Find the IMEI number of lost Android phone It used to be possible to find the IMEI number of a device from Google Dashboard. However, I couldn't find it now. Majority of the answers I find on the internet refers me to this method but it doesn't work.

Is it possible to find the IMEI number of a lost Android phone using Google Dashboard? If yes, then how?

Not a way to find it , but to document that it's not possible from Google Dashboard anymore

  Is it possible to find the IMEI number of a lost Android phone using Google Dashboard?

Unfortunately NO

Google removed this feature for reasons best known to them. From Google Support, see what
NoGoodDeed says

  As catzrule states, Google has was removed IMEI information from the new dashboard view.

  Google is considering where and if it might be appropriate to re-surface that info.
  You can leave  Feedback
  about this with Gmail.

This is the latest official source (October last year) I could find, so there is no way out unless you have the box or bill mentioning IMEI.

Other possibilities

If you synced to itunes as claimed here ( I can't confirm)
Another very long shot is if you had installed a paid app that is single device use and is linked to your IMEI number (I have a call recorder app that does this and everytime I change my device , need to mail them with new IMEI number, so end up having a record)
As Bochur mentioned in comments (thanks), asking Telco is another possibility

I wish Google would reintroduce this

Edit Things that didn't help

Chatting with Google help from Play Store options - they were totally clueless and couldn't direct me to somebody who can help
Downloading data from Google Dashboard. Combed but to no avail. Only interesting thing is that you can see your Google ID here


Is there any way to use Viber on a tablet without a gsm module? The tablet has a wifi, a microphone and a speaker. It would be ideal to make calls with, but Viber states it is incompatible. Is there any way around this?

It just can't be done. Similarly WhatsApp too doesn't work on non GSM devices.


I can't find certain files on my android that should be there I've been trying to reach data/data/com.android.browser/webview.db after rooting my galaxy s4 but when I go to find this file I can't find the com.android.browser all there is is com.android.browser.provider which doesn't have anything else but a cache and fig file. Is the com.android.browser somewhere else? (I'm trying to find a Facebook password I forgot that I had entered in earlier on the stock browser)

The file you are searching does not exist. The stock browser does not use a WebView. Also the databases ate stored inside the databases folder.
The only database that should be there (and should not contain any passwords) is the browser2.db.


Can Android run .exe file? I have just downloaded uTorrent on my Galaxy S running Android 2.3. The .exe file has been downloaded and is in the download folder, but when I open the download folder on my SD card and click it, it gives only one option: "Delete file".

I'm not able to run this on my phone? What do I have to do to run it?

.exe Files are Windows binaries (i.e. executable files/applications/programms) that can not be run natively on a Android system.

I am sure the Play Store (or the alternatives of the Play Store) will have an equivalent app to the .exe file you are trying to run.


How can I upload photos from my Android (4.1) to Picasa without resizing to 2048 resolution? I am paying for additional storage, so the storage limit doesn't concern me.  I would like to upload full-resolution pics from my phone to my Picasa albums, but when I choose to upload a picture from my Android to a Picasa album, the picture ends up being resized to 2048 pixel max resolution.  Is there any way to disable this or bypass it without using something like Dropbox instead?

Using Nexus S running Jelly Bean.

That is described at the Google Support page for Picasa as a limitation, even if you're currently paying for extra space, that doesn't allow you to have image files larger than 2048 pixels on their longest edge:

Picasa and Picasa Web Albums - Free storage limits

  Free storage limits

  Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage.

  Automatic resizing

  All photos uploaded in Google+ will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge) and won't count towards your free storage quota.

  All photos uploaded from the Picasa software or in Picasa Web Albums over the free size limit will count towards your 1 GB of free storage. When you reach your storage limit, any new photos you upload larger than the free size limit will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge).

Picasa and Picasa Web Albums - Account upload limits

  Maximum photo size: Each image can be no larger than 20 megabytes and are restricted to 50 megapixels or less.
  Maximum video size: Each video uploaded can be no larger than 1GB in size.
  Maximum number of web albums: 10,000
  Maximum number of photos and videos per web album: 1,000
  Total storage space: Picasa Web provides 1 GB for photos and videos. Files under certain sizes don't count towards this limit.

You can refer to the How Google storage plans work, to confirm that what you pay only affects the space you have, not the service characteristics.

As a side note: Try and talk to their customers service to work a solution.


How can I tranfer contacts from old Lumia 920 to new S5 Hi I have been able to transfer my contacts from my old Lumia 920 to my new Samsung S5 via Bluetooth, but it seems to have only copied all the old contacts. No new contacts(ones that I have added manually to the Lumia 920 over the last couple of years ) did not transfer. I suspect it only transferred what was on the SIM. But I can't figure out how to transfer from Lumia 920 back to its SIM or to the new S5??

Try syncing your contacts with a Microsoft Account, exporting to a file, and then importing into Google Contacts. See this answer and this website.

Sync Microsoft Account with the Lumia
Export contacts from the People app in Outlook online
Import the contacts into Google Contacts


Is the Google TV platform Free? I know you can use Android free but is it possible to do the same with Google TV?

Let's say I want to build a box myself and use Google TV, do I need to negotiate with Google?

From the Developer's FAQ for Google TV:

  Can I download Google TV? When will it be open sourced?

  You can't download Google TV itself, but Google TV hardware
  manufacturers provide over-the-air (OTA) updates. We are working hard
  to open source the code for the Google TV project.

So, as it hasn't been open sourced (yet), and Google specifically say that you can't download it, it looks like you're going to have to negotiate directly with them.


Is there any way (or any iOS or Android app) which i can use to change the current location of my mobile device to be detected as a US location? I want to test a mobile application which has map search and directions functionality, i.e driving directions from the current location.  Is there any way in which i can change the current location of my device to be detected as a US location?

Enable mocklocations from settings and use any application
Eg. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lexa.fakegps&hl=en


Performance comparison between internal and external memory What are the performance differences between phone's internal memory, the internal SD card, and the external SD card? I wonder if that counts when deciding where to store apps. What technologies are used for building a phone's internal memory? How about the internal SD card, if it is not really an SD card at all? How do they compare, in general, to SD card speed classes 4, 6 and 10?

Note that I am not asking about the filesystems, as a deleted answer focused on, since performance comparison on this aspect would be totally ruined by just switching the SD card from FAT32 to something better (which I think the industry should have done since a long time anyway).

For what's worth, I had a class 4 SD card. Running games whose data was on that external SD was painfully slow, during loading and during gameplay, with frequent mini-freezes. After upgrading to a class 10 card, I find no difference in running games from the internal and the external storage.

Please don't draw any conclusions from these highly rigorous scientific experiments.


Slow internet connectivity on samsung galaxy j7 prime It has been a month since I am facing slow internet connectivity issues on my samsung galaxy J7prime even on jio4g data plan. I contacted Jio helpline twice and they said they 'll try to rectify if there's any problem. But to no avail. Other ppl in my area have no problem with jio connectivity. So, I believe that the problem is with my phone,but cant find out where exactly. I have tried almost all solutions given on the internet. I also did a factory data reset. It increased internet speed a little but not significantly. Earlier it was nearly 128 kbps now its 220 or something. Also i need to refresh my mobile data very often to catch a little speed but it again slows down in a minute or two.
I am really frustrated. Please help me out here.

Maybe these are the reason behind your phone's slow speed check this:

Update the J7 firmware.
Internet cache is corrupted or full.
Network congestion or too many users of the network.
Exceeded data speed limit or speed reduction is reached.
Outdated browser software or browser software requires an update.


How to disable automatic picture upload to Google+ I've got Motorola RAZR (XT910) and I decided to install the Google+ app to stay in touch with it. Whenever I take pictures with my phone it would upload those pictures to my Google+ account even though I have set my Instant Upload settings to OFF. How can I really disable that without uninstalling the Google+ app? I would like to hand pick photos from my phone to be uploaded to my Google+. Thanks

Open the Google Plus app, go to settings and disable "instant-upload".

Please note if you enabled it:
Each photo you take will be uploaded to Google Plus' staging area but not be shared immediately. It's just for convenience so that you don't have to grab your phone if you want to share some past pictures you took with your mobile. You will be able to to share from any browser you're logged in at any later time you want.

You can also select if you only want to instant-upload when you're on wifi.


Where does LINE store profile pictures? Similar to: Where does the LINE app store pictures and video files? , but in that folder I can't see any profile picture

Profile pictures are cached in the following directory:

/sdcard/Android/data/jp.naver.line.android/storage/p

Rename the extension of files to .jpg to view them.


Wanting to uninstall I have a game chef town. I have it on my phone and tablet. I was going to put the game on phone but I tapped new game. So now I cant get the game to be in the same place as the one on tablet. My question is can I erase the memory of this so it will take me back to where the game will say we found old?

This could be solved by going to Settings>Application Manager>The App>Clear data. This is not a 100% guaranteed fix as the synchronization intervals for the server are unknown and it might not be able to synch back at all. Try this first and let me know what the effect is.


Is there any web browser that can display the desktop version of Gmail on an Android phone? Is there any web browser that can display the desktop version of Gmail on an Android phone?

The stock browser and Chrome both seem to force you to use the mobile version of Gmail (selecting Desktop View or Request Desktop Site, respectively, simply reloads the mobile site), but in Firefox, if you select Request Desktop Site, you actually get the desktop version.

OP comment:

  It seemed to work at first but then I realized the chart box doesn't work. It's there any way to make it work correctly?

Any time you request a desktop site in a mobile browser, there's a good chance that the rendering will be messed up or difficult to navigate, and some advanced features won't work. That's because you're (deliberately) requesting a version of the site that's not designed for the browser you're using.

There's not much tweaking you can do from the browser's end to "make it work correctly", because the problem is not that the browser is misbehaving, it's the the features were developed for desktop browsers and tested with desktop browsers. Any tweaking to make features work with a mobile browser would have to be done by the site developers.

But that's why there are different desktop and mobile versions: so that each version can be tailored to the behavior and feature sets of the browsers it's designed for, rather than having one version try to satisfy all types of browsers with the same code. And if a mobile site already exists, that's all the less of a reason for the developers to strive to make the desktop version mobile-friendly.

