text:
How do I remove a review I've written from the Android Market app?
How do I delete a review that I have written from the Android Market?
Somewhere in Google's issue tracking software someone has raised this issue (I've lost the link, sorry), and the answer given was that there is a "remove review" menu option when viewing the app in question in the Market application. The person asking seemed satisfied, however there is no such menu option on my phone (Android 2.2).

What version of the Market do you have installed?

I tried removing the review from PC Web Browser. It has the option to edit the review but not to remove.

There's a delete option on the Play website nowadays. See my updated answer, @Sumit :-)

Google Plus also has an overview of all your ratings and the option to delete them (go to the +1 tab in your profile to see them).

Nowadays, there's a Delete button on the Play website:

So, the remainder of this post is just in case things change again at some later time, especially as in November 2012 Google has made things worse, but also kind of solved the problem for existing reviews by removing your name:

Google Play is now connected with Google+ to help you find reviews you trust.
New reviews will be posted publicly using your Google+ name and picture. Your name on previous reviews will appear as "A Google User".

Also note that someone reported Issue 16483: Android Market doesn't allow removing an existing application's rating and comment. Voting might help! Or maybe there's some alternative market app that interfaces with Google's store?
My findings:

Despite what many write: clearing all text including the title does not clear the review for me; it just moved my old review to the top again, with a new date and an updated version number. In the Play app the "OK" button is disabled when clearing the title, so I guess the title text is mandatory. Indeed, just typing a title on the website does save the new review with an empty description. Still, that does show my name, rating and title.
To edit one's own review on the website, even if it's actually shown on the main page: first click "All reviews" or go to the tab "User Reviews", then find the "Edit Review" button next to "My Review". Note that different languages might show different reviews! (I cannot find my review in the Dutch Google Play, as I entered it using an English Play app?)
In the Play app one can swipe the stars to the left to get "unrated", but then the "OK" button is disabled.
Uninstalling the reviewed app does not seem to remove one's review. (Which makes sense, I guess.)
As true for new or updated reviews too: it takes quite some time for changes to propagate. Even once the new review is shown, refreshing might show the old one again. I guess there's multiple servers involved and it takes some time to synchronize. Be patient, for otherwise you might actually activate the old review again.
Old versions of the Market app reveal an option "Remove my review" by simply pressing the hardware menu button, when viewing an app one reviewed. That seems to have gone in 2.3.5 and I cannot find it in Play on 4.0.4 either.
I tried with an old Android 2.1 device, with Market version "2002306". That old Market app still works just fine, but not all apps are visible on that old device, and some show "The requested item could not be found" when selecting it.

Sniffing the network first shows some HTTPS request, probably authentication. Removing the rating gave me a POST to android.clients.google.com:
POST /market/api/ApiRequest HTTP/1.1
version=2&request=CpQDCr[...]OTc2NTE4MzgYARQ

This is a request like many others that people have been deciphering. Unfortunately the unofficial Android Market API does not support these rating requests.
Using "Manage apps" I removed all updates for the Play Store 3.5.19 on Android 4.0.4, getting me the version 3.4.7. No luck.
I also tried AppBrain, hoping it would somehow interface with the Google Play Store and would then allow for changing ratings. No cigar.

Follow these steps:

Go to your browser
Go to Google home page
At the top, click on Play
Go to the bottom of the screen
Click on My orders and settings (bottom left)
Select the app you need to remove the comment from.
There will be an option to edit or delete the comment.

Hope this helps.

On market application, click vote stars again, just clear your review text and save again.
(you can clear your review but can't delete vote stars, alse you can change your vote stars if you want)

That does not work, well with the latest play store, if you un-rate the stars, the 'Ok' button gets disabled!

In the latest version of Google Play Store, v4.9.13, the original reviewer has to find the original review. This is easy, because in my experience, my review is presented at the top of the list of reviews. Click Edit button, and a dialog appears with a Delete button. Click the Delete button.

The OK button shows up as disabled if you don't have everything filled out. Make sure you have the stars clicked and BOTH THE SUMMARY LINE, AND COMMENT SECTION filled in.

How does this remove the review?

This sounds like instructions regarding how to post a review, not how to delete one that's already been posted. It doesn't help the OP.


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Android Market cannot be opened and cannot download any applications
When I first bought my GT-i5801, I could easily access the Android Market and there was no hassle in downloading any applications I want. But then one time it had a virus or something that doesn't allow the phone to open. Then I had it repaired to a Samsung registered repair shop. Then after it was repaired even a single application cannot be downloaded and that the android market can't even be opened.
So what happened? What can I do with this matter?

The first thing you could try is to clear the Android Market cache and data. This can be done from Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> (All ->) Market -> Clear data. Note that the "All" tab may not be available on your device, depending on your Android version. If it's not there, then disregard that step.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


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Use android phone with broken screen as WiFi camera
The screen of my android phone is broken and since I couldn't find a replacement screen I thought of using the phone as wifi camera. I've installed IP cam and use the android.screencast to control and setup the device using USB cable.
However, the color depth of the screen is extremely low with color banding and all this like if it has only something like 8-bit color depth. I have another phone of the same brand available and tried the same steps on that phone and it works with high color depth.
I blieve that due to the missing screen android might fall back to a default color depth as it cannot probe the screen as to which color depths is available. Unfortunately this means that basically my nice idea is useless as the quality of this IP camera is terrible and useless.
Does anyone has an idea of how to change the color depth so that I can continue to use the phone for the described purpose?

Just as a follow up on the issue: it seems that apart from the camera the rest of the system has a high bit-per-pixel number (don't know which number but something like 16bit or more). Just when I open the camera I see heavy color banding. The funny thing is that I took a picture, uploaded it my computer and it has the color banding on my computer screen as well.

Are you sure that the camera isn't damaged as well?  IP Webcam has settings for resolution and quality, but I don't see anything indicating that it's tied to the screen of the device.
Actually, I'm not sure we're using the same cam app.  Maybe it would help to try a different one.  I used 'IP Webcam' because I was using mine for video.  I'm sure there are good options for still shots.
You can also try using something like TinyCam Monitor (free) to view the stream if you're viewing live video.  It makes for an easy security camera system.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Why doesn't Samsung Kies show an update for my Galaxy Ace?
My phone has Android 2.3.3, build GINGERBREAD.XWPKY. I have the latest version of Kies and my phone isn't rooted. But I believe I should see an upgrade to 2.3.5 there. Any clues?
Note: When I first plugged my phone into Kies, it found a firmware update. I wasn't very sure what it was, but after the update the version is still 2.3.3 (which is the version before I did that update.)

It actually is. I'm from PH and others have successfully updated to 2.3.4 http://www.pinoytechblog.com/archives/have-you-updated-your-samsung-galaxy-phones-to-gingerbread-yet. I'm thinking this is a country or region thing...

My phone is also on 2.3.3. The updates get pushed out depending on a number of factors including region (as mentioned by Crashhh in his comment) and carrier.
From my understanding, often the releases will be controlled by the manufacturer (and in the case of Samsung and most others, customisation occurs). Once the manufacturer is ready to support it in a particular region, it will release the software to the carriers. Many carriers will also make their own modifications (and add their own bloatware). Only once this process is complete, will the update be available in Kies.
With the release of Gingerbread in Australia from my carrier, I know that the release went back and forth between Samsung and the carrier a few times, delaying its release to customers.
I'm speculating, but the update you received may have been some sort of patch to the manufacturer/carrier specific software, and therefore I wouldn't expect it to increment the version number of the OS.

So my guess is true. I found out via a tool from samfirmware.com that my phone region is this: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK. It may be because an update hasn't been released for these countries Thanks for clearing that up. :)


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Guide to editing /etc/hosts
It was noted in another thread that it should be possible to build up a white list for an android device using the /etc/hosts file.  I would like to experiment with this idea.  Does anyone have any guidance to offer as to how to go about it?
It has been many years since I played with that area of networking, but from what I remember the host file allows you to specify an IP for an URL which overrides the published DNS settings.  With that it is fairly easy to build a list of content that I want to have accessible, or explicitly blocked, but I am not sure how that helps prevent access to other content.  I am not aware of, and so far google has not showed me, any way to tell the host file to intercept all other requests.  Does android support some form of wild card in the hosts file?  Or is there some way to disable DNS regardless of the active network connection?
Should note that the devices I am worried about at the moment are wi-fi only tables running android 2.3.3.  I am willing to root them if necessary.

/etc/hosts doesn't allow wildcards (see here: https://serverfault.com/questions/118378/in-my-etc-hosts-file-on-linux-osx-how-do-i-do-a-wildcard-subdomain).
Two more links about /etc/hosts:

HOWTO Configure your hosts file: http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:Ch03:_Linux_Networking#Configuring_Your_.2Fetc.2Fhosts_File
Large example file with nice intro header: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/
Small Android app that allows you to add an entry to the hosts file (requires root): https://market.android.com/details?id=com.pof.Add2Hosts

/etc/hosts is in this context is really only good for blacklisting.
For whitelisting, you'd be best off using a proxy server and then setting your device to use it in your device's network settings.
You can subscribe to an existing proxy server service, or set up your own at home.  That should be enough info to get you googling to the answers you need.  I've added a little more detail to this answer on your original thread.
FYI, using a proxy server does not require rooting.

The hosts file acts sort of like a local DNS, it will check the hosts file for the domain and see if there is an assigned IP address in it. If there is, that is the IP address used for the domain. You can't set a white list, but you could do more of a black list. The file looks something like this:

somebaddomain.com        127.0.0.1
  someotherdomain.com      127.0.0.1

this would make any request to either of those domains resolve to localhost. If the domain is not in the file, it will then hit the external DNS to attempt to get the IP address.
There is a catch to this, you will need root to modify the hosts file.

