How is the default screen orientation in android specified? On android phones, the orientation typically defaults to portrait. When you disable auto-rotation, the screen will always remain in a portrait mode.

On android tablets, the orientation typically defaults to landscape. When you disable auto-rotation, the screen will always remain in a landscape mode.

Apparently tablets were not envisioned for use while lying sideways. When I do this, there is no way to get the tablet to remain in portrait mode - with or without auto-rotation the screen is stuck in landscape.

As it is pretty hard for me to change gravity, I am trying to figure out if I can hack my tablet to default to portrait mode. My question is, where would this be set? As I can't find any applications that can force change the orientation I get the impression this is embedded somewhere deep and inaccessible in the operating system. Is this possibly somewhere in the properties file? Is it embedded deep in the hardware? Where can I start looking?

My specific tablet is a Notion Ink Adam Running BeastyRom 2.2.1 + Clemsyn

edit: also asked here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14315083#post14315083

It's possible to override the default screen orientation by disabling accelerometer rotation and setting user rotation in the system settings database. The phone/tablet needs to be rooted to do this. The change is applied after the phone/tablet is rebooted.

On the console:

su
sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
insert into system (name,value) values('accelerometer_rotation',0);
insert into system (name,value) values('user_rotation',1);
.exit

user_rotation 0 -> ROTATION_0
user_rotation 1 -> ROTATION_180
user_rotation 2 -> ROTATION_270
user_rotation 3 -> ROTATION_90

See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Settings.System.html#USER_ROTATION for more details


How do I make Android consider my WiFi Access Point as valid (blue?) We have a very large wifi network at Stack Exchange, and the primary guest network is tightly locked down.  Our firewall rules permit essentially just http/https and vpn connections.    When our Android phones connect to the wifi, they show good coverage but the WiFi icon never turns from grey to blue.

What is the Android phone checking to make the grey/blue wifi icon decision in JB 4.2.2?

After probing the firewall logs, it appears that the grey/blue icon is triggered depending on whether or not your device has access to Google Play.  In our case, I had to open tcp-udp port 5228 (as per http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2651367) and after turning wifi off and back on again, the icon became blue.

I can't confirm whether http/https is also part of the equation; we already had that open so it's possible if one is running into this issue even after opening tcp-udp 5228, that http/https may also be required.


How to modify Bash shell prompt in Cyanogenmod? Has anyone had any success modifying the shell prompt in Cyanogenmod? Presently, # is pretty useless, it would be much nicer to at least display the working directory. Also, is tab-completion possible?

I'm not too keen on the why, but sh on CyanogenMod is a bit watered down. As Joachim noted in the comments, usually you can modify PS1 to change your prompt, but it doesn't properly expand prompt variables:

# ps $$  <-- Just showing that the current shell is /system/bin/sh
ps $$
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
root      1055  129   756    340   c006abb8 afd0c44c S /system/bin/sh
# echo $PS1
echo $PS1
#
# PS1="\w # "
PS1="\w # "
\w #   <-- \w should be PWD

However, CyanogenMod does ship with a modified version of sh called ash (I believe this is for Android Shell), which does support a subset of these prompt variables. Here's some examples of what does and doesn't work, with local echo removed for the sake of clutter/space:

# ash
~ # echo $PS1
\w \$
~ # PS1="\u \w \\$ "
root ~ # PS1="\t \w \\$ "
         ~ # PS1="\l \w \\$ "
l ~ # PS1="\H \w \\$ "
H ~ # PS1="\h \w \\$ "
localhost ~ # cd /sdcard
localhost /mnt/sdcard #

As for tab-completion: I don't personally know of a way to make this work. I imagine the main problem is actually that the adb shell buffers input up until you press enter, so the tab isn't actually sent to the shell program when you hit it. A good illustration of this is to open a file with more. The q key exits the more program, but you actually have to press q and then hit enter to quit because the initial q keystroke isn't sent until you press enter to send the whole buffer.

Okay, SSH is a different beast. Assuming you have a reasonably sane client ash will give you tab-completion along with the prompt variable expansion noted above. If you're using dropbear (the ssh daemon that ships with CyanogenMod) then you can configure ash to be the default prompt by logging into your device (either SSH or adb shell works here) and doing the following:

# echo "/system/xbin/ash" > /data/dropbear/.profile

This assumes /data/dropbear/.profile doesn't yet exist, because it will overwrite any existing version (this file is not created automatically, though). It can be edited instead if the file already exists, of course. Then restart dropbear and log in again. You should land at an ash session:

login as: root
Authenticating with public key "rsa-key-20110718"
TRACE (1391): entering fake-getpwnam
TRACE (1391): leaving fake-getpwnam
TRACE (1391): enter sign_key_free
TRACE (1391): enter dsa_key_free
TRACE (1391): leave dsa_key_free
TRACE (1391): enter rsa_key_free
TRACE (1391): leave rsa_key_free
TRACE (1391): leave sign_key_free
/data/dropbear # ps $$
USER     PID   PPID  VSIZE  RSS     WCHAN    PC         NAME
root      1392  1391  1084   416   c006abb8 afd0c44c S /system/xbin/ash
/data/dropbear #


Minimizing data usage for users with data caps To reduce my phone bill, I recently switched from an unlimited plan to a prepaid plan which only has a 50 Mb data cap per month. I think that should be adequate for email, google voice, and navigation.

In order to avoid going over the data cap, I would like to disable all data heavy applications such Youtube, Application Update, etc. while the carrier's data connection is on, and enable them only when WiFi is on. Is there any easy way to achieve that?

In general, what settings do I need to change in order to minimize my data usage?

If your phone is rooted, I would highly recommend DroidWall. It's a firewall application that allows you to restrict access to Internet by application.  It has separate permission settings for WiFi and Cell data, which allows you to restrict the data usage by the connection as well.  Chances are though that you will also need to be running a custom ROM or kernel that has "iptables" module built-in.

In terms of minimizing data usage in general, there are several settings you can play with.  I'd recommend going all manual by disabling "Auto-sync" and "Background data" options under Menu -> Settings -> Accounts & sync. Then take a look at interval update settings in all 3rd-party apps you use for services such as Twitter (Twidroid, Seesmic, etc.), Facebook, e-mail (K-9 Mail, E-mail, GMail, etc.), RSS feeders (NewsRob, FeedR, etc.), and others (widgets, weather apps, etc.) Most such apps let you configure the update interval via settings. Either make them all disabled/manual, or use the farthest update interval they allow. Also disable any notifications in these apps so that they use even less data.

You might also be able to use some apps/widgets that toggle the data connection (without affecting the cell signal) and only enable it when you need to use apps requiring data (retrieve e-mail, catch up on tweets, use browser, refresh weather status, etc.) and then toggle it back off when you're done.


Trying to go into Download mode, but goes to Recovery mode instead Device: Samsung Galaxy S4
Android: 4.2.2

I can't get into Download mode. I have tried many options like removing battery solution, pressing Vol Down+Home+Power. I always get into Recovery mode.

Power off the phone completely by removing its battery for at least a minute.
Re-insert the battery back into its place.
Press and hold Volume Down, Home and Power buttons, all at the same time.
Release the buttons only when the ‘Warning!!’ message appears.
Next, press Volume Up button to confirm that you wish to enter Download Mode.
Your device will now show a green Android with the ‘Downloading… Do not turn off target’ text listed under it.

That's it, now you can connect your device with your PC after you launch ODIN.

You can try adb reboot bootloader from PC if the above doesn't work.


How do I enter recovery mode on LG G2? "With the device powered down, hold Volume Down & Power. When the LG logo appears release the buttons and then press them again. Then, press the Power button three times!" (from cyanogenmod wiki) doesn't work for me. I can't seem to figure out how to get to TWRP to restore my phone (currently in a boot loop).

Doesn't connect to adb either because the boot loop stops at LG logo and reboots.

How to Enter Recovery Mode on LG G2 (quick easy steps)

Press the Volume Down and the Power Button at the same time, about 2-3 seconds until the LG Logo shows.
When the LG Logo shows, release the buttons and then press and hold them again.
Keep pressing the buttons until the Recovery Mode Menu displays.


How does an app know, if GPS is faked? I have heard it is possible to simulate a GPS location with a developer option.
However people get banned from Pokémon go, if they fake their location.

Is this because an app knows, when it's a simulated location or did the people just fake it bad enough?

An app can detect when mock locations are enabled. It's quite simple to do. See https://stackoverflow.com/q/6880232/4107809.


Can i add money to a google play gift card and how Can I add funds, and how if I can. If I had a 10 pound Google play card and I needed 14 pounds on it can i add 4 pounds to it?

Answer is to your question is No, you cannot add an amount to a gift card after purchase. You'll have to purchase another gift card & redeem both in order to accumulate the desired amount.

As per the Comments

There is no information which actually states this. but this document says that user can use multiple gift cards to complete the purchase. What I've seen is, third party seller sells the gift card & updates the gift card number with the amount to google. so I don't think there is any provision to update amount later. otherwise they would have stated that way.
 https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_ALL/about/card-terms/


How does 'Android Lost' application work? its very urgent and important for me.

Lost my android device. Now I have come to know that its being used and is online. By checking the Android Robot symbol in my friends chat list meaning, that my gmail account is logged in the android device. And What I did is installed 'Android Lost' application from play.google.com from the browser, and it shows its installed. But not knowing how to use the app to get the gps location from the device. Obviously the mobile number (sim) is a different one. Any useful apps to track it down?

-Update 1-

Logged in at http://www.androidlost.com/ with google credentials.
But the problem is it asks for the device to be registered.
 1. Don't have direct access as it is lost.
 2. Cannot invoke the app by sending commands via sms. (As the sim is disabled/replaced with new one)

Using Android-lost is easy;

Install android lost from gPlay or Google Play (You already did this)
go to the Homepage of Android Lost
Log in using your Google Account!
Use all the nice features, let your phone ring, locate it, erase all your data or change the pin, give the thieve or finder a message etc.