So, this is actually a different question. The answer to the question "is there any web browser that can display the desktop version of Gmail on an Android phone?", in the sense that it will do what you ask it to do and load the desktop version rather than forcing you to use the mobile site, is yes. Firefox will do that.

But the answer to whether you can make all features of the desktop site function correctly in a mobile browser, is that there's nothing any browser (mobile or desktop) can possibly do to force the design of a web site to conform to its own capabilities.

It's a similar situation to using Chrome or Firefox to browse a site that's designed exclusively for Internet Explorer, using some of IE's non-standard features. There's nothing you can configure in the browser to fix the fact that the developers implemented features it doesn't support.


Update problem in Samsung J5 I have just re-installed Samsung J5 firmware manually. After install now whenever I try to check software update it gives error saying that " Unable to update the software. A network or server error occurred. Try again later ". I have tried many times, but same message appear. Before installing firmware was working fine. It gave me update of Marshmallow, but now gives error. Is there any way to fix this ?

Recently, I have installed Marshmallow firmware manually. Firmware was taken from www.sammobile.com site. Now auto update problem has fixed in Marshmallow. Now it does not give error. Sever network respond properly. Thanks to Sammobile web site.


Can we see what apps are logged in? I think that the question is different to What Apps Are Running, I want to know what apps are logged in.

I discovered that couchsurfing, despite not using it for months was logged in, eBay was, likely others. I don't particularly want them collecting data.

Short of opening each app and checking, is there a system way to do this?

I am not aware of system level approach but this app gives you a view OS Monitor. There may be other apps too

It offers the following information.

Processes - monitor all processes.
Connections - display every network connection.
Misc - monitor battery, processors, network interfaces and file system.
Messages - search dmesg or logcat in real-time.

Snapshot from the app on my device below


Device soft-bricked after flashing Xposed ;-; Newbie here! I rooted my phone, (Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N900) and I'm trying to get Xposed working. After flashing Xposed*.zip, my device is just stuck on the "SAMSUNG" screen. Do you guys/gals know any way to install Xposed for my phone?

Any help would be appreciated! :D

First, try to boot your device in download mode, you can do that by:

Switch off your device completely.
Press and hold Volume Down, Home and Power, all at the same time.
Release all buttons when you see the Warning! screen
Press the Volume Up button to confirm that you want to boot Download Mode

Then, download Kies from here, after you install it, connect your phone to your computer and you should get a message from Kies, ignore it.

On the Kies menu bar, click Tools and then click Firmware Upgrade and Intialisation

Enter the information it requires (Usually, you can find them at the back of your phone) and then Kies will factory reset your phone.

To install Xposed, visit this link.


How to determine if the bootloader is locked The end point is for me to root my S6 but I figured I cannot do that if I first do not find out whether the boot-loader is locked or not although I am convinced it is unlocked. I need reassurance as I am not in the position to buy a new phone.

During my research I came across adb and fastboot, tools used by developers for Androids and adb does work but fastboot I cannot seem to get to work.

I tried rebooting to bootloader but it just loads the phone OS up straight away. Tried booting to ODIN MODE, tried booting to download mode, etc.

How can I find out if the bootloader is locked? My current approach is using fastboot and running the fastboot oem device-info command.

There's no fastboot for Samsung devices - Download mode is the semi-equivalent, except that it's only accessible via Odin/Heimdall. You will need appropriate drivers to get the PC to recognize a device in Download mode.

Most Samsung phones come with their BL unlocked or unlockable (notable exceptions are AT&T/Verizon devices). To root these devices, turn on "OEM Unlocking" in Settings - Developer options (if the switch exists), find a custom recovery made for the device, and flash it with Odin/Heimdall, then finally flash SuperSU/Magisk. Alternatively, make a CF-Auto-Root package for your device and firmware version with firmware.mobi and flash it.


How to inspect HTTPS traffic of a third-party app on Android 9+ I want to inspect inside HTTPS-encrypted packets that an app is sending. It is not my app, I don't have its source code.

My device is rooted, so I can modify /system/etc/security/cacert if needed, for instance to do man-in-the-middle proxying.

Up to Android 8, one could just install a self-made certificate, but it does not work anymore. I have Android 9, but I can upgrade if needed.

As tipped by @beeshyams, HttpCanary is perfect for this.
You need a rooted device, of course.
HttpCanary takes care of all of the difficult steps (certificate generation and installation) transparently.
It shows a list of requests (filterable by app), and details of each request and response.
The best feature is this overlay showing request while I am using other apps (bottom right):

Even though the Google Play page says "HttpCanary core codes are opened in Github", https://github.com/MegatronKing/HttpCanary does not contain most of the source code, so I believe it is not open source.


Which A2SD should I use with AOKP VJ 4.2.2 Jelly Bean v2.1 on HTC Desire I have a rooted HTC Desire with the AOKP VJ 4.2.2 Jelly Bean v2.1 ROM from here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1863780

I have successfully installed the ROM but am confused as to what solution to use for Apps2SD/A2SD.  I'm a real beginner on that stuff!

I have tried 40ad2sdx-a2 installed as in recovery from a zip file, and also installed through adb push, but the phone won't boot.  Have formatted the SD card with 2 primary partitions (FAT32 14gb and then EXT4 2gb).

Basically, I just want a Jelly Bean ROM with plenty of space for apps..!  Can anyone give me a recommendation of an A2SD method that works and step-by-step instructions how to install?

Create an ext4 partition with 1Gb space (for example). Then, the first time you enter the ROM, type in terminal emulator:

su
a2sd xdata
y
y

Now, you have 1Gb internal memory.


Change the splash screen on moto e4 plus owens I was rooting my device and I screwed it up but I got twrp to runs and I installed Lineage OS. But after I restarted my device, there is a tiny n/a in the corner until the Lineage's logo appears. I searched for a while but came up dry. It's not that bad but I would like something else to be shown instead of n/a. Thanks for any help.

There are two ways of doing it, but both methods will require some files.

Method 1: fastboot

Aquire a splashscreen file in the format of '.bin'. You can either search for
splashscreen .bin files made for your device, or find a tool that allows you to convert and image to a splashscreen .bin.
Put your phone in bootloader mode manually or with adb:

adb reboot bootloader

Flash the new logo to the device:

fastboot flash logo filename.bin

Method 2: TWRP

Install TWRP as your bootloader (in your case you already have)
Aquire a zip file specifically crafted for your device to flash a splashscreen logo*
Copy the zip to your phone via OTG or SD-card and flash it with TWRP

*Note: as far as I've seen the zip file only needs to contain three files:

META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script
logo.bin OR splash.bin OR logo.img

But they have to be specifically crafted for your device, and in order to do that you will need a tool. See this XDA thread to find a guide with tools for your device.

Edit: I checked the thread for your phones product line, it looks like the E4 Plus is unsupported, at least nobody has added support for it here. You might need to look elsewhere for a tool that can make images for your phone.


Disabling the clipboard history on Samsung devices Samsung Galaxy Note 9 running on Android 9 stores all old clipboard entries which requires me to manually delete it every time.

How can I opt-out of this "feature"?

After a long while and more serious privacy flops I had, I found a solution to this security breach of Samsung (Credit).

Install adb on your computer (manual)
Setup adb access (e.g. USB Debugging) on your device (manual)
Launch adb shell and execute the following commands:

pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.clipboardsaveservice
pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.clipboarduiservice


Firefox wants to record video/audio I have an Xperia Z5, running 7.1.1.

When I browse the web using Firefox, I keep getting requests from Firefox to record audio and take photos/videos. Both requests always happen together, in that order. I can't think of any reason why it would need to, but it does seem to happen only when I'm on pages with a lot of ads. I deny it every time, of course, but I don't tell it not to ask again, because I want to know when a request comes through.

So, my question is, is this normal? Could ads get Firefox to record video and audio, and if so, why would they? Or, could this instead be evidence of malware/a compromised device?

When the pop-up appears, there would be an option of "Dont ask me again", check that and it will never appear again.
And if for some reasons you need that allowed later, you can give it permission by going to Settings>Apps>Firefox>Permissions, switch on the permission for particular service you need.


Windows 7 complains that Nexus S driver is missing When I connected my Nexus S to my PC running Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) via USB cable, the system installed a handful of drivers before complaining that the Nexus S driver wasn't installed.

I can see the USB storage as a drive letter. And I can use MyPhoneExplorer to browse all of the memory.

I'm just concerned that if I go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Devices and Printers, the Nexus S icon is there with a warning symbol on it because the driver wasn't loaded.

If I try to let Windows fix the problem, it searches and fails to find the driver and suggests I take it up with the manufacturer.

If I select Properties for the Nexus S, I see the drive letter listed plus "USB Composite Device" and "USB Mass Storage Device", but sitting at the top of the list is "Nexus S" with a warning sign.

Should I be worried? Does anyone else have this?

I have previously had a different Android phone connected and that was OK once I got the drivers for that...

This is a common problem among Android phones. Sometimes Windows might try to install drivers for your phone which might not necessarily be complete.

Like Matthew said in the answer above me, you could use the Android SDK package which usually includes drivers for Nexus devices but in the event it doesn't work:

You need to get the usb drivers from the manufacturer. Following the instructions in this link might help:

http://nexusshacks.com/nexus-s-hacks/how-to-install-nexus-s-windows-usb-drivers/


Is there any way to replace the back button using an application? I own a new LG Optimus One. The buttons on the set are somewhat stiff. When I press it it feels as if it might break/get stuck somewhere in the near future. I was mainly concerned about the back button as it is used very frequently and has the maximum chance of having problems.

So I have been looking for an application that can help me use the back button. So instead of pressing the existing back button I would use the touchscreen to get it done. Any ideas?

This is possible if you're rooted. There's two applications that I know of which give you a little persistent overlay on the side of the screen, then pop out a full set of soft buttons when you press the overlay. One is SoftKeys, the other is Button Savior.

