How to root Samsung Galaxy Discover? I just bought a Galaxy Discover. I can't figure out how to root it.

All I could find was this xda-developers link; but, I get an error running mount, so the root doesn't complete successfully.

How can I root my Discover?

I was able to root my Samsung Galaxy Discover using UnlockRoot.

Basically all you need to do is download this installer from their website and run it. However, the installer will attempt to dump a bunch of junk on your computer, so you need to be very careful. Read each page of the wizard to make sure the appropriate options are selected.

Once installed, connect your phone via USB and make sure USB debugging is enabled. Start the application and click the big green "root" button. You should receive a popup containing a button with the name of your phone. Simply click the button and wait for a few moments. After the phone reboots, your phone should be rooted.


Is it possible to reset Engineering mode's audio settings? I have a Quantum Muv (Brazilian phone) with android 6.0

When I first got it, its max volume for media was really low, both with earphones and without, so I followed a tutorial to change the settings via engineering mode. It worked well for headphones, but the speakers were still too low. Some time goes by and I try to change the settings again, but now it's like there's no volume 'slider': there's either off (0% volume) or max (all other %es). The settings are all a mess and I'm afraid trying to fix it will just mess everything up again.

Is it possible to reset engineering mode configurations without a factory reset?

Open engineering mode using the number *#*#3646633#*#*
Then go to hardware testing
Press audio
Then go to loudspeaker mode
Press ring change to media
Change value 0~255 change to 60.

I.e...., from if you have messed up everything in all the setting  sid, sip, ring, sph and sph2
From level 0 to 6or 14 the value 0~255 should be in increasing order in counts of 12 or 16.
And value 0~160 keep that in 128 default or for increase in volume keep in 135 that's all.

Do this properly and you will get the slider corrected and increase in volume.
While doing this process play a song from the music player.

Even I faced the same issue and got it solved after an hour of experimenting with all 4 audio settings
Don't alter engineering mode again.


How can I turn off the home screen preview of SMS/text messages in my Galaxy Note 2 On an Android device (Galaxy Note 2) with a locked screen whenever an SMS is received it's preview is displayed over the locked screen. This is super inconvenient - anyone who is nearby can see it without even unlocking the screen.Is there a way to disable those previews over a locked screen?

i have been annoyed by this as well!!

even after turning off as mentioned above i was still receiving the notification and preview of the msg

my problem turned out to be an add on sms widget for evernote "sms to evernote" that gives you the option to send your sms to evernote.

It is not obvious from the pop up that it is evernote

there are two options in the "sms to evernote" settings

"Enable sms pop up"  when you enable this you get further options to "hide sms in pop up"

The "hide sms in pop up" option does not work you get the preview regardless

it took me a while to work this out and i hope this saves someone else some time :-)


I forgot my lock pattern, how do I reset it? Possible Duplicate:
  Recovering from forgotten lock pattern

I have a Toshiba Thrive Android Table and I forgot what I used as my pattern lock. How do I reset it? Someone please help!

Enter wrong pattern until you see "Forget Pattern?" button on bottom-right. Tap this button  and you'll get pattern reset instructions in your inbox (default email attached with default Google  Account will be used).
If there's no default Google Account attached with device, you'll need to factory reset your device from recovery mode. To save data in this case, create Nandroid backup of your device and restore using Titanium Backup app.


How to remove any icons from notification bar? I want to disable a few buttons like "Driving mode" from the notification bar on my S4.

Yes, I have read exactly this question and I know the general idea. (I have seen it on 4.1).

But on my device with 4.2.2 the problem is: All buttons are enabled and there is no area for disabled buttons to move buttons to.

Is there any secret trick I have missed?

EDIT: There are some good screenshots about the situation here.
And I would be curious, if this is specific to the S4 or specific to 4.2.2?

Unlike the Note 2, the S4 doesn't have the "Available Buttons" section in the notification panel. So, you cannot remove the items.


My android phone is often getting affected with virus My problem :

Hello friends. I use Asus zenfone go T500 android phone. My problem is, my phone often gets affected by some kind of virus which sometimes installs some chinese apps without my knowledge and sometimes it causes troubles to other system apps and because of this i fequently get a message displaying unfortunately stopped working.

What I have done:

I tried resetting my phone(factory reset).
But even after resetting after a few days the same problem occurs again. So i thought of reinstalling my stock rom and hence i downloaded the stock rom from the official asus site and reinstalled it. Everything was fine. But again after some days the same problem. What i mean here is no matter any time i scan my phone with some antivirus or factory reset or reinstall ROM the behavour still exists.
I tried updating all my system and installed apps but no use.

My predictions:

What i predicted as a problem was this that my phones private ip address must have been stolen somehow and some idiot from some country is DOS attacking my phone.

Other info

  NOTE: I once rooted my phone and then later i reinstalled the stock
  ROM to get rid of it

My phone: ASUS Zenfone GO LTE

Model: ASUS_X003 (T500)

OS: KitKat - 4.4.4

ROM: WW-SKU

Lots of malware writers make malwares to make money, so developing a virus would do no good to them. Better ways of making money is to force installation of some apps which loads ads for you, or collects your personal data and sells it to third-parties, or just plainly demand ransom for your personal data. Check out this list to know the categories of Android malwares.

Whenever you get into a problem repeatedly you should wonder why so? In this case the biggest problem is you (the user) using an archaic version of Android that was launched in 2013 (6 years ago!). Neither Google, nor your OEM would support the device for that long. Meanwhile, since OS is actually a software built using codes,and because codes can be buggy the bugs get exploited by some malwares writers and the result is what you are experiencing with your device.

The only solution as I see is to keep reviewing the code for vulnerabilities and fixing them. This is near impossible for users so we expect OS developers or OEMs to do this for us. Some OEMs support the device for some period, others don't. In that case, the user can turn elsewhere and see if some third-party is doing this job (custom ROM developers). If even that doesn't work, one should either stop using the device with any new app or updates or with internet connectivity, or to personally port a custom ROM built using secure and new OS code, or simply switch to a device which uses the latest Android version and would be supported for a while.

To summarize, there is no point in fixing this problem technically because your device is asking itself to get compromised again, sooner or later. Switch to a newer Android version.

Note: it may be possible to prevent exploitation of some vulnerabilities in an older Android version using SELinux or some other security framework, but I am not aware of any attempt in this direction.


"Gmail has stopped" dialog On my Samsung Galaxy S4 with Android 4.4.2, I get constantly a dialog saying "Gmail has stopped" (In french, actually : "Gmail s'est arrêté"). When I click OK, the message re-opens within less than a second.

I tried to restart my device, to no avail. I still get the message.

Anyone knows a solution?

Edit: just an update on how things started: I wanted to kill a bunch of tasks and ran Advanced Task Killer. I probably left Gmail selected and so killed it with the tasks I wanted to get rid of. And all hell broke lose...

Hmmm... An update for Gmail was waiting on Play. I installed it and everything works fine, now. Did I need the update to make it work properly (after an update on Google's servers, or after the last update of my system, for example), or was the update a convenient way to restart Gmail properly? I don't know.


Moving WhatsApp to new phone without changing number Not sure if this has been asked before. I would like to move my WhatsApp installation and chats to my new phone and I would like to keep the same number associated with it, but I don't want to move the SIM with the old number into the new phone.

Everything I have read online about moving WhatsApp to new phone seems to apply only to one of two options, taking the old SIM into the new phone, or changing the number on the account to match the SIM in the new phone.

I know this is possible because I have seen French people using WhatsApp with their old French number from years back, but when I call them on their local number, that rings the phone on which the installation sits (not dual SIM)

Bro, it's actually easy! You don't need to remove your old sim and fit into your new phone. I have added the steps for you
First Backup all the data and chat history to google drive from the chats section in settings in whatsapp.

Whatsapp>>:>>Settings>>Chats>>Chat Backup

Second After backing up all the data install whatsapp on the new phone. Then verify your old phone number by getting the otp on your old phone and you will get a option for restoring your data from Google drive.
=>After restoring the data you will get most of the messages back on your new phone!
Yes, I have written "most of the" not "all of the". It's because not all your data gets backed-up. The data which you have downloaded on the old phone will normally gets backed-up with the chat.
To back up all the data I will recommend first downloading all the things and stuffs which you have received from others and then start backing up in your old phone!
(Or) alternatively there are many applications which can do all these things without any sort of manual uploading and downloading. You can search for them on the web and playstore (or appstore)!


How can I locate my Android device around the house? Oftentimes, I don't know where I placed my Android around the house. Is there a way to make it vibrate and emit high volume sounds/music that will help me find it?

Four come to mind:

Phoning Pigeon
Where's My Droid
Lookout Mobile
Prey

Each goes about it in different ways. Phoning Pigeon probably has the lightest touch. You pre-define one or more phone numbers with the app. Then, if the phone receives two consecutive calls from one of those numbers, it will turn the ringer on at maximum volume.

Where's My Droid is similar, but you send an SMS message with specific text.

The Lookout siren is very loud; you'd have no trouble finding it. The app has several other functions as well, including virus scanning and backing up your data.

Prey is similar to Lookout's tracking and probably wouldn't be as useful for finding a misplaced phone in your house; it's more for tracking a phone that has been taken. It might work for you, though, and there's no risk in checking it out.


Latest version of Play app on Android 2.1 I've got a device (HTC Magic) with Android 2.1 (rooted, with CyanogenMod). It has Google Market app v2.23.6 - pretty old. I wonder, what's the latest version of Play that runs on Android 2.1?

In the past, this device once had trouble with updating the Market. I wonder if this is the same trouble all over again, or Market 2.23.6 is the latest I'm going to ever get?

EDIT: more about upgrading Market to Play here.

The app still calls itself Market, not Play. This might be relevant; probably Market->Play transition changes the package ID or something.

Have Froyo here running on Samsung Europa, latest version on this is, 4.1.6.

Perhaps you need to let the old Market run for a bit, then back out of it, it should auto-upgrade itself, provided you have a valid account and signed in.


