Are there any command line SSH clients available for rooted Android phones? I of course have ConnectBot, but I'm looking for something I can script.

Edit: To clarify here, I'm not interested in running scripts from a terminal. What I want to do is run an SSH command in an automated/scheduled manner. Tasker and Locale Execute are the equivalent of cron, all I need is the 'ssh' command to run from the script.

Since my original question was about an ssh binary, and there is an answer for that, I'll accept that answer. However, there is another way to do what I wanted to do, kinda, that might be interesting to someone some day.

Tasker + ConnectBot can be used to execute arbitrary remote (or local, I guess, but Locale Execute is better for that) commands on a schedule.

Step 1: Set up your connection in ConnectBot.

You can have duplicate connections in ConnectBot as long as they have different aliases. You have to rename one first (away from user@host) in order to create the second. Long Press and select "Edit Host" to perform these changes.
You probably want to set up an ssh key without a password so that you can use this for automation.
Once the connection actually works, you can use "Post-login automation" to add the remote commands you would like to run. Make sure there is a blank line at the end so that enter is sent after your last command. Use enter or ; to separate commands. I suggest using something like "echo hello" as a test until you are sure things are working, and "exit" at the end if you don't want to leave the connection open.
Test this in isolation.

Step 2: Create a Tasker Task to call connectbot.

Create a new Task in Tasker.
Add an Action. From Misc, select "Action Intent"
The fields are:

Action: android.intent.action.VIEW
Cat: Default
Data: ssh url, in the form of "ssh://user@host/#alias" (without the quotes). The alias, user and host here must match the alias you set up in Step 1.
Target: Activity
Click Test. Connectbot should open and your commands should execute on the remote host.

Step 3: Use this Task in Tasker however you would normally.

If the simple ssh client is interesting to you, I made under Android-NDK Bionic library drobpear-ssh-client-only.
ftp://ftp.simtreas.ru/pub/my/dropbear/dropbear-ssh-only.tgz
sourse and ftp://ftp.simtreas.ru/pub/my/dropbear/ssh binary


Debugging an app from the Google Play Store? Is it possible to use USB debugging on an app that is not yours, and was downloaded from the Google Play Store?

I don't really need any in-depth information, I just want to be able to see general errors that may be occurring.

I'm basically trying to debug a scrolling issue in my US Bank app on my own because their response is terrible, slow, and I've done redundant "troubleshooting" steps.

The phone I have is a Google Nexus 5 running Android 6.0.1, which is not rooted.

On an unrooted phone you can enable the Android Debug Bridge.
When the phone is connected to your PC and the smartphone is unlocked you can log in via adb from the PC and see the logcat output of the app you want to monitor.

If this is helpful for you depends on the app (some apps do log anything) and what you want to achieve.

Let me get it to point directly, if u don't have the source code ,you cannot read the error log messages .


Screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S6 I saw a couple places online saying you can hit the power button (on the side) and the home button (on the front, at the bottom) together on the S5, similar to the way you take a screenshot on an iPhone.  However, it doesn't seem to be working with the S6.  Can anyone explain the process for getting a screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S6?

on Samsung s6 you can swap your palm over the screen to take a screenshot


Install GApps without flash it I know we can download it in a zip format in order to flash in recovery mode, for exemple from opengapps project.
What are others solution to install GApps on any android device without to flash?
Edit : without root and without flash

GApps : Google applications + Google play services and framework

If you want to install without modifying /system then it's impossible. So the answer is "No, you can't" with neither root access nor recovery flashing. But if you simply wany to DIY without using a custom recovery, it's OK.
Takine OpenGApps as example. Download their ZIP and extract it.

Install BusyBox
Use busybox lunzip to extract the .tar.lz files in Core/
Move files other than APKs to /system. You will find things to be merges into etc/ and framework/. Take care of file mode (permissions) and owner/group.
Install GoogleServicesFramework.apk as system app. In my experiments it sometimes fail if not installed as system app.
Install the rest of the APKs as normal.

You can't install GApps without modifying /system. As you see, there are quite a few configuration files that will be merged into /system/etc during installation, and a few essential framework JARs to be installed to '/system/framework. They won't work if installed elsewhere.

Google for play services framework and play store APKs (hosted third party) (I believe running the play store will install/update the framework, so that might be the only one you need), then install the rest of them from the play store. If you're rooted, titanium backup can try to convert some of them to system apps.


Can you see the time and/or date a website was visited on the Samsung Browser? Can you see the time and/or date a website was visited on the Samsung Browser?

You definitely can view the history with details about date and time. In the latest version of Samsung Browser, go to Bookmarks tab and then you will see the history section there.
I'm pretty sure in all browsers you can do such a thing.


Jelly bean upgrading Problems My new Samsung Galaxy Advance S is running with android Gingerbread. I am thinking to upgrade it to Jelly Bean. I am very new to Android devices.

I have following basic questions

Are there any known advantages and disadvantages in upgrading my device to JellyBean?
If I upgrade to Jelly Bean do my all apps remain works?
Upgrading OS, does it void my warranty?
Is there any official instruction to upgrade my phone to Jelly Bean?

Thanks in advance

Yes, there are many advantages. Your phone's usable RAM memory increases from 555MB to 625MB.
Camera zoom is possible, but only digital zoom is available. So it's of no use.
All your old apps will work fine in JB, but games will lag unless you root your phone.

Upgrading to Jelly Bean if you are in India will void warranty.

There are no official instructions to update. You will have to do it manually. If you are new to Android, get help from someone who has Android knowledge. Otherwise, you may end up bricking your phone.

I would suggest you don't upgrade, because JB update for S Advance will be available in India soon.


cannot delete file with strange character I am using JellyBean 4.1.2. There is a directory with a file that is with stange character. I use many app to delete it but did not success. And I use shell to look at it. When I issue ls command. it show lstat './as`a.5r' failed: No such file or directory. How can I delete this file

I installed a terminal emulator app on my Android smartphone (Terminal Emulator for Android, which is open source) then I used it to change directory (cd) to where the file was and removed the file (rm).
You don't need to type the entire file name, you can use the terminal auto completion. On a Linux desktop, you could start typing  rm file_n and hit the Tab key so the terminal would complete the command: rm file_n@me. On that emulator app, to emulate the desktop's Tab key, hit the Volume up button then type t with the keyboard.

If your mobile allows to reboot into safe mode then enter safe mode and try deleting.
Otherwise only way is take a backup of the required content, format the memory then restore. Hope this helps..


Which files/folders on my SDCard are unsafe to delete manually? I've had my Droid for nearly a year now, and in the process of installing and uninstalling apps, moving data to and from my SDCard, and all the various things one does with a phone the SDCard has become a little unruly.

It's time for a little file system maintenance.

It won't be difficult, but I only know enough about Linux file systems to be dangerous and I don't want to delete something important from my SDCard on accident.  I couldn't find anything on Android's site about how an SDCard is formatted, so is there anyone who can tell me which files/folders are off-limits or point me in the direction of a good resource?

Please note, I don't want to know which files/folders are safe to delete.  I know I can delete /Epicurious since I've uninstalled the app already, etc.

I'm running CyanogenMod 6.2.1 (based off Android 2.2.1) on my Motorola Droid.

I'm tempted to say everything is safe to delete.  It should be, with a storage device intended to be removed and used elsewhere.  But I know some apps will be unhappy.  So a good rule is not to delete anything that's clearly used by an app that you care about.

It's probably a good idea not to delete level 0 directories that start with a . such as /.android_secure/ (protected apps) either.  Those folders are generally used by the system and, while I don't believe Android ever stores anything important on the SD card (besides apps if you consider them important), there's probably no reason to delete them either.  /Android/ and /data/, /sd/ and /*.img, and /settings.db (if present) are also used by the system.  Those are app data, recovery images, and various settings respectively.

Also watch out for a /DCIM/ folder or similar, which may have any pictures you've taken.  Presumably you'd want to back them up.  Likewise with /download/ and /media/.

You'll want to watch out for /update.zip, /busybox, /clockworkmod/, and the like as well if you're rooted or have a custom recovery.

Note if, like me, you have "internal SD" as well as external, then most of the above is stored on the internal SD.  The external SD appears as /external_sd/ within the internal SD, or may be mounted at /emmc/ or similar.  You can apply the rules above to both storage areas.

You should be able to format your SD Card safely with Android's own functionality and any files/folders required by any apps should automatically be recreated.  Or simply connect your phone to your computer and browse to the phone's file system and delete as needed.

Now, if you don't wish to lose the data from certain apps, then you'll need to do research of each of those apps individually.


bricked generic chinese android tablet - AlldayMall adm-tp001 I have a generic chinese tablet running Android 4.1.1, stuck on boot. I can get into recovery mode and I did a factory reset. But it is still stuck. I am not sure what to do at this point. I can't find a factory image so I can push it using adb.

please help!