I haven't seen anything equivalent for non-rooted devices, but there is an app called SoftHome which adds a home button to your notification bar. It doesn't have a back button, however, just home.


Minimal way to always have screen on on Android? I'm preparing a bunch of tablets using a minimal android OS (https://slimroms.org/).  And was wondering if there's a way to always have the display on (i.e. disable Sleep and Auto Screen lock) without needing to use third party apps.  I've got full root access via SSH and ADB etc - hoping there's some setting in /proc or as a kernel boot argument that I can make.

These are intended to be "We would like your feedback" tablets which are out on public display - so the display should never dim or lock etc. They're always going to be plugged in so power saving etc isn't going to be an issue.

Set the 'keep awake while plugged in' setting
(Screen will never sleep while charging)

Settings - Developer options - Stay awake: on

or from terminal

svc power stayon true

if the user can press the power button, set the screen lock to "none" (not even swipe) and
use Tasker/MacroDroid/Automate to watch the power button. or run a watchdog from shell

the following example depends on three android binaries
/system/bin/toolbox
/system/bin/toybox
/system/bin/input

# (replace first line with while 1)
until [ $(($(toybox cat /sys/class/power_supply/ac/online)+$(toybox cat /sys/class/power_supply/*usb/online))) -eq 0 ]
  do
    case "$(toolbox getevent -lc4 /dev/input/event2 | toybox head -n1)" in
      *KEY_POWER*)
        input keyevent KEYCODE_WAKEUP
      ;;
    esac
done

the above code checks for charger is connected as entry point for the loop. the loop exit when charger is disconnected. /dev/input/event2 may vary for your device. you can check which input event has only 3x buttons [Vol+|Vol-|Pwr] from getevent -il (for more generic code look here)


How do I change the default share folder in dropbox? When I want to upload files to dropbox from external apps (share button) I always get directed to the same dropbox folder. Even if I delete it, it will come back from the dead next time I share with dropbox.

Is there a way to choose a different folder to share with dropbox when using third party apps?

I think I had the same problem and it was very easy solving this. If you are in the "share" dialog just use the back button of your phone and you are back in the parent folder. Found the solution here. So I hope that also solves your problem!


Update WebView without using Google Play I have an Android 6 device, where I have full root access. On this device, we are using an app which basically uses a WebView to display a website. The app is installed as a privileged system app. It is working good, however the webview-version on the stock device has a few bugs and we would like to upgrade to a more recent version.

I could update system.android.webview via Google Play, but due to the number of devices that need to be udpated this is not a viable solution.

So my question is: How can I update the system webview on android 6 without google playstore? I need a way to extract the updated app from one device and install it on another without Google Play.

Ideally,  we want to install without internet access but over adb so that we could script it easily for reliable installation on a larger number of devices.

The method suggested here for Android 5.1 seems to not work anymore on Android 6.

If you don't mind factory resetting your phone, you can try to unlock your phone's bootloader, flash TWRP Recovery and then install Open GApps, which installs/reinstalls Google apps and can give you ones that you cannot get from Google play.
Disclaimer:- I am not responsible for what may happen to your device during this process.
It installs WebView with it (if selected) and can remove stock (AOSP) Apps (Your default WebView). If it does not work you can still flash SuperSU and uninstall the system app.
-Daniel ✓

Edit: Since you already have full root access, you can try to uninstall WebView and install a fresh one from the web. Just be sure to download one prior to uninstalling.


Is there an Android app/widget to *temporarily* turn on mobile data? Is anyone aware of an Android app or widget to temporarily turn on mobile data, then disable it again after a set period of time?

I have a bad habit of turning on my phone's data for a specific purpose, but then forgetting to turn it back off.  As a result, non-critical apps (like a current-weather widget -- I don't really care if it updates current info only if I'm wifi-connected) continue to use data.

I'd like to be able to enable data and then disable it automatically 15 minutes or so later, when I invariably forget to turn it off myself.

Browsing Google Play turns up nothing likely, nor does a Google web search.  The closest I could find was an app that turns mobile data on and off at specific times, which provides a proof of concept that this can be done, but still is not what I'm looking for.

Are  you thinking of something like BatteryFu?

Its description on Google Play is

  Description

  BatteryFu (pronounced Battery-Foo, like in Kung-Fu) extends battery life (and lowers data usage) by changing always-on mobile/wifi data to periodic sync (meaning it disables your mobile data and/or Wifi, then checks your accounts every X minutes). This also provides a way to manage your data usage.

  BatteryFu is also great for tablet use to keep accounts sync'd even when the tablet is in sleep/standby. Normally accounts won't sync due to WiFi going to sleep (see "WiFi sleep policy").

  There are lots of other battery savers on the market, but this one has been around since 2010, and has no ads or spyware (see permissions). BatteryFu is open source software.

  Features:

  Lean and fast (see download size!)
  Work for all networks (CDMA/GSM) from Gingerbread up
  Notification icon: lets you switch modes even while inside another app.
  Data while screen is on, with screen off delay
  Data while charger is plugged in
  Pre-defined modes: Travel mode, Online mode, Offline mode, Night mode, etc.
  BatteryMinder shows battery stats, like usage during screen off, kernel wakelocks, etc.
  3rd party app support (using intents) so that you can control BatteryFu from your own app.
  Open source


Phone soft reboots when making or receiving a call [Nexus 6][CM13] I've got a pretty severe bug that results in my phone soft rebooting every time I try to make a phone call or a phone call would be coming in on the main number.

What I did to try to fix (no luck):

Downloaded latest snapshot: https://download.cyanogenmod.org/get/jenkins/158646/cm-13.0-20160418-SNAPSHOT-ZNH0EAO2NL-shamu.zip
Downloaded latest gapps for 6.0: http://opengapps.org/ (ARM 6.0 Stock package)
Wiped /system, /data, dalvik cache & /cache
Installed #1 and #2
Wiped /internal storage
Updating radio/bootloader to latest available

What's going on? This just started manifesting after I did a cm13Nighty (4-11-2016) > cm13Snapshot (4-18-2016) upgrade. I would've thought the reset would fix it at least?

Other things I've tried with no luck:

Disabling/enabling WiFi Calling
Booting into Safe Mode
Deleting com.android.providers.x folders in /data/data & wiped Dalvik/cache again (This fixed WiFi calling consequently - dysfunctional again after soft-crash - interesting...)

The issue is the current build of gapps - quick workaround is to manually set the Phone/Dialer app as the default Phone App in Settings -> Apps ->  -> Default Apps -> Phone App.

Source: https://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/124381-dialer-crashes/?do=findComment&comment=590388


Cant see call log on Sony Xperia M4 Aqua This is all I get when I follow the instructions for viewing your call log.

When I get a missed call, the notification shows at the top and when I click it then I get this screen. I can't find anywhere else on the phone to view my call log.

Please help!!!

Click on the image to enlarge

I finnaly found the solution.
Turn off guest mode option in your mobile. DONe


Samsung galaxy S4 not charging One day my Samsung stopped charging, as to my battery was swelling up. The following day I bought a new battery and it is still giving me the same problem. It does not charge or show any sign that it is working. Does anyone know a solution? I've tried many that I've viewed on youtube, but still doesn't work.

Battery swelling up is an indication of battery in terminal stages . It's good that you decided to replace with a new battery
If the new battery is not charging, possible reasons:

a) It could be a rip off battery

b) battery charging is prevented by a transparent plastic foil on the terminals which is preventing contact. Examine carefully and peel it off . See this for a similar issue with S3 batteries
Phone only works with busted battery

C) there is a genuine problem with hardware

First eliminate b) then check for a) by borrowing a battery and if both are ruled out, your problem is C) for which only service center can fix


How can I fix muffled sound on my Samsung Galaxy S? I recently purchased a i9000 and the voice quality over the microphone is horrible. The sound is muffled. Person on the other side of the line cannot make out what I'm saying. Is there a fix?

Pop off the back cover and make sure there's not a sticker or anything over the speaker or mic.
You could try Voodoo Sound.  It's a custom kernel for SGS devices but if you don't want to mess around with that you could just try the Voodoo Control app, it can do some improvements without the kernel.  (If you do use the kernel you really need the app as well.)
Otherwise, I would assume it's a hardware problem and you should get a replacement.


Transfer contacts from Android to Windows Lumia I have transferred all contacts from Android phone(Moto G) to Windows phone (Microsoft Lumina 540). I have multiple numbers for each contact in Android  but I can see only one number for a contact in my Windows phone.

For example: Sachine has two numbers 999-999-9992 and 888-888-882.
In windows it shows Sachine: 999-999-9992 only.

Please help me out from this problem.
Thanks in advance.

If you're transfering contacts just to back them up, you could try adding your contacts to your Google account, where they are automatically backed up, and you can also view them online, on contacts.google.com


Hiding device name from website Is there any way to hide my device name from website e.g. whenever I login Facebook it is able to determine the type of browser 'chrome on Android' and also device name. Is there any way to hide this information or send incorrect information?

About user-agent
If you're referring to hiding your user-agent, this can easily be done. Your user-agent is a short piece of text your browser automatically transmits to the server when you request for a web page. This helps the server identify the browser and operating system you're running and possibly serve up the most appropriate page (e.g. a mobile-friendly version).
On a Nexus 7, the user-agent looks something like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.1.1; Nexus 7 Build/JRO03D) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Safari/535.19

This indicates the Nexus 7 is running Android 4.1.1 and Google Chrome version 18.0.
Changing your user-agent
To change it on the Samsung Galaxy Touchwiz stock browser, take a look at How can I change the user agent for the stock browser?.
There are several alternative browsers that allow you to easily change your user-agent, including the well-known Dolphin Browser. If you're paranoid about privacy, the Dolphin Zero browser might interest you as well.
If you're using Google Chrome, there appears to be no official way to do this right now, but by checking the Request Desktop Site checkbox, you can change your user-agent to a Desktop one that hides the fact you're browsing from an Android device.
That being said, this is far from foolproof. Your screen width and height will easily give away the fact you're browsing from a mobile device (and possibly even a non-iOS device).


