Is there any way to read long notifications in Android KitKat? Some apps will create notifications that are too long to be read on the screen (horizontally or vertically).  They get truncated and you can't read the end.

Is there a way to read notifications that are too long to fit in the notification drop-down list?

Please ensure your answers are specific for Android KitKat.

For Android Jelly Bean, see this question.

Have you tried pulling down the notification using two fingers? If that doesn't work then it maybe that the specific app doesn't support it.
Not all apps support viewing the entire text in the notifications panel.


Why isn't the name of my device changing? I changed the name of my new Kindle Fire within my Amazon account by going to Manage My Kindle -> Manage My Devices. Everything seems to have gone fine on the account side, but the upper left hand corner of my Fire still just says "Abby's Kindle". Lamest name ever. It's been about 24 hours since I made the change in my account. Why hasn't it changed? What step am I missing?

If you haven't tried this yet, I think you should try syncing your device. To sync the device, you tap on the settings button on the top right and select sync.


SGS3 in app screen restarts I am having a problem with my Samsung Galaxy S3. I bought this last year. No damage so far. I usually download apps/games in Play store when all of a sudden I noticed my screen blacks out for a millisecond then restarts.

This usually happens in app/games when I play Smurfs and Sims, and even when I am using my camera and when I view the gallery. Does anybody know how to fix this?

Your assistance will be very much appreciated.

What you're experiencing is probably the "sudden death" issue experienced by several users. You could try updating your firmware to the latest firmware released by Samsung or flash a custom rom to fix the issue.


Why is the Android Go's performance better? The Android Go's official site says faster launch time, extra space for media! Sounds good, but it's for an entry-level device, with 1GB RAM or less, why it still get better performance?
Wish someone can give more details to understand what's the reality of Android Go.

Android Go is an Android configuration specifically built for low RAM devices.
As stated in the official Android Developer documentation, it employs many optimizations mainly focused on memory management.
Android Go has a particular characteristic of having ro.config.low_ram set to true on build.prop to indicate the low RAM configuration. Apps then can retrieve it by calling ActivityManager.isLowRamDevice(), while the system can directly call the hidden ActivityManager.isLowRamDeviceStatic() if they need to modify their behavior, mainly to put some restrictions on features that are considered memory-intensive.
Some system services are disabled, such as (but not limited to):

Notification access
Do not Disturb
Picture-in-picture
VR helper services
Zen mode

According to the commit on Pixel Experience/AOSP.
and many other changes in the system's behavior (that can be browsed on the Android Code Search linked above, under the "Cross references" tab on the bottom).
To answer "why it gets better performance", while there are some optimizations done, it also sacrifices features for performance. This, together with Google's "Go" apps collection that is built specifically to reduce memory and space usage, makes the device runs better compared to running the full-fledge Android.
However, while Android Go also provides Play Store to install 3rd-party apps, note that those apps may not have been optimized for low RAM configuration and might suffer performance worse than when running on mid-end/high-end devices (this is more of an issue of hardware spec than Android Go though).


General difference in read/write speeds for internal memory vs SD card I understand that read/write speeds are dependent on what the phone is, and what the SD card is, but since both are flash memory, I thought the read/write times would pretty much be around the same. I also understand from this question, why it's safer to keep apps on the internal storage: internal memory Vs SD card

But then I learned that “Flash memory speed is not tied to a maximum data transfer speed like USB standards.” source, which I guess is something I should have guessed from just knowing how the read/write speeds vary wildly across from devices. From reading a lot of other material online, I have also learned that apps generally run better from internal storage than from SD cards, except for cases where the SD card I/O speed is better than the phones'. However, looking at this article, it seems most of the phones' write speeds are slower than a Class 10 SD card's minimum write speed, and I couldn't find minimum read speeds for SD cards, so couldn't compare those, so I'm wondering why everyone's benchmark tests showed wild differences between the 2. My question is, in general cases with modern phones, is reading and writing files and media (not Apps) to internal phone storage faster than to an SD card?

On a thread on [XDA forums][3], I saw that rooting a phone allows one to increase the read/write speeds of a phone to an SD card. What happens to the phone that allows the jump in read/write speeds?

I understand that read/write speeds are dependent on what the phone is, and what the SD card is, but since both are flash memory, I thought the read/write times would pretty much be around the same.

That is a wrong assumption. While they're all flash technology, there's a very wide certain in the speed of the storage. A Class 2 SD Card has a minimum read/write speed of just a paltry 2MB/s, while an Ultra High Speed card can perform at 30MB/s.

With a suitable device that has a suitable high speed SD Card bus, it's possible that SD Card can be faster than the internal storage. This is usually not the case, as many people just buy a standard 2MB/s SD Card, as they're a lot cheaper and most consumers don't need the ultra high speed storages.

Another confounding problem is the kind of workload that a storage is optimized for. One fellow Stack Exchange measured the performance of his Galaxy S2 internal storage vs the external SD Card that he happens to have. What he found is that the internal storage is very fast at read speeds, close to an Ultra High Speed 3 Class card at 33MB/s read, but only manage a paltry 5 MB/s write speed; while his external SD Card are more balanced, at 11 MB/s read but 8 MB/s write.

What that shows is that if that device had been judged under SD Card Speed Class criteria, the internal storage would've been put up as a lower class storage than the external storage. However given that one of the most important work load of the internal storage is loading application to memory, the massive read speed of the internal storage is probably going to give it a real world edge at application loading speed.

  On a thread on [XDA forums][3], I saw that rooting a phone allows one to increase the read/write speeds of a phone to an SD card. What happens to the phone that allows the jump in read/write speeds?

What happens is a lot of voodoo with an occasional grain of truth. People have been reporting increased speed when none exists all the time. Storage speeds do not just jump up because you are rooted.

Occasionally, manufacturers may ships the device with underoptimized drivers, and third party tweakers developed an improved driver that are better optimized than the one that ships with the device. Installing custom driver is only possible if you are rooted or if you are flashing custom ROM. It's not the rooting process itself that improves speed, but what you can do with the root power that may give you a boost.

More often though, what happens is that most major optimizations doesn't come free. What you gain in storage speed optimizations, you may lose in battery usage or storage lifetime. Manufacturers almost always optimize for the general case, and optimizing for the general case means trade offs that doesn't necessarily apply to your particular situation. For example, if you're the type to get a new device every six months, it doesn't make sense to optimize for storage longevity, so you might want to trade off using storage more aggressively to increase write speed in a way that reduces its overall life; another possibility is that you may have a good backup plans or do not store important data on device, so you may be willing to trade having the risk of a small chance of fatal data losses for a large speed boost.


How can I change the Icon of a Shortcut on my Home Screen? I have a couple direct dial to landline shortcuts that I use at work regularly.  There are no avatars associated with those contacts and the Homescreen icon just shows a generic Android Avatar so they are indistinguishable.  I have a couple other contacts whose avatars are still indistinguishable because they are so small.  I'd like to be able to set a shortcut icon instead of having to mess with making custom avatars.  Any apps to do this?

Desktop Visualizer does the trick (and a little bit more)


Sudden crashes and drops in battery charge Recently I've experienced random and sudden crashes on my Galaxy S2. There is no warning or shutdown message. Suddenly it's just powered off. What could cause this? Is there any way to see what was going on just before the crash? I've also noticed odd drops in battery charge like this.

I'm running the official Android 2.3.5 ROM from Samsung.

You might need to reset the battery stats anyways.  Drain the phone entirely -- when it shuts off, turn it on again until it shuts off again and repeat until it won't turn on.  Then wipe the stats and charge to 100% with the phone off (leave it plugged in for an hour or so after it appears to be fully charged).  Turn it on, drain it again, and charge to 100% while off again without wiping the stats this time.

Of course, if you're not rooted you can't wipe the stats, but the drain/recharge cycles should help regardless by providing fresh stats.


Can't mount disc image file, "The Disc Image File is Corrupted" Recently, I tried rooting my phone, a Huawei Honor 6x.
I had troubles when trying to flash the TWRP file, however.

I downloaded the disc image file directly from TWRP's website, here.
What I was supposed to do next was use Command Prompt to flash this TWRP disc file. It produced the following error:

Intuitively, I then opened the disc file directly, and it gave the error, "Couldn't Mount File, The Disc Image File is Corrupted"

I think this may be the problem, but on the directions I received, it said that I should download the "platform tools from the Android SDK", and "From the SDK Manager, download only the platform-tools to get adb and fastboot binaries." Now, I have already downloaded adb and fastboot, and once I finished downloading, it opened a program called Android Studio, with no information about platform tools.

I read about a similar question here, but the answer was unclear to me. If anyone could explain his answer, or figure out my problem, that would be awesome.

It's simple - you chose the wrong recovery -the one you linked to is for Huawei P9 lite

Your device doesn't have an official TWRP but has a unofficial TWRP linked here

TWRP meant for one device model cannot be used for another. Period

That's exactly what the other answer was saying.

Please take the trouble of reading the relevant forums in XDA to be aware of the device specific techniques.

Next, TWRP cannot be opened at C:/ of your computer

You need to set up adb (press on that to read the wiki. You don't need Android studio for this - it's meant for developers and occupies memory unnecessarily. Uninstall that and read the next paragraph carefully to install what is required for this purpose

To set up adb see instructions here Is there a minimal installation of ADB? and How to install adb

It is strongly recommended that you read and understand what you are doing with a rooted device (as you say you have rooted it). Consequences can be very very unpleasant and you could end up holding a paper weight instead of a phone


Decrypt SD card on a phone with a broken screen I have a Glaxay S4 and I know the password to decrypt the card, and the phone's memory... but the screen is broken and doesn't display anything. Otherwise, the phone is fine.

