (CyanogenMod 9.1.0), mBrowser 12.0, Tint Browser 1.8 (10). My mother's phone was a Sony Experia with the preinstalled OS but I can't check the Android version because it got lost.

Let's check the supported HTTPS protocol versions of the sites you mentioned.

https://wiki.archlinux.org -> only TLS 1.2
https://github.com -> only TLS 1.2
https://jisho.org -> only TLS 1.2
https://google.com -> TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 TLS 1.2
https://leo.org -> TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 TLS 1.2
https://wikipedia.org  -> TLS 1.0 TLS 1.1 TLS 1.2

Do you see the pattern? From my perspective I would assume that the used browsers use the old outdated web engine of your OS which does not support TLS 1.2.

My suggestion would be to install the Chrome app and use it (and may be even set it as default browser engine - was this already possible on Android 4.0?).
Chrome includes the latest SSL/TLS libraries with TLS 1.2 support furthermore it is not affected by dozens of security vulnerabilities which your outdated integrated web engine suffers from.


Tethering android devices together I am very low-tech, but I have a very smart phone!  an android 2.2.1  I have recently discovered a wonderful application called tether, or tethering where you connect your phone & lap top or pc w/ a usb cord and from there the phone acts like a modem & wa-la! you get the internet! I just purchased the newest Android Tablet (3.0), an ASUS... okay My question is really this:  Can I tether my android phone to my Android tablet and get the same or different results? And if so, how? like with what type of cord would I connect these 2 devices, as there are no usb ports on the tablet. There are, however HDMI ports.

Go to Android Settings, the wireless then enable "portable wi-fi hotspot"

Then connect to that wifi using your tablets wifi manager. Then you should have internet


Gboard not switching back to previous language I have three languages (Hebrew, Russian, and English) that I use regularly. I also have two others (Arabic and Esperanto) that I use occasionally and have installed.

Usually, whenever I hit the language button, it switches back to my most recent language (which is very convenient for typing in two languages- one tap to switch to Hebrew and one tap to switch back to English).

However, since yesterday, I've had to cycle through all my installed languages to get to the one I need. I tried restarting my phone, but it didn't help. Is there some setting I'm missing or something an app could have done to change why this is occurring?

Apparently fixed as of the most recent update (6.7.15.175732024) on November 15th.


How to buy an app for a friend? I would like to buy a game (well several copies of it really) for some of my friends for Christmas. Is there any way to do this? Would I have to rely on the publisher, or is there some way to "gift" apps from the market?

Update: Google Play Gift Cards are now widely available in many countries. Thanks to @Chahk for reminding me to update.

Amazon has released their own Android Appstore which allow you to send Amazon gift cards that are redeemable for Android Apps. This requires a few extra steps, but should let you gift what you want to until this function gets added to the original Android Market Google Play Store.


Do I need to factory reset to root galaxy note 4 SM-N910V? I have the Samsung Galaxy note 4 for Verizon. I believe it is the developer edition because the model # is SM-N910V. I am trying to either install CFs auto root or install TWRP recovery and root from there. So far both fail in Odin. here's the log for Odin for CF auto root,

<ID:0/003> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> CF-Auto-Root-trltevzw-trltevzw-smn910v.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/003> Odin v.3 engine (ID:3)..
<ID:0/003> File analysis..
<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/003> Initialzation..
<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/003> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/003> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/003> recovery.img
<ID:0/003> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/003> cache.img.ext4
<ID:0/003> FAIL! (Auth)
<ID:0/003>
<ID:0/003> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

I did a samsung update the other day and went from NI1 to NJ5, i guess that is the update version. Does updating remove the unlocked bootloader? Do I need to factory reset to be able to install CF auto root and TWRP?

Samsung devices usually have no locked bootloader so you won't remove that. Official updates do however remove any trace of a working root.Your device is nowhere near a developer device but more a custom device served with a custom firmware of Verizon noticeable on the V in your model no.

Because of that custom Verizon model it is possible that the bootlader may be locked as you can see in the log where it says <ID:0/003> FAIL! (Auth).
This means you are not authenticated to flash anything on your device which leads me to the assumption that your bootloader is Verizon-specific and therefore locked.


How to stop android phone from vibrate during the start up and the shut down? When one turn on the phone or switch off the phone, the android phone will make a single vibration.

I don't know whether if the phone is telling me that - Good Morning or Good Bye by using vibration, but what I would like to know if it is possible to set it to stop vibrate when I either switch on or switch off the phone?

Using Froyo Android. Thanks.

Unfortunately this isn't something that can't be turned on or off.  It's possible that it's a vendor specific thing, you don't say what device you have or if you are rooted or not, so I assume this is the case.

I'm running a SGS3 with a custom ROM on it (AOKP) and I've just restarted the device and can confirm there was no vibration during the start or stop procedure.  However my Nexus One with a stock ROM did vibrate.

A possible fix is to root the device and stick a custom ROM on there, but that's quite an extreme fix for the issue.


Can I use my PC as an audio device for my Android phone? I know it is possible to play music from my Android using the PC as the output device. This takes place over the local Wi-Fi network. However, the solutions given here don't work for me, since they are limited to playing music files, and one isn't even available in my country.

Is there a way for me to connect the Android and the PC, such that all sound the device generates from any application uses the PC as the output device?

I do not have Bluetooth on my PC, though I'm aware that if I did, I could probably use that.

I have Jelly Bean 4.1.2 on a rooted Droid RAZR MAXX, so solutions requiring root are OK. Though I would rather not replace the firmware if I can avoid it. It's also OK if the solution involves the USB cable.

A good app for this is BubbleUPnP for DLNA/Chromecast

Unlike other media server apps, it supports a lot of devices:

Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, Nexus Player, Nvidia Shield, and other Google
Cast devices
DLNA TVs and music receivers from popular TV and HiFi brands
Xbox 360 and One, Playstation 3 and 4(**)
Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick
local Android playback

It possess both media servering and rendering functionalies so your audio will be pushed to the playback DLNA device e.g TV and can do vice versa.

Unfortunately you'll need root to enable Audio Cast, and the popular Xposed Framework tool BubbleUPnP (Audio Cast)  as well. You don't need to download an extra module - the Xposed module for Audio Cast is included in the standard BubbleUPnP app.

Credits

BubbleUPnP


Samsung Galaxy Note 3 won't sync with google play I just got my new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N900, but I've already got problems:

First, everytime I sync my phone with google it always comes up with sync error, I don't know how to fix this. I've tried removing the account then putting it back on but it still doesn't work.

Second is that my phone doesn't even have the google play app. When I go onto the website and try download an app it says that I don't have any devices – which I think is due to the sync error.

How can I resolve this?

