Does Android 8 has journaling enabled in its ext4 files sytem? Android 8 uses stackable file sytem called sdcardfs, which emulates FAT32 on ext4 on the data partition. Does sdcardfs recognize the ext4 file system and journaling?
In other words, files written using sdcardfs has journal history information created?

On Android 8 it's not clear how the journaling works e.g. can it be used to recover data? Is the new data written to empty fresh areas or first the deleted areas are used?

Does Android 8 has journaling enabled in its ext4 files system?

It depends on a few factors. OEMs can possibly disable journaling e.g. on system partition as it's always supposed to be used R/O. These days ext4 and f2fs are commonly used filesystems on Android, so first make sure you have ext4 on userdata partition. f2fs is by-origin a log-structured filesystem which is a circular buffer, that's what a journal is but the functionality differs.

Filesystems are part of Linux kernel, not Android (AOSP) itself. ext4 by default is created with journal, though it depends on mke2fs.conf, and can be disabled with mke2fs or tune2fs option -O ^has_journal.  Journaling support can be checked from filesystem features by executing tune2fs -l /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata | grep has_journal (or use dm-0 block device if userdata has FDE) but it requires root. As alternate if mount | grep 'on /data' shows data={journal|ordered|writeback} option then journal is enabled for sure.

  Does sdcardfs recognize the ext4 file system and journaling?

sdcardfs itself doesn't have a journal, but since emulated filesystem is stacked over /data/media (which is ext4), the files created through sdcardfs are recorded in underlying filesystem's journal.

  On Android 8 it's not clear how the journaling works e.g. can it be used to recover data?

Yes definitely, if you have root already and the data isn't overwritten. We have tools like extundelete which are very effective. But do consider factors like TRIM and others described below and in given links.

  Is the new data written to empty fresh areas or first the deleted areas are used?

Well that's a different question, again it has nothing to do with Android. The question is how often a filesystem overwrites deleted data blocks and it's not simple to answer. Create a new ext4 filesystem, create a file foo inside it and delete it. Create new file bar and it will take the inode block and data blocks freed by foo. Delete bar and create file baz, it will occupy the same space. However in actual things are complicated. Will the data blocks of deleted file be immediately overwritten or not depends on whats the size of new file is, how much fragmented your filesystem is, how much free LBAs you have before the logical location of deleted file etc.

PS:
Things are different on f2fs, it's the Flash Friendly FileSystem, so as a wear-leveling strategy it preferably writes data to new empty blocks (free segments), so that FTL doesn't have to Erase cells, trying to reduce the E/P counts on flash memory. Later it does background garbage collection (GC) synchronized with FTL to release LBAs corresponding to deleted data. But the tools like debugfs aren't readily available for f2fs to explore deleted inodes and to lookup corresponding data blocks from journal. So from data recovery's view, f2fs isn't very friendly (AFAIK and experienced).

RELATED: What Makes Recovery of Deleted Data Difficult / Impossible?


What do these terms stand for on my HTC RUU I've been tinkering around lately with my HTC desire 510 and I feel like if someone doesn't shed a bit of light on this for me I'll be going around in circles.

I'm looking at stock ROM's for my HTC. I found a massive amount of them and I want to figure out what the following terms mean/stand for on them:

-A11, A11U, A11UL, A11CHL ?

-K44, K443 ?

-SENSE60 ?

-0PCVIMG

As an example I'm looking at the following ROM update utility:

  RUU_A11_UL_K443_DESIRE_SENSE60_HTC_Europe_1.51.401.1_Radio_01.02.012_U10251_39.08.40922_release_398419_signed.EXE

A11_UL is the product number for a specific hardware variant of the Desire 510.  Other examples include HIMA_UL for the m9, M7_UL for the m7, M7C_DWG for the China version, etc.

K443 is the version of software (in this case KitKat, Android version 4.4.3). Other codes you'll see here are L50 (Lollipop 5.0), JB (Jellybean), etc.

SENSE60 means it has v6.0 of Sense, HTC's custom launcher.  I've also seen SENSE55, SENSE50, etc.

Other things indicate the carrier that the ROM was customized for, radio version contained in the RUU, etc.


Must I unpair one device from another in bluetooth? My PC and 2 computers can detect bluetooth device. The device  is already paired with one of my smartphone.

The other smartphone cannot see my bluetooth device. Is this normal?

So once a headphone is paired with a cellphone, I need to unpair that headphone before I can use it on other smart phone?

What about if I no longer have access to the original smart phone (say I factory reset the phone). What would happen?

I unpair one of my headset. Now it shows up on my other cellphone. I paired with one and now it's not seen again. It's as if paired headset is invisible.

Update, I cannot pair my headset with one phone if it's paired to another. If I unpair from a previous phone, I can pair it with another phone.

The other smartphone cannot see my bluetooth device. Is this normal?

A phone that isn't already paired can only see the device while the device is discoverable. This is a special mode you put the device into (usually with a button or combination of buttons on the device). The manual for the device probably describes this as part of the pairing procedure. If you repeat this procedure, your new phone should be able to pair just fine.

  So once a headphone is paired with a cellphone, I need to unpair that headphone before I can use it on other smart phone?

Not usually. The pairing process just allows the two devices to swap special data (encryption keys) to allow them to recognise each other in future. After pairing, both devices remember the key. It's no different from saving the key for a Wi-Fi network in your phone, except it works both ways.

While phones can remember lots of pairings (and show you a list of paired devices), devices like headsets are a lot simpler, and can only remember a few. Exactly how many is different from headset to headset. Once it's reached this limit, most likely pairing a new phone with the headset just makes it forget the first phone you paired. Unpairing just means forgetting the key: it's something either side (the phone or the headset) can do without the co-operation of the other side.

  What about if I no longer have access to the original smart phone (say I factory reset the phone). What would happen?

Nothing happens, just like if you lose or factory reset the phone after giving it the key to your Wi-Fi network. Your headset will still remember its half of the key, but that half won't do anything any more. If you pair the headset with enough other phones, it'll probably overwrite that key with a newer one eventually.


What are the radio band present in the hidden phone menu? Not locked to it or anything (plenty of efs backups) just wondering what differences there are between say, the US band and the Cellular 800 band.

The difference is in the range of frequencies that each carrier use. The usage of these frequencies is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

  The usage of the different frequency bands varies around the globe
  although there is a large degree of standardisation. The GSM
  frequencies available depend upon the regulatory requirements for the
  particular country and the ITU (International Telecommunications
  Union) region in which the country is located.

For instance, in North America the USA uses both 850 and 1900 MHz bands, the actual
 band used is determined by the regulatory authorities and is dependent
upon the area.

Since spectrum is a finite resource, the FCC distributes spectrum licenses geographically into a number of areas, and mobile operators must bid on each area individually. A license owner can use any technology within the licensed area and frequency range subject only to the band rules defining the limits.

Here are the  charts that includes the 3G, 4G (LTE) network technologies, bands, and frequencies of all five major U.S. carriers:

NB: bandwidth — refer to the range of frequencies that can be contained within a signal.

For more information read here and here

Acknowledgements

Smartphone bands explained


Samsung Galaxy Ace - Disconnects from some networks I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830L with Android 2.3.4, with factory ROM. It works pretty well with most WEP/WPA2 wifi hotspots. When I try to connect to an open one, no matter the signal intensity, it connects for a couple of seconds then disconnects and keeps doing so. I can't state for a fact that this is only restricted to open hotspots but so far thats the pattern I have identified.

I have heard that Galaxy phones have some wireless issues but I'm not sure how to deal with mine.

Any ideas?

This might be related to: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/20921/why-smartphone-disconnects-from-certain-hotspots-sometimes

I think I can guess what is happening. When I first started using free hotspots I was connecting with no problem and often they will have a logon screen to insert the locale password.  Some places however like hotels seem to give free access for a limited time or for first use without logging in and then later they will expect you to register. When I have returned to these places a second time I find that the phone finds the network and claims to be connected but every use returns a network error or appears to connect and get cut off. In fact I am getting rerouted to their logon page, only it seems to often only open in background in gingerbread so you don't know it is happening. After fiddling around you can sometimes get the logon page to show and then register. Often I can only do this by attempting a google search. Google somehow seems to know to route via the logon pages whereas other apps play ignorant.


Does `adb install` do APK signature verification? When using adb install something.apk, does the Android Package Manager verify the signature of the APK? adb install seems to bring up nothing up on the phone's screen, so it's hard for me to know if it does.

I like the idea of using APK mirror websites to download APK files with a phone that does not have Google Play Services, but because I can't trust any of those APK mirror websites, I want to make sure that the app's data is not at risk if using adb install when upgrading to a new APK version.

A couple of questions:

If adb install does do signature verification, what does it do if the signature does not match? Does it fail the install, pop up a question on the phone's screen, or automatically erase the app's existing data?
What if using the -r option with adb install?
If I use adb uninstall -k before installing the app upgrade, does signature verification occur from the previous installation before the old app data will be shared with the new install?
Bonus: We have the option adb install -l, where -l stands for "forward-lock the app". What does this "forward-lock" mean, and does it have anything to do with signature verification and app data access?

You are correct adb install verifies the signature of the app.

If the app has not been installed on the device before the package manager can only verify that the app has been signed - who has signed the app can't be verified by the package manager.

Only if you install an update for an app that has already been installed before the package manager can check if the signature of the new app matches the already installed app. In case the "update.apk" to be installed has a different signature you will get an error message after executing adb install like

  signatures do not match the previously installed version

I am not sure if this also happens in case you have installed the old app before using adb uninstall -k. I would assume (but have never tested it) that the signature is also checked and compared and only an apk with a matching signature can be installed. Otherwise you could get access to any app-private data on your phone by replacing the app with a custom app. This would be a serious security vulnerability.

If you additionally want to verify your downloaded apk files you can use apksigner which is included in the Android SDK. The necessary steps are described in this answer I wrote some time ago. Especially the verification of the publisher (check what other apps have been signed by the same entity) using androidobservatory.org and apkmirror.com may be of interest to you.

forward-lock in my understanding is if you want to pin an app to the current device firmware version, hence mark an app as potentially not compatible with future Android versions.


