how to check if i have successfully disabled dm-verity? my phone has dm verity enabled by default. I read about ways to disable it. After that, is there any way with which can i verify if dm-verity is disabled?

All that dm-verity usually mean is that you have write access to the /system partition. So trying to write to (or place) any file in there should be enough.

Be careful though, modifying /system is always risky.


How to know which Dock Connector my Galaxy S2 has? There are several revisions for Dock Connects/Charging Ports per model. I would like to know if there is a way to find which revision is installed on my phone without opening the device. If that's possible.

Phone: GT i9100

Not possible as for an unrooted device. I had to open the phone to identify the port.


HTC-Desire-HD Calls go to answer phone if emails / data is updating a customer of mine has a HTC-Desire-HD that when Data is updating be it emails, weather or any other data app the customer can not receive any voice calls as they go straight to answerphone..

Data turned off the calls work no problem.

If the phone is ont he home screen or other menu screen the phone calls are fine.

only when data is in use does the call go to answerphone.

Any tips??

Only dual-transfer mode phones and networks can use both voice and data at the same time.  I can't find any hard details on the Desire HD but I assume it is not DTM enabled/capable.


Automatic Download of Youtube Channels I have a couple of Youtube channels I subscribe to. I'm subscribed both on Google Reader and on Youtube itself. Is there an app that checks for new updates to my subscribed channels and downloads them automatically (perhaps once a day)?

My objective is to always have a few videos I can watch while on the road (and offline). I love how Google Listen syncs really well with my Google Reader podcasts and downloads them automatically, but it doesn't work with video podcasts. So is there an app that will do the same with my video podcasts? (either with Google Reader or with Youtube)

Running 2.1-eclair if it matters.

YouTube itself doesn't provide any way to download videos for offline viewing; any application that would let you do this would have to scrape the page to download the FLV (Flash Video) file, and then let you play the file on the phone; this might violate the Terms of Service for YouTube.

Basically, there probably isn't a way to do this, at least no legitimate way.


How to disable screen lock on Huawei P8 lite? I cannot remove the lock screen on my P8 lite.

I go to Settings > Screen Lock & Passwords > Password.  There, I can only choose Pattern, PIN or Password, but I cannot tap on None.  Under that, is this: Disabled by administrator, encryption policy or credential storage.

What does it mean, and what should I do?

I have same problem and nothing worked, including clear credentials. Only thing that I didn't try is set pattern lock + extra PIN and then provide wrong pattern 5 time. On other topic they say that is working. Here is the link.


emulating permission access for apps While installing apps in Android, it asks for lots of permission to run.

Sometimes I just want to check out how a app is and not interested in sharing any info with the app.

Is it possible to install a app in a "jail" kind of environment and just emulate whatever permission it ask for and not actually sharing it ??

I hope the question is clear..it may not be exactly what I am asking for ..but if there is any way to accomplish this, let me know.

Thanks!

PS:

Not related with any specific version..although I have JellyBean.

You should try out XPrivacy or Protect My Privacy. Both of them require the Xposed framework

Jellybean comes with an in-built hidden permission controller called App Ops which is accessible by using AppOps (open source)


Magic Earth Navigation POI import Custom POIs. I have made a POI in a number of formats:  .rupi,  .gpx,  .asc, .csv, .ov2, .txt,  containing some 250 handicap parking spaces I Denmark. How do I import custom POI with corresponding icon into Magic Earth Navigation?

At first you have to install "RupiManager".
Then put your poi.txt in "Import" folder and export it as KML by the app.
In the next step you have to open your poi.kml in "export" folder with magic earth.


ad blocker w/ vpn, or vpn with ad blocker? Simply, (S10e no root) does a ad blockers vpn do the same as a vpn app like cyberghost? Installed adlock then wondered if there VPN being focused on blocking ads would lack in hiding traffic etc. Would it be better to get a vpn with ad blocker. I apologize if this question is simple but could not find a streight answer. Privacy would be the main thing I would like to accomplish but ad lock worked very well would I be OK keeping ad lock in the privacy dept.

Most VPN based ad blocker Blokada don't work like traditional VPN systems, instead the VPN server is located on the same Android device. Outside of your device the traffic is just normal Internet traffic exactly as it would be without VPN based ad blocker.
The VPN based ad blocker uses the VPN system only for redirecting the traffic into the app for being able to filter the traffic. On unrooted devices the VPN system is the only way to get access to the traffic of other apps, therefore the Android VPN-client is used.
On regular VPN systems the VPN server (endpoint) is located on a server somewhere on the Internet. If the VPN is active all traffic that leaves your device is encapsulated (protected + encrypted) in a VPN data connection that is sent to the VPN server and there the data is unpacked and sent to the original server. Therefore the traffic that leaves your device is totally different and because of the additional server in-between the latency can increase depending on where the VPN server is located.
Of course it is possible to add ad blocking features to a traditional VPN.


Is it safe to restore the phone.apk from a stock Samsung ROM to CM9? I was using the stock Samsung ROM on my Samsung S2 i9100. Changed over to Siyah Kernel and then made the leap to CyanogenMod 9.

Although I prefer and appreciate the myriad settings and usability of CM, there are a couple of issues where I preferred the functionality of the stock ROM:

The phone.apk - not just the dialer, but the incoming call screen
and the large size buttons to answer a call or to bring up the
keypad etc. I know I can use an alternate dialer like DialerOne or dwContacts but that doesn't help me to change the incoming call screen.
Pressing the physical home button to answer a call. There are times
when it's exceedingly difficult to use the onscreen slider and a
press to answer the call is far easier.
FM Radio - although Spirit Radio works as an alternative.

For items 1&2, can I overwrite the existing phone.apk and contacts.apk with the previous ones that I have backed up using Titanium Backup to return this functionality?

The answer is usually "No."  The framework changes introduced with manufacturers' UI overlays (Samsung's TouchWiz in the case of your Galaxy S II)  most likely make the stock apps like Phone, Contacts, Calendar, etc. incompatible with custom ROMs like CyanogenMod ROM that are based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project).


Remote control my android I have an ICS tablet with HDMI output. I want to use it as a media center connected to my TV, but it would be ideal if I could control it without having to go back and forth from the couch. I have a laptop and an android phone. I'm looking for suggestions on how to control the tablet remotely.

My ideal usage is being able to play videos, pause, select new media, watch online videos (youtube, vimeo, etc) and listen to music (hype machine, soundcloud, bandcamp, etc), as well as use music and video apps.

Many recent TV devices ship with DLNA support. If yours does, you could turn your tablet into an UPnP server using an app like e.g. BubbleUPnP. Once that app is up and running, it serves the tablet's contents to your TV. Your TV detects accesses this service, and you can control it using the TV's remote control:

  BubbleUPnP is a full featured UPnP/DLNA Control Point, UPnP Media Renderer and UPnP Media Server. Play easily your music, videos and images on your phone and devices on your network (DLNA TVs, XBMC, WMP, ...), from your external UPnP Media Servers. Play your phone/tablet media to those devices.
  Browse and play your local phone/tablet and cloud media from other devices [...]

So basically, this works both directions -- and you can even use this app to browse contents of your other UPnP sources on the tablet itself.


Audio quality poor when screen is off I've noticed that recently the audio quality on my Galaxy note 3 becomes very choppy when my screen is off, but instantly fixes itself when the screen turns back on. Once the screen turns off the quality goes back down after a few seconds. This did not happen before.

I normally listen on Bluetooth headphones, but this problem still occurs with regular headphones and even just the phone spearer.

What could be causing this and how can I fix it? My suspicious is that some sort of process is running when my screen is off that is causing lag, but this feels doubtful because my phone doesn't get hot, nor my battery go down more than usual.

For me, it was constant stuttering when using the excellent PodcastAddict app.  Try shutting down other apps that are running in the background and you may find the real problem:

I force-stopped the Xfinity wifi app I also had on my phone and it finally solved this incredibly frustrating problem!

(still using Note 2, Android 4.4.2)


Does Airplane Mode allow GPS location to pass through? This is what I saw when my plane was taxing to the runway at CDG:

Airplane mode was on and all other transmissions (except Location), including WiFi, mobile data, NFC and Bluetooth were off.
Location was not manually turned on by me, after I enabled Airplane Mode. It remained turned on.

What am I missing? Is GPS now so widely accepted on-board planes that Android changed its configuration to let this kind of signal/communication to pass through Airplane mode "block"?

I believe that this three year old answer isn't a duplicate, because at that time (2016) Location was generally "included" in Airplane mode and was turned off by enabling it.

GPS is a receive-only technology. There are satellites in orbit around the planet and these satellites transmit. Your device receives these signals, but does not communicate back to the satellites. Using your device with GPS is no more dangerous than using it without GPS.

Airplane mode is basically equivalent to "turn off transmitters", though you can also reenable WiFi and Bluetooth. Using GPS is completely consistent with transmitters being disabled.

Assisted GPS is a way of improving the time to first fix. Your device communicates to local non-satellite infrastructure (a cell tower) and receives information about what satellites are currently in view for the local area and orbit corrections. Satellites also communicate this information, but it is much faster to receive this from a local data connection. Without assisted GPS, your time to first fix may be ~12.5 minutes (obviously longer if you cannot receive a good signal). With assisted GPS, this can be reduced to seconds. Once you have a fix, assisted GPS is equivalent to unassisted GPS.

With airplane mode enabled, your device will not use assisted GPS because it cannot communicate with the assisted GPS infrastructure. It will use the standalone mode. This is why people may suggest to acquire a GPS fix on the ground before you start your flight; it's easier for your device to acquire a fix with a data connection and preserve a state where you get location updates than it is to cold start in-flight.


Moto X app screen suddenly scrolls vertically My Moto X, for as long as I've had it, has had the classic panes of apps in the all apps section (where you can just swipe horizontally to browse through the apps).

However, now I have a vertical sliding system with the four recently used apps at the top of the screen.

Is there any way to get back to the old way that stock android had been displaying all apps?

Moto X (2014) by default uses Google Now Launcher as the default launcher.

The Google quicksearchbox was recently updated to give a peek into upcoming Android 6.0 Marshmallow app drawer layout which has vertical scrolling for apps and widgets.

