Will SoftkeyZ Root app work on the device Yureka out of the box? Softkeyz is a root app. Yureka runs CyanogenMod out of the box but I don't know if it's rooted or not. Is it safe to install softkeyz root app and use it?

First of all, there is a glaring error in the question which needs to be removed. Yu Yureka doesn't come with Cyanogenmod (CM; a community ROM) but with Cyanogen OS (COS12) which is a stripped out CM12 ROM meant to suit the needs of an OEM (a commercial software). Read this XDA thread for more.

As one would expect, COS12 doesn't come with su binary or a superuser app. In simpler terms, NO, your device isn't rooted yet. You can verify this with any root checker app and they should give you negative result.

  Is it safe to install softkeyz root app and use it?

The app has full network access (read: can connect to Internet and send or receive data) and has access to your storage (ability to read or modify your data). Besides, it needs superusers access as well.

If the app isn't open source and and its source independently verified by people, I say your part of question is speculative since there is not much can be said with surety.

Coming to the point of this app's usage, if your need is to get the navigational bar then why bother installing a third-party  app. Cyanogen OS comes with in-built navigational bar (yes, those virtual buttons at the bottom of screen). Simply go to Settings -> Buttons -> Enable on-screen navigational bar. Done. You can somewhat modify the buttons as the other answer by Sonickyle27 noted.

Otherwise, setup ADB in PC, enable USB debugging in device, connect the device into PC, open a CMD/Terminal and enter:

adb shell settings put secure dev_force_show_navbar 1

This would enable on-screen navigational bar. Change 1 to 0 to disable it.


What are the advantages of a separate tethering app over the built-in tethering controls? I just rooted by AT&T Galaxy S2 (SGH-i777) to troubleshoot battery usage. I also would like to tether my laptop (OS X Lion) to make use of my phone's data connection intermittently while traveling.

I see both "USB tethering" as well as "portable WiFi hotspot" under Settings --> Wireless and network --> Tethering and portable hotspot. Should I use this feature or install an additional tethering application?

What [if any] are the advantages of a separate tethering app over the built-in tethering controls?

This is probably largely a preference thing, but a couple of things I can think of off the top of my head:

The built-in tethering may only be usable with an extra fee on top of a normal data plan, whereas third-party apps with work regardless. I'm not really privvy to AT&T's plans these days, so I can't say for sure in your specific situation. This mostly only applies to stock ROMs, as a non-stock ROM usually also subverts any kind of tethering fee (e.g. CyanogenMod).
Many third-party tethering apps will give you a display of data in/out when running so you can keep track of your data usage. Some also display battery level and temperature.
The built-in wireless tethering provides WEP/WPA encryption and the like, but some third-party apps support additional security such as MAC address filtering and the like.
Not all devices are supported by all third-party apps, but the stock tethering should obviously work on your device if it's enabled in the settings. Third-party apps may in some cases require a custom kernel in order to function the way you would expect (in infrastructure mode) and will create an ad-hoc connection on unsupported devices/kernels (not really ideal).
The built-in tethering may have better widget integration. On CyanogenMod ROMs, for example, you can enable/disable the wireless hotspot from the power control widget, whereas you'd need a separate one for a third-party tethering app.

If you don't need the "power" tools and such then the stock tethering should function fine. I've generally used that on my EVO and I certainly have no complaints about stability or speed as compared to other apps I've tried. From that standpoint I've not noticed any real difference.


Is there a way to exclude an app from Doze? Doze has been bringing great benefit for my aging Nexus 5. But sadly, its presence also marks an end for my WhatsApp Web experience; since their "web" app is actually just a mere "interface" and still requires the phone to be actively connected to the Internet.

As we all know, Doze puts one's phone into a stand-by state where every unnecessary connection is halted. This means it will also halt the WhatsApp app in my phone (and thus in my computer's browser).

Now, is there a way to exclude WhatsApp from Doze? I mean, is something like that possible?

p.s., I prefer a non-rooted approach to this problem, but should rooting be my only option, so be it.

This answer is based off my Nexus 9 on MRA58K. It should be similar for any app.

Follow the steps as given below:

Go to Settings → Battery
Tap on the top right 3-dot menu, and choose Battery Optimisation.
There should be a dropdown below the actionbar on the top left, choose All Apps from the list.
Find your app in the list (in this case, Whatsapp)
Tap on it. You will get a popup with 2 options, Optimise and Don't Optimise
Optimise should be selected by default.
Select "Don't Optimise", and press "Done" below.
That's it. I hope it works for you.


Forgot unlock-pattern of android device without registered Google account. Will factory reset work? I want to access a Samsung S6 Edge that I haven't used for a long time,
so I don't care about any data on the device.
I forgot the unlock-pattern and PIN but I never registered any Google-Account on it.

What happens if I do a factory reset? Will there be a prompt for a Google account even if there never was one registered on the phone before? Because I don't want to get stuck on that prompt.

Or will the reset go through without any further security issues?

Or is there even a better way to access the device?

A factory reset will work for this issue. But you may lost your data.

I repeat you may loss because some cyanogen device didnot delete all data in a factory reset(including my device).

So try it.


Remove user account in Android 5.0.1 on Galaxy S4 I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 with Android upgraded to 5.0.1. There is a GMail account added that I've linked in order to install a specific application (Google Domain Policy) and now I want to remove that account in order to pass the phone to my co-worker.

I've gone to Settings -> Accounts and the account is listed there (as a Google account). I can tap that and get to privacy and sync settings but I can't see any option to delete the account. I've tried tapping, tapping and holding, double-tapping, swiping and everything else that happened to cross my mind but to no avail.

How on earth do I remove that account from the system if there's no delete option visible?

Click image(s) for larger versions

I have spent weeks looking for a solution to this and finally this post helped me! It was so far from obvious and it felt like Google wanted me to keep the account by force lol.

Anyway, what I did was go to Settings > Accounts > Google, clicked the account I wanted to delete, the Sync menu option opened and this is where I always got stuck. Through this, I realized I had to press and hold the menu button on the bottom left side of my S4 to get another menu pop-up with the options of canceling sync or deleting the account.

Finally! Hope this helped.


Can I use XPrivacy as an Antivirus? I am using XPrivacy + Xposed Framework. is it safe to consider that malware can be controlled thank to Xprivacy?

Long version

Ok so let me first highlight what XPrivacy can and can't do.

Up to Android 6, permissions to access critical data and resources like contacts, calendar, camera, microphone etc are granted at the time an app is installed and are not revocable at all. Some solutions let you revoke those permission afterwards, but this often leads to crashes because apps do expect to have access to those resources. Therefore, at some point solutions like XPrivacy decided to not revoke permissions but to provide fake data. For example, if you "soft revoke" the contacts permission, an app will not get an error when trying to access them but will receive an empty contacts list.
So what can XPrivacy do? It can guard your privacy by altering what apps can read.

Now, let's talk about malware on Android. In contrast to desktop systems, classical malware like viruses or rootkits are not possible in Android as long as there is no severe flaw in the Android itself. The reason is, that each app is sandboxed and only given restricted access to resources (eg via permissions). By the way, this is also the reason why antivirus on stock Android does not work the way we are used to from desktop systems. As the antivirus is also sandboxed, it cannot monitor, change or restrict other apps that might be malware. So what malware are we talking about now? Most common are combinations of trojan horses and spyware. To be more precise, apps that pretend to provide benign functionality but also spying on you. Also, a lot of actually non-malicious but overly-curious apps exist that provide real functionality but also collect your data.

Now we can actually get to the answer of your question. If you use XPrivacy to revoke permissions of the spyware, there is not too much it can do. But the problem is, that spyware is often disguised as a benign or well-known application which might not work properly with fake data. So there are two possibilities now when treating a malicious app. Either you detect it to be malicious and remove it, or you do not detect it (because it might also have real functionality) and then you won't restrict its permissions so that it does not work anymore because you think it is a regular app. This social engineering component is a big problem.

Summary/Short version

XPrivacy does not find apps that actively use known vulnerabilities and does neither modify nor closely inspect potential malware. It just allows you to restrict app permissions. So in contrast to classical antivirus approaches known from desktop operating systems like windows, you have to decide what to restrict and where. In general, it is a good idea to restrict apps to the least set of permissions that needed to function properly (principle of least privilege). If you do this consequently for ALL apps, chances are high you also restrict malware. But as long as there are apps that for example need the internet permission for their benign activities but also to upload data that the spyware collected, this approach is simply not enough.

So no, you should not rely on XPrivacy to defeat all malware. It is just a tool for you, so its utility depends on your choices.


How can I monitor my phone's activities? A couple of times I've found my phone turned off when I don't remember doing so, especially when I have a fully charged or nearly full battery.  Are there any applications out there that will monitor the events that get called and applications that call them so I can log what is happening in the background?  Thanks.

Many events are already logged to the system log on an Android devices.    Apps such as Log Collector can be used to access the log (it allows you to email or SMS the log).   The log data is extensive, and sometimes cryptic, so be prepared to spend some time sifting through it.

You may be surprised as what you find ... I was able to learn that my wifi router was shutting down in the middle of the night by seeing that the phone was syncing over 3G starting at 2am.   Turned out I had set the router to shut down for certain hours and had forgotten.   You'll also get a sense of what your apps and widgets do in the background.


Is it possible to create a URL link to a website on the home screen? Is it possible to create an icon on my desktop home screen (Android 2.1 Samsung Galaxy) that I can tap to fire up the browser to a specific web site?

Create it as a bookmark in the Android browser. Then, long-press your home screen and choose the "Bookmark" option. Select the bookmark you made and Voilà!

For newer versions of Android, assuming you're using the Chrome browser:

Go to the URL you want in the browser
Open the menu (three vertical dots) and choose "Add to Home screen"
Confirm the title you want to give the icon and click "Add"

Et Voilà! You now have an icon on your home screen that will open your browser to that URL.


