screen cracked android - so I cannot gesture unlock I have a fairly common issue: a screen damaged android phone. These devices are highly vulnerable to broken screens (this particular phone, the samsung galaxy note 3, had 2 replacement screens before this one) I refuse to purchase another to simply get my data.

As I read about it I am disgusted at the attitude of the data thieves at google: (I make no bones about it, it is laughable to call it "security" - it is simply deliberate data theft in the guise of obscurity - and I know this because I write systems that do much more security for far less damage)

But forget the disgust, for the purposes of this question just ignore it, just don't try to defend it, or censor that I wrote it. I know what I am talking about.

As I say, I am a developer on Android so I already had adb installed on my pc and already had usb debugging enabled:

First I tried this: 1) Since my Google Account was set up on the phone I went to Google "remote locking" service http:www.android.com devicemanager only to discover that while this service LOCKS phones it does not UNLOCK them (...?) (x ANDROID FAIL)

Secondly I tried to : 2) use adb to adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key but it is permission denied (x ANDROID FAIL)

Thirdly I tried to root the phone so I could use adb: 3) However even though I have now rooted the phone, I rooted it with the lock screen locked, so I cannot get the initial gesture unlock, to work to "confirm click" the root: (x ANDROID FAIL)

Fourthly I tried : 4)  the tool "Android Control.exe" http: android-control.software.informer.com/ seems to show the most promise but it only replicates gestures in on gesture vector, i.e. if your unlock gesture changes direction (as mine does) then h will not work - i.e. more than a single direction in a swipe and you have no way in: (x ANDROID FAIL)

Fifthly I learnt : 5) I could use a VNC if I had installed the server on the phone before hand (x ANDROID FAIL)

So, my question is, while locked out of my property by a bunch of slack idiots who are paid far too much, can anyone suggest a way out other than the five ridiculous android fails tried and the with I want to wait to try:

Options 6) is to buy a [micro usb hdmi/ usb mouse dongle][3] but it is a lot of money for a device that I need to use only once to swipe only once

WARNING: Follow these instructions only, if you are aware of the risks!
I am not responsible for any hard-/soft-brick! Proceed only if you know what you are doing!
Possible loss of warranty by triggering KNOX flags, flash counters etc.!!!
READ THE ENTIRE ANSWER BEFORE FOLLOWING ANY OF THESE STEPS!!!
Install CWM and Philz recovery.
If you not already have a custom recovery installed:
Use ODIN to flash a third party recovery. I recommend PhilZ recovery, because you can navigate through all menus using only the buttons on your device:
First: Download ODIN, CWM recovery and PhilZ touch recovery from this XDA-thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-3/general/n900-one-guide-t3252033 (you may want to read that post, too).
You will need to install Philz with CWM, because CWM does not feature a file manager and Philz can only be flashed through another non-stock recovery.
Next: Shutdown your device and boot into the bootloader.
You may use adb reboot bootloader or the combination: Power + Home + Volume-DOWN
Install CWM (this will trigger any flash counter, KNOX warranty void bit etc., only proceed if there is a way to undo this or you will most certainly loose your warranty):

Unpack ODIN and launch the application.
In ODIN: Click on the PDA button and select the CWM .tar archive
Now, connect your phone to your PC and click the Start button.

You now have CWM installed!

Your phone should reboot automatically, so after it finished booting, copy the Philz recovery .zip onto your device's storage. You can use either the Windows Explorer or adb push <zip file> /sdcard/ for this. I'm not sure if the Windows Explorer method works with a locked screen, though.
Reboot into the CWM recovery by either shutting down your device and pressing the combination Power + Home + Volume-UP or using adb reboot recovery
Use your volume up/down buttons to select install zip from sdcard and confirm it by pressing the power button (it's possible to install a zip through sideload, but sideloading is not very reliable from others' and my experience)
Select your philz recovery .zip file and confirm to flash it.
Reboot the recovery by going into the Advanced menu and selecting reboot recovery
You will now be greeted by the Philz recovery screen.

Do all sorts of root commands:

Use your PC to run adb shell. You will automatically be in root mode (check whoami -> root)
Remove the .key files that prevent you from unlocking your device. (rm /data/system/gesture.key)
Reboot the device by simply selecting Reboot System Now and pressing the power button.

You should now have no screen lock, as Android is unable to find the key that is used to compare your input gesture to and will fall back to either no lock at all or swipe to unlock.
I can confirm that this guide is working with the Galaxy S6 Edge (SM-G925F), if the proper files are used.


Disable list "bounce" effect on Samsung Galaxy Mini I have a Samsung Galaxy Mini (GT-S5570) with Froyo (Build FROYO.XWKE3 in case this is relevant). When scrolling a list it allows the list to scroll past the end, and then slowly scrolls it back.  This prevents me from using the technique I've used on other Android devices where I flick a list and let it hit the end in order to select an item from the last screen (it takes about a second for the position of items to settle down, which is really annoying, and I'm not accurate enough to select them while they're moving).  Is there any way (short of a custom ROM) of disabling this behaviour?

No - as you've correctly ascertained, a custom ROM is most likely your best bet. Also, the bounce effect is a Samsung "feature" - by default Android uses the glow effect to indicate the end of a list. I'm also unsure if this is a Froyo only feature, because IIRC, one of the UI updates was the glow effect, which Samsung did incorporate into their later ROM releases.


Android tablet as music remote I imagine a setup where I use an android tablet computer as a remote control for my hifi system - at least for selecting music. I have connected a low-power, cheap and small linux computer to the amp. The low-powered computer holds all music on a USB stick, SSD or similar. The computer has no screen or keyboard permanently attached.

Can something like this work? All solutions I have found on the net require streaming from a NAS or the internet (internet radio) - e.g. Sonos. Ideas regarding hardware and software are welcome.

You could try something like VLC Remote. It can apparently even be configured to work with an MPlayer install instead of VLC if you prefer (according to this project, at least). There's also a remote app for Songbird available, and you can find it in the Market as well.


In Microsoft OneNote 2013 for Android, is it possible to move a page from one folder or section to another? In Microsoft OneNote 2013 for Android, is it possible to move a page (aka note) from one folder to another or even just from one section to another?

This seems like very rudimentary functionality, yet appears impossible.

Unfortunately the functionality to move pages between different sections doesn't appear to be available. I would love it if you could move pages between sections, and even move sections between different notebooks.

As a workaround, the functionality IS available on the web version of OneNote. If you have the OneNote notebook stored in your OneDrive (which I can't see ANY reason why you wouldn't) then log into www.onenote.com and move the pages between sections using the browser.

Then, sync your notebook with your Android device again.


Last seen on WhatsApp? "last seen" does it  mean that the person opened MY chat window with him, saw the conversation we had and then went offline?

or "last seen" only means that the person was using WhatsApp and not particularly my chat window with them ?

What does last seen and online mean exactly?

  Online and last seen tell you if your contacts are online, or the
  last time they were using WhatsApp.

  online means that contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the
  internet. However, it does not necessarily mean they have read your
  chat. last seen refers to the last time the contact used WhatsApp.


Is there any limit on number of devices you can install Apps on from Amazon App Store? I recently started using the Amazon App store, and noticed that it copies the apps I already purchased or downloaded to other Android devices if I sign in using the same account. Is there any specified limit on the number of devices that this is supported on? If I have 10 Android devices can I buy an app once and install it on all of them?

Yes, you can install all the apps you buy from the Amazon appstore on any device which is linked to that Amazon account.  It operates just like paid apps in the Android Market which are available to all the devices associated with that particular Google Account.

I have 3 Android devices and all they are all linked to the same Amazon account and the same Google account and when I purchase an app through the Market or the Appstore I have it on all three devices.


flashing my a3900 lenovo mobile please house help me I can't flash my lenovo a3900 phone because it can't connect to my Laptop using the usb cable and it keeps hanging and showing "no command" MY usb cable works perfectly.

Since you didn't provide infos about the platform, I assume its the Mediatek version.

To flash this phone you'll need SP Flashtool and ROM file with scatter. You'll also need USB drivers which make it possible for your device to communicate with the computer. The phone needs to be connected in Preloader mode.

Downloaded SP Flashtool
Download MTK USB drivers
Download the Firmware


Android Rooting : Facility vs Harm, Should I make Rooting in my device? I want to make Rooting of my Android Device. I have searched over internet, I got usefulness and harmfulness.

Android Rooting : Facility vs Harm, Should I make Rooting in my device?

It really depends on why you want to root. If the feature you want is an important feature for you and you are missing it then there's no reason why you shouldn't root.


Bluetooth not working for Samsung phone when iPod connected via aux cable Okay so my hands free Bluetooth connection works fine in my car for my galaxy 4 mini when playing CDs or radio. I can make and receive calls no problem at all. However when I connect my iPod via aux cable the phone stops connecting to the Bluetooth. Any ideas?

It sounds to me it's the car that is disconnecting the bluetooth device when it detects an aux cable connection. If that's the case, you can try manually reconnecting with your Android phone.

If you can reconnect, then you could try setting up an automation schedule where the phone tries to reconnect to your car when that connection is lost.

If you cannot reconnect, your problem lies with the car. There may be a setting somewhere in the car settings that lets you keep bluetooth devices connected even if it detects an aux device. Or you may be out of luck; it's all dependent on the auto manufacturer's operating system.


Is it possible to change the LED notification color on Galaxy S3? I want to be able to select which colors show up for different notifications such as sms email facebook and phone calls.  I know the led for the s3 is capable of showing multiple colors but don't know if these are changeable, I've seen it on other phones tho (my old bb curve) I figured android has something similar.

thanks,

If you have a US Galaxy S3, all LED programs have issues with the colors (Handcent, GoSMS, etc) except LightFlow.  If you select Green, it will be Blue, etc.  LightFlow works flawlessly.  The problme I have with LightFlow is the battery would drain faster with the app installed.  I ran a test where I left the phone idle for 55 mins (no screen on, no led flashing, no gps, txt, phone..) and battery drainage was 8-10%.  I uninstalled the app, and did the same test and battery drainage was only 4%.  For now (until GoSMS supports LED for the US S3), I'm just using the built in S3 Led Notification option (under system settings).  It works, you just can't change the colors.


