Linux on Android - viewing file structure I have installed Linux (Ubuntu distro) on my Android tablet, a Nexus 7 (no SD card at all), in a so-called CHroot install.

I am a Linux beginner, so my understanding is quite limited.

When in Linux (using a terminal emulator on the SSH service, logged in as root), I list the contents of the top level "/" directory and can see 18 directories, including: bin proc sys mnt srv home srv ..... and others

When using the Android app "ES File Explorer" (aka FX), I can only see 13 folders.
There is some overlap, but some directories are unique to the FX view, and some are missing.

For example, the folder '/vendor' is visible in FX, but not on the linux terminal.
Also, the folder /mnt shows different contents when I check it in FX versus the linux terminal.

I created a new test directory on the linux terminal, but cannot "see' it when I use FX.

I should note that my Android tablet has been rooted (verified), and I have turned on the Root option inside ES File Explorer, which allows me to successfully browse the "/" directory and subdirectories.

Why do I see a different directory structure when I view it via linux terminal versus the Android File Explorer?

Hours later:  Having read up more on Linux Deploy, it seems to me that use of the "chroot" feature is part of the explanation - the root level and tree structure for the Linux environment is located at a lower level somewhere within the Android 'main system's tree structure - a "virtual" root so to speak.

However, that still means I should be able to "see" it using FX, shouldn't it?  And how do I know where this virtual root is located within the Android tree?

This is due to your CHroot install. The entire Linux hard drive is probably contained inside of a binary file or disk image.

When you start Linux, you have to use the Android app. It acts like a virtual machine controller. The app mounts the Linux disk image in memory and loads Linux. Linux can never see outside of this sandbox virtual filesystem, and native Android cannot see into it either. Since Android sees it as a single file, ES File Explorer can't view the contents directly (it would see a file named something like Linux_HD.img).

The reason some folders are the similar is because Android OS and Linux OS share a similar codebase. Both Android and Linux (and Mac) have some default folders, such as /mnt, /etc and others. But the naming is purely coincidental for your purpose; changing files within the folder on the virtual Linux install won't modify the Android files.

Depending on the app you use to install and run Linux, it may have an option to mount parts of the Android folder within the Linux file structure.


Can't save contacts in Sony Xperia I have a Sony Xperia with Android OS 4.0.4. Until recently it worked fine but now my SIM contacts are all gone. I can't save in sim either.

While saving in contacts I used to get option whether to save on SIM or on phone – but now I don't get the SIM access: this options simply no longer shows up. I tried it with another SIM, but the problem persists.

I have the problem to save the contact on the contact list
they said you have to clear data of
 Setting->App ->All ->Contacts
then restart the phone.
I tried it, it worked,
but I've to do it everytime I save a new contact?!!!


Titanium Backup "insufficient free storage space" error Because of my external SD card issue, I thought I should factory reset my phone then reinstall the firmware on it. Before I'd do that though, I'd have to back up my apps and their data so that I can restore it afterwards. For that purpose, I had been relying on Titanium Backup Pro, so I entered the app, changed the backup directory to /storage/emulated/legacy/TitaniumBackup (as the external SD card was unavailable) and attempted to backup all user apps and system data. A progress dialogue appeared and was stuck at 0% for about 30 seconds until it close and Titanium Backup displayed the notification 'Batch backup interrupted: Insufficient free storage space' despite having 7 gigabytes left on /storage/emulated/legacy.

I tried searching on Google for a solution - the only one that came up was to remove /data/app/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup-1.odex but the file did not exist on my end. How can I fix this issue?

Clarification: My copy of Titanium Backup is a Pro version activated by a Pro key obtained from the Google Play store. There is no need for any external patchers, cracks or keygens.

This is due to the 'Mount namespace separation' setting in SuperSU being turned on (by default). Untick that, reboot and try your Titanium Backup operation again.

This happens because the permissions to app-created folders are restricted in newer Android versions, I believe. Ironically, I didn't have this issue on Marshmallow-based CM13, but I did face it in the Lollipop-based OxygenOS for the OnePlus One.


Do I have to download the movie again, if I rented it and it expired? Once a movie I have rented from the AppStore has expired, and I wish to rent it again, do I have to download it again? Or can I just pay the additional charge and keep watching the file that's already on my device?

This probably depends on. If you just "recharge" within your rental window, the file is still on the device, and you probably don't have to download it again. However, once the rental period is expired, the Google Play Movies & TV App will delete the file on its next execution (see this thread on the DroidRZR forum), as it has "expired". Without this purge function, you could run out of space whith useless files occupying your disk, so I'd consider this normal behaviour.

This means: Re-rental after the rental window has expired will most likely make a re-download necessary -- while when still within your rental video, the app should simply keep the file (at least theoretically -- not sure whether the expiration date is somehow coded into the file name).


What are these files in DCIM folder? I was wondering if someone here knew what are these files:

I've put it in image format because their file names are weird? I just found out that these files are present in my sd card, inside the DCIM images folders and all images are gone except the thumbnails.

My images are gone and another problem is that I cannot delete them(maybe format but that's my last option i think). They stick in that folder and even moving isn't possible.

Any help or suggestions. Thanks!

These are not files but invalid file entries, caused by a corrupted allocation table on the SD card, which in turn is caused by a bad sector. A bad sector on the card is a good sign that card is defective and should be replaced.

You can try recovering some files by running a disk check program on PC.


Where is the database to save android volumes In android settings database, we can see below items:

  <setting id="96" name="volume_music_bt_sco_hs" value="15" package="android" />
  <setting id="4" name="volume_alarm" value="6" package="android" />
  <setting id="0" name="volume_music" value="11" package="android" />
  <setting id="3" name="volume_voice" value="4" package="android" />
  <setting id="78" name="volume_ring_bt_a2dp" value="1" package="android" />
  <setting id="1" name="volume_ring" value="5" package="android" />
  <setting id="93" name="volume_alarm_bt_sco_hs" value="7" package="android" />
  <setting id="38" name="volume_voice_bt_a2dp" value="6" package="android" />
  <setting id="6" name="volume_bluetooth_sco" value="7" package="android" />
  <setting id="34" name="volume_voice_earpiece" value="6" package="android" />
  <setting id="70" name="volume_alarm_speaker" value="6" package="android" />
  <setting id="148" name="volume_voice_headset" value="1" package="android" />
  <setting id="55" name="volume_music_bt_a2dp" value="15" package="android" />
  <setting id="71" name="volume_bluetooth_sco_earpiece" value="9" package="android" />
  <setting id="5" name="volume_notification" value="5" package="android" />
  <setting id="89" name="volume_voice_bt_sco_hs" value="1" package="android" />
  <setting id="132" name="volume_ring_speaker" value="7" package="android" />
  <setting id="146" name="volume_music_headset" value="5" package="android" />
  <setting id="2" name="volume_system" value="7" package="android" />
  <setting id="116" name="volume_bluetooth_sco_bt_sco_hs" value="15" package="android" />
  <setting id="42" name="volume_bluetooth_sco_bt_a2dp" value="9" package="android" />
  <setting id="65" name="volume_music_headphone" value="5" package="android" />
  <setting id="76" name="volume_bluetooth_sco_headset" value="9" package="android" />

But it's not the actual volume settings but default ones. so if I changed the volume settings in UI, which database will save such settings?

The file does reflect the changes. You need to observe it a bit more carefully.

My little research tells me that in Android 4.2.1, 4.4.2, 5.0.2 and 5.1.1, most of the changes performed in Settings app are saved in an SQLite database of Settings Storage/Providers app, located at /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db.

Some of the settings can be found in the private data directory of Settings app, which is  /data/data/com.android.settings.

However, the preformatted text in your question appears to be been taken from settings_system.xml. The file is located under /data/system/users/0 (or an appropriate position in case of full disk encryption).

That file is available only in Android Marshmallow release and it does reflect the changes made through Volume button.

Example:

(Lines starting with echo are only for the purpose of explaining what I'm going to do with consecutive command. Avoid executing them. adbs stands for adb shell.)

I suppose the source code or official documentation for developers would provide a better idea on what other keys starting with volume_ are meant for.


Wi-Fi not working on home router after ICS update (Galaxy S2) Can someone help me? I'm really frustrated now and eating through my data like theres no tomorrow. Since I did the ICS update I can't connect my samsung galaxy s2 to my home wireless router (belkin n1)! It says obtaining ip address...authenticating...saved secured with wpa/wpa2 psk and then repeats over and over again! But no Wi-Fi, and I cant get online etc...

Does anyone know what would cause this? How do I fix it?

What steps have you undertaken to resolve the problem?

Some suggestions:

Try restarting the phone
Try removing the network entry ("Forget Network"), then add it again. Please make sure that you have the necessary information to reconnect before doing this.

edit: related Question


Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro (YT3-X90L) factory image, OTA update or backup needed i was playing around trying out some new stuff with my yoga tab and locked it.

I've tried to factory reset it, but it's still locked.
I've tried to flash twrp in hope to do something more, but to unlock my tab in locked state isn't allowed.

There is an old Google Account on it, but i can't remember it and now i'm sitting in front of my tab and staring on it and thinking about how to help my self. I can't, i need your help :(

thank you in advance for any help i can get

UPDATE:

I've tried so much things now.
1.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCzrnnh2K1w
I was able to follow this tutorial to minute 9:08. But the option "Email and password" is not there anymore. I guess they patched it with 6.0.1.
2.) I tried to flash a stock rom or twrp with LenovoDownloader(QcomDLoader). The stock rom file is: Lenovo_Yoga_Tablet_3_YT3-X90L_ENG_S200028_1609230146. even its a german device this file was the only one i could find.
But the LenovoDownloader won't recognize my device. The windows stays white, no entries. I guess i installed the correct driver for this device and Windows recognizes them as removable device if i plug it in via usb.
3.) i've tried to use adb and fastboot boot oem unlock. But this commands aren't working in locked state.
4.) With a trick i could open the Settings and was full of hope to active the developer options to set usb debbuging to active. But this developer options aren't available either with this "user".
6.) there is an apk for showing the "Email and password" interface. I could install it, but it force closes right after starting it.
7.)I've tried several tools to bypass this FRP: WinDroid Toolkit, D-G Unlocker, Realterm, but NOTHING.