Here is what Google Suggests to sync your phone:

Change date & time settings

You can try to force sync your account by manually resetting your time settings.

Open your device's Settings app Settings app.
Tap System and then Date & time.
Turn off Automatic date & time and Automatic time zone.
Manually change the date and time so that both are wrong.
Tap Home Key.
Open your device's Settings app and then System and then Date & time again.
Manually change the date and time so that both are right again.
Turn on Automatic date & time and Automatic time zone.

(Excluded 'deleting and re-adding your account' here as you already did this.)

Here are all possible options available by Google Support: Fix account sync issues

Google Play Store

In case you don't have Play Store App, you can download it from apkmirror , choose a version and install it after downloading.

You will be ask to enable 'Unknown Sources' to be able to install Google Play Store, follow this to enable:

Open Settings - Security Settings.

Scroll down to 'Unknown Sources' check the box.

After installing Google Play Store successfully, uncheck the 'Unknown Sources' box.

This will prevent everything (except the Play Store) from installing apps.


Android Pie only showing two folders to Android File Transfer I have a Pixel which is running Android 9 and I have a computer running El Capitan with Android File Transfer. Under "Use USB for…", I have "PTP" selected. Android File Transfer only shows the folders Pictures and DCIM and no other folders or files at that directory depth. Prior to selecting "PTP", I was on "No data transfer" and Android File Transfer told me I needed to select "File Transfer" or "MTP" for it to work. "File Transfer" mode results in Android File Transfer saying I need to reboot or disconnect my phone; this didn't work.

I've already searched for an answer to this and these are things that don't work:

I cannot select "MTP". There is no such mode, only "PTP".
There is no Settings > Apps > All applications > Media storage under which I can select Clear data.

I also can't even get a USB drive, connected to my Pixel using a micro USB to USB-C adapter, to show up in Android so I can transfer devices to and from it.

How do I fix this nightmare?

Update #1: I was able to fix this the first time by updating AFT. Several weeks later, I now have the same problem again. I've already updated AFT once more.

I have some tips for you to get it working because Android 9 lacks the notification popup which asks to select between modes(File Transfer, MIDI, PTP, No data transfer, Charging,etc.) when you plug your phone to your computer via USB.

You can try the following things:

Enable Developer Options.
Enable USB debugging.
Try changing USB port on your computer in which you are plugging your phone.
Make sure you are using data cable and not the charging cable.
Go to USB Default Configuration in Developer Options, there you will see different modes(File Transfer, MIDI, PTP, No data transfer, Charging,etc.) to choose from.
After selecting 'File Transfer', unplug and plug your phone again.

For more details, visit the link below: https://youtu.be/l8jP8YxDL5w


Queue a Google Play app to download later on wifi to save mobile data? Is there a method to queue a new app for installation from Google Play, so that it downloads later when the phone connects to WiFi? The point being to save mobile data.

For an update to an existing app, you just have to enable that in Google play's settings. For a newly installed app, I don't think it is possible. You can block the  background data for Google play, but that's just a workaround and it has limitations like you won't be able to make in-app purchases when you are on mobile network.


Would the TWRP for Trend Lite work on Trend 2 Lite? I obtained a secondhand Samsung Galaxy Trend 2 Lite and I am not sure whether this TWRP recovery for Trend Lite is compatible with Trend 2 Lite.

It mentions it is for Samsung Galaxy Trend Device, but I do not know when it mentions Trend also includesTrend 2 as well. Can you help me with that?

Unfortunately, no.

TWRP, despite it being called a "recovery", actually contains a full kernel to allow other components to run on a specific device, similar to a full ROM.

Due to this, many smallest differences (usually except storage size) can make a certain recovery don't run on another model.

In your case, they run on different, incompatible SoCs, so the TWRP for Trend Lite will not work on Trend 2 Lite.


WiFi stopped working (dhcpd times out) after enabling device encryption WiFi has worked without issue before on this exact same hotspot, and it is currently working for other devices so I'm assuming the error is in the phone (edit: also tried another hotspot, wifi is definitely dead), but after enabling encryption on my device it gets stuck in a loop. It detects the actual network, but it goes like this:

Saved with X authentication... Authenticating... Obtaining IP address...  (Repeat)

I also tried deleting the network and adding it again without success, thinking it had something to do with the cached WPA key. Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot before I just wipe and reinstall? Is this some kind of known issue?

edit: "Solution" Re-locked and unlocked bootloader, flashed recovery via Galaxy Nexus Toolkit and pushed a new AOKP via ADB, installed it and everything is working fine now. No idea what caused it but I'm pretty sure the full device encryption screwed something up. However, since CWM doesn't even support full device encryption, it feels like a bug relating to it is kind of low priority since people shouldn't encrypt their devices with customs ROMs anyway and expect a smooth ride. Thanks.

Might be some  interoperability issue with particular hotspot.If it is a DHCP time out you can try assigning a manual ip address to the particular network.
Or if It is rooted device you can try below command inside adb shell.

dhcpcd wlan0


Has Google just stopped supporting Amazon Fire Phone? A few days ago, my phone suddenly started giving me constant "google play services has stopped" pop-ups.

Auto-updated Google Play Services version: 7.3.29 (1866531-036)(7329036)

I tried force quitting, uninstalling, and reinstalling the older version (3.2.25 (761454-36)) along with reinstalling play store app. This made the error pop-ups stop, however, when I tried updating the Google Play Services, it said that google no longer supports your hardware (or something like that). When I tried again, it did update it through play store, then started giving me the constant "google play services has stopped" error again.

I am suspecting that the recent Google Play Services is not supporting Amazon Fire Phone (Fire OS 3.6.8 (128003620)). Is this indeed the case?

Does anybody have an older version of the Google Play Services that work?

Screen captured the message:

This seems to be due to a bug in the current version of Google Play Services, and it's not just limited to Fire Phones. There's a discussion about it over at XDA Developers, which I'd recommend keeping an eye on.

For now there doesn't seem to be a good solution yet other than uninstalling Google Play Services and reloading an older version - and even then rebooting the phone will automatically update Google Play Services to the broken version. I've seen some commenters say that uninstalling the Play Store will keep Play Services from updating, but I haven't tried that yet.


Can I get Swype on my Thunderbolt I am trying to install swype (by going to their page and entering my e-mail) on my thunderbolt.  But the e-mail I get from them won't show the install link.  Is there another way?

You must be a part of the beta program:

Go to http://beta.swype.com/
Login
Resend the beta email: https://beta.swype.com/android/welcome/?resend=yes
On your Android phone, go to the link in the email: https://beta.swype.com/android/get/ It should start downloading the installer to setup Swype.

If you still have problems, you'll need to contact their technical support.


