How can I receive 2 video streams from 2 Android phones over USB tethering using IP Webcam? For a Live DJ streaming setup (on a budget), I would like to be able to receive two or more video streams from two or more Android phones via USB tethering using the IP Webcam android application. It works with one phone, but when I try to add a second phone, I can't connect to it.
Both phones start a server on the same IP at port 8080. I can't change the IP address directly in the app, but I can change the port. I tried changing the port on one of the phones, but the connection is still not possible.
I can't seem to find if receiving data from 2 USB tethering sources, at the same time, is possible or not. So my first question would be the following: is it possible? And if yes, how could I start to solve this problem?
Thank you.

USB tethering is not necessary, just use adb port forwarding. It allows you to connect to  multiple devices via USB. On the PC you need Android Debug Bridge from Android SDK installed. On OSX the simplest way should be using brew and install android-platform-tools.
And on all Android device the development menu has to be enabled and the Debug Bridge mode has to be activated.
First get a list of connected devices via to get the device ID of each device.
adb devices

Example output with the two devices HABY39RL and DARY42EE:
List of devices attached
HABY39RL        device
DARY42EE        device

Next establish a port forwarding for each device:
adb -s <device ID 1> forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080
adb -s <device ID 2> forward tcp:8081 tcp:8080

Afterwards you can connect to the web cam app on the first device on the PC using the address localhost:8080 and on the second device using localhost:8081.


I need unbrick my samsung galaxy tab 10.1 I tied to root my samsung galaxy tab 10.1 wifi + IR PT-5133
I used this method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-gOZh7OxWM
After I completed the root prosses, my device was in a boot loop!
I tried rooting one more time,
but the tablet continued in a boot loop but now IS IMPOSSIBLE start in a DOWNLOAD MODE
any suggestions

Connect your tablet to your computer and run

  adb devices

If your tablet is detected then execute

  adb reboot bootloader

Your tablet will then be in the download mode.


Force Google Maps to save cached maps on SD card I am downloading a large number of map areas in Google Map for offline use. It appears that, by default, Google Map writes its cache to my phone's relatively scarce internal memory. Is there a way to force Google Maps to use SD card instead?

I am using Google Maps 6.7.0 (latest version as of May 2012) on Android 2.3.3.

Update to Maps 6.9.0 (released 2012-06-27) or later if you not already have done so. Google added the feature one you wanted:

  What's in this version:
  * Save maps for use offline

Besides this: Cached tiles for Google Maps are saved to the SD card.

To also answer your exact question (for users that cannot upgrade):

Use Android's provided 'move to sdcard' mechanism or install some 3rd party apps to do it (Link2SD, App2SD skripts, most need a custom rom however).

If all above is not an option and you like to do it manually:

Prerequisites:

Root access
Know which directory you want to move
Be sure that directory doesn't contain executables
Awareness: /sdcard/ is world-readable and many apps can write to it.
You might not want to expose sensitive data to other apps
Be sure the app is not running.
If something breaks, you might fix it by clearing the appdata
The app might break if sdcard is not accessible (e.g. phone plugged into PC)

A. You need to find the package name of your desired app (just reverse the steps here, aka go to the Google Play website of the app and see the package name in the browser's URL, for Maps it's 'com.google.android.apps.maps').
The location for the app's internal data is then: /data/data/[PKG_NAME]

B. Find the big subdirectory that you want to move, use a terminal emulator or adb shell access to execute something like this on the device:

me@workstation:~$ adb shell
root@android:/ # cd /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps
root@android:/data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps # du -sh *
8.5K    app_sslcache
9.0K    cache
55.0K   databases
52.0K   files
2.0K    lib
2.5K    shared_prefs

C. Move & symlink

mkdir -p /sdcard/Android/data/[PKG_NAME]/linked
mv /data/data/[PKG_NAME]/[BIG_DIR] /sdcard/Android/data/[PKG_NAME]/linked/[BIG_DIR]
ln -s /sdcard/Android/data/[PKG_NAME]/linked/[BIG_DIR] /data/data/[PKG_NAME]/[BIG_DIR]


Create Defy Kernel Backup I own a Motorola Defy and it is running 2.2.2.
I was wondering if i could create a backup of my kernel by any means!

Is there any software/application/method which can help me achieve this?

Thanks

As GAThrawn already indicated, the answer to your question is covered by How to backup an Android device?. As far as the kernel is concerned, two of the answers apply:

using adb pull to do a file system copy as described in this answer
create a Nandroid Backup from within your custom recovery as detailled in this answer

Both variants require your device to be rooted, and for the Nandroid backup you will need to have a custom recovery (e.g. ClockworkMod) installed.


Asus zenfone 5 USB device not recognised by windows 8.1 I have zenfone 5 (A501CG) with Kitkat 4.4.2. When I connects mobile to my laptop it shows popup saying that "USB device not recognized. the previously connected device is malfunctioned". To solve this problem, i have did following:

From control panel->hardware and sounds->device manager. there is one device named **
Unknown USB Device(Device descriptor request failed

Here i have updated device driver it says that "device driver is up-to-date". But problem is still there. Can anybody please help me?

On your smartphone:

Go to Settings -> Storage -> Click on the USB icon (Near of the clock) -> Mark Media Device (MTP).

Then wait a moment and this should work.


What can you use on Windows to try out Android apps you find online? What can you use to quickly try out apps you find online?

The tool should

Run on Windows
Give you root access so you can run apps that require root access
Have functionalities of a physical android device. In other words things like GPS and a Internet connection should be present and you should be able to install apps using APK files or through the official Google App Market.

These things would be nice to have but one can still work around them

The tool runs fast and lag free
It's lightweight and can run smoothly on some of the most low spec hardware by today's standards.

You can use Android Device Emulator for this. It is packaged with The Android SDK and a virtual mobile device that runs on your computer. The emulator lets you develop and test Android applications without using a physical device.

Link: http://developer.android.com/tools/help/emulator.html


how to search a particular song using search button i am unable to search a perticular song by usng search button from the long list of songs after its been upgraded to android 2.3.5.  Before that i was able to find a song using search button.i am using htc desire s handset.

Please suggest if there is a solution to this.coz if i need to listen a perticular song ,i have to traverse through all the library and fing the song after 15 -20 minutes..

You have to add Music to the Searchable items in the Search settings.

These settings you normally find when pressing the phone's Search button (to view the Search widget) -> [Menu] -> Search settings -> Searchable items and you select the items you want to include in your search.

On a HTC phone I think you find these settings here:
[Menu] (while on a Home screen) -> Settings -> Search -> Searchable items.


How to find my device's CSC (Country Specific Code) I bought a Samsung Galaxy on an auction website, with no clear indication of where it comes from.

Now, to root the device or restore it, I need its Country Specific Code.

Question: How do I find the CSC of my device?

What I tried

Installed the Phone Info SAM app by vndnguyen.
Ran it (works even without root).
Opened the CSC CODE tab.

Product Code ends with TPA (Panama)
Firmware's CSC Code is DBT (Germany)
Active CSC Code is TPA
Available CSC Codes lists about a hundred codes.

Some website claims to find your CSC from your IMEI number by taking the 7th and 8th digits, which for me are 10, which supposedly means Finland.

That's many different codes, so I am not sure which one I should use. Or maybe both of these methods are actually completely wrong?

Some websites claim to find your CSC from your IMEI number, but I doubt them. This method looks more reliable:

Install the Phone Info SAM app by vndnguyen.
Run it.
Open the CSC CODE tab.
The Active CSC Code is the code you need.

It works even without root.


root app for LG-K428. A.V. 6.0.1 What is the proper application for rooting my LG device? I would prefer not to tether device to my Windows pc, so a one click app that actually works would be ideal.
User Sashman

Checking the Support List of KingRoot LG on xda

It seems that KingoRoot works for your device and is supported.
Just install the APK and run it, done.


Xperia ArcS how to install cyanogen I have an Xperia Arc S (LT18i). How do I install Cyanogen Mod on it?

Is that for the CM9 RC1 that was released yesterday? :D

There's two things you need to do:

Remove the simlock first! (Flashing a ROM with simlock on could spell disaster)
Unlock the bootloader to enable you to run custom roms.

As for the way things are, there's no true CWM recovery for the Sony due to the inherent nature of how Sony does it (Its different!) - when you unlock the bootloader, you're also unlocking recovery BUT, the boot and recovery are residing on the one partition so do not try flash CWM into it otherwise BAM, goodbye!

There is an app on the market, for a CWM which is not a real CWM (it dumps its binaries into the /system directory) which by the way, must remind you need root for this!

You will need se1tool (IIRC) to flash the latest ROM, you could also check out the FreeXperia project for information on this, FreeXperia is by jerpelea, which is now what you're seeing, as CM9.


scp and rsync to transfer data from Linux to Android I'd like to be able to push PDF files onto a phone/tablet with a Bash script. Is it possible to transfer data using scp (or even rsync) from a Linux computer to an Android phone over wireless?

Could I even run Unison on the phone?

And is it possible to run Bash (or only POSIX Shell) scripts on the phone remotely?

Many things are possible. Installing an SSH Server app (e.g. SSHelper or DigiSSHD / SSH Server) would give you the possibility to login via ssh, or remote-copy via scp.

Terminal IDE (available only for Android 4.4 and earlier, according to the app description) gives you a quite complete package, even including the famous Midnight Commander, and a lot more useful tools:

  javac, java, dx, proguard, aapt, apkbuilder, signer, ssh, sshd, telnetd, bash 4.2, busybox 1.19.2, vim 7.3, nano 2.2.6, midnight commander 4.8, htop 1.0, TMUX 1.5, rsync 3.0.8, git 1.7.8, BitchX 1.1 and a nice terminal emulator are all available.

(emphasis are introduced by me to pick the items your question was for)

So except for Unison, the latter package should cover your needs :)


Switch cameras in rooted device (between front and back) My back camera has broken although the front camera is still working.

