text:
Bricked GT P1010
I was trying yesterday to flash my p1010. I found on internet that I could put jellybean but it didn't work out and now my tab is stuck on the galaxy tab logo and is not booting the system. I'm able to go to download mode as well as to recovery mode and I tried to install new firmware on my tab but I can't find the right version anywhere on samfirmware.com there is only link to chinese vesrion and i bought mine in UK in 2011.
IF anyone could send me over some links to good working firmware i'd be really thankfull ...

Please take a look at Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? to find a matching ROM (firmware).

Here is the link  containing the comprehensive list of firmare available for Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Wi-Fi GT-P1010.
Download the correct file for your region and flash it.


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Samsung S3 4.3 update - Cannot change notification sound?
My phone is a T branded device. It's got that AWFUL loud and NOISY notification/startup sound. It wakes the dead as well.*
Back with the 4.1.2 update, I changed it to one of the stock notification sounds, and it was working. Just as you would expect it to be. Now, after the update, even if I set my new notification sound, it won't change. Even settings say I have "Temple bell", but then I get this aaaaawful T-mobile sound.
[*] When I bought the phone I set up an alarm. The alarm was so loud I almost had a heart attack. Yes, that default sound is that bad. It's terrible.

Did you look into the app concerned that their notifications sound is set to "default"?

@Shywim - You are right. 4.3 features a custom notification sound for SMS.

Thanks to @Shywim's comment, I checked the settings of the Messaging app. Indeed it's got a custom notification sound settings. (You can adjust the settings only if your phone is not muted.)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to remove installed Viber sticker?
I don't know how to remove the installed sticker in Viber list. Mine is quite long now.

It's not yet supported.
From viberfaq (answer posted a month ago):

At the moment it is unfortunately not possible. You can uninstall
  Viber, and when you reinstall, Stickers will be gone from your Sticker
  folder (but this will unfortunately result in message history
  deletion).
In the future we plan to add a feature that lets you remove Stickers
  from your folder.

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


text:
Is there an app for quickly toggling between different settings presets / profiles?
I am aware of apps such as Power Toggles, Extended Controls etc.. All of there however allow you to toggle each setting as a separate entity. I was wondering if there is an app which allows you to save custom presets of settings and then quickly toggle between them. For example - home (wifi on, mobile data and gps off), car (wifi off, mobile data and gps on), mountain (wifi, mobile data off, gps on) etc..

We prefer questions that focus on solving a problem rather than finding an app. I suggest you [edit] your question to emphasize the former and de-emphasize the latter.

Search for profile in Google Play.
You'd find apps like:

MyProfiles
Quick Profiles
etc

Those are not my recommendations. It's up to you to see which one works best for you.


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Android HDMI-DVI Video Issues
I'm having some issues getting a video signal from my Droibox Ace. Just doing straight HDMI-to-HDMI at 1080p to my LG TV seems to work fine, but I have a Dell WFP2407 Monitor connected to the Droibox using a HDMI-DVI cable. The monitor only supports 1920x1200 resolution and I can't get the video to show up using any configuration.
I have tried various apps from the store to try and output the required resolution with no luck.
I've also tried moving through all of the options available on the "Display output mode" screen, although it's hard to tell if these options had been applied as I was trying to switch between composite & HDMI output in order to see what I was doing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can change the HDMI output resolution to one of the supported? Or is there some other issue at work here?


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How to upload images onto Google Glass device and view them?
The first part of the question: I've got a Google Glass device and I plugged it into the USB port. The drivers install fine on my WinXP. I do see the Glass directory pop up in My Computer. I'm able to take a picture, as well as copy it to my PC. However, how do I copy or upload a picture to the device? It does not allow Paste. Right-click -> Paste option is disabled. Dragging a file also doesn't work.
I've looked at the following links, here and here, but that's not what I want.
The second part of the question is how to view all images on the Glass device, with something like VLC APK?
Update: A workaround that I've found is to share images/videos from another Google+ account to your Glass device Google+ account. This seems to be the easiest way so far that I've encountered.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is about Google Glass, which is not an Android device. Although it's based on 4.0.3, it's not in any useful way, because you can't run unmodified Android apps on it: there's no overlap between Glass expertise and expertise on Android phones/tablets. That said, there hasn't been a discussion on meta, about Glass and whether it has a place on this site: so it's up to all the users to decide.

I have started a discussion on our meta site on whether or not Google Glass is on-topic here: Is Google Glass within this site's scope?

From the discussion on meta, the consensus seems to be that we should include Google Glass in the site's remit, so I've voted to reopen the question.

I've cleaned up some outdated comments here.

Your best be to view images on Google Glass would be to use the 'mirror-api' methods to create an application that you can run on Google Glass.


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Easiest way to automatically pause music when removing device from Dock?
I'd like the music on my Droid 4 to automatically pause when I pull the thing out of the dock, no matter what. I don't need it to auto-play again later, just go to pause and stay there.
What's the easiest way to do this? I'm willing to buy an app if it makes this simple.
I normally use the built-in music player, but again I'm willing to try something else if it would help.
If it's relevant, I have the phone set to not go into the dock app for desktop use.

AFAIK Tasker also offers media control. I've not tested that context, but would expect it to work like "Condition: Docked → Task: Variable Set: %DOCKED=1; Exit-Task: Pause" (the "Task" can be some other dummy, as for your case you only need the exit task, or you could place something useful there). Though being a payed app, there's a free 7day trial on their website. See also our tasker tag-wiki.