Why can't I find Firefox in Android Market If I search for Firefox in the Android Market on my phone I can't find Firefox! How can I install it on my Phone??

Thanks.

Can you visit this link with your phone?

market://details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

Also you must note that: Firefox is available for Android phones (2.0 and above) and the Nokia N900.

The official page of Firefox Mobile gives also a list of supported devices that have been tested.


Pair two Bluetooth devices simultaneously I am building an app for an Android tablet that will control an Arduino microcontroller board (paired via bluetooth). However, the tablet will also be paired via Bluetooth with my Android phone to share the phone's internet connection. Can I pair the devices this way simultaneously?

AFAIK, bluetooth connections can occur simultaneously as long as their operational bounds do not overlap. In other words, you cannot connect two bluetooth headsets at the same time, but you can connect a bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mouse to the same device at the same time (I personally have tested this last scenario, and it works!)

So in your case, I assume the steps you would take would include making sure that the two communication streams don't require any of the same functionality, which sounds as if it would be possible, since one is strictly for internet availability. If you connect both and they won't pair with the device simultaneously, you probably won't be able to. But if they register as different types of devices (under different bluetooth "profiles", for example) you may be in luck!

Sorry there's nothing definitive. The bottom line here may be trial and error. If they don't work initially, you may be able to set up the Arduino to register under a different "profile" when it connects to the tablet, so as not to interfere with the internet connection coming from the phone.


How do I get 2 way photo syncing with dropbox? I have Dropbox auto uploading photos that I take.

What I'd like is to have deletions or reorganizations of my photos on the phone to be reflected in Dropbox and also the other way around?

How do I set this up?

This is not possible. Dropbox says:

  Dropbox will not delete files from your mobile device after they are uploaded. The files on your camera, phone, tablet, or SD Card will remain on your device until you remove them manually.

To do this, you will need a third-party app, like Dropsync.


Default permissions for new files and default umask I mounted a NFS share on my rooted Android device using busybox mount.

I can read and create files, but when I create a file in any app, the file's permissions are set to 0600 (because the umask inside the app is 077). This means that a file created by an app can only be accessed by that app.

How can I change this behavior, and have the new files created with more permissions?
Is there a way to have apps start with a different umask?

Also, how come all the files created on the sdcard are 0775 (thus ignoring the app's umask) ? I want my NFS mount to behave like the SD Card

I have a rooted Android box with version 4.4.2.

A quick Google search reveals a new API in Java 7 that allows permissions bits to be twiddled for individual files. This doesn't help with changing the umask, but it should allow you to override it after file creation. Check out:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/nio/file/Files.html#setPosixFilePermissions%28java.nio.file.Path,%20java.util.Set%29

If you really do need to change the umask, it doesn't seem to be a function currently exposed directly by the BCL. You'll have to resort to native calls, or use a library to do it on your behalf. I hear that such libraries do already exist -- you'd be looking for one that gives access to POSIX operating system functionality.

As for why files on the sdcard ignore the umask, sdcards are typically formatted using the vfat filesystem, which is basically backwards-compatible to MS-DOS/Windows 95 and doesn't recognize the concept of users. As such, it has no way to restrict access to a file; if you can't restrict access for particular users, then you'd only be restricting access for anyone, and why would you ever want to do that? :-)

What vfat has are file attributes -- read-only, hidden and system. There's no effective way to map the majority of UNIX file mode combinations to these. The driver, thus, simply always reports files as having a particular mode, set when the filesystem is mounted. Android mounts sdcards so that that mode is returned as 0755 (-rwxr-xr-x).


Notification bar key-binding? I have a bluetooth keyboard that I've set up in such a way that I can essentially use every function on my phone using just they keyboard, with home and menu and arrow keys and such. The only major thing I still can't do is look at my notifications! I have to reach up to pull the bar down, and I can't find a key binding to just pull the notification bar down. Does anyone know of one?

In other words, is there a command in the format:
key ###    NOTIFICATION_PULL          WAKE_DROPPED

or does someone know of another way I could accomplish this?

A workaround at least while in the main launcher home screen is to press MENU and then NOTIFICATIONS.

Else get HelloStatusBar and assign it to a shortcut key. You can also try Status bar Expander which uses a long-press on the menu key to drop the bar wherever you are.

Naturally, YMMV as certain devices don't support these apps.


What are the differences between a system app and user app? As I've played around with different ROMs and used Titanium Backup, I see that apps are categorized into system and user apps.  Several ROM developers state that Titanium Backup should only be used for user apps and not for system apps, and when I proceed to uninstall system apps, TiBu warns me that the ROM may not work correctly.

Other than the fact that user apps are downloadable via the Market or some other means, what are the key differences between the two?

What is it about the system apps that make them more integral to the OS itself?

The other answers are correct, but fail to point out a couple differences:

Permissions

System apps are granted the ability to request certain system-only permissions that are never available to user apps. This is not the same as root/sudo/su permissions.

One example that I know of and use daily is the ability to reset the missed call notification counter. I have Go Dialer, which is a replacement for the stock dialer and contact app (how you make phone calls). When I miss a call, android lets me know that with a notification. However, Go Dialer is not allowed to reset this counter, even though it asks for that permission when you install the app. Android 2.2 and earlier let user apps reset it, but made this permission a system-only accessible permission for android 2.3

By moving my Go Dialer app to the system partition, it is allowed to reset this counter. Root is not required for the app (except, of course, to actually move the app to the System partition).

Another system permission is the ability to set the current gps location. Now, Android does have a preference where you can allow mock locations, so any gps spoofing app you install can declare a gps location. But if the app is in the System partition, mock locations can be disabled while still letting the app spoof the gps location.

Updates

System apps can be updated just like user apps, but the update is never integrated into the original rom. That is, system apps have the unique ability to roll back to the version that existed when the rom was first installed.

Move to SD

Android lets users move user apps from internal memory to the sd card. System apps cannot be moved and always take up some internal space. Most (all?) devices, though, have internal user apps on a different partition, so uninstalling a system app would not give you any more user app space (other than the dalvik-cache being removed).

You will recover some space if you uninstall any updates to a system app. As noted, the updates are not integrated with the rom and are thus stored in user space. The updates are not allowed to move to the sd card either, but if removed, user space is recovered.

How it affects you

If you are a casual android user, you likely won't run into scenarios where system vs user app would make a difference. If you are an advanced user, you likely have root and can thus change a system app to user (and vice versa) if you ever run into one of these situations.


Plug android USB to PC, get malicious file? Hello :) so i have been googling about it but no info on my specific question.

About the safety of transfering files to/from PC. Where there's a possibility of android get malicious file unknowingly from PC. Where you cant fully sure if the PC is free from malicious file.

I read that some ways to prevent that is. Turn off usb debugging.

