Is there any graphic-accelerated PDF reader for Android? I use Adobe's Reader and ThinkFree Office, but they both are too slow. Any suggestions?

Starting with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), Google introduced hardware accelerated 2D rendering pipeline. For now it's a tablet-only feature, but hopefully we'll get that in the unified Ice Cream Sandwich platform.

That should be a bit with that slowness issue with PDF readers since they are only able to do software rendering in Gingerbread and older.

It seems like the better choice is ezPDF Reader. It's a paid app, but the screenshots look just great!

Remember the performance depends on which phone do you have... :-/


how do I browse to files on my external sdcard when the phone is connected using MTP? I have connected my phone to my computer (Win7) using MTP. I can browse to the H:\ drive and see things like music,amazonmp3, alogcat and so on. But when I use my phone's file manager to try and find those folders, I'm unable to. I'm trying to go to things like:

/storage/emulated/0 - doesn't have the same files
/storage/sdcard0 - empty
/storage/sdcard1 - empty

Among others. No luck though. What I'm really after is being able to store a KeePass db on my phone and access it from my PC from time to time. To do that I need to be able to find it on the (external) SD card. How can I do that?

That's probably cause your phone automaticly mounts sdcards in MTP, when your phone is in MTP mode you apparently can't use your file manager.


how to safely remove usb storage? My android 2.3 tablet supports usb. It mounts all usb drives. However there is no mechanism for unmounting in the settings menu.

On direct unplugging usb devices, i get notification " usb mass storage device removed unexpectedly

Is there is an app for unmounting usb storage devices?

It should normally be located within settings>storage>unmount USB storage. Otherwise look within whatever file explorer you are using on the tablet for USB storage, this should indicate that a usb stick etc is using the drive, and hence give you the option to remove/unmount.

There are apps available but these require root access to my knowledge.

You upgrade your moto g to Android 4.4 kit Kat. After that u don't want to restart your phone on ejection of USB drive. But still there is no safe ejection method as this specification (OTG) is not specified by manufacturer.  The advantage is that you don't need to restart your android device.


Asus Fonepad 7 Tablet stuck on boot logo, and can't be booted into Recovery mode My Asus Fonepad (k019/FE375) running stock Lollipop suddenly won't get past the Asus (boot logo) loading screen.

I've tried draining the battery and turning it on again, but the issue persists. I also can't access the Recovery mode.

I have done nothing -- no rooting or flashing.

How do I resolve this issue?

Can you enter the droidboot mode by pressing the volume up and  power key, simultaneously. If yes, than you can install the firmware by using either   asus flashtool or adb command or using IntelAndroid- launcher.bat.

If you are unable to enter the droidboot mode, than you need to used the xfstk tool.


How to fix Phones language resetting to SIM language after reboot? I recently got a new phone, a Landvo XM100 Plus.

It sometimes reboots randomly which doesn't bother me much, but what's annoying is that it keeps setting the system language to german. I did not have these issues on my old phone (Samsung Galaxy S3), and I don't have the problem when there is no SIM Card inserted. However, I'm using the same SIM that I used in my old phone, so I'm really confused as to what is going on.

I tried googling the issue and I ended up at a few different boards with everyone basically scratching their heads.

Any ideas?

Could it be the custom ROM the manufacturer uses? I don't quite want to flash my phone with a different OS right now since I still got warranty.

Best regards!

I disabled secure start up.
I guess secure start up uses the default keyboard (instead of SwiftKey that I normally uses) and that the language of the default keyboard depends on the sim card.

(Click to enlarge)

I am using a cubot power (cheap Chinese crap) with a Thai and a Danish sim card. Before the fix, the language changed to Danish every time I rebooted

I just went and got a new sim and it fixed the problem


How does this app know I've used it before? There is an app that has a paid service. It allows you to use a free trial 3 times for 1 hour before it detects that you have used your 3 trials and blocks you. I tried various things, but each time it knows I have used my trials:

un- and re-installing
clearing app data
creating backups with titanium backup and restoring it
creating a new user account on my phone (android M), installing the app separately

How is this app detecting it? The only way I can reset the trials is by resetting my phone, but I can't keep doing this. Is there a way I can monitor the files the app creates/reads/writes?

Without knowing which app you are using, it's hard to provide feedback. If you have given file access to the app, it could have stored the trial usage somewhere on internal storage or on an SD card (if present). The best you can do is to search through files until you might find something.

It could have also associated itself with your Google ID. Did you ever accept a dialog asking you to choose which Google account you want to use? If so, you can not use the same Google account for a trial on any phone, and would have to use a different account.

That being said, if you have used your three trials, it seems that this is a product that you want to use, and it may be worth paying for. Keep in mind that a developer/company wrote the app, and may be providing infrastructure for its use, which costs them money. Sometimes, there are no free alternatives, and you'll have to pay to use a product or service.

its using your IP address... very simple... change that and you can continue with another free trial...


Force Android to display in grayscale Is there a way to force all of Android to display in monochrome(also known as grayscale)?

I'm working with a someone who has ADHD (and I am mildly ADHD myself). The colors are too much for him/her to handle.

EDIT: Ideally I'm looking to create an easy way to toggle such a setting.

Android 5.0 Lollipop provides this feature by default:

Enable Developer mode (by tapping build number within Settings > About phone multiple times)
Go to Developer Options and turn it on.
Under Hardware accelerated rendering you will see option called Simulate color space, click it and set it to Monochromacy.

There's no built-in function that does this on an android phone.
The bast way to achieve this is to install a custom launcher. Check on the Play Store, there are a bunch of them.


How to open multiple PDF files at once? I would like to open two PDF files at the same time. However, it seems like "doing more than one thing at once" is a concept which has yet to be invented in the tablet world. Is there a way to do it?

Ideally I'd like some sort of MDI interface where I can view files side-by-side. The next best thing (option 2) is a tabbed interface where I can see the files one at a time but switch between them. The next after that (option 3) would simply be to have two files open but use the app switcher to jump back and forth between them.

At first I thought that I'd be able to use Firefox as a container and could make option 3 work - but Adobe don't seem to have released their NSAPI plug-in for Android. So files are opened in their standalone "Reader" app.

The next failed idea was to use Firefox and PDF.js. This actually works, but PDF.js is so ridiculously slow that this is not a viable option.

Then I heard about "Dolphin" which supposedly has a PDF plugin, but after trying the browser out, before even getting to the stage of downloading the plugin, it's clear that this app is buggy and useless.

Frankly, I'm not in love with the idea of using a web browser for this task anyway.

The other idea is to install several different reader apps, but this is a horrible, ugly solution, and I assume I'll have to either pay up or accept ads.

Are there any simple ideas that I've missed? Is there some way to get "Reader" to not close the current file when I want to open another PDF?

To answer my own question: while I haven't found a completely satisfactory solution to this problem, I have discovered in Adobe's Reader app the "Recents" list - which shows recently read documents in the descending order of last-opened date. This, combined with the fact that the Reader app remembers the position of each document that you read, and the fact that the "Recents" menu is only a click of the back button away, gives a workable solution to reading multiple documents at a time, albeit slowly.

I wish that someone from 1998 could come back in time and give us proper multitasking. How great it would be!

For now, I hope this idea helps someone else.


Can I run Samsung apps (app market from Samsung) without a SIM and mobile connection? I have a Samsung Galaxy S with Android 2.2.

I have read that now there is a "Kies" app available from Samsung which would allow to upgrade the OS on the phone without connecting it with the USB cable to another computer.

That article said I have to install it through the "Samsung apps" app. So I started it, but it said it won't work without a SIM card.

But I intended to use only WiFi, I don't need the SIM card and the mobile connection.

Why this problem? Is it solvable (without a SIM card)?

No, the Samsung apps market won't start without a SIM card, because the card is used to determine the country of the user.

There is an App called "Kies Air" which allows you to connect your device to the Kies App installed on your PC over WiFi. But I doubt that you are able to upgrade the OS this way. It's more meant for synchronization (calendar, email, ...) use.

IMHO you need a USB cable to update the SGS, either with Kies or Odin/Heimdall.

Im able to get Samsung apps market app on my phone with no sim card it can etect country via wifi, works on Galaxy s3


Opening a GPS location from an SMS How can I format an SMS in order to send the GPS location? The recipient should be able to tap the text and open the coordinates with their favorite location software (e.g., Google Maps).

As far as I know there is no standard for sending coordinates (such as a URI scheme like gps://[latitude],[longitude]), but you could use direct links to Google Maps. The format is https://maps.google.com/maps?q=[latitude],[longitude]. This enables most phones to create a link from the text, and the coordinates are easily available for copy/pasting to other apps as well.

You can encode your location in message by using LocationManager and SmsManager.

Check out these questions:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6453683/auto-sends-gps-coordinates-via-sms
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10099703/android-sms-application-to-reveal-senders-location


SD card readers don't work via USB OTG but USB thumb drives do, any ideas? I have a Huawei Ascend G6 LTE (G6-L22) and bought a little USB OTG cable so I could read full sized SD cards while out and about.

Only, it doesn't work, on either of the SD card readers I've tried - both of them small USB2 based readers.

When I plug in USB thumb drives to the adapter, they work fine and I can browse files and photos.  But no go on the card readers.

What will happen is the phone either doesn't see the drive at all, or it sees it momentarily then it disappears with a "your SD card was disconnected" notification.  The LED on the card reader lights up when you first plug it in, but then goes into a fast blinking pattern which seems to indicate a problem.

Any ideas?  I wouldn't have thought an SD card reader would exceed the normal power supplied via USB OTG ports, and its LED lights up.  Could the phone just not have a driver that supports card readers?

Edit: the filesystem on the SD card was FAT32, as it was a 16GB card I use in my DSLR.  I use the stock ROM but am rooted.