The encryption button is not working on Galaxy S Duos I cannot encrypt my S Duos, it has an ICS 4.0.4 custom ROM with bloatware removed. When I'm trying to encrypt, the encryption button looks like it's hidden.

You must set screen lock password first, not PIN. Then try to encrypt and your button will be enabled. Then follow instructions...


What is the apps for the the two icons shown What apps are icons shown on the 3rd icon from the left (a icon that look like a bug with an android head) and the 5th icon from the left (a icon with a phone in between two zig-zag)?

The first one you asked about means the phone is connected in debug mode to a computer:

and the phone between zig-zag lines means it's on vibration mode.


How do I stop the home button from waking the device? I keep pressing the home button by accident in my pocket.

I have an S5, Cyanogen Marshmallow, rooted and xposed.

I can't find any way to stop wake on home with cm.  For Touchwiz there are xposed modules which stop this... How do I stop it on CM?

The setting was in Settings › Buttons – just toggle off Wake Device there. Duh!


SD card "damaged" after every reboot / power off When I turn off my phone, next time it says SD card is damaged and all data is gone, I can only reformat it. The phone is "gionee iq275" (also known as "Fly" in Russia), Android version is 2.3.4. What can be the source of problem? How can I get rid of it? I know, the phone is crap, but at the moment just throwing it away and buying another is not a solution.

Not sure why that happened, but I got rid of the problem by making 2 things:

Performed full format of the SD card, and
Safely eject SD card before reboot of poweroff (not sure if it's necessary)

After that, I didn't see this problem again for now.

Update

That crappy phone sometimes damages SD card content regardless of whether the techniques written above are used... it seems to be a device-specific problem. So, my advice (if anyone else reads this) - don't buy "no-name" Chinese phones! :D


Disable title translation of YouTube videos Is there any way to prevent the YouTube app from translating (some) video titles from the original title (e.g. English) to the phone's configured language? (e.g. Spanish)

It's really annoying as those translations look auto-generated and are often wrong, and also gives the impression that the video itself is in a different language than the one it is really in.

In YouTube's web interface this does not happen, using the same Google account.

There are many other people, here or here who are looking for the same option. Google has not yet offered a solution to disable the option while on mobile.

Among the possible solutions posted on the second links is to:

  Go to https://myaccount.google.com/language
  Add all the languages you understand in the list
  Reload whatever youtube page you were on
  Youtube shouldn't translate video titles anymore
  Note that you may still have some video titles translated for some time because they were cached by your browser.

Also, if you watch videos in languages you don't understand, they will be translated (unless of course you select all languages).

Another possible solution is to change the language of your device to be the same as the language of the video. But it not practical because you will to keep changing languages.

Until Google decides to provide a proper solution, all the above solutions are hit and miss. They work for some and not others.


Giving GNURoot root permissions So before anything I wanted to say that I am a root user and I installed the GNURoot application from google play. So I have been playing around with the GNURoot app for 2-3 days, and I thought that it would be fun to try and make a reverse tcp connection from my laptop to my phone. So these are the commands I used:

On my phone:

root@localhost:/# nc -lp 443

On my computer:

root@potato:~$ nc 10.10.10.107 443

But I keep getting this error on my phone:

Can't grab 0.0.0.0:443 with bind : Permission denied

Google didn't help much, I know that for ports under 1024 you need admin/root access, but GNURoot never asked for it. What should I do

So the answer to the question is to use ports above 1024 or as @Izzy suggested to ask the dev to implement root access (as an app must ask to perform root operations, simply "granting it permission" would not help as the app would not know to (properly) make use of it).


is it possible to disable Google remote kill switch? our company is considering using the Android platform for future developments.
Some folks raised concerns  over Google ability to remotely delete applications on the device. they are arguing that if Google can (and did) remotely un-installed apps from a device, than who knows what else they can do.
this is a valid concern over the nature of our software (sensitive medical records managment)

is there any way to block Google remote control?  for instance by  recompiling  the OS minus any Google back-doors.

When you first used the Android Market, you are presented with Android Market's Term of Service. One of the clauses is this:

  2.4 From time to time, Google may discover
  a Product on the Market that
  violates the Android Market Developer
  Distribution Agreement or other legal
  agreements, laws, regulations or
  policies. You agree that in such an
  instance Google retains the right to
  remotely remove those applications
  from your Device at its sole
  discretion and without notice to you.

So, if you want to block Google from using their remote uninstall, you cannot use Android Market. However, note that their Term of Service only allows them to uninstall applications that "violates the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement", this implies that Google can only uninstall applications that are installed from Market (since an application that was not distributed from the Market never accepted to be bound by the AMDDA, and therefore cannot "violate" the AMDDA). If you sideload your application, Google cannot touch your application.

If your company want to use Android Market but you don't want to allow Google to use their remote uninstall on your company's devices, I suggest you contact Google to make a special TOS agreement.


Scan a single channel to measure RSSI of a specific AP when not associated I would like to (repeatedly) measure the RSSI of a given Wi-Fi access point while I am (physically) approaching it. It is important to mention that at the beginning, my phone is not associated with the AP, hence reading RSSI via wpa_cli signal_poll does not work.

The best I have found so far is to repeatedly issue a wpa_cli scan and read the results using wpa_cli bss <BSSID>. However, this gives me new results with much too low frequency, as the scans take too much time. I target to get a new RSSI every second. (even if I limit scanning to the 5GHz band only, it is too slow).

Is there any way to scan for a single channel only (as I know the channel the access point is transmitting on)?

Install iw and then issue:

iw dev wlan0 scan freq 2417

It synchronously scans only the frequency(ies) you specify. This can give you multiple results per second!


How to deinstall Talking Book I cannot find the app in the list of apps. And it starts randomly. I want to get rid of it. How?

Go to play store, locate the app there and choose to uninstall !


How to retrieve an app that's already removed from the play store before factory reset? I had my phone undergo factory reset because there was some kind of malware and worms but it didn't work so I had it professionally fixed. And when I was going to re-install an app but it's already removed from the play store and I don't want to download from unknown sources. Is there a way to retrieve this? If there's none, what could be a good alternative for Google Play? I'm scared from unknown sources because of what happened to my phone before it was fixed.

I think you just type the App name on play store and search. That has been removed or couldn't search, there is nothing you can do. Google play store's Apps are always update with new versions because the security reasons. But you don't worry. Apkpure is the one of large App store similar Play Store and you could search that app on it. It is fully trusted and they are always checked with Apps for worms, and malweare. Here is the link https://apkpure.com


Current wallpaper location path I've got Samsung A3 Android version 5.0.2 (lollipop) and some time ago I installed few live wallpapers but they are not showing in installed apps so I can't uninstall them.

With WiFi Transfer app I can look through the whole file system but I can't locate them to manually delete it.

Anyone knows where in my system version they are being kept?

Live wallpapers can be uninstalled like normal apps.

Open "Settings"
Choose "Apps"
Find the live wallpaper
Uninstall

I you installed the wallpapers from the Play Store then you can remove it from the Play Store app.


What are 'dup0' files in the photos folder? Today when I wanted to copy some photos and videos from my Samsung Galaxy S to my PC, I noticed that inside the photos folder (DCIM\Camera) there are a lot of files with the extension dup0. They have the same filename as the photos/movies (e.g. img1.jpg and img1.dup0), but not for every photo a dup0 file exists.

What are these files for? Can they be deleted to free some space?

Update / additional information: the dup0 files are quite small for photos (e.g. photos are about 1.5 MB, dup0 files about 50 kB), but for movies, they can be quite large (e.g. 16 MB for an 18 MB movie).

Rename the file with the appropriate extension and find out(ie rename img1.dup0 to img1-1.jpg and open it). In the case of the image files I think they are the corresponding thumbnails since the size is small


Listen to text messages Can somebody help with how can I listen to text messages on my phone? One of my friend using this same feature now I want to know how it works. Is there any way I can listen to my texts?

This mentions the apps in @Izzy's linked question.

If you have Android, use the following apps:

SMS Reader
DriveSafe.ly®

Source: Listen to text messages


How to tell if an app used the internet for local file transfer? My friend uses Send Anywhere to transfer files between her Android phone and tablet. The tablet connects to the internet through a hotspot from the phone.

The app is supposed to transfer the files locally, without using the Internet, but now my friend is claiming  that her SA transfers ate up her whole cellular data pack.

How can we confirm this or rule it out?

We have Opera Max, and I think maybe native Android features as well, which tell us how much data each app has used, but the problem is that they can't tell the difference between data being transferred locally to another device on the same WiFi network, and data actually being transferred over the internet. The same thing goes for the Xposed module Network Speed Indicator.

Things I have thought about:

Looking at the transfer speed: Depending of the speed of ones Internet connection, the speed may differ when local connection is used and the internet is used.
Checking the remaining cellular data allowance from one's operator before and after a transfer.

I have already tried both these approaches on one or two occasions, and what I found is that the transfered happend locally, without the Internet being used for anything other than the innitial "handshake." But the problem is that my friend is now claiming that Send Anywhere comsumed her whole cellular data allowance. If my friend is correct, it would mean that the app is unpredictable and may sometimes use the Internet even though both devices are on the same network (they would have been, my friend has only her one cellular connection and nothing else.)

This is actually not impossible. For example, another app called Airdroid, with some similar functionality, sometimes fails to get a local connection between a hotspot hosting Android device and a connected desktop computer. It then warns me that the two devices are using the internet to connect to each other. However, this only happens sometimes, and refreshing the web app on the desktop device usually solves it.

