how can I get the Call & SMS log for an individual contact? I have recently upgraded to an Android 4.0.4 phone, used to have 2.3 and one of the features I used very often is missing.

In any contact I could look to see a list of calls & sms, including when I last called, received a call, had a missed call, or sent or received a text from that contact and from what number, i.e., Mobile, Mobile work, Home, Work, etc.

This was especially useful for checking when I last had contact with somebody, such as clients, allowing me to decide if I needed to call or send them a text.

This feature has obviously been removed, however is there any third party apps available that could either stand alone, or preferably integrate to allow me this much used & needed feature back.

I thought that I may get some answers here, as it is, after many hours searching and trying various apps out, I have found a few apps that provide solutions myself, the best two of which I will list below.

I was looking for an app to show "call" & "sms" "history"/"logs", so using these search terms I found many, the best stand alone one I found is called "My Log" from "Intangible Solutions" which is able to search and list all calls and sms for any given number or multiple numbers in a very clear and easy to read format. The drawbacks is that it is heavily add supported and takes a little while to specify all the contact's numbers, as you have to select them one at a time, having said this, the results are brilliant.

The other I found via an associated app call "Call log+" which I tried and initially dismissed as it only gave me call log similar to the one found in the standard "Phone" dialler, however I later went back to it's associated app "Contacts+", which includes "Call log+", "Messages+" and "Dialler+", and then also installed "Merge+", "Emoji for Conacts+" and the "Contacts+ Widget" to get the full collection, which can replace the standard "Phone", "Contacts" and "Messaging" functions with much better versions, that do far more. The "Contacts+", which includes "Call Log+" does everything I wanted, in that I can instantly see a call log for any contact. The fact that "Contacts+" does a whole lot more beyond this is also fantastic, but it does exactly what I wanted, so job done.

I hope this may help others looking for the same missing (removed) feature, which because of how I use my phone, I would find hard to live without.


how can i gain access to texts if i dont have the phone in hand So let's just say I dont trust my husband, and I want to access his calls and texts on my computer. I dont have his phone right this second, but I am the account holder for both phones and they are linked by gmail and yahoo accounts. Is there a way I can remotely gain access to these?

I have tried calling my cell carrier, I have tried different applications, not sure what else to do.

What Android version & Device is he on ?
It is extremely important to know if the target device has a Firmware update coming soon and also it is important to know what Android Version the device is running on, both these pieces of information can be obtained by getting the target to load a website and provide data to the website for loading.

I made this page as an example of a browser user agent string reader Check Device & Browser example php

After you know the Android version is not going to change ( No Updates ) and you know what the Android Version is.. Then you can look into remotely monitoring that version of Android.

Let me explain some more,
On Android 4.4 or below,
You can track the text messages, calls, call history, message history, application launch history etc..
You can use several application's below Android 5.0 to monitor android almost invisibly.

My favourite would be the simple ones like SMS Forwarder and mainly any Parental Control apps, have a look around at the options, i haven't used Android 4.4 for age's so i can't even remember any others.

Android 5.0+
On Android 5.0+ Things get a lot, A Lot, Harder !

In Android 5.0 you need to select the SMS Handling application, this only allows 1 single application to Read the SMS Messages being sent !
However you can still receive SMS Message's easily using a Broadcast Receiver ( For Phone Number Verification in Applications )

So, on Android 5.0+ it will be very difficult without modifying the system of the phone to allow a monitor application.

Logs and LogCat Reading,
You can still read the sent message's using a Log reading method, It waits for the SMS to go into OutBox or Sent and then uses Read Messages permissions to list all message's in the default SMS App, once it has listed all the message's, it then checks by time to see was last sent.

However Android 6.0+ Implemented
( On Demand Permission Acceptance )

With Android 6.0+ you need to accept the permission to receive calls, sms sent & sms received information at each read... Their goes Invisibility...

Due to the massive number of permission changes to Android, it is probably going to be a fight to get an app working with all permissions permanently accepted so as to stay hidden.

You are the owner of both accounts

I have seen accounts being used to bypass the Messages & Calls & Contacts permissions by using Google Backup...

The Application initiates a Google Backup of everything on your device and then you can access that information by restoring it onto another device that you own.

Conclusion

Permission acceptance can stop monitoring software from working.
Default SMS Application Selection can stop SMS Sent monitoring.
Android 6.0 Stops Monitoring by using Permissions & SMS Application Selection.
Android 5.0 Stops Monitoring by using SMS Application Selection.
Android 4.4 or Below will not stop Monitoring at all.
OTA Updates can update your Android Version and bring about new problems as I've mentioned.
Both Devices Accounts are linked, so data can be accessible by Google Backup & Restore.

Some stuff can be monitored invisibly, however you need to accept the permissions permanently so the user never See's it.

Other methods than Malware or Spyware
A method sometimes used by Law Enforcement Agencies is to Clone the SIM Card, you can buy many SIM Cloning device's online and blank sim cards to clone into... However many ISP or MSP's are monitoring for Cloned sim cards and only allow 1 device to receive the message or call..
Sometimes it is at random who gets the text or call, but only 1 of them gets it.

SS7
SS7 is a security protocol that we all accept when using an Android device, as part of that we allow all our information to be accessible through the security protocol SS7... Even your Camera is accessible while your device is switched Off...

Many hackers have hacked SS7,
You can even use whole website bots that do the hacks Automatically by purchasing an account with them, software can also be purchased that hacks SS7 Automatically as well.

Root Access & Spyware
If the target has Root Access, thing's get a lot easier... Root Access Spyware can literally be invisible... You could manipulate the stock messaging application and also implant spyware into the system, i will not cover that here.

My Advice

  Ask him, tell him that you are unsure about his commitment to the relationship and you would just like to have some closure by looking through his phone ?

It is easy to delete a message and call history i know, but trust is a very powerful thing.


How to I find and kill a DnD? On my Nexus 6P, Android 7.1.2, I once entered a Do Not Disturb setting which started at 0450 local time. I deleted that, but since the 7.1.2 upgrade, it has returned. It even occurs in Safe mode. How do I find it, and kill it, dead, with a stake through its ID?

DND is not a cron job... It's "embedded" in the OS databases. Unless someone knows exactly what file and where, assuming it's ASCII editable file, a factory reset might be your only option.


Identifying whether display is broken or the motherboard I assume it is possible to damage the motherboard / chips inside a phone if it falls on the ground. So my questions is, is it possible to confirm what has been damaged during the fall?

I don't want to end up buying a replacement display and then found out the problem is somewhere else.

The phone is JiaYu G3T (a Chinese brand), fell on a ground. I completely disassembled the the phone but I didn't find any damage anywhere, everything looks like new.

Pic 1. This should be black with a green logo, left part of the screen is darker than right

Pic 2. Again, half of the screen is darker, color problems at the bottom OR sometimes the same as the startup screen - grayscale-kind-of-inverted-colors display

You can use ADB to test phone functionality. ADB tool can be obtained from Android SDK. There are a number of test commands which you can use to test your phone. Steps are as follows:

cd to your ADB directory.
Connect your phone to PC via USB.
type the following command:

'adb devices' (without quotes)

You should see your android listed in the CLI. You can also enter device shell:

'adb shell' (without quotes)

List SD card contents:

'ls -l' (regular unix file navigation commands)

If you can access your device shell, it's most likely that your motherboard is working fine. There are several commands to check as well:

Sending user touch events to Android:
adb shell input keyevent <event_code>
1 -->  "KEYCODE_MENU"
2 -->  "KEYCODE_SOFT_RIGHT"
3 -->  "KEYCODE_HOME"
4 -->  "KEYCODE_BACK"
5 -->  "KEYCODE_CALL"
6 -->  "KEYCODE_ENDCALL"
7 -->  "KEYCODE_0"
8 -->  "KEYCODE_1"
9 -->  "KEYCODE_2"
10 -->  "KEYCODE_3"
11 -->  "KEYCODE_4" ..... etc


Stock recovery for HTC M8 (KTU84P) I've been trying to unroot my HTC One M8 (India) for a long time and get it to 100% stock so that I can receive OTAs. It took me some time to get it all together but I still have the wrong stock recovery.img.

So when I download the OTA and the phone goes into recovery to install it, the error message says:

  Package expects build fingerprint of htc/htc_asia_india/htc_m8:4.4.4/KTU84P/405596.1:user/release-keys or htc/htc_asia_india/htc_m8:5.0.1/LRX22C/454154.8:user/release-keys. This device has htc/htc_asia_india/htc_m8:4.4.2/KOT49H/330216.6:user/release-keys.

Where can I find the correct recovery (KTU84P)?

That's why it is recommended to  always make a backup of your stock recovery, HTC does not officially provide them!
I found this collection, may be you'll find one made for your phone.


How can I change SELinux from Enforcing to Permissive on Samsung Galaxy Note 3? My device is Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005.

This phone comes with SELinux set to Enforcing by default.

I have been trying to change this to permissive but to no avail.

I built the kernel from source code following Samsung instructions, and added a line to init.rc file in the ramdisk: "setenforce 0" and this worked, however WiFi broke and I am not clued up on kernel development.

I have tried, as root, running "setenforce 0" in terminal and via adb. There is no error, however it stays Enforcing.

I am running out of options have looked through the init files in the Samsung source code and cannot find anywhere where Samsung set SELinux to be Enforcing.

Any help will be vastly appreciated!

If you're rooted, install Android Terminal Emulator from Play Store and open a root shell. Also make sure you use latest (>2.00) SuperSU to handle SELinux. Then type: su 0 setenforce 0 and see what happens. Check with id. If that doesn't work, also try with: su system setenforce 0. In AOS >4.3, it's not enough to just be "root" (uid=0), you also have to use the right context.