So Uninstalling the updates for app named Google with package-name com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox  (either in Play-store or in App settings) should bring back the old feature.

User reviews dated 24th, 25th September on Google play-store gave me insight on this that the app named Google caused this behavior.


Disable vibrations for notifications on Xiaomi Mi A3 I have a Xiaomi Mi A3 on Android 9. I want to disable the vibration when a notification arrives for all apps.
I did not know that by disabling notifications, I won't be able to receive calls since notifications for the calls also did not appear, only the ringtone played, and upon unlocking the phone there was no display of who was calling.
Somehow I enabled notification for all apps but it is vibrating each time.
How do I disable vibrations for notifications like messages on Telegram, Facebook, WhatsApp?

You wont find any vibration settings to change in Sound settings. You will have go for Settings › Accessibility › Vibration&Haptic › Notification to turn off vibration.


Securing a young child's tablet My wife has decided to get the kids a set of android tablets for christmas.  These are Coby Kyros 4GB wi-fi only models.  The kids are ages 6-10 so I don’t particularly want to let them have free reign of the internet or the app stores.  I also want to make sure the tablets are protected from the various forms of malware.

Ideally I would like to be able to establish a white list for the websites they are allowed to visit, and make it so that they are not able to add any apps or modify the white list without parental intervention.  However I am not familiar enough with the android platform to know where to start on any of this.

Google has helped me find out that apps exist which claim to be able to restrict access to other apps, but almost all of them have comments indicating that they are very easy to bypass.  Likewise I have been seeing mixed reviews as to the effectiveness and value of the antivirus options that are out there.  So far I have not been able to find anything about building a whitelist, or restricting content accessible from the web.

So I am asking for suggestions as to specific topics/apps that I should be reading up on, and/or other approaches that I can take to reach these goals.

EDIT:
I should note that this model does not come with the android market pre installed, it has some third party app store on it.  It does come with an apk manager installed, and I have played with one of them enough to get the market and gmail onto it.  So I should be able to get most anything installed/removed if I can figgure out what it is I actually need to do.

The overall outlook is not so great for you, AFAIK.

The Market has content filtering, check the Settings in the Market app.

For the browser, that's a wholly different kettle of fish.  The built-in browser doesn't have any kind of filtering available.  3rd party browsers might, but they'll be trivial to sidestep (by simply opening the built-in browser).

The next best thing you can do is filter the tablets at the router, if it allows for that.  However, that's only useful when they're at home (or other places where you can control their internet connection).


How to prevent download from being stopped if network got disconnected? I use WiFi on home and on CyanogenMod 12.1 so I use chrome browser latest update on it. So when I am downloading file but for some reason I have to go outside , as the moment I disconnects from network download stops. Any solution to prevent this thing?
I tried That part download thing in download folder but its not working either.

Well, you need some kind of internet connection to download files. From what you said, the download stops when you disconnect from your network.

If you meant that the download doesn't work over mobile data, check the list of apps with restricted background data access for Download Manager or, of course, Chrome. If one of those apps have restricted background data, disable that option. If it still doesn't work, try a different browser and tell me whether that worked.


How to prevent Google Hangouts from showing nagging "Upgrade Required" screen? I am using Google Hangouts old version v10 for SMS because its seems no other SMS app does support merging SMS threads by contact (I have tested all top SMS apps).

I have disabled playmaket auto-updates. I wonder is there a way to get rid of nagging "Upgrade Required" screen? Hangouts show it on the every launch. I have tried block this app from internet access - no luck.

It does require internet for initial login. After that even with LightingWall(xposed module) or Flight profile 'Upgrade now' persist forever.
May be some settings can be altered directly? Or apk may be hacked somehow?

I still can launch app indirect although; it is registered as SMS app so I can launch Hangouts SMS threads from say drupe.

UPDATE: Upgrading Hangouts to latest version and using XHangounts does not return proper merging of SMS.

No you cannot, thats unfortunate.
In order to keep the user up to date with the newest features in the application, the Android OS as well as each of the APP ask to update.

The update includes many fixes, security updates and much more.


Android sleep of death (SOD) I purchased a new Android Phone which is pre-installed with V2.1 Eclair. At least once in a day phone gets dead (At this stage I cannot press and any key or unable to make/receive calls). The only option I have at this stage is to remove and re-insert my phone's battery.

I googled all the day for it and found many people says that the issue is with wifi. But I never enabled/used Wifi before. This happens more than once in a day. I took my phone to service centre and they reinstalled OS but still the issue persists. I strongly believe its issue with s/w. Anybody help me get rid of this issue.

Thanks in advance!

I would seriously consider rooting and installing a custom ROM.  I've installed custom ROMs which gave me the SOD issue - my point is that I believe SOD is in fact tied to what ROM (whether stock or custom) you are running. This question details various things on rooting.  For specific directions on rooting and custom ROM for your phone model, you'll have to do a search here for that or on Google.


Gmail has stopped syncing How do I get my new email to update and notify me on my Android? On a regular computer I can see all my email. On my phone I will not see anything new; it's always just the same two email messages. I pressed the refresh button and it does nothing. How can I fix this issue?

Go to your Gmail settings. Most probably you can go by pressing your menu button. Then select your email address, such as xxxx@gmail.com. Make sure, you have notification option ticked. Go below and you will see Gmail Sync option, make sure it is ON. Now try refreshing.


Samsung S7 speaker phone not working + echo in call Phone: Samsung S7 SM-G930F
Problems:
1) Person I am calling or that is calling me hears delayed playback of their own voice
2) When speakerphone is activated a very loud noise is heard from the other caller's speaker making it impossible for them to hear me speaking

When I'm in a call (cellular service) and I activate speaker phone the other person can't hear me (I can hear the other person perfectly fine when on speaker phone). When I call (via regular cellular service) the people I call often report 'hearing an echo' in other words 'hearing themselves talk' , I have already changed providers which did not help. The 'echo' is always there from beginning till the end of the call from what I've heard.

I have a Samsung s7 SM-G930F. Previously had android 8.0 installed (which was the OS that came with the phone originally. I recently installed a different ROM (Lineage OS 16) but this had no effect on the speaker phone problems.

I tried starting the phone in safe mode as suggested in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6qcYwyTl-w
But this didn't have any effect on the problem (same 'echo' still there). Suggesting it might be a hardware problem (assuming what's being said in the video is correct)

The following post suggests another possible cause:
"Apparently there is some kind of rubber band around the microphone that keeps the sound in the same place" (source: https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S-Phones/S7-Other-side-hear-echo-on-phone-call/m-p/119530#M7152) . I think this might also explain the 2nd problem (loud noise on other caller's side when speaker phone is activated). Does this seam probable to you?

Voice recordings work fine. The 'echo' doesn't appear to be present for all people, I'm told it has approx 1.5 seconds delay (the other caller hears their voice back with approx 1.5seconds delay).

When I start a call in whatsapp and talk to the other person they say they have no echo and can hear me just fine, if I activate speaker phone I can hear them properly but they say they have the echo again and there is a lot of background noise coming from their phone (sounds like 'some sort of electrical interference'), the 'echo' gets played back louder on their phone when I activate speaker phone, so loud that they cannot hear me talk.
When I turn speaker phone off on whatsapp and continue talking the other caller says the echo persists for some time (maybe 8 seconds) after which they hear a 'tick' sound and the echo disappears (also the 'electrical interference' background noise disappears immediately as soon as I turn the speaker phone off).

It happens regardless of how many 'bars' of connection I have.

Could it be a broken microphone? Could it be an issue with my antenna/connection?
What tests could I perform to track down the cause of the issue.

i have tried with and without the case (I thought the case might have a negative effect since the s7's speaker and mic are right next to each other)

Would love to hear your input
Thank you very much for any suggestions!

I got exactly the same problem with my Phone(Oneplus 5).
I've tried a lot of things software side but nothing helped.
Due to my work, my phone was exposed to flour and I got flour in every opening of my phone, therefore also my charging plug didn't work perfectly. So I replaced the charging plug and with it the bottom microphone. Afterward all worked perfectly again.

So I guess your microphone is broken too.

Hope my answer helps.


When the GPS is enabled but not in use, does it drain battery? If the GPS is enabled (in the notification view at the top, the GPS icon is enabled), but the app doesn't use it, does it drain battery? I understand that GPS drains battery because it requires a different component to be charged up. Or does the fact that the GPS is enabled only mean that the App can use it?

The GPS icon in the status bar means that an application is currently using the GPS so it is draining the battery. GPS does not however drain any battery just because you have it enabled in the settings menu.


Why many unrequested 6-digit SMS login codes sent to my Nougat Phone? I have received the following SMS messages from Google within 24H hours where all but one message (first) is not requested by me.
You can note that only the codes sent 23:16 and 23:22 have distinguishing codes. All codes after 00:21 are the same as the first one, indicating that there can be an external process sending those codes, perhaps not even sent by Google or sent by a bug in Google SMS login system process.

123456 Google verification code Yesterday 23:16 (requested only by me)
654321 Google verification code Yesterday 23:22
123456 Google verification code today 00:22
123456 Google verification code today 00:52
123456 Google verification code today 01:22
123456 Google verification code today 13:22
123456 Google verification code today 16:54
123456 Google verification code [today+1] 01:22
123456 Google verification code [today+1] 13:22
[changed gmail password]
234567 Google verification code [today+1] 23:17
[disconnect my Phonenumber1 from email2, only email1 left there; originally, email1-2 primarily to Phonenumber1, but now, both my email1 for Phonenumber1 and email2 for Phonenumber2 without the interconnection]
[... monitoring situation now ...]

In relation to the matter, I could not use sufficiently hardened Gmail account (with Fido U2F keys) in my Android phone because of the reason described in the thread answer here.
Still, those SMS messages should not be sent at all because my security measure is Google prompt in 2-step verification.
So now, I am using a dummy Gmail account which is receiving those verification codes, but which has the same phonenumber connected to it as my main email address so this fact can be a vulnerability somehow.

You note that I keep getting those SMSs, now 3rd day in a row.
I really would like find measures to block them coming.

