How to remount sdcardfs to allow setting file permisions / ownerships? I have a rooted OnePlus One running LineageOS 15.1 (Oreo 8.1).
I am trying to adjust some file permissions/ownerships on the emulated sdcard partition.
The partition seems to be mounted as an sdcardfs:

A0001:/ # mount | grep /storage/emulated
/data/media on /storage/emulated type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,fsuid=1023,fsgid=1023,gid=1015,multiuser,mask=6,derive_gid)

I'm not sure what that means. Some people suggest that Android used to use mount then switched to fuse and now with Oero uses sdcardfs.
I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but I'm a bit scared that something like mount -o remount, rw /mnt/sdcard/ (which apparently is what you had to do in the past to be able to set file permissions on the emulated sdcard partition).

Short demonstration showing that file permissions won't be applied:

A0001:/ $ su
A0001:/ # ls -la /storage/emulated
total 12
drwx--x--x  4 root sdcard_rw 4096 2018-07-24 17:44 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root        80 2018-07-24 17:21 ..
drwxrwx--x 14 root sdcard_rw 4096 2018-07-24 17:20 0
drwxrwx--x  2 root sdcard_rw 4096 1970-01-01 01:12 obb
A0001:/ # touch /storage/emulated/a
A0001:/ # ls -la /storage/emulated/a
-rw------- 1 root sdcard_rw 0 2018-07-24 17:44 /storage/emulated/a
A0001:/ # chmod 777 /storage/emulated/a
A0001:/ # ls -la /storage/emulated/a
-rw------- 1 root sdcard_rw 0 2018-07-24 17:44 /storage/emulated/a

(Note: the same happens if I use /storage/emulated/0 instead of /storage/emulated)

My question is: What do I have to run in order to be able to change the file permissions and file ownerships on this weird sdcardfs partition.

You cannot change permissions and ownerships of files on sdcardfs.

On all operating systems based on Linux kernel - like Android is - it's possible to set permissions on files (including directories) provided that filesystem supports UNIX permissions (uid, gid, mode). Common examples of such filesystems are ext4 and f2fs.

However Android's internal (confusingly called external) storage which is accessible by installed apps at /sdcard, is not an actual but virtual / emulated filesystem exposing /data/media (which is a real filesystem) through sdcardfs. sdcardfs and its predecessor FUSE expose the emulated filesystem with a fixed set of uid, gid and mask (mode). So the commands chmod and chown have no impact, whether executed through CLI (adb shell or terminal emulator) or GUI (file explorer).

It's possible to change permission bits of file on underlying actual filesystem, but accessing /data/media requires root access because only UID/GID 1023 (aid_media_rw) has read access to the directory. And still the permissions will remain same when viewed from emulated view /sdcard.

Further reading:

What is /storage/emulated/0/?

Related:

Why chmod gives “Operation not permitted” error?
Is it possible to change file permissions on Android's internal storage?


Samsung Galaxy S6 4.6MB/s Seqential Write (Why so slow?) I bought a Samsung Galaxy S6 in Aug 2016. Everything was fine, until last week.
It got very slow. For example, when I draw my unlock pattern after a reboot, it takes such a long time to load the homescreen that the screen turns off. After a few tries, I get in but every tap takes very long until the device reacts. It takes  ~25 seconds just to load the keyboard.

I downloaded System Monitor but the CPU load was not on 100%, so there is no app/virus which consumes too much CPU time.
Geekbench 4 says that the CPU / GPU performance is even above average for the Galaxy S6.

But then I decided to test the storage speed. I ran Androbench and the results are very bad (see screenshot).

Normally, the performance should be like in this test.

So my questions now are: how can I find out why is the storage so slow?
Is it just flash wear? Is is a broken driver? If it's a hardware failure, what part do I have to replace?

If something is unclear, just comment and I will edit the question.
Thank you in advance!

UPDATE 2019/06/20 08:03: Tried reflashing the stock firmware and factory reset, but it didn't helped. The benchmark is even worse now. Ordered a new motherboard now.

UPDATE 2019/08/19 09:57: New motherboard finally arrived. After changing it, everything was fine. Problem solved.

I'm getting 45 MB/s sequential write when it should be 120 MB/s. Read speeds are roughly the same as on the review though.

In your case, I would try full factory reset, reflashing the stock ROM or even a custom ROM with a different kernel to see if the benchmark would generate different results. If you get roughly the same results after all, it's a hardware problem.


Do I need to revert to stock firmware and/or wipe data before installing a custom ROM? Several sites I've visited mention that I need to revert to the stock firmware and possibly wipe my phone data before installing a custom ROM. Is this recommended or completely necessary?  I have a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy-S), running Froyo 2.2 (installed via Kies).  My phone is rooted.  In case it matters, I have Windows XP.

It's not always necessary, but always a good idea.  There are custom ROMs that change the partitions of the phone storage, and some flashing methods don't reset the partitions.  What ends up happening is that the update can't be written properly -- it either fails, or files and firmware end up in the wrong place and the phone can't boot.  In some cases, this can brick the phone.

With a Galaxy S, the best way to ensure this doesn't happen is to revert to stock firmware, wipe everything, and then use Odin to flash an Odin-compatible ROM with the "re-partition" option checked.  My answer here has some more info on Odin (just be careful not to use the firmware I linked to, since it's for the GT-i9000 and not the Captivate).


Moved apps to SD. SD was full, Apps are vanished now, but phone storage stays clogged. What should I do? Phone: GT-I9100
A: 4.1.2

I tried to move Apps from my phone to the SD card with root permissions enabled.

I missed the point that the SD card was running out of space during the process. A warning did not take place.

Afterwards the Apps seem to have been disappeared, but the Phone storage is still clogged with only 200 MB free. I thought that I could perhaps reinstall the broken apps to make them available again and move them again when the SD-Card is cleaned properly. But this seems unviable because the phone claims about missing space every time I try to fetch the app from the store.

If I enter the setup section for memory it takes eternal to sum up the memory consumption for the different categories (apps, pics/videos, audio, downloads and so on)

Questions:
Is it a valid assumption that due to the failed move to SD card the apps got rendered disfunctional but are still lingering on the phone memory? How can I verify that and what to do then?

What might prevent the phone to calculate the memory usage in finite time?

Sometimes the OS misinterprets files inside of the sdcard. However, it is possible that the applications failed to move. I would suggest trying to try reading the contents of the sdcard from another device (another phone or computer). Then try seeing if the applications are in there. If they are, chances are the sdcard isn't mounting properly. I would suggest backing up the sdcard and then formatting then restoring the files. After doing this try inserting the sdcard into your phone again and see if your applications load.


How to protect my Google account credentials on my Android phone? Currently I use Gmail on my desktop with 2-step verification (by SMS) enabled and I consider it secure. Now I'm buying an Android phone and I'd like to check Gmail on it sometimes, but I don't want to save my password on the phone.

When my phone gets stolen or lost, the thief would gain access to all my Gmail data. I've heard Android uses Google account for a lot of things, like downloading apps from the store. Is there any way to set it up so that it doesn't store my password and asks for it every time I'd like to access mail?

I don't want to protect my phone entirely (with entering the PIN every time I use it etc.), as it's prepaid and I don't really have anything sensitive there.

Using a free service like Android Lost, you can remotely control your phone from a web browser. You can wipe it, locate it on a map, read sms'es, take a picture remotely etc... to ease your concerns regarding security.

While not directly an answer to your question, it might be a viable solution.  Not storing your Google credentials on your Android smartphone and accessing Google services through the mobile web brower is not only very impractical, but also sort of defeats the purpose of a modern smartphone doesn't it ?


Sony Xperia Ray Superuser? I have managed to unlock the bootloader and flash the phone with a custom ROM (3.0) I can now disable the many app's I don't want but I can't delete them...How do I go about getting access/permissions to do so?

If your device is rooted now you may use titanium backup. It has freeze feature beside uninstall system apps (freeze is similar with uninstall but it is reversable)


Can I use the internal storage in the Wildfire S to store music and photos? I have a Wildfire S for a couple of weeks while my actual phone is off for repair. I can't use the camera or anything like that because it just says "Insert SD Card". If I look at the storage I can see there is plenty available.

I don't want to buy an SD card just for this temporary phone - my Galaxy S2 has never had this problem.

Can I use the ample internal storage available or will I have to shell out?

The Wildfire S only has 512MB of internal flash.  None of this austere allotment is allocated to a user storage partition like is done on the Galaxy S2, S3, etc.


Can application see all WIFI SSID? I read the Wi-Fi scanning overview, but I am not sure if an application has the ability to read the Wifi access points around me.

I don't give location permissions.
I turn location service OFF.

The application manifest:

  This app has access to:
  Storage
  modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
  read the contents of your USB storage
  microphone
  record audio
  Location
  precise location (GPS and network-based)
  Device history and apps
  Retrieve running apps
  SMS
  receive text messages (SMS)
  Phone
  directly call phone numbers
  read phone status and identity
  Identity
  find accounts on the device
  read your own contact card
  Call and device ID information
  read phone status and identity
  Private Wi-Fi
  view Wi-Fi connections
  Camera
  take pictures and videos
  Images / Media / Files
  modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
  read the contents of your USB storage
  Contacts
  the find accounts on the device
  read your contacts
  Other
  receive data from Internet
  read frame buffer
  change screen orientation
  change your audio settings
  view network connections
  prevent device from sleeping
  pair with Bluetooth devices
  install shortcuts
  uninstall shortcuts
  connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
  full network access
  control vibration
  run at startup
  read battery statistics
  access Bluetooth settings
  use accounts on the device

So it can:

view network connections
view Wi-Fi connections
connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
full network access

Will it be able to read the WIFI SSIDs around?

I see Android 8 needs at least 1 of the permissions: CHANGE_WIFI_STATE So will this be good enough?
On Android 10 will it also need location permissions?

So I understand correct ?
In Android 8:

getScanResults() only by asking CHANGE_WIFI_STATE (which is not needed from user to approve ?)

Yes, an app can see all surrounding WiFi SSIDs with correct permissions.