Certain applications, such as WhatsApp web, only let you use the back camera to read the QR code. Is there a way to switch cameras by editing a certain file in Root Explorer?

There is a way but its Extremely dangerous.

I highly recommend not doing this as its neither for your device and the risks are too high.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1699299

As for WhatsApp Web, it allows you to use your computer for WhatsApp conversations.

The draw back is that both your Android and your browser needs to be connected to Internet.

And the only advantage is that you get a keyboard which makes it really easier to type as well as a Big screen

Again there's an easy workaround.

Apps like WiFi Keyboard allows you to type in your Android device through a computer browser.

And Apps like droid VNC server Allows you to remote control your android within your computer! Including watching your screen.

As for the other apps, you cant do much. Later so sooner you must change your broken phone..

Kudos

I hope my answer helps...
It requires a lot of hardwork to write a good answer. A thumbsup is always appreciated.


What would the effective memory space be in a 8GB Nexus 4? So, the Nexus 4 doesn't have an external micro SD card slot, which of course is bad. So, how much of memory space would I get to use for installing applications, copying music, videos etc ?

I would assume that it would be similar or the same as the 8GB Nexus 7, which is about 5.92GB.


Can't boot my Htc Wildfire S after deleting Sense I wanted to free up some internal space.
So I decided to delete some pre-installed apps.
Then I accidently removed an app called HtcSense.apk.
As I rebooted it didn't manage to start anymore.

I would assume I could download the app from somewhere, but how will I be able to put it back on my phone?

I have finally fixed my phone. Thank you @Matthew Read @ctt for your help!!!:) I am really sorry that I asked more then one question about this. I was just panicking that my phone wasn't working.

I have managed to install a custom rom to my Htc Wildfire S. This is the rom I used.

I had to to a factory reset and I had to delete all the cache.

Thanks again for all your support! :)


Tasker best profiles to trigger two states I use some confuse profiles to trigger a task when I come to office and when I'm back  in home, based in time of the day and week(this is the problem to have many profiles). But I have two access points (wifi), in my house and in my office. So I would like to make only one or two, or even 3 profiles to this, based in the two wifi acess points, and not 6 I have right now.
Any suggestions would by welcome.
Thanks!!

You'll want to use the Wifi's SSID & MAC address as a trigger.

When you create your profile you'll go to state and select Wifi Connected.Then you'll see a magnifying glass next to SSID & MAC. Touching the magnifying glass will allow you to see the wifi networks currently in your area. You can add multiple SSID for a single task but then I'm not sure how the MAC addresses with interact with that. You might be able to see the wifi network it remembers but I'm not 100% sure on that. After selecting the correct SSID and its corresponding MAC Address tasker now knows to trigger. By selecting the SSID and MAC Address is prevents tasker from triggering if you connect to another wifi address with the same SSID. I hope this help. Since I'm new and trying to build up rep please don't forget to select this as your answer if it works for you and to upvote it. Thanks. If you have any issues please come back and ask more question but provide more info about the phone, Android version and tasker version along with any other plugin you might have.


Nexus 4, ART vs Dalvik Runtime: Which provides a lower battery consumption? I'm using a Nexus 4 and currently using the Cyanogen Mod 11 ROM. I was using Paranoid Android Beta 4 for KitKat before but switched to Cyanogen Mod due to the stability that Cyanogen Mod offers right now.

I was wondering what are the pros and cons from ART and Dalvik. Especially since I am no longer running the Nexus 4 stock ROM. Is there any other ways of improving battery life by switching governors?

The new ART runtime is still experimental. It will make your phone less stable, and some apps just won't work at all. That's why the option to switch from Dalvik to ART is in the developer options: it's only there to let developers and system integrators test their stuff and help Google fix problems.

For this reason, it's a little pointless to measure the performance of ART right now, since bugs in it might cause artificially low or high performance, even in situations where the bug doesn't occur or isn't apparent. Fixing a bug might reduce performance (increasing battery or memory use, or decreasing speed) because extra checks or a slower algorithm are needed to avoid the bug; or, it might increase performance by making some computation unnecessary. Also, further work on improving the performance of ART will certainly be done before it's turned on for everybody.

Combining the effects of fixing all bugs, and all the performance improvements that are made, it's very hard to predict how the finished product will perform. The performance could completely change before ART is ready for mainstream use.


Applications in Play Store cannot be downloaded I have moved to Australia from India. My Google Play Store doesn't allow me to download Australian applications. It tells me that the application is not available in my country, but I am in Australia, so why am I not allowed to download? The application I'm trying to download is free of cost. Please help.

If you are using your mobile data you still have a india ip address. try downloading on wifi.


Install WhatsApp on Android x86 virtual machine I installed android-x86-6.0-r3.iso on

$ virtualbox -help
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager 5.1.22_Ubuntu

using:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 17.04
Release:    17.04
Codename:   zesty

If I open Play Store app and select WhatsApp, there is no option to install it. Only the option "add to wishlist" appears.

Is it possible to install WhatsApp via Play Store app on Android x86 virtual machine?

There is no direct way for installing WhatsApp for virtual device from Google Playstore.

Android x86 doesn't come with all features (core features e.g play services, services framework etc) and SIM functionality is also missing.
The virtual device being treated as as "tablet" is incompatible, as WhatsApp states:

  Tablet devices are not supported

There are workarounds however to install it on the virtual device.


Migrating to new rooted phone, how do you restore from your titanium backup from the saved cloud backups I just purchased a new phone and rooted it to android 7.1 and i'm coming from android 6. I backed up my apps via titanium backup to my dropbox cloud. How can I restore all these apps on my new device from those titanium backup files? Or is there a better way to restore a setup like this? I need these apps as they have specific settings and can't just be downloaded again.

From TiBu FAQ

  How can I restore my backups from Dropbox ....

With Titanium Backup 3.6.4 (or above):

  If your backup folder is empty, then with you can simply switch to the Schedules tab and hit the “RUN” button in the “Sync to Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive” section to download all backups from Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive back onto your phone.

With older Titanium Backup versions:

  Do not use the “Sync to Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive” button now: it’s a one-way sync and would erase your Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive files because you have no backups on the phone.
  You need to copy the “TitaniumBackup” folder back from Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive onto your SD card:
  On a computer, login to Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive on the web

  Click on the “TitaniumBackup” folder
  Click on “Download folder”.

  Extract the ZIP file that you just downloaded.
  Move the resulting “TitaniumBackup” folder from your computer onto your SD card

  Make sure USB mass storage is disabled (ie: your phone is disconnected from the computer)
  Launch Titanium Backup and it should see your backups.

Note: Before restoring do check that the apps that you want to restore are not system apps in the new OS. If they are, don't restore them but manually apply those settings to avoid conflicts and problems in running them

Edit  Thanks to Izzy for adding inputs:

  Bold and underline to the final warning concerning system apps! I'd even be careful restoring their data. If you really need to, make sure you've enabled "migration mode" in settings, or you might screw up things (happened to me once).

  Some background: a normal restore e.g. simply replaces database files. Especially between different devices/ROMs, their structure might have changed – thus a replace (with the wrong structure) might cause the app to simply crash and refuse doing its job. Migration mode instead doesn't replace the file, but tries to match the data contained to the new/different structures.


Why are calls auto-routing via sipDroid? When sipDroid is running, everytime I try to dial a phone, it tries using sipDroid to route it. How can I make my Android using plain old GSM Network for regular calls by default when sipDroid is running?

There's an option in the sipDroid settings (that appears automatically the first time you start it) saying whether it should be the default dialer or not. You'll need to change that setting.


Is iris really this useless or am I doing it wrong? Just tried to use iris, the supposed Siri clone for Android:

  Me to iris: "Remind me in two hours to get cascade"

  iris: "What is your real name?"

  Me: Why does it need that? "Josh"

  iris: "Definition of 'Josh': to jest or tease playfully"

  Me: "You're useless."

  iris: "Definition of useless: not fulfilling or not
  expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome"

  Me: "Exactly!"

Am I doing it wrong or is iris really just not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome?

From what I've seen, Iris isn't supposed to be a competitor for Siri, but rather just a (mostly) joke app that just tries to replicate some of Siri's snarkiness. It's for laughs, not productivity.

If you do want to be productive with voice commands, there are some options. Vlingo and SpeakToIt Assistant spring immediately to mind. There are others.

This might be helpful: Lifehacker: How to get a personal assistant like Siri on your Android phone for free


Unlock Screen with ADB Android 4.2 Previously with Android 4.1, doing something like:

adb shell input keyevent 82
#(KEYCODE_MENU)

would unlock the screen at first boot and would then allow further commands to launch applications and have them displayed on the screen, etc.

With 4.2, within 10s of boot, the lockscreen dims to black. Issuing the same ADB command no longer works and the screen remains blank.

If I manually press the menu key, this brings the screen back on, and I can then issue the keyevent to unlock the screen.

Any ideas how I can bring the display back up from ADB and unlock the screen from there?

Thanks

If you are on 4.2.2, you might want to read e.g. ADB Whitelist As of the Android 4.2.2: Starting with this Android version, "remote devices" (i.e. those you run ADB commands from) must be authorized by the Android device (i.e. the one those commands are runnin on) -- so your Android device can tell "trusted callers" from "malicious attackers". You can also find this in detail on this article on AndroidPolice:

  The way it works is pretty simple - when you connect your PC to your Android device via USB, Android gets your PC's RSA key (an identifier token). In Android 4.2.2, when you have USB debugging enabled, this now causes a prompt to appear on connection, seen below.

(image source: AndroidPolice)

Update from the comments below:

Additionally, as Shurane pointed out, behavior of adb keyevent seems to have changed with Android 4.2.2: while before adb keyevent 26 was a dedicated "screen-off", and adb shell input keyevent 82 a dedicated "screen-on" switch, now adb keyevent 26 is a toggle which turns the screen off (when it's on) and on (when it's off), as noted by Pepelac.