EDIT: 2015-11-06

Apparently, since AOS >4.4, Google started using a permanent enforcing mode which actually enforces the SELinux policy. These phones have disabled the Permissive option through the DCONFIG_ALWAYS_ENFORCE=true kernel config flag in their Kernels. You need to flash an insecure Kernel (e.g. CF_Root) or a brand new kernel where this flag has been disabled.

Google writes here:

  In the Android 5.0 (L) release, Android moves to full enforcement of SELinux. This builds upon the permissive release of 4.3 and the partial enforcement of 4.4. In short, Android is shifting from enforcement on a limited set of crucial domains (installd, netd, vold and zygote) to everything (more than 60 domains). This means manufacturers will have to better understand and scale their SELinux implementations to provide compatible devices. Understand that:

Everything is in enforcing mode in the 5.0 release
No processes other than init should run in the init domain
Any generic denial (for a block_device, socket_device, default_service, etc.) indicates that device needs a special domain

For more info how to recompile your Kernel, look here.


Find when device was activated I am trying to figure out when my devices (tablet, tv dongle, etc) were activated. Is there a place (in google account settings, device files, anywhere) this data can be obtained?

My devices are rooted, so I can use terminal access to read internal files if needed.

Some suggestions in the net say to find the first day of data usage in the logs, but I want to find an accurate date (preferably a timestamp) of the device activation.

I can't seem t be able to type dialer codes in a tablet, there's no phone app. Also this question is about android devices in general, not only phones.

If the date of activation matches the date of adding your Google account to the device, there's an easy way to check (unless you did a factory-reset in the meantime, and had to re-add the account):

with your Google account's credentials, log in to the Google Dashboard
Scroll to the section labeled "Android" and expand it (by clicking its title / the LGM [little green man])
Check the entry for the device you want to know the date for

At this place you should find the date you registered your device. That doesn't reflect the first time a device was added, but the last time the Google account was activated on the device. So if you activate your Google account following a factory-reset, this field is updated and thus reflects this point-in-time.


Merge calls option shows a popup 'Conference call not allowed' While trying to make a conference call using the merge calls button, my Micromax A25 with Android2.3.6 shows a popup displaying 'Condference call not allowed'. Can you please tell me whether it is OS related or my operator related ? Or there is any settings that needs to be enabled for activating conference calling in my device?

It's operator-related. Although the phone can support conference calling, most consumer calling plans don't let you do that.


up to which capacity an OTG capable phone could support external usb storage? My phone (Sony Xperia M C2005) supports up to 32 GB SD Card and has OTG capability. I want to know up to which capacity it could support flash memory as external USB storage.

TL;DR As long as you have a large flash drive.
Theoretically, infinite, as long as there's something to drive it.
There are many factors that affect this. One major being power supply. Your phone can't probably power a hard drive (well, tablets do, though), so flash drives are best for OTG. There are some special cables that have an extra "power cord" that you can plug into another power source, rendering it able to power up a portable hard drive. A flash drive usually doesn't exceed 64GB (although Kingston made a 1TB one, but who wants to buy it?), so a common upper limit for OTG is 64GB. (128GB models do exist, but fairly rare)
Another factor is filesystem. Modern Android phones support the FAT family, but only one of them supports volumes over 32GB. If you want to use a drive larger than 32GB, you have to format it into exFAT. No NTFS support on Android and EXT family will simply fail without extra tweaks.
So in all, you can use drives of any size with OTG, as long as your phone can handle it.


Is it possible to set the default volume per application? Some of the apps I use have very different output levels. One is only comfortable with volume set to the minimal and another is inaudible at that level, so I am constantly raising and lower volume between apps. Just like there is a separate ringer and media volume.
Is it possible to have some level set at a different level in every application? Some would have a default level until specified.

Would it be too cliché if I said “There’s an app for that.”? Here’s the link:

App Volume Control


Google backup issues after factory reset: required to enter the Google account last synced I recently purchased a RCA Voyager tablet from someone off of Craigslist. I'm trying to set it up as they factory reset it but it says I have to enter the Google account last synced to the device. I have no way of getting that info as I don't have the contact number of the person anymore. Is there any way around it?

Factory reset doesn't ask for that, so there is something amiss.  Somehow it is not doing a real factory reset.  Try powering it up while holding the volume up (+) button.

Mine was really easy.  Just went to the settings menu and all it did was ask if I was sure.

When you do log it into your Google account it will find any and all Android devices you have sync'd and it will ask you which one you want to restore into the unit.


How to allow read/write access in a specific folder on the SD Card with Android 6.0.1? I like to move my AnkiDroid storage to the SD-Card, because my Anki-Decks get huge, in terms of filesize, and my internal storage is full.

Anyways (seemingly because they did not like to took the effor with permissions on all Android versions), external-storage for AnkiDroid is officially not supported. But one can edit the file path and put "/a/random/path" into a text field to be used by the app.

So permissions still seem to be a problem to do so.

There is a workarround, which allows to save files and read files into a specific folder on the SD-Card. The workarround is built by naming a folder, equal to the package name of the AnkiDroid app.

This worked for some users, but not for me.

How can I solve my storage issues, when using AnkiDroid?

My question seems to be highly related to this one.

Does the SD card have to be removable? If not, Android 6 (Marshmallow) allows write access to a suitably formatted SD card (HowToGeek article).  It effectively makes the card an extention to internal storage, so use a fast one (PCAdvisor article). Also be aware that reformatting makes the card unreadable by any other device.

I had a similar problem with several apps not having write access to my extension card.  It was solved by:

Resetting all apps moved to the SD card back to internal storage (not needed on 6.0.1+).
Backing up all my own files to my laptop using USB link.
On Settings->Storage->SD Card choose to Format as internal storage.
Restoring my files.

I expect you will then be able to link to your AnkiDroid folder.  But you may not need to.  In theory, Android will do the memory management for you.  If it does, please let us know.


Can Google use location information based on Photos landmarks with Location set to off? I recently updated Google Photos in my Nexus 5 (with Android 5) and I was surprised to see that Photo Assistant has created location-based stories with titles like "A Sunday Morning in X Mountain" (with Google maps attached!) while I had GPS, WiFi and Location setting set to OFF during and arround the time those stories were recorded.

I have made a little research and found here that:

  Scroll down below the faces in that same search screen, and you'll
  find a list of locations in which your photos have been taken. What's
  particularly remarkable about this is that it works even if you don't
  have location reporting activated, as is the case for me.

  How? Google says its technology is able to recognize known
  geographical landmarks from photos and then use logic (and the laws of
  physics) to infer your location in other nearby photos. If you took a
  snapshot of the Eiffel Tower on February 9th at 2 p.m., for instance,
  Google can safely assume you were still in Paris in that selfie you
  took in front of a bakery 45 minutes later. The accuracy and level of
  detail may surprise you.

Is that true? Is there any Google doc about this feature?
If yes how can I disable features like this? I am not interested in any case having my location data, whichever those are, processed by Google.

It doesnt look like they can do it if your GPS is shut off in your settings.

"If you turn off location completely for your device, it means that apps (both Google and non-Google apps) can’t use your device location and many useful features will be turned off."

As to them checking it in app. Seems like that is something they are trying to accomplish. What i have found to disable it is if you go to Settings->Google Location Settings and uncheck Access Location then they can't access your location even if your GPS is on from that app. That solved that problem for me.

I have found some information for you in the below links.

Google Landmark Recognition.pdf

Turn location on or off for your device


samsung gt i9000 does not start I flashed my Samsung Galaxy S with 4.1.1 through Odin. But I didn't like it, so I wanted to restore it to Android 2.3 -- and and while restoring it, my computer suddenly restarted and my mobile phone turned off.

Now the problem is that when I try to open my mobile it doesn't respond.the screen gives me nothing. When I try to start it in download or recovery mode it does the same.

I tried to connect it to my PC but nothing happened. When I charge it, it gives me nothing.

I replaced the battery and it did the same.I connected the jig(301k), nothing.

Is there anything I can do to revive my phone?

It sounds like you have hard-bricked your phone. The only thing you can do to get it back is send it in to get it jtagged, or jtag it yourself. The jtagging process is quite complex and unless you have a lot of experience in hardware hacking, you probably should just send it in to have someone else do it right.
I had a similar situation to the one you're in:

Is there a way to restore my Samsung Galaxy S3 (SCH-i747)?

Which ultimately led to:

How risky is it to return a rooted android device under 'warranty'

I returned my phone to AT&T under warranty and they just send me a new one. I did a lot of research on AT&T and Samsung to see their policies on returned phones. Basically after searching the internet for a couple of days I had concluded that the general consensus is this:

Should you return a bricked phone that you were trying to root? No, it is a breach of the warranty and the warranty is null and void
Will I get caught if I try to return a phone that I bricked while trying to root it? Highly unlikely.

If your device is not under warranty, then you have to send it in to get jtagged. In order for your phone to get jtagged, they have to open it up and do all sorts of stuff to it. If your warranty is still in effect, I would highly recommend going that route first.


I want the old Gallery app back So, my Nexus 4 got Lollipop, nullifying the old/default Gallery app. I hate the Google+ app, a lot, especially it's gallery "replacement". Other gallery apps from the market. None of them are what I want.

All I want is the old Gallery app back.

What I've tried:

Copying old app and installing it with the UI. App not installed.
adb -r -d fails with Failure [INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES]
adb uninstall com.google.gallery fails with Failure [DELETE_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR]

Rooting isn't a practical option at this point.

I had a bad apk. Got a new one, works fine.


SOLVED - Invalid IMEI - lenovo a7000 So, I recently bricked my A7000. Found a rom somewhere online and flashed it with SPTools. Now it boots fine but I get the "INVALID IMEI" error.

I rooted it gain, got into engineer mode with MTK Engineering Mode and run the command AT +EGMR=1,7,"blabla" but it's still not working. I get AT command is sent: ERROR

Please help...

Solved it.
I rooted with SPTools and used Chamelephon to enter the IMEI's (if you have dual sim, enter both at the same time!).


