Stop applications that are unnecessary I have a Droid X and this has frustrated me since I got the phone. When I look at the currently running tasks, it seems everything is always running, which is unnecessary.

I know this is a hot topic and most people say, just let it go, it isn't wasting CPU or battery (which is non-sense to a point, if the service is running and constantly updating via wifi or 3G, it is definitely using power).

My bigger problem is that they do, absolutely, use memory, and lots of it, and when I want to use something that is CPU or memory intensive, the program lags because there isn't enough memory available. If I kill everything, the programs runs fine for a few minutes until magically, everything is running again without any intervention.

For instance, why does Maps, Amazon MP3 (which I have never used), YouTube, NHL GameCenter, etc need to run all the time? Is there a way to stop them so they only run when I want to use them?

First, see my relevant answer over here in regards to "killing tasks", especially the use of task killers.

The only way to stop these background tasks is to either:

Turn off any sort of background notifications the app does (check the settings for each app)
Uninstall the app or if you are rooted, you could "freeze" it with Titanium Backup.

Beyond that, you aren't going to be able to do much more. It's up to the programmer to decide when he needs to have a background task run, and a good programmer will let you have to turn these background tasks off (usually it is caused by polling for notifications).


Blue arrow pointer in Google Maps won't update whichever way I'm facing? On the Google Maps app, I see a blue arrow pointer. I've seen this on a previous version of maps back in Gingerbread. I think at some point in time, they removed this feature and made it look simply like a circle. But now I see that it's back. However, it seems to be stuck on the same direction regardless if I rotate my phone in whichever way.

Android reports on the notification bar that the "Location set by GPS" already so that rules out the possibility that it's still waiting for GPS data. The weird thing is it will sometimes change direction but on random occasions only. Is there a way to force it to re-calibrate or something? I find it really useful back then for navigating places where I'm not familiar with and would like to use it again now.

I'm now on Ice Cream Sandwich. Same phone.

EDIT:
I have downloaded 3rd party compass apps from the Play Store and they work without problems. The phone is ST17i.

had same problems b4 i tried calibrating the magnetic compass by the x ,y ,z axis here 8s the simple steps keep in mind all the rotations are clockwise directions first put your phone in a flat surface for me i placed it in a table and rotate it 3 full rotations clockwise then pick up your phone and face it on your left with the but part nearest to you and rotate it 3 full rotations clockwise and finally face your phone towards you like ussing it normaly and rotate it 3 full rotations clockwise and thats it ,for me it solved my prorblem reg the pointer in my map do this while your map is active ,hope this will help someone .


When I connect via USB (Android to PC), it automatically starts charging. How do I transfer files? According to what I've read, a 'File Transfer' window should open.  Mine just says, 'slow charging'.

1. first check your usb cable
a. your cable could be a "charging only" cable (i.e. only has wires to carry power and no data wires)
This cable could be a charging-only cable, which doesn't include the D+ & D- cable streams. If you're unsure on the type of cable, try using a different cable that you're sure works.
b. if you are using usb-3, it could be "bad"
USB-2 minimum cable requirements were easier to manufacture because of the lower data rate requirements. Ever since USB-3 lots of USB-3 cables don't meet "spec" and therefore can not work or damage your phone. Make sure you have a brand that you know is good.
2. After checking the cable, you need to check your phone's settings. make sure it is in "file transfer" mode and NOT "charging only".
From Android 6.0 onwards File transfer is disabled by default when a cable is connected to the device, mainly due to malicious USB hubs which pretend to be normal charging ports, but instead copy data from your device whilst charging.
To enable File Transfer Mode

Turn on your device and connect it to your computer (using a cable which supports data transfer)
Unlock your device and open the notification labelled USB charging this device - you may need to swipe down from the notification bar
Select Transfer Files from the menu that appears.
You should be able to access your device on your computer.
]3

3. try a different USB port on the PC
I tried a bunch of cables on one USB port but nothing was working. So I tried a differnt USB port and it all worked again!
4. lastly. Try... restarting the phone... restarting the computer.
Some might say this is the first thing to try.

Pick Down taskbar and tap phone charge and in new window select mtp or flash option


how to re-enable first time setup at next boot? tl;dr: What is the hidden setting that tells the first-time-user-wizard to run? i just want to re-enable that flag so next time the phone boots it shows the new user wizard and UI hints.

A friend gave me his new nexus to install CM11 and a few applications.

To install those applications i created a bogus Google account, downloaded them from the store, configured and then removed my account.

now i want to give the phone back in a way that when it is powered on, it shows the create new account/enable Wifi/etc wizard.

I already tried wiping out data from "one time setup" system application, but that did nothing. Any other ideas?

I had the opposite problem. I deleted OneTimeInit and SetupWizard and after a hard-reset my system was acting like in first time init screen:

notification pull-down is unavailable
recent screen is unavailable
home button is unavailable
limited power menu

So I had to set all those first boot flags manually.
Then, I found three of them, which solved my problem:

settings put global setup_wizard_has_run 1
settings put global device_provisioned 1
settings put secure user_setup_complete 1

did not find the solution. but found the 'good enough workaround'

delete all wifi you have saved
charge battery to maximum
remove account used to install everything
clear recent app history
delete the home screen app data.
open the new account setting
lock phone.
ship it
hope it arrives in less than 3 days which is what it took here to drain the battery :D

now when the phone is taken out of the box, it will have (almost) the same as the welcome screens as the phone is factory reseted, but will keep the apps installed. It will prompt for new/existing account, pair with wifi, and show all the home screen apps hints.

and i was spared the work of adding a few extra apps to the cyanogemMOD image and ship the phone 'factory' reseted.  much easier that way :D


How do I edit contacts in Android 4.4? On my Android 2.3 phone I've exported my contacts and imported them on my new Android 4.4 phone, a Motorola G. Unfortunately, I found no way to edit the contact. When I open the "phone" application from the main screen, I click "All contacts" (translated) to get the list of all contacts. But as soon as I click on one item, it dials. Click-and-hold does nothing - no context menu occurs. How to edit the contacts (name, phone number)?

Don't use the phone/dialer app to edit contacts: use the main People app (it's called Contacts on some non-Nexus phones). From that app, when you click the contact you want, it displays that contact, and you can click the pencil icon on the action bar (at the top) to edit the contact. (The icon might look different on your phone, because most manufacturers replace the People app with their own variant.)

Click on the dial (phone icon). Find the person you intend to text. Select the 3 dot icon on the far right (at the bottom). Select "all contacts". Boom! Just scroll to the contact and select. I hope this gets ironed out as well.


Samsung Galaxy Tab A Keyboard Going Haywire Whenever I write on Word with this tablet, the keyboard always malfunctions, and as I type, the keyboard will often capitalize the letters randomly without me telling it to, or it will finish my words for me. For example if I typed board, and hit space, it would go back and continue my word to say boardgames. Very annoying. Where does this problem come from and how do I solve it?
Thankyou

Clear the data from Google keyboard. Go to settings, apps, Google keyboard, clear data.


Volume limit specific app? Is there an app that will let me set a maximum volume on JUST Spotify? Spotify at 100% is a LOT louder than YouTube at 100%. I never want to listen to Spotify at 100%, but occasionally I do want to do so for a YouTube video.

I'm asking because a few times, I've accidentally pressed and held the volume up button when listening to Spotify--I think I may have already seriously damaged my hearing that way.

Volume Limiter

I stumbled upon your question googling the same thing


Facebook Messenger always crashing I have a Dell Venue 8 tablet with Android 4.4.2. Today the Facebook Messenger application started to crash whenever I try to open it.

The crash doesn't happen in my phone (a Moto G running Android 4.4.4 and the same version of the FB messenger). From what I understand, libhoudini.so is the ARM emulation layer (this tablet is a x86 device).

No other apps (not even the main Facebook app) seem to present the problem.

I tried cleaning its cache/data and uninstalling/reinstalling it but didn't work. What else besides resetting the device can I try?

Well (almost 1 year later), apparently this doesn't happen anymore. I installed Messenger back a while ago and haven't had any crashes.

Try stopping sync with contacts. In Android settings, stop facebook sync with contacts. Messenger was crashing until I disabled sync. I think there's a bug.


Is it possible to restrict an app's permissions to a specific folder(s) (and subfolders)? When installing an app, depending on the app, access to the filesystem is required and requested at the time of install. Is it possible to restrict this to specific folders(s) and their subfolders? For example a photo editor or diary app: why would such apps need to be able to access the whole filesystem.

If not it might not be a bad idea, security-wise...

Could work in theory.

Every app installed on an android phone is given a user id starting from 10000 for the first app and a group with the same id is created.

BusyBox (and root, maybe?) required!

To get the uid of an app, execute the following in a terminal emulator.

dumpsys package com.example.myapp

Replace com.example.myapp with the package name of your target app.

Format your storage (external/internal) with ext4, assuming you have a backup of all the files.
Restore the backup.
chown and chmod the folders you want to restrict. Basing your restrictions on groups will be a better option.

Again, it's just theory. May or may not work.
If you didn't understand any of the steps, get proper knowledge about them or don't try them. This may cause temporary as well as permanent data loss.


Connecting Android Devices to Windows 7 via Bluetooth I'm trying to connect both of my Android devices to my Windows 7 laptop, to see what I can do with them (file transfer, bluetooth tethering, etc.)

Here is the hardware I'm working with:

Samsung Series 5 Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 / fully patched

Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) 3.0 + High Speed Adapter
Driver: Intel - 2011/12/09 - 1.0.90.20620

Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Google official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean (unrooted)
Asus / Google Nexus 7 with Google official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean (unrooted)

The pairing process between the Android devices and Windows 7 works flawlessly. Here is what I'm doing to pair them:

Put the Android device into discoverable mode (Settings --> Bluetooth --> Tap device name)
Open Devices and Printers on Windows 7
Click Add Device
Select Android device in device list and click Next
When the pairing code is displayed, confirm on Windows 7 and Android device
Pairing is complete

The devices are paired. However, they never seem to connect to each other. I see the device's icon switch between being greyed out and opaque, on Windows 7 Devices and Printers briefly, and eventually it just goes grey. No matter how much I tap on the Windows 7 computer's name in the list of paired devices on the Android device, it does not re-establish a connection.

