List devices/computers that have been authorized for ADB USB Debugging I want to know which devices I have already connected to my computer with my ADB or know which computers I have connected to my phone previously. Either way works for me.
adb devices -l does not show anything important, because it only displays currently attached.
I would prefer a way without root (on phone), but will accept any help.

You can see which devices were authorized by you on your phone to interact with it through  adb. You would need root access though.
Go into the directory /data/misc/adb/. There would be two files:

adb_keys
adb_temp_keys.xml

adb_keys shows the public key of the other device followed by its user@machine name format. The user@machine should tell you which machines or the users from other device tried to interact with your device over adb.

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 root@slackware.aes
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 neon@neon

adb_temp_keys.xml also has the same information as in adb_keys file except that it is formatted in XML and also shows last connection time (in UNIX Epoch format).
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<adbKey key="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 neon@neon" lastConnection="1616486869211" />
<adbKey key="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 root@slackware.aes" lastConnection="1616487035512" />


Bypass "Swipe up to unlock" on Android Lollipop lock screen I recently flashed my Nexus 4 to Android Lollipop using the factory image.

I have set a pattern lock for unlocking the device. But whenever I turn on the phone, I have to click on the little lock icon or swipe upwards to bring up the pattern unlocker dots.In KitKat or earlier versions, those dots would come up as soon as I turn on the phone.

Is there any way to set the pattern dots visible on lock screen by default? I went through all the settings but in vain.

As far as I know, currently there is no setting to turn off the "safety lock" due to the addition of notifications on the lock screen. (Strangely, the lock is still there even if the user chooses not to display any notification)

The best bet to bypass this is to use Smart Lock's Trusted face, a new feature in Android 5.0 Lollipop similar to previous face unlock. You can bypass both "safety lock" and "pattern lock" simultaneously by looking at the phone while on the lock screen. I would say there is no downside (as far as my experience goes). If it fails to detect your face, then you just have to swipe up and draw the pattern normally.

How to set up:

Go to Settings - Security
Tap "Smart Lock", confirm your current pattern lock
Tap "Trusted face" and follow the instruction


Bluetooth Remote Controll for Voice input on Nexus 5 I am using my Nexus 5 for 1.5 months now. Previously I used an iPhone 5. On the iPhone there was Siri and - when connected via Bluetooth to my car stereo - I could push a button on my Steering Wheel and start voice interaction with siri.

When I push the same button in Android 4.4.2 on my Nexus 5, it says "initialisieren", I think the english locale would be "initializing" and nothing happens.

It would be great to get at least some starting of calls working like "call my mom" or "call john doe" better would be also a working tts/stt (reading/dictation) of sms. Best would be if I also could change playlists (Play List Salsa/Play List Rock) or starting of the navigation (Navigate to Home)

is there any way to get those things working?

Screenshot (click image for original size)

I found a solution to the initial problem. It seems that this is a common bug and in the software since at least Anroid 4.2. There is an Application in the Play Store that does nothing but reacting to the Bluetooth button and starting the voice recognition:

Voice Command

When I push the Button, I have to select what app to start, I chose "Voice Command" after that I am asked again and chose "Google Now" and then it starts directly in the Voice Recognition mode.

I don't know yet if it gets the commands over bluetooth or over the built in mic but it stops the music and starts the recognition.

This works at least with My phone (Nexus 5, 32GB Android 4.4.2 All settings to german and my Car Radio (JVC...))


How to install a 64bit gsi I know, to some people, this question may seem illogical, but I have tried every possible solution available. I want to flash a 64 bit AOSP phusson's GSI in my Redmi S2, which has stock 32 bit OS, however, the CPU is capable of 64 bit. I tried directly to install 64 bit gsi but it failed and repeatedly booted into fastboot rather than system. Then I read somewhere that it was so because it'd kernel too is 32 bit. I gathered 64 bit source files for my phone, compiled it and tried to flash it but the kernel was looping over and over in bootloader. What should I do to install a 64 bit ROM? (32BU
It GSI is working in my phone)

You will need to recompile your entire ROM as 64 bit, then flash the GSI

GSIs will need the vendor and kernel and well everything else to be 64 bit

This is not a task for the faint heart,  but I'm sure you can find a guide somewhere. Even so, the source ROM may not have the required 64 bit libraries, so you'll have to include those. Basically the only way to bring 64 bit support is a 64 bit ROM. Not undoablle, but not easy.


How to check IMSI/ICCID on MIUI10? Is there any way to view IMSI and ICCID numbers of my SIM-cards? I didn't find such menu neither in About-Status nor anywhere else.

There are APIs available which apps (like this) use to read SIM information. Looking for CLI solution (refer to this, this and this), we can get IMSI and ICCID with following commands respectively (up to Android 9):

~$ service call iphonesubinfo 7

~$ service call iphonesubinfo 10

* Codes depend on order of methods defined here, which may differ on different Android versions.
* For dual SIM device use code 8 and 11 instead and append i32 2 to command to get second SIM information.

Pass the output through following pipes to convert hexadecimal output to a good looking string:

... | grep -oE '[0-9a-f]{8} ' | while read hex; do echo -ne "\u${hex:4:4}\u${hex:0:4}"; done; echo

Terminal emulator apps usually don't have permission READ_PHONE_STATE (though you can grant manually with root) which is required by both functions. So commands need to be executed from adb shell.

Codes 7/8 correspond to getSubscriberId and 10/11 to getSimSerialNumber. However both methods have been removed for normal apps usage in Android 10. Only system apps with READ_PRIVILEGED_PHONE_STATE will be able to get this information. iphonesubinfo service can't be dumped with dumpsys either. So root is the only solution on Android 10+.

RIL may also log the operator/SIM related information to logcat when SIM state changes. With root access it's possible to read telephony database (the component of application framework which interfaces RIL) and also RIL database itself (which interfaces modem). On my Qualcomm device RILD stores information to /data/vendor/radio/qcril.db including ICCID and MCC/MNC.

~# sqlite3 -line /data/user_de/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db 'select icc_id,card_id,carrier_name,display_name,mcc,mnc from siminfo'

~# sqlite3 /data/vendor/radio/qcril.db 'select ICCID from qcril_manual_prov_table'

As of Android 9 IMSI is also stored in /data/system/netpolicy.xml to set mobile data limits for MNOs separately.

~# grep -o 'subscriberId=[^ ]*' /data/system/netpolicy.xml

RELATED:

How to get 2nd IMEI number using adb?


App to send group MMS without reply all I am looking for an app that can send a text to multiple recipients without them being able to respond back to all the other recipients. And also not see who else received the message. Similar to sending out an email with BCC recipients.

SMS and MMS are 1 to 1 messages. Doing what you want it's standard. Just send the message using the standard SMS client. It's lets you send to multiple recipients, but it sends a individual message to each.


Why does YouTube volume fade when visiting certain sites? I use split screen YouTube and Chrome on my phone, but when I visit e.g. bbc.com the video volume fades to a much lower level.

What causes this and can it be prevented?

This is a OP3t with Android 8.0 in case that matters

Most times this is caused by an video-ad on the website. It shouldn't happen on websites without any ad.


Magisk: can it be used by mere mortals? I just found out about Magisk and it sounds great,  but I don't't know much about it.  How would I use it?  The phone's a ZTE Z815.

Sure it can.  It's actually pretty easy as of version 14.  You'll need to unlock your bootloader and instal TWRP.  That's the hard part.  It looks like there are ways to root it, but XDA-Developers doesn't appear to have a forum for it, and that's where to go for trusted advice and mods.

If you can get those two, then you can download the Magisk zip file, boot to TWRP, and install it.  Next, update the stub Magisk Manager application, and you're good to go.  I strongly encourage you to then instal Xposed (all systemless)


There is an Android equivalent to Microsoft's CTRL+Z? Possible Duplicate:
  Is there any undo command when editing any field

Today I just make a mistake when typing a text on a box over Android's browser and then I realise that I was missing the "back to past" CTRL+Z Microsoft Windows feature, which allows you to step back anything you made on Windows. So, there is such thing on Android OS?

The back button serves as Undo or Cancel (or Back) in many apps, but won't help with a typo in a text box, it's more likely to lose everything you've typed in there than undo the last bit of typing.

I don't believe that there's any standard, central Undo function in Android at the moment. As very few devices have a hardware keyboard, and many devices are starting to drop even the four hard buttons, I'm not sure how Undo could easily be invoked/shown to the user. Ctrl/Alt etc key combos obviously aren't practical on a soft keyboard on a 4 inch touchscreen, and I'm not sure how else it would be done except with a dedicated undo button on the phone or the soft-keyboard.


Broken Nexus 6p Recovery So while I was overseas in Vietnam I dropped my Nexus 6P and broken the screen.
The screen is completely black and completely unresponsive however when I use the fingerprint scanner it still vibrates.
Stupid me decided to restart the phone by holding down the off button, which I immediately regretted as of course, Now I must enter my PIN to be able to get into my phone.
SO basically, Im asking if its possible to recover any data from my Nexus 6P with a completely unresponsive screen, and requiring PIN on startup.
I Believe that debugging was enabled

Yes, you can. Connect your phone to a PC and use ADB to backup your data. Follow this guide to setup ADB, Fastboot and the Android SDK Platform tools on your PC: https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/general/guides-how-to-guides-beginners-t3206928

Load your phone into fastboot mode by holding the power button and the volume down button at the same time, from there you can choose recovery mode by the volume and power buttons navigation of your phone, then access and copy your data from your PC by ADB.

Alternatively you could temporarily load a custom recovery as suggested here:  can fastboot be used to backup device?

