Browser infected Pop-up Today I opened my mailbox in my new Samsung galaxy J7 and this screen appeared:

  WARNING  Your Samsung galaxy j7's browser is still infected with a
  serious virus! Continue with instructions to fix the phone. Do not close
  this window.**Exit at your own risk.

When I pressed OK, it took me to UPDATE BROWSER, and on pressing 'back' the phone started vibrating crazily! As the alert was from GOOGLE, I decided to go with it and pressed 'UPDATE BROWSER', it took me to a new page sitex.dmtracker001.com, but luckily error 400 appeared and it didn't connect.

The warning and vibration didn't go away until I restarted the phone, but it appeared again after some time and nothing I do makes it go away.

I don't know what to do, please help me.

First - as you  are probably aware now.  You NEVER click on a link from an unknown source. I repeat - NEVER. Next time, just close the window without clicking on any links Second - if you can't figure out which malware app was installed , you need to consider doing a factory reset on your phone to eliminate all threats.   A factory reset will erase the data (Text messages, photos, videos, settings, everything on your phone will be removed in the reset process.).... I would do it anyway just to be certain that I got it all.  You may be able to backup any pictures or video.  The easy way to reset is to go to Settings -> backup and recovery -> Reset Device -> Erase everything.


App Web Links asking for Chrome TOS despite Firefox being default browser Short version:

When I click links in the Reddit Android app, it brings up Chrome. I want it to bring up Firefox, but it doesn't give me the option.

Long version:

I just bought a phone and installed Reddit and Firefox on it. When I click on links in the Reddit web app it brings up Chrome, asking me to accept the Google Chrome Terms of Service. But I haven't used Chrome, I've been using Firefox as my default browser.

I've tried to follow Mozilla's instructions on setting the default browser on my phone, which includes clicking a Clear defaults button, but none of my apps have any defaults to clear. Of my browsers, none has an enabled Clear defaults button. I've painstakingly gone through every app in the phone looking for an app with an enabled button (just in case it was hidden in some "com.blah.blah" app) and found none. The app simply never asks me which browser I'd like to use. It may be the Reddit app itself making a false assumption about the browser availability... anyone care to verify? :)

You can either uninstall chrome or, if this device came with chrome pre installed you can go to settings>apps, search for chrome and disable it.


Nokia 8 does not read contents of SD Card after phone reset Trying to solve the "settings has stopped" issue, I did a full reset, and then another issue came up.

On re-inserting the external SD Card, the Files app (or any file manager) can see the contents, but gallery and music players don't see the media. And on connecting to the PC, the SD card shows only one or two folders, and nothing else.

The SD card is a SanDisk microSDXC Class 10 64GB, which was initially formatted from within the Nokia 8 on first use, as was required for some reason.

Trying out this method oddly did not work, so I went ahead with formatting the SD card from within Nokia 8 once again.

Luckily I had made a backup of everything from the phone memory and from the SD card onto my PC, before I did the full reset.


Where to get OpenSSL binary for Android? I have a Nexus 10 (unlocked & rooted) and I wanted to get the openssl binary on there so I can verify HTTPS certificates:

$ openssl s_client -connect <IPADDRESS>

However, no matter what I do I can't find a simple way of getting OpenSSL on Android so I can run the command above. I found something about 'opkg' but I couldn't get this process working. It was also incredibly complex. There is also an app called "Botbrew", but this project seems dead and doesn't work.

Anyone know how to get OpenSSL binary on my Nexus 10? At the very least, how can I view the certificate chain that Google uses when negotiating SSL handshake for the Gmail app (this is ultimately my goal)?

Thanks.

Your best bet will be to build it from source.

There are a few StackOverflow questions that you might want to reference if you haven't already.

How to use openSSL Library in the ANDROID application

How to build OpenSSL on Android/Linux ?

Openssl Build Issue with Android NDK r8

The first SO has an answer linking to a GitHub project android-external-openssl.  I would suggest trying to work with this code as a starting point.


Change language ICS spell correction (red dotted line) I've upgraded my i9000 to Android 4.0 using CM9. I've found a major annoyance though. I've enabled spell-checking on my phone (the fancy one, with the red, dotted lines), but it appears to be available only in English, and 4 other languages. See this image:

When I switch my entire system language to Dutch, the dotted line just disappears. I've Googled around and learned that Android.com officially states: "For specialized features or additional languages, you can now download and install third-party dictionaries, spell-checkers, and other text services."

However, I haven't been able to find language packs like these. I'm dying for one, and find it hard to imagine that months after the launch of 4.0 not a single language pack has been made.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Much appreciated!

I am currently on Cyanogenmod 4.0.4 and Dutch has been added. I don't know where it came from, but it works like a charm.


Nexus 7 White Vignette For the past few days my Nexus 7 wouldn't turn on.  I just assumed the battery was dead but that seemed strange since the battery usually lasts a lot longer than it had.

Last night I connected it to the USB and charged it overnight.  This morning it still wouldn't turn on, so i followed the troubleshooting instructions from the ASUS site and held down the power button for at least 15 seconds. This worked and my device began to power up, only this time there was something different - something quite noticeably different.

The white vignette is visible the moment the device is powered on throughout the boot screen.  If you look closer, you can also see that there is a fine gradient split down the center of the screen.

The device is still under warrenty so I plan on having it serviced/replaced, but out of curiousity does anyone know what this is and what could have caused it?

The line down the middle points to this being a problem with the screen's backlight. The backlight illuminates the screen from behind: the screen itself is essentially a coloured filter, which you wouldn't be able to see without a light source. From the excessive brightness I'd say it's possible the backlight has been receiving too much voltage from the rest of the system.

This could have been caused by a problem in the drivers for the screen. In normal use, they control the voltage to the backlight in order to make the screen brighter or dimmer, but it could be that in this case a bug made them supply too much voltage. The backlight is actually in two halves, which can be independently controlled (but usually aren't): the line down the middle appears if they're not quite receiving the same voltage.

If the problem went away on its own, there is probably nothing to worry about, but there is a small risk that the extra voltage may have permanently damaged the backlight. Normally I'd expect a voltage regulator to turn it off completely before getting to dangerous levels, but only the manufacturer would know for sure. As it's still in warranty, you should check with them. (They may also be interested to investigate this to avoid the problem happening again to anyone else.)

You say there's still a little whiteness around the edge of the screen when it's on but entirely black: this is normal for backlit LCD screens. It happens because the blackest black the screen can display doesn't quite manage to filter out all the light. The filtering is worst around the edge of the screen because that's where the light comes through at an angle (and on some displays because the light leaks around the outside of the screen). You probably just didn't notice it before because you weren't looking for it.


How can I prevent lag when recording video on HTC Desire S? I have lags after recording and playing back videos on my HTC device. Look at this video capture:

˃ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmOAr476DHc&hd=1

I thought it had something to do with autofocus but it is only available in shoot mode. Maybe it is still active in video capturing mode but without ability to let user change settings so they can only be changed in shooting mode? This happened with stock Sandisk 8GB Class 4 SD card and happens with Sandisk 16GB Class 4 SD card that i bought recently.

HTC Desire S
Android 2.3.3 (stock)

Have you tried using Kingston Class 4? If you can find Class 10, even better!

Source


Creating and flashing image to Android device I have created an image of my Android device (Lenovo A6000) using the command

adb shell -c su 'dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p23 > data.img'

Now I would like to flash this image to the same device, and I am trying to accomplish this using fastboot in the following way

sudo fastboot flash data data.img

I am using the latest version of fastboot shipped with Android's SDK.

Doing the above command I get the error

    target reported max download size of 268435456 bytes
    Invalid sparse file format at header magi
    error: write_sparse_skip_chunk:
    don't care size 4894735982 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
    fastboot: ../libsparse/sparse.c:143:
               write_all_blocks: Assertion `pad >= 0' failed.

I suspect it has something to do with the sizes, the image appears to have size ~5GB while the reported max download size appears to be ~2GB.

But I am not sure what the real error is and how to fix it?

Can someone tell me where the mistake is and how to solve it? It seems that if I make a smaller image I can flash it properly.

Android fsutils (on ubuntu) comes with tools you need. You can also find them on GitHub. You need: simg2img, simg2simg, img2simg, make_ext4fs, and some terminal knowledge.

sudo simg2simg ./data.img ./data.raw.img
This gives you an image that can be mounted on Linux. To mount it, create an empty folder, then issue command...
sudo mount -t ext4  -o loop ./data.raw.img [new_folder_name]/
You can the find all the files in the folder you created. When you're done with the changes you want to make. Use this to make an Android image for fastboot.
sudo make_ext4fs -s -l [size_of_partition_in_bytes] -a data ./data data_new.img
The output will be the file data_new.img. Then you just use fastboot to flash like you normally would.


How do I enable USB tethering without turning off the WiFi? I want to tether my phone's WiFi connection to my computer via USB.

There's a setting for USB tethering, but when I enable it there is a message

  Wi-Fi is turned off when USB tethering or Mobile HotSpot is active. To turn on Wi-Fi, please turn off USB tethering or Mobile HotSpot.

But what's the point of tethering if the Wi-Fi is turned off? I have no connection to share with the computer if the Wi-Fi is not on.

If I turn off the Wi-Fi before I try to enable USB tethering, it shows the message

  Unable to connect

  You need a network connection to use this application. Please turn on mobile network or Wi-Fi is Settings.

So...it needs Wi-Fi to tether, but when I turn on the tether, it turns off Wi-Fi? I don't understand. How do I keep the connection from being turned off when I try to enable the USB tether?

I'm using an HTC One phone.

I resolved this. The solution seems a little bit hacky, but it worked.

I unplugged the USB cable, turned on the Wi-Fi, enabled the USB tether option, then plugged in the USB. When I plug it in, it shows the message

  Wi-Fi is turned off when USB tethering or Mobile HotSpot is active. To turn on Wi-Fi, please turn off USB tethering or Mobile HotSpot.

and then after a few seconds

  USB tethering is ON

If I turn on the Wi-Fi after the first message but before the second message, the Wi-Fi is not turned off automatically and my computer is able to successfully connect.