One function that I tested successfully, is sending a file using Bluetooth File Transfer (fsquirt.exe). When I attempted to send a file to one of my Android devices, initiated from that utility on Windows, the Android device prompted me to accept the file transfer. The Bluetooth icon on Android was still greyed out, however, which indicates to me that the devices are not connected to each other persistently.

Bottom line: Does anyone know how to use Android Bluetooth features with Windows 7?

I located a solution from this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZNPO1gMcoA and thought I would share here since this was the first result when I began looking for a solution.

The problem is that Windows does not detect the Bluetooth serial links automatically.  You can manually point to the standard windows drivers by completing the following steps.

Go to Device Manager
Right click the item under Other Devices labeled Bluetooth Peripheral Device and click Update Driver Software
Click Browse my computer for...
Click Let me pick...
Select Ports (COM & LPT) and click Next
Navigate to and select Microsoft in the left field, pick Standard Serial over Bluetooth link on the right field, and click Next
Click OK on the driver install warning box and it should successfully install the driver

I am unsure of why windows cannot automatically detect this component and install the driver, but this solution worked for me.  Hopefully it will for you as well.

The solution is fsquirt.exe as a previous poster said. Not the nice auto pilot thing we would like, I know. I just used this for xfer of SS to win7 pc.
Link:
http://plugable.com/2013/11/11/easy-way-to-use-bluetooth-to-exchange-files-with-your-phone-in-windows-fsquirt-guide/


How to tell if an app used the internet for local file transfer? My friend uses Send Anywhere to transfer files between her Android phone and tablet. The tablet connects to the internet through a hotspot from the phone.

The app is supposed to transfer the files locally, without using the Internet, but now my friend is claiming  that her SA transfers ate up her whole cellular data pack.

How can we confirm this or rule it out?

We have Opera Max, and I think maybe native Android features as well, which tell us how much data each app has used, but the problem is that they can't tell the difference between data being transferred locally to another device on the same WiFi network, and data actually being transferred over the internet. The same thing goes for the Xposed module Network Speed Indicator.

Things I have thought about:

Looking at the transfer speed: Depending of the speed of ones Internet connection, the speed may differ when local connection is used and the internet is used.
Checking the remaining cellular data allowance from one's operator before and after a transfer.

I have already tried both these approaches on one or two occasions, and what I found is that the transfered happend locally, without the Internet being used for anything other than the innitial "handshake." But the problem is that my friend is now claiming that Send Anywhere comsumed her whole cellular data allowance. If my friend is correct, it would mean that the app is unpredictable and may sometimes use the Internet even though both devices are on the same network (they would have been, my friend has only her one cellular connection and nothing else.)

This is actually not impossible. For example, another app called Airdroid, with some similar functionality, sometimes fails to get a local connection between a hotspot hosting Android device and a connected desktop computer. It then warns me that the two devices are using the internet to connect to each other. However, this only happens sometimes, and refreshing the web app on the desktop device usually solves it.

A similar bug with Send Anywhere may occur, but, like Airdroid, it may only happen occasionally. (It also might not warn me about it, like Airdroid does.) Therefore, it may be difficult to reproduce at any given attempt. Thus, I would like to monitor over an extended period of time how much data each app has used, in a similar way to what Opera Max dues, but I need to be able to distinguish between local data and actual internet data. Opera Max doesn't distinguish. If such monitoring is going on on my friend's device(s), I can be able to see whether it's actually true that Send Anywhere consumed her cellular data allowance.

Any advice?

The devices are both running Android 5.1. The tablet is rooted with Xposed, the phone is not rooted.

This is a common thing. If the cellular data is turned on in the sender device(which creates a hotspot), then it is a wifi which is available to the connecting devices.

An android phone would consume large amount of data in wifi than in a cellular data. So it can be suggested to turn of cellular data while using the specified app.


Is there a way to turn my device on while it's stuck in a boot loop due to a broken power key? I have this old LG Nexus 5 with a broken power key laying around and I want to access storage now. Problem is whenever I hold down the power button it goes into an infinite boot loop. Gets to various lengths of the android boot animation but always fails and starts over.

I know for a fact that the phone has USB debugging enabled.
Phone is not rooted.
I have tried using ADB, however adb devices doesn't list anything and connecting it via USB automatically starts the boot loop without me even holding down the power button.

Is there anything I can do other than take it to some shop?

Thanks in advance

Got lucky and managed to turn it on for just long enough to get my data.


How to extract Google contacts pictures? I would like to have all my Google contacts' pictures extracted in a folder, for instance in JPG format.

I know that it's already possible to export all contacts including pictures, for instance via the Export option in Google Contacts or via a third-party app such as Contacts Backup Ultimate. However, this generates a bundle of all contacts (for instance, a VCF file generated via the Export command above will contain all pictures Base64-encoded). I would like to obtain instead a image file for every contact so that they are easily viewable.

Is there a way to do so?

For Android device follow below steps :

Go to Chrome & visit https://contacts.google.com
Select the contact whose photo you want.
Tap on option, select export & select Google CSV.
Then the file will be downloaded.
Open that file in excel sheet (WPS office or MS office Android app).
Go to column name photo & select and copy the URL.
Paste it on Chrome's address/search bar & hit enter.
The image is opened just press & hold on image and save/download it.

I think this will be helpful to you.

Open the contact. Under the contact name, scroll down for Google Profile. If you right click on the photo, you have the option to save or download the image.


Using wired and wireless headphones simultaneously? I have 1 android device, 1 wired headphones, 1 wireless headphones, 2 ppl willing to watch film.
When I connect both of headphones only wired work.

Is it possible to use both of headphones simultaneously?

i have tried and tried, never works, either use 2 wired earphones or use 2 wireless Bluetooth earphones

Use the adapter that allow to connect wired headset. The smartphone switchs automatically to the wired headphone if inserted.


how to block an OS app popup? Something on my smartphone sends a message once a day, sometimes I see a tiny fast dark background popup on the bottom saying it is doing so.

Such application seems related to the SIM card, as the popup I receive is from my cell phone provider/carrier/operator.

One second later I receive this:

The app name is "Serviços TIM".
That app package name is "com.android.stk" (I found that using Brevent).
It is an OS App.
It has the exactly same version of "SIM ToolKit" (I guess .stk means that), but at apps list it is in an independent entry with it's own options.

The real huge problem is that, when that popup shows and the screen is locked and remains like that for 8h+, the screen WILL NOT TURN OFF and will spend my battery from 100% to 40% or less and I may depend on having the battery at that time! :(. I usually let it out of the charger, and without that popup it would only spend about 5-10% of the battery.

My smartphone J7 is not rooted, I wonder if that would be the only option?

update:

This other app I think is the culprit from sending the message. It already had SMS disabled but not the phone permission! (I have other app to let me read/send SMS btw)

also the SIM toolkit, I force stop it (and disabled all notifications now 2019):

Final result is: none of these actions above worked, the popup still happens :(

I managed to minimize the problem by using the "do not disturb" feature.
By "minimize" I mean that if I am using the phone the popup will still show up, otherwise it wont mess it's battery (neither show up).
I can allow all exceptions least "reminders" apparently.
Obs.: "do not disturb" is not 100%, I think about 10% of the times it will still allow that abusive popup to keep the screen ON for many hours!

The simToolkit app package "com.android.stk" (which I found out using Brevent), is called "Serviços TIM" and seems to be a mirroed/dup (???) package from the default simToolkit.

My next step (as soon that popup annoys me enough) is to try to uninstall that package by using this tip by @Izzy, thx!
How to remove the SIM Toolkit from my phone? (Without root or flashing any ROM)

adb uninstall failed
Uninstall via adb without root
How to disable Google Apps in Mi Phones
Did it finally:

adb shell pm list packages |grep stk

adb shell pm path com.android.stk
adb pull /system/app/Stk/Stk.apk # to backup it just in case

adb shell pm path com.android.stk2
adb pull /system/app/Stk2/Stk2.apk # ...

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.stk
adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.stk2

It seem to me like a flash message. These messages contain only two options- Cancel and OK. If you press OK, the plan mentioned in the message will get activated and it will cost you some money. This can be very irritating.

You can deactivate Flash messages but the process is different for different service providers

you can find the ways to stop flash messages in other operators here and have an idea about your own service provider.


How to hide WhatsApp messages notifications How can I hide WhatsApp messages in notification panel? I don't want to see incoming message preview on my notification panel.

What utility can let me do this?

Go to settings > Apps > Whatsapp
And Uncheck 'show notifications'.

If you go to Settings › Sounds & Notifications › Application Notifications, you can define which apps are permitted to send notifications to your notification area. Look for the WhatsApp entry there, and turn it off – and you should be rid of WA notifications, while all others continue to work as intended.


How to download photos (of others) from Instagram? By download, I mean saving to SD card for later use. I have already explored the app for this option, but without luck. :(

I think, there must be a way to trap from cache.

If you've screenshot based suggestion, please don't answer...

You would need a rooted device to do this.

First Browse the photos you want to download.
Now Open any File Explorer app like Root Explorer.
Navigate to /data/data/com.instagram.android/cache via Root Explorer.
The files here would be named something like ccf3a266.0, copy the file you
want or entire folder and paste it on your sd card.
Now open these .0 files in your PC via a Image viewer like IrfanView. You can sort
the files by size to determine large images.

The .0 files are cahce files and some of these are essentially JPG image files and quality may depend upon your device I believe because it would download compressed image if the device screen/density is small. (That's just a theory).


How do I turn off the power-on sound and camera sound in a Galaxy S II? I have followed several guides and can't get any of them to work on my Galaxy S II. How do I disable these sounds?!

This requires a rooted phone. There is a good guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103399

If you don't have ADB, get the full Android SDK from here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html (it might come in useful multiple times, and all app developers should already have it). Don't trust websites offering ADB alone unless it the official Android site. After installing it, browse to the install directory, then "platform-tools", then open the command line -- on Windows 7, this is done by shift-right-click and choose "Open command window here", then type "adb".