For my home network's WiFi connected hosts (I have 4 of them, 3 Windows 10, 1 Ubuntu Linux 19.10), I always set their preferred DNS server address to the IP address of my Cable Modem / WiFi router (192.168.0.1).  I have set the WiFi router's internal DNS severs setting to the fastest DNS servers I can find, which are usually OpenDNS:
208   67  220 123
 - and -

208   67  222 123
I've always gotten blazing fast results doing it this way, regardless of the make / model number and configuration of my Cable Modem / WiFi router.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Can my friend's Android phone impersonate the starship Enterprise?
I was recently browsing Reddit and found the geekiest command to boldly go where no command has gone before.
play -n -c1 synth whitenoise lowpass -1 120 lowpass -1 120 lowpass -1 120 gain +14

It's a Linux command using the sox package to create a continuous sound loop like the background sound on the starship Enterprise. Are there any existing Android apps for a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone running Android 4.0.1 that would be able to replicate this?

Apps that do this will have to be careful with their branding and look and feel, bearing in mind that the Tricorder app was removed from the Market a while ago because it had an "LCARS" interface http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/09/06/android-tricorder-app-pulled-due-to-legal-complaint/ Just using a recorded MP3, just sounds so much easier!

You could always just "watch" this YouTube video

You could just use Audacity or something to create a short clip of white noise, then play that on loop through the phone's media player. However, in my opinion, this whole question is a bad idea. It will constantly be running down your battery and using up processor cycles.

Its a bit of fun question nothing serious just wondering if there was an audio app that would do the same or similar job as sox on android I'm sure he wouldn't be using it more than if you were to play music for instance on your phone for an hour or 2 btw here is the original request https://plus.google.com/105047371315992982745/posts/5AL9CFCakzy

There is a SoX port for Android available as an open source project on GitHub: https://github.com/Kyborg2011/SoxPlayer
The developer says that it's not stable and uses high amounts of cpu (source):

instability (every tenth run - nothing happens)
high load on the processor

Wouldn't recommend to run that but theoretically this can be done.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Does Android support the Exchange ActiveSync policy "Encrypt storage card"?
Without middleware, without Google Apps, does Android support the Exchange ActiveSync policy "encrypt storage card."?
According to Wikipedia, Android doesn't support the ActiveSync command to encrypt a storage card. I'd like a second opinion, with a reference.
PS: I've seen Samsung claim the ability to encrypt storage cards, but unless it's through ActiveSync, it's not what I'm looking for.

Prior to Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), Android did not natively supported encrypting local storage at all. Android 3.0 introduced the ability to encrypt the local device, and to enforce device encryption by Activesync policy.
Other than the Galaxy Nexus, every phone currently on the market is running either a 1.x or 2.x version of Android, none of these support device or removable media encryption in the Android OS, it is possible that some manufacturers may have added encryption, but this isn't a standard part of the OS available to standard ActiveSync implementations.
For Android 4.x phones (currently only the Galaxy Nexus) full device encryption (and the relevant policies) is brought to phones but this still doesn't seem to include removable media.

On my Samsung Galaxy S2, adding corporate exchange/ActiveSync account does indeed force encryption of all device storage.

A number of Motorola devices support that feature. Here is a link to their site. My group has the Bionic and Atrix 2 and they support that feature.


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Use my device as laser pointer
I'm not sure if this is possible, but knowing that is possible to use the device as mouse I think this should also be possible: Somehow connect the phone with a PC, then in the place you touch from the phone, in the computer should appear a red dot (or something).
Is there any app for this?? Is it possible?

You want to use it as an input tablet, essentially, and the red dot is just representing the cursor?

@MatthewRead yes, thats right!

It is totally possible, and there are a lot of remote touchmouse apps available on the Android market. Just search remote mouse, touch mouse, etc. That being said, I think that will be even nicer is to have an app that uses the orientation of the device as the cursor position, i.e. it works like a real laser pointer. (That i have not seen yet and I am coding one.)

will give u an update when i finish the app. (btw, r u using iOS, Linux or windows?)

One solution would be to use a program such as TeamViewer and set the computer's cursor to a red dot, or just use the regular cursor. Teamviewer has a program that runs on the computer, and an app that allows you to control the computer from your phone. I think it would work quite well for what you have in mind.

Is TeamViewer lightweight? I thought about suggesting RDP or VNC but they're way too heavy for such a simple task.

@MatthewRead Which end of it? The Android end of it does some stuff to the feedback to make it display cleaner on the device's screen. I don't know how lightweight the computer end is. I've never been around my computer while I was controlling it. I've never noticed any lag from it, though.

Lag and precision are probably the most important indicators. Can't speak for the OP but I'd be OK with a processor intensive app that didn't have a lot of network overhead and thus didn't lag.

@MatthewRead There is a bit of lag, I've noticed, but that could just be because my bandwidth at home is abysmal.

Its a good workaround but I'd really prefer some simpler and lightweight app.


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How to stream videos I own to an android device?

Possible Duplicate:
Is there a DLNA enabled media player for Android?
Video streaming from PC to Android?

I've largely been an iPhone/iPad person. I am looking at getting a Kindle Fire or Nook color. I really just want to be able to stream video from my already huge collection of movies that I have on hand. I have used the Boxee and Airplayit applications for PC/iPad/iPhone.... Anything like that for Android or will I be stuck encoding and transferring?

Also note that UPnP and DLNA are the technology standards that look after streaming media to devices on a home network, see this previous question Is there a DLNA enabled media player for Android?

Personally I favour Subsonic for my media streaming, which has a native Android client (along with iPhone and more).

Subsonic looks awesome; except the video playback on Android is crap. It loads up an HTML page with a flash player in it? Pretty bad quality.

I haven't had any problems with quality myself, but I stream video to my phone and not a tablet - screen size may make a diff there.


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Connect camera to the Android phone via cable
When travelling I usually bring my camera for pictures and my Android phone for communication. Camera is better than the phone for pictures, since it works faster and has better quality sensor. But what if I want to send fresh pictures to someone? Then I need to transfer the files from the camera to my phone in some way. Since the camera doesn't have any wireless connection, the only way is to connect it to the phone is via cable.
I can of course purchase a micro-SD card and put it into an adapter to fit into my mini-SD slot in the camera and then put it without adapter into the phone. However, I would rather avoid this as exchanging micro-SD on my phone is not easy and requires me to open the case that is kept together with some fragile pieces of plastic. If I do this too often, it will break soon.

According to the FAQ, questions should not be about electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones.

What phone do you have? I don't know of any offhand that support USB host mode.

There are a couple of phones that support USB host mode. You could check the compatibility list of the app "DSLR Controller" over here: http://dslrcontroller.com/devices.php
In the column "How to connect" are links to an adapter cable which enables you to connect a camera to your phone.
If your phone is listed there or you verify via outher sources that your phone supports USB host mode then you could try one of the cables listed there.
After that you would need an app that enables you to mount the camera storage so you can access it.
Today I ordered one of those cables and will try to connect a cardreader to my phone (Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000). Will post further updates once the cable arrives.

Thanks. Seems like I would need later Android version for that. I am currently using 2.2 and it seems like no update is coming from my provider.

@SergiyByelozyorov: if your provider isn't going to update Android, you could always try loading a custom ROM that has a higher version, like CyanogenMod.

@masterjo I have a Xoom running 3.2 and a Galaxy S running 2.3.3, I can confirm that with no additional software teh Xoom will read pictures straight from a connected camera, but ignore USB card readers. Using the same cable on stock 2.3.3 on the Galaxy S, it totally ignores both the camera and the USB card reader.

@GAThrawn interesting.. hopefully I'll be able to achieve something. Are you running 2.3.3 stock or some other firmware/ROM?

@masterjo stock Samsung 2.3.3

@Logos: That would require to root my phone (HTC Desire) which would void my warranty. I do not want to do that before my warranty period is over, because as far as I have heard - rooting HTC Desire requires writing to one-time-write memory and can be detected even after unrooting. Please correct me if I am wrong.


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How does one disable the media scanner? (obviously on a rooted device)
Running a rooted Galaxy S2 with DarkyROM2 2.3.5 & SuperCore kernel. I have a 32 GB microSD card in addition to the 16 GB internal storage, and it takes ages to scan both when the phone boots. At times when I connect USB mass storage mode and later turn off, it goes into an infinite reboot loop. Have tried this, but it doesn't appear to work. Any other workarounds?

Did you enable USB Debugging? The app just sends one system command so if it doesn't work I don't know if anything does (see the relevant XDA Thread).

Yep,it's on, you can't use mass storage mode otherwise! That's the thread I originally got it from.

Is it possible to do it without rooting the device ?

Via the command line:
$ su
# pm disable com.android.providers.media/com.android.providers.media.MediaScannerReceiver

Does this method require rooting the device ?

Yes. su is the super user command.

is it possible to do this without rooting the device?

pm disable com.android.providers.media/.MediaScannerReceiver is enough.


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Answer my phone on my Tablet?
I have an Android phone (HTC Desire Z), I also have a Android tablet (Acer Iconia Tab A501).  I would like to link up my phone to my tablet so I can answer my phone on my tablet.
Is this possible with Bluetooth?
Is this possible with any apps?
Is this possible with Call-Fowarding to a VOIP?
Not sure if there is anything else to try.