Is there a nice one click alarm for android? Sometimes when I'm tired, I take a nap of 1 hour. Doing that with the native clock on Android requires a lot of clicks. I would like to have an app that whenever the button is pressed, it starts to count 1 hour.

It sounds like what you want is a timer rather than an alarm clock. (Did you look in the Play Store?)

One very simple timer app I use is Tick!.

Tap to open
Use your finger to spin the dial to the amount of time you want to count down
Tap to start the timer


For basic users - Any reason to install mobile security App? For users that play it straight, never going to doubted sites, never enabling APK from non-play sources... (e.g typical seniors)

Any reason to install a mobile security app?

Because

Such users always surf magazines and news sites. Maybe YouTube.
As for Trojans: Official APKs are inspected by Google. Non official APKs are disabled by Settings. Seniors hardly install what they don't know. It's mostly WhatsApp, maybe some 2D game from Play, and that's all.
Worms & vulnerabilities: If your phone is old and stops getting security updates, nothing can help you. Antivirus apps are apps. Hence, they can't protect you because they can't monitor and filter traffic.

Under those assumptions, for senior users, Antivirus for mobile is nearly useless. What am I missing?

Thanks

tl:dr Yes, you need such apps and more a wholistic approach

Breaking down the possible threats (simplistically) :

1.Viruses: They don't exist on Android. See Is an antivirus really needed for Android?.

malware : Yes a very real threat that is usually piggy backed on apps or users being lured to click spammy links and download payload.

Since you mentioned simple games, to see the possible threat, see Flappy bird malware
You are also making an assumption that reading news sites is a safe. Not true. ANDROID WARNING: Terrifying malware can spy on almost EVERYTHING you do on your phone says

  The second one was the preferred vector: we found several news websites that have been hacked by the attackers to redirect visitors to a downloading site that serves malicious APKs

(Emphasis supplied)

How to counter this threat is quite beyond the scope here, but suffice it to say you need protection both in terms of user education and apps.

Personally, I find Addons Detector to be reliable for app related threat. But this scans apps after they have been installed so a better approach would be to scan before installing by using Yalp Store which lists all the Play store apps and importantly gives out a report from Exodus scanner (which you also can use directly via its website). Another way of doing pre-install check is submitting the app apk to Virus Total (Thanks to Izzy's suggestion)

Several malware detection apps are available and it is upto your discretion to choose.

privacy:  Apps invading your privacy is another big threat. Apart from choosing open source apps which reduce this possibility, real protection often requires rooting your device, which is not what an average user does.

Tangentially, as one grows old, convenience takes precedence over security and apps can easily invade their privacy (permissions).

Your second bullet point is highly debatable. You are assuming that Google Play scanning is robust and therefore offers adequate security.

This is simply not true. A Google search for play store apps removed shows at least three instances in last six months when apps were removed from Play Store. One may say that this is evidence of Google tightening security but OTOH your target group of senior citizens may have already been affected! Quoting from one report picked at random to emphasize this

  The report also adds that some of the apps dated least a year back and had been downloaded million of times.

Alternative is to install open source apps from f-droid. I do agree that equivalents are not always available but such security apps discussed earlier  have a role in supplementing defense.

Choosing open source apps and user education reduces  risk partially at least along with selection of right malware apps.

What started as a comment, turned into a long answer (and incomplete). That said,  premises of Google Play Protect screening being robust , assuming news websites to be safe or downloading simple games as harmless are not necessarily true as proved often, time and again.

Additional information

Trackers packed into apps are a threat and while ways have been suggested in the answer, for additional information see What’s it all about those modules apps contain?
App permissions is another troublesome aspect and is beyond casual users, much less target users of senior citizens. For a primer on permissions and to see how how crazy, it actually is, see The Android authorization model: a perfidious construct

Sourced from Izzy's blog (thanks)


Can't set static IP for WiFi correctly in Android device I'm using static IP configuration for accessing college WiFi in my window laptop. For that I'm using following batch file (.bat) to configure settings by one click. The file contains following information:

netsh interface ip set address    name="Wireless Network Connection"     source=static addr=10.2.29.69     mask=255.255.0.0 gateway=10.2.19.27    gwmetric=1
 netsh interface ip set dns  name="Wireless Network Connection"    source=static addr=10.2.19.28 primary
netsh interface ip add dns   name="Wireless Network Connection"    addr=4.2.2.2 index=2

The problem in configuring this in Android is that the above file contains two static address(10.2.29.69 and 10.2.19.28) where as in Android there is only one option to enter static IP address and there are two fields foe DNS but here in file only one DNS is given so which IP should I enter in IP address field of my phone. And what about 2nd DNS address?

Following is the screen shot of configuration screen of  my phone.

It would be best to choose your static IP address from the main gateway. In this case 10.2.19.27 . So IP address is anything from 10.2.19.xx where xx is any number from 1 to 255 (depends on network prefix) apart from 27.

It is also okay to put the gateway address as the first DNS entry and as for the second either put a public DNS like Google DNS e.g 8.8.4.4 or Open DNS like configured in your settings 4.2.2.2

After that ping and see if the address is reachable


Does the Google Play Store app requires a SIM card? I noticed on a device that the Play Store app didn't work until I inserted a SIM card: is this just a bug or does the Google Play Store app requires a SIM card being present?
Background:
I've installed LineageOS + OpenGApps Nano on a Nexus 5 device (without a SIM card). Almost everything worked as expected, including the Google account creation.
What didn't work was the Google Play Store app, though. When going to the 'My apps' sections, there was just an endless checking for updates/connecting animation. Installing apps wasn't possible. Clearing the cache/app data etc. didn't make a difference.
What helped was this: inserting a SIM card! After that and clearing the app data/cache again, the Google Play Store app worked as expected.

No, a SIM is not required to access to Google Play on any device.


WhatsApp still shows deleted contacts I got my new Android phone.
I added my personal GMail account to the Gmail app which synced my ~100 personal contacts from Google.
I installed WhatsApp.
I installed Outlook for Android.
I added my work mail account and did not uncheck "sync contacts" before first sync.
Only after I saw the ~100k work contacts in my phone I disabled "sync contacts" for my work email and as far as I see, all work contacts were correctly removed from the Android contact list.
However, in WhatsApp some of them (presumably those with a mobile number and WhatsApp) are still visible.
I tried the "Refresh list" option in WhatsApp, but they are still visible.
Also, there are no chats with these "contacts", since the contacts only got onto my phone by accident and they don't have my mobile number.
It seems I am not the only one.

Why are they still visible in WhatsApp and how can I get rid of them?

Even I had the same problem. I removed all the contacts from my phone address book but it would still show in my Whatsapp. Finally I figured it, though the phone address too does not show the contacts, if auto sync is on, it will still show. In my Phone, I went to Phonebook → Open Account settings → and turned off Auto Sync. That worked. Hope it helps.


I get SMS notifications but the new text message is not shown My phone will notify me that I have a message, but when I go into the messaging app that message won't be there.  When I send a message off it also won't show me the message after it sent.  I restarted it and cleared the messaging data and that didn't work.  How can I fix this?

Ensure that your time/date settings are correct. This may cause the Google Play suite of applications to misbehave as well.


Why are my network icons blue? Possible Duplicate:
  What does it mean when the connectivity icons in the status bar go white/gray?

I've got a Motorola Electrify on Android 2.3. Sometimes my network icons (3G and the cellular network bars) are grey, and sometimes they're blue. They seem to be blue when I have a good connection and/or when my connection will work.

What exactly do the colors mean? I've noticed when I have a grey 3G icon, my wireless tether doesn't work at all and I often can't get web pages to load right, regardless of signal strength.

In my stock Ice Cream Sandwich, the icons turn blue when there is Internet connectivity and grey when there isn't. I'm not sure on Gingerbread though.


Froyo Sound Management I pickup up a Motorola Triumph (running Froyo) for Virgin Mobile a couple weeks ago.  I like the thing, but I just don't understand Android's sound management.  Let me explain:

Setting SilentMode turns off ringer, but not Media or Alarms.  While this is annoying in and of itself, it also disables the volumn control in the Settings, meaning I can't change the Media volume before something using the Media volume is actually playing!
Occasionally, the media volume will be waaaaay loud, even though it's only one click away from off.  Furthermore, changing the Ringer volume will then set the Media volumn to a lower level - changing some sort of multiplier, perhaps?  I notice this mostly when using Pandora (it can change volume between songs, and I'll have to go nudge the Ringer volume again to get it to quiet down).

Is there any way to fix these issues?  Make SilentMode silence Media as well as Ringer, AND still allow me to change the Alarm volume?  Or simple make SilentMode ACTUALLY silent?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Silent Mode definitely isn't supposed to mute media or alarms.  Both of those are controlled by you, unlike calls and other notifications that are caused by external events.  You wouldn't want to miss your alarm just because you forgot your phone was on silent :) but it's definitely strange that it disables the volume controls entirely, that must be a Motorola thing.

You could try the Audio Manager app for better control over the settings.  It doesn't sync the media volume to the ringer volume, but you can use profiles to quickly set up one where both are muted and then it's easy to switch with a click or two.  It also manages Alarms, Notifications, in-call volume, and "System Volume" (probably the noises you can enable for when you click things and so on).


Does rooting an android phone effectively also unlock it from network If you root an android phone does this also unlock it from a network?

I.e. say you had a moto g locked to the vodafone network, and then you rooted the phone, would it then be unlocked from vodafone?

Unfortunately not. Rooting gives you access, unlocking allows you to use a phone with other networks.

http://www.howtogeek.com/135663/htg-explains-whats-the-difference-between-jailbreaking-rooting-and-unlocking/


Format SD card after playing with fdisk (No card reader) After playing with partitioning using FDISK (from busybox) i finished and now i want to format it back to whatever is usable under Android.

Using same FDISK via Android console i deleted all partitions, made a clean DOS partition table, made a new partition and changed its type to b (Win95 FAT32).