What could i do further?
I'm out of ideas right now

Specs for the device:
Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro
YT3-X90L
Lenovo/YT3_l0_row_lte
6.0.1/MMB29M/LenovoYT3-X90L_S200307_170614

I've wrote it down. Translation by google, but i think it's all good :) Sry for not posting, needed some time.

Situation:
"Confirm account: The device has been reset. To continue, sign in with a Google Account that was previously synced on this device. "

Explanation:
The device has been blocked by repeated input of the wrong password, pattern, etc. and can only be unlocked with the Google account of the owner.
A factory reset or hard reset does not help here, as the account information is saved in its own FRP partition and will not be deleted when the factory state is restored.

Solution:
1. Connect device to a Wi-Fi and Internet access.
2. Before confirming "Next", select another hotspot here
3. Go to "Advanced Settings" and change the proxy settings of any hotspot to Manual.
4. In the text input field of the proxy settings you enter now any word: e.g. Test
5. Now mark this word and select "Assist" in the context menu.
6. Selecting this "Assist" option opens the Google search application.
7. You can now not only browse the Internet through this search, but also search for and open installed programs.
8. We are looking for Chrome, open the internet browser, go to www.google.com and search for DPC test.
Link: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/sample-developer/test-dpc/test-dpc-4-0-6-release/test-dpc-4-0-6-android-apk-download/
9. After downloading this application, go back to the Google search application.
10. Here we enter "Download" to search for the download application.
11. In Downloads we can now find and install the downloaded app.
12. To allow the installation of this .apk, you must allow the installation of "unknown sources" in the settings.
13. Either you go here on the installation itself on "Settings", or you search for "Settings" on the Google search app.
14. After completing the installation of the DPC-Test program, start it with "Open".
15. The app itself is will register as a device owner and now allows us to set up a new Google Account as owner.
16. If this is set up, it will also be included in the FRP partition.
17. In the event of a new factory reset, the device is reset, the DPC-Test program is removed and the device can be freshly set up in the factory settings.

after the takeover of the owner, the reason for blocking the device was not present anymore and the old owner was overwritten. This will be overwritten in the FRP partition aswell with the new account and the old one no longer queried.


Casting Nexus5 Screen to a smart TV without extra hardware I was wondering if there is any way to cast my Nexus 5 screen on to my Samsung Smart TV without any additional hardware such as chromecast.

If your smart TV supports the Miracast protocol for wireless displays, then you can cast to it just the same way you would a Chromecast.


Default terminal emulator/console There should be at least a console accessible since Android use the linux kernel.

Why is there no terminal emulator or console installed by default in Android OS ?

Is there a particular reason?

Terminal emulator is a developer level app which is not a highly usable app for general users there is no need for mobile manufactures to load this app at the time of manufacturing. also terminal emulator is not highly efficient as original terminal of linux.

Even in desktop variant of linux not every user have the hang of terminal other than some basic commands.


Your username and password don't match I've tried to log in to my Google Account on my phone and tablet, I've tried on a friends HTC and mine are Samsung. On all the devices, I get "Your username and password don't match" and instructions to reset the password. I have tried countless times, reset the password about 5 times and double checked, even quadruple checked. Tried copying and pasting the password, etc. I have tried logging in on the browsewr, it works fine. I have tried enabling access for less secure apps/devices, still nothing. 2 factor wasn't on, I tried turning it on twice, still nothing. Restarting the phone, checking the date, etc. I have tried signing in with a different Google account on the phone and it works like a charm but mine doesn't. I have been searching for hours, checked numerous Stack Overflow posts, Android Forums, etc. There (should) only be 1 Google Account (well, there isn't any in the settings right now). I think this was working before I factory reset it, but not sure.

TL;DR: Correct password, enabled & disabled less secure apps, tried turning off 2 factor, other account works, tried on other devices. Still nothing.

WTL;DR Not working, tried everything.

Go to your Google account settings from a browser and setup an App Password for the device.  I chose the option "Other..." from the app drop down list so that I could easily identify the device should I decide to revoke it later.

The sign-in problem was due to the Two-Step verification process I had previously setup on my account.


Reduce image size in Android Gallery Album view On OnePlus One Android version 5.1.1 and Cyanogen 12.1 when I open the Gallery app and select an album the photos in that album appear extremely large. Usually, I would be able to see approx 9-12 photos in the screen however now I see one and half photos. Is there anyway I can change the album view so that I can see multiple photos when I open up an album? I've searched a whole bunch of settings and online but no luck...

You might have changed the DPI from 480 (default) to 560. Keep it up to 520 DPI (go to Settings →  Display & lights).


"E:failed to mount" on Samsung Galaxy J5 after factory reset I have Samsung Galaxy J5, and after I do a factory reset, I got this error message

E:failed to mount /data (Invalid argument)
can't mount '/data' (Invalid argument)
E:failed to mount /data (Invalid argument)
E:Can't mount /data/log/recovery_log.txt

What does it mean and how to fix it?

your phone may be damaged now, So, I think that You have to install Stock ROM again. your phone will not avoid warranty. Stock Rom is default and official Rom.

But, some cases, do not we want to install Stock ROM again .. If we can force reset Samsung phone. Then it will settle. So you had better try to reset from PC before flashing ..


Bulk add words to the user dictionary in Android 7.1.1 without root I'm aware that since Android 6, Google doesn't allow apps to access the user dictionary anymore.

I have a user dictionary of about 500 words, which would be an incredible pain in the back to insert manually, so I'm looking for a viable method.

Previously I had a rooted Android 6, where I copied, modified and replaced the SQLite database on the phone. See this answer.

My current phone is not rooted, so I have no access to said database via adb or on the phone directly.

Is there no way to bulk add or copy/paste the user dictionary of the phone without rooting it?

There's a (paid) app which let you backup/restore and bulk add words to user dictionary:
user dictionary plus app


Where is the official location to conduct feature requests? I often have moments where I have improvement ideas for the Android OS, but don't know where to direct those suggestions.  What forum, group, mail list, site, app, etc. is used for official feature requests for the Android OS?

The Android Bug Report system.

Search to see if someone has already suggested the feature, then submit your idea using the feature request template.


My battery dies very quickly I've had this issue a couple of months ago too but then I could fix it by turning off an option at my WiFi settings.

Now the problem is back but it my previous solution doesn't work.

I own a Samsung Galaxy S5 and I've had it for about a year now. It runs on Android 4.4.2. At some point the battery started to die really fast, and I don't have a clue what the reason could be. When I check the battery usage, it says "Android-System" uses about 30-40% of my battery, but I don't have a clue where this service comes from or how to kill it.

Has anybody got a solution for this?

Sounds like you could use a factory reset. This will reload your operating system. After you do that I would load applications one by one and see if any of your apps are causing the battery drain.

Here is a guide on how to factory reset your phone:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/factory-reset-galaxy-s5/


What's the perfect internal storage preserving technique? Does link2sd and data2sd interfere? I have a rooted ZTE Blade with a fast 8 Gbyte SD card (it's fast enough, and partitioned to 6G + 2G) running on CM7, and I'm using LINK2SD, but I'm not perfectly happy with it. Altough, LINK2SD is far better than APP2SD I've used before, and all the apps are now linked to SD card, but somehow, I'm just getting low on internal space. I've read somewhere that private data is what remains on the internal storage. How can I kick everything out of that internal storage?

Can I use DATA2SD and LINK2SD together?
What about Simple2Ext?

Also, I've read that Titanium Backup can install stock app updates to the System partition. (That one thing I haven't done yet, my System partition on internal storage is "too big", I should repartition it.)

Is there a solution for this?

If you are using the Pro Version of Link2SD, then you will be able to move everything of the APP(Apk,Dex,Lib,Data and Cache) onto the second partition of the SD card.And thus you won't be using any internal memory. My Phone has 157mb internal memory and I have apps that would have allredy filled it installed on my phone without losing space.


opening problem with youtube and hangout apps I am using Android 4.4.2 on Kyocera Hydro Icon.

Since a few weeks ago, I experienced problems with opening youtube and hangout apps (there may be other apps with the same problem, but I don't remember as they are not those apps that I use often). With hangout, sometimes I can still use text but not hangout dial, despite the error at opening.

My workaround for both apps is to uninstall their recent updates (I then still nned to install update for hangout but not for youtube to open them), and then I can open them successfully.

But soon, probably after automatic updates without my action,  everything is back to the original problems again.

What might be the cause and solution of the problems? Thanks.

Ryan Radford found a fix the app crashing issue and his full solution is posted in the thread linked below. Kyocera did not include libpredtm.so in system/lib, so if you root your phone, you can place the copy of libpredtm.so that Ryan supplied and paste it into your system/lib directory. It has fixed the app crashes for a lot of users already.

http://androidforums.com/threads/google-play-services-not-working.944032/page-13#post-7124154


Is it possible to create a HTML signature for the Outlook for Android app? I have been trying to get the full signature that I normally use on desktop Outlook to work on my mobile phone for the Outlook for Android app. So far I have tried multiple solutions such as
facemail however I don't really want to pay to get it working.

This website says that the Outlook for Android app does not have HTML support but I was hoping there was some way to get it working.

Another thing to note is that my business will not allow an app other than Outlook for Android so I am limited from getting other android apps which can do the job.

As of the wtiting of this answer (9 March 2019),Outlook for Android does not support HTML signature.

There is a thread on UserVoice asking for:

  Support HTML features in signature such as images and company logos as well as hyperlinks and formatting.

However,although the request has more than 7 thousand votes, it was declined by Microsoft:

  We have had to make the decision that this isn’t something that we’re going to have on mobile. We have a team spending their time on making sure our HTML rendering and message composition experiences are rich (formatting support is coming in the future). We are still taking your votes and notes into consideration and we highly appreciate them: Sometimes we have to make decisions to improve the overall experience for the widest amount of people. Thanks for your understanding and keep letting us know your thoughts.