AllDayMall adm-tp001

EDIT

I narrowed it down I was able to get the build.prop from the device using adb. Now I am looking for the original build so I can push it back on the device

ro.serialno=
ro.bootmode=unknown
ro.baseband=unknown
ro.bootloader=unknown
ro.hardware=sun5i
ro.revision=41275
ro.factorytest=0
ro.secure=0
ro.allow.mock.location=1
ro.debuggable=1
persist.sys.usb.config=mass_storage,adb
ro.build.id=JRO03C
ro.build.display.id=nuclear_evb-eng 4.1.1 JRO03C 20130628 test-keys
ro.build.version.incremental=20130628
ro.build.version.sdk=16
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=4.1.1
ro.build.date=Fri Jun 28 17:10:22 CST 2013
ro.build.date.utc=1372410622
ro.build.type=eng
ro.build.user=android6
ro.build.host=Linux2
ro.build.tags=test-keys
ro.product.model=SoftwinerEvb
ro.product.brand=softwinners
ro.product.name=nuclear_evb
ro.product.device=nuclear-evb
ro.product.board=nuclear
ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-v7a
ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi
ro.product.manufacturer=unknown
ro.product.locale.language=en
ro.product.locale.region=US
ro.wifi.channels=
ro.board.platform=exDroid
ro.build.product=nuclear-evb
ro.build.description=nuclear_evb-eng 4.1.1 JRO03C 20130628 test-keys
ro.build.fingerprint=softwinners/nuclear_evb/nuclear-     evb:4.1.1/JRO03C/20130628:eng/test-keys
ro.build.characteristics=tablet
ro.com.android.dateformat=MM-dd-yyyy
ro.config.ringtone=Ring_Synth_04.ogg
ro.config.notification_sound=pixiedust.ogg
ro.carrier=unknown
ro.config.alarm_alert=Alarm_Classic.ogg
dalvik.vm.heapsize=48m
ro.kernel.android.checkjni=0
persist.sys.timezone=Europe/London
persist.sys.language=en
persist.sys.country=US
wifi.interface=wlan0
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=15
debug.egl.hw=1
ro.opengles.version=131072
rild.libargs=-d/dev/ttyUSB2
rild.libpath=/system/lib/libsoftwinner-ril.so
keyguard.no_require_sim=true
persist.sys.strictmode.visual=0
persist.sys.strictmode.disable=1
persist.service.adb.enable=0
hwui.render_dirty_regions=false
ro.property.tabletUI=true
ro.property.copySystem=false
ro.udisk.lable=NUCLEAR
ro.product.firmware=v0.4rc3
eken.board.platform=exDroid
eken.hardware=sun5i
eken.hardware.screen.size=7
eken.hardware.screen.res=800x480
eken.build.version.release=4.1.1
eken.build.version.sdk=16
eken.product.model=A73
eken.product.device=nuclear-evb
eken.product.name=nuclear_evb
eken.product.manufacturer=eken
net.bt.name=Android
net.change=net.bt.name
dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file=/data/anr/traces.txt
init.svc.ueventd=running
init.svc.recovery=running
init.svc.adbd=running

Try this Rom i, my tablet is  nuclear_evb-eng4.1.1JRO03C 20130628 , Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6jtialhe1r4th0g/8064-%E5%8F%8C309-PH_a13-4.1-auto-mxc622x-20130628.img

I hope it works for you. It worked with my tablet. ;)

Open your rockchip tool click switch. After your computer recognize it install rockchip driver. Then recover it.


Samsung J5 : Use SD card as internal memory I'm actually trying to use my SD card as internal memory on my Samsung Galaxy J5 with 6.0.1 android version.
I saw some post on google and i follow this tutotial :

http://www.phonandroid.com/galaxy-s7-s7-edge-fusionner-memoire-interne-carte-sd-sans-root.html (It's in french because i'm french)

but when i try to use sm partition in adb shell nothing is happening... and my internal memory still the same.
As you can see on the tutorial other people got the same bug on Samsung J5.

If someone have a solution or a way to solve it.

This is how I achieved this on a Samsung Galaxy J5 with Marshmallow 6.0.1.
It requires a computer running Windows vista/7/8/10:

Install the official Samsung drivers on your computer - some other driver variants can cause this process not to work: http://developer.samsung.com/galaxy/others/android-usb-driver-for-windows
Install Odin on your computer: https://odindownload.com/download/
Enable Developer Options on your phone.
In settings->Developer Options, turn on 'Oem Unlock' and 'USB Debugging'.
Download this zip package: https://download.chainfire.eu/1021/SuperSU/SR3-SuperSU-v2.79-SR3-20170114223742.zip -- and save it to a known location on your phone eg. downloads.
Install TWRP -- this particular one -- others do not work on Marshmallow: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-j5/development/recovery-samsung-galaxy-j500f-t3416960
. Follow the instructions on the page to install, however be aware that for this to work, the First Time the phone resets after the flashing process, you must hold Vol Up + Home +  Power key to boot into TWRP. The timing on this is reasonably quick, so keep an eye and your hands on your phone during the flashing process. If you don't do it the first time, you will need to repeat this step, as on subsequent reboots you will not be able to get it to boot into TWRP if you didn't do it the first time.
Now download and install Root Essentials from Google Play Store. Run it, go to Adoptable Storage and follow the instructions. Root Essentials will ask you to download a specific zip package (do so). Then go through the process again, and follow the prompts to reboot into TWRP mode and install the package from the Install menu. Once you've done this, and the phone reboots (it will reboot loop several times, don't worry) it should boot up properly, and may go through an 'App optimizing' process.
Once booted, you should go into settings->storage, and you should see that your overall storage has increased. Click on the SD card, click on the '...' button in the top left and click on 'Migrate Data'. This should move existing app data (that can be moved) and photos/music to the SD card, and change the default photo storage location to the SD card.
Lastly, go into settings->Apps->Application Manager. Some existing Apps can be moved entirely to the SD card eg. messenger. To do so, click on the app, then storage. If an option to move it is available for that App, the 'Change' button should be available. Click on it and follow the process.

Voila! Enjoy!

Do not mess with adb's, Link2SD's or anything else -- I have wasted too much time on those before I figured out a way that works!

Another easy way is there.
I tried it on my J5 with success:

First you need to root the device and install Root Essentials from the Play Store.
Follow the instructions on the screen (you need to use a very good SD class 10 with high write speed).


What does "encrypt all outgoing email" really mean? I have a Samsung Galaxy Stardust with Android 4.3.  In the email app, under security options, there is an option that says "encrypt all outgoing email".  But my understanding of S/MIME is that in order to encrypt e-mail to someone, I have to have their public key.  So it seems like this option can't really do what it says it does.

It actually gets the public key of the receiver before sending the email. So yes, it could do what it says.


App force opens Play Store when I try to open Chrome I downloaded and installed GO Launcher and there was an icon preinstalled with it. I clicked on it once accidentally, and it opened in the Play Store. Now when I try to use Chrome anytime, it force opens the Play Store right away to Spartan Wars. I can't use Chrome at all now and this is driving me nuts.

I'd like to fix this issue without having to uninstall GO Launcher, since I just it set up. In the meantime, I downloaded Firefox so I can ask this question.

I also installed the game then uninstalled it to no avail. Could someone explain why and how to prevent it?

From OP themself:

I got it fixed although I'm not sure which one of these things did the trick.

I went into the Application Manager and scrolled across to "All"

I then scrolled down Google Play Store and cleared the data.

Next I scrolled down to Chrome, I force stopped it, cleared the data, then turned it off and then back on.

Doing that seemed to do the trick, although I'm not sure which one of those steps was the right one.

settings -> applications -> manage applications -> chrome -> clear defaults might help you.


Getting "Error code -507" from the Play Store and "Install failed, user restricted" when installing an APK I have a Chinese-branded phone from Spreadtrum. I can't install any apps both from the Play Store and APK.

Play Store gives "Error code: -507".

Installing an APK using ADB gives "Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_USER_RESTRICTED]"

There is something limiting this phone.

Is there any way to install an app on this phone?

Remove you Google account from your phone and then add it again.
This might work for you.

source

You just factory reset your phone than its work perfectly


how to 'cancel' automatic standby while reading? I look for an app/a setting that allows me to cancel/revert (automatic) standby more easily than by pressing the power button.

I think of something like turning off the screen for a few seconds before standby, so i can cancel it by tapping the screen.
Similar like the lock screen kicks in only a few secs after standby.

WHY?
When reading eg. webpages, automatic standby can be annoying. I need  to press power, thats annoying. I don't want to change the standby timeout either.

I don't want an app that permanently allows wake by tap/shake/proximity, as this potentially eats battery and unwanted wakeups.
Also, an app to disable the auto standby is not good, i want the standby to still kick in, eg. If i fall asleep.

If what you want is to keep the screen on while a certain app is running in foreground, there are several apps around which can help you out. I personally use tasker for this (ever since I bought the app years ago) successfully with a recipe that rawly reads:

Condition: App (select the apps concerned)
Task: Display timeout (set higher, or disable it completely)

Done. While my default timeout is something like 1 minute, whenever e.g. I read my RSS feeds it kicks in only after 5 minutes – which is perfectly fine, as if I didn't touch the screen within that time I'm not really reading ;)

If you don't feel like buying Tasker for 5 bucks (it's definitely worth the price: just follow the tag link to see what other uses it might have. Sometimes it feels like every second question here can be answered with "Tasker!"), there are plenty of apps specialized on this, usually having "Keep Screen" in their names.

Well, I would say there isn't any app available over the market which can help you in keeping the device display on while your are reading the book. But I would say you can find this feature over the samsung smartphone particularly in S4, it has the feature named smart stay. I would say if that is too much important for you and as you stated above you don't what to change settings, then why don't you try purchasing a S3,S4,S5.


android tablet locked after too many unlocking pattern attempts After too many unlocking pattern attempts, my android tablet have locked me out..

How do i fix this? Is there a manually direction on how to unlock my tablet?

Try resetting the tablet by using reset button, usually this button is not very visible and would need a pointed object to press it, check manual to find location.


My new Nexus 7 doesn't allow me to receive apk files with bluetooth I have just got a Nexus 7, and I am trying to send an app that i made into my Nexus, neither sending it with my phone using bluetooth or directly from my laptop using bluetooth works: on my phone it says "the file couldn't be sent" while on my laptop is says: "the request couldn't be honored".

I have tried sending an image and it worked.

Android only accepts certain file types (from a hardcoded list) by default.

There are two solutions:

The sender can rename their files before sending to one of the white-listed mime-types (by adding an accepted file extension).
Buy a phone from a manufacturer that supports it or install aftermarket firmware such as OmniROM or CyanogenMod that allow all file types with inbound bluetooth transfers.

If the manufacturer hasn't changed this behaviour or extended the list, the accepted mime-types as of January 2015 are:

"image/*",
"video/*",
"audio/*",
"text/x-vcard",
"text/plain",
"text/html",
"text/xml",
"application/zip",
"application/vnd.ms-excel",
"application/msword",
"application/vnd.ms-powerpoint",
"application/pdf",
"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet",
"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document",
"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation",

I.e., just add a media file extension (eg. .jpeg/.png/.gif/.mp4/.mp3/), Zip file (.zip), PDF (.pdf) or office document (.doc/.xls/...), etc.

The list is defined in the string ACCEPTABLE_SHARE_INBOUND_TYPES variable if you like to see the exact and current definition in the source code.

Make sure you have the option to install apps from unknown sources checked in settings.   On 4.0 (ICS), it's under the "Security & Screen Lock" menu; your Nexus 7 is running Jelly Bean, it may be in a different place.