I believe that the problem is lack of power. Your phone doesn't deliver enough power to the card reader. I would suggest using the same kind of cable you used to need when connecting an external hard disk using USB. It has one contact for the hard disk (card reader in your case), one for the phone and one for extra power (use a separate USB charger/adapter).  That should solve the power problem.

I don't know where one can find this kind of cable in your part of the world. They should be fairly easy to find though.

If this doesn't work I would use the Googles ADB developer tool to check the logs on the phone to see if there are any error messages that could help.

Good luck!

try another card reader like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XBB4KJ3/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=


How can I autoconnect to miracast/chromecast (screen cast) device? I've seen it in a friends OS though not in most and not in any of the roms I have/am using.

What lets this happen for some but not others? They are all kitkat or later.

Is there any setting or app that lets me do this?

Tasker integration would be a huge plus.

What I've done that has worked is use tasker to launch the wireless display settings app, then use AutoInput to click on the adapter once it shows up. I was using this in my car, so I had the app trigger as soon as the phone connected to the car's bluetooth.


How to move apps to external SD card on a non-rooted Android 4.4.2? I have an  Acer Iconia One 7 tablet running Android 4.4.2. I've plugged an external SD card in it,  and kind of expected that I could now "save" my data, such as my apps, pictures and videos, onto this SD card. The most easy solution I found was this button (which I don't have):

(Click the image to enlarge it)

After going through some forums, the most used solution I ran into is rooting your device and using some kind of app which makes the SD card writable.

My problem with that is, it's not user friendly at all, plus you might break the device (and lose your warranty).

Is there any user-friendly or one time setup way, to make it so that you can move your apps to the SD card or make the SD card the standard install location  without having to root your device?

With Kitkat your chances for a "complete solution" without rooting are pretty much zero: the Android project has definitely screwed up here. No apps get full access to the external SD card, which rendered a lot of them unusable:

file managers: you cannot use them to manage your external SD card. In most areas, they can only read but not write
media apps: you cannot retag/re-organize your media collection any longer, as those apps cannot write to it
office apps: pretty much the same

The only place 3rd party apps are allowed to write on your external card are "their own directories" (i.e. /sdcard/Android/data/<package_name_of_the_app>). The only ways to really fix that require either the manufacturer (some of them fixed it, e.g. Huawei with their Kitkat update for the P6) – or root (see my list of Other storage media tools for examples.

If you do not want to go the latter way (rooting), and the former way (fix by manufacturer) is not available, you can only do minimal things on Kitkat:

use app2sd (which seems to be available on your device) to swap-out parts of your apps. This requires the corresponding apps to explicitly support App2SD, and only will "swap out" parts of the apps themselves; other parts of the app, including all its data, will remain in internal storage
set your "default install location" to your SD card (see: Installing to SDCard by default). This will automate App2SD for all your new installations.

Apart from that, you could only hope and wait for a Lollipop update – which will not completely fix the issue, but at least slightly defuse it.

As long as you don't hit any storage limits, you might be mostly fine. Nevertheless, I recommend you already familiarize yourself with potential solutions for the day your data "hit the roof", so you won't be forced to "act in a hurry" then.

Further readings:

Other Questions with answers on "kitkat sd-card write" on our site, especially: Workaround for Android 4.4 not being able to write to SD cards?

there is an app on google play for exactly this problem and there is no need to do anything to your android phone that will void your warranty, google 'nextapp sdfix google play' the app is specifically designed for kitkat and works great in just a few clicks, specifically SDfixx kitkat writeable MicroSD


How do I detect if I have a Super AMOLED or LCD Screen on my Nexus S? Many sources are citing that the Nexus S is shipping with 2 different types of screen due to Super AMOLED shortages. As I am in the UK it is likely I will have the Super LCD, which I read somewhere is inferior compared to the Super AMOLED.

How can I tell which one I have? What are the main differences?

Update:
Found the answer here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1022216

Looking in 'Baseband version' under 'About Phone' reveals that a baseband beginning wth I9020 is the Super AMOLED or I9023 for Super LCD.

Look at something black (e.g. an image of only black) on your phone, and shut off the lights.  If you've got an AMOLED screen, it should be pure black (virtually no light emanating).  With an LCD it will be significantly brighter/greyish.

regarding if the Super AMOLED is inferior:
Android update 2.3.3 introduced a color temperature correction, which many users complain turned their screen color "ugly and yellowish" http://www.androidcentral.com/nexus-s-233-update-bringing-unwanted-screen-issues.

The color change appears to still be present in the newer 2.3.4 update, and some have begun to suspect that the fact that not everyone is seeing this color change, may be related to which screen the phone has; with the SuperAMOLED being associated with the yellowish color and the LCD not having the yellowish color.


remount file system with "adb remount" in production builds Marshmallow 6.0 Before Marshmallow the solution of adbd insecure from Chainfire was working great on rooted Lollipop and previous builds.

But now, with Android 6.0 the adbd insecure apk doesn't work.

Question: is there another similar solution to adbd insecure, rather than mounting the file system with :

mount -o rw,remount /your_path

Regards

Why would you want to do this?
Anyway,

adb root
adb remount

This should work. Works for me on my OnePlus 2.


How can I trick or force an app to work on an unsupported device? I recently purchased an iMito MX1 mini-pc. I was disappointed to find that Hulu Plus is not fully supported on my device. I am able to download the app just fine, but I get an in-app error message that tells me that I am able to browse videos through the app, but video playback is not supported.

I have root access and was hoping that editing the build.prop file would trick the app into thinking that my device was supported, but no luck.

Is there any other way to force or trick an app into working on an unsupported device?

You can't FORCE it to work. There may be tricks you can play to fake the app into thinking it's on another device, but for the specific app given (video playback), it's almost certainly refusing to playback because it CAN'T.

The hardware on the device is probably something that the devs didn't anticipate, or that the app can tell isn't fast enough to actually work. Even if you find some way to fake it out and make it try, it's only going to crash or play back so slowly that it will be unwatchable.

What you are doing is not recommended. There is a reason why app developers limit installation to select devices. Namely:

Android Version
Processor Architecture/GPU
Chipset/Board/RAM
Screen Size/Density/Resolution

This is to ensure good, consistent, and fast user experience as much as possible.


Edit default applications to open KML file? This is a more general question than simply handling KML files, but this is the issue I currently have.

I was looking for an application that could not only download maps for offline use (so I can turn off roaming and avoid paying for data access while travelling), but also display a list  of user-defined applications (created on a computer with eg. Google Maps).

MapsWithMe Pro is supposed to be able to open a KML file, but when opening the attachment in Gmail, I'm not given the choice of opening it with MapsWithMe: For some reason, it opens it with MoboPlayer, which handles audio/video files and obviously complains that it doesn't support KML fils. Google didn't help.

Does someone know how to reconfigure Android (4.2.1 on Galaxy Nexus) so that I'm prompted for which application to open KML files with?

Thank you.

To my knowledge, an app has to register for that -- so it's not simply a question of configuration. You might want to try some other apps which are able to handle KML files, e.g. Locus Maps. If it registers itself for this file type, it then should appear in the selection, and you can make it the default app.

As it turned out, this was exactly what happened with Maps With Me, so that's one candidate working for KML files.

I found a workaround: Move the .kml file manually into the maps.me folder.


Galaxy S8 can't connect to cellular network when connected to car bluetooth I have a new Galaxy S8 but unfortunately when I pair it with my car (Porsche Macan 2 years old) it can never find the cellular network, status in the car is "Searching for network" and no phone calls or internet access. The reception in the car is fine if I unpair the phone. My wife has a Galaxy S7 and it has no problems with reception when paired and phone calls work fine. If I unpair the phone and pair again it will work, but then when the phone is back in the car later it won't connect to the network.

I do get a message on the phone "remote SIM activated" but I'm not sure if this is the cause and I can't find any relevant settings (or help about this feature) to force Android to use the phone SIM.

Any ideas? I'm new to Android so possibly I'm missing something basic. Thx.

Find phone mode in your car menu and set it from premium to handsfree


CAN i reinstall the system apps which i have deleteed accidently during rooting? Recently i have rooted my phone .And somehow my media storage has beeen deleted during the rooting process ans i cant play the music and watch photos .My andriod version is 5.1. So can somebody send me the apk file (the apk file of system apps can be created by apk extractor ,you can find it  on play store) of the media storage ,so i can reinstall it.
P.S.I have tried with other versions of andriod and i failed.

PHONE DATAILS:
OBI SJ1.5
RAM 1 GB

You might need to reset your phone to stock rom for that


Is there a way to display current weather on lollipop lockscreen? It seems lock screen widgets have been removed in lollipop. Google now has a weather notification but it does not show up on the lock screen. Is there a way to get this or any other weather information on to the lock screen.

There are a decent number of 3rd party weather apps that have an option to add the current weather conditions to your notification bar. Consequently, enabling one of these persistent weather notifications will add the entry to your lock screen as well.

I personally use 1Weather, which looks like this:

This is (in my experience) a pretty common feature for weather apps, so you could "shop around" a bit for one that you like.

Dashclock also lets you put various info on the lockscreen - temperature, battery charge, number of new emails, etc.


Transfer all data files from internal memory to external SD card I would like to know how to transfer entire internal drive to external micro SD card on  the Motorola Moto G 3rd Gen?

The reason is my phone is saying it can't update because there is no space left. So I bought an SD card of 4GB in size. But even after transferring what it said it did, it still was not enough. The SD card only show kb. Had been transferred over and that didn't make sense. So maybe I did something wrong.

You can transfer files like audio,video and pictures and small portion of your downloaded app(as i can on my sony xperia e3). But you cannot move all of your app data to SD card. In order to do that you have to root your phone(it is quite risky if you haven't done that before).