Is there still a way of the android to get affected?
Also is there more way to be safer?

Thank you for whoever responded :)

Android Devices cannot be affected in any way when you connect it to a computer (atleast when connected in MTP mode)..

There might be a possibility that you'll get affected, that too only when USB Debugging (ADB mode) is ON, because there might be a chance that there's a virus in your computer that can install a payload virus application directly (without your knowledge) via the ADB mode to your device.
That app might be a type of virus that periodically displays advertisements, or can be installed as a payloaded (modded) update to an existing application (like a Browser or even Banking app) (with same package name) in your device that can track every info you provide to the app (even the user credentials you provide, like username and password). Or in the worst case, it can be a exploit app that can install itself or its other apps as system app, making it impossible to uninstall (unless you root your device).
So switch OFF ADB mode when not used or when you're not working in a trustable computer.

When your device is connected in USB Mass Storage Mode (which is removed since KitKat), there's a chance that a virus in your computer might place crafted virus files in the removable disk (popular viruses like autorun.inf, New Folder .exe, Shortcut virus, etc.), but that won't affect your Android device in any way. Only when you connect the device to another computer (in UMS mode), there's a chance that the computer might get affected.

Other than these, I don't think there's anything harmful when connected to computer, AFAIK.


I can't find the boot/recovery partitions on my Android phone for backup - where are they? I'm trying to back up boot.img, recovery.img, and system.img on my Android phone. I've found several mentions of running this command:

cat proc/mtd

and then just using dd to copy the listed mount points. Seems straightforward enough. Unfortunately, the output of that command is just this single line:

dev:    size   erasesize  name

df also doesn't list the usual "Mounted On" column, just the filesystem. This is the output of df:

Filesystem             Size   Used   Free   Blksize
/dev                   234M    52K   234M   4096
/mnt/secure            234M     0K   234M   4096
/mnt/asec              234M     0K   234M   4096
/mnt/obb               234M     0K   234M   4096
/system                640M   459M   180M   4096
/data                    1G   406M   898M   4096
/cache                 369M     6M   363M   4096
/protect_f               8M     4M     4M   4096
/protect_s               8M     4M     4M   4096
/mnt/cd-rom              1M     1M     0K   2048
/storage/sdcard1         1G    24M     1G   16384
/storage/sdcard0         7G     2G     5G   32768
/mnt/secure/asec         7G     2G     5G   32768

Some details about my phone:

It's a BLU ADVANCE 4.0
Board is Mediatek MT6572
Android version is 4.2.2
Kernel version is 3.4.5
I do have root access

So, to reiterate my question - where are the partitions? How can I find them?

While I'm not necessarily averse to using programs other than the shell it seems like I really should be able to do this from there.

EDIT: I used dd on the various mmcblk files I found in /dev/block. Most of them I terminated prematurely as they were 100MiB+, but two (mmcblk0p2 and mmcblk0p3) came out to about 10MiB each which seems more probable for boot and recovery. The contents of these when mounted are:

a directory labelled lost+found (ext?)
a directory labelled md, the subcontents of which differ

In mmcblk0p2 the contents of md are:

Two files of unknown type, one 4B one 2.0KiB, labelled MPOD_000 and ST33A004 respectively

In mmcblk0p3 the contents of md are:

One file of unknown type, 2.0KiB, labelled ST33B004

as aureljared already mentioned, proper configured MTK devices populate their recovery and boot partitions in /dev/recovery and /dev/bootimg. Just dd from there.


PDF Presentation (Beamer LaTeX / Adobe Acrobat Reader) on Android tablet I have just received my Nexus 10 - my first Android tablet!

I bought the tablet partly for giving presentations. My presentations are created by using the LaTeX package "beamer", which produces PDF files. Acrobat Reader (on PC) has a presentation mode that works perfectly well for all purposes, but I have trouble finding this functionality in the Android version.

There is a full-page display functionality in Adobe's app, but it has some animation for the page transitions. This means that "revealing" of new content (which is implemented by having successive slides that are identical except for the parts that are being revealed) will not work. This is one of the main functionalities that I want in my PDF presentations, and I seem to be unable to find any setting that would turn off the animation.

I have tried searching and the results I got were either about general PDF viewers or PowerPoint (etc) presentation apps. Rather than trying all the different PDF/presentation apps there are, I was hoping that someone might already be using their tablet in this manner, and would be able to help me out.

I have also tried ezPDF reader, but I did not find any presentation-style display at all. So my question is this:

Is there any way to do Beamer PDF presentation on Android tablets conveniently?

(3rd-party app is accepted, and ideally it should work with standard bluetooth presentation devices)

I had the same problem and had to try out a bunch of apps. In addition to what  you were looking for, I was also interested in the possibility to add comments during the presentation using the s-pen of my galaxy note. All the apps listed below support full page view, so there are in principle an options for presentations.

Moon Reader Pro

This is an excellent ebook reader. You have to pay for the full version, since the free version wont support pdf display. You can select full-page mode. By default there is no transition effect. You can also annotate while viewing. The pdf quality is very good and I have not seen any lags. Tons of options.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreaderp

Aldiko Book Reader

Also a very good ebook reader that supports pdfs. Very much the same as the Moon reader, but it wont allow annotations. Also Moon reader has more options. The main advantage is that this reader is free. So try this one out first.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aldiko.android

Acrobat Reader FoxIt and FoxIT Mobile PDF lit

Both viewers are fast and allow annotations, but you cannot turn off the page transitions. Very annoying for presentations. Both apps are free.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.reader
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foxit.mobile.pdf.lite

PDF Viewer

This viewer was first slow, but one can change the options such that it performs okay. It has no page transitions, but it wont allow you to annotate. Free.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=the.pdfviewer3


Can you limit data for a number of apps and leave others unlimited? I've got a monthly plan that gives me 100mb of data for use with any app except for WhatsApp, Facebook (messenger) and Twitter, which are unlimited and will not consume my data. Is there a way to limit the cumulative data usage for all the other apps while leaving the other four without a limit?
I've already restricted apps in the mobile data and installed no root firewall, but I'm looking for something more specific that will limit my data consumption when I've hit 100mb with everything else except the apps I mentioned before.
I have an Xperia Z3 running Android 5.1.1 unrooted

There are multiple approaches you could take:

You could restrict background-data for selected apps. That way they can only use your data plan when you're running them in foreground. See: How does “Restrict background data” work?
You could use a Firewall app to block selected apps completely from accessing the internet. Usually those apps distinguish between mobile data and WiFi, so you will have no restrictions on WiFi if you don't want to. Though most of these solutions require a rooted device, there are also several solutions for non-rooted devices, e.g. NoRoot Firewall.