I have tested it. You can do exactly this in Tasker using the "Docked" state as the trigger, with an exit task set up to use the "Media Control" action, which provides a "Pause" command.

@harbichidian Thanks for testing/approving! I've made it an answer then :)

As I've mentioned in the comments already (and which harbichidian thankfully approved), this can be done using tasker:

Condition: State → Docked
Task: (put something here you want to be done when placing the device in dock, or substitute some dummy like "Variable Set: %DUMMY = 1")
Exit Task: Media Control → Pause

There might be several other approaches to this. I still hold Tasker being at least one of the better solutions (if not even the best) is you can do so much more with it. Just check the questions tagged "tasker", or follow the links in our tasker tag-wiki to get an idea.

As a note: For the DROID4, it's necessary to turn off the 'simulate media buttons' checkbox when creating the pause task. I assume that's because the DROID4 doesn't have any buttons to simulate.


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How can I download entire folders/albums or songs from my PC (over wifi, BT, or USB) to my phone to take on the go
I have tens of thousands of songs on my PC organized by artist/album in folders, and would like to be able to view my collection and manage what comes with me when I travel. Ideally I could browse and select what to download to the device over wifi/BT/cable, with some sort of server app running on my PC.
Bonus points for some sort of "sync" type option where it maintains the directory of music that is on the PC (even when offline) so I can queue it for download as I remember music during my travels, then have it download it when I get home.  I'm not necessarily looking for it to be a music player - just something to manage my 250GB collection between my phone and computer.
I'm NOT looking for a streaming app, but for downloading. In fact, it doesn't really have to just be music - it could be movies, or even docs I guess...

I've just edited your question slightly. If you check our [help/on-topic], you will find that questions of the type is there an app for X are off-topic here. Thus my re-phrasing should prevent your question from being closed.

Best variant, combining most of your wishes: FolderSync. I'm using it myself (Pro version after having tested it one day), and I'm very fond of it. You can setup multiple folder pairs (which folder on your device should be synchronized with which folder on the "other end") for multiple "accounts", where an "account" simply identifies "the other end". That can be a cloud service such as Dropbox, but as well your Windows PC via Samba (Windows Share), or your Linux machine via SFTP (SSH), some FTP server, ... FolderSync supports a lot of protocols.
Moreover, the full version has support for tasker, giving you a load of options for when to sync. I use it e.g. to sync my backups: "when charging, and it's 4am, (optionally more conditions), then call the task named 'SyncBackups'" (the latter then tells FolderSync to sync multiple backup locations with my Linux machine). Well, if you don't have Tasker: FolderSync also has a time-based scheduler included.

Remark: My suggestion lacks the "remote management" on your PC. I'm not aware of any all-in solution here, especially for "offline queuing". When you're at your PC, that's not a big deal: simply copy the files to your sync location on the PC's end. For other cases, I might be able to add some "online management" using your data connection (or WiFi hotspot), depending on the OS your PC is running.

I agree that the all-in-one is going to be a tough find.  I'm a developer myself and was thinking about developing a solution.  Especially since I left out a crucial part of the equation...  I need it to work for different users and without requiring PC access.  So others can pull whatever they want from my library.  Also, no "sync" is needed at all - just one time transfer.  These are static files that don't change.
I'll take this offline with you to see what type of dev efforts are required to make this happen.  Are you the author of FolderSync?

Well, you've explicitly mentioned sync in your question. Hint: The "share" on the PC could be read-only, offered via FTP/SSH, and the sync could be one-way (PC->Android). So new files would be sync'd to the device, existing ones not modified/re-sync'd.

Correct, but what I'd like to do is share out my movie folder, and be able to select the movies I want - not to have everything share.  I understand that I could do this using the PC to move the movies around, but that's not what I was looking for.  I could edit the question but I just think I'm going to have to write something.

I'm afraid so. At least I have not yet seen the like.

With some caveats, unison should be able to do what you want.  It's a command-line utility that can be configured with a complex set of filters to transfer or not transfer files according to their location in the directory hierarchy, their file extension, etc.
The caveats:

There's a fairly steep learning curve, especially if you're not a heavy command-line user.  The command-line version works by reading config files in the directory structure that tell unison which files to sync.  I guess there's a GUI interface for it, but I'm not sure how much easier it makes the process.
You still need to figure out a convenient way to interact with your phone's file system.  An ssh or ftp server app on the phone might be the best option for this, depending on your phone.  Most newer phones seem to disallow the USB Mass Storage option that made this sort of thing so easy under Android 2.  But then again, maybe MTP actually works on your phone.  It is said that some phones don't provide access to the external sd card filesystem via SSH and other means, so this part may actually be the hardest hurdle.
You'll need to remember to connect to the phone and run unison, unless some scripting system can handle this for you.  Unison may ask you to make some decisions in the case of a merge conflict (i.e. when the same file was modified on both your computer and your phone).


text:
Is there a way to play music from an android phone in a from an ipod/iphone dock
There are many devices on the market that have a docking station for iphones, ipods and ipads that allow to play the music from the ipod through their speakers, and many time also to control the ipod through the docking station. For me, it's the stereo of my car.
Is there some way (obviously with an adapter) to use those docks to play music stored on an android device?

Looks like you will need a 3.5mm connector to iPod proprietary 40-pin converter. There are some available on eBay here: http://www.ebay.com/bhp/ipod-female-connector (note -- this link is temporary once the items are sold; if someone finds a permalink to a product page please edit my answer and add it).