You can use your Google Voice number and receive calls at any computer.  The following snip comes from Google's web site for Google Voice:

Make and receive calls in Gmail Google Voice lets you manage all your
  phone communications and seamlessly make and receive calls on any of
  your existing phones. But what if you don’t have your phone with you?
  Or what if you’re in a place with poor cell phone reception, or you’re
  travelling internationally and don’t want to incur expensive roaming
  charges? Wouldn’t it be great if you could use your computer to make
  or receive calls?
Starting today you can use Gmail to receive or place Google Voice
  calls.
To get started, check the box next to Google Chat in your list of
  forwarding phones and the next time someone calls your Google Voice
  number, Gmail will notify you of an incoming call. You can take the
  call or even listen in as the caller leaves a message, in a single
  step right from your computer

There you go, straight from the Google's mouth.
;-)

You should be able to use Google Voice to do that. You can set it up so that when someone calls your Voice number, both your phone and your tablet ring.

K, I will have to look in to this Google Voice thing, never used it.

Neither have I, but I've heard very good things about it.

I don't think it's possible to make or receive a call directly through Google Voice. Even on a phone, it just forwards calls to you; it doesn't actually provide a VoIP service. You can probably set up GVoice to forward to something like Skype or GrooveIP, though.

Hm, you may be right... As I said, I've never used it.


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Saving a PDF file downloaded from browser
I have the need of downloading and forwarding a PDF receipt downloaded from Firefox (Firefox runs in Honeycomb, not on PC!). I know that the PDF should be "protected" because Adobe Reader on PC says so, however in Adobe Reader for Android I don't have any option more than "Info on Adobe Reader" to save or forward the file in an email.
My stock ROM comes with the shareware Docs To Go that wants me to buy the full version for saving/forwarding a file.
Am I missing something in Firefox to show some kind of open/save dialog instead of directly opening the file in a reader?
Thank you

Actually, I found that all downloaded files are always stored in /mnt/sdcard/Download no matter they are "opened" or "saved" so I can grab them from there with any file manager


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How do I factory reset when my Sprint LG phone that won't boot?
I have a Sprint LG model# LS670.
When turning on the power it just displays the Android logo in a loop.
How do I factory reset it?

Make sure the device isn't connected to power through the usb.
Take out the battery if the device is on to turn it off.
Put the battery back in.
For about 10 seconds hold the volume up, home key, and the power button to turn it back on. Keep holding until the Android system recovery menu loads.
Use the volume down button to navigate to wipe data/factory reset
Press the button with 4 squares (menu).
Another menu will appear to confirm you want to wipe the data. Use the volume to navigate down to Yes and press the menu button.
Reboot the phone through the menu.

Had the same problem.  Started 1.5 months ago and after rebooting 5 times and taking it to the store (they charged it only) it worked well until today.  I took it back to the store and they told me I needed to replace it. They placed the order for a new phone that will not arrive until next week Tuesday.  Well I read in a blog of LG4 with different carriers not to give up with rebooting that is what I did (including removing the memory card - sometimes the cards get corrupted), I must have rebooted about 12 times and now my cellphone works again.  I was able to back up all my pictures, videos, etc.  Guys, do not give up rebooting.  I know now this will happen again therefore ordering a replacement is just a matter of time.  At least back up all the files you want on a weekly basis.


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Is allowing an OTA to install after rooting a good idea?
I have a rooted phone with the stock ROM/Kernel. I only use the tethering hack outside of the stock ROM. I was prompted with "System Update" this morning. Should I stay away from this update, or would it be ok?  Thanks!

What version have you got at the moment?

Android 2.3.4
Baseband EG31
Build EG30

As-is this is way too subjective and open-ended.  What are your concerns and what information do you need to make the decision?

If there's upgraded soft/firmware, I'd like to take advantage of it. But I don't want to risk some adverse effect if I update. I already bricked one phone, so I'm extra cautious.

The worst case scenario I could see is that you would lose root (and therefore your tethering).  You'll have to regain root and re-apply tethering.

A system update will most likely un-root your phone, but if all you have is the tethering hack, I would recommend updating, re-rooting, and reinstalling the hack, after making sure the the hack is supported in the next version.


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Manual Update: Exclude a certain apps from notifications
I have an application with a manual update available. I do not want to update it (I prefer the older one).
In the previous Google Market app (it changed, sorry I do not remember older version number) it was possible to exclude the app from further notifications.
With the current Google Market app I'm not able to do it anymore, and I always have the "You have 1 SW update available" notification on top screen (I have auto-update feature set).
How can I configure the Google Market app not to bother about that app anymore?
(or at least until further updates, in the future).
Thanks in advance !

Possibly related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14421/how-to-hide-updates-from-market

There's no real solution -- but depending on how much this annoys you, a work-around is available:

install AppBrain App Market. You can think of this app as an "alternate frontend" to the Google Playstore (and yes, it is no stand-alone market, as all updates/installs are re-routed to the Playstore-App).
log-in to the Appbrain Website with your browser and your Google-Account to initialize your account with Appbrain
now login with the Appbrain App you installed, and synchronize your installed apps.
Appbrain now shows you available updates to your apps. You can run them in a batch, or one by one, or can decide one by one whether you want to skip just this update, or skip this (and all future) updates to this app -- so it will not annoy you with updates you are not interested in.
start the Playstore App again, go to your apps list, open the settings, disable all update checks, updates, etc., and close it again.

Now the original Playstore won't ever notify you about any update whatsoever. Instead, you use the Appbrain App for updates. When looking for some new app, you can chose to use either of them. You might also decide to install the AppBrain Ad Detector along, and then probably will use the Appbrain App only -- as it helps you avoiding apps with excessive ads.


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'Clock' app does not show up in Running Applications
My Nexus S comes with a default clock application where I can set an alarm. When I set an alarm then I see a little clock in my status bar.
If I go to 'Manage Applications' or 'Running Services', I would expect to see Clock there, but I don't?
If I go to 'All' from 'Manage Applications', then I do see the Clock app, and I can Force Quit it, however the clock in the status bar still appears.
Why doesn't the default Clock application ever appear in Running Applications or Services?

Probably because it's part of the system and is never supposed to stop running?

If it's part of the system, can developers access this Clock app? For instance I am creating an alarm application, should it be possible to hookup the alarms from my application to the system Clock app?

That I don't know. Any dev questions should be asked on [SO].

I don't see it either (also a Nexus S).  However, while I had the "Running" tab open, I hit the menu button and chose "Show Cached Processes"; that caused the Clock app to appear in the list.  I don't honestly know what that means, though.

I use Go Launcher Pro. There in the running tab it shows Clock. May be he stock launcher application hides running system processes from showing.


text:
How can I install CyanogenMod on my HTC Magic?
How can I install CyanogenMod on my HTC Magic? Is there a tutorial or guide for this that I can follow?
Sorry guys..if you feel that I was asking a silly question..!
my intention was to have a brief summary about the dos and donts for getting cynogenmod in HTC phones...

You can find lots of guides and tutorials regarding this. Just a simple Google Search revealed this

There already is a guide for install on the CyanogenMod forums and a main page for the device which contains download links and other general info.

As of note, the HTC Magic only supports CyanogenMod 6. (Or earlier, which you don't really want.)


text:
Can I delete the log files on my device?
I'm currently developing on an Android 2.3.4 device. I've got root access to the file system, and I'm looking for the location of the system log files (like /var/log) so that I can delete them, but could not find these files on Android.
Does someone know where these files are located?

Related: Where are log files located on Android? (I believe the answer is basically that there aren't any)

Shouldn't this be over at SO?

LogCat messages are not stored in files, but rather in circular memory buffers. You may clear these buffers using the following command:
adb logcat -c

Source: Using LogCat

The OP must have been referring to the files but not logs stored in memory

This wouldn't necessarily clear the Logcat.

On a Samsung *#9900#, this will take you to SysDump.
Select 2nd option(Delete Dumpstate/Logcat).

Here is an old question on StackOverflow about the same thing. It doesn't look like there's any way to view them directly, but there are various apps that can do it.

Thank you, but sorry that doesn't help. I don't want to view it, I want to delete it.

@truell Delete what? The logs? Why? As far as I know, they don't persist for very long (reboot or max log line count, I think)

Yes, you can delete log files on your device...
Using the app SD Maid (Explorer tab) on a rooted Samsung Galaxy Note 1 (N7000), Android 4.1.2, LT5 Build, I found 900+ log files in /data/log.
After clearing the literally hundreds of dumpstate* files, I got my internal memory back from only 207mb up to 1040+ mb! Now I can complete all the missing updates. These files were dated back over more than 1 year and seemed to serve no valid function any more. Afterwards the device booted, was faster and no functionality was lost.
Looking at the dates of these files they coincided with some system crashes and SD card mounting problems I had received in the past.
But in order to even see these files you will need a rooted device.
Using the clean master app on a rooted device also found a lot of files which could be deleted.
Here are the links to the Apps in Google Play Store as requested

SD Maid: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.thedarken.sdm
Clean Master: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard

It'd be nice if you could add links to the apps you mention.

+1 for pointing out to /data/log/ folder. These logs aren't created by LogCat but rather by system itself (and looks like dumpstate* files are generated because of some CM bug: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/48281/19059)

For me it solved my disappearing memory problem. I've been looking for a solution for ages without success. Only after rooting the phone and searching for log files and things did I find this. If you search for dumpstate* because you know about them you will find information but as a non rooted user, you will never see this name. The directory appears empty. I hope this information can help other users. Why the crashes occurred in the first case was because of a lost connection to the SD card or was the invisible SD caused by some other failure? I don't know. I'm at least happy at the moment.