Will resetting my unlocked phone to factory settings lock it again? I have an unlocked G1 that is freaking out on me in various ways. If I "restore factory settings" am I going to wind up locking it?

Normally unlocked phones are unlocked for good.  I wouldn't expect a factory reset to change it.  (See also: Unlocked Galaxy i7500, Reset Will Remove it?)

It's not 100% certain, though.  For example, some Galaxy S users had their phones re-locked when updating from 2.1 to 2.2, which is a somewhat similar process to doing a factory reset.

You could always do a backup through ClockworkMod or something (and back it up to your computer first) in case it does get re-locked, so that you could restore it to the previous unlocked state.  That requires root, however.  (Root can sometimes be undone by a factory reset, but not if you have a custom ROM that came pre-rooted).

If you have the unlock code from when you originally unlocked it, that code should still work to unlock it again if it gets re-locked.


Unwanted Apps (Maybe malware) downloaded and installed on Android device Off late, I have been observing some unwanted apps getting downloaded and installed on my Android device without my knowledge. Upon noticing I uninstalled those apps. However, the next time I switch on my data or connect to Wi-Fi, in no time does it re-install those apps. Is there a way in which I can troubelshoot this ?

Below are the couple of apps that are getting installed (please not none of these are available on Play Store):

Content Visual
VedioZone
UC News
WhatsApp (This is not the original WhatsApp with a slightly different icon)

I tried doing a Factory Reset with no success

I also tried resetting the device by going into the recovery mode with no success.

I disabled allowing apps to installed from unknown sources.

The Quick Heal anti-virus does not detect any threats.

Edit 1: I could see multiple instances of the above listed app as shown in below image:

I think some malicious process running on your device so go to

Settings->App->Running (Tab)

and try to identify unwanted process and if you get it stop the process and try to uninstall belonging application of respective process.


Doogee S60 - Can't hide/change battery icon I'm using a Doogee S60, on Android 7.0 Nougat, rooted, with Xposed and GravityBox installed.

I'm seeing this weird issue where my status bar has a non-standard battery icon, and I can't seem to either hide it or find out where it's coming from.

Turning off the battery icon in the GravityBox tweaks just moves the signal icon closer to the point where it starts to overlap with the battery icon. If I select a different battery icon, it just adds it overlapping.

In addition, if I open an app that makes the status bar background white, the battery icon colour doesn't change with the rest, making it mostly invisible.

I've looked in all the settings I can think of/find (including System Settings, System UI Tuner, GravityBox, and my launcher settings), and have no idea how to get rid of this. I just want the stock battery icon, or failing that, add a custom one. Either way, I want this battery icon gone.

Does anybody have any ideas about this?

The answer lies in build.prop!

All credit for this goes to Nephiel on XDA-Developers (this post, specifically).

The Doogee S60 has the setting battery_view_land_show, which is defaulted to yes.
On a rooted phone, this setting can be changed easily using BuildProp Editor.
Set the value to no, reboot the phone, et voila! Back to the standard battery icon, and all expected behavior from GravityBox and such!


Copy Paste with Touch I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I have a problem with the copy and paste feature. Since about 2 Weeks ago, I have been unable to copy by holding on the text and clicking copy. If I long press on text the blue cursor will appear, but no context menu will to allow me to copy the text.

How can I fix this problem?

What is your Android version?

When you highlight the text, just click the highlighted text to copy it.

Then you can paste it by long clicking on a text input field.

On Android 3+ the system changed, and you now copy and paste using the bar that appears when you long press on some text.


Select music quality when syncing Google Music with Android I uploaded my whole music library on Google Music (through Google Music Manager) in order to have quick access from the web and sync it with my android phone (Galaxy Nexus). The original size was slighly more than 2GB but when I try to sync after a restore on my phone,  the new size is nearly 10GB since Google performed the match and is now providing me high quality tracks (originally the quality was quite poor). Since I have overall 16GB on my phone, this is a bit too much to keep my whole library there and I would like to have lower quality (e.g. 256kbps or lower over the google default 320kbps) to save some space. Is this possible configuring any setting? If not, is there any workaround based on additional tools?

Thanks in advance,
Michele

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a simple solution.

Your simple options seem to be:

Use Google Music and select a subset of music to keep offline
Don't use Google Music for offline tracks; instead sync them yourself
Use the "fix incorrect match" button on the web interface to force your low-quality songs to be uploaded (you can use gmusicapi to automate the process)
Make enough noise that Google devs take notice (I'm willing to bet their servers support this feature)

One last thing: I was under the impression that matching a song didn't automatically get you access to a 320kbs copy. When uploading, the Music Manager actually provides the bitrate of your copy of the song (here's my code); I've seen low quality (eg 128kbs) local copies matched and then produce a < 320kbs copy when redownloaded.

So, if you've got time to burn, you could conceivably use this to your advantage: re-encoding to poor quality locally and reuploading may result in lower-quality server matches.


Weird behavior of broken screen My phone (OnePlus 6) fell just this morning right onto its screen, but at first I thought it's going to be fine, since I am a paranoid and got a bumper case and a screen protector for said phone. At first glance everything except the screen protector was perfectly fine, but upon trying to unlock the phone, all it showed was a black screen.

Regardless, I tried to use it, by connecting it with my PC and using adb, which worked perfectly fine. Since I wanted to narrow down the possible causes of the non-working (but seemingly fine, since there are absolutely no cracks) screen I tried some things, like unlocking with the fingerprint reader, or using the cameras, which all worked perfectly well. Just out of curiosity though I tried using the touch screen, which for whatever reason also actually worked.

Now on to my actual question: Has anyone had any expierence with a similar behaviour, or could think of any possible reason that the screen doesn't work, but the touch input does?

Thanks in advance for any help I can get.

Your led lighting which is part of the digitizer s broken but the tough part survived. You would want to replace the led/digitizer. I've done this on a few phones and no longer attempt it to the fragile nature of the repair. eBay has services available for repairs


Is there a way to sync my personal files to my Nook Color & G2 phone? I just got a Nook Color which runs on Android.
I also have an Android G2 phone with the Nook app running on it.
If I purchase a book from Barnes & Nobles I see the book online in my "My NOOK Library" at the Barnes & Nobles web site.
I can also read such books on my Nook Color & G2 phone (this is great).

The problem is that I also have PDF documents  that I would like to sync between both the Nook Color & G2 phone.

I was hoping that the Barnes & Nobles "My NOOK Library" at the web site in the cloud would allow me to upload my personal PDFs so that they could sync to my phone and Nook.

Does anyone know:

If Barnes & Nobles currently supports this?
If not, will they support it?
If not, any ideas how I could accomplish this (other than doing it manually which I currently do)?

I don't believe that functionality works yet.  I have tried to sideload PDFs and plain .txt files and they don't register in "My Library" or under "My Files" and obviously they don't sync between my devices.  I also can't find a web interface for loading non-nook files.

I did a little searching around a couple months ago and I found a few unsubstantiated forum posts that claim that it's planned functionality but the Android app currently only supports sideloaded ePub files.

  If not, any ideas how I could
  accomplish this (other than doing it
  manually which I currently do)?

I'd say your best bet right now is to do this outside the Nook app.  Sideload (or wait till Jan for the Market) a PDF reader and Dropbox or SugarSync onto your Nook Color to keep your PDFs synced and accessable.

*For full disclosure: those Dropbox and SugarSync links are my referral links so if you don't already have them and you use those links both you and I get some free extra storage ;o)


How can I install swype on HTC Wildfire S? I have an HTC Wildfire S and want to install Swype.

I understand from a bit of searching that I need to download it.

When I search for "swype" in the marketplace there are dozens of results which all don't seem to install the Swype functionality.

Some forums even mention that this is not possible.

How do I install Swype functionality on my HTC Wildfire S?

Swype uses a "closed" beta system to distribute its app rather than using the Market. You can register for the beta and get a download link for their installer by simply visiting the Swype website.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if the Wildfire is "officially" supported, but QVGA screen support is noted for v3.0. The forum thread you linked to in your question is about 5 months old, and QVGA was not supported at that time.


How to create link to app that does not appear in the apps menu? I just purchased a Galaxy Note 3 and was surprised that the Voice Recorder app is not included on the screen with the rest of the apps. However, the Voice Recognition feature opens the Voice Recorder app when I say "Open voice recorder". Thus, obviously the app is installed. How can I the app to either the list of apps or even better yet, to one of the "home screens"?

Note that my device in not in English, so I'm not sure of the English names of all the windows. However, to open the app I do say in English "Open voice recorder" so I know that is the name of the app.

Previous Samsung devices, such as the S3, had this app on the screen with all the other apps.

If your Launcher includes an "activity browser" (as e.g. Nova Launcher and Apex Launcher do), this is easy to achieve: Just long-press on an empty place of your homescreen, select to add an activity.

Activity selector in Apex Launcher (click image for full size variant)

Each app that provides activities (that is, basically, a screen to interact with the user), should be listed here together with all the activities (screens) it offers. Scroll the list until you find the app you want to add to your homescreen, then open the list containing its activities (in the screenshot, the arrows on the left border indicate whether the list is opened (up-arrow) or closed (down-arrow)).

If there's only one activity shown (screenshot-example: LocMgrPT), that's probably the one you need. Simply tap it, and the icon should appear on your homescreen. If, on the other hand, multiple entries are shown (as for LocMgrPD in the screenshot), you might need to try until you find the correct one. Often, the activity name helps you sorting out unlikely candidates.

If you've found your target, you'll have a corresponding shortcut on your homescreen. Other than a simple "app start icon", this is a "shortcut", i.e. you could even jump directly to a "sub-screen" of the app.

And there are even more uses for your findings: having the activity name, you could have that activity launched automatically using e.g. tasker, or call it from the command-line using a terminal app or adb.