Now that you mention the keywords, I've also found one at Amazon. I also found several more. But most of them (the linked one excluded) show low ratings. Good find!

note that this will probably not work. My receiver has a dock, it will only interface with some older models. Even though all the models have audio on the same two pins. And what this does, is have the 30pin use only the 2 for audio... which is not a garantee that the device will accept. in fact, if it has honest apple certification, it won't work because apple force that. if it is a chinese knockoff that never paid apple for certification, than it will probably work. Sometimes being a illegal chinese manufacturer has its advantages.

Some Bose docks require a signal from the iPod/iPhone on one of the pins to turn the dock on, others probably have similar functionality.   I've seen an adapter that claims to solve this; unfortunately, I don't have a link.   I'd suggest looking for an adapter that recognizes this problem and claims to address it.

I'm not aware of any adapter for Apple's connector. But if you're open to alternatives, maybe I can introduce you to a solution I'm currently using:
On my Android device, I've installed BubbleUPnP. As the name suggests, this app is dealing with DLNA/UPnP: it's a client, a server, and a control point at the same time – which gives you multiple options, provided the "other end" supports DLNA:

you can access your Android device from the other end, and select the titles (music, movies) you want to stream from it
you could do the same thing the other way around
if the "big one" can act as a "media renderer", you can use BubbleUPnP to tell it what to play

I lately used it in the last described way: browsing my tablet, selecting a video, and telling my TV to play that – all from the tablet. The first way also worked pretty well: From my TV, I browsed my media gallery, and selected an entire directory of photos to be played as slideshow. Same would of course work for music. And that would even do with my receiver, without turning on the TV.


text:
Is there anything similar to APNS on Android?
Is there anything similar to APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) on Android?
(APNS uses a single TCP connection between an iOS device and an Apple-controlled server, which issues push notifications for all the installed apps on a given device, thus preventing the need for the individual apps to each maintain their own network connections for the push notifications.)
If Android doesn't have anything similar to APNS, doesn't this mean that an equivalent set of apps would always require more standby power on Android than on iOS?

The first two hits in Google for "android push notification service" are: Is there any push notification service in Android like Apple Push Notification Service? and http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html. Do those adequately explain if they are similar/the same? If not, are there specific points that require clarification?

Historically, in order to promote battery life, Apple did not let the apps run in the background (until iOS 4.0 release in June 2010), but did provide this APNS (Apple Push Notification Service), which would let the app developers implement certain client functionality on their own third-party servers, which would then push the notification messages to Apple's central notification system (available since iOS 3.0 release in June 2009).
As such, anyone who would have wanted to write an app with any kind of background notifications at all during the whole iOS 3 availability window, would have had to have APNS support implemented, else, their app would have had no multitasking at all.
It would appear that this has never been the case in the Android land.  Per my understanding, Google's take on APNS — GCM — Google Cloud Messaging — hasn't really taken off yet, probably because running out of battery in one day is not as evident as not having the background-notifications functionality at all, and the APNS/GCM architectures require the app developers to themselves run the extra servers on their own side, which is obviously not free, either, and would certainly require extra engineering and complexity, for achieving something that's not entirely obvious to the naked eye.
Additionally, according to a question on StackExchange, GCM is a second incarnation of Google's take on APNS, where the first one, now discontinued, was called C2DM (Cloud to Device Messaging Framework).  It would appear that C2DM had quotas, which were then abolished with subsequent GCM.  The exact dates on the introduction of GCM and C2DM are not clear, however, their device-side parts would appear to be backwards compatible, since they both claim to support Android 2.2 and above.  Android 2.2 "Froyo" was first made available May 2010.

am reading this and what has that to do with your question...

@t0mm13b, it is a more expanded answer to some questions of interest which have been omitted from the original question.  I mean, if you ask about something existing, and it does exist, but not really used that much in reality, wouldn't you be curious of as to why that might be?

authors: เอิร์น ผู้หญิง' ร้อยอารมณ์


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What does this notification icon that looks like an arrow with a plus sign mean?
I'm running stock Android 4.4 on my Nexus 4, and I keep seeing this weird icon that looks like a gray tag or arrow with a plus sign in it.

I don't know any app that does this, and there's never a matching notification when I pull the notification bar down. What does this mean?

This icon simply means that there are more notifications to show, but there isn't enough space left in the top status bar to show all notification icons (that's why it doesn't have a matching notification).


text:
How to verify a backup file from ADB backup
I have backed up my phone via adb to my computer by doing the command:
adb backup -all -apk -f C:\myfolder\backup.ab

I went to look at the file it had created when it said the backup was finished, but it says it is 0 bytes big.
Is this because of the encryption? I am worrying if my phone is backed up properly...

If it's zero bytes, it's definitely not backed up properly. Encryption can't make an empty file store data!

Question might sound stupid, but anyway: After executing that command, did you confirm the backup on your Android device? Otherwise, there would be no data send to the PC, and the adb backup command would simply "time out" – resulting in an empty backup, possibly.

@Izzy How long would the time out take? On my device it said "Backup Finished" just a second after it said "Backup Started".

That's much too fast for a timeout. I didn't check, but expect it to be at least 10 seconds. Maybe you check your logs (adb logcat) to see if they reveal something?

I found out that there was a bug in the Samsung OS that corrupted the desktop backup password.
One day, my phone bootlooped and, after a reset, I could backup fine with no backup password set.


text:
View internal Storage use
I'd like to view use the meager internal storage on my HTC Evo.  The phone is rooted, and I have used Link2SD to move apps to the SD card.  I am also using DiskUsage by Ivan Voyosluk to monitor use of storage.  The DiskUsage app, however, does not seem to make a clear distinction between internal storage and external.  It appears it may be calculating the total by following the symlinks onto the SD card.  I'd like to know how much internal storage is actually being consumed by my apps.  I am continuing to run into the problem of running out of my meager internal storage while there is a huge amount of unused space on on my SD card.