Setting up a "cumulative limit for selected apps" has no easy solution AFAIK. I won't say it's not possible – but still, I know of no such solution.


Have root & external sdcard mounted rw, but mv produced "Permission Denied" I have an old tablet running LNOS 14.1.  It has an external SDCard with some Books, Videos etc.  The card is configured as movable storage.  .android_secure is an empty directory, and though I haven't deliberately installed any apps on the card, it does appear there are some in the Android directory.  I have noticed that though I have root on the tablet, there are things that I can not do via a shell or by ssh'ing in.  I can't look in .androd_secure for instance, but more importantly, though I can copy to the root of the SDCard, I can not copy to any of the subfolders!  I am able to enter and read from the subfolders, as can apps like Kodi and Librara.
I am sure I have root as I set access permission in Developer tools, and multiple apps have caused the OS to produce pop ups requesting root access.  Also, the Root Verifier app reports that I have root.   In addition, Termux and simpleSSHD allow me to su - root, & I am able to do some things with root that I can't otherwise.  eg. without root I can't write to the SDCard at all!  But I still can't do this.
A friend suggested SELinux issues, so I include ls -Z.  Is there a way around this?

# whoami
root

# pwd
/storage/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071

# cat /proc/mounts | grep "/storage/1"
/dev/fuse /storage/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

# ls -la
ls: ./.android_secure: Permission denied
total 5852
drwxrwx--x 12 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-12 01:53 .
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root          100 2020-12-11 18:49 ..
drwxrwx--x  5 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-09 22:56 .Trash-1000
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-10 22:49 AOSP.7.0.Root.Install.amaces
drwxrwx--x  5 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-09 22:04 Android
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-10 04:38 Apps
drwxrwx--x 25 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-06 19:04 Books
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-12-10 22:45 LNOS.14.1.amaces
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw    4096 2000-01-02 12:25 LOST.DIR
drwxrwx--x  3 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-10-25 02:18 TWRP
drwxrwx--x  3 root sdcard_rw    4096 2020-10-29 23:41 Videos
-rw-rw----  1 root sdcard_rw    5294 2020-12-12 01:53 bottled.zip
-rw-rw----  1 root sdcard_rw 5888840 2020-12-11 04:49 org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota_2110.zip

# cp bottled.zip bottled.1.zip

# ls -lZ
ls: ./.android_secure: Permission denied
total 5848
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-12-10 22:49 AOSP.7.0.Root.Install.amaces
drwxrwx--x  5 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-12-09 22:04 Android
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-12-10 04:38 Apps
drwxrwx--x 25 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-12-06 19:04 Books
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-12-10 22:45 LNOS.14.1.amaces
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2000-01-02 12:25 LOST.DIR
drwxrwx--x  3 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-10-25 02:18 TWRP
drwxrwx--x  3 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    4096 2020-10-29 23:41 Videos
-rw-rw----  1 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    5294 2020-12-12 03:26 bottled.1.zip
-rw-rw----  1 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0    5294 2020-12-12 01:53 bottled.zip
-rw-rw----  1 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0 5888840 2020-12-11 04:49 org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota_2110.zip

# mv bottled.zip Videos
mv: bad 'bottled.zip': Permission denied

# cd Videos

# ls -lZ
total 7434136
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw u:object_r:fuse:s0  402069980 2015-07-24 03:56 Hold Fast-15351476.mp4

# mv ../bottled.zip .
mv: bad '../bottled.zip': Permission denied

@IrfanLatif offered a comment that included an excellent link to all the things root can't do.  It turns out, reading a FUSE filesystem owned by another user, is one of them.  Android, will mount a device at multiple places, each with different permissions.  Going to /storage/[UUID], you are visiting a FUSE filesystem.  On the other hand, going to /mnt/media_rw/[UUID], you are visiting the filesystem directly.  There may, in addition, be SELinux permission issues, as described in that link, but in my case those did not appear.
$ mount | grep 1dc31997
/dev/block/vold/public:179_97 on /mnt/media_rw/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071 type f2fs (rw,dirsync,context=u:object_r:sdcard_posix:s0,nosuid,nodev,noatime,background_gc=on,user_xattr,active_logs=6)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/runtime/default/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/runtime/read/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/runtime/write/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/fuse on /storage/1dc31997-9ebf-4573-9c75-3e57793b4071 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)


Use a phone without a screen I have a very peculiar situation/question. Below is my mom's phone, OPPO F5 to be precise. It had a broken screen a long time ago. I removed the broken screen, as it posed threat to my siblings, as it could injure them without us knowing. Then, i decided to buy a new screen from OPPO service centre to fix this problem myself. As it is now a lock down period, most/all service centres are not available. I could wait till the lock down is over, but my question is, can you use the phone, like have the screen displayed/ported to a laptop, by wired means(i have no access to the phone's applications or any other forms, as there is no touch screen to control them), to use the phone, till the lock down is over? The phone functions normally by all means, as you can see from the picture, that there is the notification light is still on. Hey Google is also working partially, as when i say it, there is vibration, but no response by the assistant. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: When i connect that phone to my laptop, it is charging but isnt detected by my laptop as a device.

What you could try doing is flashing a custom recovery onto your phone, then get USB debugging permission using the custom recovery, to then launch a screen control software to control your phone.
Every phone have a different way of installing a custom recovery, I remember Oppo phones need edl to install one, you can search up "oppo f5 recovery custom recovery" to find the custom recovery and install method.
After that, get adb, start adb by adb start-server. Next, reboot into recovery mode, it can be done by doing a button combination.
You can then push a key file in your .android folder when your device is detected as in recovery, if you are on Ubuntu, it is in ~/.android. Push the adb_keys in the folder to /data/misc/adb/adb_keys, use adb push ~/.android/adbkey.pub /data/misc/adb/adb_keys
After that, run all these commands to finish our work:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cd /
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> /system/build.prop

After that, type reboot to reboot to system, you should now be able to use scrcpy to control your screen.


Why is my phone connecting to local restaurants wifi? I have an Android Galaxy S3. I have Norton 360 security. I did a scan last night, and it said I had connected to unsecured networks. One was Walmart, the other the Mexican restaurant across the street. I did manually connect to Walmart once, but I have never connected to the restaurant. I have never even been there.
Why is this happening and how to I make it stop. Thanks!!!!

Go to settings - depending firmware  go to connections - more connection settings - turn off nearby device scanning. I'm thinking that may stop the auto connect you're seeing in Norton


Any way to assign startup apps manually? Is there any way i can set up an app to start at startup? Its a ram boosyer and for some reason it does not auto start....earlier it used to..

Does moving apps to SD card prevent its auto start?

And how can i assign apps mannualy to be "Startup applications"?