This is the main use case for WiFi analyzer apps (not affiliated, just to show as an example, have been using one of the listed apps).

As for the permissions required, the already mentioned Wi-Fi scanning overview states:

Android 8.0 & Android 8.1: any one of

ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE

Android 9: all of

ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE
Enabled location services (under Settings > Location)

Android 10: all of

ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE
ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
Enabled location services (under Settings > Location)


Clock weather widget Honor 5X I have lost my clock/weather widget,, for my Huawei Honor 5X.  Can someone help me get it back?  I am on Android 6.01.  The lack of an app drawer doesn't help either.

You can download third party widget from playstore Weather & Clock Widget Android.


Marshmallow USB connection type I just flashed the Android 6 Image to my Nexus 7 (2013) LTE a few minutes ago. It was a clean flash, so I copied my files over to my PC.
When I plugged it in after it booted, Windows detects it, installs the drivers automatically and shows the device in My Computer. From it's icon, It's in MTP mode. But when I open it, I can't see the usual "Internet Storage" disk that lets me access my files. The device shows a blank folder.
I searched the Settings app for "MTP" & "PTP" but found nothing. (Unlike in Lollipop) In the "Storage & USB" section also, there is no mention of a USB connection other than in the title.
I can't swipe down the notification area while the device is plugged in because the screen is broken (I use a mouse)

What might be my problem?
PS: The device has an unlocked bootloader so I can edit system files.

Thanks.

You can swipe down the Notificationbar and it will show Charging only. If you click that entry you can select the desired mode. The selected mode won't be set as default, so if you plug your device again, it will be on Charging only again.

To set the default mode you first need to enable developer mode (don't ask me why...). This can be done by going to About phone settings and clicking on the build number a few times.

Then go to the now accessible Developer Settings -> USB-Configuration (should be under the Network section). This should be set to the desired mode. In my case it was allready set to MTP (the desired mode), so i had to set it to another mode (for example Charge only) and then set it back to MTP.
Hope this helps!

EDIT: This only seems to work once. So if you disconnect and reconnect the device 2 or more time, the default is again on "Charge only". It is mentioned in the changelog of Android 6. Link-https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html#behavior-usb


Insufficient device memory my galaxy note SHV-E160S have 200 mb free device memory but still it donot even download 5 mb apps from play store and the warning message of insufficient memory displayed... Any so;ution???

First download "Easy app backup and restore" app from app store.It will save all of your app apk file in your memory card.Now restore your phone(factory reset).After completion install app again from the folder where apk file is present. Cheers!


I can't enable my Gboard in the virtual keyboards settings I can't seem to be able to enable my Gboard from the virtual keyboards menu. I've tried everything from clearing cache, to uninstalling it and re-downloading it. I even downloaded the older version "Google Keyboard" and it's the same problem. How can i resolve this?

Try these troubleshooting steps:

Restart phone
Clear Cache
Uninstall Updates (for gboard app, if any - the three dots menu and uninstall updates)
Force stop
Uninstall App
Reinstall app

Next try this:

Go to keyboard settings
Disable all other keyboards (except stock)
Try to select gboard
If still doesn't work, with all the other keyboards unselected, now try the original 6 steps and try again

If it still doesn't work:

Restart your phone in safe mode, try again

Finally, as a last resort, try this:

Factory restart phone (after backing everything up)


Ways to improve battery life on Droid Incredible? Out of the box, I noticed my Incredible has a lot of stuff running/turned on by default.  Besides the basics of turning off WiFi, GPS, and BlueTooth when I'm not using them, are there more steps I can take to make my battery last longer?

In general, I believe reducing use of vibration helps save battery life on a phone. So for the Incredible, I even disabled the feature of vibrating when entering keystrokes.

Here are some good tips from wikiHow.


Can I train Google Voice Actions to better recognize my voice? I'm playing with Google Voice Actions. The idea is great, but I'm having trouble with Google Voice Actions not recognizing some of my words. The mistakes are minor, but are bad enough that the application returns bad results half the time.

Some examples:
* The words "Bee Canyon" is interpreted to be "East Canyon".
* "Road" is interpreted as "route"

I am using a Samsung Intercept M910.

I speak American English, with a typical American (Californian) accent. I'm sitting in a quiet room with little background noise.

Is there a way to 'train' Google Voice Actions so that it will understand my voice better?

You could try enabling the "Personalized Recognition" option in the Voice Search settings. This option basically causes Voice Search to store words and phrases that you use on your Google account, and gradually build up a voice library of your speech patterns. You can read the original announcement for it on the Google Mobile blog.

I believe this feature is only available in the US on Android 2.2 or later, but it's possible there may be other restrictions as well.


Sideloading Apps on Google-TV Even though a new version (which includes the android market) is coming out for the Google TV this summer, I'm a little impatient and slightly curious.

There are a few apps that I'd like to try out on the google TV that I don't think would necessarily break anything (i.e. apps that come to mind don't use sensors, camera, etc) so I'm wondering if there is a way to sideload apps into the current generation of the Google TV?

There is no support for opening APK files natively, but I wonder if I hook my computer up to the STB via USB, if I could run some adb blackmagic and inject apps into it.

Any thoughts or opinions?

And yes, I am aware the current apps out there aren't optimized for a google TV, but I'm looking to add some basic functionality to hold me over until the next version comes out.

Unfortunately the ADBD (adb daemon) is not enabled on any current Google TV hardware, so adb connectivity is not possible via USB, Ethernet, or any other means.

However, a few crafty tinkerers from GTVhacker site managed to hack the Logitech Revue unit to enable this functionality.  Keep in mind that this is a hardware hack and includes physically opening up the Revue box and soldering connections on the motherboard.  You can read more on this mod here.  Needless to say, this hack is not for everyone, and carries even more risk of bricking the STB as a plain software hack.


EeePad Transformer ADB problems with drivers on Windows7 x64 Sorry for the cross-post (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8185773/eeepad-transformer-adb-problems-with-drivers-on-windows7-x64)... I was told this is a better place for my question.

I have 2 Windows7 x64 machines.

One of them has got both drivers (ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface and Transformer TF101) and when i run adb devices I get the device listed as expected.

The other one has only got one of the drivers (ie. the ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface is not there and there is no unknown devices or apparent problems in Device Manager).

Any ideas?

I would reinstall the TF101 driver and install the Android SDK drivers.  This XDA post has some additional info.


Swiftkey Keyboard uses too much space Keyboard application uses 845 MB of my phone data which is really too much.
I want to delete data, but I am afraid that I will delete words predictions too.
Is there any solutions for me? Maybe there is option to decide what will be deleted. Cache memory is only 300 kb. I tried to move app to SD card but that option moves only application not data, and I started getting message that SwiftKey stopped working. After moving it back, works correctly again.

Hope someone can help me,
tnx

I have been using SwiftKey for a few years now and have a large dictionary. Still, my data size is some 17MB. Yours at 845MB is enormous, and this is likely due to some bug/error inside the app.

Here's what I can recommend:
Open SwiftKey and go to Account > Backup & Sync.
Here, ensure that you are backing up your SwiftKey account to Google account, Microsoft or other available options. This will ensure that your dictionary and learned words are synced to the server, and hence the learned words are connected to your account.

At this point, you should be safe when you delete the SwiftKey data and/or re-install the app. After the initial setup, you will be asked to log in to an account, and if you log in using the same account, your dictionary will return. This time, with a much smaller size (expected).

Check that your backup exists and your dictionary is synced:
If you want to confirm that your dictionary is backed up before deleting the data of SwiftKey, you can install SwiftKey Beta and then login using the same account. Now start typing and see if you are getting the predictions as expected. If you do, all is good, and you can delete both apps, re-install stable SwiftKey and have fun.


Determine HTC Desire screen type The first HTC Desire devices used to have AMOLED screens, before HTC switched to SLCD. How can I tell whether my handset has an AMOLED or an SLCD screen?

Try looking at a black picture in the dark. With AMOLED the picture should be pure black. With SLCD you should see the backlight making the picture look greyish.


Alfar 780 tablet not updated from ICS 4.0.3 to ICS 4.0.4 My Alfar 780 tablet wasn't updated to ICS 4.0.4.

I downloaded 4.0.4.zip, and turned off the tablet. Then, I clicked the power + volume up/down buttons. It opened but did not show the menu to update.

Change the file name of the 4.04.zip to update.zip and that should do it if you are able to boot into recovery.


Disable or lock Google Play on my android phone How can I disable/lock Google Play on my phone(may be restrict it with a password)? I tried this way and followed the steps given there. But it's not asking any password for free apps.

It won't ask for a password for free apps since there's no danger of financial loss of any kind, it is a good point however

There are apps on Google Play that can 'lock' certain apps check 'https://play.google.com/store/search?q=app+locker' or something to that effect

This one looks like it does the job: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.domobile.applock&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5kb21vYmlsZS5hcHBsb2NrIl0.

They will enable control of apps via a pin


How to "flash" a single updated file with CWM Recovery? I have modified certain .so library and want to safely flash it over existing firmware.
I see that incremental updates are possible (thinking of GravityMod2 3.0 to 3.1 to 3.2 update route); unpacking one of updates found on net, got this:

 inflating: changelog.txt
   creating: META-INF/
   creating: META-INF/com/
   creating: META-INF/com/google/
   creating: META-INF/com/google/android/
  inflating: META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
  error:  invalid compressed data to inflate
  file #7:  bad zipfile offset (local header sig):  150328

 (seems like extra bytes in zip)

How do I prepare such updates?

After a number of attempts, found this distro at GitHub:
update.zip

Had to replace updater-binary to another version matching my phone (took it from verified and working firmware).

Next, modified updater-script to look like this:

ui_print("________________________________");
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/system");
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/cache");
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/data");
delete("/system/lib/libXXXX.so");
package_extract_file("system/lib/libXXXX.so", "/system/lib/libXXXX.so");
set_perm(1000, 1000, 0644, "/system/lib/libXXXX.so");


mount.exfat-fuse mounts drive r/o I'm mounting an external exFat drive on a rooted Android device (Amazon Fire TV/2) using the mount.exfat-fuse program.

mount.exfat-fuse -o rw,umask=000 /dev/block/sda1 /system/test

directory permissions are 777, but permission denied for anything root tries.