Are the Battery Doctor and/or CM Family Suite app(s) needed? I've got an HTC One M8 with KitKat 4.4.4 until Lollipop 5.0 comes out in January. I'm a convert from Apple iPhone Gen 1 all the way up and this is my first Android device ( which I love BTW ).

With Apple, you seemingly don't have to worry about viruses, unless you root/jailbreak your phone.

I'm trying to find the best apps out that improve my battery life, secure, clean, and boost my phone. That said, all these apps seem to do is run my battery down faster and cause more lag in my apps more than anything.

So I my questions are:

Do I need them?
Are there better alternatives?
Is the CM suite horrible as some say?

All you really need is good antivirus (which I unfortunately cannot recommend to you - I do not know any REALLY good).

Android has its own build in and carefully designed memory management mechanisms. Forcing some apps to close, beside of resulting in unexpected behaviour, does not improve performance.

If app is in background it does not HOLD memory - it simply is in there in case you need it back. Android will kill it as soon as some other app or process will need this memory and killing it before only slows your device when you restart app that normally would still be "in memory".

RAM is not some precious resource that is being waisted when app is "in it" and is not running - RAM is simply a container and having it empty does nothing good (nor bad).

As of the Battery Doctor - this app is not perfect and does not always show real results. Nevertheless it still can be helpful - if you see any of your app draining energy, you should investigate. Well designed and developed apps should not impact your battery life significantly. If any of them is - you should get rid of it and look for an replacement. But as stated before - be careful! Google Play is not iStore - anyone can publish anything without any revision whatsoever. Be extremely cautious with new apps, with few comments and low download counter, that require from you all the privileges they only can. I saw an calculator that required reading my contacts list and clock requiring privilege to make extra-pay phone calls.


How to open password protected ODT file using LibreOffice I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A.  LibreOffice is installed and ODT file is loaded into document folder.  This file is password protected and I have the password.   So how do I open this file????

It should prompt you for the password when you attempt to open it, if not, try OpenDocument Reader available in the Play Store... if neither can open it, it is likely a corrupt file.


Installing lineageOS I have a tab S2 stuck on 5.02 I wanted to upgrade the software to lineagOS  There are lots of information out there but nothing that can help me. A few things first that I need to share. Im usung a MAC I once unlocked my device and knox is now void so must be unlocked. the bootloader I cant tell if unlocked. using an app I tried to check but came back with an error of " Sorry! root access is not properly installed on this device"
The tablet is in developer mode, there is no OEM mode or anything like that, usb debugging is turned on.
I have tried several things using terminal but didnt work with home brew an adb services. these installed on my mac but got as far as trying to add fastboot devices but denied on the terminal, but that probably makese sense if the bootloader is locked.

MOst insgtructions imply that you know what to do and dont exxplain much. Can anyone please assist with step by step instructions so I can complete the process of installing LineageOS.

Id appreciate your time if you can help me.

KInd regards

Samsung devices does not have fastboot mode, at least i am not aware of Samsung devices with Mediatek chipset

the bootloader lock status can be checked only from download mode screen

step by step instructions vary on device and android version. your android version 5.02 may not have OEM unlocking in developer options, you can skip this step

on the other hand be aware Samsung does improve security continuously and may roll-out new features even to old devices, which leads in non-working tutorials

also rooting apps like Magisk do silently change usage at will which may end up in data loss if tutorial isn't up to date


Why can't I change the Google Calendar on an event after it's been sync'd? Galaxy-S (Vibrant), Android 2.1

If I create an event with the stock Calendar app, I can freely change which Google Calendar the event is associated with.  Once it sync's with Google Calendar, however, I can no longer change which Calendar the event is associated with.  I can do change any other aspect of the event, and even delete the event, but I can't move it to a different calendar.  I can change the calendar from the Google Calendar web page, though.

Thanks!

This is probably because of how the Google Calendar server API interacts with client applications.

An update request has to be sent to a specific calendar on the server.  If you could change which calendar the appointment is tied to, synchronization would have to send a "delete" from one calendar and an "add" to the other.

I've developed and maintained a number of systems which have synchronization and replication... and I suspect that a decision as made to favor simplicity and avoid the possible complexities of cross-calendar edits.


Need deleted data from locked phone My moto g phone 5.1 pattern is locked accidently, is there any way to get my images from phone.

If your phone is unlocked, you can try using 'Recuva' software for recovering data from a deleted or formatted phone.
Although the Success of Recovery is not 100% and every file may not be recovered, but you can still recover most of the data which is lost (accidentally or purposely :p )


Whatsapp contact names not showing; just numbers on Samsung Galaxy S3 My Samsung Galaxy S3 has been freezing. On my Whatsapp, the contact names are gone. All it shows are contact numbers.

Is there a way to fix this problem? Is there a way to stop the phone from freezing?

Make sure whatsapp has permissions to allow it to look at your contacts.


Formatting (or reinstalling) Samsung Galaxy S2 I have some experience about Android phones (but i'm not an expert) .

I have problems with my Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100) . Its battery heating too much, there are a lots of applications, sometimes phone freezing and not responsing, it's battery consumption is too much and it's a little slow. And sometimes restarting itself.

In shortly, i'm using it for long time, i installed too many apps and uninstall some of them. Now i want to clear everything (except SD card datas) , delete all datas / apps . And start from origin, again. I'll my (really needed) applications from Google Play, later.

In computer knowledge, it's mean format , i think.

But for mobile phones, I'm not sure, it's called as "formatting" or "firmware reinstalling" .

I plugged my phone to computer and launch Samsung Kies but there isn't reinstall firmware option.

Notes

Android version : 4.0.3
My phone isn't rooted. (and i won't do that)
I'm worring about warranty. So, please just legal methods.
I don't want to lose my datas (music, etc) on my SD CARD.
I don't want to send my phone to technical service for this. It'll take at least 4-5 days.

What you are most likely look for is called "factory reset". As the name suggests, a "factory reset" is supposed to reset the device to its original state, as it was delivered by the factory. What in fact is done by a factory reset is to wipe all user-installed apps and all user data (for the latter, except data stored on sdcard).

This can be done either from within the system menu (look for the entry with the "fence" symbol, it's labeled something with "Privacy") -- or using the hardware buttons, as described at Hard-Reset.Com:

switch off your phone
press and hold volume-up and home buttons
press the power button for 2-3 seconds
release only power button, but KEEP pressing Volume up + Home Buttons
with Volume down select wipe data/factory reset (3rd) > Press Power

There's no need to re-install any firmware. The system resides on its own (read-only) partition, which is not touched by this process. Having followed above steps, your phone should then boot in a clean state. Don't worry if the first boot after that takes a bit longer -- that is fully normal. Also this does not void your warranty, as these steps would also be recommended by the service hotline if your device went nuts, and they want to eliminate the cause of misconfiguration or misbehaving (user-installed) apps.

For a reference, you might also want to take a look at the question Do a total wipe of my device.


How do I stop my screen from flickering when I wave my hand across my camera? Whenever I wave my hand or finger over my front camera, it causes my screen to flicker off and then back on in 2-3 seconds. It does not matter what app I am using; it always occurs. What could be causing this?

I found out that this was caused by installing SuperN64. Strange that it caused something across the entire phone and every app, not just itself.


Android < 2.3.7 shortcuts In android 2.3.7 and older when I long click on the screen the menu shows a list of shortcuts. Is there an option to add my own shortcut to this list?

This is unfortunately not possible. Only apps and the Android system can install shortcuts and widgets on your home screen.


Is it normal for a USB OTG converter to show in lsusb When running lsusb (not as root) with an OTG adapter plugged in without anything plugged into it I get :

u0_a83@flounder:/ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002

Is this normal with USB OTG adapters.

Also a USB hub is recognized as another device in lsusb when plugged using OTG

Yes, that is absolutely normal.  The host controller can detect the presence of the cable since pins 4 & 5 are bridged.

On my device I ran lsusb with a USB key connected via OTG, then with only the OTG cable connected, then with nothing:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1221:3234
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003
$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003
$ lsusb

Exactly as expected.  Your device appears to have one more bus compared to mine.


how do I know if I uninstalled something I shouldn't have Epic sph-d700 rooted 2.3.6 kernel v 2.6.35.7 FC09

I wanted to free up RAM by removing some system apps.

after removing 7 of them my system started having unexpected errors.

Google play updates wont install.

Is this repairable with clockwork mod or Odin?

First of all, if you are not 100% sure which system apps you can uninstall, it is better to freeze them first (which is supported by e.g. Titanium Backup and other apps). So if something starts behaving weird, you can simply unfreeze those apps again.

As you probably haven't just frozen the resp. apps, let's move to the second option: You hopefully made a Nandroid Backup before starting to tamper with the system? In that case, you can restore this backup via ClockworkMod. Or if you at least backed-up those apps you uninstalled (e.g. with aforementioned Titanium Backup), you can use this to restore them again.

If this is no option neither, all what remains is to check for a fresh firmware image to flash -- either stock or custom ROM.


Can we find out who has developed the app by looking on the signature? Is it possible that the published app is not signed by its developer andd if yes, How can we find out who is the app developer?

Yes it's possible, you can check by unzipping the APK, finding the META-INF/CERT.RSA file which contains the developer's public key and using the command openssl pkcs7 -in /path/to/extracted/apk/META-INF/CERT.RSA -inform DER -print.

For more info have a look at the first section of this link: https://www.evilsocket.net/2017/04/27/Android-Applications-Reversing-101/.


Mysterious battery drain My battery has dropped more than the sum of the usage by all of my apps.

Has anyone ever experienced this before, or know where the rest of my battery is going?