Can I change the font color of my Google Now card? So in the From and Arriving on my Google now time cards, the values I put in are white. Which makes them unreadable.

Is there some way that I can change the text or card color so it is actually visible?
Thanks

I had the same issue, but it was fixed with the most recent Google Search update (I'm currently on version: 5.1.17.19.arm)

Try to uninstall updates of Google Search, and see if it works.


Help! My phone becomes unbootable suddenly It is Samsung Galaxy Note 2, unrooted.
I factory reset my phone to stock ROM about a week ago. Suddenly it became unbootable today. I didn't do anything risky. If my memory serves, I simply updated an app one day before this incident.

It always stuck at the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 logo screen.
I can boot to recovery mode and download mode.

The following errors displayed when I booted to recovery mode:

Android system recovery < 3e >
KOT49H.N7100ZSUFNL1

E:failed to mount /efs (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /system ((No such file or directory))

# MANUAL MODE #
--Appling Multi-CSC
E:failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
can't mount '/system' (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
can't mount '/cache' (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
E:can't mount /cache/recovery/last_recovery
E:failed to mount /data (No such file or directory)
E:can't mount /data/log/recovery_log.txt
E:failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
E:can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E:can't open /cache/recovery/log
E:failed to mount cache (No such file or recovery)
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:can't open /cache/recovery/last_log
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or recovery)
E:can't mount /cache/recovery/last_install
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/last_install
E:failed to mount /cache (No such file or recovery)

I tried to wipe cache partition. It didn't help.

How could I backup data in this case?
I just need to get back my photos.

How could I fix and restore my phone?

Please help. Thanks a lot.

Maybe you cant get your photo back. Try to flashing your phone with odin. Its work for me with samsung galaxy s4 later month ago.

There is file system that missing in your android rom, and you should flashing it.


How to change the default alarm sound? It seems to me that it is impossible to change the default alarm tone. Does anyone know if it's possible to do that?

I am using Sony Xperia Z2, if that matters.

Oddly enough, Android doesn't provide (as of the time of writing) a way to change the default alarm tone: if you navigate to Settings > Sound & notification, you can pick "Alarm volume", "Phone ringtone" and even "Default notification ringtone", but there's nothing about an "Default alarm ringtone".

The solution that worked for me came from this post. It requires using the ES File Explorer (install it if you don't have it yet, you can remove it afterwards). The steps below are to pick one of the existing alarm sounds as the default one, but can be used for any sound in your SD card. Here's what you do:

Using the ES File Explorer, navigate to /system/media/audio/alarms
Click on the file you want, and in the "Open with" prompt, select "ES Media Player"
Open the menu in the top right, and pick "Set ringtone" (the entry with a bell icon)
In the dialog that appears, pick "Set alarm"

After doing this, all applications that use alarms will use the chosen sound if they're configured to use the system default. The stock clock app will also use this.

Open the Alarm & clock application, then select the alarm that you want
to change.
Select Alarm sound and select an option, or select the music note button
to select from your music files.
Tap Done twice.

http://userguide.sonymobile.com/referrer.php?region=global-en&product=xperia-z2#!Alarm-clock.html


I set a 20 character password using Find My Device, but the lock screen only accepts 16 I used Find My Device to set a 20-character password for my phone (it accepted the password without any error messages as shown in the picture below). After I got my phone back, I went to type in the password on the lock screen, but I could only type in 16 characters.

I saw on Password too long to type in android device.Locked out from android device manager that mentioned the lock screen would accept the truncated password, but my phone does not unlock with the truncated, 16-character password.

I don't want to resort to a data erase, since I have important texts and memos, and also some contacts I don't want to lose. Is there any solution to this?

For other people with this problem - I found out that sometimes the manufacturer of the phone can unlock it or even back-up your data before a factory reset, if you go to one of their service centers.
In my case, my phone is a Samsung, but my local service center still couldn't do anything because my specific model number wasn't supported. They said they support the "popular" models like the Galaxy S series or the Note series.

So the first step would be to contact the manufacturer and see if they provide repair services for your phone. Otherwise, after this past week of research, it seems the only solution is to factory reset and wipe your data.

I would try using Find My Device again for setting a new 16-character password.


How can a bookmarklet be ADDED on mobile Chrome without copying and pasting? On my Android phone, how can a user add a bookmarklet to my Chrome bookmarks, without needing to use another device, and without copying and pasting?
I have a bookmarklet on my website that I want other people to add to their bookmarks, so I'm looking for a straightforward method.

Bookmarklets are bookmarks, but of which contain Javascript code instead of a regular web link.

Bookmarklets can be added to Chrome on the PC very easily in many ways.

However, on Android, if the bookmarklet is displayed as a link on a
page, it cannot be "dragged to the bookmark bar" as with a PC.
If I try to open it in a new tab, the address bar will not contain the
Javascript, so the user can't use the bookmark button.
Tapping the link to the bookmarklet will not put the code in the address bar either.
The only way I've been able to add a bookmarklet on my
phone has been to tap and hold on the link, then tap "Copy link
address", then edit a pre-existing bookmark's link and pasting in
the bookmarklet code, then renaming said bookmark. But that's a pain, and trying to explain it to non tech savy folks isn't happening.

Is there a more simple method?

Note that I have a particular bookmarklet that even when added on my PC, does NOT sync to my Phone's bookmarks. I believe it may be due to the length (It's over 9000 characters!). This is why I need an easy method for users to save this bookmarklet.

You can add (and execute) bookmarklets entirely in Android Chrome.

The caveat: it takes more work than just drag-and-drop in the desktop counterpart.

Save a bookmarklet (Android Chrome)

Long tap the desired bookmarklet
Select Copy link address
Go to Menu (three dots) and tap the Star (bookmark)
BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS, tap EDIT! (at the bottom)
Erase everything in the URL field, and type javascript:

Side note: If the url of the page is really, really long, you might want to long tap the url contents: the keyboard will appear, and then start typing immediately.

Long tap at the right of the javascript: and then tap PASTE
If you did it right, the begginning of URL should look somewhat like:

  javascript:(function(){lots-of-code-here...

  (The : is still in javascript:)

Change the Name to something useful (you'll use it later, see below)
Optional: Pick the destination Folder where you want your bookmarklet stored.
When done, press the back button.
You might want to test the bookmarklet. Read below:

Execute a bookmarklet (Android Chrome)

From How-To Geek (the link you sent):

  In mobile Chrome, you’ll need to launch the bookmarklet from the location [address] bar. Open the web page you want to run the bookmarklet on, tap your location bar, and start searching for the name of the bookmarklet. Tap the bookmarklet’s name to run it on the current page.

Here is an easy solution.

Save the bookmarklet on Chrome on your desktop give it a name, say, BM1
Turn sync on the chrome browser in both desktop and mobile Chrome browsers. When the sync is on, all the bookmarks and bookmarklets gets transferred to the mobile phone as well.
Now, this should make our bookmarklet accessible in the mobile chrome browser. Here is how to execute the bookmarklet: Type the name of the bookmarklet BM1 in the search bar. And, google chrome will give you suggestion based on what you type on the address bar and there will be your bookmarklet. Now, simply click the bookmarklet once you see it.


App´s won´t install even if I have the default writing location set to the SD Card I recently bought a phone with the horrible android 5.0 Lollipop. Now I regret I ever bought it. I have some major issues with the playstore and the gallery.

First of all I cannot download any app, I´ve got an SD card and have it set to be my defualt writing location, it has over 1 GB of free space left, all the big apps like facebook and whatsapp are on the SD card but it still will not let me download any app. Everytime I try download an app even if it is just
3MB in size.

Then the gallery.... I don´t know what they were thinking but they removed the almighty "move from album to album" function.... smart move..

Does anyone know how to fix these problems? otherwise I'm just going to downgrade to 4.0 which will feel like an upgrade in this case.

May be you need to update Google Play Services. You can do this through the Google Play Store.


Pasting text into Android emulator I need to paste text into the Android emulator for testing. I'm running Android 1.6 on the emulator on Mac OS 10.6. Any idea if this is possible?

Not sure if it is possible as I do not work with or use an Android emulator. What you can do however is place the text you want to copy in a text file and push it to the emulator. Once there, open it and copy the contents that way.

Or you can just email the text to yourself in gmail or something and pick it up from there.


How to avoid silent app installations I have gone through this post Silent app installation wherein it clearly mentions it's highly impossible to self install the application without going through the whole installer proceedure.But when i read this one
Remotely Installing Unwanted Apps on Devices
i didn't understand how this is even possible

I am aware of the android applications run in a sand box environment so one application cannot install/interfere another until and unless it has an process Id or something/referencing and also should have the user permissions to do so but with the recent silent app installation  by some OEM is making me doubt about this security issue.

When one app can then why can't other apps follow suit .

Please avoid answers like don't use Internet at all/root the phone/stop purchasing the devices of that particular make ,company.
The above link might help in some clear understanding

The only way to be sure is using an firewall or manually read every permission for every app installed on your phone and use an permission revoker app both requires root.

You will search for any app that have the permission "download files without notification" and either revoke that permission (it might cause some bugs) or either just block them out of the internet using an firewall like AFWall+

Your OEM pre-installed the Software Update app with root access. Without root access, an app cannot start installing another app without the user's explicit permission.


How do certain apps record everything we type in android? Certain apps like Type Machine claim to be able to record everything you type. You have to install it and activate it from the device's accessibility settings, then it can somehow record typed text.

How is this even possible? It is not a keyboard app , so it is not directly accessing the keystroke information. Also, according to the android documentation "Only the system is allowed to directly access an IME's InputMethod interface" and 'Only the active client's InputConnection will accept operations'.

Given that a 3rd party service like Type machine is neither a  system app or the active client, how  is it able to record typed information?

It installs an Accessibility Service. These services are usually used as screen readers (like TalkBack), and thus have access to on-screen text. It is thus able to record on-screen information. If you install the app, you'll notice it prompts you to register it as an accessibility service so as to collect input information.

However, one limitation of this is it's unable to collect data within password fields.