I got no microSD adapter to read the card from my linux PC and format it there.
What should i do to format it into a usable condition?

Android has built-in formatting capabilities that are usually available via Settings -> Storage -> Format SD card (or something similar depending on the device you use).


How can I disable auto-dimming of the screen? What I'd like to see:

When idling, the screen turns off after the configured amount of time.

What I see:

When I don't do anything, the screen dims a bit after ~23 seconds, then at 30 seconds it turns off as expected.

I have no idea why this dimming short before the screen timeout happens and where to disable it.

My settings:

Automatic Brightness disabled, brightness set to the lowest level.
Screen time-out at 30 seconds.
Auto adjust screen power disabled.
Timeout for lock screen is zero (Immediately).
Use Power saving mode is enabled (it sets the screen brightness to 10% at less than 20% battery power left). Disabling it had no effect.

This happens with Android 2.3.6 (no idea if it worked before the update).

It's to alert you that the screen's about to turn off.  It's more useful when your timeout is longer than 30 seconds, certainly.  I would assume you'd need a custom kernel or at least to root and edit some config files in order to prevent this, I don't believe there's anything in Settings for it.


ADB unable to connect my Nexus 7 on Ubuntu I want to be able to connect my Nexus 7 in order to test my applications from Eclipse on the physical device.

I followed this Google guide.

My /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules file contains this :

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTR{idProduct}=="4e42", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTR{idProduct}=="4e40", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTR{idProduct}=="4e41", MODE="0666"

The device is configured to use "Camera (PTP)" and "USB debugging" is checked too.

But adb devices lists no device.

What have I missed ?

The fact that the "Connected" message only appeared sometimes and that lsusb was unable to detect the Nexus casted a doubt on the cable.

I just tested with another cable and it works. My other cable seems to have a damaged connector.


Can't disable password on Android 6.0 (EMUI 4.0) I had to go somewhere and due to my paranoia, I decided to lock my Huawei P8 Lite. Since that day I can't disable the password beacuse I always get this note Disabled by administrator, encryption policy, or credential storage

The only Device administrator is Google's Find my phone, which I deactivated and is not the problem (so I switched it back), I cleared all credentials from Security, I really don't know what else to do.

Thanks to xavier_fakerat's comment that mentioned Android Central Forum. You need to do this:

Set up a pattern password with a backup PIN
Double-tap the power button to activate the lock screen
Do wrong patterns 5 times (at least 4 dots touched to be counted as an attempt), then wait for the cooldown
Select backup PIN, enter your PIN and you could select "none"


Reverting a Google Transaction My daughter has accidentally purchased a stack of coins from Google Play Store for a very heavy amount. Is there a way to revert this transaction?

Use this form to submit a refund request from google - https://support.google.com/googleplay/contact/play_request_refund_apps?ctx=about_refunds_on_google_play&rd=1

In most cases google does give you your money back but you need to explain them about the accident, the best is to clearly state the issue and letting them know the act was done by a kid so that you can actually make a point.

I got the same situation quite sometimes back, it took about 30 days to get a reply from google support but eventually i got the refund. :)


How can I study or prepare myself for an exam with the help of my Android device? I want to learn a language or prepare for an exam with the help of my Android phone or tablet.

Are there any efficient and fun methods out there to do so?

I could list up a bunch of stuff here now, but that would get quite long. So let's better organize it by groups:

Covering multiple topics

First, of course, there are mentioned Flashcard apps (best-rated here are probably Learn Easy and AnyMemo -- a longer List can be found at my AndroidPIT overview Vokabeln & FlashCards (Google Translate version here).

These are not only restricted to languages, as mentioned AnyMemo shows1: being able to also use images, you can use it for everything -- think e.g. of images of molecules, electronic wiring examples, and others.

Languages

Second, there are the "big language guides" -- again I can refer to an overview at AndroidPIT: Sprachführer (and the Google Translate variant here). Though this latter mainly addresses German native speakers, the end of the list has some generic hints.

While FlashCards & Co focus on learning words, the more complex language guides also cover grammar and complete phrases. I guess best is to use a combination. As for the FlashCards, any solution should do: they are mostly not language specific. Other with the language guides, where it lies in the nature of this type that it has to be specific at least to the target language you want to learn. Examples here include French Class Demo3 and Italian in a Month Free4.

A third category should not be forgotten to mention here: Get yourself a good eBook Reader, and add some books to it which are written in the language you want to learn. I recommend Moon+ Reader5 here, which already includes a huge Online Library list for multiple languages (which actually is sorted by languages even), so the reader immediately has some ressources at hand. Having trouble with some words while reading? Simply long-tap the word to open a dictionary -- either online translation, or an offline dictionary like Fora or ColorDict6, which both can deal with StarDict files saved on the sd card. Being able to mark and even annotate with Moon+ Reader (see the picture5), one could also use this app for other subjects/classes.

Number four now should be obvious: There's that Youtube app one could check some language specific movie[clip]s with. Or get some other movie player (MoboPlayer probably being a good choice), plus some videos in the targeted language.

Guess number 5? Right: Music. There are plenty of music players around, and songs to pick. Repeating them over and over is baking some phrases to ones brains :) Beside this fact, there are also some audio books and language-learning audio files around.

Science

So far on language-learning -- but your question was not restricted to that, as I just notice. So let's go for some more possibilities -- pointed out in the AP overview Formelsammlungen & Referenzen (Google Translate: formulas & references). There are tons of references for chemistry, like e.g. the very famous Merck PTE HD (periodic table)7, mathematics calculation helpers and references like e.g. Mathematics8, physics references, electronics, stuff for engineers... So learning is clearly not restricted to languages.

School Organizers

Learning for school or study? Multiple subjects to cover, and courses to keep track of? This also can be covered using your Android smartphone or tablet. The AP overview dealing with this would be Stundenpläne und Schul-Organizer (Google Translate: school organizers). From simple timetables like School Schedule9 to just keep track of what subject is running when and where, to apps also keeping track of related tasks and even silence the device during classes (e.g. My Class Schedule -- note the tiny numbered boxes on the blue items in the screenshot10, which indicate connected tasks), you can find many solutions.

Summary

To sum up: There's a lot of stuff you can pre-load to your tablet -- and then use to learn on-the-go.


Accidentally hit PIT during Odin update now phone is stuck I was attempting to flash a handset using Odin, and accidentally clicked on the button marked PIT, and now the Odin is saying similar to this message - 'connecting phone ------ pc'.

Also, the handset cannot be rebooted nor put into downloading mode.

Please advise?

Well, you seem to have 2 options:

If under warranty, send it to service center, your Main board (PBA) should be replaced.
You probably will need a JTag repair!

AFAIK, there is nothing you can do at the moment, by yourself to get the phone working, apart from the options mentioned above!


How to use a firewall AND a VPN? I'm using the only open source firewall for Android: NetGuard and would like to use a VPN in addition. Is this possible? If so: how?

Both types of apps typically use virtual VPN tunnels. NetGuard has network settings too. Many adblockers use such as well which is why I'm only using a Firefox AddOn.

Quoting the NetGuard FAQ on that topic:

  Can I use another VPN application while using NetGuard?

  If the VPN application is using the VPN service, then no, because NetGuard needs to use this service. Android allows only one application at a time to use this service.

  NetGuard is a firewall application, so there is no intention to add VPN support. However, NetGuard supports a SOCKS5 proxy to chain VPN applications.

So the answer is: it depends.


Change mobile network DNS on Lollipop and up Ok, this is a constantly asked question, how to change mobile network DNS. But in different Android version, you will get different method. So this is the reason I ask this.

I have already known a method for Android 4 and below. Now, I want to know how to change mobile network DNS on Android 5.0 Lollipop and up.

A clue:

ndc resolver setnetdns <netId> <domains> <dns1> <dns2>

Someone said I should use this command to change mobile network DNS in Lollipop and up, but what is netId? Where can I find this value? Could you give me an example?

I am not C/C++ programer, but I try to read relative source code, found netid will be transform to unsigned long type by strtoul function. So I guess netid should be a hexadecimal string. I try using netcfg output value, but it doesn't work.

Could you give me more explanation about this method? How to use it?
Or is there any other effective method to change mobile network DNS in Lollipop and up?

I don't use Lollipop on my phone anymore. However since your question is about Lollipop and up, and I use Marshmallow, I can confirm that:

ndc resolver setnetdns devname dnsdomain dns1 dns2

works. It appears that you do not need to know the network ID anymore in Marshmallow, and you only need the device name.

So for example:

ndc resolver setnetdns rndis0 "" 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

will set the DNS for the rndis0 interface to Google's public DNS servers.


How can I root Remix OS running in Virtual Box? I have Remix OS beta running in Virtual Box. I've made a virtual drive which I've formatted as ext4 and installed Remix OS on.

How can I get root access?

Remis Os comes pre-rooted from the the box. If you feel thats not the case please specify the type of (version) of remix Os you have been using.


unknown notification icon on HTC One M9 Android 7 i´ve just installed Android 7 and this icon on the top left appeared, i want to know what it is, also i dont have any apps whith that icon..

my phone is a HTC one M9

It's the Peel notification. Its a remote app that comes pre installed on some devices. The notification lets you power off, change volume and go to the app.


How can I run a startup script for GNURoot Debian? I've installed GNURoot debian on a rooted Android device and I can launch a debian shell programmatically using am, but I couldn't figure out how to run a command like starting dropbear.

What's the recommended way of running a command straight after launching and GNURoot Debian shell ?

To install:
apt install dropbear

To start:
service start dropbear

Autostart:
Make sure enable is set to 1 in /etc/config/dropbear.


How to write an NFC tag with Driving Directions? I want to write an NFC Tag on a sticker with something that will directly open Google Maps driving directions to a specific address. I've tried using "NFC Tasks" / "NFC Tools", but haven't found any preset that seems to fit the bill. These come close:

"Address: Open an address"; and
"Geolocation: Open an geolocation".

But obviously those tasks don't open driving directions.