Can you auto reject phone numbers natively with a Droid phone? I have a Droid X and I'm trying to set up an auto reject list and it looks like I have to download a third party app to do it. Am I missing something?

This depends on the features that come with your Droid X, as they may be slightly different than other brands of Android phones.

On my phone (Cyanogenmod 7.1 Gingerbread) there is a setting under Menu -> Settings -> Call Settings -> Blacklist, and another forum user says in Android 2.1 there is an option under Menu -> settings -> call settings -> all calls -> auto reject.

Others say in some contacts applications you can long-press a contact and choose to block them specifically.

Another good solution is to use Google Voice to handle calls and voicemail and such. It's not built in to begin with, but it's a Google service, so like second party.

Although,

  In ICS you can specify a reject list that matches certain criteria
  (Start with, Ends with, Includes, Exactly the same as). This way you
  could specify Start with 1-800 and it would reject all calls that
  start with 1-800.

according to a post on this forum. So if you're using an ICS ROM, you may be in luck, as most here are skeptical about the Droid X getting an official ICS update.


Why does Google+ Messenger deliver messages with long delays? Google+ Messenger conversations are supposed to take place in real time. Yet when I use Messenger with the Google+ app for my Nexus S Android 2.3.6 phone via 3G (Vodafone IT), the messages I send or receive from others are often delivered with delays ranging from a few tens of minutes to a few hours.

Does Messenger require push notifications, i.e. setting the Settings -> Accounts & sync settings -> Background data checkbox?

Google+ Messenger does require the Background data checkbox to receive messages/updates while it's not the active app. However your messages should be sent instantly since the app would be active then.

Are you experiencing delays with other messengers using background data as well? e.g. WhatsApp

A good discussion about background data, sync etc can be read here


Why my sdcard suddenly re-mount when phone in use to play game, watch movie or idle? I'm still newbie to android, I'm a little confused whether my android phone fine or damaged, or my sdcard is broken, because when I use the phone to play games, watch movies, or is in the idle position, sdcard suddenly unmount and then mount again (like doing re-mount). When running game or watch a movie suddenly close itself, and a notification appear "Preparing SD card". Anyone know why this could happen?

Here my phone information :

RAM : 256MB, ROM : 256MB, Model number: Device-01, Android Version: 2.3.6, baseband version: VENUS_BP_00.03.63.b501, Kernel Version: 2.6.38.6-perf zly @ HL120 # 1

My sdcard : V-Gen 2GB.

Thank you.

sdcards remount by default as read only on errors, could be one.

or the contacts of the sd slot are dirty or loose

or the micro usb port is so overused that random connect events happen that might get your card unmounted for a mount on a then not existing pc.

^that paragraph

is based on what happened to my motorola milestone 2, if I plugged that into the car charger it want crazy activating and deactiving dock mode 6 times per second.
maybe something similar goes for charge indicatiors.

also magnets in vicinity of androids can cause the strangest quirks


I'm going crazy trying to sort WhatsApp notifications on Lollipop - help, please? I've got a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, and it's on Lollipop 5.0.2. What I want to do is this:

Vibrate when I get a WhatsApp message, when it's set to vibrate.
The pop-up bar that comes up at the top when I'm on the phone when I receive a message NOT to appear.
When the screen is turned off, for the notification NOT to appear and turn the screen on.

I can't seem to get a combination of the 3. I managed to stop the pop-up bar and stop the screen turned off notifications, but it wouldn't vibrate. Now I've managed to get it to vibrate and the screen turned off notifications don't come up, but the pop-up bar at the top appears when I'm using the phone and receive a message.

I've attempted all the usual ways and can't seem to get it how I want it, so I'm hoping that someone else has stumbled upon a solution for a similar problem, as the settings you'd expect to change to make it work, don't seem to work. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

The popup bar at the top is called Heads up notification.

There are multiple ways you can disable them. For example there are ways to do it with root and without root. For more information how to disable them, look at this question: Android 5.x Disable Heads Up.
In the accepted answer of that question there is a link to an app that can disable them for you without root. If you purchase the pro version for that app you can also restore the notification ticker like in Android Kitkat and below and even select to only disable heads up for certain apps like Whatsapp. For more information about the pro version look in the apps description.

Hope my answer helps!


What are ".spmo" files in "dcim/spmo" directory on my SD card? On my SD card, in dcim  directory (which is where the images/videos captured with the camera are stored), I also have a subdirectory called dcim/spmo which contains a bunch of files with .spmo extension.

What are those .spmo files? Can they be safely deleted?

System: Motorola Droid X, Froyo 2.2 stock ROM, rooted.

A short Google search for "spmo file" reveals that these are "SpeedView Meta Object" files and speed up the display of images. They're probably some sort of cache file and should be automatically recreated if you delete them.


How to get rid of "SMS is no longer supported" notification My 5.1.1 tablet has an icon in the notification area. It looks like a Google Hangouts icon.  But the drop-down reads "SMS is no longer supported. To read and send SMS messages, please download Android Messenger".

Well, this tablet is wifi only, so I could never send SMS messages anyway (except faking it with Google Voice).  The annoying thing is, there is apparently no way to get rid of this notification icon.  I even tried installing Android Messages to see if that helped, but it didn't.

How can I get rid of this annoying and useless (to me) notification icon?

Have you tried turning off SMS option inside of Hangouts?


Canonical explanation of Android Encryption and Vulnerabilities Note: Well, the bounty expired and one possible reason could be effort required to address as I gather from comments. Seeing the number of upvotes, it appears to be of interest to others as well. I would still like to get an answer so here's what I propose- a good answer within a month, will get a bonus of 50. This would I hope give adequate time and incentive

I have been trying to understand Android Encryption process and its vulnerabilities for a while

There are many questions addressing portions of this topic on this site and also on sister site.  To drive my point home, these questions address portions and not the whole (reminiscent of "blind men and an elephant ?" :)

What is Marshmallow encryption protecting?
Does full device encryption protect my data from Google and the government?
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/137334/if-we-encrypt-our-device-can-user-connecting-to-adb-get-it
Questions pertaining to SD card encryption
android-encryption-when-phone-is-on
android-cyanogenmod-encryption-vs-gnu
is-there-cryptographic-material-in-a-phones-sim-card-that-can-be-used-with-rsa
android-device-encryption

My understanding (or misunderstanding ?)

Encryption password is generated from a combination of user lock screen PIN and encryption algorithm (therein lies an inherent weakness owing to limited length of PIN)
This is salted, and stored in root location, not accessible to users
This is used to  generate the actual password to encrypt /decrypt and the actual password is stored in RAM
This was strengthened by linking Step 1 to the device SoC (Which Android Version ? Which is the hardware element that uniquely identifies the device?  Can that be replaced to fake?)
Hence, it is not possible to decrypt data without encryption key and device (holds for external SD as well)
Possible recovery methods - brute force, capturing RAM information (step 3) to obtain key
Rooted devices appear to be more susceptible to access step 2 data through custom recovery/ possibly ROM and kernel flashing?? (if true, why is this not touted as a big risk?)
Even if this information is obtained , I am guessing that it is non-trivial effort wise to generate the actual password
Marshmallow can treat external SD as "internal storage" or "portable storage". Logically, it shouldn't make a difference but am not sure

There are gaps in my understanding, probably missing out on other key aspects as well.

So, I am looking for a canonical explanation for  understanding from a user perspective

Entire encryption process (including external SD)
Implementation variation across Android versions- from KitKat to Marshmallow (including dual options for external SD in Marshmallow)
Vulnerabilities at a user level

Note

I am aware of the risk of the question being considered too broad but IMO warrants  a comprehensive treatment
Having some experience in communication security, I understand the challenge in translating Cryptographic concepts to a user level. I would prefer the answer to address this, with explanatory pointers for deeper understanding. Examples of the process need not be Cryptographically correct in a rigorous sense but should convey the essence
A possible advantage could be "duping" future questions on related aspects
At the cost of repetition, answers should be primarily at user level, but with adequate explanation for a deeper understanding. Splitting the answer in two portions may be a suitable way.
I would make it a point to down vote trivial/casual/patch work answers to encourage comprehensive answers

I envision it works like this:

Storage is encrypted using synchronous random key.
When the user chooses or changes a password that is based on whatever input, be it a password comprised of letters and numbers and characters, or be it a pin code, or pattern swipe, or finger print, or any other input, an asynchronous encryption algorithm is used to encrypt the master key, such that correct identification ends up decrypting the input resulting in the master key, which in turn makes it possible to encrypt and decrypt storage.
The moment the user logs out, the memory holding the master key is overwritten

The big trick here is that asynchronous encrypting of the master key. Once Android has the master key, it has the ability to exchange data with the storage. Only when the user is logged in, that master key is known. Asynchronous encryption is what is called public key encryption. What happens is that a public key encrypts data (the master key in this case), and a private key decrypts data. Not to be confused with the storage encryption here. The storage is just synchronous encryption. There the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt. But the finding/retrieval of that "master" key, is the biggie. It means that if at one point you have a weak login method, like for intance "1234" as a pincode, and you change your mind, and change the pincode to "5364", which is harder to guess, unless that earlier "1234" was stolen, snooped on, at any point, the security has just become better. Same deal when changing the login method to a full password that is impossible to guess or dictionary attack. The storage itself does not need to be re-encrypted at all. It's all about hiding that master key - internally. The user never sees that master key, because it's most probably just a random hash code of sorts - nothing will ever "find" or "guess" that hash code. Not even the NSA or any other security body on the planet could ever find a matching key like that.
The only attack vector is hoping for a weakness on the user's part. Perhaps the user chose a pincode login. If it's 4 digits, then it's a maximum of 10000 possible pincodes. The OS might "block" the device after trying out a few in a short time. The solution is then to "hack" the OS, so that it becomes possible to try all possible pincodes without the OS intervening and blocking the device. I believe that is how the FBI eventually got access to a phone of a criminal. A third party company (some Israeli company from what I recall) did the hacking for the FBI I think. They bypassed that pincode-try limit.
If the login is a full password, and if the user picked a strong password, and you're sol. Not in a life time with all the cpu power on the planet will hack that in a million years. I'm not buying any of the NSA can decrypt anything rumors. I think those people watched one too many men-in-black movies. All one has to do is look at the scientific documents about the various encryption algorithms (eg. AES), and you'll know that hacking simply won't happen, except in the olden days when there were 40 bit keys. Those days are long gone. AES128 is already unhackable I think, and if anyone is concerned, jumping to AES256 makes it more secure by a magnitude to the size of the universe pretty much.
Maybe one day quantum computers might decrypt it, but I'm skeptical. Not sure if it is possible to have a probability system simply highlight the solution. We'll see about that, eventually. Perhaps that's a few lifetimes away anyway. Nothing to worry about right now.