Maybe in the future, they will revert their decision; but for now, HTML signature is not supported in Outlook for Android. You can only add a text-based, nothing fancy signature.


Is there a way to customize the services in the direct contact shortcut? I added a contact shortcut to my home screen, and I noticed that the Messaging icon in the pop-up changed to Handcent when I changed the default messaging app on my phone. One thing that's always bothered me is that there's a Facebook icon in the pop-up. Is there any way to customize what pops up when you press on a contact shortcut?

If you stop syncing Facebook with your phone book, that option will disappear.  I realize this isn't an answer to your question about customizing the pop-up but it may just serve your needs until a more skilled Android ninja happens upon this question.


Apps suddently stopped sending notifications on my Nexus 7 (2013) running Lolypop 5.0.2 I have noticed that some apps (not all but a select few like Quizbattle and Wordfeud) have stopped sending notifications.

I have checked under App Info that notifications indeed is enabled, and other apps like Email and workout app are sending notifications fine!

I think it started doing this around when 5.0.1 was installed, but not sure. It persists after having installed 5.0.2

Nexus 7 (2013) is not rooted and install was done after tablet suggested updating, and all installs went without issues.

What could be causing this weirdness?

thanx for any suggestions in advance

A suggestion for a solution could be to first restart your phone and see if this helps (I have experienced many different bugs on the newest Lollipop that were fixed by simply restarting my phone).

If this does not work, try a reinstall of the app - if possible and you do not lose important data from that of course.

If the second option works, it could have been due to the 'optimizations' that Android performs on apps when updating to a newer system version (my best guess).


Android N Beta update failed, how can I try again? I enrolled in the beta program.  OTA update appeared, downloaded, unpacked and restarted. Then it loaded up a great little "ERROR" screen with a sick looking Android :/

After restart, it booted back up in Marshmallow.

OK, so no big loss, just time. Happy to try again...but I can't find a way to force the OTA to reappear?

Turns out it just took time. By the next morning I had another alert asking me to download and install the beta. Despite having checked for updates and restarted the phone to see if I could trigger it.


Is it possible to root the Samsung Galaxy S II without installing a custom kernel? Is it possible to root the Samsung Galaxy S II without installing a custom kernel or otherwise flash custom firmware?

Why do you want to avoid flashing Chainfire's kernel?  From XDA:

  This rooted kernel is for the "rooting beginners" and those who want to keep as close to stock as possible. CF-Root takes the kernel from an original Samsung firmware, and just adds root, busybox, and ClockWorkMod (CWM4) recovery.

Rooting voids your warranty just the same as flashing does, and Odin is virtually guaranteed to save you if you ignore the instructions while flashing and screw something up.

You can also re-flash the stock kernel afterwards, which will remove CWM while still leaving you rooted.

Edit: Gingerbreak apparently only worked on test devices.


Turning off the camera shutter sound in Lenovo K3 Note (Android Marshmallow) I'm using a Lenovo K3 Note running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. I want to turn off the camera shutter sound.

How to do it?

Turn on the DND while using camera. This will turn off the shutter sound.


Capturing audio out in Android and writing as a mp3 I want to be able to capture all the audio that would normally play through the speaker on my Android phone and write that stream as some sort of audio file.

The reason I would like to do this is that I want to capture Subsonic streams and write them to a file on my phone. Then I can attach it my car stereo as a USB mass storage and play these streams.

Is there a way with or without root to do this?

According to Subsonic Music Streamer, one of the application features is precisely what you are looking for:

  Songs are cached for offline playback. Supports mp3, ogg, aac, flac, wma. Most video formats supported too.


No notifications with Facebook messenger after upgrading to 4.4 I have a Galaxy S2 that is rooted and I recently upgraded to Kitkat 4.4.

After doing so, I've noticed that Facebook Messenger does not alert me when a new message comes in. It would before the upgrade, and I restored it from backup, so I assume it's the same program.

I have gone through the interface to ensure that notifications are set to be on. I have also looked in the app manager and made sure that notifications are enabled for this app.

I do seem to be getting notifications with Gmail when I get a new mail, but I'm not sure of other programs are affected.

How do I ensure that Facebook Messenger notifications are operating as they should?

If you haven't yet updated you should. it might be the problem that it isen't yet compattable with your OS. if that is not the case, reinstal the app so it is fresh and clean.


kernel panic message during installing android-x86 in virtualbox I was trying to install android-x86 inside my virtualbox last evening. But I wasn't able to make it right. I'm getting a 'kernel panic' message. How do I overcome it? The following is a snapshot of what I got out of my installation attempt.

normally you'd hav ti get your VT-x working and all that. but if however, you don't have VT-x, this guide does the job: https://helloworldhelp.wordpress.com/android-x86-vm-no-vt-x/


How does Google Contacts sync works? I want to know the process of syncing contacts between Android Contacts and Google Contacts.
The direction of sync, effect of updating contacts etc.

The way Google syncs contacts between Android devices and Google Contacts is through their Contact APIs.

Changing a contact within Google Contacts will push the change (when an account sync occurs) to the Device.

The same happens when you change or delete a contact on the device. It will trigger a sync with the Google Contacts and update, or delete the contact.

The contacts are tied to your account, so if you have multiple accounts on the device, and you sync Account A and Account B with Contacts, changes to a contact on Account A will only affect the contact tied to Account A. If you have the same contact in Account B, that contact will remained unchanged. So if you change the phone number in Account A, that contact will now have 2 phone numbers. The number from Account A, and the number from Account B.

You can also have contacts on the device that are not tied to a Google Account. These are usually saved directly on the device, or on the SIM card. They are not sync'd to Google Contacts. Changes made in Google Contacts will not affect these contacts, nor will changing the contact on the device affect Google Contact information.


How do i check my Wireless earbuds Battery? Okay, So I don't really know What's the appropriate section of StackExchange to post this question, But I'd like recommendations on that.

So i'm using new wireless earbuds that I bought earlier this week, And when i pair them to another phone (A Samsung Galaxy S10+ in this case) It seems to show battery information under the Bluetooth device's name. e.g(Battery : 100%)

Although, when i use the earbuds with my tablet (An extremely laggy and weak Lenovo tablet) It seems to show nothing under the Device's name... What can i do to make it show the Battery information? where can i get battery information about my Xiaomi earbuds?

I have found the answer to this question, As User @Robert commented on my post, And i installed BatOn And now the battery usage shows up. Thank you!.


How do I disable "Link Preview" in Chrome? This feature magnifies links when it seems unsure of which you touched. This article talks about an "Enable Link Preview" setting as if you can turn it off.

Beyond its annoyance, as I have to click everything twice, this bubble seems to break several dropdowns, as the menus will not expand in the zoomed view because the zoomed view is just a glorified image.

This is called the "Link Disambiguation Popup" and is a chrome flag on all builds EXCEPT the Android one where it is explicitly left out. Go figure.

Here's the code of interest. Next on my todo list is write an Xposed module for this.


How can I access bookmarked 'my places' maps from android phone? I have a map that was created on a desktop (map with a set of pins pointing to specific types of shops in a town - this one). I am able to save this to My Places and it shows as being bookmarked when I'm using the full desktop browser. However, when I open up the google maps app on my HTC One I can't see how to access any saved maps or bookmarks.

All I can see in my map profile (selecting the person avatar next to the search field) is my browsing history, but not my saved map. There is a 'saved places' section in my map profile page, but there's nothing in there and it's not a selectable item as far as I can tell.

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

How can I save maps via the 'desktop' browsers so I can access them on my phone at a later date?

Since the update to Google Maps last year you should now use Google Maps Engine to create custom maps and access these on Android via the corresponding Maps Engine app.

From Desktop Maps you can get to Maps Engine by clicking in the search box and then clicking 'My Custom Maps'.

To import existing maps saved to 'Classic' My Maps:

go to 'My Custom Maps'
then 'See all my custom maps'
in the 'Open a map' window, select 'Classic My Maps'
tick the maps you want to import and then 'Select'
followed by 'Import'

You should then be able to find these maps in the Android Maps Engine app under 'Open a map' > 'Classic maps'.

If your map wasn't created by you (will show as 'bookmarked' rather than 'created by you' in My Places) then you might need to re-import it into 'My Places' as KML to make it available to import into Maps Engine...

Click the name of the map in 'My Places' (found by clicking the little cog icon in the bottom right of 'new' Maps or at https://www.google.co.uk/maps/mm)
In the left hand panel copy the link to the KML file
Back at 'My Places', click 'Create with classic My Maps'
Give the map a title then 'Import'
Paste in the URL of the KML link and 'Upload from URL'

You should now be able to go back to Maps Engine and import the map as above.


Add system apps in a custom rom I'm trying to change a few some system apps in an already working custom rom (Lewa Os - CM7 derived) and my device is an Acer Liquid Metal)

Lewa Os is a chinese rom that I've translated thanks to the help of other guys in the forum to Italian.

So I want to repack the rom with all the new Italian files (framework-res.apk, phone.apk and so on).

I've used xda's kitchen (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633246) and following all the simple wizard (I didn't modify a thing) I simply added with copy and paste the new apks in the folder and cooked the rom.

When I flash it the final result is a rom that has everything BUT the "new" apks.

What's wrong?

How can I find it out?

If just for your phone - you can simply put files manually via root explorer, reset permissions and reboot.


Created a Walled Garden with WiFi Hotspot I want to create a WiFi Hotspot that can only access either a few files on my Android or a webpage run on my Android. This is so that when I am playing at gigs i can offer my music for free to people who connect. I know I can do this on a Windows machine but don't really want to drag around a laptop to every gig considering the amount of instruments, etc., that need to be transported.

I was hoping I could just set up a WiFi Hotspot and a walled garden so that when people connected it would force them to a page stating there is no internet connection only news and music by my band.

Has anyone got any ideas how this could be achieved or if I am being blind and there's an app that will already do it? (I have spent the last 3 days researching but so far I have not found much.)

You might like to try KWS Android Web Server

This is like LAMP, XAMPP, WAMP but for Android

This is not a simple file server, you need to create a webpage first to make it work.