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How can I add a search button to my dock on a Galaxy Nexus?
I just saw a tweet where someone had added a search button to the 3 docked software buttons

So I'd like to know how to add the search button (or any other) to the dock with the Back, Home and Multitasking buttons
Is this a setting of the default launcher or done through some app?

They work like normal shortcuts, just long-press the icon and drop it into the recycling bin, and then open the app menu, long-press Search and drag it down to the dock.
Edit: The dock in question is not customizable from the default settings, but it can be patched through ClockworkMod. The most comprehensive customization options I've seen can be found here.
The files need to be applied through ClockworkMod so the device has to be rooted. Just download the file you prefer, move it to the internal sdcard and apply the update from recovery. Be sure to backup first, just in case.

I think he means the buttons below that. The ones that used to be hardware buttons, and now are software.

Oops, that's what I get for reading the question too quickly, confused the work dock with the, well, dock. Would this be what you're looking for: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1355193 ?

I thought the same thing until I saw the picture, which reminded me that they're no longer hardware buttons.

That's the thing @onik, care to explain it in more detail in your answer, so others know the solution too?

Ah so I have to root it anyway, well guess there's no pain in that

According to this it's also in the MoDaCo ROM.


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Activate voice recognition with keyword
I want to have the mic listening for a keyword and then have it turn on Google recognizer? Has anyone been able to do this and how? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The name escapes me at the moment, but there is a voice-command app in the Market that does just that. I don't think it uses the Google voice command engine, though.

Vlingo? There's a similar feature on my S2, but there's also a cautionary piece of advice - battery life will be noticeably shortened.

Are you asking that it would run all the time in the background? Wouldn't that consume a lot of resources/battery to "wait" for a command word?

Yes.  Samsung's S-voice and Nuance's Dragon Mobile Assistant do exactly that.  They do also warn you that it does drain the battery.  Not sure how much they drain, as I've never used that feature.

Until we can put the mic in a low power state and not need to keep the phone awake for it to work, we aren't going to get something that is actually usable without an external power source handy.

This is something added Android 4.3 and is featured on the Moto X. The phone passively listens all of the time for you to say "Okay Google Now" followed by whatever your command is. (There's a special low-powered CPU being used to listen, which is why it's not available on every device with 4.3.)
(Here's a video demo by Slashgear.)
I expect to see this more frequently as new hardware comes on the market.

I was under the impression that this is not a feature of Android 4.3, but rather an additional software feature added by Motorola to take advantage of their voice hardware. Am I wrong?

You could be right. I don't have a source to hand which gives a definitive answer either way.


text:
Where on the file system are SMS messages stored?
Where in the file system are SMS messages stored?
I'm using ES File Explorer to browse around but can't seem to find this - is it on the phone or the SD, and where?
I have an HTC Wildfire but I would imagine it doesn't vary hugely from vendor to vendor (although I am an iOS developer who knows little about Android).

See here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4809874/how-to-access-the-sms-storage-on-android
The gist is that SMS/MMS are residing in databases on the phone and the answer to the question contains the link to this tutorial.
The location of the database might vary from phone to phone, but you can look it up with this command via adb (you need to be root to find it because it's in the protected storage area):
find / -name "*mmssms*"

On my device (Samsung Galaxy S) these databases turned up:
./dbdata/databases/com.android.providers.telephony/mmssms.db
./data/data/com.jb.gosms/databases/gommssms.db

The first one being the native db and the second one is by the sms app I'm using.

could you explain how it's stored... it looks like XML? also where is it? - I'm not talking from a coding point of view as I do not know anything about android development.

It's an sqlite database. You can look at it with an sqlite viewer - which operating system do you use?

Here's a platform independent sqlite viewer if you want to look at those files: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/

Thanks a lot for this answer! I had a some weird problem where sending SMS to a contact would send them to other contacts. I had to edit an entry in canonical_addresses in mmssms.db. Now it's working as it should again.

@masterjo: SQLite Database Browser hasn't been developed since 2009 and it couldn't show anything from the .db file when I tried it today. Here's another SQLite browser that worked - http://sqlitestudio.one.pl/

On kitkat: device/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

I found mine at device\data\data\com.android.messaging\databases\ on android oreo.

Here's a helpful piece of info also.
This is the absolute path to SMS and MMS DB on most android devices:
/data/data/com.android.providers/telephony/databases/mmssms.db

This should actually be renamed to /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db.
Notice the .telephony

On kitkat device/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Looks like it moved to data/User_DE/0/com.android.providers.telephony/databases with Nougat.
At least, this is where it can be found on my Nexus 6. Hope this helps.

I also found this to be the location on Android 11.
Note that user_de is lower case, not capitalised like you have put

Note that, as of Kitkat (Android 4.4, released Sept 2013), the default path changed from:
/data/data/com.android.providers/telephony/databases/mmssms.db
to
/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Update: As mentioned in the comments, the latter path already exists in JB.

The changes must have been introduced way before KitKat was launched since /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db exists in my JB.

Well, JB is one release before KK. So, "way before" may be a bit exaggerated. ;-)


text:
Asus EEE Transformer never gets a GPS fix unless I reboot it
I have an Asus EEE Transformer (not the prime) that has unreliable GPS performance. I usually just fire up Google Maps in my car and use the navigation but the tablet always gets stuck with "Searching for GPS". This can go on for over 30 minutes in which the tablet either won't get a signal at all, or might get one every once in a while, update the map, and then go back to "Searching for GPS".
I have tried the following things:

Done the same navigation with my Nexus One in the same car and it has no problem receiving a signal right away and finding it's location so I'm pretty sure it's not environmental conditions.
I tether the Transformer to my Nexus One for internet so at first I thought using the "Use wireless networks" for location was just trying to get the location from the phone but toggling the option on or off doesn't seem to make it work worse or better one way or the other.
The amazon reviews don't seem to indicate an overwhelming problem with the Transformer with GPS.
I have tried the tips in this forum thread on the transformer forums.
I've tried installing GPSfix and using that tool but it doesn't seem to help.
Android version is 3.2.1, GPS version is 5.5.8, and Build # is: HTK.US_epad-8.6.5.19-20111107

So far the only reliable means to get the GPS working seems to be to shutdown the tablet and fire it up again, at which point the GPS and Google Navigation works right away, which leads me to believe that it's a software or configuration problem rather than a hardware issue.

I have tried it with my Asus TF without any problems. It took about two minutes to get a GPS fix but it worked. What firmware version do you have?

It definitely is a software configuration. There are 2 possible reasons for this problem:

Servers its contacting - When Google Maps on your tablet/phone contacts the GPS satellites, its done through a special set of servers. Sometimes, the manufacturer might have set the system to connect to a set of particularly busy servers. It has been shown that connecting to other servers with lower traffic can give dramatically faster lock on times.
Possible bug in the initial configuration - when the manufacturer was setting up the initial build configuration, an unintended bug could have been introduced.

The solution to both can be done I believe through a simple fix in the gps.conf file but that would require root access. When I was running the stock firmware on my Asus Transformer, I was having the same problem. Now I am running a Custom ROM and I have no troubles with lock on in Google Maps.

Perhaps this was the problem?  (from the forum thread you posted):

Originally Posted by prbgd
    I am totally confused now. I just got confirmation from ASUS a few days ago. The tech person there said the GPS (US model) will not work if there is no WiFi. This is a firmware issue. It may be fixed in next firmware update.

Update: after the latest firmware upgrade today, GPS is working great now even without WiFi.

If that wasn't the problem: sometimes when I use my android device without cell signal it can take quite a while to get a GPS fix.  I think it might be a combination of it using cell towers to improve GPS fix time, and having a connection to the internet to download GPS assistance data.
If you do have an internet connection when you're trying to get a GPS fix, the GPS Status & Toolbox app will let you download GPS assistance data, which could possibly improve your fix time.  Just install the app, open it up, go to Menu --> Tools --> Manage A-GPS state --> Download.


text:
How can I stop my sent emails from containing raw HTML?
When I send an email from my official exchange server, the person who receives it, whether through web access or through Outlook, gets the email with HTML coding! It is very embarrassing and I have searched for the solution in vain. How can I stop this behavior?

You seem to have this tagged with two different phone models ([tag:samsung-galaxy-s] and [tag:samsung-galaxy-551]). Which of those do you actually have?

Apologies. Its a Samsung 551.

Making text encoding the default behaviour for the stock Android Email app is not possible. You can use K9mail instead. This question is already answered here.
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9237/disable-html-emails-in-composer


text:
Applications keep restarting
Whenever I'm done with an application, I always exit using the back button. Somehow applications like Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, Videos, Email, Google Maps, etc keep restarting on their own.
I have tried:

Using a task killer
Force stopping the apps in the settings menu
Killing them using watchdog

...but they still restart. Any idea how to solve this problem?

Why do you want to exit the app in first place?

If im done with facebook or whatsapp, would it not be better to exit the app.