I have got 01:22 and 13:22 codes many times so indicating periodicity so a likely some software is creating these requests

Oneplus support chat opinion about the case

  Thanks for waiting, upon checking that link you sent me, I see that those 6 digit log in codes are Google related issues.
  - -
  Thanks for waiting, please follow this link contact them
   https://gsuite.google.com/support/ - - Try contacting them with this number +1 1800 813 0692

Other observations in the phone

Signal app is also sending me verification codes at the rate 1/day (at 1648, 2316, 0653 and 1648 in 3 days), although I uninstalled it. This fact suggests me a software issue. I cleaned the cache, but not sure if enough.
No such problem with WhatsApp.

Phone: Oneplus 3T
OS: Android 7.1.1 Nougat
Security: 2-step verification by Google prompt
Related Google product forum thread: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/mtIbMSGclu4;context-place=forum/gmail
Google product forum help ticket: sent today at about 17:00

The most likely source of your multiple two-factor confirmation messages is something making multiple attempts to log into Google or Google+.  This might be malfunctioning apps on your device, or someone else (accidentally or intentionally) using your Google ID from another device.  You should contact Google, who will be able to confirm the device that was used for the login attempts; if it's your phone, you'll want to look at what app might have a wrong stored password, or that would have been closed and reopening (hence relogging) at those times.

If it's not your phone, you'll want to change your Google password immediately: these two-factor codes aren't generated until after someone has entered your valid password during a login attempt.

You note above that:

  Signal app is also sending me verification codes at the rate 1/day, although I uninstalled it. This fact suggests me a software issue. I cleaned the cache, but not sure if enough.

This suggests that your OS isn't fully under your control.  Whether this is due to malware or just a glitch of some sort, things you've uninstalled aren't going away as they should.  I'd suggest backing up any important data (photos, music, text conversations, etc.) and performing a factory reset on your device.

If that fails to clear up the problem, you should take the device to one of your carrier's shops (carrier owned/operated, not franchised -- there's a big difference in the level and type of support available) for further evaluation: your device might have been cloned, a situation that can lead to shocking bills and a lot of headache trying to clear up the charges.


Updating from version 4.4 to version 5 let me to a dead phone I have a Nexus 5 celullar.
I was asked by the system to update some features. In fact it was to update to a new version: Android 5. I accept the request and give the celullar do its work.
At the last pass when the celullar has to be restarted it went dead.
trying to open it give the word Google but not anymore.
Trying to push the power button + the volume buttom down, appears a dead andorid with an admiration red sign and the text : No Command.
The power buttom + the volume buttom up give the possibility of START, Restart bootloader, Recovery mode or Power off.
None of then give any result.
The system in my PC can't mount the celullar. But recognize is a Nexus 5.
Before I could always connect the celullar to my PC.
Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me.
Otherwise  the celullar (only 3 months!) is useless!

**

  Note: Please backup your data before following this.

**

This situation is pretty easy to overcome.

Download the nexus 5 image from the google developer forum.
Unlock you bootloader to do this. Note: Results in factory reset
fastboot oem unlock
Extract the downloaded file

Use the flash-all.bat file to flash the new image
If the flash-all.bat failed to execute, extract the contents of image-hammerhead-lrx21o.zip
Flash all the files one by one by using the appropriate command.

E.x: To flash cache.img use fastboot flash cache cache.img

Follow the xda post here for more details and troubleshooting.


MadTeam's CyanogenMod 7 restarting itself randomly I installed MadTeam's CyanogenMod 7 on my Galaxy 5 few weeks ago. First time I root and install a mod, but fairly uneventful process. My phone got way faster, and except for maybe getting a little slower to connect to the wifi and/or obtain an IP address, it is better in every possible aspect.

What is bugging me is that it is prone to restart itself randomly, possibly many times a day, except that I don't notice it most of the time. Just now I noticed because it was in front of my keyboard, and it vibrates when showing the boot animation. The boot itself is quite fast, so it really never posed any problem so far, and it never restarted mid-use, only when inside my pocket or laying on the table (ie. during standby). I just worry that it may become too common or happen during a call, while texting or something.

I fiddled a lot with the configs after installing it to discover what it had to offer, but I avoided changing anything that wasn't UI/usability-related. I took the performance settings warning seriously.

Any possible explanation? Or is this somehow normal, like a hard memory cleaning procedure? I did some seaching, but nothing about such issue.

Phone: Samsing GT-I5500 (Galaxy 5)
Mod: CyanogenMod-7-20120912-MADTEAM-galaxy5 (Android 2.3.7)

Updated mod to 20121001 version.

Got two unresponsive events (once unlocking screen and another one activating wifi) which caused phone restart seconds later, and according to phone uptime counter, an spontaneous reset 2AM last night. Within 48h.

Wifi got awfully bad after update (same baseband I5500LUYJPE), took dozens of tries to get an IP, but apparently it was solved by forgetting the network and typing the password again.

In short: wifi improved, random restarts remain.

So, to avoid a hanging question:

Using the new ROM for almost two months. Tried the original stock baseband I5500BVJJP7 but it felt overall worse, so I went back to I5500LUYJPE. Now any issue is rare... it's weeks since I last noticed a random restart, my phone reports over 160h uptime (not 100% reliable, I've seen it not restart after a crash), and wifi is most of the time fast to get in IP.

In the end, as things improved with a new ROM, I suppose the issues are due to small quirks of the ROM itself. Should improve over time.


Can I share files over WiFi as a Windows share with my Nexus One? I have a Nexus One full of songs and when I go to my friend's house I would like to play songs off of it.  Since I have my phone connect to my friend's WiFi, the phone has a local IP.  If my phone's IP address is 192.168.1.101, I would like to be able to navigate to the phone via:

\192.168.1.101\Music

And have it open up a windows folder like any other share.  Then I could copy my songs, play songs off the share, etc.   Is something like this possible?  Is there an app I can buy?


How to modify possible values screen timeout on rooted devices? I've managed to root my device.
I wanted to keep my screen awake forever. However when I looked around the Settings, the maximum value is 1 hour in the Display settings. There's a 'never' in Developer settings, but only when device is being charged. I used Tasker to set the timeout to Never, but it gets changed back when I click the  Display Settings. I used Android wakelocks but they stop working when they're removed from the memory.

I know those settings are practical enough, but as a geek I would like to know how to get 'Never' appear in my Display Settings.

EDIT: To repeat again, I DO NOT want to use an app or a wakelock to accomplish this. I just would like to have my ROM (/system partition) modifed so that 'Screen timeout: Never' appears in my Settings.

In order to keep screen awake forever:

Download No Screen Off app and install it.
(Ignore this PLEASE) If you know android programming, you can use this snippet in your app:

getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);

Some phones have "Keep screen turned on" option in Screen timeout
settings.
(Requires Root) You can use PerApp for making change in Screen timeout
settings and add your own value.(customize)
There is a stay awake option in "Developer Options" to Stay awake
while USB debugging and charging.


What are some Facebook contact integration alternatives? I'm using HTC Hero.

I really love its seamless integration with facebook contacts.
My favorite thing about this feature is that I can link my google contact to facebook contact then automatically get profile picture and birthday information from facebook.

since I can't get any decent froyo ROM for HTC Hero, I use this non-htc-sense ROM and now I miss that feature.

is there any application that (or any way to)  bring similar feature?

First, in the Facebook app, go to settings -> Sync Contacts -> check either Sync all or Sync with existing contacts.  Then in the contacts app, go to Display options and find your Facebook account in the list, then check All contacts.  They should show up in your contact list then.  To join them with existing google contacts, go into one of the contacts, edit it, hit menu and select Join, then find the other contact and select it.


Store ePUB books on my external SD Card to be read in Google Play Books This is a simple question, but in 2 parts:

I want my entire ePUB library stored locally on my Android device, so I can use Google Play Books to read them without the need of being connected to my cloud library or any other "online" storage.
Is it possible to configure Google Play Book to save/read the books library in the Android's external SD Card, without the need of storing them in the internal memory?

If you know the answer, or any tips about how to configure this scenario, it will be very appreciated.

If they're non-DRM epub books, you could use a third party reader. Otherwise, it may depend on what version of Android you're running. Generally you're stuck with whatever options Google offers. With DRM (paid/protected) books you pretty much have to play by their rules as that's what stops people from say sharing books with those who haven't paid for them.


Phone number shown as unknown. Always says sender is invalid I have a Samsung Galaxy S SHW-M1105 and it displays my phone number as unknown. Is there a way to change it? And one more when I try to reply a message it says the sender is invalid. Someone please help

You can enable your caller ID from Settings -> Call settings -> All calls -> Show my number -> Show. As for the SMS reply problem, please check the settings in your Messaging app, make sure that the SMSC (Short Message Service Center) number is correct foryour network and SMS Reply Path is off. Otherwise, just double-check the number and try with and without the international format.


CM10.1 now cannot record any inbound audio on phone calls CM10.1 now cannot record any inbound audio on phone calls

I was running Jellybean stock on my i9300 and used Total Recall to record telephone calls, recording both inbound and outbound audio correctly. I have now flashed CM10.1 and tried Total Recall to record telephone calls and I can no longer call inbound conversation.

I have also tried Sanity, Call Recorder Demo and Digital Call Record. Whenever I change the source for each of these respective programs to MIC everything works - except of course I cannot clearly record the inbound audio (the voice of the person on the other end).

When testing this I was sure to uninstall the other recording applications as I understand that 2 or more recording applications may cause conflict.

Any ideas about what I should do?

The issue is related to, as far as I know, Cyanogenmod policies.. In some countries call recording is illegal and therefore CM team hasn't implemented this feature. It's really annoying because the issue applies to certain (but not all) regions of the world.

I do hope that CM developers will come up with some sort of hack in the future. For now I am using Auto Call Recorder (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appstar.callrecorder) and using Mic as a source. The volume of inbound audio is very low unless the mic is turned on during the call.

Call recording is the only feature I lack in CM...


How to prevent applications from discovering my phone as being Rooted I have to install an application that has discovered my device to be rooted.

So this is a two part question.

How did it discover in the first place that my phone has been rooted
How to prevent the application from discovering my phone as being rooted

To detect rooting status of device, an app issues su command. If exit status is 0, it means device is rooted.. otherwise, not.