Android USB reverse tethering: How to fool the apps USB reverse tethering = Cellphone gets network connection from PC via USB.

I know how to do USB reverse tethering except for one problem: Many Android apps will check network connection using the code below before doing any useful work:

ConnectivityManager connectivityManager = (ConnectivityManager)context.getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
NetworkInfo info = connectivityManager.getActiveNetworkInfo();

The problem is that, when using USB reverse tethering, the above code will report no network connection. However, there IS a network connection (which is the USB reverse tethering itself), and ping, wget and all programs not doing this stupid check work well.

So the question is: How can I hack the system to let this network connection check return success (so that I can fool these apps)?

BTW. I use Cyanogenmod 7. And any solution specific to this MOD is also welcome.

I'd say that there are only Mod specific solutions. Nearly every App that I know uses this Android API, and therefore the code snipped in your questions, for network connectivity checks.

One would need to change the Cyanogen source so that the OS (Android+Cyanogen) is aware of the USB reverse tethering network connectivity and returns the right information to app requesting the current network state. I don't believe that this can be done with some artificial layer between the API and the app that "fools" the app into this. It's more realistic that Cyanogen implements the handling of reverse tethering by imitating an active WiFi connection. You should ask them to address this topic.
Maybe in the future Android has official support for reverse tethering. :)


Setup VPN access through SSH I have a Samsung S4 with last kitkat update. I would like to set it up so that I can access my University services. For that, when I use my laptop, I just set up a ssh tunnel like:

ssh -D 8081 -f -C -q -N work_machine.edu

I wonder if this can be done in android and how, or if there is any app for doing this. I had a look to some VPN apps but found anything useful.

The command you typed just does dynamic port forwarding through SSH connection. That's equivalent to SOCKS5 proxy. But you need to redirect your traffic towards this tunnel using VPN or iptables. Latter requires root access.

One such free and open-source app which makes use of VPN is SocksDroid. SSH tunnel can be created using some GUI or CLI app like Termux. For more options see How to set up a socks5 with Android cli?


Is it possible to improve word suggestions? I used to use the "swiftkey" app for writing, and was very pleased with the suggestions they generated. I have now changed to 8pen "keyboard" instead I'm very pleased but miss the good autocompletes, is there someway to improve the autocompletes without using swiftkey? Changing suggestion engine, importing language from facebook etc. My phone is rooted

Swiftkey have an article on this although it's a little vague, it's seems more like they are describing how to use entirely different keyboards here:

  I want to use a different keyboard, how do I switch?

  Press and hold in any text field to bring up the pop-up text menu and
  choose Input Method. Here you can choose other keyboard types,
  including the default Android Keyboard.

  On devices running Android 4.0 and later, whenever the keyboard is on
  screen you should see a notification in the notification bar that will
  take you to the input method selection screen when clicked.


Do Samsung tablets have the same USB connector as Apple's iPad? It seems that the USB cable for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (and other Samsung tablets) looks like the one used for Apple's iPad or iPhone.

Is it the same?

No.

Apple's older iOS lineup and Samsung's Android tablets have a similar looking but different connector.

You can't interchange them.

And besides this: Apple's new ligthning plug clearly only works with iOS devices (iPhone 5 and iPad 4/mini and better). The available lightning-adapters also only work with iOS devices.


Manually Rooting with AOSP this is my first post here. I hope there is someone to answer my question.
First, I want to understand Android OS better not just copy some files and be finished.

I am attempting to root my Nexus 6 beginning with compiling Android for it. I was able to compile and upload all necessary images. Now I would like to root the AOSP configuration for shamu.

Currently I am able to access ADB root by replacing the boot.img with root access but how do I do a proper Android Root and not ADB root.

SuperSu: How to install it properly from ADB for Nexus 6 and which version!

Thanks in advance!

Generally speaking, you want the appropriate su binary to be executable from the PATH, such as putting it in /system/xbin.  What version you use is up to you, but if you're using SuperSU then use the binary that comes in its flash package (https://download.chainfire.eu/396/supersu/).


How can I enable Android Debugging from a root shell on the phone? I have a root shell on the phone.
However, no adb service seems running, i.e. the port 5555 is on the device not open1:
$ telnet 1.2.3.4 5555
Trying 1.2.3.4...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

I.e. something what should listen on adb connections, does not run on my Android.
Can I somehow start it from a root shell (on the Android)?
I have Android 10.
1Telnet only serves here port testing purpose, obviously adbd will be connected by adb.

Run:
settings put global adb_enabled 1

You can also start adbd service by executing start adbd or setprop ctl.start adbd. But I prefer the settings way because it properly goes through Android framework.
PS:
For clarification, adbd listens on port 5555 only if ADB over Network is enabled (from Developer Options, or by running setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555 on device, or by running adb tcpip 5555 on PC). In USB mode (which can be switched to by running adb usb on PC) adbd is not listening on any network port. Some more related details in this answer.


Where does go sms store pictures I use go sms on my L34c phone.  When I download attached pictures from a message it shows /storage/emulated/0/gosms/download/
I cannot find that on either internal stoarage or my sd card
Please help me find thw downloaded pics.  Thanks

/storage/emulated/0 is the path your device uses to reference your storage space. So if you are browsing the storage/SD card, you can simply look for the gosms folder directly.


realme X50 5G - Restarting Each Night At ~3:00 AM I'm currently using a realme X50 5G (European Edition) to tether my internet.
I've come across an annoying issue where each night at around 3:00 AM the phone seems to restart or do something that means USB tethering gets disabled.
The phone won't automatically USB tether, even with the developer settings set to do USB tethering by default.
I've also tried using Automate to both automatically tether when USB is connected (which works) and also to try and turn tethering on at 3:10 AM. That last one doesn't seem to work, I feel like the phone needs unlocking (even though I disabled the lock) before it works. Automate is allowed to start up and run in the background etc.
Yes, I've checked that auto restarting isn't enabled etc.
Please help!

So this isn't really a fix, but it's a work-around that seems to stop the device from restarting in the early morning.
I'm using the "Automate" app to keep the CPU and screen alive. There are community flows that do just this if you search, or you can easily make it yourself.
What I don't know that I'll test tonight is if I can let the screen turn off, but keep the CPU awake. I'll report back how that goes as I'd rather not keep the screen on, even if it's super dim.


"Parental Control" app or setting for work I'm searching for an app or settings that will allow only 2 applications to be used on an android tablet.

They would use android and a web dashboard on chrome, on chrome they would get a certain link automatically loaded and I would try to make it impossible to go to other pages.

I want to only allow those two apps to be used.

I've looked in to kiosk mode ( but thats single app usage)
I've tried COSU but that also not a solution.
And parental control apps, but they show advertisement which I can't allow on the work floor.

Well there is no such kind of application for parenting control for Android. There are a lot in different applications in Play Store but doesn’t seem anything akin to your requisite.

You can endeavor NORTON FAMILY PREMIER and check if that’s worth.


Listen to YouTube on Firefox in the background On some pages I found the advice, that I could let YouTube videos play in the background when using Firefox for Android. And it works with the video in the article, but not on YouTube.com. Unlike suggested in this reddit post, it also happens on Firefox beta and is not connected to the bug referenced there.

Is this a restriction by YouTube and if, is there a way to circumvent it?

Check this article to fix it:

 Fix Firefox's YouTube Background Playback Feature on Android

(I found this related news from the page shared in the question.)

I use Firefox Beta and for me it works perfectly.


A specific app works fine with tablet owner account, but crashes for other users I've played Modern War on the owner account on my Nexus 7. It opens and works fine. But when I go to another user account and try to open the app it goes halfway through the upload then Force Closes. I've done it with two more user accounts and the same thing happens. The only account where opens is the owner account. Does anybody know why this is happening? (I figured if it was separate space and storage it should be like having two phones.)

I've just run into this issue on my Nexus 7, too.  Any account other than the admin causes my app to crash.

What I've discovered so far is that with my app, there is a permissions issue when it tries to access the game database. I receive this:

  java.io.FileNotFoundException... open failed: EACCESS (Permission denied).

That database is stored in the data/data/{package name} directory... So it looks like secondary users may not have rights to access the data/ directory.  I'll try to remember to let you know if I find a resolution or find anything else that is useful.


Set default texting application of Google Assistant Is it possible to make Google Assistant to use a custom application (e.g WhatsApp) instead of SMS when I say "Tell Steve I'll see you in 30 minutes"?

Google Assistant recognizes commands for WhatsApp, such as “OK Google, send a Whatsapp message to [contact].” It will then prompt you for a message to send. You can't set a default texting app because Google recognizes "send a text/message to [contact]" as a command to send an SMS.

With an app like IFTTT you may be able to set a custom voice command to send a message if you do not like the default one from Google. However, as of now, I have not found a custom applet for WhatsApp messaging, but if you are looking for this functionality for other apps as well, such as Telegram, there are applets on IFFTT that will help you.


Unable to play some multimedia I have a P30 lite. When trying to play a video from YouTube (app and web), the video open, but just keeps spinning, and eventually it just freezes. I've tried both with a without WiFi.
I am unable to play videos saved on my device, and neither am I able to play videos sent to me on whatapp, nor audio clips. I am able to play voice notes though.
I've restarted my device, and I've tried logging out of YouTube, reinstalling YouTube as well as trying to use an incognito tab in chrome.
Bar reinstalling my phone, what can I attempt to fix this?

After two days, the media started working again. It's very possibly that (as @alecxs said), there was an update done in the background that broke something, and then another one that fixed it.
Unfortunately I am unable to give a concrete solution as to how to fix this issue if this happens with anyone else.


How can I enable calling over Wifi for a T-Mobile based Moto X? T-Mobile allows for unlimited calling when I'm tethered over Wifi, on my old Blackberry Bold this was called "UMT" or something like that  (it would appear in the status bar).

Since I still have poor reception I rely on wifi calling to get signal in the basement of my house.

How can I enable this T-Mobile specific (and no it's not Skype) wifi calling to work over a standard Wifi connection?

The Moto X does not support T-Mobile's WiFi calling. Customer support reps have stated that this is because it is not a carrier branded device, meaning they have not modified the system ROM to add this feature:

  The Moto X does work on our network but because it is not a T-Mobile branded device we do not support WiFi Calling on it.