A similar bug with Send Anywhere may occur, but, like Airdroid, it may only happen occasionally. (It also might not warn me about it, like Airdroid does.) Therefore, it may be difficult to reproduce at any given attempt. Thus, I would like to monitor over an extended period of time how much data each app has used, in a similar way to what Opera Max dues, but I need to be able to distinguish between local data and actual internet data. Opera Max doesn't distinguish. If such monitoring is going on on my friend's device(s), I can be able to see whether it's actually true that Send Anywhere consumed her cellular data allowance.

Any advice?

The devices are both running Android 5.1. The tablet is rooted with Xposed, the phone is not rooted.

This is a common thing. If the cellular data is turned on in the sender device(which creates a hotspot), then it is a wifi which is available to the connecting devices.

An android phone would consume large amount of data in wifi than in a cellular data. So it can be suggested to turn of cellular data while using the specified app.


OTA WiFi vulnerability - what can be done? Several Android phones appear to be vulnerable to an exploit in the WiFi firmware, allowing an attacker to run malicious code on the WiFi SoC, and even execute code in kernel space. Google patched its Pixel phones and some recent Nexus models, but older models such as the Nexus 5 have no patch available yet. It seems that no attack is known in the wild yet, but if there was one it could spread quickly from device to device.

I have a Nexus 5; what can I do to secure my phone? For now I have WiFi turned off, but that significantly reduces the usefulness of my phone. I'm comfortable running commands with adb to install drivers, if that's possible. I'm also willing to install another OS, although I'd rather not have to.

This Chip is common in many Phones. The details of the exploit are sufficiently well known as are 1000's of others, the chance of the average person getting hit is low (unless you work somewhere interesting and keep interesting Info on your Devices - Computer, Tablet, Phone, even some TV's are spying).

Partial List of affected Phones with this Chipset: Nexus 5, 6 and 6P, most Samsung flagship devices, and all iPhones since the iPhone 4.

So many are affected. It someone were so inclined they could own any Device with this Chipset within WiFi range - chances of it being your Device is remote, so don't lose sleep just Update (if you're really worried).

Updating to the newest Firmware and Software is almost always the correct answer to this problem - rarely new Updates introduce worse vulnerabilities.

So, always Update. It's the only Solution. This one Hack is not the only thing affecting your various Devices. Updating prevents all but Day-0 and the as yet unrepaired Bugs. If it's worth it for your Boss to pay let them know.

See:
Part 1: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.ca/2017/04/over-air-exploiting-broadcoms-wi-fi_4.html?m=0
Part 2: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.ca/2017/04/over-air-exploiting-broadcoms-wi-fi_11.html?m=0


Why won't my android phone charge from my computers USB port? It actually seems to drain the battery Why won't my Android phone charge from my computers USB port and why does it seem it actually drains my battery?

To expand on Matthew's comments, from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB):

  As with previous USB versions, USB 3.0 ports come in low-power and
  high-power variants, providing 150 mA and 900 mA respectively, while
  simultaneously transmitting data at SuperSpeed rates.[25]
  Additionally, there is a Battery Charging Specification (Version 1.2 –
  December 2010), which increases the power handling capability to 1.5 A
  but does not allow concurrent data transmission.[22] The Battery
  Charging Specification requires that the physical ports themselves be
  capable of handling 5 A of current[citation needed] but limits the
  maximum current drawn to 1.5 A.

In other words, it's worth it to try as many sources as you can find when looking for a good charging port.


Red exclamation mark when trying to update Nexus 7. Every time I go to update my Google Nexus 7 to Android Jelly Bean 4.2, it fails and shows the Android logo on it's side with red exclamation mark (!) on.

Why won't it let me update to Jelly Bean 4.2?

Has anyone else had this issue before?

I had this problem because I manually (via titanium backup) uninstalled one of the system apps: the korean keyboard (which, for me, is rather pointless). Somehow that caused the upgrading process to fail, maybe because my system was not "intact". After I restored the app it worked flawlessly. Did you make any modifications like that? If so, try reverting them.


Cannot receive calls but can make calls on my tablet HCL ME Y2 I recently bought a HCL ME Y2 tablet with Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) installed.

It has a SIM slot and when I use the Phone dialer (the blue phone icon app), I can make calls over GSM but when someone tries to call this number, the phone vibrates for less than a second while I hear a single ring at the calling phone and immediately after I get the message that the phone is busy.

I cant even sent SMS / receive SMS on the tablet.

I Couldn't find any solution to this, any input?

I had the same problem and resetting the device fixed the issue. Give that a try.


Wifi on when phone is off? See this pic

Is this normal or a bug or something?

It states wifi is active though The device is turned off...

Android 5 moto g2.

Ive disabled "find my phone" via moto and google (at least I  think I have)

Thanks for ur time

It looks like it just persisted the state that Wi-Fi was in when the device was shut off.  Given zero power consumption in that period, there's no reason to believe that the device was actually on and transmitting data over Wi-Fi.


Can access Fastboot, but it isn't working. Software issue? First of all, thanks for taking the time to read this. I know it's a long post, I'm just trying to be as detailed as possible.

I've a Moto G XT-1032 that stopped working a couple days ago. It has the original battery, original software. USB debugging mode wasn't enabled. It didn't came with an original charger, so I have been using a Samsung Galaxy Tab one. The phone is almost two years old.

This is how it all started: It had low battery. When I got home it connected itself to the wi fi, and tons of whatsapp messages came at the same time. It went off.
I thought maybe it had drained the battery. Plugged it in to charge, didn't get the led on, and the battery showed 0% for an instant. Then the phone turned itself on, got the M logo and then the screen went black (like... some sort of backlight is on, but the screen is just black)
I turn it off, and it goes back on. No battery image, straight to the M logo, and then black screen. I tried holding power + vol down keys for more than 120 secs, finger pain is the only I got. It can access fastboot mode, but doesn't matter which option I pick, normal powerup, recovery, factory... I select them and then press vol up, but it just goes to the white screen with the M logo, then black screen.

When I plug the charger, and go to fastboot mode, it doesn't show battery charging. Just says battery low (or battery ok). When I plug it to the computer via the usb cable, and access fastboot, it shows battery charging (and it went from low to OK, so it actually charges).
The computer doesn't detect the device at all. First time I plugged it, it tried to install drivers, but failed. I downloaded them from motorola's page.
If I open motorola device manager, it tells me there aren't updates for my phone... So... I guess it's recognizing it? But I still can't see it. Windows only shows me my C and D drives, but not the phone. Tried different usb cables, different usb ports. Nothing changes.

I sent it to a service, they tested the battery and charging port, they said those were fine. But didn't find the problem.

Any ideas? Suggestions?
Thanks in advance!

Since you can start the device and able to enter the Fastboot recovery mode, you can easily flash the stock MotoG ROM. That's all you need to do to factory-reset your device (however, if there is data on your device that needs to be backed-up, that's a different story and perhaps deserves a different post:-))

This is the relevant MotoG forum post for your reference. Summarily, you need two things: The stock MotoG ROM to flash to your device and of course, the MotoG drivers (since you say that your PC is able to detect the MotoG, I guess you already have the drivers installed).

As mentioned in that forum, just download and extract the stock ROM and run the flashall.bat. Your MotoG phone will be as good as new!


Moto X has 5 models with different LTE bands. Does it matter which one I get? I want to purchase an LTE phone for use with T-Mobile.  According to Wikipedia model XT1053 is what I need... however it uses LTE bands that many of the other phones don't use.

What is an LTE band?
If I purchase model XT1055 and use it on TMobile will I only use LTE band 4, and the other ones are unused?
Is there an impact on battery life if using a phone that has a different LTE band then expected by the network?
Is it correct to say that these LTE bands are hard coded into the phone and can't be changed?

LTE bands are the bands of radio spectrum that the cellular networks run on.  There are 44 defined bands and different carriers in different areas use different bands to provide service.  Wikipedia has a fairly extensive list of who uses what bands.
Yes, T-Mobile operates on band 4 (aka AWS), so any other band capability on the device would go unused.
If you don't have the same band available on the phone as on the network, you won't be able to use the network period.  It would be like trying to pick up an AM radio station on an FM-only radio.
Yes.  Band availability is determined by the hardware radio set the phone was built with.


Flashing Cyanogenmod9 - Kernel via Odin EDIT: I think the question is more confusing than helpful. I leave it up simply because something else has been closed as a duplicate to this.
My problem was finally solved by flashing a completely fresh stock android.

With my Galaxy S i9000 (galaxysmtd), I can only access download and recovery mode after flashing some recovery kernel via odin.
The latter was done to escape the boot loop that my installed cyanogenmod 9 was stuck in.

Installing the cyanogenmod cm-9.1.0-galaxysmtd.zip from the sdcard from within the recovery mode gives me an error 7.
This is supposedly because the recovery kernel I flashed was unfit.

My idea now is to flash only the kernel of the cyanogenmod-9.1.0-galaxysmtd as an odin-pda file, boot into recovery again and to then install the full ROM that is still on my sdcard, which should be possible then.

Because I can't boot the phone normally, I don't know how to put anything on the sdcard manually and have to use odin.

I have been reading though a lot of threads now, but the nomenclature seems to be used in such an inconsistent way that googling the right thing is almost impossible. I hope I expressed myself in sufficient clarity.