So, end of day, the security limitation lies entirely on the login method that is used. One can change the method without having to re-encrypt the storage. All this because of the asynchronous public key encryption of the master key.


How to fix out-of-sync calendar? I'm using a rooted Samsung Galaxy S (Vibrant) running stock FroYo from T-Mo.

I sync my calendar on the phone with my Google Calendar.  I have several different calendars on Google, shared with different groups of people, and all are set to sync with my phone.  Everything has been perfect since I got the phone 4+ months ago.

Two days ago, within 30 minutes of adding a calendar event where everything looked fine, when I went to add another event I noticed that most of my calendar events were missing.  I usually use Jorte, and have been doing so with no problems.  I checked the stock calendar app and it's displaying a different sub-set of events.

Looking at both calendar apps plus Google calendar on my PC I see:

some events appear on the PC and in both apps (very few)
most events are missing on one app or the other
for a given calendar, some events will appear on one app but not the other (even on the same day)
there are events appearing on the stock app that don't appear on either the PC or in Jorte (for a calendar I have read-only access to)

It seems to me that something has corrupted the phone's cache of data.  Could this be possible?  How would I fix it?  This is a huge PITA -- I depend on my calendar for everything.

Thanks for any help you can give!

First thing to try is to clear the data and cache for both apps and their storage (Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications) and then re-sync (possibly in the app, or in Settings -> Accounts and sync).


Can a cheap cable prevent AC charging from working? A while ago, I had my phone repaired (the USB socket was worn out) and had to replace the USB cable as well. Since then I haven't been able to quickly charge my phone in AC mode. Previously it worked both on the dedicated charger that came with my phone and the "power" usb socket on my laptop. Is it plausible that this is because of the cheap cable?

My phone is a Sony Xperia Neo V.

It is quite possible that the "cheap" cable is a culprit. You could try a couple of things

Replace the cable with a cable of 24/28 awg thickness. Google for "28/24 awg micro USB" to locate suppliers close by. These cables are thick and offer less resistance to charging current. Alternatively, if you have a spare thick cable of shorter length you could try that and see if the charging is faster.
Download Ampere, It measures the charging current (it does not work on all devices, but your device is NOT mentioned in exclusion list, so it should work). Connect the "cheap cable" on charge and measure the  charging current. Repeat with cable you purchased (24/28 awg) or a spare short thick cable. If the value in second case is higher, the conclusion is obvious. You could even try compare values an  with OEM cable if you can locate with a friend or at a service center.
You could consider buying an original Sony cable . I found one on eBay costing about $5.


How can I disable the front status LED when charging my device? Charging my smartphone the front LED is always shining annoyingly green. This bothers me especially while reading an ebook which is why I am looking for a way to disable this feature.

So how do I disable the front status LED?

My smartphone is a Huawei Honor U8860, but I'm hoping to find a device-agnostic solution, be it in form of a hidden setting or app that adds the option to disable the front status LED.

I haven't seem any such options or settings for any device so far. You can try these apps

LightFlow Lite
Adjbrightness

but I doubt these would work properly. (I can't check as my device doesn't have LED notification light.)

I believe this kind of things are only doable via Custom ROMs. You would have to check your device development forums. Start here - Huwaei U8860 - xda-developers.

I don't think you can get an universal solution. If there has been a way to do it via Android APIs it would already be in Settings I believe.


Huawei update to EMUI 9 broke everything I have a Huawei NOVA 2S which I purchased in China.

I got the EMUI 9 update yesterday and none of my Google Apps were working.
Found this: https://itechify.com/2019/04/26/fix-google-apps-on-huawei-after-emui-9-update/, which is exactly the problem I'm having but those steps don't help.  I ran the GMS installer 1.2 and it removed all google apps.

I then installed Google play services (17.1.22 version code: 17122012).  I keep getting "Google Play Services won't run unless you update Google Play Services".  This is the most current version!!

Another Problem: I downloaded and installed Chrome from the Chinese app store.  It opens for a minute then crashes.

I can't even get the Play Store to work at all.  I installed the most current version for my architecture from apkmirror.com but it won't work.  It just crashes instantly on opening.

Any suggestions other than use as a paperweight?

I had to rollback to EMUI 8.0.  This was easier than expected through the HiSuite Huawei app for PC.  Click on update/upgrade, then other versions.  It should show you the last version and then click restore.

I then ran GMS installer, and Google-installer-v2 and I'm back in business!  I am still getting "Google Play Services won't run unless you update Google Play Services" occasionally but everything works.


Why do charging rates differ for similar spec USB power adaptors? I've been experimenting with using USB power adaptors other than the one supplied with the Android tablet and I'm struggling to understand why adaptors of a similar spec to the original are charging at much lower rates.

Could anyone help shed some light on what's going on?

Tablet: Acer Iconia B1-750

Measurement App: Ampere charging meter app from Braintree https://goo.gl/SQNiQb

Adapter           |              |
Manufacturer      | Output Spec  | Charging Rate
================================================
Liteon              5.2V  1.35A   250mA        (original adaptor)
Delta Electronics   5.35V 2A      30mA
NewLink             5.0V  2.1A    20mA
NewLink             5.0V  1A      20mA

All measurements were taken using the same USB lead
The adaptors were all plugged (successively) into the same wall
socket.
The rate readings were taken after a minute or so of plugging in to allow the
charging rate to settle.
All the readings were taken within a few minutes, with the tablet battery level at about 50%
Each adaptor was unplugged and replugged a few times to check for consistency of readings.
All adaptors are single port

So, can anyone help me understand why the first three, similarly spec'd chargers aren't charging at the same rate?

User manual of your device does not offer any clue, but Acer community forums highlight the feature of original charger to do fast charging by delivering more current, which probably the other chargers don't have

From Acer Iconia won't charge, see reply of Acebillsey

  The charger that came with should have been a 5.35V 2A charger with internal settings that tell the tablet that it's a fast charger. When it's plugged in the tablet goes into fast charge mode and will charge even if you are using it. A standard USB port or USB charger will provide 0.5A and the tablet will only do the slow charge mode.

Again from Iconia One 7 (B1-750) not charging, same person says

  There are two styles of chargers. The stock one provides more juice than is allowed by the USB spec and they get around that by putting a special load between the data pins, so the tablet can see that the high power charger is installed and go into full charging mode. When that load isn't there the tablet will not draw more than spec (500mA) and typically the charge is just maintained

This fits in with your readings and probably is the reason, since there is no cause otherwise. Googling didn't help in getting fast charge details in original charger or OEM charging circuit to confirm this

Edit: Overview of USB Charging gives a high level view of modifications needed to force a charger to charge at higher rate


Can I skip CynanogenMod updates When I install the nightly updates for CyanogenMod, do I need to install every single update or just the last one?

Just the last one. Simple as that.

However, if you do cross-Android-version updates (e.g. CM13 (6.0) to CM14 (7.0, coming soon)), it is strongly recommended to wipe and start over.


How to migrate all your contacts between two providers on android? Suppose I'm using an android phone running stock Android 6.0. Suppose further there are about 100 contacts and about 50 of them are with provider P and the rest is with provider G (as displayed by the default Google-Contacts app).

Now what I want to do is to move all the remaining 50 contacts which are still with G to P so I have every contact once and stored and synced with provider P.

How can I do this, preferably using only my phone?

Now I'd do this manually using the Contacts-App but it won't allow me change the storage provider for an established contact.

For clarification: the phone in question is a Nexus 5, provider G is obviously google using the device-default google account and provider P is posteo which is registered to Android as a "calendar service provider" via DAVDroid.

To do that natively only using your phone, you'd need to either manually enter all those 50 contacts to the new provider, then drop the old entries.

You might also be able to export all your contacts to SD card (using the contacts/people app: Menu › Export/Import › Export to SDCard), edit the resulting file, and import it back again – but that might be error prone.

An easier approach would be using a third party solution, like Simpler Contacts Backup – which directly lets you move contacts between accounts, according to the app's description.


internet slow on my tablet I know this question has been asked over and over and I have searched
  for an answer but no one seems to have an good result.

I have a new Prestigio Multipad 10.1. It's a nice tablet but I'm having trouble connecting it to my WiFi. I can connect but it's slow or never seems to receive any data.

I've tried a lot but I haven't a clue why other devices I have work. My android phone, my laptop, iPod etc.

I bought two of these and they both have the same problem.

There must be a setting which will correct this problem.

I have tried changing channels, I have tried a WiFi fixer but:

Google store just times out.
Chrome never comes back with any results .

I'm pulling my hair out. Please help.

I can't say that I have an explanation for you but it seems to be the nature of the beast. On my wifi network, my smartphone and my tablet get about 10mbps slower speed than my computer. I have no idea why but that's consistently the result so that must be normal.


Disabled and need help answering HTC EVO shift with 2.2 I am a disabled guy in a wheelchair with an HTC EVO shift. I need help answering my phone without using my hands. My Motorola phones always had auto answering options but I need that for this super duper fancy expensive phone I just received. There must be more people out there that need the same thing!

I thought this was totally possible but for the life of me can't find anything that says it is.  I was sure I had seen that option somewhere but going through the settings on my EVO 4G (similar to the Shift) I can't find anything that says auto answer.  Same thing when I searching around online.