It's my understanding that one phone cannot decrypt another phone's sd card... so that leads me to wonder if there anyway to remote into the phone and get it to decrypt it's own card without taking any input from the screen (or maybe some other method that I haven't thought of)?

Assuming that only the screen is broken, that your device thinks everything is ok and boots up and runs normally you might be able to remotely decrypt the card or access the data, but I think it's a long shot. First, the phone would have to be rooted. Then you would have to connect it to your computer and run a remote access program like Telnet or SSH. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to do this without enabling or configuring the client device first.

From what I've read, the S4 doesn't use any hardware encryption so you should be able to reproduce the phone inside a VM running on a PC. You would need to obtain the exact ROM your S4 uses,  load it into an Android emulator (try Virtual Box) then configure the ROM with your phone's unique (ESN/IMEI, etc.). There's no guarantee this will work as I haven't come across any information on what algorithm the S4 uses for encryption or how it builds the key, but I don't think there's any other way besides fixing the screen.


Some apps not available on play store after lcd_density change in build.prop I changed the ro.sf.lcd_density in the build.prop on my Galaxy SII from the default 240 to 190. It made everything smaller, creating more space and increasing the quality of use for me personaly.

Everything seemed okay at first, applications were behaving normal, but I have a problem with installing some apps from the Play Store. I can search for an app, go into its details, only to find a message on the top saying that my device isn't compatible.

I have found a workaround but it takes too much time since I have to reboot my device twice for it. My current workaround is this:

Change my ro.sf.lcd_density back to 240
Reboot
Search for and install the app
Change the ro.sf.lcd_density back to 190
Reboot

After that the app still works, so no issues there. But the process just takes too much time. Is there another thing I can do to install these apps without my mentioned workaround?

There is a modified version of the Play Store that removes device restrictions.

See this xda thread for more info and the download link to your version of android.

It also disables self-updating of the Play Store so your modified version wont be replaced by a newer official one.

Cheers


Android 4.1.2 Settings Subcategory missing I have a japanese phone (Fujitsu F-02e) and recently I did a factory reset. After the factory reset I found out that the Accounts subcategory is missing. Does anyone have any idea how to get it back? Before the factory reset the subcategory was there. Thanks!

I found the solution. I had a Xposed module named AccountSectionRemover active. My fault!


How do people use videofiles as a capture source for cameras? Sometimes you see people streaming videos through apps that are only supposed to use the device camera. My question is, how can you choose a video file to be your capture source for the camera? I'm thinking it may not be possible to achieve on the regular Android phones. In this case, is there a certain program or Android emulator for PC, which you can configure to capture a certain videofile as if it were a camera input?
Thanks in advance.

Say you want to record yourself playing "Candy Crush". The easiest way to do this is to download an android emulator here: http://www.bluestacks.com/
And then download the game you want to record and a screen recorder.
(I recommend OBS studio.)


How to resolve "enter the password for credential storage" issue? So I am playing around with fiddler web proxy. I need to decrypt https traffic. So I am trying to put the fiddler root CA cert in my device trust store. But it keeps asking me "Enter the password for credential storage". If i enter anything and click enter I see an Toast message saying

  Credential storage has been erased

and the password prompt comes again. This goes on in a loop. For the record I have selected "Wifi" as the Credential use instead of "App n VPN" (not sure of that matters).

Next wired thing that I noticed is that after each prompt the description changes for label

  The package contains

The value for it increases each time the password prompt is shown. For eg - 3 CA certificates, 4 CA certificates and so on...

As much as I want my device to accept this certificate I would appreciate if someone could explain the "credential storage" concept and the weird increment of CA certs text.

I could now install the certificate. I had to disable pattern screen lock and try installing certificate again. This time it asked me to setup security - pin or password.

That I did and cert got installed. Got the solution from android central forum.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-7-tablet-2012/301151-credential-storage.html

I guess that thread is for VPN but same solution works for Wifi certs as well. Please do add if anyone has any additional info on this or workaround.


Google Play Services Has Stopped and now I Can't Access Play Store! So I have a Samsung Galaxy SGH-M91V9. I recently rooted my device. Then later that day, for some reason my phone couldn't access the play store making me not able to make in app purchases.  I tried clearing cache of services and store. I know some of you guys are going to say "What about services framework?" For some reason I don't have it and it won't let me download it from several different apk downloading sites. I tried uninstalling updates for both then getting the most recent that didn't work. Rebooting didn't work. Doing everything while no root didn't do anything. My YouTube and other Google apps work. Later that week I came across a suggestion to take away the account then add it again, it just in finely said checking while loading and never loaded. PLEASE HELP I JUST WANT TO USE MY GIFT CARD!

you can try to find the play store app in your android settings / applications. then go to storage and clear data and cache. maybe it helps! i had this once and solved it in that way.


Play Store updates downloaded on 3G network by ignoring settings On my Xperia J phone Google Play Store setting of automatic updates is set to: Wi-fi only.

To my greatest surprise, yesterday it started to download 50MBs of updates when I was on 3G and my 200MB package was almost exceeded.

I checked the Data usage of Google Play Store on my 3G network and on Wifi: Wifi has 432 MB traffic, 3G has 82 MB (with wifi-only settings).

My question is: what settings should I use to prevent the abuse of my 3G package? Have you experienced similar behavior?

If you haven't done so already, try going to Settings - Data usage, then press the menu key and choose "Restrict background data".

This sets all sync functions to only work on Wi-Fi, maybe it also helps with your Play Store problem. Be careful though, if you rely on sync to work even when you are not on Wi-Fi (Gmail for example), this is not the right option for you.


How do I bring back the Spotify lock screen controls? I accidentally permanently dismissed the play/pause/skip controls for the Spotify app on my lock screen. I've looked all over trying to find how to bring them back to no avail. How is it done?

There's a setting in the spotify app. From the spotify home page on your phone, open the settings (top right) and enable "Device Broadcast Status".


Asus zenfone selfie in boot loop. USB debugging off. Std recovery mode accessible. No data backup. Anyway to recover data? I've an Asus zenfone selfie with some version of android 6.0. A few days back my phone shutdown on low battery like it happens often. But ever since, its been going into a boot loop.

I've pretty much all of my important data (contacts, gallery, documents and downloads, gallery, WhatsApp data/history, chrome history) on internal storage. Unfortunately, I was not careful enough to do keep any data backup. I am desperately looking for solutions.

I've not been into rooting or hacking my phone till now. But this issue has had me searching desperately for solutions. This is where things stand as far as I can understand:

Most of the time, the booting process just stays in the ASUS logo screen and takes forever. Once in a while, "Android starting optimising 1 of 13 apps" or "1 of 9 apps" etc. appear and then another screen "Android starting apps" appear and then the phone restarts again.
Phone is NOT rooted. USB debugging is OFF.
I can enter into standard recovery mode. But "add devices" don't show up anything.
I tried wiping cache, that didn't help solve the problem. Haven't tried other options (such as factory reset/update from sd card) yet as I'm not sure if I can recover my data after that
The phone shows up as MTP device when connected to laptop, but there is no accessible drive that appears and therefore I cannot open internal storage.
Internet search brought up android data recovery apps like Dr. Fone, Easeus etc. Not sure if they work as I don't see them appearing in the mainstream/standard android/xda forums. I installed one of them, "Dr. Fone", but it could also not detect my phone/connect to it.
A rare and curious thing happening is that very very rarely, after hours of trying, the phone very unpredictably gets into safe mode (if I've managed to keep holding the volume key down through the long boot sequence past the "starting apps" stage, even then not always, only extremely rarely). Its highly unpredictable and happened only 3-4 times so far. But every time, I tried to connect to laptop or insert SD card or copy data to computer or SD card or google drive, the phone again restarted.

What are the options I have?

A. Since I have access to recovery mode, factory reset is something I can do. But from most accounts, it seems to erase all data. I've been reading about these android recovery apps which will help you retrieve deleted/erased files. But since I don't see any of the mainstream android forums or platforms talking about these, I'm not sure if this is reliable option.

B. From recovery mode, I can try "apply update from sd card". If I were to try this:
- Would I be able to retrieve my data after this? I couldn't get conclusive response on this on various forums.
- If this is a safe option to try, how do I get a valid image that I can apply? I found this link from Asus.in website: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/ZenFone/ZD551KL/UL-Z00T-WW-21.40.0.2156-user.zip?_ga=2.18197885.576894828.1524419879-1959903817.1524419879 Is this a valid update image file I can use. How can I know?

C. I have been reading about CWM, TWRP etc. as custom recovery solutions with more options including data backup and restore. But I don't have these installed on my phone. I read that the phone has to be rooted to install them. Rooting the phone also seems to be an option with data loss. I'm not sure if these are options for me at this stage.

D. Not sure if there is a reliable way to reproduce safe mode. Even if that happens again, I'm not sure what I can do that will help recover data. Connecting to laptop, inserting SD card, trying to copy folders on google drive etc. have all led to instant reboot. Is there anything I can do to more predictably get into safe mode and is there anything I can do in safe mode to fix the problem?

E. Are there any other options I have?

Any help will be very valuable. Thanks.

Warmly
Shaheen

I've had the same problem. I've installed TWRP using the instructions here (but the files I downloaded were others; pay attention to your phone version, model, etc).

After booting on TWRP your files can be accessed using your PC normally, so you can do your backup, reflash your boot.img (look for it online, follow instructions on the same website I sent) and do a factory reset via recovery mode.

Hope it helps you and other people online.


Google Photos will not backup I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 running Android 9 and One UI. Google Photos will not back up anything.

All I am getting as a Getting ready to back up and 185 items left perpetual spinner at the top of the app. When I attempt to manually back up a single photo or a group of photos, I receive the message Will upload when connected to Wi-Fi.