As far as I know, no 3rd party app can record your "keystrokes" when installed on a non-rooted android phone. When an app gains privilege and is given root access, only then it could act like a system app on a rooted phone. This is why Google has never given root access  to users. It's too risky. Anybody can install a spyware "keylogger" app on your non rooted phone and take advantage.


Kies unable to connect to Samsung Galaxy S3 after rooting After I rooted my Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 phone, I was no longer able to connect to Kies to do a sync. Does anyone know why?

I have tried to reinstall Kies on my laptop, performed "Troubleshoot connection error", and deactivated USB-Debugging BEFORE I connected my phone for the first time. But the same issues remained.

When I performed *#1234# to view SW version, the PDA option was not one of the options there.

There are no issues with my USB connections as I have no problem downloading apps from Google Play on my laptop.

Pls advise how I can resolve this issue?

I couldn't connect my S3 to Kies and tried everything other users posted (usb debugging, scanning pc for viruses, etc...) and I stumbled upon the fix that solved my issue and I've now connected with Kies and have full functionality with Kies and no issues with my S3.
THE FIX:
On the S3 device:

Pull down from top of home screen (swipe from top of screen downward) to the screen that shows (across the top) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc...
Check to see how the device is connected "Connected as a Media Device" should be shown.
Mine said "Connected as a camera" and I changed that to "Connected as a Media Device" and instantly connected to Kies.

Hope this helps!

I had the same problem after rooting my S3. The solution is easy: just unroot your phone and like magic your old driver will work correctly.


How to edit id3-tags (MP3 tags) in Marshmallow? Ok, so I'm not got to act like I know what I'm talking about, but I've done a fair bit of googling and stuff like 'write permissions' have come up over and over again when searching id3 tag editors.

My question is, how do I edit my music titles? ie album name and song title. Some of my songs have unknown artist or album.

I have a LG G4 with marshmallow 6.0, my old G4 had lollipop and I could edit my music with an app. That phone got run over, my new G4 now has marshmallow. I bought it a few weeks ago.

The apps that claimed to work don't, black music player had a built in editor and it looked promising, it let me edit my music but after exiting the app and going back in, it had changed back to the original title.(two hours of my life I can't get back.)

So is there anyway around this with a simple fix? Nothing too technical please like 'rooting' whatever that is....or I've read you can convert your external sd card to become an extension of your internal storage somehow...and I've heard bad things about that too, like lag and storage issues.

I just want to organise my music....something I enjoy doing.

So any ideas would be great
Thanks,
Beck.

You need not rely on the apps that help you edit the MP3 tags easily.. As @Somberi said, maybe the developers could have abandoned their projects..

There's a very tedious solution anyway, by which you can edit the ID3 tags manually.

Steps:

Download any Hex Editor app for Android.
Open the mp3 file using that Hex Editor.
Scroll to the end of the file..
The last 128bytes over there is used to store the metadata (ID3 tags)
Just note the last 128bytes & try to recognize the tag-names used there by converting each byte to corresponding ASCII. For example, the hex bytes 45 6D 69 6E 65 6D corresponds to the ASCII string Eminem ;)

Just change it as required (by converting your ASCII text to Hex bytes) & overwrite it in the corresponding location. Also note that each tag-name is separated by a sequence of spaces (20 20 20 20 ...... in Hex), or in some cases, sequence of null-bytes (00 00 00 00 ......), which varies for different ID3 versions.

(This might also help: A Quick Study on MP3 file structure )

When you need to edit multiple MP3 files, this process is really exhausting..In that case, you may wait till the app developers update their apps (with proper permissions) for Marshmallow, or you can do it easily on your computer, even using VLC Media Player (Tools->Media Information)

Because Google put new restrictions on app accessing the file storage in Version 6, many old apps will not work. The solution is to use Version 5 or older devices if you want to stick with the same apps. Or, wait for the apps to get updated. Or, you can search for new apps that are compatible with Version 6.

ID3 tag editing is extremely file IO intensive - it will also waste battery. This is best done on a desktop.


LineageOS Update Failed: Unable to mount /data I recently installed MicroG for LineageOS on my OnePlus 5. After downloading the latest update using the updater in settings, I clicked install. The phone rebooted into TWRP and started to update itself but showed multiple error messages in red which said failed to mount /data. The phone booted back into Lineage and said that the update failed to install. In the updater, the same update I had tried to install still had an install button next to it, also indicating that the update had failed. I tried installing the update again and got the same result.

Why is the update not installing, and what can I do to get it to install?

*Update: I've tried installing the newer April 1st, 8th, and 15th updates, to no avail. I also tried updating TWRP and installing the update again, but it failed to install again, with the same error messages in TWRP. I am no longer getting notifications that the update failed to install, but it is still showing in settings as ready to install, meaning it isn't installed yet. I read online to try an older TWRP version, which didn't work either.


Restore SMS messages from a rooted phone with a broken screen to an unrooted phone I'm trying to restore my SMS text messages from my rooted Nexus 5 with a broken screen (no display or touch capabilities) to my functioning but unrooted Nexus 5X.

I can turn the rooted phone to recovery mode and run any adb command (I managed to pull the mmssms.db file using adb), however, I naturally can't run adb push mmssms.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db to my unrooted phone.

Is there any way to restore the text messages some other way?

Again, I have full root access using adb to my rooted phone.

I managed to restore my text messages using a borrowed 3rd phone that is rooted!

Using:

The rooted phone with the broken screen that you want to restore from (Phone A)
The rooted phone with the intact screen that you borrowed (Phone B)
The unrooted phone that you want to restore to (Phone C)

Do as follows:

On Phone A:

Activate recovery mode and pull the mmssms.db file using adb: adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms-phone-A.db

On Phone B:

Activate recovery mode and do the same: adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms-phone-B.db (use this later to restore the borrowed phone's text messages. Note the different file name)
While still in recovery mode, push the file you pulled from Phone A to the Phone B: adb push mmssms-phone-A.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Change the file owner and permission of the mmssms.db file: adb shell then chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db and chmod 0660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Restart to regular mode
Install any SMS backup app (I used SMS Backup & Restore but any app would do)
Run the app to backup the text messages
Copy the backup file to some cloud service that you trust or to your desktop/laptop

On Phone C

Copy the backup file from the cloud service or desktop/laptop
Install the same SMS backups app and use its restore function

Don't forget to restore the original mmssms.db to the 3rd party phone!

On Phone B

Restart the phone to recovery mode
Push the mmssms.db file you pulled from Phone B back to it: adb push mmssms-phone-B.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Change the file owner and permission of the mmssms.db file: adb shell then chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db and chmod 0660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Enjoy your restored text messages and return Phone B to the friend you borrowed it from ;)

This is not possible, as you need root to access the /data folder (for unrooted Nexus 5X).

This question is similar: Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent “Safe Mode”?


How do you import CA certificates onto an Android phone? I want to connect to my University's wireless using my Nexus One. When I go to "Add Wi-Fi network" in Wireless Settings I fill in the Network SSID and select 802.1x Enterprise for the security and fill everything out.

The problem is that our university's wireless uses Thawte Premium Server CA certificate for certification.

When I click the drop down list for CA certificate I get nothing in the list (just N/A)

Now I have the certificate (Thawte Premium Server CA.pem) and have moved it to my SD card, but it doesn't look like Android automatically detects it.

Where should I put the certificate so that the Android wireless manager recognizes it. In other words, how can I import a CA certificate so that Android recognizes that it is on the phone and displays it in the CA Certificate drop down list.

Thanks for any help,

Tomek

P.S. My phone is not rooted

EDIT: After doing some research it looks like you are able to install certificates by going to your phone's settings > Location & Security > Install from SD card

Unfortunately it looks like the only accepted file extension is .p12. It does not look like there is a way to import .cer or .pem files (which are the only two files that come with the Thawte certificates) at this moment.

It does look like you can use a converter to convert your .cer or .pem files to .p12, however a key file is needed.

https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-converter.html

I do not know where to get this key file for the Thawte certificates.

I've used RealmB's Android Certificate Installer to great success.  You simply upload your PEM encoded (.cer or .pem) file and then point your phone's browser to the link that is provided.  No need for a private key.

You can access your cer/pem from SD card with correct MIME type to be installed using TJWS (Android edition), so you do not need to upload your certificate to some web site.


How to disable dashboard summary in Settings app? I find the dashboard conditional summary infuriating. How can I have it disabled?

I earlier thought disabling the following receivers would help, but to no avail. (Yes, I did verify and reboot post disabling them.)

com.android.settings.dashboard.conditional.HotspotCondition$Receiver
com.android.settings.dashboard.conditional.AirplaneModeCondition$Receiver
com.android.settings.dashboard.conditional.DndCondition$Receiver
com.android.settings.dashboard.conditional.CellularDataCondition$Receiver

I'm currently using stock Android 10 on OnePlus 6 with Magisk and Riru.

Simply swipe from right to left on the conditional summary and it will disappear.


Nexus 7 (2013) stuck at Google's logo after downgrade to factory image 4.3 (JSS15Q) I have a Nexus 7 (2013) shipped with Lollipop 5.1. I downloaded the 4.3 factory image from https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images and flashed it on the device. But after reboot, it just stuck on the Google's logo screen. I tried to search the solution, but didn't find one.

Please help. Thanks.

Updated 1:
Just for test, I downloaded another several different factory images after that, which are 4.4, 4.4.4, 5.0 and 5.1. Finally, I found all images below 5.0 can't work on my device.

I flash the image just by running "flash-all.sh"

Updated 2:
I also noticed there're some errors in the recovery mode. Here's the screenshot

I discovered there's a similar question with me Nexus 7 Error: Failed to mount /cache. I tried with "fastboot format cache" and "fastboot erase cache", but doesn't work for me.

I was able to successfully resolve a very similar problem with my 2013 Nexus 7. However, I have not actually confirmed that it works with an Android 4.X stock ROM yet.

I discovered that my system default fastboot command (located at ~/bin/fastboot) was a symlink pointing to an executable fastboot-mac from the CF-Auto-Root package. (I must have made this change a long time ago for some other purpose and forgotten about it.)

The solution was to change the symlink to point to the proper fastboot executable located in my android-sdks directory. I then flashed a 6.0.1 stock ROM (MOB30X specifically) using flash-all.sh, and after 10 minutes of the Marshmallow boot animation, it successfully booted into Android. (Flashing the same stock ROM using the same procedure had not worked previously.)

