Can I extract the Stock HTC firmware (Sense) from an M8 and flash it in another rooted M8? I rooted my friend's HTC M8 upon his request and also put TWRP in it. He tried many ROMs, including AOSP, but couldn't live with the bugs. So, he asked me to revert his phone back to stock with Sense on it and the ability to install OTA updates (basically unroot the phone).

I searched a lot over the Internet on how to unroot an HTC M8 but nothing worked. So, I flashed SkyDragon ROM hoping it would be the closest to stock HTC, but it has its own bugs.

My sister also has an HTC M8, which has never been tampered with (no root) and currently runs Android 6.0.1. I've been thinking for some time if I could somehow extract the Stock HTC firmware from my sister's unrooted M8 and put it in my friend's rooted M8. If I could get this latest version of HTC firmware in my friend's phone (even as a flashable ROM), I don't need to worry about future OTA updates, since this is proably the last update for M8. I understand that first I would probably have to root my sister's phone for that, but that's okay if I can just make sure that she stays on pure HTC stock afterward (I would probably need help for this too).

Is there any way to do this? Or it would also be great if someone could post a working method to unroot the M8 and install OTA updates. That way would be much simpler.

I live in India and both the M8s are the international version.

Hey I had the same problem I tried everything. Then I did this - I downloaded ruu file for my m8 and it works like a charm now . You just have to run the ruu file on windows while your phone is connected. Beware finding the right ruu files takes time. And also it requires you to be on the correct mid and Cid that came with your phone (or the developer Cid number 11111111)


How to prevent android system from creating folders on internal storage Is it possible to prevent Android from creating additional folders inside /data/app/

That is, this is the folder where (user-level) apps¹ are installed. So making the whole thing recursively unwriteable will mostly likely break the apps and that's not really what I'd like. (although if you know how to do that I don't mind testing it out) But my primary reason is that I want to prevent any folders from being created there. Specifically the temporary folders that Download Manager is creating there. This is part of my quest to take control over the Download Manager. I can't replace it, so I'm trying different approaches to, well, manage the Manager.

Additional info:
Device is rooted. Storage is internal. Android: v6.0.1, ROM: MIUI 8.5.3.0

¹ meaning the apps (APKs) themselves, I'm not speaking about /data/data/<package_name>/*

The way to prevent creation of new files/folders inside a particular folder is to use the chattr +i command. Using "+i" makes it immutable, preventing changes by anyone, including su, until you do -i .

so doing: chattr +i /data/app

and then running: mkdir /data/app/blah will fail
but mkdir /data/app/com.android.vending-1/blah will work fine

With chmod 744 as a root you ONLY can read/write in the folder /data/app (anyone else is readonly) but I wouldnt want to do this because apps are there located too. But you can only restrict user 1000 which is the system (i think) by doing

cd /

su 1000

chmod -wx /data/app/ -Rv (-R is recursively an -v is verbose)

ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY THAT THIS IS NOT HARMFULL


Galaxy S II GT-I9100G USB connectivity problem I bought a Galaxy S II GT-I9100G two weeks back from Malaysia and it was running on Android ver. 2.3.5. But three days back I saw a 2.3.6 update available and updated my phone using the update option available in the phone. But now when I connect phone to PC via USB it shows unknown device and Windows cant find the driver suitable for it. And so I can't transfer files to or from my PC. Could anyone please help me out here?

My PC is running on Win7 x64.

Worked for me:

Unplug the USB cable
On the cell phone, dial the following number: *#7284# Once the last # is hit, the PhoneUtil application is launched. Choose USB -> Modem and then USB -> PDA mode. The good mode should be PDA. Even if the mode is PDA, switch to Modem and then back to PDA.
Plug the USB cable.

Note:

Repair USB connection for any Samsung Android phone

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV2h5O_qDPE

"Just make sure you use a USB port on the back of your computer. Front ones can be less than perfect as there is cables, noise etc." This fixed my USB connectivity and transfer problems.


How do I stop a Google account from syncing contacts? I have multiple email accounts on my phone. Some are personal emails and one is for school.
The problem is that my school email is syncing all of my school contacts to my contacts. This is a problem for two reasons:

I do not want 2,000+ people that I do not know appearing in my contacts when I search and
I like to keep my school information and personal information separate. I only want to use my school email for email, docs, and drive.

When I go to my account, I unchecked everything except those three options and my school contacts are still synced. If there is anything I am doing wrong or something I can do instead, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

You can go to Settings - Accounts - Google and uncheck "Gmail" to turn automatic synchronization off I think but doing so will stop push notifications about newly received emails and information from your main account won't be synced too.

You should go to Settings - Accounts - Google - your email - contacts to turn sync off.


Apps Disappearing from Home Screen and App Manager Does anyone of you knows why my apps disappeared on my home screen and my app manager? At first, I was just communicating with my friend via the messenger app then it suddenly crashed and my phone turned off. It, thankfully, switched on but the thing is my apps were gone. I tried rebooting my phone many times but they didn't come back. Then I tried installing the apps from my backup (first) then from the playstore but it says "app not installed". What should I do?

I can't tell why your apps disappeared, but I think you're not able to reinstall them because of leftover data files. I used SD Maid to delete data corpses, in order to be able to reinstall some apps after flashing a rom.
Once installed, go to CorpseFinder, scan and then delete the corpses you find. You should then be able to reinstall your missing apps.

Better wipe off your data and system partition and reflash the ROM you're using.


Android dies at 20% battery? It all started about three months ago when my HTC One (M8)'s USB charging port died. At first the port would sometimes not work, you just have to move the cable around a bit for it to charge, then you had to hold the cable down to make it keep charging, and finally device wouldn't charge at all.

The same exact thing happened to my HTC Vivid. When I got the Vivid fixed, the technician said it was water damage.

Anyway, after the local phone repair shop successfully installed the new USB port on my One phone, failing on the first try as it was still in the same condition, everything was fine. For a few weeks. Then the phone started shutting down as if it had no battery left, at 20%. I immediately plugged it into a charger, turned it back on, and the phone read 1%.

Its been doing that ever since. Some days it goes down to 0%, some days it goes down to 20% or 25% and dies.

Here's a screen shot of what is going on.

Under device settings, it says that the battery condition is good.

So I'm just wondering why my phone may be doing this, and what do you think the best option is to fix this.

I tried recalibrating the battery, clearing the cache, and installing a new ROM. None of the above worked.

There could be three reasons to this (not in any order)  :

Battery lived it's life.
Fuel Guage drivers corrupted.  To rule this out, i suggest back up your data and with your recovery wipe clean all Cache and system and flash stock(not sure if you cleaned fully when you flashed a ROM)  If the problem continues, it is likely that it is not a driver corruption issue.
Hardware of battery charging chip gone bad. One possible way of checking this is to see if it is charging and discharging fully in safe mode. If  it  does unlikely to be hardware issue

I would recommend step 2 first and then if possible borrow a battery to check if it is a case of  battery end of life.

All the best and do post the conclusion

In case more people are having this issue but are unable to get the battery working properly, I developed a workaround that shows a low battery warning at any given battery percentage.

Here is the link for the interested: Custom Low Battery Warning


CyanogenMod 12.1 on Samsung i9500 intl caller echo I've installed CM 12.1 nightly (currently nightly 20151013) and people who call me complains that they have an echo, and they hear them selves.

I already tried the following:

Update Nightly (started at 20151008)
Doing a fresh install clearing all cache.
Flashing the modem with different versions (currently i9500XXUBMG9)
Stop "Ok Google"
Changing the voice recognition to "Basic Google recognition"
Try different ROM (PAC Man)
Edit the build.prop and modify the persist.audio.fluence.voicecall=false

I'm 90% sure that the problem is with the noise cancellation, because when I mute my mic the echo on the other side stop.

This problem did not occur on the stock (4.2.2) I had before moving to CM.

On the stock ROM I had an option to enable/disable the noise cancellation, this feature seems to be missing on CM12.1 ROM.

Do you have any suggestions?
Do you know how to enable/disable the noise cancellation?

Update:
I've installed the stock rom with Android 5.0.1 and everything works well.

Thanks,

Liron

I have the same problem with the same rom just lower the call volume two notches down from the max and it works fine


What's the "MTC Мобильная Почта" update on my Samsung Galaxy? What's the wierd looking update that's just turned up on my Samsung Galaxy phone?

"MTC Мобильная Почта" by "OJSC Mobile TeleSystems".

The review section has lots of one-star comments saying its malware etc, but I'd have thought actual malware would look more like something I'd want to install than something wierd in Russian.

Should I be worried? Is this malware or some perfectly normal component buried in the OS that's somehow found its way into public view? Should I install the update?

I did some searching due to the other answer and found someone on XDA claiming that this is a Market/Play bug, and you're seeing it because the Market thinks one of your apps is actually that OJSC Mobile app.

Even better, I found this just-published story on The Verge:

  Samsung has several pieces of software that it installs on it devices but that aren't in the Google Play store (for obvious reasons). However, every single Android app has an app name that identifies it on the Android system, in this case the "unique" name is com.seven.Z7, which identifies Samsung's email app. What appears to have happened is that Russian developer OJSC Mobile Telesystems gave that unique identifier to its "МТС Мобильная Почта" app, and so these Samsung devices were tricked into thinking it was an update to Samsung's email client. Since Google Play allows for automatic updating of all apps, it was installed on many devices.

I couldn't find the app in the Play Store anymore, so perhaps Google has taken it down to resolve this.

Below is the original version of this post, which would still be applicable in more normal circumstances.

If it's a system app for supporting Cyrillic text, which is what it sounds like, it could hardly be called malware.  Crapware, perhaps, if you don't need it.

If you don't need it, then no need to update (unless you want to be rid of the notification, though in that case I recommend rooting and removing the app).  No reason not to update either I'd say — you already have it on your device, so unless it's doing something nasty in the new version in particular then you've already been exposed to any dangers it may contain :P.  Of course, updating will require more space on your device unless you are rooted and can entirely replace the original version with the update (normally the system keeps all original versions of system apps).