Lollipop theme on Android KitKat I have a Dell Venue 8 running Android 4.4.2 KitKat. I want my Android to look like Lollipop without rooting, from status-bar to navigation keys, everything like Lollipop.

Thats not possible. Not without root. Even with root there is no mod to turn that navigation panel as you said (atleast no universal verified mod).
You can change navigation keys though. Again, not without root.

At best, you can install some custom launcher and make homescreen icons and style look like lollipop, nothing beyond that.


What is best way to clean up my contact lists that are synced between Android and Gmail? Most all of my contacts in gmail have been duplicated (sync issue?) and I also have quite a few outdated contacts to delete. I just figured out how to 'reverse' sync from my phone to gmail which has made an even bigger mess.

I'd like to end up with a nice clean list that is synced 100% between my gmail and my phone, with no duplicates and only current contacts.

What is the best (fastest?) way to do this?  Thanks for any help!

In your android/contacts select only to show contacts from your google account.
You can easily delete your duplicate contacts from your gmail/google account. There is a button on the left side in google contacts for that purpose only.
after deleting contacts recognised by google as duplicate, you can sync your contacts and all your duplicate contacts be gone.


What can be the reason for "internet may not be available" though the IP address was got Only one device with Android (SM-G390F, Android 7.0, G390FXXU2ARA1, 3.18.14-12962328) at my home stopped connecting to Internet through my WiFi router with the message "internet may not be available" and an exclamation mark on the WiFi sign. (Whereas older non-updated Android devices, GNU/Linux and iOS devices work.)

If I examine the current network configuration with ip a in a Terminal in the device, it has got the correct IP address, but pinging the router (ping 192.162.1.1) looses all pings... (ip ro showed a route to this network, but no default route -- but that shouldn't have affected the pinging of the router anyway.)

The WiFi router is an ASUS one, and for this device, in the log, it prints several times (not more than 10; the repetition is only for this device):

udhcpd: sending OFFER of 192.168.1.8

and then:

udhcpd: sending ACK to 192.168.1.8

The DNS servers from the DHCP configuration seem to be working well (as tested from other connected devices).

Changing the advanced settings from DHCP to manual does not help. And it is quite strange that this device used to work with this WiFi router all the time before a couple of weeks ago... Nothing has been changed.

Strangely, this advice from 2016-09-14 concerning the WiFi router configuration helped:

  Inside the router configuration (e.g., accessing the IP 192.168.1.1), change the "Group key update" value from 0 to 30 seconds, under the "Wireless > Security" configuration, right below the WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK item.

  Router: TP-LINK TL-WR740N / TL-WR740ND.

(My router model is different.)

I'm a bit worried that 30 sec as the group rekeying interval is the minimal possible, whereas the recommended value is 3600 sec (1 hour), as I've read on the web.

But for now, I haven't yet tried to experiment with since it began working. Also, I have left the static manual IP configuration instead of DHCP on the Android device (matching the reserved IP address for this MAC address manually in the router settings), although this alone didn't make it work. (But I'm not changing this, unfortunately for the experiment, because I don't want to break the current working state.)


Change device model on Android 10 I have Realme X2 (RMX1992) phone with Lineage OS 17.1 with root. I want to change my device model to Realme X2 Pro (RMX1931).
I have edited build.prop files in /system and /vendor folders with ro.product.model=RMX1931 and also set the global device name as below:
adb shell settings put global device_name RMX1931

But still, my device is still recognized as RMX1992.
How to change the device model?

Below is the method worked for me to change my phone model to Samsung Galaxy S10+

You need to have Magisk for root access
Install BusyBox and "MagiskHide Props Config" Magisk module and reboot the phone
Install the below terminal or any of your choice
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm
Open the terminal and type props to open MagiskHide Props Config and select option 5 to add/edit custom props values
ro.product.model and ro.product.brand values need to be changed to the desired phone model
Go back to the main menu and select option 3 to enable Device simulation for the values added in step 5 and then reboot the phone

After reboot, the phone model will change to the values added. You might also need to check build.prop file if any additional values to be added in the Props.
Note: Take a full backup of your phone before performing these steps in case of any issue occurs.


Playing subtitles - and only subtitles - on Android I've decided to embark on learning Spanish.  Last time I learned a foreign language, I was in a foreign country watching a lot of American TV subtitled in the local language.  Seeing the translation of things said on the show was very helpful.

I'd like to watch my Netflix movies (and possibly other sources as well, like Amazon streaming) with Spanish subtitles, but Netflix generally does not support them.

There are a large number of free, independently-made subtitle archives out there; it would be an easy task to download the subtitles for a movie or TV show I'm about to watch.

I'd like to sit in my TV room and watch movies or TV shows on my TV, while the subtitles are displayed on my phone.  While there are a few video players out there that support external subtitles, I have been unable to find a way to do subtitle-only viewing. Is there an app or some other solution?

After more searching, I found SubtitlePlayer in the Google Play Store.

It seems to work adequately for what I need, but because its name is two words jammed together, doesn't show up when you search for "Subtitle" in the market.

Also, the page says it needs 'Unicode' subtitles; after a few tries, I got it to work correctly with UTF-8 encoding, without a BOM.


How do I type umlauts and other special characters with Swype? I can change the swype-interpreting language, but the keyboard doesn't show me any special symbols.

HTC Incredible with Swype 2.4.44.10912.t100 (have not updated to Dec beta, yet).

I just want to swipe "Blue Öyster Cult" -- is that so wrong?

Press and hold the 'o' key.  At first you'll get a pop-up showing the left parenthesis.  Hold it longer and you'll get another popup showing accents for the character.


automatically turning on usb mass storage when usb is connected Majority if not all times when I plug in my USB I want to use the USB Mass Storage functionality thus I was wondering there is a way to enable USB Mass Storage once a USB is connected.

Auto Mount Your SD Card should do that for you:

  Automatically mount your SD card. Quit manually mounting your SD card every time you plug your phone into your computer.

I used that one one of my phones when I still connected it frequently via USB, and it did its job wonderfully. The app is available for free on the playstore, so nothing to lose :)


How to get fitness apps to locate music on google music I'm a runner. My music and playlists are on Google Music. I have all of my music downloaded to my device. I can't seem to figure out how to get apps like Runtastic or Nike+ to locate my Google Play Music. Any pointers? Do I need to manually move the files around on my device (android...Samsung GS3)?

Short answer you cant.
Google Music provides no API to access you music and playlists that are stored in the Google Music Cloud.


How to disable pin security from Samsing Tab 2 I have a Samsung tab2, and have added screen pin lock on my Tab few days back as I was going out. Now I don't want to use pin lock as security, but I am not able to disable it. I am going to

setting --> security --> screen lock

After entering my pin my options are to disable includes last the option None.

What should I do to remove the screen lock pin??

In my case, I installed my own certificate which even on removing was some where present don't know where so ultimately I cleared up every thing and again tried to remove pin and it got removed.

Proper way would be settings-->security-->clear credential Clear credentials is last option under security heading.

And now u can change your pin  setting-->security-->screen lock-->swipe/none whatever you feel comfortable with.

Enjoy :D


How to install jdk for offline compile? I want to compile java offline.

I have project on PC, will just copy and make small changes to it, and test it, when I am away from home.

Doesnt need to be an IDE. Not even code editor. Just a working compiler.

No need to be an app apk, a method to install it thru usb adb would suffice.

I am looking for a 100% free option too.

If your project only uses Command Line Interface, and only uses sub-packages from java.lang , then you can try "TERMUX" android app, it's a terminal emulator, so you should be familiar with linux terminals.

As of now , it doesn't have the entire JDK, but I can provide you a package that has basic tools like javac and jar,
that you could use with termux.
BUT if your project uses AWT classes, this method won't help.


Sign in to Chromium on Android not working I am trying to sign in to Chromium for Android from my Android phone and it is not working. I am getting the following error message.

The account already exists on your device.

I tried to delete the Google account on my phone and tried to set it up again. Still, it is not working.
Is it not possible to sync Chromium on the PC and Android?

Google has cut off support for any third-party Android browsers using the Chrome Sync API.

A bug report was filed on January 3 on the Chromium bug tracker, explaining that attempting to sign-in with Chromium builds on Android resulted in an 'INVALID_SCOPE' error. After many reported the same issue, the likely cause was found - a recent change to how scoped refresh tokens were handled. This meant that only official Chrome builds could request tokens, and it only affects Android (Chromium builds on the desktop continue to work normally).
If you're using any browser on Android that syncs with Chrome, you have probably already noticed it stopped working - and cannot be fixed.

Source


Can I move up and down an on-screen page by voice command? Can I move up and down an on-screen page by voice command within Google Now?

According to my knowledge and my researches it seems you can't.
If you want to see all the voice commands you can use check this site below:

https://www.google.it/amp/www.greenbot.com/article/2359684/android/a-list-of-all-the-ok-google-voice-commands.amp.html


Android WiFi is being wonky(upload stalls) I have a Galaxy S5 Verizon.

Starting today, my wifi on my device has been acting stupid.

Whenever I try to browse the internet, it lags. It isnt an issue with my internet or my router. Because when I run a speedtest on my cellphone, it will take a minute to start but when it does start, i get 11 ms ping 60 down 10 up.

Same with a wired connection on my desktop. Same on my galaxy tab 12.2.

I noticed that when I use wifi on my phone, the wifi download icon is active, but the upload icon isnt. Meaning when I use wifi to browse the net, its able to download data using wifi but it stalls trying to uploading data.

Well because of this, instead of having my normal instant speeds, I have lag. It takes a while for a youtube video to load. It takes a while for a web page to load. WHen i used the app store it took a while for the app images to download and it took a while for an app download to initalize.

I dont know why this is happening. All I know is that for some reason my device is failing to upload data using wifi right away. It always stalls.

Like I said, this just started happening today too.

I didnt do much on my device. The only thing that could possibly have done something is that I used terminal to change my device hostname. I was tired of seeing "android-3478547583gf7348574835" On my router arp table. So I went onto terminal and I did

> su
> getprop net.hostname
> setprop net.hostname <new_hostname>

And then I went onto recovery and wiped my cache.