Terminating adb.exe? I am trying to hot spot my htc evo.  When I click on PDAnet,  it tells me that I have to terminate adb.exe.  how do i terminate adb.exe.   thank

adb kill-server

You need to run that from wherever you installed the android tools.


Google now won't read the contents of lists Google now won't read the contents of the lists add in the following two screenshots.

Click image for larger version

This is completely unusable from the point of view of blind users, who may want to compose a text, e.g. am impersonal or asynchronous one add opposed to a phone call, and know the list contents which are currently not read out.

Is there a fix for now? Do newer Google devices fix this issue?

Thanks.

Do you have Google Talkback Installed and activated?  This utility is meant specifically to help blind users interact with Android.  If you have not installed, configured, and tried out Talk back yet I highly suggest it for the visually impaired.  It installs as an accessibility service so it can be run system wide, and you should still be able to utilize whatever other methods you are already comfortable with while adding this one to hopefully help fill in holes like this one.

Talk Back Info Page: http://www.androidcentral.com/what-google-talk-back


How can I enable the internet on other apps other than the web browser? The wifi that I am using requires me to input a username and password for it to work. I can successfully do this on the web browser (chrome) as it brings up a webpage (ie 192.168.1.1/login). However, I can't access any other apps as I believe that I haven't inputted my username and password into those corresponding apps(and I don't think I'm actually able to either (like with gmail or spotify)).

So I was thinking that a solution to this would be to find an app that would allow me to globally access internet to all apps. Any suggestions?

You normally can login in your browser i.e: http://1.1.1.1 (or any local address)  and put your credentials, user and password.

If are valid, your mobile its accepted to use the network for all apps, until you disconnect.

Otherwise you can set a proxy for some apps, as social apps or browsers.


Android 4.04: Default Silent Mode to Mute I just upgraded Galaxy S2 (Epic 4G Touch) to Android 4.04. In the previous version, I could change the Default Silent Mode to Mute instead of Vibrate in the Sound settings. I believe this was under Vibrate settings; this could be changed to Never.

In this version, if I hold down the power button and choose Silent Mode it always goes to Vibrate mode instead of Mute. I can change the setting to Mute by going into the Sound settings, but it is much faster to hold down the power button (particularly when the phone is locked).

Any thoughts?

It's not possible using the power button long press for the Device Options menu in 4.0.4 on SG2. It always reverts back to "Vibrate" when changing Silent mode, albeit it is possible to press the volume down until it goes into vibrate, and then press volume down again. This takes a bit of time, though, and doesn't work unless you're past the screen lock. IMO, in a perfect world, this should only take one action.

Conclusion

Wait for a version update above 4.0.4 and hope they fix this BS. (Also, I friggin' hate people who think their phone is silent during meetings or seminars, and their phone just keeps buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. It's #*@!ing Android trolling!)

Hack

The only hack I've found to make it work with the power button long press is going to Setting > Sound > Vibration intensity and setting ringtone vibration to zero. However, I'm pretty sure that turns off vibration globally, and you'll still see that annoying icon for "silence with vibration" when you use Silent mode trough the power button. :(

Fastest way to mute

Wipe off the screen lock. Flip down the curtain of the notificaions menu, then double tap the sound icon. That will bring you from sound to vibrate, and finally to mute. Or get a widget for muting.


How can I disable the volume warning if you raise the volume too much? I recently got a Nexus 4, and I've got a question regarding the volume warning that pops up if you raise the volume too much. Is it possible to disable or remove this warning? I want to be able to raise the volume with the phone in my pocket (with the volume buttons) without having to pick up the phone. I listen to podcasts with low or bad audio and need to raise it above the warning level.

This is a known issue (or feature) in Android 4.2, and there's probably no fix for now.

UPDATE 2013-12-10: According to Marius Hofert, it is still an issue in 4.4.


“Android is upgrading… Starting Apps” on boot My phone is still stuck on "Android is upgrading.. starting apps" on boot.

Earlier, my phone said "Unfortunately, Google Playstore stopped working" and I am unable to use my apps which needed Internet access so I turned off my phone and removed my sd card before doing a factory reset. The reset was successful however it's been booting for several minutes already. I tried removing the battery and putting it back on. I rebooted the device and it is now stuck on "Android is upgrading.. starting apps." I tried removing the battery again and started wiping cache partition, doing factory reset again and rebooting the system but the problem is still the same.

Olá (hi)

You can recovery you device by installing again its original stock rom.

See more about it at the following website: (it is in portuguese)

http://smartmundo.com/brick-matar-aparelho/


Remove pin lock from an old forgotten phone I broke my current phone so I thought that I would use my old Samsung j1(2016) but it seems that I forgot the 10 digit pin code (10 because the code used all digits including 0). I searched the net but the phone doesn't have developer option activated, custom rom/recovery and wifi/3g deactivated.
Please help me I don't want to delete all my data.

You can Unlock your device using Odin to flash firmware but it can't stop get formatted during flash process.
When flashing a firmware it clear the internal storage.


Can't save Shared photos There is an option on Facebook messenger that lets you view shared photos  I can't save any of them to gallery. After I long press on photo it opens but there is no options.

Once the photo is open there should be three vertical dots in the bottom right corner (if you don't see them initially tap once on the image/screen). Tapping on the dots will open a menu that includes the save option.


How can I speed up Window Animation scale? I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.4.2. It's fast but I'm a heavy user and I'd like to make it a bit faster. How can I speed up Window Animation scale?

I found that by tweaking the following settings, the overall performance of my phone had increased.

  Go to Settings > Developer Options

Scroll down to Window animation scale and change the value from 1X to .5x (if you want faster performance you can turn this setting off).

Do the same for Transition animation scale and Animator animation scale.

In order to reach these settings you must have access to Developer Options.

  On Android 4.2 and newer, Developer Options are hidden by default. To
  access them, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number
  7 times. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options.


Installing the official Froyo for Nook Color on a rooted device Last week I installed Honeycomb on my Nook Color, and today I found out that B&N released an official Froyo build for it, which I would like to try. I downloaded the update from here, and put the zip on my MicroSD already installed with ClockworkMod Recovery v3.0.1.0.

I started the Nook, formatted Data, System & Boot (in this order), and tried to install nookcolor_1_2_update.zip from the SD. The installer said "Can't open /sdcard/nookcolor_1_2_update.zip (bad)". I coped the file again to make sure it's not related to the unmount of the SD from my PC, and I also opened the file in WinRAR on my PC to verify that it's valid (it is).

What am I missing? I'm very new to Android and try to learn what I can from the web, so sorry if this is a super-newbie question...

I believe that the official 1.2 update will only install on top of an official firmware (1.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0,) and only with the stock recovery, not ClockworkMod.

You will need to revert your Nook Color to one of these "stock" firmware versions before trying to upgrade to 1.2.  Alternatively, there are a few Clockwork Recovery-friendly versions of the 1.2 upgrade that will not require going back to stock first.


No Micro SD Card Inserted but phone detects it I have an Android 4.0.4 Myphone A919 Duo.  I go to Settings > Storage.  Internal Storage: Total Space is 0.98 GB. Phone Storage: Total Space is 1.55 GB.  Then on SD CARD, it says Mount SD Card which is greyed out.

One of my apps, AppMgr III, shows an ON SD CARD tab with 1.55 GB of space.  The tab next to it is PHONE ONLY with 1005.93 MB of space.  I can tap on an app in the SD CARD tab and it gives the option to Move to Internal storage and the app launches and runs just fine with no errors.

I have another app, File Manager, that shows the directory /mnt/sdcard and a bunch of folders.

So basically with or without an SD card inserted, the Mount SD Card in Settings is greyed out and both apps are reporting an SD Card.  How can an app show an SD Card if there is no SD Card inserted and the Mount option is greyed out?  Does it have to do with cache?

That SDCARD is technically your internal storage mounted at /sdcard or /mnt/sdcard or even /storage/sdcard0. They aren't your external sdcard you can insert. That would be mounted to /external-sd/ or similar. The option is greyed out because there is no external sdcard to be mounted. So keep in mind that  there is a difference between sdcard (internal) and external sdcard. Just so you know: With the update to android 4.0 the internal and external sdcards have become a thing.


Recovering from lengthy rom upgrade on HTC Desire S I started installing Android 4.0.4 on HTC Desire S from the official website. It had an executable that I just launched and clicked through to start installation. It should have taken about ten minutes but now it is over half an hour later. There's no progress bar on the phone. I can only see "Sending.." (with number of dots growing repeatedly) on my laptop (under Windows 7). Is there a way to recover from this situation? Is my phone doomed to be bricked if I just disconnect usb?

I disconnected the usb and then some sort of debug screen showed up and gave me an option to reboot the phone. To my astonishment I still had Android 2.3.5 installed and working. It looks like installation of new ROM newer really took off.
The second attempt to upgrading rom succeceded.


Android keeps loosing Launch Defaults, app settings and installed updates and installed apps after every reboot After every reboot Android keeps loosing Launch Defaults, some app settings and even some of installed updates and installed apps.

I re-flashed the stock firmware, then applied all the OTA updates. After that I only flashed TWRP, GApps (Pico Uni) and SuperSU.

Given this, I tried several Factory Resets (from Settings), but every time, after installing some number of apps, some of the above start disappearing with every reboot. As I varied the sequence of apps installed, the data lost is every time something else. Examples from different Factory Resets include:

lost default app for search on Home button tap-and-drag
lost default app for browser
lost Gmail preferences (Global ones) and/or account Sync flag
updates of Motorola Camera and Motorola Gallery (via Play Store)
some of apps I just installed (via Play Store) disappear after reboot
internal storage becomes read-only for apps (even rooted ones), but remains writable for Android File Transfer

What I tried so far:

erasing cache and dalvik cache--actually after nearly every app installed, and of course after Factory Reset
uninstalling and reinstalling every app in question
manual resetting app defaults in Settings>Apps, both globally and for individual apps
none of the apps installed to SD / internal storage, so it shouldn't be an issue

What I didn't try include:

erasing internal storage and SD card (most apps were previously "moved to SD")
whatever reformatting or repartitioning the Android partitions

Any ideas what to try next?