If your launcher doesn't support adding Activities this way (just apps, widgets, and shortcuts), take a look at Activity Launcher to substitute for this feature. Additional highlight: it even allows you to chose an icon of your choice.


Google Play updates a non-existing application Recently, on my Moto G5 I was hit with a situation of Google Play updating an application that is not listed in the application list:

Situation on right screenshot remained only until given update process has completed. Right after that "Moto Actions" application appeared on the list.

Questions here:

Why Google Play calls something "an update", if in facts it installs it for the first time?
Disable button for this app is disabled. Can't disable or uninstall it. Any option to get rid of it?
How can Google Play install anything on my device without asking me for a permission?
How can Google Play install anything that I cannot uninstall?
Are there any other app-examples of such behavior?

I thought that this is possible only for apps that are part of core system and that anything that is installed through Google Play can be uninstalled?

I purchased my Moto G5, after having Moto G4 earlier and after having Moto E3 even earlier. I was using all my phones because Moto offers "as close to pure Android as possible".

Every phone came with some annoying Moto-like stuff, but I was always able to uninstall or disable it. This is first example. Is this some kind of change in Motorola policy? Cause I find hard to believe that "Moto Actions" is so essential system app that user can't uninstall it and Motorola only forgot about it in system release and had to later install it through Google Play.

Why Google Play calls something "an update", if in facts it installs it for the first time?

Even if you think the app was not installed before it may be the case that the app was renamed. Therefore the app name is new, but the app itself was already installed.

  Disable button for this app is disabled. Can't disable or uninstall it. Any option to get rid of it?

Apps that can't be disabled are system apps. The manufacturer installed it and the app itself is system critical (based on the manufacturers opinion), therefore you can't disable it. With root permissions you may be able to delete the app, however most likely your system will not work correctly at some point (or at all) afterwards.

Regarding the Moto Actions I assume that Motorola uses it for defining tasks that trigger under certain conditions. As those settings are integrated into the OS the app is system critical and can't be deinstalled.

  How can Google Play install anything on my device without asking me for a permission?

The answer is more or less already included in 1. Most likely the app was already installed.

  How can Google Play install anything that I cannot uninstall?

System apps can be updated - you will see that in the app overfiew you have the option to uninstall the update (but not disable the app). In such a case the updated app is installed into the regular app space and the system app is ignored.

  Are there any other app-examples of such behavior?

On nearly every device there is at least one pre-installed manufacturer system app that can be updated via Play Store and that can't be disabled.

If you want a clean Android System you can unlock your device and install LineageOS or another AOSP based custom ROM. Lineage OS for example does not even include the PlayStore and the other Google apps (but you can install them if you want).


Streaming from Google music cloud to wireless speaker or airplay On my Google Nexus 7, I want to stream music from the Google cloud to a wireless speaker or airplay. I have found lots of apps that can stream to airplay, but none of them can see my Google music which I have uploaded to the cloud.

I found a solution to stream your Google Music to any device that is DLNA enabled. It's an android app called BubbleUPNP. What it does is it accesses your Google Music account, adds the titles to your local library (only the titles, think of them as links to the Google Music library) and then starts a DLNA server on your phone. This means that any device that can access DLNA servers can play this music, thus it now also has access to your Google Music tracks.

How to do this:

Download the BubbleUPNP app.
Buy the BubbleUPNP license (~$4) - well worth the money!
Start the app, go to library and select Google Music.
Give permission to the app and wait for the scanning process to finish.
With the server started on your Android device, access it from any DLNA capable device (TV, PC, Smartphone, Tablet, etc.). In the Music section you should now also see your Google Music tracks.

Downside is the fact that you can't "send" a track from Google Music (from your Android device) to be played on the DLNA device but you have to play it from the DLNA device directly.

Hope this helps!


How to sync personal dictionary between devices (Google Keyboard)? I also have installed Google Keyboard app on my tablet and have selected my main Google account as the sync account. The dictionary was initially empty but I have added some words. I also pressed "Sync now" after adding the words.

I have also installed the Google Keyboard app on my phone and just have also selected the same account as on the tablet and have pressed "Sync now". BUT the dictionary hasn't transferred to my phone.

Any ideas on how to make this will work? Thanks! :)

I'd suggest you try the below troubleshooting steps:

Clear cache for Google Keyboard app (Go to Settings > Apps or Application Manager > ALL > Google Keyboard > Storage > Clear cache > OK).
Clear cache data for the Google Play Store app.
Uninstall and reinstall the Google Keyboard updates. (Go to Settings > Apps or Application Manager > Google Keyboard > Uninstall Updates > OK).

If the above steps don't help, I'd suggest you contact our one-on-one support team using this link for better assistance.


Volume Limiter for android? Is there a way to limit volume with a parental passcode on android?  I know there are apps for limiting volume, but is there any way to secure those limits so a child cannot change them?

If you are on a tablet running recent version of Android OS (4.3 and above), you can create a restricted user profile for your child.  There you can simply disable access to the app which you used to limit the volume.

For older versions of Android OS on tablets and on phones (restricted profiles are disabled for phones even on latest Android OS versions,) you can try various "app protector" type of apps, that provide password-based mechanisms for restricting access to various installed apps.


Available internal storage My device is showing 1.02 GB of free space in storage settings. But while installing app from play store, it says only 492 MB of space is available.. what should I do, please help..

Play Store suggests having 500mb of free space for your phone to work properly. So when have low on storage you can't install large apps even through apks.


How to change a default application in Ice Cream Sandwich? I used the ADWLauncher EX by default while having Gingerbread 2.3.6.

Today I have manually updated my Nexus S to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3, and I wanted to give the new default launcher a shot, but I cannot find anymore where to select / forget the default application for an action.

I've turned the settings of my phone inside out, googled and crawled the forums, but without success.
If anybody can tell me how to change a default application in ICS, I'd be grateful!

Yeah, I never thought I'd want to see that Complete action using... window again! :D

Go to Settings, Applications.  Find the app that has the default set.  Scroll down to the bottom of that view and click the "Clear Defaults" button.


ROM/MOD for pure Android experience Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I'm looking for a Mod or Rom for a HTC Desire S and a Motorola Xoom which provides the cleanest Android experience without modifications. Similar to that of the Nexus range of phones. Eventually, I'd like to put ICS on both of these devices.

As elderathis said, the Xoom is a pure android device, as for the Desire S, I believe that CyanogenMod is available for that device. It is "pure android", plus some additional tweaks after.


Why flash games are so slow on my RCA tablet I have what is probably a very basic question about tablets. I am using an RCA 11 Maven Pro.

I'd like to understand why online flash games are so slow on this device. For example, games like Monster's Den and Amorphous on Kongregate are extremely choppy and impossible to play, yet flash animations run smoothly for gifs and videos and it has enough processing power to play 3D mobile games I've downloaded.

I've tried a litany of Google querries within and external to stack exchange without any relevant answers to this. Thank you.

Short answer: because it's Adobe Flash on Android

Most apps and websites are shown in the Web browser. This is a native app with lots of optimisation and hardware acceleration. This makes it possible to load large websites on your phone. The same is true for games: all game code exists when the app is installed on your device. This way, the code can be executed way more efficiently.

Flash doesn't have any hardware support or optimisations within games.

The lack of good hardware support comes from the fact that the last version was developed for Android 4.0.4 several years ago and then was abandoned. All new technologies to speed up Android that have been developed since Flash support was dropped are not available to Flash.

The lack of optimisation comes from the way flash loads game files. Every file you load in flash contains different code, animations and sounds. Flash does not precompile (process the code before it's executed) like Android does with normal games. This is another reason why flash is so slow.

Flash is a bit of a resource hog as well. From what I can find your tablet out has 1GB of RAM. This should be enough to play most simple Android games and show some websites, but it might choke on larger Flash files.

Because Adobe no longer maintains it,  Flash is also a security vulnerability. No security updates will ever come for flash on Android.

Flash is slow on even the fastest Android devices. There's no way this will ever change because Adobe doesn't bring out new versions. I'm afraid there's nothing you can do about it except closing all apps and tabs in the background and hoping for the best.


Unlock encrypted Android from ADB I have the following problem: Somehow, this evening the touchscreen of my Sony Xperia Z broke. I have two thin cracks in the display and everything on the right side of the crack does not react.
I have backup phones but I wanted to get back at least my photos. My device is encrypted with a passphrase, but I cannot type. My idea was, to unlock it from adb, so I can backup my data.
I run SlimKat (SlimRom) with TeamWin Recovery.

When I enter recovery mode, I can see my phone:

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
CB5A1PN2WU  recovery

But no commands work:

$ adb shell
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: No such file or directory (2) -

How can I get my data? Can I remotely control my keyboard? Sadly, everything is saved on the internal flash memory.

The Xperia Z supports USB-on-the-go, so with a USB-OTG adaptor and a USB keyboard you should be able to enter the encryption passphrase to boot the device.


Filesystem created and last accessed times Why doesn't Android keep track of the created and last accessed times as well as the last modified time for files in the file-system?

It doesn't store creation time because UNIX filesystems (generally speaking) simply don't store this anywhere, and Android doesn't seem to be any different. This Stack Overflow question has some discussion about this fact (you can ignore the fact that it's talking about Python - the answers are still relevant), and the man page for stat describes what times are typically stored in the data structure.