Thats the only "Technical" thing I've done with my phone today and now for some reason my wifi stalls.

Any ideas?

I wiped the cache again to see if that would fix it. Didnt.
Rebooted my phone dozens of times. Did nothing.
I dont want to resort to factory resetting but I will if I have to.
Im rooted.
GS5 on 5.1.1

edit: I shouldnt say its a lag issue since I still get 60 mb download speeds. Its just an initialization issue with my wifi

If changing the hostname appeared to cause an issue, perhaps changing it back might solve the problem? Worth a shot.


How do I create task lists in Jorte? How do I create task lists other than My Task List?

Also, how many task lists can be created in Jorte?

Open up Jorte and go to the "Tasks & Memos" section. Click on the "Task List" button, and there should be a "Create" button that lets you create a new list.

To view other lists, go back to the "Task List" button and check/uncheck the lists you wish to show/hide.

I don't know if there is a limit to the number of lists you are able to have in Jorte; I would imagine the number is a technical one that is much higher than an average user would ever need.


Repartitioning HTC Sensation 4GB internal memory for /data? Is there a way to repartition the internal 4GB of my htc sensation?
Currently, only 1GB is available for use (/data)
The rest is being allocated to /system, /cache, etc.

I don't know for sure, but think changing internal partition layout can only be done on special development devices with the security turned off (called s-off).

The problem of running out of space on the internal data partition has been solved by many custom ROMs that can be installed after using the official HTC unlock process, however.

These custom ROMs have various methods of supporting putting apps on the SD card (in a more seamless way than standard Android) or putting even more of the data partition storage requirements on to it (although this often requires formatting the SD card to the EXT file system and sometimes even multiple partitions).

Make sure you go through your app list in Settings first, moving anything you can to SD card, by the standard Android method. This is often enough and easier than installing a custom ROM with a2sd(+)/d2w support.


apps missing from My Apps part of Market I have a HTC Desire, with the official Android 2.3.3.   My problem is that not all the apps I have installed are showing on the Market, which means that I can't check for updates to them.  To pick one example, Dolphin HD.  It's missing regardless of whether I move it to SD or phone memory.  I can't detect any pattern to explain which ones show and which ones don't.

I've googled a fair bit and most solutions posted involve uninstalling the updates to the market (no longer possible on this version of Android), clearing the cache of the Market app, or clearing the cache of Google Services Framework, but this doesn't fix anything. I've turned the phone off/on, removed the SD card, dismounted/remounted the SD card etc, plus several combinations of the above.  I had the problem before applied the 2.3.3 upgrade.   On earlier versions, uninstalling updates to the Market seemed to usually do the trick.

Any more suggestions for things to try?

Do you have multiple Gmail or Google apps on your domain logins? I found it confusing, because whatever email account I happened to be reading became the current account in the Market.

So some of my apps ended up being assigned to these other accounts until I figured out that I wasn't logged in as expected. I didn't realize it because they were free apps so there wasn't the issue of requiring a registered credit card for these other logins.


How can I customize which Gmail notifications are shown in the notification bar? I receive dozen of useless newsletters everyday from my school, at the same time the same addresses may send a few important e-mails that I need to read ASAP.

How can I setup the Gmail client and the Android notification bar in such a way that the bar will show new messages only of their title doesn' start with a certain string of characters?

ex. if the same address sends me a newsletter called "Campus news no. xxx" (with the exact title changing everytime) how can I have the notification bar NOT show any message starting with the string "campus news"?

(Android 4.2.2 with Touch Wiz - Samsung Ace 3 GT-7270)

You can filter messages based on sender, recipient, subject and other criteria from within the Web app. This is not possible from within the Android app.

In a web browser, Goto [Settings] -> [Filters] of Gmail. Click on [Create new filter].
Create a filter to match your newsletters.

Assign a label to them (create one if you don't have one yet). Make sure to apply "skip the inbox (archive it)" such that this message only lands in that label, but doesn't land in your inbox triggering a notification.

Now go to label settings in the Android app and customize notifications for the "newsletters" label.


How to root a Yxtel G928? (Spreadtrum SC6820 chipset) I've tried to find information on rooting a Yxtel G928.

Specs listed here: Spreadtrum SC6820 chipset; that site says it runs Android 2.3.6 but my phone says it's running Android 4.1. It's GSM and not locked to any network.

I can't find any reputable steps, just a few isolated forum posts on forums without any particular reputation for trustworthiness linking to zip files hosted on sites I wouldn't automatically trust.

Yxtel are a Chinese manufacturer who make low-end Android smartphones aimed at the developing world. Information is therefore relatively hard to find - if they have any guides of their own, I can't find them. I've read How do I root my Android device? and looked for info on xda-developers without success. - closest I can find is this thread that seems to link to a solution for "Spreadtrum based phones" but I can't find what they mention on the links given.

I'd like to root to remove the bloat and to aid app testing.

I've tried using the Kingo Root apk but it fails with this message:

  ROOT FAILED

  ERROR CODE: 0x18A4FE

I've also tried Kingroot APK, and Z4root from here but it just closes midway through the process and does nothing; iRoot (new version of vRoot) suggested on that thread apparently is malicious and installs a mystery additional app not related to superuser permissions with protections against its removal. There's no "fastboot" on the recovery menu.

A few places recommend "Root With Restore" (example) not for this specific model but for ones like it - but I don't really want to run a zip full of .bat and .exe files on my computer without knowing what's in them.

Most of the 'standard' rooting methods seem to require downloading some phone-specific files that I can't find for this model.


How to stop web browser offering to sign into Google account This question seems to be all over various forms, but i haven't yet found an answer.

On my Android phone, the stock web browser offers to sign in to my Google account when i visit Google websites. At the top of the screen appears a yellow pop-up listing all my Google account in a drop-down, and two buttons: "hide" and "sign in". Simply selecting an account and tapping "sign in" gives unchallenged access to my account via the web; no password is required.

This bothers me, since any malicious person who picks up my phone when I'm not looking can access my email, Google Drive, etc without knowing my password.

Let's assume that my screen-lock hasn't had time to kick in.... or we could assume it's easy to circumvent.

Enabling 2-stage sign in wouldn't help, since if someone has unauthorised access to my phone, they's receive the one-time token.

I've tried looking through all phone and browser settings to no avail. I've hunted through Google Dashboard, and cannot see how to disable this. I've signed out, but the yellow pop-up always appears, always giving unchallenged access.

An app-lock app might be an option, but is inconvenient, especially since friends often use each other's mobile browsers.

Installing a different browser may be an option, although again that's inconvenient, and would mean disabling the stock browser, which my come with other issues.

I'd really like to disable the yellow pop-up permanently, but i cannot seem to find out how to do this. Apologies if this has been answered already.

I'm running Android 4.0.4 Cyanogen mod 9.1.0 on a rooted Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000.

I'm specifically looking for a way to prevent the yellow authentication pop-up in the stock web browser. I'm not bothered about other apps. I'm also not really bothered about why Google has chosen to do this. The lock screen isn't an issue either.

One scenario might be: an acquaintance asks to borrow my phone to use the web browser. Being a little cheeky, they go to Google and sign in, without a password being required. I wish to prevent this. If they were using a web browser on my laptop, they'd need a password. I'm not happy that they don't require it on my phone.

Other apps can be trivially protected by an app-lock. I prefer not to use an app-lock for the web browser. And anyway, unlocking it for a friend to use just leaves the same problem.

The only solution I am aware of (besides hacking the code itself) is blocking permissions:

Permissions denied
PDroid privacy extension

Regarding PDroid: Currently, only Gingerbread is supported officially but you may find a working patcher for your CM9.1 firmware on XDA. Its Google Play description says: PDroid allows you to block access to the following private data for any application regardless of its permissions: [...] Account auth tokens, [...]

EDIT:
Tried PDroid and found it to work great.
You need a compatible ROM (CM, AOKP, PA,...) and AutoPatcher (download here) plus either the original PDroid or the PDroid2.0 app (see 1st post/attachment). Note: v2.0 needs JellyBean, use the old one for ICS and below (the original author hasn't updated the app for some time and hasn't ported the original Gingerbread patches. Autopatcher includes both ported original PDroid patches and the v2.0 fork for JellyBean)


Android 5.0 Gapps Flashes in Android 6.0 Genymotion I just recently installed Genymotion and need to install Google Apps. Now that I don't have 6.0 Gapps, I tried to experiment by flashing 5.0 Gapps in Genymotion and it worked. Nothing is wrong. Is this normal?

Try to update google apps through play store and run play games app by google. If it works then great. No problem will be shown in future if you can run latest google play games app successfully.


Damaged Sd card. Sd card is damaged. Try reformatting While i am using my android phone i get this above  error .

1.I have tried rebooting phone.

2.I also have tried to reformat in android but it shows same errors again and again my phone also not mounting sd card.

3.I have various ways like formating portions and chkdsk in command in pc.

It is working fine in PC but not work in android so if you have any idea how to fix it. Any website or any YouTube video where i can learn how to fix it will really  help me........

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FqR0BLUH_OI

Hope this is your answer. According to this video the error occurs when you have files on the SD-card that confuses Android OS. The video suggests you format the SD in FAT32 in a PC deleting the files. I suggest a full format (takes substantially more time to complete) as opposed to quick format.


Mobile Data stopped working I have a Nokia Sirocco 8.1 mobile phone, about 2 weeks ago now my mobile data turned off or stopped working, I contacted my carrier (Boost mobile who use the Telstra network in Australia) they went through all resetting data and checked my SIM activity, all good their end but phone still does not CONNECT.

I contacted Nokia support and they also went through all resetting options and suggestions, I even purchased a new SIM and tried it, still no connection, last thing was a full factory reset of my phone, but still no data connection, all other functions work on the phone, calls, text, wifi all PERFECT.

I have Youtubed for answers as well, tried everything all suggestions but still no Data: is there an inbuilt antenna that picks up data signal or is it a circuit board issue that needs replacing or do I just have a dud phone?

I have to say I have had the phone for over a year and have had no issues, I have used 650 Mbs of a 30Gb plan so I have plenty of Data available, please help me I am very frustrated at the moment.