The key lines to understand why Error 7 occurred is from the recovery.log as shown here:

-- Installing: SDCARD:cm-9.1.0-galaxysmtd.zip
Finding update package...
I:Update location: SDCARD:cm-9.1.0-galaxysmtd.zip
Opening update package...
I:Update file path: /mnt/sdcard/cm-9.1.0-galaxysmtd.zip
Installing update...
I:Trying update-binary.
script aborted: assert failed: getprop("ro.product.device") == "galaxys" || getp
rop("ro.build.product") == "galaxys" ||
       getprop("ro.product.device") == "galaxysmtd" || getprop("ro.build.product
") == "galaxysmtd" ||
       getprop("ro.product.device") == "GT-I9000" || getprop("ro.build.product")
 == "GT-I9000" ||
       getprop("ro.product.device") == "GT-I9000M" || getprop("ro.build.product"
) == "GT-I9000M" ||
       getprop("ro.product.device") == "GT-I9000T" || getprop("ro.build.product"
) == "GT-I9000T"
assert failed: getprop("ro.product.device") == "galaxys" || getprop("ro.build.pr
oduct") == "galaxys" ||        getprop("ro.product.device") == "galaxysmtd" || g
etprop("ro.build.product") == "galaxysmtd" ||        getprop("ro.product.device"
) == "GT-I9000" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "GT-I9000" ||        getprop("
ro.product.device") == "GT-I9000M" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "GT-I9000M"
 ||        getprop("ro.product.device") == "GT-I9000T" || getprop("ro.build.prod
uct") == "GT-I9000T"
E:Error in /mnt/sdcard/cm-9.1.0-galaxysmtd.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted.

The fingerprint on the existing ROM, by way of the property ro.product.device or ro.build.product which is found in /system/build.prop did not match the expected one of the following:

galaxys
galaxysmtd
GT-I9000
GT-I9000M
GT-I9000T

In theory, you could edit the build.prop, and change it for this to work, but comes with a big fat juicy warning - "The actions in changing the build.prop's two properties could result in a soft-brick" :)


Persistent Notification for Calendar Events The Google Calendar app recently updated to the new Material Design look. I've noticed that notifications have changed in a way that I do not like.

When a calendar event comes due, it appears as a notification in the Notifications bar at the top of the screen. In the past, it stayed there for about 48 or 72 hours (not sure exactly, but it was well over 24 hours) as long as I did not mess with it. But now, it seems to only stick around for a very short amount of time (as long as the event is ongoing, I think). In other words, it seems that once an event is over, the notification disappears.

This is not good news for me, I used calendar events as reminders to get things done. (Ex: "take out the trash" on Wed night... I would always see this in the evening, and can put it off until later in the evening if need be. Worst case: when I go to bed, I would see the notification still sticking around, and then go put the trash out.)

I'm looking for a way to get the previous functionality. Is there a trick for this? I'm also open to trying free calendar or task apps that do this.

Suggestions, please?

Running Android 4.4.4 on Nexus 4

I am replying (I see no one else has) because I have always used the calendar/notifications functionality in the EXACT same way you have, and was also distressed of this change in functionality.  I think we are in the minority, though, because your post is the first acknowledgement I have even seen anywhere about this issue.

The only solution I have is to look at third-party apps.  Although someone appears to have ported an older ICS/Jelly Bean-era version of the stock calendar which you can find in the Play Store, I have not used that too much.  At the moment I am using Business Calendar, which I THINK comes somewhat close to replicating the functionality you and I are accustomed to (although I am still watching it to see).  I also gave Today Calendar a very close look -- it is much closer to the Google aesthetic, and even has aspects of Material Design implemented.  It appeared also to have persistent notification functionality, although for some reason I had problems with the syncing.  This may have been fixed.

If you have come up with any solutions, I would love to hear them!  Good luck!


Is it safe to use phone while charging with portable powerbank? I understand using phone while it is being charged by a normal charger is not advised. What about using phone while it is being charged by a portable charger (powerbank)?  I own a HTC one and i was told by a mobile technician HTC’s own portable charger only should be used for HTC one. How much truth is there to it as HTC powerbank is not available in my city and i am thinking of using Sony portable charger for charging my HTC One?

I use my phone constantly with a portable charger attached - to make phone calls, listen to music and watch video. I've never had an issue.


How to force phone to switch to faster mobile data network during file transfer For some context, I am downloading Dragon Mobile Assistant which is a 40+ mb apk from the Google Play Store.

I have an unreliable connection to Verizon Wireless' 3G mobile data network. If I am a few inches too far to the right of a sweet spot, the signal quality will degrade and I will be passed off to 1X. If I am in the middle of a download, it'll just pass me over with no interruption. However, it will not pass me back to 3G during the transfer once quality to that network is "good enough."

This is highly annoying, because if I am downloading a big file, it basically comes to a screeching halt on the horrible 1X network. Sometimes it is even better to cancel the download, wait to be passed back to 3G and restart the download.

Is there anyway on a Droid 3, rooted stock android 2.3.4, to have my phone continue to poll the 3G network and switch to it even while it's transferring data on 1X? It already allows me to go down during a transfer, why can't I go up?

I hate when that happens. It happened to me more times than I could count while I was traveling through western Maryland (and it's even worse when the phone mysteriously switches from 4G to 1X and refuses to go back to 4G or even 3G)...

Anyway, there are three things you can try.

The first, obvious one is to relocate the phone to somewhere that you get a better signal. This may not help much at all if you're in a fringe coverage area and in a residence, but it's definitely something you should attempt.

Next, to force the phone to reconnect to the network, just toggle airplane mode on and off. (BTW, don't bother with any of those so-called "network signal booster" apps. All they do is toggle airplane mode on and off, hiding the notification bar so you can't see what it's doing.) This is probably your best bet. In my experience this will get your high speed connection back most of the time, but you still aren't guaranteed to keep it long enough to finish your download.

Your phone also has a secret menu which can be accessed by entering *#*#4636#*#* into the dialer. In this menu you can view various statistics about the mobile data connection, as well as change which network types the device will try to connect to. (The exact types vary by device and firmware revision, and I don't have a Droid 3 on hand, so you'll just have to look and see for yourself.) In my experience, though, this didn't help much; the phone would just give me no data service instead of 1X, or refuse to connect to 3G/4G, or to any network at all. Also, be careful in this menu; if you change a setting and don't know what to change it back to, you could completely kill your ability to connect to the network, requiring a factory reset.


Factory reset upon unlocking For security reasons, I want to be able to specify two lock passwords (or patterns) as follows :

One for normal unlocking the device.

Another one if entered, the device will factory reset itself (and maybe format the SD)

I want this to happen from the main Android lock screen, but with two passwords.

I do not know of any application that does what you request. Maybe "After Unlock" has a feature like that.

What I would do is make an Android application that is fired after unlocking the phone. The application would request a new password and if it is entered correctly do the factory reset and format the SD if needed.

Check this project for an example of how this could be done: myLock


Flash support for Jellybean (4.1) Adobe has released statements saying they will no longer support flash for newer Android builds starting with 4.1.

I flashed a custom rom of 4.1 the other day and couldn't find any 3rd party flash support in the market. I use flash for Orb to stream tv. Orb has an Android app but it unusable and all around horrible experience (verified by the the many negative reviews) but you could use the website to stream flash as a work around to the poor app which worked great.

My question is: how can I play flash video in Android Jellybean (4.1)

Currently, you can side load the flash player on a 4.1 device. Meaning you have to download the apk file and install directly from the device, or with adb. There is no guarantee that flash will work at all in the future. Not only is Adobe dropping flash support for Android 4.1, No new installs for any version of android will be allowed for the Flash Player app from Google Play after August 15th.

I hope that this actually means that Adobe is moving closer to making flash "export" to something that modern browsers can all run, like using the HTML5 canvas. Flash on Android has always been pretty limited. It's only real use was for playing flash video, anything else I ever tried to use it with was buggy and laggy.


I have connected an OTG cable to my OnePlus device, but nothing happens. What to do? This is a self-answer post written in response to a question where the user couldn't figure out why their well-functioning OTG device was not working on their OnePlus device.
So, I have a OnePlus device running stock OxygenOS. I decided to connect an accessory to my device through an OTG cable/adapter but I see that the device doesn't detect or shows any response when I insert it. My cable/adapter works in other devices, so I'm a bit clueless here.
How do I get my OTG cable/adapter working in my OnePlus device?

OnePlus' OxygenOS (the Android OS that came with your OnePlus device or got updated some time ago) keeps OTG setting disabled by-default. A user has to enable that setting before using their OTG device. The setting can be found in Settings app → System → OTG storage.
If you cannot find that setting there, search for "OTG" term in Settings app and the relevant setting should show up. Once enabled, plug in your OTG cable/adapter along with your accessory and it should work (provided Android supports it of course!)
Do note that the OTG storage setting would auto-disable after 10 minutes of OTG inactivity. So you would have to enable the setting again should you find yourself in need of using your OTG accessory.
To keep the setting enabled all the time, see my answer here (required a rooted OxygenOS).


What does TWRP "Fix Contexts" do? In my blu_spark TWRP, I have an option (under "Advanced") named 'Fix Contexts'.
When I press it, it says:

Note: Fixing contexts is rarely needed
Fixing SELinux Contexts may cause your device to not boot properly.

What does this option do, and when would I want to use it?

SELinux is a security mechanism which stops unauthorized access of processes to other processes, actions and filesystems (UNIX's "file" includes all regular files, directories, block devices, character devices, sockets etc.). Every process, file, directory and action is labeled with an SELinux context, then a policy is defined what a context can do to other context. Policy is loaded by kernel or init on every boot, and anything not defined in policy is denied by kernel. For more details see this answer.

Filesystem contexts are also generated along with policy. On Android both sepolicy and file_contexts are saved in rootfs / or /{system,vendor,odm}/etc/selinux/ directories. Filesystem contexts can be manually changed using chcon or from file_contexts using restorecon. Process can be run with a given context using runcon. init also starts all processes with a predefined seclabel in *.rc files. Some filesystem contexts are also set on every boot by using restorecon command in *.rc files.

Fix Contexts in TWRP fixes filesystem context labels from a saved /file_contexts file. But if this file is for different device or contains wrong or outdated or incomplete contexts, device may get into bootloop. Better avoid using "Fix Contexts", instead use chcon or restorecon manually if necessary. Or replace file_contexts in recovery ramdisk with an updated file from your current ROM.