Several helpful apps are mentioned in the answers to What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage? Guess the question and its answers would be useful/interesting to you anyhow.
Apart from that, there are also our useful command line utilities, which you can execute in a terminal (either via adb shell, or using a terminal app):

df: stands for "disk free", but also shows the used space. Is not interested in files or symlinks, just operates on the entire partition. So this should list you up how much space is used/free on each storage.
du: a close relative, "disk used". Is not interested in "divisions" such as partitions or directories by default (that can be dealt with via parameters), but checks "anything below". It doesn't follow symlinks, which might prove useful to you – as will the parameter -s (summary). Without that parameter, each directory would be listed up with the space consumed; with -s only a summary of all space used below the current location will be printed.

You will find several other useful commands in our command-line tag-wiki. For your low memory, you also might want to visit our insufficient-memory tag-wiki.


text:
Updating app that has newer version than the store it was bought in
I bought an app in the Samsung Play store, only to find out later that there is a newer version available in the Google play store.
In case the developer doesn't update the Samsung offered version, is there some way to update it using Google Play?   When I got to the app in Google Play it recognizes that I have the app installed and even offers to let me uninstall (but not upgrade) it.  If I try to uninstall it warns me that Google play didn't install it and asks if I really want to uninstall so I'm not sure what dangers might lie there.  If I go through with it, might I perhaps be able to re-install from the Google Play store and get the latest version, or might something get totally messed up?

No, you can't update it from Google Play. It would be like buying your phone from Carphone Warehouse and then expecting Phones4u to help you out with a problem just because they sell the same phone. Or buying a music download in Google Play and expecting to be able to download it from iTunes. You've paid Samsung for the app, not Google.
If you uninstall it via the button in Google Play, the app will just uninstall in the usual way. You'll be able to reinstall it from the Samsung App Store if you change your mind, but you still won't be able to download it from Google Play unless you buy it there.
Just wait a week or two to see if there's an update. Apps uploaded to Samsung's App Store have to be "certified", just like Apple's, so there is often a delay before a new version will appear there.

Perhaps, contact the developer to see if he/she'll be willing to reverse the charge on the payment made in the Samsung Store. That might free you up to purchase it on the Play Store. Also, some apps have the ability to unlock by entering a code or installing an unlocker. Does this app have similar functionality?

Good idea, @Sparx. It's worth asking, but bear in mind that refunding the transaction will leave the developer out-of-pocket. It's entirely reasonable for him to refuse.

I've talked to the developer, they referred me to the Samsung store, who didn't even appear to read my request (I told them I had talked to the developer already) and told me to talk to the developer.  I'm not sure how the developer could even refund me directly (they aren't even in the same country as I am) and even if they could they would undoubtedly take a loss since the app store takes a cut before they see any of it.


text:
First battery charge on new tablet?
I got yesterday a Galaxy Tab 3 and I want to be sure what's the best way for the first battery charge. On the shop, they told just turn it on, wait for the battery to finish and then charge it to 100% (3 times!).
When I got home I turned it on and the battery was at 50%. But then I saw on the little book in the box that said: when you buy a new tablet, or the battery has not been used for a long time, charge the battery.
So, what do I do now?
The tablet is in sleep mode with 20% battery.
Should I turn it off and charge it? Or just charge it as it is (on)?

A good start for that is our charging tag-wiki, which already answers a lot of initial questions on the topic – and links to further information, e.g. When should I start charging my Lithium battery? Quick tipp: connect it to the charger. No need to turn it off. Don't wait much longer, as LiIo batteries don't like to be "run down" completely.

This article would be a good enlightenment. http://www.pocketables.com/2011/02/treat-your-tablet-battery-the-right-way.html

there is no significant difference between charging it while it's turned off or not.
Modern Li-Ion and Li-Po batteries which are built into tablets and phones nowadays can handle any kind of charging very well. The only thing that should be avoided is a complete discharge as it degrades the battery MUCH faster (aka it loses capacity). With discharging I mean draining it to 0% and leaving it for some days/weeks alone.
TL;DR: Just use your device as you want and avoid being on 0% battery for a long time.

authors: ገብረመድህን ወዲስዬ


text:
Lockscreen widget default to expanded on Android 4.3 or upcoming 4.4
Does anyone know if there is a configuration to allow the lockscreen widget to default to expanded view on Android 4.3 or higher?  I have a Note 3 and have not yet received the 4.4 update.
I prefer NOT to use a 3rd party app.  My preference is to use the stock email widget, but have it in expanded mode by default.

So the 4.2 method doesn't work for you?

in 4.4 Google has changed the widget to be condensed by default. Even dashclock is condensed by default and there is no current workaroud for it (not sure any of any Xposed module for availabe for that).

@MatthewRead  Thanks for your comment.  No, I get so many emails and am used to glancing at the screen (of my iPhone) while on my computer or driving and seeing several of the latest emails without having to touch the device.  I just got a Note 3 and love the device, but this is a minor loss in functionality for me.