Power-on sound

This sound file is NOT in the standard location for Android (/system/media/audio) so most guides haven't worked for me.

Connect your phone to your computer and open ADB. Go into shell with "adb -d shell". Now become super-user with "su" - your phone must be active and unlocked - a dialog will open which you accept. In ADB again: " mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system".

Now rename the sound files so they can't be found!
"cd /system/etc"
"mv PowerOn.wav PowerOn.wav.old"
"mv 1_Power_on.ogg 1_Power_on.ogg.old"

Restart your phone. There should be no power-on sound.

Disable camera sound

Again. this sound file is also not in the standard Android location (/system/media/audio/ui/camera_clicker.ogg) so most guides haven't worked for me.

First, make your / read-write. In ADB, go into shell then type "cat /proc/mounts", find the line where "/" is the second column, and remember the first column which in my case is "rootfs". In ADB do "mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 rootfs /"

Now you need to edit the root default.prop (that is, "/default.prop"). In ADB: "cp /default.prop /sdcard/default.prop". Copy it from your SD card to your computer (Samsung Kies is the easier way). Add the line "ro.camera.sound.forced=0" and save. Put the edited file back onto your sdcard with the same name. Now "cat /sdcard/default.prop > /default.prop"

Restart your phone. Open the camera app. Taking photos and videos should now be silent.

Just go to sounds and set volume to 0 for system


SD card won't mount when Xperia Neo V is connected to Ubuntu 12.10 I upgraded my Ubuntu set up to 12.10 and realized that the SD card can't mount like it used to every time I connected my Neo V (running android 2.3.4). It can't be a hardware issue as it mounts successfully via a card reader. It also mounts successfully on Windows 7 too.

For some strange reason the phone charges normally when the USB cable is connected but Ubuntu just doesn't recognize the connected phone or its SD card. How do I rectify this problem? Thanks in advance.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1065964

Please add your self to the support bug posted above. This is a known kernel regression in Ubuntu 12.10.

Change USB connection mode to "Mass Storage Mode".


Can't debug with LG Nexus 4 I am at my wit's end here trying to debug using a new LG Nexus 4 developer phone. Debugging is enabled on the phone, and the USB driver from the Android SDK is installed. When I try to run in Eclipse I get a message that says 'No compatible targets were found'.

I have previously used a Samsung Nexus S developer phone, and a Nexus 10 tablet with the USB driver from the Android SDK and it was not a problem. I have also debugged using my Samsung Galaxy S4 using the drivers from Samsung.

I plug in the Nexus 4, and go to Device Manager. In Device Manager, the device is listed as Android Phone > Android Composite ADB Interface. I right-click and select 'Update Driver Software...', then 'Browse my computer for driver software'. I then point it to the '\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver' folder of my Eclipse/Android SDK install, but I am notified that 'The best driver software for your device is already installed'.

I have tried uninstalling the driver, but as soon as I plug the phone back in, my computer automatically installs the driver, and when I go back in to Device Manager to 'Update Driver Software...', I am again told that 'The best driver software for your device is already installed'. And yet still, even after rebooting both my PC and the phone, when I try to run in Eclipse I am still notified that 'No compatible targets were found'.

Any ideas? This device is completely useless to me unless I can get it to debug from Eclipse. A co-worker was able to get it to work just fine on his PC, and we have the exact same PC specs. Please help!

Couple of suggestinos that might work:

First, try to update your Android SDK with the Android SDK Manager. Sometimes, due to a old version, newer phones are not recognized.
I'm assuming you are using Windows. Wich version? x86 or x64? When you go to Device Manager and see Android Phone > Android Composite ADB Interface, does it have a yellow admiration mark? If yes, the the drivers are not installed correctly.
This might be a bit trivial, but have you tryed to reboot your PC and your phone?
Also, what minSDK version do you have in your application set, and what version does your Nexus 4 have?

It could be that MTP interferes with ADB/USB-Debugging:

In my case, MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) was enabled. So I disabled it in storage settings (see: Settings→Connections→USB Connection Mode). Everything works smooth now.


How can I tell if a car stereo's controls can be used with my Android phone? I'm thinking about getting a Pioneer DEH-2200UB, which advertises itself as having controls compatible with iPods. I will be using it with my Samsung Fascinate in my 2005 Honda Civic. Is there any way to tell if a car stereo is compatible with Android Phones (by compatible, I mean the controls can be used to control my Winamp player, or as a last resort, the default player)?

Note: I am asking for a general solution, not one specific to my particular car/stereo/phone combination (though feel free to give me a specific solution in the comments).

If the car unit support the A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles, it should be able to control your Android music player app; both my Droid (FroYo 2.2.2) and my Bionic (Gingerbread 2.3) honor the play/pause and forward/back controls on my Sony MW600 headset.

The Android 2.3 Compatibility Definition states:

  7.4.3. Bluetooth
  Device implementations SHOULD include a Bluetooth transceiver. Device implementations that do include a Bluetooth transceiver MUST enable the
  RFCOMM-based Bluetooth API as described in the SDK documentation [Resources, 32]. Device implementations SHOULD implement relevant
  Bluetooth profiles, such as A2DP, AVRCP, OBEX, etc. as appropriate for the device.

A2DP provides for streaming stereo content, AVRCP provides for remote control support.

Wikipedia entry for Bluetooth

Kenwood just released head units compatible with Android. the kdc-252 is the cheap model


How to find the unboxing date of an Android device? Someone told me that he has opened a phone only 4 days ago, but by the look of it, it is not less than a month.

When trying to buy a used phone, is there any way to check how long this phone is in use? Or the date when this phone is turned on the first time? Or the time of unboxing? Or the time of the first usage?

You can simply go the Service menu of your phone and see the total call time which is very hard to reset. By that, you can assume how long it has been used.

As of Android 4.3 Jellybean, that is the best you can get.

Another option to find the date the device was physically built:

Settings (scroll to bottom) > About phone (scroll all the way down to the bottom again) > build date

Just checked this out on my phone. I unboxed the phone in November 2013, and the phone shows build date from September 2013, so that seems to be it.

model: Droid MAXX

Android version: 4.4


Accidentally cancelled update to 2.3 this morning; how do I get it back? I woke up 2 hours ago and there was the message on my phone (HTC DROID Incredible) that a new update was available and that my phone would restart to download and install the update and of course I click the "Install" button, but the way I was holding my phone was odd and my palm accidentally hit the "Cancel" button as it was counting down to restart the phone and it only got down to 5. Now the update seems to have disappeared. When I go into Settings > About phone > System updates my phone says that my system is already up to date. I also tried doing that *#*#CHECKIN#*#* thing which did not do anything (it said I was checked in but the update didn't come back). I thought the update would have automatically popped back up after 30 minutes but it's been two hours and my phone seems to have no trace that the update was even sent to my phone.

Others are reporting similar issues.  Is your build number 4.06, 4.08 or other?  I would suspect that if you missed the initial rollout you'll have to wait a bit, since they would want to do it gradually and not overload the network.  You might get prompted again later or they might enable manual upgrades at some point.

Verizon says you can update over Wi-Fi, though again it looks to be an automatic thing rather than manual, but maybe you'll get a second notification if you connect to Wi-Fi.

After a week check system upgrade option in settings when u will open the option they will automatically find new system ....their will be writen deceting a new upgrade and if u will get a new upgrade I will get it...it takes 7-14 days or mabe sometimes less....it also happened with me just wait and u will get new one ......be carefull ..


Samsung s4 stuck on logo Yesterday I installed the newest software update for the Samsung galaxy S4(GT-19505). At first, the phone was stuck on a loop of the update 'installing' to 100%, turning on then switching off and repeating. I did a battery pull and removed my SD card. when i went to switch on my phone and it was stuck on 'android is updating. i left it and fell asleep. this morning i switched it on and it started as normal but then froze and got stuck at the glowing 'SAMSUNG' logo. i have tried using the power+up+home to and cleared the cache partition but that did not help. i have also taken out and replaced the battery many times. Samsung Kies also does not recognise my phone. How do I fix this problem? I am a complete newbie when it comes to phones and the technical side of them and would prefer an easy guide as to how to fix my problem/what the problem is.I did a factory reset and wiped all my data with no result.please help.

Hard Reset your phone.. But all your data and apps will be gone..

Turn off the phone. Press and hold at the same time Volume UP,Home and Power keys. When you see Galaxy logo release the Powerstrong text key but continue to hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

Release them when the Android System Recovery screen appears. Use Volume Up/Down keys for navigation and Power On key for OK. Choose "wipe cache partition", "Yes -- delete all user data", "reboot system now".

And click on Wipe Data/Factory Reset

You are done then.


Is it possible to charge phone faster? I know that going to Airplane mode can be useful
But is there any way to charge phone faster?

Turning it off first. Then there's no possible stuff draining energy while it's charging.

Be sure to charge via AC. Charging via USB is much slower.

There's a small chance that the charger you have doesn't draw power as fast as your phone can take it. A charging brick with a slightly higher mA rating might get you some quicker charges, but I think it's unlikely (especially if you're using the charger that came with the phone).

Use DU battery app. By that my phone charges abit quick.I have noticed it alot of times

Link to the app(android) -

http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dianxinos.dxbs&hl=en


Possible to set custom ringtones for Nexus 5 contact groups? I recently acquired my Nexus 5. While I'm absolutely in love with the device, I haven't been able to find a way to set a custom ringtone for specific contact groups.

As a Nexus 5 owner I was not able to do without a specialized 3rd party app (I used Group Ringtone:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/group-ringtones/com.appventive.groupring). This feature seems to be missing in Android.

Try downloading a app from the play store like ringtone maker, it worked for me.


my phone won't reboot from fastboot mode it keeps coming back to fastboot mode I wanted to flash recovery.img in my phone but I accidentally flashed boot.img and now my phone is stuck in fastboot mode.