Can an Android device be locked down by an administrator? I would like to know if it is possible to use android devices in a work environment with restrictions on the phones usage.

These phones would be given to members in the field to log data, and only that. Is there a simple solution that exists for this purpose?

Yes indeed.  Android 2.2 and higher supports Microsoft Exchange security policies as well as administrator applications.


Restrict read access on certain folders I am looking for a way to limit read access for certain folders, for privacy reasons.

E.g. I want to have a folder that will be used for sensitive data. It shall only be accessed by a file manager app, office app, and picture gallery. And nobody else shall be allowed to read it (e.g. untrusted apps that may violate my privacy).

I am rooted, with CM11. Is there any existing solution for that? Or will it be a dirty hack?

I am thinking of creating a new user group, assigning the "private" folder to this group, and adding the apps (additionally) to this group. Is this possible? Or will I mess something up when doing this? I have a rough overview how the linux user system works, but I do not really know how the android users work in detail.

Install an app like KeepSafe, which is optimized for pictures, or Super Vault, which you can store different types of files in. They encrypt your data and require a password to unlock, so those will probably be the best choices for you. They don't even require root.

If you want to go a step further, you can even install an app like AppLock to require a password to open a specific app.

Alternative method: You can install a file manager like ES File Explorer and zip a specific folder with a password, so no one can unzip the encrypted data without the password. Keep in mind that you will have to unzip and re-zip every time you want to add/remove/modify a file.


Charge older Samsung phone (with Quick Charge 1.0 technology) at full rate I own a Samsung Galaxy S Relay, which is an Android phone a few years old. It's sort of similar to the Samsung Galaxy S III, but it also includes a slide-out physical keyboard.

Like the Galaxy S III, it supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 1.0 technology — a technology which Qualcomm admitted was "little-known".  I owned the phone for a long time before discovering that it supports Quick Charge 1.0.

What type of charger do I need in order for the phone to charge as fast as possible? Do I need a charger with some special certification or features? Or, is there any other way I can charge the device as swiftly as possible?

Qualcomm marketing manager PJ Jacobowitz writes:

  Quick Charge 1.0 makes all this is available to the user with existing USB charging accessories — no new cables and wall chargers to buy.

OK, so I don't need a charger with a special Quick Charge logo or anything.  Good.

Still, surely an underpowered charger won't allow the phone to charge as quickly as possible.  OK; what charger do I need?

Android Authority contributor Rob Triggs adds:

  Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 1.0 technology was designed to maximise charging efficiency for up to 10 watts of power, by allowing for a maximum current draw of 2 amps through a standard USB adapter and port voltage of 5 volts.

Though Android.SE user "TurboFool" warns:

  Nearly all chargers that advertise themselves as 2.1A are optimized for iProducts, which require a different grounding scheme in the charger to reach their full speed, and that same scheme limits Android devices to 500mA. So counter-productively you'll find that most 1A chargers will charge your Android device faster than 2.1A chargers. [...] The way around this is to buy a charger that's specifically designed to adapt to whatever device you're using.

Ah. So I'll need a charger which is able to provide 2 amperes even to my device. (Related question: "How can I tell how many milliamps my phone is drawing from the attached charger? Preferably without having to use a multimeter.")


Why does my phone say "Verizon Wireless" when I receive a phone call? Whenever I receive a phone call on my DROID RAZR MAXX, the phone speaks the words "Verizon Wireless" in a female voice and then begins playing the ringtone.

If I put the phone into airplane mode, the same female voice says the words "Loss of service". Then when I turn airplane mode off, she says "Verizon Wireless" again, sometimes twice in a row.

What's going on? What is this feature? How do I enable or disable this?

My phone is running stock JB 4.1.2.

These voices were the result of having the so-called "Roaming tone" enabled in the Sound settings.

Strangely, the description of this setting is:

  Roaming tone
  Set notification tone informing the status of cellular service

After disabling this option, she no longer speaks to me when I receive a phone call or turn on/off airplane mode.

Though I have no idea how a speaking voice is considered a "notification tone"...


How do you sync Jorte with an Outlook Calendar? I am trying to convince my wife to switch from the Motorola stock calendar app to Jorte. Is there a way to synch Jorte with your Outlook calendar? If not, is there another calendar app that beats the pants off the stock one?

From Jorte's description, it looks like you can synchronize Jorte with Google Calendar. You can also synchronise Outlook with Google Calendar using Google Calendar Sync.

So if you're happy using Google Calendar as a "middle-man" then it would be possible to sync the two.


How can I choose which contacts to sync from Facebook to my HTC Desire HD? In relation to this question, I asked if there is a way to choose which contacts get synced and got a suggestion to post this as a new question.

So here it is. How can I manually choose which Facebook contacts should be synced with my Android ones?

The Facebook app doesn't have an option for it, so basically: You can't.  Facebook also provides no way to easily export contact information, so you'd have to do it manually (or with some crazy script/app that scrapes the info from the website).


why there are so many tty files in the dev directory? it is confusing that there are so many tty files in the directory...

by the way, what each file in /dev stands for, do they stand for physical devices which are part of my android device? for example, which file stands for the raw storage device in /dev directory?

That's because there are so many devices available. Entries in /dev are not restricted to physical devices, but also include logical ones. You just named one: TTY. You don't really think you've got 63 "connectors" somewhere to attach keyboards etc. to? Also, /dev/random is nothing physical, but rather "software" (a random-number generator provided by the system itself). Same applies to things like /dev/null, /dev/zero, and several others.

For more/deeper details, you might refer to following articles:

Linux Filesystem Hierarchy
Device file (Wikipedia) -- recommended for this topic, as it explicitly included Pseudo-devices
Linux System Administrator's Guide - The / dev directory


How to skip the upgrade to Oreo My Galaxy S7 downloaded the Oreo upgrade, and now a notification persists in my status bar and every now and then it pops up asking me to upgrade. I don't want to upgrade. Is there a way to skip upgrading without rooting or factory reset?
I tried deleting cache and disabling the software upgrade app but it didn't work, and there's no option to disable the app.

I solved the issue by buying Package Installer and disabling the Software Update app.


How to disable proximity sensor I dropped my Motorola Charm (Android 2.1) and the proximity sensor doesn't work which is annoying, it makes the the touchscreen disabled when I dial anything (super annoying).

I would rather like to disable the proximity sensor, so it will never disable the touch screen.

Does anybody know how I can do so?

In case of absence of any ready made solutions, I am even willing to write my own app for that (there are programs that do that but for Android 2.2).

Motorola CHARM has a proximity sensor located on the upper left corner; as stated in Motorola CHARM product support site, external lighting conditions will affect this sensor.

My suggestion is: each time you need to use the touchscreeen while making a call, try to "trick" the proximity sensor illuminating it with a flashlight or LED, so the sensor "thinks" that you've moved away the smartphone, thus re-enabling the touchscreen circuits.

If you don't have any of these items on hand, look for a place with bright light toward which to move yourself/your phone.


Failed to get default contexts and file mode for storage files I'm trying to flash a new ROM to my Asus Transformer Infinity (TF700T).  I unlocked it and installed TWRP 2.8.3.0, but when I launch the recovery, the output screen immediately displays the following:

Updating partition details...
... done
Full SELinux support is present.
E:Failed to get default contexts and file mode for storage files.
MTP Enabled

The Failed line above appears in red on the screen, while nothing else does.  I managed to get the CROMBI-KK ROM installed, but it took quite a few tries.  If I configure it for F2FS file system (which I want to use), the F2FS conversion succeeds but the install fails outright.  Other settings just cause an infinite loading screen after install.

Is there anything I can do to fix the storage device error?

Is it related to the failure of F2FS, or is there anything else I can do to install with F2FS?

I posted this question over at the XDA developers forum and we have it figured out, if not completely resolved. Turns out the TWRP error was something introduced in the version 2.8.3.0, but is not present in previous versions. I have a different TF700t that had version 2.8.1.0 installed (the version immediately before the error came in). It did not have the error, but when I upgraded it to 2.8.3.0 the error appeared. When I downgraded the TWRP on both my devices to 2.8.1.0, the error went away on both.

Team Win released version 2.8.4.0 a few days ago, so I tried installing it. Unfortunately, it still displays the error.

As for the F2FS error, I found out that you should only convert the /data location to F2FS. The /system and /cache locations should stay at EXT4. Once I changed this, the install went thru just fine using F2FS.


Need to enable ICMP Ping response from phone I'm trying to enable ICMP ping response from my Android 4.2.2 Phone (Galaxy S4). I am only considering ping over LAN via Wi-Fi, not the cellular network. WLAN Network connectivity is not the problem: I can connect to an FTP server running on the phone from another machine on the LAN. Pinging the phone from the same host of the FTP client results in timeouts. The phone is not asleep because the FTP session can be active, but ping still times out.
I can also ping an Android 4.4 tablet just fine, so it is not something specific with Android.

In the phone, I examined /system/etc/sysctl.conf and found the line:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all=1;

which I commented out as (editing with ES File Explorer Root Explorer, FS set to RW)

#sysctl -w net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all=1;

After rebooting the phone, there is still no ping response. What other settings could inhibit ICMP ping response?

Edit: I also tried the form

sysctl -w net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all=0;

That did not make a difference.

I can ping any other host on the LAN, including the router, from the phone using the Net Ping app.

I also discovered that I can ping the phone at its IPv6 link-local address (fe80::xxxx)
It will respond to pings while the phone is awake, but as soon as the screen goes dark, ping responses stop. But I do not get any IPv4 ping response under any circumstances, so some setting is blocking it. I do not have any add-on firewall like DroidWall running.

The simplest (and, of course, tricky) way is to use nping. For example:

  nping -c <ping_count> --tcp -p <your_ftp_port_number> <ip_address_of_your_phone_hosting_ftp_service>

Achieve same goal without modification of Android.


Which apps show up in the market on an Android tablet? Is the market filtering the same as a phone (auto detects required features and OS version) or do developers need to specifically set attributes on their apps for them to be available on tablets running Android?