I have unlimited data and am perfectly happy with it backing up over my cellular data connection. However, going into Settings->Back up & sync->Cellular Data Back Up, I see that both Photos and Videos are enabled. So it should be backing up over cellular data. But it's not.

What am I missing?

I was able to finally get Google Photos to back everything up. It's not a perfect solution, but it does seem to work for now.

Uninstall / Reinstall.

I just completely uninstalled the app, then immediately reinstalled it from the Google Play store. One of the first things it asked about in its "first-time setup" procedure was whether or not I wanted it to backup my files over cellular data. It defaults to "Wi-Fi only", but I changed it so it would back up on both Wi-Fi and cellular data.

After going through the rest of the "first-time setup" prompts, it began backing everything up, as well as giving me a "clean up ### MB of files" option. I chose that because, why not? I noticed that it did go ahead and back up all of my photos, but the spinner kept running at the top of the app, saying 285 items left (I'm not sure of the exact number) and appeared to be stuck at that.

I decided to let it go and see if it would eventually get through them all anyway. Hours later, I saw that it was on 162 items left. Finally, hours after that, I got the much-sought-after cloud-with-a-checkmark icon. It had finished backing them all up.

Perhaps it got stuck on some long video files or burst-shot photos—I don't know. In any case, I think the uninstall / reinstall procedure is what did the trick for me.


Android Tablet - Download PDF and open it on browser Device - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 / Android 4.0.3

I have tested Samgsung Galaxy Tab for document download such as PDF from web site with many browsers. Most of them just download it to somewhere in the device and I have to go to notification window(Right and bottom) and click it again to open it. Some browsers ask me to save and ask me again to open it.

Is there browser or a way that opens it when I download it? iPad works that way. iPad opens the file right away when I download a document.

Have you tried pdf.js extension for Firefox mobile ?

It's a bit slow and unstable for now, but it should work as expected.


App's not installing after download complete? I'm facing a problem while downloading apps.I have recently rooted my android which is Samsung galaxy tab 3 smt210r.But after a couple of days i am facing a problem that is when i download an app it does not install.it just disappears from the status bar after reaching 100%

I tried restarting my android,unistalling updates of google play,clearing cache of download manager,google play.but none of them seem to have solve the problem.

please help me as fast as you can.i can not even update any single app.

Try to delete package folder of downloaded app manually, if exist from phone storage > Android > data

Reboot device again and download app again.

Hope it helps.


How to stop annoying big Notifications I use a Samsung Galaxy 7. OS is Nougat.

Previously notifications used to be small texts in notifications area.

Now I get an annoying small popup window for every app upon notification.

Any ideas how to stop this?

I think you're referring to Heads-Up notifications (those notifications which pop up on the top of your phone's screen).

The following methods have shown to completely disable them for all applications while maintaining regular notifications in the status bar. All of these methods are free. Some require a rooted device and some don't.

Non rooted devices

ADB method

Firstly install minimum ADB/Fastboot setup. You can find more instructions here: New To Adb And Fastboot Guide.
After enabling USB debugging, connect usb cable from device to computer.
Open command prompt (right click + shift) and enter the commands:

adb devices

Check if your device is listed in output, then proceed

adb shell settings put global heads_up_notifications_enabled 0

reboot device and thats it!

Rooted devices

Using terminal

Install Terminal  for Android.
Open the application. Use the following commands:

su

(The indicator should change from "$" to "#"). Next enter

settings put global heads_up_notifications_enabled 0
Using heads app switcher app

One XDA developer has generously shared thier 50 lines of code embedded in this app to switch on/off Heads-Up notifications from quick settings for Android N
Root required. Reboot not required
Download here

Acknowledgements:

Official Nougat - turn off Peek Notifications?


How to launch a pdf from a terminal? I gain precious time by launching pdf from the terminal in Linux

evince ~/mypdf.pdf

What is the exact command that allows me to do that on android?

This post gives the following template:

am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n my.domain.myApp/my.domain.myApp.myClass

*How to modify this command to launch a pdf**

I am not sure if you can starting an intent with a relative file name. Better use the absolute file name and use am start to view the file:

am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d file:///storage/emulated/0/mypdf.pdf -t application/pdf


My Galaxy Tab 3 requires a cable so what can I use as a substitute? Is it ok for me to charge my galaxy tab 3 using a samsung phone charger?(only the cable is from the phone, the jack is of the tab)

If your using the charger that came with the tablet it doesn't matter really.

You can use any charger if you want but it may lead to damage to the battery if you overcharge it. But the cable doesn't make a diffrence.


What Google Talk compatible iOS apps can I recommend to my friends? What good Google Talk (or in general: XMPP) apps can I recommend to my non-Android friends (especially iPhone users)?

I'm fed up using many different apps to chat with some of my contacts. I just want to 'talk' to any of them with that single solution.

Google Talk's usefulness increases by network effects, i.e. can you reach all your contacts (who may use iOS (iPhone), Windows Phone, Blackberry, others) with one single solution?

Existing solutions and what I don't like about them:

WhatsApp (proprietary, paid app, battery hog?, has privacy concerns)
eMail (pretty much ok, but not that realtime)
SMS (needs GSM, costs too much, no added value)
Facebook chat (proprietary, battery hog?, privacy concerns, not all want to sign up)
Skype chat (proprietary, battery hog?, privacy concerns)
iMessage (proprietary, incompatible with Android?)

If you have too many of those apps installed you will see a difference in battery life in the end. Google Talk is already there and connected either way, so I prefer this (and not WhatsApp).

Side note for iOS: iOS' push notification system seems to be the reason why the decent apps there are paid apps. (Need to relogin every 7 days to keep push messages alive and such, i don't really know).

PS:
 - There's a way to encrypt Talk messages, so it's not a privacy concern
 - is Talk open: Yes (it's XMPP). I have friends with accounts on their own servers that i 'talk' to
 - You can use 3rd party Jabber clients to login to Talk

Apple iOS
No official native solution by Google (except for the safari web-app with a subpar user experience)
Beware: All 3rd party providers seem to need your friend's plain google password to be able to offer push support (not just their app)! All have some sort of session timeout for push notifications (when the app is in background): Needs a relogin after that timeout (eww!).
3rd party apps I found:

IM+ Pro, free, ad supported, push with unknown session timeout
IM+, 9.99$, no ads and longer push session timeouts as above. Good reviews.
BeejiveIM for GTalk: free, push session timeout up to 7 days, no voice/video
Chat for Google Talk Pro: 0.99$, push with unknown session timeout, noticed bad reviews in Germany, good in US though

Windows Phone
todo
BlackBerry
has good support, download here
Symbian
todo
Bada
todo
Send me your findings, I'll happily include them here.


Gmail not working with the background data restriction My device is YU YUREKA with android 4.4.4 and Cyanogenmod 11.0

Restriction of background data in android devices is very much in now-a-days and I always use it. But recently I am facing problem with the Gmail app. Sometimes it is not working with the data restriction even when it is not a background process.

Therefore to get my mails I have to un-check the data restriction option every time, for which other apps are consuming unwanted data.

Is there any way to make Gmail working again with the restriction?

Gmail app is used to show only the mails that is received by another core app called Google play services using synchronization that needs background data connection,When we open Gmail app then the play services app get restricted by DATA restriction.
I want to say that some app like Play Store and Gmail will not work If you have restriction on background data.
I think it will help


Phone unusable whilst charging I have a fairly old samsung galaxy S2 android 4.1.2. In the last few weeks, it has been behaving really oddly when plugged in to charge. The 'desk clock' page flashes up every few seconds of its own accord, and sometimes the 'voice command' page. When I try to use the phone, I can only operate it for a few seconds at most before one of these things flashes up, which means I have to come out of it and try to get back into what I was doing (usually just for the clock page to come back up again instantly). It's getting worse, to the point I just can't use it when plugged in.

I appreciate the answer is probably eventually going to be to buy a new phone, but was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions in the meantime. Many thanks.

Check if your charger's current or voltage is not higher than what your phone is supposed to accept. I had similar issues before with generic (chinese) Android chargers.


How to save YouTube downloaded videos to external SD card? I have a Lenovo A7000 with Android 6.0 installed. How to change the download location so that videos downloaded on the YouTube app are saved in the SD card?
I don't have the "Use SD card option in the download section on YouTube."

(This could be an off-topic answer. I'll delete it if you're not satisfied)
I would suggest you to use New-Pipe app. It has a ton of additional features than youtube like download mp4, pop-up, video in background, and above all NO ADS. Give it a try.. You'll love it


Changing Swype keyboard layout Is there anyway to change Swype from QWERTY to something else, like AZERTY?

Have you tried downloading a new language?

Go to Swype's settings in Language and input (or keyboard settings). Then, go to Languages > Download languages. You should see Francais (AZERTY).


Can't install Google Play Services I just upgraded Google+ to 3.6.0.44338848 (released late March 2012) and now it won't launch. It says:

  This app won't run without Google Play services, which are missing from your phone.

If I tap "Get Google Play services" I'm brought to Google Play where I tap "install" and "accept and download" but then I get "Error: No connection."

(I do have a connection. I can browse the web just fine.)

Now, I should mention that Market/Play has been odd the whole time, I've had this phone, a T-Mobile myTouch 4G running Android 2.2.1. Whenever I want to install an app, I have to go into Applications, tap Google Play Store, and tap "Uninstall updates" to restore the Market app. Then I can install applications. Over time, some process upgrades Market to Google Play but I can't install applications until I downgrade to Market to avoid the "Error: no connection" message. The processes is frustrating. On my old LG phone (also running 2.2 Google Play worked just fine).

I'm been putting up with all this downgrading because it's not often I install apps and usually there's no problem after installing or upgrading an app.

But now the Google+ app is unusable so I'm motivated to do something about the "No connection" problem.