Try uninstalling and then re-installing said app - be forewarned though that most RAM boosters / memory cleaners are absolutely redundant in Android. Due to the nature of pre-loading your most used apps in order to give them better latency, there's little to no point of running these memory cleaners. In fact, by running them, you lose a bit of your battery as the OS has to run the processor to select and pre-load other apps.

Yes - moving an app to the SD card usually prevents it from starting up at boot - this is also why widgets or apps that have some sort of notification / reminder / push message need to remain in internal memory.

You can run a script (if you're rooted) or you can use an app like Tasker / Llama to run an app depending on a particular set of conditions.


No notification of new email received on SGN4 lock screen Can anyone please advise on how to activate a function that will allow me to view lock screen notifications when an email is received just as I can with missed calls and sms messages etc.
The only way I become aware an email has been received is by noticing the addition of a status bar icon once the phone has been unlocked.
If it helps I am currently using the stock email client and run with kitkat 4.4.4.
To date I have tried all I can to find this facility but to no avail. Many thanks in advance.

Before you get the Lollipop OTA upgrade, your only option is to use a third-party lockscreen. Some good ones are:

L Lock screen by Lucky Coin
CM Locker by Cheetah Mobile


Android default settings restore without losing data I was wondering if it's possible to restore an android default settings without deleting any data or apps? It's because I buy android tablets then I install my app on it then I sell it back to a customer but I want it to go back when it came out of the box to ask for settings again once the customer turns on the device?

Restoring factory defaults without deleting any apps or data is a contradiction in terms, as that's exactly what the reset does (see: factory-reset).

Could it be you just want your app to survive, but don't care about everything else being reset? That could be done by making the app a system app (see: system-apps), which requires the device to be rooted (see: rooting, root) in the first place.

Apart from that, the answer is "No". As soon as your customer applies a factory-reset, your app will be removed as well.


Using Android Emulator's Root Shell via Command Line When starting an Android emulator (SDK 24.4.1) on linux by command line you should be able to get a root shell by using the -shell command line option. At least that's what the manual says

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-commandline.html
(Create a root shell console on the current terminal. You can use this command even if the adb daemon in the emulated system is broken. Pressing Ctrl-c from the shell stops the emulator instead of the shell)

But when starting the emulator like

emulator -netdelay none -netspeed full -avd nougat-x86_64 -gpu off -no-window -shell

I do see the shell output of the Android emulator booting, but I can not send any commands to it, i.e. ls.

Also opening a tcp port for the shell and communicating via telnet shows the same behavior.

emulator -netdelay none -netspeed full -avd nougat-x86_64 -gpu off -no-window -shell-serial tcp::4444,server,nowait

telnet localhost 4444

There's not much information about this topic on the internet, but perhaps someone already dealt with this topic. Thanks in advance!

From android source, line 698:

seems the '-shell' option is as same as '-logcat' option, thus I think the documentation is not described well and of course the '-shell' option won't bring you an interactive root shell from the virtual serial.

Maybe I'm wrong, I only tested this on MacOS.

With further test, as same as this guy's post, the '-show-kernel' will actually get you the kernel log and an interactive rootable console.


Why can apps access the whole SD card? Is there a technical reason for why apps that only need their own data are not limited to one folder? I do realise that some apps use other apps' data, but I'd be much more likely to install an app that only asked for permission to store files in one, specific folder.

SD cards generally use the FAT file system, which does not allow for filesystem permissions.  This means that the Android OS would have to manage a custom list of files, their permissions, a mapping of apps to files/folders, etc. in order to prevent apps from accessing the whole card.  This would be a terrible mess.  Not only complicated, but it would require a lot of storage space.  And then one day you take out your SD card and remove some pictures, and the entire system breaks.  You get the idea.


Google play infinite login loop I recently changed my Google password, but now when I open Google Play and Gmail, it prompts me for my password and won't accept it. It works in the YouTube app only. I've tried rebooting, but this has been going on for about a week, so I don't think its a google server issue.

Device: NVidia Shield with Android 5.0.1

Just remove your Google account from accounts and add it again. I also had this problem, but removing&adding it again solved it instantly.

It will sync with Gmail, Contacts again, so you should have no problems


Is it possible to install a radio application on Google Pixel 3XL? I want to buy a Google Pixel 3XL but it does not have a radio. Is it possible to install a FM radio application on it anyway?

You can install the FM app but you will not get any signal because there is no chip on the device allowing to receive FM radio signals.

Your only solution is to install apps that stream FM radios such as TuneIn Radio. It offers a list of local (based on countries) and international radios. You can find other apps in the Play store.

If your media player is able to stream online content, you use it to stream radios if they offer online streaming. Create a playlist with the URL of the radio streams, then play them as you would with music. I use VLC to stream radios.


Screen turns black during call after adding SD card I have a Colours X120Q (Shine II) running Android 4.2.1.

Phone calls worked fine before I added a SD card in the device, after which the screen started turning black (shutting off) during calls. This behaviour continued even after I removed the SD card. There are no apparent setting for proximity sensors nor are there any options in the call setting of the phone application.

What can I do other than restoring factory settings?

This is expected behaviour. The screen turns off during a call to prevent you from accidentally pressing on the screen.

I don't know if it possible to turn this off without rooting. It seems on some Samsung firmwares there is an option within the phone app but if you have checked there then I don't think it's possible.


How to create a bookmark with Repligo? I have spent successive days 10-15 minutes at a time searching for how to make a bookmark in Repligo. A feature this basic and essential should be front-and-center in the interface.

Does anyone know how to do this?

When Repligo talks about "bookmarks", it does not mean the "paper clip to remember your last reading position". It rather speaks in terms of PDF specifics, where "bookmarks" are what is commonly referred to as "table of contents" (or in short: TOC), see RepliGo Reader for Android Features. And that's something the creator sets, not the reader.

But the same linked page gives you an idea for a work-around: You can use "annotations". This way you get a kind of "named bookmarks", which should be selectable like those "PDF bookmarks". I cannot say how exactly Repligo handles this, as I don't use it myself. It could very well be that it simply allows to add annotations, but doesn't keep an index for them. So in case you don't really need to change/edit things into the PDF, you might want to take a look at Moon+ Reader Pro for an alternative: This pro version also offers PDF support. And (at least with epub, what I mostly use) it handles bookmarks, annotations, highlights, and other whats-nots quite fine, including an index to look them up, and more.


Terminal app launch and subordinate intents I'm using Tasker to open an app at certain time and state. I wanna open the Run log menu of Tasker at the end of the app launching task.

I know that's no need to flash on screen this log but when I tried, I haven't found a way. I
can only open tasker but not launch a subordinate intent of this app.

Any help about this basic programming question will be appreciated.

Tnx in advance!