I have Moto G 2nd gen (XT1079 dual-SIM). It runs Android auto-updated from stock 5.0.2 22.36.1 (build LXB22.99-7.1) to stock Lollipop 5.0.2 22.46.7 (build LXB22.99-24.7).

The root cause was a wrong edition of TWRP: I mistakenly downloaded TWRP for Titan series of Moto G 2, while my XT1079 phone is obviously part of Thea series.

Discovered that through trial-and-error in several other re-installs of the original ROM, GApps, TWRP and OTAs.


Keyboard scroll down in Google Reader app How can I use the arrow keys in my keyboard to scroll down on a page in the Google Reader app?

I can scroll down only via the tactile screen, which is not easy to be done when wearing gloves in winter time.

It doesn't seem to be possible.
At least not in the post it self. In the list of posts it is however.

The only way I am able to scroll in posts, is sideways, which changes the post.

It could be done programmatically though, by combining and rewriting some stuff. But then it is of course no longer Google Reader :)

A suggestion however (which is what I do) is to make a small hole in the thumb of the glove. Then the skin is able to make electric connections on the touch screen :)


How can I find the group id (gid) for the sdcard_r group on android? The question says it all. All folders on my sdcard has owner set as 0(root) and group set as sdcard_r - means all apps that have permissions to access the sdcard.

However, since I have root, I want to change the group of this folder using chgrp, so that only a selected app can access this. I know how to do this too, so no probs until now.

However, I don't want this to be a one-way setting, I want to be able to revert back to sdcard_r in case something goes wrong. Now I don't know the actual gid of this group sdcard_r and chgrp only works with gids, not names. So, how can I find the gid of this group, sdcard_r?

Use the following command to see GID of the concerned group:

id -G group_name

Courtesy of this answer of doylefermi.

It is very much possible that the GID would be 1028 given this line in source code of Android.


How do I get MMS working on Nexus 5 with Straight Talk? I can't send or receive MMS messages via Straight Talk on my Nexus 5.  I've verified that my wife's iPhone works just fine with the same information, as well as verifying that MMS used to work on my Nexus 4 with the generic ST instructions.

I've already verified that I have the most recent SIM card from ST
I've already verified that using the standard ST info for the APN does not work.

APN Name: Straight Talk
APN: tfdata
Port: 80
MMSC: http://mms-tf.net
MMS Proxy: mms3.tracfone.com
MMS Port: 80

I waited for a billing cycle to pass in case it would just fix itself after a billing cycle.

I finally hit upon APN settings which did the trick for me.

APN Name: STRAIGHT_TALK
APN: tfdata
Port: 80
Username: not set
Password: not set
Server: not set
MMSC: http://mms-tf.net
MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.33
MMS Port: 80
MCC: 310
MNC: 410
Auth Type: none
APN Type: default,supl,mms,hipri,agps,fota,dun,entitle


Voice to text stops recording abruptly in google keep I've recently been trying google keep for its speech to text feature.  The problem I'm having though is that it only records a couple of seconds then stops.  Usually about 2 to 7 seconds.  Is the problem likey with my phone, or is there some setting I need to change.  I assume I don't need to upgrade $ to make notes that are longer do I?
Also I tried it several ways and made sure my fingers aren't on the screen while I'm recording, so I don't think I'm accidentally tapping the screen to stop the recording.
Thanks

After trying the voice recording I've found that the recording stops whenever there is silence for a few seconds. In other words, to make a long recording you'll need to talk continously.

I've so far found no way to increase the length of this silence period in order to stop the recorder from prematurely stop recording. Please comment if you know how to do that.


Why does the clock think he's in Detroit? We have brand new phones, and my husband's HTC Evo Shift 4G clock app seems to think he's in Detroit. He isn't. We've never even been to Michigan, which is probably our loss, I'm sure Michigan is beautiful, but the point is that it isn't like we've got a billing address in Detroit or a Detroit area code. The map knows where we are, but the clock shows his "current location" as Detroit. I can't find a way to change that in the clock settings.

We've tried with Settings > Date & time settings on  both "Automatic" and not. I even rebooted after enabling automatic date/time. Doesn't seem to make a difference.

I assume you're referring to the HTC Sense clock widget that appears on the Home screen?  It looks like this:

If so, it's important to note that the location listed there is indicating what location the weather refers to, not the time.  HTC's support site has an explanation of how to work with the widget, including editing settings.

It sounds like you added a new location to the weather configuration (which is why it separates it into "Home" and "Current location"), but it's still showing some other, non-current, and non-"Home" weather forecast.  For that, you'll want to read Checking weather, also on HTC's support website.  It explains how to add new cities to the list, how to rearrange the order of the cities (e.g., so that the important one shows up first), and most important: how to delete one ;)

Don't worry about it being for the HTC Desire S -- both phones run Android with HTC Sense, so the steps will be the same for both.


Continuous pairing request from a smart watch Some time ago I replaced a phone to a new one using Android 7 (before it was 6) and my smart watch updated to Android Wear 2.0. Hard to tell what was the reason but since then each time a bluetooth connection between the devices is broken and going to be re-established there is a pairing request with a code which needs to be confirmed on both devices. Is there a way to make a phone and a watch to trust each other once and forever and to connect without re-asking a confirmation? This was the case with Android 6/Android Wear 1.1.

Not sure it matters, but the phone is
Asus ZenFone AR and the watch: Casio WSD-F10.

It is an issue across most Android wear devices, Wear 2.0 and any watch.
You'll see this issue all over the Internet.
I have two Moto 360's and both constantly have pair requests with my Android 7 Motorola Droid 2.
I have factory reset both, followed Google's directions and still does it.
Hopefully Wear OS 3.0 will fix it, but I've heard both of my watches are not getting that update, which is BS.


Galaxy Nexus randomly shut downs while streaming music with Pandora- how do I fix this? While streaming music with the Pandora application (on the high quality setting) on a Galaxy Nexus over Verizon 4G, after any given time period the phone will completely shut down. This happens at unpredictable times. The phone doesn't get heated and no data/download limits are reached. I'm fairly certain this is a bug with the Pandora app on ICS or could be ICS in general, as it is not experienced during any other data streaming.

Has anyone experienced this random shut down while streaming with Pandora on their device, and if so..
Is there remedy for this type of bug?

For random shut downs, that's most probably a loose battery problem.

Stick some dental floss (I used Oral-B Glide floss) in the side opposite the battery connectors.  I used that floss because it's a bit spongy when you bunch it up but at the same time hard.  Used about 1.5 feet of it bundled up in my Nexus S phone.

When you push the battery in, make sure it is tight, but not too tight.

This will force the battery to remain contacted at the pins.  When the battery is loose and can disconnect from the pins (for even a fraction of a second), you get an open circuit and the phone shuts off completely (no power).


Battery draining within seconds I have a Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9105. My problem is battery draining. It works normally after I charge it to full, but as soon as the battery percentage hits 30%, draining accelerates and will go to zero within seconds (literally).

But if I charge it and unplug at 12%, it drains normally again...

What is the problem? Should I buy a new battery?

Update:  I have bought a new battery and recalibrated but the same battery draining occurs

Try resetting your Android to factory setting and see if that helps. Otherwise I would suggest trying out a new ROM, as that helped improve my battery life considerably.


How to recover data from LGE Nexus 4 running on Android Version 4.4.2? I am using LGE Nexus 4 which is running on Android Version 4.4.2. Somehow accidently i do a factory reset on my phone and in return i lost all my emails, messages, pictures i.e, almost everything. Now i am desperately want to recover them but don't know how to do it.

I tried to find a solution on google but i got more confused by the given solutions on google. I tried a data recovery software(Dr Drone for android) but the software is not able to recover data from those devices which are running on >Android version 4.2. Technical team of Dr Drone for android want me to root the device but because of complications in the rooting process i don't want to root my device.

Is there any way to recover them?

Here's a couple of things that might help,

A regular factory reset does not wipe the sdcard partition. Things such as pictures and whatsapp messages should be restorable when you just install the relevant apps again.
If you are a Gmail user, just sign in again and it will automatically resync. If you are using a corporate email account or general mail app, and if the email was setup using IMAP, the messages should still be sitting on the server and  adding the email account again should sync the messages back. If the setup used POP, then you might be out of luck here.
By default the contacts on your phone sync with Google if you were signed in to the phone. Signing in again should sync those back as well.

Good luck!


To report Youtube security bug I found security vulnerability/bug on YouTube. I want to report. How can I report it? Is there a quick way?

Being that YouTube is a product of Google, You can report the bug on Google's report security bug, page

From the page:

  If you have found a security bug in a Google product and want to
  report it to us, you've come to the right place. Please fill out the
  following form and we'll be in touch shortly. If this is a valid
  vulnerability report, it might also be eligible for a reward as part
  of our Vulnerability Reward Program. Thanks!


What are the benefits of 2G+3G mode? Some of the advanced power control widgets or 2G/3G switching widgets allow the following options for the radio mode:

2G
3G only
2G+3G

What are the benefits of 2G+3G over running 3G only? Are there any drawbacks?

If you choose 3G only, you have no connectivity if you are in an area where no 3G is available. With 2G+3G, the phone will fallback to 2G if it can't get a 3G connection.


switching off finger debugging infos in android My Android phone (sony z3, running 4.4.4) keeps showing finger tracks as well as the finger tracking debugging infos. How can I turn that off?

The feature got accidentally turned on (for me unaware) while the phone was in my pocket.

a screen image is attached

These features are part of Developer Options.

Settings > Developer Options > Input

Turn off Show touches

Turn off Show pointer location.

This terminology is from my Samsung S3, yours may be similar.

This is deep into the settings heirarchy, it is unlikely accidental.


Why is the first step always 73.73 kB while downloading from Google Play Store? My phone is a OnePlus 5T running Android 8.1. While downloading or updating apps from Google Play Store, the first step is always 73.73 kB.