Ive read a few things online this morning about the MTC app being malware or a virus, It doesn't show in your apps list however it was said that if it is a virus it might be piggy backing off something else installed on the phone, I had it come up on my phone but not sure how to remove it yet


Error with screen brightness on Samsung Galaxy J7 prime I have a Samsung galaxy J7 prime SM-G610M Duos with Android 7.0 operating system. I have noticed something curious with the phone, is that sometimes the full screen of the phone does a slight flicker.

It happens a few times when I close an application, when one calls the other (for example share a MEGA file in whatsapp).

Another fact, and this one always happens, is with youtube, when you open it, the brightness decreases, and when I write in the search bar and I already have some text I write when I press the spacebar, it blinks.

Once, also the brightness gauge was hung, and the brightness of the screen was set to maximum, no matter if it decreased it, it remained at maximum. Although then it settled with just lock the screen and turn on again.

Does anyone know why this happens?
Is it a software problem?

I read some articles online and they say that the screen should be changed.

I have little time with the phone, and it is in perfect condition, without any accidents. So I am inclined to make it a software bug, and that is how I would solve it.

Thank you very much in advance.

Try factory reset your phone
If it didn't work flash you're phone to another android version


Gear VR + Trinus VR using a cable Hi i would like to ask you if you know about a way how to use Trinus VR with cable using gear VR . I could disable booting oculus app with Package Disabler Pro , but i'm not sure if i could pair pc and cellphone with cable since it's through gear VR . Anyone knows if it works ?

My friend has a Gear VR headset and I have wanted to do this for a while. I eventually just made it myself with google cardboard.

Dan Hulme has a good point. The gear VR does incorporate multiple other sensors the communicate with the phone. HOWEVER, the phones compatible immediately with Gear VR all have a gyroscope in them so you don't really need the extra sensors!

You should be able to use the Trinus VR app but with only the built in gyro, it might drift or lag a tad bit...

Hope this helps!

Try https://riftcat.com . It will use your phone sensors data.


Factory reset upon unlocking For security reasons, I want to be able to specify two lock passwords (or patterns) as follows :

One for normal unlocking the device.

Another one if entered, the device will factory reset itself (and maybe format the SD)

I want this to happen from the main Android lock screen, but with two passwords.

I do not know of any application that does what you request. Maybe "After Unlock" has a feature like that.

What I would do is make an Android application that is fired after unlocking the phone. The application would request a new password and if it is entered correctly do the factory reset and format the SD if needed.

Check this project for an example of how this could be done: myLock

You might need to root your phone and find a way to add another password. You might need programming knowledge for this.


How to re-lock Android bootloader? I've unlocked my Nexus 5 by using CF-Auto-Root. I want to undo my actions and return the device to its original state: unrooted and locked.

How can I do this?

You'll need to use fastboot, which is provided in the CF-Auto-Root zip file, and also available standalone and packaged with lots of other software. It's part of the Android SDK Tools / Platform Tools, which can be installed on Windows, OSX, or Linux.

Note: If you've installed a custom ROM or kernel on top of rooting, you'll want to flash the necessary stock versions from the Nexus 5 stock image with fastboot or possibly through TWRP/ClockWorkMod Recovery.

In order to re-lock the bootloader:

Reboot your phone to Bootloader Mode
Connect the USB Cable to your computer.
Open a Command Prompt (Terminal on Linux or OSX)
Navigate to the platform-tools directory inside the unzipped CF-Auto-Root directory.
Use the following command, depending on your OS.

Linux: ./fastboot-linux oem lock
OSX: ./fastboot-mac oem lock
Windows: fastboot-windows.exe oem lock

First of all there is no need to relock bootloader on a Nexus device as their specialty is that they have a unlocked bootloader by default. So maybe u can talk about unrooting.

Refer here : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus


How to factory reset LG optimus L3 E405 from pc I hav flashed a CWM recovery on my phone....
it shows this CWM recovery menu repeatedly,without booting into the system...
please tell me to factory reset it through pc as the factory reset option in the phone isnt wrking....

Follow this steps, it will bring you phone back to life

http://www.hackmyandroid.com/how-unbrick-optimus-android-phone/1980


How do I sharpen photos on my phone? I am looking for a photo editor app or website that will let me sharpen photos, preferably using unsharp mask.

I tried several free photo editors from the market, but none of them lets me sharpen photos. I don't mind paying for an app, I just don't want to unless I know it is a good choice.

I have been using PicSay's free version and been happy with it.  I'll probably upgrade to the full version which has the ability to sharpen, but just haven't really had the need yet so I've been putting it off.  I'll report back if I do chip down.

Another alternative would be to use Pixlr's web based editor: http://pixlr.com/editor

Provided you have flash installed you can use their browser based editor that does have an "Unsharp Mask" filter.

Have you tried using Camera 360. It's a great all in one app and it makes most photos extremely clear. Try it. It has a free trial so you can try it before. :)


How can I open a `.rar` file if Solid Explorer fails? I have the app Solid Explorer installed but the .rar file doesn't seem to be opening properly.  Which tool can I use to extract .rar files properly?

OS:  4.1.1
Device: S3

Try B1 Free Archiver, or AndroZip™ File Manager. If the file still doesn't open properly, it might be possible that the archive is corrupt. Try opening the same archive on PC as well, just to be sure.

Solid Explorer should be able to open RAR files. Try opening the file on a PC, as it may be corrupted.


Saving a contact shared via text message How do I save a contact that was shared with me in a text message?  I have the Droid Maxx, Android version 4.4.

You just have to long-press the number (underlined).


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

These apps are:

Clean Master
Daily Racing
DU Booster
MP3 Downloader
SnapTube
TouchPal

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

I found out this was most probably caused by SnapPea.

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

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

I strongly recommend uninstalling SnapPea from everywhere.

The most possible cause of this auto download apps is, some trojan virus has affected your smartphone. This virus has gain administrative access to it so that you can not remove it completely. It will auto-download apps and consume your background data again and again.

Try considering following options to prevent auto-download of apps.

Remove and replace your Gmail account
Change password of your Gmail account
Disabling auto-updates from Google Play Store
Check smartphone for recently installed launchers
Using Stubborn Trojan Killer Android App

I have found solution for this website http://www.theandroidportal.com/prevent-automatic-unwanted-downloads-apps-android/ while searching for this problem. I hope this helps.


How can I add a custom search engine to Chrome (beta, stable...)? Call me dumb, but, I don't see an obvious way to do this.

I want to add duckduckgo.com as the main search engine in Google Chrome for Android (beta, stable...)

As of chrome v39, this still can't easily be done; however, you can hack it. From  the XDA post SomeNickName referenced:

Install a Terminal emulator or use adb shell if you're familiar with it.
Change the "last_known_google_url" and "last_prompted_google_url" settings support having a search&q=added to the end. For example, duckduckgo would work with, https://www.duckduckgo.com& -- where the extra ampersand at the end is for converting the "search" text into an additional query sting param.

Here's a shell command for setting the duckduckgo url:

    p='/data/data/com.chrome.beta/app_chrome/Default/Preferences'
    awk '/last_known_google_url/ {sub(/google.com\//,"duckduckgo.com/\\&")}; {print}' ${p} > $p.bak
    awk '/last_prompted_google_url/ {sub(/google.com\//,"duckduckgo.com/\\&")}; {print}' ${p}.bak > ${p}

You can configure the default search engine for the address bar by going to Chrome menu > Settings > (Basics) Search engine.

Search The Web


Can Material design be backported to older Android versions? With the introduction of Material Design in Android Lollipop, a consistency in app design was received quite well by the user community. However, most of these apps are showing their Material designs only when the Android version is 5.x. Is there any way to make these display the same way in Android 2.x to 4.x?

I mean, can't the design libraries be backported to older Android devices by embedding them in-app, so that the consistency is maintained across all Android versions?

I have heard about apps or more specifically, Xposed modules like Monster UI which theme your device to look like so, but System Apps aren't affected. Can't such libraries be included in pre-packaged System Apps?

For example, a normal app uses the Holo theme in Android versions 4.x, and the Material theme in 5.x. Can't it be made to use the Material theme in older devices?

Yes is it possible. You can design your application with interactive material design using v7, v13 and v21 appcompat support libraries. These support libraries provide you backward compatibility of your material designs. For Backward compatibility read here https://developer.android.com/training/material/compatibility.html

You can do that at your on risk!
You must modify the the build.prop file (if you have rooted phone) on these values:

ro.build.version.sdk=21
ro.build.version.codename=REL
ro.build.version.release=5.0.1

You must have Android 4.4 to do all these!
Note: Tinted Status Bar is not supported!
And then, by downloading the Google Now app from playstore (And google of course) and after rebooting your phone you can get the material design.

This is what I did thought..
Hope it helps!!


Can't play video in gallery The phone I am using is a Samsung galaxy s6 edge with the latest software installed.

One I have recorded a video of some sort, I go to the gallery to check what the video is like. As I click on the video a message comes quoting "Can't play video." I have looked around some say that the file is corrupted, some say it is the video player I am using (Gallery) etc. Pictures are completely fine, my guess is videos are in the wrong format?

Anyone have a guess as to what the problem is?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I had to uninstall Google+ updates to fix this.


UsB host on a motorola xoom I have a MZ601 with android 4.1.2 and I try to run an app DslrDashboard for a Nikon camera. As it doesn't work, I ran the usb host diags and get the following message:

KERNEL
  claims support             yes
  device detected            yes
VERDICT
  os support                 yes
  3rd party apps             no

What does it mean? That USB host works, but I cannot run applications? The camera doesn't get recognized by the apps.