For more Info see this answer here: Enabling ADB on Nexus 6 with dead screen


How to pass commands to ADB shell? I am trying to create a script to automatize a few repeated things I need to do with adb. I can run most of the commands on my local bash. But at one step, I need to find the list of some files. I then use that list in the steps that follows. What I am doing now is manually going into adb shell and copying the list:

$ adb shell
$ ls /Path/To/Folder *.abc
xyz.abc  xzy.abc  uvw.abc

I copy the resulting list and replace it in my script everytime before running the script.
Is it possible to run this without going into adb shell so that I could do something like this:
$ file_list="$(adb execute 'ls /Path/To/Folder *.abc')"

This way I could eliminate the repetitive manual steps and just run the script every time.

The adb interactive shell only starts if you simply run adb shell. If you add a command at the end it will be executed on the device shell and then adb returns (non-interactive mode):

adb shell ls /Path/To/Folder/*.abc

Of course in the end you can send the output to a filellist.txt on your computer:

adb shell ls /Path/To/Folder/*.abc > filelist.txt


My keyboard got removed when updating to Android 8 Oreo Yesterday I updated my Samsung S7 (SM-G930F) to Android Oreo version 8.0.0.
After the update I do not have any keyboard, just the Google's Voice Typing is showing up when I would like to type something.
Before I had the original Samsung swedish keyboard that came with the phone.

The numpad is working when I'm looking for typing number e.g. when dialing.
But whenever I need to type something else than just numbers, I do not have a keyboard.

Under settings -> Keyboard: There is only Googles Voice Typing and I have tried everything without any luck.

I do not want to reset the phone to default.

Anyone got any hints what to try?
Remember that it is very hard to try anything without a keyboard...

(All is in swedish so the translation might not be the correct one)

I did as Rahul Gopi and beeshyams commented.

But since I could only "type by voice" I didn't manage to find the Samsung Keyboard, but I manage to install Google Gboard so now I at least have a keyboard to work with.

So now it would be easier to try to install my normal Samsung keyboard...


What is this Google Settings app that installed itself on my phone? Today, all of a sudden I saw this app in my Samsung Galaxy Y mobile phone:

I am talking about the app named "Google Settings"

I uninstalled it immediately only to find it installed again a few hours later.

My mobile phone is rooted and I did have access to internet through the phone during this period?

Can anyone tell me as to what is going on? Should I worry? What should I do?

The Google settings app is being put their either by the Maps app, Search app, or the Google+ app.

It's a unified settings/sign-in thing they just added in literally yesterday and allows you to manage the settings for all of the above (and probably more in future) from one menu.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/google-settings-app-sneaks-onto-android-to-bolster-g-sign-in/


How to get adoptable storage back after factory reset? Hi I've done a factory reset on phone, accidentally, don't ask how :D
So i had 50% of sd card adopted now after reset there is only 50% with media files adopted partition is gone, how to get it back?

After SD card format it appeared in full size, so I can split it up again. Sorry for hasty question..


Does google contact sync also sync the sim card or does it just sync the contacts stored on the phone? So I have this old Galaxy S5 phone that that I'm upgrading to a samsung a51, and I'm also getting a new SIM card that keeps the phone number but doesn't keep the contacts. Do i need to do something extra or does it just work? Or should I use Samsung smart switch?

Like the comments by Andrew T said, you have a few storage options:

SIM card.
Phone.
Google account.

During the saving of the contact, it should give you the option to choose, or there should be a default setting.


Connect to Samsung TV using AllShare from a Non-Samsung phone I have a Nexus 5 phone and want to connect to my Samsung Smart TV (which supports AllShare).
How can I do this?

Thanks.

UPDATE: I tried again after updating my phone to Android 5.0 . but no luck to getting this work .

I had the same problem and then I found an app called Mirror it allows you to mirror your android device screen to pretty much any streaming box or stick or smart TV with streaming capabilities like Samsung Smart TV's. You can even mirror to an Apple TV. With Mirror there is a bit of a delay from you doing something on your phone to it on the TV.

There is also an app called AllCast for just streaming media like music, videos and movies that are on your phone or on one of the few media streaming websites that are available to stream within the app. These include: Twitch, Google+, Dropbox and Google Drive.


How to disable the Denial Log Reporting Service on SGS4? On my Samsung Galaxy S4 I've accidentally accepted a privacy policy for the "Samsung Denial Log Reporting Service" in a popped notification. I've found in Google that it "Captures SE for Android denials in Enforcement mode on the device and uploads them to a Samsung Server".

Does anyone know how to disable this crap option?

You need to root your phone and remove or "freeze" everything related to OTA and KNOX. Once done, you can remove the all AVC audit file(s) in the directory: /data/misc/audit/. You may also need to put SEAndroid into Permissive mode with: su 0 setenforce 0, but this only lasts until next reboot.


How to Unroot " Galaxy tab 2 p3113 8gb wifi " My 9 year old son rooted his tab on his own, against my wishes. I tried a factory restore and used Kies to load via PC although this did not restore the tab.

It's still showing as rooted. Can anyone help as it seems he should have installed software prior to rooting from what I have read. Is there anything I can do to restore it to factory-defaults? Please anyone who can give suggestion I would greatly appreciate it.

Just reinstalling factory ROM will remove root access. I am assuming he has a custom recovery image installed? Also, how exactly is it showing that its rooted? Is a superuser app installed? Stock ROM?


WLAN Transfer never over 2MB/s I have a Phone and a Router with WLAN n-Technology, but i never get more Speed than 2MB/s (Only in Speedtests, not from Computer to Phone) I tried SSH, FTP and MyPhoneExplorer.

Any Ideas what i could do / check?

The speed is limited by weakest point in the system. If you are using a class 2 microSD, you can't get speed more than 2MBps even if your network can transfer 1TBps.


Stuck on logo during Android-x86 boot I'm trying to install Android-x86 on USB for my new HP laptop. I have followed the instructions on Android-x86.org. My issue is that after the initial install, it never boots again, it just gets stuck on the Android logo.
I have seen a few posts such as this answer:

when you change the internal frame where the UEFI firmware settings to the EFI framework setting change the boot order you have to make a small partition for grub go back and change it back otherwise it won't boot the second time

but unsure of how to do this.
I have also seen this answer:

In boot menu select Installation - Install Android-x86 to harddisk
In Choose Partition menu select Create/Modify partitions
In Do you want to use GPT question select No
cfdisk program will open
Select New and select Primary as partition type, set size to 100 MB and select Beginning
Select bootable. Now the Flags column should say Boot for the new partition
Select the free space and select New and select Primary as partition type, leave size as default to fill the remaining free space
Select Write and type yes and press Enter
Select Quit

but I'm stuck in the fact when I click on create/modify on this, I get cgdisk not cfdisk, and it's not as easy to use. I don't know why this is happening. Before I realised what to do, I was accessing cfdisk, but now it's only cgdisk.
I have purchased 4 premium USB sticks just in case the issue was due to a bad USB, but it's not the case and I'm just so frustrated.
Any help at all would really be appreciated.

well I've found something that might help you ... I recently installed androidx86-9.0-rc1 as a dual boot (unlike you) , and I too faced this same problem that it booted for the first time just fine but gets stuck in subsequent boots ...
so I tried uninstalling, re-installing it to see what's wrong and what I found that when I am on Windows and from there I try to switch to already-installed androidx86 [by choosing restart option in windows / by entering bios from windows and then booting to androidx86] , it gets stuck [and gets stuck in subsequent times too, once you did such] ...
so for this , you must boot to androidx86 directly after you Power on your pc when it's initially shutted down
supposedly you're on windows , and say you want to switch to androidx86 [newly re-installed , not the one that got stuck ] , so dont restart windows ; just shut down the pc and power it on to boot to androidx86 ... just note that this is my observation only for dual-boot case


Android Phone's Homescreen Shortcut to File on OneDrive I would like to put a shortcut on my Android phone's homescreen to a Word document file on OneDrive. When I touch the shortcut, the Microsoft Word app should open and allow for editing the file. If I save in Word, then the document should be uploaded to OneDrive online storage.

The OneDrive app allows me to put a shortcut (widget) to a folder but not a file. ES File Explorer allows me to put a shortcut to a file stored locally on the phone but not on a file stored on OneDrive.

I figure I need to download an app. Which app will work?

This question is similar except it is for Google Drive.

Sure you can. Add a widget and select the folder you want, then Pin it.
Source: 10 Tricks to Make Yourself a OneDrive Master


S5 Note, locked, finger won't work, forget password I DO NOT want to lose my data/photos!
Finger won't work
Forgot back up password
Never set up Samsung acc't
Can't access phone via Google/Gmail

You will have to reset your phone. You can try recovering photos from any data recovery app. No other way as you have no backup of any sort.


Set wifi connection as metered in Android 5.0 I'd like to set specific wifi connections as metered, since I do not want e.g. Google Play to update apps via public wifi (limited volume and bandwith, competing with my and - for politeness - other people's laptops).

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 with Android 5.0.1, Avast running, no root and no special modifications from my side.

I have tried quite some days to find a native Android way to do that, but failed so far - please prove me wrong! The suggestions I found so far on Android Enthusiasts go mainly into the following directions and did not work (other Android versions, or see below). I'd rather prefer a native android solution, if necessary a 3rd party app would be fine if without rooting.

many solutions end at a "3 dot" (⋮) menu somewhere in data usage menu pages - it seems not to exist on my phone/Android version. Found nothing comparable (incl. left menue button next to the start button etc.)
restrict background data - I do not want to restrict the app (Google Play) in general, but only a specific network.
NetGuard app - same as 2., does not seem to be wifi-specific (and not sure if I should put an app with in app purchases in such a central position)

Thanks in advance!

There isn't much difference to the default proceedure for metering wi-fi networks in android.