@k1chy Thanks, that is what I was afraid of.  I guess I will just live with it.  Thanks for your input


text:
s3 bootloop switching to cyanogenmod with cwm
As i managed to mess up, I need your help!
I wanted to switch from samsung s3standard 4.3  to cyanogenmod11nightly:
What I did:

with odin flashed CF-Auto-Root-m0-m0xx-gti9300.tar.md5 to get root
backed up data,apps,efs (no nandroid, didnt know at which point that would be done)
because I could find out ho to get the cm-11-20140121-NIGHTLY-i9300.zip to install without a custom recovery, I
reflashed philz_touch_6.07.9-i9300.tar.md5
deleted everything (data/factory reset, then "clean for new ROM", cache, dalvik)
went to Install from .zip -> SD Card -> no CM11 zip file there anymore!! I put it directly in the root of the sdcard

=> now bootloop. In the recovery I see only the standard folders, no usefull .zip
How do I get the CM11 zip again on the phone (or show it up if it is still there)?? And where exactly do i have to put it this time, as my "just in the root" option seemed bad.
I tried this
Problem with updating CyanogenMod - Phone will no finish booting up
but i cant get the ZIP to the phone, its not recognised in Windows as Phone/Folder =(
What is the next step before I brick everything?

If you've flashed a recovery (CWM) then you've done the risky bit; I can't see how you'd brick the phone now, so follow Izzy's advice and relax!

As your device supports an external microSD card: take that card, put it into a card-reader (if you don't have one: now's the time to buy it; they come for less than 10 bucks), attach the reader to your PC. Now, copy the file to the root of the card, safely unmount, then put the card back into your phone. You should be able to flash it then.
For what possibly happened: you might have placed the file in the root of the internal SDCard. Recovery is looking on the external card.

Thank you, worked great! =) I thought external sd cards can not be mounted.

Glad it helped! And yes: all storage can be mounted. Question is just "where" :) And issues like yours are why I'd never buy a device without external card support. Try a similar fix with a Nexus (no way).

Just if someone steps into the same problem: A friend told me there is also an other way with "sideload", but didnt used it as my problem was already solve with izzys advice!

That's correct: you can use adb sideload to update your device (see the CWM/TWRP ADB Sideload Guide on XDA for the S3 Mini).


text:
Speech to text deletes my sentence
I am trying to use speak-to-type in QuickOffice, and when I try it at the beginning of item number 2 in a numbered list, it types the sentence and then deletes it again!
If I go up to the existing item number 1 and then try to add my sentence to it using speak-to-type, it works.
Is this a bug?


text:
What is the technology used in the phones which reduces blur in the photos even if they are zoomed?
What is the technology used in the phones which reduces blur in the photos even if they are zoomed?
In our old mobile phones, our phone camera pictures used to look blurred when the are zoomed. But now, it is not the case. Which technology is responsible for the reduced blur?

Are you referring to autofocus?

An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system
  and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point
  or area.

I believe he is talking about the reduction in pixelation due to the increase in megapixels of photograps. From earlier VGA to mega pixels for images.
Your answer also seems right, considering the older mobile cameras had fixed focus.

The focus has nothing to do with "zooming into pictures" (which are already taken). I'd say it's rather Interpolation or Upscaling. Devices of today have much more processing power, and thus can provide/use much better/efficient algorithms for this.


text:
How Do I see hidden folders on Android?
This always happens to me. Someone tells me to access some folder on Android (in this case /sdcard/Android/data/com.android.lmt/) and I can't find it. I'm using the "File Manager" app and asking it to show hidden files and folders but I still can't find the folder. This happens a lot.

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

Why not try other apps like Solid Explorer, ES File Explorer or Explorer? They have options to show hidden files.

@k1chy I think you can post that as an answer.:)

What folder you don't find? sdcard? Android? data? com.android.lmt? You also need root to browse /sdcard/Android/data.

First, you should be aware of the difference between "hidden folders" and "inaccessible folders":

hidden folders: names start with a dot, e.g. /sdcard/.android_secure. These files you can see enabling the "hidden files" option in file explorers.
inaccessible folders: folders you won't see due to lacking permissions, e.g. those in /data. To protect your apps' data, those folders belong to the corresponding application, and are only accessible by the app (in the context of file-permissions; please see the tag's wiki for closer information on those). To make those visible, you need root access on your device, and a file explorer supporting that (e.g. ES File Explorer)

So while you were asking for the former ("hidden folders"), you were really referring to the latter: data/com.android.lmt/ belongs to the LMT launcher.

the weird thing is that I have LMT installed but as you can see on the screenshot, the folder isn't showing up where it was supposed to be, t least where the XDA thread of the app says it should be. I've edited my question so you can see the screenshot

I bet the app is storing its data on /data/com.android.lmt, i.e. on internal storage. Only few app do so exclusively on SDCard, which is mostly used for "larger amounts of data" only. So the problem is not my description being wrong, but the folder not being there.

"inaccessible folders: folders you won't see due to lacking permissions, e.g. those in /data." what about in Android Device Monitor when I am debugging an app I'm working on? Can I see the files now only because this is a debug build? Will a release version of the app keep these same files hidden?

To my understanding, yes. That's what the debug flag is for: to "debug" the app's internal working.

Why not try other apps like Solid Explorer, ES File Explorer or Explorer?
They have options to show hidden files.

ES worked great to find /sdcard/.android_secure and delete it since it was zero bytes, which eliminated an error doing a backup

You should try Astro File Manager.

You can't find your hidden folders or files?
ASTRO FM is very robust and due to user requests, ASTRO added the
  ability to override "global settings" with "directory specific
  settings".
First, go to Look and Feel under Preferences (menu, more, preferences,
  look and feel).  Click on Show Hidden Files.  If this doesn't work, it
  is because the directory that you have created some directory specific
  settings on the directory you are in.
You can either:
a) go back to Look & Feel and click Reset Directories which will wipe
  out any directory specific settings, or
b) go to the directory your hidden files are in (probably your SD Card
  directory) and click View, Set Directory Options, and click Show
  Hidden Files in that directory.