To prevent this, you can simply Deny the root access using SuperUser's pop-up (Provided its allowed from SuperUser settings, a pop-up appears when an app issues su command). After this, the app will get non-zero exit status & it can't determine rooting status.

Update:
Some apps can use other ways to check root status (like checking the su binary file existence). I'd like to admit that none are perfect methods without false-positive result, but sometimes they are successful with luck.

The best universal method to prevent detection: Restrict the permission of app's daemon. I can't suggest exact permission limitations because I don't know functions of the app. It can mess up with app's functionalities.

In the last, I'd like to say: Technically, there's no way to prevent detection by 100% success rate. In case of permission limitations, the app can still suspect that something is wrong.


Mounting .img from internal storage as USB Mass Storage I am trying to mount an .img file from my internal storage as Usb Mass Storage.

There is an Android App named DriveDroid which does exactly what I wanted. I tested with this app and the app successfully mounted an .img file as USB Mass Storage.

But I am unable replicate the same manually.

Anybody having any information on how to mount .img as UMS ?

Phone Details:
      Model : Moto G 2013
      Device Name : falcon
      Rooted : YES
      OS : CyanogenMod 13.0

Thanks.

Here are the Terminal commands:

su
echo /sdcard/your_image.img > /sys/class/android_usb/f_mass_storage/lun/file
echo 1 > /sys/class/android_usb/f_mass_storage/lun/cdrom
setprop sys.usb.config mass_storage

(The location of LUN may vary for some devices, you can manually check/search for it even using File Explorer..)

If above commands fail, you might want to disable SE Linux by setenforce 0 command to set it to Permissive, and try again..


Where is the / or /sbin file system or directory mounted from on Android? Where does the root file system (ie, / not /system) come from on Android? I can see that /system is mounted

cat /proc/mounts

rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0
  ...
/dev/block/mtdblock8 /system ext4 ro,noatime,nodiratime,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock6 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc 0 0

I can see that /system and /data are mounted from mtdblockX devices. And that / is mounted on the 'virtual' type 'rootfs'.

There are a bunch of files and directories in / (I'm interested in /sbin) that don't seem to be mounted on a mount point over /. Where do those files come from? (I want to get RW access to /sbin) Is this done with some 'chroot' magic? -- it it from some 'boot' image? (In this specific example I'm using a Minix Neo X5 with Android)

The rootfs is setup by kernel and init,  /sbin is part of initrd.img aka ramdisk.
Initrd.img is part of boot partition, and needs to be unpacked to be edited.

Here is some good info on boot process and editing  boot partition http://www.slideshare.net/chrissimmonds/android-bootslides20
XDA forum HOWTO: Unpack, Edit, and Repack Boot Images

Also, newer devices are requiring boot partition to be signed, and unless bootloader is unlocked, any editing will cause device not to boot.


Bluetooth speaker and buds: Delay in playback, truncates short sounds Recent android phone.

I initially observed this issue just with Boom and Megaboom bluetooth speakers, but I now have Jabra buds, and see the same issue:

The first 100-500 milliseconds of audio do not play.

This is an issue if it is a language app (that says a word), or a workout app (that says "start" and then 30 seconds later says "stop") because all or most of the sound does not play at all.

What is the resolution?

I have been forced to use wired buds for language learning (which is NO fun!)

When I used apple airpods I did NOT have this issue. (I no longer use airpods because they cannot be repaired or battery-replaced)

Android has by Design a too bad Bluetooth Audio latency

I have the same Problem for Years and it never got better. I even have that with my Car Audio

For more Information see this: https://www.soundguys.com/android-bluetooth-latency-22732/

very informative


SELinux permissive kernel - is it a security risk? As in title. I am talking of Kernel, not ROM (plenty of questions dealing with ROM on this site).

I have a OnePlus 7 running stock Android 10 and prefer a custom kernel. Of late, OnePlus hasn't released source for kernel and this has played havoc with all custom kernels in OnePlus 7 and other variants. So, I want to flash a kernel
that is independent of the changes One Plus makes.

Only problem is that it is SELinux permissive and therefore I want to understand the security risks before flashing it.

Edit:
As requested in comments (deleted) :

-# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX=y
# CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_BOOTPARAM is not set
# CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_DISABLE is not set
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_DEVELOP=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_AVC_STATS=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_CHECKREQPROT_VALUE=0
- # zcat  /proc/config.gz |grep CONFIG_DEFAULT_SECURITY_SELINUX
CONFIG_DEFAULT_SECURITY_SELINUX=y
-# mount | grep selinuxfs
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux type selinuxfs (rw,relatime)

SELinux is a security framework which restricts (kernel and userspace) processes within their domains according to defined policy. So the ultimate goal is to load a working policy, label filesystems with proper contexts and set SELinux enforcing. It doesn't matter who does this; kernel or some userspace process, though the sooner the better. And permissive is an SELinux mode always ready to be switched to enforcing mode. However switching other way may or may not be allowed by the policy.

In other words, kernel being SELinux permissive by itself is not a risk, if the the ROM overrides that to make it Enforcing. What SELinux permissive kernel gives you is a flexibility to flash ROMs that demand SELinux permissive or for any other app that needs it. But it is always advisable to keep the device in SELinux Enforcing state (getenforce on Terminal Emulator will reveal).

Mostly ROM developers build kernel with CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_DEVELOP=y. From kernel configuration:

  With this option enabled, the kernel will start in permissive mode (log everything, deny nothing) unless you specify enforcing=1 on the kernel command line.  You can interactively toggle the kernel between enforcing mode and permissive mode (if permitted by the policy) via /selinux/enforce.

Some vendors may disable the said configuration or may add enforcing=1 boot parameter to kernel cmdline when building boot.img, so that SELinux is always enforcing even before the very first userspace process init is started. Going a step further ahead Samsung kernel sources are patched with options SECURITY_SELINUX_ENFORCING and ALWAYS_ENFORCE. Other extreme is that SELinux is disabled at all by building with SECURITY_SELINUX_DISABLE=y and writing to /sys/fs/selinux/disable, or by building with SECURITY_SELINUX_BOOTPARAM=y and passing selinux=0 kernel parameter.

Starting kernel in permissive mode gives the ROM developer and end users freedom to set SELinux mode permissive or enforcing on boot (or even during running OS by writing to /sys/fs/selinux/enforce), and develop a policy according to the requirements. That's how userdebug/eng builds of ROMs are debugged. init can be forced to set SELinux permissive on boot by setting androidboot.selinux=permissive boot parameter.

OEMs switch to user builds when releasing stock ROMs once sepolicy is fully developed. init on user builds always sets SELinux enforcing, so it won't boot with SELinux disabled. Custom ROMs, however, usually remain userdebug which allow root access (adb root and /system/xbib/su) and other relaxations. Some more details can be found in What sepolicy context will allow any other context to access it?

So while disabled or permissive SELinux in kernel or ROM makes the device equally vulnerable, a permissive kernel is usually a good thing (at least for ROM developers and power users). Enforcing kernel is an overkill unless the user is glued to the stock ROM throughout life of a device. However if SELinux is disabled (e.g. built without CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX=y), stock ROM will get into bootloop.

If kernel is built with CONFIG_IKCONFIG, extract-ikconfig shell script can be used to check build configuration without flashing to device. On running OS zcat /proc/config.gz can be used.
ROM build type can be checked with getprop ro.build.type.
Kernel commandline boot parameters can be checked by extracting boot.img. On running OS cat /proc/cmdline can be used.


Why 'Add what you're doing or feeling' option/icon is missing from my Android Facebook app? How should I enable it? I'm using Sony Xperia C Android smartphone.
Facebook app is pre-installed in it.

The issue I'm faing is I'm not getting an option for 'Add what you're doing or feeling' when I want to update my status. Only three options are there as follows :

Tag people in your post
Add a location to post
Add photos to your post

The missing one is'Add what you're doing or feeling'. I checked all the settings but no success.

The same option appears on facebook website. Can someone please help me in this regard?

Thanks.

If you want any other information please do let me know.

Facebook released v2.3 around 20th March 2013, Here's a snapshot of the page with Facebookv2.3.

Facebook announced it's enhanced status update on how they're feeling around 10th April 2013 which is the reason it's not included in the App.

Update the app, you'll get this feature.


Turn off the notification sound when I turn the phone on Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3
Model: GT-19305
Version: 4.4.4

Good day! I want to know if there is a way to turn the notification sound off every time I turn my phone on. It is unnecesary.

Thanks!
Greetings.

Why not just turning notification sound off completely then?

Go to Settings › Sound
If it exists and is switched on, switch off "Use same volume for ringtone and notifications"
Now set the notification volume level to zero.

In case the system changes that back to default on reboot, you could use some automation app like tasker (might be a bit overkill) or any other simpler solution (see my app listings on Automation (Profile Switching and more) for possible candidates). Several of them should support actions on-boot (Tasker does), or alternatively let you have a profile valid from 0:00-23:59 (i.e. always) you could assing the task "set notification volume off".


What is the difference between Android user app with root access and a system app The answer I am looking for is in the aspect of permissions.

Can a system app do everything? Can a user app with root access (on rooted device) do everything?

If so, are they the same?

For example I want to turn the GPS on and I know it is possible on rooted device.

For that requirement should user app with root permissions be enough or should it be installed as a system app?

Undeleted my answer, though it's incomplete. I'm aware that even with root access, there are certain things a rooted app can't do. Elixir 2, for example has a System add-on which allows the GPS toggle to turn on GPS directly through its widget. Without this, the GPS toggle opens the screen for you to turn on the GPS manually. Maybe someone else can explain.

An app is either a user app or a system app. A user app is stored in the /data folder, while a system app is stored in the /system folder. To access either folder, you need root access.

Giving a user app root access means it can perform actions that requires root access, such as accessing / modifying system files.

But what makes a system app unique is that it doesn't get deleted if you do a Factory Reset. It becomes part of the Android Operating System.