This is the description of the Tasker Manifest.xml:

Provided that you have root access, you can use this command to launch the Run Log window:

am start -n net.dinglisch.android.tasker/.RunLog

RunLog activity, without root access however, fails to launch and throws the error:

Permission Denial: startActivity asks to run as user -2 but is calling from user 0; this requires android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL

Perhaps the following attribute, as mentioned in the manifest, is the cause of the issue.

android:exported="false"


Missing "Google Play"app My phone (Nokia XL) did not come with Google Play application. How do i install it (i've already tried with some weird .apk files)? If my phone cant use Google Play can you at least tell me if there is some way i can download the apps on my computer and then send them to my phone through USB.
Thanks

You can't use Google Play unless your phone has installed the Google Play Services to the /system partition, which is only possible through flashing it. (If you don't have root access).

The .apk of Google Play is only for use with phones installed Google Play Services.

The Play Store is the frontend of the Store, which only shows you information and let you interact with the services.
The Play Services are installed at the /system partition (because they need higher privileges to install and uninstall applications). This is the backend of the Play Store (and other Google apps).

Means:
If you don't have the Play Services installed, the Play Store can't do anything.


Many installed apps crash after OTA update to Android 4.2 I had run over the air update from Android 4.1 to 4.2 on my Samsung Grand GT-I9082. It seems to have completed fine (screen with robot and progress bar for a while, then some messages about "optimizing" and "running" applications, then boot).

After update the phone itself works fine, however a lot of third party apps now crash on launch with "Application [name] has been stopped" (loose translation since my phone interface is not in English). It is consistent and specific to the app - either it always crashes or it just works normally. The one slight exception is Chrome which opens and closes immediately, but doesn't give the message.

Clearing cache for the app doesn't fix it
Uninstalling app completely and re-installing does fix it (so far - for those few I did it for)

What else can I try?

At this point I guess reinstalling every crashing app would fix them, but that seems very boring and menial option, not to mention losing settings and data in those apps where it's relevant.

If your device is rooted, and you have a custom recovery installed: Wipe the dalvik cache. Next boot will take a little longer (as the Dalvik cache has to be rebuilt), but the problem should be gone.

If the above is not an option, you could try to backup the affecgted apps and their data using e.g. Helium Backup, then uninstall the apps, and restore them (including their data) from their backup. This way their Dalvik cache would be rebuilt as well, you don't lose your data, and Helium can do that in a batch-process to save you a bunch of clicks.


Root the Samsung Infuse (i997) Does anyone know how to root the Samsung Infuse (i997)?
I have tried two methods already:

Visionary
Samsung One Click Root

Visionary simply doesn't work, while the Samsung One Click Root manages to push the update.zip to the sdcard, but the Samsung recovery rejects it based on signature verification failure, as it is the FroYo supplied recovery.

I am hesitant to try Project Voodoo, because I'm afraid to brick the device with a non-compatible Odin tar image.

SOLVED:

While the rageagainstthecage exploit is not working with the Infuse, you can root it with the psneuter exploit. Easiest way to do it is with the SuperOneClick application.


Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) enable android How do I enable Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) in android?  Essentially in Canada there is an option called "Name Display" that comes with caller id.  There used to be a page here explaining it here but not anymore and archive.org is of no help.

Verizon Only: So it appears this used to require additional software but is now a built in according to this page http://www.cequint.com/verizon/callernameid/

ATT and Tmobile have apps but non are truly caller id.


how to 'cancel' automatic standby while reading? I look for an app/a setting that allows me to cancel/revert (automatic) standby more easily than by pressing the power button.

I think of something like turning off the screen for a few seconds before standby, so i can cancel it by tapping the screen.
Similar like the lock screen kicks in only a few secs after standby.

WHY?
When reading eg. webpages, automatic standby can be annoying. I need  to press power, thats annoying. I don't want to change the standby timeout either.

I don't want an app that permanently allows wake by tap/shake/proximity, as this potentially eats battery and unwanted wakeups.
Also, an app to disable the auto standby is not good, i want the standby to still kick in, eg. If i fall asleep.

If what you want is to keep the screen on while a certain app is running in foreground, there are several apps around which can help you out. I personally use tasker for this (ever since I bought the app years ago) successfully with a recipe that rawly reads:

Condition: App (select the apps concerned)
Task: Display timeout (set higher, or disable it completely)

Done. While my default timeout is something like 1 minute, whenever e.g. I read my RSS feeds it kicks in only after 5 minutes – which is perfectly fine, as if I didn't touch the screen within that time I'm not really reading ;)

If you don't feel like buying Tasker for 5 bucks (it's definitely worth the price: just follow the tag link to see what other uses it might have. Sometimes it feels like every second question here can be answered with "Tasker!"), there are plenty of apps specialized on this, usually having "Keep Screen" in their names.


Has android inbuilt support for zip files? Please try to understand this question carefully before marking this as duplicate.
Do the Android OS has inbuilt support for .zip and .rar files ? I am not asking about any third-party software, because I know that there is a difference between OS support and software support. I am asking this because I have found bootanimation.zip and shutdownanimation.zip files inside /system/media/ folder.

Android does not contain any program-code for reading or writing RAR files.

For ZIP files Android has support for reading/extracting and creating new ZIP files (Android APK app files are ZIP files therefore reading them is required for running Android).

However the functions for handling ZIP files are only available on development level, therefore any Android app can read or create ZIP files.

The only app I know that can handle ZIP files is the default app

Files (com.android.documentsui) which is available by default on a large number of devices (some vendors replace this app therefore it is not available on each an every device). Note that this app is not available in the Google PlayStore.

There are no command-line programs that can handle ZIP files (to be used e.g. via adb)


How to restrict some tracks from playing in 'Shuffle tracks' I have some audio tracks on my phone that I want to be excluded from general music playing.  For example, I have some meditations, which I love, but only want to play them when I explicitly choose them, not during shuffle at a party :p

I've just transitioned from iPhone. In Itunes, there is the option on each song to include in playback or not.

Is there anything like this the music app on Android?

I put all of my non-music files in to their own folders.  I use 'My Files'  to copy a '.nomedia' file from some folder (ie: from anki or whatsapp), and paste it in to the non-music folder.

This stops the media files from showing up in 'Music'.

I then use Mort Music - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.stohelit.folderplayer  to listen to the audio-books and meditation folders.


Leaving phone plugged in all the time? I have a spare OnePlus One that I use for home automation stuff (RM Plugin, Tasker, etc.) I leave it plugged in all the time. Sometimes the phone does get quite hot. Just today, wanting to do more Tasker stuff with it, I noticed that the screen popped out a bit, guessing due to battery swelling.