Download stock boot.img for your phone and flash it using same command


Plus icon in folders - how do I remove? I'm on a Galaxy S6 and recently updated to Android 6. Now in every folder on my home screen I have this annoying plus icon (http://i.imgur.com/SUZSJvv.png) which is meant to select apps to add to the folder instead of having to drag them in one by one.

How can I remove this? I haven't changed the UI from default.

Edit: Turns out this doesn't work anymore after you restart the device...  [Rename the folder to "Google" and the plus will disappear. Then you can rename the folder to whatever you like and it won't come back.]


What happens if I clear data in download manager? What happens if I clear data in download manager? Will it delete all of my downloads?

Not entirely sure what it does. Never really looked into it. But I just cleared data/cache for my download manager on my Nexus 6 and all my downloaded files are still there. Edit Just to clarify, the downloads are still there if you navigate to the folder with a file manager. However they no longer show up in the "Downloads" app.

Device: Nexus 6

Android Version: 5.1.1

this is an old question but the answer is no clear data from download manager will not delete any of your downloads


How do I force the 'showing' of an onscreen keyboard (soft-keyboard) when already 'paired' with a bluetooth keyboard? My question is the exact inverse of this question.

Motivating use-case. I've paired and am using my Bluetooth apple keyboard. Just happy. I'm running ICS, on an HTC- Evo 4G LTE. Then, 7-8 mins later (timeout not yet engaged by default of course), I'm downstairs, and a call comes in. I need to type 2-3 letters to look up something (an email address, etc). and huh?!

How the heck do I in the moment on-the-call type?

At that moment don't remember where I exactly left that apple keyboard (which I could  go back to power off, and only then get a keyboard to show)  Or if I turn off Bluetooth entirely: 'Fail' as that often means I can't then continue to use the darn headset I've got on, or if driving, I'd be illegal (in CA need to have a headset).

If I unpair, seems to get that keyboard (the external Bluetooth apple one) working, I have to re-pair (which, in reality, is really futzy annoying, compared to, e.g. if ignored and the time-out engages, when I then, say a day, or two later, type on that apple keyboard it works instantly instead? not paired).

Regarding the app: "null keyboard" I tried it, and close, but no cigar, meaning: when I'm in a 'text field', in the notifications list, there will appear an 'input method notification' clicking on that and you get a list, and while that list should include something that offers a 'show on-screen keyboard' override, it does not.

The closest thing I've been able to find is developer-centric code examples showing an (apparent) workaround to force this.. but seems to be no app ( yet?!?) that exposes that functionality into the 'inputs methods' drop-down menu. Example.

Update:
 it looks like Tomas's answer is 'the answer', though I'm currently unable to test to be sure. This does strongly suggest that there is no answer available without a rooted phone.

You can use Secure Settings Hardware Keyboard Action to toggle the hardware keyboard. Interestingly, you can still use the hardware keyboard, but the on-screen keyboard still appears.

This is especially useful when you connect a mouse (and no keyboard) and it causes the keyboard to go into hardware keyboard mode.

The simplest way to do this is to create a shortcut on your homescreen. Select the Secure Settings shortcut/widget. Then it will prompt you to select the action. Select Actions > Hardware Keyboard. Then it brings you to a screen with three options: On, Off, Toggle.

On means you go into hardware keyboard mode and no on-screen keyboard will appear. Note, this only works if you actually have physical keyboard connected. It will simply give you an error toast if you don't.

Off means turn off hardware keyboard mode, and an on-screen keyboard will appear when you select text boxes.

Toggle means it will switch from whichever hardware keyboard mode it's currently on.

There are other ways to hook up to Secure Settings Hardware Keyboard Action, which you can learn about in the documentation, and using your imagination and research.

Buzz launcher, as well as other launchers, I imagine, allows you to program gestures to preform certain actions. The issue though is that that gesture will only perform that action from the home screen if you use Buzz launcher gestures... The good thing though is you don't have to root to do it. In addition, of course, if you root the phone you can assign gestures more freely and make them universal so that the gesture performs the action from any app, not just the home screen.


How to remove an image saved as wallpaper from lock screen android 4.4.2 Micromax Canvas 2 colors with android 4.4.2 is my first smart phone and im finding my way around slowly. Please can someone urgently help with my issue below?

Recently i saw an image on a website of google chrome and i clicked on the image and pressed save image. I got a message saying image downloading. later i opened the image from gallary did some size changes as it requested then made it my wallpaper for lock screen.

However I am unable to remove the image now from the lock screen and go back to default image. Please can you help me understand where is the image stored for me to go ahead and delete this image so that it goes back to the default option of the phone, when it allowed the default wallpaper in the screen and if i played an App called Saavan it would put that albums image as the lockscreen image automatically.

Kindly advice.

Regards.

Images Downloaded from chrome are stored in ‘sdcard‘-‘download‘ if you dont have sdcard check in Internal memory's ‘download‘ directory.
After finding Image Delete it and change your wallpaper either from settings->display->wallpaper or by pressing and holding on empty space on homescreen and than selecting wallpaper.

Go to settings, wallpaper, lock screen and find or change the image there.


News & Weather Widget Not Updating I have a news & weather widget on my Nexus S home screen, set to show the weather for my current location. In its settings, I have it set to update once an hour along with automatic location tracking. Neither of these things work anymore since about a month ago (possibly the 2.3.4 update?). I have background data enabled, sync enabled, and I don't have any battery saver style programs.

I solved this myself after trying a few things. I deleted the News & Weather app's data by going to Settings>Applications>Manage Applications>All, Tapping "News & Weather", and then "Clear Data". I needed to delete and re-add the widget and set my refresh settings again, but now it works.

All you have to do is free up your internal memory. Many apps stop working if your internal memory is near full or has reached a certain storage limit. Move vidoes and apps go your sd card and it will start working fine


MicroSD card not recognized anymore by Android phone Recently, I purchased a 32Gb Kingston MicroSD card for my Alcatel Onetouch Pixi running Android 5.1 with all the latest available updates.

When I first inserted the card, everything worked as expected and the phone detected the card. The only odd thing was that, on starup, the phone would display "Optimizing apps" and spend a long time going through 100 or so apps, and this occured at every reboot. Nevertheless, I had access to the storage, so I tried moving a couple apps to the MicroSD. This seemed to work but I eventually got some errors while trying to move apps, even when trying to move them back to internal storage. I had to reinstall a couple of apps, but everything else seemed to work fine.

A bit later, I noticed that the "optimizing apps" screen didn't appear anymore, so I checked and the SD card was not detected anymore. There was no difference between having the SD card in the phone or not. However, my computer could detect the card just fine. Other android devices also detect it normally. I have tried another MicroSD card and got the same result.

I tried cleaning the card gently, reformating it, and resetting my phone, but nothing worked. The MicroSD card should be compatible with the phone according to the infos I found online, which would be logical since it worked at first.

Is it possible to make the card functional again?

Is there an overheating issue in the phone/card combination, maybe? Some other compatibility issues (timings/delays) might play into here.
(I had a similar issue with a 128 GB SD card on a Samsung s5mini, the card disengaged during use)
My solution was to exchange the card for a different (well known) manufacturer/type.
You could try doing this temporarily at first with a card from somebody you know.

You could try testing your SD card for hardware errors on PC with H2testw (download source with high reputation) app,
no formatting needed. Just reformatting the card doesn't force the storage controller to actually access higher sectors on the card, so this doesn't give information about the card being physically ok.

I had an issue like this with the S4 (LTE), and in the end it was the actual tray.

But when it comes to external media in android there isn't much I can think of what could be a software issue.

Have you installed anything lately? - If so remove it

If you have updated, try resetting the phone (do not update it) and then try and put the card in, if you want a step-by-step guide of backing up apps (photos backup automatically if you attached your google account).

Sorry if I couldn't be of assistance!

Hope you resolve the issue and have a great day


Can I install Google Chrome on a Kindle Fire HD? Is it possible to install Google Chrome on a Kindle Fire HD? I searched the Amazon store and didn't see it there.

Yes. According to the guide here on sideloading apps onto your Kindle Fire HD it should work fine. You will need to allow the installation of apps from unknown sources which can be done in the Device menu. Note that for certain apps, including Chrome, that need a Google account you'll need to download and install the Google Framework and to reboot your device.

I'll provide a quick summary of the link that explains side loading:

The first thing you need to do is install a file manager app. I personally use File Expert, but you can use whatever works for you.
Next you need to get the app file. You can find it by searching on Google: (app name) apk. So in this case you would search 'chrome apk', there's plenty of links from that.
Once you have those, navigate to the Downloads folder with the file manager, and tap the .apk file. Click Install, and you're set!
You can find the app in apps>device, it will not be in Cloud.

Yes, but you may need to Flash a custom ROM, I think that Google Chrome requires ICS or better, but I am not sure, it may be specifically unavailable to your device or your devices stock firmware.
If you would like a custom ROM, then you'll need to start by rooting your phone.


Bootloop using Sony Xperia Arc S (LT18i) Hey guys so I'm in boot loop. Yes I know there are many guides all over saying how to fix it but I have tried many of them and they didnt work.

What happens is I start the phone, it shows the boot image and then restarts after a time.

I can boot into the Recovery mode by spamming the back button when the Logo comes. And can install zip files from the SD card.
I also have tried flashtool to restore it to stock but when i try flashing it detects my device "Device connected in flash mode" but when i try toflash it, it gives an error "Error flashing. Aborted".

Any help?

I have just repaired the boot loop of my Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (LT15i, boot loop caused by activating Bluetooth !!) just by unlocking the bootloader of my phone - by following these steps:

I retrieved the IMEI-Number of my phone. It's on the sticker under the battery - it's the 15-cypher-number beside the serial number.
I went to http://developer.sonymobile.com/unlockbootloader/ - selected my phone type, input an email address, and received a unique link from Sony by doing so.
Following this link I could type in my IMEI number (without the last cypher !! - that means only 14 cyphers - and without the hyphen).
The website emitted a code and a software line like this one:

fastboot -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0xTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

(All the T's stand for the code, the rest has to be typed in like this.)
I copied the above line in the program fastboot (check elsewhere to learn how to work with this program and your phone). I typed in the above line given from the Sony website. After a few seconds the bootloader was unlocked.
I restarted the phone, and then Android 4.0 was working again !!