Related questions:

What are the differences between a system app and user app?
Permission is only granted to system app, in Manifest - see the answer here


How can I set Facebook to view by "most recent" rather than "Top Stories" Facebook for Android, Version 8.0.0.26.24

How do I revert back to my preferred method of viewing the most recent stories rather than top stories? The "Cog" icon is no longer where it used to be, and I cannot find where (or if) they re-located a button that has the same function.

Goto the last tab which has three horizontal lines as its icon. Scroll down a little and you'll see Most Recent


Upload a downloaded file I downloaded a zip-file with the browser to my phone. Now I want to either upload it to a web site (form POST) or mail it as an attachment.

In the stock browser (HTC Desire with Android 2.2) I can only choose to upload from Gallery, Voice recorder, or Music.

In the Gmail app I can only attach photos and in the Exchange app can't seem to attach downloaded files either.

And finally, in the list of downloaded files in the browser I can only choose to Open (fails for zip) or Delete the file.

Is there another way?

Install a File Explorer, say EStrongs File Explorer, and you would be able to upload arbitrary file from the browser or attach files to Gmail.


Files share in BlueStacks 4 is not working I am trying to drop files from my PC into the BlueStacks 4 Android emulator. I put them in: C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\Engine\UserData\SharedFolder.
I see some of them in sdcard/DCIM/SharedFolder.

However, I only see three (random?) documents. All the maps are not transferred, all the other documents in those maps are not transferred either.

I have plenty of storage left in BlueStacks.

Please help!

I solved this!

I had a similar problem. My shared folder is this same thing.
I'm using Bluestacks 4, build 4.180.0.9002 and Windows 10 Ver.1909, build 18363.657.

My media manager open... but I get stuck in a gray screen with no icons at all (it must the main screen of the app)

None os the searches I did worked =(
However found 1 tip that help: a folder named mnt (/ -> mnt) that have a path /sdcard/windows/bstsharedfolder...

I made some tests... I put 1 picture in the C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\UserData\SharedFolder\ and found it in the bluestacks file search. But when I see the FULL path... Surprise MTF: it was in mnt\windows\bstsharedfolder (NOT IN mnt\sdcard\windows\bstsharedfolder)!

With the app EZ File Explorer I found in this 'mnt' folder, this another WINDOWS folder  (before the sdcard folder of the tip above).
SURPRISE! All the folders (bstsharedfolder, documents, pictures...) was there, WITH MY WINDOWS FILES!
So, all I did was copy and past in this bstsharedfolder. Now C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\UserData\SharedFolder\ has all my BST files that I need!

Summing up: the 2 folders that share files between BST and Windows are:
Windows: C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\UserData\SharedFolder\
Bluestacks: mnt\windows\bstsharedfolder

Note: I tried copy to the pictures folder (out: mnt\windows\pictures; in: C:\Users\YourUser\Pictures\BlueStacks) but it asked permitions. So the bstsharedfolder worked with no problems.


how to assign an app to an event? I would like to use NFC tags with NFC Task Launcher or AutomateIt but I get every time I scan the tag a popup asking for the application to use (I have a few NFC related ones). I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a Galaxy Notes 2.
There is no "always use this application" choice (similar to the ones I had when clicking on a link for the first time - which popped up an app panel with a choice of "this time only" or "every time").

Is there a way to force the assignment of an app to an event?

Thank you!

Background
To understand the issue, you will need a little background on how this works:
For almost everything, Android broadcasts "events" -- such as e.g. boot_completed, SMS received, SD card inserted/removed, battery low... NFC signal received. Apps can register so-called "Listeners" with the system, which are bound to specified events. In your case, mentioned apps have registered for NFC events.
Now, when an event is broadcast, and there's no listener to it, nothing will happen. Is it a single app that registered a listener, this app will be called. If multiple apps registered listeners, the system looks if one of them is set to "Default" by the user; if so, this one is called -- otherwise a popup appears fot the user to chose which app should handle the event. Usually, this popup also holds a checkbox to make that app the default for this given event.
Solutions
As said, usually there should be a checkbox -- which in your case does not seem to be the case. So it seems there's no possibility to define a default action for this event, whatever the reason. You could try apps from the playstore which do handle default apps (e.g. Default App Manager) -- but most likely this will not work either.
A second point to look would be in Settings → Apps → Manage Apps, pick the app of your choice, and see if it has the corresponding checkbox not grayed out -- if so, simply check it. Most likely, this will be grayed out, so you cannot do anything here either.
Next step would require root -- so if your device is not rooted, it's purely informational to you. As described above in "Background", all related apps have a listener registered with the system. So we should be able to un-register it. This can be done e.g. with Autorun Manager PRO (yes, it will need the Pro version -- as with the free you only can change 2 entries).

As the screenshot shows, this app can enable/disable listeners, so you can avoid having apps started automatically in situations you rather don't want them. Which would apply to yours: Find the corresponding listener, disable it, fine.
Without root, the only remaining possibility is to get rid of all but one of the apps. You could uninstall the others, or, if you'd rather keep them (and you are running Android 4.0 or higher), rather simply disable them in Settings → Apps → Manage Apps, so when needed, you can simply re-activate them at the very same place.


How to Extract boot.img from Sharp Z3 Fs8009? I'd like to extract the boot.img from this device in order to root it with Magisk.
Is it possible with adb commands?
Or another way maybe?

The firmware on it is 00WW_1_310 global version, and I can't find a place to download it and extract the boot.img.
The only link that had it is dead.

There's no custom recovery, the bootloader is locked but there's a way to unlock it with ntool.

Thanks for any help

Better yet, check this link there root for Sharp Z3, only it is in Chinese language. The good thing is that I was able to download the files they use there because there is a link to do.

Root Sharp Z3 Video

Files

Pass: uxcb


adb does not reboot my Samsung Galaxy SIII I9300 to bootloader (download) mode! My device is Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300 and I did a complete factory reset. Device is NOT rooted yet. It works properly. I can do all of following with my device:

Power off using device keys.
Start in recovery mode and download mode using device keys.
device is detected properly in normal mode and recovery mode by adb when is connected to PC through USB cable
I am able to reboot device using adb reboot command
adb reboot recovery works well.

The problem is that if I run adb reboot bootloader or adb reboot-bootloader commands, device is booted in normal mode, NOT in download mode. The only way to reboot the device in download mode is to use Power + Volume Down + Home keys

From my experience with Samsung devices this is not a bug but rather a feature. The "download" AKA "ODIN" mode on Samsung devices is a proprietary alternative to bootloader/fastboot mode and I don't remember being able to boot to this mode in other than the hardware way.


How to go change azerty to qwerty on huawei ascend y530 Alright so I got a Huawei Ascend Y530, and I live in the Netherlands, where literally no person ever uses an azerty keyboard. However, for some reason I can only get azerty when setting my keyboard to Dutch. It's annoying me to no end but I have no idea how to get alter the keyboard to suit my wishes.

Does anyone know how to change an azerty keyboard to qwerty without changing the language?

Have you tried this :{
If you go to settings->language and input

You will then see a section called keyboard and input methods, click the settings icon next to the keyboard you use, somewhere in the app that launches (depends on the keyboard) will be an option to use an qwerty keyboard, maybe keeping the same language.
}

Otherwise, try the following:
I would recommend downloading 'google keyboard' from the play store, as it has the option (under 'appearance and layouts->customised input styles') to have a dutch qwerty keyboard.


Determine what APPS are Android Auto Compatible When I connect my cell phone to my vehicle, Android Auto displays a very limited list of APPs that are on my phone:

(The clipped APP at the bottom is weather).
Supposedly more APPs that are compatible with that interface will be released.
How do I determine if an APP on Google Play is compatible? I don't see anything on the Google Play webpage for a given APP that indicates it can be used or not used for Android Auto.
(In particular, I want navigation with offline maps beyond what Google Maps offers).

There is a special category in Google Play Store that lists apps ready for Android Auto:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/promotion_3001303_android_auto_all
If you have an APK and want to check if it is ready for Android Auto you can look at it's AndroidManifest.xml file inside the APK. It should contain an entry like this:
<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.car.application" android:resource="...."/>

For more details see Add support for Android Auto to your media app.


Is there a way to delete my information permanently from my phone? I'm using huawei mate 8 and I'm willing to sell it but I need to delete my information from it permanently. ( photos, videos, contacts....)

I'm using Huawei Mate8 too, what you need to do for deleting information is to perform a "factory reset" of the device and then all of your phone data will be deleted from your Huawei Phone.

I would like to recommend encrypting your device before you are getting ready to wipe it. The encryption process will scramble the data on your device and, even if the wipe doesn't fully delete the data, a special key will be required to unscramble it.

To encrypt your device on stock Android, enter settings, click on Security, and select Encrypt phone. The feature may be located under different options on other devices. The next step is to perform factory data reset. Then would be kind of done already. If you are still concerned about the security, you can repeat the two steps above. To confirm it further, or you can download free data recovery software for Android to recover the data as to see if the software can restore them.


Updating Samsung note 2 to android 4.4 My galaxy note 2 works on version 4.3, Some time ago it started pinging me continuously about upgrading to 4.4. I wasn't ready to do the upgrade then, so I managed to stop getting the notification every three hours.

I would like now to do the upgrade, but when I click on updates as explained here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/faq/FAQ00050889/56008/SPH-L900ZWASPR nothing happens.

How can I upgrade my galaxy note 2 to the latest Android version available for the device?

thanks,

No worries, If you have not upgraded it till now then the possibility of no OTA update might have occured which does not mean that you cannot update.

Here is it what you need to do:

Install Samsung Kies
Connect your Samsung galaxy note 2 to laptop
Install required drivers for your phone
Open Samsung Kies and you can find the firmware update for Android 4.4.2

or else here is link to various official release of Android 4.4.2 for note 2

http://androidromupdate.com/2014/08/03/install-n7100xxufne1-galaxy-note-ii-n7100-official-4-4-2-kitkat-update-firmware/


What is default "fstab" file in Android? As I known, in Android 9, system and vendor are mounted in the first stage of init by parsing fstab from device tree. But, there is another fstab parsed in init process, it is device default fstab, which is parsed by ReadDefaultFstab function below. I am facing to a error " failed to find device default fstab " in boot log. Can anyone explain for me this default fstab file? What is it and it's role?