As for the last accessed times...well it does keep track. Try ls -l in any directory you have proper permissions for:

$ cd /sdcard/
cd /sdcard/
$ ls -l
ls -l
drwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          2011-04-27 14:31 LOST.DIR
drwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          2011-04-27 14:31 DCIM
drwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          2011-04-27 14:31 Android
drwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          2011-04-27 16:14 glogs
-rwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw    49152 2011-05-27 16:04 AndroidBytes.txt
drwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw          2011-06-28 16:28 vim
-rwxrwxr-x system   sdcard_rw        0 2011-09-11 16:48 su-2.3.1-bin-signed.zip
$

If you have busybox you can also use the stat command for more detailed info. It also lets you use some additional ls flags like -u, -c and -t (see man ls if you're not familiar with it). Here's a sample from stat:

# stat databases
stat databases
  File: "databases"
  Size: 2048            Blocks: 4          IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: 1f06h/7942d     Inode: 454         Links: 1
Access: (0771/drwxrwx--x)  Uid: (10079/  app_79)   Gid: (10079/  app_79)
Access: 2011-09-29 09:07:44.000000000
Modify: 2011-09-29 09:07:44.000000000
Change: 2011-09-29 09:07:44.000000000
#


Is there a way to toggle a secure lock screen without having the feature built into a custom ROM? Benzo Rom for the Nexus 6 running 5.1.1 Lollipop allows the ability to toggle a secure lock screen from the quick settings in the notification drawer. For example, from the launcher, I can pull down the notification drawer to access the quick settings panel and tap the lock screen option and it will automatically engage the lock screen even if there was a password/pattern/gesture/pin, etc. previously setup. If I tap it again, it will remove the secure lock screen.

My concern is that this feature was built into the custom ROM itself and I don't know an alternate solution to this. Is there any solution to achieve this?

Edit #1

I was hoping for a solution that was not related to Tasker or Secure Settings. Something that's more clean and integrated.

I'm not too familar with doing stuff like this, but I guess this will help!
Well, I'm pretty sure the app called Tasker is able to do it if the Android version is between 4.x.x and 6.x.x, not sure if Automate can do it?
I do personally recommend Tasker if you want an app that is able to do a lot on your phone, even without ROOT it can do amazing stuff. Else I would recommend to give Automate a try, I'm not that familar with it and can't tell that much about it.
Tasker

Cost's 3 USD!
Create and sell your own apps!
I don't know what it can't do! I'm not kidding!

Automate

It's free to download and ad-free!
Easy-to-use drag-n-drop design!
Built-in community to download other user's uploaded automation tasks!

Both

Automating what ever you want, just like you want!
Use ROOT functions like executing shell commands or rebooting you phone!

Sorry for my bad english if it's not good enough! At least, I tried my best!
EDIT: I'm not able to tell you that any app can help you with a Nexus 6 because I do only have a Galaxy S7 Edge that is working and a Galaxy S5 without a working display.


Exporting progress from Google Play Games to iOS Game Center I used Google Play Games to connect to Despicable Me: Minion Rush!. Is there any way to export my progress to the same game on iOS (which can be connected to iOS Game Center)?

Apparently, exporting progress from Google Play Games to iOS Game Center is possible if the game can also connect to Facebook:

On your Android device (where the game progress is located), log in to Facebook (see screenshot below)
On your iPhone device,  log in to Facebook, and it will retrieve all game information.


Turning off LED light for Gmail notifications on Galaxy S4 I have email notifications turned off on Galaxy S4 and I'm still getting the blue LED indicator every time I receive an email from Gmail.  How do I turn that off?

You can use LightFlow to manage all your LED Notifications and use that to turn off LEDs for any programs you want. You can also use it to change notification led colours as well.


Music only plays for a second and then ends? When I successfully copy my music to my SD card, each song only plays for a second and then continues onto the next song. I was able to remedy this by copying each song over individually, but obviously this is untenable in the long-run. Might this be an issue with my new SD, am I copying too fast, or what else might it be?

I was able to replicate this for skipping to the center of a song. I can't hear an entire second, but it does seek to the center of the song and play a bit of it. If I try to go back to the beginning of the song after every skip, the Music Player eventually crashes.

For any of the mp3s with these issues, if I restart my phone it deletes these songs.

The most obvious explanation is that the file is incomplete: there's only a small fraction of the file there, or only the first section of the file is readable. Given that the symptoms you report in your other question point to SD card failure, that seems the most likely cause for this too.

If this is a different SD card, it could be that the card itself isn't at fault: rather, whatever you're using to copy files to the card could be corrupting the filesystem, or a dodgy USB connection to a card reader could be interrupting file transfers.


Google Contact Sync Problem I bought Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (now with Kit Kat) about a year ago and used my Google account to sync contact, calendar, G-Mail, etc. Everything is working fine since I noticed contacts sync problem two weeks ago. Every time I make sync, Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly. message appears. I only have around 260 contacts. I researched and tried some solutions. But sync problem still exists. Some websites suggest to clear data of Contact Storage and I did. Nothing become except all my contacts were gone from my phone. Sync still doesn't work. I hate to do Factory Reset for such problem. I have searched many questions like mine at here but I can't find any solutions. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Go to http://google.com/contacts from PC then log in and check your contact from there


Something causes my phone to hang and reboot This problem always happens after I restore my apps from Titanium Backup and move them to the SD card, regardless which ROM. However, I noticed that this problem has something to do with the SD card. Since the logcat is too long, I posted it here:

Logcat #1: http://pastebin.com/5qAEz3n7
Logcat #2: http://pastebin.com/Hd7uXPrc
Logcat #3: http://pastebin.com/Xc6evYsM
Logcat #4: http://pastebin.com/yQFuXdTu

P.S. all these logcats occured during the same session, after that, the phone started becoming slow, hanging, then rebooting.

Actually I don't think this is related to the SD card per se. Some applications just don't handle being placed on SD or being back-upped and restored with Titanium Backup too well. I've experienced trouble with restored apps myself and solved the problems with removing the app and installing a fresh copy from the Market.


I deleted my only launcher I deleted my only launcher and now I cannot open settings to set to debug mode in order to use ADB or similar to install a new launcher. I can't open the Play store, can't open anything except those that use voice commands: e-mail, text, phone, maps, navigation, and note to self.

Oh, and it only boots in safe mode.

It's an LG Optimus T.

How do I put a launcher back on this phone?

I figured this out only after months of being without most of my phone's functionality and taking it to a 3rd-party repair place that declared it "unrepairable".

It is stupidly easy:

Download an apk of your home launcher (I got one from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1125331.html )
E-mail it to yourself
Use voice commands to send yourself a test e-mail. If you don't have gmail set up, then it will give you the screens you need for configuration.
E-mail the apk to yourself. When you check your gmail on your phone you should see an "install" button next to the attachment name. Install it and enjoy your new old phone.


"You can't delete contacts from read-only accounts." I'm trying to delete contacts from my Google account that's synced with my Nexus 5. It's synced as a Google account, not using Gmail IMAP or anything like that, but all of the contacts display this message when I try to delete them:

You can't delete contacts from read-only accounts, but you can hide them
in your contacts lists.

I don't understand why the Contacts app (default, from Google) is saying my Google account contacts are read-only. How do I correct this problem so I can fully edit contacts from my phone?

Have you tried going into the Apps list (the All tab) and clearing data for Contacts and Contacts Storage?

Once that's done you can resync your phone with Google to get all of your original contacts back.


making picture frame widget take up entire screen? On my Galaxy S II, I've added the Picture Frame widget to the second page. It's the only object on that page, but it only takes up 1/4th of the available space.

I tried adding 3 more frames on a lark, but that was more annoying than anything. Ideally, my one picture frame would take up the entire page. But I don't know how to resize it? Surely this is possible...?

You can't re size widget in Android Gingerbread. I don't have SII and can't say but many widget comes in different sizes like 1x1, 1x4 etc. Try scrolling to see if there is other sized picture frame.


How to have multiple input languages? I just unboxed a nexus 7 and coming from an iPhone I am missing the possibility to set multiple input languages for the on screen keyboard.

I need to type text in English and in Italian but I can't find a way to select the Italian keyboard. I am using a device bought in the US, but I don't think that would matter too much.

Assuming that it hasn't changed since ICS, you can go to:

Settings → Language & Input → Android Keyboard settings

You can enable another languages over there and then you can quickly switch by long pressing on the space bar or by tapping on "Select input method" entry on the Notification Bar.


How to free storage besides clearing up cache memory I have a Samsung galaxy smart phone. Whenever I download apps such as,Ubber and Facebook it tells me that my storage is full. I have cleared up cache memory but still there is no difference. What can I do?

Disk usage - view whats really eating up your storage

SD maid - file cleaner

Files Go - by google - leave it installed and it will automatically remind you what unused files to delete

Google Photos - backup every photo and select free up storage to delete already backed up images and videos


What is the range of my wifi tethering network? My Samsung Galaxy Y (GT-S5360L) can run a wifi tethering network at 32 dBm, according to iwconfig. This is almost 2 watts. Is this reading accurate, (my battery is 1200mAh, 5v, or 6 watt hours, so it seems sort of fishy, but it does drain my battery really fast when I run it), and if it is, (assuming nothing blocking the signal) what is the range of the network in meters?

32 dBm equates to 1584.89mW according to this calculator:
http://www.radiolabs.com/stations/wifi_calc.html
Assuming a 12 DBi Antenna Gain from the comments above, that gives us 44 dB of antenna power.
The signal loss for 2400 MHz/Km is 100.03dB, citing the same site.

At the assumed 44dB of power, we'll round and say .044Km which is ~144 feet.
Since throughput is inversely related, You're going to have a pretty poor download speed at 144 feet, barring there's nothing between the phone and the computer, on a clear day.

This is half guesswork, but hopefully it helps.


Can I relight my hardware keyboard? I have an HTC chacha with a hardware keyboard.  A nighttime reading app turned off the keyboard light  long ago, but I don't remember which of the hundreds available it was.  Is there anything I can do?

You can download this app from the Google Play Store, called Soft Buttons Light.

It really works, even on HTC Chacha.


Samsung S3 i9300 rooted with Heimdall.  Am I able to unroot with ODIN? I rooted my phone with the Samsung Galaxy S III: Full Update Guide

I stumbled when I tried to flash the CyanogenMod.  I do not get the install from zip file command while in the ClockworkMod recovery mode. So I can't seem to be able to find the zip file to install the CyanogenMod.

What I am trying to do now is to unroot my S3, but seeing that I rooted it using Heimdall rather than ODIN, is it still safe to unroot using ODIN?

You don't "unroot" per se with Odin; you just flash a stock, unrooted ROM that wipes out everything currently on the phone.  It shouldn't matter whether you use Odin or Heimdall.