Try reflashing your custom ROM and clear Dalvik and Cache and do a factory reset after that . And make sure you are flashing a ROM compatible to your device.


How to check an application's checksum or hash on Google Play? Some free applications on Google Play are limited to the United States so the rest of the world has to use dodgy sites to get them. However the security of such sites are questionable as the apps might be modified and contain some kind of malware.
Is there a way to get the SHA or MD5 hash of the apk file from the play store so it can be compared with the downloaded one to make sure that it's safe?

The  Guardian Project's free and open-source app Checkey does much of what you're looking to do.

via F-Droid:
"Checkey is a utility for getting information about the APKs that are installed on your device. Starting with a list of all of the apps that you have installed on your device, it will show you the APK signature with a single touch, and provides links to virustotal.com and androidobservatory.org to easily access the profiles of that APK. It will also let you export the signing certificate and generate ApkSignaturePin pin files for use with the TrustedIntents library."

The only way is if you first download it then find its MD5 or SHA1 hash.

Or, use the site http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ but you have to use the full qualified name of the app.


How to read contact details sent from iphone? When someone with an iPhone sends me a contact, it appears as a blank MMS message. I found that this happens because group chat is on on their end, but these people are not always my friends, so I can't tell them to turn it off.

Is there a way to read these messages?

Some Android devices does not have support for handling MMS or SMS vCards in their native texting app. That is why you see it as "content not supported" or even blank message.

You can use third pardy app to handle MMS vCards if your Android device does not support it by default too. Search on Google Play. I've created such an app bizCard Manager. There are plenty more that handle SMS vCards but I've not found any that has MMS support.

Try Textra. This texting app also allowed me to import vcards in existing messages.


Memory settings menu inconsistently shows internal storage half-empty and completely full at the same time I own a sony xperia tipo that has around 2 gigabytes of internal storage.

Today, I got a warning that my phone's internal storage is full, while using google currents, so I went to the storage menu in the settings, to take a look, and I saw that the calculated amount of used memory in the internal storage section was a tiny bit over 1gb. This didn't sit well with the fact that  the reported free space was only 2mb instead of one giga and a half, as I thought it ought to be.

Trying to update apps that reside in the internal storage fails with an "insufficient memory" error.

I have no idea about what the problem might be and how to solve it, but I would like to try and avoid a factory reset, if that is possible.

Any help is greatly appreciated and thank you in advance for it.

EDIT: Here are two screenshots where you can clearly see that the total used space and available space do not add up to 2.15GB as they should but are only around 1gigabyte.

I have no idea what could be responsible for this phantom gigabyte, but one would think that the amount of memory the OS uses would have been subtracted from the "total space" and from the "phone memory" entry (not shown here) instead of the internal storage.

(I removed some apps to free up a few megabytes of memory)

Devices with internal SD cards / memory (for instance, my Galaxy S3 has 16GB), are split into many partitions.

4GB goes for OS/bootloader/recovery/system/etc

12GB is partitioned into /dev/mmcblk0p15 and mounted on /data

/data contains 4 main folders:

/data/app
/data/data
/data/dalvik-cache
/data/media

/sdcard (aka your user-available storage) is not a real partition, its actually a 'symlink' of sorts to /data/media

So the settings->storage (and a lot of apps, eg; ES File Manager), will report 12GB as your "total" partition size for /sdcard, even though your "sdcard" actually has 12GB - app - data - cache = 10.5GB (in my case) space available to it.

You need to be rooted, and use an app called "DiskUsage" from google play.. It will show you where your used space is going. Hope that helps!

Not a solution, but look at the difference between an apps memory usage when its on the internal memory, then on the phone memory. I have an app taking up 1.39 mb on the internal, move it to phone and suddenly it's 33 mb. Why it hides all this memory I don't know.


Whatsapp contact names not showing; just numbers on Samsung Galaxy S3 My Samsung Galaxy S3 has been freezing. On my Whatsapp, the contact names are gone. All it shows are contact numbers.

Is there a way to fix this problem? Is there a way to stop the phone from freezing?

Make sure whatsapp has permissions to allow it to look at your contacts.

Initially you may have added an account in your phone and later changed that account. There can be a problem of sync.


How to clear the data usage? I'm using Android KitKat. I'm not able the clear the data usage of mobile data (Mobile) as well as Wi-Fi. Is there any option to clear the data usage in rooted and non-rooted Android devices?

(Click image to enlarge)

Somebody Please do help. Am using Non-rooted Android Device.

On a rooted device, go to /data/system/netstats/ and delete all the files there. Reboot the device and the data history would be gone. Worked on Android 4.2.1 and 5.0.2, and maddisonj and Beygi reported it works on 4.4.2 and Android 8.0 as well. It clears both SIM data as well as of Wi-Fi.

This would not reset the current cycle you would be having. I believe /data/system/notification_policy.xml manages it, so you can edit it out if that cycle also bothers you.

(Click image to enlarge; image order: before and after deleting the files)

On a non-rooted device, factory reset seems to be the only choice.

You just have to do that disable your app then enable again all the data usage history will reset automatically


Importing contacts from other phone to Moto G I want to export my contacts from Micromax Q7 to Moto G. I have moved all the contacts to sim and then imported the contacts to Moto G from that sim. The problem is that each contact have more than one number but Moto G is showing only 1 number.

How can I get those other numbers linked with the contacts?

SIM cards only support one number for each contact, so you should be better off exporting the contacts on your Micromax device as Contacts.vcf (export to SD card / something like that) and opening the VCF on your Moto G to commence import.

I'd recommend using Motorola Migrate

The description says:

  Move stuff from your old phone to your new Motorola smartphone.


App not available for your country I'm currently in my home country. I purchased my android mobile from the same, i.e. Huawei Mate 10 Lite.

I want to install an application (FOODPANDA) which is also available in my country but unable to do so. There appears a message "App not available for your country" and Play Stores does not allow me to install this app.

Your urgent piece of advice will be highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Google Play support says:

You can only change your Play country once per year.

When you change your country, you won’t be able to use your Google Play balance that you have in your old country in your new country.

So, avoid Google Play and use another market app. I suggest either:

APKPure
Aptiode

Both allow auto-updating apps.

Install a VPN app from the store and hide your location play store won't recognize your location if you do that and remember to disable GPS


How to adjust the threshold for the "storage low" event? There's almost no Android user (and certainly no regular visitor of our site) who hasn't heard of the "insufficient storage" error – or even experienced it him/herself. That there must be at least 10% of storage free on /data sounds ridiculous at least when the total space on that partition goes at or beyond 8 GB. Thus we quite frequently have questions on this topic here.

On one of the latest I've done some investigation of the relevant code, and discussed that in my answer. Let me quote the relevant code-block (taken from the latest code) here again:

 * This class implements a service to monitor the amount of disk
 * storage space on the device.  If the free storage on device is less
 * than a tunable threshold value (a secure settings parameter;
 * default 10%) a low memory notification is displayed to alert the
 * user. If the user clicks on the low memory notification the
 * Application Manager application gets launched to let the user free
 * storage space.

Now please focus on lines 2+3:

  If the free storage on device is less than a tunable threshold value (a secure settings parameter; default 10%)

(emphasis mine). So here comes my question:

TL;DR: If that threshold is tunable, how to tune it?

Is it something in settings we overlooked all those years? Is this supposed to be "tuned" by the "ROM bakers" only? Or, taking the hint of a "secure settings parameter", is there some app utilizing the WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission to take care of that? By which means are we supposed to address this (if at all)?

Low storage threshold is the minimum value of the two:

sys_storage_threshold_percentage (default is 5%, was 10% on Android 7 and older). It's multiplied with the total storage size to get threshold value in bytes. This setting is there since the early days of Android.
sys_storage_threshold_max_bytes (default is 500 MiB). This setting was added in Android 4.

In JellyBean both settings were moved from secure namespace to global. And the logic to calculate low threshold was moved from DeviceStorageMonitorService to StorageManager.

If the 5% of total space on /data is greater than 500 MiB, the threshold is always 500 MiB. In order to set the threshold to even smaller value, e.g. to 100 MB:

~$ settings put global sys_storage_threshold_max_bytes 100000000

You need to build your own kernel with preferrable settings, this option not writable by "normal_apps".


Backup of apps and their settings I learned about Titanium Backup but I don't have a rooted device yet.

I'd still like to backup all my installed apps and their settings - will the default Google backup:

What does this backup exactly?

Sorry if this has been answered before but I really couldn't find it on quick search. So maybe it won't hurt to have my post here.

I see that my best option is adb (Full Backup of non-rooted devices) though... but I still don't know what the default Google backup does then... and why it's not enough...

install Helium - App Sync and Backup & APK Extractor (to backup your APK) from playstore it might help you but it will not save your settings


How can I make two Android devices show the same video simultaneously? I would like to attach two Android tablets to the back of my car head rests so that my two children can watch films on long journeys.

I want them to be watching the exact same video at the same time, and I want them to be as in sync as possible, because the sound will be played over the car's speakers.

I am open to any solution: whether it's having a separate machine as a streaming server running Windows, Linux, or another Android tablet. Another solution might be that the two devices have both have the files on them, but control data is being sent from one device to another - master/slave style. In a truly ideal world, it would be controllable by a device by someone sitting in the front, but that's a nice to have.

My question is - are there any apps that allow any of these scenarios? I have been looking for about three hours myself and haven't found anything.

nb: Pressing play simultaneously on the two devices is not a viable option, and neither is getting the children to wear headphones.

VLC works perfectly for me :)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.codejugglers.android.vlchd&hl=en

Did you tried this link? It uses Moboplayer and ES file Explorer.
http://apcmag.com/how-to-stream-video-to-an-android-device.htm

Davy

You can use upnp monkey for android. it can stream to multiple devices


Multi-user option not avilable in Android one after Lollipop update I have Karbonn Android one phone. It is updated to Lollipop 5.1. I read that multi-user option is available in Lollipop. But in Settings the Users option is not available.