I'm just curious. Is there any technical reason (e.g. file system) for that?

The answer to the question depends on a few different variables, such as specific internet types, always come with high latency and low bandwidth, such as some satellite hookups, or dial up hookups if used.

If you do not have a stable internet connection, and your bandwidth is not consistent enough to be that bandwidth at all times, then perhaps your phone's wifi/data chip is only pulling that fast, or there could be background network applications running that are taking up all the bandwidth. If applications besides the one you are downloading something on are open, or apps have background processes using the network, that could be a cause of it.

The last option that i can think of is you could be getting throttled by your router, check your router for anything limiting, throttling, or prioritizing anyone's IP or mac addresses. Generally 10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.0 or if you know you router is using another local ip address, login using that and sometime the default user is admin, with password of admin, password, or blank in most cases.

All else fails, it must be some sort of bug in your device, the apps, or some code between your device and the server.


no password field on internet connect So I got a new phone (Moto G) about 3 days ago (newest version os) and I've tried to connect to my school's internet, which requires usename/id and password. However, when I try to connect on my phone there's no place to enter my password, only the username. I can hold and select modify network to set the password there, but connecting after that always seems to trigger "authentication issues", even though I know my password is correct because I can connect on other devices.

I have a Moto G as well (small world) and also had this problem when connecting to my school's WiFi network (even smaller world).

It appears like the Moto has trouble autodetecting encryption settings on some networks. You can probably get it working by long pressing on the network, selecting modify network, and then changing the 'EAP method' and Phase 2 Authentication' options to whatever your network requires them to be. Get a friend to open their WiFi settings and then copy whatever they have set. A reconnect should grant you access.

Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.


Applications are not installed with adb restore I have non-rooted Android 7.0 device (NVIDIA Shield Tablet) which was previously backed up with

adb backup -apk -shared -all -nosystem -f mybackup.ab

But restoring it with

adb restore mybackup.ab

results in that /Android/data, etc are restored, but the applications are not installed from apk files, no errors.

I've had to extract apk files from mybackup.ab and install them manually in batch with adb install <...>.apk. After that everything was fine.

I'm quite sure that I've previously had similar problem with 6.0. and Helium/Carbon before but thought that it was specific to backup method I've chosen.

What is the problem with adb restore? Is it because the device is non-rooted? Why does adb install work as expected then?

I solved it with the following script

#!/bin/bash
killall adb > /dev/null 2>&1
set -e

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 <package-name-without-ab>"
  exit 1
fi

export PATH=/opt/jdk1.8.0_152_jce/jre/bin:$PATH
ab=$1.ab
java -jar /opt/android-backup-extractor-20160710-bin/abe.jar unpack $ab $ab.tar apw; tar -xf $ab.tar --wildcards '*.apk' --strip-components=3
mv base.apk $ab.apk
rm $ab.tar
adb install $ab.apk

adb restore $ab

echo "Ready"

You need furthermore the android-backup-extractor. How ever in my experience adb backup is still not really safe. First of all some apps can set a flag, so they won't be backup. And the restore works only sometimes and not sure, for example if you change the device. It's a shame that in 2018 only Titanium Backup make good job, if you have a rooted phone.


My LG X Power volume keeps resetting to 2 I turn down my ringer to 0, with no vibrate.  I leave it on my desk, and when I get a message,  I hear the message ding.  When I check, the volume is at 2 (i mean 2 levels higher than vibrate).

This is happening several times a day.  What could be causing it?

I'm using Android 6.0.1

I figured it out.

It was the "Call Blocker" app from AndroidRock.

The problem went away after I uninstalled the app.  To be sure, I reinstalled it, and the problem came back.  I tried this about 3 or 4 times to confirm.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.androidrocker.callblocker&hl=en


Taking pictures with headphone jack It's a first generation Moto G running Android 5.0.2 and I'm trying to make this headphone-jack selfie stick work.

Tried with both Motorola Camera and Google Camera apps. Both take photos correctly when the volume button is pressed on the phone. Neither take a photo when the button on the selfie stick is pressed. I would consider the product defective, but Google Camera actually focuses when the button is pressed.

Is there any setting I'm missing, or a way to find what the selfie stick button is actually doing so I can re-map the action?

Check your volume sliders, it sounds [see what i did there? xD ] like
it's your notification volume that triggers the mechanism. At least that what i got when you said pushing on the volume button did the trick.
Unlock/unlink your volume sliders if they're locked/linked, also if your rom has safe earphone volume feature, disable it.


Can't get rid of one text message I have had this single text message on my phone since June. It simply won't delete. It comes through my Twitter account and is send to my SMS, but all other such texts delete easily.

|H
| E
|  L
|   P
|    !
|_____!

Deleting cache and data of messaging app should help.Also clean cache of other sms apps including hangouts if you have installed them. Is this  sms is moved to SIM for some reason?I always backup and then clean and never keep in SIM.


Recovering Wifi Password without Root on Galaxy Note 3 I am trying to recover WiFi password without rooting my phone. There are 2 ways I found online. One using a file explorer and the next is using ADB. I tried using ADB but I failed in doing so. I'm really not sure if I did it right but then I just followed the instructions here from Quora. Anyway, I have pulled the wpa_supplicant.conf and this is the only thing I see:

update_config=1
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

I should be seeing this instead of the one above:

network={
ssid="NETWORK_NAME_HERE"
psk="PASSWORD_HERE"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
priority=1
}

Is there something that I missed or it's just not really applicable? I have Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005.

If you are still connected with wifi than you can recover wifi password by going to your local host in the browser like 192.168.1.1 and than in the password section tick on show password or just click in password field your password will than be revealed to you hope it helps .


NFC task for BOTH tag entry and exit Since picking up a few NFC tags I've been experimenting with automation apps to run tasks for certain contexts (e.g. Car dock).

The apps I've tried (e.g. Trigger) are great at running tasks when the tag appears but I've yet to find one to trigger events when the tag is removed.

The car dock scenario would involve:

Tag entry

Wifi off
Brightness auto
Lock screen off

Tag exit

Reverse above changes

Setting the phone up for the drive is great but very annoying that I can't  jump out my car and chuck my phone in a pocket without toggling settings off.

I'm aware that some of the apps have a 'toggle' mode where tapping the same tag twice can run another set of tasks. This is not ideal.

My understanding (I was interested in the same sort of thing) is that there is no event fired when an NFC tag is removed. So the only way to do this would be a check at regular intervals to see if the NFC tag is still connected, and I'm not sure that even that is possible.


Ultra STAMINA mode bug on Sony Xperia Z3? I had a long night yesterday, and at 5am my Xperia had like 10% of battery left, so I put it in Ultra STAMINA mode and fell asleep. This morning, the phone wouldn't turn on as the battery was completely dead. So I came home, charged the phone a little and turned it on.

Now, it's not in the safe mode, but it looks like that! The default launcher is operating, but I can't switch between none of the launchers neither. I can see only very few applications, and when I turn them on, they shut down immediately. When I reboot the phone, the first message is that Google Play Services has stopped working.

Now if I go to Setting -> Apps, I see everything there! Launchers, apps, games everything, also photos and contact are all there.

The Ultra STAMINA mode makes your phone use only the basic functions and I'm pretty sure it turns on the default launcher. Also connecting to computer does not work neither!

Try charging your phone to its max and try again. This should work, do not turn on your phone until it shows that it is 100% charged. Reboot your phone and disable Ultra STAMINA mode, everything should be fine.

If your battery is less than 15%, Ultra STAMINA mode does not allow flash, camera location, 4G which requires maximum power and drain the battery.

Charge your battery to max
Reboot it
See the magic


CyanogenMod 11 installer for Xperia SP I downloaded the CyanogenMod installer from the Google PlayStore however on installation it says my device is not supported and if i should wish to continue, it will be at my own risk. Is there any harm if I should choose to proceed with the installation??

If your device is officially supported by Cyanogen, you can at 99,9% run the installer without any issues. But if you would like to go the "secure" way, I recommend the manual method.


Best designed android ROM for LG Optimus 2X P990 Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I am really busy trying to find a ROM that fits my personality for my LG Optimus 2X P990. I have used CM7. CM9, CM10 and MIUI. I really like MIUI v4 and above, but i haven't found any MIUI v4 ROM that is stable enough for daily basis. I really like ROMS that has kind of flat buttons as seen in the metro UI and ics and above roms. I like it professional with not like big really graphic intense UI's. I have searched a lot, and i have looked into the Prada rom for the LG Optimus 2X, but i couldn't find a download link. Do anyone of you have a ROM that is fast, professional and stable enough for daily basis? Thanks

Try the original rom...
I came back to the original rom after a long spell on all kinds of developer mods, and was pleasantly surprised. I am on V20g and it is flying...I have yet to encounter any problems.
MIUI and CM are all clever, but they all come with errors one way or another.
If you need a rooted one with CWM then you could try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34379632&postcount=267


How to remove persistent "Mi Band is Connected" notification in Android? I have Mi band 2 from Xiaomi, always connected to my Android device for fitness activity tracking. In the notification drawer, there is always a persistent(unclearable notification) - "Mi Band is/isn't connected - which is annoying. Is there any way I could make it disappear and receive other notifications from the Mi Fit App, if any?

Profile -> Settings -> Show Status in Notification Shade

August 2018
Android version 8.0
MiFit App version 3.4.4


How to remove installed Viber sticker? I don't know how to remove the installed sticker in Viber list. Mine is quite long now.

It's not yet supported.

From viberfaq (answer posted a month ago):

  At the moment it is unfortunately not possible. You can uninstall
  Viber, and when you reinstall, Stickers will be gone from your Sticker
  folder (but this will unfortunately result in message history
  deletion).

  In the future we plan to add a feature that lets you remove Stickers
  from your folder.


Stop the nag notification for enabling texts on Hangouts? Pretty much every time I get a text message, Hangouts gives me an annoying notification asking to handle my text messages (which I don't want to do). Is there a way to disable it?

Turn it on, then go into Hangouts and turn it off.