Thanks for any help.

It turned out that SELinux policy on the Amazon Fire TV/2 caused my exFat drive to be read-only when mounted, despite mounting arguments. The SELinux command setenforce can be run with an argument of 0 or 1, setting SELinux to permissive or enforced, respectively. When set to 0, the drive can be used normally.

So, I check for the presence of setenforce in my mount script and set it to 0 if found. The unmounting script does setenforce 1, putting things back as they were.


How to transfer data to android? I just took a phone android, before I had an iphone.
I want to tune all my data (photos, videos and contacts) on my new phone.
How can I do? I do not know any solution to the problem.

Switching from IPhone to Android is really easy. You'll need Google drive installed on your iPhone and set your Google account.

Further explanations can be found here

If your android device is a Samsung, you'll need Smart Switch app.

To get started, you'll first need to install  Samsung Smart Switch Mobile app from the Play Store on your Samsung device.

After launching the app, select iCloud from the list of options. The service works by using your iCloud device backup, and transferring your information to the Samsung device.

You may not feel comfortable with giving Samsung your Apple credentials. For this scenario,  Samsung has created a desktop tool to transfer your information. The tool can be found here.
Just follow the steps on screen.


How to end do not disturb mode? Not able to end the do not disturb mode. Tried clicking the 'end now' tab repeatedly, doesn't work. Neither there's anything in the settings nor in the slide down quick settings.

It's getting inconvenient to check the notifications, as the mode says 'priority only'. What are the solutions?

Greetings! Sincerely hope (and, quite likely!) you have already figured it out. Here, hoping it would help others with this same query, a simpler solution —

Simply pull down the volume to vibrate
Then, pull it down once more to silent
And, then, just pull it up again as much as you like :-)

And, voila, it's no longer stuck at "Priority Only"!

Cheers,
Oli


Android 4.4.2 external SD card mount paths and Titanium Backup I am about to wipe the stock ROM from my LG G3 and put in Resurrection Remix to get 5.1.1. My current stock ROM runs 4.4.2 of Android. In prep I downloaded the GApps and ROM zip files to "/storage/external_SD". I see them in there just fine.

I also told my Titanium Backup program to backup everything in the system for good measure. It seems to only backup to "/storage/emulated/legacy/TitaniumBackup". That is fine except I want to be completely sure this is going to the external SD card before I go wiping anything.

From what I have read it seems like "/storage/emulated/legacy" may be going to the external SD card. However that is a bit unclear.

Are there simply two partitions on the external SD card? Are both of those paths on the SD card? Is there an easy way to tell?

On most phones, /storage/emulated/legacy, /storage/sdcard0, /sdcard   points to the internal memory rather than the external SD card (but if you want to be completely sure, open up a Terminal Emulator and type the mount command with no arguments).

Titanium Backup does allow changing the backup path though.

Open the app → press the Menu button and select Preferences ....
Scroll down to find the Backup folder location option and select it.
In the popup, tap on Storage provider and select Filesystem storage - Ext. SD card -- this will display the contents of your external SD card
Select a folder to choose as your backup location, or choose Use the current folder to make Titanium Backup save backups onto the root directory of your card.


stop google maps from spinning the map I used to be able to keep north up. Now not only does north move, sometimes the map will spin. Usually when I try to zoom (at least this is when I notice it). Even when it does not spin, the map rotates to put direction of travel up. This is confusing: I feel that I never know where I am.

Is there a way to force north to stay up? How do I activate it?

This is important to me, because last night I had to stop for 5 minutes, to figure out where I was, and which way to go next. (the spinning made me lost)

In Google Maps (Android version 10.49.2, also tested on 8.1.0). Enter maps' and access the Settings menu by pressing the profile icon at the top-right corner. Scroll down and press the Navigation settings, then scroll down to Map display section, and switch on Keep map north up.


How do I re-install the system app "Google Talk"? I accidentally uninstalled Google Talk using Root Uninstaller and now I can't download anything from the Market.

Can anyone help me? I don't have the .apk file for Google Talk.

The Google Talk application is a key part of the Android Market authentication. If you are not signed in to Google Talk, you cannot use the android market. This is one of the reasons there needs to be more "Warnings" with apps like Root Uninstaller. They allow you to remove vital apps from the device, and don't tell you what damage it could do.

You have a couple options:

You will need to find the apk for your device, or that works for your device. There are some devices that use a different version of the application, Then use a tool like Root Explorer for example, to put the apk file back in /system/apps
Restore from a Nandroid / Titanium backup (if you did the backup before hand)
(re)Flash a ROM on your device, which could put the device in the "factory state" if you are not flashing the same ROM that you already have on the device.

I also seen this in the applications description and it may actually make a backup of any app that you freeze or uninstall. check and see if you can restore with the application.

If you CANN'T freeze/defrost, try to enable USB Debugging (HOME/Settings/Application/Development/USB Debugging)
If you CANN'T restore backup app, try to "find apps on SD card" then long-press the app and select "install as system app".
This application uses SDCARD to store data


Why are apps on Aptoide newer than the Play Store? I have seen many of the usual apps such as YouTube, Facebook and Google Maps even, that have a newer version in Aptoide rather than Google Play Store.

How is this possible since Google Maps and YouTube originally come from Google Play Store? Are these apps safe to download from 'apps' store in Aptoide?

Also on the YouTube app in Aptoide, it doesn't have the 'Trusted' shield, it says 'Unknown'.

Staged rollouts, alpha and beta testing.

APKMirror states testing builds clearly, for example on Google Apps:


Android 6: Can't save text files to external sd card I can open text file from external sd card, but I can't save it back to the same place because of error

  can't create storage...
  Permision denied

Is there a way to change app permission to saving files to external sd?

To write to an external drive you need to add the necessary permissions to your manifest. To write you will want to add:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

To read from the drive you should add:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

You should be able to get away without the read permission but if you want to futureproof your app and make it so users don't run into bugs add it in. Google's API explains the proper guidelines for handling datafiles here.


Bricked Onda v919 64gb (without 3g) I currently bought a tablet Onda v919 from China. When I received it I realized that the installed android did not contain Google Play, and after reading about it I found out that you could make an upgrade with a later rom to fix this. I followed a guide to do this, but after I finished my tablet will not start.

When booting I enter what I think is the efi console.

To fix this I have tried to reinstall windows from backup images. However I have not been able to make a bootable usb drive.

Does anyone have any tips on how to reinstall my tablet?

Best regards
David

It sounds like you have corrupted your partitions. To fix this you either need to rebuild your partitions (which requires a knowledge of the device and MBR or GPT, and will need know how the factory ROM is imaged).

Or you can repartition your tablet by flashing it with a factory ROM. This will revert the tablet back to its original state. Thus erasing all of your data.


Some apps won't open anymore I've got a problem on an LG G4 with android 5.0 : Some apps can't be openned anymore. Facebook and and supercell games like 'clash of clans' for instance.

Facebook close each time I try to open it and supercell games are locked on a black screen. That's why I didn't think it was the same issue but both happenned at the same time twice ... it has to be something they have in common...

It happenned a first time and the only way I could unlock it was to factory reset the phone.
It worked then for a few days but here I am with the same problem again and I'm looking for a way to fix this without factory reset each time ...

I don't have any clue... maybe someone here can help ?

Edit :
I tried to uninstall facebook, reboot, reinstall.   still crash at startup :(

I've found out that it occurs only when developpers options are enabled :/
As a developper, I need to enable those sometimes and the problem appear again.

So now I just disable them when I don't need it and it solve the issue.

If anyone can explain it I would be interrested.

Thx anyway


How to set the notification dots on a Moto G6? I activated the notification dots on my Moto G6 following this process:
settings>apps & notifications>notifications>allow notification dots
But, the dots are not appearing. Did I do something wrong? How can I solve this?

I am also having this issue.  Notification dots are enabled on all apps but don't work.

I do not have any 3rd party notification apps.
I have cleared cache and data from the "Moto App Launcher" application and restarted.  No difference.

I did, just now, download an application for notifications and it works.  So annoying.  Moto App Launcher obviously has some issues/flaws.


How can I link to a local image from my home screen? We are able to create a link to a website and put this link on our Home screen by using the Add shortcut to home inside the browser's context menu.

I would like to do the same for an image that is local to my phone, so that I can click on the button and have that particular image display.

How might I achieve this?

There are actually many ways  to achieve the goal.
Method 1

Install ES File Explorer -- I'm suggesting it because  I know that it provides a file widget.
In your default launcher, go to Widgets → choose ES File Explorer → locate and select the image you want to be launched by the shortcut, and it would be placed on your home screen now.

Method 2
You already know it.
Open your browser, enter file:/// in the URL bar → locate to the folder where the image is located and then tap on it so that the browser should load it (show it, not download it) → use "Add shortcut to home" so that the shortcut can be created on the home screen.
Note that I tested this method on Firefox for Android and works well, but Chrome doesn't work.
Method 3
Find the activity responsible for showing the image in your default gallery app, input the data (image URI) into it, and use them in the Tasker to create a shortcut. (Use my answer for know-how.)


Old ringtones from android 1.0? I had a Android Dev G1 phone (which has long since bitten the dust). it was running android 1.0 (later updated to 1.5). I have just gotten a HTC Desire running 2.2. There was a nice ringtone on the 1.0 that i'd like to get again. Is there anyway to download the ld ringtones that were on 1.0?

My Android 1.6 phone has the following files in the /system/media/audio/ringtones directory. Are any of these the one you want?