Cant root my Samsung Galaxy tab A again I rooted my phone with king root. Everything was working perfectly,  until one day I felt like I should make my phone new so I went to factory to reset the phone, at that time I didn't know anything about root, but I rooted it because I used it to play games to get good graphics.
After reseting it stucked at boot. Then I sent it to a shop for repair, the repairer told me he had to upgrade to higher android before it will work. It was 5.0.1 then he upgraded it to 6.0.1 but now I want to root my tablet again and it won't root. Have tried like 50 times using kingroot and kinggo root but it won't root.
Please I need help

Kingo root??? not a good try you can use pc and there are so many other tools that can surely root any android

either way you can flash twrp or cwm recovery with adb
adb command you can use:-

"fastboot flash recovery path-to-the-recovery-file"

and then by using twrp or cwm you can flash SuperSU.zip


Lenovo PHAB 2 automatically activate user data when wifi is switched off I enabled (turning on user data when wifi is turned off) feature and can not disable it again from Device settings after a lot of search.

The only solution I have now is to restore my device to factory, but this is my last choice.Please, any one help me to avoid this.

My device is Lenovo Phab 2 ?

Go to Settings → Apps settings → Storage → Clear Data. This worked for me.

It's in developer options section.

Click to enlarge image


uninstalling WhatsApp I want to uninstall WhatsApp from my phone fully so there should not be any data left, as it was preinstalled its not removing fully. I have only 2 options, force stop or disable but they're not helping. I want to remove it with cache memory as while installing WhatsApp its showing error.

Also its showing low internal memory space

My device is Karbonn S2 Titanium  (1.2 GHz Quad Core Processor and 1GB RAM).

You can't remove pre-installed apps without root access. These system apps are stored on the system partition, which is generally mounted as read-only and prevents non-root users from modifying it.

However, the system partition is also usually separate from the user partition where you install apps. That is, the system apps by themselves don't take up any usable space. As long as you clear data (instead of just clear cache), you can disable the app and it won't take up any usable space.

Go to settings > storage> cached data and clean it, also in misc select whatsapp this will erase all images l, audio remember to back up it in other folder first


How do I move the voice input button to the numeric keyboard in KitKat? In Android 4.4. KitKat, how do I move the voice input icon, i.e. the one with the microphone icon, from the alphabetic keyboard (next to the spacebar, at left) to the numeric keyboard?

At least up to Android 4.3 It used to be possible to do that via an option in the settings. I checked several times the settings of my Nexus 5 with KitKat, especially the Languages and input section, but I cann't find the option.

Is moving the button still possible? What input method and settings options are required?

If you are running ASOP keyboard, and are on the num pad, you can press and hold the SPACE bar to get the text imput method select. There you can choose Google voice typing.

Esentially
Keyboard -> NUM key -> Long press on space bar -> Google voice input

Try VoiceButton. You can download it here Dowload VoiceButton


Notifications don't show up when phone is asleep - Samsung Galaxy s4 running CM12.1 Ok so this is a curious little problem I have. I recently flashed CM 12.1 on my S4 and since then I don't receive any notifications from apps like Bleacher Report, Snapchat or Instagram when I'm not using my phone. However, when I am using my phone I see notifications on Snapchat at least pop up. I tested this my sending myself a snap and voila saw the heads up notification say I had one. But curious thing is, this notification would not arrive if I wasn't using my phone and had it set down somewhere else. I have again tested this by having a friend send me a snap while my phone was set down and when I picked it up later, didn't see a notification. Same thing with Instagram. It's driving me nuts. Can anyone help me with this? I have read around and some people suggest this may be a problem that happened while restoring using Titanium backup but I cannot see why it would only affect certain apps. Facebook notifications work just fine. Fotmob (a soccer score app) works just fine. It's just SnapChat, BleacherReport and Instagram (at least those are the only ones I have noticed).

Try installing Echo Notification Lockscreen. It is a decent third party app.
Check their official site here


Does TrueCalller App leak your phonebook? Sometimes, I cannot find new contacts that I add to Truecaller phonebook, but sometimes, I think if it shares/leaks my contacts to public.
It shows other people contact details that I never added there.
So I am thinking if it is doing the same to me.

Andoird: 7.1.1
Phone: Oneplus 3T

Yes! it does, when using Truecaller application or services you have already accepted their :

Truecaller - Privacy Policy

So, in this case you agree that :

Truecaller may use your personal information collected by their application to provide, maintain, improve, analyze and personalize their Services for other Users, partners and third party providers.

More specifically, Truecaller may use such information to provide names of contacts from your address book to other Trucaller users.

Not only truecaller every app you use collect your information for which you have allowed access to them.
Many reputed companies and app builders sale that information to others.


Can I connect my android phone to the LAN, via an ethernet cable? I want to connect my Galaxy S2 HD LTE SHV-120S Android version 4.0 (rooted) to the internet via a LAN connection. I am sensitive to wifi and network radiation, hence want to make a line connection and keep my phone on airplane mode.
BobjGear mentions some tablets have the required settings, but no phones.
I have an OTG cable, a USB LAN adapter, and a usb cable. I did not find any ethernet drivers on Google Playstore.
Would CyanogenMod or Ubuntu OS have this support?
If it is not possible with this phone, which phones can be configured for it?

You'll need a USB-OTG adapter, or equivalently for newer devices with USB-C ports, a USB-C to USB-A adapter, to be able to physically connect a USB Ethernet adapter to your phone.  It'll only work, though, if the phone has a driver for the Ethernet adapter you're using.  That may vary from phone to phone.

This USB Ethernet adapter has worked for me on several Google-branded Android devices: a Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, and Pixel C tablet.  I've been told by a friend that it also works on the Wii U.  It's an older device (note, doesn't support gigabit) and apparently pretty widely supported.

However, other Android device makers may have removed some drivers from the version of the OS that they ship on their devices, so there's no guarantee that it'll work with every phone.

You can use something called reverse tethering, it is done by connecting your device with a computer via USB connector.. then you can connect your Ethernet with your computer.. that's how you can use internet in your computer as well as your Android device..


Every Sensor Stopped Working Recently I have discovered that literally all sensors on my Note 4 suddenly stopped working. This include the proximity sensor as well as the gyroscope sensor and GPS, etc.:

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

How can I fix it? Why is it happening? I haven't tried performing a factory reset because I don't want to do that unless it's necessary. Now the screen won't turn off during a call, and the GPS doesn't work in Google maps. I can't even shoot videos in landscape.

This phone is not rooted. Running on Android 5.0.1.

the power related to sensors is different from main power in note 4.In this case your sensor power is acting up which is common in note 4.You have to refer it to samsung repair center.
thank you
VRM


Can Android NFC devices be used to clock in a RFID/HID timeclock for work? (As a tag?) Can Android devices be used to clock in a RFID/HID timeclock for work using NFC? Using the software, I can register the cards with the timeclock. But would I be able to register phones?

Generally no, unfortunately Android phones can't be used as a card easily as phones running the stock OS can't emulate a card. This is due to restrictions put in place by the Android operating system rather than the underlying hardware. See also this and this where I've answered other similar questions.

Saying that it depends on what you're using as an RFID timeclock. If you were making your own then you could use Android's NFC peer-to-peer mode to talk to the clock. Another alternative is instead of using the stock Android OS is to use Cyanogenmod which does allow for emulating certain card types.

It might be possible with Android 4.4.2 kitkat since they enabled the card emulation feature. Refer to the documentation will help.


LG Optimus G and Mac OSX I just got an LG Optimus G from my carrier, and was extremely excited for it! I finished recovering my documents and such, and then I went to load my music and pictures... But my Mac isn't recognizing it!

I checked my phone, and it was set to just USB Charging. That explains it... I tried the LG Software option, but couldn't find it on their website for Mac OSX. I emailed LG Support, and they said their software does not run on OSX. OK, I got another 3 options to try...

USB Tethering wouldn't transfer files... Maybe Media Sync (MTP)? It says that I can transfer files or synchronize with Windows Media Player. I select that, but nothing appears on my computer, and iTunes doesn't read it. Finally, I tried the Camera (PTP) option; this brought up my iPhoto asking me to download pictures. It doesn't let me add files to the phone though.

So my question is, how can I transfer files easily (preferably via a sync) between my phone and my OSX 10.6 MacBook Pro?

EDIT: I received an email reply back after they told me they do not have their LG software available for a Mac. They told me to try Salling Software to do the sync, along with instructions. However, my phone is not listed (actually, no LG phones are listed) as being compatible with the software. I followed LG's instructions, but it did not help (instructions below)

EDIT 2: A friend suggested Winamp for Mac. I'm just trying to get it to properly import all my media, then I will post the results

The way it works for me is that I use the "MTP" transfer function on my LG Optimus G, together with the Android File Transfer, which is downloadable here:

    http://www.android.com/filetransfer/

And tadaaa! It works.

Download an application called "Android File Transfer". The application should pop up automatically whenever you set "Media Sync" once you connect the Mac to your phone via the USB. Then, you should be able to drag and drop files to and from your phone to the mac.


Cut power to a phone without a removable battery? Well just as the title says, if you have a phone without a removable battery (HTC One X) and it freezes while modding it, how do you cut the power if you can't pop out the battery?

I could see non removable batteries being a huge issue to phone modders like me.

HTC's solution to this issue is to "Press and hold the Power button for at least 10 seconds, and then release it. HTC One X will be shutdown and then boot again."

This is the only solution I would be able to see. If you require something more, then as a phone modder I would recommend you take apart the phone and manually disconnect the battery. This is rather risky unless you are confident in what you are doing. You may be able to refer to this page: http://htcpedia.com/news/HTC-One-X-How-To-Take-It-Apart.html for a tutorial on how to disassemble the unibody of the HTC one x.

The last safe option you have is to simply wait a day or so (since it is stuck on) until the battery drains completely. From there of course charge it up again and continue with whatever software modding you were doing.