Note also that unrooting won't matter if you've flashed anything with Odin, since that also voids your warranty and is recorded on the device.


In Chatsecure conversations, what is the meaning of the little ticks and crosses? I noticed that after each message when OTR is enabled, 2 little ticks or crosses appear in the message bubble. Sometimes they change color from black to white.

What is the meaning of these indicators?

I think it something to do with message delivery and /or to flag the recipient has read the message, but I would appreciate a definitive explanation!

One check means it was sent.

Two check means it was delivered, though not necessarily read.

One check with One X means it was sent, but no delivery receipt was received.


Android device ID while unrooting phone If I perform below steps,

I root Android phone,
From third party apps available on Play Store, I change 16 digit Android device id(Let say from aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa to bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb)
And then again unroot the phonne.

Will unrooting the phone also change Android device id again or it will remain bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb only?

Thanks in advance.

First of all, tweaking that 16 digit Android ID doesn't require root access. You can change that ID using ADB alone. Since Android 5.0, this should work just fine.

adb shell settings get secure android_id                   # returns the current Android ID
adb shell settings put secure android_id YOUR-16-DIGIT-ID  # to change the ID with your new 16 digit ID

The Android ID is stored inside data partition. It is set on first boot after factory reset and remains until you factory reset again. It has got nothing to do with rooting and unrooting your device. So, if you changed that ID using some app and unrooted your phone later, that ID would persist until factory reset.


Android tablet not auto-updating applications I have an android tablet that is leveraging an internal company network. It appears that this device and all others similar to it are not auto-updating applications from the Play Store even though all the appropriate settings are correct.

I can see there are apps to update and I can even manually update an app but the auto-update never runs for any apps.

The same tablet in my home network will run the auto-update.

Could the companies internal network somehow be blocking the auto-update? If so how does the auto-update work so I can add exceptions to the firewall.

UPDATE

This device is a HP Slate 21 Pro All-In One and has both a WiFi and an Ethernet (wired) connection. We found that when the device is connected on the company network using a WiFi connection it DOES auto-update but it DOES NOT when connected using the ethernet connection.

My guess is that the Playstore (GMS) is checking if there is a WiFi connection and if so downloading the updates and if not a WiFi connection it does not download the updates. Similar to how a true mobile device behaves where there is either a wifi or cellular network connection.

This issue has been reported to HP and has been confirmed it is an issue on their end or with the Play Store software.


Is there any option for continuous authentication on Android ? Suppose you unlock your smartphone and put it aside and someone takes it before it gets locked, is there any mechanism currently to authenticate the new user and lock him out of the phone ?

I see that there are many articles speaking about continuous authentication like this one and this but is there actually an implementation on current versions of Android ?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 with Android 7.0

I've looked at those papers and the problem always is getting enough data from the attacker's actions to know the user is no longer the owner.

Which means that some other signal has to be provided to indicate that the owner is absent. The Bluetooth signal from a separate device provides such a signal.

Its called Smart Lock.

How to Use Smart Lock on Galaxy S7

  Launch the settings app from your Home screen or the app drawer.
  Tap on the Lock screen and security button.
  Tap on Secure lock settings.
  Tap on Smart Lock.
  Enter your password, pin, or pattern.
  Tap on Trusted devices.
  Tap on Add trusted device.
  Tap on Bluetooth.
  Tap on the device you want to be trusted.
  Tap on Yes, Add.

The article also mentions 'On-Body' detection but notes only so-so accuracy.


Some App keeps crashing / can't enter the settings I have a Pixel 3 XL running Android 11 security update March 5th 2021
I get constant popups that flash for a sec saying app stopped working and goes away, I can't tell which app it is.
Other things I noticed,
The google news feed (swipe left) is gone.  I tried to go to the home settings and toggle it back on and off and it doesn't come back.  But also in the home settings if I click At a Glance it sends me to a setting screen and then kicks me back out.
The app called Google (not chrome) does not open, if I go to the settings for that app and try to clear storage, a screen pops up called Google Search Settings but then kicks me back out to the previous screen
I did a clear storage on Pixel Launcher and I wiped out my home screen, but what ever the app is it keeps crashing.
How can I determine what app is causing the issue?

So it was actually the app called Google.  Now why you can't uninstall it from your phone, by dragging it to the top, you can go to the app info page and on the bottom of the page is a link that says installed from the Play Store.  If you click that it will take you to the play store app page.  From there I was able to uninstall and reinstall the app.  Now google search voice and news are working again.


What is the earliest version that suppprts iPhone Wifi Assist equivalent for Android? On my iPhone I have something called Wifi Assist:

  With iOS 9 and later, you can use Wi-Fi Assist to automatically switch to cellular when you have poor a Wi-Fi connection.

What is the first Android version that supports this natively?

So apparently Google implemented it in 2014 in Android, and you couldn't properly disable it. Not even today.

I believe this feature is baked into Android.

Windows 8.1 definitely had it in 2014 according to this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10652/windows-phone-cellular-and-sim-settings I'm pretty sure Windows Phones predating this also had it although documentation seems lacking.

Wi-fi assist was introduced in iOS 9(2015). https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296

There are apps for Android that do this but at least this one is 3rd party. No sources says it predates 2015. I have not experimented enough with this on Android. https://www.guidingtech.com/54831/get-ios-like-wi-fi-assist-android-using-speedify/


On the android Incredible, is there any way to make a shortcut to the "All Photos" view? The HTC photo-album takes up an entire screen; is there a way to make a shortcut, or is there a smaller widget or app, that would open up the all-photos view?

The easiest method I've found is to go in via a camera, view the albums, and select "All photos"

Surely there must be a better way?

I'm on the HTC Incredible running Froyo (2.2)

Do you have an app called Gallery? I have it in my list. I would say just drag that on your homescreen and you should be good to go.


Samsung Galaxy S III mini - Cannot turn Bluetooth on I have new Samsung Galaxy S III mini (GT-I8190N) with Android 4.1.2, and I cannot turn on Bluetooth.

When trying to do it from Settings menu, switch toggles from "O" to "I" position, but remains gray rather than green, list of available devices is empty and 'Scan' button is inative, and when going back to Settings menu I see Bluetooth turned off.

You can try to reboot / remove battery. Maybe resetting to factory settings will help. In addition, if everything else fails, you could try following (read somewhere about it):  turn it off and then back on (the one asking you about using wifi to localize you faster) the bluetooth and wifi are both 802.11 standards, therefore they are controlled by the same chip


How can I delete a draft message when it is an attachment and not text? I accidentally selected the wrong contact initially. I'm not seeing a way to delete the draft. There isn't any text to delete.

I am using Message+ 6.7.12 on a Samsung Galaxy S8.

There is an X on the thumbnails of the attachment. Click on it to remove the attachment. A Message will show "Converted to text message". Click back and the draft should be deleted.


Remove a package (upday) from stock theme I'm new to android so please forgive my maybe trivial questions.

So far I've been able to root my J3-2017 (TWRP+SuperSU+Nougat) and now I can access the internal file system using adb shell.

My purpose is to debloat my device. I've been able to manually delete Microsft apps (*) but I don't seem to find a way to remove UpDay which, apparently, is packaged inside the default theme.

The question is: does anybody know a way to remove such apps from a theme?

Thank you

(*) this is how I did remove Office:

adb shell

su

mount -o rw,remount /system

find / -iname '*Excel*'

.

.

.

rm /data/data/com.microsoft.office.Excel

...

Sorry, really a stupid question!

Actually the problem was that I could not find the correct package name for Upday. After a lot of google digging I've been able to discover the mistery.

The package is de.axelspringer.yana.zeropage (so where is "upday").

a normal find / -iname '*axelspringer*' (followed by rm ...) did the trick.


How to turn off Radio Signal via adb without airplane mode? As I'm trying to make a script to restart radio signal and I'm not using usb cable for adb, I need to turn off my mobile signal WITHOUT using airplane (because I'm using Wifi Hotspot and Wifi ADB).

Is there a solution for that?
I have root and wifi adb running smoothly... and I have seen some solution as disabling mobile data and so on but this is not enough for me. My carrier sometimes stop providing me mobile connection and the only way to get active mobile data is to restart the radio signal (just as I'd do if I type ##4636*#*# and press the "turn off/on radio" button).

Also if possible, after turning off radio signal, I'd need to wait +- 10 seconds before going on again (I suppose the command for that is sleep 10).

Thanks :D

PS: Android Lollipop 5.1.1 (Xperia Z1)

I need to turn off my mobile signal WITHOUT using airplane (because I'm using Wifi Hotspot and Wifi ADB).

You can configure your device to not stop  Wi-Fi (Hotspot includes) when activating Airplane mode.

(Note: I tested the solution in Android 4.2.1, 4.4.2, 5.0.2 and 5.1.1.)

The radios that are supposed to be turned off when Airplane mode gets enabled are saved  in the key airplane_mode_radios under the table global inside /data/data/com.android.settings/databases/settings.db (Settings Storage app's database).

Set up adb in PC, enable USB debugging in device, connect it into PC, launch a shell and enter either one of the command

adb shell settings get global airplane_mode_radios
adb shell content query --uri content://settings/global  --projection name:value --where "name='airplane_mode_radios'"

(See usage of settings and content command using adb shell settings and adb shell content)

Given the command you executed you would see something like (either one of the result):

cell,bluetooth,wifi,nfc,wimax
Row: 0 name=airplane_mode_radios, value=cell,bluetooth,wifi,nfc,wimax

You can choose to remove wifi from the value to achieve the final objective.

Enter any one of the commands:

adb shell settings put global airplane_mode_radios  "cell,bluetooth,nfc,wimax"
adb shell content update --uri content://settings/global --bind value:s:'cell,bluetooth,nfc,wimax' --where "name='airplane_mode_radios'"

Note: Do not copy-paste. Note the string that you got in the first output. Then remove wifi, from it and then pass the resultant between the double quotes "" the way I've shown above.

Now you can turn on the Wi-Fi/Hotspot followed by the Airplane mode. Your Wi-Fi/Hotspot wouldn't turn off.