I had Data roaming issues with my Nokia 8.1 Sirocco phone, tried all avenues for answers, Telstra support, Nokia support, all resets and even tried a full factory reset but all efforts did not work.

I sent my phone to Nokia in Sydney, they called me and told me phone was working there, I had to reset my APN protocol and APN roaming protocol.

From settings → network & internet mobile networks → advanced  → access point names and changed settings from IPv4 to IPv4 / IPv6, pressed the 3 dots top right hand corner and pressed save.

It works  now again, hope this helps anyone with same issues.


Better to keep frequently used apps on the Android device or move them to an external microSD card? Apps on an Android device can be broken up into three categories:

Apps frequently used, often scores of times per day
Apps used 3-6 times per week
Apps infrequently used

For apps in Categories 2 and 3, it is usually a good practice to move them to an external microSD card when possible (if they don't have widgets you want to use).  This will free up limited memory on the actual Android device.

But what about apps in Category 1?  Apps in that category are read dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands of times per day.  Is it a good practice to move them to a external microSD card (if they don't have widgets you want to use)?

Here are some points to consider:

Despite what specs claim, which actually allows faster access: the device's internal storage, or a modern microSD card (Class 10, UHS 1)?
Will copying Category 1 apps to a microSD card cause it to wear faster, thus resulting in a shorter life-span?
These days, it seems likely that a user may want their microSD card to survive many generations of Android devices.  In other words, although many people replace Android devices every 3 - 24 months, most people don't replace microSD cards with such frequency.
Due to their capacity, microSD cards often hold tens of thousands of important photographs and videos.  Yes, backing up is essential, but sometimes microSD cards can fail between backup cycles.  IF moving Category 1 apps to the device's microSD card might have a noticeable impact on the card's life span, it is possible that it may not be a good idea.

So what's the truth?  Is it a good practice to move Category 1 apps to an external microSD card (assuming no widgets), or is it best to leave them directly on the Android device?

It depends on how you use your phone, but under normal circumstances (no task killer apps, small to medium sized memory consumer, etc.) category 1 apps are typically held in RAM. So I guess reading from SD card you will only notice when the app is started for the first time. But beware, that SD cards can outperform internal memory performance: General difference in read/write speeds for internal memory vs SD card

Best advise I can give: just try and use what is best for you. If you experience performance drawbacks, just put the app back to internal storage, if not, than you can leave it on SD card.

Regarding the life time of SD cards, I guess, unless they do not perform to much IO to the card but operate on network and RAM it does not matter. Personally I just put every app I can to SD card, to have more internal memory for apps I cannot move to SD.


Switch keyboards quickly I've got a Samsung Galaxy Note with SlideIt installed which works wonderfully. But I can't write with my pen anymore. So how do I switch VERY QUICKLY to the Samsung keyboard and back?

I had the exact same issue with my Note II.  The best solution I've found is the app Quick Keyboard Switch, which gives you a notification bar icon you can tap after pulling down to bring up a dialog box to switch KBs.  You can switch back the Samsung kb, and from there hit the handwriting input button to get back to pen input.


I'm switching mobile phone service and I want to port over my contacts So I have a Droid Razr and I backed up my entire phone to a 7zip file. All I want to get is my contacts and a specific picture and ringtone. I got the picture and the ringtone but I don't know where to find my contacts. I have a lot of them so I don't want to lose them. It would be much easier if I weren't switching phone services because the sim card is Verizon and I could just switch the simcard in and let the contacts transfer like that. But I'm switching to Metro so the sim card won't do anything. At least I don't think it will.

If you're just after the contacts, that should be easy as 1-2-3:

open the contacts app, tap the menu, chose "Export to SDCard"
copy the resulting file (in most cases named something like 0001.vcf over to the new phone
on the new phone, same as in 1. – just chose to "Import from SDCard"

Of course, there are several more alternatives – depending on your preferences:

if you've synchronized your contacts with Google (or some other cloud service), they should automatically be synced to your new device as soon as you connect it with your account
plenty of backup/restore apps are available to assist you, some even specific to contacts
more information might be found in our backup tag-wiki


How to change the encryption key on (rooted) Android 9? In Android 6, you could change the disk encryption key using the vdc command with

vdc cryptfs changepw NEWPW

In Android 9, you get a message, that raw commands are no longer supported.

During rooting and installing Lineage OS 16 and installing different stuff, I got different PIN and encryption keys. This means, that when I change the lockscreen PIN, the encryption key is no longer changed.

In principle, this is what I wanted to achieve, but the problem is that I currently do not know how to change the encryption key at all. I would like to have a rather short lockscreen pin and a longer encryption key, that I can change from time to time. On Android 6 this was no problem on the shell and with different Apps, but the Apps seem to depend on the vdc command as well.

I already tried to change the lockscreen PIN back to the current encryption password in the hope, that the next change of the PIN then would change the encryption as well, because I thought maybe the encryption was not changed because the new API needs a correct old password before changing the key to the new password. But this did not work as well.

Is there any App, command line tool or function in Lineage OS 16, that can change the encryption key?

I don't think is documented anywhere the syntax but looking at this code
https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_system_vold/+/258179
I was able to set a different password.
Initially I used a PIN for unlocking, so the command to run on a terminal on lineageos 17.1 as root is:
vdc cryptfs changepw TYPEOFNEWPASSWORD OLDPASSWORD NEWPASSWORD

Where type of password can be:

password
pin
pattern


Google Nexus 5 doesn't boot Last night my phone was casually working when all of a sudden, the screen froze on the active application. This happened before but usually it unfreezed or restarted, but now, the phone just turned off (screen went entirely black) and doesn't respond to anything (tried to hold power button, in combination with either & both volume buttons) for about 1 minute per combination.
The phone doesn't respond to my charger being plugged in all night either...

Is there anything else I can try before having to take it back to the store?

I suggest you if you still have warranty to bring it back to the store.
However you maybe should read this first:
Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 Lollipop Update Brick.

The Nexus 5 and the Nexus 7 can be bricked in lollipop, and it only can boot to the Google logo. I don't know if this is your problem but it may be a part of your problem. If you update your phone to Android 5.1 then it should be fixed.


Disabling android built-in launcher Can I ask If what will be the effects if I will Disable my Built-in android launcher and replace with the launcher that I have downloaded??

A smartphone is capable of performing several functions using a single device. That includes calls, messages, photo, video, internet, social media etc. So, if a manufacturer releases a phone, it should have these default features. That means, after device power on you can see phone app for call utility, camera app for photo, video capture, default keyboard for typing words. If anyone is missing, it would affect device functionality. Likewise, all applications arrangement/displaying  app is called launcher. These are the basic apps required for functioning and they are called system apps.

Android also allows you to install other apps that provides similar functions as I have mentioned above. They are called user apps.

For example, your device comes up with launcher app, and you can install Nova launcher app from play store. When such similar apps installed, you need to set a default app for use. to do that, go to Settings->Apps->Default apps->home app. set the one you required. It will also asks you to set default launcher while pressing home button after installation.

system apps has options in settings: DISABLE and FORCE STOP
user apps has options in settings :UNINSTALL and FORCE STOP

DISABLE is used disable app function. App icon will be removed from launcher. it will not affect other apps. Also, you cannot disable every system app.
FORCESTOP to stop currently running app
UNINSTALL remove app from device.


Run an application in an unrooted sandbox on a rooted phone? I have an application that refuses to start on a rooted phone.

I don't want to unroot my phone just for that application; is there any way to run an application inside an unrooted sandbox from a rooted phone (Nexus 5, Stock Android 5.1, rooted)?

You can temporarily disable root access (and then enable it anytime later you want). To do this, there are two most common and simple methods->

1) Turn off root access using the permission manager: Since you are rooted, you must also be using some permission manager like supersu or superuser etc. You can go into its respective settings and disable root access.

2) Turn off root access from Developer Options: Go to Settings->Developer Options and in the option Root Access select None. This will also disable root access for apps.

Besides these, if it still doesn't work, you can either try completely uninstalling permission manager (this wont unroot you, you can root again anytime by installing them again); or you can simply go to system/bin and system/xbin and delete/move somewhere else a file named su (its the main binary file responsible for root permissions. I suggest you atleast get a backup of it). Further, use these methods only if none of the above two work.


Does Huawei u8160 support USB host? I have a Huawei u8160(A. K. A Vodafone 858) which is running Cyanogenmod 7.2.

I was wondering if it supports USB host so I can connect a keyboard or a Flash drive.

Read [this]: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259739
After you flash the latest rom you could flash the usb host mode which is [here]: http://goo.im/devs/psyke83/roms/u8160/hotfixes

called usbhost1-cm-7-20120729-MADTEAM-u8160.zip

Enjoy.


How can I make the phone automatically disable mobile connection when calling? I recently moved from 2G network to 3G.

On 2G when I call somebody - the phone automatically suspends the mobile Internet (since it cannot send data and voice at the same time) and activates back when the call ends.

Now on 3G I just cannot call when the mobile Internet is active (no matter whether it downloads something or not) - the call is reset immediately. At the same time I can receive calls, i.e. if somebody calls me - the phone rings and I can talk.

If I disable the mobile Internet and use WiFi (or do not use any connection) - it works fine.

Changing the network type (auto, 3G, etc...) doesn't help.

Android 2.3.3. Go Launcher + Go Contacts Ex.

Two questions:

Is this an issue with the phone?
Is there something I can tune inside the phone to make it auto-switch the mobile Internet like it was on 2G (maybe 3rd party application or patch/fix)?

You may want to talk to your carrier about your phone or service because data is separate from  voice (if you are not on a CDMA network). Voice is using GSM/UMTS and data is HSPA. Your data network usage should never interrupt your voice call, even if you use CDMA. The voice should take priority and stop the data usage to make the call. There is either an issue with the network you are on, or the phone.


Create more than 1 clone of an app I know that there are apps like 2face that can clone an app, but they can just create a single clone. Is there another application that can clone an app more than once? Let's say 5-10 clones in the same device.