Yes. I can power down my frozen Galaxy Tab (with an unremoveable battery) by holding down the power button for more than 10 seconds. Before I found that out, I used to wait for the battery to drain overnight when the tablet had frozen.


How to disable WhatsApp group message notifications? I'd like to only receive notifications (in the notification-bar) from single contacts but I don't know how to disable them without disabling all notifications from Whatsapp (via Settings->Apps).

Does anyone have a clue how to accomplish this?

The only way to mute group messages is to mute them for a time period, and the maximum duration is 1 week. To do this, open the group conversation you'd like to mute, press menu and select Mute and then select the desired duration (8 hours, 1 day, 1 week).

Unfortunately this means you have to do this weekly and separately for all groups.

You could load a silent .mp3 sample as well.


Does Vaulty app use AES encryption? In the knowledge base of the Vaulty app to answer this question:
Is Vaulty safe? they say that they modify the files and the files are safe.

I wonder if Vaulty is really safe and specifically whether this app uses AES encryption or not?

First, I'd like to quote all texts from the knowledge base,

Is Vaulty safe?
Yes, Vaulty uses several advanced layers of security to protect your private media. Files are moved to a location that the gallery cannot view and are modified so that they are not able to be viewed without changing the file back. Vaulty's protection offers the perfect balance between privacy, security and speed.

As of current version (4.0.10 r3710), what the app is doing:

Move the file to /sdcard/Documents/Vaulty/data (can be changed inside the app) with .nomedia ("Files are moved to a location that the gallery cannot view")
Change the file's extension (.vdata) and obfuscate the filename (currently, no idea how it's generated)
Prepend obscured to the file ("modified so that they are not able to be viewed without changing the file back")

The app doesn't actually encrypt the file at all. The file's content is the same, but only prepended by obscured which make it invalid image/video file. The reason why this works is because of how image/video viewers work. They check the signature of the file, and if it doesn't match to any, they will think that it's an invalid image/video file.
The conclusion is:

Moving a file to a folder with .nomedia is only safe for device without file manager. However, anyone can download file manager. To make it worse, the file is saved on external storage which can be accessed when connected to PC.
If someone doesn't know that .vdata is Vaulty's data, then it's at least "safe", unless they analyze the content. However, if they know, then obfuscating the filename is actually not useful at all (any filename is valid for image/video). The only problem is to determine the correct original extension.
This is the main feature. I assumed Vaulty avoided real encryption due to speed, since en/decrypting a big file (especially, video) can be slow ("Vaulty's protection offers the perfect balance between privacy, security and speed"). Instead, it decided to only prepend a short text, which can be removed easily and considerably faster even on big file. However, if someone knows this, then they can remove it manually and retrieve the original file. From here, they can also determine the extension/file format based on the signature itself.

Vaulty is a private app and disclosing publicly the type of encryption they use would not be in their best interest.


How can I find out what causes "Android OS" to consume battery? The issue is that I see a high percentage on the "Android OS" item in the Battery Usage, and I want to find out what is causing it. But let me say that I'm interested in diagnostics techniques and tools, rather than increasing the battery life, as you will see in the below figures that the battery isn't drained much faster than expected.

Here's the situation with the phone right now:

Last charged 13 hours ago
I restarted the phone after charging it
I have switched off everything (such as GPS, WiFi, Data network)
I was on a 2G network all the time
My only use from the phone during the day was a few minutes of WiFi, receiving two SMS messages, and a call that lasted less than a minute.
I have auto-sync turned off

And here's the battery usage stat:

Android OS: 67%
Display: 10%
Cell standby: 9%
Phone idle: 6%

The Android OS shows 1 hour and 30 minutes of CPU time, but the total time that the phone was turned on was less than 30 minutes, and I don't have anything active in the background.

The battery level isn't bad at all (80%), but considering that I haven't done anything with the phone (and that the phone has a 2500 mAh battery) I am curious to find out what is causing the battery usage.

Obviously, this should be caused by some background tasks that aren't listed in the battery usage. I am looking for ways, tools, and methods that enables me to diagnose this further and relate the 67% of the usage to actual applications.

Some additional information:

I have a Galaxy Note, with Gingerbread 2.3.6 installed. I have "Usage Timelines Free" installed (which wasn't running during the day), and it doesn't show any excessive CPU usage by any app that can lead me toward who's consuming the battery.

Related question (helpful, but didn't answer my question) :
What can cause "Android OS" process to use high percentage of battery?

Use an app such as "Better battery stats". This app provides detailed information about all the services running. This is way better than the stock app for diagnostics.

Additionally, a lot of the core services for the system are attributed as part of the "Android OS". There is a very particular bug in Samsung Galaxy S II devices relating to the TouchWiz calendar that keeps doing a lot of unnecessary checks which prevents the device from sleeping properly when the screen is turned off. This causes a huge drain in battery life. Since the TouchWiz on an S II is very similar to the one on a Galaxy Note, you might have the same inherent bug.

These links might give you a better idea:

StartingAlertService Wakelock...
[FIX] StartingAlertService Wakelock (TouchWizCalendar.apk)

I think you should re-read the related question.

This is likely down to either OS services or apps left running in the background. I suggest you try something like taskkiller or the taskmanager itself and check which apps are still running in the background. Even if you think you haven't started any, it is likely that the device managed to launch some sync services before you stopped it from syncing.


How to get updates for apps which use Google Play on my Kindle Fire? A number of apps on my Kindle Fire indicate that updated versions are available and prompt me to "tap here to update" or words to that effect. The trouble is this: so far all the apps with updates -- even those purchased directly through the Kindle Store -- will open up Google Play and ask me to download the update package. This, of course, is impossible for me to do since the Kindle Fire is unwelcome at Google Play.

Bringing up the app's info page in the Amazon App Store app just gives me the option of launching the already installed version, but there's no option to download the latest update.

So, how can I update these apps? Must I hunt down the APKs for each app individually? Shouldn't these apps be opening up Amazon's App Store rather than Google's? Is there a system setting I can change that makes them do so?

I can't seem to find any mention of this type of problem anywhere; Google just spits out results about installing apps rather than updating them.

My Fire was previously rooted but I haven't re-rooted it since the last time Amazon pushed out an update to the OS.

I have a rooted B&N Nook Tablet and see this same sort of thing.  Applications are identified primarily by their package name, and most app authors don't bother using a different package name across markets.  My nook has the B&N Market, the Amazon AppStore, and Google Play.  These three markets tend to get into a game of tug of war, each trying to update apps to the version they see as most current.  The thing to keep in mind is that, just because that market says it has an update doesn't mean it really is a newer version of the app than what you have, just that the version number is different.  I get this quite a lot with the revisions of Netflix on my nook as Google Play likes it at one revision number while the B&N Market likes it at another.

If your goal is to be completely rid of update notifications from apps you can't update, your best bet is to factory reset your Kindle.  A complete factory reset will get rid of Google Play and will eliminate the update notifications. Then you can re-install the apps you've purchased via the Kindle's native app store.

Alternatively, you can re-root your device and let Google Play updates complete.  I don't think this is the best solution for you, though, since your device could end up like mine with different markets each clamoring to apply their own updates in a continuous loop.

Kindle Fire sometimes has lower versions of apps than Google Play. Install the Google Play update if you can, but if not then just ignore it or uninstall Google Play by using ES File Explorer(Outside Source) or something else. With ES File Explorer(Kindle Appstore Source) (It is also in the Kindle appstore) just go to App Manager, select Google Play and uninstall it.


Media scanner running constantly I recently bought one new Samsung Galaxy S 2. (Ice Cream Sandwich)

I am getting "media scanner running" message each time I try to open the camera.

How can I get rid of this issue? Do I need to replace the phone?

Go to the Settings app, select the "All" tab, find Media Storage or Media and force stop it. Then reboot and the problem should be fixed.

I had the same problem and none of these fixes worked. It turns it that my Spotify was the problem. It had crashed and could not find the media files i had downloaded. I uninstalled Spotify and that solved the problem.


All of a sudden so many apps stop working All of a sudden a lot of apps don't work any more, and some randomly give messages "unfortunately ________ has stopped working". Is there any way to go about trouble shooting this?

Shazam and Strava do this a lot. Facebook is unstable and closes unexpectedly. I restored from a working backup, but it was actually after this that things started to go wrong.

Firefox would never connect to the internet.

This is Android 4.4

Your image is probably unstable, and at this point it's probably best you use Titanium Backup to backup your apps that are working and leave behind the ones that aren't. Then just flash an entirely new image and restore your backup from Tibu. As far as what caused it, nobody can really tell because you haven't provided much information. If it was working previously, you have to think about what you changed. That's usually the culprit; What you've actually changed.

Try flashing your own device stock rom or a stable custom one.
Mine was having the same problem too but after a clean reset everything is working smoothly.


Samsung Galaxy S4 Old Emails Showing Up as New I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, which I switched to from a Blackberry in mid July 2013.  I continue to get emails that were dealt with when first received by either opening and reading, or opening and deleting, that show up again as new and unread.  My service provider (Rogers in Canada) tells me that it is because I have too many emails on the server.  I don't believe this as when I had a Blackberry this never happened.  They (Rogers) says this is because Samsung is a different OS.  Can anyone assist in how to deal with this?  I was told that Samsung is aware of this and on their next software update, this bug will be fixed.  Does anyone know if this is true?

Thank you.

Not sure if this will work on the S4, but it seemed to do the trick with my wife's S2, and my S3: change 'recent messages' (email account settings) from 25 (the default) to 'total'.

I had the same problem, it was unbearable. i tried many other things but no solution. finally, i downloaded and installed "cloud magic" email app and it works very fine.


Huawei bought in China, can't access Google Play (g510 t8951) I bought this huawei cellphone in China and I can't access the google store. I can access some apps through Baidu Store but then some doesn't work because I don't have Google Play Service. I've tried installing it through Baidu Store, it just crashes, and through "Google downloader" (an app on baidu) and now Google Play launches but doesn't connect (no connection).