Actually I really wanted to write/receive SMS from Hangouts, but it didn't quite work well. Sometimes I could not even reply to the message. So yeah. I disabled it and no nag ever since.


Is it possible to use rooting method of a device on a device having same model number yet different baseband number I have recently bought Samsung Galaxy J Docomo. Upon spending countless hours on the internet searching for roots, I could only find the root for build id: LRX21V.SC02FOMUGOI4. Does there exist a root for Build ID: LRX21V.SC02FOMSGPL2 (which is on my phone)? If yes, can somebody point me in the correct direction?

Let me know if you want further details. Thanks in advance.

Moreover, is it possible for me to use the available  rooting technique on my mobile (despite the different firmware versions)?

Here's some more information regarding the firmwares.

Phone Samsung GALAXY J
Model SC-02F
PDA Version SC02FOMSGPL2
CSC Version SC02FDCMGPL2
PHONE Version SC02FOMSGPL2
Region DCM
Country Japan
Build Date 09.12.2016
Changelist 5774932
OS Lollipop
OS Version 5.0

Phone Samsung GALAXY J
Model SC-02F
PDA Version SC02FOMUGOI4
CSC Version SC02FDCMGOI4
PHONE Version SC02FOMUGOI4
Region DCM
Country Japan
Build Date 09.09.2015
Changelist 5774932
OS Lollipop
OS Version 5.0

Rooting methods are often device, device variant and OS specific (though some work across device-boundaries). In your question both devices are the same except PDA which is same but with minor variations – I couldn't find the exact difference on internet
Baseband has nothing to do with rooting process . See What does "to root a phone" mean? and How does rooting work?. So you are perfectly fine adopting the same rooting process
If you plan to stay with stock OS, there is nothing to be concerned about. If you decide to flash a custom ROM, use ROM specifically meant for your device variant -custom ROMs usually do not touch bootloader , modem and other low level stuff and write to /system


Samsung Galaxy Note Edge 5 The phone randomly shuts off when it gets around 30% power.  Verizon says it's a software issue.  Thoughts or solutions?

Maybe, it's a software issue. Any guarantee? It's also worth to try a factory reset and a new battery. If that does not help, go to a mobile repair service. I hope it helps!


Installing SDK on Windows 7 I have downloaded the SDK from Andriod site on a system where 32bit Windows XP is installed. Now I am trying to install this on system where 32bit Windows 7 is installed and this pc is without internet access.

The installer is not doing anything on double clicking on SDK Manager, no SDK Manager related Service is running on Task Manager. Can you please suggest me, what I need to follow to install Andriod on Windows 7?

First of all, try to download and install the SDK on a machine which is comparable to the target machine. In this case, install the SDK on a machine with Windows 7, and not with XP (Also, because XP is risky due to end of life)
Then copy the android-sdk-Folder to your target machine.
Then you should siply be able to launch it with a double-click on the SDK-Manager.
However, if this doesn't work, try to execute the SDK-Manager as "Administrator"
Also, if this fails, try to connect the Windows 7 computer to the internet and then download it properly as described here: https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
If this is also impossible, try to give aditional information (where do you have the SDK from? Is it the latest version? Where did you put it on the Target Machine? etc.)


How to recover data from a screen-bricked phone? Situation

I've got a Samsung Galaxy Fame with a broken touch screen. The owner had it protected with a pattern, and as I am unable to make this pattern with a broken screen, I cannot mount the storage in order to backup/recover data.

Some information:

Power, volume and home button are still working
I can get into recovery and download mode
The phone is stock (No custom/unlocked bootloder and no CWM)
USB-debugging is (unfortunately) disabled

What I've tried:

Connecting a mouse using OTG
Connecting to the phone using ADB
This did not work because I could not mount the sd card because I had no sudo permissions.
Using a magnet on the screen

I would like to refer to the following question that concerns the same problem but did not give me a solution:
Android ADB Shell Recovery Mounting

This should help you: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2786395. Its a program that can mirror your phone to computer. There is also information to enable USB Debugging if you had that disabled.

Hope my answer helps!


Behave as a PC browser I want to watch streams of a TV channel. That channel also offers an unfree app to do that.

When I visit the site with my tablet I am forced to download the app to use the site. From my PC I can access the site normally.

How can I set my tablet browser to behave as a PC browser?

I tried the default Android and Chrome browsers.

In case of Android browser (AOSP) and Chrome there is an option called Request desktop site. This can be accessed via the options menu for the browser. That would change the browser user-agent to desktop and display the website as displayed on PC.

But this has to be done for each tab I believe, there is no permanent solution.


No /system/build.prop in Nexus 7 (2012 / Wi-Fi) + Android Lollipop 5.1.1 after fresh installation I've just updated my [old] Nexus 7 (2012 / Wi-Fi) to Android Lollipop 5.1.1 following the "standard" procedure I've alway gone through since I've owned it;

Here's what I've done so far:

Booted into the bootloader
Unlocked the bootloader via fastboot
Flashed everything via fastboot using a custom bash script

#!/bin/bash
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-grouper-4.23.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
sleep 5
fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-6.0.4.3-grouper.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img

*This did nothing more than flashing the stock Android Lollipop 5.1.1 (LMY47V) (nakasi) firmware for Nexus 7 (2012 / Wi-Fi) images downloaded from Google Developers, aside from the recovery image, which was the ClockworkMod Recovery 6.0.4.3 image instead.

Booted straight into the recovery mode
Downloaded and pushed SuperSU using adb push UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.46.zip /mnt/sdcard/0/
Installed SuperSU via the recovery mode

And here is where I got stuck. The idea was to edit /system/build.prop in order to force the first setup to allow me to skip the Wi-Fi connection step, however apparently there's no /system/build.prop whatsoever in the system.

Here's what I tried through the adb shell (as root):

user@debian:~$ adb pull /system/build.prop .
remote object '/system/build.prop' does not exist
user@debian:~$ adb shell
~ # ls -la /system/
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for localtime!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for GMT!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for posixrules!
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Jan  1  1970 .
drwxr-xr-x   22 root     root             0 Jul 23 07:40 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root             0 Jan  1  1970 bin
~ # find / -type f -name 'build.prop'
~ # exit

The /system partition wasn't mounted; I've noticed this only manually browsing the /system/bin/ folder, which was empty.

I mounted the partition within the recovery mode by browsing to "mounts and storage" and by selecting "mount /system"; afterwards I've been able to run adb pull /system/build.prop ., edit the file and upload it again running adb push build.prop /system/build.prop.

To unmount the partition afterwards, one might browse to "mounts and storage" and select "unmount /system".


Meaning of lines in Charging History details view in 4.2.2 Jelly Bean In 4.2.2 Jelly Bean when one goes to Settings -> Battery Use and tap the graph at the top can find the History details of the charging/discharging of the battery. There are some other historical data below the diagram:  - Mobile network signal was cleared  - Charging seems to be clear (green when charged, black when discharged)  - Screen on is also OK (blue when lit on, black otherwise)  - Wi-Fi may be similarly indicates the On/Off state of the function  - Awake is a mistery for me I can not see any correlation between the graph and the On/Off state of the phone  - Finally What does the GPS on line exactly indicate?
I have some GPS problem and try to report it. I need to know whether this line indicates the On/Off state of the GPS module or the positioned/lost position state. On my screen it is almost totally black however the module was switched on a day before. There are two or three momentary blue ticks. What do they indicate anyway?

When the screen is off and no apps are running in the background (e.g. to check email), your device goes into a low-power state called sleep. In this mode, the CPU runs more slowly (or maybe the main CPU is turned off and a smaller, more efficient one takes over) to save power.

The Awake line in the battery chart shows when the device is not asleep: that is, it shows blue when the screen is on or when an app is running in the background. Depending on what kind of background apps you use, you might see brief ticks every 15 minutes or every hour, where the device woke up to perform some scheduled task. If there are long blue segments even when the screen is off, then some buggy app is keeping your device awake. You can investigate which with a tool such as Greenify or Wakelock Detector, and if an app is keeping the device awake, you should report this to the developer.

The GPS on line indicates when the GPS receiver is powered on. This happens whenever an app requests a precise location, and it'll show blue regardless of whether the GPS receiver has calculated a position or not. A brief tick means the GPS was turned on and then turned off as soon as it calculated a position. This is used by Google Play Services' geofencing functionality, by Google Location Sharing, Google Now, and other similar apps that don't track you all the time but want to sample your location occasionally.


How can I make an Google Talk voice call without hands-free mode? When you call someone who is online via Google Talk, it use the back speaker in loud mode. Is there a way to use GTalk for calling like a regular phone call?

This may no longer be relevant since Voice is being replaced by Hangout, and you can only make video calls with Hangout. You could look into using a Google Voice number with a VoIP client, like Groove IP, to make calls. This is a great tutorial if you need some help getting started.


Can I found a contact photo in Android 6.0? I want to add a photo to contact. So I found the person I want to add photo. And I click the camera icon then it took me to the camera and I took a photo of him. After that it crop the photo into square. However I cannot found the contact photo and I cannot even found this photo in my phone. So can I find this photo in my phone? or any cache of this photo in my camera application?

There are 2 possibilities:

The photo is indeed saved but in a folder which is set not to display media in your multimedia apps like gallery, music etc (contains the .nomedia file). You need to look it up somewhere on your storage using a file manager app instead of gallery.
The photo is saved in the contact you associated it with, on your Google account. Meaning the photo itself when shot, was saved in the contact, and then the file was deleted from the storage.

I think the 2nd possibility is probably what happened, because if you wanted to take a photo and save it on your phone, you would have taken it with a camera app, not through contacts.


How do I get a windows xp laptop to be able to use the internet via droid X? My friend has a droid x and her laptop has windows xp. She tried several ways to try to get the droid to work so it can be able to allow her computer to get on the internet via droid. I have come to find that there wasn't any drivers on her computer for the droid, even when installing drivers from

http://www.verizon-phones.org/verizon-motorola-droid-x-usb-drivers-pc-charging-drivers-download.html

her computer still does not recognize it. What should I do to resolve this?