Is there any way to fix that?

i noticed all the rooted MZ601 roms, have poor OTG support in the kernal, or next to none, i had the same issues with eternal USB DAC, not been recognized since the 4.0.4 stock ROM, after spending weeks , blowing images, roms, went back to the stock ROM 4.0.4, seems OTG support is not on their high list to things to do, only external USB hard discs.

the USB DAC is only 4 months old, so its not some special kernel patch, as the 4.0.4 is over 2-3 yrs old and worked, try going back tot the stock rom.


Help Uninstalling Stubborn Application I have the original Motorola Droid. I recently installed Lotus Notes Traveler on it (we use Lotus Notes at work). The application is giving some issues, so I was going to uninstall it and re-install it. Unfortunately, when I try to do that I get a message the message "Uninstall Not Succesful". Is there any way to uninstall an app that does not want to uninstall through "Manage Applications"?

Apparently the Lotus Notes Traveler app makes itself the Device Administrator on the phone.  You need to disable this before uninstalling it.  The following quote is from Lotus FAQ:

  You should uninstall Lotus Notes Traveler by launching the Lotus®
  mobile installer application, then selecting the Lotus Notes Traveler
  application and choosing uninstall.

  If you choose to uninstall
  manually and your device is running Android 2.2 or above, you must
  first disable the device administrator. To do so, select Menu >
  Settings > Location & Security > Select device Administrators. After
  you have disabled the Lotus Notes Traveler device administrator, you
  can use the operating system to remove Lotus Notes Traveler, by
  navigating to Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications.

  You can uninstall Lotus Mobile Installer using the normal method for uninstalling
  applications on your Android device.

If you have ROM Manager installed, try doing a "Fix Permissions"


Titanium Backup "insufficient free storage space" error Because of my external SD card issue, I thought I should factory reset my phone then reinstall the firmware on it. Before I'd do that though, I'd have to back up my apps and their data so that I can restore it afterwards. For that purpose, I had been relying on Titanium Backup Pro, so I entered the app, changed the backup directory to /storage/emulated/legacy/TitaniumBackup (as the external SD card was unavailable) and attempted to backup all user apps and system data. A progress dialogue appeared and was stuck at 0% for about 30 seconds until it close and Titanium Backup displayed the notification 'Batch backup interrupted: Insufficient free storage space' despite having 7 gigabytes left on /storage/emulated/legacy.

I tried searching on Google for a solution - the only one that came up was to remove /data/app/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup-1.odex but the file did not exist on my end. How can I fix this issue?

Clarification: My copy of Titanium Backup is a Pro version activated by a Pro key obtained from the Google Play store. There is no need for any external patchers, cracks or keygens.

This is due to the 'Mount namespace separation' setting in SuperSU being turned on (by default). Untick that, reboot and try your Titanium Backup operation again.

This happens because the permissions to app-created folders are restricted in newer Android versions, I believe. Ironically, I didn't have this issue on Marshmallow-based CM13, but I did face it in the Lollipop-based OxygenOS for the OnePlus One.

I have also faced this weird situation. I don't know whether it will work or not. But for me it works.

Install lucky patcher. It will automatically remove the odex file and you will be able to install Titanium Backup.


How to lower OOM value of an app permanently? I am not challenging Android's memory management technique (like killers do). I just want to give an app higher priority even when it's not in foreground or visible (with notification).

AutoKiller Memory Optimizer is able to do it on rooted device, but the change lasts for few seconds if I multi-task.

I want to do this permanently: perhaps running a background daemon to do change continuously should work. How to do this?

On XDA I found a post discussing how to PIN an app to not get killed by OOM. As your question indicates your device is rooted, this could be useful for you. The principle described there can be applied to your case as well by simply changing the oom_adj value specified (the -17 would permanently PIN it, highest prio -- so use a larger value to "weaken" that).

The script snipped posted there looks like this:

#!/system/bin/sh
sleep 60

PPID=$(pidof com.estrongs.android.safer)
echo "-17" > /proc/$PPID/oom_adj

An anonymous user noted you could also set this file to read-only permissions to prevent Android from updating it, adding chmod 444 /proc/$PPID/oom_adj to the above script (the proposed 444 means nothing but read permission, but doesn't affect the system's ability to remove the file when the process ends). I have not verified that, but this could in fact save you from looping/repeatedly running the script, making the set value permanent for as long as the process lives.

As said, replace the -17 by your chosen value. Also replace the app's package name (com.estrongs.android.safer) by the package name of your target app. You can also lower the sleep value, or even ommit the sleep at all.

Now you need a way to auto-execute this as soon as your app is running. For this part, you could e.g. use Tasker: Context would be "app running" (and your app selected), and the task "run shell", with above script as parameter. Then, as soon as you start your app (and it comes to foreground), Tasker would execute the script -- and the oom_adj value should be applied.

ROM Toolbox Pro by Jrummy has built-in OOM manager.


Unable to modify build.prop I'm using a stock Nexus 5X. I tried to edit build.prop the following way:

I unlocked the bootloader and booted into TWRP (not flashed)
I mounted system
I then adb pulled build.prop, edited it, then pushed it back

On reboot the changes are reverted. Write protection is not on (that I know of), what should I do?

I am not rooted.

Making permanent changes to /system required me to be rooted.


"Android OS" uses a lot of data in background, how to turn off it? I have already read this and
this but can't stop the automatic blackground update.

I currently use Samsung grand 2 dual (SM-G7102) android 4.3 and cellular mode.

I'm setting-->usage “Restrict Background data” but the android OS is still running the updates in the background.(see picture)
help me please.

Click image(s) for larger version

I'm setting “Restrict Background data” in 24/08/2557 but On 25/08/2557, "Android OS" was still sending out to cellular.

Click image(s) for larger version

I'm allow Facebook, Line and Messager can use cellular but don't want the "Android OS" Update. The mobile is rooted

The "android os" was “Restrict Background data”.
Help me please.

This is due to Google Backup.Switch Google Backup off and your problem will be solved. Follow these steps:

Open Photos app.
From options goto Settings.
Touch Auto Backup and switch the toggle On or Off.

Go to Settings → Data usage → click on the 3 vertical boxes in right top corner → tick the Restrict background data → then remove the tick in Auto sync data.


How can I do usb tethering with Mac Os X (using gingerbread Acer Liquid Metal & snow leopard)? I would like to use my Android phone to let my hackintosh (10.6 snow leopad) surf the internet.
The standard way of selecting usb tethering on android and plugging the usb cable tested on windows and ubuntu doesn't work...
Thanks.

EasyTether i think would be your best option. The free version is full-figured, and paying for the full market version will get you https:// sites. And the drivers for it are available on their website for download.

P.S. it's only $4.99 right now in the Amazon Appstore ;)

Did you try the Wifi-Hotspot option (available since Android 2.2 (?))?
With this app, your android phone will act as a hotspot and your mac should be able to connect to it.


How to delete one's region in WeChat? In the Android WeChat messaging app, it is possible to set up a region in one's account settings (Me -> tap user name -> Region). This region setting is then shown to all contacts in one's profile.

However, once that is done, there does not appear to be an obvious way to unset the region again.

I would like to remove my region setting from my account. How can I do that?

I am a Chinese user and I'm extremely sure that:

You cannot unset your Region settings in WeChat. You can only change it by repeating the procedure in which you set it.

Edit: From Chinese BBSs people claim that they succeeded by using an exploit of incompatibility between older and newer versions of WeChat. Their procedure is

Install an old enough version of WeChat (They picked 4.2)
Change your region settings to anything else
Install a newer version of WeChat (They picked 5.2)
Due to incompatibility the region is blank

Do note that the posts I've found are in 2015 and even 2014. I'm note sure if WeChat's server still accepts versions other than 6.x

To change it:

Me > My Profile (click on the your profile photo) > More > Region


Outer-shell music buttons like in iOS I just dumped my iOS device for the sake of Android (iTunes, flash lack and other reasons).

I'm trying to retain the features I got used to on the iOS.

One of them was the ability to start, pause, skip etc. in music while screen is locked:

Important:
I'm an Android noob (I'm a .NET dev), I believe there has to be a way to control the device's music in a player-agnostic manner, so I'm rather looking for a "music controls lock-screen" or "music controls FOR my lock-screen" application rather than a "music player with ls controls".

Is there any similar app/feature on Android?

My device: Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 (YP-G70).

Note my device is locked with a lock pattern.

*Pictures are downloaded from the web and are for illustration purposes, they do not reflect my own phone / settings.

If your built-in music app and lock screen doesn't do this currently, then you can try using WinAmp as your player, that was the first music app I saw that added the transport controls to your lock screen.

Go into WinAmp's settings to find this option:

Then it should look a bit like this when your phone is locked:

These days most music apps include this feature (I believe including Google Music or Amazon MP3 if you're in the US), try searching the Market for something like lock screen music control to see a selection.

This feature either needs to be built into which ever app you're using to play your music (as above) or you need to switch to using a different lock screen that supports widgets, such as WidgetLocker and then you can choose from available music control add-ons like Media Buttons or Phantom Music Control.

Try N 7 player, it supports what you desire and a lot more..


Can I use Gmail while offline? Is it possible to download the new emails from the Gmail account while online, and then read them while offline? Is it possible to write emails while offline that will be sent when online?

Yes.  And not just for the inbox, but inbox and sent may be the only folders synchronized by default.

From within the android gmail client:
Press menu
select more
select settings
scroll down and select labels
change the number of days from which you want messages kept on the phone
change individual labels (effectively folders) to none, this number of days, or all

NOTE: this answer was written about a now obsolete version of the gmail app, which continues to change in its user interface over time.  The answer will not be updated to track that evolution, as there are multiple versions in use at any time which behave differently, and it is ultimately the idea rather than the specific steps which are important.

The MailDroid app gives a lot of storage options to allow offline caching.


Copy (duplicate) a file in the OneDrive app I have a PDF I want to duplicate into another folder on the OneDrive app. However, the only way I've been able to make it work is by saving the document, editing it, and then re-uploading onto OneDrive. I want to use OneDrive's built-in PDF editing tool but this just throws a spanner in the works.