Here is the proceedure in Samsung J5 Android 5 (which I believe is similar o your device):

Go to Settings → Data Usage → More → Restrict networks

  This will show a list of all the Wi-Fi networks the device has ever
  connected to. Use the switches to enable restrictions on any given
  network. Once activated, this will prevent apps from using background
  data on that network, and you’ll also get a warning before any large
  downloads.


'Network permission' notifications for apps in Android 10 - turning off I have Android 10 on my phone. In the 'Settings - SIM card & mobile data - Mobile Data - Network Permissions' menu, I have set wifi & mobile data access as "disable network" for some of my apps.
The problem is, when I open such an app, it shows a notification "App name is Forbidden From Using the Network" with two buttons to choose from - "Keep disabled" or "Allow". This cannot be minimized or removed without choosing either of the two buttons.
After choosing "Keep disabled", the nuisance does not go away. Each time the app is opened next, there is a toast informing "Network is turned off for App name. You can modiy this in menu location". This happens every time! And sometimes (probably after a reboot, not sure) Android 10 forgets the setting for that app and the mandatory notification comes again with the buttons to choose from.
Can this behavior be prevented or at least minimized?

Getting rid of that annoying notifications is possible but not easy. I had exactly the same problem and used Automate https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate to solve it.
In Automate I created a flow that waits for a notification to appear (you can define conditions which must be met to select only these unwanted notifications) and then executes 'snooze' operation on it. The length of the snooze time is freely adjustable, I chose 48 hours. That solved the problem once and for all.


Restore apps from backup on Google Drive I have a backup of my old phone I can see in my Google Drive app on my new phone.

How do I backup/restore all the apps from this backup?

From searching, it looks like this should have been an option when first starting my phone but it wasn't.

Android version: 7.1.2

LineageOS version: 14.1

You must reinstall the application for Google Backups to Automatically restore the application data and settings.

This information can be found on the Automatic Restore setting under settings > backup & reset

Here's a picture from the setting page's corresponding item:


Odin3 says phone is successfully rooted but I have no root access I'm attempting to Root my Galaxy S3 to try and breath new life in to it (I don't want to upgrade if I don't have to).

I've followed the steps detailed in this post and the results seemed to suggest that everything had worked, as you can see in the screen shot, however when I check using the Root Checker app it states -

  Root Access - no access

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't find anything that I can understand, so I'd be grateful if someone can help me fix this problem.

Update

Below are two screen shots taken after the above root process. On the left is the aforementioned Root Checker app, showing no access. And on the right is a warning shown when I open the SuperSU app.

I have indeed just updated to 4.3, so I'm guessing I'd need to go down the manually re-root app, but I have no idea what the relevant forum would be.

looks like this pda file is only flashing recovery and cache image. So you should have a custom recovery now(probably CWM recovery).

If this is the case download supersu from here: http://download.chainfire.eu/396/SuperSU/ and push it onto your device.

After this boot into recovery(probably vol up + home + power) and install this supersu update zip.

Reboot system and see if you have luck :)


What causes battery to drain faster than it can charge? I have a Moto DROID (v1).  On a trip from Tyler, TX to DFW airport I had my phone in the car dock and charging.  I was using Navigation for directions to the airport and also had Listen running to play a podcast over the device speaker.  As I neared the airport, the phone rebooted a few times and then remained off.  I took the phone out of the dock and noticed it was very hot to the touch.  At the airport, the phone had cooled and I plugged it into a wall charger.  The battery was completely drained!

My brother had the same experience with his Moto DROID (v2).  He was on a 4 hour road trip and was using the navigation app and participating in a conference call (hands-free).  The phone was connected to the car dock and charging the entire time, but after a couple of hours the phone rebooted and then shut-off with a dead battery.  We left the phone off and plugged into the charger for a while and it was able to boot again, and like with mine showed a dead battery!

Is the phone really able to drain the battery faster than it can be charged via the car dock?  If so, are there known combinations of apps or uses that will cause this behavior?

I think you answered your own question ;)

Navigation uses a lot of power: it needs constant use of GPS along with reading the map and processing text to speech.  Throw in another power-intensive activity like bluetooth or the phone's speaker (or calling, or data, etc), and it's very conceivable that it would drain power faster than it can pull it from a charger, especially a car charger, though the exact specifics would vary from phone to phone.

Here is a great list of the things that use the most power on a phone.


Additional SD card remounts itself as read-only In my Galaxy SII there was everything ok for three years. All this time I used an external 64Gb SanDisk card.

Now after some uptime the card is remounted as RO. All the modifying operations on the card seem to be succeed but after reboot I see all the directories and files still there in an old state.

I didn't notice when this is happening exactly, but suspect that this behaviour appears after I run newly updated version of OsmAnd+.

Any thoughts?

Most likely there is some filesystem corruption on the SD card. Try scanning it with a filesystem checker on your PC (e.g. fsck under Linux).


How does Whatsapp use my mobile fingerprint in their app? How does Whatsapp access my fingerprint?

WhatsApp did not ask permission to use my fingerprint.

Then how do they use my fingerprint for unlocking?

I just updated to 2.20.64 to check

WhatsApp does need fingerprint permission, under " Use Fingerprint Hardware" and Use Biometric Hardware"

You can check under permissions in Play Store - see "others"

Edit : If you are wondering why the app doesn't ask you explicitly for permission, the reason is simple - both the permissions quoted above are normal permissions for which user approval is not required. Also see Permissions Overview

  If an app declares in its manifest that it needs a normal permission, the system automatically grants the app that permission at install time. The system doesn't prompt the user to grant normal permissions, and users cannot revoke these permissions

(Emphasis supplied)

See this Stack overflow Question - Android nougat USE_FINGERPRINT permissions, which states the same


Reenable Google Play Services after disable I am developing an app that requires testing without google play services (I'm on a Samsung S3). I've turned google play services off in Application Manager and tested everything. Afterwards, I went back in and turned it back on, but I can't seem to get my app to recognize that google play services are re-enabled. What ways are there to check it Google Play Services is indeed enabled again on my phone?

After further debugging, google play services' connection was coming across as needing an update in my app's code. It turns out I had to clear Google Play Service's cache. Once I did that and turned on, it prompted me to install updates. I did that, and now it recognizes it as re-enabled as it should.


Can't boot to Clockwork Recovery on Atrix (several methods tried) I have a Motorola Atrix 4G, with AT&T Carrier.  Android 2.3.4

EDIT 11/6/2011: I don't know if this means anything, but I don' have an sdcard in it.

I have rooted it using this tutorial.

I installed Rom Manager and installed the Clockwork Recovery Image, with success (supposedly).

Here are where the problems occur.  When I turn off the phone and turn it back on, while holding the volume down button, I get the big red M and scroll down to "Android Recovery" and select that.  I then get "Failed to boot 2".

Ok, so I reboot and go back to my stock rom and try reinstalling the rom, and it down nothing to change the situation.

Next, I try running the fastboot software in the command window on my pc using the command "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" (recovery.img is the clockwork mod).  On my phone it says "Flashing Partition Recovery" then "Flashing MBR to device" and finally "Failed to process command flash:recovery error(0x180002)".

Any suggestions?  I did google the problem, but the answers I have found didn't apply or didn't work.

Please help, Thanks.

Rooting the Atrix 4G does only that - gives you elevated privileges on stock OS.  In order to be able to install a different recovery image and custom ROMs, the phone's bootloader must be unlocked first.

This is a fairly complicated process that carries the usual warnings and disclaimers of modifying phone software.  It will most definitely void your warranty with AT&T (and possibly with Motorola as well,) so be very certain that your phone is either free of hardware defects, or out of warranty with your carrier before unlocking it.

See this thread on xda-developers forum for further details and installation instructions.


How to view list of subscriptions in Google reader app? Is there any way to view the list of my blog subscriptions in Google reader? Currently it is showing "no subscriptions". Is this a bug?

On the main screen of the app press the Menu button and select Show all. You should see a list of all your subscriptions below the SUBSCRIPTIONS heading, with unread items showing in bold and the unread count to the right. It should look similar to this:

If you don't see anything listed there, you might want to double check the account you're using with the app by pressing the Menu button, and going to the Accounts option. There you can select your Google account, and check if syncing is enabled for Google Reader.


“Insufficient storage available”. Ok, but where? When I upgrade an Android application from Google Play, it gets downloaded, then the upgrade stops with the message “Error: Insufficient storage available.”

Yet none of the partitions seem to be nearly full. The app is about 10MB, and I have about 100MB free on /data. Here's the output of df (omitting /mnt/asec):

Filesystem             Size   Used   Free   Blksize
/dev                   171M    32K   171M   4096
/mnt/asec              171M     0K   171M   4096
/mnt/obb               171M     0K   171M   4096
/cache                 469M     2M   466M   4096
/efs                     6M     3M     3M   4096
/system                503M   329M   174M   4096
/data                 1007M   895M   112M   4096
/storage/sdcard0        13G     4G     8G   4096

This is happening on a rooted stock 4.1.2 image from Google.

I've read other questions on this site, such as Why can't I install apps when I have enough storage?, insufficient storage error while updating installed apps [duplicate], and others, but they all concern situations with only about 10–20MB free, whereas I have a 100MB safety margin. Unlike Something is secretly eating up my Acer Iconia A500 internal memory and I need help finding it and What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage?, I'm not trying to figure out which files are filling up a partition, I'm trying to figure out which partition is filled up.

So how can I figure out which partition this “insufficient storage” message is about?

A common problem on android devices is that android will keep and safe all applications which are in your system directory (system apps/apps installed from the factory). This is exactly the same problem I had with my Sony Xperia arc s.

I've fixed this by rooting my phone and install "system cleaner root" (note: only rooted devices can use this app and you'll probably lose your warranty when you root your phone) and run that application. It will search for saved update files on your phone which are system apps, and then delete these old update files.