There are two options, but they both require connecting to the Android device via WiFi:

Root the phone and use Wireless Tether - (unofficial method) Warning: this may void your warranty, so don't blame anyone if it causes you an issue, least of all me!  Proceed at your own risk.  Once the phone is rooted (you can search via Google for rooting your device and it usually not the most complicated thing to do), you can install Wireless Tether from the Android Market.  This will basically turn your Android phone into a mobile router that you can connect to with your PC.

or

Pay for the 3G Mobile Hotspot option from Verizon - (official version) This is the carrier provided method for tethering your device (getting a computer to access the internet using a wireless device).  I believe that it is currently $20 per month and there is a limit to the amount of data that you can use.


Can I stop system upgrade notices on Nexus 7 5.0.2 I have a Nexus 7 2013 WiFi running Android 5.0.2, and I keep getting an update notification for 5.1.  When I try the update,  I get an error on install,  then a reboot, and I'm back to 5.0.2.

I'm happy with this OS,  and would like to silence the notifications,  or get more details of the error.

Can I do either of these things?

If you want to just disable the notification, open the notification drawer, tap and hold the notification so it goes Black with a certain app name and an "i" at the end. Press that "i" and uncheck "Show Notifications" This will result in you not getting any notification from that app.

It's highly recommended that you update, so... to update, you need:

An Unmodified System (You can't have root)
Stock Recovery

I updated my (rooted) Nexus to Android 5 by unrooting via SuperSU, Flashing Stock Recovery, and Updating.
This may or may not work so the best way to update is to take a backup of your data, download the factory image from google and flashing it.

Flashing Stock Recovery

Android is designed to rewrite the recovery partition with stock recovery upon each boot, but installing a Custom Recovery patches the OS so it won't happen. If you deleted your recovery, meaning you no longer have a recovery, stock or otherwise, You might as well flash the update from a stock image. The Android Stock recovery screen is a dead android with an exclamation mark and might mislead you into thinking there's no recovery.

TL;DR: If you want to update, backup your apps and data, download the latest factory image from here and flash it.


Change "add to home screen" image Is there an easy way to change the add to home screen image on Android devices?
I know how to change the HTML manually but for example I would like to change it for the YouTube web app for example.

Nova Launcher let's you edit the image (by long-press on the shortcut icon) and change it with other app icons or icons provided by icon packs.
Example below shows the original shortcut icon of this question on left, followed by app icon (in middle) and using icon pack on the right.


Precaching online content on Android App for offline usage I would like to read the Stack Exchange Android app while offline (no Wi-Fi and mobile data) during my train commute.

Is it possible to preload any pages and read those, like we do with a web browser, visit the pages when you have the Wi-Fi connection, and while offline you can go back to that page and it's loaded?

Is there a workaround like that for the Stack Exchange app?

Well for offline mode, try using Pocket - Read It Later
For example, when you want to read any article from browser, just click on share and select "Pocket"and then you can read it whenever you want (even in offline mode)


Upgrade keyboard to another phone's I've had three phones in the Samsung Galaxy Note line, a Note 3, a Note 5, and now for a few years I've been using a Note 8. I have enjoyed a keyboard on which I can draw a shape which has a vertex at each letter of the word I want to write, but I'm also perceiving that they're trying to make it smarter, to give it better capabilities faster than they can develop the algorithms that carry out the tasks.
(Some problems I can identify with the Note 8 keyboard is that it is autonomously adopting typos as new words in its dictionary, coming up with new words to suggest or interpret what I draw as, and also sometimes, when I write "something" putting down "s something", repeating the first letter.)
I would really enjoy it if I could upgrade from the native keyboard of my Note 8 to the keyboard which came with one of my earlier phones. Either would be good, though I think the first, that from the Note 3, would be best.

I always use (and recommend) SwiftKey, but ...

On the phone whose keyboard you like, install APKExtractor (it's in Play and it's free).

Extract the keyboard.  (It extracts as an .apk file.)

Copy the .apk file to the Note 8.

Install it.  You should now have 2 keyboards.  Go into Settings and choose to use the one you just installed.


How can I sync Facebook contacts on a Droid X? I used to have an original Droid and now I have a Droid X. My original Droid had an option on Facebook to sync with contacts, but with my Droid X and the new Facebook app I do not see that option. I just want the contact pictures to sync. Is there anyway to do this on the Droid X?

This should be available. Check to see if you have Facebook selected by choosing Accounts from the menu in your Address Book.


How to know if there is any way to access data from a stolen Galaxy S3, or Android phone in general, via automatic backup or any other way I apologize in advance for my ignorance.  My Verizon Galaxy S3 went missing at a party.  I am hoping that at least some of the data (documents, media, contacts, texts, phone calls...) was backed up automatically at some point after the last time I manually transferred to my laptop.  As I am ridiculously busy, there were many apps that I was not yet acquainted with on my phone.  I am not even aware of what types of software is out there for this or whether or not my phone was equipped with any of it.

Does anyone know of any chance I can still access my data before I talk to Verizon and replace my phone?  Any and all insight is welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Your contacts and calendar (by default) will be stored with your gmail account.  Most likely when you activate another phone you'll immediately see this data if you activate the gmail (Gooble Play store) with the same account.


How to install Stock (original android that came with nexus) Android on Rooted Note5? I want to install the stock Android made by originally by Google that is not Samsung modified without breaking the device.

Can I return back after doing this?
How can I do,
Thanks!

You won't get exactly the same ROM made by Google because Google didn't make one for Note 5. So let's start with ones that are closer to Vanilla.

Note - You can skip to the last step if you already have a custom ROM installed.

Steps for installing custom ROM

Install Recovery

Follow the steps to install TWRP Recovery for your device. It will enable you to root your device (sometimes this step is included and need not be done separately) and install a custom by flashing (android lingo) the zip file.

Find out your device model

You can find it in one of the following ways

System - Go to Settings > About
Back Cover - Printed on the cover or the battery or underneath the battery
Boot Screen - Restarting the device will show it on screen

Download and Install Custom ROM

Note - Steps for installation is given in respective ROM's forum.

Resurrection Remix is a good ROM, giving you vanilla experience with useful extra features.

Here's the link for ROMs and other cool stuff for Note 5.


Why can't my device connect to my home Wi-Fi, but is able to connect to others? Another user asked a question that covers the same grounds as my issue, but it has no answers and very few details about what was tried.

My router is an DVG-G5402SP using the 802.11g standard and the security type WPA/WPA2 PSK.

When I try to connect the Wi-Fi in my phone both manually and auto, it presents a message mentioning out of range, even though I'm sitting right beside the router.

I really did a lot of changes such as changing the ssid of my router and the security type but nothing seem to work.

I'm able to connect to others Wi-Fi available on my area, just can't connect to my home Wi-Fi.

My question is:
How can I deal with this situation as to successfully connect to my home Wi-Fi?

It's not easy to know, but:

2 posibilities:

Check that the IP address configuration is correct.
DHCP is properly configured, if needed.
If you can't connect, try to change the security of your Wi-Fi...
Check if the MAC access is enabled.

Good luck!


Enabling free form windows in android O causes buttons in recent apps menu to overlap I have searched for a way to enable free form windows. I've used the adb way,

adb shell settings put global enable_freeform_support 1

But I couldn't use it because the close button is overlapping free form button:

My phone is Huawei P20 Lite (ANE-LX1) with EMUI 8.0.0 and android 8.0.0 with nova launcher.
Close button works like a charm when clicked

Any ideas what to do (rather than disabling the free form ) ?

It is okay to replace closing button with free form button if that's available.

Any solution without root is preferred.

I have the same problem on my Huawei P10. I once used floating apps, which drained the battery, but now I use Launcher3-Freeform Launcher. Also, Taskbar is another choice for launching apps in freeform mode, although both Taskbar and Launcher3 are launchers and you need to launch your apps from these launchers to use the freeform mode.
Here are the links:

Floating Apps Free:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lwi.android.flapps

Taskbar:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farmerbb.taskbar

Launcher3-Freeform:
https://github.com/farmerbb/Launcher3-Freeform/blob/freeform-mode-example/README.md


Marshmallow - disable unlock touch feedback When phone is locked and I'm inputting the PIN, there's a visual feedback on each keytouch, some sort of ripple animation around the key.

Not very secure :)

How can I disable that?

Edit:
Device - Lenovo Moto X Play, not rooted
OS - Marshmallow 6.0.1

Apps tried:
Hi Locker - Your Lock Screen - Free version pop ads on unlock - unusable
GO Locker - theme & wallpaper - Slow
Locker Master- DIY Lock Screen - Buggy
ZUI Locker-Elegant Lock Screen - Doesn't solve the initial problem

Your concern from a security point of view is  very valid for these two reasons:

Password can possibly be guessed by somebody who repeatedly and closely watches you swipe pattern or key PIN by following the ripple pattern
Smudge Attack Wikipedia entry says:

  A smudge attack is a method to discern the password pattern of a touchscreen device such as a cell phone or tablet computer .... The smudge attack relies on detecting the oily smudges left behind by the user's fingers .... Under proper lighting and camera settings, the finger smudges can be easily detected, and the heaviest smudges can be used to infer the most frequent user input pattern (the password). The researchers were able to break the password up to 68% of the time under proper conditions.