I cannot find an option to copy/duplicate a file within the OneDrive app on Android.

Is there a way to copy/duplicate a file in the OneDrive app?

As I cannot add a comment being a starter to this forum, I would like say that I am not sure how to do it other ways, but I am good at Rest API and have done it through this earlier. Let me give you a code for that if you are interested, else give me a comment and I would delete the answer.

  COPY
  https://apis.live.net/v5.0/file.a6b2a7e8f2515e5e.A6B2A7E8F2515E5E!126

  Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
  Content-Type: application/json

  {
      "destination": "folder.a6b2a7e8f2515e5e.A6B2A7E8F2515E5E!114" }

Also, as you rightly said, there are forums like forums.dev.windows.com where you can ask such questions.

If you really like the OneDrive app, good. But i use ES File Explorer File Manager, it has many options. To get OneDrive in ES File Explorer, you go into Network, then add, and you can add your google drive, OneDrive, etc. Then it's simple to add, hide, encrypt, copy, and do whatever else to folders and files. All within the file explorer. I tried to edit a pdf with my version with the built in text editor, but it didn't work. If you want to edit pdf's you could get a pdf editor.


Front camera is reversed On my LG G4, the front (selfie) cam is working like a mirror: if I touch my left eye, the image will display the finger touching the eye on the left side of the picture. With the back camera, it works like a normal camera: the touched eye is on the right side.
That means also, for instance, that text is reversed when using the front cam.
Is that behaviour standard ? Is there a way to have the front cam behave like a normal cam ?

Found the reply here.

  While the camera app is open and the front camera is selected,
  tap the 'settings' icon (the geared wheel) and you'll see an icon that
  looks like two heads in profile. They will be both facing the same
  direction by default. Tap them so they are facing away from each
  other. Now, while the image will still appear on the screen mirrored,
  the resulting picture will appear normal.

[2

in camera setting there is an option
"save as flipped" turn it off


WIFI & Data Connection Problem I have just updated my Moto G2 to Lollipop 5.0.2. I am unable to share files over WiFi via any of these apps like Superbeam, Xender, Cshare.

Also while using data connection, I'm unable to see the symbol H, H+ or E. Why is it so?

Uncheck 3G option on the 1st SIM, and click on 3G option on 2nd SIM.


How to fix whatsapp showing Unable to load image data? I am using a Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 phone, and now my Whatsapp is showing an error "Unable to load image data". I cant even change my display picture or down/upload media to it. Is something wrong with my memory because apps like Hike are not even working? Even Titanium Backup says "Not able to find any backup in storage" while trying to backup my data. And also I am getting "Insufficient space" error in UC Browser, even though I have a couple of GBs in my SD card and internal too. I have tried reinstalling, clearing cache, clearing data but nothing worked. And yes my phone is rooted.

do the hard reset of your phone, also clear the dalvik cache from recovery mode.
It should be helpful for you.


Know of an app that lets you transfer a text message conversation into an email? A friend of mine is looking for an application that he can grab a text message conversation from his phone and maybe copy/paste it into another application like an email app or just "send to email" kind of function.

Anyone know anything about an app like this?

In the stock Android messaging app, you can hold your finger on a message for a few moments and then select the "Copy Message Text" option, then paste it into any app you'd like.

That would work fine for individual messages, as far as entire threads go, that I'm not sure.  I'd probably go the geeky route personally and open up the .db file that contains all the text messages with an sqlite3 binary and manually peruse the database, copying what I need out of it.

I'd also like through my own answer into the mix - not as an android app but as a service you could potentially use if you are an Android/gmail user. http://voice.google.com is a great tool that lets you send and receive texts through the browser as well as sending you transcripts via texts to your phone when people leave voice messages.

You are given a phone number (of your choice) which you can keep forever which in case you change phone numbers, you can always be contacted through that number (but you can block people by phone number and it says the number has been disconnected).

The idea here is that if you give that google voice number to your friend and they send you a text to that number, you will receive it in your google voice inbox as well as your phone and it keeps conversations grouped like you would expect google to do.


How do some apps get past ad blocking? I'm already using LBE Privacy Guard, AdAway and Droidwall to strictly control ads and app permissions. (All of them require root to run).

Droidwall has a whitelist where only apps that actually fetch data from the internet are allowed. (Games, system apps etc are blocked)

However I find some apps that are able to show ads even when they're not on the whitelist in Droidwall. How do they do it? Are they relying on some separate core system component to do this?
My solution is to click on the ad and instantly hit 'stop' on the browser window that pops up, then adding the ad host to my hosts file.

I'd prefer a permanent solution, so that only apps requiring the internet are able to get through.

(Given a choice, I'd prefer a time bound full version or a feature restricted demo version to any form of adware, be it on Android or the desktop).

What Android system component do I block to completely disable in app ads?

It's been 5 years since I asked this, and I've finally found a solution for rooted phones.
Google Play Services is the culprit.
You need an app that can disable individual sub-components of other apps. I use DisableService, so I'll use it as an example, you'll have to follow similar steps with other such apps.

Select Google Play Services from the list.
Look for and disable the following components - AdRequestBrokerService, AdvertisingNotificationService, AdvertisingIdService, AnalyticsService and AnalyticsUploadIntentService.

That's it. Other apps send requests to these services to display ads, and turning them off has no adverse effect on them.

If your phone is rooted, Install "Avast mobile security" and enable firewall. you can block internet access to any installed app. Its not about blocking ads. Its about blocking internet access. And its free.


Does Google Play allow for the caching of your entire collection on a mobile device? Without having to play each individual song once, is it possible to cache the music collection stored on a Google Play account onto a device (in my case, a Nexus 5)?

No option to do this exists. You'll need to select each song individually.

To make it easier you could arrange by album instead of song, because you likely have fewer albums than individual songs.


Where can I check how much Internet bandwidth did my HTC Desire use? A newb question, as I just received my wife's HTC Desire: Where can I check how much bandwidth it uses (or used during certain time period)? Her contract only includes 500MB a month, so she needs to be able to monitor this.

Mentioned 3G Watchdog probably is the best choice. Alternatively, you might want to take a look at...

NetCounter
Traffic Counter Extended
Mobile Counter
Net Traffic Counter

...which also cover your needs. Might be you like one of them more :)

Talking about more, I obviously missed...

Traffic Monitor
Traffic Monitor (same name -- other app; this one goes as deep as on per-app stats)

Reto Meier did a talk during last Google I/O where he spoke about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwC1OlJo5VM

Watch around 25 minutes.

He suggested:

Logcat logging
ARO tool from AT&T
Network Statistics in DDMS


Change screen rotation sensitivity I often find myself in the wrong screen mode (landscape vs portrait) and I find the switching delay quite annoying. I would like my phone to be much more responsive when I rotate it (iphone-like)...
Do you know about any apps/tweakings to achieve this?

I have searched for the same thing, and unfortunately, have not come up with much of anything. What I have settled for is turning off auto-rotate, and only using it for apps where I really need rotation. I do recall there being an app which allows setting auto-rotate on and off on a per-app basis. I believe it is called Smart Auto-Rotate.

Really the only things you could do is lock the rotation of the screen from the "Settings/Display" menu, so you wouldn't have to deal with rotation, or start freeing up space on your device.

This process will be taken care of by the available memory, so if you have a lot of things running, it will be sluggish.

The iPhone was speedy at this previously because it didn't have the ability to run things in the background, and since gaining this ability has found a similar stumble. A good appkiller will help, and i find deleting old, unused apps every now and then helps system speed.


tried tracking my phone through android device manager. having trouble doing so.help! i lost my s3 a few days back so i tried to locate it using the android device manager. it is showing the date i last used it on but not showing where it was last used. can someone suggest me way to see its last location?
also, i was registered with androidlost even that is not able to show my last location. keeps showing the message "message successfully sent to google who will forward it when it is online".i understand my phone needs to be online for it to show the location but it also says that if its not online my last location will be shown.

I think that you can use Google instead of Android Device Manager in your particular case. Today it happened to me the very same thing that happened to you and as in your case Android Device Manager was of no use. But I typed find my phone in Google and it gave me map centered around the place where I had actually forgotten my phone. It seems the map cannot be zoomed in, but at least it can give you an hint about where the phone was before discharge.
Here's a screenshot of what I got from Google.

Better than nothing I suppose.


Unable to add credit card in Google Wallet Whenever I try and buy an app, google asks me to add a credit card in google wallet. But when I finish adding me credit card details, phone number and address and do save (I'm using my sony xperia mobile for this btw) I get an error saying:

Error:
Error while retrieving information from server. [RPS:S-7:AEC-0]

What might be the problem?

Now the RBI has given instruction to all banks to make changes in the server to give the transaction password while doing net purchase. there is no option in google wallet to put transaction password.


Problem detecting micro SDHC card I recently purchased a Micromax A110 and I tried to use my old Sandisk micro SDHC card which is previously used on a Nokia 5233. The problem here is that the new Android phone is not detecting the micro SDHC card. Why won't it work?

Not all equipment which uses SD cards can use SDHC cards.  It may be that your device doesn't support the sdhc card you are using.

I have solved the issue. The issue is that the memory card was locked by old Nokia phone. So I unlocked it and now it is working perfectly. Thanks for all your support.


What would happen if I cleared the data of my Gallery app? The app says it's using 36.29 GB of data, even though I don't have nearly that much memory on my phone and SD card combined, so I want to get rid of this bug.

My phone is Samsung Galaxy Grand, and it's not rooted.

I have suffered from same prob. Donn't worry, just clear the gallery app data.
When you restart app it takes some time to reload images & video's thumbnails.


Can I use my cell phone's internet connection as a VPN? I'm still learning about VPNs so forgive me if this sounds horribly mistaken, but if I understand it correctly a VPN is an encrypted internet connection between two computers that can also be used as proxy. My question is: supposing I am ON MY LAPTOP at a library/work/school and the WiFi has a filter that prevents access to some websites, in theory would I be able use the unfiltered 4G data connection from my Android tablet or phone to gain access to those sites remotely?