From what I read a few days ago, tablet cannot run Android Market (and therefore will not be distributed with it) until 2.3 is released in the early part of next year. I have heard of a few tablets being released using the manufacturers own market-type application but nothing using the official Android Market.

I think we'll have to wait until 2.3 is released before we hear about tablet support =(

Gary


Moto G3 Marshmallow SD card as Internal storage I have recently updated my Moto G3 and inserted a microSD card, formatting it for use as internal storage. I have used Solid Explorer app for file management before and I was able to manage internal & external storage separately before the OS update. Now the app cannot access the internal memory. It can access the SD card as internal storage only.When I connect my phone to my PC (Windows 8), it can also access SD card as internal storage only. Why is this happening? Is there a file management app which can access the real internal storage?

This is intentional by the Android system. When you format a microSD card to be used as internal storage, 2 things basically happen:

The microSD card becomes locked-in to the device (as it is specifically encrypted for the device)
The real internal storage (eMMC) becomes invisible to non-root and non-system privileged users. You could still technically access it by rooting your device and using a Root Explorer app, but it's not properly mounted, but your PC still con't be able to detect the real internal storage over USB MTP.

  Notice that the space is not increased by the size of the sdcard, but to the size of the sdcard. You’re basically swapping out your internal storage (which is typically eMMC, which is fairly quick), with your sdcard (which is typically slower than the built-in storage chip). You’ll be trading speed for capacity.

You could use ADB as root to push/pull data, but doing that via the command line is cumbersome, and even using a GUI ADB client for this purpose seems like a waste of time.

As to what you can do, you can reformat the microSD to be used as portable storage, and then you will be able to use it as you did in previous versions of Android (but you won't be able to move apps to it).

The procedure:

  You can change it back by heading to Settings>Storage & USB, then selecting the card, hitting the top right menu and then select ‘Format as portable’.

Source: How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+? and links therein.


Audio jack not working I have the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, however I am not sure that this is a hardware specific issue. The phone is a day old, so I don't know if it should have been working before.

Xiaomi support lines are reportedly bad, so I won't try, especially since I can't find their support email / ticket site in the first place... cough

When I insert an audio jack (headphones, tried two pairs) no audio is played through them, but instead, continues playing through main speakers.

System information: https://i.imgur.com/ZjRi8cf.png

Device Android ID/Codename: Nikel
Android: 6.0.1 MMB29M - MIUI8
Patch Level: 2017-04-01
MIUI Version: MIUI Global 8.2 Stable (8.2.5.0 MCFMIDL)
CPU: Octa-Core Max 2.00GHz
RAM: 3.00 GB
Internal: 32GB
Kernel: 3.18.24-perf-g798c6bf

Is this a hardware issue, or a software issue?
If it's software, what should I do to fix it, and is this a known issue?

This phone is NOT rooted... yet...

Seeing that it works (see question's comment), this answer is somewhat unnecessary, but for the future in a Q&A fashion, I'll put in my 2 cents.

There are a couple of things to know here. Glitches happen, and stuff breaks. We obviously prefer the first. Here's a couple of steps to isolate the cause.

Quoting the IT crowd "Have you tried turning it off and on again?". Seems dumb, but it works. If this fixes it, it's a software issue. (Hopefully one you won't be seeing again)
Quoting the IT crowd again, "Is it plugged in?". Check that the connections inside the port are clean and nothing is stuck in there. Don't go sticking anything wet in there, but maybe a very very mildly damp q-tip could do the trick.
If neither of these do anything, try a factory reset. If that doesn't work, it's hardware damage.


What is cleared when I restart my phone? I haven't restart my phone since the day I got it however decided I would give it a go since my contacts seem to disappear intermittently. Anyhoo, it prompted me that if I restarted my phone anything stored in memory would be cleared. How do I find out what is stored in memory and what is being cleared?

Things that would be cleared are anything that isn't saved, open applications, etc.  For example, if you were playing a game, and just pressed the home key the game would go to the background and be paused.  When you restart your phone, you will lose that game (up until the last point it saved).

Other things that you leave half finished, such as an unwritten email might get lost, but even that is unlikely because I notice Android pretty much makes sure I never lose anything.

It's not a bad idea to restart your device once in a while, but you really do not have to worry about losing anything.  It's safe.


Persistent Missed call notification frequently re-appears. How to remove it? Somebody called me sometime before but I missed the call. Then I called back and everything was ok but whenever my phone connects to the WiFi i.e. when I go to different places; I see the same missed call notification frequently. I also cleared the cache and also cleared the Viber data but it frequently reappears. Its been more than 2 days.

How can I solve this issue?

I got a solution today. The notification was of a contact whose chat was 'hidden' in another device (PC) or same device before phone was factory reset or something.

Go to Settings -> Privacy -> Hidden Chats
Since I don't use this feature, I tapped the 'Reset PIN' which deletes all existing hidden chats. That's it. That useless notification is gone.

I am surprised that no answer was posted for so long.
I was facing this problem since February and I came across this post several times as it shows up at the first page of Google search.


Why are my SMS messages being sent automatically? When I start composing an SMS message on my Samsung Galaxy S2, if I pause for a couple of minutes  the SMS gets sent automatically, even though the message hasn't been finished (and I haven't hit the "send" button). Is there some way I can stop this happening, please?

You could start off by checking if this is a problem with the Messaging app itself. Install an alternative SMS app (I use GO SMS Pro myself).

If all's fine with the alternative app, and you don't mind using it (they're much more powerful anyway), problem solved. Otherwise, you could try out what patchie is suggesting.


Is Google Play Service a kind of "bypass" of my apps authorizations? The google-play-services tag info says that it's "A library used by Google apps and many third-party apps to provide location and social functionality".

Does this mean that if I refuse to provide the location to an app, the said app can still retrieve my location through Google Play Services?

To my understanding, there are 2 way to retrieve the current location from an Android developer's perspective:

The Android framework location API: android.location
This is "the old way" and developers are encouraged to adapt the newer API:
The Google Play services location API.

To access the former, an application has to request permissions to use them:

  Unless noted, all Location API methods require the ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permissions.

To access the latter, developers still have to request the same permissions:

  Apps that use location services must request location permissions. Android offers two location permissions: ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION and ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION. The permission you choose determines the accuracy of the location returned by the API. If you specify ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, the API returns a location with an accuracy approximately equivalent to a city block.

So, no, the service does not offer a way to bypass permission checks. Both ways require the same permissions.


Whatsapp on emulator - Can't setup the recorder now, please try again later I have Whatsapp on my emulator (2.3.3 version). I got the latest update - voice messaging. However, when I try to record a message, this is what occurs.

I have no idea how to get this diagnosed. Can anything be done to help? Any audio codecs need to be installed?

Tried adding Audio Recording Support, in vain.

UPDATE: Tried with ICS (4.0 version). It doesn't show the error, but it doesn't send the audio message either. (The clock symbol in the right-bottom corner never turns into a tick)

This problem can be solved by installing the latest version of whatsapp it is 2.10.768 or 2.11.56.....you can also go to this link to download in your mobile http://www.whatsapp.com/android/


Forcing Nexus 5 to charge wirelessly even when USB device connected Is there some method to make wireless charging take priority over wired (USB) charging? I have a device that has to be plugged in to the micro-USB port of the Nexus, and it is preventing wireless charging from occurring. The device only draws power from the USB, but still wireless charging stops the moment it is plugged in.

Google has not been helpful so far. There seem to be other phones whose wired charging stops when placed on a wireless charger, but apparently not the Nexus (nor have I been able to find a user's manual which states which one takes priority).

There doesn't seem to be any visible setting in Android. Any clues? Maybe some App which can set the charging priority? Completely disabling USB charging is also fine, as long as the USB can still supply power to connected devices (rooting is not an option).

As far as I can tell  and from links like this and also  this link (for different devices obviously) it seems that once the USB is plugged in that is what will charge the device, and the wireless-charging is disabled.

  The Nexus 4 has two main power circuits: 1) Battery Connector & Charging Circuit & 2) Wireless Charging GEN2 Circuit. These two work together with internal battery protection circuit as well. There are many controls going on while charging, such as current sensors, thermal sensors, voltage reference and voltage input detection. So basically it has been thought to avoid any problem if you happen to connect both charging supplies at the same time, as only one will act as the charger, and as far as I can understand the logic of it, it’s the USB charging that has priority over wireless charging.


Identify this Clock-Weather Widget I've just found this photo on CNET:

I want to know which clock-weather widget app is that?

It is Motorola's default clock widget.
here is a video that shows ,how can use this widget in other phones


Removed Google Apps system app, now the device wouldn't boot I have a Micromax Canvas A1 device (Android one). It's been rooted and I have removed some system apps on it before. When I disabled Google App, a lot of space was freed and the system worked fine. So I thought I could free some more space by uninstalling the app without any harm. But when I uninstalled it, the 'searchbox stopped working' message came up. I powered off and then on again, but the boot doesn't complete. The android boot animation keeps running endlessly. Tried entering recovery mode, couldn't. Micromax logo is all it shows. Tried the same with adb, it says 'insufficient permissions for device'.

How do I fix this?

Reflash the Android One OS by booting into recovery.

First get into the bootloader:

1) Power off your device and wait 4-5 seconds after lights go off.

2) Press and hold Power + Volume Up button together for a few seconds and then release the buttons as soon as you see the boot menu screen

3) Boot into recovery. Flash the Original ROM using TWRP or stock recovery


App not installed error while trying to install nexus media importer I'm trying to install an app with an apk file but I am frequently getting app not installed error.. I am not rooted and I have nexus 5..any solution?

Because this app chek your license, if you buy this app from play store it runs automatically otherwise if you try a free version of this application it shows application not installed ...


German lessons in an Android device Possible Duplicate:
  How can I study or prepare myself for an exam with the help of my Android device?

Is there any German course that I could do on my Android device? Whether it's an app or an optimized web site it's fine by me.

I'm using Anki flashcards. There is also version for Android.

  Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it is a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.