Click image for larger version

Android depiction of battery consumption isn't very accurate- see How does Android calculate battery consumption by apps? and I am not aware how much it has improved with the latest version. Having said that, the discrepancy in battery percentage as shown is large and it could be due

a)  Inaccuracy of measurement

b)  Wakelocks (see  tag wakelock for more information)

Inaccurate measurement: To verify this try installing an app like GSam Battery Monitor which gives a more granular breakdown of battery consumption (I am not aware how it measures but in my experience is reliable). If your device is rooted , you could install the helper file of that app to get better results or use BetterBatteryStats, which by far is the best IMO (requires Xposed Framework- see tag xposed-framework for more details )
Wakelocks: can be a major culprit eating into your battery.  To start with, you could install Wakelock Detector- suggesting this as first step since it works on both rooted and unrooted devices (see here and here for more details on installing/ using the app). Once you identify the culprit, following options are available:
System App (rooted devices only):

You could freeze or uninstall using apps like Titanium backup (there is always a risk of doing so, unless you are sure that it is bloatware and doesn't affect)
Alternatively, limit the wakelocks without breaking functionality using Amplify Battery Extender -Root (requires Xposed Framework)

If your device is not rooted:

a) If it is a system app, there isn't anything you can do

b) If it is a user app, uninstall that app and look for alternate    apps     that don't drain the battery by wakelocks or use Greenify

c) Contact the developer and hope that he fixes the wakelock problem


Samsung Android device is listed as modem under Windows, but want it as mass storage device When I plug in my Samsung phone it puts it under devices and printers it says that it is a modem. It reads Samsung CDMA technologies. I don't know how to get it to detect as a drive so I can put music and pictures on my phone. It is characterised as mass storage device and usb debugging is on.

What am I doing wrong?

You should have an USB icon in the notification bar. If you expand the notification bar and click on the USB item you should be able to configure the connection mode you want.


How can I get the apk file of an app downloaded from Google Play? I want to get the apk file of an app downloaded from Google Play. How can I do this?

Install the app from Play Store and use Astro File Manager to backup apps. From backup directory, you can get APK files of the installed app.


How do I add comments to an app in the Market? Apps in the market have a lot of comments and reviews.  How do I add my own rating and comment to these?

Navigate to Market, select Menu > Downloads and you will see the list of apps on your phone. Notice the My Rating section where you can star and comment on the app.


Why can't I get past CAPTCHA after changing Google Account password? I changed my Google Account password, and now there's a notification about trouble logging into my Gmail account on my Samsung Galaxy S. That's fine, I'd expect that.

What I don't expect is a pop-up box containing a CAPTCHA, that I cannot get past. I'm sure I got at least one of them right (despite the auto-caps for start of words tripping me up a few times). It just keeps popping up with another CAPTCHA.

What's going on?

Try unlock the captcha: https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha
Then, go back to your android phone e retype o password.


Can I use Google Play Services geofences to get location profiles without a service running all the time? Apps like Llama let you use location-related properties (such as Wi-Fi network visibility) to trigger automation actions such as putting the phone on silent, but they do this by running as a background service and polling for Wi-Fi networks or directly for location.

The Google Play Services library contains a geofencing facility, which allows apps to define geofences and to be started in response to (the phone) entering or leaving those geofences.

Since Google Play Services already needs to run and update my location for things like Google Now and Location History to work, I'd like to be able to use this to have it automate things on my phone, without having an extra service in memory all the time and running periodically. Is there a way I can set this up on my phone? Perhaps there's an app like Llama but using Google Play Services geofences instead of Wi-Fi, or a way to configure Tasker so that it only runs when triggered by a geofence I define. (I've never used Tasker.)

The AutoLocation add-on for Tasker allows you to do this. It makes use of Google Play Services Geofences, and is put out by one of the most reputable Tasker add-on designers around.

To set it up once you've installed Tasker and AutoLocation, create the geofences in the AutoLocation app and click start geofence. Then in Tasker you can set profiles to start from an Event. Choose Plugin, then AutoLocation, then Geofence, and set up the condition. Be sure Tasker is enabled (if the app icon in the action bar isn't coloured, long-tap it). Tasker does have a foreground service (always-on notification) by default: you can disable it from Tasker's preferences.

One shortcoming of this technique is that AutoLocation's geofences only create events in Tasker, not contexts, so you can't have settings changes automatically undo themselves when leaving the geofence.


How to use Google Text-to-Speech? This might be a no-brainer but I am having a hard time figuring it out.

Today I got the update of Google Text-to-Speech on my HTC One X. I was able to configure it and even listen to an example. But how do I use it? The Play store description states that it can be used with Google Play Books, Google Translate and many other applications in Play Store.

But what if I have a page on my Firefox or Pocket app which I want to read it out? How do I use Google Text-to-Speech with that? Also this app does not show up in my app drawer. Any reason why?

Because Google Text-to-Speech isn't really an app: it's a library app. That is, it doesn't have a user interface for you to interact with; rather, it offers an interface to other apps to use its functionality. Other apps on the phone can give text to Google Text-to-Speech for it to speak out loud.

It's up to the author of the app in question to use the facility offered by Google Text-to-Speech: only apps that have been written to use it can do so. So if you want Firefox to use Google Text-to-Speech to read out web pages, you need to file a feature request with Mozilla (the organization that develops Firefox) asking them to support this.

For the same reason, the way you use it in an app that does support it, such as Google Play Books, is different from app to app. There might be a button or menu item to read text out, or there might be a setting to make the app read things out automatically.


Can I damage screen (Nexus 7) by having it turned on and not change for longer periods of time? I wanted to use an app called TimeWise to have a timer ticking and showing how much time is left in a time-boxed task. However, I am not sure, if having the screen turned on like this (even with very low brightness) for 25 minutes without changing its content other than the counter, cannot damage it. These 25 minutes can be repeated for 4-8 hours. It is likely, that I will change the content of the screen from time to time, so this might be helpful, but I am not sure. Does anyone know if my concern is pertinent, or it is no problem for this type of screen? The device I'm using is Nexus 7 2013 version. Thanks!

No.  Both versions of the Nexus 7 use IPS LCD displays, which are not vulnerable to burn-in or other detrimental effects from displaying a fixed graphic.

Burn-in in currently used display technologies is a problem limited to organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, such as those used on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4.  The Electroluminescent compounds used to make these displays degrade as they are used (resulting in reduced brightness over time), thus displaying a fixed graphic will result in some parts of the screen wearing at a different rate than other parts.  Compounding this issue is that different colours of OLED degrade at different rates (blue degrades fastest, followed by green, then red).  Here's an example of what this looks like.  The burned-in sections will be permanently darker than the rest of the screen.


Editing contacts on Galaxy S5 How do I edit a contact on my Galaxy S5? When I click on the pencil icon for an individual contact it has everything grayed out, so I can't enter anything.

This can happen when the contact isn't one you originally typed into your phone, but it instead was synced using an app, such as from an Exchange address list. In this case, you need to either create a copy of the contact on your phone, and edit the copy, or go to the source that the contact was synced from and edit it there.


How to manually mount internal (adopted) SD card in Android 6? First of all, my SD card is not corrupted and I can access all my files with TWRP recovery file manager after entering my pattern to decrypt my storage, all of my files are not corrupted either. This question is not about how to restore files.

My Android 6 phone (Alcatel 5010D) fails to mount internal SD card on boot as adopted storage. It does mount the card only at /mnt/expand/5cf86564-54ca-4bbf-85e7-1f491f7ef923 (/dev/block/dm-1) but my /sdcard directory is empty (actually, it is a link to /storage/self/primary which in turn is a link to /mnt/user/0/primary). In settings > Storage & USB I can see my SD card, it says "8.21 GB used of 28.50 GB" (this is correct). But if I click on it, Apps, Images and everything else are using "0.00 B" which obviously is not correct. I have plenty of applications and some images. If I click "Explore", it shows empty screen.

So, how can I manually mount it? Or at least understand why Android does not do it automatically anymore? I have root access.

Please note that I know for a fact that mounting /sdcard manually is possible. TWRP recovery does this somehow, and I can access all my files in its file manager. In the past I was able to fully recover by copying all of them with adb pull while in TWRP recovery, format SD card for internal storage, copy everything back and then it works again normally. But sometimes Android stops mounting internal SD card on boot automatically for no apparent reason. If I knew how to do it manually, I would at very least had a quick fix for this issue and perhaps I could understand why Android fails to mount it automatically. I tried to Google an answer to this question, but usually I find methods like to mount encrypted storage on PC which is not what I'm looking for.

Also, as I already mentioned, my SD card is not physically corrupted, and I can read all files on it just fine. I know how restore everything, I'm aware of an option to format SD card as portable. But I would like to try to fix the issue at hand without reformating my card.

I had the same problem and did the following (you can try upfront whether step 7 does it already for you):

Backup old card (whole disk) as an image using ddrescue, save decryption key on your computer

Remove adopted card

Take a new card, format as internal, migrate data to this card, save decryption-Key on your computer, shutdown phone, remove new card

mount image and new sdcard unencrypted to Folder A and B

rsync A -> B

new card into phone, start debugging

Reset SELinux permissions using
restorecon -R -v /mnt/expand/[yourpartition]/*

as root in adb shell.
This did the trick for me. The new card did not vanish anymore and keeps persistently mounted.


Android permissions confusion I'm choosing a new phone, been using my Lumia for ages, so I'm a bit off about the whole thing. What I've discovered so far is that android devices are mostly much superior to their iOS counterparts in terms of hardware and extensibility, however the system of permissions seems to be insane.

Permissions are grouped by the android itself in a way that mixes read access with write access and combines different scopes. At the same it it does not provide a way to select/deselect individual permissions in a group - you either go "all-in" or "leave".

E.g. Skype asks for so many permissions, it effectively would be able to read my contact list, content of sd card, call history, get list of other running applications and more. While Microsoft claims that they do not gather this kind of info, I don't have any means to check it.

This seems insane to me, because linux itself provides a granular level configuration of permissions.

As I've read, in the latest Android aka Marshmallow permissions are being asked for during run-time, only when first needed, also they can be revoked by the user at any moment.