I know I could just tether the device and use the connection that way but I'm curious if it'd possible to use the data plan on the tablet that I leave at home (it has perfect 4G data service there) that way, should I ever need to use an encrypted connection to get around some web filters, I could always have that available to me. I currently don't have a home computer that I can leave running all day, otherwise I'd run something like Hamachi.

Thanks for reading and sorry if this is a noobish question!

You can use VPN applications to access restricted websites on any android tablet/phone.
Here are a few of them
Flash VPN
Hot spot shield

But i think you will not get exact 4G speeds while using VPN.


Where to put supersu zip file while rooting HTC One M8 I'm following the instructions at http://htc-one.wonderhowto.com/how-to/unlock-bootloader-root-your-htc-one-m8-0154444/ and have found a stage where I don't have enough information, which is at Step 9 in the instructions, which says "Start by grabbing SuperSU from Chainfire directly on your phone, or download and place the file in your device's "Download" directory."

I tried doing it directly on the phone, but that didn't install it properly --- it seemed to want the phone already rooted, but I'm doing this as a stage of rooting the phone.  When I then try running supersu, it complains it can't find the su program.

So now I'd like to "place the file in the Download directory", which presumably means using "adb push", but I can't find where I should be putting it, i.e. any directory called "Downloads" or anything like that.  I've looked around, using "ls" in the adb shell, and I suspect it might be in /data, but I can't look in there (perhaps because the device isn't rooted yet?)  The instructions expect the supersu zip file to be unpacked by the TWRP recovery, which I have installed.

http://androidadvices.com/root-install-custom-recovery-twrp-image-htc-m8-android-phone-guide has alternative instructions, which just say to put it in "a suitable location"; could I, for example, just dump it in "/" ?

Download the zip to your computer, boot up the phone in normal mode (just press the Power on button when turned off - no bootloader, fastboot or anything like that) and connect it to the computer via USB. The phone memory that opens up on your computer is where you should put it. It really doesn't matter the exact location, as long you can access it later in the TWRP recovery (the Download directory mentioned in the guide is also there). Then you can proceed with Step 10 (or Step 15 if you have already installed the TWRP recovery).

Go into twrp mode on your phone and go to install. Then go to where you downloaded the zip file and tap on it. Then just swipe to install and reboot your device.


Android OS uses a lot of data in background, how to turn auto system update check off? I have a nexus 5 with Android 4.4. If i look at data usage, it shows that Android OS is using a couple of megabytes per day. I tried disabling sync and backup but it didn't help. What could be causing the background data usage? One thing that I could think of is automatic system update check, but there seems to be no way to turn it off.

What could be the cause of the data usage and can I fix it without rooting?

Found out that the issue is not persisting on nexus 4 and only in nexus 5.(Thats very strange.)

Temporary Solution until Google fixes this. Just root your phone and freeze Android System Update.
That will fix the mysterious data consumption issue.

Go to settings, scroll down to accounts, click your Google account(s), and turn off all the syncs.


How can I move application user data (user specific settings, savegames, ...) to a different user? I have a tablet with Android 4.2 and would like to copy/move the application user data (savegames, ...) from one user to another. I have root. Which directory do I need to move/copy. And do I have to care about the permissions?

I would use the app Titanium Backup.
1. Install Titanium Backup on the first user profile
2. Make a backup of the app or apps from the first user.
3. Install Titanium Backup on the second user profile
4. Restore data only to the second user profile

That should do the trick.

For instructions on how to use Titanium Backup look here: http://www.titaniumtrack.com/kb/titanium-backup-kb/titanium-backup-user-guide.html#backup

I think you can do it by go backup app, use go backup to backup apk+data, than copy the backed up apk +data in folder external storage/go backup, than make a copy to your friend mmc, than install go backup on your friend  phone and restore the app via go backup, i have not try it before, but i think it will work 100%, if you succes with this trick please give a reply


Google Play does not work and shows "No connection" or "There was a problem connecting to the network" I've got a Droid X, running Android 2.3.4 and System version 4.5.621.MB810.Verizon.en.US.
Just recently, Google Play stopped working.

Whenever I open Google Play, it immediately displays:

  No connection
  (Retry)

YouTube also doesn't work - nothing will load. It says:

  There was a problem connecting to the network
  (Retry)

The Retry button doesn't fix anything.

I've already tried the following:

Set Date/Time to Automatic (network-provided)
Stop + Clear Cache for Google Play and Play Service
Reboot Phone
Toggle Airplane Mode
Toggle Wi-Fi

The phone's internet is working fine - I can browse the web and everything, but the Play Store and YouTube don't work. I have Application-Specific Passwords enabled, and my phone is signed in via one.

I have no Data connection, but the phone is connected to Wi-Fi.

First thing to take a look at in cases like that is the color of your connectivity icons in the status bar. Any color other than green (< Android 4.0) or blue (Android 4.0 and up) indicate trouble with your connection to Google's servers.

Possible causes vary, and might include (but are not restricted to) the following:

some (temporary) routing problem: If you've already got some terminal app installed on your device, you can check this with the ping command on some of the Google servers, e.g. ping chatenabled.mail.google.com. No response, or huge packet loss would confirm this cause. If you wonder why it might work on a different device at the same time: they might use different local mirrors.
some (temporary) "outage" of Google Services: If your internet is otherwise working, or you have some working internet available on another machine, you should be able to verify this with Google's Dashboard. Any outages/unavailibilities should be indicated here (unless they just started whortly and the Dashboard was not yet updated).
trouble with authentication: These should usually manifest in frequent popups asking you to place your Google credentials. You could of course try to solve these by deleting the Google account from your device (or by revoking its access codes to force it requesting new ones), and re-creating it – but I wouldn't do that immediately. In many cases, this solved itself after a while (or after switching to a different network, in my case).

As the case of the OP proves: most times this requires nothing but patience, until the issue "resolves itself".

Go to app menu, delete data for Google Play services, and retry.


How to unlock a "network sim" in order to use a Android phone? I got an old Android phone (HTC MyTouch) from someone in the States. The phone says "T-Mobile" on the top.

I put in my O2 SIM chip (Germany), turned it on, typed in the SIM, but then it asks me to type in a "SIM network unlock pin".

I went to T-Mobile here in Germany and they said to "contact T-Mobile in America" who may be able to unlock it for me.

I went to the O2 shop in Germany and they said it would definitely not be possible to use this Android phone with my O2 SIM chip.

Before I sink hours into contacting T-Mobile in the States, can someone tell me from experience if it is (technically and legally) possible to use this Android phone in Germany?

You'll need to purchase an unlock code.

You will probably find a number of companies via google a I have used a couple, which I'm not sure I'm allowed to post here so I recommend you visit Modaco, the site run by Paul O'Brien of custom rom and rooting fame.

Click the Android part of the site and at the bottom of the site or via a web banner to the right, you'll see one of their official sponsors that does HTC codes for $20.

I'm pretty sure it's law now that if you want an unlock code from a mobile network carrier they are required to give it to you. But it definitely is not illegal. However, it may be even easier to just root the phone instead. This should (depending on how you root it) unlock your phone in the process.

As for your O2 SIM chip, I'm not sure how foreign SIM cards work in American phones, but it's definitely worth a shot.


Completely disable the fingerprint sensor I don't really like all the hype about the fingerprint sensor, I'd rather like to have it killed down, so that it doesn't register any fingerprints.

On a desktop Linux I'd simply modprobe -r the relevant kernel module. Can I do something like that on Android? I don't want to simply disable it in the settings - then I have to trust the system that nothing really uses it.

On Linux (and Android) it is possible to disconnect a device from its driver[1]. The fingerprint driver (denoted as fpc) on my LG G5 has the name fpc1020. Searching in the /sys path gave me the folder /sys/bus/spi/drivers/fpc1020/. This folder has four files: bind, unbind, uevent AND spi8.1. What we do is to unbind the device spi8.1 from the driver fpc1020.

Now how to disable the sensor:

we need to find the driver name:
Try this command: find /sys/bus -name 'fpc*'
For me it's: /sys/bus/spi/drivers/fpc1020/
we need to find the device name:
The device name is the fourth file in this folder.
ls /sys/bus/spi/drivers/fpc1020/ (depends on your result from 1.)
For me it's: spi8.1
unbind this device:
echo spi8.1 > /sys/bus/spi/drivers/fpc1020/unbind (depends on your result from 1. & 2.)
Now you are not able to use the fingerprint sensor until the next restart.
unbind on every system boot:
We want/need to execute this command on every boot. Currently I'm not sure what's the best way to do it.

Requirements:

Root Access
Terminal App (or adb shell from PC)

References:
1. https://lwn.net/Articles/143397/

Or just remove (rename) system/bin/fingerprintd and fingerprint sensor will stop working after phone restart. Rooted phone and a root file explorer are prerequisites.

This method is useful on Xiaomi phones running MIUI 8.2.5.0, on which although fingerprint based authentication is turned off, display still awakes when you touch the sensor.


How to take a screenshot with an Android device? Is there a way to take a screenshot of an Android device and save it as an image file?

If you have Android 4.0 or higher:
You can press the Power button + the Volume Down button at the same time to take a screenshot. It will be saved to your gallery.
Note: You need to keep the buttons pressed for around a second for this to work. This is to avoid the screenshot when this combination is accidentally pressed.
UPDATE 8.3.2021: If you have Android 10, you must press the Power button + Volume Down buttons ONLY BRIEFLY (< 0.5 seconds). If you press them longer, the Power menu will just open and the screenshot will not be captured.
If you have an Android lower than 4.0:
If you're rooted: you can install an app called drocap2. This will let you shake your phone, wait on a timer, or click on a notification in your notification bar to take a screenshot and it'll save it to your phone.
If you're not rooted: you can not run a screenshot app on your phone, period. You'll have to install the Android SDK on your computer, connect you phone via USB, and run a program called DDMS. This program is mainly used for developer debugging, but it has a screenshot utility under one of its menus.  For a tutorial, see this page.
Also, some constructor like Samsung have implemented this function on their phones (the buttons combination change from phone to phone, so search for yours).