The problem should be fixed. As long as you run "system cleaner root" once in a while.


Remove Linkedin info from contacts I've recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S6 and I've noticed that in the contacts there is a section with information taken from Linkedin, even though I haven't let the Linkedin app sync its contacts or download contacts.

It doesn't bother me much to have someone's company and position listed there, but with some contacts I get a list of empty boxes, that keeps growing with time (I guess it has to do with those people's privacy setting in Linkedin):

So, is there any way to remove this info, other than uninstalling the Linkedin app?

Try going into your contacts,

under settings -- > contacts --> contacts to display

and select your google account instead of All Contacts. You can even setup a custom list of contacts to display that doesn't include LinkedIn.


Find a stolen Samsung Galaxy Tab E I gotten involved in an incident that i got my tab stolen. I have not used the device for so long and i have some personal details on the device.

The problem I have now in trying to recover this devices is that I am not sure I have enabled GPS tracking on the device.

The only lead I have on this device now is that my G-mail account is logged unto it and also my Google play store is logged unto it. Please is it still possible for either locate this device or remotely wipe it? Thanks in anticipation.

By logging into your Google Account, you can select "GET STARTED" under "Find your phone".

As long as the missing device is still logged into your Google account, it should show on the list on the next screen where you can tap on it for additional steps. From there, you can attempt to locate, lock or wipe the device.


how to free unused memory in android? i had downloaded an app but after connecting my phone(HTC ChaCha) to pc and after disconnecting my phone from pc,i found that the app is not working any longer.Rather the phone was failing to recognise the app.So i uninstalled it.But after uninstallation the memory occupied by the app was not freed.how can i free that memory?

In settings, see if you can find something called "Application manager". When in that, find the "all" list. See if the deleted app is still listed there. If yes, there should be a few options to clear the data it stores, use them. I am not sure how your android looks like, but they should generally be the same.

If that does not help, you can use this app: Clean master - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard&hl=eng

I use it on my private phone, and it seems to do good when it comes to free up memory. However, I am unsure if it work on your phone, as it does not list all versions it supports. It's also free.

You can also connect the phone to your computer again and see if you can remove the app data manually, however, how this can be done differ between phone models, and it can be risky as the data you want to delete might not be found so easily.


Attempted to encrypt my phone and now it's rejecting my password I attempted to encrypt my moto g4 while it was plugged into my laptop. Instead of showing the animation that it should play, it briefly showed the start of the animation and went to the main boot screen. After a few minutes it booted into the please enter your password screen. I entered my device pin and my google password, and it rejected both of them. Sometimes it tells you to turn the device off and on to start android, but it doesn't do anything. It said it would wipe after 8 more failed attempts, but now it's at negative 45. Is there any way to do a total factory reset?

You can format your phone with the built in recovery menu:

First you have to turn off your phone.
So, press and hold the power button for a few moments or press the power key once and select Power Off.
Then, just wait while the shut down process is completed.
Next, start pressing and holding the Volume Down button for about 2 or 3 seconds.
While still pressing the Volume Down button, press the Power key and release.
From the menu that will be displayed, choose the Recovery option (navigate through Volume Up and Down buttons).
Press the Power key once to select your option.
When the Android logo is displayed, press the Volume Up key for a few moments.
While still holding this key, press the Power button and release.
Recovery mode should be now displayed on your Motorola Moto G4.
If you can’t manage it from your first attempt, don’t panic; you might have to try this method several times until you succeed in accessing the recovery mode menu.


Why do I need to turn on location services to pair with a Bluetooth device? Whenever I try to connect my Samsung Galaxy S6 with Android 6.0.1 to a Bluetooth enabled device, it tells me to enable "location services".

When I complained about this, the software vendor replied: "Recent updates to the Google Android API affecting Bluetooth LE technology requires location permissions to be granted in order to use the app."

I fail to see the need for this.

This discussion talks about this. The technical reference says the apps need to have certain permissions, not that location services be active.

  To access the hardware identifiers of nearby external devices via
  Bluetooth and Wi-Fi scans, your app must now have the
  ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permissions

Question: Does this mean the software vendor's statement is incorrect?

My understanding of Bluetooth is that applications using Bluetooth have direct access to the device MAC address for the purpose of pairing. I will assume this for this answer.

If you can read MAC addresses of WiFi or Bluetooth transmitters, you can locate a device. This is how WiFi/Bluetooth location works; you listen for MAC addresses of transmitters and look these up in a giant global database.

Therefore, any application using Bluetooth and a data connection is theoretically capable of locating your device. I am not sure this is practically possible; Bluetooth does not have the same range and semi-permanent access point infrastructure as WiFi.

By requiring location services to access Bluetooth, you ensure that the user understands their location information may leak when they use Bluetooth. In versions of Android prior to Marshmallow, the user could use Bluetooth without location services enabled, but location information could leak. In these older versions, you could also run WiFi scans to find MAC addresses without location services enabled, which again meant that your location information could leak. The requirement to allow location services to use Bluetooth is about ensuring that someone who disables location keeps their location private.

I would characterize this issue as a design problem and not a bug. A bug is presumably fixable, but it's not clear to me you can use Bluetooth at all without potentially leaking location information. Bluetooth was created before anyone considered WiFi and Bluetooth location services.


Stream Sound from Ubuntu to Android I got tired of replugging my headset between a desktop and Android when someone calls me. Is there a way to stream sound from Ubuntu (I use Pulseaudio) to Android phone over wifi or usb?

Ubuntu has built Ubuntu One Mobile for that very purpose. The service is free to try for one month, then $3.99/month (or $39.99 yearly). It's worth mentioning that the paid account gives you 25GB of storage and unlimited streaming for devices running Android 2.1+, iOS 3.1+ as well as Windows XP, Vista and 7 (and there are rates for additional storage).

(For those who do not wish to stream music, Ubuntu One provides 5GB of cloud storage for free.)


insufficient storage ALright I have the netbook. I recently did a reset and now I cannot load any apps. It's telling me the internal memory is full and I do not know how to erase things and clear it since it won't let me even download an app to debug/clear cache/clean it.
Who has some helpful suggestions?

You reset your phone means there will be no apps in that.To find out what's occupying your phone memory goto settings -> manage application or settings->storage option to find out what's occupying space in your device.
Another way: If you have any file manager application installed in your phone  go to internal storage and find out the things which occupying space in your phone.It may be any files such pictures or videos.


Why am I unable to get my nook to remap the upper left button to work as a CTRL key? Recently, I had to re-root my nook simple touch after the stock recovery removed the su binary. Unfortunately, it deleted my settings for remapping my upper left page button to use as a CTRL key. I would love to go back to using the terminal app running an Ubuntu Distro.

I tried fixing the problem by installing the patched jars needed for nook touch tools. Although, I successfully installed them but when I go to the app to do the remapping the CTRL option no longer exists in the list of options!

I already found my keymap file in this directory

  /system/usr/keylayout/

The file is named TWL4030_Keypad.kl

The content of the TWL4030_Keypad.kl file is here.

    key 399   GRAVE
key 2     1
key 3     2
key 4     3
key 5     4
key 6     5
key 7     6
key 8     7
key 9     8
key 10    9
key 78    0
key 158   BACK              WAKE_DROPPED
key 14    BACK              WAKE_DROPPED
key 230   SOFT_RIGHT        WAKE
key 106   SOFT_RIGHT        WAKE
key 107   ENDCALL           WAKE_DROPPED
key 62    ENDCALL           WAKE_DROPPED
key 60    ENDCALL           WAKE_DROPPED
key 229   MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 139   MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 59    MENU              WAKE_DROPPED
key 127   SEARCH            WAKE_DROPPED
key 217   SEARCH            WAKE_DROPPED
key 228   POUND
key 66    POUND
key 227   STAR
key 65    STAR
key 231   CALL              WAKE_DROPPED
key 102   CALL              WAKE_DROPPED
key 232   DPAD_CENTER       WAKE_DROPPED
key 108   DPAD_DOWN         WAKE_DROPPED
key 103   DPAD_UP           WAKE_DROPPED
key 63    HOME              WAKE
key 105   DPAD_LEFT         WAKE_DROPPED
key 106   DPAD_RIGHT        WAKE_DROPPED
key 115   VOLUME_UP
key 114   VOLUME_DOWN
key 116   POWER             WAKE
key 212   CAMERA
key 148   DPAD_CENTER
key 149   SEARCH
key 202   EXPLORER
key 203   ENVELOPE
key 102   HOME
key 16    Q
key 17    W
key 18    E
key 19    R
key 20    T
key 21    Y
key 22    U
key 23    I
key 24    O
key 25    P
key 26    LEFT_BRACKET
key 27    RIGHT_BRACKET
key 43    BACKSLASH
key 30    A
key 31    S
key 32    D
key 33    F
key 34    G
key 35    H
key 36    J
key 37    K
key 38    L
key 39    SEMICOLON
key 40    APOSTROPHE
key 61    DEL
key 353   ENTER
key 44    Z
key 45    X
key 46    C
key 47    V
key 48    B
key 49    N
key 50    M
key 51    COMMA
key 52    PERIOD
key 53    SLASH
key 28    ENTER
key 56    ALT_LEFT
key 100   ALT_RIGHT
key 42    ALT_LEFT
key 54    SHIFT_RIGHT
key 15    TAB
key 57    SPACE
key 150   EXPLORER
key 155   ENVELOPE
key 58    SHIFT_RIGHT
key 12    MINUS
key 13    EQUALS
key 215   AT
key 407   RIGHT_NEXTPAGE
key 412   CTRL_LEFT       <----------Here I tried to edit the file in adb
key 139   LEFT_PREVPAGE              but is not recognized by the nook.
key 158   RIGHT_PREVPAGE

I furnished two solutions to my problem.