EXAMPLE:

I have around 40000 policy rules on my device, one is:

~# sesearch --allow -s init -t system_data_file -c dir /sys/fs/selinux/policy
Found 1 semantic av rules:
   allow init system_data_file : dir { search read open ioctl write create getattr setattr relabelfrom relabelto mounton add_name remove_name rmdir } ;

Out of 2000+ filesystem contexts, one is:

~# grep system_data_file /system/etc/selinux/*contexts
/data(/.*)?    u:object_r:system_data_file:s0

SELinux context of init process:

~# ps -p 1 -o pid,cmd,label
  PID     CMD             LABEL
    1     /init           u:r:init:s0

SELinux context of directory containing system settings:

~# ls -dZ /data/system
u:object_r:system_data_file:s0   /data/system

So if /data/system is labeled with wrong context, init won't be able to perform search, read and open operations on the the directory and the device may bootloop.

DAC vs MAC:

SELinux is an implementation of Mandatory Access Control (MAC). Discretionary Access Control (DAC) achieves the same goal in less aggressive way by assigning UIDs/GIDs to processes and files:

~# ls -ld /data /data/system
drwxrwx--x   41 system   system        4096 Oct 21 17:40 /data
drwxrwxr-x   21 system   system        3488 Nov  9 13:36 /data/system

Permission mode and ownership explains that only processes running with UID or GID 1000 (system) will be able to read and write to the directory and normal apps (with UIDs/GIDs in range 10000 to 19999)  are not allowed to read system settings.

A drawback of DAC is that it's allowed by default and has a Super User (root  user with UID 0 is allowed to do anything). While MAC is denied by default and there is no Super Context, so it's less prone to exploits. Root user's authorities are also divided in capabilities to follow the principle of least privileges. Combined together, both DAC and MAC provide a more robust isolation, protection and sandboxing.


Attempted Nexus 6P bootloop fix, then factory reset, now won't boot at all My Nexus 6P started bootlooping and since it was out of warranty neither Google or Huawei could help me. I researched online and found the following solution: https://www.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p-bootloop-fix/

I followed the instructions and was able to get it all installed but when it came to reboot I got stuck on the Google logo for over an hour.

I then did a factory reset from recovery mode and now the device gets to the animated loading screen but always fails. It says "Can't load Android system. Your data may be corrupt..." Even after multiple clearing of the caches and data I can't load the phone.

I can no longer see the device under adb or fastboot and I am sure it is because USB Debugging is no longer set. I can't set this again because I can't get into the device. The Bootloader is still unlocked.

What options do I have?

EDIT: The recovery mode states "Supported API: 3"

I was able to fix it using the following:

After failing to boot select "Retry"
Immediately press power and down volume to enter bootloader
Enter Recovery
Reload bootloader from Recovery
It is now able to be seen by fastboot
Downloaded the latest flash image from Google
Ran the flash-all.sh

And then it worked. I immediately went in and set up USB-debugging


Re-install Google Play after it was removed / uninstalled I have deleted Google Play from my HTC One X Plus. I have also deleted Google Play from system/app. After that, I re-installed it, but it didn't work. Whenever I ppb it, it says Google play stoped working.

How do I re-install Google Play? My device is rooted.

Re-flashing the GApps package fitting for your Android version should fix it. You can find them at goo.im. Make sure the archive you pick is for your Android version; according to the tag you've used, it should be gapps-jb-*.


What does "se.infra@SEP-138#1" mean on kernel version? I have broken my mobile, so I want to download the original version back.

The original version is:

Android version: 4.1.2
Kernel version: 3.0.31-638230 se.infra@SEP138#1

On kernel version, what does it mean by se.infra@SEP138#1 and how to check the correct kernel version before downloading the Android image?

This is the name of the user and computer that was used to build the kernel. "se.infra" isn't a username belonging to a real person, but an account used by the build infrastructure at Samsung. It's not relevant at all.

The thing you need to match is the Build number, shown just beneath the kernel version in the About device page of the device settings. It looks something like JSS15J.I9300XXUGNG3: everything after the "." is actually the build number for the baseband (modem firmware) that goes with the ROM. The first half of the build number is listed with each ROM on sites like sammobile.com that offer original Samsung ROMs for download.


I think my phone might be infected Over the last couple days, my phone has been acting weird. I have the Galaxy S6 Active. Over the last couple days, whenever I try to open something, rather than opening the app I want, it'll go directly to Uber in my play store. I haven't had any problems before. My phone did an update about 1 1/2 weeks ago and I didn't have problems then. I looked in my device manager to see if anything looks out of the norm or if anything downloaded that shouldn't and that's not the case. Is there anything that can be done?

If it's opening uber app directly in the app store, it must be an adware(malware that displays ads without your permission). Similar to the Google ads you see in different apps. These ads have to be called by an app. Think of it like their host. You can refference more from here
So probabilities are:

Your running a custom OS which was altered to have these hidden behaviours.
There's a funny app installed on your phone that starts when your phone starts. It's trained to listen in when apps are called to open and sends you to Playstore instead.

To get rid of this you could,

If you have a custom OS confirm the authenticity of the build.
Still with a custom OS as superuser prevent any unofficial app from starring when the phone starts. If the behaviour is still persistent repeat the procedure until you find the app causing you this fault.
Go through your phone for any apps that aren't default and uninstall each of the apps while restarting your phone to ensure that all its files are deleted.
Simplest of these all: download adware from the google playstore.
If all these fails, then you might have no other option other than to factory reset your phone to its original state.

Also be very careful when installing apps. If you find something you don't know don't install it. I normally check through comments before installing any unpopular apps to avoid nasty surprises.


How to recover files form hide it pro app? I had photos and videos hidden using Hide it pro app and I changed the memory location to External SD card. Three days back my SD card stopped working on my mobile but its working in pc. I recovered the videos from the program data folder. But the photos are just files now and not in the photo format. Its not opening. Is there any solution for this?

You should attempt to change the extension of the files to their original *.png or *.jpg extensions.  At least one of the extensions should work.


How to manually remove an app? I lack proper keywords to google efficiently to know how to manually remove an app. Basically I want to uninstall Chrome, but I also want to know deeper about Android system rather than rely on a third-party app like NoBloat. I suspect one just need to delete /data/app/com.android.chrome-2 folder, but I'm not sure if there is more to be removed too.

How to manually remove an app?

To manually remove an app, you'll need to (manually) delete all of the following items:

The app's package, usually in /data/app/<package name>. For system apps, delete /system/app/<something>, /system/priv-app/<something> or /vendor/app/<something> instead, depending on where it resides. The folder and file name are not necessarily the same as package name for system/vendor apps, though.
The app's installation information, /data/system/packages.xml. This is very complicated as an app may define resources that can be used by other apps. Be sure to remove all related keys and leave unrelated keys intact, or you can mess the files up.

Additionally, these items may be removed, but they'll be pruned if some or all items listed above are manually removed or found missing. The automatic pruning usually happens during system booting.

The app's Dalvik cache, in /data/dalvik-cache, usually .odex or .oat files
The app's data, in /data/data/<package_name>
The app's data in external storage, in /sdcard/Android/data/<package_name>
The app's "simplified information" in /data/system/packages.list, which will be pruned if the app is gone from packages.xml

Sometimes you'll see some log in /data/system/uid_error.log if the above items are pruned by Android.


Is there a way to download ALL app updates at once in Amazon App Store? Device: Verizon Droid X
Androrid: stock Froyo 2.2 ROM
Amazon Market app: latest version (updated 3/3/2013)

When I open the list of apps to be update in Google Play Store, there is a button on top right which lets me download and install ALL updates at once, instead of doing it app by app.

Is there such a capability in the app for Amazon App Store?

On the Kindle Fire, on the list of apps to be updated, there is an Update All button at the top right. You can update one-by-one or all-at-once, but there's no facility to update a selected group.


Nexus 7 in Fastboot (recovery) not activating USB connection I realise this is asked countless times but I genuinely believe my question is unique, please bare with me as I explain.

My Nexus7 (2013) is not working in fastboot mode, I connect my Nexus 7 and run the following:

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
07c15663    device

The Nexus 7 appears (once authorising adb), so I then reboot to fastboot (or bootloader):

$ adb reboot bootloader

The Nexus 7 reboots into fastboot correctly and I see the usual screen:

Nexus 7 in fastboot mode (click image for larger variant)

However, when I issue any fastboot commands it cannot see the device:

$ sudo ./fastboot devices
[empty response]

...and lsusb doesn't see the USB Connection:

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 5986:0266 Acer, Inc
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0a5c:21e6 Broadcom Corp. BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 [ThinkPad]
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 147e:2020 Upek TouchChip Fingerprint Coprocessor (WBF     advanced mode)
Bus 001 Device 035: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. Nano Transceiver v1.0 for     Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 034: ID 046d:c049 Logitech, Inc. G5 Laser Mouse
Bus 001 Device 032: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 031: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 030: ID 0bdb:1926 Ericsson Business Mobile Networks BV
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

to add to this weirdness, once it's booted up properly the Nexus 7 appears as a Nexus 4 in lsusb:

$ lsusb
[...]
Bus 001 Device 060: ID 18d1:4ee2 Google Inc. Nexus 4 (debug)
[...]

I'm so confused, what have I done to my poor Nexus 7?? Please Help!

Also:

The device seems to freeze after extended periods in fastboot at which point the only solution is to push and hold the power button for 10secs (hard power off).
I can use fastboot with my Nexus 4 without any problems

Have you tried putting the proper drivers in the right locations on your filesystem? This has been an issue with my Nexus 7 as well, and was solved by acquiring the proper drivers.

Also, it seems from your fastboot screen information your Nexus is fairly custom at this point (product name usually reads grouper, the device codename, yours seems to call itself FLO?). This may affect what drivers are required, but I am not an expert in driver compatibility. Perhaps, due to the ambiguity of what can be flashed to the fully unlocked Nexus line, you may actually have pushed Nexus 4 firmware to your device, and due to the fact that they differ only in size, it may appear to you to still be running the software for the 7.