Let me first say: Do not use task killers. You are only making the problem worse.  Why?  Let me explain how the Android OS works.
Unlike normal OSes, Android does not actually let you "close" an application.  You can leave the application, but that doesn't mean it has "closed" or "killed" it. This is because of multi-tasking: when you leave an application, you can come back to it as you were previously.
Instead, the Android OS handles the "killing" or "closing" of applications for you.  It keeps track of a) how much free memory there is and b) how long it has been since you've opened that app.  When memory is running low, Android will garbage collect and kill any unused applications.  Android's OS task killer is very smart and can handle these situations far better than an Android Task Killer app that just kills apps left and right without any "logic" behind it.
Now, when you leave an application via back button or home, this doesn't mean the app is necessarily still running, just that it remains in memory. The only time an app will run is a) it is in the foreground or b) it has a background service.
In your case, it sounds like you are trying to kill background services. When you do so, the app will just go "oh hey, my background service is running any more, let's start it back up!"  And you will then be playing a game of whack-a-mole.  You'll be wasting resources and battery life because applications will be re-starting themselves.  And if an application was writing to disk (your SD card) at the time you killed it, then you could end up with corrupted files and other issues.  Rare, but it could happen.
The only need for a task killer is to stop an erroneous application in one-time situations.  That's what force stop is for. You shouldn't need to force stop every X min.  ONY when the app is misbehaving in rare occasions.
If you don't want all those apps running background services, check to see if they have settings to disable them.  Look for things such as disabling background notifications or other "polling" for information/updates.  Otherwise, uninstall the app.
You can find even more info over here in this thread and this thread.

oh yea...another thing.. do i need to clear the memory occasionally under the task manager? the RAM usage seems to be really high and not going down.

Clear which memory?  Do you mean the "clear data" for certain apps? That will only temporarily fix a problem if an app is using a lot of data (typically a cache or database).

If you mean the memory used up by all the active services.... the only way to get really get that to go down is to uninstall those background services or disable their background services (notifications, etc.)

to uninstall the background services I have to use the app itself right

To keep an app from using a background service you either uninstall the app or tell the app to stop polling for updates/send notifications.

Some of the applications (e.g - facebook, maps) are like services.. they keep restarting always. If other applications like Browser, Messaging are exiting fine then there is nothing wrong. It's just that some applications always want to run in background. Best option is to uninstall any of the applications which you don't use. If there is an application which you require, better let them run. Using task killers is not a good idea.

Thanks.. so its normal for apps like facebook, whatsapp and map to keep running ?

Yup! Don't worry much about them.


text:
Can't connect Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 to PC after root
I have a Samsung S5830 phone. After I rooted it using upd-1.zip I got a superuser icon in the app list. However my PC won't recognize it. I have Kies installed and all Samsung drivers but it seems the problem is not with the drivers, what should I do?

Your phone might be going into USB Debugging Mode on connecting to PC. After phone is connected to PC via cable, disable Debugging Mode [Settings -> Applications -> Development] and then check for Kies Connection.
My friend had the same issue and we resolved it like this.


text:
Missing "left screen" in my SGS1 . How can it be added?
I have stuff on the 7th screen and I've expected to be able to reach it on left swipe from homescreen, but it is not so.
How can I configure it ? Does it require some non-default launcher?

Can you navigate the screens in circular fashion (right swiping on the last screen takes you back to first screen). If this is not the case then you can't go directly to 7th screen by left swiping on first screen.

This is an option in most launchers, but I think it's not available in the stock launcher. I'd recommend switching to Launcher Pro, there it's enabled by default and can be toggled from Preferences -> Homescreen settings -> Homescreen looping.

If you're using the original Samsung supplied OS with  Samsung's Touchwiz interface, then it doesn't wrap around, to get to the 7th screen you have to scroll seven screens to the right.
Alternatively you can "pinch" zoom out on any of the home screens to zoom out and see an overview of all of your screens, and tap any of them to move straight to them. You can also add and remove screens (up to 7) from here, by dragging unwanted screens to the trash bin at the bottom of the screen, or clicking the plus sign to add another (up to 7).

At the top of your homescreen, there should be a row of white dots, one for each screen. You can tap them to skip directly to selected homescreen.


text:
How to access the internal ringtone folder on rooted 2.2?
I have a rooted Samsung GT5510 running 2.2.
I have tried in vain, using different file explorers, to locate the built in ringtones (folder).
Can someone please point me to the right path? Is it inside some APK, in which case how do I unzip it to access the internal contents after saving it on my computer?

Look in /system/media/audio/ringtones. The notifications folder one level up contains the notification tones.


text:
Remove contacts from synced Exchange account, without removing them from the server
How can I remove contacts from accounts I don't sync with anymore? Without being afraid of removing them from the "source" exchange account now or in the future?
Background:
When installing the email synchronization with Exchange, I thought it was a good idea to also sync the contacts.
Now the internal memory of my phone is stuffed with thousands of contacts I don't really need. It seems I cannot move them to the SD card, so I want them gone.
When I stop the synchronization (only contacts) with exchange, the contacts are not automatically removed.
I'm a bit afraid that if I remove them manually, and click or accidentally enable the sync, the contact will also be removed from my exchange contacts list, that is linked to my companies contacts list.
BTW: I know some Java, so if necessary I can develop an app to do this.

There's 2 slightly different solutions.

Log onto your corporate mail account using Outlook Web Access. Go to the account settings, i.e. the options link. Under that, select Phone, and delete your phone profile from there.
Now delete & recreate the Exchange account on your phone, and this time don't choose to sync contacts.
Exchange has a corporate addressbook or directory, and a local addressbook for your own personal contacts. Get rid of the locally saved contacts in your Exchange addressbook, so that on the next sync they'll similarly be culled from the phone. You can always look them up in the corporate directory, and Android can also perform a lookup against the directory for contacts that aren't stored locally. This of course assumes that you don't actually need so many contacts on hand in your local addressbook, or that these are all company contacts and not external business contacts.

With Android 6, this is still an issue. You can remove the contacts by clearing the data from your "Contacts Storage" system app, but this will unfortunately also remove any locally stored contacts. If you use another account for your contacts sync that runs after deleting the contacts data, this might be a solution for you. I've written a blog post with detailed instructions.

Also notice that it'll remove the call logs

Step 1- Be sure sync is on for your other contacts (Google, for example) and that it has been synced so you don't delete contacts you've added to your phone as well!
Step 2- De-active contact sync for your Exchange account:

Settings > Accounts > Exchange > [Your Account] > Contacts to Off

Step 3- Clear the previously synced contacts by clearing the data of the "Contacts Storage" app:

Settings > Apps > All (select: Show System) > Contacts Storage > Clear
  Data

that worked for me. Still issue on 8.1

Another possibility is to hide the account in your address book/contacts on your phone. Disclaimer - not all contact apps support this though.
On my phone, when I go into contacts and click the menu button, one of the menus is Display Options. This then lets me hide or show contacts for specific accounts (ie. google, facebook, twitter, etc.). If i turn off a particular account in here, it does not show any of those contacts in my address book.

I faced the same problem when I configured the corporate account in my phone. Then I removed the account by going to Settings->Accounts and re added it. While re-adding I unchecked sync contacts, sync calendar, sync email and Activated the account. Now the problem is no more.


text:
Sync My Calendar with Outlook/Exchange 2010 using Kies messes up dates on Galaxy S II
I have a Samsung Galaxy S II running Gingerbread (2.3.5). I tried synchronizing My Calendar with Outlook/Exchange 2010 (Outlook running on Win7) using Kies (over USB).
I started with a clean calendar on the phone and the Kies indeed transferred all the appointments and events to the phone, however there is a problem interpreting the dates. Any appointment taking place on a day of the month up to the 12th - the day of the month is interpreted as the month itself, and the month is interpreted as the day. Thus - March 9 becomes September 3, etc. Oddly enough, March 15 stays March 15.
Any ideas what configuration needs to be corrected, and where?
Thanks!

Hm, sounds like a localization issue, perhaps. Out of curiosity, what country do you live in, and what language do you have your SGSII set for? Could be a disconnect of some sort between the locale Kies is expecting and the locale of your phone.

Agree with Eldarerathis it sounds exactly like you've got one device set to US date format, and the other set to normal date format. Either the PC or the phone is running with the wrong regional settings, and Kies isn't clever enough to convert as it syncs.

Side note: sync via ActiveSync over the air is much better than USB--if your server supports it. Highly recommended over the Kies method.

Sorry for the late response to your help...
Thanks for the suggestions. I checked the date format already and both are using normal date format. Any secret places on the phone that this setting could be messed up? I checked in the general phone date settings - couldn't find any calendar specific settings.
Sadly, our corporation does not allow ActiveSync with our exchange server...

I might try setting the phone to US format and see what happens :-)

Ended up switching from Kies to MyPhoneExplorer. Sorry Samsung...


text:
What is the process for reformatting SD Card without breaking the current applications on my HTC Incredible?
Here's my scenario:
HTC Incredible, Rooted to MIUI, with an 8GB SD card.
I want to reformat my SD card because I have a ton of junk on it from before I rooted it, so I want to start with a clean install. Since some of the application data is on there, what's the proper process?
I've backed up the SD card by copying all of its contents to a folder on my computer, and I have Titanium backup on my phone for the apps, so I've done those things.
Is it ok to just format the SD card, and let the phone reinstall whatever it needs? Or what's the best way to do this?

Unless you have apps installed on the SD card, nothing on it should be permanent/critical.  Any app that always relies on SD data being present is written badly.
There may be some data you want to keep backed up, but that's up to you.  It's impossible to say what will happen if you format the card and stick it back in empty, since it depends on every individual app.  But generally speaking the apps should continue as if they'd never written anything to the card in the first place.  If an app misbehaves then clearing the data should fix it.


text:
why do I have to move my apps manually to the SD card to free up space?
If the internal memory is so precious why doesn't Android move the apps to the SD card automatically.  I just don't get the logic of searching through the All Apps list one by one to get a couple of apps that are only installed on the internal memory and then move them to the SD card.
In my opinion is a rather lazy memory management that relies on user intervention to free up space for important OS operations.