The need for using ADB was meant for once only.  If you decide to stop Wi-Fi when Airplane mode becomes active then simply add  wifi in that key's value.

Answer originally written for Possible to turn on Airplane mode with WiFi on only?


How to prevent Chrome tabs or any kind of app from sleeping when in background? I want to listen to things on Youtube (app) or on the web (Chrome) while doing other things on my Asus Transformer. Is there any way to prevent background Chrome tabs or background Apps from falling asleep?

No, it's designed like that by the app's developers, so you can't.

Though for YouTube, if you're rooted, there is a Xposed Module called Green YouTube that have an option to play music from YouTube in background (but it doesn't work on my phone).


How works exactly the option disable App notifications Some Apps like Facebook also when aren't used slow down the device because of their associated autostart tasks.
In android settings in Apps section there is the option to enable or disable the notification.

This works only on notification or disable also the associated task completely?

How works exactly?

It only hides the notification when the app creates it. It doesn't affect what the app might do in the background or stop the app spending battery and data to create it in the first place.


Music app overlay with control on volume level change I'm newbie in android world (recently switched from windows phone).
And I really miss the music overlay that comes into place when you press volume level button.

In desktop windows it looks like this, something like that on the phone.

I really miss this overlay hence it allowed to pause music fast and fluid. I can't do it now on my phone. Only option I offered is lock screen widget but it's not handy - I use my fingerpring to unlock phone and actually never see lockscreen. And while using phone I have to go into music app and switch track or use its widget. That's pretty annoing. Is there any options to have similiar with windows functionality here?

I have tried a number of media players and I don't think such a feature is offered by any of them. However, as a workaround, I offer this solution:

Whenever you would press a volume button, provided a music is playing, the status bar would automatically drop down, giving access to persistent notification of your music player along with its media controls.

Follow these instructions:

Install MacroDroid.
Go to Accessibility settings in your Settings app and enable both the accessibility services of MacroDroid.
Launch MacroDroid → Add Macro:

Trigger: Volume Button Pressed → Use Accessibility Service → Volume Up → Update Volume
Action: Expand/Collapse Status Bar → Expand Status Bar
Condition: Music Active → Music Playing

Make an another macro with same action, same condition, same action but choose Volume Down, instead of Volume Up.
Play a song, and test the volume buttons.


Using ADB with usb debugging disabled, and no root I have an Android Device running Android 2.3.7 . The device is locked due to exceeding pattern attempts. So now Android is prompting me to enter my gmail id and password. The problem is, the WiFi is turned off and the Data is turned off.

I have found using this thread that you it is possible to turn on wifi using ADB. But on my device, even usb debugging is not turned on. So, I cannot access the device using adb.

So, I figured may be you can access device using adb in recovery mode ( my phone is not rooted ). But so far, in recovery mode, running adb devices does not list my device.

Is it possible to access a device using adb if your usb debugging is turned off ( on a non rooted phone ) ? How about in recovery mode ?

I had a similar problem.  I almost gave up and was like an inch from hard reset when something strange happened. When I connected the phone to USB as usual USB entry screen appeared, but I noticed that in this screen it is actually possible to lower the notificationbar and bingo — I was able to turn Wi-Fi ON.  And then I just entered my Google account info and the phone was unlocked.


How to edit root files in /sys (Permission Denied)? I have been trying to change root files in my phone through an app I am developing. The phone I have is a Moto G6, fully rooted. I'm using terminal emulators to run commands on my phone. I've tried "Terminal Emulator for Android" and "Shell Terminal Emulator" apps to try to make my files modifiable.

The commands I've tried to run are as follows:

su
mount -o rw,remount /system

In Terminal Emulator for Android this appears to work because it offers no error message but in Shell Terminal Emulator I'm hit with the following:

"...whatever.../system not user mountable in fstab"

So I went to check if it worked anyway and tried to modify a file in the root browser. The file:

/sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/power/control

The file currently has the permissions set as "rw-r--r--" and filled with the text "auto" and after trying to save the file with the contents "0" instead I'm provided with this big ugly error message:

Error when saving file
=====Description=====
java.io.FileNotFoundException: "...file name..." and then (permission denied)

What I want to know is why I don't have permission to edit these files, afterall my phone is fully rooted and I have granted root access to the text editor.

Any solution or step in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

in Shell Terminal Emulator app I'm hit with the following:
  "...whatever.../system not user mountable in fstab"

toybox mount returns that error when UID isn't 0 i.e. you aren't root.

  tried to modify a file in the root browser. The file:
  /sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/power/control

/system and /sys are two different filesystems. Mounting one R/W won't allow you R/W access to the other. /system is the mount point of a partition which contains Android OS. It can't be mounted R/W without getting root access and without disabling dm-verity. sysfs is Linux kernel's pseudo filesystem which provides information related to hardware stuff and exposes some interfaces to userspace for kernel configuration and tweaking.

sysfs is mounted R/W by default but not every file in this filesystem can be modified. Only some specific values can be written to specific files. The file you are trying to write is related to power management of USB Gadget driver of kernel which is to let the device be in some kind of slave role (device mode), not in USB host role. Possible values for control file are auto and on as per documentation.

  after trying to save the file with the contents "0" instead I'm provided with this big ugly error message

I'm not sure about that Java related error, you can get better help at stackoverflow. However you can get a root shell and do:

~# echo -n on >/sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/power/control

This must work, I've tried that in GUI text editor too. Probably the value 0 you are trying to write isn't a valid value for kernel, except if you are changing something at driver level.

If the purpose is only to edit files for testing which can't be accessed / modified without root, create / edit / delete a file in /data/local. /data doesn't need remounting.


Undesired download of Baidu Browser new Android user with the world's most low end tablet, Azpen A727.  I'm enjoying learning about Android and have killed off most of the bloatware...but twice now "Baidu Browser" has been downloaded without my request.  I'm using the bloatware security app Lookout now.  Is there a way to find out what is requesting these downloads, stop it, or block it?  I'm open to using a different security app.

Many thanks in advance.

I'm using LBE Security Manager for a while now (as the "lite version", LBE Privacy Guard, is no longer continued and soesn't work with Android 4.1 and above). I first felt it a bit, umm, over-loaded – but it runs decently (no battery drain or performance issues), and after disabling half of its features I don't need, I'm pretty satisfied with it.

While my primary taget was its privacy protection (revoking app permissions), LBE-SM ships with a load of other features. One of them watches over app installs, and places a note in your notification area when one happened. You then can follow that (tap the notification), and blacklist the app. LBE-SM then blocks all future installations of it.

There are a bunch of additional features, many of them primarily targeted at the Chinese market (cloud anti-virus, call blocker, etc), a basic firewall (block internet-access per app and interface, i.e. separately for WiFi and mobile data), plus more.

It's a closed-source app of Chinese origin, which might sound suspect at first. But there's a huge follow-ship at XDA (and Xposed, and elsewhere), so it can't be that bad ;) Unfortunately, the app version available at Google Play is Chinese only (you won't be able to understand a thing if you're not used to Chinese). But there are ways, like localized English, Vietnamese, German, and other language's versions at XDA - or the LBE Xposed Module to be used with the playstore version, to get a usable installation. I'm using the linked English variant from XDA for a while, and already found it updated a couple of times.


How can I format a flash drive using terminal emulator? I have a Huawei u8160 running Cyanogenmod 7.2.

I've recently installed the usb host package and some time then I successfully activated the usb host mode.

after that I needed to format a flash drive using ONLY my phone.

my phone doesn't recognize thumb drives, but I mount them on /mnt/sdcard/data folder.

So I wanted to know if there's any command in the terminal emulator that can format a usb drive.

NOTE: I've already tried "mkfs" command it doesn't exist,I won't accept answers telling me to format it on my PC.

There are native programs available on Android for creating file systems, and in most cases they reside in a directory below /system (my Motorola Droid 2 e.g. has them in /system/xbin. Depending on the file system you want to create, you can chose between:

mkfs.ext2
mkfs.minix (unlikely you want that -- and it might even be not available with your ROM)
mkfs.vfat

As the latter is probably what you want, some closer explanation on its options here:

mkfs.vfat [-v] [-n LABEL] BLOCKDEV [KBYTES]

What do those options stand for?

-v: Generate verbose output (reporting)
-n Label: Give the file system a name
BLOCKDEV: the file system you want to format
KBYTES: probably the block size (I'm not 100% sure with this)

So the minimal thing to do would be:

mkfs.vfat -v /dev/block/uba1

(provided your drive to format is available as /dev/block/uba1 on your system). One more example, giving the file system a name:

mkfs.vfat -v -n MyNewDisk /dev/block/uba1

It should report success then -- or an error if it failed.

EDIT: On some systems, the mkfs commands seem to be part of the busybox binaries -- which you can recognize with a full directory listing, e.g.

ls -l /system/xbin | grep mkfs

It should show them as "symbolic links" pointing to busybox then. In this case, you can optionally run them via busybox:

busybox mkfs.vfat

should show you the syntax then (thanks to ce4 for pointing this out -- credits to him ;) ).


How to prevent specific apps from using mobile data? So there are some mobile apps that love to use lots of mobile data, and sometimes use it when the wifi signal isn't good (e.g. Spotify). Which then leads to a nasty surprising spike in data usage during those times.

My phone is rooted, btw.

Android itself does not provide such a tool,
but you can use firewalls that require root,

If your device is not rooted, so no problem, there are some applications that use some trick that can prevent apps from being connected to internet, such as NoRoot Firewall.

  The Trick of NoRoot Firewall is that it opens a Fake VPN connection
  for making the phone to send all the packets to the Application then you
  can define for the application which one to allow and which one to
  deny.
  So it does not require root access.

If your device is rooted you can use Droid Wall  and it will do what you want.

you can download it from Google Play Store.

Note:I'm using NoRoot Firewall on My Xperia S and Xperia Z1 for a long time, even my Xperia S is rooted but i still use this application for blocking apps from being accessed to Internet.