It appears your device has, in the fastboot information, a slot for reading to the user what carrier the device is currently subscribed to. This should, to the best of my knowledge, only appear on the Nexus 4, or the GSM capable 3G enabled version of the Grouper (Nexus 7). It can be very easy to push the files for your phone to your tablet accidentally, and might be worth consideration.

If you have a WiFi only device, this is likely the issue. A quick way to discern if you have the Nexus 4 software on your Nexus 7 is to run an application that has a user interface which is programmed to change from the phone to the tablet (a list of such apps should be easily found with a Google query. I believe Gmail is one, but that may be blurry for us with the Nexus 7 because it is considered a "Phablet", a hybrid style device).

I recommend trying to erase all Android drivers on the host computer, and reinstalling the specific drivers for the Nexus 7 only, then after hopefully solving the issue, redownload the other necessary drivers for other devices, only after this issue has been resolved.

If that is not helpful, I would consider a full overhaul of your system through pushing a Google supplied system image through adb, and using recovery partition to erase everything and reinstall stock flavor of this device. It may also be possible fully through adb, since you say it is detected when using that utility. Hope this helps you somehow :]

To sum it up, you either have interfering drivers, or have given your device its cousin software from your phone, a very small difference in terms of observable functionality assumably, but large for accessing the fastboot function.


Retrieving videos/photos from Vault app on Galaxy S3 Is it possible to retrieve photos/videos after uninstalling and reinstalling Vault app?  Please give me instructions how to retrieve.

Nope. You will have to reinstall the app to use the files again. They're "encrypted" in a way such that only the Vault app can access them.


How to write a script that removes a certain set of apps everytime you flash an update file? I run a LineageOS device with MicroG, but since the default messaging app is not able to be disabled I need to remove it everytime I flash an update file. This is becoming more and more tedious as more apps I need to remove on update increase.

How do you write a script that removes these apps whenever you flash so the removal changes persists? Something like addon.d but that is for backing up apps.

Edit : Both answers are correct, the one I posted and the one by Death Mask Salesman. I accepted the one by Death Mask Salesman because it is relevant to the question, however the one I posted solved my problem.

I tried pm disable <app>, pm hide <app>, and pm block <app> – but all of them spew out error messages. But when I tried pm disable-user <app> it works! And the changes persists after reflashing, so that's great! I don't need to write a script after all!


mp3wrap file not playable I combined six MP3 files, with filenames starting with 0, into one MP3 with the following command under Debian Wheezy:

$ mp3wrap -v output.mp3 0*

Using file on output.mp3 confirmed that it was an MP3 file. The file plays using mocp, but will not play on a Samsung Galaxy S3 with either the built-in player or an external player. How can I solve this?

Had the same problem with files merged with mp3wrap on my Nexus. The only working solution, I found is to use ffmpeg as a merge tool.

How to

This will concatenate two mp3 files, and the resulting metadata will be that of the first file:

ffmpeg -i "concat:file1.mp3|file2.mp3" -acodec copy output.mp3

This is because, for ffmpeg, the whole "concat:" part is a single "input file", and its metadata will be of the first concatenated file. If you want to use metadata from the second file instead, you have to add it as a dummy input file and map its metadata to that of the output:

ffmpeg -i "concat:file1.mp3|file2.mp3" -i file2.mp3 -acodec copy test.mp3 -map_metadata 0:1

If you want to construct your metadata from the two metadatas, you'll have to do it by hand. You can dump a file's metadata with

ffmpeg -i file1.mp3 -f ffmetadata file1.metadata

After dumping both metadatas and constructing new metadata, you can add it to the output file with -metadata, and you can disable metadata copying by setting a -map_metadata mapping from a negative input file number. This sets a name value and no other metadata:

ffmpeg -i "concat:file1.mp3|file2.mp3" -acodec copy -metadata "title=Some Song" test.mp3 -map_metadata 0:-1

Above instructions were copied from superuser.com answer from a similar question


how to transfer files on pen drive in phone to laptop? I need to transfer data to the laptop but none of the USB ports work. As my pen drive is dual compatible, it can be connected to mobile. To transfer data from mobile to laptop I generally use airdroid app but this app is not showing data of external pen drive. Can anyone help in accessing the pen drive files(connected to mobile) from laptop?

Thank you

Some file managers have an "Access from PC" option that allows you to access your device's storage over Wi-Fi (using FTP).

For example, you could use the "Access from PC" option in the free app File Manager + (I am not associated with the developers of this app).

Alternatively, if your device is rooted, you could use ADB over Wi-Fi found in the also free app Kernel Tuner (that I am also not associated with) and then press the "ADB over WiFi" button (found in MISC > ADB over Wifi or its widget), then run

 adb connect (enter IP address here)

(It will tell you what IP to enter after pressing the button).

Then, use adb push and adb pull to send and recieve files from your device.

If your device runs LineageOS (tested on LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2)), you can also edit the Quick Settings menu (the menu above the notifications) to have an "ADB over Wifi" button (so no third-party app is needed).


How to create a symlink after I rooted my Samsung galaxy w GT-i8150? How do I create a symlink from my /sdcard/NaviSEA to point to /sdcard/external_sd/SD/NaviSEA?

Even after rooting my device I still get "Operation not permitted" error and I did allow with su in my script :

$ su
# ln -s /sdcard/external_sd/SD/NaviSEA /sdcard/NaviSEA

Why doesn't my script work?

Your external SD card is presumably (in pretty much every case) formatted as a FAT32 filesystem. FAT32 does not support symbolic links. Linking from a ext2/3/4 filesystem to a FAT32 filesystem would work, IIRC, but linking from FAT32 isn't possible.


Can't get past android initial setup Wizard, after factory reset (Even after waiting over 24 hours) Currently looking for help because I am truly stumped. Device is a Galaxy J3 Emerge, it was reset to factory default settings. It seems that the password for the Google account was also reset before the factory reset. After researching online, I found out that the if the account password is reset before the factory reset is applied. You will have to wait 24 hours before attempting to sign in again.

So I sat the phone down after reading the message about waiting 24 hours. I left it there for 4 days. Got the error on Sunday, went to work for the entire week and tried again on Thursday. The same message is displayed! Reboot and tried again, still the same message.

dont know if you found an answer yet or not, but i had the same problem with a galaxy player 5.0. Not sure if your solution would be much different, but I downloaded Odin, and flashed the software, and it works perfectly now.


Does Nexus 6 sold by AT&T differ from one sold on Google Play in any way? What are the differences between the Google Play Edition of the Nexus 6 and the AT&T version? Does it have any AT&T "bloatware"? Will its updates come from AT&T instead of Google? Is it locked to AT&T's network?

Nexus 6 models sold via AT&T are reported to have these differences (source 1, source 2, source 3):

It is SIM locked to AT&T
There is an AT&T logo on the back of the phone
The phone displays an AT&T branded boot animation/sound on startup
It performs a check to ensure your current plan allows tethering before it will allow it to be activated
Several AT&T ringtones have been added
After the initial setup, if an AT&T SIM is inserted/activated, it will download and install several AT&T apps automatically. These can evidently be removed, without root.

It has been speculated that updates will still be received on-time because the AT&T extras are on a separate partition (mounted at /oem), but this has not been confirmed, to my knowledge. With root, you can remove the ringtones/boot animation from the /oem partition. You would need to obtain an unlock code in order to use it on a different network.


Unable to factory reset my HTC Desire S I have a HTC Desire S. I have firmware updates but when i try to update the same. I rebooted in the updating process and the phone hangs there for hour (i waited for 4 hrs once). I tried to factory reset the mobile, still facing the same issue.

Note: The phone is rooted.

Do I need to visit HTC Service center or is there anything that I can do?

Factory reset only resets all user data, not the OS itself. If your update failed for some reason, you'd have to reflash the phone. You can find info on this in the XDA-Developers forum.

Note that since your phone is rooted, your warranty may be void. Take this into consideration before you take your phone to the service center.


Why won't badge notification work for Gmail on my S3? I get badge notifications for all my other apps and email, but Gmail will not show the little red icon that shows the number of unread messages.  It used to work fine, but now it no longer does and it's driving me nuts.  I have all the notifications turned on (in the top menu bar and within the Gmail app itself).  Not sure what else I can do?

The stock Gmail app on the Galaxy S3 does not have an unread count on the home screen icon.  However, you can use the stock email app to retrieve your Gmail and that app includes an unread count on the home screen.


Error 7 when attempting to flash ROM I'm trying to replace the stock ROM on my OnePlus 3 in an attempt to find out if another ROM has fixed a set of really annoying bugs present in stock. My phone is running the latest OTA from OnePlus (ONEPLUS A3000_16_170610).

I've followed the following steps:

Flash TWRP and SuperSU. Reboot several times.
Disable lockscreen security.
Boot to recovery and do a full backup.
Reboot and copy new ROM and Gapps to /sdcard.
Reboot to recovery.
Wipe dalvik, system, data, and cache.
Attempt to install the ROM. At this point, I get the following error:

Checking for MODEM build time-stamp 2017-06-27 21:43:31
assert failed: op3.verify_modem("2017-06-27 21:43:31") == "1"
Updater process ended with ERROR: 7
Error installing zip file '/sdcard/RR-N-v5.8.4-20170806-oneplus3-Official.zip'

This example is using the latest Resurrection Remix ROM, but I've also gotten the exact same error from the latest LineageOS.

What's wrong?

This will likely be closed as off topic, but twrp is telling you exactly what's wrong. Your modem does not match the accepted one that you should use. Usually means you need to update firmware (bootloaders, modem, any vendor partitions etc).