You're asking us to read the minds of the Android developers?

I can only speculate, as this is something that can really only be answered by an Android engineer, but off the top of my head I can think of a few reasons they might have decided on this:

It's less confusing for end users, since I certainly wouldn't expect apps to magically show up on my SD card after I install them (especially for users coming from versions of Android prior to 2.2, when this feature didn't exist yet).
It allows the user to manage their storage however they see fit, which can be relevant in some cases since you can't access SD apps when your external storage is unmounted. Maybe I don't want some apps on my SD card because I always want to access them, but Android has no way of inferring this, really. Otherwise you might unexpectedly be unable to use an app you wanted because you didn't know it was on the external storage.
Many apps can't be installed to the SD card, so how do you handle a situation where you want to install an app that must be on internal storage but it won't fit? Do you arbitrarily bump another app onto the SD card instead? What if that's not what the user wants (like above)? It could get a little sticky.
Some apps, confusingly, allow you to move them to your external storage despite the fact that it breaks certain features. Pandora, notably, could be moved to external storage even though it breaks the widget (I don't know if it still allows this). How do you handle that situation? Do you forcibly move it anyway, possibly breaking the user's widget?

Agreed. Android is more oriented towards user control than, say, iOS. Android managing this automatically would not be something I would expect or appreciate :P

Talking about confusing users, what about a completely new user who is using a smartphone for the first time and after downloading a good dozen applications he receives a message telling him he's getting out of space.  His first reaction could be buying a bigger flash card, to his surprise it doesn't change a thing, then he has to refer to documentation or take the phone back to the shop where they will explain that he will have to do the clean up himself only to find out that despite that 32GB flash card he still receives that message after downloading around 30 apps. Android should take care

With the default 150MB of free storage in my internal memory, I would expect the OS to infer that I will need to use the GBs I bought to store apps, otherwise you are restricted to just few dozen apps. What I mean is, nobody really expected that an Android phone would operate in the real world with out a flash card of at least 4GB. If that is so, why not providing automatic features to move things on a need basis.  I don't know you but unmounting storage in my phone would happen only if I open the back compartment and take the battery out, how often I do it, well a couple of times per year.

I think that what the "user" really wants is for its phone to work without worrying about moving apps between the internal and external memory.  By the way internal or external, in the practice for average users is just the same thing since the external one is not going to be unmounted unless you want to upgrade it.  I don't see my self switching off the phone swapping flash cards just to access a new set of apps.  I'd rather buy a bigger card and fit everything inside.

@rcb: Your storage gets unmounted if you plug your device into a computer to transfer files (excepting 3.0+ which uses MTP). I do this frequently, so yes, I do unmount my SD card a lot. Again, all I'm doing is speculating. If you're looking for an authoritative answer then you'll have to ask Google.

Well, thanks for your comment and sorry for the ranting, but I had the hope that my frustration with the phone was due to lack of understanding of how the memory management was supposed to work.  As you said, it is probably the wrong place.

I just discovered I was barking to the wrong tree, it is not the OS fault is a wrong choice for hardware design (obviously driven by economic factors).  Since the Operating System is taking most of the 512 or 570MB of my phone's internal memory I'm left with the dribbling of moving apps from the phone to the SD Card.  I just checked other manufacturers' phones and they come with 1-16GB of internal memory or even more! (Samsung's Galaxy S II), SD card is effectively just an external/supplementary storage.
With more internal memory available there is no need to move application anymore.
Thanks for your comments.


text:
Why do some games ask for calling/SMS permissions?
More and more Android apps (games to be specific) require permissions to make calls. Some of them also require permission to send SMS, read bookmarks, history, etc. What is the explanation for this? I mean, why would a game need to have those permissions?
If it is some software which provides anti-theft support or a voice/video app or something I understand, but games? Is there some logic which I am missing or are the game developers asking too much?

You might have to just ask the developer(s) about this one, to be honest. I personally wouldn't install a game that needed permission to make a call.

Do you have an example?

Also note, if it says something like: Reads Phone State, that is usually just for ads

Generally they don't. Most games don't need SMS or Phone Call permissions, and you should be suspect for any game that does.
I'm assuming this is not the same as "Read Phone State & Identity" which this question answers.

Hi All, Thanks for responses -- one example is very good app "Super Vault - hide pictures" - asking permission under "Services that cost you money"  - I understand that they asking for it but how safe they are with you giving allthe permissions? I love android but problem is who is guarding the apps in the market?

Once you give permission, the only way to revoke it is to uninstall the application. (CyanogenMod may or may not have a way to block a permission per-application, but I don't remember if that made it in or not.)

One solution if you have a rooted phone is to install LBE Privacy Guard. It scans your apps for permissions that can be risky, and lets you block them on a per app basis. You can prevent apps from:

Making calls/SMS
Identifying your phone via IMEI
Connecting to the Internet.
Accessing call logs, contacts, SMS inbox.

The reason for this is PSMS.
If you wanted to make a purchase inside of the game or app this is what happens:

You confirm you want to make a purchase for XX amount of money
The app acceses your sms to send a message to the server to bill you (instead of the old fashioned "Text THIS to ####")
The provider then sends a free message onto your device that tells the app that they have been able to bill you (through that previous sms)

So no app is going to go through your messages or personal information, they just need this for billing. And this only happens after you click on accept to purchase something.
Maybe we need to start educiating ourselves before pointing fingers at developers.


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How to update rooted HTC Incredible
I rooted my HTC Incredible a few months ago by following a tutorial. My phone downloaded an OTA update and is asking to update. I would like to update and remain rooted. How do I go about doing this?
I removed a few bloatware apps. I couldn't tell you which ones, though.
Android version: 2.2
Baseband version: 2.15.00.07.28
Kernel version: 2.6.32.17-g9a2fc16
Build number: 3.26.605.1 CL264707 release-keys
Software number: 3.26.605.1

First of all, since you've modified the system, the OTA update could very well fail partway through -- most of those are distributed as patches against the existing binaries.
The easy way to update is to find a pre-rooted stock ROM, like this one.  You may  need to update your radio first though, information and download links are available here.  I think the one you have was the official Froyo radio -- you'll need the Gingerbread radio for newer ROMs to work properly.  2.15.10.07.07 is the official Gingerbread radio.
However, if you want to go the hard way, keeping root (or at least the ability to re-root easily) is easy provided your Incredible is NAND unlocked (aka S-OFF).  Recent versions of Unrevoked do this automatically, but depending on where you downloaded from and when could affect that.
To check if you're S-OFF, reboot into the bootloader (aka HBOOT).  To do that, power off the phone, then hold down the volume down button and power it up.  Keep the Vol Dn button held until you get a screen like the following:

You can also see the notification that it has S-OFF at the top of the screen.  That's what you want to see.  If that's missing (or says S-ON), then you don't have S-OFF.  If you're not, get the latest Unrevoked Forever.
Once that's done, you can flash whatever you want and still be able to reroot easily by simply flashing your recovery of choice (often ClockworkMod) from HBOOT and then reflashing a root/superuser package from recovery.


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Will I be able to make video calls over Skype with ACME Tablet TB01?
I want to buy ACME Tablet TB01 and I want to know if it will allow to speak over Skype using both front or back camera. Can I make video calls?

I'm surprised you'd try to buy this table considering the site you link says the following "Even less competitive with other tablets. Features in it are not worth the price in the offer." So long as Skype can run on Android 2.3 you should be able to use it. You really should use Google prior to asking such a question here.

The current Skype Android app does not support video calling at all.
If it did, and your device ran the appropriate version of Android, you shouldn't have any problems.  However, just like using a desktop computer - your performance will be variable.  Using a less powerful device will result in a less optimal experience.
There is an alternative, using Google+ (and hangouts).  However, to use this, I am pretty sure you will need the Google custom libraries.  In that case, you need to check the device you are buying to see if it is marked as a "Google Experience" device.  This means it has the "blessing" to run Google apps.  Otherwise, the device is likely based on the Open Source version of Android, which is not as full featured.

Skype for Android supports video calling. They even advertise it on their website.


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Freeing up space on SD card
I'm trying to clear some space on my SD card, so I can run AnTuTu Benchmark. Also, having some extra space for music would be great. I'm assuming apps installed to your SD card can eat up free space faster than you'd imagine. As of now, 19 (out of 65 apps) on my SD card which occupy appox. 197 MB total.
I currently have 1.74 GB used and 103.47 MB free, would my ROM be occupying a lot of space (i.e. needing 4GB of HD space to install Ubuntu/Linux)?
I want to figure out the best way to maximise space on my SD card without haphazardly deleting files. Also, knowing what are key folders would help too.

It's better if you don't manually delete stuff, unless you can recognize the package names for the apps you want to remove.
Though it sounds hilarious to install an app to get rid of apps, APPS2SD will neatly list out whatever apps are on the SD card or can be moved between that and the internal memory, so you can make a list of the apps you don't want and manually uninstall them.
Speaking of key folders, here are a couple of common ones-

DCIM - This stores camera photos.
Attachments - Default save location for Gmail attachments.
download - Default file download location.
data - Stores app specific data. If you have games that download additional data, they may store that here.

This is based off my SD card - most of the other folders I've seen are app specific.
Update - Some phones have a Camera directory, with DCIM under it, so look for both.

Thanks! Knowing which folder stores camera pictures helps a lot. I take a lot and I'm sure that's taking up a considerable amount of room on my SD card.

I also discovered that my apk backups from SuperTaskManager were taking up a lot of room on my card. I've zipped the folder and backed it up to my computer and UbuntuOne. This has cleared almost 1GB of space on my card. So, I think it's safe to say that I found the source of my problem.