Get into the nook touch tools app and set up key bindings by clicking the button on the far right. You should see something like this. Where it says, left-bottom button select the option Volume_Down.

After rebooting get into the terminal app's settings to set up key bindings.

The terminal app has options that permit you set up key bindings that will allow me to emulate the control key.

I have taken screenshots of the terminal's settings. I go into nook touch tools and set up the binding to use the left bottom page button to be used as a volume button. You must do this for it to work. Select preferences.

The next step is to go to keyboard and you'll see the select control key option. Under the sub-list of options select volume-down for use as the CTRL key. Then you can now use the left bottom page button as the control key.

The second option is to download the hacker's keyboard and install the multi-touch zips with the CWM based recovery on a sdcard via re-boot. But the ctrl key doesn't work so you still have to set up the settings in the terminal app. The multi-touch hack allows you to use two keys at the same time therefore allowing the binding of the alt key to be used as the ctrl key.


Can I recover the WhatsApp chat history from a damaged phone? My phone has suffered physical damage and it will no longer turn on. I have given it to a phone repair shop in the hope that the data is still alive in there and that it can be extracted using external means. Assuming I can get a copy of the internal storage of that phone into a thumb drive, one of the things I would like to recover from it is the WhatsApp chat history. The standard procedure, however, requires a working Android system on the old phone to work, and this might be a little too much of a stretch given the damage.

Is there a way to recover the chat history given these circumstances? Or is it lost to history due to WhatsApp's encryption mechanisms?

You can, if you can save everything in the /data/data/com.whatsapp folder. Your logs will be in /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases but they are encrypted as you mentioned and encryption key is in /data/data/com.whatsapp/files/key. Proper transfer of these files will mean a successful operation. Once you start Whatsapp on another phone with the /data folder from your broken phone and start Whatsapp, it will prompt you to activate Whatsapp on this phone with a text like "This account wasn't activated on this phone, please activate" and once you do, it'll be successfully done.


Why I Must Type Password Every Time To Reconnect To Home Wi-Fi Hotspot I have recently started getting dialog popping up asking to enter password every time I connect to my home Wi-Fi hotspot:

This dialog always pops up when you connect to hotspot for the first time and then it memorizes password so you don't have to type again when reconnecting. Until now, reconnection was automatic. A couple of things to suspect might be recent upgrades from 4.3 to 4.2.2 and a week earlier to 4.4.4

In addition I recall that I accidentally turned off Wi-Fi settings icon from appearing in Android's task manager which was before final upgrade if that helps.

Anyone knows what can be the cause? I have LG Nexus 4 E960

Here is the solution which worked for my rooted Nexus 5 (Android 5.0.1)

make a backup of wpa_suppliciant.conf file and DHCP folder. Just in case.

Copy wpa_suppliciant.conf file from /data/misc/wifi/ to your PC
Open with any text editor (I used wordpad) and delete all entries with you problematic wifi name on it.
Choose one of the Wifi in the list which you remember has worked before and change SSID and passkey according to you router. Press SAVE.
Copy/replace this modified file into /data/misc/wifi
Delete DHCP folder in /data/misc/
Reboot your phone.
Your phone should now connect to your new wifi :)


How to enable pip, QPython to write to Android filesystem? I have been following this guide to install youtube-dl on my Android phone.

http://www.arulraj.net/2015/11/download-any-videos-in-android-using-youtube-dl.html

However, when downloading the videos, I get the following error.

ERROR: unable to open for writing: [Errno 30] Read-only file system:

How would I be able to give write permissions to the pip console of QPython so I can write to a folder on /sdcard?

Running Android Marshmallow 6.0 with root access.

You can create conf file in /etc/youtube-dl.conf . There you can specify the output folder by default.

Please specify an output folder where you have write permissions and it will work.


Gallery is displaying three, sometimes even four copies of the same file - why? I have a non-rooted Android phone running 4.0.4 (ICS). The phone has 3GB of internal storage and I have inserted a 16GB SD card. The SD card contains a number of audio and video files.

When I opened the stock Gallery app, the directories on the SD card were displayed as expected. However, there was one small problem: multiple copies of each video were being displayed.

Wondering if something had happened to the SD card, I unmounted it and inserted it into the card reader in my computer. After mounting the card, I opened a terminal and ran:

find * | grep .mp4

But the results were exactly what I expected - there was only a single copy of each video on the card. None of the files were duplicated.

Next, I tried clearing the cache of the Gallery app (Settings->Apps->Gallery->Clear Data). After relaunching the app, I discovered even more copies of each video.

One important detail to note: only the videos on the SD card appear duplicated. None of the videos on internal storage suffer from this problem.

Though it's not the identical situation, the solution which worked out for I'm seeing duplicated images and videos on Gallery might apply here as well:

Go to Settings→Apps→Manage Apps
Select the "All Apps" tab
Find the Gallery app, open its entry, tap "clear cache"
Do the same for the Media Storage app
Have the Media Scanner running again. This can be triggered by either

a reboot of the device (ugh!)
unmounting/mounting the external SDCard if any (hm...)
attach the device to your PC via USB, optionally copy some file to it, detach it again (ok...)
for repeated use, take a look at apps like e.g. Rescan Media, Scan Media, or SDrescan (yeah!)

Check if the duplicates are gone. If not, repeat everything, but this time additionally select to "delete data"


Reinstall AVD on Ubuntu 16.04 Emulator was not installed upon installing Android Studio. Here is the error when I call tools/android/avdmanager:

sh: 1: glxinfo: not found
sh: 1: glxinfo: not found
libGL error: unable to load driver: nouveau_dri.so
libGL error: driver pointer missing
libGL error: failed to load driver: nouveau
libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast
X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  155 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  24 (X_GLXCreateNewContext)
  Value in failed request:  0x0
  Serial number of failed request:  33
  Current serial number in output stream:  34

After a while, I am seeing a new error in a window popup

Cannot launch AVD in emulator.
Output:
libGL error: unable to load driver: nouveau_dri.so
libGL error: driver pointer missing
libGL error: failed to load driver: nouveau
libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast
X Error of failed request:  GLXBadContext
  Major opcode of failed request:  155 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  6 (X_GLXIsDirect)
  Serial number of failed request:  49
  Current serial number in output stream:  48
libGL error: unable to load driver: nouveau_dri.so
libGL error: driver pointer missing
libGL error: failed to load driver: nouveau
libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast
X Error of failed request:  GLXBadContext
  Major opcode of failed request:  155 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  6 (X_GLXIsDirect)
  Serial number of failed request:  49
  Current serial number in output stream:  48

I am using Android Studio 2.1.1 and Ubuntu 16.04 (x64). The following solved the problems (sh: 1: glxinfo: not found and libGL error:.) for me.

$ sudo apt-get install lib64stdc++6 (if it is not installed)
$ cd ~/Android/Sdk/tools/lib64/libstdc++
$ mv libstdc++.so.6 libstdc++.so.6.original
$ ln -s /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 ~/Android/Sdk/tools/lib64/libstdc++
$ sudo apt-get install mesa-utils (if it is not installed)


How can I save all contacts into google account? I did it using Gingerbread (Samsung Galaxy Ace 2), but with Ice Cream Sandwich (LG L5) I don't see appropriate action for that.
Previously I entered Contacts (ok), then selected Settings (ok), executed Google Merge (no such option), and Sync Data (disabled all the time).
I see only one available (not disabled) item that is relevant -- configuring sync option for my account, but I understand it will work non-stop, and I want action on demand, just from time to time, when I explicitly select it, not enabling a background sync process.
What also worries me, that in GB I could choose where to store contacts (phone, SIM, google), in ICS after initial import from SIM card to phone, I cannot choose anything.
UPDATE -- (hardcore) WORKAROUND
I found that for given single contact I can switch its type from phone to google, nice, but it does not solve the problem due to the amount of contacts.
UPDATE -- DON'T DO THIS
I tried to somehow do it automatically, so I did (but you don't):

change the mode of sending vcard to single file
share contacts
select all
type: gmail
recipient -- yourself
send
OK, switch to gmail app
open the attachment with contacts
choose target as google account
all contacts will be merged with existing ones, but now as google ones

And the last step is killing this workaround. Why? Because some contacts will be added (so when you had "A" you will have "A" for phone and "A" for google), the others will be joined (so when you had "A" you will have "A" as before, but now with double type -- phone and google). In short -- the result is mess. Now I have more work to do than manually switching one by one type of the contacts. Geee, progress, right? ;-/

If you want to "sync on demand only": Just enable sync at the time of demand for, say, 10 minutes while connected to your local Wifi -- and then disable it again. Enough time for the service to get its job done. You can do so in "Accounts & Sync"1, after chosing your Google account:

If next to "Sync contacts" you see the same circular symbol as the screenshot2 shows next to Sync Google Reader, you probably do not even need to activate the permanent sync, but simply hit it for a one-time "sync on demand".


Is there a way to adjust the size of the text when reading PDF files? When I use Aldiko to a book in epub format on a mobile device with a small screen, I can read it without problems. The text is adjustable to the size, the application has no issues.

The opposite is true when I'm reading pdf file. It's always a fight. The text is small and unadjustable and the application freezes.

Is there a way to adjust the size of the text in my PDF files so that they are more easily readable? I don't intend to read scanned pdfs (this would be even bigger fight). I would like to be able to adjust text size, do scaling and not have the application freeze. I'm open to trying other readers if Aldiko cannot handle this.

EDIT: The title was changed, but note that it's not only the change in the size of text. The text should be flexible to various sizes of devices. This is called floating text (or layout) in HTML terminology. A lot of PDF readers can change the text size without the text fitting the device screen.