I've read through posts such as http://www.teamandroid.com/2013/01/14/fix-google-play-store-no-connection-retry-error-message/ and Google's help page at How to access the Google Play Store app - Google Play Help but I'm stuck. Please help.

I was able to install Google Play Services by browsing to its page at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms and then logging in, clicking install, and choosing my phone.

Come to think of it, I might start installing more apps this way, from the comfort of a desktop browser. :)

Anyway, I'm able to use the Google+ app again.

I'm still puzzled by the "No connection" business and having to periodically downgrade Play to Market to install anything from my phone running Android 2.2, but I'm glad I didn't have to root it and install CyanogenMod as suggested by some friends.


Crashing video camera in CyanogenMod 7.2 I just updated CyanogenMod 7 to 7.2 on my Nexus One. Now when I go to camera → photo mode it works well, but if I switch to video mode it just crashes.

I tried to find an answer on the CyanogenMod site, but as much as I searched I found no matching question. As far as I could see on the CyanogenMod site, the latest stable version for the Nexus One is 7.2. Is there any solution for this?

Please erase the camera data:

Settings -> Application -> Camera -> Clear Data


Google Services hogging data - how to stop it? Note: there is a related question to this, however it has no definitive answer.  Asking  in case anyone has discovered any solutions in the intervening period.

Onavo count continually reports that Google Services is hogging my data.  This seems a recent phenomenon - last few months or so.  I've switched off background sync and tried to restrict to wifi only.  All unsuccessful.  It continues to use

Phone is HTC desire Z running standard Android 2.3.3 (HTC Sense 2.1).

Phone was bought outright (i.e. not included as part of contract), running on SIM-only contract from O2 in UK.

Any suggestions for what's causing this?  And more pertinently, how to stop it?

Thanks.

Go To Settings> Accounts > Google > Click on Your Email/google account > Untick to disable any syncs that you don't need (eg: i dont need google play movies or bookmarks) > Turn off your device > take battery out > leave for 10 minutes > reconnect battery & turn on Your device > should be refreshed and ready to go with google services using less battery usage


Why are Clean Master, Daily Racing, DU Booster, MP3 Downloader, SnapTube and TouchPal installing themselves? One day I found myself having some weird apps in my phone I didn't remember installing. After uninstalling them, they appeared again after after some time.

These apps are:

Clean Master
Daily Racing
DU Booster
MP3 Downloader
SnapTube
TouchPal

How did they install themselves and howcome they appear again after uninstalling?

I found out this was most probably caused by SnapPea.

Not only this app installed itself after connecting my phone to my PC (where I did have SnapPea program installed), but also installed those 5 more rubbish apps. If I go to Google Play on the web and look up those self-installed apps, it shows me they are not actually installed. If I open the apps up in Google Play on my phone, it gives me uninstall option, but I can't rate them.

As SnapPea cannot be installed from Google Play, even though it looks quite professional on both phone and PC, the product is certainly a malware.

I strongly recommend uninstalling SnapPea from everywhere.


Where Android apps store data? Could you list all possible directories where Android apps may store data, providing description what kind of data are stored in each directory?

All apps (root or not) have a default data directory, which is /data/data/<package_name>. By default, the apps databases, settings, and all other data go here. This directory is "private" to the app – which means no other app and not even the user can access data in it (without root permissions).
If an app expects huge amounts of data to be stored, or for other reasons wants to "be nice to internal storage", there's a corresponding directory on the SDCard (Android/data/<package_name>).
Apart from that, all apps can store data anywhere on the SDCard, as there are no restrictions -- and many apps do so. They can use directory names freely (and they again do), which is what often makes it hard to decide what all that "junk" on the card is intended for, and what of it can be deleted.
Though, as Tom pointed out, root-apps could store their data almost everywhere on your device, they usually follow the same rules as other apps.
You can find a general explanation of the Android directory hierarchy in my answer here. For your specific question I might add some more details on the /data/data/<package_name> (and corresponding SD-part):

databases/: here go the app's databases
lib/: libraries and helpers for the app
files/: other related files
shared_prefs/: preferences and settings
cache/: well, caches

There might be several more directories in this place, or fewer -- it all depends on the app. In its own "home directory" (and that's what it basically is, spoken Linux-wise) they can place files where they want. Usually, these files and directories are only accessible by the app itself (and root, of course) -- other than those stored on the SDCard, which are accessible by all apps.


Help deleting someone else's Google account from my phone My boyfriend's Google account was added onto my phone. How do I delete it from my phone and if I do, will it also be deleted on his phone?

Go to Settings > Account > Google then select the account to be removed.

No, deleting an account from a device only remove it in that device.


How to access forgot-password option when you forgot the PIN of your Android Device? I have this Huawei Nova 3i, I forgot the PIN but there's no "forgot password" or "forgot PIN" option. I noticed that my Huawei Nova 2i doesn't have that option too, and I'm stuck on "Try again after 24 hours".
Normally, when I forgot my password or pin, I just click on the "Forgot Password" option, input the Google Account Password that is bound to the device, and viola, password or pin successfully reset.
Is there a workaround here to use that option?

You can go to google find my android page. Log in to your Gmail account linked with Huawei Nova 3i.
You get 3 option lock / unlock , erase and sound. Use unlock screen option. Now you can access mobile and change passcode. Or take full backup of mobile and restore it.
You can start mobile in recovery mode using volume and power button. Wipe Cache partition. This will remove passcode.


Is there an internal algorithm for calculating UUIDs of a flash filesystem? I've been doing some experimenting with a MicroSD card formatted as ExFAT and have come across something that perplexes me.

It seems that my new Android phone mounts the MicroSD card as /storage/[UUID], so for example rather than /mnt/sdcard-ext as I'm used to, it's currently /storage/0CCE-1C48.

Because that's fairly arbitrary, I thought I'd change it to something easier to remember, like 1234-DFDF (my initials in the second half).  I used tune2fs to specify a new UUID, and was able to confirm the change by opening the raw disk in a hex editor.

I actually discovered the UUID is stored at hex offset 0x100064, at least for my particular disk. And because of the Endian-ness, it's stored backwards (so 481CCE0C is parsed by the device as 0CCE-1C48).

Anyway, I was able to verify that it changed to 0xDFDF3412, as it should. I put it in my phone, turned the phone on... voila! It was now /storage/1234-DFDF.

BUT... as soon as I unmounted and remounted the card (or rebooted the phone, etc.) it changed right back to 0CCE-1C48! How can this be? I changed the UUID, replacing the original one with a new one!

This makes me wonder if there's some algorithm built into ExFAT that generates a UUID based on... anything... the partition size, the label, whatever.  The phone is obviously trying to "validate" the serial number and keeps overwriting my custom one with the arbitrary one I was given when I first formatted the disk.

I have no idea how you managed to use tune2fs to change the UUID since it should only be able to manipulate ext2/3/4.

In any case, apparently exFAT have backup boot sector just like FAT(32). So my guess is you only managed to change the UUID in the primary boot sector but not the backup one. So when you unmount it the filesystem driver reverts the change according to the backup boot sector automatically.


Huawei File Safe Stuck/not working I have created a safe on the SD using the files app on my Huawei P20 Lite.
It worked fine, until I decided to create a second one. Now, it no longer asks for my fingerprint, but for my password. After entering it, it brings me to a safe selection screen.

Selecting the one that is in use does nothing. Selecting the other one brings me back to the password entry screen  after which the process repeats.
I have tried deleting all but one safe from the SD card, and resetting the password. Both methods do nothing. Creating a new safe lets me add files to it until I exit  at which point the process repeats.

Q: How do I enter a safe or reset it entirely so I can create a new one?

Unless someone figures something else, here are my findings:

Huawei will let you create multiple safes. However, doing so will cause you to enter an infinite loop of login screens that you cannot "exit" to enter either safe.
The only way to fix this is to delete the .File_SafeBox folder from the root of your SD card.
All files will be destroyed.


LG G4 Camera and Call Have Stopped So recently my LG G4 has started acting strange. A few days ago out of nowhere the camera stopped working no matter what the app i put on and how i tried starting the camera the message "Unfortunately, Camera has stopped". I decided to ignore it but then suddenly when i tried to make a call the message "Unfortunately, Call has stopped" came and i couldn't access any of the in call features such as hold, numb-pad etc. Thankfully the phone managed to fix itself again but then again the same thing happened after a few hours. It's been 3 days and i am suffering a lot due to my busy call schedule. The rest of the phone is fine however these to main apps are causing a lot of trouble. Any help will do. Thank You in Advance

I've had the same problem. I even called the service. I did several factory resets, all to no avail.
After all that, I just left the phone with the battery out over the night and in the morning, I was about to send it to the service, but thought to open it once more. The phone worked. All I can think of is that it has some capacitor problems.
Anyway the phone worked for about 2 months. Now I have the same problem once more.
Let's hope that the night will solve the problem again.


App that would open a url based on the current date in a browser I am looking for an app or a way how to automate opening a URL based on current date on the Android 7.0 phone:

On 2017-07-01 it would open the following url in a browser:

http://myserver.com/daily_reports/Day_20170701.htm

eventually

http://myserver.com/weekly_reports/Week_2017_27.htm

Since the ISO number of the current week is 27.

Is there any solution for that out of the box?

With Tasker this is very easy.

Setup a task like this:

Code → Run Shell:

Command: date +"%Y%m%d"
Store Output In: %date

App → Launch App → select your browser app:

Data: static URL part appended with %date as required. E.g. http://myserver.com/daily_reports/Day_%date.htm

For weekly URL, create an another task:

Code → Run Shell:

Command: date +"%Y_%V"
Store Output In: %week_no

App → Launch App → select your browser app:

Data: static URL part appended with %week as required. E.g. http://myserver.com/Weekly_reports/Week_%week_no.htm

You can save these two tasks, create a shortcut to them on your home screen and tap that shortcut to open the concerned URL. Or, you can setup a profile in Tasker for your requisite automation and attach those tasks to that.