You'll either need to set up some other VoIP service or get a different phone that supports this.


Verifying Wallet Information I had my first Google play account for a little under a year and I made a few purchases and and long story short, those purchases got refunded so now my account won't let me buy anything without veryfying my wallet information. Well, I do not have that card anymore and I can't verify without it. I got a new phone and logged into my old account simply to link my contacts, pics, calendar info, etc. I then logged into my new account and tried to buy one small in-app purchase which was denied because my wallet info wasn't verified. I'm confused because this is a new account and I haven't bought anything so how could my wallet info need to be verified if their shouldn't be anything in the wallet?

Sounds like you need to update your Google Play Account and remove the old credit card.  From your phone hit Google Play store app, go to your account, go add a payment method, or edit an existing one. Once there delete the old card and add the new one.


Why does google maps need WiFi? Sometimes google maps gives a notification that goes something like:

"for increased accuracy please turn on the Wifi"

I can understand if it said "For faster loading of map layers....", but how can a better internet connection result in increased accuracy by the GPS?

You might be interested in Assisted GPS

  Assistance falls into two categories:

  Information used to more quickly acquire satellites

  It can supply orbital data or almanac for the GPS satellites to the
  GPS receiver, enabling the GPS receiver to lock to the satellites
  more rapidly in some cases.
  The network can provide precise time.
  The device captures a snapshot of the GPS signal, with approximate time,
  for the server to later process into a position.
  Accurate, surveyed coordinates for the cell site towers allow better
  knowledge of local ionospheric conditions and other conditions
  affecting the GPS signal than the GPS receiver alone, enabling more precise
  calculation of position. (See also Wide Area Augmentation System and
  CellHunter.)

  Calculation of position by the server using information from the GPS
  receiver

  The assistance server has a good satellite signal, and plentiful
  computation power, so it can compare
  fragmentary signals relayed to it by
  GPS receivers, with the satellite
  signal it receives directly, and then
  inform the GPS receiver or emergency
  services of the GPS receiver's
  position.

  Many mobile phones combine A-GPS and
  other location services including
  Wi-Fi Positioning System and cell-site
  triangulation and sometimes a hybrid
  positioning system.[4]


Restore local WhatsApp backup after factory reset The phone is a Samsung J7 Prime. Lately, the memory was getting full and this ended up in causing Google Play Services to stop working and crashed Google Play Store which was not available anymore. Tried cleaning and increasing the available memory and following Google guides to get back to normal to no avail. Last resort was to factory reset. I made sure to use Samsung Smart Switch and Cloud Backup after doing a local WhatsApp backup since Google Drive wasn't accessible anymore. After the reset, the shock was that the local WhatsApp backup files were all gone. Tried using several recovery software but all failed to see the deleted backup files or any deleted file for that matter. I also read that file recovery needs rooting which is not something I'm keen on doing this as the phone is not mine. What are my options at this stage and is there any possibility to get back the deleted backup files? This happened yesterday late evening and the phone hasn't been used much since.
P.S. Samsung Cloud Storage sucks as it requires 2FA and to sign in requires an SMS which is not being received (that's another issue that I'm not addressing here) and I'm not even sure if the backup files were copied to this storage in the first place.

The only available options at this point are restoring any last backup from google drive or rooting(which needs unlocked bootloader) your phone to recover files.


Will fastboot not proceed with flashing if battery level is below certain percentage? I'm trying to re-install Clockwork recovery mod (tl;dr: Android 2.3.1+ will reinstall stock recovery on every boot if it's not present).

I had installed it successfully yesterday, but today it does not go beyond

C:\android>tools\fastboot.exe flash recovery NexusS\kernel\recovery-clockwork-3.0.0.5-crespo.img
< waiting for device >

The only difference would be that today the battery level is low ( currently at 20% and charging).

So does fastboot require the battery to be over a set level ?

Turns out I was not in fastboot mode :| (yes, terrible mistake). I was able to flash after getting into fastboot mode.


How to disable GPU rendering on Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8" You're reading it right, I'm trying to do the oposite as others. I want to use CPU for rendering.
The reason is simple. My tablet is freezing very frequently. I have no warranty, so I'm trying to solve problem by lowering performance of device.
I isolated a problem and I'm sure freezing is caused by GPU. It freezes on gfx intese moments(few seconds of video playback), or on overlay (Eg. opening search dialog in google play causes almost instant freeze).
So the question stands:
How can I disable GPU rendering on my device(I have terminal with root access if it helps)?
What I already tried:
1. Underclocking CPU has no effect on freezing. I tried powersave mode with 200MHz, with no impact on problem.
2. Underclocking GPU has also no effect on freezing.

After failing to avoid freezing by SW settings, I resorted to last resort: Baking motherboard. :)
Result: Device is bricked. It wont even start. I will buy a new motherboard.


Why is my battery low only a few hours after charging? Twice recently I have charged my Samsung Galaxy Ace at night and when the phone indicates it's fully charged I unplug the charger only to be woken a couple of hours later thinking I have a text come through to find a message saying the battery is very low and needs charging. It hasn't happened any other time. It's about 18 months old and generally I get a good days use out of it. How can it suddenly go from being fully charged to empty in a couple of hours without even being used?

You almost certainly have a rogue app, which a reboot usually fixes. However, in the long run it would be best to discover the app(s) that cause your battery issues so it does not catch you off guard when you really need you device to retain it's charge.

First, you will need some idea of how apps use the battery. All apps use the battery (to varying degrees) while they are active (i.e. when you are actively using them), but some apps also consume your battery even when they are not active. There are many reasons for this, but the most common is that they need to perform some action, such are checking for new email. These tasks are performed by services (belonging to the app), which run in the background. In order to be able to do their tasks when the device is sleeping (i.e. when the screen is turned off), these services use "wakelocks". For background tasks, apps use "partial wakelocks"; which basically means the processor wakes up, but the screen remains off.

In a perfect world, an app would request a wakelock, perform it's task, and then release the wakelock; this happens quite frequently and only lasts for a very short period of time (milliseconds to seconds). The battery cost of these operations are generally quite low, and their benefits far outweigh this cost.

As for discovering your rogue app, the standard battery status provides a good starting point, but you will need to use a 3rd party app that can show you the wakelocks used by each app. In particular I find Wake lock detector very useful. It is free and can display both full and partial wakelocks. The app will basically show you the amount of time for which wakelocks have been active per application (or service). When you have a rogue app, it is usually very easy to spot as it will have unusually high usage compared to the others.

You mention that maps shows up in your battery usage; this happens because many applications that request your current location pass this request on to the maps app (it's location service), which performs the action and provides your location to the app requesting it. This is very normal, and usually nothing to be concerned with. Some apps can however issue the location request too frequently - which would have an adverse affect on your battery. Most decent apps provide a setting for the frequency they perform these update requests.


I have 2 s7 from market but systems are messed up Can someone link me where I can download the Android latest system  os file to download to SD  card so I can reinstall phone os system from phone update boot screen thanks I got 2 x s7 but there got some dodgy apps installed to system that can't be uninstalled cheers

Well, there's 2 things to consider:

it would be simpler to uninstall those troublesome apps. I believe you tried uninstalling those apps as a "regular user." If those apps have been marked as "system apps," you will need "root privileges" to uninstall them. First you will need to "root" your phone, and there are different ways to do that. Once that's done, you can find an app that uninstalls "bloatware" and/or "system apps." That route has always worked for me.
if you really want to reinstall Android to have a clean slate, what you are looking for is called a ROM. There are many out there, and it needs to have been made specifically for your phone. Some are just plain Android, some have a "design philosophy" or a "purpose." Once you figure out how to flash a new ROM, you can go and try different ones until you find one you like.


locate lost phone with help from gps and web based google play Phone lost but access to google play through web interface.
Is there any app that will send GPS position right upon installation,
or send the phone position to the gmail account installed on the phone (also remotely available of course).

There's the app "Plan B" but only for android 2.0-2.3.

Regards,

If you have enabled Android Device Manager as administrator

You can either use the mobile app on another phone to track it or use this link:
https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager


Where I can find files with language on android custom rom I have custom rom MIUI 4.7.23 default language is Chinese. I can't set to other language because I am on first setup. I don't know Chinese and can't skip this welcome screen. I want to change or add Polish language but this is not possible it can be English version I can't find this as global version of this rom.

The structure of .zip file is META-INF/, system/, boot.img, logo.bin

I suppose there is .xml file if it is?

The first I know this is welcome MIUI I click on the one button something like next by intuition

The 2nd is WLAN I switch it off click something like next in Chinese

Own answer but no solution related to this question

Think too fast asked question

Ok I found it!!!

but this not the answer on this question because this isn't related to file with language but is very helpful I also changed language to English in settings by luck :)

I did this:

(I type in English because I changed the language on it)
Just remove SIM card and by intuition press next and turn off 2 switches and had something Chinese text with !

Clicked Settings blue gear icon
the tab on the right (this is general settings) there are 2 tabs
icon with keyboard is the language! press it
next press the first button and change to English for example :)

But I can't take screenshots of phone :|


Gmail doesn't show mail when opened from notification bar When I get a new mail on my Gmail and it appears on then notification bar and I click on it, the Gmail app starts and show the following only:

Click image for larger version

I waited for 9 hours, nothing changed.

For a test, I clicked on a random white area and the Reply function was activated!

So it seems, the mail was long open but the progressbar never disappears. If I press Back and open it inside the app, it shows the letter with no problem.

What could cause this?

This appears to be a bug in the GMail app. I have seen this myself a few times and normally clicking the '<' arrow in the top left and opening the email again sorts it. Other times I have to kill the app and re-launch it.


Bootloop and inaccessible to fastboot /adb So I wished to flash TWRP on my Gionee A1 (Nougat) and it couldn't mount my system partitions and reboots recovery repeatedly.
Reading somewhere cwm solves this, I did a grave mistake of flashing CWM of another device model onto mine (as I couldn't find one for mine)
After flashing, the phone is in bootloop and I can't access recovery/fastboot. Tried many methods but in vain. Pls help.