How big of a speed difference will be noticed with a 100-200 MHz overclock? I am going to overclock my 600 MHz to around 700-800+. Nothing too big of a jump, and don't need any help either. The question I'm concerned about is what kind of performance does this slight speed increase yield?

Will it make any big difference that can be noticed? Note that this is simply overclocking the CPU and changing nothing else with my configuration in idle.

I have heard some argue that raising clock speed alone doesn't really guarantee better performance, since microarchitecture and bus speeds are what determines ultimate performance.

For example, on Super N64 emulator I am getting like 7 frames per-second running Super Mario 64 on my current 600 MHz. Will the increase make any immediate difference? How can this be properly estimated by incremental clock speed, etc.? Will some apps run faster, will more background apps do their job better, will I execute/boot faster, etc.?

Basically, I want to know what to expect within the range of aforementioned clock speed increase.

It's impossible to tell, the effect of overclocking varies depending on the specific software and hardware.

However it likely won't make any notable difference if you're only getting 7fps in a game. Overclocking is highly unlikely to make an unplayable game improved to the point where the game becomes playable, except in very rare circumstances such as with games that have a speed budget to decide whether to frame skip and your phone is just barely below the budget which causes it to consistently frame skips and the extra processing power manages to push it to be consistently below the budget.

  some argue that raising clock speed alone doesn't really guarantee better performance, since microarchitecture and bus speeds are what determines ultimate performance.

Performance is a complex thing, but one thing for sure is that CPU is rarely the bottleneck in many applications. Booting, for example, is IO bound, the bottleneck of booting is how fast it can marshal data from the persistent storage to RAM.

In short, you'll have to try it yourself.


How to prevent notification showing up when an event in my calendar is occurring? When I have an event (mostly meeting) happening, I only touch my phone when I need to do something that serves that event like taking a photo or a note. If someone messages me in Facebook or email, I want to temporarily turn off those notifications until my job is done. I don't want to block the apps or turn off wifi because sometime I need open those apps to get the information I need. I am aware of a lot of blocking notification apps, but all of them are based on a fixed schedule, not automatically and flexibly turning notifications off based on my calendar.

So, in short:

Automatically turning notifications off when an event starts
Automatically turning notifications on when an event ends
Calendar is updated on a regular basis (I use Google Calendar)
Only direct call is allowed

My phone is S4 Mini, with CyanogenMod 4.

Their is a notification program in android already if you are on Android 4.4+

4.4+ ... Hold on the notification and go to app info, Then deselect show notifications

5.0+... Hold on the notification and select hide notifications from this app or notifications like this !

Then manually turn the apps back on again !

The notification manager is in different sections of the settings for each device.. Some it is under display and others it's under privacy (sms reasons)


No Turn-by-Turn Directions on Google Navigation Google Maps gets fairly frequent updates (although I don't use it all that much). But, I have recently had to use it for some travel. I noticed that, where Google Maps used to give directions in this fashion...

"Turn left onto Main Street in 0.2 miles."

...ever since I did an update (no clue which update it was - as I said, I don't use directions THAT frequently) now all it says is...

"Left"

Needless to say, this makes it rather painful to use for direction purposes. What do I need to do to fix this? I Googled around, but didn't find anything. Would appreciate suggestions.

Turns out the issue appeared to be specifically with a Google Maps update. I have received two updates over Google Play since then and the problem appears to have resolved.


Can I "Wipe data/Factory reset" a phone that doesn't even boot via USB? I have a Razr HD (XT925 GSM) which suddenly shut down and can't be turned back on (pressing or long pressing the power button does nothing, nor does connecting it to the wall).

I have a lot of sensible stuff in the phone. I'd like to wipe it before taking it to the repair service but I don't know if it is possible at all. The phone doesn't even show up when connected to the USB port. Is there a way to wipe the on board flash in these conditions?

Knowing that the answer is most probably not, how would you approach the issue? Should I just throw away the phone?

Thanks!

ps: some context. The phone's screen cracked some time ago. For a few months nothing happened. About a month about the phone started rebooting itself about 10 times a day, with no discernible pattern. It just shut down, apparently for good; I had last checked the notifications a few minutes before.

I've seen such an issue before, but it was a samsung device.
I do not have a cookbook solution for you, just some points to check:

Is the powerbutton still working? Did you have issues with buttons before? On the samsung we had to create a special plug from a cable and a 3k resistor. This brings the samsung phones directly to download-mode where you can flash and or reboot.

Is your battery still ok? Can you replace it (quickly exchange with a friend) or is this not possible with your phone type?

Is your charger ok? And the cable? Try another one and leave it on for a while, a dead battery needs a bit of time and very slow charge, before it can go back to normal charging.

Good luck


SMS messages just have "null" Possible Duplicate:
  SMS messages from one contact displayed as “null”

I have a Samsung Galaxy 5.  A coworker sent me a contact from his Nokia phone, which showed up as "null", and now all other SMS's from him also come through only as "null."  I've tried deleting the thread, deleting the contact, turning the phone off and then on... Any help would be appreciated.

J

Try this,

delete his contact

then

Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Select the Messaging App
Choose 'Clear Data' and also 'Clear Cache'.

N.B. you will lose all data / txt msg's in your phone
(don't forget to write their number down to save as new afterwards!)


Emulator 'redir' command unavailable... (?) I am trying to configure my emulator to connect to my WiFi as per these instructions, however, I find that the "redir" command is not available. My emulator is for API version 29, and its image was generated from the AVD manager supplied with version 4.0.1 of Android Studio.
What gives?

The console has to be authenticated first to unlock more commands on the emulator console, including redir.

After connecting through telnet, it will prompt something like this:
Android Console: Authentication required
Android Console: type 'auth <auth_token>' to authenticate
Android Console: you can find your <auth_token> in
'C:\Users\<user_name>\.emulator_console_auth_token'
OK

Browse/open the said file, and note/copy the 16-characters authorization token

Then, enter auth <auth_token>

Afterward, redir and more commands will be unlocked (typing help will show the available commands)


ART makes Facebook app non installable (Error: -24) I have an Android 4.4.2 phone and I enabled ART instead of Dalvik.

When I go to the Google Play Store and try to install Facebook, it can't install the app.

I get two errors, sometimes I get

  Invalid installation package

and sometimes

  Error -24

Is there a way to know what's going on?

I've had this same problem. To fix it I did the following:

Uninstall Facebook,
Wipe dalvik cache via recovery,
Reinstall Facebook,
Reboot device,
Sign in to Facebook.


Detect when an app crashes with tasker and force close it and finally launch it again On my phone the app Bluetooth Share crashes randomly. With Tasker I want to be able to detect that crash, and then force close Bluetooth Share and finally launch Bluetooth Share again. (Or turn on Bluetooth again)

  PS: I already have tasker and I am rooted on CM12.1.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Unfortunately, it's quite not possible. Tasker cannot detect an app crash.

However, we can still do something about it.

Let's first make a profile that does the killing job. It will be executed when the bluetooth goes off.

Profile (name): BTrern

State (Context): BlueTooth Status [ Status:Off ]    (Profile triggers when BT  goes off)
Task:                                               (You can give task a name)

A1: Kill App [ App:Bluetooth Share Use Root:On ]       (Click the + to add these actions)
A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:5 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]       (Wait for 5 seconds)
A3 (optional): [X] Launch App [ App:Bluetooth Share]       (If you need to launch it)
A4: Bluetooth [ Set:On ]     (Turns ON blutooth)`

Note: If killing even with root is not working (there could be some problem with your Tasker or root), you can try the following shell command:

am force-stop packagename

E.g.:

am force-stop com.google.android.apps.maps

Or if that doesn't work:

pm disable
Wait  3 seconds
pm enable

Now, the next question is how to turn off Bluetooth without executing the instructions noted above?

It's quite simple. Make another task.

Profile Status: BTrern → Off
Wait 5 seconds
Bluetooth → Off

Name this task (like BTOFF) and make a shortcut to your home screen.

Now whenever you want to turn off your BT use this shortcut.

Let's make another task that turns on BT as well as the BTrern

Bluetooth → ON
Wait 5 sec
Profile Status → BTrern : ON

Again, use the above two task shortcuts to turn BT ON or OFF.

You can also use a scene or a widget to make it even easier once you have acquired enough knowledge with Tasker..

OLD

I do not quite understand what you mean by Bluetooth share, but I would presume you mean the activity opened by Share → Bluetooth. May be a pic or two would help.

Instead of finding a way around, first try fixing it by:

Using a Log tool like catlog. (Open catlog → set it on Error, let the crash occur and then open catlog again and save the log.)
Searching for it. You haven't provided any info about your Android model so you might have to do it yourself.

In case those doesn't work, we can use Tasker. I believe the crash will occur within few seconds of opening the activity. We can use this to our advantage.

TRIGGER ON: (When Bluetooth Share activity opens)

If (Bluetooth Share activity close) AND (qtime < 5 sec)

start (Bluetooth Share activity)

else (goto 1)`

Here, qtime is a local variable which stores for how many seconds the task is running. You can find that in Help section of Tasker.

Also you can use Tasker Process Running (KC) for the required process.

Second Method:

Instead of that, it's much more easier to make a  Scene instead of that.

Just make a small box with one button in it which will execute the activity.  Keep it non - intrusive.
Scene1:

Kill Bluetooth Share process
Start Bluetooth Share process

TRIGGER ON: (When Bluetooth Share activity opens)

Create Scene1

If (Bluetooth Share activity close)

wait 5 seconds
destroy scene1

With this, there will be a small overlay when you open Bluetooth Share. If it crashes you can easily execute your kill and start command. And if it doesn't crash, the scene will get automatically destroyed after 5 seconds.

May be Bluetooth File transfer can help.


google.com redirected after xpressconnect installed I'm using Android 2.3 on Nook Color (ROM CyanogenMod). I installed xpressconnect to connect to the wifi network of my school, and successfully configured it. I can access the internet normally. However, when I go home and use my home wifi, all web addresses work, except *.google.com. Every time I go to *.google.com, it gets redirected to the configuration web page of my school, and it's permanent (not because of the cache). So all google services on my nook are not working. I checked /etc/hosts and it's empty. I don't know how to fix this problem. Will I have to factory reset my nook?