Why does the system take up so much of the internal storage space? I have a tecno c9 it has taken me about 2.5GB for apps and I still have system which has taken more than 5.5GB, so I dont understand why the system takes up so much space of the total 16GB that I currently have.

Is there a way I can optimise this internal storage space (16GB), because it really is a lot of space, however it seems its so little?

Well to answer your question, I think it is important to first read the insufficient-memory tag wiki to get some insight.

A significant amount of memory in internal storage is taken by "system" (/system, /data partitions etc) and in some cases is reserved memory.

Some manufacturers include preloaded applications (sometimes known as bloatware) and these reside in /data or /system or /cust (in my case) partitions. It is virtually impossible to view the breakdown of these files without root privileges. Some space is reserved for ROM updates, acts as system buffer or caches storage etc.

While it's difficult to uninstall unnecessary applications residing in these "system" partitions, there are a few methods that can help you optimize your space

  check for pre-installed apps you don't need. Clear their caches and
  data, then uninstall their updates and finally disable them (so they
  won't get updated again).

While pre-installed apps reside in the /system partition (which you cannot utilize without root), their data and updates consume space on the /data partition which gets freed this way.
If you have acquired root privileges try moving some apps to other storage (SDcard) via App2SD


My Samsung Galaxy trend plus wifi wont turn on I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy trend plus and and my wifi wont turn on evey time i try to turn it on it says turning on for abit and then turns off or a second and then says turning on again but it never actually turns on. Can anyone please help me im having the same problem with my bluetooth as well. I tried the factory reset already and it didn't work anyone else have any ideas?

Do you have applied any update(custom or OTA) ?
Custom: If you have upgraded your ROM before official release, high possibilites are there to face these type of problems.
OTA: Very rare but possible if your manufacturer provides an OTA and this problem is occurring after updation of device.
Solution:
• If you think it is occuring after update, you should degrade your Firmware version by custom ROM.
You have not updated device since a long time ?
In this case high possibilites of facing such problems.
Solution is please go to nearby custmore care or look for OTA update in you handset Software Update section which falls under About Phone .
[If your device is out of warranty and don't want to spend bucks on it now, please upgrade by custom ROM.


Google+ app does not launch live video hangout Device: Nexus 4
Android: 4.3

When there is a live video hangout, the Google+ app makes a button available on the post called Watch Hangout On Air. However when I press it, YouTube launches the What to Watch screen, but the hangout video isn't in the list and nothing auto-plays.

The live Hangout is occurring. I can watch it on my laptop by using the same G+ post to launch it as I'm trying to use from my phone inside the app.

I've cleared the App Defaults for both the Google+ app and for YouTube. The Hangouts app has no defaults set yet.  My apps are all the latest versions.

I've used the back button in the YouTube app and have backed right out of it altogether, just to check that the live hangout video isn't hidden behind another screen activity.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Not sure if this is it. From Google Support:

  The YouTube app won't work with Hangouts On Air. So if you use
  Hangouts On Air, your viewers will only see the video call, not your
  playlist or the videos.


Can I get root access on my Nexus 4 without installing custom bootloader, recovery or ROM? I own a Nexus 4 device and I want to just get root access on my phone so that I can install applications such as AdBlock etc.

I was able to find tutorials online guiding how to root the Nexus phone. But in all those they flash a custom recovery and have to install a custom ROM.

I don't want to install any custom recovery or ROM.

Is it possible to just root my phone without doing those?

The Nexus Root Toolkit is the way to go, tho note that to unlock the bootloader, you will have to wipe your device.  However, you'll only have to do this once, so when Google's next update removes your root priveleges, you can just run the Root utility in the toolkit.  If the toolkit can't reboot your Nexus 4 into the bootloader, you can do it manually with adb:

adb reboot-bootloader

in cmd and then run the toolkit's Root. If it just reboots normally, try again and it should eventually boot into a recovery tool.  Choose the reboot into system option and it will prompt to fix the su binary permissions and you'll be rooted again.


Does Google Drive replicate files before uploading? When I upload files by Google Drive on my Samsung S4, I get full storage notification, so I need to know if G-Drive replicate any file on Android before or after uploading it.

I'd say so. When uploading large files (~200 MB), I have gotten "Low memory" errors, even though I had over 500MB (out of 16 GB internal) free.

This notification would go a few seconds after the upload completed.

Typically, about 300 MB causes low memory errors for me. I have a Moto G3 running the CrDroid custom ROM, 6.0.1 (Marshmallow).

I don't know the Google Drive code, but it certainly seems to be so. Whether the data is cached as app data or on the SD card, I can't comment.


Phone interrupted during update I was updating my phone using Kies and the download was interrupted. My phone now has a black screen with a little phone, a yellow triangle with an exclamation point, and a computer on it. I cannot put the phone into recovery mode, and the Kies application has a little icon on it that says "emergency recovery" but when I click on it I then get a message that says

  TODO: has stopped working.  A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program.

I called Samsung, but they were no help at all. Their representative didn't even know what icon I was talking about. She just suggested that I take the battery out or try to put my phone in recovery mode, even though I kept explaining I already tried those things.

You can try taking it to third-party repair shop. It might work better than Samsung as they do not care if you voided your warranty or not.


How do I export display to Android native X server? I downloaded Ubuntu precise with Complete Linux Installer which uses VNC by default. Then I found a native X server on Google Play and I'd like to try it. I read somewhere I must export display, but I don't know how to.

export DISPLAY=:0

when you type "xterm" a terminal should appear inside X

But doesn't work very well, because some x11-Features are not implemented in this Android-Xserver.


Android 5.0+ multi-user feature: how detailed can you set user restrictions? I'm thinking about buying my first tablet in the near future. The main goal is to use it for very different parts of my daily life (private, university, two different music groups, some private business, etc....).

I'd like to keep all those parts separated, that is why I want to create various users and use android's multi-user feature. Until today I only have a htc smartphone, with android 4.2 and also only one user of course -> no experience with multi-user @ android at all...

I already bought a lot of apps and I'd like to (re-)use those apps (or at least some of them) on all of my different users in the future. This means I will be using one google/play account only, for every user the same account. BUT I'd like to restrict some users from accessing this google-account's calendar-data for example.

Is this possible? Is it possible to make the restriction-settings in such a detailed way (allowing access to play but restricting access to calendar, email, etc. for example?)

If so, this would be really great. Since i never had the opportunity to hold one of the new android tablets in my hands I just don't know. I hope someone of you can help me :)

Thanks in advance!

All the best
ben

When any app is installed on your android device, the app is visible to all the users. However, the data of each is user will be different (private to each user).


Can app with Storage permission access all data? When I give Storage Permission to an app, is it true that it is able to access all data on the internal and external media, for instance the Downloads folder? Or does it only get access to store and retrieve its own data in a sandboxed environment?

Yes. The storage permission grants an app access to the whole "Internal SD Card", where all your photos, musics, downloads reside.

It's usually safe to assume that apps you trust access only what they need, but a random unknown app may scan your files and expose some privacy problem.

An app doesn't need any special permission to access its own, sandboxed data (usually /data/data/<package_name> and /sdcard/Android/data/<package_name>).


ServiceManager: Waiting for service media.audio_policy I was trying to boot Nexus 7 2013 Flo rom in Deb. The ROM is PhoenixOS.
I'm stuck at waiting for service media.audio_policy.

The LCD itself sometimes showing "Starting Apps", other times it just show boot animation.
Any solution for this?

The ROM finally booted.

What I did : I replaced /system/lib/audio*.so with file from working ROM (in my case, LineageOS ROM).


How to I transfer data from my sd card to my phone? I got a new phone and I want to transfer all of my non-google affiliated apps onto my new phone. I got an sd card and I installed my apps onto it, and then inserted the sd card into my new phone. However, the data on the sd card will not show up/open on my new phone.

My old phone was a LG Optimus L90, and my new phone is a Huawei P8

Apps need to be installed, they can't be moved from phone to phone.

You will need to backup all your apps using any backup app from the play store. Your apps will be backed up as .apk files. Use a file browser and find the files either on the sd card or phone storage. Transfer the files to your new phone and install them one by one. Note that .apk files just contain the apps, not their data.

Alternatively, you can use Google's app restore feature. After resetting your new phone, login with your Google account in the setup page. There would be one step in the setup that would allow you to restore your apps from the play store (and, if an app supports it, also your data). Of course this requires that you did backup your device to Google before. It's quite dodgy sometimes and I don't rely on that.

If you need to backup app data, you can refer to the backup tag wiki.


How can I make the Gmail app consume less space? I see that my Gmail app is consuming a lot of disk space because it retains many old emails.  Is there any way to reduce the amount of space it consumes without clearing all of the app's data?

In Gmail's menu open Settings, tap an e-mail account, and decrease the "Days of mail to sync" setting.  You can also hit "Manage labels" there to stop syncing certain labels altogether if desired.  Repeat for every account.  Afterward, I would try manually syncing each account (pull down the message list), clearing the cache, and syncing again.

If that doesn't decrease the amount of data used then you can do some manual cleanup if you have root by removing the /data/data/com.google.android.gm/databases/mailstore.<address>.* files, which will remove all of your synced email and some settings.  Most preferences will be left intact however, so it's better than completely clearing the data.


Screen colour when sliding I just got a Samsung Galaxy 2 and when I slide the screen and when there is nothing more to scroll, I get blue screen at the edge. Is this normal? The phone is working fine.

Yes, totally normal. This is the UI's way of telling you that you've reached the edge.