To clarify, on my Nexus 5 with Android 6.0 (but also on 5.x if I remember correctly) I have the option to include a Maps widget on my home screens that do exactly this. When adding such a widget I get this settings screen:

Clicking this widget does what it says on the tin: fires off driving directions.

With NFC Tasks you can write URLs, so I tried writing:

http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=some+address+here

But that opens Google Maps in a browser, not the Maps application itself.

With NFC Tasks you can also write custom data, but I wouldn't know how to format my custom data for this specific task. The "Pro" version of the tool can write "Send Intent" tasks to tags, but I can't figure out if that's what I need (before I go out and buy the pro version).

I've gone through the suggested duplicates and similar questions, but found no relevant info.

Bottom line: How do you write Driving Directions to a specific location onto an NFC tag?

There is a way to create a link to a Google maps' destination which automatically detects user's location and triggers the driving directions. You can find how to do it here, in particular see the voice 'Directions (detect user's current location as starting point)'. You just have to write this link on your tag NFC, with any app that provides the possibility (like NFC Tools). The problem may be the storage capacity of your tags: this kind of link is bound to require a lot of bytes. You can choose the bigger size of tags, which cost more, but be sure the link fits, or you can use a provider of shorten link (which I suggest).

Edit: I didn't see you already tried something similar. With mobile browsers, like chrome, if you open a link that points to google maps you should be redirected to the app. Maybe you set your browser to open this kind of links by default instead of the app?


Android 5: headset's button mutes an active phonecall instead of ending the call I recently bought a phone that came bundled with android 5. It is a ZTE Blade S6. I also have bought a Senheizer MM70i which has one button.

I am sure that the first few days if I pressed the headset's button during a phonecall the action would end the call.

Then I tried the jetAudio Basic music player and now it seems that when talking on the phone pressing the button mutes the conversation instead of hanging up.

Is there a way to revert that??

I have tried installing "Degauss Headset control center" but the application states that single button action is indeed to answer/end call, so I cannot alter the action through there.

Is there any other (perhaps low-level) way?

Thank you

ok so apparently I can still end a call with a long press of the headset's button.

I wonder if there is any way to tweak these settings.


mount in /data/local/userinit.sh is not working I want to map /sdcard/DCIM to /storage/sdcard1/DCIM
using CM 12.1 on a I9100

I wrote those few lines to /data/local/userinit.sh:

#!/system/bin/sh
log -p i -t userinit "userinit start";
mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/DCIM /sdcard/DCIM;
log -p i -t userinit "userinit end";

If I execute it the script via adb shell the folder gets mapped perfectly.
But if I reboot the device the folder is not mapped.
In the log I cloud see the userinit start and the userinit end so userinit.sh is called during startup.

I also tried

su root mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/DCIM /sdcard/DCIM;

Any suggestions?

Found a workaround:
init.d script invocation by app

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ryosoftware.initd


Restore Android Samsung Galaxy S Captivate SGH-I896 back to original installation I have a Android Samsung Galaxy S Captivate SGH-I896 and I have some problems with the sound. My provider sent me a new one and expect the old one back in it's original state.

So I have one that is rooted and unlocked and a clean one.

Can someone help me unroot it knowing I already did a factory reset on it.

I'm trying to root it again (thinking the unroot will work) and I'm trying the same way I did it the first time but it doesn't work.

Is it possible to format the old one with some image made from the new one?

Any suggestions?

I'd say use Kies to update your old one (or use Odin/Heimdall to install some firmware from here). Afaik the Galaxy S (Captivate) does not have a custom rom flash counter (that was introduced with the S2 to see if one had installed custom roms before, so you don't have to apply 'Triangle Away' to reset it before sending back your old phone)

You basically have 2 options for your new one:

Root the standard firmware using CF-Root by Chainfire
Install an aftermarket firmware like CyanogenMod (ICS already available, JB also)

To install CyanogenMod-9 (an Android-4.0/Ice-Cream-Sandwich based custom rom), here are some infos:
Here's their Wiki FAQ for your phone and here's the full update guide, here are downloads for the Captivate


How to solve bluetooth issue? I flashed an unofficial MIUI ROM on my Sony Xperia P. I found enormous bug here. Recently I found that bluetooth is also not working. How can I solve it?

Did you read the Working, Bugs posted by the author of the rom. Did you read the changelog of the rom. Did the author specified any patch to fix the bluetooth issue?


What do "faster GPS fix" apps do? There are at least a dozen "Faster GPS Fix" apps in the Play Store -- one is even a $5 paid app -- and they remind me of those RAM Booster/Optimizer utilities of the 1990s.

What do they do -- and the better question is: why doesn't Android do this by itself?

One of the apps you have a picture of, the venerable GPS Status & Toolbox, describes this claim in the app description:

  Keep your GPS fast: reset it or download A-GPS data regularly for faster fixes

Wikipedia does a great job defining the basic concepts behind Assisted-GPS:

  Standalone GPS provides first position in approximately 30–40 seconds. A Standalone GPS system needs orbital information of the satellites to calculate the current position. The data rate of the satellite signal is only 50 bit/s, so downloading orbital information like ephemeris and almanac directly from satellites typically takes a long time, and if the satellite signals are lost during the acquisition of this information, it is discarded and the standalone system has to start from scratch. In AGPS, the Network Operator deploys an AGPS server. These AGPS servers download the orbital information from the satellite and store it in the database. An AGPS capable device can connect to these servers and download this information using Mobile Network radio bearers such as GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE or even using other wireless radio bearers such as Wi-Fi. Usually the data rate of these bearers is high, hence downloading orbital information takes less time.

If your phone's A-GPS cache is corrupt or stale, forcing a refresh can be beneficial. Normally, Android does in fact take care of maintaining this cache automatically. I've personally only used this app to help diagnose and solve GPS problems, something it does very well. In normal usage I wouldn't bother with the A-GPS cache until you find it needs intervention.


Installing bootloader on completely wiped phone My phone had an issue where it wouldn't leave the boot screen, so I reinstalled the bootloader and it didn't do anything. Then I formated the ENTIRE phone, including the repair menu, and now I have no tool that allows me to edit my phone.

What I need you to tell/teach me is how to install a bootloader here now, with what tool, and where do I get the files. My phone is a One Touch Star 6010X, and now is competely clean in memory.

So, the issue here was that I did not have all files selected in SPFT when "downloading" (actually uploading) the files onto my device.

So, if you follow the steps here on a fully wiped phone, you need to get the ROM for your phone (the set of files that represent pretty much your future Operating System), select the .txt file to automatically find most files, and the manually search for the ones that can't be located by the program.


How to check if my phone components are what they should be (is Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 equal to ARMv7 Processor rev 3)? I've bought LG Optimus L9 P760 - it came to me from China, without the foil and with unpacked charger. There was also no guarantee included (and I was assured there will be 24-moths written one). That's why I decided to check carefully everything else too.

It should have those parameters, according to specification:

Chipset              TI OMAP 4430
CPU                  Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9
GPU                  PowerVR SGX540

But when I've installed the Android System Info application and exterminated the CPU:

Proccessor:          ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
processor            0
BogoMIPS             1592.38
processor            1
BogoMIPS             1592.38
CPU implementer      0x41
CPU architecture     7
CPU variant          0x1
CPU part             0xc09
CPU revision         3
Hardware             LGE P760 board
Revision             0007
Serial               000000000000000
Frequency range:     300.0 -> 1008.0MHz
Current Frequency:   800HMz

Is that the right CPU? Because I see ARMv7 Processor rev 3 instead of TI OMAP 4430 - but maybe those are 2 different things or some alias? Or maybe I've been ripped off by the seller? Is that possible?

System Info Droid also listed ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l) and I cannot find Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9* anywhere (however, I see that it's dual processor).

Also, under Memory:

Download Cache Max:     194MB
data Max:               2.33GB
External storage Max:   2.33GB
Total RAM:              767MB
Threshold RAM:          64.00MB

I see 767MB RAM, where there should be 1GB RAM. Is there something wrong, or some amount of RAM is not listed somehow?

According to Wikipedia,

The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multicore processor providing up to 4 cache-coherent Cortex-A9 cores, each implementing the ARM v7 instruction set architecture.

(Emphasis mine)
Also, from the same article,

Chips
Several system on a chip (SoC) devices implement the Cortex-A9 core, including:

...
Texas Instruments OMAP4 processors (TI OMAP 4430)
...

And with help from eldarerathis's comment

The RAM difference is because apps will only report RAM that is available to userspace processes.

(the detail can be read on that post)


How to upload multiple images at once to Google Drive? I want to upload to Google Drive, all my image files that are within my gallery. At the moment I have to select the images one by one to do so.

Long pressing the images and the folders themselves does not open a context selection grid as it normally would.

I am using default gallery. I am also using the android 2.3.3 on an LG-P999-V21e.

Do not go to Google Drive directly.

Gallery
Select the files you want to Upload
Share (icon like Branch) -NOW you choose Google drive and folder... Click OK and you are in Business


How to turn off sound for Google+ notifications? How do I turn off audio notifications for Google+ (mail and groups) on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3?

Start up Google+

Goto top left corner,  to the overflow button (3 dots).

Tap on settings

Tap on account settings for which account you want to change notification settings.

Tap on notification.

Change sound file to an empty sound file. (To do that start voice recorder app and record a second of silence,  then save and use).

This can be done on all devices with Google+.


Trusted places not present under Smart lock in Nexus 5 (Android 5.0 lollipop) I have just updated to Lollipop on my Nexus 5 and can't see "Trusted Places". I use "Trusted Device" which works pretty well, but I would like to use "Trusted Places" at work. However, it is not there.

I have looked for the Google Play Services and find the version is still 6.1.88.

Can anyone help me?

Sometimes you have to activate the Trust Agent: Settings -> Security -> Trust Agents -> enable Smart Lock


Will this Remove a Permission from an App? So I downloaded an app from the web today, but it had some permissions I was uncomfortable with granting. So, I used APKTool to decompile the APK, removed the suspicious permission from the manifest, and recompiled + resigned the APK. Then, I downloaded the modified APK on my phone.