I fixed the problem by the following steps:

Clear data of the xpressconnect app, then uninstall it.  This step alone didn't fix the problem.
Reboot my nook to recovery mode, and clear/wipe the Dalvik cache.
Restart.

To start fresh, I also clear the cache of all my web browsers.


Using HTC Duo cameras to calculate distance Since my One M8s has two cameras, it should be possible to calculate how far away any object in view is. I can't see any way to do this within HTC's built-in apps, but I know they released an API for using the Duo camera capture and processing. So has someone already made an app that uses this? I don't want an app that calculates based on the person holding it and pointing towards the ground, because I want to measure to objects above me.

have you tried any of the measuring apps on play, They might have a dual camera support..

Most of them calculate your height and the distance it takes to reach the ground using the gyroscope

but i haven't heard of one for dual cameras.. It means you would have to manually configure the distance between cameras on every individual device .. It would be a nice app to see in development but it'd be a very small customer base to make an application around, considering the device compatibility wouldn't be very extensive !


Nexus 5 crashing regularly after Marshmallow update After upgrading to my Nexus 5 to Marshmallow, I find myself experiencing crashes regularly. The phone screen will go black, and attempts to restart will make it to the home screen for a few seconds before the screen goes black again (regardless of power levels). The only way to restore normal functionality is to hook the phone up to a charger, at which point it will boot without issue.

I have tried clearing up disk space, which did not seem to help. I have tried doing a factory reset (the one via "Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset"), but that also does not seem to have stabilized the environment any more. It doesn't happen at regular intervals, nor does it always happen with the same app. I have noticed that it often happens while I am using SuperCell apps (CoC or Boom Beach), but that my be correlation rather than causation. It has never happened while my phone is plugged in.

All this said, anyone have ideas on what may be causing it or diagnostic steps to take? I tried looking for logs, but haven't found much. Could also be a hardware issue and the update is a red herring, but thought I would ask those with more knowledge before writing my phone off as lost.

You could try flashing the stock images available on Google Developers. The process is detailed on the same page. The flashing procedure involves removing the system from your phone and installing a brand new partition, hence any issues due to a faulty installation are rectified.


how to stop auto login on Skype for Android Please help me to stop auto login in Skype. There is an account that is always login again and again, although I chose to logout and sign in with another Skype name. I tried on Settings/applications/Skype to kill the account and to quit synchronise, but still whenever I open Skype again, I'm logging in automatically.

In the current version (5.7) you need to follow these steps:

Sign out (click on your avatar and then choose "sign out")
Go to the Android application manager, find Skype, then click "Force Stop".


How to Emulate hardware menu button I have the Sound Manager app . The app dates back to Android 2.2 and needs a hardware menu button  press to launch its menu .

Can I emulate the hardware menu button on my KitKat 4.4 device , so that I can see the menu?

Apps that could either customize the navigation bar or generate another way of navigation would get it done; however, I've yet to seen one emulating MENU key without requiring root permissions.

LMT Launcher is the app of this type I've been using - it hides a pie-shaped control tray into the edge(s) of your screen that you can activate by swiping from the edge, and contains not just regular navigation keys like BACK, HOME, MENU but also custom keypresses (e.g. POWER) and actions.


How to flash CyanogenMod with external SD card? I messed up with the OS and now my phone can only boot to Clockworkmod and download mode.

How to flash the phone since Clockworkmod "install from zip" option can't read the external SD card?

My device is a Samsung Galaxy S.

Summing up from the comments:

There are multiple possibilities. While not all of them might work, you still might give them a try:

Narayanan writes: Some device can be flashed by booting through Goldcard. Read many questions that are related and find with Google how you can prepare a GoldCard for your device.
According to Lie Ryan, this will not be feasible for you, as it only applies to some HTC devices.
Recommendation from ce4: adb shell mount -t tmpfs none /sdcard then adb push update.zip /sdcard/. After that you can install the update regularly (Maybe you need to enable adb first in the settings. This procedure creates a temporary tmpfs filesystem at /sdcard. You use it to just-in-time upload your update to it via adb, CWM won't notice that it's not the regular sdcard which is mounted and will be fine)
This should work fine for you, provided you have USB debugging active or are at least able to activate it.


Nexus 4, Lollipop 5.1 WiFi Issue My Nexus 4 device stopped connecting to the Cisco router at work for some reason.  I thought it was because the upgrade to lollipop 5.0 (had Kit-Kat before) but I'm not so sure anymore.

I tried:

Restart the device
Restart the device with safe mode
Restart the router
Change the device WiFi frequency settings
Use static IP at the advance WiFi connection configuration
Forget the router AP and reconnect
Factory reset trough the device settings, recovery mode and complete flashing the Android Lollipop 5.1 factory image.

After factory reset I had the connection possible until restarting the device.
I checked with/without signing in, nothing new installed, didn't visit the store, just super clean phone - I could connect the network. after restarting the phone I can no longer connect which means it's not an application issue.

Some facts:

I can connect other Cisco routers at work
Another Nexus 4 after factory reset connects with no trouble

About the device:

Nexus 4
Lollipop 5.1
build number LMY470
kernel version 3.4.0-perf-gf75bb4f

Any suggestion will be welcome, please let me know if I can provide more details.

Some sites recommend to restart the router device, and sometime it works.
Instead of every time restart the router to solve this Android 5.1 Wi-Fi problem, it worked for me:

Inside the router configuration (e.g., accessing the IP 192.168.0.1), change the "Group key update" value from 0 to 30 seconds, under the "Wireless > Security" configuration, right below the WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK item.

My router model is: TP-LINK TL-WR740N / TL-WR740ND.


What is "PMEasyView"? I got a little toast pop up just now saying "hello world, PMEasyView!" I just woke up my phone, was in the SugarSync app. I haven't recently installed anything except from the Android Market and Amazon market; nothing named like PM Easy View.

The wording sounds like something I would have written in a development Android app. I don't see any unusual running processes or apps, so I'm wondering if it's dummy code from a real app I own, but I was hoping someone knew for sure. I'm having Lookout scan my phone now.

All I found on this topic was this thread which has no answers.

The system app, PerformanceManager.apk has the line Hello World, PMEasyView! in the resources.arsc file. This does not appear to be malware, just a mistake that this appears to some users with the Motorola Task / Performance Manager.


Removing the Chinese text "未写入google key和tee key" watermark on the screen After flashing a custom ROM, there is a watermark in the top-right of the screen saying

未写入google key和tee key

I've googled it and have tried several of the solutions suggested, but none have worked. Interestingly, most people get a slightly different variation of this message, in red.
I've removed "FactoryTest" from my phone, but do not have com.mediatek.factorymode as some have suggested. I've messed around with my IMEI keys, this did not help. The message also still appears even with the SIM card removed.
Where on the phone could this be stored? My phone is rooted, so if I could locate the file responsible, I could easily delete it.

Download Minimal ADB and Fastboot on the computer

Plug in the phone into the computer, but keep the phone on

On the computer, open the terminal/command prompt

Enter these commands
adb devices
adb shell
pm list packages
pm uninstall --user 0 com.mediatek.factorymode

Restart the phone and the watermark will be removed


External keyboard and ESC key on Android https://www.logitech.com/en-hk/product/k580-multi-device-wireless-keyboard

This bluetooth keyboard (probably many others) has the back tick ` and Esc keys on it. Will these ` and Esc work on Android Apps such as Termux with Vim? Linux on Dex?

I think External Keyboard Helper Pro is an app that can help with this as well browsing the Play Store.

Yes it will work.if virtual keyboard with /`` and esc` worked then why not hardware keyboard worked it will work.


What is the difference between application cache and data? Every app has data and cache.

In Android, what is the difference between the two?

App developers decide what information to be kept in "data" and what to be kept in "cache".

Usually, "data" is used for account info, settings, saved activity data, game scores, and whatever is need to be kept permanently. Clearing data will make your app "forget" everything like you have reinstalled it.

"Cache" holds all information and files that can be retrieved somehow (from the internet, or other way). For example social apps can cache all your feed data (photos, comments, and so on). Clearing cache may lead your app to reload all the lost (and necessary) data from it's original source. It shouldn't make your app behave bad.


Is there a way to disable notification for whatsapp except from specific people? Someone told me there's a way to disable all notifications from whatsapp except for messages from specific people. How can I do this? (I own a Pixel 3)

The only way to achieve it is the following:

Open WhatsApp
On the main screen, long-press to select a contact
After the first contact is selected, tap on all the contacts you don't want to receive notifications from. You will have to select the contacts one by one because there is no "Select all contacts" button (if there are hundreds or thousands, then good luck selecting them)
Press the muted speaker icon. A pop-up will appear asking for how long the contacts should be muted. Select the time (don't enable "Show notifications" just in case).

The selected contacts will be muted, their notifications won't be shown except only those that were not selected. Note that if a muted contact calls, you will still receive the notification.


Samsung GT B5330 won't turn on My Samsung GT B5330 doesn't want to power on. I charge it and when I try to turn it on it just vibrates (short vibration) and doesn't start. I let it charge for 2 hours and then it still did not start. What should I do?

I suggest you take it to a repair shop, as it sounds like a hardware issue.

Most likely something has happened to the hardware, and the device will no longer power on.

You may also want to try removing the battery for a while, and then reconnecting it.


How to get started with Droid Explorer I've downloaded de.zip and unpacked it, although it came up with an error about something wrong with the header.
Now I have a folder with lots of things, but I have no clue how to get this app started. It doesn't look like a Windows program. I have no experience installing something on other platforms. Which platform is it meant for? Can someone please send me a link with installation info for that platform?

Keen to get started investigating the contents of a backup.ab file.
Many thanks!

I liked this program for a long time. Once installed, but over time it stopped working. The reason is the SDK update !!!!!!!!!
DroidExplorer.0.9.0.4 does not work with the new SDK at all.
But you can set the Android SDK path manually in Windows Registry. On Windows 10 64bit you have to edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\DroidExplorer\InstallPath

Keep in mind that afterwards you should NEVER UPDATE SDK FROM THIS PROGRAM!
If you do as I use symbolic links in addition to critical files, then updating the main SDK will update the Droid Tools files.
But you can’t update sdk from the program anyway!