Android running tweetdeck notifications when not running I downloaded Tweetdeck for my new Galaxy S 3 and when it is not running in the task list or in the app manager | running apps it still notifies me of new tweets. How can I see this task running and how to disable it? I don't see it in services or in the Tweetdeck options to disable background services.

In Tweetdeck, each column has separate notification and update settings.    Tap the menu key, then Column Settings.     Switch notify off, and set your desired update interval, or move the slider all the way to the right to select "Manual".


Galaxy Tab 10.1 on windows xp 64bit I've installed samsung drivers from mobile v1.4.103.0 on windows xp64 from the latest kies package (I've only installed usb drivers).

I see Android ADB interface in windows devices but adb still says no devices, I've tried by adding the vendor id to adb_usb.ini without success.

Perhaps using linux on vmware and passing the usb device works fine without adding the vendor id.

Suggestions?

No luck also with drivers 1.3.1500.0

Ok I answer myself:

after installing samsung drivers you need to find oem??.inf file that contains ssudserd.inf
comment out all references to wdf stuff version 1.7 and decomment the ones referring 1.9


Automation: Sending sms based on button press in alarm My Problem:

I want to get a reminder or an alarm every sunday and tuesday evening that gives me the chance to press two buttons: one that sends an sms to another person with content x and another button with to send the sms with content y.
I thought about something like this:

Displayed:

IF (Sunday 19:00 or Tuesday 19:00)
   *Show me A Screen (sth. like an alarm) with two buttons
   IF (Button x)
      Send SMS (or better telegram or whatsapp or messenger) with content x to recipient a
   ELSE
      Send SMS with content y to recipient a

i already looked into IFTTT but it doesnt do the thing with the button-decision afaik.

Thanks for any help.

Try Automate (free). Use the following blocks:

Time await
Dialog choice
SMS send


How to Root a Droid RAZR HD running Android 4.4.2? I'm trying to root my Motorola Droid RAZR HD running Android 4.4.2, and I can't find any working instructions anywhere for how to root it. I've looked over the XDA Developer forums, but many results assume that the phone is already rooted.

I've made sure that all Motorola drivers are updated on my computer, as well as having developer mode unlocked on the phone.

I've tried following the XDA thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1943851, and when I run the run.bat file, the console either gets stuck on "Waiting for device" or "daemon started successfully", after which nothing happens. I've left both results running for >30min, with no results.

Is there something I'm doing wrong here with this guide, or is there a better/simpler way to root the phone? Also, do I need to factory reset my phone prior to rooting for best results, or can rooting be performed on a used phone?

I have checked the rooting index, and the Droid RAZR HD isn't indexed.

EDIT: I have been informed by Tamoghna Chowdhury that the above link is for Android 4.0 ICS, not 4.4.2 KitKat.

Thanks to Tamoghna Chowdhury for the links to the XDA Developers thread. Apparently, my kernel date is too new and I can't unlock the bootloader on my phone. In order to root it, I would need to flash XT926 firmware on it as well. Closing question.


When does WhatsApp show that someone on the other end is Typing? WhatsApp has two status options shown under the name of the person in chats, namely Online and Typing.

I understand that the Online option is shown if the person is on WhatsApp at that moment.

But, what does the Typing mean? Does it mean that the person is replying specifically to me, or replying to me or someone else?

I have to admit this is an interesting question considering a variety of responses raised here:

Personally the version that deem to be more accurate is

  The text “typing…” appears specifically  under the name of the
  person sending you a message when that person starts typing a
  message to you

The exact instance at which it appears raises debates, but from several chat applications I've used (currently Disa), the occurence is when the keyboard appears and occasionally vanishes if no key is tapped after a few seconds.

To support this sometimes when the chat window goes out of focus, and then reopened the typing  status reappears when the keyboard pops up again (with or without key press)


App drawer on stock Android not alphabetized I have a Nexus 4 with stock Android and no modifications. I installed a flashlight app and for some reason it is first in my app drawer despite it starting with a "f" and not an "a". As a developer I find this intriguing. Does anybody know how this developer managed to put his app first in the drawer or is this some type of bug?

I can't say for sure, but there's probably a zero-width non-breaking space, or some other invisible or unprintable character, at the start of the label, causing it to sort ahead of normal characters.


How to send Calendar invite links in email(Gmail)? I would like to send Calendar events through mails to a group of people. I can currently share links from my Calendar but that just opens up a browser windows saying 'Untitled Event'.

For example,

If my event is Quiz No. 2 on 12th Nov at 4. Then the link should re-direct to(preferably in the Calendar app rather than a browser window) a event title 'Quiz No. 2' and the time must be set to 4. The person receiving the mail just has to click add event.

Can this be done?

EDIT:

I am able to send the link but it opens up in the browser. Is there any way make it open up in the Calendar app?

On your computer, open Google Calendar.
Open an event to edit.
Click Edit event.
On the right, find the "Guests" section.
Start typing the name of the person and choose someone from your contacts or type an email address to invite people who aren't in your contacts list.
To mark a guest as optional: Next to the guest's name, click the person's icon People. If you don't see the icon, hover over the guest's name.
When you're done editing your event, click Save.

You can invite people who don't use Google Calendar to your event. Just follow the steps above and invite the person using their email address.

Your guests will receive an email invitation. They can let you know if they are going by clicking the Yes, No, or Maybe links in the email.


Where are Xposed modules stored? I've installed an Xposed module that messed up with my com.android.systemui.

So I thought maybe I could find the module via the File Manager in TWRP recovery and delete it.

My question is: Where are these modules stored?

I figured how to solve it, but first you need access to your "inner" Android files (all the system stuff). You just need to navigate to /data/app, find the package of the app (or the module) and delete it.


How can I install official Android 2.2 Froyo in Samsung Galaxy S which runs Android 2.1 Eclair? How can I install official Android 2.2 Froyo in Samsung Galaxy S which runs Android 2.1 Eclair?

Depends on your model.  For most of the international versions such as the GT-i9000, you can get it over the air (a notification pops up, ir you can go to Settings -> Software update) or through Kies (I recommend getting Kies Mini from Samsung.com).  Froyo has not been officially released for some models including the US ones, however.  I recommend a custom ROM such as Nero v5 for the T-Mobile Vibrant.  The easiest way to find one is to go to XDA and look and the subforum for your device.  Note you probably need root and ROM Manager (in the Market) to load a ROM.


Why can't I move all images to SD card? I wanna move ALL my photos, videos, music, etc. to the SD card, so I can give my phone to a friend.

This is the space used by all that stuff and what I see when I click "Transfer data to SD card":

Only 1 file! (The previous screenshot.) So, why can't it see the half Gigabyte of "Pictures, videos" from the first image, as well as the Downloads, Misc...?

EDIT

I'm using Android 4.4.2 on a Sony Xperia D2104.

This would have to do with the manufacturer's implementation of the "file manager" you are using and where it is allowed to move files from and to, most likely out of your control but you did not mention what device or android version or any other information of use to assist in that capacity.

I would suggest connecting the phone to a computer and transferring the files that way, or using a different file manager such as one of the applications in this article which allows relatively full control over the file system and SD card.


Is there any limitation on the number of times I install a custom-ROM to my android device? How many times can I install a custom ROM to my android device? Can I do this an infinite number of times? The word ROM (Read-Only-Memory) makes me think that there must be some limitation to the number of times one can do this.

ROM refers to two things

The memory (non volatile) in the phone
The software or Operating System (OS) that is run on the phone and resides or is "flashed" on the memory portion referred above

In common Android usage when you say ROM, you are usually referring to the second such as stock ROM (one that came with the phone), custom ROM (one that is developed) which you flash

You can flash or install a ROM as many times but certainly not infinite number of times- something in the hardware / memory is bound to break at some point of time ! But yes, theoretically you can

Related What is the difference between: Rooting, Jailbreak, ROM, Mod, etc.?


Ways to call with Google Voice without mobile service and hangout? Are there ways to make and receive calls with Google Voice on Android 4.4.2 and Kyocera Hydro Icon,  but without mobile service and Google Hangout?

My Google Hangout has some problem, for which I am still looking for solutions.

My mobile service's signal isn't great in my apartment. So I am trying to use VoIP over WiFi.

Thanks.

you can use Grooveip app or Ringto app which is an alternative to hangouts and works same like hangouts.


deleted camera app on rooted htc m8 kitkat my htc one m8 was is rooted nd i accidently deleted my camera app using device control app nd now when i downloaded it's apk from internet it does not get installed showing message 'there was a problem in parsing the package' now how could i get back the original htc corporation camera app for kitkat in my phone.....,play store is having the app but supports lollipop nd above versions....... nd i also tried getting it from share it from other htc m8 (kitkat) showing the same message

Just flash the stock RUU. Depending on your CID (Carrier ID), go here to find the RUU  appropriate for your phone's CID.

To check your CID, boot in bootloader (Fastboot) and tape fastboot getvar cid or fastboot oem readcid. You'll get something like HTC_044 then go here to find from which carrier it belongs.

Flashing the RUU will clear your phone storage, you'll lose all data (photos, apps, videos, etc).


Scroll to a particular date in Whatsapp Is there a way which I can select a particular date or a date range in Whatsapp and view those messages under those specific date(s)?

You can also do the following without using an extra app specialized on searching through WhatsApp.
Go to options (the "..." symbol) -> "more" -> "send chat per email". This way you can export a txt file including date, time and message content and send it per e-mail. This file can be imported to excel or smth and filtered using normal functions of the program you import it to.


How to delete gmail contacts from contacts app in Gingerbread My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Y phone. I do not want my Gmail contacts in the phone contacts. I have disabled automatic sync. There seems to be no direct way to delete them

Depends on the firmware, but try this:

While viewing contacts select menu button and then More
Display Options
Under "Select contacts to display" uncheck the Gmail contacts.