I have a bit of evidence that suggests that this change was actually important, in addition to the fact that it worked this time. In the previous flash attempts with the old fastboot-mac executable, the flash-all.sh log messages included the following:

erasing 'cache'... OKAY
rebooting...

However, they did not mention that the cache partition was actually rewritten at any point. The new fastboot includes the log messages:

erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.026s]
sending 'cache' (10984 KB)...
OKAY [  0.375s]
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.466s]
rebooting...

which explicitly says that the cache has actually been rewritten.

Boot to recovery.

Backup everything you need using MTP Usb connection.

Wipe system, data, cache, and dalvik.

Flash the image again.


is it 100% safe to install Custom Roms I wonder if is possible for those people who download the Android source code and customize it then release their custom roms to hack the API or any other part of the codebase like GMail client or network stack so to push in the rom some kind of spyware, virus and so on...

my main concern is that I like to experiment custom roms made available by any developer online but I really would not like to get my traffic sniffed or my Google Account pwd stolen.

Any idea? is Android safe by default in this way or could it be altered?

No piece of software that you install on any hardware of any form is 100% safe unless you are the author or you've read all of the source code, verified its safety, and built it yourself. Okay, so this may be something of an oversimplification, but it's actually not too far off in most cases.

Custom ROMs are no exception to this. Yes, a ROM author could put spyware, a backdoor, or just about anything else they wanted into a ROM if they wanted to maliciously exploit it. With AOSP ROMs I suppose the possibilities are somewhat magnified since the Android source itself could be modified to contain some kind of exploit or spyware.

It's also worth noting, however, that running a manufacturer stock ROM isn't necessarily a safer option if you're concerned about privacy.

The question "is Android safe by default" is in some ways kind of a meaningless question. Is it designed to be safe? Well yes, data is protected at the application level and apps are sandboxed. Any OS is intended to be safe, but all of that goes out the window when you run a ROM that's not pure AOSP. On top of that, the nature of code is that it has bugs, with Android being no exception. Custom ROMs and manufacturer ROMs alike can absolutely have the potential to introduce (either intentionally or unintentionally) ways for your data to be sniffed or stolen.

While this question is not often asked, it is one of the best concerning Android safety out there. Custom ROMS are not safe at all. Ise only official firmware and OS.


is it possible to have the gps location while offline with the nexus 7? This is a mystery to me, I know that WiFi and GPS use different chips to work, but it seems I can't use the GPS location when there's no Internet access.

I already tried to clear the cache, disable/enable it, reinstall it.

I just want to use my nexus 7 as a GPS while I'm out, thought that I already downloaded Google maps offline data.

Is it supposed to work while offline or not? Is it a real GPS?

I had this issue - it isn't that a fix doesn't come, it is just that it is taking a very long time to get a fix.

This is due to the lack of the downloaded aGPS data - it can't download the data, and so has to rely on solely GPS satellited, which takes ages.

If you have been disconnected from the internet for a while, then you will suffer from these effects. aGPS data is cached for a few days, or when you change location, so if you just disconnected, GPS should work for a while afterwards.

(You should also check to make sure that the Google System is enabled for location use)

yes, GPS location is binded with the gps chipset. You can get co-ordinates from GPS and store it while offline. you can than view it in Maps application when you get online.


Cannot log into the WiFi due to blocked website called hla2.safemovedm.com I just got a new LG G3 running android 5.0. On my schools WiFi, there are blocked websites. When I try to connect to the school WiFi, it comes up with a terms and conditions screen (like the ones you see at Starbucks or other free WiFis), but it says that I am trying to access a blocked website called hla2.safemovedm.com.

I can bypass this by getting one of the teachers to log me into their administrative accounts, but I don't want to have to do this every time. Is there a fix for this?

Do you have an app installed called 'Hotspot Login Assistant'? It appears as though it could be related to an app that attempts to log you into hotspots automatically.

I've found several sites on the safemovedm.com domain which imply that this is caused by 'Hotspot Login Assistant'.

I downloaded an app called Hotspot Shield.
All you need to so is start it and while on your school's wi-fi, it will unblock everything.

NOTE: This app uses alot of data so make sure you are connected to wi-fi first.


How to add another language to a Samsung Galaxy Chat physical keyboard? Having got a Samsung Galaxy Chat (B5330) I'd like to use its physical keyboard to to enter not only english but also central european (czech) and cyrillic (russian) letters (I am ok with english-only key labels). So, any directions on where and how?

You can try External Keyboard Helper, which is designed for bluetooth/usb keyboards but I believe it should work for the Chat's physical keyboard!

aww you cant just make your physical keyboard to enter different language, You can try this:
-Use On Screen Keyboard
-download Google input for your desired language
-and change input method by long clicking any textfield


Headphones aren't working on S7 I have an S7 Active, and all of suddenly both my headphones stopped working with it. The interesting part is my headset I was for my Xbox works with it, and my headphones work with everything else I tried them on. Is there any way to fix this?

Did you try pressy? it maybe blocked the sound! if not, call google to help.  if it does not help, get a new phone.  lastly, they are not compatible. if one of these do not work, comment and ill try to fix it.


Is there any way to share data(not through cloud) between multiple users in lollipop nexus 4 device Is there any way to share data(not through cloud) between multiple users in lollipop nexus 4 device, I tried with android/obb and other folders but without any success in lollipop version. Kindly provide a way to share large files, within multiple users, on the same device.

I think the first answer (by June Lau) misses the point - the question was about sharing files between different users on the SAME device. I have been using subdirectories that I created within android/obb with success. In my Nexus 7 tablet the exact path is /storage/emulated/0/Android/obb/. The issue is that the media browser does not see files in there, so that one needs to use some file-manager software (search for 'File Manager' in the play store) to get to the file and start its reproduction from there, or for moving the file into the user's file-system.

What sort of files are you trying to share? And how large are they?

Android beam / bluetooth will work, though it may take a while and not give you much feedback of how long it will take.

To do this, tap the 'three dots' on the top right, and select share. There's an option of 'android beam'. Make sure that the receiving phone has their nfc turned on.


Nexus 5 stuck on black screen Nexus 5 showing black screen

1.Can access fastboot mode

2.Cannot access recovery mode from fastboot : shows google logo and black screen (no inverted android)

3.When selecting Start from fastboot : only google logo appears and then black screen (not even the marshmallow boot animation)

Things Tried :

1.Phone was able to ring from android device manager. Tried erase from there. No response

2.Tried flashing the stock rom still no response.

What might be the issue ? Is the internal memory corrupted ?

UPDATE

The phone boots up able to hear screen shot sound but still black screen

UPDATE 2

The phone had hardware issue, the flex cable was damaged. Replaced the flex cable and phone is working again.

Since Recovery won't start up, you can clear the cache by powering off your phone and holding down Power + Volume Down for 20-30 seconds.  Then you will be able to enter recovery once you restart where you should clear the Dalvik cache and cache again.  I had the same problem and this worked for me.

Go to menu >>setting's >>apps>>all

Tap on the top 3 doted line's and  tap on the "Reset app preference"


How can you remove homescreens on the Nexus 7 (2013) I have a Nexus 7 (2013) which comes with five homescreens, however I want to remove most of these but I'm unable to find an option to do so.

Most of the sites I've looked on so far suggest simply tapping and holding on the homescreen, but this prompts me to change my wallpaper.

How can you remove homescreens on the Nexus 7 (2013)?

Are you sure you have the google-experience launcher? The one that comeswith the Nexus 5 and has integrated Google Now on the leftmost screen? It does not come with the Nexus 7 update, it is Nexus 5 exclusive. You CAN sideload it, but since you mention "Five Homescreens" you don't have it. You have the stock launcher.

If you are using the Nexus 7 'stock' launcher you cannot remove or add homescreens. You could install Nova Launcher or another third party launcher. You can easily add and remove screens on these, through pinch out and drag screen to the 'trash can' or 'X' icon.

Specific to G.E.L:

You simply remove all the shortcuts from the rightmost screen and it will automatically remove the screen itself. The reverse is true also, drag an icon out of the app drawer over the edge of the rightmost screen and a new one will be created.

Side Loading GEL:

Phandroid 'How to' With links to the apk files

You can easily sideload GEL and you will only have one homescreen by default, and integrated Google Now. This should work on any Android 4.0+ Device. I have tested on 4.2.2 and 4.3 and 4.4 on Galaxy S4, Nexus 4 and HTC One.

I've figured this out and it's actually pretty easy:

Make sure one of the home screens is BLANK by removing all apps and widgets.
Then, PINCH TO ZOOM on the screen. This will bring up a collage of ALL the home screens.
Drag and drop the screen you would like into the 'Remove' trash bin.

Voila.


Remove preinstalled apps without rooting Is there any other way apart from rooting the device to remove preinstalled apps?

If it's relevant, the Android version is 4.4 Kitkat.

There are two kinds of preinstalled apps, system apps and preset user apps.

User apps, even if they are preinstalled, can be removed normally. However, they will come back at every factory reset or settings reset.

For system apps, it's a little bit complex.
TL;DR In general we say you can't. Actually, yes you can, but the method is even more complex than rooting, so it's highly impractical. Yet you really can, though.

First of all, generally speaking, you can't remove system apps without root. System apps are installed in /system, which you can't mount as read-write without root normally. Thus you can't remove them.
However, as is mentioned above, as long as you can mount /system in read-write access, you can remove system apps. By far the easiest approach is to flash a cusrom recovery (this is more complex than rooting). With the custom recovery, you can modify every corner in your device, /system included, but beware of potential damage. In the recovery you can mount /system as r-w and then delete unwanted system apps. The real conplexity is that in most cases you must do this in an ADB shell, or deal with the not-so-friendly UI of TWRP.
Furthermore, I haven't yet learned that someone is flashing a custom recovery without rooting his phone. Only ones who want to maximize control over their devices gets custom recoveries, and rooting, in this case, is more basic than a recovery.

You can reset your device and then all apps are removed.