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SD Card partition named differently on different devices - breaks music player
I have recently moved from a Droid 2 to Droid 3, both running Android 2.3. The same SD card registers as "sdcard" on the D2, and "sdcard ext" on D3. Probably for this reason, I am having problems with music files, as well as playlists. When I move the SD card back to the D2, it is in the "sdcard" folder. In the D3, it is in the "sdcard ext" folder. I would like to know:

why is this different?
where are the music playlist files typically stored?

Your new device has a small amount of internal memory and a large amount of storage memory. This larger section is termed as /sdcard and the contents of a physical microSD card inserted into your device is assigned the label /sdcard_ext or similar.
The android media scanner will intelligently scan thru your entire sd card (both if you have a physical card inserted too) at boot time.
You can place your music files in the following folders. YMMV due to differing versions of Android.
/sdcard/Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.
/sdcard/Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.
/sdcard/Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.
/sdcard/Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.
/sdcard/Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.
/sdcard/Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).
/sdcard/Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).
/sdcard/Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads.


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Can I force move to sd card applications that don't want to be moved there?
disclaimer: of course I can move apps which allow that, using "manage applications" menu.
There are apps, some stock ones and some downloaded, that for some reason don't have the "movable to sdcard" flag set. Is there a way to move them anyway without preventing them from working (as long as the sdcard is on, of course).
Yes there might be a good reason for them to be in the internal memory, I'd like to try moving them anyway if possible.
Phone is a Nexus One with stock android 2.3.6 unrooted — I guess I'd either have to root it or to install cyanogen or whatever?

For more info on why default Android doesn't allow some apps to be moved to SD, see this previous question: Why doesn't Google allow apps to be written to the SD card?. Short answer for "can you move apps that don't allow it", yes but you need to be rooted, and aware there are downsides, I'll leave the long answer to someone who's done it.

Yes, you can move any apps that don't normally allow it, including system apps, if you have root. Note that most apps that doesn't allow moving usually do not allow it for a good reason, so if you force move you may get crashes and other stability issues. You need an app2sd application that uses root, like this: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.droidsail.dsapp2sd

Applications that came installed with the system usually do not allow moving to the SD card (some may have good reasons). You can deal with this as follows (following this guide):

adb shell, then su - to get root access (you'll need to have this set up separately using something like Superuser)
pm uninstall -k followed by the package name
Then install the application from the market, in which case you should be able to move it to the SD Card.

If you would like a turn-key solution instead, use Link2SD:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buak.Link2SD
Its exponentially better than App2SD, however, the downside is that your phone needs to be rooted for it to work. Furthermore, you will also need to create a second partition on your SD card which has to be using the ext file system.
It can force 100% of an application's data (apk/dex/lib/data/cache/obb/data(ext)) to be located on the second partition of your sd card. You can even FORCE convert a "system application" to a "user application" and vice versa to trick the phone into changing the way it treats and considers and application.
The only major disadvantage of Link2SD is the fact that you need a Class 10 SD card of a good brand in order to stay equal in terms of speed and performance as compared to the phone's internal memory. Otherwise, if you use one of the more common Class 4 or 6 SD cards, applications will load noticeably slowly.

Working Example
https://i.stack.imgur.com/RBNMT.jpg
on a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S (Internal 1 GB/512 MB (320 MB user available))


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Froyo Proxy settings
How do I set (global) proxy settings in Froyo? I want to access market, but my college wifi does not work without proxy.
EDIT:
Is there any way to set proxy without rooting?

Wifi proxy settings were not added until Android 3.0 (here's the issue on the tracker and here is the comment noting its release). If you're willing to root your device you could try something like TransProxy, though.

Any thing other than rooting? I tried connectify but even connectify has no proxy settings :(  I am feeling unlucky

@LifeH2O: I don't know of any method that doesn't require rooting if Connectifiy doesn't support it (other than buying your own wireless access point, which I know most colleges in the US would frown upon, don't know about elsewhere).


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Are Android OS updates region specific?
Well, I have a Galaxy Ace with 2.3.3, build XWKPY and Samsung Kies doesn't show an update to 2.3.4 yet.
I'm thinking of manually updating it through Odin and I need to know if I can just download any Gingerbread 2.3.4 update file or is there anything else that I need to be worried about?

Android OS updates can be region specific. It depends on the OEM builds. In case of Samsung, yes.
You can update through Odin, but other region binary may not have the required operator information or other settings related to your region.
I suggest you wait for an update in Kies. Should be available soon.

I'm sorry, but what are OEM builds? Here's the thing. When I got my phone, it has 2.3.3 GINGERBREAD.XWKPY, which is for these countries: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK. I'm from the Philippines and I thought I should get an offical 2.3.4 Asian ROM.
Now that I've updated to 2.3.4 DXKPD, Samsung Kies said "your device does not support software upgrading via kies", which didn't happen before. So my question is, is it possible that the PHONE ITSELF is locked to its initial region?

by OEM builds, i meant OEMs such as Samsung can choose to have different binaries for different regions. A Phone can be locked to a Operator, but not the initial region. I am not sure why Kies gives that message. Did you use Kies to update from 2.3.3 to 2.3.4? or using Odin? Meanwhile i will update you if i find on what basis Kies gives that message.

I see. Well I read some more, about CSCs and I was able to fix it. See, when I checked, it's set to SMO -- which is for Serbia. I backed up everything, changed it to XTC (for Philippines), and voila! My phone now receives 3g signals and I just checked Kies and it's OK now, showing that I have the latest firmware. :) So basically, I got the right region, but wrong country code in CSC. Though I think it resulted in another problem. I can't download anything from the Market. Any ideas? Thanks for your help.

Oh, BTW, I even updated to Market 3.4.4 and cleared the cache, I still couldn't download anything. I remember it gives a -101 error.

Typically yes, but I don't know that you could definitively say "always" since there is of course potential that some devices I'm unaware of don't follow that pattern. Usually, though, there are different firmwares due to regional differences in carrier bands/settings, wifi channels, and other considerations (localization, possibly).
As an example, though, take a look at the stock firmware listings for the Motorola Xoom. There are a whole bunch of different images available, divided up by both model number and region.
There's also a thread here where people discuss how you could try to go about flashing a firmware from a different region via Odin without affecting your connectivity. I don't know much about the process myself, though, as I've never done this.

Hey, thanks. Please read my reply to @S Karthikeyan. I believe you're right with region-specific localization settings. My other problem is that my carrier can't send me GPRS settings now that I have an official ROM for Asia, but I had no problem when my phone its initial European ROM. Is it possible it's locked to it?


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Will Droid Bionic with Extended Battery Fit Inside the Otterbox Defender Case?
I have a Droid Bionic and I keep it in an Otterbox Defender case.  I would like to get the extended battery but am concerned that my Bionic might no longer fit within my Otterbox.  Has anyone tried this?

No.
My friend got an extended battery so I tried my case with his phone -- the extended battery is really large, so it won't work.  Which is a shame, because the Otterbox Defender case is so large that a hypothetical extended battery Otterbox Defender wouldn't be significantly bulkier than the current Otterbox Defender (regular battery).
If Otterbox made a Defender case specifically for the Bionic with the extended battery, I would buy both that case and an extended battery.  I guess that the market for that specific case is just too small.


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How can I sync all folders from an Exchange server (not just the Inbox)?
I am using a Samsung Galaxy S2 (Android 2.3.4) and have set up the native email app to synchronize with an MS Exchange 2007 server. The problem I am noticing is that I'm only notified for a new email if it is sent to my Inbox folder. I have to sync my other folders one-by-one.
Is there any sync all option?

Do you have server-side rules that move mail automatically to other folders? Reason I'm asking: usually every mail should end up in your inbox folder first.
There are two cases where this doesn't happen: a) server-side rules or b) client-side rules that are enforced while the Outlook client application is running and checking for mail.

No the emails in the MS outlook are directed through the rules to the coresponding server. So when I have a new email to a folder other than inbox I have to sync the specific folder. It is not efficient in case of big number of email folders.

Unfortunately the native Android Exchange Client doesn't support automatic sync of sub-folders, as you have seen you can go in to the folder and sync it manually but that isn't much use.
This hasn't been improved much in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The sub folders now sync but it doesn't notify you of new messages in them which isn't really any better.
I would recommend using a 3rd Party client like Moxier or Touchdown. Both have trials so that you can test them first.

Not sure if you've made any headway on this. I was searching for answers for this today and got it figured out. I've got a Galaxy S4, running 4.2.2 I had to open the native email app.
Menu > Settings > Exchange Account with sub folders > More Settings > Folder Sync Settings. From there I think it should be self explanatory.
Not sure what version of Android you're running by now, but thought I'd share.

using 4.2.1 I do not have the "more settings" menu. Any one has an idea of how I can get to the folder setting then?

I am using galaxy S2 with android 4.0.4. I am getting alert for sub-folders. You go to email client and select sub-folders from the menu. After reaching the sub-folder, select menu button and you will find sync option. You can select as automatic push. It gives alert immediately.

As Nuronv states,  in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the sub folders are synchronized.  However, I have found in my case that only a partial list of sub-folders are synchronized.
I have server-side rules set up to sort all of my mail into very specific folders and the client is configured to save replies in the same folder with the email.  This allows me to maintain collections of emails and conversations with a specific client, vendor, or project.  I literally have hundreds of folders and sub-folders.
In my first experience synchronizing, it only caught 3 sub-folders on the 2nd level  (I have about 8), and in each of those folders, it found 3 in one folder that I have over 40, and 8 in another folder where I have about 15.  It does not seem aparent why this is happening.
I will take Nuronv's second suggestion and go check out Moxier or Touchdown.