How can I enable it? Is it not supported by Android one phones?

It is supported, but you must have rooted device.

Download file manager that allows root access(for example: ES File Explorer)

Navigate to /system/

Backup build.prop

Add these lines at the end of build.prop file:

fw.show_multiuserui=1

fw.max_users=5

Save and reboot device

If something went wrong, restore build.prop backuped version from recovery.

Some models don't support that feature and your phone is one of them.


Android Memory Problem So I had a problem with my memory today. I recently rooted my Samsung Galaxy Trend (GT-S7392) with RootGenius 1.8.7 I rooted my phone because I wanted to transfer apps to my ext sd card since Samsung Galaxy didn't support transferring apps to ext sd.

After rooting my phone, everything was fine, except I found out that my internal memory is full, so I checked it what was wrong with it and I saw that my system memory is taking all my space on internal memory. I dont really know what was the cause of it and my question is how to fix this?

-Total Space: 4.00 GB

-System Memory: 4.00 GB

-Applications: 210 MB

Sorry for my grammar, english is not my first language :)

Thank you in advance!

The best solution would be format your mobile. There can be too much waste data in system memory.Or clean the system by using some cleaning app. There can be any number of reason behind this. BTW I would say that your mobile is outdated. In android, 512 ram and 4gb memory is not gonna do anything. It is gonna create problem again and again.


Nexus 5: /storage/emulated/0 not mounted Everything was working fine, and then one day I noticed some errors coming from Google Play store and I couldn't access any of my media. It seems that my external storage in /storage/emulated/0 is not mounted and that applications are looking for data there and not finding it.
I'm using MultiRom, so I flashed a new CyanogenMod 11 ROM and the same thing happened.
I tried CyanogenMod 12 ROMs but they don't seem to boot at all.
I also noticed that my date and time were not right and Whatsapp kept on telling me my date and time are not accurate even though I set them correctly.
I also installed Ubuntu on my phone using MultiROM and for some reason it appears to still be working fine so far so for now I'm using that.
Can anyone help me with this?

OK, so I finally fixed this problem.
I wiped my phone completely after backing up my data and I used fastboot to flash an all new recovery image and installed a new ROM but still the problem persisted.
Then I noticed that in the recovery I keep getting: "error mounting /persist".
I found and followed this link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guide-to-fix-persist-partition-t2821576
And the problem was fixed!

try rebooting to recovery mode(assuming you have custom recovery installed) and mount data from there. hope it helps.


Samsung Galaxy S disconnected during Kies firmware download The phone will not work at all now and only shows an icon depicting the phone and a pc connected with an exclamation in the middle. I have taken out the battery etc but to no avail. The PC now doesn't recognise the USB connection.

What do I do now?

From the comments it sounds like you've gotten back to Download Mode, so that's good.  If not, try different button combinations in conjunction with battery removes and being plugged/unplugged into USB.  Something should get you there.

Once you're in Download Mode you're probably going to need Odin to fix your device.  You can use my instructions here for Odin.

From what you have written it appears that your phone has been "BRICKED."  The computer that you were using to perform your KIES update via the USB connection was not capable of handling the update and unfortunately your phone has become inoperable.


Did I just brick my HTC One X So today I unlocked bootloader on my HTC one X then flashed CWM recovery then attempted to install cyanogenmod. It said in the recovery that zip file installed successfully, but when I reboot it is stuck at the cyanogen logo boot screen. I did a full wipe before I installed the ROM. Now I cant use adb, device not detected, can't install another rom because I cant use the phone storage. All I can do now is go to the recovery or bootloader screens, the device is detected by my pc though. Did I just brick my phone? any leads to what I should do? I can lock/relock bootloader and flash the recovery

Don't panic. Try this:

On your computer, browse your ROM .zip file, there should be a file named boot.img at top level. Extract it somewhere on your computer.

Plug your phone into your computer via USB cable.

Boot your phone into bootloader mode. (Power + Volume Down button for 5 seconds.) At bootloader screen your phone should say FASTBOOT USB.

Assuming you know where your fastboot.exe is on your computer, issue this command in cmd:
path/to/your/fastboot.exe flash boot path/to/your/boot.img

After that restart your phone and see if it can boot into your ROM:
fastboot reboot

You Need
WinDroid HTC One X Toolkit
HTC One X (At least 50% charge)
Windows XP - 8.1
USB Cable
Read this XDA Thread this Can Help You..


How can I root my Sony Xperia Tipo Dual without a PC? I need to root my Xperia Tipo Dual, but I can't connect the phone to a PC, Is it possible to get root without connecting it to a computer?

You may want to look at this question: How Can I Root my Sony Ericsson Tipo Dual?

The short answer is no, you need a computer.

Actually that would be hard as Google has banned applications which provide rooting for device warranty concerns.
So actually you should search a bit on Google and you may get a site providing easy rooting tools. but you will need a pc.


Any success with external microphones for Android phones or tablets? What's the best way to record a video with high quality audio?  Specifically, this is for a presentation where a microphone could be placed by the speaker.  I know that an app that records with the right codec is necessary, but what about the microphone?

I'd prefer to use a USB mic but, even though Android 3.1+ supports USB host mode, it doesn't appear that this is easy to accomplish.  What about a 3.5mm microphone - would that yield acceptable results, or would it be better to stick with the built-in microphone?  Are any of the video-recording apps capable of handling the microphone?

It's not a USB mic, but I have found a solution for external mic via 3.5 mm jack.

Look at my answer on this question:
How do I use an external microphone with my Galaxy Nexus?

When you put your android on flight mode u need to go to the setting and put it on mp3 headphone mode, itdeends how sencitive ur android is. And if ur android is not sencitive then you have to go and speaxk to the android network.


How do I forward a text with a link? I'm using Motorola Moto E (first gen) running Android 5.1.

I'm fairly new to Android, I know I could forward message if I tap and press on the message for a while, wait for the dropdown menu to pop up and then tap on "Message".

The problem is, if there is a link in the message body, no matter where I tap on the message - it gets me to that website instead of showing this context menu.

How do I forward this type of text?

Just long press on the message, its should either highlight and give you the option of forwarding or select text, then just select all and paste it on a new message body

We can able to do that by long pressing the message which(blank space) below the human face.


How can I view SMTP headers in the Gmail app? I'd like to view the full SMTP headers of a message in the Gmail app, but I haven't found a way to do so. I've also tried the Web client, but it displays a tablet-specific view, even when I've checked "request desktop site".
How can I view SMTP headers in the Gmail app?
If relevant, the device is an Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Sadly there's no such option in the official Gmail app.

You can try using a third party mail client with more options such as K-9 Mail: http://k9mail.org/

Well, yes SMTP headers can be seen over the Gmail apps.

Login to your e-mail account (Which I am sure you are logged in over your Gmail app).
Click over the email you wish to see headers on.
On the upper right portion of the message box, you will see a Reply or Reply-to-All button, with a small downward pointing arrow.
Click the small arrow.
You will see the message sub-menu, and an option for "Show Original"
Click "Show Original"

Is that you are trying to do ?


Where does Android store the "default application for file type (open with)" settings? Where does Android store the default application settings that connects each type of content with a designated application?
I mean which application open each kind of file or content type so if I got two PDF readers and I downloaded a PDF file android will use one of them without letting the user an option to choose.

I know I can clear the default settings of an application but it's not what I'm looking for.

I want to find the table/database/file that android uses for this.
Is it in a sqlite database file? Where is it stored ?

On Jelly Bean, the preferred activities are stored in the XML file /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml for the primary user. Other users have their user ID in place of 0 in that path. If encrypted file system is enabled, it starts with /data/secure/system instead of /data/system.

Other than through the PackageManager service, this file can only be accessed by root. You can see the code that reads and writes the file (and thus infer the format) in the class com.android.server.pm.Settings.

If I had an image file in my sdcard, I would open it via QuickPic because that is my default gallery viewer. If I wanted to switch my default gallery viewer, I would go to Settings -> Apps -> QuickPic -> "Clear Data" and then I would be able select how to open an image file again.

Therefore, Android seems to store the default application data within the program's data files that is being used.


Google Play Store says "No connection" I was using Freedom app and then one day Google Play Store stopped working in my device. It says "No connection" now.

I have done everything I could,

I uninstalled Freedom app
Force stopped Google Play
Cleared data & cache
Factory reset my phone too.

Nothing seems to work. How do I fix this issue?

Since your phone is obviously rooted just install ES File Explorer (maybe you can do it with others but I know for sure you can do it with this). If you can't download it just get the apk and put it on your phone through your computer. If you factory reset your phone you'll probably have to install SuperSU again as well.

Enable root explorer in ES (you can find it in the bottom of the hamburger slide out here):

(Click image to enlarge)

Then go to /system/etc and open the file called hosts here. Just tap it and choose open as Text > ES Note Editor.

Then tap the three dot menu on the right, choose edit, and delete everything except 127.0.0.1 localhost.

Basically make it look like this:

Save, reboot your phone and it should work again.

The hosts file is basically a file that specifies all the addresses that your phone will not connect to at any cost. Freedom adds the addresses for Google Play to this list because it doesn't want your phone to verify your 'purchases' with Google Play. So removing the addresses for Google Play from the hosts file fixes your problem.

Easier soln ...just disable freecore in freedom and stop the app and your done.


Fixing "Unfortunately, DMG has stopped working" on Lenovo tablets My Lenovo IdeaTab S6000H tablet running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean had worked fine before yesterday when suddenly it turned off, and after a restart, it has shown this message periodically:

Unfortunately, DMG has stopped working

I also did a factory reset, but after turning it on, the same error message has been showing again.
How to fix this error?

You should check the mounting state of sdcard, maybe it’s broken. Suggest to call the customer service phone for examining further.

Its an malware app. Go to settings >apps>all apps>DMG>force stop>disable or uninstall


How do I download a ROM from a Samsung Galaxy S3? I have two identical Samsung Galaxy S3 (model GT-I9300), one running the stock rom and one running cyanogenmod. I want to download the rom from the one with the stock one and install it on the other one.

How do I download, with Odin or Heimdall, the rom from the stock S3?