No screen lightup on email/notification/reminder When I get a txt message on my phone, the screen lights up and it plays a sound if I have the volume turned up.

However, if I receive an email, or some other notification, the screen does not light up and it does play a sound if the volume is turned up.  At work, I need to have my phone on silent, so when I receive a txt message, it's not a problem, as I have the phone angled to face me, so I notice instantly when the screen lights up.

This does not happen with emails and or notifications.

So my question is, how do I set my phone up so the screen lights up when i receive an email and/or notification/reminder etc?

I am using Android 2.2.

Why not install NoLED. Your screen will light up with dots or icons depending the setup.


Change the notification sound in the new Inbox by Gmail I looked for a way to change the default notification sound for new e-mails in Inbox but could not find the setting. In the Gmail app I could change the sound.

Does anyone know how to change it or if this is just using the default system sound?

I'm using a Nexus 4.

Looks like it is possible now. From the Help:

Open the Inbox app.
Go to the main menu at the top left.
Scroll down and choose Settings near the bottom.
Select your email address.
Make sure Notifications is checked.
Click 'inbox sound and vibrate'.
Click on "Sound" and choose your preferred notification tone.


Photos app - can't I copy some photos to a new album? I have a Nexus 5. I am in the Photos app, looking at the camera roll. I want to move/copy some photos to a new album,  so I enter bulk-selection mode.  When I select certain photos, the 'Copy to album' link disappears. Why does this copy icon disappear for some photos?

The "Copy to Album" icon disappears when you select a video as part of photos. So apparently you cannot copy videos to a new album on the phone.

This makes sense because copying creates a new file which takes up as much space as the original file. Videos can take up anywhere from 100Mbs to 1000Mbs. Since both the space on the phones and the free space offered by Google on Google+ is limited, this may easily use up your available space. Whether this is the reason or not, the fact stays true: the Google+ Photos app does not support copying videos to new albums.

If you want to copy photos just skip the videos (with the "play" overlay) when selecting multiple files.

If you still want to copy the videos, you can do so on the web at https://plus.google.com/photos.

Also, instead of copying videos and photos you could move them to new albums, that way you don't have multiple copies and leave more free space for other videos. Both Copy and Move options are available on the Web interface on top of the photo when you view individual photos/videos or select multiple ones on the grid.


Why is "mdnsd" draining my battery and how to stop it? This process (mdnsd) had been draining my battery for a few weeks. I have not been able to find a solution after a lot of search.

I don't have any drone app, Facebook app or Firefox, although it's true the issue started more or less when I installed the Firefox app. But I have uninstalled it, rebooted my phone and the issue is still there which makes me think Firefox maybe didn't have anything to do with this.

Any ideas? I have an LG G2, Android 4.4.2

It seems like it is the daemon for multicast DNS. I have the same issue as OP and Trevor. My solution is the following (assuming you have a rooted device). If you have adb, then do step 2 over that, it is more comfortable to type on a keyboard ;)

Install a Terminal Emulator
Create a shellscript with the content su -c "kill $(pgrep mdnsd)"
Run it everytime you see fast battery drainage as this is a symptom of a running mdnsd. Confirm the prompt of SuperSU to grant root permissions to the script.

What the script does:

su -c "kill $(pgrep mdnsd)"
^      ^    ^ ^
|      |    | |
|      |    | +- Search the process list for the phrase "mdnsd" and return the process id
|      |    |
|      |    +- Spawn a subshell and execute contained command and return its output
|      |
|      +- Stop the process with the process id specified after kill
+- run the command specified after -c with superuser privileges


How to make Skype always active, reliably receiving and notifying about calls in the background There's a long-running issue with Skype for Android where, in recent versions (since 2014 I believe), it very often ignores incoming calls and doesn't notify about messages when it is running in the background. There are many long (and often angry) threads about this on Skype's forums, for example: No incoming call and chat notification on Android KitKat (12 pages), Skype never rings on Android phone (9 pages), skype not running in background anymore? (4 pages), and many others.

From these threads I've extracted some clues:

It used to be possible to fix this issue by downgrading to before version 4, but older versions now no longer connect, so this appears to be no longer an option.
There is some mystery about why this happens, but there are claims that it's something to do with Skype's status changing to some kind of "inactive" status when it goes into the background after a period of inactivity (some sources say 15 minutes, some 5 minutes, some immediately on the Skype app window not being open), which, recently (but not in the past) results in Skype centrally not connect calls or messages to this user when this status is present.
If this is the case, it happens even when the optional Skype notification tray status icon shows the status as being "active" - some comments suggest this icon doesn't update when Skype becomes inactive in the background
There's a separate issue where Skype doesn't notify on a phone if you're active on a computer, but plenty of people report this problem even when they've confirmed they're only logged in on Android.
There's a post from 2014 which suggests that background calls work if "Answer calls automatically" is ticked in Skype settings - but I don't like the idea of people calling me and instantly hearing the sound of the inside of my pocket (maybe I've misunderstood what answer calls automatically means?), and I imagine I still wouldn't know they've called unless I'm in a silent room
A few users mention that turning on "sync group chat in the background" in notifications fixes notifications for calls and messages too (example) but this didn't work for me
A minority of posters claim to not have this issue, suggesting there might be something to do with general Android settings that influences whether Skype becomes unreachable when it goes into the background.
There's mention of 3rd party apps that fix this problem by keeping Skype active, thus preventing the status change. However I couldn't find any such examples that wasn't followed by a comment later suggesting it no longer works (and I can't find any examples now I look for it).

I've discussed this with Skype customer support, who were unable to help beyond establishing that it's nothing to do with my Skype app settings (notifications are on) or being logged in on another device. My main hope, therefore, is for some kind of 3rd party solution like the apps referred to above for keeping Skype active, or some general Android setting.

Non-rooted, Android 5.1.1, Skype 6.8.0.590, Sony Z3 compact. I'd prefer not to root but this issue is very important to me and if that's the only option I'd accept an answer that involves rooting the phone.

I'd prefer not to install a custom mod, but I'd consider it if that can somehow reliably fix this problem and give me reliable notifications and incoming calls any time I'm online and someone calls or messages me by Skype.

Your search it appears is for a solution that keeps Skype active only when you are on line . Since you couldn't find an app or root unless necessary , I am suggesting you to look at automation as an alternative
There are plenty of them, but I use MacroDroid, since it is easy to learn and the behaviour can be easily customized to get the result you want. Besides,free version allows you to create upto 5 macros and for the task at hand, free version suffices. I prefer automation as a first choice, when I need to get something running the way I like and not depend on apps.
The macro would look like this and needs to be tested. I gave up on using Skype, so can't test it, but in principle should run fine
Trigger
Regular Interval (can be configured in seconds,minutes, hours as you require - the macro runs periodically based on this setting)
Actions
Launch Skype> force new with the constraint WiFi connected to any network
(You want Skype to be launched at the periodicity specificied in trigger, only when you are connected on Wifi. Assuming WiFi to be your mode of being on line)
Launch homescreen ( you don't want to see Skype launching when you are say mailing for example, so you get to the home screen for you to pick up the mail app and resume)
Constraint
Application running> not in foreground>Skype
( macro runs only when constraint is TRUE. Here, you are ensuring that macro isn't triggered when you are actually using Skype !!!. You can add more constraints like the time period you want the macro active, day of week etc. These can be added with AND (or) OR logical operator. Bottom line is macro runs when constraint(s) evaluate to a logical TRUE).
You would need to test and fine tune on how frequently you want this macro to run.
All the best....


Deleted files causing my phone to function incorrectly? I accidentally deleted files from a folder located on my Android phone and now my phone isn't functioning properly. If I replace those files will my phone now function correctly? Should I replace the deleted files?

In most cases, yes.  You should try it at least.


Connect android phone to WAN port of router (not lan) I would like to connect my phone to a router so that I can share its internet connection among the devices in my house. How do I connect the phone to the WAN port of my router so that the router is 'getting its internet' from the phone? Will a normal microusb to ethernet adapter do it, like this one? (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Micro-USB-5-Pin-10-100-Mbps-RJ45-LAN-Ethernet-Adapter-for-Tablet-PC-S6-/321629022330?pt=UK_Computing_USB_Cables&hash=item4ae295687a)

I have a tethering plan, and a spare phone I am not using, which is why I am doing it this way and not with a dongle and usb router. Some of the devices I want to connect don't use wifi or will just work better with wired connections, which is why I want to attach the phone to the router via a cable.

I got this working today. I bought an Asus RT-AC68P router. It works out of the box. I just connected my phone to the router's USB 3.0 port using a normal phone usb cable (same one used for charging, etc.).

All Asus routers have the same firmware, so this should work "out of the box" with any new-ish Asus router.

I am not impressed with the Asus setup procedure when using a USB 4G modem/phone for WAN, but I ultimately got it working. I prefer working with dd-wrt myself.

This functionality is supposed to work with dd-wrt too, but today I also purchased a BUFFALO AirStation AC 1750 DD-WRT Router (WZR-1750DHPD) with firmware "DD-WRT v24SP2-(8/12/14) std" and I could not get it to work. I will try a newer or different version of dd-wrt in the near future.

Here are some references for more reading on the topic:

DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - 4G USB Modem
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=981336#981336

  "I can recommend Kong Mod to achieve this. Works right out of the box,
  at leastt for me. I recently lost my wired internet connection and
  used a 3G dongle as backup. The only thing I did was to plug in the
  dongle, select '3G/4G' as Wan connection and filled in the APN.
  Everything worked directly, no additional modules to load. Success or
  failure is of course dependent on the dongle being supported."

DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - BS build 14144 3G/UTMS option
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=69970&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60&sid=3a47d435b696e5f108ef1475040e1337

Mobile Broadband - DD-WRT Wiki
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Mobile_Broadband

  As of 04/04/09 we support UMTS 3G / 3.xG / 4G/ LTE and CDMA2000(EV-DO)
  modems connected via the USB port or as mPCIe cards.