Can Swype be downloaded from a PC and transfered to the phone by a USB cable? I'm trying to download the Swype installer to my PC so I can transfer it to my phone without using my data plan. When I go to the website and try to download the installer without registering I get the message

  Sorry! This is not an Android device. It appears you're not using an
  Android device, so you cannot download the Swype Beta Installer.

Is there anything I can do?
Also why must you first install the Swype installer which installs Swype, it seems like an unescecary step? It sure is stupid that Swype can't be proper and just be in the market.

This is the direct download link to the Swype Installer APK: http://swypemedia.swype.com/beta-d1/media/installer/Swype-Installer-2.0.apk

You can access this from any device (including a desktop computer).

Swype uses the installer app for it's licensing system.

Doesn't your phone have WiFi? I'm interested to know which Android phone has no WiFi. If you go to the beta.swype website with your phone browser and use WiFi you should use no "data". If your service provider is charging you to use WiFi you need to jump that ship ASAP.

PS: If you want to be sure you aren't using "data", turn on Airplane Mode and then turn on WiFi. The "bars" will remain off, but you will be able to use WiFi. It's how I use my "phone" even though I have no service to save battery.


Force MarshMallow to keep a Wi-Fi without Internet access I'm associating a Nexus 5x running MarshMallow 6.0 to a Wi-Fi hotspot that has no Internet access. Android keeps dropping the connection every second and then won't even try to reconnect stating that there is no Internet access.

How can I force Android to keep this Wi-Fi connection even without Internet access?

This shell command works on marshmallow:
type su to enter superuser mode.
Then type the following command: settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0

^^ it disables the "drop wifi if no internet connection" functionality.

To disable automatically disconnecting from a "poor" WiFi network, you will want to toggle the Avoid poor Wi-Fi connections setting.

This can usually be found in Settings > Wi-Fi > [menu] > Advanced > Avoid poor Wi-Fi connections.


Briefing Alarm News and Weather Not Read Aloud on Galaxy S3 I've got an alarm set daily on my Galaxy S3 with the briefing alarm type selected in my  alarm's settings with all three briefing content items selected (weather, today's schedule, and news).

However, when the alarm begins, it shows the weather, today's schedule, and news onscreen, it plays a brief melody, then it plays the alarm sound I used previously (ticktac alarm), when it should be speaking the items aloud.

I've tried rebooting the phone and deleting and recreating the alarm, but I cannot get the phone to speak the items aloud.  Any thoughts?

With the tip from Izzy, I was able to determine that the problem was that I didn't have Samsung TTS as my preferred TTS engine.

To fix this, go to Settings > Language and input > Text-to-speech output, and you can select Samsung TTS there (mine was set to Google Text-to-speech Engine).

EDIT

Well, I was mistaken apparently.  My alarm has reverted back to showing the news and weather and playing my old alarm.  I'm assuming this is a bug at this point, unless someone can find a solution.


Do battery saver apps really work? Is it possible to save battery programmatically? There are numerous apps in the Google Play store claiming to double or triple the battery life. Is it just a myth? Or can they really?

If they really do save some power, why doesn't Android do it by default?

Those battery saver apps probably work by killing tasks, lowering brightness, disabling data or internet connection, and several other things. Those little things will definitely save battery one way or another.

Why doesn't Android do it by default? I don't know; you'd have to ask the Android developers that. If Android did what battery saver apps do, they'd be limiting Android. Who wants their screens to always be in low brightness? Or their internet connection off when not in use? Those things are probably better off for people to decide, and battery apps (and other relatated apps or utilities) will help them do that.

See also this post on improving battery life: What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

Believe it or not. THEY DO NOTING BUT SHOWING ADVERTISEMENT and ultimately consuming more battery. They will present an animation showing the list of the apps they are closing for us. But they do nothing. The proof is, just go to  the app manager and check app info, all those apps are running in background.


Cannot add Google account for Playstore, SSL not working I had Google Playstore installed on my Android 2.2 mobile. But unfortunately when I went to service centre the mobile was resetted to factory settings and all my data was lost.

Thereafter when I restarted my Internet, the default browser is unable to connect to any secured website. Even my news and weather is not getting connected. But the browser connects to other un-secured sites.

When I tried to reinstall Google play I was asked to add a Google account -- but it gave me an error that it cannot establish a secured connection.

No Google website except google.co.in is connected. However when I use the Opera mini browser I can visit any secured sites including GMail and Playstore.

But when I tried to download any apk from Google store it does not show any error in my PC but software is never downloaded. When I tried to use deviceID apk it is showing me nothing.

I think because I am unable to add any Google account the data file contains nothing.

Can anybody tell me how I can start secured connections in my default browser so that Google can connect to its secured server and I will be able to download from Play store?

Reset to current date, and I can definitely say a secure website will open.


Disable USB charging For some reasons not related to the battery life, I need to disable the battery charging when a USB host is connected to my phone (a rooted Nexus 4). Taking a look around on the internet (link1, link2), it looks like I should modify a system file. I have found a series of interesting files located in /sys/class/power_supply/battery and /sys/class/power_supply/usb, that could be the right ones to be modified in order to achieve the usb charging disabling (e.g. /sys/class/power_supply/usb/present 0/1).

Has anyone tried something like that (control the usb charging via software and modify such system files)? Which is the best way to modify those system files? Should I use the adb shell or another tool?

I tried the "root explore" app in order to modify those files, however when I modified a file (after changing its permissions), it was automatically kept back to its original value.

I just tried and found that you need to modify a file:
sys/class/power_supply/usb/device/charge

its default content is '1' which means 'enable charging'
you need to set it to '0' to 'disable charging'

$ su

$ echo 0 > /sys/class/power_supply/usb/device/charge

I tested on Nexus 4 and it's working successfully.

No, It is not possible on devices which are not yet rooted. It uses Settings.System with ADB_ENABLED, but ADB_ENABLED is a Secure-System-Setting which can not be changed by a application.

Yes, It can be done on rooted phone.

There is need to add an permission android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS.
I know you would be asking how do I do that:
Here is the link for a similiar app:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jim2&hl=en


How to search for files and folders? I'm looking for the Dropbox folder on my Phone and I can't find it with my file manager. If I only had access to the find command it would be easier.

It should be noted that the Dropbox app doesn't actually sync the files to your phone, it just presents you with a list. Whenever you select a file in the Dropbox app, then it downloads it to your phone. On my Incredible, the dropbox folder is just in the root of the SD card.

I have an idea. Go to your box on your droid. Hit the menu tab. Then you will see "upload here" which is the way to upload a file from the sd card to the dropbox! Which works great for me not having internet to send from my laptop to droid as well as attaching files to inbox messages.


Nexus 4: Can't get phone into vibrate only mode After a recent Android update, my toggle keys for the Nexus 4 will not let me put the phone into vibrate only mode. I can adjust the volume down to it's lowest setting, but it still makes noise for notifications.  The phone will vibrate for incoming calls, but the vibrate icon will not appear.  I need to see that icon so I don't have to worry that I might have left my volume setting on when my phone is in the office.  Any suggestions?

Try holding the volume-down button as you do now, and then after the volume slider reaches the bottom, tap the volume-down button once more. This goes into silent (not vibrate) mode on my Nexus 7 running 4.3, but I think that's because it can't vibrate.

Alternatively, hold down the power button as if you're going to turn the device off. The power-off menu has on-screen buttons for noisy, vibrate, and silent modes.

Try factory resetting your phone! Might work!
Also update to KitKat 4.4.2 latest build!
You can sideload the update or update is via software update option in settings app.
 Might solve many of your problems!
BTW KitKat is way cool!!


Transfer root to SDcard with switch_root didn't work I'm trying to install Debian on the Android 4.4 (modded with cyanogenmod) that's installed on my nexus 10 to one external sd card. I'm reading this tutorial :

http://whiteboard.ping.se/Android/Debian

I've attached the Leef microSD microUSB Connector with a 64GB sd card inside to the mini usb port of my nexus 10 as you can see here :

The tutorial talks about the The ASUS Transformer TF101 and the instructions are based on this tablet. Instead I have a tablet nexus 10,that's equipped with an internal sd card where I have installed android 4.4 + cyanogenmod. For this reason I need to know how to change some part of the tutorial to adapt it to my situation. Anyway on my desktop computer I have partitioned the sd card in this way :

Disk /dev/sdf: 64.0 GB, 64021856256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders, total 125042688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004504c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1            2048    32767999    16382976    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdf2        32768000   125042687    46137344   83  Linux

My nexus 10 recognizes the sd card as sda2. According with the tutorial I have issued the following commands,but something did not work :

mount -o rw,remount /
mkdir /mnt/deb
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/sda2 /mnt/deb
/mnt/deb/busybox sh
/mnt/deb/busybox mount -t proc none /mnt/deb/proc
/mnt/deb/busybox mount -t sysfs none /mnt/deb/sys
/mnt/deb/busybox mount -t tmpfs none /mnt/deb/dev
/mnt/deb/busybox mdev -s
exec /mnt/deb/busybox switch_root /mnt/deb /init

BusyBox v1.21.1 (2013-07-08 10:07:37 CDT) multi-call binary.

Usage: switch_root [-c /dev/console] NEW_ROOT NEW_INIT [ARGS]

Free initramfs and switch to another root fs:
chroot to NEW_ROOT, delete all in /, move NEW_ROOT to /,
execute NEW_INIT. PID must be 1. NEW_ROOT must be a mountpoint.

        -c DEV  Reopen stdio to DEV after switch

but where is the mistake ?

busybox switch_root works only when called from PID 1, meaning from init.


Negative timespan on battery usage graph and blank WiFi data usage graph on CM12.1 after installing WhatsApp I recently installed CM12.1 on my Moto G 2013 XT1033. After installing WhatsApp and rebooting, the data usage meter isn't showing. The same goes for the battery usage details.

Click image(s) for larger versions

data usage showing up weird data cycles.

It's a bug. Just try to restart your phone a couple times, and it will be ok.


Installing incompatible ROMS I was wondering if you are able to install ROMS, for example, the Ubuntu Touch OS for the GS2 i9100 onto the GS2 SPH-D710. Will it brick my phone?

In general, no, it is not possible to flash ROMs made for a different model.

Specific to your device, no.  Flashing ROMs for the I9100, I9105, I9100G, I777, and T989 on you device will result in you having a phone-shaped paperweight.