So it appears that there is no built-in way to set Auto-Answer

However, there are a few apps in the market which claim to provide this functionality (this is by no means all of them, just three from the first page of results):

AutoAnswer
NACM
Advanced Telephone

If you don't want to go the app route I also found these Blue Ant Bluethooth Headsets which supposedly allow you to answer the call by actually saying the word "answer".  This may be a better option than to always answering a call instead you can tell the headset when to answer or not.

Hope this helps


Clock speed of Adreno 509 I'm sorry if this if off topic but I don't know a better place to put it, after it's a GPU used in Android device

My ROM maintainer has capped it at 430 mhz on the Moto z3 play. I distinctly remember it being 830 on stock, and I know the 506 clocked at 652 mhz and why would a better gpu have a much lower speed

So once and for all: what is the max clock speed of the Adreno 509?

According to Wikipedia, the "stock" clock for Adreno 509 (Snapdragon 636 SoC) is 720 MHz.

But keep in mind that this "stock clock frequency" on Wikipedia is the "stock" defined by Qualcomm, and it's extremely common that phone manufacturers define a different (higher or lower) "stock" clock for chips.

For Moto Z3 Play, the "Lenovo stock" frequency is 850 MHz, as can be seen on their website.

I have not been able to find a "max speed" of this particular GPU, probably because my Google-fu isn't powerful enough.


Window animation scale of 0.25 on OxygenOS 5.0.4? Is it possible to set the window animation scale to 0.25 on OxygenOS 5.0.4? The closest options I see are 0.0 and 0.5, but I'm hoping there would be a way to do this with root access.

If there isn't option in developer settings for that value of animation scale then there is this app. App doesn't require root but you'll have to grant some permissions via ADB, you have guide how to do that when you launch app.
Now when you do that under miscellaneous section there are animation speeds where you can set it to any value you want. Keep in mind that when you restart the device in most cases all modifications you made with app and permissions you granted are gone so you'll need to do it again. I say in most cases because to me sometimes happened that everything is fine and sometimes I needed to do it again.


Swap audio channels? Is there a way to swap the audio channels coming out of the headphone jack on my tablet? A third-party app would be acceptable.

For some context: My tablet has a pop in the left channel and I need it to pop in the right instead. I'm using the left channel to play background music through a large PA system and the right channel with notes to myself that only I can hear. I separate the left channel out to the PA and then plug them both into a mixer for myself. The PA gets the left (with the pop) and I get both. Since the pop is only in the left, if I could swap the channels, I could just swap my external wiring and voila, only "I" hear the pop, not the PA system.

The pop is most certainly because of a hardware fault, which may or may not be in your tablet. Does it pop with other headphones too? If not, throw away the faulty headphone. If it does, then indeed the tablet is faulty and you should see if you can get it repaired under the warranty.

Anyway, it will not be solved by swapping the audio channels (the pop will stay in the same channel). Also, such an app is very unlikely to exist (as it is very rare for somebody to want to swap audio channels), and even if it would exist, it would need at least root access if not outright recompiling the kernel.

If I were you, I would make a jack extension cable with crossed left and right leads. If you can't, ask a friend who is experienced in soldering. It may also occur that you can swap the channels without soldering; for example if you use a Jack-RCA converter, you can simply swap the white and red plugs.


Using a link with a browser I have a simple link from an email which I click.

I get the following error message:

"to view this content, install and set up a web browsing app."

I already set the default browser to once chrome and once firefox, but still I get this error.

What could be the problem ? and hints ?

The link is about testing an app:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/solveraapps.chronicbrowser_wgd_maps It should derict you to a page for installing the app. You will not be able to install the app, (Because you should be member of an Google+ Group), but at least there should come a different message from a website content.

kindly copy and paste the link into chrome and stay logged in to your account. Else link looks fine to me.


Lenovo Vibe p1m suddenly slow Today I notice my Lenovo Vibe p1m is running slow. It coudn't open Chrome without freezing. The whole UI is basically sluggish. It also couldn't open the flashlight.

I have tried removing the sdcard and restarting in safe mode. Same slowness. I didn't install anything new so it's baffling what could cause it. I also can't open the Update screen of Google play because it freezes. I check the running apps section, RAM usage is just 700MB out of 2GB.

Looks like the phone is basically screwed for no logical reason. The phone is only 1.5 years old.

Any ideas what could cause this and how/what else could I diagnose?

Exactly this happened to me today, at morning I was watching videos, then I use the mobile again, and i cant even load youtube! Ill try deactivating some apps as phaethon said.

Deactivating some apps and uninstalling some helped, but mobile is still very slow :/

So I decided to factory reset my phone and everything is like normal, I have no clue what was the issue :/


Is SlimROMS one thing or many? I was looking at some threads to download a custom firmware when I noticed one thing as a thanking gesture, developers or maintainers were thanking SlimROMS team. I went to SlimROMS website and its forums as well but I couldn't pin point:

1) Is SlimROMS one thing or many?

2) I found somethreads featuring names like Slimsaber or Slimkat which shares some common features. Are they SlimROMs? It's really confusing to me. Are there other ROMs with naming convention Slim[XYZ]?

I think I found my answer after a bit more search.

I don't know why they use 's' and calls it SLIMROMs but Slim + Jelly Bean = SlimBean, Slim + Kitkat = SlimKat and Slim + Lollipop (LP) = SlimLP.

SlimSaber on the other hand is an unofficial build of SlimLP. I suppose 'Saber' comes from custom toolchain Sabermod.


How can I move a system app from one phone to another? I like the music player on my older samsung phone and want to have it on my new phone. The music player is a system app and I can't simply install it in .apk form normally. Is there a way I can move it to my new phone?

There are many apps which can take backup of system app like AndroZip (it can save .apk file of system app in sd card) then you can transfer it to your new phone via bluetooth etc.

Steps To Backup App Using AndroZip.

Open AndroZip
Go To App tab.
Check Music Player you want to get apk.
Click Backup.

apk file will be in app_backup folder in sdcard.


How to fix the problem of Google Now？ I am using nexus5  with android 5.0. But in fact i cannot use the Google now service that says that network error. I had already search about this problem,  but no one can really solve it? Does any one know how to fix it?

Try this go into settings/apps/under the "ALL" tab scroll and tap on google app/ force stop, and clear cache. power you device off and back on. Test and you should be good to go.


How do I change the Battery Percentage that corresponds to a Voltage in Android My original Li-ion has 3000 mAh capacity. I've modded my device to have a total of 7000 mAh capacity now.

The enhanced capacity means that my percentage is not displayed accurately anymore.

About 2000 mAh charge displays 75% charge. That means 5000 mAh are located in the top 25% of my battery indicator.

(Charging times confirm: 1 Hour @1800 mA goes from 25% to 75%, but 75 to 83 takes almost the same time and so on.)

I know a lot is possible with a rooted Android device but I'm not too much of a software person.

How can I change the percentages that display? There has to be some kind of lookup table where the Vbatt→"%" conversion is done.

Edit: If no one can help me, I am going to add a bunch of tp4056 chips to enable actually charging.

The software seems to mess around quite a bit.

Now my phone is charging the 2nd time, and (I assume because it is calculated that the battery should be “full” by now in terms of mAh) it has reached “100%” despite the Vbatt being 3.95 Volts. Actual charge is ~ 70% at max!

Here you can see it charged more than 2000 mAh after reaching “100%”. I stopped the charge at 4.2 V.

The lower portion reached 75% after 1000mAh and took 900 more for the rest. So this has lost all it's 'linearity'.

Can I (additionally to changing the display behavior) also change the charging algorithm?

Do I have to compile a kernel by myself? Is there settings for this? I want higher current first and very low current for the charging above 4.1 V.

Let's look at the challenges you would face in achieving correct reading, rooting is not a magic key that let's you do everything easily:

The battery capacity (mAh) is coded in two places - the ROM and kernel (see Where are the battery capacity files located?) Only OEM would know from where the values are picked up, so you would need to have a custom ROM and kernel that stores this higher value. You would need to do this own and this is definitely not a trivial effort. ROM "chefs" wouldn't be interested in this (not appealing or in demand). You say you aren't a software person, so it's safe to discard this path.
The charging algorithm is also proprietary and not open source given the competition ( I can  charge from xx to yy% in so many minutes is the sales pitch). So that's your next huge challenge since the charger, charging cable and the device need to be in sync with the algorithm. Impossible for you to replicate. See the charging algorithm
(Source
) of an Anker power bank to get a sense of how challenging it would be to figure out on your own.
Charging incorrectly is going to damage your new battery and the purpose of acquiring it is partly defeated. This would be the result since you aren't easily going to achieve the first two points.

It is for these and probably more reasons that third party sellers who provide extended batteries do not attempt to show the correct percentage. Read the reviews of any such product and you will find complaints around this

What you can do

Use a battery bank of desired capacity.
Experiment at various charging speeds and arrive at a rough correlation between shown and actual voltages.
Rig up hardware based system as you suggested in your question (off-topic on this site)


Anyone know of a custom GPS ROM for Samsung Galaxy 5? Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy 5 (model number GT-I5500) and I'm new to the android world.

I'm not satisfied with the performance of the GPS on my cell phone so I thought it would be interesting to use a custom ROM to see if it improves a bit.

Anyone knows of a ROM that was tested in this model?

Not necessarily what you are looking for, but on my Captivate, the GPS is kinda slow. I just came across this and thought I'd try it later tonight.


Can I charge Galaxy Tab S2 while using MHL adapter? I'm looking at an MHL adapter provided by Samsung. I have a Galaxy Tab S2 and wonder if this adapter would allow the device to charge up at the same time as mirroring the screen to my TV.

I already have a multi-use adapter with MHL + SD + USB. Unfortunately, connecting micro-USB power to the multi-use adapter does not charge the tablet.

I would like to know if I can charge the device at the same time as using the HDMI connection.

Anyone know if this works?

The Galaxy Tab S2 (2016, 9.7, Wi-Fi) specs say that there is no MHL support.

(Which exact device version do you have? Have you tested MHL support in the meantime?)