On the xperia z5, you simply hold lock button and that gives you the option of taking screenshot.


How to dismiss an anoying "Queued" notification in android 4.4? Since this morning there is a new notification in my notification bar. The title is "Queue" and there is a progress bar under it that never stops moving. The only information that I see is this text in two lines under it: "Female for German (Germany)". I guess some Text to Speech software is trying to download something from internet. I can not pause or stop it (regardless of pause icon that appears on the left side of the notification).
Some facts:
I use nightly version of cyanogenmod 11 (20140901) and my phone is Nexus 5.

Could anyone help me to remove this notification?

go to apps> show system apps>google text to speech engine> force stop it should work; otherwise after force stop> disable it must work; if you want to re-enable it, just touch enable again. this annoying notification works because of the very slow download of the offline voice packages of the tts engine.

Just click the notification app info. It will take you to application manager (download manager).  Untick the box that says 'show notification' and it won't show up again.


What are these dumpstate logs? So, these files were filling up my /data/logs directory, causing me to run out of storage space rapidly.

What are they, why are there so many and how can I stop them clogging my storage?

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

I googled the file name and found this post on XDA:

  i'm still having the storage is running out error from 3.8. I found
  out it was caused by the signal lost issue because inside the log
  folder located in data folder, it will generate many dumpstate ril
  reset by........xxx..once my signal is lost. so, i'm wondering what's
  the best worldwide modem for 3.8 or lates nightly that won't cause
  signal lost thus my phone won't generate the dumpstate ril reset error
  and indirectly generating many dumpstate ril reset. I'm using dxlpa
  modem.

Looks like your phone might be affected by a bug in CM. I would switch ROM and see if it goes away, if not, you could try an app like GetRIL to find out what Radio Interface Layer you are using, and if there is another you can use that might help you not lose connection over and over.

Dial *#9900#, and delete all your log and dump files.

Note: Only works on Samsung.


Can an Android phone be used as a Bluetooth headset/speakers? Is there a way to make an Android phone (HTC Desire HD) act as Bluetooth speakers or headset?

I'd like to use the phone as wireless headphones whilst watching a movie on a computer (running Ubuntu).

As of right now the bluetooth API only supports pairing with the android device as the master.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4474697/use-android-device-as-a-headset-for-another-device

I must be missing something why do you want the phone to do it?

You'd be better off using a usb bluetooth chip(they cost less than £5) on your PC and a bluetooth Headset(I've got a superb one that lets me plug in any headphones I want,3.5 stereo jack so would take any little speakers as well).


Kies dies when trying to update Galaxy Note firmware I downloaded and installed Kies in my Windows 7 laptop. (Toshiba Satellite.) I plug the phone in the USB, it is recognized and its storage shows in Explorer. Then I run Kies. It says there is a firmware upgrade available. I click to update. A window shows with a progress bar at the bottom, saying something like "downloading update components."

After the download goes to 100%, Kies just silently dies on the PC, no error messages, its windows just vanish. And nothing happens on the phone. My phone is not rooted, it still has the carrier-provided software, regularly updated via Play. It was bought here in Brazil.

Kies is trhe latest version, I had it check for upgrades. I also disabled the PC antivirus to no avail.

I had the same problem, did everything I could think of. Finally last night, I decided to try something different. I ran Kies in "Compatibility Mode for XP SP3" it took forever, left the phone plugged in while I went to bed, woke up this morning with 4.1 finally on it.

I run a Windows 7 Premium Home 64bit.  Not sure if this will help with everyone's problems with Kies but hopefully it will help a few people. It's worth a try.

My phone is a Galaxy S III from AT&T.  To change to "Compatibility Mode" do the following:

Go to C:\ drive, right click and click on `Explore'.
Go to \Program Files x86, look for Samsung then right click on that folder.
Click on Properties then click the Compatibility tab and choose XP SP3

If you are given the option, select Run as administrator.

I really hope this helps everyone else as it has me.

Here is the solution:

Get sure that u have enough free space in your internal memory.
Update your samsung kies.
If you had connection problem with USB, download samsung mobile USB device:
http://samsung-mobile-usb-device-1-0.soft32.com/
Right click on samsung kies
Use compatibility mode ( windows pack 3)>
Before you start updating:
Go to your mobile and turn off music, wifi, bluetoot, gps..as well.
Start updating.


Mobile data turns itself on again and again; could be caused by WhatsApp My mobile data keeps turning on by itself and uses my data traffic. I think this is because of WhatsApp, but I'm not sure. Is there any other possible reason aside from WhatsApp? How should I stop it from happening?

Phone: Samsung GT9100i
Android Version: 4.2.1

What other apps related to mobile data are you using? Is there any battery saver app that are using? they can turn your data on or off automatically.
Whatsapp doesn't have the permission to enable mobile data. So it must be some other app. still you can use 3G WatchDog to check if whatsapp is the culprit.

For Samsung, go to Settings> Connections> Data Usage then press menu button. Select Restrict Background from the menu. It will stop turning on mobile data automatically.


My Moto G (2014) stuck on a boot loop while plugged and now doesnt even boot to recovery while unplugged. Any solution? My Moto G (2014) Indian Version seems to have stuck on a boot loop. When I long press power button to on the phone the sequence of loop is phone vibrates, notification LED blinks for once and the 'Unlocked bootloader' screen appears (before unlocking it was motorola logo) and then screen goes black. This keeps on repeating. And the problem further is this only happens when the phone is plugged in, phone is inoperable when its unplugged.
Solutions I tried:

Flashing the stock ROM: Still the same boot loop
Performed factory by pressing the power button: Nothing
Tried booting in to Recovery mode, but after pressing the Volume Down button the same boot loop starts

I would again like to emphasize the fact that I tried this only when the phone was plugged. Nothing happens when the phone is unplugged. Must be the problem of faulty battery? And also I tried different chargers, no change. Any help will be appreciated.

This is a manufacturing defect. I had the same issue with a Gen 1.
If its still under warranty you can get it replaced


How do I change the Google Play country? Can someone tell me how to change the country preference for Google Play? I have searched high and low but in most of the forums people ask you to go to Gmail settings -> edit profile and change the country there. But there is no place to change the country in settings! There is a something called place (which can be marked as current) but that has no impact on Google Play.

I don't want to circumvent country restrictions, I want to permanently change the country. So it's NOT a duplicate of How can I circumvent regional restrictions in Google's Play Store?.

What turned out to actually do it in the end, was to make an actual purchase.

In Google wallet, I had updated all my information, as well as added a new card with my new address attached to it. This in itself however didn't seem to be enough.

Later though, I actually purchased something through Play using the new card, and after that I could access things in Play that previously could not due to regional restrictions.

There may be some form of prioritization between different cards, so it's possible that you need to remove your pre-existing cards as well.

Michael Hoffman mentions that it may be enough to

  Click to begin a download until you reach the "Accept and buy" screen

and thus there is no need to complete the purchase. Otherwise, getting a refund after the purchase could save you the money.

For those moving countries, it might be useful to check Googles acceptable Payment methods page.

I don't know if it's necessary, but user Ikon also adds this after adding a new card:

  Went to the apps settings and wiped Play's data. Rebooted phone, accepted terms again for Play and now I can install

It may be helpful to some to note that some apps will only install if the device itself is physically inside the "permitted country." As an example, while traveling in Israel, my bank did not allow me to install its mobile banking app on my American phone with an American google account. The Play Store complained that 'this app cannot be installed in your device's country.' (or something very close to that :))

It did not help to change my location using fakeGPS. However, I  it did help to install a VPN (I used TunnelBear, since the trial version with 500MB is free), delete the cache of play services, and force-stop google play services and the play store. After doing this, i got 'this app is compatible with your device'. To be frugal, I then turned OFF the VPN before I hit the install button, and the install proceeded without trouble.

Clearly, the check was based on the external IP address of the device, and once the check is made at the beginning, and the Install button is active, you can change your address back to its normal, "forbidden" value.


My network on the android phone isn't working what is the problem now My phone since was reset because it kept showing unfortunately android has stopped every app I selected it said the app unfortunately has stopped now my issue is ever since then my phone's network doesn't work.  I can't connect with any network provider,  what is the problem?

You may need to clean your cache, or if you are using CWM, try cleaning up DALVIK Cache

Me also facing same problem on my phone earlier. i uninstall some apps from my smart phone and problem was resolved. so you can try this. uninstall some app from your android app.


HTC 510 is vibrating uncontrolablly My HTC 510 is vibrating uncontrollably , but there isn't any notification. What to do ? Its becoming very annoying! Please get to me as soon as anyone can, thanks !

Check Settings, Accessibility and ensure that Notification reminder is off.


What exactly is Device Memory and is it possible to see it's contents? I'm using Sony Xperia L (Non-Rooted, Stock OS) which shows me I have 1.52 GBs of Device Memory. "Apps and Media" are taking up 0.98 GB and ~240MB is remaining free. I don't understand where all that extra memory has gone to.

So what exactly is this Device Memory? I read that it's "the memory where Android installs Apps". That doesn't really answer my question because I'm trying to get a better understanding of the missing space here and I hardly have Apps installed. So does anyone know:

1) What is the location on the Internal Memory that is considered as Device Memory? I mean is it a Folder?

2) How exactly does Android go about calculating that "Apps & Media"

3) Is there any way of seeing the File/Folder contents of Device Memory?

If we go to Settings> Storage we have a section called Device Memory. Here is a screenshot from my phone.

Notice how the space breakup doesn't add up here.

After a lot of searching around and trial and error I stumbled across the answer to this.

  1) What is the location on the Internal Memory that is considered as
  Device Memory? I mean is it a Folder?

Yes. Device Memory is calculated from the Data folder present under root.