Use ezPDF Reader and use its text column locking feature in landscape orientation (to kick out blank margins and use large device height as width of PDF). I find it useful on my 4.0-inch screen even for the codes because it doesn't change formatting to reflow text. But, if your screen size is much smaller than my one, it'd be useless to you.
Plus, it features voice reading. You can use that too.


camera has stopped unexpectedly I have a Micromax A25 running Android version 2.3.6. The camera no longer works on it. When I open up the camera app, it closes with an error message saying .com.mediaket.camera has stopped unexpectedly.

What should I do?

Clear App Cache/Data

The first thing you should try is clearing the cache for your camera app. In the phone settings, go to the applications manager and locate your camera app (the same screen you would use to uninstall the app). If your camera app is built-in, you may have to navigate to a tab that shows all apps installed, not just ones installed by the user.

There should be a button called Clear cache. Click this and then try opening the camera app.

If it still crashes, go back to the same screen and click Clear data. This will not delete your photos; it will reset the camera app settings and return it to the initial state when it was first installed.

Use a different camera app

Try installing another camera app from the Play Market. There are plenty of free ones available. If those work, perhaps your camera app is simply buggy or doesn't work with your device.

If other apps still can't access the camera, you may have a deeper problem.

Factory Reset

As a last resort, you can reset your device to factory settings. Make sure you back up any important data to your computer or to an external SD card.

Re-flash Rom

If a factory reset doesn't do it, you'll have to delve into deeper waters. Look around on XDA Forums or other places on how to flash a Rom to your device.

Replace Hardware

There is always the slight chance that your hardware is physically damaged. In that case, you'll just need to replace it or live without a camera.


Does the space used by app increase on updating? I'm working on Samsung Galaxy On7, Android 6.0-Marshmallow. Many apps like MS excel and word comes inbuilt, so I cannot move them to sd card, and they are taking up huge space on the phone memory.

Now, b other of these apps have released updates of size about 50MB. The mobile data is not a problem, but will the size of the app increase if I update it? If it increases,  then I cannot install the updates.

I tried contacting the app developers but got no response from their side. So, it'll be very helpful to me if anyone knowing this can explain the bit.

N.B.: I don't have a rooted phone, and nor do I want to root it, and thereafter use apps like Link2SD.

If you are asking about the apps that came pre-installed with your device: Yes, their updates definitely will consume additional space, for a simple reason: The pre-installed apps are stored on the /system partition, which is read-only during normal operations¹ – so the update cannot be written there. Instead, it goes to the user /data partition. So with an update applied, there are always 2 copies of the app on your device.

You can easily tell affected apps when going to Settings › Apps and checking their entry. If it shows a button labeled "uninstall updates", that's a clear indicator.

All you can do in such cases is "disabling" the app – that is, if you don't use it anyway. Disabled apps are not updated, and already installed updates will be removed when disabling them. If at a later point you decide to enable them again, updates will be applied again as well.

¹ That usually means: always, except when applying system updates


Remove unneeded 'system apps', and notifications (tool) There does appear to be cumbersome methods: (that you may not know of ..)
(1.) Goto: Settings > Applications Manager
For each application, un-tick 'Show notifications', press 'Ok'.
( repeat 100 times )
(2.) Goto: Settings > Applications Manager > (scroll to right) (select ALL)
For each SYSTEM application (you don't want, eg. Google+):

un-tick 'Show notifications', press 'Ok'
click 'Force Stop', wait .., click 'Ok'
click 'Remove Updates', wait .., click 'Ok'
click 'Disable', wait .., click 'Ok'  (option not visible, until updates removed)

( repeat as needed, for: Chat On, Group Play, Hang Outs (Talk), You Tube, Game Hub, WiFi Direct + WiFi Direct Share )

My real question ..
Is there a tool to automate this? (global disable-notifications, simple un-tick for system 'bloatware')

Why is this not in Google Play (from desktop browser)? More of a philosophical question.
What portion of (unwanted) data traffic is caused by this 'bloatware'?

As WiKi says, such a tool would require root on your phone. For security reasons, only system apps can enable and disable notifications for an app, only system apps can force-stop other apps, and only system apps can disable other apps. You really wouldn't want every app on your phone to be able to turn on notifications for itself and disable the Settings app so you can't turn them off again.

If you want to disable most of your system apps, it sounds like it might be better for you to replace the OS with a custom-rom. The tag wiki for that page will give you some hints to get started. Be warned before you decide: you do need to unlock the bootloader to achieve this, and you should take a backup first as it's an advanced procedure: people do manage to brick their phones this way.

As a quick note: most of the apps you list are Samsung's apps. Samsung are known for shipping particularly bloat-heavy software, so you may find it easier to buy a phone from a different manufacturer next time. Nexus phones in particular run a very minimal Android: that's their main selling point.


How do I send my own IR signal the with IR blaster? How do I send my own IR signal with the IR blaster?

I have a projector that came with an IR remote that doesn't have an app already. I want to program my galaxyS4 to control it. I have IR receivers that I can see the signal on via an arduino but I'm lost as to how to get to my phones own IR blaster.

This remote is widely accepted as being incredibly up to date, and compatible with hundreds of devices. It is not free, but there is a free version.
Something like this app lets you add codes for various devices.
In terms of programming, this would be off topic here, but since there might be alternatives you can use I've answered this. You could use the Android SDK and write an IR app yourself using the Andrid 4.4 APIs.

Infrared transmitters
When running on a device that includes an infrared (IR) transmitter, you can now transmit IR signals using the ConsumerIrManager APIs. To get an instance of ConsumerIrManager, call getSystemService() with CONSUMER_IR_SERVICE as the argument. You can then query the device's supported IR frequencies with getCarrierFrequencies() and transmit signals by passing your desired frequency and signal pattern with transmit().
You should always first check whether a device includes an IR transmitter by calling hasIrEmitter(), but if your app is compatible only with devices that do have one, you should include a <uses-feature> element in your manifest for "android.hardware.consumerir" (FEATURE_CONSUMER_IR).

(Note: I have zero involvement with any of the apps listed)


Popups, dialogs, notifications, toasts: what's the difference? I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with an unwanted pop-up message, and the person who's trying to help asked what kind of pop-up it is. It's just a message on the screen, what difference does it make? And how do I tell what kind it is?

Android has different ways for apps to give you information or get your attention, and they all have different names. App developers need to know the differences, and when to use each one, so they can code the correct behaviour in their apps. Even as an end user, if you want to troubleshoot a problem, find which app is giving you messages, or describe some behaviour (for example, when reporting a bug to a developer), it saves you time and confusion if you can call each thing by its correct name.

Notifications

Notifications are the most common feedback mechanism on Android. They look like icons in the top-left of the screen (the notification bar). On Honeycomb and ICS tablets, they instead show up in the system bar, in the bottom-right next to the clock.

In Jellybean and above, once you've expanded the notification drawer (like in the screenshot), you can long-tap a notification to get a menu with one item, App info. Clicking this item tells you which app is responsible for the notification. You can also stop this app showing any further notifications from that screen.

Some apps create notifications to advertise things at you. This is now (since September 2013) banned under Google Play's rules, so you should report as malicious any apps that do this, from the app's page in the Play Store app.

Often your phone will play a sound or will vibrate with a notification, but not always: it's up to the app which created it.

Toasts

A toast is a small message that shows up in its own box near the bottom of the screen, and disappears on its own after a few seconds. It's usually a response to an action you've just performed, but in fact a toast can come from any app, not just the one in the foreground. A toast can't interact with you (you can't click on it or type into it), so there's no need to worry about it "stealing focus" like on a PC. There's no indication of which app created the toast.

Dialogs

A window that appears, with buttons you can click or a list of options to choose from, is called a dialog box, or dialog for short. (It's spelt the American way even in British English.) They almost always relate to the foreground app. Strictly speaking, from a developer's point of view a "dialog" is any non-fullscreen activity window, but they're usually used for simple confirmations or choices, like in the screenshot.

Interstitials

In the marketing world, an interstitial is a page or screen that comes in between two others. They're commonly used to show large-format ads in ad-supported apps and games: you click a button in the app, and an interstitial shows for a few seconds before you get to the next screen.

Summary

Next time you want to discuss or troubleshoot some kind of message that pops up on the screen, you'll know what to call it, and you can make it easier for others to help you.


Will I get automatically lifetime FREE updates if I pay for an app? If I buy a paid app, will I be able to get free updates for the rest of the lifetime of that app or should I pay later for the updates?

What's the norm? Can you perhaps give 1-2 examples?

Thanks!

If the developer keeps releasing updates to the app as the same packagename and you already purchased the application previously, then should receive updates for the application for free.

E.g. if you went and purchased my app then you should get updates so long as I keep updating this specific packagename of the app: net.mandaria.cardashboardpro

However, I could at some point in the future decide that I want more money for the application and release a newer version of the application under a new packagename: net.mandaria.cardashboarddeluxe You would not get a free update to this app, even if it is technically the same application, I have chosen to release it as a separate app in the eyes of the Android Market (which determines two applications to be different solely by their package name).

However, I could still charge you for more money by including (optional?) in-app purchases or subscriptions that did not previously exist without changing the package name.  Carrying the same example, I could still use net.mandaria.cardashboardpro but have an in-app purchase for the "deluxe" features.

Most developers will not do these things to users who have already purchased their application, but it isn't impossible. Once such example of a developer trying to charge for a newer version of his application was psx4droid. The backlash was so vicious from his users that he went back and updated the older (version 1) of his app to the newer version (version 2).  He now has to maintain three versions because of this (version 1 and 2, plus a free version) instead of two.  Talk about a developer headache.

So ultimately it depends on what the developer decides to do.  In the majority of cases, the developer will keep supporting the same app and you receive the latest updates for free after your purchase.


Photos / Files / Media permission I've seen a lot of apps that have media / files permission access requested when installing from Play Store.
Does that mean they can go at my personal photos and send it back to themselves?