Noises2.ogg
BirdLoop.ogg
Noises1.ogg
Big_Easy.ogg
No_Limits.ogg
BentleyDubs.ogg
NewPlayer.ogg
BeatPlucker.ogg
World.ogg
MildlyAlarming.ogg
VeryAlarmed.ogg
MidEvilJaunt.ogg
TwirlAway.ogg
LoveFlute.ogg
Thunderfoot.ogg
LoopyLounge.ogg
Third_Eye.ogg
InsertCoin.ogg
Terminated.ogg
Growl.ogg
Steppin_Out.ogg
Glacial_Groove.ogg
SpringyJalopy.ogg
Gimme_Mo_Town.ogg
SitarVsSitar.ogg
GameOverGuitar.ogg
Shes_All_That.ogg
Funk_Yall.ogg
Seville.ogg
FriendlyGhost.ogg
Savannah.ogg
EtherShake.ogg
RomancingTheTone.ogg
Eastern_Sky.ogg
Road_Trip.ogg
DreamTheme.ogg
Ring_Synth_04.ogg
CurveBall.ogg
Ring_Synth_02.ogg
CrazyDream.ogg
Ring_Digital_02.ogg
Club_Cubano.ogg
Ring_Classic_02.ogg
Champagne_Edition.ogg
Revelation.ogg
CaribbeanIce.ogg
Paradise_Island.ogg
Calypso_Steel.ogg
OrganDub.ogg
Cairo.ogg
Noises3.ogg
Bollywood.ogg


App to automatically download and view a list of web pages offline I have a very specific workflow that I can't find a simple solution for.

I want to be able to make a list of web pages to read offline. Not articles, whole web pages. And I want to keep them up-to-date.

I really want an app for Android (my phone: Galaxy S2) that does the following.

Lets me enter a list of webpages and maintain that list.
Hit a button in the app, and it'll update every page on that list and store a complete offline copy so I can pursue it while on the train.
Still maintain links, so I can click on them (so, no PDFs or whatever).
Optionally have the ability to set readable fonts.
Even better, if there was a way to export this list and modify it on my computer, share it, manipulate it etc. (or if there were a web serivce with an API).

My personal use case is very simple. I'm a Wikipedia administrator, and there are a variety of public noticeboards for discussions of interest to administrators, like the administrators' noticeboard and the usually drama-filled administrators' noticeboard for incidents. I'd say there's probably about 10-20 pages I want. I'd rather like it if I could get either my phone or iPad, wake up in the morning, push the "update" button, go brush my teeth and by the time I'm leaving for my commute, have all the pages up-to-date and readable on the train.

Answers you may suggest that are wrong up-front:

Instapaper/Readability/Read It Later: those are for saving things broadly like newspaper articles for later reading. They are optimized for extracting text. They are fantastic, but don't actually meet the use case.
Some combination of Evernote, Google Docs, AppleScript/Python/Ruby/Perl and sticky tape: I've got enough pain and broken software in my life already.
Anything involving RSS. Again, look at the links above. There are RSS feeds for individual changes to the page, but I'm interested in saving the whole page, not getting an RSS feed.

Basically what I'm looking for is an Android version of what they referred to as an "offline browser" back in the early days of the web. Is there such a thing that doesn't suck?

Offline Browser app sounds exactly like what you are looking for.  You can specify a list of web pages to download for offline reading, along with a per-page configurable link depth (so that it doesn't just pull down the home page.)


Samsung Galaxy S3 notification bar style changes I currently have Android 4.1.2 on my galaxy s3 from Verizon and I am having issues with the notification bar. Seemingly at random it changes how the notification bar works. I had recently updated the gmail app to allow messages to be archived from the notification bar. However later the bar changed back to the old style where it no longer showed snippets of the email in the notification bar and I can no longer take actions for new email. At the same time I noticed new notifications are tacked on to the right side of the list instead of the left side when the new features where working.

Has anyone else experienced this issue or figured out a solution for it?

This is still happening after I upgraded to Android 4.3

I had the same problem and couldn't find the answer anywhere.  Via the technique, commonly known as 'mucking about with my phone', I found that the new actions can be revealed by swiping down on the notification with two fingers. Likewise they can be hidden again by swiping upwards with two fingers.


Delete Status bar Icon downloaded from web I joined way2sms to send free SMS from my laptop. Now I find an app icon downloaded to my status bar in my Samsung Galaxy Y mobile. Also, I get debited for calls not made. I am losing money in this scam due to this app downloaded and it does not show up in my running apps menu. I need to find and delete this app.

The app should at least be found in Settings → Apps → Manage Apps, where you should be able to uninstall it. Alternatively you can visit the Playstore website, log in with your credentials, go to "My Android Apps", select your device (in case you've got more than one in there), find the app in that list, and remove it by hitting the trashcan-symbol.

If all this fails (the second alternative should not, but who knows), your "last resort" will be a factory-reset of your phone (which will remove all data and all apps you've installed).


What do "Installed", "Running", and "All" apps mean in Android Settings? I have an Android device running on Android 4.4.4. In the Settings, I have no idea what "Installed", "Running", and "All" apps are.

What do those mean?

The menu in Settings › Apps usually has multiple tabs (or items in a drop-down), signifying a (sub) group of the apps available on your device:

Installed: user-installed apps. Most of them are those you installed yourself, but some might be "vendor-provided" apps that got installed on initialization (first use or after a factory-reset). These are the apps you also can uninstall.
All: All apps, whether pre-installed or user-installed. This is the only group where (pre-installed) system apps are shown as well; these you normally cannot uninstall, but only disable (and sometimes not even that).
Running: These are the apps currently running – either because you started them explicitly, or because they got started by some intent (in most cases, this is BOOT_COMPLETED, i.e. apps starting automatically after boot – but it also could be something else they're reacting on, such as network state changed, or some other app calling them as it often is the case with Maps)
Disabled: On some devices, you might see this as explicit section listing the (system) apps you've disabled. On other devices, this section might be missing; disabled apps then carry the string "disabled" next to their names in the "All" section.


What's /system/vendor/lib/liboemcrypto.so? and where does it come from? I'm on lineage os and I have an app that crashes because this file doesn't exist on my sytem. When I do an internet search for the file, I see that there are plenty of people getting things working by removing it, or renaming it to liboemcrypto.so.bak or something, but no one seems to be missing this file. Can I get it from anywhere?

That's (part of the) implementation of Android's "modular DRM", which came into being in Android 4.3 (API level 18) -- see MediaDrm. Essentially it's the component that allows media player apps, under certain conditions, to play back DRM-protected contents.

If you are running on Android 4.2 or lower, however, you're probably out of luck. To confirm, you can install an app like DRM Info, which will tell you whether any DRM library is installed on your system. If not, am afraid there's nothing you can do on this specific device.


Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini (E10i) stuck on boot logo after installing a custom ROM using CWM Recovery I was trying to install a custom ROM on my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini (E10i) by flashing the ROM with the .zip file in ClockWorkMod Recovery, but after installation the device doesn't boot. It hangs on the Sony Ericsson boot logo.

What can I do to recover from this situation?

If you unlocked your bootloader and flashed a custom kernel, try:

Hold Home and Power button, phone will restart.
Press back button repeatedly, phone will boot into recovery.
Now
wipe data,
wipe cache,
dalvik chache,
dalvik battery status. In mount n system:
format data,
format system,
format cache.
Now flash your rom zip and after successful flash, reboot the phone.

Note: Always flash the kernel which is given along with the rom


How to I block advertisements for one specific app? Lately I've been getting ads for a TikTok-like app called Kwai. These ads always include girls of questionable age dancing very suggestively to the sound of very bad music.
These ads appear on many of my apps, from YouTube to Duolingo (and other language study apps), and it's very annoying to see these while I'm trying to concentrate, especially since it always comes with loud music (while I'm wearing headphones to listen to my lessons). I did manage to get rid of them on YouTube by using Vanced, but I've still got issues with the other apps I use.
I don't mind any of the other ads that show up; it's only this one I've got beef with. That being so, I'd like to know if there's any way to block all ads for this Kwai app, specifically, from showing on my apps.
Thanks in advance!

Since these objectionable ads show up in multiple apps, they are likely being mass-distributed by a large advertising provider company (such as Google).
I don't think you'll be able to successfully block ads for a single product that are distributed this way, but since the content of the ads is questionable, you can determine which ad provider is delivering questionable content, and file a report with them.  If the content being pushed is illegal in your jurisdiction, you can also involve law enforcement.
Finally, you can notify the developers of all the apps in which you see these ads and let them know about the issue.  They can then file a report with their ad providers and consider finding more suitable ad providers.  If you leave accurate reviews regarding this issue, you may be able to pressure the developers of the apps you use to find a more appropriate advertising provider or remove the advertising content altogether.  Often, you can purchase paid versions of apps that have no advertising.


An old unconnected htc one x+ recently stolen The phone wasn't connected to my network,  I was just using it for music. But, if connected through wifi, I was able to go online. My phone company is aware of the theft and red flagged it.
 Can these theives still break into my accts and find info on me?  Can they assume my identity and request password resets to get into my accounts?

The short answer is... maybe.  Did you have a pin or pattern set on your phone to prevent anyone from opening it?  If you had something as simple as a pattern lockscreen or a 4 digit pin, it's highly unlikely (although, not at all impossible) that anyone is going to invest the time and effort it would take to break that security.  If you left it wide open with no sort of lockscreen protection, then anything you have saved on that phone is open game.  If you saved logins through apps on your phone... all they would have to do is connect to wifi and have access to whatever apps you have saved logins enabled for.  Your google account, at the very least, could be compromised easily (since they already have access to it- I feel certain if you're worried about this then you dont have 2FA enabled). I would recommend changing password to any services you used on that phone as a precaution, especially if you didn't have a lock feature enabled.


Apps not showing .How to reinstall the factory apps Ok so i rooted my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 inch tablet and i wanted to get rid of some useless factory apps that i never used but after i did that and exited kingroot i had no applications on my screen..my wallpaper is still here,the bar on top from where u can activate wifi, gps etc.(i dont know how its called sorry) is still functional (and i can go to settings from there but it doesnt work every time) and the digital buttons are working perfectly..it seems like everything works fine exept that when i restart i get the com.android.phone error. I accessed google from the task killer from where i can also go to the app manager witch works good also.
PS:Factory reset doesnt resolve the problem.

Sounds like you removed the launcher (homescreen) along with some other critical stuff.

For now, go to Settings and turn on USB Debugging, plug into your PC, install appropriate drivers, and sideload another launcher app, so that you can see all your apps and backup data. After backing up, flash a factory firmware via Odin from your PC to get a fresh start (you do need to root again).