I don't know what to do anymore, any idea?

I'm willing to root etc... but there is no thread explaining how for my phone.

Three steps to regain full control over your phone,

Root your phone. There are dozens of rooting software out there. Last I used for a Huawei phone was Kingo Root, did the job quite well. Note: This might involve factory reset.
Install custom recovery. It might be tricky to learn which version will work with your phone. XDA should help. Otherwise trial and error. Note: This step might be optional, depending on your ROM.
Install GApps using (custom) recovery. There are plenty of different GApps packages out there, just google it. I normally go for the smallest GApps package, with just Play services and Play store. All other Google apps can be downloaded from the Play store later. Note: Not all GApps "editions" work with all ROMs, you will also need to use trial and error method.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD:

Check manufacturer's website for a non-Chinese ROM version. It will almost certainly have a working Play store. You should be able to flash it easily without rooting the phone.

Hope this helps.

you might install mobogenie .it gives u one -click root feature.so you may root that ways.and moreover huawei phones have a large range and most of them are not known.so either buy a well known product or go for samsung products


galaxy s2 charging cable doesn't fit galaxy tab 3 They both have micro usb ports but i thought I could use my current galaxy s2 cables with the tablet and they don't fit.  Are there different sizes and how can you tell when getting a cable?

Thanks

It should easily go in. The ports on the two devices are the same and with same orientation of the port as well. Maybe there is something stuck inside the port on your Galaxy Tab 3. You can usually tell by the shape of the male port. The two slanted ridges on the size are an identifying feature of Micro USB A/B. B also has two little latches on the bottom. Micro USB standards A and B are compliant with each other as well but these two devices should have the exact same Micro USB B Port.

Watch out for this, yes there are different sized cables they look the same but aren't. You will probably be able to squeeze it in and it will work but may break the connector after a while(this happened to my Galaxy Note 2). It may have something to do with different pins within the cable itself.

I found it very hard to tell the difference but try to just use the one that came with the device. If not just use a different cable but from a newer product as there are definitely different pins within the cable. Best thing to do is if a cable doesn't fit in easily don't put it in.


Find out a list of all previously installed packages I'd like to know if it's possible to find out what packages were installed on an Android device using ADB, for when the simple "My Apps" library in Google Play doesn't list everything I'm looking for.
If possible, a generic answer would be appreciated for future reference. In this specific case I'm looking to figure out which asset flip mobile game (out of thousands of similar clones) was accidentally deleted on an Android 8.1 phone.

Use pm. pm command is a package manager which allows you to list, install, uninstal and disable your device packages.
adb shell pm list packages

should do the job.


How to record my calls on Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.2? I've got a Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.2 and want to record my voice calls.

My first idea was to simply use a recording app, so I've tried a whole bunch of call recording apps, but none of them work. They only record my voice, not the other side. Or they require the speaker / handsfree mode in order to record the other person (and then still sounds like crap).

After some reading it seems not all phones/models support full 2-way voice recording. However I did read some claims about people pulling ot off on Nexus 4 (although it's not clear to me if this necessarily involves rooting and/or custom roms, which I'd rather avoid).

Is there ANY way (preferably without rooting) to do proper 2-way phone call recording on a Nexus 4 running Android 4.4.2?

Try Easy Voice Recorder. It works for me (Nexus 4, Android 4.4.2 without root).

When you have root privileged, it is much easier. But without root, I don't know any apps that can record the other side in a way that you can hear him "clean". But as I said, Easy Voice Recorder did a very good job for me. Not perfect (crystal clear), but good (I can here the other side in the record without any issues).

Try this android call recorder, Which i had found in
 XDA Forum


What's an alternative to the KitKat-People's app groups view in Lollipop's Contacts? In Android KitKat's 'People' application I was able to access my contacts per group assigned, as shown below using my Nexus 5:

The new 'Contacts' application since the Android Lollipop upgrade does not appear to include this functionality. It's reported to Google in issue #79803 and it appears lots of people are affected by this change.

What is an alternative to this? I'd really like to access my contacts again by their group.

There is an alternative option for users which can be found on the Play Store: Contacts Groups for Lollipop

According to this https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79803 the only workaround is to install a new Contacts app (like Contact+).

Hope Google will bring this feature back in a future update.


HTC one X moving to next email In the HTC one X mail client there doesn't seem to be a way to move up and down to the next email from an open email (as i could previously do on my Desire). Is there a way to do this that i haven't spotted?

In the Gmail client, you can go to the next or previous mail by swiping right or left.

In the stock Email client, there is an arrow on the menu bar.

Actually if you slide to the right you get the next email. Similarly if u slide to the left u go to the previous one


App optimization on every reboot? I received the official OTA Google update to Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 on my HTC Sensation. Every time now when I reboot the device, the system displays a notice stating that it is optimizing the installed apps. This should be just on the first reboot after the update and not every time?

This seems like it may be a bug in the update that HTC has released for their phones. It's been reported on the Android issue tracker and appears to affect various HTC models only. You can star the issue if you want, and some people have suggested that enabling the "Fast Boot" option in your settings may help (something like Settings->Power, I believe). On other devices it should only run at first boot or when the Dalvik cache has been erased.

If it's of interest, the details regarding what the optimization is actually doing have been covered in What kind of app optimizations do newer Android versions do at the first reboot?

In general, the "application optimisation", which I assume is JIT compilation of all the installed APKs, should only happened once during the first boot (and probably also during the first boot after flashing.)

Why it is running every time, I do not know. Sounds like an error.


Does camera clarity vary with to the app? I own an old HTC Wildfire A333. I recently switched it back to the HTC Sense ROM and I saw that the quality of pictures taken with the default HTC camera app seem better. Not slightly. Quite a considerable amount actually.

I know that picture clarity is related to the camera hardware. I switched back to CM9 again and when I turned the camera app on, I could see the clarity was bad (without taking pictures, just through the app interface. I did take pictures though and the quality was bad. The settings were all accounted for).

Even when I used another camera app the quality was pretty bad. Sadly, I couldn't flash the HTC camera on the CM mod to see if that's what makes the difference.

Does software affect the picture quality? If so, how?

Yes, software tweaks have a massive effect on image quality, and the htc sense version was optimised for you sensor, whereas the cm app wasn't, this is the difference between a well optimised app written to play to the strengths of a specific platform, and a general app written to give a moderately good experience on average. This same thing can be applied to cm more generally, with apps that use specific hardware (e.g. dialer) often having a worse experience compared to stock.

Yes they do. Software configurations play a huge role in how the camera will function and display. Anything to work properly has to be optimized for your system's requirements to display well.


Delete member from a Viber group I have created a group for chat on Viber and one person joined the group.

How can I remove that person?

Viber doesn't provide facility to delete or remove member from group even if your are group admin.

Only option is you leave and delete group and recreate the group without that member.
Sorry

just tap and hold the name which u want to delete, a recycle icon will appear , then recycle it that it


Marshmallow only displaying https sites The network connection on my Nexus 6 with Android Marshmallow (rooted) is messed up, and right now the only pattern I can see is that only pages with HTTPS are displaying. I can supply a bug report.

Don't know why, but changing the SIM card seems to have fixed it.


Where is the factory reset button on Android 4.0.3? I would like to do a factory reset of my Android phone. All guides on the internet I read show a factory reset button under the Privacy tab in Settings. However I don't have this button.

Where is it hidden?

I have Android 4.0.3 on an HTC one phone.

The actual setting is:

Settings
Storage
Towards the bottom is the factory reset option


Using a 128GB MicroSD card with a device with 64GB maximum? Samsung's specs for my Galaxy S3 say:

128GB MicroSD cards probably didn't exist when this phone was made.

If I insert a 128GB MicroSD card, will the card:

"not function at all"

or will it:

"work fine" but only let me use 64GB?

It will work fine and you'll have access to the entire storage space.

It's usually just a recommendation for a better user experience in my opinion, If I used the recommended maximum SD Card size on my device It'd be able to load all my photos, music, app data  without any serious delay, however if I put a huge SD Card in my device it could take hours to load 128gb worth of photos, Therefore it's necessary to recommended a maximum size for the best user experience.

You will need to format your SD Card to Fat32 on a PC if it's not already formatted.

A good free software for this on Windows would be

Aomi Partition Assistant

I had an 32GB SDCard that had 16GB in ext2, and 16GB in fat32 (in think it was fat32, but I don't recall exactly).

I had no trouble using it under a Samsung Galaxy Core Plus, though I only had access to the latter 16GB, so in the worst case scenario, you'll probably get away with creating an unused 64GB ext2 partition on your SD card


Adb command(s) to get screen state and locked state Background:

I'm using automated tests on many different variants of devices (Samsung tablets and smartphones such as Galaxy A5, S8, S7 etc.) where the devices have different versions of Android (6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0 and 7.1.1) - all in varying combinations.

Some of my tests require locking the screen (turning it off) and then turning it on and PIN-ing in. I have not been able to find a (universal) adb-command to get the phones' state. Ideally, I would like one command to tell me in which of the following states the phone is in:

Screen turned off (Assumed locked as well)
Screen turned on, locked
Screen turned on, unlocked

My best solution so far is to use the following 2 (bash terminal) commands:

#1:
adb shell dumpsys display | grep "mScreenState"

#2:
adb shell service call trust 7

Command #1 tells me whether the screen is on, off or "dozed".

Command #2 tells me whether the phone is locked or unlocked.

Questions:

Is there a single adb command which can give me the information I need? Is this command compatible with the Android versions listed above?

On Android version 6.* command #2 always indicates that the phone is locked. What is the "Android 6.* compatible" alternative of command #2?  ----> By pure chance I found that "service call trust 6" works as expected on Android 6. devices!*

Note:

The resource I've found that most closely resembles my issue is the following SO question/response. However, not all of the devices have/use NFC so the following command (although compatible with most devices/versions) is not acceptable in my tests:

adb shell dumpsys nfc | grep 'mScreenState='

Since timing is an issue, the proposed solution (best answer in the link) is not acceptable either.