Please attach your phone to adb installed pc using usb cable. Find terminal or command prompt. And run the following command 'adb reboot recovery'


How to install clockworkmod recovery on Asus memopad 8 me181c? How to install clockworkmod recovery on Asus memopad 8 me181c? or Can't I?
My device was rooting.
Clockworkmod doesn't support Asus memopad 8 me181c, but Have the people of the volunteer made clockworkmod for my device?
I searched how to install, but I haven't found how to install it.

I can't speak English well. If you can't understand this post, I don't mind asking me.

I  found this thread on XDA Developers. But it a tethered recovery. Read carefully before attempting to do anything.


How do I stop Archos Video Player treating some television shows as movies? When Archos Video Player scans the "Television" folder on my microSD card it treats some of the shows as television shows but some of them as movies. As a result, it tries to (badly) to match the titles to movies and then ends up displaying them in the "Movies" section of the app instead of the "Television" section.

How can I get it to treat everything in the "Television" folder on my microSD card as a television show?

Further details

My folder structure on the microSD card is as follows:

Movies/Title (year)/Title (year).m4v
Television/Show/Season X/Show - S0XE0Y - Title.m4v

One example is Postman Pat- Special Delivery Service/Season 1/Postman Pat- Special Delivery Service - S01E20 - A Surprise.m4v which is treated as a movie and displayed in the "Movies" tab as Dreamship Surprise - Period 1. I would expect it to be shown in the "Television" tab, as it should be.

This misidentification of TV shows is not limited to specific shows, seasons or episodes. It doesn't appear to matter if you have complete MP4 metadata or none.

After further digging, it turns out that if the video file has the ©nam atom populated, Archos Video Player will consider the file to be a movie and use that value to search TMDb.

In the example I provided, the video file had the value A Surprise which was the name of the episode. Since the app incorrectly treated it as a movie, it performed a search for A Surprise on TMDb and the first result was Dreamship Surprise - Period 1.

To add further confusion, if there are no results from TMDb then Archos Video Player resorts to (correctly) treating it as a TV show. As a result, it can look quite random as to whether or not a video file is considered a TV show or not!

Should you need to force Archos Video Player to treat certain video files as a TV show, then you need to remove this value.

To do this:

On Windows, right click on the file, select Properties then the Details tab and ensure that the field called Title is empty
On Linux, install AtomicParsley and run AtomicParsley filename.m4v --title "" --overWrite

Once you've done this, the video file will now be correctly treated as a
TV show.


TWRP, Updater processes ended with ERROR: 7 Whenever I try to flash Lineage OS with TWRP v 3.2.1-0, I'm getting

Updater processes ended with ERROR: 7
Error installing zip file '/sdcard/...n1awifi-signed.zip

When I check my recovery.log

Skipping Digest check: no Digest file found
I:Update binary zip
I:Zip does not contain SELinux file_contexts file in its root.
I:has_legacy_properties: Found legacy property match!
I:Legacy property environment initialized.
Target: samsung/lt03wifiue/lt03wifiue:5.1.1/LMY47X/P600UEUDOK1:user/release-keys
Target: samsung/lt03wifiue/lt03wifiue:5.1.1/LMY47X/P600UEUDOK1:user/release-keys
detected filesystem ext4 for /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc.0/by-name/SYSTEM
detected filesystem ext4 for /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc.0/by-name/SYSTEM
about to run program [/tmp/install/bin/backuptool.sh] with 2 args
Not backing up files from incompatible version: 14.1
run_program: child exited with status 127
about to run program [/tmp/install/bin/otasigcheck.sh] with 1 args
You have an installed system that isn't signed with this build's key, aborting...
run_program: child exited with status 124
script aborted: Can't install this package on top of incompatible data. Please try another package or run a factory reset
Can't install this package on top of incompatible data. Please try another package or run a factory reset
Updater process ended with ERROR: 7

How do I resolve this error I have validated that my TWRP and my rom (that I'm trying to flash) matches my architecture (per model number and the result of /proc/cpuinfo)

According to this post on XDA

  The reason is clear: You haven't done a factory reset. If you're coming from another rom, you can make a Titanium Backup of your apps and restore it after installing cm11. [...] Either way, you need to do a factory reset/full wipe. You will lose your apps, data, pretty much everything. Make a backup first, do the wipe, then it will install.


How to automatically crop text messages when SMS character limit is reached? Is there a way to prevent the Messages app from sending long texts? It's generally a nice feature, but my current plan has free SMS which I cannot use when overstepping the character limit - instead, the "long text" will be sent as an MMS and charged as such.

The default Messaging app does not show how much characters you have typed/left for it to be sent as an SMS. So you can use a third party messaging app like Textra SMS.

When you start typing the message, after typing a minimum of 22 characters, you will see a counter showing you the number of character left for it to be sent as a single message(eg. 130/1 - Which means 130 character are left).

The total length of the a single SMS message is 160 in Textra app(which is mostly the normal limit of a single text message). Based on your limitation you can send multiple separate text message to avoid sending a single MMS based on the counter. I don't send lengthy text messages but AFAIK even if your type more than 160 characters it will still be sent as an SMS rather than an MMS. But it would cost you twice the amount for that 160+ charactered SMS message.


Asus Zenfone 5 stuck at obtaining IP address from office's Wi-Fi, but works well on other Wi-Fi I have an Asus Zenfone 5 running Android 4.3. Most of the Wi-Fi I try to connect to gets connected to the device, but when I try to connect it to my office's Wi-Fi it get stuck at obtaining IP address.

How should I resolve this issue?

These steps fixed the obtaining ip adress error for me:
Go to Wi-Fi settings and choose the network that's causing this error. Follow these steps

Choose “modify network”
Enable- Show advanced options
Change IP Settings (which is DHCP by default)to “Static”
Now you should see a bunch of advanced options
Assign a new IP address >> Tap "Save"

You can check out my detailed post about this error here: valuestuffz.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-to-fix-stuck-at-obtaining-ip-android-device.html


Google Talk on Android only syncs one-way with gTalk on Desktop? I use both gTalk on Desktop and Google Talk on Android (phone) - at the same time. However, it only seems to sync from Desktop to Android and not the other way round?

At the start of the conversation and providing I stay on the Desktop, messages are received to both devices. Messages I send on gTalk (desktop) appear instantly on Google Talk on Android. The chat history with gTalk (desktop) is automatically emailed to my gmail address. This is good, and means I can instantly pick up the conversation on my phone as I go mobile.

HOWEVER, messages I send from the Android app do not appear in the gTalk client on my desktop and neither are these messages included in the chat history email to my gmail address. Also, once I continue the conversation in the Android app, the desktop client no longer receives the messages sent to me - they are now only received to my Android device. Is there anyway of "fixing" this?

EDIT: I have since come across the following question from 2½ years ago, "How do Gmail (desktop) and Talk (Android) chats interact?" - this goes someway to explain why this happens, but that is an old question and I struggle to believe that this behaviour has not been updated in this time. Is there really no other workaround?

I believe it uses some kind of push messaging that doesn't trigger when you send the message. I believe that after you type a message the desktop gTalk, the ones sent from the phone show up too. Am I right ?


Mic doesn't work during calls! I have Honor 3C.

My phone records sounds, in sound recorder app or capturing video with camera.
But when I call someone (or someone calls me) mic doesn't work unless I enable speaker. When it's on speaker, the mic works!!!

What should I do?

My first guess is that your phone has two mics - one for "computer-like" use, one for when you're holding it to your face - and the second of these is broken (i.e. a hardware problem). If that's right, then you should get it repaired, either by taking it back to the shop, or by finding a repair centre near you.


Do all Android devices have USB OTG support? I am using  celkon A98. The specification of my device says it does not have USB OTG support ..  I tried OTG troubleshooter app... it says USB host is supported ... Do I have USB host functionality **or was that a bug in the **OTG troubleshooter app ?
L

No, not all Android devices have USB-on-the-go support. GSMArena claims that your device doesn't, but they'll only be going on the specification.

The tool could be reporting that your phone has the software support for acting as a USB host, but unless the hardware also supports USB-OTG, that's not going to help you.


unable to free up space on samsung s3 mini I've got a Samsung S3 mini. It keeps telling me that I have insufficient space. I have just deleted loads of photos and videos, I only have a few apps. Instagram, pinterest, watsapp and picsart. I deleted two of the apps but it's still saying insufficiant space. I have no idea what i'm doing wrong? I have restarted the phone to see if that helps but NOTHING.

When I've gone into storage it says that I have 810mb in the downloads...so i clicked on it and cleared the two things that I had in there, it's cleared them but is still saying 810mb..

HELP

It might help to get a better look at your internal usage.

An app like Disk Map has a function to view disk usage. You may be able to use this to identify large files and delete them.

In this particular app, select 'Internal storage' and press the 'Disk map' button to see something like this:

And you can even long press items in this map to see options to delete them:


What are direct shares in Android One? Whenever I use a standard system Share dialog in any of my apps (Motorola One with Android One on-board), I see a huge empty panel in the middle of it:

The second line never changes and always shows "Direct share is not available". For as long as I've beem using this device (Motorola One; years) I have never seen anything else there.
What is direct share? Why it is always disabled / not available in my device? How can I enable it or even better -- get rid of it and hopefully hide that part of standard Share screen, which occupies the most space of it and is pretty much completely useless.

With direct share you can share plain text trough an app which can use this feature. Also, with direct share some apps display some contacts.


Android Wear smartwatch Samsung Gear Live won't turn on, while charging I have the Android Wear smartwatch Samsung Gear Live and it wont turn on. When I'm trying to turn it on while charging (and it was charging for at least 3 hours) it will show the initial logo, then the booting animations and at one point before completing the screen will turn black. When pressing the button to turn on again it shows the charging battery animation.

Is there anything I can do to hard reset maybe?!

I tried to hold the button for long time or unplugging it from the power supply, but it keeps trying to boot and stops without success.

most of the time they will charge from a laptop usb and not an outlet.Also if you take it apart and disconnect the battery it will fire up 90 percent of the time.