Does this approach work? My understanding is that now the app will crash if it tries to do something requiring that permission.

*PS: The reason I did this was because the permission to remove (CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE) did not show under settings/app Permissions of my phone. It only showed up under "All Permissions," where I couldn't simply disable it.

It will surely remove the permission, but the moment code inside the program executes a function that requires that permission, the app will crash as a result.


How to make Android Amoled screen to display colours for hardware testing, through commands? In hardware testing i want to display colours like red, green, blue etc.., on the android screen i.e., Amoled display. Can you help to do this through commands and how the invoke the android display feature in android shell.

(full screen should display colour).

Is there android tools to do it or any other procedure.

Android version : lollipop

You can achieve this by writing to the framebuffer directly using dd There's no standard procedure or tool, because the details of what you need to write depend on the framebuffer format in your platform; i.e. it's different for every model of device.

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/graphics/fb0

will get you a random colour in every pixel of your framebuffer. (If the framebuffer isn't at /dev/graphics/fb0 on your device, you'll need to change the command accordingly.) To get a solid colour of your choice or a pattern, you'll need to find out what the framebuffer format is and think about it a bit.

An alternative way to do it is to set up the framebuffer with another application (e.g. a normal Android app that displays a full-screen colour), and then save the framebuffer to a file. This post explains the details of how to do it. The post is written for desktop Linux machines, but it works exactly the same way in Android, which uses the Linux kernel.


Does TrueCalller App leak your phonebook? Sometimes, I cannot find new contacts that I add to Truecaller phonebook, but sometimes, I think if it shares/leaks my contacts to public.
It shows other people contact details that I never added there.
So I am thinking if it is doing the same to me.

Andoird: 7.1.1
Phone: Oneplus 3T

Yes! it does, when using Truecaller application or services you have already accepted their :

Truecaller - Privacy Policy

So, in this case you agree that :

Truecaller may use your personal information collected by their application to provide, maintain, improve, analyze and personalize their Services for other Users, partners and third party providers.

More specifically, Truecaller may use such information to provide names of contacts from your address book to other Trucaller users.


How to see mobile operator proxy settings My mobile internet suddenly has stopped working. Chrome complains Error 130 (net::ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILED). Google app store and other apps those load content from servers now work only when I connect through wifi.

I set in firefox about:config network.proxy.type from default value 5 (use system settings) to 0 (no proxy) and firefox has started working.

Proxy Settings app shows empty fields.

As I don't use any proxy I would like to see that system wide proxy setup which broke my mobile inet

For GSM devices, as far as I know, the proxy settings for your mobile data connection are defined in the Access Point Name (APN). Go to Settings > Wireless and Networks > More > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names > [Your data APN] (your device's menu may differ slightly). Check the Proxy field - it's possible this got modified somehow. Might also be worth snooping around your carrier's website for the recommended APN settings and double-checking that everything is correct. Once finished, press [Menu] > Save and give it a test.


Unable to install .apk from /system/priv-app I moved my apk file to /system/priv-app just as you adviced me in this thread. When I'm trying to install it through clicking this .apk, Android said me that "The application has not been installed". I tried to use adb install myapp.apk for this purpose but again ADB  gave me an error: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_POLICY_REJECTED_PERMISSION] and I suppose that app requires permission which can be granted only by root. So the only way I see now is to run adb shell later su next cd /system/priv-app and install [-cdDsp] [-o USER] [-g GRP] [-m MODE] [-t DIR] [SOURCE]... DEST and that's a point because I totally don't understand this legend:

    Copy files and set attributes
    -c      Just copy (default)
    -d      Create directories
    -D      Create leading target directories
    -s      Strip symbol table
    -p      Preserve date
    -o USER Set ownership
    -g GRP  Set group ownership
    -m MODE Set permissions
    -t DIR  Install to DIR`

How to set attributes to install this apk as system app?

I think you misunderstand the whole process. You are not supposed to use install command or the likes of it anywhere in the process I mentioned. You simply:

mount the system partition in rw mode
copy-paste the apk into the location,
set the appropriate permissions using busybox's chmod and chgrp or through inbuilt tools:

adb shell su -c chmod 644 APK    # replace APK with your apk's absolute location, such as /system/priv-app/xyz.apk
adb shell su -c chown root:root APK   # replace APK as said above

do a reboot.

Follow those instructions religiously. You can altogether avoid the commands using a file manager app such as Solid File Explorer, ES File Explorer, etc.

During the following boot the Android would detect the apk and install it automatically.


How can I control both volume and track skip on my Android device from my headphones? How can I control both volume and track skip on my Android device from my headphones? I.e with a set of headphones having 3 buttons

Button 1: Volume +
Button 2: Play/Pause/Skip Forward/Skip Backward
Button 3: Volume -

All android headphones I've seen to date only have a single button for skip control. I've been looking around the web for a clear answer very extensively, most of the answers revolve around either

Use Bluetooth headphones OR
Install app that converts the skip button to a volume control

Why can't android headphones have both features? Such controls have been available on Apple devices, Nokia Phones and Sony Phones etc. all through the simple headphones jack.

I will answer your question in the meaning "How can I control both volume and track skip on my Android device from my headphones?". This might not be supported by the system itself, but the Playstore holds a number of solutions available. Depending on your headset and Android device, one of them might work better than the other:

JAYS Headset Control
RemoteControl for Earphones
Philips Headset
Headset Droid Trial / Headset Droid (~ EUR 2)
Headset Button ControllerTrial / Headset Button Controller (~ EUR 2)
Klipsch Control

Ordered by their Playstore rating. These apps seem to share the same pattern -- and it is a pattern you use with the one-and-only button on your headset:

tap 1x for play/stop (or to accept an incoming call)
tap 2x for skip-to-next (or to reject an incoming call)
long-press to increase volume
tap 1x and then long-press to decrease volume

Plus more (up to 4x tap), but you've got the idea. I tried JAYS, which is the most configurable (1x tap and vol+ worked fine, but even after 3 weeks only 1 out of 10 tries for the other combinations worked, which might be due to hardware (headset) incompatibility) and the Philips Headset (which worked out of the box for all the above mentioned combinations -- no wonder, my Headset is a Philips, and that app was developed with this headset in mind). So if you have no luck with one of those, try another :)


How can I determine what is a normal USB transfer speed for my Android phone? I've been struggling to get decent USB transfer speeds with my Ubuntu computer, which I've asked about on the Ask Ubuntu site.

The answers there have helped me improve USB speeds overall, but it seems my phone is still much slower than other devices. For example, I can transfer to my Sony video camera at about 17.5MB/s, but transferring files to my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy 2 with ICS) is running at about 2MB/s.

How can I determine if 2MB/s is a normal transfer speed for my Android phone? In other words, what do I need to know about it's SD card (it has two, internal and external) specifications or other details in order to determine if I am getting the maximum performance or if it is still hobbled?

There's no such thing as normal USB transfer speed. It depends on several factors including but not limited to:

Class of the sdcard
USB speed (1.1 vs 2.0)
Performance and load of the the computer

Out of these three the one with the most influence is the class of the sdcard. The class describes the minimum write speed of the card in MB/s. For example a Class 10 card has a minimum writing speed of 10MB/s.
Based on this your sdcard is most likely a Class 2.

If you can't locate your sdcard Class, there's a free tool (only for windows users) that gives you the transfer rate of your sdcard:

H2testw 1.4

  After you've finished verifying your unit you will be able to see the exact time it took for the operation to complete, the number of megabytes tested, and, of course, the writing / reading speed.

As a side note: The cache that Abdul mentions has nothing to do with this. That's for reading and only applies if the card is mounted in the phone.


I cannot charge my tablet I only have a USB cable to charge my tablet and I plugged it into my laptop to charge and a little red X shows up on the battery thing. How can I charge my tablet?

A computer's usb port does not supply enough current to charge your tablet. The tablet takes roughly 1A or 1,000mA to charge, a desktop's usb port only puts out about 500mA. Some laptops just can't provide the specified 500mA and will not charge it at all. YMMV

You can charge it though, only very slowly, AND the tablet has to be completely turned off.


Nexus 5x No Command screen I was attempting to upgrade the os to 7.1.1, but after downloading, installing the os and restarting the device, the screen shows "No command" with a dead android icon.

The "No command" screen is like this:

I followed this link to install TWRP instead, everything works fine, but at the end the screen still shows "No command", how could I escape from it?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-root-google-nexus-5x-install-twrp-recovery-1525518

Actually, I tried this
http://forums.androidcentral.com/droid-razr-m/332350-wipe-cache-no-command.html, but still in vain

It seems like TWRP wasn't installed. You still have the stock recovery.

As you've got to the "no command" screen, try this:  Hold down the power button for 3-5 seconds and then press and release the Volume up button.


Does android, specifically the HTC Incredible, support headphone volume buttons? Coming from the IPhone, I love being able to control my phone from my wired 3 button headphones.  Center clicking to start/stop music or answer calls and using the 2 volume buttons to adjust the volume without pulling the phone out of my pocket.

I've tried different 3 button headphones with my HTC Incredible and can answer calls and pause and play audio with the center button, but I've never been able to change the volume from my headphones buttons.

Are volume adjustments via headphones supported in the HTC Incredible?  Am I just using the wrong headphones?

Definitely supported by Android, and I'd be incredibly surprised if the Incredible didn't support volume control.

I had no problem using the volume control buttons in the headset I bought for my G1. I bought mine on eBay for $7, it has no branding but was marketed as explicitly for the G1. It uses the USB plug, not the 3.5mm plug.

You might need a USB headset.

There is something specific about apple's 3.5mm jacks that doesn't play well with non-apple devices. Something about the placement of the insulating plastic bands. It is described in the answer to: Why can't I use my iPhone Headphones with my HTC Thunderbolt?