Taken from here

I can confirm that the following worked just now to show my hidden ".Temp" folder on the internal sdcard: Settings icon -> Appearance -> Show hidden files -> check. Then, click "Clear" next to "Clear custom directory settings". Then, went back twice and the hidden ".Temp" folder was shown along with other hidden folders.

authors: مجتبی حکیمیان


text:
Disable lock screen wallpaper on S3 Android 4.3
I can change the wallpaper on the lock screen on my S3, but is it possible disable it completely? I can't see that in the menus, I am only able to pick a wallpaper from the gallery.

You want to remove the wallpaper? Or you have set a wallpaper, and you don't want it to be editable / changeable?

Yes, I want to remove it.

Why don't you just change it to a black wallpaper?

That was my first idea as well. What I really want to achieve is to try if the screen comes on faster after the power switch is pressed when no wallpaper is configured.  But looks like this (no wallpaper configured) can't be achieved.

There's a No Wallpaper app on Google Play, which you install as a live wallpaper. Doesn't take a lot of resources. Give it a try.

Thanks, I tried that. Looks like you can't set a live wallpaper for the lock screen, only for both lock screen and normal screen (not sure what it's called). Having said that, I tried to set it for both and the speed of screen power on did not change.  But thank you for your effort. Looks like it can't be achieved, so if you answer the question I'll mark it as answered.

You could try and change it to a black wallpaper. There is a No Wallpaper app on Google Play, which you install as a live wallpaper. It doesn't take a lot of resources.

If you happen to have root access, then this is how you do it.

Navigate to /data/system/users/0/
Here you will find the file keyguard_wallpaper

Deleting it will set your lockscreen wallpaper to reflect your main wallpaper.

Install a pitch black wallpaper on your phone.  Search it in Google Play Store and install the app.  Then you can go to your phone's settings, device, screen, wallpapers, choose lock and home screen, then choose live wallpapers and you will be able to display the "no wallpaper app".
If you choose just the lockscreen, you wont see the application but you can only choose from the gallery.
This is what I did on my Note 2.


text:
how to enter bootloader with moboot in HP Touchpad
I have a HP Touchpad that successfully installed webos and CM9 with moboot to select which to boot. Today, I want to update CM9 to CM10.1 or CM11, and here come the problems: it couldn't install the zip I downloaded and I thought it's because the recovery is too old, which is CWM v5.x(I can't remember precisely). so I install a CWM v6.x, but it can't work either.
Now, I want to flash the CWM v5.x back, and it seems using fastboot is the only way. But with moboot, I just can't enter bootloader mode, the only selections available are WebOS, CM and CWM.
Can someone tell me how to enter bootloader, so that I can flash the older CWM back, and restore my data? For now, I can only enter WebOS, and the Android system won't work: it just turns black after the splash screen.

It seems that moboot in touchpad is corresponding to the bootloader in android native device, so I think it may be impossible to enter such a 'bootloader' in hp touchpad.


text:
Light Flow not pushing email notifications to my Pebble
I've been trying to get everything set up on my new Nexus 5, and one of those things is getting notifications working properly, both on the phone itself as well as on my Pebble watch.  One problem I'm having right now (which I basically bypassed with my previous phone) is getting Light Flow to push notifications to my Pebble.  I know that Light Flow is handling notifications because the notification LED and vibrate settings are being used, but despite setting the "Send to Pebble" checkbox for the desired notifications, I'm not getting anything on my watch.  I did have it working with my past phone, though.
Before people ask in the comments, yes, I can still get notifications on my watch if they originate from the Pebble app.  However, I can't set the Pebble app to a sleep mode like I can with Light Flow.  There are also notifications that I can get from Light Flow that I can't get from the Pebble app, for instance low battery warning and lost cell connection that I also want.  Also, 3rd party notifications are enabled in Pebble.
Since I know that both Light Flow and Pebble are working independently, why can't I get them to work together?

The Pebble watch itself has a sleep mode built-in these days, in Settings -> Notifications -> Do Not Disturb Schedule.

@GAThrawn Awesome.  That solves the immediate problem, as I can now use the Pebble app to push emails.  Does the sleep mode also disable the backlight?

The issue is actually caused by the feature that I wanted to make use of: sleep mode.  For some reason, if the option to disable Pebble notifications while in sleep mode, all Pebble notifications are disabled, regardless of sleep state.  (The release notes indicate that this was already fixed, but that apparently isn't the case.)  Since I can disable notifications at the watch (thanks, @GAThrawn), I have no need for preventing Light Flow from sending notifications to my Pebble while I sleep.
Simply disable the sleep mode check for send to Pebble in Light Flow, and notifications will start flowing.


text:
Location consent annoyance
I use the Power Control widget shipped with Android to quickly turn GPS on and off. Since update 4.4.1 or 4.4.2, which features WiFi-based location detection, it's been pestering me for this location consent thing:

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)
I hit "Disagree" every single time, but it just pops right back up the next time I activate the GPS. This is extremely annoying and I'm worried I'll accidentally hit "Agree" one of these times.
How can I permanently disagree with this?

Leaving the GPS on is not an option because it's a huge battery drain.