Note: I have also tried Parallel Space but it cannot clone Entrust ST which I am trying to clone.

You can use lucky Patcher . But know that it doesn't work for all apps. And also cloning an app twice will take twice the space. If you are a root user I will recommend you to use titanium backup and create multiple profiles for the app. It even had a stylish widget with the active profile name so that you can switch to different profiles with just one tap. Adding multiple profiles to an app is just like cloning but one app several app data in separate partition.
Titanum backup requires root. Very low ram and battery  consumption


How do I disable weird lockscreen camera shortcut in Emotion UI 4? Device: Huawei Mate 8 EU (NXT-L29), EMUI 4.

When my phone is locked and I press volume down or up quickly, camera app opens, takes a photo and displays on the screen a time I don't know the meaning of (like 1.0s or 0.3s). I have searched through all settings but I still can't find this feature. When I listen to music this is VERY annoying: lowering or increasing the volume with the keys causes a photo to be taken. It happens both when the screen is off and on in the lockscreen, but never when the phone is unlocked.

Also before rooting my phone I did a factory reset (which now I can't do), and it didn't change anything, of course.

Found it! In Huawei Camera, in the settings, there is a feature called "Ultra Snapshot", which by default is turned on, and it does what I have described in the question.


Equivalent of CTRL + C (break) in android console Recently I discovered, that via QPython console I can execute android (linux) commands. Ping works. Question is: how to interrupt it's output on smartphone? CTRL + C obviously isn't the answer.

Vol Down + C is functionally equivalent to Ctrl + C.


Annotate HTML files without editing raw HTML I would like to add annotations (highlights and notes) to HTML files saved on my Android phone, without having to edit the raw HTML. How can I do this?

First convert the HTML file to a PDF file, using a conversion app like Convert web to PDF. Then annotate the PDF file using a PDF app that supports adding and editing annotations, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.


Permission problems with LinuxDeploy I installed LinuxDeploy and got Debian Jessie up and running. It was all relatively easy.

The issue that I am having is that the user I define in the ui is not able to write to custom mounts (like sd card etc).

I can use the Root user in the chroot environment to read/write but that is not right. I want to be able to be a regular user with read/write permissions.

I am using Lollipop 5.1/LinuxDeploy on Samsung Note

thanks

Update:

Confirmed that permissions of /dev/fuse probably just needs to be updated.  It is initially set to 700 by default for some reason which would only allow root to execute. It doesn't matter from where or how you chmod it, just chmod it to 770 or 777 if necessary.

sudo chmod 777 /dev/fuse

Also doesn't hurt to do it properly and setup a fuse group if one doesn't already exist and add users to it as needed.

/Update

Was having a similar problem, will document what I did exactly.  This is assuming you've setup your install as a directory.

Download FX File Manager + it's root extension companion app from Play Store.
Navigate using the root explorer option to the roots of your Debian install(by default /data/user/linux deploy.package.name.or.similar/0/env
Find /dev/fuse of your Debian install with FX.  Long press on the folder, swipe over to / tap security.
Tap all the squares so /dev/fuse is set to 777 access
Stop and start your image, try accessing mounted directories.

Now I suppose you could try simply chmodding /dev/fuse to 777 from within Debian or whatever access you deem necessary, but I didn't try that.  Most likely that will work too -intuitively sounds fine, but not what I did.

It was.kind of odd that /dev/fuse was set to 700 in the first place, but whatever.

Oh also, I had to add in a fuse group prior to that, and add users to it.  All though my guess is that if you set /dev/fuse to 777 it would make this step unnecessary.  Perhaps a 770 would necessitate the fuse group?


How to prevent sleep while installing lots of updates? Whenever I need to install a bunch of updates, I find myself sitting next to the phone/tablet and tapping the screen every 20 seconds, else the updates never complete.

There must be a better way! Right?

What I've got:

Sony Xperia Arc S, with 4.0 - pretty sure the updates stop when the screen goes out.
ASUS Transformer Pad, with 4.1 - will have to re-check whether the updates stop now that you guys mention they are expected to carry on.

How I'm connecting: Wi-Fi.

There an app developed to deal with that issue, Smart Timeout Keep Screen On by guidology available from Google Play Store:

  Smart Timeout allows you to specify apps that will keep the screen / display on. Once there are no specified apps visible on the screen the normal screen timeout is enabled.
  Works great while reading articles in web browsers, email, or any app you specify. You'll no longer need to worry about touching the screen to prevent the screen from sleeping, dimming or timing out.

Ain't free, costs 0,76€, but "saves" you from the described annoying situation :)


Reset permissions of app versus Google Play Game Services When installing an app using Google Play Game Services (GPGS) on Android and booting the app first time, we give the app permission to do this and that with the user's account (or similar) on GPGS. How can I reset that permission, so that when the user accesses GPGS from the app the next time (using the same account as first time), it will ask for permission again?

Within the GPGS service (leaderboard) inside the app itself, there was a button to access settings for the user vs the GPGS. I could disconnect the app from the account by digging around there. With that the permissions were revoked.


Traffic for Skype and other apps on Android I've recently bought an HTC Desire and I'm wondering how much traffic some apps generate. I actually want to know two things: how much traffic (estimation, of course) is generated when syncing with gmail/facebook/weather, and how much traffic is generated when I'm online on Skype and when I talk over Skype.

Edit: to clarify, I'm thinking if I should leave some syncing and if I should talk over Skype over 3G, since I have only 1GB per month of traffic.

Just download an app from the Market called PhoneUsage. It will track how many minutes, text messages, and data you use. You can even view a break down of which apps use how much traffic, and it only tracks over 3G, not WiFi.


How do I reliably access my music library in Google Play music from my car's bluetooth system i have a Samsung Galaxy S6 and 2015 Mazda. In general, access my music via bluetooth in my car works much better when I disable Google PLay Music and only use the native music app. However, I would prefer to use Google Play Music simply because when I purchase music from the app and download them to the phone, they are not available to the native app (or any app other than Google Play music...argh!)

So, I am using Tasker to successfully automatically play Google Play Music when it connects to the car's bluetooth, and that works very well. And the music does play.

However, and this is my specific problem, sometimes I cannot access the library screen on my cars bluetooth system, where I choose the artist, track, playlist, album, etc.

Specifically, when I try to select the library icon, it says: "unable to view the content of the connected device."

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

I ended up using Tasker to set the phone up such that the moment the phone is connected to the car's bluetooth, Google Play is launched and a song is played. Then, you'll be able to control the phone's music in Google Play through the car's head unit.


How to find out sd card partition in dev/block? In order to mount an ext4-formated sd card in Android I followed this guide.

In the bash script msd2.sh is followking command:

mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /storage/extSdCard && sleep 5 && /system/bin/vold

So in this part the mmcblk1p1-partition shall be mounted in /storage/extSdCard.

How can I find out which of the partitions in dev/block is my sd-card ?

Furthermore I cannot mkdir a folder in /storage to have an equivalent mountpoint: mkdir failed for /storage/extSdCard, Read-only file system

How do I get read-write access of \storage ?

Info:

Phone: Sony Xperia Z1
Model number: C6903
Android version: 5.1.1
Build Number: 14.6.A.1.236

How can I find out which of the partitions in dev/block is my sd-card ?

By default, external memory card's partition is /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 in all devices.
(Unless if you have partitioned the memory card, then you should know which partition to use, for example, if you have partitioned 32GB memory card as first 16GB as FAT32 partition & second 16GB as EXT4 partition, to use the EXT4 partition, you'll be using mmcblk1p2)

  How do I get read-write access of /storage ?

I hope by r/w access you mean creating a directory (mount point) to mount the external SD card.

You cannot do that after the device has booted, atleast since KitKat(?).The only way to do that would be by editing the ramdisk of your boot.img according to your requirement.


I need an idea for recovering my data after I tried for 4 hours, I really need your help. Let me tell you my story:
I dropped Moto X 2nd Gen (running Android 6.0) some days ago, the screen is shattered and only shows some kind of green mud. The only 2 activitys I can recognize trough the screen are the android animations when scrolling or switching between and (for sure) if the screen is turned on or off. ADB is turned off and there is no way to enable it. I attached a keyboard via USB-OTG and am able to unlock the phone, but when I connect it to my pc, I can't access my data because the phone is in Charge-only mode (THANKS for making this default, Android! -.-). So my only hope is the keyboard. I borrowed the exact same phone from a friend, attached the keyboard and wrote down the keys I need to press to enable Wifi. The reason for that is my Chromecast, as soon as I mirrored my display, I can use my mouse to upload my data from the phone to my cloud. So I repeated the keys on the broken phone, and after MANY attempts I finally got wifi turned on using the keyboard. But now I keep struggling at the next step, starting the screen mirroring. My Keys are:

  Type 'Settings' on the home screen
  4 times down, then enter to select
  4 times down again, to the 'display' settings, enter
  All the way down, hit enter to get to screen mirroring
  Wait a moment so it can find devices
  Go all the way down again and hit enter to select my chromecast

These steps work just fine on the other phone, but when I use it on the broken one, I always get stuck in a big block of text which is scrollable. I have no idea what it is, and the only way to get rid of it is rebooting.

Any ideas how to get that damn screen mirrored? My goal is SO close!
Thanks in advance!

You can use Vysor chrome app for screen mirroring, if your device's debugging mode is enabled.
Things you needed is a USB cable attached to PC with chrome installed.

or you can try any of the below,

EaseUS Android data recovery software.
MHL to female HDMI adapter, to connect to TV


Configure Play Store to download temporary files to SD Card I find that every time I start to update an application using Google Play, my phone's internal memory starts to run out (i.e. the Play app downloads temporary files to internal memory). In a number of cases, the size of the update is quite large and I end up with less than 10% free space left which corrupts the installers and I end up with no update. :(

Is it possible to in any way instruct Google Play to use my SD card (which has over 10GB free space) as the temporary location instead of the space-constrained internal memory? As much as possible, I'd like to do this without having to root my device.

Unfortunately, there is (currently) no way to do so on a non-rooted device, at least not to my knowledge.