I have a galaxy S3 and want to copy the data from my sdcard to my nexus 6 without a PC any ideas? My Asus laptop is caput and I would like to get the SD card data onto the nexus 6, any idea maybe direct cable between both phones?

You could try Airdroid which allows you to transfer files from your device to your laptop(and vice versa) via Wi-Fi and then transfer them to your Nexus.


Rooting Samsung Galaxy sDuos s7562 I followed the steps mentioned in the link below:

http://www.androidrootguide.com/2014/01/root-samsung-galaxy-s-duos-s7562.html#comment-45216

I got an error on step 13, where we need to install SuperSU from recovery mode,

while installing the Update-SuperSU v1-1.80 (which i downloaded from http://download.chainfire.eu/370/SuperSU/) it gives the following error message:

— Install /sdcard– Finding update package… Opening update package… Verifying update package.. E: failed to verify whole-file signature E: signature verification failed Installation aborted.

android android-resources samsung-mobile

Sounds like you are using the Stock Recovery. In which you won't be able to flash the SuperSU that you downloaded because it will not pass the signature validation.

You will need a custom recovery, or some other way to install SuperSU as a system app on the device.


Stop screen from dimming while on charger How can I stop the screen from dimming when my phone is charging? (the same thing the screen does when it's about to turn off).

Note that my screen already stays on, but it gets darker after an idle period.

Nexus 6P, stock Mashmallow.

I achieved this using Tasker. I created a Profile that, when plugged in, activates a task that sets the display timeout to a huge value. I accompanied it with an exit task that sets a normal-length display timeout.


Copying SD card to disk My trusty old 16GB micro SD card that has been with me through 4 phones is finally full. So I figured no biggie; I'll just buy a new (64GB) card, copy all the files down to my PC (which has no card reader, just USB ports), then up to the new card.

The issue I'm having is that copy step. I have the card in a Note4, connected to a Windows 8 PC via USB. I can see the card, but if I just try to drag-and-drop copy folders to my PC, it invariably ends with a dialog saying:

"A device attached to the system is not functioning".

I'm guessing its on largeish files, as I've noticed .mp4's in particular will just cause Windows explorer to go out to lunch and never come back when I try to copy them individually.

It seems like this ought to be the simplest thing in the world to do. What am I missing?

Sometimes you can not move files like this using USB. I have faced this issue there are two solutions for this:

1.You can use external card reader and then make copy.

Instead of Drag and Drop open your sd-card window and location where you want to put the files. Then Select folders->copy them and without closing the window paste on the destination.


How to share clipboard between BlueStacks & host Windows PC? I want to paste texts copied from host Windows PC to apps inside BlueStacks & vice versa. How to do this?

I am running BlueStacks beta-1...

Today, I installed Clipper Plus in BlueStacks and I noticed that its already storing clips I copied in Windows. I have also tried to copy a text in BlueStacks and paste in Windows. It has confirmed that clipboard has already been shared between BlueStacks & Windows. Great...

Either this feature has been pushed recently or I didn't notice it without Clipper Plus. I tried to paste using Ctrl+V in BlueStacks which still doesn't work. Do paste with proper method: Long-click & choose Paste from menu.


VPN software to connect to a Remote Access Server I have a Galaxy S2 from Virgin Mobile. My home network is Windows Server 2012. I'm using RAS to connect to my home network from other locations on a Windows 8 laptop. I have several SharePoint sites within my home network that I'd like to test from my phone. Most of the software I find on Google Play when searching VPN is to mask my browsing history or act as a proxy server. I'd like to VPN into my network from my phone.

I also have a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 wi-fi router, but I'd rather only use that if it's my only option. Doing some searches seems to say that Android is not supported for that router anyway.

What free or paid software can I use that doesn't require my phone being rooted?

If my only option is to root, what's the best ROM for my phone?

Then..

What free or paid software is best for a rooted phone?

Thanks!

I found that using the native VPN client on Android is sufficient for this (I have 4.1.2).  From the home screen, hit menu, settings, more settings, VPN, Add VPN network, put in the host name / ip address of your RAS.  Default is PPTP, which worked for me, you will be prompted to enter your domain credentials.

Currently, I am going to try to the Paranoid Anroid ROM for my phone.  http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/orig-development/rom-paranoidandroid-4-2-beta3-t2603784  Running stock now.  Phone is getting old.  Hopefully this will extend it's usable life.


Is there a way to revert an android version update without flashing a ROM? I'm not very familiar with the Android system, but I recently updated my phone from 5.0.1 to 5.1. Unfortunately, one of the games I play doesn't support 5.1 yet, so I would like to revert to 5.0.1. From what I've read online, the main way to do this seems to be to flash a ROM on your phone, which, as I understand, is similar to factory resetting your phone with an older factory image. The problem with this is that it seems it would also delete the game data.

Is there any way to revert back to version 5.0.1 without this process?

There's no sort of "rollback" feature on Android. Due to device space limitations the old OS image is not kept around.

So to downgrade you'd have to flash. It's not necessarily the case that you'll lose your data when doing this, but it depends what the ROM's updater script does and whether the ROM will work with the data left by the previous version (you might need to manually factory reset, which is generally recommended before flashing). As Andrew noted in the comments, unlocking your bootloader will wipe the device so if you need to do that to flash then you're out of luck. As such it is always recommended that you do a backup before flashing.


Do Android phones require a data connection to work? I'm looking at buying a new phone, the oneplus one specifically(pre-orders open again November 17) and my current phone plan I do not have data, just calling and texting, and I was wondering if the oneplus one works without data and I could just use wifi, or if I would need to purchase a data plan for the phone to work. so it would be as simple as putting the sim card from my current phone into the oneplus one and done? all help is appreciated, thanks.

No. You don't need a data connection plan to use OnePlus One or any android phone for that matter. Calling and texting will work irrespective of internet connection.
However, having a data connection will be useful if you want to use some apps on the go.


When Abroad, How To Stop Annoying "Cellular Network Not Found" Popup Prompt? "Cellular Network Not Found" is that annoying message I get when out of range of my carrier, but what will I do if I am abroad and don't plan on using roaming? I don't want this message popping into my face every 10 seconds. How will I use phone's camera if this annoying message will keep on persisting? Switch "Airplane Mode" you say? Well what if I decide to access internet through Wi-Fi? Still I will probably see this popup.

Is there a way to disable annoying message without enabling "Airplane Mode" still being able to take camera shots and surf the internet?

HTC Desire S
Android 2.3.5

On most phones you can still enable Wi-Fi while in airplane mode. In fact, many airlines now have Wi-Fi in flight. Airplane mode might be a more viable option than you think ;)


how can I tell if someone has read text message? Does delivery report mean that the person reads the message on android phone?

No, delivery reports generally just tell you that the message has been delivered and is sitting on their phone. It does not necessarily tell you that they've been read. There isn't a way to tell if its been read as far as I know.


Is it possible to disable vibration for the notifications only (Android 6.0)? I would like to have vibration for calls and touch events.
Is it possible to do this in Android 6.0? (It was possible using Android 5.0.)

Phone is SM-G900F, OS: CM-13.

Yes, but only on an individual application basis.

Got to the application settings and turn this option on.

Click image for larger version


Trigger Setup Wizard at next boot using command-line I am looking for a way to use ADB to trigger Setup Wizard at next boot. I know I can run the following command and get it to pop up. However, I can't figure out what triggers it to start at boot.

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivity

The phone I am currently using is stock and I would like to keep it that way.

I've read the  question:
how to re-enable first time setup at next boot?

Note: This solution:

requires a rooted Android;
is tested on Android 4.4.2, Vanir (Android 5.1.1) and on an unofficial CM13 build;
requires adb setup in PC.

Following are some screenshots serving as a proof:

(Click image to enlarge)

Note that you cannot replicate those images by issuing that shell command, because the test activity you would run would hide all the icons in the left of status bar and even time in my ROM.

Here are the instructions I followed:

Find the disabled components. Do:

adb shell dumpsys PACKAGE

Replace PACKAGE with package name of Setup Wizard app. Often, it would be a setup wizard from Google with package name com.google.android.setupwizard. Package name of CyanogenMod's setup wizard
is com.cyanogenmod.setupwizard. If it has GApps installed, then use package name of Google's setup wizard. If none of the package name works then this resource may help: View app's full package name?

This step inter alia provided me a list of components of that app currently disabled. Here is a relevant excerpt under the heading Packages: from the output of the said command:

User 0: installed=true hidden=false stopped=false notLaunched=false enabled=0
  disabledComponents:
  com.google.android.setupwizard.account.RestoreServicee
  com.google.android.setupwizard.carrier.MobileDataActivity$HfaChangeReceiver
  com.google.android.setupwizard.util.SetupWizardAdminReceiver
  com.google.android.setupwizard.SetupWizardActivity
  com.google.android.setupwizard.util.GservicesChangedReceiver
  com.google.android.setupwizard.carrier.MobileConnectivityChangeReceiver

com.google.android.setupwizard.SetupWizardActivity is the main and default activity of that app. Although the app has requested the permission android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED, strangely, there is no receiver declared in the manifest to receive android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast. My guess is that the property user_setup_complete alone is used for the purpose of launching that app.
Whatsoever the disabled components shown in your command's output for User 0 are, simply enable all of them for the same user. The simplest way is to use pm command.

adb shell
su
pm enable PACKAGE/COMPONENT

An example to enable a component:

pm enable com.google.android.setupwizard/com.google.android.setupwizard.carrier.MobileDataActivity\$HfaChangeReceiver

Note: It is not clear to me why but when I tried to enable the components using an app (say X), they were disabled automatically once I exited the X app. So I recommend you enable the components using the command-line and refrain from interacting with screen at all costs.
Get the property name:

adb shell 'content query --uri content://settings/global | grep -e "setup" -e "complete"'
adb shell 'content query --uri content://settings/secure | grep -e "setup" -e "complete"'
adb shell 'content query --uri content://settings/system | grep -e "setup" -e "complete"'

One of the commands must return output containing either the key user_setup_complete or, as Andrew T. noted, setup_wizard_has_run.