I am a Windows fanboy, so the solution contains find instead of using grep, just replace find with grep.

adb shell dumpsys power | find "mWakefulness="
adb shell dumpsys power | find "mHoldingWakeLockSuspendBlocker="

  Screen OFF and Locked = mWakefulness=Asleep &
  mHoldingWakeLockSuspendBlocker=false

  Screen ON and Locked = mWakefulness=Awake &
  mHoldingWakeLockSuspendBlocker=false

  Screen ON and Unlocked = mWakefulness=Awake &
  mHoldingWakeLockSuspendBlocker=true

P.S: I've tested it on Android 7.0, don't know if it'll work with other versions.

has answered in Is there a way to check if Android device screen is locked via adb? - Stack Overflow and copy to here:

My Phone: XiaoMi 9

Android: 10

use adb to check status of screen locked

method 1: (universal) use mDreamingLockscreen

Command: adb shell dumpsys window | grep mDreamingLockscreen
Output:

mShowingDream=false mDreamingLockscreen=true mDreamingSleepToken=null -> Screen Locked

no matter Screen is ON or OFF

mShowingDream=false mDreamingLockscreen=false mDreamingSleepToken=null -> Scrren Unlocked

method 2: use nfc (if android has NFC module)

Command: adb shell dumpsys nfc | grep 'mScreenState='
Output:

mScreenState=OFF_LOCKED -> Screen OFF and Locked
mScreenState=ON_LOCKED -> Screen ON and Locked
mScreenState=ON_UNLOCKED -> Screen ON and Unlocked


Why the battery attributes are missing in android phones? on the android shell, when I executed following

>ls /sys/class/power_supply/battery

was expecting, current_now, power_now, charge_now or energy_now but I didn't find any *_now attribute other than voltage_now.

Could anyone help me to configure kernel in order to enable these (current_now, ..) attributes?

No one answered my question, but I found the answer. I earned a badge Tumbleweed..lol

Because, battery drivers do not implement the same.


Is it possible to play sound in mono? I'm in a workplace that only allows one headphone in. This makes some music pretty awful, only having one channel. I'd like to mix my audio into one channel, but this seems to be a bit more difficult than you would expect. I don't want to buy a paid app, and I'm playing music from my Google Music library, so alternate players aren't an option.

Is there any way to do this digitally? I don't want to have to buy an adapter and have it sticking out of my phone, risking my headphone jack, just to play mono.

I'm on a Droid X2 running CM9. I know some of the manufacturer ROMs had mono options, but it's not in stock Android or CM9.

There's a  setting under  accessibility options for mono audio.  I  haven't tried it yet,  but it may be what you want.


How can I block all incoming connections to my phone? Ok, so maybe I'm just a lil paranoid lately, but I'm trying to block any - and ALL - connections to my phone. PERIOD. I have the paid version of Android Firewall.

If I select Black list from the drop down box and check WiFi, Data, Roam, VPN, LAN, & Input Chain for (Any Application) will that accomplish the goal I'm getting at?

I don't know how Android Firewall app worked, but it's simple to achieve with iptables; thanks to Linux kernel. Since Android uses default policy ACCEPT, drop any unwanted packets:

~# iptables -I INPUT ! -i lo -m conntrack ! --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j DROP
~# iptables -I FORWARD -j DROP

This will also block incoming connections from tethered devices on hotspot network. You can exclude those, see this: Is There A Mobile Hotspot App With A Firewall to Block Incoming Connections?

All Android Firewall apps BLOCK ALL Outgoing data automatically when the app is enabled as a default action. The Firewall DOES NOT disrupt or block any incoming data into your device. ONLY outgoing data are Blocked.  Basically, no data leaves your device when the Firewall is enabled; the Firewall app then informs you what app tried to connect outbound. It is then up to you if you will ALLOW such a connection the next time,  OR choose to RESET the connection then ALLOW. OR BLOCK the outbound data connection wherein the DATA sent by the app will be dropped by the VPN sinkhole (for NoRoot Firewall apps), thus fooling the app who attempted for an outbound connection that the data was "sent".
You can use Airplane Mode to Block All IN/OUT connections, and isolate your device from all radio traffic.  Though each type of phone or device, brand, version of Android,  have different ways to achieve True Airplane Mode action.  You can enable Airplane Mode, take out batteries (believe you me) usually gives you true isolation.  But when the battery is integrated on the device then it's a bit tricky; You should then first go to SETTINGS/WIRELESS NETWORKS/SIM CARDS and Deactivate the SIM Card or Cards if there are two; THEN proceed to Enable Airplane Mode for better isolation.

*you can try to scan your area with your device using another android device by using Bluetooth Firewall app and check. In my case,  my Lenovo Tab3 730 was picked up by an Android phone running BTFW app even when Airplane Mode was Enabled !!!

So there has to be a TRUE Airplane Mode state for each and every Android device.

You can download compatible apps that will lockdown WiFi,  and Bluetooth to secure any attempt by the Android device to try to connect by other ways because in the Android system, when you disable Mobile Data Connection,  WiFi /Bluetooth will AutoStart.

Such apps include Device Control by Expert Systems Co.  and D-Vasive app by D-Vasive Inc.  In my opinion,  these apps WITH the Airplane Mode coupled as above,  might be overkill, but I presented the answer,  hopefully on the level of your concern reading your question,  if not the size of the TinFoilHats we are wearing?

Sincerely,


Not enough storage on android device When I download application from Market I obtain out of memory error.

In fact I have about 2Gb free storage on SD Card and it seems there is out of space of internal phone storage.

How to clear internal storage? E.g. remove some cache files or somewhat else?

How to obtain access to phone storage?
(When I connect my android device to PC without SD card I even have no choice to connect as a disc)

I moved all application which can be moved to Android device with App2SD.

It is really annoying - I have memory of SD Card but in fact I can not use it.

My device is HTC Desire, Android 2.3.3

Thanks a lot!

Most probably your internal memory is too low.

You can't access it without rooting your device. And it won't be visible in your PC/desktop anyways with a USB connection. (it can't be mounted)

From what I understand your HTC Desire device has 512 MB of internal ROM which is used for both your stock firmware and user installed apps.

The 512 MB storage may be divided into several partitions. System partition holds your ROM (firmware) and may include apps which came per-installed when you purchased the device.

The data partition is where your apps are stored. To check, how much actual space you have for data partition-

  Go to Settings -> Applications menu.

You should get a list of installed apps with available storage at bottom like this,

This will be the actual memory available to you. To increase this, you could try

Moving apps to SD Card (which I believe you have already tried).
Root your device and delete unwanted system apps (bloatware)
Install a custom ROM, with app2sd/data2sd scripts, which enables you to use a ext3/ext4 partition on your SD card to use for installing apps. ( A  1GB partition would do fine.)

Although there is a alternative too, which can help you move some of the apps which are by default not enabled for moving to SD Card.

  Requirements

  An Android Device (Obviously.. ) (Root not required)
  USB Cable
  A PC (Any OS will do Windows, Mac or Linux)
  Android SDK or replacement for ADB (Install android sdk from official site. Use drivers for your device)

Steps

  Run command prompt or terminal use command 'adb devices' (will show
  list of connected devices) (you should have android sdk's
  path/platform-tools in your classpath)
  use command 'adb shell' (will open a $ prompt)
  use command 'pm setInstallLocation 2' ( will set default install
  location to sd card )

  (0 for auto, 1 for internal, 2 for sd card )

Now whatever new apps you install will be installed to sd card. they will still take space on internal memory in data partition though for dalvik cache, app-cache, private-cache etc.

Note-> If you want to revert back to original use option 0 in step 4.

I have seen some weird behavior with this, apps which are set to install in SD Card by default (i.e. games like angry bird), are installed in internal. You could just move them to external though. My advice would be to use this command to enable moving to sd card and then revert back.

It is due to an error in the OS itself. Even some simple apps could not be installed while some bigger apps could.

Reset the device to factory mode and then you must be able to install the same apps which were denied before.


How to backup Windows 6.5 /HTC HD2/ data and transfer it to Android 4.2 /Samsung Galaxy S4 I have a HTC HD2 / Windows 6.5 / several years. A week ago I got a Samsung Galaxy S4 / Android 4.2 /. My question is what program I could make a backup of the old phone, so I can restore them to the new. Thanks in advance for all the help.

HOW TO TRANSFER/BACKUP DATA FROM WINDOWS MOBILE TO ANDROID
To make backups and transfer that data to your Android device, you'll need to install PIM Backup on your Windows Mobile device.
Go to www.dotfred.net and download the PIM Backup CAB file for Windows Mobile 6.5 (direct link: http://www.tinyurl.com/PIMBackup65).
Move it to your HTC HD2 and install it.
Contacts:

Make a backup of your contacts with PIM Backup and save it as a CSV file.
Copy the file to your computer and go to Google Contacts. Click on More -> Import.
Choose the CSV file and press Import. Once your new phone has a proper connection to the internet, it'll automatically synchronise with the Google servers and you'll see a complete list of your contacts in the Contacts app.

Calendar/Appointments:

Use PIM Backup to backup all of your appointments to a CSV file. Copy that CSV file to your computer.
Go to Google Calendar and click the mechanical wheel and click Settings.
Go to Calendars and click Import calendar.
Choose the CSV file and press Import. Once your new phone has a proper connection to the internet, it'll automatically synchronise with the Google servers and you'll see your appointments in your Google Calendar app.

Text Messages/SMS:

Use PIM Backup to backup your text messages to an .xml file. Transfer that file to your phone to /sdcard/SMSBackupRestore.
Install the free app SMS Backup & Restore on your Android device.
Start it and restore the XML file.