Configure sleep mode for a Progessive Web App (PWA)? First of all I do not know the difference between "sleep mode" and "standby", so I am most likely using the wrong term in the following problem description:
I build myself a little PWA that tracks my routes with OpenLayers. It works fine so far, but at some point the recording of a track is interrupted. I assume this is due to the automatic sleep mode, which "turns off" Chrome and probably therefore also "navigator.geolocation".
Is there any chance to let my PWA and navigator.geolocation continue doing their work when Android is in sleep mode? And if so, is there any way to activate that setting via the PWA and without going into "Settings -> ... -> ..." (if that is at all an option)?
Thank you!
PS: The gis.stackexchange.com community recommended me to ask this question here.
PPS: A "PWA" ("Progressive Web App"), in short, is nothing else but a web application that looks and behaves like a "real" app. Even though it is run in a browser (in my case I only focus on Chrome), it can be used offline via service workers, the UI does not show the browser's address bar and some things more. By using all the modern browser APIs it is possible to create an app without having to go through the app store (even though a PWA could be registered as an app in the app store, too).

As it turns out, there is a Web API, "Screen Wake Lock API":
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Screen_Wake_Lock_API


How to exclude specific apps from using the VPN connection on Android? I'm trying to exclude certain apps from using the VPN connection that is created on android so that those apps make a direct/proxy connection rather than through the VPN server. I use OpenVPN for Android (supports IP exclusions) and proxydroid (a proxy wrapper/proxifier app).

When I looked up, it says most of the VPNs supports an IP/CIDR/domain based routing rather than application specific routing.
And also certain apps can be forced through VPN by using a virtual machine(running VPN inside VM) based solution while the rest of apps make a direct connection. But I am not looking for a virtual machine based solution.
I also found two other methods to force only certain apps through the VPN:

Method 1) Configure and use a proxy at the other end of the VPN connection. Configure the client-side applications to use the proxy.

Method 2) Add another local IP to your network interface and bind all applications that need to be sent strictly through the VPN to this interface. On Linux, the use of the 'ip route' and 'ip rule' commands will allow you to define additional non-default routing tables and map to them based on the source address.

How do I use these methods on Android? I am thinking of binding a particular app to a particular IP and port using proxydroid and then use the force binding method. How do I use this force binding method on Android?

If it's not possible through that method, is there any other method (such as split tunneling)?

Solution:

Run proxydroid app and selected the apps to be routed through the proxy server. Specify the host, port and proxy type of the proxy server under proxy settings.
Exclude the IP of the proxy server used in the VPN app. You can use 'OpenVPN for Android' app. Go to the settings for the VPN server and add IPs to be excluded in CIDR format (under the 'routing' tab)
Connect to VPN and then enable proxydroid.

This will allow apps to use a proxy and excludes them from using VPN connection.


Photos show up as blank after putting them on SD card Inserted a 32 GB Micro SD card. Phone recognizes it and I can copy photos on to it and they all appear to be there.

But when I restart the phone many of the photos show up blank. Any way to fix this?  I tried another card with similar results.

My phone runs Android 4.4.

Try erasing the photo gallery application data and reboot before starting the app again, so that it has to load again thumbnails and image locations once more when it starts. Perhaps it is not updating propper data.


Space issues and rooting I have a Huawei IDEOS u8150 running Froyo. Ever since I got this device, I've been running into low disk space problems (because of only 150 MB internal space). So I've had enough and moved all the apps I can to SD card. Then again, some were not movable.

So I did a little research and saw this article on loading apps to the SD card by default. It seemed to work rather weirdly, as some apps which couldn't be moved to the SD card before, now can be moved after using that trick. Still, the system apps and vendor bundled apps remained in the internal memory. Also, most of the moved apps still took some space on the internal memory.

The Froyo's app2sd rather seems to be behaving oddly according to me (though I've searched online and found this is normal, sadly).

What I want to know is :

Will rooting enable me to further enhance my Froyo's app2sd function?
Will custom mods be a better option with space management for my phone? If so, which ones?
Right now I have apps that I really need and use and I'm stuck with low disk space. (Please dont link me to anywhere; I've done all I can with cleared caches and I have no more apps to uninstall which I don't need.) I've heard that z4root takes 22MB+ internal space. Is there anything else to root using adb or something that wont require internal space? Or if I use z4root itself, can I remove the app fully after rooting and still have root? What about SuperOneClick's space cost?

I have never been a fan of the froyo apps2sd, I was a huge fan of the original "apps2sd" that used an EXT2/3/4 partition on your sdcard. I am not sure if any custom ROMs still support this. I know it is not "supported" in cyanogenMod. You will have to root to go the "apps2ext" route. but if you dont want to go that route, or can't find any ROMs that support it, I don't really know of any way you can really free up any additional space.

If rooted, you can delete any "bloatware" that is installed on the /system. You can remove z4root after you install it. Another thing to keep in mind, even if you install applications on the sdcard, they can still use the /data directory to store their data, which is located on the devices internal storage.


How can I access data on Charge Only mode (Phone's screen is non-functional!)? I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. The phone was accidentally dipped into the water which rendered it unusable. I left the phone to dry in a rice bag for 5 days and then took it out and charged it.

The phone booted and was working until I put it to charge. The moment I switched on the power adapter, the screen went black and then the backlight came on.

I remember that before the incident, the phone was in charge-only mode and as the screen is non-functional, I cannot change the mode now. I was wondering, if there is any way, I could access, and recover my data before I give it to any authorized Service Center personnel, who says that there is no chance that the motherboard is fine.

There's little chance you can do that in normal system. But you can do it in (custom) recovery.

If you already have a custom recovery flashed, then skip this step. Boot it into fastboot (bootloader) and flash a custom recovery in.

Then boot into the recovery and you can access it using ADB shell. You can use adb pull to retrieve data from your phone.


Is xposed safe for my phone I've a Micromax bolt A064 running on 4.4.2 kitkat. After rooting the device, I somewhere read that xposed can give my phone more tweaks than ever I can. So, I started reading about xposed. Some users said that it was safe and they were enjoying whereas some user's phone was soft-bricked or bootloooped. I certainly come to know that it can harm my device also. But I want something new in my phone. So, the best idea that my brain gives to me is to ask from the experts and intelligents  here. I'm now having stock rom but rooted with kinguser. I replaced kinguser with Supersu and now using it. You can check the details of my phone on manufacturer website. Alternatively, I'm attaching a screenshot of my setting's about phone.
Again highlighting question-

  Is xposed safe for my micromax bolt a064

And, if it is safe, could you please list some useful modules that is supported i.e safe?

Thank you for your attention. If any details is needed, comment it and I'll surely give it. And please help.

----------------------Thank you-----------------

Nobody will give you any guarantee – but a few hints we can give. I'm using Xposed on multiple devices, and encountered no issues. So here a few points to consider:

before installing Xposed, make a full backup (best a nandroid backup) – so you always can revert in case things go weird.
make sure your device has a custom recovery (in fact, that's a pre-condition for the Nandroid backup), and you can use it. Follow the link to learn about it in case you're not yet familiar with this.
when you install Xposed using the Xposed Installer, it will create a "recovery package" – so if your device/ROM has issues with Xposed and doesn't boot up anymore, you should be able to simply boot into recovery, and install that package – which would revert the Xposed installation and restore your device to its previous state.
not a bad idea to repeat step-1 before installing a new module, but that's not a strict requirement; removing Xposed as described in the step before should "deactivate" a misbehaving module along the lines – and if not, restoring the Nandroid backup for sure does.

  And, if it is safe, could you please list some useful modules that is supported i.e safe?

That's a) too broad, and b) off-topic here. But be welcome to grab an idea from my Xposed Framework Resource Collection (and the other lists on that site: Xposed modules are usually part of the corresponding "topic list", so the "resource collection" doesn't hold them all). Which ones to use completely depends on your needs :)


Nexus 4 does not wake up from Sleep randomly I have a Nexus 4 running stock rom kit kat 4.4.2. There were few instances, in which when the phone goes to sleep, I see the notification light blinking indicating a new email/message, but it doesn't wake up when I press the power button. I have to soft reboot the phone {press the power button for 5 seconds to turn it off, then turn on}to use it again. This happens more frequently on some days, and some times it doesn't happen for weeks.I tried calling the phone from my land line when it is in this state, I could hear it ringing on the landline, but the phone doesn't actually ring. After rebooting, it doesn't even show a missed call. When I reboot it, the phone's battery is substantially less (down by about 10%). It started happening only since 4.3 JB update, it was fine till then.

I tried a full factory reset, and minimal apps, it worked fine. Once I installed all my apps back, this started happening again. I am thinking one of my apps is causing this and it could be an application or a bug in Kit kat/JB itself.

Is there any known bug in kitkat 4.4.2 (or >= 4.3 ) or is there any application known to cause this?
Is there any way I can look at the logs to see if any specific application is causing this.
Force wake up the phone without having to reboot it ?

You might wish to run adb logcat for investigation. But that might only be helpful if you know how to trigger the issue.

Another approach would be, as you already indicated:

start with a factory reset. You know that with a "fresh device" the issue does not happen, as described by your question
install back only a part of your apps (the ones you feel most essential), but not more than ~50%. See if the issue still happens.

Yes: the problematic app was in this batch
No: the problematic app was not in this batch

start over at 1., this time with the other half. Does the issue show up again?

If 2. + 3. are answered "No", it might as well be a combination of apps. If the issue shows up only in either 2. or 3. (but not in both cases), start narrowing down. I will assume here it was part of 3., switch items if it was the other way around:

starting over with factory-reset and installing the first half of your apps.
split the other half in two again, and repeat as above

This procedure should help you finding the culprit, while still being able to use your device and as much of your apps as possible. Of course, you could also start with factory-reset and then install each app one-by-one (which might be the safer approach) – but as the issue might not show up immediately (may even take a day or more), the above might be more practical.


Can I access the Intenet via WiFi if my phone has no SIM card? I want to use WhatsApp on Samsung GT S5830 in Japan, but I do not have a SIM card for my phone. Can I use the Internet on my mobile via WiFi?