Once you have the key, do:

adb shell settings put secure KEY 0  # replace KEY with the key noted above.

Do adb reboot for full reboot or adb shell su -c 'setprop ctl.restart zygote' for soft-reboot or reboot ordinarily as you would and there you would have the Setup Wizard app waiting for interaction after reboot is completed.


A3000 chinese mobile - Dual-SIM or Dual-GSM support since Android 2.2 (again?) My question topic is Android support for dual SIM hardware. More specifically I'd like to find out if it's the Android 2.2 release that added support for real dual SIM and dual GSM support, and to which extend both cards are online or usable as data channel.

A question about https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/865/dual-sim-android-phone already came up here, but it didn't investigate the issue completely. And the mentioned mobile (Tiger G3) was also most likely incorrectly reported as Android phone. From all pictures I've seen it's a regular chinese MTK/NucleuOS phone.

I want to base my question on the STAR A3000 as hardware example. It's verified that it is really running Android, and dual SIM capabilities seem very plausible:
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=A3000
I'm linking to a search listing and not a shop or review directly to avoid the impression of spamvertizing. It's also a more long-lived link that way. But foremost I want to highlight that there are two hardware versions. The original A3000 runs Android 2.1 and offers no dual SIM capabilities. All newer listings advertise both Android 2.2 and dual SIM support.

The trouble with chinese mobiles and resellers is that not all details are super reliable. You'll have to cross check multiple sources, and better assume the lowest common denominator. In the above shop search some Android 2.2 dual sim A3000s are for example still depicted with the original hardware version. I've seen a few images (and there's a youtube video) with the dual sim slots, so I presume this verified. There's also a rumor (on dealextreme) that both hardware versions are identical and there's just a black cover above the second sim slot for the first version (looks plausible from pictures). So that's why I assume that Android 2.1 didn't support such features, and the Android 2.2 kernel maybe introduced it.

The hardware in this phone most likely supports not only dual SIM, but dual GSM. This means that both SIM cards are connected the whole time, to two different networks. All previous MTK chips and mobiles support that.
However I've seen one picture of the A3000 Android 2.2.1 version which shows a configuration screen with an option along the lines "[x] Select SIM card at bootup". This would suggest that it's not a real dual-GSM setup, but just dual-SIM - which only allows switching. Yet all the listings from my first link suggest that the phone and Android is "dual sim dual standby". So I'm confused.

Back to the question: Did Android 2.2 introduce proper support for dual-GSM? I know none of the big brand vendors supports anything like that, so it must be a fringe feature, maybe not even in the OHA documentation. Any chance something like this was mentioned in some sort of release notes? (Really I have no clue, no Android phone yet, still gauging.)

My main interest is keeping my main phone number, and using a secondary SIM and contract for data connnections preferrably. Or the other way round.

Another note. I know there was also the General Mobile DSTL1 once, which was the first (and for a long time only) Android 1.5/1.6 phone to advertise dual-SIM. I don't know to which extend it supported real dual-GSM functionality. But it's interesting that old Android versions allowed it. So I'll extend my question into why no Android 2.0 and 2.1 phones with dual-sim existed. Did the feature possibly come and go twice in Androids lifetime?

A3000 is a real dual standby Android phone. It allows selecting a SIM when you call or send an SMS. And also you receive calls to any SIM. When you talk to one SIM, the second shows busy too. I've just got this phone (this morning) from alibaba.com and now I'm testing it.
Hello from Siberia :)


Tap on Picture in MMS and a different picture opens up? I will receive a picture in an MMS on my Lg Thin Q.  When I tap on the picture to enlarge it a completely different picture associated to the person who sent this one opens up.  Any suggestions on how to correct this?

It is a known bug with the MMS in SOME LG smartphones where the older version of “Messages” app is installed. Previously deleted MMS picture shows up in newest incoming MMS message instead of the intended image due to this bug.

You can fix it by updating the "Messages" app to the latest version.

Source: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/support/product-help/CT30014940-20150929584034


Android Studio says: "No device connected" yet I already tried many possible solutions Running Windows 7, and I have just downloaded the latest Android Studio version, and started a project. Now I'd like to test the application on my device but Android Studio says on the bottom left "No devices connected". I've tried a couple of things such as:

Updating my Samsung S6 edge drivers through device manager, which were updated now.
Have debugging mode turned on and USB debugging mode on.
Ran adb devices command to list devices but none show up.
Downloaded new universal ADB drivers.
Toggled between MTP and PTP modes.
Restarted computer/phone/Android Studio/ADB tens of times.
Deleted phones drivers from device manager and installed again.
Re-installed Android Studio.

I'm at a loss as of now. How do I fix this issue?

Windows 7 doesn't always detect the android device connected as an interface for adb. If your Samsung drivers is not detecting the phone you have a few choices:

Try reinstalling the Samsung android drivers. Might be a good idea to
remove the universal android drivers but I don't have that problem
with my Windows 7 machine.
You can mod the inf of the universal driver with your device's VID and PID by adding it if it's missing (which it possibly is missing
since it's not a nexus/google device). Then use Device Manager and
point your device to that driver to use and install.
Remove the Samsung android driver and the universal driver. Then install Samsung's Smart Switch app, which will install the latest
Samsung android driver.

If you are committed to using the universal android driver, then you need to make sure you have the latest updates with the Android SDK Manager. If your tools are out of date or not the latest your tools may be out of sync with the platform it's trying to connect to.


Music files not showing in stock player with Galaxy Y When I open the gallery in my Galaxy Y it shows no items. Also when I open my music player it shows no tracks.

I think it is a system error. If I try to play music using PowerAmp it shows all the tracks in library -- but the stock music player doesnt.

What could be wrong here, and how can I get it fixed?

Check first your microSD card if it is properly mounted and most importantly have .mp3 in your Music folder.

I had far too many instances where others copied only the shortcut of the mp3 file to their folder, then came looking for me telling that their phone does not detect the music.

The folder where your music is stored also must not have a .nomedia file present or all files will be ignored.


What are options for power button I have Moto E (2nd Generation Android version 5.0.2) .I use power ON/OFF button to lock the smartphone phone or to go into the sleep mode.
Due to frequent use of power ON button, the switch is not working properly.It needs to press it long and hard.

So are there other options available except power button

1.To lock the smartphone

2.To make smartphone go into sleep mode.
and

3.To turn ON the smartphone.

You can use apps like.   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.enlace.doubletap

For sleep or wake this app works pretty well but I don't suppose if it's ever possible to power on the phone with an app installed in it and phone is switched OFF.


ASUS fonepad 7 (K00Z) is giving an Upgrade. But is the new firmware safe to install? I would like to know how safe is this upgrade? 'Cause I've heard many people ended up bricking their tablet after upgrading the firmware (like the gentlemen in this forum). So, I would like to know is the upgrade safe?

Also, what am I going to gain with this upgrade? What enhanced features does Kitkat has that Jellybean doesn't?

I contacted ASUS support and they replied that the upgrade is optional. I did it anyway but didn't find any noticeable performance improvements/changes.


USB File Transfer difficult on Cy10.2 ATT GS2 Skyrocket Okay so I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket (ATT) and I just upgraded the firmware from the the stock ICS to Cyanogenmod 10.2-20131214-SNAPSHOT-InstallerWPPQ50S-skyrocket.

When I try to transfer files via USB, it doesn't just connect the way it used to, it tries to do the MTP or PTP thing. So I've tried using both of these. PTP doesn't work at all, but I didn't really expect it to since it didn't seem like what I was looking for.

MTP I thought would work and it kinda does, but it's very buggy. For example I tried to transfer some music files over and it was terribly slow and it would periodically just stop working mid transfer. It was even worse when I tried to move some large pdf files over because sometimes it would crash before even finishing one (100 MB or so). I was wondering what might be causing this instability.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This doesn't directly answer your question, but you could use an FTP app instead, an app which runs an FTP server on your phone that you then connect to over your local network using a client such as FileZilla on your desktop machine?

(This is how I transfer files to and from my own Android device, the USB is just too slow and unreliable)


Installing custom ROM in Android studio AVD Is there any way for installing a custom ROM in Android studio Android emulator?
I have Resurrection Remix Naught 7.1 ROM downloaded on my computer.
In Android studio, I didn't found any option for choosing downloaded ROMs.
Please help....

It is very unlikely that regular custom ROMs will work in the emulator:

For the android emulator special device drivers like display and other fake drivers/services (e.g. for telephone, GPS with is usable but there is no GPS chip) are needed. Regular custom ROMS don't contain those drivers and therefore can't be loaded in the emulator.

If you want an adapted ROM for the emulator you need an image that bases on the AOSP emulator image.