You can find appropriate ROMs for your device here, among other places.

WARNING   THIS WILL COMPLETELY UNROOT YOUR DEVICE AND YOU WONT HAVE WIFI
BUT IF YOURE USING DATA, YOUR FINE
BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO FLASH STOCK BACK ONTO IT IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG.

Yes you can actually all you do is extract everything from the flashable rom, then go to META-INF/com/google/android/updater.script.
Open it with any text editor. Go to any of the lines that say something like this: (getprop("ro.build.product") == "i9100). Then change the model number already on the line to SPH-D710. now, go and recompile the rom. Then reboot to recovery and install.
                         WARNING

Since you are using an SPH-D710, The wifi might not work, I realized that after installing cyanogenmod 12 lollipop and tried cyanogenmod 13 also and wifi didnt work on either and only the search button and back buttons work. I dont know if the rom youre trying to install has options in settings to edit what your buttons do, but cyanogenmod did. So if youre going to try it with cyanogenmod then just do all the instructions the same.

And please tell me the results If you plan on doing it so I can add that to my list of compatible roms. Thanks.


Can all or any smartphone manufacturer ship their phones with the stock, unmodified version of Android besides Google? Can other smartphone manufacturers beyond google sell phones with stock android?

Depends on what you mean by "stock Android". Android itself is open source (see Wikipedia: Android Open Source Project (AOSP)). But that doesn't include the Google Apps. If they want to ship those, they need to sign the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), which comes with a set of rules (which Google apps they must install, which must be placed prominently on the home screen, and more). It also requires them to get their devices "certified" by Google.

If they are willing to take that burden, they of course can. Many manufacturers still chose to ship devices with their own modifications of the user interface, to make their products "more outstanding", and also include a bunch of bloatware of doubtful value (often duplicating what the Google apps forced upon them by MADA terms already provide).


How can I turn off the “allow automatic updating” for **all** apps? Recently Google started to check the “allow automatic updating” for their apps without being asked, which I hate. I have to deactivate it for each app separately.

But more importantly this pushed Google Books onto my phone, which I don´t need and wastes precious 4 MB internal memory.

And here comes the nasty twist: Google book is not actually available for my System (for whatever reason). So I can´t get the applications market page to un-check the “allow automatic updating”.

This leaves me wondering: is there a way to deactivate the “allow automatic updating” for all applications?

Market version 3.3.11 now has a setting called "Auto-update apps". Enabling it will effectively set each individual app associated with the account to auto-update, and disabling it will of course do the opposite. This setting is found by simply going into the Market's settings (Menu Button->Settings on phones, or use the top-right action bar on Honeycomb).

You can read about the release here. It also has links that could help you sideload the update if it is not automatically available to you.

When in android market select my apps. u will see all the applications installed. select tha one u want to disable automatic updates. u will see a small checkbox at the bottom. uncheck it.


Force tablet UI on a non-tablet device? I own a large screen phone and am wondering if I could make it recognize itself as a tablet, as in:

The navbar should stay at the bottom instead of rotating to the sides
Notification shade doesn't occupy the whole screen width in portrait / doesn't stay in the middle in landscape
Apps that support tablet layout will use it

AFAIK, a sufficiently small DPI (LCD density) value will trigger the change, but naturally I want the UI elements to stay at a visible, comfortable size. There's supposed to be a trigger (an if-else condition?) that calculates whether tablet UI should be activated based on device metrics and the above DPI value, however I don't know where the actual trigger is or how should I change it to make it always say "tablet". I've seen similar things done to Android versions below 5.0 via Xposed modules, but those are quite outdated by now.

The answer could be using Xposed (not preferred but still alright, since I still need to stay on Nougat for a while), modifying SystemUI, or even modifying the Android source code and building (I have the know-how for that) - one just have to tell me where and how.

Any ideas?

After some digging I am able to sort out a relatively easy solution for the first and most important requirement, that is, keeping the navbar at the bottom. Requires root (of course - to pull and push files) and basic skill of using apktool.

For pre-compiled ROMs:

  Install apktool.
  Install your framework-res.apk by executing apktool if /path/to/framework-res.apk.
  Decompile your services.jar by executing apktool d /path/to/services.jar.
  Go to the decompiled services.jar.out folder and open smali/com/android/server/policy/PhoneWindowManager.smali.
  Search for 0x258 and replace the only occurrence of it with 0x0.
  Rebuild services.jar (preserve its signature) by executing apktool b -c services.jar.out.
  Decompile your SystemUI.apk by executing apktool d /path/to/SystemUI.apk.
  Go to the decompiled SystemUI folder, then go to res/layout/.
  Remove navigation_layout_rot90.xml.
  Make a copy of navigation_layout.xml and rename it to navigation_layout_rot90.xml.
  Rebuild SystemUI (preserve its signature) by executing apktool b -c SystemUI.
  Push the finished services.jar and SystemUI.apk back to where they were using a method of your choice, set correct permissions, then reboot.

For ROM makers:

  Open *build-folder*/frameworks/base/services/core/java/com/android/server/policy/PhoneWindowManager.java.
  Search for shortSizeDp < 600 and replace the only occurrence of it with shortSizeDp < 0.
  Find the SystemUI layout files in *build-folder*/frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI/res/layout/ and replace, similar to the method for pre-compiled ROMs.
  Build the ROM.

Note that the default button layout doesn't look good under landscape mode, but one can always use the built-in navbar tuner in Android 7.0+ to tweak it to his desire.

As of Android 10, this has been simplified to a single boolean config config_navBarCanMove, which can either be set directly in the framework or separately in an overlay (recommended).

You can download the Apex Launcher and in the settings set "Use tablet UI mode" to true. It is possible that this only applies to the homescreen and the like, but I don't know any app to test it, but you could give it a go.


Disable Cyanogen Privacy Guard from Shell I setup privacy guard for some of the ROM-Apps and now the GUI crashes when i even try to get the pin entry field on the lockscreen.
My phone is rooted and i can try via adb or recovery.
How can i disable the privacy guard or reset it from a root shell?

Removing /data/system/appops.xml from TWRP (recovery) helped.

A solution that worked for me was to simply boot into safe mode, and then revert to my previous settings.


Cannot select "Start now" on a dialog when using app to do screen capture on Marshmallow I just upgraded my new Moto G3 to Marshmallow and noticed that both of my screen capture apps (AZ Screen Recorder and Lollipop Screen Recorder) no longer worked. I kept getting stuck at one dialog asking for permission to capture the screen.

Cancel still works, but it wouldn't let me select Start Now at all.

Its very simple brothers.. you cannot click "start now" or
 if u trying to install any 3rd party application you cannot click "install" on moto g4 device .. its because you all people enabled "filter applications" like "blue filter"

Please disable that and enjoy

This is mostly due to permission management. My suggestion is to download access management app and see whether the screen recording app has the right permission. Or root the phone. I have the same problem as you and solved it by rooting.


Is there a way to "re-link" all contacts using some button or other procedure? My contacts come from 3 sources:

Google account
Facebook
Skype

Some of those contacts were automatically linked together so "Joe Smith" appears as one contact instead of three. However, some contacts were not linked automatically.

Is there a button or some other way to tell Android "go scan all contacts from all accounts now and try to re-link them"?

I did this a few months ago by downloading a third-party contacts app, using its (much smarter) merge function, and then uninstalling the app. I can't remember for sure, but I think the app I used was either Contacts by Contapps or GO Contacts EX. There's also Contact Analyzer 2, but there are some reports of it deleting all contacts instead of merging!

I don't think there is a way to do this on an Android device, but in the desktop contact manager there is a way.

Log into GMail in your desktop, switch to the Contacts view.  Under More select "Find & Merge duplicates ...".

This will present a list of all the "duplicates" that Google found.  Handily, you can check/uncheck which ones you want it to merge now, and which to skip.

This assumes that all of the contacts that got slurped into your phone from Skype and Facebook got pushed up to google.


Where is the IMEI located on a Motorola phone? I have two motorola phones - One that I fastboot erase all'd 'accidently' and lost £300, so I was wondering if I could just transfer the IMEI from one phone to another?

No, you can not move one IMEI to another phone.  That number is a lot like MAC address of every device that we use now a days. In theory, and with the help of root. Yes you can change the IMEI. However, that is alot of work.

The IMEI is unique to each phone and is how the authorities can help locate missing phones or even in many cases missing persons.

As for where you might find it. Look in your battery bay. or on the covers. if you have any of the documentation or even the box still.. you can also locate them there.

You can reset or change your IMEI number without rooting your android phone.

Just follow this tutorial -> http://crazytechtricks.com/change-imei-number-android-mobile-phone-without-rooting/

Note: But, The risk is yours. There may be anything gonna happen.


Samsung USB Driver for Windows 10 - Android Studio I've got an issue setting up the AVD in my Android Studio as Intel HAXM is not working with my Windows 10. So, I am trying to debug and run my projects with my Android device. However, after trying to download the Google USB driver and replacing it with the standard driver that comes with Windows, I find I am not able to:

By the way, I am trying to replace this driver with the Google driver or the driver offered by Samsung - both turned up with this error.

But when I check the Android Device Monitor, my phone is not listed as it did in the tutorial I watched. (My device is a Samsung W GT-I8150 - Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread)

Any help or advice will be most appreciated.

Raihaan

In Win10 use this:

Uninstall previous Samsung USB drivers from “Programs And Features”
and “Device Manager”.
Power off your Samsung phone. Switch your Samsung phone into download mode (power it on
with Power + Vol UP + Home pressed simultanously).
Connect it to your computer via USB cable. Your phone should become discovered by Windows as some device. In my case, Windows has found my phone
as a “SAMSUNG Android ADB Interface” device.
Restart your phone.

Now it all. Phone driver work perfectly.

All I did was go to the Applications->USB Settings and cleared cache. It stopped working on the last W10 update.


Root for Xperia Z3 D6616 Does anyone know if there is a working root for the Sony Xperia Z3 D6616 (T-Mobile)? I just got upgraded to 5.0.2 but the battery life is awful now.