Yes you can if you still have contacts in your mobile and already registered on Whatsapp with a number.


Android Factory Reset After a factory reset on my Note 5 the first step after selecting language Google requires is the previous email account entry, I've entered my gmail account and password 10 times and it keeps telling me to use the original. It is the original. Except for an updated password. It is an endless loop; how do you get out of it?

If you are completely positive that that email is correct, try these things:

Resetting the password to the original (if you know it).
Make sure you're using a Google account (Or Gmail).
Contacting your service provider's help line or contact support.
Contact Samsung here.

Good Luck. I would recommend contacting Samsung BEFORE your service provider.


How does Android chooses among multiple access points? I have been doing a lot of research on this. Unfortunately I was not able to find how, by default, Android chooses among multiple access points.

For instance, if a user walks into a mall and there are 3 hotspots within range, how does the device select which access point to connect to?

-Does the device select the AP based in the order in which they are in the Wi-Fi stack?
-Does the device select the AP based on signal strength only?
-Does the device select the AP randomly?

Also, as the user physically moves from the coverage of AP A to the coverage of AP B:

-Does the device stay connected with AP A until it is out of range?
-Does the device transition from AP A to AP B somewhere along the way (sort of like a soft handoff)?

Thank you in advance.

I believe this is device-dependent and is not necessarily managed by Android.  The template wpa_supplicant.conf in /system/etc/wifi/ on my Vibrant says this:

  By default, wpa_supplicant requests driver to perform AP scanning and then uses the scan results to select a suitable AP.  Another alternative is to allow the driver to take care of AP scanning and selection and use wpa_supplicant just to process EAPOL frames based on IEEE 802.11 association information from the driver.

This is controlled by setting the ap_scan variable in the in-use configuration file, /etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf.  Mine is set to 1, which is the default above.  So I guess the question is, at least for my device, how does wpa_supplicant select a suitable AP?

It selects between networks based on explicit priorities given in /data/wifi/bcm_supp.conf.  For networks in the same priority group it selects based on "security policy, signal strength, etc." though the exact algorithm is not given.  In the case where ap_scan is 2 and scan_ssid is 1, the algorithm is simple: The first available network in the list is selected.  New networks are added to the file in the order they're encountered from what I understand; it does not list individual APs, so I assume they are handled dynamically according to whatever algorithm the supplicant is using.

I know that doesn't fully answer your question, but hopefully it's useful.


play store not working I am unable to download anything from play store..and I am also not able to access any service of google like gmail, picasa google+ . I have already reset my phone after half hour till reset my phone works properly bt further it starts behaving the same as it was before reset

You root ?? Reinstall services google play, perhaps it hurts you.
With a browser sees root / data / app / and reinstalls com.google.android.gms.apk
If you are not root then geting rooty if you want your android root flashes. Of course you'll have to find your rom.


Dropbox: I can only view old files I can no longer view new files in Dropbox on my Android phone. On investigation, I find that it says Offline. How do I change the settings to see all the files online?

In desperation, I went to Settings then Connect a Computer and went through the routine of installing Dropbox on my desktop (in spite of it being there already). The installation took much longer than the original, but all files are appearing on the Android devices which I use.

Not very intuitive...


Do I need to reinstall the OS before using adb restore? Assuming I did a full backup with

adb backup -system -apk -shared -all -f "backup.ab"

And then went into the recovery on my phone and wiped it completely.  Do I need to reinstall the OS before using adb restore or must I install the OS first?

I ask because I'm in a bit of a bind where I was on the latest CM12 and backed up before attempting and failing to upgrade to CM13.  When I try to reinstall CM12, only an earlier snapshot of CM12 is available.  If I try to restore with adb after installing the snapshot, com.android.phone fails continuously.  I am wondering if the newer CM12 is still in backup.ab.

Backups made with the -system argument can't be restored to a different Android version. It's not that the OS itself is in the backup: it's that the settings from system apps are in the backup and can only be read by the same version that produced them.

Usually upgrading to a newer minor version (e.g. from an earlier milestone release to the stable release) will work fine, because the apps are designed to be upgraded that way: a newer version of the app can read settings saved with an older version. However, going backwards will almost always cause problems if there have been any changes. Obviously the older version can't understand the settings added by the newer version.

You need to find the same version of CM12 that you had before. Try to avoid using a snapshot or nightly build.


Google App always opens google.com on chrome When I open the Google App, it promptly opens Chrome and switches to google.com. I cannot access anything on Google App since it immediately switches to Chrome.

Same happened on my sister's Samsung Tablet. Turned out it was caused by the Qustodio Parental Control app. It blocked safe search which was forcing the Google app to open google search in Chrome because google would not allow the parental control app to enforce safe search and monitor its app .

Don't know if its that but here is Qustodio help article telling that :
https://www.qustodio.com/en/help/article/2832549/ (under heading "Safe searches on Android")

If you don't have Qustodio Parental Control app, maybe it could be some other app that high control on your device. Qustodio shows at this link what i mean by high control (ex. Apps with usage access, Accessibility, etc) - go to the step called "11. When prompted to Activate app supervision, choose Activate Now.".


Difference between drive, file manager, and downloads on my android phone? I know that Google photos access my pictures, no matter what device I get on, as long as I enter my email address. But, my question is that, what's the difference between drive, file manager and downloads app on  android phone?

With Drive you can view and manage files stored on your Google account. Those files are also accessible on Google Drive website.

File manager lets you browse your phone's internal storage, SD card and USB OTG storage, if supported by your device.

Downloads app only shows files inside default downloads directory (which is usually called Downloads and is placed in your default storage). So you can access files you have downloaded earlier using both Downloads and File manager.


Max SD Card Size For Note Edge I have a 16 GB SD Card in my Galaxy Note Edge and only have 1GB of storage left.  I read that some Android devices can only hold up to 32GB - can my phone support the 64GB card?

Yes

Galaxy Note Edge SM-915G user manual says

  Your device accepts memory card with a maximum capacity of 128 GB

Also in this review (S6 Edge+ does NOT)

  Samsung does offer a 128GB option for its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge


How to unlock and root a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray ST18i with 4.1.B.1.13 I searched it a while and found some articles regarding rooting the Xperia Ray but I couldn't understand them easily. So I want help from you geeks who can give me the lighted way with simple steps to root my phone.

I found this article from xda-developers.com but it sais there, that I have to have an "unlocked bootloader" which I probably don't have if I haven't done anything with my phone yet, have I?
And it tells me to "wipe the dalvik-cache" which I don't see anywhere (probably after unlocking the bootloader?). I also heard something of "fastboot", but I didn't get what it is :-?

I already gct the IMEI by entering *#06# into my phone and got the developer unlock code from unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com.

I have running the actual Ice-Cream 4.0.4 Build-Number 4.1.B.1.13, Kernel 2.6.32.9-perf

EDIT:
right now I am following the instructions from Sony's Instructions on how to unlock bootloader. Entering the code *#*#7378423#*#* shows, that the unlock is allowed. I am downloading the huge Android SDK right now ...

Unlock bootloader
With a locked bootloader, one cannot install custom roms.To gain power over bootloader one should unlock it.
Now this is the most simple and easy way to get ye bootloader by following small simple steps.
Download Files for Fastboot

Extract the file to a new folder naming say Unlock.(Do it neatly as you wont get confused while entering into CMD).

Go to unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com (We will do the unlocking in the official way).

Read the instructions carefully and click Continue/Proceed whatever they ask,note down ye IMEI (The place where the website ask to paste it,enter in exactly first 14 digits,not 15digits) and after submitting ye Name, IMEI and mail click Submit and note down the code they produce(Copy that in a notepad).

Enter in fastboot mode(Press Volume up and connect USB cable simultaneously and blue light should come up,otherwise something has gone wrong).

Install the drivers for your device from the drivers folder

Go to fastboot directory and Ctrl+Shift+Right Click (or on Windows 7 open a CMD shell end go into the fastboot directory)

Type in
fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version  and hit enter

Type in
fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0x<your_code>
(use  directly by your code that you have already copied in notepad) and hit Enter

You are done. When you start your Phone you will have fresh factory reset Android.
Note: Official method says about installing latest Android SDK package which is of  more than 60MB and this method will do everything within 20MB via downloading the file which I mentioned at the beginning
Rooting
In order to root do the following.
Prerequisites:
1.Flashtool
2.Kernel
3.Rooting Toolkit
4.Go to settings > Security > Mark ”Unknown sources”
5.Settings > Developer options > Mark USB debugging
6.Kernal
A. Trying to flash the Kernel(4.1.A.0.562) with the help of Flashtool, download and install the software. Copy the FTF file and go to the Flashtool folder you extracted. Paste it inside the ‘firmware’ folder.
B. Launch the software and click the ‘Flash’ button (the button with the lightning icon.). Select the ‘Flashmode’ option and click OK.

1.Once you are done with installing new kernel, restart your device. Rooting toolkit will let you root your device (make sure you are done with prerequisites 4 and 5).
2.Rooting your mobile via Rooting toolkit is very simple. Click on the .bat file and follow the on-screen instructions. Your mobile may restart more than twice, never mind it. Once you see “You are done” in the command mode, disconnect your device and make sure you see Superuser icon in menu.
3.Step 6 in prerequisites is purely optional and if you want to update your kernel after rooting you can repeat step 1 with 4.1.B.0.587 Kernel.
Summary
As there is no direct way to root your ICS built Smartphone (xperia ray) ,this is a different approach in which flashing a kernel which enables us to root mobile in a single shot. That is we flash 4.1.A.0.562 kernel, do necessary steps in rooting and then revert it to latest kernel by flashing 4.1.B.0.587.At the end of the day we will have an ICS built Ray with latest kernel inside with SU permission.
Unroot
If you want to unroot your mobile, then after flashing kernel with 4.1.A.0.562 download this and run the .bat file after extracting it to some location. This script will remove the SU files and make it unrooted so that you could bring back the guarantee thing.
Source:
1,2
NOTE: I'm not responsible for any of your act. Do this at your own RISK


How to tell if your phone is refurbished Is there a way to tell if an Android phone is an original or a refurbished product?