Motorola Moto G (2nd Gen) mobile hotspot not forwarding packets I have a Motorola Moto G (2nd Gen/2014) phone. I have set up a mobile hot spot, and when I activate it, my laptop can connect to it. I can ping the gateway, so the wifi connection between phone and laptop is working. On the phone I can browse and check mail, etc, so the phone's mobile data connection is working. But I cannot use the internet from the laptop. It's not a DNS issue, because I can't even ping my work server by its IP, nor some common DNS servers like google's or OpenDNS.

Has anyone else had this problem, and if so is there a solution or workaround?

EDIT: after doing further digging, it seems only IPv6 forwarding is being enabled, and of course without root you can't enable it.

I faced the very same issue with MOTO E, MOto G2, 3 and Now with 4. everything works fine if i use Bluetooth tethering or USB tethering. as soon as i connect my Laptop with WiFi of the G4 (WiFi threatening option) it connects but shows a yellow mark over Wifi.

I tried every single trick available over Internet but nothing worked. finally i did a small change and everything became fine. what i did is as follows:

click on wifi symbol and go to the available networks--> find the network of your hotspot and right click--> go to connection properties --> change encryption type to "AES" if already selected go to advance setting--> click over check box (enable FIPS compliance)--> click ok --> click OK again and you are good to go.

i tried this on windows 8, things must be more or less same for windows 7 and 10.


How to add a language on a Galaxy S7 Edge without root? I have a Galaxy S7 and it is locked so I can't add new languages. Can someone tell me if this is possible without root?

Even though your device is locked, you can add languages that comes with TouchWiz UI. I am not sure for input language or total language change from English to your choice you are asking but I think this article on Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge tips will help you. There, you need to scroll till the bottom.


Can anyone identify the widgets or software used in this? I see this image and i would like to configure my Android phone to look like this too :)
But I have trouble finding the software or widgets used.

Can someone help me to find/identify them?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39965241@N03/3707753843/

mru is right about the Android and Me News Widget.  Based on the dock at the bottom I'd also say mru's right about that being the Sense UI as well, which means the clock and weather widget is stock, but you can replicate it with these:

Weather Forecast & Clock Widget
Beautiful Widgets
I have the Fancy Widget but it's no longer available because HTC thought it looked too much like their widget (you could probably find the apk out there somewhere)

The battery widget is called... Battery Widget.  Also, you may be able to get those sense icons by using the Sense UI Icons app for PandaHome.

The wallpaper is his own formated for a G1/Hero (640x480).  More on sizing wallpapers for specific Android phones.


A way to automate the creation of flashable ZIPs So, my question is: is there a way to automate the creation of flashable ZIP archives, in order to avoid having to write the updater-script and update-binary by myself each and every time I want a ZIP to be done?

Furthermore, the only feature the ZIP archives are required to do, is to install an application as system app. How could I perform such task, preferably without the aid of an external app?

Being unable to find something that matched my needs, I resolved to write a little script by myself. It's open to anyone which needs it.

#!/system/bin/sh

#This variable is used to calculate the time took by the various operations
#Altering it will result in badly calculated elapsed time
SECONDS=0

#This variable saves the path where the script resides
#DO NOT ALTER IT, or the whole script will fail with unpredictable errors
scriptDir="$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")"

#This function verifies if there's at least an APK in the script's folder
#///Beginning of function "apkChecker"///
function apkChecker {
 echo "[INFO] Checking if at least an APK file is present..."
 if [ "$(ls "$scriptDir" | grep "\.apk$")" != "$(cat /dev/null)" ]; then
  echo "[INFO] At least one APK file has been found."
 else
  echo "[FATAL] No APK file found. Aborting."
  exit
 fi
}
#///End of function "apkChecker"///

#This function checks if the required tools (aapt and zip) are installed
#///Beginning of function "depencenciesChecker"///
function dependenciesChecker {
 echo "[INFO] Checking if both the aapt and zip utilities are installed..."

 whence -v aapt &> /dev/null
 isAaptAbsent="$(echo $?)"

 whence -v zip &> /dev/null
 isZipAbsent="$(echo $?)"

 case "$isAaptAbsent" in
  0)
   case "$isZipAbsent" in
    0)
     echo "[INFO] Both aapt and zip have been found."
     unset "isAaptAbsent" "isZipAbsent"
     ;;
    *)
     echo "[FATAL] zip cannot be found. Aborting."
     exit
     ;;
   esac
   ;;
  *)
   case "$isZipAbsent" in
    0)
     echo "[FATAL] aapt cannot be found. Aborting."
     exit
     ;;
    *)
     echo "[FATAL] Neither aapt nor zip can be found. Aborting."
     exit
     ;;
   esac
   ;;
 esac
}
#///End of function "dependenciesChecker"///

#This function relies on aapt, and is meant to retrieve the app's name from the given APK
#Notice that only the first APK in a list gets picked
#///Beginning of function "appNameRetriever"///
function appNameRetriever {
 echo "[INFO] Retrieving app name from the provided APK..."
 apkFile="$(ls "$scriptDir" | grep "\.apk$" | head -n 1)"
 appName="$(aapt d badging "$scriptDir"/"$apkFile")"
 appName="${appName#*application-label:\'}"
 appName="${appName//app*/}"
 appName="${appName%\'*}"
 displayedName=$appName
 appName="$(printf "%s" $appName)"
}
#///End of function "appNameRetriever"///

#This function creates the tree used by the ZIP (namely, the META-INF/com/google/android and appName folders)
#It also copies the previously picked APK to the appName folder, renaming it in the process
#///Beginning of function "folderTreeCreator"///
function folderTreeCreator {
 echo "[INFO] Creating ZIP folder tree and placing the APK to be flashed inside it..."
 mkdir -p ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android"
 mkdir -p ""$scriptDir"/$appName/$appName"
 cp ""$scriptDir"/""$apkFile""" ""$scriptDir"/$appName/$appName/$appName.apk"
}
#///End of function "folderTreeCreator"///

#This function creates a dummy updater-script, which server mainly for aesthetical purposes
#///Beginning of function "updaterScriptCreator"///
function updaterScriptCreator {
 echo "[INFO] Creating dummy updater-script..."
 echo -n "#This is a dummy file. The magic is in the update-binary, which is a shell script." > ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script"
}
#///End of function "updaterScriptCreator"///

#=== BEGINNING OF "update-binary" WRITING SECTION ===
#From now on, the functions whose name begins with "sectionWriter", are used to assemble the update-binary

#This function writes the function and variables used for outputting things when flashing, to update-binary
#Thanks to Chainfire @ XDA, which seems to have been the first to implement them
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_header"///
function sectionWriter_header {
 echo "[INFO] Writing variables and functions prototypes to update-binary..."
 cat <<-EOF > ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
#!/sbin/sh

OUTFD=\$2
ZIP=\$3

ui_print() {
 echo -ne "ui_print \$1\n" > /proc/self/fd/\$OUTFD
 echo -ne "ui_print\n" > /proc/self/fd/\$OUTFD
}

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_header"///

#This function writes the title of the ZIP (which contains the human-readable app name of the APK), to update-binary
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_zipName"///
function sectionWriter_zipName {
 echo "[INFO] Writing script title to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
ui_print ""
ui_print "******************************"
ui_print " $displayedName Flashable ZIP "
ui_print " made by EDGAR, written by "
ui_print " Death Mask Salesman "
ui_print "******************************"
ui_print ""

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_zipName"///

#This function writes the instructions necessary to mount the system partition in read-write mode, to update-binary
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_systemRwMount"///
function sectionWriter_systemRwMount {
 echo "[INFO] Writing mount instructions to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
ui_print "~ Mounting /system in read-write mode..."
mount /system
mount -o remount,rw /system
ui_print ""

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_systemRwMount"///

#This function writes the instructions to check for the Android version, to update-binary
#Notice that only JB, KK, LP and MM are supported, for now. That means a vast plethora of devices
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_osVersionChecker"///
function sectionWriter_osVersionChecker {
 echo "[INFO] Writing OS checking instructions to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
ui_print "~ Checking Android version..."
androidVersion="\$(cat /system/build.prop | grep 'ro\.build\.version\.release')"
androidVersion="\${androidVersion#*=}"

case "\$androidVersion" in
 4.1*|4.1.*|4.2*|4.2.*|4.3*|4.3.*)
  ui_print "~ Android Jelly Bean (\$androidVersion) detected: proceeding."
  ;;
 4.4*|4.4.*)
  ui_print "~ Android KitKat (\$androidVersion) detected: proceeding."
  ;;
 5*|5.*|5.*.*)
  ui_print "~ Android Lollipop (\$androidVersion) detected: proceeding."
  ;;
 6*|6.*|6.*.*)
  ui_print "~ Android Marshmallow (\$androidVersion) detected: proceeding."
  ;;
 *)
  ui_print "~ Your Android version (\$androidVersion) is either obsolete or still unsupported."
  ui_print "~ Unmounting /system and aborting."
  umount /system
  exit
  ;;
esac

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_osVersionChecker"///

#This function writes the instructions needed to unpack the ZIP to a temporary location, to update-binary
#This procedure is needed to obtain the APK to be installed as system app
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_zipUnpacker"///
function sectionWriter_zipUnpacker {
 echo "[INFO] Writing ZIP unpacking instructions to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
ui_print "~ Extracting the ZIP to a temporary folder..."
mkdir -p "/tmp/$appName"
cd "/tmp/$appName"
unzip -o "\$ZIP"
ui_print ""

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_zipUnpacker"///

#This function writes the bunch of instructions necessary to install the app as system, to update-binary
#As can be seen from the case-esac, almost each Android release has its specific install location
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_appInstaller"///
function sectionWriter_appInstaller {
 echo "[INFO] Writing APK installation instructions to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
ui_print "~ Installing $displayedName..."

case "\$androidVersion" in
 4.1*|4.1.*|4.2*|4.2.*|4.3*|4.3.*)
  cp "/tmp/$appName/$appName/$appName.apk" "/system/app/"
  ;;
 4.4*|4.4.*)
  cp "/tmp/$appName/$appName/$appName.apk" "/system/priv-app/"
  ;;
 5*|5.*|5.*.*|6*|6.*|6.*.*)
  mkdir -p "/system/priv-app/$appName"
  cp "/tmp/$appName/$appName/$appName.apk" "/system/priv-app/$appName/"
  ;;
esac

ui_print "~ $displayedName has been installed."
ui_print ""