But are these permissions still the same badly configured broad groups? If I tap "Allow" will the permission be saved, can allow "only for this time" - until the app is closed? Can I constrain the list of permissions available when the app runs in background?

Probably there are other possibilities/apps to control privacy settings in android?

If I tap "Allow" will the permission be saved, can allow "only for this time" - until the app is closed? Can I constrain the list of permissions available when the app runs in background?

If you choose to grant the permission during runtime the app would be able to access the underlying resource as many times as it wants until you do clear data or reinstall the app. There is no constraint available in stock Android's Settings app which can restrict the permissions when an app is running in background.

  [Are there] other possibilities/apps to control privacy settings in [Android]?

Yes, and as Matthew Read noted XPrivacy is a flexible and powerful app to manage information sharing with installed apps. It is excellent but not perfect so you should not be surprised with crashes of the restricted apps.

  Permissions are grouped by the android itself in a way that mixes read access with write access and combines different scopes.

I would like to address that with this quote:

  If an app requests a dangerous permission listed in its manifest, and the app already has another dangerous permission in the same permission group, the system immediately grants the permission without any interaction with the user. For example, if an app had previously requested and been granted the READ_CONTACTS permission, and it then requests WRITE_CONTACTS, the system immediately grants that permission.

In plain words it appears to me that Android assumes that if the user is comfortable with granting an app a dangerous permission belonging to a certain group then they would not be having any problem if the system automatically grants rest of the permissions (dangerous or not) of the same group to that app, when requested.

Since normal permissions are always granted and considered safe I recommend you consider directing your attention to permissions groups holding dangerous permissions. Those permissions groups are self-describing and are not as much complicated as they seem to be at first sight.

Related:

Is it possible to install an app and exclude some of its requested permissions?
Are there any tools to sandbox a malware application even more than the granted permissions on Android?
Preventing installed apps from making calls or sending SMS
Is there a way to block permissions for other applications on Jelly Bean?


Delete one of my google account from marshmallow I have 3 linked acccount on my phone for gmail,

I want to access one of the account from destkop only and don't want to link that account on my phone,

How do i completely remove that account from my phone? what are the steps?

When i click on remove account, it goes to browser login, will it completely remove my account or it will remove from phone only?

I dont want to completely remove it.

Once, you click on remove account, it will lead you to a browser page where you have to log in with your account password. It will warm you that the following information pertaining to that account will be deleted from your device. Follow the steps to delete

Deleting the account affects only your device and you can still access it from desktop

  The only way to sign out of the Gmail app is to remove your entire account from your phone or tablet.

See "Remove your Google account from your device" section, which says

  Removing the account from your phone or tablet won't delete the account itself, so you'll still be able to use it on a computer or other devices.

(Emphasis supplied)


Does a stock email app auto-update? To clarify, two things:
1. I mean auto-updates to the app itself, not syncing to receive emails.
2. I'm not sure if there's a *difference, but I'm more interested in knowing about the stock apps/versions of stock apps that don't seem to have any way for you to manually update them yourself. For example, on my Galaxy S7 Edge (running Android 7.0), in the stock Email app, I can go into the Galaxy Apps store, or through the email app settings to the Galaxy Apps store to update the app; but on an Alcatel OneTouch Elevate I have (my previous phone)(running Android 5.1.1), there appears to be no way at all for me to update the stock Email app.

So, my question turns into: Do stock email apps, like the one on my Alcatel, auto-update? Does it perhaps get updated as part of the system update?

*by this, I kind of meant that I'm not really interested in knowing whether the stock email apps that you can manually update will also auto-update. So perhaps another form of the question is: If you can't update it, does it auto-update?

There is a global Auto Update option in Android 7.0 (possibly previous versions but I can't check now) which automatically updates all apps.

There is also a per-application setting. In case you have the global option off, then you can have that one enabled and it will still auto update. So be sure that both are off if you want the app not to auto-update.

By default, I believe the global option is on but that might depend on the phone.

For clarity, when an app is updated, we call that an update, when its data is updated, we call that a sync, such as downloading new emails as they arrive.

Stock apps are part of the system, so they will update when you accept a system update.


How to root Teac Tc-7120 I want to root my new Teac TC-7120 device, but couldn't find any rooting guide targeting it.

What should I do?

I used the following Guide:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/root-android-phone-superoneclick-2/

But even though my device is connected and in Debugging mode, I can't get the ADB to recognize it.

I don't know about rooting your device, but I can help with getting your device to be recognised by your computer.

Exact instructions will depend on what OS you are running, but basically you need to find the .android folder in your home directory, and replace the adb_usb.ini file with this one.  this tells your computer to let adb work with a load of different usb devices.  You may need to type this on the command line to get it to work after you do this:

adb kill-server
adb start-server

and now running this should show you your device

adb devices


Get battery usage data at finer resolution The biggest battery usage culprits on my phone, according to both the battery settings page and to GSam Battery Monitor, are always "Android System" and "Android OS." I also have "Watchdog" installed, which keeps warning me that "Android System" is using a lot of background CPU.

GSam explains helpfully that "Android System" includes the packages "Input Devices," "Key Chain," "Settings," "LocationServices," among others, and the processes "servicemanager" and "audiod" among others, but it doesn't break down the battery usage of each piece.

Is there any way to see battery or CPU usage info for each package/process separately, so I can figure out which specific component of "Android System" is burning my battery? It's hard to troubleshoot when I don't have detailed info about what's wrong.

dumpsys batterystats (or dumpsys batteryinfo pre-Lollipop) should give you the information you are looking for, broken down by process/package.  The machine-readable format (--checkin flag) will show specific UIDs if you need them.

You will probably need root to run that command in a terminal on your device, but it should also work from adb shell.


Can I use an Adafruit Trinket as a simple Android peripheral? I want to control the standby state of an LCD panel through an android media PC. I'm thinking of using a Trinket as a cheap android USB peripheral. Is this possible?

I'm new to Android and Adafruit but really keen to learn. Previously, I controlled my LCD panel through my Raspberry Pi GPIO interface, but I want to move to some hardware with a little more oomph!

The LCD Panel accepts a 3.3v signal to switch the screen on. Is the Trinket the right piece of hardware for this application?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Best Regards, Jabah

The answer depends on what kind of interface you're hoping to use between the Android device and the Trinket, and whether the Android device has drivers for that USB class. For example, if you made the Trinket act like a mouse, and your Android device has USB HID (human interface device) support, then that would work fine - but a mouse isn't much use for controlling your LCD panel.

You need to look in the specs of the particular Android device you're using, or try it out with some existing USB devices, to find what USB classes it supports: in particular, you'll likely be wanting to use a USB-serial interface.

You'll probably also need to write some special-purpose software for your Android device, to communicate with the Trinket. I'm afraid as this isn't a programming site, we can't help you with that.


Hard Brick Lenovo s898t+ I have a Lenovo s898t+ Golden Warrior, I was having problems trying to update it (the update was downloaded but not installing), so, I decided to install a stock rom from: http://www.needrom.com/download/lenovo-s898t/.

I followed the steps but the phone won't boot up, keeps restarting on a black screen, I didn't make any kind of backup.

¿What can I do?

Well, it turns out I didn't download the correct ROM, I had to download one from https://boycracked.com/2015/06/12/lenovo-s898t-stock-rom-2/, vibeui_v2.0_1503_7.18.1_st_s898t+.zip.

I hope this can help anyone with the same problem.


Intermittent scrambled panels when browsing on Chrome for Android 7.0 The client has intermittent scrambled panels when browsing on Chrome for Android 7.0. They display randomly as pages are loaded.

Image resized. Click for the full image.
The phone in use is LG K8 (2017)
Is this simply a breakdown in hardware or could there be a security issue?

Recently started having the same issue, and I'm not the only one, according to Google search. Seems to be a software issue with Chrome. The only solution so far has been to install Chrome beta version


Im concerned about my android phone So i just recently got a new phone. Android - LG K51 - however after running a root checker it says my phone has two available android versions. Android 9.0 and Android 10.0. Ive checked and the phones is running on Android 9.0. Ive also looked into the credentials and theres a whole list of apps downloaded that have the name Root in them. As well as a system file saying RootPA. Is my phone as risk or is it still safe?

The LG K51 has many variants. All variants have Android 10 except the LG K51 for Boost Mobile which has Android 9.

Ive also looked into the credentials and theres a whole list of apps downloaded that have the name Root in them. As well as a system file saying RootPA. Is my phone as risk or is it still safe?

When trying to root via 3rd party apps, they download files (and bloatware) that must be use to root. If you really want to root your phone, better search Xda-Developers to find if there are methods for your phone instead of using the one-click apps.


Hide apps in Evie Launcher app drawer I'm in love with the Evie Launcher however one complaint I have is that there seems no way to hide apps in the app drawer. According to this article the Nova launcher has this feature but i like Evie a lot and I don't want to change my launcher.

Is there a way to do this in Evie launcher?

At your homescreen longpress on a blank space and choose Settings. Under Customization header you would find the option "Hide Apps".


Android App Cache Security I have found that when an app is in use and correct information is provided to it from a user, the information doesn't allow a successful login. However, by clearing app cache, the login is successful without restart.

Hence, it looks like it's possible for the data to get into cache, and hence affect the working of application.

My initial thought is that this could be a possible attack vector.

I have searched on google and this site, but could not find much information on Security of App Caches on the Android OS.

I have found the following thus far:
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Mobile_Security_Project_-_Android

Questions:

How does the App Cache of Apps work on android?
What security features (if any) are present on Android, that would mitigate data from getting into the app cache from either local or remote sources? How do the security features work?

The "cache" of an app is just a directory inside that app's data directory in /data/data, so there are no special security implications compared with the app's general data. The cache directory has the same permissions as the data directory enclosing it: no other apps can access it, and the user can't access it directly (via adb or a PC), unless the phone is rooted (or the app itself exposes access).