UPDATE:  Neither Moxier or Touchdown seem to be a viable replacement.
After several months of testing and evaluating both products, neither of them have proven themselves to be a viable replacement.
The primary reason being, that neither of them integrate properly with the built-in contacts, calendar, or mail.  I have contacts in my phone, and want all of the contacts on my Exchange server, integrated.  Touchdown integrates, but the categories I have defined on Exchange, are disregarded and are replaced instead by "TouchDown Exchange".  That's useless.  All contacts in one group?  Seriously?

...additionally, each of them have their own dedicated calendar.  I want an application that displays the calendar items, right along side the built-in Google calendar, so I can elect to show those events or not, and compare my business events, side-by-side, with my personal events.
The built-in Exchange ActiveSync does both of these things very well.  It just doesn't alert on new mail in sub-folders.  That's really the only thing I don't like about it.

I just got a Note 8 and the sub folders that I use to organize my work emails were nowhere to be found. I went through every setting but no luck. I tried some of the other email apps that were recommended here and at other help sites. In the end, the only one that worked to show my sub folders was the Microsoft Outlook app. No settings to hunt for. It just worked. I was about to return my Note 8 before I found that this app solved my problem. Too bad Samsung can't fix there default app!

There is nothing wrong with the default email app, just have to find the settings.

Open your Samsung email app.
Next to the Inbox, click on the 3 line menu bar. At the very top you will find a gear(Settings).
Choose the account you are trying to sync all folders (Just click on the account) This will open the settings for this email account.
Scroll halfway down to the Section 'Exchange ActiveSync Settings' then choose Folder Sync
Be sure to hit the ^ on the Inbox to expand
Choose the folders you wish to Sync.
You will be cautioned on the amount of folders syncing as it will slow the sync process down.
Re-sync your phone and you should see all your folders now.

the best solution is to just replace the exchange server.
saves you a lot of headdaches.
You can try Zarafa, Zimbra, OpenChange, Communigate etc.
Or just Google Apps, which very nicely talks caldav and carddav and imap, instead of the propriatery mapi crap.

Replacing exchange server just to get your phone to sync subfolders is a really stupid idea - this is not a solution.


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Will a UK Android telephone work in Japan?
I am on the UK carrier Vodafone, and wish to upgrade my phone soon. I am going to Japan for five months next year, and would ideally like a phone which I can use out there, with a Japanese sim card.
Will an android phone I get here (e.g. the HTC Desire) work in Japan? Will it need to be unlocked?

Is the Desire just an example, or is that the actual phone you intend to get? This is really more dependent on the phone's antenna hardware than anything else (although APNs might also be a factor, I don't travel internationally so I couldn't say).

Sim-locked phones need to be unlocked for use on other carriers.  Almost every phone you get will be sim-locked.  The most easily unlocked phones I know of are the Galaxy S line.
The only other thing you need to check is the radio frequency bands used by the device and the carrier.  If they match, you're in luck.  "Quad-band" devices should work on every GSM network.

Should be mentioned that you also need a carrier that will let you use unlocked phones on their network.  For instance, in Canada many carriers such as Telus won't let you use a phone that hasn't been programmed for their network, and will refuse to program phones that they don't sell so that they will work on the network even if they operate on the correct radio frequency and are unlocked.  Japan carriers may have similar issues.

@Logos Does that apply to GSM phones? I would have assumed it was only for iDEN and CDMA.

Matthew: unfortunately yes, it also applies to GSM phones (at least in Canada).  Unlike WIND or Mobilicity, I can't walk into a Telus or Rogers store, plug a SIM card into my phone, and walk out again all happy.  Though if I was stuck on a Telus plan I doubt I'd be happy anyway :D

You will struggle to get a SIM card that's not on a contract in Japan. Even then, it's really hard if you don't have a Japanese passport.
The best option I'm aware of would be to get a SIM from www.mobalnarita.com. Disable data on your phone and use wifi only. Data charges in Japan are really expensive.


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How can I disable the Android Market temporarily?
My kids play games on my tablet, and I would like to disable the Android Market and in-app purchasing for the duration of their use of the device.
Is there any option, third-party software or any other way to stop my kids from buying stuff inside their games or installing any software?
I understand that I can remove credit card info from the account, but since that device is used by me most of the time, this is too cumbersome. I also don't want to stop Internet connectivity since some games are Flash games in the browser.

In the Market settings you can add a PIN to protect purchases; that should lock them out effectively enough.  I don't know of anything offhand to prevent all installs, though.  I would assume you'd need to be rooted for an app to intercept and prevent install attempts.
If you are rooted, you could use something like Titanium Backup to back and uninstall the Market, then reinstall it when your kids are done.  That might be cumbersome as well though.

I was unable to find any PIN-related settings in Android Market. Are you sure they are available in the dumbed-down "web-style" Market available in Honeycomb?

@haimg Hrm I thought the tablet and phone Market apps had been merged. Maybe yours didn't auto-update? You could try installing it manually -- I just updated my phone to 3.4.4 via this Android Police post.

Thanks, that new Market with PIN code at least solves the fiscal problem.

The Kids Place app (free) permits you to set up a locked screen with just the apps your kids are permitted to play; just make certain that Market is not one of those apps.


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Problems searching and joining network with Nexus One
I have a Nexus One, unlocked from Google. It is not rooted nor running custom firmware. I am trying to use it with 2 different international sim cards, which have worked in other peoples phones. I have tried in four different countries, in all cases I get an error unable to search for networks.
Android version is 2.3.6
How can I troubleshoot and hopefully fix this?

"unable to search for networks" is not an error I'm familiar with. Can you provide the exact error text and more info about when you see it?


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"USB Storage damaged. It may need reformatting" error message in status bar
On rebooting my Samsung Galaxy S2 (running Villain ROM 3), I got an error in the status bar "USB Storage damaged. It may need reformatting". File managers like Astro fail to open the /mnt/sdcard folder.
Things I've tried so far:

Rebooting
Connecting via USB cable to PC in USB debugging mode (This brings up 2 drives, but they are not mounted)
Removing the external SD card and rebooting

Anyone encountered this issue before? Any suggestions?

Solved it myself after hours of Googling.
I really only needed to run error checking on the internal storage (CheckDisk) in Windows. Since I couldn't get Windows to mount the drive normally, I tried booting into ClockworkMod recovery mode and then connect USB.
Ran the error checking (Right click on drive, Properties, Tools, Error-checking), rebooted phone and voilà! Life is beautiful once again.

Awesome! Don't forget to "accept" this answer so that it can act as a signpost for future readers.

I had the same problem and I found a solution.
First, problem description:
I've connected the S2 to a PC and turned on the mass storage mode. After copying the files I've selected on the phone to disconnect from pc (without unplugging the device in windows - which may cause this problem). After that I found out that both memories (sd card and 16gb usb memory) are damaged.
Solution: I have connected the phone to a pc, choose to turn on the mass storage mode. Windows found the drives but they are empty (unmounted). I selected on the phone disconnect from pc and this time I have unplugged the cards from Windows. After this my phone found the memories and start working again. I think it is a system glitch which hangs the card somewhere between mass storage mode and direct access to them.


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Alternatives to Smart Actions for non-Motorola devices?
Motorola's recent selection of Android gadgets (particularly, the Droid Razr) sport a Smart Actions application that automatically modifies your phone settings when certain events occur -- for example, turning off data service and ringer at night, reducing volume when you arrive at work, turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you get home, etc.
I've seen this in action on my friend's device, and by his account, this is quite a battery-saving and convenience feature.
I wonder if there exists a similar application on the Market for non-Motorola devices.

By the way. SmartActions isn't continued by Motorola and replaced by Assist with much fewer functions.

Well, you have several applications that do what you want. You have Tasker which is paid, Llama which is free and I'm currently using and can recommend, if you look around in the Market, you can find other applications.

+1 for llama as it uses mobile network for location rather than GPS and its free :D

actually it can use both by installing an add-on ;) https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kebab.Llama&hl=en

There is also the free Timeriffic. Works similar to what I remember of Locale but without the GPS component.

The app that I use for this is Unlock with WiFi (free version, paid version) while it can't do anywhere near as much as Tasker and Locale can, I prefer small apps that do exactly what I want and not much more.
Unlock with WiFi as well as its core function of disabling the screen lock when you're attached to a trusted Wifi point, can also switch Wifi, bluetooth, GPS and Background Sync on and off depending on whether or not you're connected to the trusted Wifi (I have my home wifi, and my parents Wifi points specified as trusted).
If you're interested in doing more than this, or triggering differently then Locale and Tasker (both paid apps) are very highly recommended for automating Android settings and apps.


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Sending sms from tablet not allowed or not possible?
This is more of a meta question, but the best place to ask I'm sure..
Why can't I send an sms from my samsung galaxy tab 10.1 3G tablet? Is it because the hardware does not support it (most likely), or because android 3.1 does not support it (least likely)?
Cheers!

The hardware and software support SMS, but not calling. The most likely explanation is that your contract is a data-only contract and SMS messaging is disabled by your operator.
There is a chance, however, that the problem is your SMS settings. You can check these by opening Messaging, then open Settings from the top right corner and check that the Message center under Text message (SMS) settings is correct. The Message center number is network specific, so check it from another phone that uses the same network or ask your operator.

I feel quite stupid now, for not having checked more thoroughly, but indeed, sms works! Thanks!