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_appInstaller"///

#This function writes the instructions to change ownership, permissions and eventual SELinux context, to update-binary
#As for now, the script determines if SELinux is present by looking for the setenforce binary
#I'll probably base the check on the presence of "/sys/fs/selinux", but that has to be done in a next version
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_validateApp"///
function sectionWriter_validateApp {
 echo "[INFO] Writing APK ownership, permission and context change instructions to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
case "\$androidVersion" in
 4.1*|4.2*|4.3*)
  ui_print "~ Setting ownership and permissions..."
  chown 0.0 "/system/app/$appName.apk"
  chmod 644 "/system/app/$appName.apk"
  if [ -e "/system/bin/setenforce" ]; then
   ui_print "~ Setting SELinux appropriate context..."
   chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 "/system/app/$appName.apk"
  fi
  ;;
 4.4*)
  ui_print "~ Setting ownership and permissions..."
  chown 0.0 "/system/priv-app/$appName.apk"
  chmod 644 "/system/priv-app/$appName.apk"
  if [ -e "/system/bin/setenforce" ]; then
   ui_print "~ Setting SELinux appropriate context..."
   chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 "/system/priv-app/$appName.apk"
  fi
  ;;
 5*|6*)
  ui_print "~ Setting ownership and permissions..."
  chown 0.0 "/system/priv-app/$appName"
  chmod 755 "/system/priv-app/$appName"
  chown 0.0 "/system/priv-app/$appName/$appName.apk"
  chmod 644 "/system/priv-app/$appName/$appName.apk"
  if [ -e "/system/bin/setenforce" ]; then
   ui_print "~ Setting SELinux appropriate context..."
   chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 "/system/priv-app/$appName"
   chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 "/system/priv-app/$appName/$appName.apk"
  fi
  ;;
esac
ui_print ""

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_validateApp"///

#This function writes the instructions to unmount the system partition, to update-binary
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_systemUnmount"///
function sectionWriter_systemUnmount {
 echo "[INFO] Writing unmount instructions to update-binary..."
 cat << EOF >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
ui_print "~ Unmounting /system..."
umount /system
ui_print ""

EOF
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_systemUnmount"///

#This function writes something as a termination/goodbye message, to update-binary
#///Beginning of function "sectionWriter_goodbyeString"///
function sectionWriter_goodbyeString {
 echo "[INFO] Writing goodbye message to update-binary..."
 echo "ui_print \"Installation completed! Have a great day!\"" >> ""$scriptDir"/$appName/META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary"
}
#///End of function "sectionWriter_goodbyeString"///

#=== END OF "update-binary" WRITING SECTION ===

#This function packs the META-INF and appName folders, thus creating the flashable ZIP
#DO NOT set a compression level of "0", or the produced ZIP will be corrupted
#///Beginning of function "zipPacker"///
function zipPacker {
 echo "[INFO] Packing the ZIP..."

 cd ""$scriptDir"/$appName"
 zip -qr9 $appName.zip *
}
#///End of function "zipPacker"///

#This function moves the compressed ZIP to the same directory of the script, and wipes the directories created by "folderTreeCreator", along with their content
#///Beginning of function "cleanup"///
function cleanup {
 echo "[INFO] Moving the flashable ZIP to "$scriptDir"..."
 mv ""$scriptDir"/$appName/$appName.zip" "$scriptDir"

 echo "[INFO] Cleaning up the folders used as ZIP base..."
 rm -rf ""$scriptDir"/$appName"
}
#///End of function "cleanup"///

#This is the core of the EDGAR tool
#Here, all of the previously defined functions are called in the correct order
#To add a function, and thus extend EDGAR's versatility, simply define it above, and call it below
#///Beginning of EDGAR's core///
echo "**************************************"
echo " EDGAR - Flashable ZIP creator script "
echo "    by    Death    Mask    Salesman   "
echo "**************************************"
echo ""

apkChecker
echo ""

dependenciesChecker
echo ""

appNameRetriever
echo ""

folderTreeCreator
echo ""

updaterScriptCreator
echo ""

sectionWriter_header
sectionWriter_zipName
sectionWriter_systemRwMount
sectionWriter_osVersionChecker
sectionWriter_zipUnpacker
sectionWriter_appInstaller
sectionWriter_validateApp
sectionWriter_systemUnmount
sectionWriter_goodbyeString
echo ""

zipPacker
echo ""

cleanup
echo ""

echo "[INFO] Operations took "$(((SECONDS/60)/60))" hours, "$(((SECONDS/60)%60))" minutes and "$((SECONDS%60))" seconds."
echo "[INFO] All done!"
#///End of EDGAR's core///


Is there a zoom and timer functionality on Nexus S camera? If not, is there another app that gives this functionality?

You can definitely zoom.  I don't believe there's a timer, but an app like PRO Zoom Camera 5x should work for that (note, it doesn't say whether it works for the NS).  Additionally, you could use an app like Tasker to time the shot; its website mentions that specifically.


How do I know if the person I'm chatting to on Google Talk is using Android? On the Gingerbread version of Google Talk, I can see a gray-ish silhouette of the Android logo on my contact. Now on ICS, I can't see it anymore, thus, prevents me from knowing if a certain person on my contact is on mobile or not. Is there a setting that I'm missing here? How do I know if my contact is on Android or not?

Essentially, you can't. This feature was removed from the 4.0 version of Google Talk, and is discussed somewhat in the Android Police review of the changes from 2.3 to 4.0. There's no setting that will bring back the icons.

However, when you have a chat open with someone (provided that they do not have a custom status message set) it will inform you at the top if they are on a mobile device:

My hunch would be that Google doesn't really want you to care about this when you're on your phone. They want the Google Talk app to be as seamless and integrated as possible, and they want you to use it regardless of what device the other person happens to be connected with at the time.


Limiting Display Frame Rate to Lower Is in Android there is an available database set for limits display frame rate? If they’re available, is using ADB/Root (Terminal), or how, or even it can't?
I've been searching this for years, and not get an answer yet. Actually, this is for tweaking to trigger any benefits. This like my other phone embedded feature is Xperia STAMINA mode which is it can set the display frame rate (to 2x lower from 30 fps) for battery saving. But... I mean is not only for that. Many others too that can benefit. So, is this can available on a pure Android system? Or this only self-made for manufacture's hardware so that not possible available on others except Xperia devices?
If there are other threads that I don't know. Please let me know. I'll understand it, and try if it makes sense.
thank you! :D

There doesn't seem to be a way at this time.
So far, all I know is a hidden feature in Android S Preview Revision 3, namely Game Optimization in the Game menu which can lower frame rates, such as Xperia STAMINA mode.

Portal: Android 12 DP3 Analysis: Here are all the hidden features! | xda-developers.com
Screenshot: 17-Game-Mode-2.jpg (563×1155) | xda-developers.com
Learn more: Android Developers | developer.android.com


How can I track app usage? Is there a way to show usage stats for installed applications on my Android phone?  I'd like to know how much I use my apps and if there are any I can get rid of (because I don't use them).

This functionality is already inbuilt into Android.

Open your dailer
Enter *#*#4636#*#*
Select Usage statistics
Sort by Launch Count.

As far as I know these statistics get reset every time you reset your phone. Hope it helps.


HTC Zoe: Any way to turn it off? So, in my bank app, I am used to being able to photograph the front and back of a check to be deposited. This worked fine with my Moto Razr Maxx. With my recently acquired HTC One, now running Kit Kat (but even on Android 4.3 before), it doesn't work -- the app doesn't accept the photos the One takes. I'm wondering if this is Zoe. A three-second vid is not a snap of a check. Can Zoe be turned off for simple point-and-shooting?

Zoe is not used in any app aside from the HTC camera app. The mobile banking app will have just basic access to the camera where it can take pictures and in some apps, toggle the flash. If it is not accepting your pictures, it may not be taking clear enough photos or the lighting may be insufficient. Or it could be the app itself. You may wish to try better lighting and be sure to hold absolutely still when taking the pictures. If not, contact the developer of the app for assistance.

As for turning Zoe off, it is toggled on and off in the camera app with the button on the opposite side of the screen from the shutter/video button.


Block an vaulty account and can pc can acces my vaulty account? Can you block a vaulty account?
My phone had been stolen and the suspect is one of my friends. They know my lock screen pasword and i was worried if they can acces this vault in the computer and open my private files. So i was wondering to block my account inorder to remove those files.

No, as far as i know, if there are decrypted files on a device that were encrypted by that device, you can't access them from a computer -unless you have some very advanced computer knowledge, which i doubt your "friend" will be that desperate. Here is a link that talks about accessing encrypted data on another device. I know this discussion is about an sd card, but it's still the same idea. You have data in a vault that is encrypted.


ART internal storage problm Using my moto e in Art mode and my internal memory is totally consumed will I get my internal memory if I switch again to dalvik?

Yes you will get your memory back.

During the reboot process, Android will have to optimize all apps, so this will take some time. About 15 min. to 60 min. for this to complete, that all depends on how many apps you have. Make sure you device is fully charged.

You also can manually edit the file with runtime values, which is located: /data/property/persist.sys.dalvik.vm.lib

libart.so and libdvm.so are the values.

Command:

  adb shell 'echo libdvm.so >/data/property/persist.sys.dalvik.vm.lib'

Or

  adb shell setprop persist.sys.dalvik.vm.lib libdvm.so


Google Glass Stuck at the “Glass” screen My Google Glass is stuck at Glass screen and doesn't go beyond that. Can't fastboot either. The device is recognized by the Android Development Tools Eclipse plugin.

If you have exhausted your normal local troubleshooting (e.g. power off device; power on by holding "on" button for 15 seconds, etc.), then your best bet is to call a Glass Guide -- 800-GLASSXE. They should be able to work you through the problem.


downloading the google play services This app won't run without google play services, which are missing from your phone. it's asking me for a code for redeem, setting and or _________   please help me reinstall the google play services that was on the phone it an LG trac phone through page plus

Try intalling Google play services from play store. If play store is not working without  it, try to download Google Play Services from external sites. There are many mirrors available on internet. Once done, try rebooting your device. This must solve the problem if some app requires google play services to be installed.