I'm basically confused what causes what between:

Leaving the phone plugged in all the time
App power management (like sometimes screen was left on, etc.)
High temp
Battery swell

Also, would it be possible to continue using the OnePlus?

Thanks!

You can leave the phone plugged in. Modern phones have advanced charging electronics, that should prevent overcharging and similar problems.

But when the battery is swelling, you should not continue using the phone. It may start to burn or explode. When you still have seller's warranty, use it. Otherwise I would still buy a new one as soon as possible. Defect batteries can be dangerous.


What is the point of archive in the Hangouts messaging app? Is the archive in Hangouts storing the messages somewhere or is it just hiding them from the inbox?

It just hides them from the inbox, which means they aren't copied somewhere else. For more informations check out Google support page here.


Can you use the Nexus 4 without a SIM card? I currently have an iPod Touch, I want to buy the Nexus 4, but don't want to get a plan (SIM Card) for a while. Will the device work like an iPod Touch/ Wifi capable, but no access to data away from Wifi/Call/Text.

Yes - all android devices will work without a SIM card, and can be connected to wifi for an internet connection.

EDIT: Just so people know, there is a setting in the build.prop file that determines whether or the not the device can be used without a SIM or not.

Most of the time this is set to allow it, however in rare cases it may be disallowed.


Moto E (1st Gen) Bootloader Unlocking There was some problem with my 1-yr-old Moto E 1st gen. It got dead and after some time the dead android guy appears with some red-blue thing on its chest. It appears for half a second. I pressed Power+volume Down and menu appeared saying 'Device locked status code 0'

Somehow I unlocked it using Minimal ADB and fastboot. Then it said 'Device unlocked status code 3'. On opening it shows window saying 'Bootloader Unlocked'.

Then I tried to install firmware 'RETAIL-DSDS_CONDOR_KXC20.82-14_cid7_CFC_1FF.xml' flash images whatever they say. But in every command it returned 'Failure' and not 'Okay' as expected. Now phone is at is, with dead android guy appearing since yesterday. Please Help.

I followed steps from here

EDIT : I downloaded another firmware named : RETAILDSDSALL_XT1022_4.4.4_KXC21.5-40_cid7_CFC.xml.zip

Again did flashing but got the same failed(remote failure) in all commands. After that I plugged out the phone and in the fastboot menu it said 'Last time flashing failed'. Now what to do ?

This means your bootloader is not unlocked first you need to go to the sit it gives a code on your mail you have to make sure that you have enabled OEM unlocking in the settings know apply the code in minimal adb and fastboot now flash a recovery and you can flash any rom you want


How to increase call log archive to longer than 30 days? Is it possible to increase the time length covered by call history records? I think it's currently fixed to 1 month, older entries will be deleted by the log rotator. Is this hard-coded?

I know there are some utilities exist to backup / archive call logs, however archiving takes the functionality away from the dialer history. So I take archiving methods under another topic, for an even longer or a permanent call history.

Info: Using Samsung Galaxy S, not rooted, I can root if needed.

You might be interested on applications to backup call logs:

Call Logs Backup & Restore


How to get rid of hovering circular notification shortcut in CyanogenMod? Ever since I installed CyanogenMod, there has been this hovering blue circular notification on top of every application. I don't know what its called so I really can't find a way to disable this. Can anyone help me identify what it is and how to get rid of it? Attached is a screenshot.

Click for full size image

Thanks @eldarerathis the link to the video helped me get rid of it.

To get rid of it, I had to DOUBLE tap the "halo" and move to the X area just as you would when getting rid of apps from the launcher.


How to get rid of duplicates in my telephone agenda? After installing Skype a week ago, my telephone agenda duplicated a lot of contacts, for many of them I have seven duplicates - therefore eight entries for each contact.

After installing WhatsApp, I had this problem too - many contacts had one duplicate.
But after installing Skype, the telephone agenda is a horrible mess. For each such contact, Skype added five or six more duplicated contacts.

I tried to delete one such duplicated contact and I got the message "This contact is read-only. It can't be deleted, but you can hide it." - and below this message I get the buttons "Hide" and "Delete", but I tried the "Delete" button and it works, so it actually can be deleted! Which is really inconsistent.

So the question is: how can I get rid of all those duplicate contacts? (without having to delete them manually, one by one, of course)

On other phones, you can access WhatsApp from the main contact, it doesn't have to be duplicated in order to send a WhatsApp message from the main telephone contacts list.

My phone is Honor 7s.

The Android version is 8.1.0

I am using the Nova Launcher but it acts the same with the Huawei Home launcher too.

in the contacts app, untick the "whatsapp, skype, etc.." from the "contacts to display" options, select "customize" and done!


unable to restore contacts after changing ROM I have changed the ROM on my samsung galaxy Note 2 , i have installed the cyanohgen mod. i need to restore the contacts from my old sansung kies .sbp file backup onto the new CM rom

Open the .spb file in Kies
Select all your contacts and click save as.
In the file name field type whatever you want with en extension .vcf
Copy the newly made file to your sd card
Import from the contacts app


Would google apps for a lower android version work for the higher one? I'm trying to install a custom Rom of android version 6.x. But I installed the google apps for version 5.x.
Would they work fine if I install them together?

Yes, Google Apps for older Android versions still work with the latest version of Android (usually, with Android 6 they need a fix to give them some permissions)

Although they might work, I recommend getting OpenGApps for your Android version for better compatibility and the latest patches.


How can I remove a contact from the "favorites" page of the phone app? The Phone app has a "favorite" page (the title is a star) which contains the contacts you most frequently/recently(or whatever...) called:

I find the contacts that appear there quite irrelevant and even dangerous (e.g. I recently blocked a contact and it still shows up there because said contact continuously called me)

My question is: how do I remove a contact from said page? The menu does not contain any option to remove them, moreover the contacts are not starred in the contact app.

Hold the contact in the favorites page.
Drag and drop it on Remove.

(This may vary for different phone apps. The method above works on AOSP stock phone app)


Problem with device storage, incompleted files take up space I am using Lebovo S860. I have quite a big problem with my device storage. Sometimes I try to move a large file to the device (it has 16 GB built-in memory, no slot) and it fails, but the storage is now taken as if I have 80% of the file on my phone. But since the file is not full - problably temorary somewhere, I can not find and delete it, leaving me with no file and no storage.

Example - I have 3.2 GB free and I try to move a 1.8 GB file to my phone - works well until 90%. Then it says not enough storage and fails, which leaves me with 1.6 GB free memory and no files transferred.

Does anyone know why is this and how to find and delete the temporary files?

Open up settings in your device and go to storage option. Select miscellaneous files and you'll see temporary files sorted by size.
Or install fx file explorer application and set your device storage files sorted by date. Or size! Then you'll see which files have taken your storage.