You mean to take the Firmware (FW) out from the stock-FW phone and put it into the other one as-is? to have two identical-FW phones?

The confusion is in download/upload words, when you put the phone in bootloader mode it's saying "Download mode". From the phone's point of view, it's going to download stuff from PC.
If you want to take out the FW. It would be upload.

That's why it's safer to say flash and dump. Even though it's not really flashing.

It's somewhat possible to dump the FW, but there is usually no reason for doing so. Download the same version from the Internet and you'll end up with exactly the same system files as on other phones with the same FW version.

How to find specific firmware version on the Internet

On the stock-FW phone, go to Settings -> About Device -> Build number
and take a note of the second part of the number. It'll be something like I9300UBUGOD1
That also includes CSC version. Now search for this version on these two sites:
Samsung-Updates
SamMobile
or put it into Gugl, usually something cames out.
Flash it to target phone from PC using Odin. No root required.

To dump firmware from a phone

There could be a way to dump the phone without rooting, but no one knows how. We can only assume this possibility because there is a disabled option to Dump in Odin program. But I tried, as many others, with factory rooted phone, developer phone or one with unsecured test pre-release firmware version, the dump option is never available in the Odin program.
It's either just for some very special pre-release FW, or it was never implemented in the Odin software, or it was planned and never finished in phone's bootloader, because for no real usability perhaps? Or it must be activated by some special cable, or button combination presses.
Or it was put there by engineers in Korea just to taunt curious hackers.
I believe the latter, as even in new FW, if you dig in bootloader resources, you'll find a graphics showing green Android taunter with words "Upload mode".

So this is a known way to dump FW anyway:

Note that you'll need to root the stock-FW phone, to Dump it.
Firstly we need to find out which files we need to dump and then flash:
Open firmware's TAR or TAR.md5 file of any version of THE SAME model using 7zip and look inside. Note the names of files included.
Later you'll need to rename files you'll dump to the same names as those in this TAR. There is much more partitions that you can dump, than those you can flash. Files which are inside TAR should be enough to fully flash a phone, but not always all partitions are included, sometimes they leave bootoaders out.
In the list on the bottom I marked those which are never included by -
and those which I remember seeing in TAR files by +
Use that list to rename dumped files which you want to flash by Odin from Partition Name to Flash Filename, or get this list from your phone by following method. Be aware that you must not flash PIT and EFS, but you might dump it to have a backup.

To get a list out from your phone:

get Heimdall
connect phone
switch driver to libusb
in Heimdall - Utilities - Download PIT file
switch driver back by removing libusb in Windows Device Manager
alternatively download PIT from the Internet, but you'll need to trust whoever is posting it that it's not from another phone, version, or broken
go back in Heimdall
use printpit to print your PIT file
Note each entry which contains both: "Partition Name" and "Flash Filename"
EXCEPT PIT and EFS partition. Make a backup but DO NOT FLASH PIT or EFS from one phone to another.

Now we have a naming scheme, Partition Name is how the file with partition will be dumped, and Flash Filename how it should be re-named before flashing.
Note that some partitions are not documented and there is no knowledge outside of the factory of what are they for. They might be for storing specific phone's information, or calibration data calculated and flashed once in factory for each phone.
Flash only partitions you'll find in stock TAR files.
Those not-in-TAR-file should be flashed only as last resort, when you know that those on target phone has been damaged. And always backup them before flashing new ones over them.

Make this dumping step on both target and source phones. On target just to have an backup.

root the phone
flash custom recovery TWRP recomended, but not working well on some models
boot into recovery
plug on PC, use adb or qtADB to go to /dev/block/platform/folder_with_different_name_in_each_phone/by-name
dd or use qtADB to copy "files" except USERDATA from that folder to media partition, sdcard, or UFD using USB OTG

Next on PC (or check alternative below):

rename all files according to flash files naming scheme
if you add recovery partition dumped from the rooted source phone, it will change targed status to custom, making KNOX disabled, same as if you just rooted it. If you don't want that either include official recovery from the same version of stock FW, or if there is working partition in the phone just don't include recovery in the TAR flash
on a linux machine or in cygwin Tar those files into TARball using ustar mode
no need to md5 it, as you probably trust yourself that you won't damage the file. but if you must than md5 it and concat hash to the end of TAR, rename to TAR.MD5
flash in Odin, no root required

Alternatively, but only for rooted phones, you can use dd on target phone, or MobileOdin.

be very careful, you must NOT flash PIT and EFS partition, even though they are mentioned in PIT file. For each phone EFS contains specific data, some of which are encrypted using some serial number taken from the phone. So each efs only works in the one phone which it's designed for. By flashing it, you'll loose the original one, that's not easily recoverable.

also no need to care about recovery partition, as it's not stock partition but custom, from the rooting process.

I know the DUMP part of this guide is not extra descriptive, but each step would need a separate post. If you're completely lost in it, consider downloading ready FW from the Internet.

s3 FW list dumped using heimdall. Might change with different FW versions:

+
Partition Name: APNHLOS
Flash Filename: NON-HLOS.bin

+
Partition Name: MDM
Flash Filename: modem.bin

Partition Name: SBL1
Flash Filename: sbl1.mbn

Partition Name: SBL2
Flash Filename: sbl2.mbn

Partition Name: SBL3
Flash Filename: sbl3.mbn

+
Partition Name: ABOOT
Flash Filename: aboot.mbn

Partition Name: RPM
Flash Filename: rpm.mbn

+
Partition Name: TZ
Flash Filename: tz.mbn

-
Partition Name: MODEMST1
Flash Filename: nvrebuild1.bin

-
Partition Name: MODEMST2
Flash Filename: nvrebuild2.bin

-
Partition Name: M9KEFS1
Flash Filename: m9kefs1.bin

-
Partition Name: M9KEFS2
Flash Filename: m9kefs2.bin

-
Partition Name: M9KEFS3
Flash Filename: m9kefs3.bin

+
Partition Name: SYSTEM
Flash Filename: system.img.ext4

+ this is CSC, might be left out
Partition Name: CACHE
Flash Filename: cache.img.ext4

+ only sometimes
Partition Name: PARAM
Flash Filename: param.lfs

+
Partition Name: BOOT
Flash Filename: boot.img

+ but you can't Dumb stock recovery as to dump you need root, to get root recovery is usually overwriten
Partition Name: RECOVERY
Flash Filename: recovery.img

Partition Name: PERSDATA
Flash Filename: persdata.img.ext4

+ but contains only crapware, version is connected with CSC
Partition Name: HIDDEN
Flash Filename: hidden.img.ext4

Partition Name: CARRIER
Flash Filename: carrier.img.ext4

- this is /data and INTERNAL STORAGE, aka sdcard, do not dump it's HUGE and there is no reason
Partition Name: USERDATA
Flash Filename: userdata.img.ext4

Partition Name: PGPT
Flash Filename: pgpt.img

- it is included sometimes but to change layout, NEVER FLASH IT might hard brick phone
Partition Name: PIT
Flash Filename: MSM8960.pit

+
Partition Name: MD5
Flash Filename: md5.img

Partition Name: SGPT
Flash Filename: sgpt.img

Depends on what sort of rom you download.

CASE 1: Stock ROM

If you download stock rom (like from Sammobile) then yes, you will need odin to flash it.

NOTE: There is an app called Mobile ODIN (pro version on play store), its the exact odin but it wont need pc. Since your phone is already rooted (you want to install rom on phone running CM right?), you can also try flashing using that. I always flash kernels in case they aren't in zip format using mobile odin. But, warning: I have never tested ROM flashing using mobile odin. Theoretically, it should work since thats the reason it was made. But I am unsure of success and consequences. Proceed at your own risk.

CASE 2: Custom ROM

It would be likely in .zip format. You cant flash that using odin. Now the real trick here is to get it into phone in which you need to install new rom.

Further possiblities:

Possibility 1: Your phone is in bootloop or any such state where it doesn't start.

In that case, get into recovery using volume up+power+home key combination (for phone where you need to install new rom). Set up ADB on your pc.

Transfer the rom file from your stock rom phone to pc.

Connect your phone to PC in which you want to install new rom after booting the phone into recovery.

Open cmd and enter this command->

adb push PathToRomAndFileName.zip /sdcard/

This will push the rom file to your phone, you can flash it using recovery the normal way.

Possibility 2: There is no bootloop, things work normally:

Just download rom to your phone with stock rom, transfer it to your phone in which you want to install it using bluetooth or whatever method you prefer. Go into recovery and flash it normal way.

Easiest Universal Method (whether its bootloop or not, needs external sdcard):

Download rom in your phone with stock rom.

Put in memory card and transfer rom to that.

Now eject memory card and put it in phone where you want to install the rom.

Boot to recovery and install the rom from external sdcard.


Youtube videos open in browser by default When I'm browsing the net using the Internet app (the default browser), youtube links open up in the browser and not in the youtube app. I don't get to choose any option like before. In Applications Manager > Internet there are no defaults set. I tried clearing cache & data for Internet & Youtube app but I still have this problem. Same thing with Facebook youtube links, they open in the browser, no option to have it opened in youtube...it's driving me crazy

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Jelly Bean.

Turns out this problem is also on the HTC EVO (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1688866), something to do with an Apple lawsuit. If I remember correctly, I didn't have this problem when I had Ice Cream Sandwich on.

Also, if I long press a YT link in the browser, no option shows up to open it in the app? What gives?

Try resetting app preferences. Go to Settings->Apps, choose from menu Reset app preferences and confirm Reset apps. This will reset all app preferences.

To reset preferences for specific app (e.g. Browser), choose it in Settings->Apps and press Clear defaults button in Launch by default section.

Next time you try to open YouTube video you should be asked which app to use.

These instruction were verified on pure Jelly Bean (on Galaxy Nexus).

Goto Apps in Settings and clear the youtube app preferences. It will reset your data and you will be prompted to open videos.


New Message error message, PHONE STORAGE IS FULL, but it's not I have a user who receives the "Phone storage is full." message when trying to create a new text message.  It appears immediately when clicking "New Message".  However the user has like 20GB free on his SD card, 6GB free in phone storage and 96MB free in system memory at the time.