// Loads the fstab file and combines with fstab entries passed in from device tree.
bool ReadDefaultFstab(Fstab* fstab) {
    Fstab dt_fstab;
    ReadFstabFromDt(&dt_fstab, false);

    *fstab = std::move(dt_fstab);

    std::string default_fstab_path;
    // Use different fstab paths for normal boot and recovery boot, respectively
    if (access("/system/bin/recovery", F_OK) == 0) {
        default_fstab_path = "/etc/recovery.fstab";
    } else {  // normal boot
        default_fstab_path = GetFstabPath();
    }

    Fstab default_fstab;
    if (!default_fstab_path.empty()) {
        ReadFstabFromFile(default_fstab_path, &default_fstab);
    } else {
        LINFO << __FUNCTION__ << "(): failed to find device default fstab";
    }

    for (auto&& entry : default_fstab) {
        fstab->emplace_back(std::move(entry));
    }

    return !fstab->empty();
}

It can be in / (ramdisk), /odm/etc/ or /vendor/etc/.

Android Storage Configuration:

  For Android releases 4.3 and later, the various fstab files used by init, vold and recovery were unified in the /fstab.<device> file

Next change occured with Treble when vendor/SoC specific code was separated from Generic AOSP code. So fstab was moved to /odm or /vendor.

default_fstab_path reads GetFstabPath():

// Identify path to fstab file. Lookup is based on pattern fstab.<hardware>,
// fstab.<hardware.platform> in folders /odm/etc, /vendor/etc, or /.

Commit states:

  fstab contains device- and soc- specific content that should reside in
  /odm or /vendor partition. This change searches the fstab.${ro.hardware}
  file from /odm/etc, /vendor/etc and /, then use the first one found.

fstab contains entries for all filesystems to be mounted on boot or in recovery from partitions including system, vendor, userdata, cache, misc, persist, modem, dsp etc. See details in Android Partitions and Filesystems.

Some of the entries of fstab are moved to DTB. See "WHERE FSTAB IS?" in How to disable dm-verity on Android?


Android Trojan removal I have the Android smartphone “Lava Iris 455”. My phone is not rooted. Since last week I installed APK file from some website. After a second day I realize that a trojan is installed on my phone. It is downloading Android apps automatically when data connection is on my phone.

I installed AVG Antivirus from Google Play Store. It is showing following trojan is installed on my phone:

Name : netalpha 3.1.8
package : com.play.photo.json.alpha
location : /system/app/LibsCore.apk
installed Date : 2016/07/19**

AVG antivirus failed to remove this trojan.
Lookout antivirus shows un-installed unsuccessful
After factory reseting, it is getting back again.
I tried manually to force stop service, disable, clear data. it is getting enable automatically.

I searched this problem on Google, but I did not found a solution.

Last option is flash android stock ROM to phone with flashing software.

I have two questions:

How is the trojan installed on /system/app directory even if my phone is not rooted yet?
Obviously, if it installed on System App directory, then it should be removed without rooting my phone.

After reading this, Iwent and saw on my phone that /system/app contains folders for Google apps, more likely the stock apps.
Make a backup of the phone (backups only include apps from the play store and other data) and wipe it. You may need to obtain an image file for your phone, install a recovery like TWRP or CWM, wipe the system partition, and install the os image and restore.


Nexus 7 stuck at Google logo, and system recovery, and OEM locked Short version:

Normal startup: Stuck at Google screen.
Unlock bootloader: Stuck at the selection.
Recovery mode: Stuck at Google screen.

Long version
My Nexus 7 (2013) had always been fine, and I liked stock Android very much, thus saw no need to unlock the bootloader. When the 5.1 OTA came, I updated my N7 and it started crashing and restarting on its own. One day, it restarted again and got stuck at the Google screen.
Of course, the first thing I did was to get the Nexus Root Toolkit, and tried flashing stock ROM. Of course, it didn't work since it was OEM locked. When I tried to unlock the bootloader, I was prompted with the screen asking if I want to unlock and wipe all data. I selected unlock and pressed the power button. Then it froze (I left it for 8 hours, plugged it into a power outlet).
The next logical thing to do was to start recovery mode in the fastboot to do a factory reset, except it simply switched to the Google screen and was stuck there.
I've read many articles, but it's always one of the three issues I have. They often refer to using a method that involves an area where it's affected by the other problems.
How to recover from this situation?

This sounds like a common bug that has been reported on recently by Android Police. To summarize:

  Affected units stop booting at the "Google" logo screen.   Attempts to
  unlock the device through fastboot fail at the "erasing userdata..."
  step, leaving the devices locked.  Some users report successfully
  flashing factory images on unlocked devices, but this still doesn't
  fix the problem.  There are mixed reports about starting up in
  Recovery, with some users complaining that the Nexus 7 freezes, and
  others being able to get in to perform some maintenance.

There are no know solutions at this time. Sorry to bring bad news. I hope I'm not right.


Enable On-screen navigation in CM12 (Lollipop) using shell? Device: OnePlus One (OPO); running CM12, is rooted, and has Xposed Framework installed.

I need to enable On-screen navigation (it disables Hardware (HW) keys and shows soft keys at the screen; like this) in OPO. I'm able to do it via Settings but my objective requires a command-line solution through shell.

(Note that this is not a development/programming question, simply an Android question.)

Objective: To disable Back(HW) key  when main activity of an app (random) is in foreground, but without a reboot.
I found On-screen nav. to be a good choice which doesn't require a reboot. I'll use an automation app to trigger the disabling action.
There are manual ways to disable HW keys (by editing .kl files) and enabling Soft keys (by editing build.prop), or using tools like Xposed modules to disable or swap HW keys. But they all require reboot (soft/hard) at least once which I cannot afford.
I experimented  and found that when On-screen nav. is enabled, the value for dev_force_show_navbar changes to 1 from 0. Similarly. button_brightness changes to 0 from 255. Both names are under Settings.db (Table:secure)
Also, there is no special activity assigned for Settings → Buttons(it enables On-screen nav). I used dumpsys activity | grep mFocusedActivity to see activity related to Buttons. The result was:

com.android.settings/.SubSettings

dumpsys activity activities or dumpsys activity recents also has nothing more to tell here.
I logged my actions using logcat when enabling On-screen nav. and here is the log file.

So, how do I enable On-screen nav. through command line, irrespective of whether it requires superuser access or not?

Edit: Is there any other way using which I can achieve the objective precisely?

Only thing that comes to my mind is to use  input  <keyevent> but that's counterproductive to me. The other way is to trigger an Xposed module like Xposed Additions but I'm unable to use it with shell.

I experimented and found that when On-screen nav. is enabled, the value for dev_force_show_navbar changes to 1 from 0... Both names are under Settings.db (Table:secure).

You actually mentioned the key to the answer but somehow (I suppose) didn't know how to use it. Many thanks to Andrew T. and DavisNT for this answer since it would lead to a solution for your problem.

I myself is a owner of OnePlus One running stock CM12 so you may now expect a working answer.

From the shell, be it adb, or a Terminal app, or Tasker's "Run Shell" action, enter the following command with root privileges:

settings put secure dev_force_show_navbar 1

You would now see that On-screen navigation bar is enabled just like in your pic posted here.

Don't worry about button_brightness since the changes in its value would be reflected automatically by the above command.

I tested that command in Tasker by manual execution of action "Code -> Run Shell -> command" with "Use Root", and its working good.

The changes are exactly same as doing it from "Settings -> Buttons" so nothing to worry, i.e. only Soft-keys are visible and Hard keys are disabled. Coolest part -- no reboot needed.

You can revert back by using 0 in place of 1 in the aforesaid command.


Is it safe to uninstall Google Play Services App? I am using Andriod 2.3.6 Gingerbread for the last 3 years. For the last 2 months the "Google Play Services" app is taking too much memory, Now I want to uninstall it. Is it safe to do so? Does it affect other apps and/or the phone's basic functionality?

According to Google

  Google Play services provides you with easy access to Google services and is tightly integrated with the Android OS.

And from the description in the Play Store

  Google Play services is used to update Google apps and apps from Google Play.
  This component provides core functionality like authentication to your Google services, synchronized contacts, access to all the latest user privacy settings, and higher quality, lower-powered location based services.
  Google Play services also enhances your app experience. It speeds up offline searches, provides more immersive maps, and improves gaming experiences.
  Apps may not work if you uninstall Google Play services

I wouldn't recommend removing it.


Unable to sideload a file to One Plus One. What are my alternatives? I have a oneplus one which had CM 13 installed on it. The recovery is TWRP. Last day I tried to install Kali Nethunter ROM on the same from recovery. However things got messy and the phone didn't boot. To make things worse, I by mistake wiped everything on the device.

So I now have A device with NO OS and NO Data.

Then I booted the device to recovery and tried to use sideload. However the device wasn't getting detected on my laptop. Following commands resulted no positive results.

adb devices [no devices connected]
adb push [failed]
adb sideload [failed]

Since the device is not even getting detected as an unknown device in the USB port, I tried installing the universal adb driver available. That also didn't help.

What could I be doing wrong?

You can flash the phone in fastboot mode.

First you need to unlock the bootloader (if it wasn't done before):

Power off your phone then boot into fastboot mode with power button + volume up button.
Connect your phone to your PC via usb cable.
Open a command prompt
Check your fastboot connection by issuing this command: fastboot devices
It should return your device serial number, if not you need to make sure your drivers are installed correctly.
Once you've confirmed your fastboot connection issue this command:

fastboot oem unlock

The device will now go through the automated unlocking process, just let it do its things.

Done

Flashing thee Cyanogen OS Fastboot Images

Download the latest stock images
Reboot your device into Fastboot Mode (power + volume up) and connect your phone to your PC via usb cable.
Unzip the file you downloaded and put its contents into your fastboot folder.
Open a command prompt.
Issue these fastboot commands (Every line ends by hitting enter):

fastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.bin

fastboot flash sbl1 sbl1.mbn

fastboot flash dbi sdi.mbn

fastboot flash aboot emmc_appsboot.mbn

fastboot flash rpm rpm.mbn

fastboot flash tz tz.mbn

fastboot flash LOGO logo.bin

fastboot flash oppostanvbk static_nvbk.bin

fastboot flash boot boot.img

fastboot flash cache cache.img

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

fastboot flash system system.img

fastboot flash userdata userdata_64G.img

or

fastboot flash userdata userdata.img

(if you have the 16gb model)

Reboot your device with this command:

fastboot reboot
Done.