Exporting call records with phone call recordings from Mega Call Recorder Advanced app This is a long-shot, but I really hope someone can help.
I was using the Mega Call Recorder Advanced Android app to record phone calls for quite some time.  Its official package name was com.callrecorder.procallrecorder and the developer's name was MEGA Clip.
Although I still have the app installed, it disappeared from the Play Store a while back.  I'm not sure why, as it worked quite well.  I did notice that its UI is very similar to many other call recording apps, and so I wonder if perhaps it was based on another project.
At this point, I have many GB of recorded calls stored by this now-defunct app.  The calls are stored in standard MP3 format, and the filename of each is the timestamp of the call.  So far so good.  The big issue is that the filenames do not indicate the phone number (or contact name)  of the caller (for incoming calls) / call recipient (for outgoing calls).  That data is visible in the app's UI, but I don't see any export function.
I want to backup all of this app's data and have the backups in a usable format.  To do that, I need to somehow have a record of which contact (or at least phone number) each recording is associated with.  Ideally, I would like the MP3 filenames themselves to include that essential information.
I'm hoping someone will have a good idea of how to proceed, or perhaps recognize the UI and know of another app that can perhaps export the data.
I have a strong hunch that there are other call recorder apps out there that are based on the same code.  Someone even wrote a review on the Google Play store noticing the same thing (see last screenshot below).  Perhaps one of those apps has a good export function and could read the data files from this app.
Here is what the app looks like (screenshots courtesy of the Google Play store), as well as other relevant screenshots:

The application keeps a copy of the database with calls logs in the folder where the call recordings are stored (/sdcard/CallRecorder/.db/callRecorder).
Prerequisites:

Python3 installed
ADB
USB debugging enabled on the phone

Steps:

Dump the folder /sdcard/CallRecorder using ADB from the

 adb pull /sdcard/CallRecorder

Create a new Python file, "export.py", in the dumped folder, "callRecorder", with the following content:

import sqlite3
import os
from shutil import copyfile

con = sqlite3.connect(".db/callRecorder")

for filename in os.listdir("."):
   if ".mp3" not in filename:
      continue

   row = con.execute("Select * from calls where instr(filePath, "+ filename.replace('.mp3', '') +")").fetchone()
   phone_nbr = row[1]
   contact_name = row[2]
   date_time = filename.replace(".mp3", "")
   copyfile(filename, f"{phone_nbr}_{contact_name}_{date_time}.mp3")

Execute the Python file using Notepad++ Python interpreter or using CMD:
> python PATH\TO\callRecord\export.py

That will copy each record to the format "phoneNumber_contactName_datetime.mp3"


How do I prevent an app from force closing due to low memory I have a floating application (a paint pad) which "floats as a window" in the foreground, while other apps are running.

However, when I open some large applications, it is force closed.

What I tried?

Rooted my os
I made it a system app
I added an exception to a memory cleaner (that comes default with miui)

Still it force closes.

  How do I reserve some memory to it so that it wouldn't force close automatically?

Open the apk as a zip file and view the AndroidManifest.xml ... Find the line

package="com.paint.app"

What is your package name ?

Once you have the package name....

Open System Folder
Open Build.prop as a text document
Add the following code, With 1 blank line at the bottom of the manifest - Important to add the blank line ! otherwise you'll boot loop !

sys.keep_app_1=com.paint.app

You can also add more apps to keep in memory by adding another line

sys.keep_app_2=com.painter.app


Can the Termux environment be put on an external SD card? I would like to install my termux environment (usr folder) to an SD card. is this possible?
I have seen this post Can I install packages to external SD card on Termux in Android?. From what I understand the problems mentioned there is only if you want to install individual packaged to the SD card. I'm looking to install the wholr usr folder.

If your device is rooted, you can do it, but it is a little tricky. (You may need to use another terminal app or work in failsafe of termux).

Create an ext4 partition on the SD card. (This can be a 2nd partition).
Make a new folder where you want to mount the new partition on. (For example in your home folder add a folder called ext4-fs)
In termux mount the partition (I'm assuming a 2nd partition). You need to know the path to the device. I have found it to be /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 but this may be different on your device. mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 /data/data/com.termux/files/home/ext4-fs.
Copy the usr folder from termux /data/data/com.termux/files/usr to the new mounted partition.

From here on you will need to use commands that are in /system/bin/. (And may need to use failsafe mode or an other terminal app).

Rename the usr folder to something like usr-old. /system/bin/mv /data/data/com.termux/files/usr /data/data/com.termux/files/usr-old.
Make symlink to the usr folder that's now on the new partition. ln -s /data/data/com.termux/files/home/ext4-fs/usr /data/data/com.termux/files/usr. This will now be your termux usr folder which is linked to the folder on the sd card.

Now you can delete the old usr folder (That we renamed usr-old).
Now termux uses the symlinked folder that is on your SD card for all that needs the usr folder which is the whole termux environment.
Every time you take out the SD card and reinsert it you will need to remount the partition.


Import pdf files to google play book application I want to import my own PDF files to google play book reader and read them using this application. But without any hacking I cannot read not purchased PDFs in google playbook.

I'm not looking for an alternative because they are not good enough (such as ezPDF or Moon+ and ...)

I'm afraid this is impossible. It's the number one most requested feature but, as far as I can tell, there are no plans to implement it. I suspect this is because Google is under quite a lot of fire for enabling piracy. Allowing people to load their own books into the books app would intensify that.


i try to download games on my tablet and it keeps saying no space on device I try to download games and it always say insufficient space on device what should I do. Google play or play store

You should ocassionally go to Settings -> Storage -> Cached Data and clear it, because over time it could use up more than a GB of storage. Of course, no need to do it to often as Android uses it to find data faster, only when it gets to big.


Android Bluetooth profiles missing with paired devices I have an Android 6.0 device and an Android 4.1 device.

I used Bluetooth to pair them (only a numeric code was shown, no input needed) and it worked, I can send files via Bluetooth.

However, when I click the paired device on either phone, I can't see any profile.

This is what I see:

As Internet Access is a crucial profile for tethering, it must be present.

Can you tell me why they are missing?

It seems that my old Sony Xperia J phone does not have this feature: either by hardware limitations or by carrier modifications.


How to recover contacts from an Android phone whose screen has died? My daughter's Samsung Galaxy S4 has a faulty screen - it is completely non-functional. As it died the remainder of the phone functionality appeared to be completely fine. Now the screen is dead. So there is no way to see what is displayed nor interact with it.

She got a new phone and was dismayed to learn that most of her contacts did not appear. Apparently, unbeknownst to her, they were saved to the phone (not SIM) rather than Google.

Is there a way for her to recover those contacts from the screenless, but otherwise still-functioning, phone?

It does not appear that simply connecting it to USB will work. I thought about installing over-the-air the app AirDroid - but it appears it is too late to do that, since some of the setup appears to need to be done on the phone itself.

Any other solutions?

Thanks.

If the USB port were working on the phone it would probably be easiest to copy any or all of the phones data with a pc, however I surmise the screen defect was caused by the notorious shorted USB connector on Samsung phones. This being the case if you have another Samsung s4 5 or 6 one of the pieces of preinstalled softwares allows you to place 2 phones back to back to copy your contacts and settings perhaps that could help you.


Alternative to Google Latitude? Like the title says, is there an easy way to share my location in real-time with friends without letting Google know where I am?

I haven't used it myself, but I've noticed Neer in the market -- It sounds like what you're looking for.


Market App Downloads always fails/never starts Brand new LG GT540, everything works except for the Market. Clicking on Install on any App resultings in it sitting on 'Starting download..." for several seconds then as soon as it changes to "Downloading..." it fails with 'Download was unsuccessful, please try again'.

This is not a duplicate of 'Sometimes Market update get stuck downloading, how can I cancel?' which is 'sometimes' and about cancelling. The answers do not work/are not relevant. It is also not a duplicate of 'Android market - Application downloading problem' which sits at 'Starting Download...' for several hours.

There are several solutions floating around on the web, but like myself, it seems to not solve it for a vast amount of people. I believe there is more than 1 bug with downloading from the market but they are getting treated like one.

Firstly, there is the GTalk related issue. This is not relevant in this case. GTalk signs in correctly and works. Signing out of GTalk and back in does nothing to fix the issue. Neither does clearing the data out of the GTalk App and/or Google Apps and rebooting the phone. It is not a GoogleMail/GMail issue either as this is not in the UK and has always been a GMail account.

Secondly, it is not solved by clearing the cache/data out of Checkin Service/Downloader/Market, etc. I had done this clearing/force stop on ALL the applications suggested across the web and rebooting the phone. This has been done several times with no effect.

Thirdly a factory reset doesn't work either. Makes sense considering this behaviour has been straight out of the box.

EDIT: I have also tried unmounting the SD card, removing it, rebooting the phone and trying to download with no difference.

EDIT 2: Clearing everything and signing into the Market with a brand new account made no difference.

Any other ideas on what the cause of the issue is and how to fix it?

The cause of these problems is a bug in Google Framework Services, at least in 2.1 and 2.2.

I have been able to fix it temporarily by clearing the cache for all Google apps -- GFS, Talk, Voice, GMail, Market, etc. -- but I do not believe there is a permanent fix.  Perhaps in 2.3, I don't have it on my phone yet.


remount /mnt as read-write I am getting error "Read-only filesystem" when trying to add a new directory in /mnt via Terminal Emulator. So, I tried :

su
busybox mount -o remount,rw /mnt

in order to remount filesystem for /mnt as read-write; but I am getting error "can't find /mnt in /proc/mounts".

What is this error for !?

PS. My ultimate aim is to then mount an external storage on that new directory; say /mnt/myextdrive

Use these commands

su -c 'busybox mount -o remount,rw /'    # this will remount rootfs at / in rw mode
su -c 'mkdir /mnt/"NEW_DIR"'             # replace NEW_DIR with the name of the directory you aim to create under /mnt

Note that in Android /mnt is not a mount point for any real or pseudo-filesystem but its sub-directories are (actually, /mnt is a sub-directory of the / (rootFS), which is why you'd have to remount that to apply changes here). Also note that mnt directory in Android is created by kernel at every boot1  so any modification would be lost after shutdown.

1: mnt doesn't exist in a persistent filesystem but in a specific ramfs named rootfs - a filesystem which exists in RAM only.


adb shell remove directory with patenthesis windows I'm trying to delete a directory that contains parenthesis in its name. So far I've tried:

adb shell rm -r "sdcard/music/SomeArtist - (good stuff)"

And I get:

/system/bin/sh: syntax error: '(' unexpected

I'm on windows btw. Any suggestion? Cheers

The problem is that the quotes are being interpreted twice: once by the Windows shell when it parses the adb command, and again by the Android shell. Remember that adb shell foo opens a shell on the device and runs the foo command there. When you run

adb shell rm -r "sdcard/music/SomeArtist - (good stuff)"

Windows is using the quotes to see the whole path as one argument, and then removes them. The command that actually gets sent to the device is then

rm -r sdcard/music/SomeArtist - (good stuff)

and the shell on the device interprets the ( as a special shell expansion. There are two ways to avoid this. One way is to double the quotes, so that there's still a set left when the command gets to the device:

adb shell rm -r "\"sdcard/music/SomeArtist - (good stuff)\""

The second, and more generally useful, is to avoid trying to do everything at once. Use adb shell to open an interactive shell on the device, and then

rm -r "sdcard/music/SomeArtist - (good stuff)"

inside that shell to run the command you want. You can use ctrl-d to exit the shell when you're done.