On some devices, yes, there is a way. I am not certain which specific devices this works on, but there are two methods you can try. The most platform agnostic way to do it is generally the following:

Install a launcher that allows you to create shortcuts to Activities. ADW Launcher and Launcher Pro are both free and allow this.
Long press on an empty space on your home screen and select Shortcut->Activity.
Look for one of the following in the list of Activities. Either:

A. A package named com.android.hiddenmenu which you can expand to reveal the RTN activity OR
B. An activity simply named com.android.RTN (this is what I have on my Galaxy Nexus, CM9).
Create a shortcut to the RTN activity. If given a choice between multiple ones, select the "View" activity.
Launch RTN from the shortcut and look for the "Reconditioned Status" entry in the list. If it says "Yes" then it's a refurb. If it says "No" then it isn't (or it has not been properly noted as one for some reason).

The less portable (manufacturer dependent) way of doing this is to open your dial pad and enter the dialer code ##786#, which will also take you to RTN if the dialer code is supported. On some devices it may also work with *#*#786#*#*. All of the above directions were summarized from this blog post.


Encrypted SD card data recovery with broken display (S9+) my phone (Galaxy S9+) was recently stolen, and thankfully I got it back, but it was completely destroyed when I got it back. I'm not sure what they did to it (looks like they took a hammer to it), all I know is the display no longer turns on. It will still power up though.

I need to somehow retrieve the data from the encrypted SD card, and as I'm aware, the only way to do this is with the device that encrypted the card.

As far as I remember, the old phone has developer mode + remote debugging turned on, however I cannot access it via adb (presumably because I can't press the button to allow data transfer that pops up when you plug the phone into a computer). Its not rooted either.

Buying a new digitizer or paying for data recovery is simply out of the question as both are very expensive.

I do have some phone repair experience, and I see my last resort as disassembling my new s9 and using that screen to either decrypt it or copy the contents, but I'd really rather not take my brand new phone apart + these newer galaxies are among the hardest phones I've ever repaired.

Do I have any other options?

Answering my own question because I just figured out the simplest way possible (and tbh feel like a bit of an idiot for not realizing this before haha)

There was a method suggested on the comments thread of the OP, which might work as well, but what I ended up doing is using my USB hub (which has an hdmi port) and plugging the phone directly into my tv via hdmi. It required having my keyboard plugged in as well, but there were no permissions to bypass, and if you have a bt keyboard you could essentially use a physical keyboard to pair the bt keyboard, and then use a usb c to hdmi adapter to hook up to the tv -- cheaper option since this usb hub was like 50 bucks :P


How to change date and time format on Marshmallow? I'm using a Nexus 5X with Android 6.0.1, patch level January 2016. I'd like to change the system language to English but like to keep my local date format. In versions prior to Marshmallow, there was an option to set the date format, but I can find it anymore...

How do I set the UI language to English and the date format to DD.MM.YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD?

In Android Marshmallow you don't seem to be able to change the date format. Instead it chooses automatically what's appropriate for your locale.

In your case, you seem to want the English (UK) variant and not the English (US) one. So go to language settings and change it. Any other English variant should work since I'm pretty sure only americans use the MM/DD/YYYY variant.


Control another phone via bluetooth I need to control an android phone by another android phone using bluetooth.

Same as Teamviewer, but via bluetooth.

Suggestions ?

I have root and xposed.

So far I found only apps that use Wifi, or that transmit to a TV. Not what I need.

To make it more difficult: one of the devices is android 4.1

Edit 1: I said mirror before. It was wrong. I meant control. Need to view and control another device.

Edit 2: It may be something different than bluetooth, as long as no internet be required.

RemoDroid is the answer.
Works through WiFi Direct.
Works on older phones by using older versions  (0.15.4 worked on my 4.4.0, same version installed on both).
Not bluetooth, but works.
Thanks Robert for showing the way


how to run a specific app's action via terminal? I need to run my android app from a remote computer via SSH, but I'm not a command-line expert, so I would like to know:
how to run a specific action of an app? (not just open it)
Which implies: how to KNOW the exact sintax of possible actions of an app?

eg: I want to start a audio-recording app on my phone from my computer, AND start recording from remote. Is it possible?

Thanks, Andrea

Use this:

am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n <package_name>/<full_class_name>

To control an app, you'll have to put correct values of <package_name> and <full_class_name> in the command. For example, you can use com.google.gmail/com.google.gmail.check_mail (Hypothetical names) as last part of command.

Obtaining package name of an app is easy, but obtaining class name of action isn't. There are two problems:

Many app developers keep class info private.
Not all developers do smart modular programming. Its good habit to divide an app in multiple classes which could be triggered by intents, but not all developers are smart.

Solution of 1st problem: Decompile the app using apktool and see all info. There are also other ways, but this one is always-working method (unless app is based on NDK instead of SDK).

Solution of 2nd problem: Nothing.

Don't worry, most of popular apps follow best programming practice and they provide Public API from which you can get class info.


Retrieve WiFi password How to get saved WiFi password from my android 5.1.1  without rooting?

I checked the path /data/misc/wifi/ using adb pull from terminal, but it's empty

You can't get the passwords without root access because shell (adb) is not privileged to access the file containing those passwords. As you would know, the file wpa_supplicant.conf contains all the saved Wi-Fi passwords. In order to even ascertain the existence of that file, you must have read or executable permission until wifi directory. It just happened that the permissions on that directory is drwxrwx---, is owned by user wifi and  group wifi. Executing id tells us that shell is not part of wifi group, so it ultimately would be considered others. As you can see, the permissions for others are blank --- i.e. no read/write/execute permission is available, hence, you can't enter that directory, let alone copy a particular file residing inside it.

Root the device if you want that file badly.

Related reading: File permissions and attributes


What is this in my system tray? Every so often, seemingly random, this notification appears in my notification bar, but not in the tray.

The circles on the left in the notification bar. I have no clue what it's related to. There's no notification if I slide the tray down. It doesn't stay long, about the time I check for it in the notification tray, it's gone. I develop for my phone. Would anything on the development side of things trigger this weird notification?

It's a Samsung Galaxy S3 running CyanogenMod nightlies, specifically 10.1-20130405-NIGHTLY-d2spr which is Android 4.2.2.

EDIT:

I've noticed that this appears very consistently when I have Moon+ Reader open. It does not appear to be a notification caused by that app, but instead appears to be that the app is somehow "muting" notifications that happen while it is open. Is there something in the API that allows for the silencing of notifications originating from other apps?

I've found it in the Android API: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#setSystemUiVisibility(int)

A flag, SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LOW_PROFILE, can be passed to indicate that certain UI elements be put into a Low Profile and offer less of a distraction to the user. If I had a nexus device (really any device with soft buttons across the bottom) then I would also notice those buttons being replaces by the same dim circle I'm seeing in my navbar.

This has been available since 4.0 and is intended for book readers, games, and other immersive applications.


Sometimes Apps on SDcard Not Available As Clickable Icons I have an HTC Legend with Froyo 2.2. Occasionally it happens that after turning on the phone some icons on the home screen are not clickable, i.e. I only see the default icon as if I had uninstalled the app. This can happen to any app I have on my home screen, it's not related to just one. However, the Aldiko PDF reader seems to be affected more than others.

By now I know of two ways how to make the apps working again:

the ol' "have you tried to turn it off and on again?"
use a USB-cable and have my PC access it as a harddisk and then revoke that access and wait for the SDcard to initialise itself

In other words it seems to be a problem with the SDcard somehow.

Is there a shorter way to do this in case I have no USB-cable available, via the settings or something? Is there an app that can help me here? Can I code something?

Yeah, that's by definition – and the reason why you should never move apps to SD if they provide widgets you want to use.

SDCard gets mounted after the boot_completed broadcast has been sent. So apps installed on the SDCard are not able to receive this broadcast, and thus cannot provide their services "in advance". Depending on how fast your "homescreen" launches, it might already query the widgets before the mount was able to complete – and thus cannot find the apps installed there (which explains the "default icons").

Solution: Move those apps back from the SDCard if you need their widgets.


Where is the backup folder of TextSecure and Signal? In TextSecure, you can choose to backup your SMS to the SDCard.

It says "Success" but there is no evidence where it does store it on the SDCard.

I cannot find it.

The folder is located just in the base dir of your SDcard:

/sdcard/TextSecureExport

Since Textsecure is now called Signal, there is no extra folder. It is located directly in your SDcard home folder:

/sdcard/SignalPlaintextBackup.xml

Note: sometimes the phone doesen't show the folder on your computer, then you could use a filemanager on your phone (like Ghost Commander) to move the backupped files into another folder that is visible on your computer.


Can I install Android on my Samsung Omnia W8350 - windows 7 phone? I have a samsung omnia w 8350 with windows 7.5, I want to install Android OS on the phone, can anyone help?

Doubtful. A Google search suggests that even getting custom Windows 7.5 firmware installed is difficult, let alone a wholly different OS. In theory it should be possible, but I think you'd be better off getting an Android phone instead of waiting.

From XDA:

  So far, we haven't even gotten custom WP7 ROMs to run on the Omnia W. In fact, we don't even have a flashing tool to replace the stock ROMs with.


How can I scrobble my music to Last.fm? Is there any way to scrobble the songs I listen to on my Android phone to Last.fm?

The easiest way is to install the official Last.FM app, this will scrobble tracks played by the default Android music player, as well as from many 3rd party audio players, like WinAmp.

It doesn't work with some manufacturer customized music player apps (for instance, Samsung have modified the music player app on the Galaxy S's and scrobbling doesn't work from there). I use WinAmp to play my music on my phone, and that happily scrobbles via the Last.FM app.


Microsd card slots: shared vs dedicated - What is the difference? When I look at detailed specifications of android devices sometimes it is possible to filter them by choosing if a microsd card slot is shared or is dedicated.

Unfortunately I am not able to find a resource describing what that means and what the difference is.

MicroSD storage will be shared between what?
MicroSD storage will be dedicated to what?