You can download German dictionary and start learning :-)


Why the vast majority of app developers don't publish apk files on their home page? I want to be able to install my favorite apps without installing Google play services. Apart from apps that actually depend on these services (such as paying method), why apps developed don't publish their apk on their home page?

This is particularly relevant when installing custom ROMs (without gapps).

Publishing the APK on their home page has the following downsides I can think of:
Difficulty in Tracking
It'll be more difficult to collect detailed statistics on the audience for their apps because they won't be able to benefit from the Play Store's statistics for app downloads. Whilst developers could conceivably write in data collection functions that send data to their own databases, this is extra work that's completely unnecessary if they distribute their apps on the Play Store.
No Updates
Play Store distribution allows developers to push out updates to their apps with new features or bug fixes easily. Self-distribution of APKs locks users in with a static version of the app. Again, notifications prompting users to download an update are workable but are extra work and unjustifiable especially for individual developers and small teams.
Targeted Distribution
The Play Store allows developers to exclude certain groups of users based on geographical regions or device types that are not compatible with their app. This makes for a superior user experience and prevents plenty of frustration on the user's side since they won't even be able to view apps that won't work on their device. This also allows developers to adhere to local legislation on app distribution.


Can I turn off Google/Google+ notifications on Samsung Galaxy S3? I know you can turn off notifications from the native email client, but is there a way to turn them off for Gmail, Google+, and other Google apps? I have my Google account set up on my phone, which is useful, but if I can't specifically turn off Google notifications I'm going to have to unsync it, because as it stands I have to either silence all notifications and miss important text messages, or get woken up by G+ comments and NYT emails at 4 AM.

To turn off notifications for Google+, open the Google+ app,
press Menu->Settings->[Your account name]->Notifications, then press the ON/OFF
toggle in the top right. In recent versions, notification settings are per-account.
To turn off notifications for Gmail/Google Apps Mail, open the
Gmail app, press Menu->Settings, select the account you wish to disable notifications for, uncheck the checkbox that says: Email notifications
To turn off notifications for Google Talk, open the
Google Talk app, press Menu->Settings, select the account you wish to disable notifications for, press IM notifications and select off, and the same for Video chat notifications
To turn off notifications for Google Voice, open the
Google Voice app, press Menu->Settings->Sync and notifications, and uncheck the boxes for text and voicemail notifications.

NOTE: This is based on Android 4.0+, some of these apps (especially Google Talk) may function differently on pre-ICS.


How to stream music from one android device to another? I have an android tablet in my car which is connected to my car's Audio System. My Phone has my most recent music collection on it. How can I directly stream music from my phone to my tablet, without having to copy the files or the devices being on the same wifi network? Can this be done with bluetooth? Both devices are running Jelly Bean.

This app could do the trick:

Bluetooth Music Player Free

You need to install it on both Android devices and pair them. Then put the tablet in ListenMUSIC over Blueetooth mode and the the phone in shareMUSIC over Bluetooth mode.


Applications in notification area I noticed that some ROMs (mainly HD ones like insertcoin) embed additional row with active applications into sliding notifications area. It's completely useless and makes that small area even smaller. Is there any way to get rid of this "feature"?

The simple answer is no.  You'd have to re-skin that part of the ROM and also dig into the code and remove whatever's doing that, most likely.  If it bothers you enough you should just switch ROMs.


Is it possible to use the SdCard in portable mode but encrypt it? I dislike how the internal sdcard formating works, I don't want to replace the internal storage with my sdcard, my target would be to extend the storage.

Mainly, I use the sdcard as storage for the camera and personal data. I really want to encrypt this data.

Is it possible to use internal (for example 8gb) and external storage (64gb) resulting in 72gb total storage. accessing it via usb cable on the PC but not only encrypt the internal storage but also the external?

edit:

Extra question/Clearification:
I want encryption of the internal and external sd (no matter how its called "portable mode" or "internal mode"), keeping the sytem data and the apps on the fast internal sd but also have my data encrypted on the slow external sd. also i don't want to loose storage space, so it should be an "and" not an "or". is there some tutorial how to archive that? root access is available

It is not possible using the Android encryption of Marshmallow. Disk Encryption encompasses internal and external SD in the case of adoptable-storage and only internal SD in the case of portable storage ( since the external SD is considered a part of SD in the former)

Full Disk Encryption mentions other possibilities of encryption and does not cover what you wish to achieve.

You may need to use a third party app, like SSE universal encryption, or other apps to encrypt files on external SD. I haven't tried this app but mentioning being open source and hence perhaps better


Samsung Galaxy S3 direct call always calls the same number I am using a Samsung Galaxy S3 and the direct call feature always calls the same number no matter whose contact I am viewing. Is this a bug in the feature? (The number it calls to is one of my frequent callers.)

Well, I rebooted the phone and it is working fine now, but still not sure why this happens. It happened to me twice and works fine when I reboot the phone. This is not an answer to my question but more like a solution to overcome that


Streaming audio from smartphone to PC without bluetooth How should I do this if I wanted to stream Spotify using my smartphone but the audio comes from the speakers connected to my PC? I only have USB speakers that can't be connected to my smartphone using the 3.5 mm jack.

Yes you can using wifi.

download VLC player to your pc.
download VLC direct from google play store.
Enjoy

Here is the video check it out : Stream Music from Android Device to Computer - wireless - VLCDirect - JoFromAndroid | YouTube


Does access to logcat need root? My device is already rooted, this is why I'm asking.

Do you need root to monitor the logcat stream on the phone? If I ran the logcat command from within a Terminal on the phone, would that work?

These free apps in the Market claim to be able to display your logcat, and don't make any mention of root. Should only take you a few minutes to try them out:

CatLog
aLogcat
LogViewer

EDIT: Thanks to @mente for reminding me that these apps will only let you view the full logfile in older versions of Android. Android 4.1 brought in a new security model around logfiles that meant that apps could only read their own logfiles and logfile entries, and can't read logfile entries written by the system or other apps.

There is however still both a way for an app's user to generate a logfile of the app's recent log entries to be sent to a developer, and for a phone's owner to grant permissions to allow an app to read the logfile without full root, but this does require you to use an ADB command, which unfortunately takes it out of the reach of most normal phone users:

  If you want the user to give you debugging information, you can have
  them generate a bug report with power + volume down + volume up which
  includes the logs and lots of other data, and automatically brings up
  their e-mail app to sent it all (plus a screenshot).  We were just
  discussing that we should have an easier way to generate these as
  well, I am going to look at adding something to the settings app.

  I also have started introducing the concept of a "development"
  permission, which read logs is classified as.  This allows the app to
  request the permission, but not get it at install.  You can however
  grant it with an adb shell command once it is installed.  At some
  point later I expect to have a UI in the system for doing this, but we
  are going to hold off on that to be careful about how we present this.

Excerpt from a post on Google Groups by Dianne Hackborn, Android Framework Engineer. My emphasis.

The mentioned ADB command to grant an application permission to read the logs is:

adb shell pm grant <pkg> android.permission.READ_LOGS

This setting should survive reboots and upgrades of the app (but not uninstalls/reinstalls).


How to share the file names of all the files in a folder in Android? It is being surprisingly hard to achieve. I've tried so far:

Download file manager apps from Google Play. Unfortunately, "share" shares the files, not the file names. None of them had a option like copy file names
Download backup apps. Unfortunately, none of them backup the file names of a folder.

Any idea to copy to the clipboard or share the file names of all the files of a folder?

Install Termux
Grant Storage permission
Do:

~$ find /sdcard/Music/ -type f >/sdcard/list_of_files.txt

Replace Music directory with whatever you want.


WiFi is disabled when I enable WiFi Direct I have a Sony Ericsson Arc S, running on Android 4.0.4

I rooted my cellphone and added android.hardware.wifi.direct.xml in /system/etc/permissions/.

I can see the WiFi Direct option in my Settings. When I enable WiFi Direct, it shows that WiFi Direct is opened, but the WiFi is disabled. If I enable WiFi, my WiFi Direct changes to disabled.

When I run WiFiDirectDemo, it fails when I enable WiFi Direct. Once it reaches discoverPeers, WifiP2pManager.ActionListener returns 'Discovery Failed : reason Code is 0'.

I don't know what happened. Does anybody know how to enable WiFi Direct for my phone? Or is it impossible? Why?

Very possibly my solution has nothing to do with the real problem of this person, but the topic is the same, so I consider this answer may help someone:

It is very common nowadays for AP's (access points) to have dual-band frequency 2,4Ghz and 5Ghz and to assign same SSID for both bands. Not all devices have 5Ghz support and, even having it, they may choose the 2,4Ghz band, since they may have bad signal at their current spot for the 5Ghz. The point is that if you are accessing your LAN from a different AP, or using different bands in the same AP with each device, your devices won't be able to use wifi-direct without engaging an adhoc connection between them,  thus they will disable the wifi connection to your AP. The simple solution is to use different SSIDs for each band, and connect with both devices to the same SSID (if both can connect to 5Ghz, go for it).

Different combinations:

A) different AP's same local network - wifi turned off to adhoc
between devices
B) same AP different band - wifi turned off to adhoc
between devices
C) same AP same band - bingo! wifi stays on in
infraestructure with my AP


Strange build number on Alcatel phone According to this site, since Android 8, build numbers have a certain format. However, I have an Alcatel 5030D_EAA with Android 10 with a build number 01011
What should I think of that?
The reason I ask this, is because I have some Bluetooth code in my app that does not work on this phone, but does work on many others (including with newer Android versions).

That site you have linked to explains the build number of Android Open Source project (AOSP). AOSP is the base of all Android versions, however (except for the Google Pixel devices) AOSP is not used directly on Android phones. Instead each manufacturer adapts AOSP to each device and additionally usually a lot of manufacturer specific modifications are applied.
Therefore most Android builds you can find on real phones don't follow the build number scheme proposed by Google in AOSP.
As long as the built Android OS in the end passes the Google Android compatibility test it can be sold as Android phone with pre installed Google Android Apps (especially Play store).