Sorry if it's a bit paranoid but I don't like people stealing my photos.

Yes, this is the "Access external storage" permission which gives apps access to access your internal and/or external /sdcard space.  Your photos are typical stored under /sdcard/DCIM/ or /sdcard/Photos/, etc.
As explained here:

Photos/Media/Files
The Modifying or deleting the contents of your USB storage permission allows data tomfoolery, like uploading private camera images to a server.
It’s a legitimate permission for data sharing. A cloud storage app like Dropbox uses it, for example. But an app that doesn't need your photos could look at all the pictures you've taken on your device and do who knows what with them. Are you comfortable with the developer seeing all your photos?


After Upgrading to lollipop, pattern lock issue, after unlock again screen locks , very annoyinig I have upgraded my Moto G2 phone set to Lollipop version, After I did this facing issue with screen pattern lock/unlocking.

After I unlock screen, it goes lock again and this continues until I frustrated and I leave my phone untouched for sometime. Then I try after some time should be ok.

Very annoying and making life complex when desperately need to use.

Please some one share if you have face similar issue and resolved. Thanks.

Cheers
Sankar

I know this is dumb... but are you using flip cover. I had similar problem with my oneplus one recently and in the oneplus one forums they say that this is caused by the magnet in the flip cover. When you fold it back it falsely triggers the locking mechanism it seems. Although i agree to this i don't know how it wakes after sometime!!


HTC: multiple notifications I've recently bought HTC Desire and tried to setup all settings etc. But I have two problems:

Twitter notifications are delivered from Twitter app, HTC Twitter widget and something called Peep. Same message appears 2-3 times.
I've installed Skype. Is is possible not to receive notifications on Android if I have Skype turned on on PC? It's very annoying when I'm chatting with someone on Skype on PC and receive Android Skype notification every 20 seconds.

No idea, not using twitter on my phone (@Matthew read's idea has merit)
Open skype, hit menu, Settings, uncheck notifications you don't want to see.


I lost my phone, can I recover the data from my Google account? I've lost my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy Star duos) last month. And now I realized that it contained very important data of mine. I believe that my phone was connected to the Google account almost all the time.

My question is, "Can I get my data (photos) back, from my Google account (connected to my phone)".

You're probably SOL since the battery is dead by now. Still, on the off-chance it isn't, check out Plan B (described at http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-track-a-cell-phone/). When you install an app through the Play Store on the computer, it is automatically installed on your phone.

If you used some service that syncs photos or other data somewhere else (e.g. syncing photos to Picasa) then you could find everything you backed up there. If you didn't, then you assumed this risk by placing all your eggs in one basket and never transferring data off of your phone. Perhaps your service provider had some automatic backup software running (e.g. Verizon backup) in which case you could contact them to ask how to recover data.

The fact is, if your data was that important, you should have taken steps to protect it ahead of time, and you should not have waited so long to try and locate the device; and now you are faced with the consequences of that negligence.

If you choose to keep all of your critical data on, say, a thumb drive, or an external hard drive, or a CD/DVD-ROM, and you have no backups and you lose that device, then, whoops, that's the risk you assumed by keeping it all in one place. It's the same with your smartphone.

Steps to protect it include anything that generally backs up your data elsewhere (be it specialized software that syncs photos, or general software e.g. MyBackup Pro), and any software that may help you locate the phone if it is lost (see the link above for more tips there).


How do I upload multiple pictures at once to Facebook? Gallery seems to lack the ability to upload to Facebook when multiple pictures are selected.

Is there easy way to upload a bunch of photos at once to Facebook or is it something that you have to do one at a time?

Try this FriendCaster for Facebook app. This has a feature to upload multiple pictures from Gallery.


sleep setting not saving on nexus 5 On my Nexus 5 every time I change for sleep setting to 10 minutes it's simply reverts back to one minute.

I have the latest version of Android and have tried Powering off and restarting several times.

What can I do?

The sleep timeout and other screen lock settings can be restricted by a device policy. This is something that you might install to access a corporate VPN or mail server, and additionally some kinds of security apps (such as antivirus). They can force security-related settings to particular values, e.g. to make sure that your work email will be secure even if you leave your device unattended.

You can see and deactivate device administrators from the main Settings app. Look under Device administrators. Most Android devices have "Android Device Manager" in that list, so ignore that, but anything else there could be restricting your screen lock settings.


If I choose the Original option in Google Photos will only photos above 16 MP be counted against my quota? I have some photos that are higher than 16 mp and some photos taken on my phone that are less.

I want to back it all up to Google Photos but I don't want to select High Quality as I don't want the photos above 16 mp to be compressed.

If I select original, will only the photos exceeding 16 MP be counted toward my 15GB quota? That is if I select Original, and I never upload anything above 16MP, will all my photos be part of the unlimited storage?

If you choose the original option, every photo and video you upload will count towards your quota. As stated in the Google Photos help article, using the "original" setting counts against your free storage, regardless of your photo size.

Whether there's a cost depends on your settings. You can choose between 2 storage sizes for backing up your photos and videos:
High quality: Unlimited free storage for photos and videos that might be reduced in size or resolution.
Original: Counts against your Google account's 15 GB of free storage for photos and videos that are stored exactly as you captured them.

Google help also points out that

If the camera takes photos with 16 megapixels (MP) resolution or lower, most stored photos will essentially look the same using either storage option.

You can also change your mind at any time, however -

Changing the setting will affect storage sizes going forward and won't resize items you've already stored.

Sources: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6220791 and https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313


can I replace my tablet battery with a phonoe one I have a tablet with 3.7v li-ion battery which lasts few minutes on ...
and an old phone with the same type and voltage battery can I replace tablet battery with this one? and how?

If they are literally the same (size ,voltage ,capacity) then it will work just fine


How can I stream audio from another device via Bluetooth? Related question: How can I stream music/audio from Android and PC to Android device via WiFi?

I would like to stream audio from a Bluetooth-enabled "dumb phone" to my Andoid phone. The Android phone is running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4). I have searched the Play store for such an app, but all I could find were applications that did the opposite (stream audio from the Android phone instead of to it).

Is this somehow possible?

The Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) is a source/sink configuration. In an normal scenario, you have a source (for example, and Android phone) and a sink (Bluetooth headset/speakers). But in your case, the Android phone would have to act as a sink to the dumbphone source. This is not currently supported, even though the phone supports the A2DP profile.

One solution would be to install a custom Bluetooth stack, which defines which profiles are supported on the device. This would additionally require a software component that can bypass the Android Framework and use the stack directly, since the framework lacks A2DP sink support. So far, no such modifications can be found.


Signature verification failed when flashing custom kernel (Siyah) I am trying to flash a custom kernel (Siyah-s2-v6.0b5-CWM) to my Samsung Galaxy S2.

When I go to recovery mode, click apply update from sdcard, and select the file, it shows this:

Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
E:signature verification failed
install_package = (2)
installation aborted.

Any ideas what to do?

Is your phone still using the stock recovery? That may be the problem.

If you're trying to flash / update ClockWorkMod (CWM) zips, then you need to have CWM recovery on your phone. An easy way to install CWM would be described in this answer; needs root.


Disable a specific WiFi network from automatically connecting to in Android I have several WiFi networks setup on my android device. I want most of them to automatically connect, but one specifically I don't want to automatically connect to. I want to manually connect to it only.

I don't want to forget it because I don't want to lose the settings for it.

Android automatically connects to all WiFi networks it has configured. So basically, if you do not want that to happen, you could either turn WiFi off (which would also disable to connect to the other WiFi networks, which is not what you want) -- or delete the configuration for the network you don't want to connect to automatically (which would make you lose its settings, on the first glance).

The first option is not in your interest -- but the second can be helpful, even if you don't see this immediately. You could use an app like WiFi QR Share first to convert that networks settings into a QR code, then print out this generated QR code. Store it in a safe place (e.g. laminate it, cut it down to credit-card size, and put it in your briefcase). Now delete this WiFi networks configuration -- it will no longer auto-connect.

If you want to connect it manually, that does not mean to enter all the configuration again: Simply open your QR Code reader (Barcode Scanner should do fine), scan the QR, and connect. Don't forget to delete the configuration again afterwards.

Unfortunately, there's no way to mark a network "manual only", so this seems the easiest way to me.


External SD card no longer able to be read on CM11 I successfully installed CM11-M2 snapshot on my Razr Maxx (xt912, spyder). I was able to use my camera successfully on the device after install. However, now a few weeks in, I am experiencing a few issues related to my external SD card.

My camera no longer works with an error "Insert an SD card before using the camera"
When attempting to download a file through the browser I get an error stating that an "SD card is required" to download the file
I use the app EBookDroid, which allows opening files from the filesystem, while I have an entry for sdcard1 (my external SD card), I cannot view any files inside of it
With root permissions on my File Manager, I can navigate through and view files in my external SD card, but cannot open them in any other applications

After a little investigating, I see the path /mnt/media_rw/ which contains two mounted partitions of sdcard0 and sdcard1. These paths belong to the user and group named media_rw. My best guess is that this issue is related to these permissions. Here is output of ls -la on /mnt/media_rw

drwx------ media_rw media_rw             2014-03-06 12:47 sdcard0
drwxrwx--- media_rw media_rw             1969-12-31 19:00 sdcard1

Is there an fstab file I can verify (I dont see one in /etc/fstab). Or am I barking up the wrong tree with media_rw. Can anyone assist?

How old is your SD card? Does it work under stock? If it doesn't work under either, I wonder if the SD card is going bad? How long have you had it and do you do a lot of writing to it? If so, then the card might be going bad as SD cards have a limited lifespan. The more you write to it, the shorted the lifespan.