Restore Google Authenticator on New phone without Root I have ~8 logins that use Google Authenticator (Google, FB, Bitcoin stuff, etc). I made a backup of my Authenticator app/sqlite database before moving to my new phone. How do I restore the database/settings on my new phone without root?

There's a walkthrough on exactly this topic here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/130755/how-to-move-your-google-authenticator-credentials-to-a-new-android-phone-or-tablet/

Essentially, it amounts to disabling two factor authentication and re-enabling it, or for services like Google, using their "replace old 2 factor with new 2 factor" service. It is also possible to extract an sqlite database of your credentials, if you have adb and can access the phone that way, which I believe is possible without root.


How to access my SD card of Moto G 2nd from Win7 All, I am in trouble with accessing the files , photos etc in my SD card of Moto G 2nd. Is there any way to make it ? Thanks.

Updated

It is my mistake, I am sorry that I didn't put it clear. Please forgive me .
I mean I was trying access it from computer desktop. But so far didn't get it work around. Thanks.

It doesn't have an SD card.
Nor does it have a file explorer.

Download and install ES file manager from the play store to fix.


Exact same contact shown twice I have a contact that is shown twice in the contacts list. The copies are not from different accounts (so they cannot be joined), they are not two different entries in the same account(so they cannot be merged in Google contacts online), it is exactly the same contact. If I edit one, the other gets also edited.

I have tried joining them on the phone, it says "contacts joined" but nothing happens. The two copies are still there.
I have tried deleting the contacts, but when I delete one of them then I cannot access the remaining copy in the list as tapping on it shows the message "the contact does not exist".
Another strange thing is that one of the copies does not belong to any account at all. When displaying one account contacts only (eg Google contacts, Whatsapp, etc.) it shows only one copy (the same for all accounts containing the contact, it is a joined contact).
Finally, it is worth mentioning that this happened after installing Whatsapp and this contact has two mobile numbers associated so it appears twice in contact list inside Whatsapp. I do not mind having the same person twice in Whatsapp, but I would like to have only one copy in my contacts list on the phone.

What can I do?

Edit: I have removed my Whatsapp account from Settings->Accounts and the duplicated contact has disappeared. As soon as Whatsapp synchronises again, it appears again.

I have also noticed that it is the only contact with two mobile numbers and each of them has its own Whatsapp account so that there are two different entries in the contact list inside Whatsapp. I have other contacts with two mobile numbers but only one of them is associated to a Whatsapp account and appears only once in both Whatsapp and Phone contact lists.

is it then a Whatsapp bug? is there someone else with the same problem?

Somewhere in Settings you can see Contacts to display

Now it shows different options like Show All Contacts, Device Contacts, SIM Contacts, Whatsapp Contacts and of all accounts that you have. Simply select your desired option as mine was to show SIM Contacts.


Upgrade android 4.2.2 to 4.4? I have spice Mi 506 which runs on Android 4.2.2. Can I upgrade my phone to Android KitKat 4.4. If so how do I upgrade?

There is no official update from Android 4.2.2 to Android 4.4 for the Spice Mi 506. However, you can use a custom ROM. Instructions for this can be found on Update Spice MI 506 to Android 4.4 using custom ROM

Use at your own risk, your Phone can be bricked afterwards and maybe you loose your warranty.


Resizing the /data partition (rooted) My app market (Google Play) has a problem. I can't install any apps on my phone (Lenovo, rooted) because of "There isn't enough space in the disk", but actually there is. After asking a friend, I moved apps to the SD card. After more tries, I understand that the apps are installed on the /data partition and when it is full, I can't install more apps.

When typing df I get:

# df
Filesystem               Size     Used     Free   Blksize
/dev                   482.1M   128.0K   481.9M   4096
/sys/fs/cgroup         482.1M    12.0K   482.0M   4096
/mnt/secure            482.1M     0.0K   482.1M   4096
/mnt/asec              482.1M     0.0K   482.1M   4096
/mnt/obb               482.1M     0.0K   482.1M   4096
/system                885.8M   679.5M   206.4M   4096
/data                  908.5M   825.9M    82.6M   4096
/cache                 123.0M     4.0M   119.0M   4096
/protect_f               8.8M     4.1M     4.8M   4096
/protect_s               8.8M     4.0M     4.8M   4096
/mnt/cd-rom              1.2M     1.2M     0.0K   2048

I know from another app that there is more free, not mounted space.

How can I resize this partition? If more output is needed so tell me what to type. Thanks.

As GiantTree correctly pointed out, That not mounted space might be something the device uses in something like an emergency mode to restore the device. More precisely: it not only might be, but it is. Your df output e.g. doesn't say anything about the /recovery or /boot partitions. And there are even more we are not aware of.

Another argument against re-sizing: You won't be able to install any Android updates anymore, as those often come as "images" to flash (replacing entire file systems) – which then no longer would match the partition size, causing the update to fail to flash at best, or bricking your device at worst.

If app2sd no longer gives you enough freedom, you can take a look at link2sd – which is able to not only move the entire app to your device's external SD card (App2SD only moves parts), but can even move more, such as their data files and libraries.

For some more background, take a look at the link2sd tag-wiki, and also the app2sd tag-wiki.


GT-I9082 - Unable to enter download mode through ADB I have a really old Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos from 5 years back.

I want to boot into download mode using ADB. I am using the following command

adb -s <deviceid> reboot download

What this does is just reboot my phone and does not take me to recovery. I can boot into recovery though using

adb reboot recovery

I have tried the commands

adb reboot bootloader

also has no effect other than booting my phone.

I can enter into recovery the manual way using volume down + power + home button, but why can't I enter it using ADB ?

What am I doing wrong ?

My phone is running Jellybean Samsung Stock ROM and does not have the fastboot/bootloader mode.

Luckily I have Grand Duos too and I can confirm it is perfectly bootable into Odin Mode (aka Download) by

adb reboot download

Tried it just now.

What I can propose to you:

Try to get rid of all other emulated/physical devices by restarting ADB-server and/or ejecting non-necessary ones.

adb kill-server

I can guess you have them as you use -s clause.

Learn the difference between Odin Mode, recovery mode and bootloader mode. Maybe you are confusing them?

I have custom recovery but this doesn't prevent me from booting into all this modes.


Factory reset phone with bottom part of touchscreen not working so I can't set it up. ADB functions not working properly The bottom half inch of my phone screen isn't working. Before I factory reset I got around the issue by using the adb command

adb shell wm overscan 0,0,0,200

I have twrp installed but when I try to use that command I get an error

  /sbin/sh: wm: not found

The device does show up in adb devices

Things I did after this:

try same command with different phone and it worked
Reflash ROM
Accidentally delete OS
Reflash OS
try again with same error

The device is a OnePlus One

From what I've found there are certain adb commands which do not work in recovery mode. adb shell wm commands are among those.

When I tried this on the other phone it was with it open to the main launcher with adb enabled through the settings.

For anyone else with a similar issue, I believe the only solution is to get a usb to micro usb converter and connect a mouse to your device for the set up, and then enable adb through the settings.


Service Mode "Menu not Exist" Android 4.1.2 I am having little issue here. I have accessed the Service Mode via this no: *#197328640#
Then i am choosing options as follow
[1] Debug Screen
[8] Phone control
[6] Network lock
When i press option 6 for network lock i am prompted again with the same screen which shows again same option so i choose [6] Network lock again and in this menu there should be 3 things showing. However what i see is only
"Menu not Exist"
Press Back Key
Current Command s 1866
and that's it. There are options from this menu missing and i don't know why?

You need to revert back to Jellybean 4.1.1 to get the extra options under (6)NETWORK LOCK as far as I'm aware.

Like you said there should be 3 other menu options under (6)NETWORK LOCK and they should appear after reverting back to 4.1.1.

You will need the 4.1.1 firmware for your current carrier and Phone model and (Odin) to flash the firmware.

Make sure you save the original firmware first, so if anything goes wrong with the firmware flash, you can revert back to the original firmware.

Hope this helps :)


Last Update CM13 - Nexus 5X Yesterday I updated from this snapshot version 2016-04-18 17:30:08 to the last one 2016-08-20 00:21:07 (bullhead)

Everything looks in its place, but yesterday the device was keeping restarting, today it's stable.
I tried to reboot it by myself and when boot it says:

There’s an internal problem with your device. Contact your manufacturer for details.

Any solution?

I have found a soulution here but it's for Nexus 6P and Android 5.1 but I think it will work in your case as well.

Android System
There's an internal problem with your device. Contact your manufacturer for details.

The problem occurs because of a check that Google implemented in Android 5.1 (and it seems stayed in after) which compares /system/build.prop with the values found in /vendor/build.prop.
If they differ you get that error message. All one has to do to get rid of the error is to change the 3 values in /vendor/build.prop according to the values in /system/build.prop.
On the link you can find a flashable zip. The magic is in the update-binary file:
/sbin/busybox egrep "^ro\.build\.(date(\.utc)?|fingerprint)=" /system/build.prop \
    | /sbin/busybox sed -e"s/^ro\./ro.vendor./" \
    > /vendor/build.prop

So you need:

install TWRP on your device
send vendor-build-prop-fix-signed.zip to your device
reboot into recovery mode
flash the zip but don't wipe anything
reboot your phone

If it's not work (but it should be work), you can try this method.
It says you should download and flash/install the vendor.img which matches your ROM's base.


How to move SMS from hangouts to messenger app My Nexus 6p has 2 messaging services. Google Hangouts and the stock Google messenger app. I usually use the Google messenger app to send SMS, but the problem is that the message they respond with always comes through the hangouts app. Is there any way to change that so that all SMS always comes from the messenger app?