Clear Google Play Failed Download Space I recently tried installing an app that was around 1.8GB to my Nexus 7 (8GB). it's a device with unfortunately small internal storage, so I had about 2GB free before attempting the install. I come back later, the download has failed due to not enough storage space. no big surprise there. but now, my device only has 350MB free! strangely enough, the graph in storage settings appears as if it had that full 2GB or so free, but lists only 350MB.

how can I get my free storage space back from the failed download? my device is rooted, no root file browser or terminal, but I do have the Android SDK and tools.

another thing to note: my device is constantly complaining about its free space in the form of a notification. also, every app download from Google Play (even a tiny 2MB app) fails due to not enough storage space. for some reason, that always happens when my device goes under 500MB free. I don't understand it, but, it's 'normal'.

When we download big games (such as modern combat series), first play store download its additional files. Application/games additional files are saved on internal memory folder called "Android".  Inside of that folder, there's two directories. One is "data" other one is "obb". You can access that folder with any file manager app or by connecting your device to a PC (via USB or WIFI). (No need the root)

Search your app additional files in those folders and delete them. Most of the time additional files are saved with the app named folder. For an example "deadtrigger 2" game additional files saved folder called as "com.madfingergames.deadtrigger2".


Android Bootloop No recovery mode - only viberation Phone: Huawei honor 3c

I downloaded Emotion UI 3.0 for "probably" the wrong set form here offical site.But it was installed properly. Then there was an update of same emotion UI, which on installation put the phone in bootloop on restart. This is what phone does

On pressing power button, it vibrates without going into recovery mode or showing logo - just a black screen
The phone vibrates after every 15-20 seconds, which is probably an indication that it is restarting again and agian
Pressing Power button/volume up/down keeps does not make any difference
Partition is not shown in my computer (when connected to laptop)
Using ADB: Command adb devices or adb wait-for-device do not list any device
Windows device manager shows "MediaTek PreLoader USB VCOM(Android)(COM5)" under Ports (COM & LPT) which indicates that phone is detected but before anything happens it reboots

I've gone through several threads on this topic and nothing helped.

Please help.

Take out your battery for 15 seconds and then try booting it into recovery (power + vol down or power + home + vol down) Hope this helps


Why are Android games so much smaller than iPhone games? I compared the size of some Android games with the size of iPhone games and I was quite surprised. For example Asphalt 6 is 6.1mb large on Android and 515mb on the iPhone according to the store websites.

Did I miss something? How is it possible that this game is only 6.1mb large on Andoid but 515mb big large on the iPhone?

The maximum size allowable for an Android app on the Android Market is 50MB. [1]

The maximum size allowable for an iPhone app on the App Store is approximately 2GB. [2]

To answer your question, when you download the Android version of this game, you are downloading an application that will download all of the data files either to your phones internal memory or SD card. Due to the nature of the game, this is likely to account for the majority of the size difference unless different compression methods are used for resources such as the sound, textures and 3D models.

The iPhone's App Store has a much bigger file size limit which in this case means that all of the resources can be bundled into the initial download. The phone will not have to fetch any additional resources.

[1] http://support.google.com/androidmarket/developer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113469

[2] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6659627/iphone-app-size-limit


Unwanted apps auto installing without me doing anything. How to stop them? I have a micromax phone and its autoinstalling some apps. I dont know weather these apps are installed from play store or from the micromax "app center" (which I never used). This problem started about one week ago although I dont remember doing anything which may have started this problem ... Everyday the same apps get installed and I uninstall them as quickly as possible to prevent them from spreading Viruses in my phone. The apps include: Clean Master, UC News, Superb Cleaner etc etc. I suspect that these apps are getting installed by some inbuilt malware created by Micromax itself because Clean Master was installed when I brought the phone but at that time I had unistalled it.

I saw a previous question which showed how to make a certain folder unwriteable but in my case I dont even know which folder should I block.

Please help me and tell what steps should I take the next time I see these apps on my phone.

Further info: phone model: Micromax E481 Android version: 5.1 lollipop.

The symptoms listed in the question indicate that the malware has infected the ROM (system partition most likely) or it was already shipped with the ROM and now has begun to show its color.

In your particular case, as your hunch proved it to be correct, it appears to be App Center app which was acting as the malware. Disabling it stopped those installations.

If anyone has identified such malware as a system app which cannot be uninstalled, see if you can disable it from GUI. To disable it, go to Settings app → Apps → (three dots line, if exists → Shows System) All apps → your app → Disable.

If the Disable button is greyed out and if you don't have root access, than you can block the app from being run. You would first have to identify the package name of that malware app. You can use an app, such as AppXplore to know the package name. For example, in the screenshot here the package name of the app Android Live Wallpapers is com.android.wallpaper which is listed below the title of the app. You can find so for your malware too.

After that, setup adb in PC, enable usb-debugging and execute the commands:

adb shell pm hide PACKAGE               # for Android Lollipop
adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 PACKAGE # for Android Marshmallow and Nougat. This is bit tricky. Some reports its result positive, while others, negative.
adb shell pm disable-user PACKAGE       # alternative to aforesaid second command for Android 5.0 and above
adb shell pm block PACKAGE              # for Android Kitkat
adb shell reboot

PACKAGE should be substituted by the package name of the malware app.

Know that if you have issues identifying the malware app you may have to try a few things, such as

monitoring the network using a firewall or a system monitor to single out that app, such as through OS Monitor app, or
by identifying system apps with signature not matched with your OEM's and Google's and than analyze which amongst the leftovers might be the malware.
perhaps scanning the phone with some anti-malware tool from Play Store could help as well
lastly, if the malware app was stupid enough to leave the installer package name as its own package name, than provided you still have at least one of the apps installed automatically (like Clean Master) by that malware, you could do:

adb shell pm list packages -i PACKAGE

This would show some package name next to installer=. If it is null than you got to try something else until you figure out the package name of the malware app.

If you've root access, you can choose to disable or remove the malware app. There are many apps in Play Store, such as Titanium Backup, System App Remover, and the likes which can remove or disable a system app. Use any of them to remove that malware. Be very careful, since removing a system app may make your phone non-bootable and that means, taking a trip to service center of your OEM or getting yours hands more dirty.

At last, if you can install a custom ROM or if you are sure your stock ROM was clean and you have access to it, than by all means, get the device flashed by yourself or those who can do so for you. Running a system already compromised by a malware is a risky business.

And keep the Unknown sources under Settings → Security disabled, to remain on safe side.


Move only a specific group of pictures from Android Gallery to PC We have an android phone with hundreds of pictures taken from a recent vacation. Because we want to keep those but don't needed them everyday, I'd like to move those images to a desktop computer and leave the phone only with pictures not from the trip.

So the situation is, we have hundreds of pictures spread around multiple albums (pictures taken with the camera plus others received from other people during trip through Whatsapp and other IMs) in Gallery that needs to be transfered to a PC.

I'd like to avoid using share via bluetooth as it's painfully slow and transfer often failed, and be as manufacturer-agnostic as possible. I have searched for solutions, but they were more about backing up the whole thing instead of a part, and we have too many images to manually check.

Ideally there should be a way to select the images across multiple directories that were created between certain dates in an android device and move them to a location in particular. What are my options from here? Shell commands on ADB?

More information is needed such as what type of computer are you using..

Sounds like the easiest way to do this is simply plug your phone in via usb to access the phone's storage and then find the camera and other apps' photo storage folders. From there you should be able to sort by date just like in a normal folder.

You don't need to use the shell. you may need to install google's usb driver though..


How to delete the entered number during call I found no backspace button to edit the number once inserted in keypad during call.

I found this when I called my mobile operator customer care service which uses DMT, and suddenly the customer care executive asked me to tell my Sim Message Center Number which I thought to find by typing *#*#4636#*#*.

How to delete the number.

My phone is Nexus 5.

Before you place a call there is a backspace symbol to the right of the numbers that you've entered that you can use to delete any of the numbers that you've already entered.

However, once you've actually rung a number and started a call, the backspace disappears and you can't delete numbers (as in your screenshot in the question).

The reason for this is that while you're making a call the numbers that you type in are instantly transmitted down the phone line as DTMF (or touch-tone) signals so that you can navigate through voicemail menus, phone menu trees (eg "press 1 for billing, press 2 for complaints..."), dial extension numbers, etc.

You can't delete a dial tone that's already been transmitted. This is the same as while you're in the middle of one phone call you can't just type numbers into the dialler and start a totally different phone call. So the dialer code that you typed in to try to show your SIM message number wouldn't work because the numbers and symbols would have been transmitted down the phone line as beeps while you typed them (possibly annoying the person on the other end) instead of being used as a "service code" instruction by the phone.


How can I easily find out what has changed in an app after an auto update notification? When I get a notification about an app update I often wonder what changed in this update. Is there a quick & easy way to find out? (No typing.)

Note: This is with auto-update enabled, when the update is already installed.

If you want to know the changes made in the app after the update then simply follow this steps.

Slide down the notification bar
Tap the update notification.
This will bring up the market link (unless you set the app to auto-update which will open up the app and not the market link because the update is already installed).
Once you're in, search for the app in question, select it, and there you will find the changelog like this.

Notice that you cannot do this if auto-update is enabled. You must open the Play Store, tap Menu (three dots in upper right of screen), and select My Apps. From there, do step 3.

Take note that not all developers post their changes in the market. For that you will need to google for the answer.


Is it possible to remove app using connection to computer? Question

Is it possible to connect android device to pc and make system alternations via that connection?

Why

I'm thinking of possibilities of doing that to remove malware that crawled too deep in device.
For example, I've been recently asked to remove screen blocker that has added itself to administrators. In safe mode, after I removed that admin, banner appeared. While I was able to solve that with one additional safe reboot, the youtuber I've followed claimed that in newer versions of the malware you'd have to go for factory wipe.