So it wouldn't surprise me if a headset from your iphone with a 3.5mm jack would not work on your Incredible. But if you buy a headset manufactured for the incredible (Ebay and Amazon appear to have plenty) and the volume controls still don't work, the problem is probably your device.


Active auto correction like in iOS I'm pretty new from Android, just dumped my iOS device.

I find it pretty annoying with this feature missing that is auto correction and auto-complete.

In iOS whenever you misspell a word or type a keyboard key near the desired one, the system will automatically change it to the correct word unless demanded otherwise.

Also the auto complete contains hell of a bigger dictionary.

Do you know of a similar app/setting in Android? It takes me much more time to type in my Android.

Stock keyboard (as well as most 3rd-party keyboard apps) has both auto-correct and auto-completion (a.k.a. "suggestions") built in.  Access the keyboard settings via Settings -> Language & input -> Android keyboard.  From there you can enable and fine-tune the auto correction and suggestion options.


No alarm sound after update from CM 11 to CM 13 I recently updated my Samsung Galaxy S3 from Cyanogenmod 11.x to the latest 13.0. Despite some transitional issues, everything seemed fine.

Except that I almost overslept because the alarm was silent; only the vibration went off.

I have been through all the settings and combinations of modes (airplane mode, system profile, ...) -- volume is turned up everywhere but alarms are always silent. What do I have to do?

I use the system clock/alarm app.

As it turns out, the update skrewed up the link between alarms and ringtones resp. alarm sound. For me, the alarm app showed 17 instead of a sound name.

You simply have to choose a new sound (or reselect the old one, as it where) and you have audible alarms back.


How can I output VGA or HDMI video from a Droid Razr M? I know that one can install command-line linux distros on android. I also know that the screen resolution can be changed. I have a laptop screen with vga input laying around that I was hoping to turn into a small netbook for school with my phone as a processor. However, I have the droid razr m and I can't find (online) any way to output video so I can use the laptop screen. So my question is: How do I output the phone screen to VGA/HDMI as cheaply as possible?

I don't think there is a way to do this with this phone. The Droid Razr M doesn't support MHL, and its Android version is too old to have the feature of mirroring the screen to a Chromecast. You could still use Chromecast to send specific video (i.e. from movie players, presentation apps, or YouTube) to anything that has HDMI input, but not to mirror the whole screen.

Note that the phone's screen itself doesn't use a high-level protocol like VGA or HDMI, so you can't simply take the screen off, cut its ribbon cable, and wire a VGA screen in its place.


Dismiss autocorrect suggestion without space+backspace+space Sometimes when I'm typing a unique word or proper noun on my phone, Google recommends for it to be autocorrected (I can tell because the word itself is underlined, and out of the suggested replacement words, the middle one is in bold). If I hit space to proceed to the next word, the underlined word (which I don't want changed) is replaced by the bold recommended word. This can be undone by hitting backspace (which reverts the word to what I had originally typed) and then space again (at which point it doesn't attempt to autocorrect).

Is there anyway to keep my word, as originally typed, without having to hit space+backspace+space? On Gboard for my iPhone it will always have my word as currently spelled as a suggested word that I can just touch to maintain. Is there a way to enable this for my Android?

Install a different keyboard like hackerskeyboard.


How can I record the phone screen from the command prompt? I have been trying to record my phone screen (Nexus 5) through command prompt.  I have also downloaded the SDK. For some unknown reason I am unable to open or play the file saved using this script:

$adb shell /sdcard/video.mp4

You can exec this command from the pc

$ adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/video.mp4

Need Android 4.4 (which you should have).

DevBytes: Android 4.4 - Recording App Videos: http://youtu.be/ETzRxxOK_bs


Suddenly unable to install application from SD card I have an HTC wildfire. I am currently developing an application which I am consistently testing on my phone. Since yesterday for some reason I am not able to install any apk of that particular app that I am building.

The usual method of installation I use is download to SD card and then install from there. Other apps get installed with this process but not my app.

The error message - App not installed.

I am able to download and install my app from the market.

I have tried deleting all information from the phone regarding the app i.e cache etc but still doesnt work.

Not sure if the phone has blocked my app ? Can it do that ..?

I did an adb install -r [apk] thanks to the comment by @eldarerathis and I got an install_failed_container_error as the reason for installation failure...

Further searching got me to this link

http://eatingbits.se/articles/2010/11/16/install_failed_container_error-when-installing-an-application-on-android/

The solution being a temp file inside .android_secure folder not getting removed. So once i deleted the file app installed properly. Thanks everyone for helping out!!


No "Encrypt Phone" option on Android 7.0 Samsung Galaxy S7 In order to sell my Samsung Galaxy S7, I want to clear it of all personal data. I did a full factory reset thinking this would do the trick. But, after the full factory rest, I read this online

  ...a security firm has determined returning Android devices to factory
  settings doesn't actually wipe them clean. Security firm Avast
  purchased twenty used Android phones on eBay. Through extraction
  methods, they were able to recover old emails, texts, and even photos.

I then go on to read that a full file based encryption of the phone should make it safe for resale. I plan to fully encrypt the phone with file based encryption and then do another factory reset. However, I cannot find where to encrypt the phone!

I have tried every step-by-step guide I can find online and I simply do not see the "encrypt phone" option.

I've tried from here

  Launch the Settings Application
  Scroll Down and Tap on the ‘Lock Screen and Security’ Option
  Then Tap on the ‘Protect Encrypted Data’ Option

But there's no "Protect Encrypted Data" option!

I tried the answer from this StackExchange question. I went into developer options and there was no “Covert to file encryption” option anywhere on the phone!

In fact, when I search "encrypt" in settings the only thing that comes up is "Encrypt SD Card" (even when developer settings are on).

Thanks to Samsung non standard implementation, OP couldn't factory-reset and encrypt before selling. They couldn't :

Check if the device was encrypted
Locate the option for encryption

Steps advised :

Install minimal adb on your laptop
(Is there a minimal installation of ADB?) and check device encryption status (Is there a way for a user to tell if their Android device is encrypted or not?). Alternatively, install Termux on your device and type getprop ro.crypto.state
Encrypt device from Settings → Lock Screen and security → secure start up → require password (Source)
factory-reset after signing out from Google account, else you will have problems with factory reset protection and buyer will not be able to use your device
Confirm device is encrypted. Decrypt device (to remove lock screen PIN ) and sell :)


How can I export a list of currently installed applications to a file? When switching between ROMs, I've found it helpful to have a list of the applications that I had installed before wiping and flashing the new ROM.

Is there a way to export such a list to a file so I don't have to create one manually?

With a Terminal Emulator app (or via adb shell), you can use the following command to get a list of installed applications:

pm list packages

There are some optional switches for this command that will give you more information, such as the location and name of the APK file as well.  Keep in mind that this command lists both 3rd-party app as well as system ones that came pre-installed on your device.

If you are generating the list for the purpose of re-installing the apps on the new ROM, you might want to look into the AppBrain App Market app.  Once you are signed in with your Google account and synced up, it will save the installed apps as a list that you can view and manage online.  After installing a new ROM, you simply download the AppBrain app from the Market first and use it to re-install other apps from the saved list by doing the following:

Launch AppBrain app.
Select the Manage And Sync option.
Sign in with the same Google account as you did before.
Tap the My lists... button and select the list you've created previously.
Tap the Add all apps button.  This will queue up all of the applications you had installed on the previous ROM for installation.
Go back to the previous screen and tap the Execute changes button which will automatically bring you to the Market page for installing the apps.


MotoG won't proceed after Blue M Screen after Cache Wipe& Factory Reset Ive been using this MotoG for 2 years now.
Recently, all the Apps started to Crash on opening and on Restarting the Phone it would always show the "Optimizing xx Apps of xx" .I then did a factory reset through Settings.

The App crashing problem still persisted after i installed Snapchat,Facebook,WhatsApp. SO i fastbooted the phone and Wiped Cache & Did a factory reset . After rebooting now, it is stuck on the Blue "M" Screen and would restart to the same if i held the Power Button for 7-10 Seconds.

Please Help.

PS: No Rooting Performed. Phone not under Warranty. Unlock Code:0.

So i figured out that the phone was locked and nothing else!
Got the unlock code from the Motorola website (Which wasn't working earlier) and unlocked the phone via mfastboot , then reloaded the stock firmware and the phone is good as new!
Unlock Code:3


Cannot install any APK file due to "Out of Space" misleading error (plenty of space) I know there are tons of questions about this, but I have tried many possible solutions to no avail. I believe the "Out of space" error is misleading...

I have a problem: I cannot install any .apk file no matter what I try... I can install apps using Play Store though.
When I tap on an APK file in any file explorer, Android Package Installer launches. I tap the INSTALL button but I always got the following error:

  Out of space {AnyAPKApp} couldn't be installed. Free up some space and
  try again.

I have plenty of space, but even a tiny 248 KB APK won't install with the same argument...

This is the only problem I have with the ROM and it is very frustrating...
First, the details of my case:

Device: Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime+ SM-G532M, alias Galaxy J2 Prime (Xtreme detects my device as Model Number: SM-G950F)
Android: 6.0.1
ROM: Xtreme Ultimate V6.0 (15.07.2018)
TWRP: 3.0.2-0
Magisk: v17.1
Magisk Manager: 6.0.1 (151)
Storage: Adoptable
Internal storage: 7.02 GB used of 8.00 GB
SD card: 9.09 GB used of 14.70 GB
Root Essentials "View storage used": 9759/15787 MB (62%)
DiskUsage analysis: /system = 2.94 GiB; Free space 1.61 GiB

I've already done my homework and tried all of the following to no avail:

Move all movable apps to SD
Enable Adoptable storage
Wipe Dalvik / ART Cache and Cache partitions with TWRP
Full clean with SD Maid PRO
Force move apps to SD using SD Maid PRO
Uninstall Google Play Services and Google Play Store updates
Overcome unauthorized device issue while using ADB
Trying to install APK using ADB (e.g. adb install someApp.apk). I got: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE]
Delete /data/log contents as suggested here
Attempt to install in Safe Mode
Using Termux and the df command, I got the following output and there is free space in each partition:
Using pm install test.apk in a terminal emulator (Termux) I got [INSTALL_FAILED_INVALID_URI]. Using full path pm install /storage/emulated/0/Download/test.apk I got the same error: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE]

The problem still remains. I think this is not really related to the full storage device error, I have plenty and the error seems misleading. It has to be something else...
I gave as much info as I thought it was useful. If more is needed, just tell me to share it.