Do you have another SD card you could try? I would also do a chkdsk on it to see if any bad sectors are found. If so, time to ditch it and get a new card.


How to block all phone calls, but only allow SMS and networking? It's kinda disturbing when people keep calling me during work or meetings, but to me it's okay if I receive short messages or Whatsapp message because I can reply them few minutes later in a short break. I'm new Android user and wonder if my phone could do that for me.

You can use the tried and tested Call Barring method

Go to Settings
Select Call Settings
Look for Call barring
Now select All Incoming
Enter your default PIN (1234)

There, all incoming calls will be blocked. You may still be able to place calls unless you barred that too.

This feature is carrier network dependent and it already exists in the dumbphone era. Still useful though.


How to install a custom keyboard in Android? I read this article which says that I can "can install any custom keyboard as the default keyboard on Android". How can I do that? Does it require rooting?

Yes you can. I've used Swype as well as TouchPal Keyboard as alternatives.

Once you install any new keyboard, just go to Settings > Language & Keyboard to set your keyboard/text settings.


Device always boots in recovery mode, but apparently there is no recovery partition We have a BSNL Penta IS709c (cheapest tablet currently available / Oct 2012) running Android 4.0.

Feeling adventurous, I issued reboot recovery through adb and the device tried to reboot in recovery mode. However turns out that there is probably no recovery partition and the device is stuck at following screen. Rebooting the device doesn't help and it always boots to following screen.

So, what can I do to boot it back in normal mode? I'd also like to point out that this device does not has Volume Up and Volume Down buttons. Available 4 physical buttons are Power/Home/Menu/Back.

Press the power button for 10 seconds and its going to reboot itself if you have not corrupted any system partitions. Or try adb reboot bootloader and from there select the start button and press it with the power key.


Web browser - how to pass true native resolution to prevent sites from serving up mobile responsive design How can Chrome (or some other browser) be configured to tell websites its resolution is the native resolution of the phone and not a reduced resolution that's adjusted for being high DPI?  "Request desktop site" works for some sites, but not all, and ones that detect the resolution of the phone will show the mobile "responsive" layout.  For example, if I Google "what is my screen resolution" and visit the first site, it reports 360x640 even though my phone is 1440x2560.  I'm running Lollipop if that matters.

It turns out you can use Firefox for Android to do this:

In the address bar go to about:config and then search for pixels.
Select layout.css.devPixelsPerPx and change the value from -1.0 (default) to 1 if you
want sites to think the resolution of your browser is the true
native resolution of the screen rather than a DPI-adjusted value.
If you have a super high resolution screen like a QHD (1440x2560),
you may want to set this to 2 rather than 1, and then if you use the
phone in landscape mode, your resolution will be 1280x720 which
won't make things as small by default as setting it to 1 would.

Using the above in conjunction with "Request desktop site" should do a great job at always showing the desktop site for not only user-agent-detection-based sites but also for responsive media-query-based sites.


Twitter Feed is auto refreshing This has been happening for a while and I'm finally trying to fix it. Whenever I open my twitter application, it always auto refreshes the timeline feed. If I haven't checked it in a while, it automatically goes to the top of my feed. I've tried clearing the data, uninstalling, even switching phones. Does anyone know whats going on? If not, are there other suggestions for twitter clients?

This is what twitter is supposed to do, it's not a bug, however if you want to try some other twitter clients here are some (Paid and Free)

Talon for Twitter - Paid

Carbon for Twitter - Free

Plume for Twitter - Free


Use app without google play? I want to develop an app for my class. Can that app work on my friends aka class mates device without uploading it on the google play.If possible then how?

Yeah it is Possible.

I think you are developing your app using Android Studio. In Android Studio go to the option Build -> Build APK for building your app. Then you can share your app with your friends. But Android requires that all APKs be digitally signed with a certificate before they can be installed. So you need to sign your app.
Here is a tutorial for building signed app. Then Click on Build -> Build signed APK for building your app.


All links open in Browser, how to stop it? So I got a rather new (but cheap)  Y100 Plus from Dogee with Android 5.1 and ALL Links open to the browser.
Even when someone sends me a Location, it opens Google Maps in Browser instead of the App.

I was NEVER prompted with what app to open any link, which is pretty weird, and probably the cause of my problems.
That also means that resetting the preferences on my Browser doesnt do anything (tried that).
More annoying, "Open Link With" which would have been my workaround doesnt hep, because my browser doesnt give me the share option.

If you only have a single app for browsing installed on your phone, then all links will have to be opened in it, if the app from which you are clicking the link doesnt provide in-app webview, to open links.


Is it possible record videos of my screen? Suppose that I would like to record some video sessions of Angry Birds on my phone.

Are there any apps that I can use? I have root permissions.

I just read a review of Screen Cast & Screen Recorder that's pretty compelling.  It requires root, like any on-device solution I'm aware of, but can record decent quality video at up to 30 FPS.  The review has example captures from various games and the videos are good enough for most anything you'd want, unless you need HD video for some reason.  The app has a free trial so I definitely recommend trying it out.


Micromax Unite 2 A106 updated to Lollipop version and no network or sim detected Using Micromax Unite 2 A106, updated to latest version of lollipop, after finalization and restarting my phone is not able to detect any SIM/network. Also no display of selection of Mobile network is displayed in the Settings.

If I try to dial any number the msg "Please close the airplane mode" is displayed. I tried reverting back to old version, removing the battery for 5-10 min, replaced another SIM network, but no change in the problem

me and my sis using this phone for almost 10 months...
First my sis upgraded her phone by downloading the official fota upgrade file from her phone and installed it. She also got same network issue.
Then I went to nearest service center and ask them about that issue and they had told me not to install by your own because it will delete the IMEI registration.
Then i had upgraded mine and my sister's phone to lollipop 5.0 in nearest service center.
Hope your problem will be resolved soon...


Internal storage fills up I had a sony xperia C with a 16GB memory card... My internal storage kept filling up which made it unable to update or download any apps. The only apps i had was whatsapp and instagram. Sent my phone in. Had to pay for repairs, was in for 6weeks and got phone bback but still same errors... I got a new phone (Huawei G6), brand new 16GB and a new google play store account... phone set to default storge location is SD card.. moved all app that i could to sd card. I only have 10 songs and about 100 pictures... I clear cache everyday probably 500 everyday. I really don't know what I'm doing wrong please help.

It seems your internal app partition is full. Check it on Settings> Storage> under phone storage what left as available on app section. If it is full (150mb free is not usable) you have 2 options:

You can swap your external SD. You can read full note here: (NB: it works if you have a MTK device, I don't know what if other devices) How to swap phone storage with SD card
Partition of external SD. read it here: How to Partition SD Card and Use Link2SD in any Android Phone with Screenshots

Hope it helps.


WhatsApp Android: Auto move images Is there any way to automatically move images from different person to different folders?

No. But WhatsApp does manage images for you. You can see all images posted in a particular chat by clicking on the Name of the group or person.


Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge How do I stop my text messages from coming through my emails?  Text messages are coming through my work email computer.  I am trying to unsuccessfully find the turn off for the sms.  However, I cannot find it or directions.  I have found directions for the S4, but those are incorrect.

Open the Native Email application

Select 'More'

Select Settings

Select your work/email account

Scroll down to 'Exchange ActiveSync Settings'

Turn 'Sync Messages' to OFF


Facebook app requires repeated sign-in Recently, the Facebook app on my Droid 1 (Android 2.2.2) started prompting me to sign-in throughout the day. I get a pop up that says:

Facebook Sign-in
Please re-enter your Facebook password

It shows my username and asks for my password.

It seems that if I don't use the phone for a few hours, when I pick it up, this sign-in is waiting for me.

Any ideas why? or what changed?

Update - not sure, but http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=13331773 says

  It seems like the mobile app doesn't
  play nice with HTTPS (secure browsing)
  if you have it enabled on the Facebook
  website. After disabling HTTPS on the
  full Facebook website under Account
  Settings, I was able to log in and
  stay logged in without an issue.

I don't want to give up secure browsing, but perhaps there was a bug in a recent udpate to the app?

I had issues with the last Facebook update, the one that came out the past 2 weeks.  I uninstalled it and reinstalled it and now it works correctly.  My issue wasn't quite the same as yours, it kept redirecting to the mobile website (although I do suspect some http vs. https issue), but I would give it a try.  I know the advice seems weird because the update is like a new install, but it worked for me.


How do you keep your phone vibrating indefinitely? I'm suspecting that the vibrator in my phone is not working properly. Before opening the case, I'd like to diagnose first. I need to make my phone keep vibrating for a while, say, like 2 minutes or more. I haven't found any good solution other than calling this phone with another.

I'd like to keep it vibrating without generating other sound, e.g. ringtone when someone calls you.

Since it is a one time test, suggest a simple macro using Macrodroid

Use + to add Trigger /actions from the corresponding panel

Trigger: Empty Trigger

Actions

Repeat actions → Fixed number → OK → Fixed count say 70
Tap on end loop → Add action above → Vibrate → Long buzz → OK
Tap on end loop again to add one more action of wait 1 second

From Overflow menu choose Test Macro and your phone should buzz almost continuously for long enough ( increase count in step 1 if required )


How can I reset my phone without losing everything? I have a Samsung Galaxy S I9000, it keeps lagging; freezing and turning on and off by itself. I want to reset it, if I do will I lose all my photos, contacts etc etc..? I can't figure out how to transfer everything on to my SD card.

If you do a factory reset, your SD card will not be touched.  Your pics, etc will all stay put.  If you've selected your Google account as the default way to store your contacts, they will all repopulated from Google after you set up your phone.

If you want to be sure you're saving settings, etc. download Titanium Backup from the Google Playstore and do a full backup.  After you've reset your phone, reinstall Ti and then do a restore from back up.  Super simple!