From an OS point of view, the only difference between an app's "data" and its "cache" is that there's an extra button to clear the cache, with the expectation that no user data will be lost that way. They're both treated the same way by the OS, and it's entirely up to the app what data to store in each.


Google assistant triggers in hindi language Whenever I trigger google assistant using bluetooth headphones, it starts speaks in hindi and I need to ask in hindi. But when I start assistant from mobile directly it works normally (in english).
How can I fix this to always work in english ?

Could this problem be solved by going into keyboard settings and update the language feature? Android keyboard that came with the phone vs. app keyboards can vary greatly.Google assistant is in the input method of Android settings....it depends on your phone model but i would check there .hope it helps


French QWERTY keyboard for Nexus S When using the French language the default virtual keyboard on the Nexus S use the AZERTY keyboard layout.

That might be fine in Europe but not in North America (e.g. Quebec) where everyone uses QWERTY keyboards.

How can we globally change the keyboard layout on the Nexus S ?

If your phone is rooted, it's possible to do this by modifying system files that govern the keyboard.  A much easier (and safer) way would be installing a 3rd-party keyboard replacement app that has a French QWERTY layout.

Out of keyboards I've personally used, I can recommend AnySoftKeyboard with French Language Pack. It includes both AZERTY and QWERTY (French-Canadian) layouts.


What does app not installed mean? When I try to install an update on angrybirds epic rpg,it says "app not installed" what does that mean?It takes up 105.9 mb I have 500 mb left on my device.I have an android tablet.

It can mean many reasons, maybe out of memory, incompatible app, problems to your ROM, conflicting currently installed apps and etc.

Maybe you can try booting your phone to safe mode to remove conflicting apps . You can also try rebooting your phone.

Hope this may help!


Is it possible to connect a USB microphone to an Android phone or tablet? Blue makes a prosumer mic that you can connect directly to an iPod or iPhone via the dock port. I would love to have the same capability to do something similar for an Android phone or tablet. This would be really useful for field recording. I know that some tablets have support for various USB accessories to be plugged in, but I don't know if the OS can handle a microphone. Is this possible using existing or near future (Ice Cream Sandwich) hardware/OS combinations?

The range of USB device types supported "as is" by Android is limited and does not include microphones.

On the other hand, Android has the capability to work with an unlimited range of USB devices via their 'open accessories' sdk/kit/framework.  This was added in Android 3.0.

I believe they had to do it this way: existing USB devices require driver support and they can't go adding all those drivers to Android (which is a static image).  The open accessory framework will allow for devices that can be supported without loading a Linux driver.

So, you can't just go and buy a USB microphone and plug it into your Android device, but I expect we will soon start seeing USB accessories that are specifically designed to work with Android.


Is there a way to look inside and modify an adb backup created file? I created a backup of my Galaxy Nexus with adb backup. The resulting file is named backup.db and it's somehow encrypted.

I wanted to restore the backup, but it stops when it comes to restoring com.android.providers.contacts. I used adb logcat to find out what's going on and found out that com.android.acore crashes during the restore process.

I'd like to gain access to the data in the backup and remove the contacts database to restore everything back to my phone. Are there any other ways restoring the data from the backup?

I started working on this. I'm posting my results so far here as a "community wiki" answer for two reasons: first, if someone else wants to join in, there's a place to talk; second, if I get pulled away from this project, there'll be hints for someone else to start working.

The backup logic on the host is entirely contained within https://github.com/android/platform_system_core/blob/master/adb/commandline.cpp, in the function named backup. The function is very simple: it validates the command line options, sends the command mostly as-is to the adb daemon on the phone, and writes the phone's output to the file. There isn't even error-checking: if, for example, you refuse the backup on the phone, adb just writes out an empty file.

On the phone, the backup logic starts in service_to_fd() in https://github.com/android/platform_system_core/blob/master/adb/services.cpp. The function identifies that the command from the host is "backup", and passes the unparsed command to /system/bin/bu, which is a trivial shell script to launch com.android.commands.bu.Backup as the main-class of a new Android app process. That calls ServiceManager.getService("backup") to get the backup service as an IBackupManager, and calls IBackupManager.fullBackup(), passing it the still-unused file descriptor (very indirectly) connected to the backup.ab file on the host.

Control passes to fullBackup() in com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService, which pops up the GUI asking the user to confirm/reject the backup. When the user do so, acknowledgeFullBackupOrRestore() (same file) is called. If the user approved the request, acknowledgeFullBackupOrRestore() figures out if the backup is encrypted, and passes a message to BackupHandler (same file.) BackupHandler then instantiates and kicks off a PerformAdbBackupTask (same file, line 4004 as of time of writing)

We finally start generating output there, in PerformAdbBackupTask.run(), between line 4151 and line 4330.

First, run() writes a header, which consists of either 4 or 9 ASCII lines:

"ANDROID BACKUP"
the backup format version: currently "4"
either "0" if the backup is uncompressed or "1" if it is
the encryption method: currently either "none" or "AES-256"
(if encrypted), the "user password salt" encoded in hex, all caps
(if encrypted), the "master key checksum salt" encoded in hex, all caps
(if encrypted), the "number of PBKDF2 rounds used" as a decimal number: currently "10000"
(if encrypted), the "IV of the user key" encoded in hex, all caps
(if encrypted), the "master IV + key blob, encrypted by the user key" encoded in hex, all caps

The actual backup data follows, either as (depending on compression and encryption) tar, deflate(tar), encrypt(tar), or encrypt(deflate(tar)).

TODO: write up the code path that generates the tar output -- you can simply use tar as long as entries are in the proper order (see below).

Tar archive format

App data is stored under the app/ directory, starting with a _manifest file, the APK (if requested) in a/, app files in f/, databases in db/ and shared preferences in sp/. If you requested external storage backup (using the -shared option), there will also be a shared/ directory in the archive containing external storage files.

$ tar tvf mybackup.tar
-rw------- 1000/1000      1019 2012-06-04 16:44 apps/org.myapp/_manifest
-rw-r--r-- 1000/1000   1412208 2012-06-02 23:53 apps/org.myapp/a/org.myapp-1.apk
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091     231 2012-06-02 23:41 apps/org.myapp/f/share_history.xml
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091       0 2012-06-02 23:41 apps/org.myapp/db/myapp.db-journal
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091    5120 2012-06-02 23:41 apps/org.myapp/db/myapp.db
-rw-rw---- 10091/10091    1110 2012-06-03 01:29 apps/org.myapp/sp/org.myapp_preferences.xml

Encryption details

An AES 256 key is derived from the backup encryption password using 10000 rounds of PBKDF2 with a randomly generated 512 bit salt.
An AES 256 master key is randomly generated
A master key 'checksum' is generated by running the master key through 10000 rounds of PBKDF2 with a new randomly generated 512 bit salt.
A random backup encryption IV is generated.
The IV, master key, and checksum are concatenated and encrypted with the key derived in 1. The resulting blob is saved in the header as a hex string.
The actual backup data is encrypted with the master key and appended to end of the file.

Sample pack/unpack code implementation (produces/uses) tar archives: https://github.com/nelenkov/android-backup-extractor

Some more details here: http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/06/unpacking-android-backups.html

Perl scripts for packing/unpacking and fixing broken archives:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27840175#post27840175


Why is voice-to-text input not working when disconnected from the Internet? As you know, on Nexus One you can use voice input to enter text by speaking.

Unfortunately, if you are disconnected from the Internet (even temporarily), this feature is unavailable.

Why?

On my Windows laptop I can do this without being connected to the Internet.

Can you explain?

The Android implementation of Talk-To-Text sends your voice to Google's servers, parses your speech into text, then sends the text string back to the handset.  Without access to the internet, it's unable to transmit your voice data to their servers.


CyanogenMod emulation The device is Samsung i9100. I have downloaded the latest AndroidStudio and going to modify
or create an addon for AOSP contact app.

The system itself is present on the website https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=i9100

Does anyone know how to go about Cyanogen emulation?

Also, what I am trying to do is explained by me at Modifying android system apps.

Guys, do I really need to emulate CyanogenMod? Or can I just modify "aosp contacts app"
testing it under any android emulator and then putting my changes into the CyanogenMod package for Samsung i9100?

The Contacts app doesn't require any specialized device features, so you should be able to test your modifications in an AVD created from the images you download via Studio's SDK Manager. These are just basic Android images, not Cyanogen, but if you're not tying into some special feature of Cyanogen or i9100 hardware, then it will be adequate.

Once you get things working in an emulator, connect the i9100 to your development box and test the app for real. You'll need to enable the Developer Options menu and turn USB debugging on before Studio will see that i9100 as a run configuration target.


How can I decode the Bluetooth Error numbers found in errno, that show up in Android log? I am trying to find the definition of the Bluetooth Error Numbers.  For example they might appear in logcat output as:

  09-16 07:38:50.896 V/BluetoothSocket.cpp( 8809): ...accept(69, RFCOMM)
  = -1 (errno 125)

The errno global variable concept is not Bluetooth specific but comes from the (POSIX) system calls used by BluetoothSocket.cpp. Your log shows that the system call accept() failed, because it returned -1 (negative values usually indicate an error). Additionally accept() also set the errno to 125. If you look at the related definition in the Linux sources, you find that it maps to ECANCELED:

#define ECANCELED   125 /* Operation Canceled */

See also

Wikipedia on errno.h
POSIX errno.h


G2/Froyo - Settings Quick Keys - How to set to "Wireless & Networks" When I configure my G2's "Quick Keys", I cannot set it to anything in "Settings > Wireless & Networks", except the main "WiFi settings" panel.

Ideally I would want quick keys assigned to "Tethering & portable hotspot", that would allow me to turn on data-forwarding quickly.

For the time being, I also need easy access to "Mobile network Settings", because I need to turn "Use only 2G networks" on and off, because I happen to be one of the lucky people that hit the data throttle, and cannot make voice calls when it is busy during the day.