(emphasis supplied)

Commonly advocated counter measures against smudge attack are

Wipe the screen after every unlock, (impractical as it may sound) ;
Use a high quality oleophobic screen protector to minimise smudges, in addition to wiping after every unlock

There are two ways of mitigating security risk-using apps for  un-rooted devices and other means for rooted devices

Un-rooted Devices: Since Lockscreen mechanism is a part of the core security of Android devices , apps can't interfere or modify it's functioning . These apps take the approach of asking the user to set the lockscreen security to none and then impose a lockscreen design of their choice, in effect, a layer on top of disabled lockscreen. One such app  is Hi Locker which is a lock screen app, offering a lot of features. Relevant to this question are

Pattern Lock:   This allows you invisible mode in security options. This mode hides the ripples. Which means the typical trailing lines joining the dots are not shown. However, this is a risk from smudge attack view, unless you change the pattern very frequently
PIN Lock: This allows you to set a Random keyboard in security settings. With this the keyboard changes with every lock / unlock, and is recommended for security against prying eyes and smudge attack. Screen shots below show this on consecutive lock / unlock-note the randomized digit placement

Rooted Devices: This takes the approach of directly modifying the lockscreen functionality of Android, without using any apps. I am aware of one method and there may well be more.  This is based on scrambling the key board while entering PIN. This requires Xposed framework to be installed and Gravity Box module to be installed. This module aside of tons of features offers means to PIN scramble (under Lock screen tweaks). This PIN scrambling feature is similar to the one shown in the above method as far as user interface is concerned.

Since rooting tag, xposed-framework cover related aspects, specifics to OPs device are not covered here. OP can study them and if need be ask a separate question

OP's device is not rooted but has indicated in comments that he is willing to root the device to meet his requirement . Rooting without fully understanding the risks  could  be a bigger risk. IMO, rooting the device and taking adequate precautions to safeguard against the risks is highly worth it.  It is up to OP to decide which course but using app based method to start with could be a good start.

Edit: I just noticed your edit, which shows that the free version of app is unusable due to ads. Unfortunately, Free always comes with a price tag of ads as far as apps go ( There ain't no such thing as a free lunch at play !). So your options are limited to a) buying the pro or buying an ad blocker for unrooted devices b ) searching for other apps from the list at serial 1  on notes below c) Root your device and use Gravity box or flash a ROM that has this feature inbuilt (understand CM 11 , which is quite old has it - I am not aware of other ROMs)

There isn't much one can do about that, unfortunately

I have been searching and there appears to be no free without adds. Also searching for timepin throws up similar apps which modify PIN based on current time in various configurations. But all of them are ad supported.

Additional Information

Where to find a PIN lock screen that scrambles the keypad on every use?  a related question on scrambling PIN lists out some other apps as well, which have not been tried by me.
There have been feature enhancement requests to Google to include this as a default feature in Android OS for long. Issue 10496:    Randomize screen lock pin keypad option was opened in 2010 and closed in 2014 ; Issue 74338:Option for keypad number randomizer on lock screen settings to increase PIN entry security was opened in 2014 and closed in 2015 ; Issue 181566: Option for keypad number randomizer on lock screen settings to increase PIN entry security was opened in 2015 and thankfully is still open - head over there and star it to support or leave a helpful comment - I just did and there are less than 10 folks supporting- do your bit !
Answer here to Touch Screen Password Guessing by Fingerprint Trace from Security SE , wiki on smudge attacks and other net searches reveal a product by Whispercore, which seems unavailable now


How to enable USB debugging in LineageOS 14 on Moto G2014? I want to build LineageOS 15 from source following the titan image build guide which requires the transfer of vendor specific files and thus an adb connection after enabling USB debugging.

I didn't find a LineageOS-specific guide on turning development tools including USB debugging on, so I went with my Android knowledge of tapping 6 times on the build number in the phone settings. This shows a screen with my home screen background and the LineageOS emblem. The emblem responds to taps anywhere on the screen by changing it's styling, but nothing else. I can go back and use the phone including repeating the journey to the emblem screen.

I get that these settings should be hidden for non-dev users and don't need to be reachable very intuitively, but that's covered by hiding the function behind the 6 taps on the version item. After that the proceedure to enable development features can be intuitive again.

I went with my Android knowledge of tapping 6 times on the build number in the phone settings. This shows a screen with my home screen background and the LineageOS emblem.

Despite what you claimed, you've tapped the wrong place. Tapping "Android version" will show a big N; tapping "LineageOS version" will show you the LOS logo; tapping the actual "Build number" item, which is the second-to-last item in the About phone menu, is what you should go for.

On top of that, it should be tapped 7 times, and each tap should notify you about needing more taps to unlock Dev Options.


Galaxy S5 device does not receive ip packet I have the following setup:

Android Galaxy S5 Mini. Android version 5.1.1.

I have 2 network interfaces:

Interface1 with ip: 192.168.5.1
Interface2 with ip: 192.168.5.10

I create a DatagramSocket using Android SDK and bind it to address: 192.168.5.10(Interface 2), port 2525.
I put this socket in receive and wait for packets. I use another device to send the packets.

Packets from ip address: 192.168.5.4 is received.

Packets from ip address(different device): 192.168.5.1 (same as the device's Interface1 ip) is never received.

It seams that the network stack rejects packets which have source ip address which exists in the device, regardless of the interface it was received in.

If I modify the ip address for Interface1 to something other than 192.168.5.1 it works fine.

Devices on which it didn't happen:

Samsung tablet T113 Android 4.4.4 (Stock rom)
LG G4 Android 6.0 (Stock rom)
LG Nexus 5X Android 7.1.2 (Stock rom)

Devices on which it did happen:

Galaxy S5 Mini Android 5.1.1 (Stock rom)
Galaxy Note 3 Android 6.0.1 (CyanogenMod)
One+1 Android 6.0.1 (CyanogenMod)

What is the mechanism which rejects the packet with source IP 192.168.5.1(same as the device's Interface1 ip)?

I found why this happens, but not sure if I can do anything about it without root. There is a system configuration per network interface  called accept_local. For example: net.ipv4.conf.wlan0.accept_local. When it is set to 0, it can't receive packets from another local interface. Probably when it works on other devices, this configuration is set to 1. On Galaxy Note 3 it was set to 0. Once I did this, everything started working, but root was needed.
Update
Found a site which list the system variables values: https://census.tsyrklevich.net/
Specifically:

https://census.tsyrklevich.net/sysctls/net.ipv4.conf.wlan0.accept_local
https://census.tsyrklevich.net/sysctls/net.ipv4.conf.wlan0.rp_filter


Where should I save images to have them appear in the Gallery app? Running KitKat, I want to extract a zip file with photos and place them in a folder where the Gallery app will find them. I'm using Android File Manager and Easy Unrar Lite to move files around and extract them. Where in the file systems should I put them?

It doesn't matter where you put them. A convenient place usually is the (internal or external) SD card, where you simply could create a Photos folder, and extract your photos to.

The gallery app simply checks the devices media database, it doesn't check the directories directly. This database gets fed by the so-called Media Scanner, which gets triggered by different system events, such as immediately after a completed boot, or whenever the SD card gets mounted. This is why you don't see the extracted images immediately. See my answer here for how to trigger it "on demand" (hint: for Kitkat, try the SD Scanner app).


Packet capture on Android x86, any ideas? how can I run packet capture on my virtual machine (VMware-android 4.3)?

tried more and more to do, facing the same run-time error :
"Unfortunately, packet capture has stopped".

just to note that my host machine internet connection is based on Mobile USB tethering by PdaNet application.

The most reputable software I am aware of would be WireShark.  The software is open-source and they have detailed documentation on their wiki and docs page, as well as free online tools.  For the full list of downloads available -- including 3rd party builds -- go to this download page instead of the default one.


Neutab air 7 stuck on fastboot mode Neutab air 7 stuck on fastboot mode
Brand new a week out of the box
Will not power down or respond...... any ideas/suggestions???

There are 3 options I can see, select Boot normally. Use Volume down to navigate and choose with Volume Up button. If not succeed, select Recovery boot and reset your tablet


Notification Vibration Bug on Galaxy Nexus? My Galaxy Nexus running 4.0.2 does not vibrate for any notifications while in "vibrate" mode. Haptic feedback works, and the phone vibrates when I receive phone calls, but not for notifications. The global vibrate setting under "Sound" in the menu is set to "Always", and individual apps like Gmail, Messaging, etc. have vibrate set to "Always".

Any help appreciated! Thanks!

There is a separate vibrate setting in the menu for sms messaging under Settings.


Screen Overlay Detected, Permission problem I keep getting this dialog that says "Screen Overlay detected" that basically tells me to turn of the screen overlay in order to proceed with the change in the permission settings of the apps. I have gone to settings and turned off all of the screen overlays but I keep getting this problem.

I would really love it if anyone could help me by telling me what to do so I can be able to make changes in the permission of my apps! Please Help!

Thank you.

I also had this problem and it turned out that this was caused by Messenger's Chat Head. Maybe you have it opened?


Is it safe to buy a second hand/opened box Android phone Is it safe to buy a second hand Android phone off of eBay? As well as second hand ones, there are also those advertised as "new but in opened box".

Is it possible that they could be loaded with malicious software (malware, spyware, or similar)? If so, would a factory reset protect me or are there versions of such software that cannot be removed even with a factory reset?

Any one of the threats could be possible, but highly unlikely, if that is the case thou I would recon the person doing this is "professional" enough not to install these apps as 3rd party apps but would have probably flashed the device with a custom rom that includes these apps. If that is the case a factory reset would not solve anything, as the apps are part of the firmware, however, you can download the latest firmware for the device and re-flash it, this would ensure that you know exactly what is or isn't on the device.

But like I mentioned in the first line this is highly unlikely, and I would say that you are being over cautious and maybe a little paranoid(no offence intended) The reason I say this is that there is much better(cheaper) ways to get malware spread, and malware is normally spread on a mass scale, where individuals are targeted you might find something like that happening, but you would most probably have been given the phone for free...saying that you won some prize etc.

So chill if you like the phone and its a good deal, go for it....

BTW most off the time in those cases where the device is new but box opened the seller received the phone from there network, and prefer to stick to the phone they are currently using, most networks requires in-store activation...they turn the phone on, turn it off, and put it back in the box( This might network lock the device thou


How can I access files on a Seagate GoFlex Satellite wifi or Kingston Wi-Drive? My final goal is to programmaticaly access files on a Wifi/USB storage device, like a Seagate GoFlex Satellite wifi or Kingston Wi-Drive (preferred because less expensive).

The storage devices are made to be connected to a PC by USB and also can be connected to Android (and iPhone) by wifi.