  2) How exactly does Android go about calculating that "Apps & Media"

  3) Is there any way of seeing the File/Folder contents of Device
  Memory?

The "Device Memory" includes all the contents of that /Data folder.

Apps: (apps that are actually installed on my phone),
Data: that is used by these installed apps,
Core. I'm yet to find out about this.
Dalvik Cache: Which gets created for each app that is installed. There is a particular file that is taken from each apk file installed on the phone and put here on the Dalvik Cache.
Free Space: Finally the much needed answer to where all my free space went off too. It got consumed by the way "Device Memory" is architectured. So if you install around 400MB of apps that is enough to actually fill up 1.5GB of Data folder.

Hope this was of help. Here is a screenshot for reference.

Internal/Device memory is similar to RAM which android OS makes use of. Its location will probably will remain invisible to you since your device is non-rooted.

I am assuming you want access to internal storage and not internal memory. You can access your internal storage which has the path of
    /storage/sdcard0 where '/' is the root directory.

"Apps & Media" contains all your application data (save files , scores etc), your photos & images stored on the device , music files (mp3, ringtones etc) & videos.

You will need to root your device to see the contents of "/" directory as rooting your device will provide you with super user privileges and thus allow rw access to all directories.

You can check this link to know more about the difference between storage & memory.


Samsung Galaxy S3 notification bar style changes I currently have Android 4.1.2 on my galaxy s3 from Verizon and I am having issues with the notification bar. Seemingly at random it changes how the notification bar works. I had recently updated the gmail app to allow messages to be archived from the notification bar. However later the bar changed back to the old style where it no longer showed snippets of the email in the notification bar and I can no longer take actions for new email. At the same time I noticed new notifications are tacked on to the right side of the list instead of the left side when the new features where working.

Has anyone else experienced this issue or figured out a solution for it?

This is still happening after I upgraded to Android 4.3

I had the same problem and couldn't find the answer anywhere.  Via the technique, commonly known as 'mucking about with my phone', I found that the new actions can be revealed by swiping down on the notification with two fingers. Likewise they can be hidden again by swiping upwards with two fingers.

Do a restart. That fixed mine when I had the same issue


Screen flicker only on gray backgrounds I have a Sony z5 premium, and have had many problems with the screen flickering on gray backgrounds. It's fine on white colors, so it may be something software?

I am using android 7.0

Thanks

this is hardware fault, check the LCD belt or the LCD


How I can prevent my android phone from getting rooted? Usually  people try to install a custom rom on a stolen android phone to erase all its data and identity.
Is there any way to prevent the thief from installing a custom rom or rooting it.

If a thief has physical access to your hardware, it's his.
You cannot prevent the thief from entering the bootloader or recovery and flashing your device.
What you can do is go to your local police department, tell them your phone has been stolen and you have the IMEI (it's on the box but note it down separately) and they should block any use of that IMEI.
No cellular connection will be possible with that device, it's merely a small tablet and all connection attempts will be logged with location of the cell tower, approximate location of the device and time.

After that, wipe your personal data using one of many different remote security solutions (like the Google Device Manager).

Also tell your cell provider that your phone has been stolen so you can get a new SIM (might need to pay for that) and to block any use of the old SIM card.

Also: Thieves usually just wipe the data and don't install a custom ROM (rooting is an option, though).

No brother, after stolen you cannot do any thing, for security purpose you can set strong password, always make a backup of your mobile data and note down your IMEI number somewhere and save it for further inquiry or install android device manager app in your android for online track and delete your data. or any other security related app. not more than this


How can I fix this time-zone problem with calendar events that started after installing Android 2.3? I'm using a Nexus One on T-Mobile in the US. A couple months ago my OS was updated to Android 2.3. Since then I've had a weird problem with my calendar events.

I can view calendar events just fine, and the calendar syncs with my Google Account bi-directionally without issue.

When I create a calendar event, the "time zone" option defaults to my current time zone, "GMT -4, Eastern Standard Time", just like it did on Android 2.2. However, when I touch the time zone option to select a time zone, there are two time zone entries that match mine. One is "GMT -4, Eastern Standard Time", the other is "GMT -4, Eastern Time".

The problem happens when I edit an event. Frequently, when I edit a calendar entry, the event jumps 4 hours ahead unless I manually edit it back down. For example, if I create a calendar event and set the starting time to 1:00pm, when I edit the event I've created the edit screen will show a starting time of 5:00pm. It still shows the correct time zone, but it adds the 4 hour GMT difference into the event's starting time. If I save the event without adjusting it back down, the next time I edit it it will say 9:00pm. This happens regardless of whether the event was originally created on the phone, or if it was created on my desktop PC by visiting http://www.google.com/calendar. It doesn't seem to matter which of the two "US Eastern Time" options I select when creating an event on the phone. This problem did not exist before I installed Android 2.3. It doesn't happen with every single event, but I haven't been able to figure out what the common element is between the unaffected events. It does seem that events that are freshly-created are less prone to this problem (possibly the problem starts after the data's been synced a few times?)

If I create a calendar event on my phone, and then edit it on my desktop PC using http://www.google.com/calendar, the PC edit screen behaves normally, and the changes sync back to my phone without issue. Only when editing events on the phone do I experience this problem.

It's very annoying that I have to dial my events back 4 hours every time I make a change to them. I've experimented with different settings but I haven't been able to figure out how to make this go away. Does anybody know how I can fix this?

I had a problem with a secondary calendar which sounds similar. On edit the time zone changed. I went into the calendar and made sure all of them were set to my time zone. Each calendar has changeable time zone on Google calendars.

I don't know how mine got 4 hours ahead of itself, but I fixed it by changing my time zone to the west coast and back, and then it was OK.


Default USB MTP for Android 6.0 I would like to have MTP selected by default (instead of charging) when I plug an Android 6.0.x device to a PC through a USB cable. What should I add or modify in the build.prop file of my rooted device to make this happen? I know that it's not possible to do that without root access but the device is rooted.

Google changed the USB protocol for Marshmallow to always default to charge.

The reason for this change because they brought back the ability to make external storage (SD card) become internal storage. Creating a new storage type called "Adoptable Storage".

Originally google removed the ability to swap storages because they viewed it as a huge security vulnerability.

Adoptable storage

In order to achieve your end goal it looks like you might have to compile marshmallow from source. Find the MtpService.java and then with updateDisabledStateLocked() change mMtpDisabled to false.

MtpService.java

Through Developers Options it was possible in my phone.
Just goto

 Developer option > USB configuration

By default its set to Charging.
Change it to MTP. Try connecting USB, this should work.


My WiFi status icon on 4.1 is grey, even when the connection is working fine. Why? I just switched from AOKP to the latest CyanogenMod M-build, and I'm noticing that my WiFi and 3G/H+ icons never switch to blue. This is a bit annoying as usually the grey WiFi icon is an indication that the WiFi I'm connected to isn't actually letting me out onto the Internet, but now they seem to stay grey all the time.

Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot this issue? Is it a known bug? What does the grey icon really mean? I've tried looking around the sync settings as there are some indications this might have something to do with the device not being able to contact the Google servers to sync, but sync is working fine and I'm having no real problems except the fact that it's annoying that the icon is indicating what I've previously interpreted as a problem.

edit It seems that there is an actual problem aside from the cosmetic one: in Google Talk I am completely offline, I get my contact list but it's greyed out. I also don't get notifications from the Gmail app when new mail arrives.

edit2 This was solved by simply removing CM10 and going back to AOKP. I did a full wipe before every install, either this is a bug in CM10 or it's an issue caused by my Titanium backups. Not sure, but the backups worked fine with AOKP.

There is nothing wrong with it. Its the expected/correct behaviour of a freshly installed ROM that does not have Google Apps (gapps) installed. Thus, the telephony/wifi signal will show up as grey.
Its only when that Google Apps (gapps) are installed, then it will show up as blue, this is for ICS upwards.
In Gingerbread, if no gapps is installed, and there's wifi connectivity, its white, when gapps gets installed, it changes to the typical green that is known under Gingerbread.
To resolve this, please install the appropriate gapps suitable for your CM10 ROM.
Edit
I am under the impression that GTalk application and service is part of the GApps hence my comment below to Izzy about this...and seems to backup the fact that if gtalk service is not present, the signal colours do appear different.

I tried to reset phone,clearing cache,Data but it wont work but now
I have a quick solution on this issue and grey wifi becomes blue in some minutes.

All you need is "Rooted Phone"

1.Install : Root Explorer

Grant SuperSU permission to Root Explorer
Mount Root Explorer into Read/Write (R/W).
Go To System > etc > locate "HOSTS" file in etc folder.
Edit Hosts file using root explorer
Insert the symbol # before the second set of IP address numbers then save the changes and exit.
Reboot your phone...
wifi icon will be blue as you start your phone back and some apps like Google play store,keep,etc will be start as normal.

Thanks.


OnePlus one is charging but is recognized in device manager only when in debug mode my oneplus one device (version 4.4.2) is not recognized anymore by the computer (OS WIN8) in the device manager, only when in developer mode - in usb-debug, does it show on the device manager (and even then it is not recognized as a storage device), I have installed the drivers successfully, but the moment the developer mode is turned off it was not recognized again.

Now, I haven't dropped the device and it is protected with a cover, what leads me to believe it may be a software issue.

I have tried already to format the cache partition, and it did not help.

Please help...

Are you using the red/white cable that came with the device? Most standard USB cables are not capable of file transfer, and so will not be recognized with Windows.


How can I get the last dialled number and call duration via adb? I'm creating a computer system for telemarketing.
I'm using adb commands to dial numbers Link
Is it possible to get last dialled number and call duration via adb?
If it is, how?

Maybe you just need to pull

/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db

as it contains all the call logs, and then filter through?