Locate Mails of k9-mail Unfortuantely I lost mails on my Desktop and I'm now trying to restore them from my phone. k9-mail shows them all, but I can't find an mbox file or something similar to reimport them into Thundebird.

Does anyone know where exactly k9-mail stores its local mails?

K9 stores mails with its own app data, so you cannot access them without root except through the app. However, you can indirectly get hold on that creating an ADB backup (without password!) and converting that into a tar archive:

adb backup -f k9mail.ab com.fsck.k9
ab2tar k9mail.ab

ab2tar is a small helper script you can find in the tools/ directory of my little program Adebar (free, open-source; based on Bash and ADB). Alternative approaches for this conversion can also be found at XDA: What is an android adb backup?.

That done, extract the tarball and navigate into its apps/com.fsck.k9/db/ directory. Here you will find one or more .db files (one per mail account), which are SQLite files you can explore with apps like SQLiteman or SQLiteBrowser.

Mail headers and contents are spread across multiple tables and columns, so I cannot offer you an easy way to convert them into e.g. mbox format. On a "quick duck" (a search with DuckDuckGo) I found that question asked multiple times – but the closest and most precise answer was "you could to that in Python" (of course, without instructions). Still, as requested by you, the first steps as answer: At least you can browse your mails that way using a proper SQLite browser ;)


Cannot connect to Nikon D5300 via WiFi from Android 7.1.2+ I have a Nikon 5300 DSLR and an Android 7.1.2 device (LineageOS).

I want to use Nikon's official WirelessMobileUtility app to browse/transfer pictures and take pictures without touching the camera.

Problem: The connection never works, even after trying dozens of times. In the manual (and YouTube tutorials) the steps are so easy (enable WiFi on the camera, connect to that WiFi from the phone, start app) yet the app never manages to connect. Many recent Play Store reviews mention this problem.

How to make the connection succeed?

Important: This question is only for Android 7.1.2 and above

This procedure requires root access.

Install a terminal such as ConnectBot (F-Droid, Play Store)
Type su
Type this command: settings put global captive_portal_mode 0
Press Enter
That's all, the connection should work immediately.

 Screenshot (click image for a larger variant)

Explanation: Since 7.1.2 Android has changed the way captive portals are handled, and the camera's WiFi, which does not give access to the Internet, is considered a captive portal and since it does not reply as expected the connection is gets dropped. Setting the captive_portal_mode variable to 0 prevents Android from doing that.

Details: https://github.com/LineageOS/android_frameworks_base/blob/cm-14.1/core/java/android/provider/Settings.java#L8268

(By the way, for devices with an Android version earlier than 7.1.2 the command is settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0)


Playstore not downloading or updating anything My playstore is not working from my device. Whenever trying to download or update, it just shows 'waiting for downalod' and that loading bar spins forever around the app logo. No i do not have any connection issues. My internet is strong enough, and to check, I have used other wifi and also cellular data. I have tried already clearing data, disabling and enabling, restarting, reset settings etc. Please help!

I had the exact same problem (which happened suddenly and without me changing anything) after a Google Libraries update. It persisted for some time and after a couple of Google Libraries updates it was fixed and now everything is updating normally.

I had tried to clear caches, reset Google Play etc. but nothing had worked. I suppose this is a bug in Google services.


my android phone keeps asking sign in to wifi network. My android phone keeps asking "sign in to wifi network" I'm wondering because I have a signal but I can't access. Please help to fix this problem

This usually means that you've accessed the WiFi network, but you need to log in to some database for it to grant you internet access. Some form like this should appear once you click on the notification.

Screenshot of a captive portal (click for larger variant)


How to change launcher application on cyanogenmod 11? I've updated my Cyanogenmod 11, and I found that the Google experience launcher is not available anymore. Instead I'm forced to use trebuchet (or something like that) with the option to have the google now cards.

But I'd like to have GEL instead! How should I do it?

The Google Launcher is available at Google Play – so you can install it like you would install any other app.


Nexus 10 / Android 5: recovery broken, fastboot not working So I have broken the software of yet another Google device, this time a Nexus 10, manta.

What I did:
- tried to install Ubuntu like so. It failed with

2015/07/18 01:20:36 Cache formatting was not successful, flashing may fail, check your partitions on device
2015/07/18 01:20:48 Cannot push /home/<user>/.cache/ubuntuimages/gpg/image-signing.tar.xz.asc to device: free space on /cache/recovery is unknown

the Google system (that is, Android 5.02 I believe) still boots, but
I can not enter fastboot any more, "adb reboot fastboot" results in reboot of Android, "adb reboot recovery" results in a picture of a gobot with a red exclamation mark in her chest and the line "no command" being shown after some time followed by a reboot of Android, "fastboot devices" never shows anything
I can not USB-push anything with adb (as suggested here), it fails with

.

failed to copy 'recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.4.7-manta.img' to '/cache/recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.4.7-manta.img': Permission denied

I can not enter superuser mode (in order to change permissions, remount rw or rectify whatever may be wrong)

.

adb shell
shell@manta:/ $ su
/system/bin/sh: su: not found

Trying to install and flash CWM from Google Play Store results in "An error occurred while flashing your recovery"
Downloading an image to be flashed onto recovery from Android is no good either because it the flash_image command is not found.
"Upgrading" from Android 5.02 (I think) to 5.1 did not change any of this.

In short, the device is not rooted (because of the update?), whatever is on recovery does not work, fastboot does not work, and therefore there is no way to root the device.

Am I correct in assuming that this effectively rendered the recovery partition/image/system unusable while the main system does not allow any modifications to the recovery partition/image/system and therefore fastboot can not be used any more and nothing on the system level can be installed or changed? If not, what must I do?

Also, would I be wrong saying that all those devices including the present one and this one (and I have a third one in the same state) are now little more than spare parts (in spite of being physically fully functioning) because the systems can't be properly used? Is it wrong to assume that Google designs its systems on purpose so that this will most likely happen if someone tries to install something not specifically endorsed by Google?

Some Nexus 10 tablets have a bug ,the fastboot menu is hiden ,the
screen remain blank even when you are actually in fastboot mod to
make sure you don't miss it do the following
Hold Power + Volume Up + Volume Down until the tablet vibrates twice
(once to shutdown, then a few seconds later to acknowledge fastboot
menu). After the second vibration, you should be in the fastboot
menu, although the screen is blank plug the phone to pc it should be
recognized
Now that you have access to fastboot ,you can flash a new firmware or
a custom recovery to get your device to a working stat.


Disable syncing of contact that belongs to multiple groups I have few Contact Groups.

Friends
Coworkers
Schoolmates

With someone whom I haven't communicated in many years, I add an additional group called Archived.
So, for example, a person can be in multiple groups like Friends and Archived. Is there a way I disable syncing contacts to the Android device, which has the Archived group, but sync all other entries?

What I see is:
if the contact has only the Archived group attached to it,
=== then I can disable syncing that contact.
But if the contact has any other group present, along with the Archived group,
=== then I do not know how to disable it.

You could look at this the other way around and create another group called "not archived" or "active" or something like that, and put all of the contacts that you do want to appear on the phone in that group.

Then you could just sync this group to the phone (and don't select "Friends" "Family" or anything else to sync) and it should work.


How can I make it so my cyanogenmod phone is silent for everything but calls and alarms? I like to keep my phone on silent at night so I can actually sleep without disturbance. The problem with that is that everything becomes silent. No one can reach me in case of emergency or anything.

Is there a way to put my phone in a "calls only mode" or something where everything is silent except phone calls and alarms?

I have the One Plus One with the latest android cyanogenmod available for that.

What you are looking for is Cyanogen User Profiles which can be found in Settings->Profiles under the Personal section header. Pick a profile or create a new one and select what parts of your phone are active.


What is the content of data/misc/wifi/softap.conf? I was going through a question about how to find a saved password in a rooted phone and while doing this I found a file in data/misc/wifi/softap.conf. What is the content of this file?

A .conf file is usually readable by any text file reader as long as permissions are correct.

The said file contains SSID and password of your portable Wi-Fi hotspot. E.g.:

Android.SE  #$#$ANDROID

where Android.SE is the SSID which other users would see when trying to locate Wi-Fi network and #$#$ANDROID is the password they need to enter to connect to your hotspot.

As for the name is concerned, I never researched for it because I know ap → Access point, and I've seen softap term in logcat's output when enabling hotspot.

There are other ways to see the content of this file. In my Android 4.2.1, I can do:

adb shell su -c 'service call wifi 30'

As for the Android 5.0 (CM12), it would be:

adb shell service call wifi 36

The output isn't very human-friendly but it's not unreadable, and you can easily see SSID and password of hotspot.

Edit: For those who might wonder what those adb shell .. commands actually does in bits and pieces, here is a missing piece:

adb shell: you get a remote shell (access to device)
su: to attain root privileges, use if only necessary; -c: is to pass the following command which would  be executed with root privileges
service: it allows you to read and manipulate services running in your system. Enter adb shell service list to see a list of running ones, and adb shell service to see the command's usage.
call connectivity: to call a particular service (connectivity here). Name of services can be found using service list.
36 is the number assigned to a function of the connectivity service amongst many of it, which we're calling here. You can also pass an integer or a string to the function like adb shell service call connectivity 36 i32 1, but it would take effect only if the function has provision to accept such value. Take a look here to see such functions.


How to force the phone to connect to the internet? I own Xperia Mini Pro which has Android 2.1-update1. I am facing an issue on Internet Connection. I downloaded the settings for my Edge Connection from my SIM services. Sometimes after downloading the settings it instantly connects to the Internet. But sometimes it doesn't. I can see the APNs on Access Point Names section. Also that APN is selected. But still its not connecting to the Internet. I cannot see Edge connection notification on the Notification Bar.

I want to force the phone to connect to the internet, Is there any way to do that ?

Finally found a way to connect to internet on my Xperia Mini Pro android mobile.

Go to
     Settings ==> Wireless & network settings ==> Mobile networks ==> Network Mode
Its going to open another window with title as Preferred network mode.

Now try to Select WCDMA only option. Wait for 10 sec. We can see the network is getting reset and try to find the 3G signal.
Now open the same pop up again and select GSM(Edge or 2G) connection. Now again networking related stuff gets reset again.