Internal / external storage? SIM-modules? Anything else?

And whats the pros and cons?

You're most likely looking at DualSIM devices. If they come with a dedicated SD card slot, you can use 2 SIMs and an external SD card. If it's a shared slot, it's either 2 SIMs or 1 SIM + SD card – i.e. the SD card slot is shared with the slot for the second SIM.


Are there any ROMs (other than CM and MIUI) for the HP Touchpad? Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I'm looking for a ROM which is closer to stock Android for my HP Touchpad and haven't had much luck finding any information for ROMs other than CM and MIUI.  Is there anyone out there who's working on a AOSP ROM which hasn't been modded too heavily (aside from making it work, obviously)?

You may also be interested in AOKP ROM for the Touchpad.  It's a derivative of AOSP, with some CM.


When flashing a custom ROM, why do I get an error on getprop("ro.product.device")? Whenever I try to flash a ROM on my ASUS Transformer Prime (tf201), I get the following error:

assert failed: getprop("ro.product.device") == "tf201" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "tf201"

I've got around it by opening the ZIP file of the ROM, navigating to /META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script and just removing this check. The ROM installs fine then.

But still I'm left with the question: why isn't my device recognized as a tf201, while it obviously is? Is it because I formatted the system partition in a format frenzy?

This could be caused by a variety of reasons, the primary reason being an incompatible recovery, where the appropriate variables aren't correctly set. Try using another recovery (example: TWRP) , and see if you're getting this error.

A temporary solution for this would be:

You could just open up the zip file, extract the

  META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script

file, and remove the getprop lines, which look like:

  getprop(xyz) == "xyzyxz");

lines from it. These lines are usually in the beginning of the updater-script file.

As you say that the ROM is "for" your device, this should cause no problems.

Then, just drag-drop back the updater-script file, back into the zip. Now, flashing wouldn't be causing any problems.

Note that:

Use programs like 7-zip, or WinRAR, while extracting the updater-script file.
Use the Notepad++ text-editor, or alternatives like Geany, which support the Linux EOL formats.


does samsung galaxy ace support otg? I currently own a Sony z1 and had not hqve any troubles with an otg storage device. But I coulndt make the same storage device this to work with my galaxy ace. ROOTED Version 2.3.6

I have so far scoured google for answers but have found no satisfactory info.

So id like to know if there is any kind of step/procedure the I can do to make it work?

Im a fan of keepong old stuff from trash unless they really stop working specially electronics. Pls help

It is not possible, this isn't something you can turn on in the settings, it's a hardware issue.  The Galaxy Ace does not support OTG, so it's not possible to use it.


Nexus 4 screen got hung until battery drained and on restart stuck on flying dots I have nexus 4 with lollypop installed on it. Yesterday while operating its screen just went to hung state and stopped responding. I could not even power off the phone. Therefore, I let the phone to drain out battery and switch off itself. Then I charged it started using power button. But it is stuck on 5 flying dots, more than an hour. The power key is not responding now. How should I deal with this problem?

Had a similar issue, when battery is high, restarting the phone goes into a boot loop.

I wait for the phone to drain out, and then connect it to power source and switch it on at once. The phone now boots fine. I have no idea why it does that though.


Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 went from functional to completely dead in 12 hours My Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet was working normally before bed. When I woke up, the screen had gone to just grey stripes like a bad test pattern, and I couldn't turn it off whatever I did, so I left it on hoping it would drain the battery and then I could restart it. However it won't turn on whatever I do now.

I have been charging it for days and it's completely dead. Samsung said they thought it was the power cable, but that doesn't explain why it cannot turn on and the grey stripes.

I have pretty much kissed it goodbye but need photos and other files off it, any ideas?

You could try changing the battery, but that might not solve the problem.
When I had similar problem, there was nothing I could do about it, because the charging unit inside the device was dead. But I'm sure it has something to do with the battery, your best option would probably be sending it to a help / service / repair center...


Is there a way to cancel a sending message? While the message is "sending", I discovered that I had sent to the wrong person. Isn't there anything you can do about this? I used to use Nokia. In those older phones (or systems) you simply press the "C" botton to the right and the sending message is aborted.

Airplane Mode  immediately..then force stop, then clear the data, the restart phone... Worked for me!


How do I create a calendar event that repeats every other week? How do I create a calendar event that repeats every other week?

I'm using the default calendar app on the Droid X and the Xoom and I can't make an every other week appointment.   I can do this on the website without trouble.

The only options are every week and I don't see where I can say every (2) weeks.

The current calendar app from google now supports custom repeat appointments where you can specify repeat every 2 weeks.


Installing Android M OTA on Android M preview Currently my Nexus 5 is on Android M preview. I know that developer preview won't get the OTA update, that's why I am trying to manually install OTA of Android M public release, but I get these errors on 50%:

failed to verify whole-file signature
signature verification failed Installation aborted

adding more details:

no root
no custom recovery
just bootloader unlocked
no changes in system files

Does manually installing Android M final release OTA work on device running on Android M preview? Or do I need to downgrade it to Lollipop first?

Short answer: You can't.

OTA update is built for specific build model. As far as I can find, Google only provides OTA update for Android 5.1.1 Lollipop users (e.g. article on Digital Trends, article on Android Central).

In addition of that, Google has already mention that there is no OTA update for developer preview to stable version (refer to Will the Android M developer preview get an OTA update to the stable release version?).

So, either you must flash the final Marshmallow image from Google's Factory Images for Nexus Devices, or downgrade to Lollipop and install the OTA (for whatever reason, because I think it's impractical since you have unlocked bootloader anyway).


Unable to detect Android device with ADB on Mac but can detect it through Fastboot? I am unable to view my Android device, an Oppo Find7, with ADB. I can view it with Fastboot. As I use a Mac, I followed this guide to install ADB and Fastboot.

More generally, I am having issues with my phone which is stuck on boot-loop and I can only access Fastboot (no bootloader or recovery working). I'm hopeful I can fix this once I get ADB working again! But if anyone knows if I can get the Oppo unbricking tool for Mac I would be very grateful :)
I've only found it for Windows, and unfortunately, the official Oppo support forums no longer exist.

Typing

Fastboot getvar all

gives me

 All:

Not a good sign I think.

Thank you!

EDIT: To begin with you should probably install adb/fastboot directly from Google. This is the best way to update/maintain adb/fastboot.

So you state that you have no access to the bootloader, yet you are able to issue fastboot commands and invoke at least some type of response? Then that means you have access to your bootloader my friend. Fastboot == bootloader (or Download Mode, which is essentially still bootloader). I've never had a chance to mess with your specific model, but if you're stuck in a bootloop I'd suggest trying to issue a few more commands:

fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability

this will let you know if you can unlock the bootloader

fastboot flashing [unlock] [unlock_critical]

one of these will let you unlock the bootloader (as long as nothing else prevents it from doing so)

And if you're able to unlock it, I'd suggest downloading TWRP for your device (Google = best friend), and flashing it to your phone with a

fastboot flash recovery [twrp.img]

Bricks aren't ever really a permanent mess-up, as long as you can get into some type of recovery. Even if you can't get it unlocked or flash, you may be able to boot still with a factory image (Google = best friend), then try flashing the full firmware, if it wont take, extract the boot image and see if you can force it to boot with

fastboot boot [boot.img]

let me know if any/none of these work and we can go from there. best of luck.


How to Audit Android Apps (for screenshot activity) How do I audit my android's apps to determine which apps are taking screenshots of my activity?

I recently installed & ran diskdigger to undelete an image I had accidentally deleted, but the image remnants that diskdigger found were shocking. There were dozens (maybe >100?) screenshots of my activity--ranging from innocuous shots of my home screen to images taken when I was inside my (encrypted) chat apps and bitcoin wallet.

Needless to say, I did not take or delete these screenshots.

My phone is a rooted Nexus 5X running Lineage OS 15-1 (Android 8.1.0). I'm using mostly software from fdroid, though I do have a few sideloaded from yalp (I don't have gapps installed), such as whatsapp and diskdigger.

How do I audit the apps that I have installed to determine what is responsible for taking (then deleting) these screenshots of my activity? To start, how do I:

List all of my apps, sorted by number of times the app has taken a
screenshot since installed
List all of my apps, sorted by number of times the app has written a
file to disk since installed
Generate a log and/or toast every time a screenshot is
taken--recording the timestamp, app responsible, and filename
Generate a log and/or toast every time an app writes a file to
disk--recording the timestamp, app responsible, and filename
Generate a log and/or toast every time an app deletes a file from
disk--recording the timestamp, app responsible, and filename

TIA!

Taking a screenshot requires root or system permissions (or an root exploit). I assume your ROM is a official Lineage release. Assuming further that their signing key has not leaked the app you are searching for should use root permissions is part of the OS. Therefore a first step would be revoke all allowances for apps to use root permissions.

  List all of my apps, sorted by number of times the app has taken a
  screenshot since installed

Android is an OS optimized for Smartphones with flash memory. Flash memory degrades by writing to it, therefore Android is optimized to reduce write operations. Therefore Android does not create extensive log files. Only some small logs in RAM exists (e.g. logcat). Hence AFAIK there is no such thing like a log that records which app has created a screenshot.

  List all of my apps, sorted by number of times the app has written a file to disk since installed

Again there is no such log. However if the app is still active you can monitor "disk" activity using the inotifywait-for-Android - a command-line application that can record read and/or write access to certain folder on your phone. It looks like you have to compile it yourself using NDK before using it - I did not found an pre-compiled version.

A similar API as used by inotifytools is available to Android apps, therefore there may be apps providing similar functionality.

  Generate a log and/or toast every time a screenshot is taken--recording the timestamp, app responsible, and filename

If the screenshots you found were created using the screencap binary (the android tool for creating screenshots which is included in Android) you could try to replace this binary with some other binary.

However if the screenshots were created using a different way I don't see a way to detect or prevent this.

  Generate a log and/or toast every time an app writes a file to disk--recording the timestamp, app responsible, and filename.
  Generate a log and/or toast every time an app deletes a file from disk--recording the timestamp, app responsible, and filename

-> See what I wrote in (2.) about inotifytools