Voice typing absent in gboard Microphone icon is missing from gboard, is present in other keyboards(Swype, samsung keyboard), doesn't have a toggle setting under gboard settings. I have tried uninstalling gboard, didn't fix. What do I need to do to enable this or troubleshoot the issue?

You must have uninstalled "google" app. Install that and then in settings go to languageand input option. There you have to select google keyboard and Google Voice.


ADB can detect devices but it can't detect device in recovery move I am using mac.
I am trying to install twrp on my Galaxy Note 8.0 GT-Nn5120, via adb. ADB can detect the device when in normal mode but when i boot into recovery mode, it can't detect the device.. What do I do

You can't ADB in recovery mode, not with a stock recovery. You can only ADB Sideload which is used to flash zip packages (updates, gapps, etc). To install TWRP, you need to flash it in Download mode.

Download TRWP or here
Boot in Download mode (Hold volume down then briefly press the power button. Press Volume up to confirm).
Download and unzip Odin then launch it.
Click on PDA or AP button and select TWRP file you downloaded previously (Should be in .tar format. If in zip, unzip it)
Click on Start button
When you see PASS, disconnect the phone and power on (Hold volume up this time: you should boot in TWRP recovery )


How to enable USB mass storage feature on newer android phones As a Linux user , it sometimes gets to tedious to get MTP working.So I want back  the USB mass storage feature. The main reason is that my TV doesn't support MTP. I used to watch movies and videos from my old android device via USB mass storage on my TV but can't do that with MTP anymore. I am also ready to root my phone or install a custom rom.

AFAIK this is not possible, but maybe some custom ROMs allow it through some hacky stuff, so correct me on that if I'm wrong, but....

There's an app called DriveDroid - It's primarily used to boot your PC from an Image-/ISO-File that's stored on your android, but you can also use it for what you're after. It needs root.

Once you open the app, hit the menu button and go to Create blank image.

This is from their page about a tutorial on how to make a bootable partition, you can choose any name here and any size you want your removable media to have. Leave MBR unchecked.

Once you created the image, you can tap on it in the app's main screen and choose the first option to make the image mountable as a writable USB drive. After that, plug the phone onto your PC, it will detect an unformatted drive.

On Windows, you can simply hit "Format" in the popup it should show, asking if you want to format the drive. FAT32 will work fine as partition type.

On Linux, find out the drive letter using the lsblk command and then run mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sdX1 (replacing sdX1 with the drive letter and partition number of your drivedroid image) to format it. (Or use GParted for example as GUI application)

After that you can copy/move/whatever files on there as you wish, as if it was a normal USB drive, and your TV should detect it just like that.


How do I install a custom ROM on sony experia ray ST18i? I unlocked the bootloader and rooted the device already like this:
How to unlock and root a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray ST18i with 4.1.B.1.13 But How can I install a custom Rom now on the device?

I guess I have to enter the recovery menu for it?

I tried this, but it doesen't work:

  press the volume down key a few times when your
  phone boots up. The sony logo brightens at one
  point, press during that time

You have to install the drivers and then install ClockworkMod with help of x-Parts from Google Play to enable the recovery menu


how to check if my OS is not modified (is original) lets say, someone gave me an android phone ( with custom rom, lets say CM or etx). i did hard reset to erase alll data and usr apps.
but i am interested, how to know if that custom rom is not modified ( if i am afraid of spyware hard-coded into that os).

how to check if that system is clean from such custom modification, and is an original CM?

EDIT:
I've found interesting answer here - How to tell if phone's ROM is original or tampered?

No real way to test it unless you know what you are looking for (in terms of spyware) the best solution is to flash a new CM rom from an approved site that is known to be clean.


How can I force a complete new sync of my Google contacts to my phone? I would like to force a fresh download of all my google contacts to my phone (and before delete all the google contacts I do have on my phone ... as the sync on my phone got confused and keeps creating thousands of duplicates which is kind of annoying and slows my phone down quite a bit ...

Is this possible? I guess, I should not delete the contacts on my phone, as might cause to delete the contacts in my google account as well.

Does anyone know where the contacts are cached on the phone? And is it possible to delete the cache in order to force a re-sync?

There are a couple of apps that seem to relate to contacts:

com.android.providers.contacts "Kontakte-Speicher" (Contacts Storage)
com.android.contacts "Kontakte" (Contacts)
com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts "Google Kontakte
synchronisieren" (Google Contacts Sync)

Which of those does store the google contacts?
Are the contacts stored in the data memory or in the cache?

What I did:

I removed my Google account from my phone, then deleted all data of the Apps: Contacts, Contacts Storage and Google Contact Sync, rebooted the phone and added my Google account again. Result: All my Google contacts are gone (and the phone is suddenly quite fast again! :-)

... however, it does not work to sync my Google contacts back (my LinkedIn contacts are still there). When I go to Settings > Accounts (Google) > my Gmail account it shows that all different apps have synched, however the "sync" icon stays visible for the contatcs, while it disappears for all other Apps after sync. –  Pedi T. 1 min ago   edit

I really had expected that removing the account will solve the sync issue .... any hints? But actually, this question is answered now, the remaining question is, how to fix my broken sync of contacts ...


Got weird noises with auxiliary jack while charging in the car I'm using Galaxy Note. And I got this weird noise with auxiliary jack while charging in the car.
There is no noise while music is playing, and there is no noise if the charger is unplugged.
How do I solve it?

After a lot of Googling around, I found 2 possible solutions:

Hardware solution: Kensington Noise Reducing AUX Audio Cable - haven't tried it myself. Yet some guys at android central report it worked for them.
Software solution: Aux Noise Filter app - Tried it on my Galaxy Note. Works like a charm.


Are there any solutions other than flashing Gapps, to have Google accounts on CyanogenMod? I've flashed CyanogenMod, nightly, and it is working perfectly. When I flash Gapps, then battery is drained fast, and the device is getting overheated. So, are there any solutions other than flashing Gapps, to have Google accounts on CyanogenMod?

P.S. I extracted the Gapps.zip, there was a folder named "apps" there, none of which could be installed. I tested installation using "adb", and got error related to certificate. I think by having ONLY Google Play Store, other apps can be installed, if I'm wrong, then please tell me what else is needed.

Thanks in advance

You might wish to take a look at the NOGAPPS project at XDA. It's not yet complete, but most parts seem to be in a working order already. NOGAPPS basically is an OpenSource replacement of most Google apps (including Playstore), often mapping to free alternatives (e.g. OpenStreetMap for maps).

Side-effect: More privacy, less tracking :) But keep in mind that some components are still in Beta (Maps, Playstore) or completely missing (still under development; Login Services, Services Framework), so it's not yet a full replacement of GApps. Still it might be sufficient for many cases.


Can i save my data from sd card formatted as internal memory but now pc says format memory card I m using Lenovo a7000, and I updated it to marshmallow. To increase memory for apps I formatted my SD card as internal memory. Phone started crashing so I decided to factory set it. I removed the memory card and factory restored the phone. When I reinserted the memory card it told me to format the SD card to make it work. Connected my SD card to PC, which also says to format SD card. I have a lot of data in it. Is there a way to save my data?

No... You have factory reset the device which deleted the unlock key that would have given you any hope of recovering this data. The data was encrypted and unlock code was stored on the device, which you factory reset and erased everything. Your SD card was "internal storage" which was erased, the fact it was removed from the device isn't relevant because even technically the data is there it isn't recoverable by any means.


Understanding Sync & Transferring one account to another I've tried to find information about understanding syncing account information on Android but cannot find any definitive guide to answer the below questions

What does syncing actually mean? Is it the act of an app contacting a server in the cloud and making sure they are both have indentical information?
What information can be synced on Android? The obvious ones are Contacts, Calendars, etc, but can any information be synced?
How do you determine what accounts information is synced to:

Contacts
Calendars
SMS/texts? Are these tied to a specific account or is it just on the phone.

Is syncing limited to Google, or can an App use a properity server?
When deleting an account, all of it's associated information is deleted. So does that include SMS messages, apps?
How do you just transfer all information from one email address to another?

Excuse my ignorance regarding the above, again I couldn't find any information on these topics.

All of these questions have sprung from changing my Gmail account from googlemail.com (which was originally used to activate my phone) to gmail.com and it's caused some side-effects when I've added my new gmail account to the phone, such as calendar no longer syncs, contacts are now duplicated on the phone, etc. I'd like to transfer my googlemail account to gmail on my phone.

Syncing is when you take two different sets of data (normally on two different devices or on one device and one online) and make them "mirror", or be identical to, each other. This way, you always have the most up-to-date version of that data no matter which device(s) you are currently using.

Many things can be and are synced, including a lot of different data from third-party apps, like Springpad (which syncs your notes) or Dropbox (a file storage service). However, for Google applications, I believe that it's just your contacts, gmail, chats (via Talk) Buzz posts, calendar, and documents. You can also upload and download photos from your Picasa account as well. However, I also think that Google has lots of other apps that do not come pre-installed on most phones, such as finance, which (I think) will sync with your online stock portfolio or the like. (I don't use Google Finance, sorry.) SMS is also only on the phone, though they have applications that you can download to backup your SMS to your computer.

No, other apps can use syncing as well, though I don't believe that they can sync to your Gmail account. Often times, these services have you register for separate accounts on their sites using your Gmail to sync with their service and their application on your device. For example, like mentioned previously, I use Springpad as a note-taking application on my Droid. I had to create an account on their site (though I could also log in via services like Yahoo! or Gmail) and it would afterwards sync with the application on my phone, so my notes on my phone are always the same as the ones on my online account with Springpad.