This is how I force my mobile to connect to internet.


My RedMi phone is facing lots of problems! When I recharge my Xiaomi Redmi phone with some data balance, it shows speeds like 720 MBps and my data balance gets over really fast. Plus the data also gets switched on itself and the balance gets over in addition with lots of disapproving ads. I tried factory resetting two times but even then the phone displays lots of bad apps which were not there at the beginning and the data gets switched on by itself and phone hangs. I didn't use any of those bad apps nor have i ever browsed them in my web browser. It's totally not my fault. Please help!!!

You can set restrict data usage on Xiaomi phones. Go to Security -> Data Usage -> Restrict Data Usage. There you can see 'Installed' and 'System', which means installed apps(user apps) and system apps. You can uncheck both data and wifi for the apps , which you don't need to connect internet.
Note: Some system apps need data, so be careful on changing system apps.

The next thing is, you can set permissions for each apps. Go to `Security -> Permissions -> Permissions. Click on each app and set permission for each as you wish(Location, call log, contacts etc).

You can also set, auto start, which apps should start automatically after boot. Security -> Permissions -> Autostart


samsung galaxys5 how much data space does apps take on the phone storage? I have a samsung galaxys5, can you tell what applications uses a lot of space?

Open Settings> Application manager> Downloaded> Sort by size. Apps with larger size appears first on the list.


Galaxy S4 - Cannot turn email notifications OFF Probably after a software upgrade, my phone now vibrates and makes a sound whenever an email comes in.  This is annoying and keeps me up at night!  I have unchecked email notifications but it hasn't stopped.  Can anyone help?

go to settings, find aplications menu find your e-mail client that spams notifications, click it. you will find buttons like uninstall or delete app's data. there should be a checkbox for notifications. you can disable them. now app dosent have permission to throw any notifications on you


Update for att s5 on tmobile service? So I got an att galaxy s5 that is being used on tmobile service.  Am I out of luck as to getting either the att 4.4.4 update or the tmobile lollipop update?  Checked through settings and version is 4.4.2 and shows as no new update is available for att and I do not see an option for tmobile.

Have you rooted your device? If you have rooted your device you wont get any update.
If not rooted then you can try by installing Kies to your PC and then try updating through PC.


Cannot connect Nexus 7 to computer to see internal storage after flashing Cyanogenmod I've managed to flash Cyanogenmod 12.1 onto my Nexus 7 2012 to give it a new lease on life, but now I can't connect it to my PC to view it as a storage device!

The Nexus 7 shows up as a "media device" in Devices and Printers and does not show up as a drive in My Computer - the driver for it is shown as the Android ADB Driver. The Nexus 7 is only charging when connected to my computer, there is no notification to choose the connection type. I have tried re-installing the driver, but Windows says it's already up to date. ADB and Fastboot both locate the device in Recovery and Bootloader, so the driver is obviously working. Connecting the Nexus 7 to a different computer that hasn't been used to flash images shows up as a storage device with no problems.

What am I missing/doing wrong with my computer that won't show my Nexus 7 as a storage device?

Clarification: Running Windows 8.1. Connected with MTP mode shows my Nexus 7 in my Devices and Printers (but Unspecified), but not as a Media Device in My Computer:

Connected with PTP mode works as expected:

Ran into the exact same problem: Nexus 7 wouldn't properly connect as MTP device on Windows 10 after flashing CyanogenMod 12.1. The driver I had installed was the "Universal ADB driver" (not "Android ADB Driver" as OP). It was needed during the flashing procedure.

Solution was to uninstall the ADB driver: Right-click on the device in the Device Manager and select "Uninstall". Then unplug USB cable and reconnect. Device now works as expected.


What to do when mobile gets wet and the battery is not removable I got my mobile (HTC One X) wet yesterday and I could not take out the battery since it is not removable.

Currently, everything works fine but I can see a dark blur shadow on the right of the screen and few dark spots all over the screen.

What should I supposed to do ? Do I need to take it to technician right away or I can stay calm ?

It looks like your screen has been effected by the water and needs a new screen.

You can also open it up and dry the screen and digitalizer carefully. Maybe the screen and digitalizer are still wet on the inside. iFixit has said that it's "impossible" to repair it (open it up and being able to close it again), so be warned.
The other option is to turn your phone off and put it in the oven for a short few minutes. The heat will come into the phone and the water will dry up, but it's not guarenteed, since it looks like the screen has already been infected.

It's best to let a technician do it's thing. Take note that waterdamage is probably not a warranty thing, so that they're charging serious money. It's your choice to let it repair or not, because I don't think your phone will suddenly stop functioning. If it does, you can always let your phone being repaired later.


Disable permanently or uninstall the exchange services I'm fighting with the exchange services on my Samsung Galaxy S4. They can render the phone unusable, draining even 40-50% of battery during the day. I've deactivated the Exchange account mail synchronization, and I'm constatly killing the app when I notice it's running, but it keeps respawning which is extremally annoying. And if I don't notice, I can find myself out outside without battery power to do other things I need.

Is there a way to permanently disable the exchange services, or even completely remove it from the device?

First try clearing the app data of the stock email app in settings->apps, if that doesn't work:
If you go to settings->apps again and click on the stock email app (not gmail) then click disable, that should do the trick.
However:
If you still have a non-gmail email you could try lowering the sync frequency from push to every 30 mins.


Why does the Nexus 7 have a notification bar? In some of the reviews I have read of the new Nexus 7 tablet, it seems to have a notification bar. For example:

Why is that? I was under the impression that Android 3.0+ on tablets ditches the bar for a tray in the lower-right corner, next to the software buttons:

So why is this? Did they ditch the tray in 4.1? Is it because the units currently reviewed are not final, and the ones that will be sold will have the tray? Is it because it's too small at 7"? (although, the galaxy tab shown above is 7" as well, but maybe they changed the size limit in 4.1?)

Apparently, in the SDK the 7" form factor has the phone layout and tablet apps. The 10" form factor will still be tablet layout and tablet apps. I also heard that in 4.1 they expanded the functionality of the notification area so that notifications can do more (e.g. Reply to sms from notification area). I don't know how true that is though.


How can I export all my open Firefox Tabs to a text file? I've been trying to find a method to export all my currently open tabs in the Android Firefox browser. Unfortunately this seem impossible from default browser installation and very hard to do from command line as the SQLite3 database that Firefox is using, contains too many tables and hard to find the right query.

Apparently this is possible for Google Chrome using THESE hacks.

I would like to have each URL on a separate line in a text file.

On Android system you can use Termux (No root required):

Navigate in Firefox to URL: file:///data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/
Choose the link of ***.default folder of your profile
Choose the sessionstore.js file
Copy content of this file and save it in sessionstore.js file on local storage
Run the command in Termux to output your tabs urls:

cat ~/storage/shared/sessionstore.js | sed -n 's@{\"url\":\"@&\n@g; s@\",\"title\"@\n@gp' | sed '/^[:{]\"/d'

Or, this command to save your tabs urls in file sessionstore.txt on your local storage:

cat ~/storage/shared/sessionstore.js | sed -n 's@{\"url\":\"@&\n@g; s@\",\"title\"@\n@gp' | sed '/^[:{]\"/d' > ~/storage/shared/sessionstore.txt


How can I downgrade from Lollipop to KitKat Not at all happy with Lollipop on my Z3 compact. My battery lasts half a day and I'm not keen on new format

How can I downgrade and get back to Kit-kat?

There is a list of ROMs available for Z3 at XDA.
Please visit the link and flash your device with an appropriate ROM and you are done. :)

Sony Xperia Z3 ROMs [XDA]


Google Now suddenly disappeared I'm running Android 4.2.2 on a Galaxy Nexus with the February 13, 2013 update of Google Search installed. Google Now was working great until it suddenly ceased to appear today. Widgets now display "Get Google Now", and the Google Now screen itself only contains a search box, not even showing the Google Now-related items that were in the settings menu previously.

I rebooted the phone multiple times and upgraded all apps, but the problem has persisted for the last few hours. What gives, and is there a way to "reset" Google Now?

I'm not sure why Google Now ceased to appear, but here is how to reset it:

Open Settings --> Apps.
Scroll right to All.
Open Google Search, hit Clear Data and Clear Cache.

Open Google Now again and it will walk you through the initial setup guide. My personalized card settings were retained after the clear.


How to reach Google Servers to complete the setup from China My phone fell from my pocket while on a bike. After a while it was giving me some problems so I decided to resetting it. I'm in China now and I forget that I have to do through all the processes but China is blocking Google's servers so I can't complete the connectivity check.

As seen in other answers, VPN is the best solution.

In case you don't have a VPN or it fails to connect, do as follows. This won't do any harm to your phone.
    1. Unlock bootloader (if needed) and flash a custom recovery (if TWRP is available for your phone, go straight for it) and boot into it
For TWRP:
    2. Tap 'Mounts' and tick 'system'
    3. Tap 'Advanced' and 'File Manager', locate
       Android 4.1 & before: /system/app/SetupWizard.apk
       Android 4.2~5.0: /system/priv-app/SetupWizard.apk
       Android 5.1 & after: /system/priv-app/SetupWizard/SetupWizard.apk
    4. Rename it to SetupWizard.bak
Other custom recovery like CWM:
    2. Navigate to 'Mounts' using volume buttons and press power button to enter
    3. Again navigate to 'mount /system' and press power button
    4. Get a PC (with adb available) and run

adb shell mv /system/app/SetupWizard.apk /system/app/SetupWizard.bak

Change the path to SetupWizard.apk respectively according to the information above. Then reboot.
After rebooting from recovery, you'll find that the setup screen is gone and there's no more troubles.

Edit: For most highly customized ROMs in China like MIUI and Huawei's EMUI and ZTE's, there may be other setup wizards called mi_SetupWizard.apk or hwSetupWizard.apk or ZSetupWizard.apk, respectively, which exist along side the AOSP's one (usually located in /system/app regardless of ROM version). Remove them as well.