The best way I have found to do this is using an app called Any Cut.

Any Cut allows you to launch just about anything, follow these steps for the two that you mentioned (Tethering settings and Mobile Networks)

Install Any Cut
Pick a Quick Key to set (tap the key if unset currently or Home->Menu->Settings->Quick keys->[select a key])
Under More, tap Any Cut
Tap Activity
Select the activity you want to launch (Network Settings for Mobile Networks and the 2G/3G switch or Settings --the 7th Settings -- for Tethering & portable hotspot)

Thanks to [Jeff Hamilton] for developing Any Cut (and releasing it for free) and also to [pikipirs] of XDA-Developers for pointing out which settings option to use for tethering


How do I install an apk as a system application? I'm trying to install an application in the system/app folder of a device. It needs to be done since I'm writing a QAT program and the tests need to run with a few privileges not available to third party apps.

I already have the device's firmware signing key and need to set the sharedUserId of the application to android.uid.system . It however keeps giving me a failure message "INSTALL_FAILED_SHARED_USER_INCOMPATIBLE" .

Any ideas on how I can fix this?

Found these instructions to install PowerManagerPro into /system/app, just modified them a little.
(Note: first install the app into /data/app, like you would any app, and you need a rooted device.)

  Open a Terminal Emulator app and execute the following command to copy the application to the sdcard:

su
cp /data/app/your.apk /sdcard/your.apk

  If you can't find the application in /data/app try /data/apps-private/.
  Then, un-install your app from the device.

  Execute the following commands in the terminal emulator to remount the /system directory as read/write and to install the application into the /system/app directory:

su
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cp /sdcard/your.apk /system/app

  If you prefer to use adb from your computer, execute these commands:

adb remount
adb shell cp /sdcard/your.apk /system/app


High "unstability" of phone internal memory Few days ago a problem appeared. With memory. I have phone with 8 GB internal storage and 64 GB external storage. I keep my photos, songs etc. on external storage of course. Applications are partially on internal and external memory. My phone is Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime powered by Android 4.4.4 (KitKat). It has a root. For a few months, free memory remained at the level of 700-600 MB. Not bad for Android. I know that the level of free memory may vary, but not as much as now. Yesterday the "diagrams of memory" began to jump on the gargantuan value. Only system memory remains the same. Used memory jumps from ~4,50 to almost 4,90 GB. Various files....it's not worth talking. Every second value varies in the range from 43 MB upwards. Several times the pointer took on unrealistic values such as an increase to 700 MB without free memory shrinking, another time memory decided to multiply magically so that the values of all the diagrams exceeded the total memory. Free memory jumped from 625 MB to 140 MB, next returned to ~600 MB and back to ~160 MB. Now it's varying in the range from 160 MB to 150 MB. Can I repair this without hard reset? Maybe it's a kind of memory leak and another bug.

PS. My phone doesn't slow down. And if it's necessary I can do hard reset.

I have seen greatly inflated file sizes on the thumbnails storage file, which is a sparse file (in other words, it's not literally as large as it says it is--it's more like a reservation of maximum size).  Deleting it always fixed my issues with space, but it gets rebuilt eventually.


Does the Samsung Galaxy S have an FM transmitter? I seem to recall seeing a review of the Samsung Galaxy S that said it has an FM transmitter (so you can listen to music from it on your car radio, for instance).  However, I didn't see it mentioned anywhere else.

Does it in fact have such a transmitter?

Early promotional material for the Galaxy S said that it had an FM transmitter.  Samsung later removed this from the list of features.  Some models, such as the i9000, have a FM receiver.  It appears other versions also have a receiver that is not supported by drivers;  This XDA thread has more details.

Your best bet is to get an FM transmitter than plugs into the headphone jack, or to use Bluetooth.


Tablet space for apps from its own internal USB storage I have a Tecno tablet with:
 1 gb RAM/engine
 1 gb Internal Storage/apps installing only.
 16 gb "USB Storage" internally built (just named like that but it's not external),media/ files

I do NOT have, NOR want to use an SD/microSD/memory card.

How can I merge or add up from that USB Storage
 Increase apps installed (the Internal Storage gets full fast;it is the Default Write Disk)
& any other tweaks to do, PC software, apps, wielding???

I have:- WiFi, this rooted tablet, rooted Android phone, USB cables, Windows laptop, NO SD card.

 HOW please?

Firstly, I do not think that you can install more RAM on most Android devices as they have fixed amounts of RAM. I would suggest that you minimize background processes in order to free up more RAM.

Secondly, I also do not think that you can install more Internal Storage to an Android device, again because the amount is fixed. The only way is to add an SD Card/MicroSD Card which you do not want.

If you install apps to USB Storage, don't you have to constantly keep it plugged in in order for them to run?


Can I do Android/g1 tethering without root? Can I do Android/g1 tethering without root?

Yes according to this post:

This one is for the majority of Android owners who don’t want to be bothered with root on the G1 (Android). Mucho gracias to Tremendo Slap for digging this one up. June Fabric has released an app for Windows that also installs another app on Android that allows you to tether to 3G. Most users say it works flawlessly even with VPN connections. A few dropped connections being dropped here and there but overall a success. This is an app that I know many of you have been waiting for.

For those wondering, tethering is connecting your device to your laptop and using your devices internet connection on your laptop, basically.

So download PdaNet beta 1.12 (or Vista 64)

PdaNet

Note This is probably in violation of your carrier’s TOS. For T-Mobile the 1GB per month data cap was lifted awhile ago but there is word that users that pass the 1GB limit will be limited to 50Kbps for data past that mark. I would advise using this only if you are in dire need. I would advise against canceling your home internet plan as well


How can I share my free internet vpn connection with my laptop? I am getting the free internet connection through both HTTP Injector and Anonytun, I want to get the same fast connection in my laptop as in the android phone?
Please use simple language since I'm not exactly very convulsant with these things..but I,m also not thaat dumb...hehe :-). Thank you.

The easy Way...
 1. Start your VPN on your phone
 2. Install/Use Clockworkmod's USB Tether.
2b. Use PDANet/Foxfi for wireless sharing.

The Clockworkmod/PDAnet tether app will connect to the internet like any other app;
through the VPN.


SGN 4.2.1 - stuck at I own Samsung Galaxy Nexus, it has been unlocked, rooted, I'm using CWM Recovery Touch and a few weeks ago I updated firmware to 4.2.1 (build JOP40D). It seems that Superuser is no longer working on 4.2 versions and I must use SuperSu (so I installed it from the Play, but probably it's not at all). Problems:

can't start Recovery in fastboot mode, it shows something like no command on some error screen (but in my language). Before this screen it tries to boot or something (Google logo for a while).
can't do anything with ADB or Galaxy Nexus Toolkit, after reboot to the fastboot I stuck at <waiting for device> message.
can't update CWM Recovery from CWM Rom Manager, probably due to su problem.

I haven't found any solution within discussions (useless as always), but everybody's asking about adb devices, so my output is: 0149A5310A021040        device

I can hack it with my Windows or Linux, but need some advice, thanks.

Problem solved, but I don't understand what happened. While I got stuck on <waiting for device> message, I've tried Reboot bootloader option and process has been successfully completed. But I haven't to do this first time when I was unlocking, rooting, and installing Recovery and AOKP.


Automatically connect to Wi-Fi nodes, but route everything through encryption Related to my question about VPNs, is there any way to get my phone to automatically connect to unencrypted access points, but route all my traffic through my home network?

This would be kind of like an intermittent, but free, alternative to a data plan, to just sync my email and such automatically when it sees an open access point, but without the risk of apps transmitting passwords or cookies in the clear over a rogue password-scraping access point.

If I combine something like Wi-Fi Ruler with a VPN would it do this?  Are there better alternatives?

Can I have the VPN automatically disabled when I'm connected to a trusted (saved) access point for better speed?  (Maybe disabled by a Tasker profile?)  If I have the tunnel enabled, and my home network is offline, I'd like the phone to block everything until I explicitly disable the tunnel.

Wi-Fi Ruler can connect to APs automatically, Orbot and DroidVPN can capture all of a rooted phone's traffic and route it through a proxy, and VPNs and SSH tunnels allow for encrypted connections to a home or work network, so it seems possible, but how to put all this together?

Lifehacker suggests an app called SSH Tunnel:

  SSH Tunnel is an app that allows an
  Android phone to connect to the
  internet using an ssh tunnel for a
  completely secure connection. It's
  great for those times when you've got
  no data signal, stuck at work or a
  coffee shop that only has public Wi-Fi
  available, and you need to be sure
  that nobody is snooping your sensitive
  personal information as you connect to
  sites.


How do I update Android on my device? This Community Wiki question is designed to be the "canonical question" for questions asking how to upgrade one's device to a new Android version.

I want to get a newer version of the OS for my Android device. How can I do that?

See also: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

This is a Community Wiki post. If you see a way to improve it, please go right ahead and edit it.

There are multiple factors that go into the answer in your particular case.

Is there an official update from the carrier/manufacturer? Then use the official method.
Is there no official update, but has someone created a ROM that you could install on your rooted device? Then you need to look for how to update unofficially.
If you have a little programming knowledge, and you know about Linux device drivers, you could try to make a custom ROM for the device. Start with an existing ROM project such as Cyanogenmod and port it to your hardware. This will take a lot of effort, there's a risk of bricking your phone, and it might not even be possible for your device (because of lack of drivers). If you still think it's worth a try, ask the developers of the ROM you're starting with where to start. (Note that questions about writing custom ROMs are off-topic on this site.)
If there is neither an official update nor a custom ROM, and you don't have the knowledge or free time to port one yourself, then your only other option is to buy a new device.

Official

First, check to see that there is an official update for your device.