OS: Android 6.0.1
Carrier: Google Project Fi
(The phone is not rooted)

Any help would be much appreciated

Devin, I am not extremely familiar with stock Android, so I apologize if some of what I try to describe does not work exactly as I try to explain it.
The SMS messages on your phone is maintained in a single database.  That means you can use different messaging apps for SMS and the message "streams" or "history" stays the same regardless of the SMS app you use.
Within Android, you can decide which app is your default messaging app and by doing so you are saying which one will show you incoming messages.
You can change this default behavior by going into your phone Settings app and then Applications.  Inside that, there should be an option labelled Default Applications (I use a Galaxy, so it might be slightly different).  Inside Default applications, there should be a listing for Messaging App and your default SMS app listed.  I will assume that it is Hangouts.  You can tap that and change it to another app - and choose Google Messages.  You will still be able to use Hangouts for sending SMS messages, but incoming SMS notifications will by default show up in the Google app.  Also, you may need to disable SMS notifications within the Hangouts app so you don't get multiple SMS notifications for each incoming text message.
Hope this helps.
Rick


alternative to android build in encryption? I have got a Samsung S3 that forces me to use a 6-charakter password for the phone/SD card encryption. I would like to use a PIN (4-digits) as it was possible in earlier Samsung phones. I am aware of the reduced security but for practical reasons I want to use the PIN.
What are my options? I see there is the option to use any kind of "file vault" app, but they require to move my files and folders into the apps container.
Is there any option to encrypt the android leaving the files in the original place?

You already indicated the possible use of an app. And indeed, next to the so-called "vault apps", there are several options for Encryption of Files and Folders which work transparently on the file system. For some, you still will need to use "specific folders" which you encrypt, though – while most of the others fall into the category of requiring root access.

Some example apps you might wish to take a closer look at include, but are not limited to:

Cryptonite (based on EncFS)
EDS (uses TrueCrypt containers)


S-helth in my Samsung Note 5 'none rooted' android 7.0 Nougat, is not working S-helth in my Samsung Note 5 'none rooted' android 7.0 Nougat, is not working, I tired so many methods... but no use my phone is not rooted, but I get following message every time I open s-helth, that is "due to a new security policy, samsung health cannot be opened on a rooted device". So can any one help me out

if you have flashed your phone to official firmware using ODIN, be sure to tick BL AP CS CSC on the target download - that will fix knox issues


Mass confusion about present and future: Hangouts, SMS, MMS, and Google Voice I've been trying to make sense of recent news and theories about the future of Hangouts, SMS/MMS integration, and merging with Google Voice.

My main concern right now is that I want to continue having free SMS messages sent through my Google Voice number. I don't have any texting plan from my phone company -- my "real" number is secret to the world.

The facts:

I have a Google Voice number that is public, for calling and free texting
I have a secret "actual" Verizon phone number, SMS or MMS costs $0.25 per message
Google Voice doesn't support MMS
I do not want to activate SMS over Hangouts because I fear it will use my Verizon number which does not have free texting

Am I correct in my concerns? Should I hold off activating SMS in Hangouts because I will end up with a lot of fees from my carrier? Should I pay for an unlimited texting plan with Verizon because doing all of these things won't be free in the future anyway?

Google Hangouts + Voice Integration

Update Sept 10, 2014:  Google has now merged Google Voice into Hangouts.

If you keep using the Google Voice app for texting, it doesn't matter if you activate SMS via Hangouts.  However, any texts you send out of Hangouts will go through your Verizon number, incurring carrier charges.

If you are running CyanogenMod 11 ROM, you may want to look into Voice+.  It's a custom app that allows you to pipe all "regular" SMS through Google Voice, from any app such as Hangouts, Messaging, HandCent, Whatsapp, etc.  It's still in beta (as is the entire CM11) but works quite well for keeping all the messaging together in a single app.

When Hangouts got ability to send/receive SMS last year, Google promised that they will eventually merge Google Voice functionality into it, thus making it a single app.  This looks to be slowly happening behind the curtains. In the latest Hangouts v2.1 update, bits and pieces pointing to Google Voice integration started showing up.  We will most likely hear more about this in the upcoming Google I/O developers conference this coming Summer.


Why is Maps using outrageous amounts of background data? I just got three auto-top up notifications amounting to total of about $50 from my network carrier.

Upon checking data usage, I see that this month shot up to 5gb+ and the details show it was almost all due to Maps, (please refer to screenshot).
The breakdown says 2.13 MB of foreground data and 5.15GB of background!!!
The messages from my carrier were sent within a 35 minute window.
This is expensive and outrageous. What's causing it and how do I prevent this?!!

I'm using Blu Lifemark 4G. It's an american company who had had security issues relates to Chinese interference but they said the new software releases fixed that. My android version is 5.1. Maps version: 9.67.1

You can prevent it by activating "Restrict app background data" (seen in your second screenshot).

There is also the Datally app (from Google itself), which allows you to block internet access for different apps.


What are applications locked against? ROM, phone ID, or google account? If I bought an app, is it locked to the specific installed android ROM, to the hardware (phone) or to my Google account?

Basically I want to know what would happen to my paid apps when I would reinstall the ROM, or change my phone. Could I re-download my apps?

When you wipe your phone and re-install a ROM, or switch to a new phone, you will be prompted to sign in with your Google account. As long as you use the same Google account, you will be able to find your purchased apps in the Market by pressing the Menu key and selecting My Apps, or something similar (i believe they're named differently in different versions). From there you will be able to view and re-install previously purchased apps.

NOTE: This only works for apps you've spent money on. If it was free, it will not be stored on your account in this way.


What is this ICON -circle with a plus sign in the middle? This icon showed up a few days ago, but I have no clue what it is. I have done a Google image search and can't find it.

This is on my Samsung S7 in the notification bar.

Data Saver is On.

You can toggle it off via Settings - Connections - Data Usage - Data Saver


What does "automatic" mean under Network restrictions? I'm running Android Oreo 8.1 on a Pixel XL. When I go to Settings > Network & Internet > Data usage > Network restrictions, I notice that all of my saved wifi networks are listed. Under each one, it says "Automatic". When I select one of the networks in the list, I see "Automatic", "Metered", and "Not metered". What does "Automatic" mean in this context?

As far as I can tell from looking at the code, "Automatic" means the network is metered if it meets at least one of these heuristics:

The WifiConfiguration has a metered hint, which I assume can be done if the network is added by an app.
The network has an "Ant" (802.11u access network type) of PublicChargeable (code).
The DHCP server sent the ANDROID_METERED option (code 1, 2), which the Android hotspot itself sends.  Additional commentary.

(I found the code links by searching the LineageOS source code on GitHub and opening the corresponding AOSP files, since the AOSP repository browser doesn't appear to support searching; maybe there's another way.)


Disadvantages of CyanogenMod If I root and flash my phone, will I get some limitations? I understand that I will lose any carrier and manufacturer specific apps/launcher/widget (and this actually may be a bonus); however I want to know:

what will happen to my gmail/calendar/market account? Will it work as before?
will I get battery/radio/GPS issues?
will I lose some compatibility with apps (Is a custom ROM less compatible)?
can I still use the phone for developing apps?

You google apps will work exactly the same as before; either they'll be prepackaged with CM or you will download an update pack that will install them for you.
Battery/radio/GPS issues are mostly related to specific hardware.  You'd have to check the CM forums and wiki for your phone model to answer that one.
Compatibility is an issue for some apps, but in the vast majority of cases the answer to this will be no (and in fact, some apps are compatible with CM but not with stock ROMs).
You can most definitely still use the phone to develop apps :)

The nice thing with flashing a new ROM is that you can go back to the stock experience anytime you like, either by making a backup or downloading the stock ROM and keeping it around to flash later if you want it.  So you aren't really risking anything except some time invested in fiddling the ROMs.


Samsung Keyboard of keybinding of switching input methods How do I disable the 'Shift + Space' keybinding of Samsung Keyboard, which triggers the toggling of input methods? I use a physical keyboard, and it is quite easy (and annoying) for my system to misinterprete my ' Capital letter followed by a space' into switching the input methods.

Also I don't want to root my device.

I use a Microsoft Wedge keyboard and what solved it for me was installing SwiftKey or some other keyboard alternative and setting that as the default instead of the Samsung one.

This is a fantastically annoying default shortcut that's impossible to turn off and easily identifiable to anyone using an external keyboard and writing in English, every single time I would write "I", it would eat the space after it and change language instead... The problem probably exists for all physical keyboards as with the on-screen keyboard the shortcut still exists, but most people are not fast enough to trigger it there.


How do I enable a keyboard OTHER than Google Keyboard via ADB? I have got 2 keyboards in my phone: Google Keyboard and AnySoftKeyboard. Google Keyboard is my primary keyboard.
I want to enable AnySoftKeyboard as my primary keyboard via ADB (I use ADB because the 'Language and Input' subsetting crashes my Settings app for some reason). But the problem is that, although I enable it and it works while my phone is on, after a reboot it doesn't work and my primary keyboard becomes Google Keyboard again.
If I try to disable Google Keyboard so that AnySoftKeyboard has a hope of working, my System UI and Launcher crash at startup, making my phone go nuts (I can only unlock my phone and reboot it or shut it down).

HOWEVER, because of past experience with this, even if Google Keyboard were uninstalled, a user keyboard app (unlike a system keyboard app) does NOT launch at startup (even when enabled via ADB), even if I go to an app like Messenger and try to type something (note: my system doesn't behave weirdly if I uninstall Google Keyboard).

So, my question is, how do I make sure that, after a reboot, AnySoftKeyboard will BOTH be a functioning and primary keyboard app? And why does my system UI and Launcher crash when I try to do a modification to Google Keyboard other than uninstalling it?

Phone: Acer V370
Android version: 4.2.2

I managed to solve this. To make AnySoftKeyboard my main keyboard, I had to:

Turn it into to a system app (with Link2SD)
Reboot as instructed
Put the following commands via ADB:

adb shell settings put secure default_input_method com.menny.android.anysoftkeyboard/.SoftKeyboard

adb shell ime enable com.menny.android.anysoftkeyboard/.SoftKeyboard

(I put both just to be sure, but I think putting only the first command will work fine)

Uninstall Google Keyboard (with Titanium Backup)
Reboot just in case anything had yet to be sorted out

And done.

The most important part was making it a system app, because as a user app it would either:

a) not be the primary keyboard after a reboot

b) flat-out refuse to function (even if it was the only keyboard on the device).