Call Log:

Use PIM Backup to backup your call log to an .xml file. Transfer that file to your phone to /sdcard/CallLogBackupRestore.
Install the free app Call Logs Backup & Restore on your Android device.
Start it and restore the XML file.

If you are also a Outlook user and used activesync to sync your old Windows Phone, then a very nice tool to use is Local Sync.
I migrated my contacts, appointments and other data flawlessly from my windows phone to android.

But not SMS data, because that's not data what Outlook handles. But pimbackup should be fine for that.


Can I delete my original gmail account associated with my android & use my other gmail address I originally set up my android with my original gmail account. I've since added a second gmail account & I'd like to switch my android over to the second account without repercussions. I'd eventually like to delete the initial gmail account, as that address is no longer useful.

First off there is no way to not have repercussions if you do this.

You can delete an account by using your computer but be warned if you have purchased any games, music, movies, etc. these items will no longer be available to you with out dishing out extra funds as those purchases were bought from your original account and you'll need to buy them again. And any apps you have on your phone may not function correctly let alone at all if you do.

If you wish to continue goto

https://myaccount.google.com

Sign in (if needed)

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Delete Google Account and Data" and follow the prompts to compleatly remove the account in question.

And a little FYI be sure to set up 2-Step verification for your accounts as it will help protect your accounts from unwanted entities from looking at, reading and or a complete takeover of yor accounts. You would get a text from them with a 6 digit code to set up a computer as a trusted one. Someone I know almost was one of the unfortunate ones on this matter.


How to manually remove an app? I lack proper keywords to google efficiently to know how to manually remove an app. Basically I want to uninstall Chrome, but I also want to know deeper about Android system rather than rely on a third-party app like NoBloat. I suspect one just need to delete /data/app/com.android.chrome-2 folder, but I'm not sure if there is more to be removed too.

How to manually remove an app?

To manually remove an app, you'll need to (manually) delete all of the following items:

The app's package, usually in /data/app/<package name>. For system apps, delete /system/app/<something>, /system/priv-app/<something> or /vendor/app/<something> instead, depending on where it resides. The folder and file name are not necessarily the same as package name for system/vendor apps, though.
The app's installation information, /data/system/packages.xml. This is very complicated as an app may define resources that can be used by other apps. Be sure to remove all related keys and leave unrelated keys intact, or you can mess the files up.

Additionally, these items may be removed, but they'll be pruned if some or all items listed above are manually removed or found missing. The automatic pruning usually happens during system booting.

The app's Dalvik cache, in /data/dalvik-cache, usually .odex or .oat files
The app's data, in /data/data/<package_name>
The app's data in external storage, in /sdcard/Android/data/<package_name>
The app's "simplified information" in /data/system/packages.list, which will be pruned if the app is gone from packages.xml

Sometimes you'll see some log in /data/system/uid_error.log if the above items are pruned by Android.

Root your phone to uninstall system apps. Those are pre-installed apps, it is integrated to the android system, so rooting is necessary if you want to remove them.


Flashed my phone without rooting and now it doesn't work I have an international Samsung Galaxy SIII i.e. GT-I9300.

Few days after the official upgrade to v4.1, it started freezing.
So I removed the battery and inserted again and it did not boot and was stuck at the boot logo.
It doesn't start with the recovery mode either but it does start in download mode.

So I flashed it with odin to leaked Galaxy SIII v4.1.2 build.

Now it shows 'custom binary count to one'. But when I boot it, it still doesn't start. (same issue; it gets stuck in the boot logo).

I'd also like to mention that the phone was not rooted prior to flashing.

I don't care about data now, I just need my phone back.

Try to flash another firmware. Find it here , it has flashing guides too. Follow the instructions strictly
Tell us about your success or your failure :)


Is it possible to install/update apps from Google Store via PC? A few months ago I was forced to uninstall some apps in order to update other ones. Recently I've lost the ability to receive email notifications via Gmail (searching works, however). All because of trash apps Google Play and Google Play Services, which are constantly growing. I plan to completely uninstall them, at least regaining the functionality my phone had 2 years before.

However, if I would have to do the update of some app, or I would like to install new one, is it still possible to do it via PC connection? How to download application to my PC in order to install it to my phone?

Note: I've already lost the ability to update or install new apps because of too little storage on internal memory card.

There is a Java application to do this, which can be found here. It's called the Real APK Leecher. It works by pretending to be an Android device (you need to configure it with your Playstore account data), so it connects to the corresponding Google services like any other Android device with the Playstore app installed, let's you browse the Playstore, and download APKs. I didn't try it out myself, though; but you might wish to give it a look.

Yes it is totally possible to download apps from the Google Play Store using your PC connection .... as stated above you just need to attach your device with the PC using USB, sign into Google Play Store with your Gmail account and select the app from the Play Store and click on Install .... it will ask for permission to install and then will download and install the app on your device.

Hope this is helpful....


How to automatically send an SMS if a call is missed? Due to a busy schedule, missed call are a constant, and many times the person calling insists on keep calling until I answer.

The ideia is to automatically send an SMS with a pre-defined message to let the caller know that I'm on the phone or otherwise busy, and that I will be returning the call as soon as possible.

So, how can I send an automatic SMS for missed calls?

Here is a workaround using Tasker:

Profile (or Trigger)

Create a Profile which allows sending to contact with the missed call:

Goto Profiles Tab and click the "+"
Event >> Phone >> Missed Call
Tap back to exit from this window

Task

You will notice as soon exit, you will be prompted to link this to a Task

Scroll all the way up the Task list select "New Task + "
You can name this Task SendSMSmc or anything.
Click "+" to add new Action
Phone >> Send SMS [Number:%CNUM Message ( e.g I am currently busy at the moment, I'll call later)
Tap back to exit from this task
Press back all the way to exit (Your task is saved)

Explanation: When a call is received, and even  if you are not able to answer it,
the "Missed Call trigger" allows Tasker to send a message containing the body test:
"I am currently busy at the moment, I'll call later" to the missed call number" where %CNUM is the missed call number.

Hope this helps other users well

Press and hold the RED button when the call arrives, this will show you the message icon, then drag your RED button to the message icon which will give the SMS message options while disconnecting.


What do I use to update apps without an app store? I'm looking for an automatic Android app updater. I'm manually installing apps that I want using a web browser, and I do not have an app store (Google Play, Mobogenie, Aptoide, etc.) installed. I want to keep them as up to date as possible without the hassle of having a full-blown store that offers non-app downloads and porn (even "light porn") right on my device.

If anyone knows a good app-updating app, please leave an answer. Even better, if anyone knows of a clean, unobtrusive app store I can use, show me where I can find that.

If details are required, I am running Android "Lollipop" 5.1.1 on a Samsung Galaxy S5.

Google Play and other markets use pull technology to update your applications , without any market you cant update your applications automatically , so i recommend you to install Google Installer : http://d-h.st/ztjI

Then install the application and Download all Google Software's listed...


How to retrieve data from vault android app I am using vault android app for hiding my secret data. Unfortunately i have moved every things in Internal memory to External SD card. Now I am able to see my secret documents,photos and videos while opening the vault application. I am able to locate the folder SystemAndroid but i don't know what to do for retrieve my data.please help

go to Systemandroid  then MXGKJHzyoi== like folder then .image contains photos and .video contains videos. Hexedit any file from .image folder and find data starting from FFD8 AND FFD9 IS end . and save as jpeg. you can see all images.


Battery usage problem in Android 2.3.6 Since the update to Gingerbread the battery of my phone has the half duration than with the 2.3.4 version.

The "Battery Usage" in settings don't show anything abnormal.

Anybody have the same problem? What can I do?

Edit:
My device is an HTC - Nexus One

Check native email app. Sometimes it starts running and never stops, eating the battery to the end. I don't know how to solve it, so I keep checking and killing it when it starts to behave like this.

Install some Task Killer (I use Advanced Task Killer), change its settings to see low level/system processes too and see the loads of processes running in background. Terminate the unnecessary ones, if required.


How to Clear Caches in LG G2 Running Lollipop 5.0.2 The Lollipop update for AT&T LG G2 has pretty much destroyed my phone.  I'm hoping clearing out every sort of cache might help.  But I can't clear the caches the usual ways because (1) the Settings app always crashes when I am in the section where you clear app caches, as does any other app that is made for clearing caches, and (2) restarting into recovery doesn't provide options for clearing any caches.  Plus, I'm curious about how to clear ART caches since I haven't found much information about them online.  By the way, my phone is not rooted.

So, the question is:  How do I clear (1) app caches, (2) individual apps' caches, (3) Dalvik cache (if applicable anymore), and (4) ART cache under these restraints?  I'm thinking I'll have to do something via adb, but I can't find info anywhere on how to do it.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

If you have root or a custom recovery, you can do this using a terminal emulator or adb. BusyBox required.

shell@android:/ $ su
root@android:/ # cd /data/dalvik-cache
root@android:/data/dalvik-cache # find -type f -exec rm -f {} +
root@android:/data/dalvik-cache # cd ../data
root@android:/data/data # find -type d -name '*cache*' -exec rm -rf {} +

Note that in Android L, ART has fully replaced dalvik, including cache directories (/data/dalvik-cache). The reason for not creating a /data/art-cache is probably for compatibility concerns.

Yeah, just about killed mine too. Battery life  went from excellent to abysmal, which was the most maddening change.

I finally settled for the nuclear option and did a factory reset. That did restore the battery life. I'm not sure if it cleared the caches as well, but I should think it did. Just be sure to back up your files, photos and address book before resetting.

Everything else seems to be working OK, considering I've had to figure out most functions of my phone by trial and error. No doubt about it - Lollipop sucks.