In linux you can do anything to system files as long as you've booted in the other instance.

So in case I'll be asked to deal with such problems in future, I've been wondering whether computer could be used as such more authoritative agent for android.

As those are likely to be not my devices so rooting might be undesirable, no backups be present and factory wipe might be too problematic.

Yes, you can do that with help of ADB (Android debug bridge). More detailed instructions can be obtained from the above mentioned site.

To use adb with a device connected over USB, you must enable USB debugging in the device system settings, under Developer options.

On Android 4.2 and higher, the Developer options screen is hidden by default. To make it visible, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number seven times.

Return to the previous screen to find Developer options at the bottom.
On some devices, the Developer options screen might be located or named differently. If connected, you'll see the device name listed as a "device."

Connecting to a device via USB

You will need to connect your device to your PC via USB and open adb through a command prompt. From here simply type adb devices to retrieve currently connected devices.

Connecting to a device over Wi-Fi

adb usually communicates with the device over USB, but you can also use adb over Wi-Fi after some initial setup over USB, as described below:

Connect your Android device and adb host computer to a common Wi-Fi network accessible to both, you might need to configure your firewall to properly support adb.
Connect to the device by its IP address.

adb connect device_ip_address  e.g adb connect 127.0.0.1

Confirm that your host computer is connected to the target device:
From command prompt type:

adb devices

You will see a list of attached devices

You’re all setnow.

There are a couple of commands that can be used to uninstall apps via adb command:

adb remove (full app filename, no extension)  eg adb remove com.developer.appname

or adb shell rm /data/app/(full app filename with apk extension)

to find the file name, use adb shell ls /data/app/

adb uninstall <package_name> e.g adb uninstall com.developer.appname

If you want to keep the app’s data and cache directory, then use this command: adb uninstall -K packagename.apk. e.g.

adb uninstall -K  com.developer.appname

Another variant is used: adb shell pm uninstall com.developer.appname

Acknowledgements:

Can I uninstall an app via adb
Android Debug Bridge
How to Install/Uninstall Applications using Android ADB
Android Studio : How to uninstall APK (or execute adb command) automatically before Run or Debug?


Is HTC Sensation 4G based on Android 2.2 or Android 2.3 OS? Is HTC Sensation 4G based on Android 2.2 or Android 2.3 OS?

HTC Sensation comes with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread but "wearing" the HTC Sense (3.0) mod.

Sensation is also in-line for an upgrade to ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)) early in 2012.


Galaxy S2 X t989d firmware update - Kies crashes I am trying to apply Jelly Bean firmware update on my Galaxy S2 X, but everytime I try to, Kies dies at 0% of the firmware update, without any error message.

I tried uninstalling and installing Kies again. It is up to date. I also tried running it in Windows 7 mode and XP SP3 mode (I'm on Windows 8 64-bit).

I did a factory reset of my cellphone, and still encounter the problem.

Is there any alternative or way to fix this?

Samsung Kies sucks horribly. The only way I've gotten it to work is to run it in Compatible with Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and running it as a administrator. It should work fine then.


Can I factory reset a non-rooted pixel 2 with a bad digitizer? I have a Pixel 2 with a broken digitizer.  I'd like to wipe it of personal data before tossing it.
Complications:

not rooted
adb has not been previously authorized.

Is a factory reset possible, or should I pull out the cordless drill and go to town?

As the Pixel 2 supports OTG, you should be able to attach a usb mouse to it to navigate through the menu. You will need an OTG cable for this, which is available for a small price in your favorite shop if you don't have one yet.


podcast app that can play downloaded podcasts trasferred from PC I am new to Android, coming from iPhones.

I am after an app or a way that can allow me to play podcasts that I have already downloaded on my PC.

In itunes, I just drag and drop the podcast episodes into the iPhone and the Podcast app automatically sorts and displays them ready for playing.

All the ones I've tried for Android (i've tried about a dozen of the free ones), but none seem to offer this functionality.

They all offer to subscribe and download directly on my phone.

To sum up:
I just need to play the files transferred from a PC, not download them, as I manage all my music and podcast from a central PC.

I have tried just dragging the files inside separate folders into the phone, but they come up all jumbled in the music player app, though at least organised inside the folders.

Any suggestions on APPs (ideally free ones as all I really need is an organiser style APP, nothing fancy) or even tweaking existing Android apps.

Thanks in advance

As far as I know, there is no specific solution like that for podcasts.

If you have them as media files, you can of course upload them to a device and play using any multimedia program like VLC. The downside is that you will have to organize them yourself.

However, I really encourage you to try a podcast app like Podcast Addict. Most of these allow you to choose to stream or download the podcast, keep track of new episodes (you will get a notification on your device), search for new podcasts and much more :-)

In general, the biggest point-of-view change when coming from iOS will be the fact that your Android phone is much more autonomous than an iPhone :-) You are expected to do most stuff locally on the phone and it is most efficient that way :-)


Can I get more RAM in emulator while still having a Google Play image? I know how to make a new system image, by cloning an existing one...
But, I can't alter the amount of RAM in a Google Play-enabled image, without the clone being non-Google Play.
Is there a way to give more RAM to the image while keeping it Google Play-able, instead of the default 1.5GB?

The UI does not allow to change the RAM size neither when creating a new virtual device nor later when editing the virtual device.
However on file level you can simply open the configuration file of the AVD and change the RAM size.
Use an text editor and open ~/.android/avd/<avd name>.avd/config.ini.
Search for the line
hw.ramSize = 1536

and change the amount of RAM, for example to
hw.ramSize = 4096

Then boot the virtual device and you will have 4096 MB RAM as shown in this screenshot:


Voice to text punctuation and new line in Spanish andorid 5 Does Android 5 recognize punctuation and new lines in Spanish voice-to-text?

Only for  Spanish(Spain) but not for other variants (for example Spanish(LatinAmerica))

AFAIK the available commands are:

  "coma" (,)
   "punto" (.)
   "signo de interrogación" (?)
   "retorno de carro" o "nueva  linea"  (carriage return)
   "signo de exclamación" (!)


Whatsapp: Export pictures from certain conversations Whatsapp stores ALL media files within ONE huge folder, i.e. I've got about 6000 pictures in it, including much trash ;-)

Now I would like to extract/copy all pictures which were send between me and a specific contact (i.e. my girlfriend) to another folder so that I can transfer them on to my computer.

Do you know any way? Couldn't find anything when googeling as my keywords gave much too many hits.

Thanks in advance!

I think there is no native way of doing that, and I have not seen any app that does it.

From my experience, the best way is via WhatsappWeb. I used this quite a few times.

Select the target conversation, on the left.
Click on the conversation name, at the top.
Expand Media.
Make sure all files are loaded, by scrolling/waiting.
Select all files you want.
You can Forward, Download, etc.

I found the same idea here.


Disable Pairwise Master Key Caching I asked this question some time ago on another forum but never received an answer. I'm hoping that I may get a better answer here.

The wireless network at my university is a bit shaky and I was wondering if there is a way to disable Pairwise Master Key Caching under 2.3.3. This seems to have fixed the problem on my laptop. I am rooted and can edit configuration files if needed. Thanks!

Not sure which OS runs on your Laptop, but Android uses the wpa_supplicant for WiFi authentication. If wpa_supplicant provides a way to disable the cache, you will have to configure it in the /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf configuration file.


Phone calls over headphone jack? I'm looking at buying a new car.  Many of the cars I see now come "standard" with an audio-in jack.  The option of a Bluetooth connection is usually much more expensive.  My question is:  If I plug my phone into the audio-in jack with a cable to the headphones port, can I use the phone "handsfree" effectively while operating the vehicle?  That is, will the incoming sound come over the speakers, and not echo hopelessly into the input on the phone itself?  Or do I basically have to spring for the Bluetooth, either at purchase time or aftermarket?

I have tried to do this in my own car - here's my experience with it.

From a "hearing the person" perspective, the headphone jack into the car's speaker system works great. What's even better is that the person doesn't (generally) hear themselves talking either (no echo or feedback). This is using an original Moto Droid, so your mileage may vary.

The problem that I have with this kind of setup is having the person hear me. I still, generally, have to hold the phone up to my mouth for the person on the other side to understand what I am saying. I have found it helps a little bit to enable speaker phone, but then the person sometimes gets the echo feedback. It's really a no-win situation.

Most likely, you'll have to get an aftermarket blue tooth headset.


Transferring music from computer Why does my Android phone show up on the Widows Media Player Sync function as a Linux O.S? Transferred music files from the computer show up on the Android phone music app but will not play.

That is because Android is based on Linux. Android uses Linux as part of it core operating system. This does not mean that you can run Linux programs on Android nor can you run android apps on Linux.


LG L90 glass digitizer replacement doesn't work. The old one works My glass screen in LG L90 (d405 or d405n, i don't think there's a difference other than NFC) broke.

Bought a new glass screen with digitizer for d405. It looks exactly the same as the old one (hence I know it should be compatible).

I've replaced it. Touch didn't work. The old one (broken one) works.
I've sent it back because I thought it's damaged, they've sent me back a new one. Still didn't work (the old one still works).
I've bought a new one from a different vendor... still doesn't work. The old one still works.

what could be the problem here ? What should I do ?

It turns out that there were different versions of firmware for the screen: rev01 and rev02. I had the wrong one.


Sim-Toolkit is missing from app drawer I am running Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) on an Nexus 4.

A day before I changed from Dalvik to ART, and after the restart, I noticed that the Sim Toolkit is missing!

How do I get it back?

It may well just have changed name; check through all your apps. Happened to me a couple of times, so I assume it's just a carrier thing.