I know the biggest hurdle is that T-Mobile has locked the bootloader. I have tried giefroot, towelroot, and some other solution that involved sideloading the adb drivers but I can't seem to get anything to work. In addition, I would need to back up the DRM keys so I dont break any of the Sony apps I want to keep (camera apps).

Build No: 23.1.C.0.385

kingroot 4.1

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/one-click-root-tool-android-2-x-5-0-t3107461

if you want to remove king user and replace it with super su

follow these steps

http://www.w0lfdroid.com/2015/05/How-to-Remove-Replace-KingUser-KingRoot-with-SuperSU.html

install dual recovery by nut's (twrp,cmw,philz) using windows pc/make sure you are up to date with the drivers for xperia z3


Can a group admin remove the group creator on WhatsApp? Can a group admin remove the group creator on WhatsApp? If i add a person as creator then make them admin.. can they remove me from my own group?

The way WhatsApp works is whenever a group is created by user he is himself an admin by default and can add other people as admins. And all admins have the same privileges so basically, an admin can remove anyone from the group including the creator as simple as that.

Yes they can. Practically, there is no difference between the creator and just another admin.


Google Play Services High Internet Consumption I've been using CyanogenMod (version 12.1-20150901) on my Nexus 5 for around a year and things were running perfectly until last month, when my data plan had been completely used up after a couple days.

At the beginning I blamed it on activating my phone's wi-fi hotspot and downloading some files. So I waited the rest of the month for the plan to reset. Once it reseted, I decided to activate the 3G and while I left my phone unattended, in less than 12 hours, my phone had consumed +400MB!!!

Taking a closer look the Android OS had been used more than 10GB of wi-fi over the last month (I don't have any games, web browser nor audio/video application for this to be possible!). Looking back, this behaviour seems to have started between the 7th and 14th of May.

So as some android forums suggested, I decided to install "Onavo Count" to find the culprit. It turned out to be Google Apps/Google Play Services:

Onavo registered that Google Play Services had consumed 189MB of my data plan just a couple of hours I had it installed! I turned off the 3G immediately, but still after 3 days, Onavo registered it consumed 1.8 GB of Wi-Fi...

I've looked through many forums, yet none has been able to provide a solution that works for me.

Some suggest one should restrict the app's background data, but that doesn't solve the high Wi-Fi consumption problem...
Others suggest upgrading CyanogenMod to the lastest stable build (v 13.0-20160418), but that broke completely the functionality of all Google Apps (constant crashes that make the phone unusable... luckily I did make a backup... backups are good).
There are suggestions of removing permissions and functionality, but I've played with every setting and removing all Google Play services functionality to no avail...

Has anybody encountered this problem and has been able to solve it?

TL;DR:

Install Autorun Manager (you must have root access)
Go into the settings and enable "Show System Entries" and "Enable system app disable"
Disable permissions for "com.android.gsf.update.SystemUpdateService$Receive" and "com.android.gms.update.SystemUpdateServiceReceiver"
Sigh in relief as your mobile plan is freed from Google Play's insatiable hunger for data.

After a long afternoon of googling, I ended up finding some old but interesting thread on reddit from 2013 that detailed a problem very similar to mine. Although they talk about the Nexus 4, what they discussed seemed to apply for my Nexus 5.

Caseyls, the original poster, seemed to have concluded that the problem is that Google Play services is constantly downloading an update:

  [...] Your phone is trying to update to [a newer version of Android]. It downloads the update files, but then when it goes to try to tell you to update, [some] of the files are [missing]. [... Then] your phone deletes the update files, and tries [to download them] again. And again. And again.

The poster suggested solutions were pretty much the same ones I found all over the internet, but an user named Dourel suggested something useful they found on XDA:

  Install Autorun Manager from the Play store. Then enter its recommended advanced mode. Go into the settings and enable the following : system entries and system app disable. Disable com.android.gsf.update.SystemUpdateService$Reciever under Google Service Framework

So as it was suggested, I installed the app and enabled the options "Show System Entries" and "Enable system app disable" in the settings, like in the picture below:

Then looked for Google Play Services in the list of apps, expanded its contents, and looked for "com.android.gsf.update.SystemUpdateService$Receive". Sadly, as the first picture below shows, that permission had already been disabled in my case (don't know how that happened though). So I thought I was back at square one.

But I wasn't going to give up just yet. Searching more thoroughly I found out there was another service called "com.android.gms.update.SystemUpdateServiceReceiver" that was checked on. So naturally I checked it off. To test it whether it worked or no, I left the Wi-Fi on all night and crossed my fingers for it to work.

The next morning, Onavo Count (the app I mention in the question) reported that no substantial amount of Wi-Fi data had been consumed, so I proceeded to test leaving the phone's 3G data plan for the rest of the day (Wi-Fi off of course). To my rejoice, as of tonight (12 hours later), my data plan has barely even been used. Less than 1MB was consumed all day! Yay =)

So that's it! The most effective solution I could find to stop this madness. I hope it works for anybody else.

Restrict your data usage for application which are using data too much , You can also set data limit for a day so that if in a single day if it crosses the usage limit, it automatically turn off mobile data or wifi .


How do I export & import files between Android devices and Windows OS? How do I export and import binary files between Android devices and Windows OS as well as syncing the files between the two?

You can connect the device to the PC with a USB cable and access it via Explorer in the same way that you would a thumb drive.  In addition, I like using Dropbox to sync files in a wireless fashion.  I find this to be much easier and does not restrict movement of handset.

if you get the "read-only", you can input adb remount.


Xperia mini 17i update Android 2.3 to 4.0 I try update Android from 2.3 to 4, using tool Sony PC Companion 2.1.
Tool want terminate processes wininit.exe and java.exe.
I can't terminate this processes using Far manager and Task manager.
When I accept termination of processes by Sony PC Companion 2.1, my computer is restrted.
Any ideas?

You can't terminate wininit.  If their installer is trying to do so then it's broken, or trying to install a rootkit by replacing system files in use by wininit.  Normally you should have an option to ignore the warning and it will simply need a reboot after the install (though given that it's warning about a system process, I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it).  Did you get the installer from Sony's official site?

Did you see the source or file location of wininit.exe and java.exe it occurs to me that these files are virus files and you need to run some antivirus scan. The problem is these viruses use a regular windows process name and will be in another directory to cause confusion.
Running MalwareBytes may help.

One more thing if you find wininit.exe or java.exe in other than System32 folder you can delete it.

Source : Youtube Video

The best thing you can do for updation is trying in another virus free pc or removing the virus in your pc


How can I prevent my parents from tracking my Android phone or fake the location? How can I prevent my parents from tracking my device? I have a Samsung Galaxy. I have heard that I can turn off my data, GPS locator, or the phone itself but I would like to be able to keep my phone with me and on at all times and have normal functionality. Is there a way I can route the tracker to a specific location when I want so that I could just tell them I am at that location even when I'm not? I'm 17 and I'm getting sick of getting a phone call every time I leave a friend's house. I am willing to root my device and install any kernel or ROM; whatever it takes.

if you believe that your parents are tracking you with your android.do this

1:backup your favorite apps.
2:factory reset the phone.
3:encrypt your phone.(this way nobody else can access your phone)
4:for extra protection you may add pin so that you can lock down parents from accesing your settings.
5:if you are going a step further you can lock down your phone in kiosk mode with the help of any
custom launchers or anything like that.

but i think you should probably talk with your parents.

To be sure you have no additional tracking software installed you may use these 3 methods.

Method 1

Check logged Google accounts Settings -> Accounts: be sure to use ONLY YOUR ACCOUNT FOR ALL GOOGLE PRODUCTS/SERVICES (PLAY STORE, MAPS, ANDROID PHONE MANAGER - THIS ONE CAN TRACK DEVICE). To be 100% sure only you are the administrator of your phone, set up a new Google account for yourself.
In Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators check programs set as admins -> remove all if there are any. (If you find one PIN protected use Method 2 with hard/factory reset.)
Remove ALL additional apps that may be used for tracking  Settings -> Apps -> Downloaded - select and remove all,
one by one (some might be PIN protected, then go to Method 2).
In Settings -> Location Services disable the Access my location option and turn off GPS.
Disable Mobile data transfer.
Set up and enable PIN and Password (Settings -> Security), enable screen protection with PIN number.

Method 2

Manually back up your data (music, pictures) copy it with file explorer/manager onto an SD card. SMS can be backed up with SMS Backup + App, sync contacts with Google Account. (for security reasons set yourself NEW fresh one and use it to backup restore your data.)

And NOW:
Go to Settings -> Backup and Reset choose Factory Data Reset important - uncheck Automatic Restore checkbox.
After hard reset choose your own NEW Google account for Google services (set up yourself a new one).

Next set up and enable and Password (Settings -> Security), enable screen protection with PIN.

Additional info

Apps that can track your phone
1. Google Device Manager
2. Kaspersky Mobile Security (This one is tricky and hard to erase. I use this one with my phone.)
3.Avast Mobile Security / Avast Anti-Theft (This one sends an email notification or SMS when the phone leaves the designated area. It also may be hard to remove. You will need a hard reset to get rid of these two). Anti-Theft hides itself as update agent in apps.
4. Track My Phone
5. Phone Locator

...and many many more. Check them in Google Play (You may find one installed on your phone. If so, remove it.)

Method 3 (100% works)

Buy another cheap smart phone and a second SIM card. Install on this new phone, let's call it decoy, software they have installed on your old phone for tracking you (you will find it in Settings -> Apps on your Galaxy), log them in, put into that second phone your old SIM card, redirect all phone calls to you new number which you will use with your factory erased / clean Galaxy with new accounts logged in. Leave the second (decoy) phone in a place you are supposed to be.

If you can't find the app which they are using to track you down or don't have passwords to log them on a second phone, use the reverse process: Buy yourself another phone (almost any teenager can afford to buy a simple smart phone) with a new number (can be prepaid) and redirect all calls onto the new one from your old SIM card and use the old phone as a decoy.


Will I be removed from groups on WhatsApp if I upgrade to a new phone? I was removed from all groups before, when I changed my number. Will the same happen if I change my phone? This time, I have the same number but a different phone.

You retain your groups if you have the same number.

Off-topic, you may also want to check the official documentation on how to back-up and restore your chat history to the new phone.

You won't be removed from groups if your number is same,