How to undo silent mode on Nexus 4 On the Nexus 4, I can silence the ringer by pushing the volume down button, however, when I push the volume up button, the ringer remains on silence until I go to settings and change the volume bar in ringtones. Shouldnt the volume up button work? Any suggestions?

That's odd - mine behaves the way you want:  pressing volume down decreases the volume, and then goes into vibrate and finally silent mode; then pressing volume up reverses all of this.

My Nexus 4 has the current version of Android: 4.3 (JWR66Y) on it.

I have looked, but it seems there is nothing that will work with the volume up button to undo the silence.


Find what app is causing popups, NOT in notification bar I am getting these popups regularly. They do not appear in the notification center so I can't find out what app is causing them. The only app I can think of that I have installed recently, I have already deleted and they still appear. I am using the Nexus 4 Android 4.2.2. None of the ad detector apps have found anything.

How can I determine what is causing this?

Here is a screenshot of an ad, and a screenshot of my task manager immediately after. I am not sure if the app would have to be running to show the ad:

If these popups are appearing in front of other apps, look through your installed apps to find any with the "draw over other apps" permission.  Most apps don't have that permission, so this should help to narrow down which one might be the culprit.

Download a terminal application for Android and run the following command:

  ps

The "ps" command will list all the running processes / apps.
Inside there you can see and analyze if a "weird" app is running behind and shows those ads.


How to transfer BlackBerry 9700 contacts to Android phone? I have a BlackBerry 9700 BOLD and a Samsung Galaxy SIII and I need to transfer as much of my contact info from the BB to the Galaxy SIII. I already know that if I save numbers on my SIM card they will be transferred but I can't save everything on it.

I read a lot of articles about using "Google Sync" app for BlackBerry to sync with Google's cloud and then back to Android again. But the problem is that I went there now http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/ and it seems they stopped BlackBerry support for Google Sync.

So my question is how to sync as much of my data from BlackBerry to my Android phone without using Google Sync?

Used RainbowContacts app for Android to connect to BlackBerry via Bluetooth and import contacts.

I had a B9700, too. And i know many apps don't support b9700 bold. But i found one called NetQin Contacts Sync, and it did a wonderful job!

It did just what it advertised to do, done the task in seconds. NetQin Sync is available for blackberries, android phones and iphones, so moving contacts from one of the three to another is no problem for NetQin. And, it is completely free!

you can check out the procedures here:
http://be-tasty-azur.blogspot.tw/2012/11/how-to-move-contacts-to-android-iphone.html


How do I keep my contacts separate? How do I keep my Gmail contacts off my phone (Samsung Galaxy S if it matters) and at the same time keep my phone's contacts off Gmail?  I don't normally do email from my phone, and when I have had to log into my account, it automatically downloaded all the contacts.  I don't want to search through a bunch of email-only contacts to find the person I need to call.

In the Settings -> Accounts & Sync, select your gmail account, in there you will see "Sync Contacts". You can uncheck that and the device will not sync your contacts to gmail, nor will your gmail contacts sync to your device.

As onik said too, you can have it show only people with phone numbers too.

First copy all your G-mail contacts to your phone.  You can find this under Menu -> Manage Contacts -> Then Copy Contacts.

Choose to copy from G-mail to Phone.

All the G-mail contacts will copy over; Then you can decide which ones from the phone contacts can stay and which ones you can delete without having to worry about it "syncing" with Google and erasing important contact info.

Then you can also take it a step further and click your contact phonebook viewer.  You can choose phone only, SIM, Gmail, etc; by selection.  The phonebook will show only this information.

Finally for those who don't want to clutter up their phonebook with EVERY EMAIL you've ever sent - you can click under settings "view contacts with phone numbers only".  This will give you a cleaner look for the phonebook.

hope that helps


Android phone doesn't pops up with "USB connected" message We have a Samsung GT i5800 with Android 2.1update1.

When I put a memory card in it, it recognizes it, great!

But: When I want to connect the phone via USB to my PC: this picture DOESN'T comes up:

And I can't see my memory card through my phone from my PC!

On other phones, the memory card is OK. (tried another android phone).

The USB cable is good, tried it with another phone.

What could be the problem? Are there any settings that I missed?

Check Settings -> Applications -> USB Settings or Settings -> About Phone -> USB Settings, rather than the network settings.

I would also try a different USB cable, just to make sure, as well as a different USB port and a different computer if you can.  You can try wiggling the connector in the device as well and see if it makes proper contact intermittently.

As Al notes here this sort of problem seems to come up pretty often with Sasmsung phones, so you might just be out of luck.  If all else fails, though, I would try a factory reset.

Go to Settings → Storage and you will see a USB symbol. Tap it → select Media and now you will be able to transfer file.


Motorla Defy+ being not possible to root. Script commands throwing errors when rooting android 2.3.6 It's getting very hard to root a Motorola Defy+ (mb256).

My cellphone is accepting non android market apps, and USB debugging mode is enabled.

I tried:
- using z4Root app.
- doing the scipt commands one by one with adb tool.
- using superoneclick
- using UnlockRoot.

Basically all the scripts I tried returns the same error. Seems like the file system of my android is protected, so can't mount folders, can't change permission of files, etc.. at the end, the Android is not rooted.

These are some prints of the problems occurred:

Content of the Easy Root script showed bellow here.

I solved!
I flashed a hacked chinese sbf. This sbf let me use z4root.apk to get root access.
Sorry about don't put the file name, that's because it does not have a meaningful name, it's just firmware.zip, I found it in xda-developers forum.

Be careful using the files above, you can easily brick you cell phone.

The Chinese hacked firmware is this: Firmware Part 1 and Firmware Part 2.

The application who enables rooting is this z4Root.apk.

*Sorry, I don't know how much time the links will be available.

I tried all those ways(superoneclick, unlockroot)

you have a simple way you didn't try

download framaroot.apk
move it to your defy+
install it
open the app
shoose (install superuser)
press (Gimli) and reboot your defy+
it will works 100%

it is very effective


Mic doesn't work during calls! I have Honor 3C.

My phone records sounds, in sound recorder app or capturing video with camera.
But when I call someone (or someone calls me) mic doesn't work unless I enable speaker. When it's on speaker, the mic works!!!

What should I do?

My first guess is that your phone has two mics - one for "computer-like" use, one for when you're holding it to your face - and the second of these is broken (i.e. a hardware problem). If that's right, then you should get it repaired, either by taking it back to the shop, or by finding a repair centre near you.

I got the same issue before. And I solved. The mic is controlled by other apps during your call. Just deny apps having permissions to use microphone and phone.
Go to settings-apps-all apps-tap each app, check it's permissions and deny microphone and phone.
Ofcourse don't deny for apps like whatsapp, skype etc.


Does sending images on Google Hangouts count towards my Google account storage space? Does sending images on Google Hangouts (Android application) count towards my Google account storage space?

I don't see why it would, but right after sending some images via Google Hangouts I received an email regarding my Google account storage, so I wonder whether this is a coincidence:

Yes, all the images which are sent via google hangouts are stored in your account storage. Refer this link to see all of your account storage on Google Dashboard. Click on Gmail to see stats. Click on chats to see all of your images.

Take this image as a reference.


In app subscription with credit card I'm using an app that allows the user to sign up for a subscription. Doing that in the app the user is asked to type in their credit card  information.

Is that allowed for a Play Store app? In Play Store terms it's stated that:

  In general, the terms of Google Play allow you to sell in-app subscriptions only through the standard payment processor, Google payments.

I asked the app developer about this, but they replied with instructions for doing a subscription on iTunes (without having to type in credit card info).

It's not clear from your question or the app description exactly what a premium subscription gets you, so I don't know if this applies to you, but there's an exception to the rule you quote. Purchases of goods or content that isn't just accessible through the app don't have to go through the in-app purchase system or Google Pay.

Quoting Google's Developer Policy Center:

  Developers offering products within another category of app [other than games] downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment, except for the following cases:

  Payment is solely for physical products
  Payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players).

If the subscription this app offers is for videos or music, or it's also available through their website, they don't have to use Google Pay.

Looking at the screenshot, that is not Google Play Payments (and therefore should not be trusted). Try sending an email to the developer that read something similar to this:

I would like to buy a subscription for your Android app (app name), but it does not use the standard Google Play payments system. I do not trust Android purchasing systems other then the Google Play purchasing system. If your do not switch your payment system, I will have your app flagged for using a 3rd party payments system.

According to the Google Play Developer contract, if they do not reply after 72 hours and/or do not change to the Google Play payment system, file a complaint against their app here and select "Third-party Payment" as the takedown reason.


My phone's power button has gone bad. Can I use my computer to send a USB command to start the phone up? I got an old phone: an HTC WildFire S. Everything works fine, except that the power button has gone bad. Can I start the phone from my computer over a USB connection somehow?

Probably not

Many PCs can be woken from sleep mode via a keypress. Some, if configured to allow "wake on LAN", can even be woken via a specially-composed Ethernet packet.

I'm unaware of any way to force an Android device to power on using a special USB command.

What to try

You can try removing and reinstalling the battery.
Or you can try connecting the phone to a charger; there might be a slim chance that this will force it to power on.
If that doesn't work, you can try a Google search for [ how to power up Android phone without power button ]. You'll find lots of results, including an article on the AddictiveTips website and many others. These articles have additional suggestions which I haven't mentioned. Maybe one of the articles has a tip which can help you.

What next

If none of the aforementioned ideas help, you can then either:

Attempt to repair the phone yourself.
Pay a technician to repair it.
Or try to sell it (at a discount) to a local shop, which can then try to fix it.

When your phone is not turned on it can't have a adb service running (Disregarding the possible technical difficulties it would also be a security issue.)

Try the following instead:

Take out your battery and connect the phone to a charger
Your phone should now turn on.
Insert your battery.
Hold power button (+).

Your device should boot now. I'm not sure if this will work for you but i booted my old ZTE Blade using these steps.