The Play Store app always downloads to /data/local as far as I know. So if your device is rooted, you could create a directory wherever you like, and symlink it here. This could be done either from a terminal app, via a file explorer supporting the creation of symlinks (and root), or via adb shell. For the terminal/adb-shell variant it could look like that, assuming your sdcard being mounted at /sdcard:

$ su
# mkdir /sdcard/playstore-temp
# cp -r /data/local/* /sdcard/playstore-temp
# rm -rf /data/local
# ln -s /sdcard/playstore-temp /data/local

Explaining the commands:

get root access
create the new "temporary storage directory"
copy all current content (recursively) to the new location
remove the old location
create a symlink from the new location to "fake" the original

I didn't try this, but it should work. Like with Link2SD (which uses the same principle for installing apps on SDCards), for the Playstore app this should be "transparent", i.e. it should be fooled into thinking it still works the same way as before :)


How to prepare for upgrade to Jelly Bean - Droid Bionic Motorola and Verizon have announced that the Bionic will be upgraded to Jelly Bean starting April 15.   Aside from backing up any data that isn't synced with a cloud service, are there any steps that should be taken in preparation?

You can use Carbon to backup your applications data. If your devices is rooted you can make a complete nandroid backup using CWM.


What are the advantages of a custom ROM over rooted stock? What can a custom ROM provide beyond rooting that I can't get by downloading an application?

Advantages
A custom ROM can be as little as a pre-rooted stock ROM, and with root you can do virtually anything. Thus the main advantage over just rooting is that the work has been done for you already if you grab a custom ROM with features you're interested in. For example, a custom kernel with better support for overclocking may be included in a custom ROM.
As the name implies, a ROM cooker has a lot of freedom to customize.  But, in general, the "well known" custom ROMs have:

Custom themes, or at least wallpapers or widgets. This might include modified system colors and icons, startup screens, etc.
Root, of course (see the advantages of rooting).
Less bloatware (e.g., removal of T-Mobile's "My Account").
Useful utilities for the kind of person who flashes custom ROMs (e.g., ROM Manager).
A mishmash of modems and kernels, selected for best battery life or performance.  Modems are usually stock but kernels may be stock or custom.
Additional options in menus (e.g., CyanogenMod allows a user to reboot to recovery or fastboot mode instead of just rebooting the device normally).
Additional user interface tweaks (e.g., CyanogenMod allows users to place on/off controls in the status bar instead of using widgets).

Finally, custom ROMs don't have to be stock-based to begin with either. This might enable extra system-level features (built-in tethering, for example) or allow you to upgrade to a version of Android that hasn't been or won't be released for your device.  It can also free you from hard-to-remove bits of stock ROMs, such as their custom UIs / launchers that often cannot be removed.
Disadvantages

Custom ROMs, especially those not based on stock, are often a bit experimental.  They may not be as stable as stock, especially with custom kernels or when not stock-based (drivers are hard to get right).
A custom ROM can include virtually any apps the creator wanted to include, and you may consider them bloatware.
Custom themes may not be what you want; many ROM cookers aren't designers.
Something unsavory or malicious could be included in the ROM.
Bricking your device is always a possibility.  Make sure you know what you're doing when you flash a custom ROM, and never use a ROM designed for a different device.
Like rooting, flashing a custom ROM will almost certainly void the warranty of a non-"developer" (e.g., Nexus) device.


Headphone music controls not working correctly I recently purchased a set of earphones (HTC RC E160) with music controls (next, play/pause, previous buttons).

Strangely, they do not appear to work on my Samsung Galaxy Ace. The play/pause button works properly, but the 'next' button does the same thing as the play/pause button and the 'previous' button does nothing at all.

I've tried making a testing Android app which tries to capture the button presses and obtain information about them. The previous button just goes completely undetected, but the next and play/pause buttons both display identical information.

Does anyone have some insight into what is going on? I'm unable to tell if my earphones are faulty, or if there is a compatibility issue.

EDIT - just tried on a Samsung Galaxy Tab, all three buttons work, except the next and previous buttons alter volume instead. Confused.

The solution lies in your first sentence. You're using an HTC headphone.
Music controls are not standardized so every manufacturer implements them differently. As if this wouldn't be enough, different models have different implementations too. The only headphone that's guaranteed to work is the one that came with your device.

Apple on the other hand has a certification program to make sure that 3rd party accessories will work with iDevices.


How to reinstall android on my HTC I have encrypted my HTC One M7 and then entered a wrong password until destruction of data. How can I recover my HTC.

In other words, how do I reinstall Android 6.0 on it?

I tried "power button + volume lower" and then factory reset. It leads to TWRP.

PS: I am using Linux, and have no Windows machine available

Should be able to factory reset from twrp even if you can't decrypt it. On the flip side, I know HTC devices have RUU's wich allow to install factory images etc.


How to show my number when calling out? I have my SIM card set to block the number I'm calling from when calling out. I need this due to work.

What is annoying is that some contacts I need to get a hold of will usually not pick up "Unknown numbers" that call, requiring me to leave a message. I know if I turn my Call ID back on, they pick up right away. I understand this behaviour, and I do it as well.

My issue is that on my phone, I have to go through 5 menus before my number is unblocked, then back to the main Phone screen, then make the call, then back to those 5 screens to turn the blocking back on.

I know I can block per call, but then I need to remember to turn this on. Is there an easy way I can quickly enable/disable the Call Block setting? I'm on an Asus ZenFone 3 on the Telus network (purchased through 3rd party supplier, not from Telus directly)

Just put *31# before the number you're calling.

More information: Enabling Caller ID.

  Depending on the operator and country, there are a number of prefix
  codes that can unblock Caller ID.

  Australia: 1832 (landline and mobile phones)
  Czech Republic: 31 (landline)
  Denmark: 31
  Germany: *31# (Some mobile providers)
  India: *31#
  Ireland: *31# (dialling from mobile) 142 (dialling from landlines)
  Japan: 186
  Hong Kong: 1357
  New Zealand: 0196 (Telecom/Spark)
  North America: *82 (*UB, UnBlock), 1182 (rotary phone)
  Switzerland: #31#
  United Kingdom: 1470

  On GSM mobile networks, callers may dial *31# before the number
  they wish to call to enable caller ID.


Android full support offline map Possible Duplicate:
  Is there an offline maps application for Android?

I've been using google offline maps, however there is an issue that we cannot search. Is there any application for Android that gives you full support for offline map, support like searching, GPS or more. I currently have a google nexus 7.

You might want to take a look at Locus Pro. Not sure about the free version, but at least the full version's app decription includes Search (by adress, coordinates, contact). It has full offline maps support (downloable directly from within the app), supports location via network as well as GPS, and comes with a lot of useful addons.

There might be other offline map apps available in the Playstore, so you might want to search there. Also, the Mapsaurus app (or its website) might help you find a similar app.


Lg g3 smart cleaning stops working occasionally I use LG G3 and I periodically cleanup my phone with the inbuilt smart cleaning but from 1-2 weeks now when I click on delete temporary files the app stops working and every time I try to do that it happends. One more thing it is also trying to delete apps chache could it be because of this? Thank you in advance!

Go to Setting
Open Developer Options
Under Apps, uncheck the box Don't Keep activities

Voila....


Chinese-bought Samsung Galaxy S2 has a very limited language list Possible Duplicate:
  Can I install additional languages on Android?

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S2 in China and have used it in English but now I bought the new S3 and want to sell my S2.  Since I live in Norway I need to be able to change the language to Norwegian, but it only has some Asian languages (four of them) and English UK, English US.  Is it possible to add the languages that are missing?

You would have to change to another (Android) ROM that has other languages. Take a look at How to Install Stock ROM on Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III GT-I9300).

You can download Nordic firmware at SamFirmware. (Nordic firmware's not in the related links in the link above, but you can follow the first link for the steps in installing/flashing a new ROM)


Change default app for mp3 in Firefox A little while ago I clicked a link in Firefox that led to an mp3. My thumb slipped and I tapped "always open with",  ES Music Player when what I really wanted was to just save it. Now every mp3 link spawns ES Music Player, and that's not what I want.

How do I reset Firefox so that it asks me again for these kinds of links?

I've already done to "2 finger Top Swipe: Settings: Apps: Firefox: Launch by default: Clear".

ES Music Player isn't in the settings app list at all, so I couldn't clear that.

ES File Explorer, which is the parent app for the music player shows "No defaults set" in Android settings. Internally it has it's own "Settings: Cleanup settings: Clear defaults", but that had no apparent effect either.

This is the setting of Firefox on Android and not android itself
Follow these steps:

Open Firefox and in address bar type "about:config"
Search For "browser.download.preferred.audio/mpeg" (just "mpeg" does the same)
Press on the reset button
From now on, if you download any mp3 file in Firefox, it asks for available apps capable of playing the file. You can again choose once or set it as default.


Decrypt android device (CM13/6.0) I encrypted my device on a lark, but it affected performance too much. I want to decrypt my device, but the place where I could previously initiate the encryption now just show "encrypted". I tried a factory reset both from the setting and from TWRP, but after the device boots back up, it's still in the encrypted state. Tried several times.

You will have to wipe userdata using fastboot mode.

fastboot erase userdata


Close/reset Chrome tab(s) without launching Chrome I've got into a peculiar situation with Chrome on my Samsung Note 2 running Android 4.4.2. I've been playing with JavaScript and apparently created some bad code. I know it because PhpStorm showed the warning that the code was likely to cause an exception. Still, I've tried seeing this page on my smartphone. (I need the smartphone because I am playing with the navigator.vibration function.) Chrome crashed.

Now when I run Chrome, it tries to re-open all tabs, the last being the one with the erroneous page (hosted with a web-hosting company). Apparently, Chrome is trying to open the cached page. It makes the whole smartphone practically unresponsive, with app icons sometimes disappearing from the desktop. I can revive the OS by closing Chrome from the app manager (long-press the home key).

I have already corrected the page online, it works fine in a desktop browser. And no warning in PhpStorm any more. But Android Chrome is hopeless. Restarting the phone doesn't help.