When will my device get the Android 8.0 update (Oreo)?
When will my device get the Android 7.0 update (Nougat)?
When will my device get the Android 6.0 update (Marshmallow)?
When will my device get the Android 5.1 update (Lollipop)?
When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)?
When will my device get the Android 4.4 update (KitKat)?
When will my device get the Android 4.3 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?
When will my tablet get the Android 3.x update (Honeycomb)?
When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?
When will my phone get the Android 2.2 update (FroYo)?

For most devices, you simply go to Settings | About phone | System updates. If the update is ready for your particular device, it will tell you so. If you're lucky, you won't even need to go that far, as there will be a notification telling you that an update is ready.

Note that it takes time for carriers and manufacturers to add their customizations to the OS. Just because a new version has been announced doesn't mean it's immediately available for your device. Even when a particular OS update is announced for your device, it is almost always a phased rollout, meaning that it could be days or weeks from the official release for it to be available for you. (Very often the update file is made available for savvy users to update manually.)

Some device manufacturers/carriers have slightly, or grossly, different ways of distributing updates. Samsung, for instance, is notorious for requiring users to use their Kies software.

How do I upgrade firmware on my Samsung Galaxy S without using windows?
What can you do with Samsung Kies for Android phones?

Unofficial

If there is no official update for your device, you either need to wait for one (if one will be made) or install a custom ROM. There is a vibrant mod community that works very hard to make new OS updates available for old devices and devices where the manufacturer/carrier is very slow to do their customizations.

Rooting and flashing ROMs to your device is too large a topic to be covered in this post.  Please refer to these other questions for that:

How do I root my Android device?
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?


Does auto-disabling WiFi based on GPS fences save battery life? I came across an IFTTT recipe that auto-disables WiFi on android when leaving a geographic area. The idea being that it save battery life since it wouldn't try to use WiFi elsewhere.

Does this idea make sense? Or would GPS probing waste more battery life?

Your question boils down to battery savings WiFi Vs GPS for which I am not aware of a definitive answer

I am not familiar with IFTTT, but check if location update rate is possible to be varied
Macrodroid another easy to learn automation app allows you to configure update rate, so that you can vary updates to optimise on battery

Alternatively, if you are using GPS only for geo fencing, it  would be better to use cell tower groups to use as a trigger for switching on/ off Wifi - another feature of Macrodroid


Clean install of android I am wondering is there a way to completly delete all data on the phone(including system, kernel...) and reinstalling clean system, something that would be equivalent to formating hard drive and reinstalling system on PC.

First, for reinstalling you'll need a ROM specifically matching your device (there's no such thing as a "generic installer" for Android, see e.g. Can I install a ROM made for a different device and Why are there not generic phone OS installers?)

Second, for a "clean start", it is possible to "wipe" all mentioned partitions – but usually not with the stock features of Android devices. You will need a custom recovery such as twrp or clockworkmod-recovery, where you can explicitly select which partitions to "wipe" (including /system).

Note: As therealjayvi correctly pointed out, those "wipes" wont really destroy all data (forensic experts will still be able to recover) – but I guess you won't need that anyway: as soon as you install the "fresh Android" (i.e. flash the ROM), most of the data will be overwritten anyway. And if you're really concerned about remaining data blocks being recoverable by experts: encrypt your device before wiping. That's safer than the dd approach (in terms of not accidentally destroying things).


What are the features that HTC Sense has that vanilla Android does not have? What are the features that HTC Sense has that vanilla Android does not have?

This question is similar to What are the features that Motoblur has that vanilla Android does not have? but for HTC Sense.

integration with social networks (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter), including down to the contacts application, with contact pictures and everything
free "lost phone" functionality, without the need for a third-party application (eg. Lookout), including remote lock and wipe
an (arguably) easier to use keyboard, with quick access to numbers and common symbols
HTC-specific applications (Navigation, Sync, launcher, widgets, etc.)

Keep in mind that all of the eye-candy features offered by Sense do reduce battery life, so it may be desirable to install a third party ROM or remove them from the existing ROM using Titanium Backup.


How do I make permanent changes to files in root (/) directory? Every time I edit a file in /, /sbin, or /system/bin it overwrites on restart (device is rooted and in r/w mode). I assume this is because Android mounts a temporary root? Or maybe it's just a problem on my device?

How do I make a permanent change to root files? Can I do this through adb? Do I need to edit the system image, and if so can anyone point me in the right direction on where to start on this?

The root file system (/) and the files therein (plus several more in some sub-directories) are overwritten at boot time from the so-called InitRd ("initial RAM disk", or "boot image"). So if you must change/add stuff there, you will have to modify that image.

If you just want to store some additional binaries/scripts, you should rather do so in /system/xbin (which usually is also contained in the $PATH) – though files in /system/bin should survive a reboot as well (/system is a separate partition usually mounted read-only, and thus not touched except for OS updates).


Setting alarm on with a single click I'm looking for a way to set an alarm on my android 4.0 phone with Nova Launcher with a single click. An ideal solution for me would be: I install an alarm clock app (if necessary), create alarms in it and save them with aliases (for instance 5:30-"gym", 6:30-"sleep in", 7:30-"weekend"), then the app creates 3 shortcuts with respective aliaces or it shows a widget with these three options and I place those on my home screen. So when I finally decide whether I want to go to the gym tomorrow or not, I just unlock the phone and click the corresponding button - clean and simple. Let me know if there's a solution that might work. I'm even willing to try another Launcher, if one of them has it. Thanks!

Buy a Samsung S3 - it alarm app has a built in widget function that allows you to set a widget, and then assign the alarm you want to it. Its a 2 block widget and you can toggle it on and off, plus it provides details about the alarm.

Perhaps you could see on XDA if someone could pull the app for you and then you could try running it on ICS.

I am surprised there isn't another app out there that is similar.


How to add timezone to world clock when you don't know the city? Using the stock clock in Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) on my Nexus 4, I can add world clocks for other cities around the world by scrolling through the long list of available cities (in alphabetical order).
However, what if I can't find any cities, that I am familiar with, in the respective timezone? The list of cities included in the clock app does not seem to be comprehensive; all the cities covered by the IANA timezone database are not included. I do not see any way of adding an additional city, or searching the current list by timezone or even just specifying a timezone?
Am I missing something?
Reference: List of tz database time zones

Example:
My initial problem came about when trying to set a clock for "Central Indonesian Time" (Abbreviated CIT or WITA officially). I know this is UTC+08:00. I also know the tz identifier is "Asia/Makassar". Makassar is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. This time zone also includes the popular tourist island of Bali, of which the capital is Denpasar (international airport).
But neither of these cities are included on Android and further more, none of the cities mentioned on the Wikipedia page for CIT are included either. In fact, having trawled through the entire list, there are no Indonesian cities listed in this (Indonesian) time zone!
In the end I used Kuala Lumpur (Malaysian Capital) and assumed it will always be the same (although that is no guarantee, since it is officially a different timezone (MYT) - different government).

It's incredibly annoying that Google doesn't care about those things. If your phone is rooted, fire up a terminal or "adb shell" from a computer. Get a root shell by typing "su" and then:

setprop persist.sys.timezone "Asia/Makassar"

After restarting the phone, you get "Central Indonesia Time" under "Select time zone", despite the fact that it's not in the list.


Stuck on "Turning Wi-Fi on..." I've a Wintouch Q75s Tablet running on Android 4.0.4 ICS. I was using its Wi-Fi with no problems until yesterday, the Wi-Fi didn't want to turn on. I've noticed that my MAC address changed to Unavailable which I think indicates an error.

What can I do to use my Wi-Fi once again?

I contacted the vendor but they didn't respond. Is there any hope my Wi-Fi can run again?

Edit: It started happening when I removed the wpa_supplicant. Now the WiFi does not want to turn on. However, the portable hotspot starts successfully without any problems.

Edit: The problem was solved by flashing a new firmware from Wintouch's website, the firmware was Q75SJ30401.IMG (Barcode Q75SJ304xxxxx)

A list of available firmwares for Wintouch devices can be found here

Thanks for everyone who helped me :)

As it turns out, the problem was caused by deleting wpa_supplicant. Wikipedia can offer a little insight on what that means:

  In addition to being a full-featured WPA2 supplicant, it also implements WPA and older wireless LAN security protocols.

It further is responsible for the job to

  review a list of currently visible networks, select one of them, provide any additional security information needed to authenticate with the network (e.g. a passphrase or username and password) and add it to the preference list to enable automatic reconnection in the future.

As it is said: curiosity killed the cat -- and deleting wpa_supplicant makes it quite impossible to use WiFi.

There are three corresponding files on Android:

/system/bin/wpa_supplicant is a binary (i.e. the program itself)
/system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf is the default configuration (as the path correctly suggests, in the read-only /system area), which also includes device-specific settings, plus some "inline documentation" in form of comments
/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf is located in the writable part. It repeats some of the contents from the system file (most likely copied from there on initialization -- as /data gets completely wiped on a factory reset, those things must come from somewhere), but skips the comments. Furthermore, this file memorizes those networks you've connected to, including SSID, encryption used, and the passwords, all in plain text [sic!] -- that's where those "WiFi password recovery" apps get their information from

So if the latter config was deleted, it simply would be re-created after a boot. Of course, all your saved networks would be lost -- but that's a minor issue compared to the others:

If the system-config file gets lost, the binary does not now where to look for the interface, as that's configured here (e.g. ctrl_interface=tiwlan0). This would also explain the missing MAC address: no known device, no known MAC address. Still, recovery from that should not be too hard: there are not too many different interface names, and other settings (like the chipset used) can be taken from specifications -- so root provided (which is the case, or you could not have deleted it), you could re-create a matching file with a little try-and-err.

If the binary was removed, options are narrow without a backup. Having a similar device available running the very same ROM, you could extract the binary from there (the config as well, or course). If you have at least an image available for your current ROM, you could extract it from there as well.

If all above fails: Yes, flashing a ROM would solve the issue as well -- as this ROM should contain the necessary files. It's quite unlikely you damaged your hardware that way.