My phone doesn't always charge at full speed, even with certain 2-amp chargers. What are the necessary conditions for it to charge at full speed? I've noticed that my Samsung Galaxy S4 doesn't always charge at its maximum rate of charge, even when it seemingly should.  For example, car DC adapters that claim to provide up to 2.0A current only provides 500mA.  I've also tried connecting the OEM AC adapter to a car inverter**, with the same result of a ~500mA charge rate.  On the other hand, when connected to an AC outlet through the same charger, the device draws 1200mA*.

I previously owned an Galaxy S3 which I think started having similar issues at some point, possibly after a system update.

What conditions are required for Android devices to draw greater than the 500mA current provided by a USB 2 data connection?  Have these conditions changed with successive versions of the Android OS?

*: Measurements of current draw made by Ampere

**: I asked this question a few days ago and it has attracted very little attention, so I'm now asking a more general question.

The OS isn't relevant to charging speed, but the internal hardware differs heavily between phones. One thing you'll experience is that nearly all chargers that advertise themselves as 2.1A are optimized for iProducts, which require a different grounding scheme in the charger to reach their full speed, and that same scheme limits Android devices to 500mA. So counter-productively you'll find that most 1A chargers will charge your Android device FASTER than 2.1A chargers. You'll also see a lot of multi-chargers that have one port dedicated to 2.1A, and if you move your phone to the other port it'll charge faster. Most label these ports as A and NA, for Apple and Non-Apple.

The way around this is to buy a charger that's specifically designed to adapt to whatever device you're using. One example, which I've used myself, is the Anker 4.8A 2-port charger. Unlike most two-port chargers which dedicate one port to Apple and one to non-Apple, this uses Anker's PowerIQ tech to sense, on either port, what your device wants from it and adjust accordingly. This charged my device at full speed quite easily. I've since switched to one from Choetech that's a 4-port simply because my Nexus 6 supports Quick Charge 2.0, and that one had a port for that, but it advertises their own version of the same concept as PowerIQ for the other ports. Both companies make a ton of wall/desk chargers with the same technologies in them, and I have multiple Anker chargers and external batteries. Aukey seems to be another supplier who's probably using the same OEM as those other two companies, with similar results. And they all seem to give good warranty support via Amazon.

The other factor, as mentioned in the other answer, is the cable. I used to think "USB is USB," and that's true for data, but not for power. Cable quality, and unknown factors, will change what you can pull off. I've had two cables of the same length produce as much as an 800mA difference from the same charger. Also, some just combine with certain chargers better. The cable I've had the most consistent luck with, across all devices, is the Cable Matters Premium Gold-Plated cable. I used to buy the MonoPrice-branded ones, but they stopped making them, and I found these identical ones on Amazon. They're quite cheap, and they've worked exceptionally well for me. They give me over 2A on Quick Charge 2.0, and 1.2 on everything else when all other conditions are optimal and I'm using a good charger. Length matters, too. The shorter the cable, the better it can hold onto its current.


Are there any torrent clients allowing you to choose one file from a list? I currently use uTorrent but I need to be able to choose one file to download instead of all the available files in a folder. I can't seem to find one Play.  Any way to achieve this?

OS: 4.1.1
Samsung S3

I use aTorrent, which has the possibility of selecting which files to download. Just change to the File tab and use the checkboxes.


Whats the core difference between Kies, New PC Studio, PC Studio 3.1 from Samsung? The web site doesn't specifically say...but I assume that Kies is for Android based devices, NPS and PCStudio are for W7p and other Phone OSs?

New PC Studio is for Samsung's proprietary OS1.  I believe PC Studio 3.1 is just an older or region-specific version of NPS.

RoToRa is correct that Kies is for both Bada and Android.  It appears they are transitioning to using "Kies Mini" for Android, which is really just a means of updating the device software.  Media management, sync, etc. is intended to be done through the "cloud" on Android devices.

After looking at the Samsing website, I believe they do not have management software for their Windows Phone 7 devices.


Samsung Galaxt Tab 8.9 (Wi-Fi) stuck in charging screen, doesn't turn on at all Recently, I have decided to install a custom ROM on Galaxy Tab 8.9 (Wi-Fi) and messed up everything.

I downloaded some "ICS 4.0.3 or something" .zip file to my root folder. Stupidly didn't install any ROM manager (Play market couldn't download any app in my tablet). Tried to download .apk file, and when failed, I fed up with everything: turned off the tablet, then turned it on with VOLUME UP and POWER buttons pressed. Then in the stock recovery pressed "apply update from sd card" and chose the .zip file...

...the Samsung Galaxy Tab icon was showing up on the screen the whole night. I was thinking that it's being updated and went to sleep. But I was wrong. The next day it was turned off and when I put the charger in, some stupid big charger symbol came up. I can't turn on the device and pressing VOLUME UP and POWER buttons brings me to the recovery menu, where I've tried anything (wipe user data/factory reset, reboot) with no success.

However, when the tablet is in the recovery menu, my PC sees the device through adb when i run "adb devices". I can even push some file to "/data/local/tmp" with "adb push" command. Now I want to know: can I still somehow install some ROM or at least factory reset to my tablet?

"I want to hide under some rock for a couple days until someone helps me"

Well, no points to leave comment, so here is my (unchecked) advice.

Since You can login via adb, remove zip from sdcard, and reboot tablet into recovery mode, and select restart. I don't think flashing anything or selecting 'wipe' is necessary. Probably the patch didn't even apply. If this will not fix it, then I guess You'll need to adb push working ROM and repeat update from sdcard procedure in recovery mode.


How do Android tablets use magnet to auto-lock the device? Can someone explain how tablets like Nexus 7 detects a magnetic cover closing? I have tried putting magnets over the spots where the magnets in the cover are, but it will not lock. How does the tablet know if it is a cover?

Your magnets are probably in the wrong place. The Nexus 7's magnetic cover sensor is not along the right-hand edge, where the magnets that hold the cover closed are. It's in the bottom-left corner of the screen, about 2 cm from the left-hand rim of the device, and 4 cm from the bottom rim. Put another way: with the device in the "camera-uppermost" orientation, with the stock home screen displayed, the icon at the left-hand end of the tray is in the right place.

You also need a pretty strong magnet. Most fridge magnets aren't strong enough to trip the reed switch, but a Buckyball will do it (if you can still buy those where you are).


Can't see photos when using Droid Explorer New to this app and I have followed all the instructions and have installed it and am able to view my files and sd card as well but cannot see photos in the DCIM folder.

Ok, based on the information from the comments, the log files help. and I will say this is a bug, but, I have a potential work around for now.

The problem is the '. If you rename the folder without the ', you should not have a problem seeing the photos.

I have created an issue for this, but I do not know when I will get to fixing it.


Which system service apps could I disable to protect my privacy I have a non-rooted Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with a Google account and would like to know what system, root and service apps I could disable. The purpose of this is, I want to stop or making it difficult for Google spying my phone data etc. As you can see I have already disabled some apps like Google Calendar Sync or Google Contacts Sync or Google account Manager

  But I want to know if there are more apps to disable which are sending data to Google or other third-parties.

And an other problem is the Google Play store is'nt working anymore with my actual disabled apps. The only Google-Services I don't want to disable are that which are required for using Google Play Store, updating and installing apps via that. All other services and system apps with are not for using the Play Store required like Calendar or Contact sync and other syncroisations services for personal data I want do disable.

And I want not only Google syncronisation services to disable, also Samsung, Facebook and other apps which are spying my phone I want to disable.

So. I would be very grateful if you could list me all apps and services which I can disable without to waive the Google Play Store.

If you don't know specific to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 you can say it general for all android devices.

Root the phone, you won't regret it. Unless you're on Verizon of course. Verizon hates modders and security enthusiasts.

The spyware apps you definitely want to get rid of are RootPA, Silentlogger, DT Ignite, and Carrier IQ (man, I hate those bastards.)

The rest is just bloatware for special features (ANT+ for S-Health, T-mobile/Verizon's ringtone apps, freemium services for watching movies, music, etc)

I forgot, since you have Samsung, there is a way to disable system apps without rooting. It's called Package Disabler Pro - Google Play and it only works on unrooted Samsung devices (some kind of device loophole per se). You can disable any system app from there that Settings.apk won't allow.

You can also use a VPN firewall without root, such as this one, to protect sensitive data from ever getting out there. Otherwise root and use DroidWall, more secure, doesn't rely on a third party VPN.


How do I invert colours inside a specific app? The latest Android has an Invert Colours option in quick settings.

Is there any way to turn this on automatically when a specific app is opened? Is there any other way to achieve inversion of colours inside a specific app?

For me Tasker did the job, but you need an additional Tasker plug in for this, called AutoTools.
On my bq android device root wasn't needed to do the job.
I set up a profile to invert the screen when I open specific apps like my newspaper reader.


Can I slow down the speed of my recorded phone calls? I've installed the Call Recorder app on my GT-S6810P Samsung Galaxy phone. The app has successfully recorded all of my calls but when I play them back it plays them too fast. Is there any way I can slow them down?

While the app that you installed might not have an option to change the speed of the recording, and I'm not sure why it would play it faster than the original, you can download a music player app which allows for speed change, and play your recording there.
The app that I've used is called Music Speed Changer. It's free and it allows for speed change while keeping the same pitch. When playing the recording in this app you'll see a slider for speed change adjust it accordingly.


Is it possible to have the same apps from the same amazon account on 2 different devices? My kids have an android tablet each both linked to my amazon account. When I try to put the same app on both it tells me it's not possible.

How can this be fixed?

Did you register the devices with Amazon?  You can install amazon store purchases on multiple devices, but they must be authorized.  When you are in the app store, looking at an app, there should be a list of your devices, under the purchase button, with a notation on which devices the app will work with.