Something like:

cp data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/telephony.db /sdcard/MyTelephoneDatabase.db

I thought I answered it long time ago.
You do it like that

c:\adb\adb.exe shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db "SELECT * FROM calls order by _id desc limit 1;"

But it may be different in different android versions. As far as I remember worked on KitKat


Connect to Samsung TV using AllShare from a Non-Samsung phone I have a Nexus 5 phone and want to connect to my Samsung Smart TV (which supports AllShare).
How can I do this?

Thanks.

UPDATE: I tried again after updating my phone to Android 5.0 . but no luck to getting this work .

I had the same problem and then I found an app called Mirror it allows you to mirror your android device screen to pretty much any streaming box or stick or smart TV with streaming capabilities like Samsung Smart TV's. You can even mirror to an Apple TV. With Mirror there is a bit of a delay from you doing something on your phone to it on the TV.

There is also an app called AllCast for just streaming media like music, videos and movies that are on your phone or on one of the few media streaming websites that are available to stream within the app. These include: Twitch, Google+, Dropbox and Google Drive.

After you press cast screen, press 3 buttons in the upper right corner and check enable screen


Alarm is working even when the phone is powered off I just discovered that if I set the alarm clock and then power off the phone (by holding the power button and then selecting "Power Off") the alarm will still go off when the time comes.

Is this expected behavior? It makes me feel like "power off" doesn't actually power off the phone.

I have a Huawei Y530-U051 running android 4.3.

That is expected behavior. It allows you to turn the phone off if you need to ensure the battery doesn't drain (or whatever other use-case you can think up) and still have a usable alarm clock. It's not new, many Android devices do something similar, and every iPhone since the first-generation models also had that feature. I can also recall an old Nokia 3310 I had back in the early 2000's which did the exact same thing.

Turning the phone off does shut down the OS, so don't worry about that. Android supports the setting of "hardware alarms", which let the phone boot automatically at a predetermined time. Not every manufacturer included support for them, but yours obviously did.

Edit: The hardware alarm feature has been deprecated by Apple and isn't useable any longer.

Remember when you turned on your old mobile phone and you didn't have to set up the time every day again because the phone remembered what time it is?

It's not something of new, it's just that the phone starts a minute before the timer hits the alarm and it's build in because the phone requires at least 4 hours of recharge to last 10 hours of sleep in order to wake you up and not all customers have the possibility of having the wall charger or having the phone charged in their own room with a laptop in their own room.

However you can turn it off by clicking the small check button on the bottom of the screen when you turn the mobile off, so to say it, all phones hibernate on some level in case you don't happen to pull the battery off every time you want the phone closed completely.


More internal memory or less memory + SD card I am thinking about buying Samsung Galaxy S3. The problem is that difference in price between 16Gb and 32Gb is significant, and it is much cheaper to buy SD card and compensate this difference. Is it good idea or not? What are disadvantages?

This is a question that I asked myself and the short answer is to always get as much memory inside the phone as possible, just to be sure.  But saying that, it really depends on how you use your phone.  I've gone for the largest amount of internal storage in my SGS3 as I could get (32Gb) and then a 64Gb external sd card, but I wish that I'd waited out for the 64Gb phone - reasons to follow after the tech bit:

The way that the version of Android you'll get on your SGS3 works is that it stores all application data on the internal storage and doesn't let you move that to the external SD card.  This is probably to keep a good user experience - things will start going very wrong if you moved all your data to the external SD card and then removed that SD card.  To note, older versions of Android did allow you to move apps to the external SD card. So when you download a game like NOVA, which clocks in at around 2GB of storage for the extra data it downloads, you will see that 16Gb or 32Gb internal storage is going to fill up soon.

To make matters worse - there's an extra layer to this:
Android automatically assigns a private folder to each app, located in a protected folder on the internal storage.  If you are non rooted, you won't be able to see this data, but it's what gets cleared when you 'clear data' within an application settings screen.  If you are rooted it's located at '/data/data/'.  This data is kept private so that only that app can look at the data, hence apps can't look at potentially sensitive information belonging to other apps.  This data will always be located on the phone memory for security reasons.  Some apps store a lot of data in these private folders: the newer version of Google music is a prime example - it stores all cached music in this folder (as mentioned in a comment older versions stored the music to the SD card, but this has changed in the newer versions to much annoyance)

So all your apps store all their data to the internal storage and there's not much you can do about it. After using my phone for a few months (installing applications, downloading music etc) my internal storage had 4Gb free (out of 32Gb) and my external SD card still had 60Gb free from my 64Gb.  It seems that unless you root your phone and hack it a little, there's very little which will natively use the external SD card (I think you can relocate where photos are stored but that's about it from the native apps).

Hence I suggest to get as much internal storage space as possible, as that's the space which is going to be used first and fastest.

In regards to the other comments about installing apps to the ext card - I think they must still be using Android 2.x as this hasn't been an option since then, for the reasons explained above.  To re-iterate - you won't be able to install apps on your ext sdcard using your SGS3 on a stock ROM

I think the main factor is speed. External SD cards will be a lot slower than internal memory so I wouldn't install apps on it.


How to root LAVA Iris Atom2 which runs Android 5.1 Can anyone help me to root my Lava Iris atom2 which runs android 5.1 OS,
I had tried almost available softwares like kingoroot , iroot , masterroot, towelroot. But Nothing works.

http://d.kingoapp.com/default/KingoRoot.apk
Take easy root lava atom 2 5.1


Has anyone successfully downgraded there moto G v2 from lollipop? I made the mistake of upgrading OTA to Lollipop (5.0.2) since then have been considering flushing the device down the toilet:

Unable to answer incoming calls half the time.
Unintuitive UI update.
Regular drop outs when using as data hotspot.

Has anyone managed to get there phone back to KitKat and if so how did you do it?

My phone is the Australian Dual Sim unlocked retail version.

Apologies to anyone that thinks it is lazy for me not to wade through every generic answer and roll the dice on bricking the phone without at least asking if someone has succeeded (or failed) with identical circumstances.

You could try restoring it to the factory settings in the boot mode.Or try this link techdroider.com  downgrade from lollipop to kitkat.


Zenfone 2 stuck on USB logo I tried to flash Zenfone 2 but instead of writing droidboot.img I sent an .exe file. And now when I try to get into droidboot (Volume + Power button) the device gets stuck at USB logo.

Whatsoever I found online is related to Zenfone 4|5|6 and not Zenfone 2

How can I access droidboot again ?

(Click image to enlarge)

Long press the power button. Phone will turn off. Then press power button and volume up button simultaneously, till the asus logo appears. Then you will enter the recovery mode. Reboot from there(press power button after navigating to reboot using volum up/down)


Why won't my Samsung Galaxy Ace let me update my apps? Why won't my Samsung Galaxy Ace let me install updates? It lets me download, but then when it gets to installing it says:

  could not be installed on USB or SD card

It might be possible that you have a previous version with support for 'move to SD card' installed on your SD card but the update removed that support.

Thus it fails because replacing the app on the SD card is not allowed any more.

Try to move the culprit to the phone storage in advance and retry.

I recommend removing and reinstalling the app to internal storage. Sometimes it's best to start off fresh.


WhatsApp contact's icon not showing I have WhatsApp installed on my HTC Sensation running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). I also have other social contact related apps such as Google Voice, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. For my Google Contacts, it links each of these services up to the people in my address book.

When using WhatsApp, only a few of my contact's icons shows up for the screen with recent messages. When I view the contact in my address book, they have an icon (headshot) either from Google contacts, Facebook, or some other social service.

Why do only some of my WhatsApp contacts have icons showing? The other WhatsApp contacts default to an Android avatar. I've refreshed the WhatsApp contacts list and the problem still persists.

Maybe you are talking about the contact picture. The contact picture is only visible if the user has specified it.

By default you can have contacts sync with all account but Profile pictures will not be sync'd in app. Each app may have different profile pictures.

Try this: go to sdcard -> whatsapp -> profiles Pictures->

Here you should see what and how many pictures are there. Only those will be shown in WhatsApp contact list.

Is the app up-to-date? If not, just go to the Play Store and update it.


Enable slide-lock without PIN/password prior to security timeout - PIN/password enforced by enterprise security policy I'm on a Galaxy S2X on Jelly Bean 4.1.2, and my company's security policy forces me to use PIN or Password to unlock the device.

Jellybean now allows you to disable "Lock instantly with power button" - if you press the power button, it turns off the screen without locking. And then if you press the power button again before the security timeout, the screen turns back on, and you are not required to enter your password / PIN.

I want to change the behaviour so that if you press the power button, it enables the swipe lock; so if you press the power button again before the security timeout, you are required to swipe the screen to use the phone (prevents "butt-dialing", etc.). I would still want to require the password / PIN after the security timeout.

I've seen a number of posts on this with solutions that use Tasker and Secure Settings to enable and disable the password / PIN on certain conditions - example: Slide unlock till pattern lock gets activated after interval; but this solution does not work when you have a security policy that does not allow you to disable the password / PIN.

Is there another way to achieve this?

I was thinking that if there were some way to de-couple the "slide" from the actual "lock" (since locking always requires a password / PIN on my phone). Is there a way I can invoke the Android slide screen using Tasker without locking? Or, could I invoke a 3rd party slide screen?

I've found a workable solution for this problem. I installed Go Locker, which is a custom slide screen lock. Follow its initial (somewhat confusing) instruction to disable unlocking with the home button, and enable Settings -> Visual Setting -> Hide status bar. Then when you press the power button to lock the phone, when you unlock you get the Go Locker screen. The only downside is after your security timeout, you'll have to enter your password/PIN and then slide to unlock with Go Locker.


TWRP app bricked my Huawei Y3 II phone and it refuses to be flashed again I have flashed my phone recovery mode official TWRP app with restarted the bootloader with ROM Toolbox Lite app, and then my phone didn't power up again and refused every single try to flash it with all the ROM on the internet. I went to authorization of Huawei and they said you will new a new board for the phone that will cost me the same as a new one. What should I do?

I fixed it by flashing every partition  alone while the battery is off the phone and then hard reset.