USB Connection Not Working After Recent AT&T Update on Galaxy S3 I found I failed to transfer pics in galaxy to my computer using USB connection after my recent AT&T update. I chose settings->network->more network. And there is an option to tethering via USB and it did prompt with a connecting sound. However, my Samsung device displays as unrecognized device and there is no extra drive popping in my computer. Does any one may know the solution to this?

USB tethering is for sharing the phone's internet connection with the PC. You need to turn this off. When you connect the USB cable, tap the USB notification in the notification drawer, and select Media device (MTP).


How can i make my google maps app close? I used google maps earlier today and now it won't close. I exited the navigation, even restarted my phone, and it's still showing as running in the background. How do I make it close? I have an LG V10.

I spent a long time trying to figure this out and then I accidentally solved it. When you hit the square button to see all the apps running you will see a "pin" next to the "x" which is what you would normally click on to close a running up. If that pin is highlighted the app keeps running. Just tap it to deselect it and then you can close the app normally.

I read a lot of crazy solutions that required rooting and other stuff. It turns out that things work they should I just wasn't aware of the pin button and what it did. I hope you find this useful


Is it possible for a device to consume more power than it is wall-charging? I have a 2012 Nexus 7 running KitKat. I have a hunch that it is not charging properly. Specifically, if the system is on and the device is plugged into the USB wall-charger, the battery indicator says "Charging" but there is a slow decrease in charge over time. I have few apps actually running, some checks over Wi-Fi every 5 mins or so (email, feeds), and the device is unused most of the time. It charges to full if switched off and left plugged in.

I obviously need to investigate this more closely, check screen and app power consumption, etc, but before I go on a wild goose chase... is it actually possible for a device to consume more power than it receives via wall-charging?

Yes, it's definitely possible.  Most USB chargers are fairly limited in their output and devices like tablets are not really designed to be used while charging, unlike laptops.  You'd think it would be OK to simply sit and remain on while charging and unused, but perhaps the Nexus 7 does not have very good power management.  You might want to look at having sync pause while the device's screen is off.

If you want to crunch the numbers and verify what's happening, take a look at my answer here about the PS Vita.  If you get the specs/numbers for the Nexus 7 and its charger you could do a similar analysis to see whether the power use is exceeding the charger's output.


What is Blackmart, and is it legitimate? I have an HTC One X. I want to install the Blackmart app, but I'm a little wary about its implications. Can it safely be installed without it messing up root security? Is it a legitimate app source?

Even if the pure Blackmart App is free of any malicious parts, there is still the danger that you will download an infected version. Blackmart has no official page or download site, that's why you can't be sure about that. It's even worse because it needs root. Those types of programs are usually not open-source, and therefore no one can review the code or even build a "clean" version.

Note: Since Blackmark is able to bypass the access restrictions for paid Apps, it's is illegal in some countries. This is likely true in all countries where Google sells Apps on the Play Store.

My personal opinion: A free game of Modern Warefare or GTA isn't worth the trouble and risk of using blackmart.


Auto-sync is turning itself on randomly (Nexus 6 on rooted stock Android 7.1.1)

I have a feeling a rogue app is turning on auto-sync, but is there any way to discover which one?

I checked that it was switched it off this morning and at some point in the last 4 hours, it has come back on without me doing anything.

The rogue app that was switching on auto-sync was Kana Town
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.koridev.kanatown


Is there a way to move installed apps from one device to another? I have Galaxy Tab 7 inch which has some installed apps and I don't have the APK files. I would like to move the apps to a new Galaxy Tab Plus 7 inch.

Is there a way to move my installed apps from one device to another without reinstalling every app from Android Market?

One way to do this would be to use an app like ApkBackup to get the apks of your installed apps than install them on your new device.

Note that the data will be lost and depending on the market version it may not notify you about updates.


Help! My phone becomes unbootable suddenly It is Samsung Galaxy Note 2, unrooted.
I factory reset my phone to stock ROM about a week ago. Suddenly it became unbootable today. I didn't do anything risky. If my memory serves, I simply updated an app one day before this incident.

It always stuck at the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 logo screen.
I can boot to recovery mode and download mode.

The following errors displayed when I booted to recovery mode:

Android system recovery < 3e >
KOT49H.N7100ZSUFNL1

E:failed to mount /efs (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /system ((No such file or directory))

# MANUAL MODE #
--Appling Multi-CSC
E:failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
can't mount '/system' (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
can't mount '/cache' (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
E:can't mount /cache/recovery/last_recovery
E:failed to mount /data (No such file or directory)
E:can't mount /data/log/recovery_log.txt
E:failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
E:can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E:can't open /cache/recovery/log
E:failed to mount cache (No such file or recovery)
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:can't open /cache/recovery/last_log
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or recovery)
E:can't mount /cache/recovery/last_install
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/last_install
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or recovery)

I tried to wipe cache partition. It didn't help.

How could I backup data in this case?
I just need to get back my photos.

How could I fix and restore my phone?

Please help. Thanks a lot.

Maybe you cant get your photo back. Try to flashing your phone with odin. Its work for me with samsung galaxy s4 later month ago.

There is file system that missing in your android rom, and you should flashing it.


Can not enable data roaming I am abroad and when I enable the Mobile data option, i get a warning triangle in the notification area with the text "You have lost data connectivity because you left your home network with data roaming turned off."

Turning Data roaming on does not help. Apps claim I have no internet connection.

What is wrong?

One way to understand the message is that data roaming should have been enabled before leaving the home network. Could that be the reason?

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) with Android version 4.3

Turns out the APN settings were wrong. After correcting them, it works.


Google Voice Search Activation I was wondering if there was any way I could activate Google voice search simply by saying OK Google while using any app on my phone.

I tried searching the XDA forums and couldn't find what I was looking for so I figured someone here might be able to help me out.

If not, thank you for reading this post.

After a recent update of the Google Search app (version 3.5 and above), it became possible to enable "Ok Google" from any screen on Android 4.3 and above. Follow these steps:

Open Google Search on your phone
Go to Settings by either pressing the hardware Menu button if your device has it, or scrolling to the bottom of all cards and tapping three dots, and select "Settings."
Navigate to Voice -> "Ok Google" Detection, and enable the From Any screen option.
This will first train the device with your voice, and we are done

Note that this does not work on all Android devices. Some Motorola handsets like the Moto X have their own voice recognition software that supersedes Google's, and you will see a message This option is not supported on this device.

Also, currently only the English language is supported for this feature, although Google will probably enable it for more locales in the future.


Gmail app Hebrew support My Gmail app on the Galaxy S2 stock app shows Hebrew reversed and left to right. How can I fix this?

You need to look for hebfix or RTL fix.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find a direct download link.  Hope this is enough to get you started.

A good place to look would be http://iandroid.co.il or http://www.xda-developers.com/.

If you find a good link to download from, you can update my answer :)


How can I stop Lollipop ignoring my wifi network? Android 5.0 has a new "feature": If a wifi network has no connection to the internet, it will remain connected to it but route traffic over mobile data instead. A small exclamation mark shows in the status bar over the wifi symbol.

Unfortunately, for some reason Android has decided that my home wifi does not have a good internet connection - which is not true, as I'm using it to access Stackexchange at the moment - and is, instead, trying to send everything over GPRS.

With mobile data disabled, things work over wifi just fine, despite the exclamation mark - so it isn't a problem with the wifi not working, per se.

Is there any way to override this "smart" feature? The only way I have found to make things work at the moment is to disable mobile data while I am in my house - which is not a practical long-term solution.

EDITING to add that I have now solved this problem by buying a new router! I was using something very old... But, I'll leave the question here for the benefit of anybody else with the same difficulty.

Just disable captive portal detection. In the terminal, or in adb shell, issue the command

settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0

and reboot.


LG P500 unplugged during update, now it wont go past telus screen! I was updating my LG P500 2.2.1. While it was updating, my phone was in emergency mode and it got unplugged. Now when I turn it on it goes to the android screen, then gets stuck on the telus screen! I called lg and they told me to do a factory reset by holding the home, power and volume down keys. This did NOT work, it still will not go past the telus screen.. PLZ tell me there is a way to make it work again..

Not sure you have fixed this or not.

If you are still out of luck, try root the phone via below tutorial:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1832485


How to sync Facebook calendar in my Android phone calendar? Is there a way to sync my Facebook calendar with the inbuilt Phone calendar of Android. I know there are many apps, but I do not want to give them permission to access my profile details.

Of course Facebook likes so much to break compatibility with whatever it ever developed... so now the method is different:

On Web Facebook, choose the event you want to have in the Calendar
Set the participation (Going/Maybe)
Click the 3-dots menu and choose "Export Event"
Ensure that the "Save in calendar" option is selected
The link shown below that choice is what you need in your Calendar app (e.g. https://www.facebook.com/events/ical/upcoming/?uid=MYUSERID&key=MYACCESSKEY). Right-click & copy the link.
On Google calendar click the + button to add a calendar, and select "From URL".
Paste the URL and choose "Add calendar"
Profit

If it doesn't work immediately ensure that the calendar is syncing and wait a little more.

---- [OLD METHOD] -----

Obtain calendar URL from Facebook

Go to Facebook Events via a Desktop browser (or set the Mobile browser identification to as Desktop)
Scroll to Upcoming Events link, at the bottom of the right column
Right-click on the link and Copy address

Add the calendar from its URL

Go to Google Calendar
Click Menu to show it
Click on the icon on the side of Add Calendar and choose From URL
Paste the URL obtained before and Make calendar public; if you are ok with that. It is necessary to show it on Android.

Sync the calendar, on Android

Open the Google Calendar app
Tap on Menu and then Settings
Scroll to find the calendar Events on Facebook and tap on it. If is not shown yet, come back to the calendar, tap on the three-dots icon and choose Refresh
Enable Sync

Et Voilà! Enjoy your Facebook events directly on Android and any device you desire, without having to open Facebook website or app

Note: the calendar is read-only. So, unfortunately, for now is not possible to set custom notifications for the events (that actually would be make this setup perfect, given the pretty short time ahead that Facebook uses for its reminders).

PS: my Google Calendar web app was not set in english, so items could be named slightly different.