How do I stop this obviously erroneous message from appearing?

I checked a couple other threads with similar titles but none included a fix for this.

Also tried restarting the phone of course.

Google Earth and Swype is the problem.

Uninstall the Google Earth and Swype .


Unlocked HTC One X (AT&T) Jelly Bean update I just got my HTC One X from AT&T and have been using it unlocked on T-Mobile. Eventually, will I get the Jelly Bean update, or will I need to root?

OTA updates come also with carrier modifications. So no, you will not


Flash Custom Rom on china tablet I have a chinese tablet with the allwinner a13 chip, that I want to flash a custom rom to. Rom Manager doesn't recognize the device, so I can't install clockworkmod recovery...

So how can I go about flashing a custom rom to this tablet?

same specs as seen here http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/51050-quantex-9-kb901/

Micromax Funbook is a clone of AllWinner A10 chipset based tablet. I once had to flash a ROM and asked this question.

The link that I had used to flash the ROM including the ROM itself are available in the answer.  You could try that flash tool to install a ROM of your choice - but there is a pretty good chance for you to be in trouble if you flash an incompatible ROM.

Follow the 5 steps

Root Your Android phone

To Know how to root it just type [model] root in google & follow it

Install the free app Rom Manager  From clockworkmod in google play
Download the rom You want to try in sd card

4 Flash it

5 Reboot


Transfer large files beween Android device and an iPad mini I have an iPad mini and a Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet.

What is the easiest way to transfer several large files between an Android device and an iPad device?

If you have access to a computer, it might be easier to connect the Galaxy Tab and iPad to it via USB, mount both for file access (not sure how this is done in Apple world, but most Android tablets and phones come with built-in features for accessing storage via USB,) copy the files off the source device, and then copy them to the target.

If you need to do this over wireless connection and have access to the Internet (either via cell data or Wi-Fi,) third-party apps might be an easier solution. For example Dropbox is free, available for both Android and iOS, but has a 300MB file size limit. Google Drive is another alternative, with a free 5GB storage, apps on both operating systems, with file size limit of 10GB each.  There are a myriad other similar services that are available on both platforms, but all of them require Internet connectivity, and usually an account.

For direct device-to-device transfers there are fewer choices.  AirBlue uses bluetooth connectivity on both iOS and Android devices for file transfer.  Unfortunately it's only available for jailbroken iPhones via Cydia store.  Here is another walk-through for file copying over Wi-Fi, but this requires for both Android device to be rooted, and the iOS device to be jailbroken.  Instructions from here are a bit dated, but do not require any rooting or jailbreaking of your devices, just a few apps that are freely available on Google Play Store and iTunes Store.

The best way is to use the Fast File Transfer app from Google Play. It's really good, and you don't need Internet.


How to take a screen shot of my text messges? I know how to take screenshots on my Droid Charge but everytime I go to take a picture of a text message it always goes to the page before and takes the picture. It is very frustrating. If you know any way to help please reply.

For my US Cellular Galaxy S running gingerbread, I had the same problem. When trying to screen capture the text conversation by holding the "back" and "power/standby" buttons, it backs up a screen and takes a screen shot of the message board. I found a work-around. Pull up the message thread you wish to capture. Press and hold the back button. Tap the power/standby button (I know, it will capture the message board). While still holding the back button, tap the message thread you wish to capture. The message thread should now pull up. Press the power/standby button again, and *click", you have your screen capture! This is the only way I have found to do this.

Just hold the home button and the + button down (not too long, though).


what to do if my all google apps are not working properly I need a serious advice from android experts. When I was managing my apps space in my android phone, I accidentally crashed all inbuilt google apps like google account manager, google play services and all related apps of google. If I open any regarding app of google like play store, a popup showing google play not responding properly and google maps not responding properly. This is my problem so please help me to solve my problem.

Its is not necessary to fully wipe the phone. You can go to app manager and reset all google apps to their factory states and update them once they are functional. This is only for not working apps in case you did not get stuck during rooting. If in case you tried to root it, then try unrooting and rooting again and if this does not fix the problem, then do a factory reset.

If you cannot find a gapps package for your device, and clearing data on "Google Play Services" and "Google Account Manager" doesn't work,

Your last resort would be to do a Factory Reset:

Backup your data manually, by copying your pictures to your SD card or computer, then using the adb backup command if you care about your app data. If you want to keep your text messages, export them via SMS Backup & Restore if your Messaging app doesn't have a built-in backup function.
Go to Settings.
Then scroll down and click on "Backup and Reset".
Uncheck Back up my data and Automatic restore.
Press "Factory data reset" and Confirm
Wait for device to reboot


Samsung Galaxy S3 doesn't show SMS notification I need help with a problem in a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.3.

I can't receive SMS notification when a SMS is sent to my mobile phone.

Every time I have to open the application to check if there are unread messages.

Notification flag is active.

I deleted cache data and I restarted the phone pressing the button "Volume up + home + power" and I selected "wipe cache partition" in "Android system recovery", but the problem persists.

Problem solved.
I deactivated Hangouts and now it works fine.


How can I add a shortcut to a particular Google Drive document to my Android homescreen? How can I add a shortcut to a particular Google Drive document to my Android homescreen?

This is the Android analog to this question.  Using a URL doesn't work, since I don't want to open the browser and I want to directly access a Google Drive file I have made available offline.

Could QuickShortcutMaker be used?  Looking through it briefly, (see here) it doesn't look possible because the "intents" used by QuickShortcutMaker don't take arguments such as a filename.

You should be able to do this natively.

Android 3.0 (and below):

In your launcher, press and hold on a blank area and click "Shortcuts". Select "Drive Shortcut", then your document, and it will create a link for you.

Android 4.0 (and above)

Open your app drawer and jump to the Widgets section. Swipe until you get to "Drive Shortcut". Long-press and drop on your desktop. Choose the account to use (if necessary) then select the document.

add to home screen no longer appears.

workaround was as some one suggested above, to create shortcut via launcher -> select google drive in the list -> and then google drived opens allowing us to choose folder and file press SELECT and voila shorcut to a specific google drive file in your android screen.

hope this helps.


How do I make older images in my /sdcard/DCIM folder show up in Gallery? I've tried a few builds of Android Jelly Bean coming from Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and one common thing that happens is that Gallery will only show pictures taken after the ROM installation. The images themselves are still in the /sdcard/DCIM folder, but they are just not showing up in Gallery.

My phone is a Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

This behaviour is not uncommon, sadly.

I use SDrescan to fix it usually.

Here are some other questions targeting the same underlying problem:

The music player keeps displaying deleted songs. How do I remove them or refresh the library?
Picture Gallery Slow & Won't Refresh on HTC G2 w Android 2.3 Gingerbread

I also found this issue for 2 days.
I usually like to have both QuickPic and gallery.
As I like Gallery Slide show. For other features i prefer QuickPic.

But for Last 2 two days it stuck at less num pictures. So i tried clear cache/data of app and media scanner. that b'com even worser. i end up with no image shown.

I fixed the problem by renaming the DCIM folder to something else, say DCIMM. Then I started Gallery and all the images showed up. After that, I could rename the folder back to DCIM and everything was fine.


Can I use Kies with a Samsung Nexus S? Kies is not detecting my Samsung Google Nexus S phone. Any idea why? I want to use Kies to sync my outlook contacts and calendars.

As the Nexus S is a "Pure Google" Android phone it works the way that Google intend Android to be used, this means that it is designed to sync everything constantly via the internet, it doesn't have any built in way to do old-fashioned occasional cable syncs with a PC.

What sort of account is your Outlook connected to?

If it is a corporate account, then it is probably connecting to a corporate Exchange server? If so then, depending on whether your company allow it, you can add your corporate account to your phone and sync your mail/contacts/calendar directly with your company's mail server.

If your Outlook is being used with a personal mail account, with mail coming from your ISP's mail servers (or similar) then you can either redirect that mail to a GMail account, and then sync your phone with that, or use tools to sync your Outlook's mail/calendar/contacts up to a GMail account whenever your PC is on, such as Google Calendar Sync, Google Apps Sync, Google Apps Migration for Outlook or use one of the third party tools that will sync Outlook with a GMail account, like Plaxo.

I believe eldarerathis is correct being that it is a pure google branded experience rather than Samsung but make sure you don't have USB debugging on, which is the problem some people run in to with Kies.


How to get the one-line clock on the lockscreen back on my Xperia running Lollipop? I've just updated my Sony Xperia Z3 Compact to 5.0.2.

The clock on the lockscreen used to be like this:

but now it's stacked like this (two lines):

Is there a way to keep Lollipop but get the old one-line clock on the lockscreen back?

you can try long press clock in lockscreen, and you can choose one line clock and analog clock.

Go to Settings - Lock screen. Under "Display" uncheck "Enable Widgets".


What to do when the Dalvik cache is full but the operating system does not recognize it? I have a strange scenario - my dalvik cache is full of dex files - around 150MB of space, but it appears that the operating system does not recognize these files as related to any application.

I installed an App Cleaner and it says my cache is empty.
I went over some applications I use and saw that according to the OS they have no cache, but when I ls the /sd-ext/dalvik-cache directory I see these applications have dex files.

Can I simply run rm /sd-ext/dalivk-cache/* to solve this? Is there any risk?

Tech details:
ROM: MIUI
SD Extension: A2SD+
Rooted: YES

Don't confuse the App-Cache with the Dalvik Cache: App Cleaner refers to the App-Cache (e.g. cached files from the internet, aka "webcache", or from other components of the app), while the Dalvik Cache's .dex files are placed on app installation (they are an optimized version of the app code). So basically you compare apples with oranges.

As for your problem: e.g. Titanium Backup offers to cleanup the Dalvik Cache. There might be other apps available providing this feature (e.g. SystemCleanup), but in all cases this requires root -- unless you want to do a factory reset, which completely cleans the Dalvik Cache, amongst others.

root phone
delete all files in folder dalvik-cache
reboot phone to  regenerate cache
this deletes useles cache