Let me know if something goea wrong.


Windows 10 won't recognize my Samsung Galaxy S6 After an update to Win10, my phone will only charge.  I downloaded Samsung's USB drivers, installed Smart-Switch, checked my Device Manager...  Nothing.  The cable I'm using is definitely a data transfer cable.  Any ideas?

I'm going to drop this in as an answer, since it solved my problem.  Credit goes to beeshyams and Dan Hulme who set me on the path to see this.

The issue is an Android issue, not a Windows 10 issue.  Apparently Android's new OS defaults to charging due to a perceived security issue.  When you connect your phone to your PC, pull down the menu from the top of the phone (start at the top of your phone's screen and swipe downward).  You should see a message saying that you are connected for charging:

Press on that message and you will see a screen where you can change how you're connected.  On that screen, choose Transferring media files:

Now, if you go back to the first pulldown menu, you'll see you're connected as a media device:

Go back to your PC desktop and open File Explorer and VOILA!  You can now copy your data to your PC.


Galaxy note 8 battery drain with mobile data I've confirmed that battery drain issue in my Note 8 is because of mobile data and hotspot. I have evidence.

Here is battery usage with mobile data and hotspot ON. AOD was OFF

As you can see it shows battery usage over 7 hours going from 100% to 35%.

Here is the usage of screen. As you can see it was only on for 2 hours. As I said always on screen is disabled. That leaves 7-2= 5 hours of screen being OFF

Now here is 4 hours battery usage going from 100% to 95%. Screen was on only for half hour but mobile data was also OFF. That means my mobile data is literally draining as near as display. That's a huge amount of battery getting wasted. Any ideas? What should I do?

My note 8 is only 2 weeks old but ive confirmed and its original. Only mobile data seems to be doing bad job (battery charges fast and seems good)

I mean even if LTE consumes high battery it should not consume as much as display.

What is the logic here?

To be fair, I think this should be the expected result considering the device is using a lot of resources which are mostly power (CPU) hungry.

When using mobile data and additionally have mobile hotspot activated, you essentially utilising two communication radios (4g and WLAN) which themselves require considerable power.
It is mostly like there are some services running in background when there is an active internet connection. (e.g sync, silent updates etc)
This power we are talking about is coming from the battery hence it becomes very hot, just a symptom indicating it's "working very hard" to supply power to the device' resources and consequently a heavy battery drain is inevitable.
Although screen is considered to cause a high battery drain when the device is idle, its certainly not the case the the device is active and using its other hardware.

You may want to further analyse the batter statistics with other third-party tools from playstore (e.g battery drain analyser)

Also try to regulate the up-time of your mobile hotspot, to minimise battery usage.


D3 barchart on Firefox Android 4.4.2 It seems I that I can't load this d3 barchart on an android phone (android version 4.4.2) and on Firefox browser. Firefox on Android has javascript enabled (checked from about:config) and also the built in android browser and Chrome also is able to load the same page and show the visual. So it has to do something with Firefox. Any ideas what to check?

Attached is a screenshot of the d3 barchart page loaded in Firefox for Android

Screenshot - Click to enlarge image

There is no problem in Firefox. I have tested the said website on Firefox v35.0.2 and v40.0. It shows the graph as good as it does on Desktop.

If you are running the latest release yet facing that issue then it implies that your Firefox's configuration is messed up. I've NoScript addon installed and I allowed cloudflare.com and ocks.org in it, since both are needed to show that chart.

I suggest you open Guest mode in the browser and visit that site. It should definitely help in understanding whether it's Firefox itself or your custom configuration that's causing the issue.


How can I change root grants for app I'v just temporary root my phone.

And here is the question: how can I change app grants for root access, if I already press allow, with "remember" checked?

And also I want to know is this screen(that appears when some app what access to root user) build-in android OS or this is third part app?

The prompt that appears is from the Superuser app, which regulates root access for other apps on your device. It is a third party app, and is not part of the Android system itself.

To modify the apps that are approved for root access, simply open Superuser from your app drawer. There is a tab which lists the currently approved apps, and tapping on an app will allow you to change its approval status or "forget" the status altogether (which will bring up the prompt the next time you run it).

There's also a setting that changes the behavior when you tap on an app in the list. You can set it to give you a prompt where you can select the approval status you want for the app (as above), you can set it to "forget" an app when you tap on it (with no prompt) or you can set it to toggle between approval states when you tap (again with no prompt).


How can I tell if an Android app supports Wear, before installing it? Is there a way to tell if an Android app has Wear support, before installing the app on a phone paired with a Wear device?

Shazam for example supports Wear, but there's no metadata (apparently) in its Play listing indicating Wear support. Yes, the description says "Wear", but that is up to the developer, and may be missing - Foursquare doesn't have "Wear" in its description, but they did publish a Wear app.

Not sure on the web side when viewing from a computer, viewing the app in the Play Store on your mobile device it'll show a watch icon in the Description area right above "Read More".  If you hit "Read More" and scroll all the way down, if it is "Enhanced for Android Wear", you'll see the same watch icon and information about Android Wear.


How to disable secure credentials password? On DesireZ running android 2.2 I've run into a rather annoying problem. The phone forces me to make a credentials password for WIFI, and then I have to enter it before the phone will connect to a secured wifi network.

I don't care about the security of my wifi passwords being compromised in the event of my phone being stolen, so I would like to disable this annoyance.

I cannot find any setting or way of doing this, however. Is it possible? Or is there an app which can remember and automatically enter the password on boot-up?

Thanks.

[edit]I can uncheck the "use secure credentials" option, but that simply prevents me from connecting to any wifi connection which requires a password. Attempting to enter a password for the wifi connection first prompts me for a new secure credentials password...[/edit]

The minimum password length is 8, so it won't let me leave it blank.

Have you tried disabling the "Use secure credentials" option in Menu -> Settings -> Location & security, under "Credentials storage" section?


How to switch keyboard layout for external keyboard How do I switch the keyboard layout for an external USB keyboard on Android 2.1? I've connected a German USB keyboard to my Android Tablet (Easypix 1000). Altough the language is set to German, the external keyboard is wrongly read as an english keyboard. Thanks!

There is hope.

I coded a proof-of-concept app that does exactly this (and using it as my everyday keyboard).

Starting from cupcake, the system has a InputMethodService that allows to override keypresses on the fly. This allows applications to change keycodes on the fly without requiring root.

The source-code is available here (for the most curious only)


handling multiple devices on the play store I have multiple Android devices, and each time I go to the play store website to install an app, I get a list of devices to install to.
my questions:

Is it possible to change the order of them? currently i only see how to hide (no removal? weird) or change their names (here), but it doesn't help re-ordering them.
I ask this since I use one of them the most.

is it possible to install to multiple devices at the same time instead of one by one?

1) No there is currently no way to sort them. As you have noticed you can hide them and give them different names but not remove them. From my experience they disappear after 9 months without checking in to the play store, so simply hide any that you don't want to see.

2) Again I don't think this is possible at the moment via the Play store.


How to read Exchange e-mails on Android? Is there any Outlook for Android? If not, should I use an IMAP or POP3 client for Android instead? Which one do you recommend?

You don't mention which phone or Android version you're using. On my Motorola Droid (Android 2.2) the built-in E-mail application allows me to connect to my employers Exchange server. When I created the account, I had three options for connecting: POP3, IMAP, and Exchange.

There are other e-mail clients out there that may also connect to Exchange.


How to backup data on a non-booting, unrooted phone? I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (SGH-I747 for AT&T) that is not rooted. Recently it started shutting down in the middle of use and not start up again. At first, plugging it into the charger would get it to boot up and work. But after a few days it progressed to the point that it does not boot up at all anymore. I can get it into Recovery Mode and Download Mode but nothing else. Before I proceed further in trying to fix the phone, is there a way to backup the data -- mainly pictures and sound recordings? (No, it did not have an sdcard installed. And yes, I know it should have.)

I have never worked with this type of thing before (rooting, CWM, ADB, etc), but I have a remedial understanding of programming and I'm willing to get my hands dirty, as long as the instructions are clear. So please answer as if I have no idea what you're talking about (which most likely I don't).

Based on my preliminary research on this site and elsewhere, ideally I would make both a Nandroid backup and an ADB backup. I read that the ADB backup requires USB Debugging to be enabled. But if the phone won't turn on, that can't be done, right? Or is there a way to enable USB Debugging from recovery/download mode? I am assuming it can't be done and that the ADB option is out.

That leaves making a Nandroid backup. If I understand the procedure correctly, I need to download USB drivers, Odin, and ClockworkMod onto my PC, then install CWM onto the phone. From there, use CWM to make a backup onto an external sdcard. Once the phone is fixed, root it, install Titanium backup, and use Titanium to extract the data from the backup. Does that sound right? Would this work?

Personally, I am a Nexus user. But having repaired a friend's international variant S3 before, I do know some things about Samsung. And since you don't have custom recovery, you cannot access /data (the partition where data is stored). So the way I know of will use a custom recovery to backup/restore data. This voids your warranty.

I am assuming you already know the rooting process. So root and install CWM recovery (this will be our link for data transfer).
Power on to recovery.
Backup the /data from recovery (you can backup in internal SD card, won't really matter).

Now there are two approaches from here:

Approach 1: You are ready and willing to use custom ROM (you can switch to stock anytime of course).

Download any custom ROM from PC and transfer to some external SD card. Put the SD card in phone. Make sure the ROM is same Android version as the stock ROM you had in your phone.
Go to recovery (power off phone and power it on by pressing and holding power+volume up+home buttons. May take a few tries before you successfully get into recovery) and wipe data, cache ,dalvic (will not wipe your user data. Just don't factory reset, but manually wipe data partition).
Install ROM from external SD card. Restore Backup of data that you made earlier. Wipe cache and dalvic cache once again and reboot. It may take a while to boot up, but you should have your apps and data back.