I think that you can add a Gmail account in your Gmail application on your phone. Afterwards, you'd likely be able to delete the old one. Though, you'd probably have to re-purchase or re-install your applications, as those are bought via your Google account. I don't believe it would delete your SMS as those are just on the phone, though it's always a good idea to clean your SMS out because they eventually start to eat up quite a bit of space unless you have them set to automatically delete as you reach a message limit. (For example, 200 messages)

For transferring data, there's a tutorial on transferring mail located here: http://www.consumingexperience.com/2007/09/gmail-transfer-all-emails-to-new-gmail.html (not written by Google, but the next best thing). For contacts, you'd just export them all from your online Gmail account and then re-import the export file into your new one.

Hopefully this answers your question and good luck switching!


Trying to move apps over to SD Card What's the best way to move apps on my SD card? Do I have to root? Because It's getting really out of hand with storage. I only have 8GB on my phone.

The only apps that I have installed myself is Portal, WinRar, Spotify, Textra, Tumblr, Facebook, Messenger, and Twitter. If I try to download anything else, it says I have insufficient space. It's really annoying to be limited to that many apps. I use them very frequently, but it's so annoying how I can't even get a little game to play on my breaks because of this limitation.

Running XT1064 5.0.2 w/ 16gb SD Card

Some apps have the ability to store data onto an external SD card.
Just make sure the SD card is formatted first, then check the settings "within" the app itself to see if there's an option to save or move data to the ext SD card.

If I had to guess, I would say Spotify is eating up a lot of your storage memory.
I would start there first and clear out the data from the app via the app manager and then see if the data can be stored on your SD card.


How to reverse a wipe request for a stolen phone my phone was stolen two days ago and magically found its way back to me today.  I activated the wipe function for when the phone is turned on.  I'm being told that it hasn't been switched on yet so I'd like to reverse the request to wipe the phone.  How would I do this ?

Delete from the device management section and then re-add.


galaxy not 5 Chinese version How can I update my device with google play store in India.due to Chinese version I'm unable to download  google playstore.
Please suggest .

Download and install Google Installer:

link : http://d-h.st/ztjI

After download install the app , and open it , than download all listed Google Apps ( Google Services , Google Play and more )

It worked on my HTC Desire 826  Chinese


recent change to messages app for emoji and birthday cake icons A recent update has these annoying ions show up in 1st grade reader font size when I go to the attachment mode, and I was trying to see if they can be either disabled entirely or at least moved to thebottom out of the way. I want the picture attachment back on top the way it used to be before the cartoon characters took over.
The way it's set up is ridiculous looking.
Is there any secret seeing to get rid of this?

Root your phone.
No need to worry
And change these fonts from another device where they show well

/system/fonts/NotoColorEmoji.ttf
/system/fonts/AndroidEmoji.ttf

Set their permissions to chmod 0644 -rw-r--r-
They will be back to normal or if you can install twrp or any other custom recovery i can send you a whole Fonts.zip flashable via recovery to fix this issue


How to open a html file which is in a hidden folder? I have a folder which has many html files and images. I set the folder to ".myfolder" to hide the folder because it has so many images and they mess up my Gallery app. After set the folder to the hidden folder, the Gallery problem is solved. However, I could not open the html from Chrome even if I update the path. How I could open the file in a hidden folder?

Thanks

Instead of making the folder hidden with a dot prefix, create an empty file inside the folder with the name ".nomedia". This will prevent image/gallery apps from indexing the folder.


Forwarding all mail in Gmail using using android app. My father, nearly 80, has forgotten his gmail password and cannot recover it. However, it is saved on his android phone so he can access it on his phone, but not on a laptop he wishes to set up. I suggested he create a new gmail account and autoforward all mail from his current gmail (via his android phone) to his new gmail account.

How can he do this from his android gmail app? I can't find a universal forwarding option for mail to the account.

Unfortunately, there is no option like this in the gmail app. You would have to log in on the website to change it, maybe the login is saved in the chrome app, so you can set up the automated forwarding there.
You can even set up another e-mail in the accounts settings of your google account, where you could recover the mails. Just go to accounts.google.com on the phone and there you can set up a lot.
But only, if the password is saved.

The only solution if the password is not saved would be:

forward every existing mail to the new mail account
create an automated answer for the old account with the new mailadress inside
keep the old account still in gmail in case of any important mails
transfer the accounts, which are linked to the old mail adress to the new by entering a new mailadress in the respective accounts (i.e. banking, news, amazon and so on)


Can anyone reccomend a 2g / 3g switching widget? I've just got my new HTC Desire HD and I want to switch 3G on and off as required. I used to do this on my old HTC magic and got quite good battery life compared to some friends with the same phone.

Is there a reccomended, not spammy, preferably free, 2G 3G switchng widget?
If it's only a shortcut to the relevant menu option, so be it.

Edit: Little extra info - In the Marketplace there seem to be dozens of these little things, can anyone reccomend which work fine, and which will steal all my email contacts and sell them to spammers in Eastern Europe? :)

Power Control Plus will do this, and more.  Specifically for you, it will open up the settings page to toggle 2G/3G. However, it is not free.  It will cost you $2.


Why is the FEATURED TABLET APPS tab in the Android market not present on my PC? As an answer to my question about applications for bigger Android screens, Daniel answered whether I noticed the FEATURED TABLET APPS tab in the PC version of the Android market.

However, on my screen, this tab is not present :

Does anyone know why this tab is not present on my version of the Android market ?

I am logged in to my market account, I have a Samsung Galaxy S and a Archos 101 tablet. Daniel has no tablet, so that can't be the reason.

I am living in Europe, so maybe it's a territorial thing ?

Edit: As per Lie's comment below, it looks to be US-only. The proxy site I use apparently changed to hosting in the UK :P

I'm in Canada, and also tried from a US UK (my bad) proxy.  It doesn't show up.

A quick Google search shows that the URL for the page with the tablet apps should be https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_tablet_featured.  Using this link directly doesn't work either, whereas https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_featured (the regular featured apps) does.

So I think Google just had it up temporarily and took it down.  Or, if Daniel can still see it, they're doing what Google normally does: rolling out new features slowly, to only some users at a time.


Flashing Android Source - Droid X (I previously asked this on StackOverflow and was directed here.)

I'm hoping for some clarification on the requirements and/or process of flashing a custom build of Android to a device. I've built a stock version from the AOSP and tried a few different times to flash it on my Droid X, all unsuccessful. I was thinking (or hoping) that the process of rooting the device would also unlock it to allow this, but maybe that's not the case. It looks like the phone still can't be touched at kernel level.

Anyone know what's up here? There's a lot of ROMs for the DX, so it seems like there's a way, or do all those ROMs modify only a superficial level of the Verizon image? I just want to know what's going on under the covers.

eldarerathis is right, you'd need to build the Droid X source in order for it to just work without modification.  Drivers are the main issue here; unlike Windows, for example, Android does not include a vast number of drivers to enable it to work on most any hardware.  Android also runs on much less standardized hardware than PCs.

Most ROMs you see tend to be modifications of the stock image, possibly with custom kernels built from stock.  It's rare that they're fully built from the manufacturer's source, and even rarer when they're built from the AOSP (apart from the Nexus devices).


Nexus 7 soft bricked, Need to recover data I don't know if I'm posting this on the right website or not, but I'll try anyway.

I recently brought a Google Nexus 7 (non-SIM version). I've used it for around 3 months now and everything was working as normal until I left my battery to die whilst browsing online. The battery died overnight. In the morning, I charged my Nexus while attempting to use it at the same time.

What I found at first was that the device would boot right up until the lock screen, but the device would state there was 0% battery and shut down. I then continually powered the Nexus a couple of times just to make sure it wasn't a minor hitch. Then, I noticed that the Nexus was actually looping from Boot to the X to the lock screen then back off. At one point, it was going to a static fuzzy screen then holding there.

I did a little research and tried to boot it up via the Volume up + power method. After I tried this, the multi-colored X just holds on start up. It shows the white Google logo, then the Nexus logo and hangs there. I found out that the device could be "Soft bricked" and needs some sort of wipe.

But here is my main concern: I never thought the device would break after three months, so I never really backed up any photos.

I really would like to find a way to access the folders on the Nexus while it is soft bricked or fix the device without losing the photos. I'm even prepared to rip apart the device voiding any warranties and look for the memory card or whatever is inside. Under normal circumstances. I would just accept a loss, but these photos are of my baby where I haven't had my camera at hand. It has photos of her first moments, so they are worth a lot in sentimental value.

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. I would appreciate the time and effort spent solving this problem. Thank you.

P.S. I have no idea how technical stuff works on a deep level :(

Anya x~

You could flash TWRP recovery (not sure if available for your device) which has an in-built file manager and and terminal and move files to any usb storage.


How do I clear native PDF viewer as default? ghost touch selected it.
I'm on lollipop.
Edit : screenshots for comment below. I also checked Reset Default Apps in,the Settings menu, but there's only e-mail and messaging.

If It Is ( Google) Drive Pdf Viewer Then :-

Go To settings
App And Storage (Where You Can See Installed App Which Are Downloaded Or Pre Installed )
Select All Tab Where You Can See System Apps
Select Drive ( Triangle Logo With Three Colors Side Green, Yellow, Blue )
Scroll Down And Click On Clear Defaults ( If Not Available Directly Check Permission If Available )


My Samsung Galaxy S4 was stolen My Samsung Galaxy S4 was stolen and doesn't have a lock. It was deactivated but I'm worried about the fact that whoever has the phone has access to everything from pictures, videos, my Facebook, contacts, etc. The phone's been deactivated but what can I do about the pictures on the phone? I have a 4 year old daughter and I'm afraid of the pictures on there falling into the wrong hands...I have no other accounts set up to help with privacy but would really like the phone tracked or wiped out...Is that possible?

You can try to erase the device from Andriod Device manager at

http://www.android.com/devicemanager

Note that this will work only if:

The phone has your account still logged in
The phone is connected to the internet at the time of sending the erase request or after. [Wifi or Mobile Network]
the new user hasn't reset the device.