I wonder if I can somehow reset Chrome or simply close all tabs without running Chrome itself. It would also be great to understand what could have brought it to this amazing condition.

The problematic code in the page was

while (true) {
    navigator.vibrate([500, 500]);
}

I wanted to create an infinite loop (for as long as the tab was open).

Just in case no better answer is given, I found a workaround by mere chance. Another program (Play Store) decided to open some web-page. Since Chrome was a default browser, it launched Chrome with a new tab. This means that the last opened tab (which was my problematic one) was not made active and hence Chrome hasn't tried to display it. I was then able to close that tab as usual, and then open it again. This time Chrome downloaded the content from the web and since I corrected it, the problem was resolved.


SD card unmounted when HTC Desire is being charged (even with a "wall charger") Whenever I plug in the charger into my HTC Desire (2.2) it unmounts the SD card. I can get around it when it's connected to a PC or other device via USB by selecting Charge Only again in the charge menu - it then re-mounts the SD card. However, you do not get the charge/connect as options when it's a wall charger so I cannot get around the problem (therefore losing all my apps installed on the card, music etc while it's charging).

Has anyone seen a bug (feature?) like this? I've been trying to find anything about this problem online but to no avail...

Thanks in advance!

Strange. I have an HT Desire running 2.2 and don't have that problem. It might be the cable of the charger that is incorrectly registering as being a USB connection (faulty, cheap knockoff that is incorrectly wired?) Try another charger. Blackberrys also use micro USB so ask a buddy to use their charger


How do I disable the missed phone call notification light? The green flashing light whenever I miss a call is really annoying.  I'd like to turn that off while keeping the purplish voicemail indicator light.  I'm not finding a clear way to do it in the phone app nor in general settings.  The similar questions I've seen have actually been about the call log or other notifications which are not the same.

it is impossible to change it in setting(you can only completly turn it off or on). But you have some apps for that. For most of them,you need root. But I found this one in link(article about it) for which you do not need it. It is Led Blinker(avaiable in Google Play Store)You have lite and pro version, but lite should be more than enought.

LINK WITH INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO USE IT: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.guidingtech.com/23212/customize-disable-led-notifications-android/&ved=2ahUKEwig0IfSvvbjAhVG2KQKHSndB48QFjASegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw3YIcmp9EWQpzvCGuaCwlLU&cshid=1565378157374


Will a shutdown Android phone wake me up (like feature phones do)? Possible Duplicate:
  Does the alarm work when my phone is turned off?

I have three devices with Android and I just wanna one of them alarming when turned off.

I turn off my devices to do not receive any alert type from sync, apps, calling, sms etc. and also to do not waste battery charge.

I know I could just switch devices to airplane or silent mode and connect them to power, but I would like to know just how to use alarm when device is turned off... I miss that feature from my old dumbphones...

There is no way to sound the alarm when the device turns off. This is a limitation in the Android operating system.

If you have a certain Samsung device, you use the NoMoarPowah app, but this only supports a very small number of devices.


Which WiFi-Direct commands can be used in Android? I am interested to know what commands can be used in Android to control WiFi direct from the terminal/command line. I took a look into p2p WIFI direct but I didn't catch these commands!!

I can find commands used with Linux from this link. Can the same be used with Android? If so, how can I access them on a rooted device?

On some devices which do support WiFi-Direct, the corresponding binaries come pre-installed (e.g. the wpa_cli command; see also How can I install wpa_cli on my rooted device?). If you have those ready, you can use them on your Android device as you would do on a Linux machine (find a closer description e.g. in the blog post How To : Use wpa_cli To Connect To A Wireless Network).

Of course that would require a terminal emulator to be installed on your device (take e.g. a look at Android Terminal Emulator for a good candidate) -- at least if you want to issue the commands directly.

As the linked "How To" describes, you can use wpa_cli in interactive mode (by directly executing it). On the "wpa_cli shell" you then can execute different commands: scan scans for available networks, with add_network you can select an available network to configure with set_network. An example could look like this:

> add_network
0
> set_network 0 ssid "WLAN-Network"
> set_network 0 psk "SupahSecretPassphrase"

This would trigger a connection phase, which could look like:

> <2>Trying to authenticate with 00:55:ab:25:ac:5a (SSID='WLAN-Network' freq=2437 MHz)
> <2>Trying to associate with 00:55:ab:25:ac:5a (SSID='WLAN-Network' freq=2437 MHz)
> <2>Associated with 00:55:ab:25:ac:5a
> <2>WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:55:ab:25:ac:5a [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
> <2>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:55:ab:25:ac:5a completed (reauth) [id=0 id_str=]

Another good source to take a look at is Android from the command-line, which gives some more examples -- not only restricted to WiFi.


What are potential problems/violations that malware apps can do? There are some apps that I am considering to download which have many permission requirements and have few comments from other past users. The number of downloads are relatively low so I am considering the risks that I can be exposed to.

Can the app record my internet browsing and send it to an outside source?
Can the app upload to an outside source photos that I have taken?
Can the app look at data from other apps and use it?

I am considering apps from the app store and not ones from other places.

Are there particular app permissions which are rare requirements that might indicate a malicious app?

Can the app record my internet browsing and send it to an outside source?

It may depend on which browser you are using. The stock browser should save it's browsing history within its private storage. If there is no root exploit, an external app should be unable to access the browsing history.

Can the app upload to an outside source photos that I have taken?

If the app requests and gets granted the write external storage permission, it would be able to access your photos. Then it would only need the Internet permission, to upload these photos so some site.

Can the app look at data from other apps and use it?

Usually not. But again, if there is a root exploit available for your Firmware version, it could use it to access every piece of data on your Android device.

Are there particular app permissions which are rare requirements that might indicate a malicious app?

Well, it depends on what the app should do and what permissions are requested. Most Apps that could also run offline, request the Internet permission for Ads. Contact the App developer if you are not sure why the App needs/requests a particular permission. I would be careful with permissions that could also cost you money: Send SMS and Call Phone. I've heard that some strange social network app requests now send SMS for some reason.

Also the READ PHONE STATE AND IDENTITY is pretty common, because it's needed for backwards compatibility with older Android versions. But it allows the app to read for example your IMEI, which is unique to your device.


Application-specific passwords only work for a short period of time I have two-step verification enabled on my Google Account, and I generated an application-specific password for my Android device (Infuse 4G with custom ROM in case that's relevant), and input it. After about a day, the "Sign-in error for USERNAME@gmail.com" notification appears and I have to generate a new password and input it again in order to use the account. Is this a known issue with two-step verification or is it just me doing something wrong?

This sounds very strange. I've generated a few app-specific passwords (which look like "abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop") for a few devices and have never heard from them since. Google says: "Application-specific passwords do not expire"

On the other hand, main password, which has to be accompanied with security code ("12345") does expire quite quickly. Please, make sure you use 16-letter app specific passwords, not the main password with security code.


How can I transfer apps from one profile to another on my tablet? I have just bought a tablet to be used by the whole family.  I downloaded some apps and games, and then set up two more users. Neither have, nor want, a Google account. (In fact our son is too young for a Gmail account according to Google.)

I am completely new to Android, as I have a Windows Phone and Windows computers so please go easy on me.  I have a Wikipad with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The apps I downloaded all appear on my user/profile and there is very little on my son's or my husband's (not even all of the pre-loaded ones, it would appear).

Do I need to download them all again for each user/profile or is there a way of making them show up?  One of them (a Flight Simulator game exclusively for my son) was a paid-for app.

From the Admin/Owner account, go to Settings > Users > (user name) > Apps, click the little cog next to the restricted account, and you will see all apps permissions. You can give access to whichever app you like.
If you don't know if you are using Admin/Owner account, just head into Settings > Users. Under one user name would be shown "Admin" or "Owner".


Blackview recovery mode I have a Blackview A8 that is stuck at upgrading.
After the optimizing step (40 of 40) if just hangs and it stays like that until the battery runs out

Can anyone help me out?
I would like to go in recovery mode or to reset the phone.

First you have to reboot and press and hold Volume Up + Power key for about 5 seconds. When you see the Blackview logo press Power key and a menu will follow, there select recovery mode...

PS: I had to try a few times before I manage to enter the menu


Moto g partitions deleted .How to flash internal partitions again Emmc UPDATE

I have found this xda post with the partition table and sizes of the moto g.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48855450&postcount=35

I also found this xda post where they partition the emmc
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2596521
, if someone could help me identify what should I put in adb.

My first gen moto g is stuck in a bootloop, everything i have done so far has not worked.I have tried to flash using fastboot and mfastboot with diferent stock images in all I get failed to erase partition, remote failure.

The internal storage says it has 0 mb of space.
I have Twrp installed and using cat /proc/partitions finds no partitions

~ # ←[6ncat /proc/partitions
cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

I have managed to push a Stock rom but can´t flash it with mount data error,mount sd card error, mount system error and mount cache error..

I have tried to use Adb remount but it fails

remount failed: Success

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Assuming you selected correct partition info file (I didnt verify that from first link you posted, so thats up to you), I will only tell you what you asked-> What to really do in terminal from that tutorial.

Part one of tutorial is settings up ADB and getting things ready. You can also follow this tutorial to get adb ready. Then its about backing up things and getting ready (follow tutorial for all steps).

Part two is where main terminal process begins and all you have to really enter in terminal is those commands inside "boxes" (or code area). Just be open minded and read the outputs and interpret them carefully.

If you are trying to repartition and assuming partitions are corrupt because of this->

  I have managed to push a Stock rom but can´t flash it with mount data
  error,mount sd card error, mount system error and mount cache error..

Then dont. Because your method of mounting partitions from adb is kinda... (incomplete?). Try entering these commands first and then flashing (whatever method you are using from adb)->

adb shell
su
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /system
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /data
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /cache

This should mount your partitions and you should be able to proceed with flashing. Even if you want to flash through twrp, you can go to Mounts option and make sure system, data, sdcard, cache etc is mounted by check marking them. Though I still cant understand how you are trying to flash a stock rom through sdcard/adb (I never owned a moto so idk what methods are used for flashing process).... but anyway, I told you method to mount those partitions. You need root to use those commands. See if they work. Because a mount error does not mean partitions are corrupt in any way.
And make sure that adb can access your phone as root.