Using apps from two countries on the same device I split my time between Canada and US among other places. Let's say I have things like bank accounts in both countries, and it is often the case that the mobile banking app for a bank is only available in the play store for the country the bank is based in1.

My phone is connected to the US app store, and my payment information is from the US, so I can get all the US apps fine. Is there any way I can get the Canadian apps as well? I don't want to permanently change my app store country, but adding another account or something would be fine. I don't need any paid apps on the Canadian side, only free ones.

1 This is the case for TD Canada, for example, which only makes its app available on the Canadian app store. The other big banks, however, all put their app on the US store as well.

Adding a second Google account should work. If you're in the US and you're trying to download Canadian apps try this:

(It worked for me without the vpn but you can try with)

1.Download a vpn from play store. Make sure it's one that allows you to choose the county your 'in'

2.Turn off location on your phone

3.After successfully setting up the vpn, to the desired county, add a Google account to your phone (settings/accounts/Google/and account.)
You might need to create new account in case Google 'knows' your spare accounts location

4.Now, go into play store, open the menu and change the account to the one you just added. Try downloading the app.

After that you could switch between accounts within the play store app depending on which apps you need to download


Messaging from desktop Is there something besides Moto Connect and Mighty text that would allow you to SMS/MMS from the desktop.  Mac or PC.  I came from a iOS world where iMessaging worked really well for the desktop.  Hangouts is close, but I message a lot people with iPhones so it just doesn't cover enough people.

Any suggestions?

This sounds a lot to me like a sort of push notification system. The way I have implement this into my own foot print is to use growl/libnotify on the desktop and notify my android which allows me to have a central cloud based datastore for my alerts.

There is also the option of just emailing all your devices/contacts instead. One can find a Email To SMS Email Address List which lists the domains you would need to send a message to for your SMS/MMS communication to be transmitted.


"unfortunately the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped" even after hard reset I have a Blu Life 8 (Kitkat) phone and was getting some annoyng messages: "com.google.process.gapps has stopped", i tried to hard reset it to see if the problem was gone, but even after reset i could not get the message to disappear, and now i can't even go after the initial setup process cause it crashes every 0.1 seconds showing this error.
Is there  way to fully restore the default settings or something like that? How can i solve this issue?

The best solution for your case is to fully flash your phone. I've been searching around for Android 4.4 firmware for your phone, but I couldn't find any, just for Android 4.2.2. But there is no problem flashing with it. Follow these steps and get your phone working again.

Flashing FW:

Unpack SP-FlashTool, and run Flash_tool.exe
Select MT6592_Android_scatter.txt from Firmware folder
Wait for file to be added into Flash Tool
Choose Option -> USB Model, click USB Model
Choose Option -> DA DownLoad All->Speed -> High Speed, click High Speed
Turn off your phone, remove the battery then put it back after few seconds (and don't turn on the phone).
"Press F9 (hit Download button)" OR "if upgrade ROM Firmware->Upgrade "
Connect your phone into the computer via USB data cable.
The process will start and a red progress bar will appear after color purple, yellow.
And green circles display

Finish!

Note: Flashing tutorial credits goes to Needrom.com.

Download:

SP FlashTool: HERE
BLU_ROM_L280a: HERE
BLU_ROM_L280i: HERE


Where do I find files that I have chosen to "keep on Device" from Google Drive? I know that I can save a file to my device from Google Drive but I can't find where they are stored in the File Manager app.  Can anyone help please?

You can find the files after download in :

  Storage -> emulated -> 0 -> Download

or also for example just for Pictures after download,

you can go to Gallery and then click on the picture and See Details of the picture you need to file path.


Restore only part of nandroid image In attempt to install 2.2  I've deleted all my contacts(contacts were saved on phone, not as google contacts)
I've done full nandroid backup while phone still had those contacts; however when I try restoring image; I get bootloop.
Nandroid backup contains system.img, data.img, cache.img and boot.img;

I'm wondering if I can restore only data.img to get contacts back.

I have thought of 2 other solutions:

a) make a new nandroid image of current status; verify that it's ok by doing restart; then open copy database with contacts from one backup to another.

b) open database with contacts from data.img; and manually retype 200 phone records.

Is there any smarter (quicker, easier) way??

Clockworkmod recovery has an 'Advanced Restore' option that allows you to pick just one of the following partitions:
boot
system
data
cache
sd-ext

If you don't already have it, download ROM Manager from the market and this will help you install the clockworkmod recover.

(I've no idea whether this will solve your problem, but yes you can restore the data partition! ;) )


How to give an app permission to write to external SD on a rooted phone I have a rooted Galaxy S7.  I'd like to give permission to an app that does not request it to write to the external SD card storage.  How can I do this?

If you know the app package name, you can try the shell command pm grant.

Enable USB Debugging, probably already done for you, then type adb shell pm grant [replace_app.package.name] android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE hit enter. Your app should now have that permission.  Not sure if permanently though.


When will my phone get the Android 2.2 update (FroYo)? Android 2.2 (FroYo, short for "Frozen Yogurt") was released over the Summer 2010, however not all of the devices that will get this update have received it yet. Each manufacturer and carrier needs to add their custom modifications before it can be officially released.

See also:

When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates of upgrades for devices that shipped with a prior version of Android. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep phones in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

If you don't have a high enough reputation score to edit the wiki (currently 100), leave your suggestion in a comment or answer and someone will update the list.

Phones

Acer Liquid E

Official: Nov. 19, 2010 (confirmed)

HTC Aria

Official:

Southeast Asia: Dec. 17,2010 (confirmed)

HTC Desire

Official:

(Cellular South) Mar. 18, 2011 (confirmed)
(U.S. Cellular) Feb. 8, 2011 (confirmed)
(Virgin Media) Nov. 11, 2010 (confirmed)
UK: (via HTC) Sep. 18, 2010 (confirmed)
Canada: (Telus) Oct. 25, 2010 (confirmed)

HTC G1

OTA: Never
Unofficial: (myTouch 3G port)

HTC Legend

Official: Europe Dec. 9, 2010 (confirmed)

HTC Magic

OTA: (Vodafone UK) 14 Dec 2010 (confirmed)

HTC myTouch 3G

Official: Jan. 12, 2011 (confirmed)

HTC myTouch Fender LE & myTouch 3G 3.5mm jack aka myTouch 3G 1.2

Official: Jan 25 2011 (confirmed)

HTC myTouch 3G Slide

OTA: planned, no date (confirmed)

HTC Wildfire

Official:

United Kingdom: Dec. 20, 2010 (confirmed)
Germany (T-Mobile): Dec. 21, 2010
rest of Europe: Week of Dec. 23, 2010 (confirmed)

LG Ally

Official:

Jan. 19, 2011 (source)

LG Apex

Official: Q1, 2011 (confirmed)

Motorola CHARM

Official: never (will remain at Android 2.1) (confirmed)

Motorola CLIQ XT

Official: never (will remain at Android 1.5) (confirmed)

Motorola Defy

Europe, Asia, Middle East: 2Q 2011 (source)

Motorola FLIPOUT

Official: never (will remain at Android 2.1) (confirmed)

Motorola i1 (PTT)

Official: never (will remain at Android 1.5) (confirmed)

Motorola Milestone

Europe: Mar. 15, 2011 (confirmed)
Asia, Middle East: 4Q 2010 - initial rollout (source)
Asia-Pacific, Canada, Latin America: 1Q 2011 (source)

Motorola Milestone XT720

Official:

Cincinnati Bell: Jul. 4, 2011 (confirmed)

Samsung Acclaim

Official: Jan. 19, 2011, via download (confirmed)

Samsung Captivate

Official (via Kies):

(Canada - Rogers) Jan. 10, 2011 (confirmed)
(U.S. - AT&T) Feb. 24, 2011 (confirmed)

Samsung Continuum

Official: Jan. 18, 2011 (rumored)

Samsung Epic 4G

Official: Feb. 22, 2011 (confirmed)
Unofficial: Nov. 7, 2010 (confirmed)

Samsung Fascinate

Official:

Canada: early 2011 (confirmed)
United States: Apr. 21, 2011 (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy 3 (I5800 / I5801)

Official some time in November/December 2010 (source)
Unofficial: Dec. 12, 2010 (instructions)
India: 14th April 2011

Samsung Galaxy 5 (I5500)

Official some time in November/December 2010 (source)

Belgium/Luxembourg: Apr. 2011 (hearsay)

Unofficial: Dec. 4, 2010 (instructions and download)

Samsung Galaxy A (Korea)

OTA: Nov. 15, 2010 (confirmed)

Samsung Galaxy S (International)

Official:

T-Mobile: 2nd week of Dec. 2010 (tentative) (source)
Europe: (O2) Nov. 15, 2010 (confirmed), (Vodafone) Nov. 15, 2010 (confirmed)
Korea: Nov. 15, 2010 (confirmed)
Middle East: Nov. 15, 2010
UK: (via Samsung Kies) Nov. 4, 2010 (confirmed)

Samsung Intercept

Official:

Sprint: Dec. 17, 2010 (confirmed)
Virgin Mobile: Mar. 25, 2011 (confirmed)

Samsung Mesmerize

Official: Mar. 24, 2011 (confirmed)

Samsung Moment

Official: never (confirmed by Sprint)
Unofficial:

Samsung Vibrant

Official:

(Canada) Dec.9, 2010 (confirmed) (rollout suspended 20 Dec 2010)
(U.S. T-Mobile) Jan. 21, 2011 (confirmed)

Unofficial: Nov. 9, 2010 (confirmed)

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Official: never (confirmed)

Tablets

Archos 28/32/43/70/101

Official: Nov. 30, 2010 (confirmed)

Dell Streak

Official:

unbranded/unlocked: Nov. 15, 2010  (confirmed)
AT&T: Jan. 12, 2011 (confirmed)
O2: Dec. 15, 2010 (confirmed)

ViewSonic ViewPad 10

Unofficial: Nov. 12, 2010 (source)

Other devices

Barnes & Noble Nook Color

Official: Apr. 20, 2011 (confirmed)
Unofficial: Dec. 6, 2010 (video)

This is not specific to Froyo, but this forum posts lists the rough dates for all Android versions for all Motorola models https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/manager/softwareupgrades