Leaving GPS on should not be a battery drain on 4.4, if it is then it's because an app is requesting your exact location a lot.  4.4 has an option in Settings > Location as to how accurate the location provided to apps is. I have mine set to High Accuracy and I don't experience battery drain.

In the case you have root and / or are willing to obtain it. There is an Xposed module for disabling this pop-up.

Have you checked whether "network location" is disabled in Settings? I don't have Kitkat, so I cannot check – but with Kitkat there are at least two places it appears in. AFAIR second place is somewhere in WiFi settings (scanning for networks even if WiFi is turned off). As that "collection" stuff is directed at WiFi and cell-tower data (i.e. "network location"), it shouldn't apply when those are disabled, and thus make that popup disappear. As I wrote, I have no Kitkat, so I cannot verify this – which means it's purely theoretical.

@Izzy I did, it's disabled, and GPS is still a battery drain. And it's also a matter of principle. Sometimes I don't want apps I generally trust to know where I am. So for me (and probably at least some people) turning gps off is a matter of principle and right to privacy, not only power.

+1 – privacy concerns are a valid point. Though if the device is rooted (and only then), that could be solved by other means (Xprivacy or LBE for example) – which leaves it valid for non-rooted devices.

@bonanza The Xposed module you mentioned is Disable Google Network Location consent; it disables the dialog box, but forces you to agree to Google's background data collection, which appears to not be what OP wants.

@bmdixon: The High Accuracy mode you mention indeed consumes less power, but it uses WiFi and other sources along with Google data collection, which the OP specifically wants to avoid.

If your device is rooted and you're using the XPosed framework, the Deny Location Consent might be what you're looking for:

Disable the annoying "Improve location accuracy?" dialog and always disagree.

Try this it might worked as it worked in my lollipop
Goto **settings>wifi>advanced Wi-Fi
and disable the Scanning always Available which won't use your wifi for using google location service**

Screenshot (click for larger variant)

This did not work for me.

This process needs refining as it may call for disabling more items than needed:

Force Stop, disable, and clear cache on the following:

Chrome
Google Account Manager,
Google Play Services,
Google Play Store,
Google Services Framework

Change Location Mode: System Settings >Location > Mode > Set to High Accuracy
Re-enable the items disabled in step 1
Avoid consenting to Google's location service requests :)

It's possible you may only need to disable Google Services Framework in order to select high accuracy location mode with out Google consent popup getting in your way. I hope this helps get someone else started in the right direction, I know it's limited in content and purpose.

Hmm, I would have liked to see a command line version of this solution. Something like stop blahblah.gsf etc...

"I hit 'Disagree' every single time, but it just pops right back up the next time I activate the GPS. This is extremely annoying and I'm worried I'll accidentally hit 'Agree' one of these times."
What you're proposing is to permanently agree to what the OP specifically wants to disagree to.


text:
How can I disable 4G LTE on stock samsung (SGS3) or CyanogenMod?
My carrier, Sprint, has a lot of weak 4G coverage.  In areas where I only have one 4G bar, the internet doesn't work.  Every connection times out.  However, these areas often have moderate-to-strong 3G coverage.  In these situations, I would prefer to connect to the 3G network instead of the 4G one.  Is there a way to disable just the 4G connection?  I am looking for a solution in ether the stock Samsung OS shipped with the SGS3 or in CyanogenMod.

Some carriers allow you to configure this on your account, (i.e. The CLEAR network allows you to go online and set "3G Preferred - Means a connection can be established to either 3G or 4G; If both are available, 3G is used." I was not able to find this for Sprint, but that doesn't mean a call to their customer service rep couldn't help you.

You can use the code *#*#4636*#*# in caller app, you will find a menu called 'Testing', enter in phone information and then in 'set preferred network type' select 'WCDMA only' or 'GSM only'

I will see if this works.  Is there an alternate way that allows toggling it on and off quickly so that I can use 4G in places where the signal is better?

Try *#2263# and only select non-LTE items.


text:
Unable to open links in new tab on Dolphin
I am running Andrond 2.2 on HTC Desire.
I was using Dolphin HD til recently. All was well until I upgraded the browser to the current version, which is 10.2.3. It says previous Dolphin Browser HD in brackets.
Since then, the long press doesn't work like it used to. The menu just has select text, find on page, and close tab. I can't open links in new tabs. I am finding it extremely hard to browse. The stock browser is worse.
Reinstalling didn't help.
What is wrong? How to fix this?

They may be javascript links that Dolphin will execute, but will not provide context menu for as links.  Also we are on 11.2.3 now so if there was a problem with normal links in 10.2.3 it may have been resolved.
Here is a page, 001 Tab Capacity Test,  that has normal links such as underscored "04"  and some JavaScript links in shaded boxes, such as "loc:" at the top.
The context menu of the JavaScript link is what you would see for plain text, it would be nice to be able to use "Copy link URL" and be able to "Bookmark link" in the normal manner but that is not possible in Dolphin.
If you still have a problem with a page provide the url of a public webpage (no userid or password required) and the link involved so we can look at the source.

Optional material:
Installing bookmarklets into Dolphin can be a bit tedious and round about, importing them from another browser may be easier.


text:
Dropbox photos deleted
On my HTC EVO, all of my photos from the gallery suddenly moved to Dropbox. They are no longer in my gallery nor my SD card. If I unlink Dropbox from my phone, will my photos be deleted or will they move back to my gallery?

That's... odd. It shouldn't move/delete any of your photos.

Has Dropbox been linked for a long time already, or did you just install and link it today? and then it deleted your photos in the gallery?