Once connected, it is possible to put files on the hard drive over wifi using a custom Android application provided by the manufacturer (like Kingston Wi-drive or Seagate GoFlex Access™ app)? How do they do this? Can I access on my filesystem with program like Astro ?

According to this review Pocket-Lint: Kingston Wi-Drive review :

  You are also able to access the files on the Wi-Drive on a PC or Mac
  by visiting it's IP address in your web browser. This, again, allows
  you to play any files that are supported in your web browser. MP3s,
  for example, play fine, but you might struggle more with video files.

  You can also connect to the Kingston as a regular network drive. We
  were able to view it as if it was any network attached storage device.
  That means we could also copy files over wirelessly too.

This suggests that, the Kingston at least, supports something like SMB (the Windows file-sharing protocol). Many Android apps let you connect to an SMB shared drive to copy files on or off, I use File Manager to copy files from my Windows machines to my phone/tablet this way, and I'm pretty sure Astro supports it too.

To do this from your app, you just need to include SMB file access support in your Andoird app. How to do that is off-topic for this site, as that is a developer question.


My Nexus 6P just entered bootloop mode While doing absolutely nothing, my phone, Huawei Nexus 6P entered a boot-loop mode (it's not going further than showing "Google" text). The only thing I can do is to enter secret menu, but when selecting "Recovery mode", nothing happens. OEM is locked, fastboot flashing unlock is not working because of this. Now I am trying to figure out what happened and I got nothing yet. Does this happened to some of you?

this happened to me you need to call android support and tell them your serial code and then you work with them from there if that does not work send it off to where it came from p.s make sure they are legit if you give them your serial code


FreeOTP or FreeOTP+ - Which is More Secure? I have been using FreeOTP by Redhat/Fedora for a few years now as my main two way authentication app. However, I have realised that the current version (1.5) is quite a few years old (having been released in 2016).

https://freeotp.github.io/

https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fedorahosted.freeotp/

There is however a forked version; FreeOTP+. This fork's latest update (1.7) came out in December of 2019, making it far more up to date than the upstream app.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.liberty.android.freeotpplus/

I am however concerned about security, due to the app playing a very important role in account security. I am also unsure as I am not too familiar with the work/trustworthiness of the developer of the fork (I mean him/her no offence when I say this, I'm just cautious when it comes to account security), where as I know Redhat to be a secure and freedom respecting company.

So which would be the safer option? Should I stick with the older FreeOTP? Do two way authentication apps need to have up to date security patches?
Or can I trust the more up to date FreeOTP+?

Also, even though I appreciate the help and good intentions of people who would recommend this; but please don't recommend that I use the Google or Microsoft authenticators instead. I want to use a Free/Open Source authentication app rather than a proprietary one.

Generally I would say that both are secure.
FreeOTP: Developed by Fedora by RedHat. So by a prop. company. But it's open source for everyone, that means if there would leaks to RedHat the FLOSS-Community would reported that to F-Droid and News Pages. That would a big scandal for RedHat and many people would lose trusting Fedora. Second, it's unmaintained. They deliver some commits, but not releases that F-Droid can build. I guess OTP doesn't offers security issues.
FreeOTP+: A maintained fork of FreeOTP. It's developed by a private person, Howard Liberty. It offers updates. But like at FreeOTP, the community would find issues if your pricacy isn't secure. F-Droid would disable these version (if they find some issues).
But there are also other 2FA Applications that are open-source available (and installable in the offical F-Droid repo):
OTP Authenticator: A basic client, but doesn't offers new commmits. Developed by Bruno Bierbaumer. Last commit/release at Dec 23, 2015.
andOTP: Active fork of OTP Authenticator. They continue the upstream. The latest release was on Oct 28, 2020. But they offer new commits. It has the a big community at GitHub (2.8k stars). Main developer is Jakob Nixdorf.
Aegis Authenticator: This is 2FA by Alexander Bakker and Michael Schättgen. In my eye it looks a bit properitary, but hasn't any trackers since it's available in F-Droid. It has 1.6 stars on GitHub.
(Google) Authenticator: You sad that you don't want the Google Authenticator as answer. But this app is by google and is open source. F-Droid's latest version was at 2012. But their repository offers commits and releases from 2019. This is a "fork" of the prop. Google Authenticator available on the prop. Play Store. It's not sure, if there is a codebase of the offical app or receives updates by the prop. App. I'm not sure, if there are trackers. (But I think so.)
I personally use FreeOTP+. But I can also suggest andOTP. I'm looking to switch to cotp. cotp is a Command-Line tool developed for the computer. And maybe able to use with Termux


Preventing Google Play Services autoinstallation into an ancient Android phone How do I prevent Google Play Services from automatically installing now and then into a rooted Orange San Francisco aka ZTE Blade under a heavily trimmed down custom Android 2.3 ROM? Is the best way of achieving that described here?:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/240696-how-permanently-block-google-play-services-installing-automatically.html#post2649165

Please note: I clearly understand why I want it as such and why I want it exactly that way. Please refrain from responding with anything but exact answers. This particular phone under this particular ROM works exceptionally well w/o the app in question, including any Google service used.

Many thanks in anticipation!

This is from Android 5.1.1 in Google play. The first picture is for only one app under the app and the stacked dots. The second picture is under Settings/Auto-Update apps. This obviously isn't the author's Android version, but you may want to see if there is a similar setting in your version.


what is a bootloader unlocked phone? What is a bootloader unlocked phone?
How we can make use of it while creating or flashing ROMs?
What are advantages of unlocked bootloaders over locked bootloaders?
Why does not any OEM generally make bootloader unlocked phones?

I am pretty naive in this topic. Thanks in advance.

Every Android phone has a bootloader that instructs the operating system kernel to boot normally. But you need to understand one thing here that as Android OS is an open source OS and is available on a variety of different hardware, every manufacturer has their own version of bootloader specific for the hardware present in its environment. (...) A bootloader is usually locked on an Android device because although it’s an open source OS, still the manufacturers want you to stick to their Android OS version specifically designed for the device. In order to apply this concept, manufacturers lock the bootloader.

(Source)

Essentially, the advantages of having an unlocked bootloader for your device is that the manufacturer of that device has granted you the right to modify the operating system (Android) present on the device.

It's interesting to note that the term "unlocked" bootloader would seem absurd if we were talking about a PC; the freedom to boot any OS you want has always been taken for granted on that platform, but because locked bootloaders are so common in the mobile world for many different reasons, it has become something odd for the bootloader to be "unlocked".

The reason that bootloaders are locked on some devices are fairly obvious: the manufacturer of the device wants to be in control of what software is running on it. Since devices are often locked and tied to a contract, having control of what code runs on the device is essential. It's also a question of support; if you were the manufacturer, you wouldn't want to handle support calls from people all over the world who had accidentally bricked their phones by flashing corrupt software onto their devices. In a sense, locked bootloaders protect (some) users from themselves. Depending on your point of view, this can be good or bad. For a corporate customer buying devices for employees, access to the bootloader probably would not be high on the wish list.

Please let me know if there's anything in this answer that is unclear and I will try to elaborate.


Hide media on external sd card, lollipop and above I want an app that can hide/encrypt selected pictures and video on the external memory card without moving them to internal storage where space is at a premium. This is the problem with Keepsafe and other popular apps in this category. I have rooted my phone & am using the Xposed media scanner module to exclude a hidden directory on the memory card, and done the platform.xml workaround to make the external card writable.

I've also wanted to try the symbolic link trick by placing the files on an ext2 formatted partition on the memory card used for link2sd and then ln -sf from the internal storage, but that doesn't work either. The media scanner exclusion works, but the files themselves are still readable on the memory card. Is there any app, even a root requiring one, that can encrypt or hide the files as they are despite the stupid restrictions put in since Kitkat?

by renaming a file from filename.txt to .filename.txt (add a dot "." before the name) you will hide the file. I.e. it will not show up on any file explorer, (unless it is set to show hidden files.)

If you want to hide, say movie files from appearing in your media player, or music files from appearing in your music player, or even photos from appearingin your gallery, (or any other type of file from showing in an app except a file explorer), you can change the file extention to anything else or remove it completely.
I recommend just changing the dot "." to a blank space, that way you can still identify the file yourself and you wont forget the file extension in case you ever need it.

like so: from "filename.avi" to "filename avi".


Is OTG support on a phone is a Hardware dependent feature I will be buying a Xolo Q800 -X-Edition Phone that has a MediaTEK MT6589 chipset.
Searching on all forum sites, i found that this phone does not support OTG.

So i want to ask that does OTG availability depends upon the hardware or the chipset on the phone ?

Or it can be enabled in any phone via rooting and some under the hood tweaking.

Thanks in advance

Yes, USB on-the-go requires special hardware on the host device, as well as the appropriate kernel drivers and drivers for all the USB peripheral profiles you need to connect.


How do I disable screen timeout of Android? I would like it to be disabled when I use in certain condition, such as during traveling with GPS.

1. Use a script

You can use a script via the terminal to simulate a long action and prevent the screen from timing out. Create the script below and run via Terminal Emulator on your phone. It simulates pressing the letter r and Enter, then wait for a second before repeating the process for the number of times you choose with i.

Create a file and put the following inside of it.

#!/system/bin/sh

i=86400 #Put a big number here

while [ $i -gt 0 ]
do

i=$(( $i - 1 ))
input keyevent 46 #Write the letter r
input keyevent 66 #Simulate Enter key on the keyboard
sleep 1           #Do nothing for 1 second

done

Save the file, give it a name for example test.sh. Open the terminal and navigate to the folder where the file is saved (if you don't know the path, use your file manager to get the path) with the command:

cd /path/to/your/folder
Then execute the command:

sh test.sh

The script will start running. When you no longer need it to run, just close the terminal.

2. Use an app

Caffeinate add a tile in the quick settings. In Caffeinate Settings, click on Caiffeine Tile, enable "Skip To Infinite Mode". Open the quick settings, click on the app tile. The screen should stays on until you press the tile again or click cancel on its notification.