I hope you can give me some advice to try to overcome this annoying issue.

P.S. I'll add more attempts to my list as I try them.

What are the permissions on the directories where the software will be installed (and the directories leading up to the installation directory)?

Do the application(s) you are using to install the APK's have the install software right denied?  With LineageOS, this is handled by Privacy Guard.  I use X-plore: try installing it (from Play Store) and see if you can install with it.  With LineageOS, you would be prompted to allow X-plore to install software.  (It may request root privilege too.)  Perhaps you inadvertently denied the privilege earlier to your other programs (though you mention trying with adb)?

My suggestion is to backup and try reformatting the sdcard (or better yet use a new one) with the default filesystem using the built-in system utility.  On my phone, this is handled by System Preferences -> Storage (I believe).  Don't make any further changes, and try to install the APK's.


Can a Nexus 7 connect to an Android 2.2 Wi-Fi tethering access point? I am considering buying a Nexus 7. I would like to occasionally be able to access the internet out and about, but don't want to pay 50% again to get the hspa+ version.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Europa I5500 (a.k.a Samsung Galaxy 5) which allows wi-fi (and USB) tethering to provide my laptop with internet. My question is: would a Nexus 7 16GB Wi-Fi be able to connect to the Android 2.2 access point created by my Galaxy Europa?

If this isn't possible, would USB tethering be an option still?

Thanks,
Chris

I managed to get my hands on one to test this and Wi-Fi tethering between the two worked fine, no apps required.


Where are the 'stock wallpapers' stored on the htc Desire S? I just bought an htc Desire S, which runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).  I can connect to FTP via BLuetooth's OBEX file transfer, or download one of the many file manager apps on the app store.  But one thing is driving me crazy.

When you 'Personalize', you get 'Scene', 'Wallpaper', and 'Skin' as the 2 top options.  I changed my wallpaper, so I clicked on Wallpaper, and selected 'HTC wallpapers'.

For the life of me I can't figure out where on the file system they are stored.  I wish to download them to my PC.  Where are they?

OK, what I ended up doing was using the ASTRO file manager app to access /system/customize/resource on my phone, which seems to have the wallpaper graphics (amongs a load of other stuff).  I copied the wallpaper I wanted to customize to an easy-to-reach place on the SD card (Edit | Copy, then Paste, in ASTRO), and copied it to my PC.  Customized the wallpaper, and then copied it to the sdcard's DCIM directory via a USB cable (you can also use Bluetooth for this).  I set it as my phone's background and it worked!  Yay!

Kudos to the people at xda-developers.

For those interested, I just wanted to have my phone's make/model display as part of the background.  Here's my new background wallpaper:


How do I fix malware installed automatically in the /system directory? I bought a Lyf Flame 7 from Reliance Jio last september. It runs on Android Lollipop. My phone is not rooted and it has never downloaded any other apps from the internet except from the Play Store. Upto October it was working fine. In November I started seeing apps being downloaded automatically. My pre-installed antimalware app reported them to me and I uninstalled those downloaded apps. This happened in a 3 times/week frequency. Last week I found it again and then decided to look for any processes that might be downloading the annoying apps without my permission. It also started showing me pop up ads.

I found out that there's an app called "Wireless Update" and another called "flyee" and "fqad". I googled them and found out that Wireless update is a preinstalled system app in low end smartphones in Asia and it downloads random apps from the internet. I disabled it and found that it doesn't download files anymore. I later went to its settings and also stopped it from using mobile data to download apps automatically and to download only over wifi. I restricted its background data usage. Next morning I found out that there are a load of apps installed in my phone and the ram was totally eaten up. There were apps like a fake whatsapp, PhoneService, U Tobe(with youtube logo), flashlight, two fake phone apps and a lot of other apps. I figured that they were malware and the worst part was that I couldn't delete them. So they somehow managed a way to get root access to my phone and install them in the /system directory. They also started minimizing any apps that I am using.

Some other app also started downloading even more apps, and ads were popping up constantly. I force stopped them and disabled them only to find out most of them are enabled automatically. They were eating up the RAM and battery. I downloaded MalwareBytes and found that there were other apps installed as non-root too so I cleaned them up. But the /system apps couldn't be removed. I disabled downloads from third party and it stated downloading random apps from the play store one by one. To stop this I went into termux and generated a big 1.5 GB text file with random numbers in C++ to stop downloading any more apps. It couldn't download any more apps but then a new pop-up saying "Launcher Loading" came up and I couldn't use my phone. I couldn't open any apps or anything after the lock screen. This morning, I found out that the Launcher Loading pop-up is gone but a new problem came in. It started giving me alerts saying "Unfortunately PhoneService has stopped". And it goes on an endless loop. If for a moment, it's gone, another alert saying "Unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped" and the earlier alert appears. My phone is currently unusable and I cannot even make calls from it. What do I do?
I am in a really serious problem. I tried booting in safe mode but didn't help.

Note: the following method is risky, you might delete core modules and your device will end up in bootloop or not booting at all. Do it at your own risk.

You'll need to root your device and install BusyBox (from Google Play).
Download Minimal ADB and fastboot
Enabled USB debugging
Install USB drivers

Open Minimal ADB and Fastboot tape the following :

adb shell
su
mount -o remount, rw /system
cd /system/app
ls (list all installed apps)

or even better:
 lsattr (display all installed apps with their attributes).

Then using the rm command, delete any suspicious app, like following :
rm com.exemple.malware.apk (tape the exact name displayed with ls command).

You may encounter some apps that refuse to be deleted with the rm command :

First check their attributes with lsattr + com.app_name.apk
i.e: -i-a--A com.app_name.apk
Then remove those attributes with chattr -iaA + com.app_name.apk
i.e: chattr -iaA com.app_name.apk

Finally you'll be able to remove them.

PS: Disable WiFi or data connection while doing this.

You can post the output of installed apps here, and we'll check out what to remove or not.


How to access other partitions from android-x86 on dual boot with ubuntu-16.04 I have android-x86 along side ubuntu-16.04 I have installed android in a 16GB partition in my harddrive. I was wondering if it is possible to access other partitions from android as it just shows nothing in the files app. It would be pointless because all my pictures videos or other files are in those others partitions. I am not an expert so please let me know if additional information is needed.

Yes, you can!
If you are new on Linux, it could be a little tricky.
Open terminal (if you don't have, install one), type:

su
mkdir /storage/windows
ntfs-3g /dev/block/sdaX /storage/windows

where X is the partition that you want to mount.


I installed a nightly or unstable build of a custom ROM and now my phone doesn't work I installed a nightly build, but now some important features of my phone don't work: it boot-loops, or can't make calls, or can't use mobile data, or something like that. What can I do about it?

  N.B. This is a "canonical question" for all similar questions, because questions about specific bugs in one particular nightly build of a ROM are way too specific to have any long-term value. See this meta question to learn why this question was created, and why your particular question about nightly builds might have been closed as a duplicate of this one.

As our cyanogenmod tag wiki explains:

Nightly builds are created each day, and represent a snapshot of development, with minimal testing and quality control. They often have missing features or critical defects, changing from one day to the next, and are not recommended for everyday use. If you ask a question here about unusual behaviour in a nightly CM build, we'll probably suggest you switch to a more stable ROM. Experimental builds are the same as nightlies, but are one-off special builds outside of the nightly routine.

That quote had a lot of words, so let's repeat the crucial bit.
If you want to use your phone, do not install a nightly build.
If you already ignored that recommendation and installed a nightly build, and your phone doesn't work, stop using the nightly build. Reinstall the latest stable, release candidate, or milestone build for your phone, or the stock ROM for your phone. If that means going to an older Android version, you probably need to wipe userdata (i.e. factory reset) at the same time.
If you don't know where to find a stable version of the custom ROM, or the stock ROM, check out Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? The exact steps to install a ROM are different for each phone, but if you already installed a custom ROM, you probably already know how to do it for your phone. If not, just search this site with your phone model, and you'll probably find step-by-step instructions.
You should probably also report the bug to the developers. They might not be interested if it really is a nightly build. ROM developers don't expect the nightly build to work. But if it's an experimental, unstable, milestone, or release candidate build they probably will want to know. If the ROM in question is an official LineageOS port, you can report a bug using their Jira bug tracker. More information about their bug reporting process can be found on the LineageOS wiki. If it's an unofficial Lineage port, or different custom ROM, you probably need to contact the developer directly, or check the forum post you got it from.
In particular, if you installed a nightly build and it broke something, this site is not a good source of help. Generally, the only fix for the problem is to install a different (working) ROM build, so that's all we'll ever tell you to do. If there's some workaround for the bug, maybe only the ROM developer knows it, and the best place to get their advice is by the means above: the bug tracker, or whatever forum they hang out at.
Maybe you installed the nightly and it actually broke your phone hardware, or installed a new bootloader that can't flash images any more. If that happened, tough cookies. You played the lottery, you lost. Nightly builds can do all these things to brick your phone, and more. That's why even the ROM developers advise you not to install them unless you're willing to take that risk.
If there's only a nightly or unstable build for your device, you might read Why isn't there a Cyanogenmod stable ROM for my device? to learn about why porting ROMs is hard, and what you can do to help accelerate development of a stable, usable ROM for your device. But until then, you'll have to either stick with a different ROM, or just take the lottery of not knowing whether tonight's upgrade will finally be the one that bricks it.