Of Modems and Men
http://ofmodemsandmen.com/index.html

DD-WRT Router Benefits - #5: Take Full Use of a 3G USB Modem or 4G MiFi Mobile Hotspot
http://www.flashrouters.com/blog/2012/03/26/dd-wrt-router-benefits-advantages-5-taking-full-use-of-a-3g-usb-dongle-or-4g-mifi-mobile-hotspot/

Share network of Android mobile phone to the router (USB 3G tethering) | SmallNetBuilder Forums
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/share-network-of-android-mobile-phone-to-the-router-usb-3g-tethering.9624/

  This page contains screen shots of the Asus router firmware and some
  minimal instructions for how to use a 4G phone as the WAN connection.


Security: how to prevent USB mounting of mobile device I am running Android KitKat 4.4.2 on a Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo. As a security measure I would like to prevent my phone being automatically mounted whenever I attach a USB cable from my mobile device to a PC. This way if someone steals my device they will not be able to read or copy files stored on my mobile device. However I am not sure how to turn this feature on or off.

I have read this post but I actually have USB debugging enabled under Settings | General | Developer Options. But the answer found there does not seem to apply to my device.

Try this from adb shell on your PC or from a root terminal on your device:

content update --uri content://settings/secure --bind name:s:mount_ums_autostart --bind value:i:0

Per the Android source code:

/**
 * Whether or not UMS auto-starts on UMS host detection. (0 = false, 1 = true)
 * @hide
 */
public static final String MOUNT_UMS_AUTOSTART = "mount_ums_autostart";


Is it possible to tether my Evo to a server to provide internet to my network? I currently have an unrooted Evo using PDAnet/easytether to tether my phone to my PC. I am wondering if it is possible to tether to a server to provide internet to my network. If it is possible, are there any configurations I need to know? Also, how might this effect the speed?

If you're using Android 2.2's native tethering, then the phone acts as an access point. This means any Wifi-enabled devices can tether to the phone as if it is a regular wireless access point.

I don't know much about PDANet/Easytether, but it should be possible to set up "Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)" on Windows or "Masquerading" on Linux.

Speed will probably be not that great, since 3G is pretty slow on most areas. It will be usable, but unless the 3G speed in your area is blazingly fast, don't expect much.


All the 'msgstore' in the database of Whatsapp are not being restored I recently got a new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and installed Whatsapp in it. I had a previous backup of Whatsapp from my Note 4 so I copied the same from the old phone to the new one. But when I installed Whatsapp and tried to restore all the old chats, it did not restore all of them. The 'database' folder has all the 'msgstore' of all those dates that I want to restore. Need help.

I had a problem almost similar to yours.Whatsapp can only read "msgstore.db.crypt8" OR "msgstore.db.crypt7".

The other databases dates should be formatted to "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.crypt8".These databases with dates are databases which is for backup (Every 4am).They backup only for 7 days.Do not worry,they contain the same file.It is just incase your current msgstore.db.crypt8 is corrupted,you can change the other 7 from "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.crypt8" to "msgstore.db.crypt8".

Read more on Whatsapp FAQ https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/?forum=android&entry=20887921&l=fi. (Source)

Or if you want to read directly from here

Summary

WhatsApp automatically backs up your chats every night.
You can initiate a restoration by simply uninstalling and reinstalling WhatsApp.
Click Restore when prompted to restore your message history.
Your missing chats should appear in WhatsApp!

Details

WhatsApp automatically makes backups every day at 4 AM and stores them in the WhatsApp folder of your Android phone. This folder is either located in your device's internal memory or external microSD card. To restore the most recent backup, you will need to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.

If you need to restore older messages, check out "Restoring older (less recent) backups".

During the installation process, you will be prompted to restore your message history. Choose Restore to restore your missing chats.

If you are not prompted to restore your messages, it could be that:

Your SD card and/or chat history is corrupted.
Your backup is too old. WhatsApp cannot restore backups that are too old.
You have a different phone number than when you backed up your chats.

In any of these cases, there is no way for us to restore the messages for you.

Restoring older (less recent) backups

Before attempting to restore messages, please note:

Current chat history will be lost upon restoration.
There are only up to 7 days worth of backup files.
Any new messages sent/received after a backup, and deleted before the next backup, cannot be restored.
If you run a manual backup, it will overwrite the most recent automatic backup file.
On newer devices, your WhatsApp/Databases folder is most likely located in your device's internal memory.
You must have the same phone number in WhatsApp that you had when you backed up your chats.

We also recommend:

Make sure you have a file manager. This will be useful for renaming the backup files.
Here are some choices: File Managers and Explorers.
If you do not want to lose your current history (newest messages), create a manual backup by going to:
WhatsApp > Menu Button > Settings > Chat Settings > Back up chats.
This manual backup file will be saved as "msgstore.db.crypt7" or "msgstore.db.crypt8" in your /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases folder. Save this file as "msgstore.db.crypt7.current" or "msgstore.db.crypt8.current" (depending on the original file extension) so you do not get it confused with other backup files during the restoration process.

Please note: your backup files are saved in the /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases folder. This folder may be located in either your device's internal memory or external memory.

To restore from a backup, follow these steps:

1.Uninstall WhatsApp.

2.Decide which backup file you want to restore.

3.Rename that file from "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt7" to "msgstore.db.crypt7" or from "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt8" to "msgstore.db.crypt8".

4.Install WhatsApp.

5.When asked to restore, tap Restore.

You will now be able to see your restored messages. If you want to revert the restoration, simply change the backup filename back to what it was, rename "msgstore.db.crypt7.current" to "msgstore.db.crypt7" or "msgstore.db.crypt8.current" to "msgstore.db.crypt8", and follow these steps again.

Cheers,
WhatsApp Support Team


Apps storing data in non-existent SD Card I had a few encounters with apps corrupting because part of their data was somehow stored into my SD Card. So I decided to move everything back into internal memory, format the SD Card, un-mount it and remove it physically.

However, after removing the SD Card and restarting my phone, I noticed some peculiar behaviour. 3 of my apps immediately started "storing" data into my SD Card, which no longer exists physically. Skype stores 12kb, Messenger 28kb and 9gag 92kb.

I haven't tried re-updating the corrupted apps, not sure if they would try to "store" into the non-existent SD Card as well. Any explanations or knowledge on this behaviour?

EDIT: Adding in more details

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, below is a screenshot of my phone a few hours after removing my physical SD Card. The answer below further confuses me, as this "SD CARD" menu accessed through Settings > More > Application Manager was exactly what I used to manage which apps gets moved to the physical SD Card before I removed it. It remains the same after I mounted the SD Card back. Does this mean both emulated SD Card and physical SD Card information are combined in this menu?

As I do not know your phone model and features, so tried to explain it with my phone's system (Micromax A089). In my phone there is two internal memories. One called "System Storage" and the other called "Phone Storage or SD Card" (Not the external SD card inserted by me). I think your apps data is storing in the "Inbuilt Phone Storage/SD Card" of you phone. Otherwise there is no explanation for this problem.


Nexus 5X won't turn on, even from Debug Menu My sister's Nexus 5X won't turn on.  It is charged.  When you try to power on, it makes it to the Google animation but freezes and goes back to black.  You can make it to the debug menu go through the options, but when you choose Start it does the same thing.  We've tried the Google Support suggestions, and nothing is working.

Nexus devices are pretty simple... Try a factory reset in recovery, and if that fails reflash the factory firmware image from Google. If that doesn't work chances are good the device is defective. The processes are well documented on-line... Normally I would document the process here, but the Nexus/Pixel devices are a special case since there is so much support for them online.

BTW, the condition you are in is called a "bootloop", might want to investigate Nexus 5x  bootloop online a bit... The N5x has some history with it.

Factory Reset

Flash factory image


Wired xbox controller not working with LG G2 My boyfriend purchased a USB OTG cable so he can play Android games with an Xbox 360 wired controller.  When he plugs the Xbox controller into his LG G2 nothing happens, I plugged it into my Samsung Galaxy S4 and it worked  immediately. His LG G2 recognizes a flash drive, keyboard and mouse right away so we know the cable is working just fine. What could be causing the Xbox controller to not work?

The AT&T LG G2 is rooted running 4.2.2 with stock ROM.  The Keylayout file vendor_045e_product.028e.kl used for the Xbox 360 wired controller was already on the phone.  Running the app titled "USB Device Info" with the Xbox 360 wired controller plugged in shows the controllers info in both the Android and Linux tabs.  The device seems to recognize everything it's supposed to but won't work with any games or emulators.  It wont even allow the controller to navigate the home screen.

While I do not have the final solution - I was able to make some progress in figuring out why the G2 fails to work with the 360 controller.

I've been doing diagnostics and noticed that the LG G2 USB connection manager is emulating a USB2.0 and USB3.0 device hub - which shows up when an OTG cable is connected to the phone - and while it identifies the 360 controller, its non-standard integration is likely causing the device to not be recognized by applications.

Using USB/BT Joystick Center from the play store, I was able to refuse permission to access the USB Hub devices, but permit the app to talk to the Xbox controller. (When it scans for devices, it will display "FOUND: Device Name" then prompt for permission. When it displays "FOUND: Xbox 360 Controller" approve access. Deny all other prompts, or else the software cannot communicate with the controller).

Immediately after doing the above, the controller's LEDs stopped flashing - and locked into 'Player 1' configuration. Then the software loaded a default 360 profile, and clicking on driver let me see the raw inputs from the controller. It works!

It seems to me that the device is perfectly compatible, but the LG OTG input manager is doing something funky with the input - and needs another piece of software to channel the inputs from the USB device to the system. If there were a way to get the LG software to identify it as a keyboard or gamepad, that would be ideal.

I'll keep working at it for now.


open keypad on default when calling? I was wondering if there's a way to automatically expand the keypad when I'm calling someone? I know that it likes to  have a picture of that person there, but I don't really take pictures of anyone and store them to my contacts. I want to hide that contact picture and have the keypad open instead. I looked around the settings and there doesn't seem to be an option?

Thank you.

I don't think there is any option for that . Probably a third party app (Dialer/Call) would.