Different app language from system language I maybe am wanting the impossible
I want the system to speak Dutch  but also that the apps stay speaking english

I can change the system language to Dutch but then many apps also start speaking Dutch and that I don't want

The idea behind is just a very crude safety measure at startup as non Dutch speaker you are lost so the number of potential users is severely restricted :)

While I can use English for the rest

But is this possible?

I don't think you can, unless it's a rooted phone. Apps will always be shown in the system language if a translation is available. English is used as a last resort. Not to mention this is a very poor security measure.

Root option: install Xposed, look for a module named App Locale.


Cannot add google account (It is not in the list of available account) I bought the tablets from China, and if I want to add Google account (from Settings.Account.AddAccount) ther is no google account in the list.. There is only

Corporate
IMAP
POP3

tablet:
x-302 of Dragon

h701

Android 4.4.2

kernel 3 April 67

Build ALPS.KK1.MP1.V2.11

and on tablet are no applications from Google (NO "Gmail", "Account Manager Google" and "Google Services Framework")
It looks as if not installed (or forbidden) Google applications from the producer.

Manufacturers must certify their devices with Google in order to have the Google Apps pre-installed1. Obviously that wasn't done for your device. So you have to either install GApps manually (follow the previous link for details) – or use the chance a "Google free" device gives you and install an open source alternative like miroG.

1: See e.g. here; the term for this agreement is MADA (Mobile Application Distribution Agreement)


How much power can Android output via OTG? I'm trying to use my 250GB external USB SSD on my S5. But unfortunately my powered hub broke... So my only choice is direct connection.
The SSD uses 0.9A @ 5V, and I have no clue about how much power my phone can pump out - Please help

OTG devices can provide up to 500mA, but in realistic terms, handheld
  portable electronics don't have 500mA to spare for external loads.
  100mA is a commonly accepted realistic maximum.

Source

So basically, don't expect any device that draws over 500ma to work at all without an external power source of some kind, but depending on your device that maximum may be closer to 100ma in reality.


How to access sd card from computer in marshmallow Recently I upgraded my cell phone from Android Lollipop(5.1.1) to Marshmallow(6). While setting up the SD card, I choose Use as internal storage option. Now when I plugin my cell phone to my computer I can not see any SD card. So I can not read or write in it externally. Is there a way of accessing the SD card contents through data cable from computer?

I need to mention that, I tried with the option Use as portable storage but faced with the same problem.

I found a solution of this problem. Each time I connect my phone to my computer I have to go to Settings -> Developer options -> Select USB Configuration and select MTP(Media Transfer Protocol). Then I can access the SD card from my computer. It turns out that whenever its needed to connect the phone and the computer this procedure is to be followed.


How to sync Nexus 4 and Nexus 7? I have the both Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices. I want them to have the same (at least similar) list of installed applications and their settings. How can I synchronize them, so that I do not need to install and set everything up two times?

Android lets you backup settings & data for installed apps, but doesn't have a straightforward way to sync the actual installation of them. If you prefer not to manually search/install each app from the device itself (it gets really tedious) you can do what I do:

1) Go to https://play.google.com/apps to view the apps which are already installed on one device. Select the app you want to transfer over to view it's details page.

2) If the app is compatible with both devices (most probably will be but not all) click the button that says INSTALLED.

3) Select the other device where you want to install it and click INSTALL.

You'll still have to repeat this for each app you want to carry across, but I've found it to be much easier to do it with a mouse in a web browser than searching/installing


How to change the name of Firefox desktop shortcut icon to website? I long press the icon but only delete action exists there of the icon.
I press it but it goes to Firefox.
I create another one but it does not allow me to rename the icon.

OS: Oreo 8.0
Phone: Oneplus 3T

A bochur's differential solution

  I haven't used Firefox, but in chrome when you add to homescreen then it gives you the option to rename it. After you save it, there is no option to change the name. So i suggest you save it again with the new name


Repeating “Unfortunately Google App has stopped” error on Nexus 5 My Nexus 5 stated acting strange in the past few days.

Here's the short history:

A few days ago, I was prompted to install a new version in OTA update. Done.
Yesterday, phone shut off just like that by itself. When powered on, it has a message on a black screen saying "optimizing app x/150". When it was done, phone booted.
This morning: wanted to access Google Now, but it wasn't there - I couldn't flick to the left. Was prompted to 'reactivate' google Now, which I did. I should mention it was there after the OTA update.

Since then, every few seconds, and pretty much whatever I try to do, the error message in the title pops up. (side note: strangely, it says Google App and not Apps). Extremely hard to use the phone when every few seconds this pops up. Help, anyone? Thanks!

As it says "Google App", it's most likely the app named Google (no kidding: there's such one, just follow the link – though I cannot find it in Settings › Apps by that name). Just tried the one from the drawer, brings me to Google Now – which again matches the app you've got trouble with, as your question states: "wanted to access Google Now, but it wasn't there".

Going by the icon, the corresponding app in Settings must be Google Search – which again makes sense considering Google Now is part of that.

So I'd suggest you try to go there (in Settings › Apps) and clear it's cache. If that doesn't help, try clearing its data as well (same place). If that doesn't solve it, open the Google Settings app (not the general device settings, but the settings app with the "g" for "Google" in its icon – you can find it in the app drawer) and deactivate Now and Cards there. This disables Google Now, but solves the issue (as you've proven).

Hint in case you cannot reach out to Settings or the Google Settings app (e.g. if that pop-up reappears faster than you can tap somewhere else): You can clear all app caches at once by booting to recovery-mode and "wipe cache". No data lost that way. Another good hint in this context is safe-mode: if the troublemaker is a user-app, it won't be started here, so you can clear cache/delete data/deactivate/uninstall such an app from there.


Reinstalling Android after mobile has been erased by DBAN? I was curious if a Android mobile is erased using DBAN, then can the Android be reinstalled on the mobile or it becomes useless ?

As the question already is answered with the line of comments to it, I'll take the freedom to sum up the details to make them easier to find:
What is DBAN?
My first point was that I never heard of DBAN before, so I had to look it up. Luckily, my first hit was Wikipedia (which article I linked here), and it answered this question quite compactly:

The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with pseudorandom numbers generated by Mersenne twister or ISAAC.

So we are not talking about some "remote attack" destroying your device, but a willful wiping of the "drives".
What could DBAN wipe on an Android device?
This question was answered by eldarerathis and GAThrawn in the comments: Unless there is an Android version of DBAN which can be executed directly on the device, DBAN is limited to the SD-Card and internal storage (the storage devices offered to the computer via UMS). It cannot access e.g. the /system partition for two reasons: 1) it is not made available via UMS, and 2) it is mounted read-only (unless the device is rooted, and you explicitely mounted it read-write -- which cannot be done without rooting). Similar reason (not made available via UMS) applies to all other partitions.
So what about restoring the Android system?
Nothing. No need for this. As described in the previous section, DBAN at maximum can access two of the data partitions. But it cannot access /system (where the Android system resides), /boot (where Android is bootet from), or even /data (where your apps and their data reside). Since nothing is lost from the Android System itself -- there simply is nothing to restore, it's all still there.


How to tilt Google Maps in an emulator? I am using the emulators (AVD) by Google to run an application which contains a Google Map Activity? On a real device I can use two fingers to tilt the map and see 3d buildings in certain zoom levels - as shown in the screenshot.

How can I tilt the map on a virtual device when all have are the input devices of my computer (keyboards, mouse)?

the only thing I've found on normal emulators (AVD) is to use hardware emulation:
http://tools.android.com/tips/hardware-emulation

But I've never tried it. Honestly I prefer to use Genymotion devices which allows you to interact with just CTRL, ALT, SHIFT and mouse, no pain!


How to ensure a factory reset wipes /data/media? Now, those who use custom recoveries often know that a factory reset tends to keep a good deal of data in /data/media/.  However, I would like to ensure that this location gets wiped so that all of my storage (besides the actual Android system of course) becomes available again.  Is there a way to do this?

I'm using TWRP 2.8.7.0 on a Samsung Tab 2 running Android 5.1.1, if that helps.

/data/media is actually your so-called "internal SD card" space.  It's not wiped by default because, as the name implies, it's intended for media storage like photos and music.  It usually should not contain any personal account information or important app data (that isn't encrypted).  Many custom recoveries do have an option to wipe the internal SD card, you just need to select it when doing your factory reset.

TWRP actually has a detailed post about this at https://twrp.me/faq/datamedia.html.  The most relevant excerpt:

  In TWRP we also have a wipe internal storage option that rm -rf's the media folder and a "Format Data" option that formats to recreate the entire file system in case something goes completely wrong or to remove device encryption.

If you just want to free up the space, you could also simply use a file browser to deleted everything on your internal SD card.


Is It Possible To Backup Settings And All Customized Stuff I Made On Android Cellphone? Which backup is that? Full backup that backs up whole system? Or is it only backup that backs up settings and customized stuff?

Use Titanium Backup, it'll fit your needs.


HTC One X soft keys not working for 4hours now The soft keys of my HTC One X aren't working for 4hours now. I've restarted it many times but still the problem persists. The screen is normal, just the back, recent app and home key aren't.

Could it be the screen? What can I do to get it back to normal?

I believe this is a pure software issue. If you have custom recovery installed, try to wipe cache/davik-cache. If not, try reseting the phone to default settings.

(Are you on a custom ROM? If so, have you tried asking in the developer's support forum? What software are you using for the soft buttons? Have you tried another ROM?)


Galaxy s2 bluetooth stopped working suddenly I have samsung galaxy s2. The bluetooth of the phone has stopped detecting any bluetooth devices around. It was working fine till last night. The phone got switched off during night due to low battery. When i charged it in morning and tried to connect the bluetooth. It turns on and when i do scan devices, it says no bluetooth devices found although there are bluetooth devices present.

Please help
Thanks

Well, that's weird first of all make sure that the other bluetooth devices you are searching using the S2 are visible, otherwise its not going to detect the bluetooth device. And if you are sure that the bluetooth devices you are trying to connect is visible try clearing the cache and the data stored by the bluetooth app, you can do that by going to settings>application manager>Tap the bluetooth app and clear the cache and the data store. Now try connecting with the other bluetooth devices and see if that works out or not.