Approach 2: You don't want to use custom ROMs.

If this is the case, you will have to use ADB.
The reason is recovery backup does not include backup of your personal files in user-memory partition. So for that, you will have to use ADB.

Power on to recovery mode and connect phone to PC.
Open up CMD/Terminal (we are going to use ADB to pull your personal files that weren't backup before).
Enter the command: adb pull /sdcard/* D:/Backup. This will start copying your personal files to your PC in a folder named Backup inside D:/ drive. This backup includes the /data backup you made earlier in recovery.
Go to sammobile and download the stock firmware for your phone. Again, make sure the ROM is same Android version as the stock ROM you had in your phone (else app backup may not work).
Flash the ROM using ODIN.
Now you will have to flash CWM again.
After flashing CWM again, power on to recovery. And again, open up CMD/Terminal and run the command: adb push D:/backup /sdcard. This will copy over your personal files back to phone.
Now to restore apps, simply use Restore feature of recovery and select the /data backup you made earlier. Wipe cache, dalvic cache and reboot phone.
First reboot may take some time but you will have your files and apps back.

Note: As silly as it might be, but personally, I have never used Titanium Backup (or any sort of backup apps for that matter. I always perform manual backups). So I do not know if what role could TB have played here. But if you stick to this guide, you will have your data back.


How to unlock pattern on Nexus 4 [Developer Option: ON] Even I have seen duplicated thread as in: Can not unlock my Android device as have no internet connection?

But Here's my situation:

I have wifi/data turned off.
I have the developer option turned on and my laptop does recognized the device with usb plugged in. (As I'm android developer)
I'm using unrooted Nexus 4 .

Is there any way of unlock the screen using adb way, i.e: turn on the wifi? If no luck I would probably go with hard reset.

Okay I finally got it solved using a developer way. :)

Here's my reference for my solution: Turn on wifi via self-made android applicaiton

Got the wifi the moment I compiled into my Nexus phone, and volla! It works and I got my phone back after login through Google account!

I hoped this thread might helped people who came across this problem as a developer.


Easy switching languages? A tablet will be used by someone who reads (only) Chinese (PRC). I only read English. In order to help her accomplish things, install apps, and generally maintain the tablet, I need to switch language settings.

Since I can’t read the settings menu, dialog boxes, etc. and she is a non-technical user, I want some icon on the Home screen that will toggle settings. It doesn’t matter if it’s an app or a widget, but the idea is that once situated on the Launcher screen then anyone can easily toggle languages without having to understand the currently set language.

Can someone point me to something like that?

I found this app to be very easy to use and basically works with just two taps. It's called Change Lanuage and can be found officially from the play store. Then only setback is that you'll only be able to change languages based on languages installed on the phone. Which means if you don't have chinese dictionary and language pack on your phone you'll have to download it through the phone settings page first. Add the app widget to the home screen and you'll be able to change in less than 5 seconds.


can i open flags page on android version 2.3.4 I have been searching for a way to stop auto refresh. My browser sometimes won't open pages all the way. It is very jumpy. And sometimes it just shuts off. I have a LG l75c Optimus Zip android phone

First of all you should get a good browser. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are some examples.

If the problem is still there go to the settings or the browser you use and disable Javascript. This will stop auto-refresh but will also prevent any interactive content on the websites to run.


How to record More than 4GB Video on exFAT? I have a Galaxy S4 4G (I9505) with a 32GB external micro-SD card formatted as exFAT. I use this to record some seminars that takes often 0.5-1.0 hour. The video seems to stop after 30-45 minutes based on the video resolution, but always when the file size reaches 4GB.

I know that ex-FAT allows more than this. My device reads it fine and everything, but the camera app still enforces the limit. I'm using the stock app, on a non-rooted Android 4.2.2 (OTA update), the Samsung version not the Play one. It's also usually not a battery problem (battery is often above %50 after recording, and sometime it's in charger from laptop or power plug).

If I understand correctly, Android API allows overriding this limit and maybe making it unlimited, but I can't find any video recording application that does have this limit disabled. Can you suggest any?

Otherwise, if there is another custom ROM or whatever that I may install to get a modified stock app without the limit, I'd take that as an option, although obviously just recommending a 3rd party video recording app that overrides the limit sounds like a much less hassle (even for someone familiar with rooting and flashing, from my old Galaxy S 1 days).

Because Samsung cannot predict if the user of the phone will have their sdcard formatted with something like exFAT or FAT32, they (samsung) put a size limit of 4GB in to the camera app. If they did not have the file size limit, and a user did have the sdcard formatted with FAT32, the file would not save to disk and could cause other issues as well. They had to scope to the lowest common supported format.

You might be able to find some cameras that have this limit removed. For example, here is a post on XDA that someone modified the camera for the Note 3 (this may, or may not work for your phone) to remove the size limit. The time limit of 90 minutes still exists.


WI-FI And Bluetooth Doesn't Turn On - Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 A510FD Straight to the question:

To solve the issue I think I have two options:

I read on XDA that the 4 files firmwares (service repair firmwares) are needed to fix the phone, but I couldn't find that type of firmware for my model, anyone has any idea how to get those?
Downgrade: I'm on build 6 and there is only one update for build 6 released, that means I can't downgrade my phone to anything. I'd really like to fowngrade to build 5 firmwares, any way around this?

Long story:

I use my phone very normally, minimal apps, no custom ROM and no root etc.

My phone is in very good condition, no damages, no drops, protective case and screen protector (I take good care of it).

I was watching YouTube then Wi-Fi suddenly disconnected and it just doesn't turn back on, the circle-status-bar icon just keeps rotating right next to the Wi-Fi toggle switch and it says: "Turning Wi-Fi On" (or similar, my phone is not in English).

When I reboot the phone, the wifi state is on (though it's not on) switching Airplane mode does not change Wi-Fi state. Toggling Wi-Fi icon from Quick Lunch menu (Notification Menu) switches the on state of Wi-Fi to off, toggling again, switches it to the "Turning Wi-Fi on" mode.

Here's what I've tried so far with no avail:

Rebooting phone a couple of times.
Resetting network settings (+resetting both sim-cards networks)
Resetting all settings.
Booting into stock recovery and wiping cache.
Backing up my data, removing all accounts (to prevent anti-theft lock-down), booting into stock recovery and wiping data (factory reset).
I tried adb shell, dmesg and I searched for "wifi" in the output, here's the result:

Line 125: [ 1407.084890] I[0:WifiStateMachin: 5871] mif: LNK-TX(16): fc
eb 0b 00 07 00 1b 00 0a 50 02 01 c0 ff ff ff
Line 347: [ 1445.061702]  [0:         mc_log: 2225] MobiCore mcd: d01|TZ
DB Utils: Wifi UID: 1010 Per user range: 100000 System UID: 1000
Line 518: [ 1447.799328]  [3:         mc_log: 2225] MobiCore mcd: d01|TZ
DB Utils: Wifi UID: 1010 Per user range: 100000 System UID: 1000

Redid number 5, but this time I removed SD card and both sim cards before factory reset.
A website suggested to have all Wi-Fi devices turned off, I turned off my router.
Tried a soft-reset on my phone in those first steps that I forgot to mention, a website said that it is the equivalent of removing the battery and re-plugging it for non-removable battery phones.
I watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2K6AhkN98Y and since I never use bluetooth, I never checked but now I did and it turns out, bluetooth doesn't turn on as well... hardware problem? When I toggle the BT switch, the toggle moves but doesn't change to blue color, when I press back to previous window then go back to BT setting window, the toggle is off.
My phone already had the latest firmware, so I downloaded the same (latest) firmware from sammobile.com and flashed with AP mode from Odin 3.12.3 and I wiped cache and data (factory reset) from stock recovery.
Turning BT on from *#7353# (Quick Test Menu) just shows" Bluetooth is being turned on Please Wait..." and it just hangs there.
Installed TWRP with Odin, and installed a custom ROM https://forum.xda-developers.com/samsung-a-series/development/rom-resurrection-remix-rr-v6-unofficial-t3765542 with TWRP. Wi-Fi doesn't want to turn on.
I even tried this custom ROM https://forum.xda-developers.com/samsung-a-series/development/rom-advanced-seven-v1-3-t3516980 it still didn't work.

Sources for my troubleshoots:

https://thedroidguy.com/2018/08/fix-samsung-galaxy-a5-2017-can-no-longer-connect-wi-fi-troubleshooting-guide-1074378

https://www.technobezz.com/turn-wifi-on-wont-android-samsung/

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/321336/Cannot+%22Turn+ON%22+Wifi+and+Bluetooth.

https://updato.com/how-to/how-to-install-an-official-samsung-stock-firmware-using-odin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3hXULbrCYc

If the factory reset didn't work I would probably get it warrantied. It seems like a hardware issue.


when "full back up" screen appears i cannot pick the "back up my data" option i can't touch and confirm the back up my data option. i am able to pick the "do not back up" option whenever. ive tried adding a password but does not let me back up. im not sure all is update and installed. im running kk 4.4.4 on verizon s5. i downgraded from lollipop if that may be the issue? I dont see how if im already on the full back up prompt.

I actually got it to work by disabling the screen filtering app. I had applied bluelight filter which decreases the opacity of screen. Anyhow I turned it off and the backup worked. I wasn't able to download apk's so this helped. If u have any apps that run on top of most apps or something like that as it was explained in this youtube video, I would disable them and then do what I want to do and redownload. I don't know why this is happening now because it didn't before but it helped me. Hope it helps you.


changed my 'message centre' number and now sms will not send.? S2 galaxy note.
I changed my 'message centre' number in 'message settings'
and now sms will not send.?

also, Searching for WHY MOST address book contacts do not show an icon for incoming sms…?
Vodafone shows up on the inbox.. but not many other contacts.?
help please

I changed my 'message centre' number in 'message settings'
  and now sms will not send.?

The answer is trivial. You need to contact the customer care support of your network provider. Depending upon their procedure they may ask few questions, and after confirmation you can ask them then default Message Centre Number. Enter it at the same location where you changed it, restart the device if required and you now will be able to send SMS again.