Tablet sending Message automatically to a fixed number (everyday) I have same problem as described in My phone is sending SMS automatically everyday, but I have a Croma CRX-1125 tablet. It's deducting Rs 1.5 almost everyday, and it's sending message to Swipe telecom number. The Croma tablet is tied up with Swipe company; Croma doesn't have its own tablet.

Try to force close the particular app/service that is causing this problem (That is the app/service that is sending that message).

And if possible, uninstall that app.

If uninstalling is not possible, you may need to root your phone to either

uninstall/stop it from starting on bootup/stop it from sending message.


Where are the downloads from the Amazon Appstore stored? Possible Duplicate:
  Amazon App Store - Location of the downloaded APK

I like to grab the free app of the day but space on my phone is too precious to go though with the install. But I can't stop the download when I do purchase. Where is that download stored and how can I get rid of it?

From what I can tell, they are stored in /sdcard/Android/data/com.amazon.venezia/cache

I have a lot of apks in that directory. I downloaded the one from today and I now have a new file in there dated today with the time stamp of when I purchased the application.

The files in there seem to use some "identifier" that amazon uses for the application. Cleaning out this does not affect the amazon app store in any way, but if you want to install an application that you previously purchased, you will have to redownload it, which it does with out any issue. I just cleared my directory out and tested this.


Connecting Samsung Galaxy Note to TV I'd like to know what options there are for playing a movie on the Galaxy Note on my TV. The TV is a relatively recent Sony Bravia that sadly appears not to support DLNA. I gather the Galaxy Note doesn't support HDMI - so are there any other options?

Samsung lists the HDMI Smart Adapter on their website as being compatible with the Galaxy Note.


Would a full back up (from recovery) preserve all data including installed apps? I wonder if I create a full back up from recovery, would it preserve all my data? Including installed apps (along with their configs) and my contacts?

If you are talking about a Nandroid backup: Yes, it would. It creates images from the devices file systems -- so all that's stored there gets copied to those image files. You can then even extract single items using e.g. Titanium Backup.


How to sync my Facebook contacts? How do I sync my Facebook contacts with the contacts on my Samsung Galaxy Spica?

Settings >> Accounts and Sync >> Add account >> Facebook
Enter your facebook info
Check the Sync Contacts checkbox


How to stop web page from opening Android Instant App? For example, this very site, when I click on a notification, it opens the page in the Android Instant App.

I normally browse Stack Exchange sites on mobile web (mobile web version is great!).

Ever since it prompted me to try the instant app, I haven't been able to make it stop using the instant app.

The only workaround is to long-press a link then open in new tab. Then I can navigate to the new tab to see the web version.

The sure way is to disable the whole instant apps feature.
From Google Play Help,

Change how you open instant apps from links
You can change your settings to open links into instant apps or websites. If you turn on “Upgrade web links,” and click certain links, the instant app may open and you’ll be able to use some of it’s features, without actually installing the full app. If the setting is turned off, the link will open in a website. Learn more about instant apps.

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Store app .
Tap Menu  and then Settings.
Select Google Play Instant.
Turn on or off Upgrade web links.

Even when this setting is turned off, you can always continue to try instant apps by clicking on links that are Google Play branded.


Ubuntu font cannot display latin extended characters I changed the system font (by Font Changer) to Ubuntu font (0.8). This font has Latin-Extended support and can display Vietnamese just fine (I tested this on http://font.ubuntu.com/).
However, after I changed to this font, Vietnamese chars are replaced by boxes.

Can anyone explain this for me? Any idea on how to fix this?

I'm not sure about Vietnamese, but for example in Finnish, there are some extended characters that are problematic. This is because some pages are encoded as ISO-8859-15 and some are UTF-8. If autodetection in the browser fails, they will be displayed as boxes or garbage. The same thing happens if the font only supports one encoding and the page uses the other. I'd recommend to check the encoding of the font and the encoding of the pages you tried, and change the font if necessary.


How can I copy content from my SD Card to my PC? I have an LG Marquee on Boost Mobile and recently my phone started to boot loop. I had not backed up my micro SD Card contents and am afraid I could lose them with my phone acting up like this. Each time my media scanner runs at start up, the phone reboots again, so I cannot access my media content in time to salvage it.

A user on here gave me the idea to buy an SD Card reader, put the contents of my SD Card onto my PC and copy them onto a new card. Then I could insert the new card into my phone and factory reset it in order to save my media content.

My question in a nutshell is: What is the process of copying content from an SD Card onto a PC, and then copying this content to a new card?

My second and last question is: Once I move the contents of my current SD Card onto my PC and copy them to a new SD Card, will my factory-reset phone take the new card and load the contents?

Answer to your first Question:

No specific processes needed. When You Connect your SDcard to PC via SDcard reader, you can see a new drive is mounted on you PC. Just copy necessary files to PC and similarly copy same files to new SDcard.

Answer to your first Question:

Yes. your mobile will recognize your new SDcard when you mount it to your mobile.


Take a photo in PNG (or other lossless) format I need to take a collection of photographs using my Samsung Note 4 used as resources for a video game. To give the best experience, it is important that I use a completely lossless format for this. When I take a picture with my phone, it saves it in a JPG format by default. I need to losslessly save this image in PNG format.

I am looking for some way to do this with existing apps. The one resource I found about this topic from a user's point of view claims it is impossible as there is some sort of hardware encoder -- however I very much doubt this as I've always considered the encoding into a file format to be handled by software.

Is it possible to take a photo in PNG (or other lossless) format in Android?

If you really want to take lossless photographs, you should look for a camera app with RAW support. Typically, you would be working with a .dng file, instead of a .png file. RAW photos are lossless and uncompressed, which is what you're looking for, and (as the name suggests) captures the raw data from the camera's sensor.

The Lollipop Camera2 API includes a feature to capture RAW images, and there are at least a few popular apps that take advantage of this.

OpenCamera (Free, Open Source)
Manual Camera (try the compatibility checker app before buying)
Camera FV-5


How to lock android tablet for web browsing only? Im developing a web app for some clients and Im going to lend then an android tablet (one of those cheap chinese non-brand tablets, pretty easy to manipulate) and Im kind of new into android so I want to know how can I lock all system apps (including settings) and leave them with google chrome enabled, even with a browsing lock that only allows to navigate in the desired domain.

As a plus I would like to have like a remote monitoring of the tablet so I can see the activity.

Im asking such an ambiguous way cause I dont know anything about android, but I imagine that this can be done because is such an open OS. If someone can recommend me some apps or website where I can get more info about this.

Thanks!!

The simplest approach is probably to use Google's Android Management API, it's compatible with all Android devices running Android 5.1 or above.

To lock the device on one app, or on multiple app, you define a kiosk policy like below:

"applications": [
 {
   "packageName": "com.example.app",
   "installType": "FORCE_INSTALLED",
   "lockTaskAllowed": true,
   "defaultPermissionPolicy": "GRANT",
 },
 {
   "packageName": "com.example.app2",
   "installType": "FORCE_INSTALLED",
   "lockTaskAllowed": true,
   "defaultPermissionPolicy": "GRANT",
 }
"persistentPreferredActivities": [
  {
    "receiverActivity": "com.example.app/.com.example.app.MainActivity",
    "actions": [
      "android.intent.action.MAIN"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "android.intent.category.HOME",
      "android.intent.category.DEFAULT"
    ]
  }
]


Android spammy ad highjacking This past day my Android tablet has been showing me invasive fullscreen ads (for Candy Crush, as it turns out, which I've never downloaded) while I've been using skype and gmail app. About one impression every five minutes or so. I'm familiar with mobile ad highjacking on webpages, but this is new, since I don't have a browser "open" and I would have thought that the gmail app sanitized the html that it displays.

So, how exactly are those scummy spammers doing it, and how do I kill it?

gmail runs in the background could try a stop and clear (from your Google Dashboard) which should trap or kill off any cookies


Get Rid of Google Play Services I am using Micromax A80 with Android A80 from last two years. (Android Ginger bread, RAM of just 256MB)

From last two weeks Google Play services application is taking too much memory and phone gives error message like insufficient memory  to work.

How to get rid of this problem ?

Is it safe to un-install Google Play Service App itself ?

The only way to get rid of the Google Play Services app would be to root your phone. However,  before even going there, know that any Google App requires Google Play Services and would not work without it.  Google Play Services is essentially an API for all of the Google Apps.  Without the API, the apps would be useless.

A better solution than uninstalling such an important app is to buy a MicroSD Card.  They are extremely inexpensive and are only around $15.00.  Your phone supports up to 32 GB of expansion, so you would definitely have enough room for the app afterwards.  Then root your phone, download Titanium Backup and convert Google Services to a user app. After that, use Link2SD to move it to your SD card.


Copy full system and data partitions of Oneplus 3T to computer I've accidentally deleted some photos on Oneplus 3T and would like to get the full disk image so to be able to perform recovery using magicrescue:

magicrescue -r jpeg-exif -d output-dir disk-image.img

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29442630/disk-image-dd-from-android-to-my-computer seems to answer the question but devices (/dev/***) naming on Oneplus 3T seems to differ and not standard and I'm not able to perform the copy.

Devices of system and data partitions on Oneplus 3T are the following:

/dev/block/dm-0
/dev/block/dm-1

To copy them to computer run (smartphone must be rooted):

adb pull /dev/block/dm-0 dm-0.img
adb pull /dev/block/dm-0 dm-1.img


Google contacts in Google+ that have no profile image Some Google+ contacts dont have a profile image, but they do have one in "Google Contacts". I think it would make sense if the fallback for those Google+ contacts where their "Google Contacts" profile image.

Is there a way to do this?

I think Google+ profile pictures have to be chosen by the people themselves. Your Google contacts are private to you while their profile picture on their public profile is public.

In their profile information you will see private contact data as well, but it's explicitly mentioned and are additional.

I don't think their is a way to do so because it just isn't meant to be done.