I actually had the same problem recently. It might be one of those, "It's a feature, not a bug" things. I had my Dropbox associated with my desktop computer. When I deleted a folder of pictures from my computer, it deleted those pictures from my dropbox all together.
This seems like quite a mistake, as deleting a local copy should not delete the remote copy on Dropbox.
You should be able to restore your deletions on the Dropbox website. I was able to recover everything I deleted. It doesn't actually delete your items for a long time (scary).


text:
How to play video on mobile browser's webpage WHILE ON the webpage?
On any browser I try, even with SkyFire 4.0 and Flash, when I play a video on a webpage, what happens is the video is actually played by another program(Moboplayer, SkyFire's client, HTML5 browser video player, etc.).
What I want to do is play a video and watch it streaming while still being able to:
1.Move the webpage around, scroll, navigate, select other buttons, radio boxes, hyperlinks, etc.
2.Be able to have Flash run other streaming media, such as top-bar Flash ads, flash games in the manner described above, etc.
3.Access webpages more like they're intended and viewed on a non-mobile targeted site, but through a mobile device and browser.
Here's a picture to illustrate what I mean crystal clearly:

What I want to know is what the problem is here:
1.Is it the way the browsers are programmed/configured?
2.Can't a browser app developed for Android/iOS/Windows Phone/Symbian/etc. (theoretically) be used identically with touch gesturization like if with a keyboard(such as pressing articulate little buttons, scrolling iFrames properly, running Flash runtime).
In other words, is it possible for Flash to run like it does on Windows on Android?
Why and why not?
PS: The problem is that on my device I can't find any tricks to get this done right, and I'm very limited with Flash video playback in this manner(and Flash altogether).
Just to clarify, no, I'm not unaware of the YouTube app. What I want to do is all of the aforementioned tasks (video streaming, viewing Flash ads/animation, etc.) right from a single webpage which the .swf data lies upon(no "transferring" of data to other programs and leaving the webpage).

What browser are you using? At least #1 works for me on the LG stock browser (P880), and AFAIR also on my other devices. I cannot tell for #2 (no use for me). For #3 are also solutions available, e.g. switching the browser to desktop mode.

HTML 5 video plays within the browser in Chrome. To use HTML 5 video with Youtube (both the mobile and desktop websites), go to http://www.youtube.com/html5 to turn it on.
Browsers won't be able to run Flash animations, videos, and games, because Adobe decided to stop supporting Flash on mobile devices. Adobe is also winding down its Flash authoring tools and encouraging its customers to output to HTML 5 instead. Because Flash is a closed, proprietary format, Adobe's free to choose to support or not support Android according to their whims, and there's very little consumers can do about that.


text:
Is there a way to find out if a given app supports GCM (like APNS)?
Is there a way to find out if a given app supports GCM (Google Cloud Messaging)?
(GCM is Google's version of APNS.)

I could imagine that requires some permission (like RECEIVE_WAP_PUSH), or at least has to declare an corresponding intent/broadcast-receiver in its Manifest. But as I'm not sure, I only leave these pointers in a comment until someone can approve the one or other :)

@Izzy, why would it have WAP in its name?

It would probably not. I just gave an example of one permission I know of, which is also related to push. I rather think it's a broadcast receiver. But I'm not a dev, so I'm not sure how exactly it works.

I think Acrobits Groundwire is supposed to have GCM, maybe someone can find out...

As the developer documentation describes, an app needs the permission com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE to receive GCM messages. This shows up in the permissions list as "Receive data from Internet" (which is a little vague, I know).
Of course, the presence of the permission doesn't necessarily mean the app actually will use GCM. Even if it does use GCM, it might not use it for all the uses you think it might use it for: maybe only some kinds of 'refresh' or polling operations can be replaced by GCM uses. And even if it uses GCM fully, in all the ways you'd expect, it's still possible for the app to use more power than it needs to. Using GCM is no guarantee that the app is well-written or efficient.

"Using GCM is no guarantee that the app is well-written or efficient."  Whilst what you say above it true, I still reserve my opinion that not using GCM does guarantee that the app is not efficient.

@cnst Nonsense. Not using GCM doesn't mean the app is running all the time, and in some uses cases, might be more efficient. For example, if you get several emails per hour, an email client that runs every hour to check mail will use less power than one that receives a GCM push every time mail arrives at the server.

I guess I just have IM and VoIP/SIP in mind, for which I still believe that my assertion stands.

@cnst That's a very narrow set of uses. I wouldn't want other visitors to think that what's true for an IM client is true for every kind of application that might use GCM.

Anyway, it misses my original point, which is that even if GCM is the right answer for a particular app, the app might still end up being a battery or bandwidth hog for other reasons.


text:
How to manually replace ones RIL
Is it possible to manually replace the RIL on a Samsung Galaxy S2?
I had previously flashed my device with CyanogenMod but lost my stock RIL due to careless use of the GetRIL app, so currently have no carrier network.
I have the details for the RIL (md5sum 163ecafa01912637fe344ec1f8264d70 for baseband I9100XXKE7) but it is not in the GetRIL database so I can't get it back.
I was wondering if it is possible to get the RIL that comes with CyanogenMod and install that on my phone to avoid having to reflash it.
See my related question: Samsung Galaxy S2 drops carrier network

Not really a solution but I ended up reflashing with CyanogenMod.  Bit of a pain but couldn't find another way :(

This question depends on the firmware you've got installed.  If you've got CyanogenMod installed, then you should also have ClockWorkMod (CWM) installed, which is a utility for flashing your phone, among other things.
First you'll need to download the RIL to your phone as a zip file.  They should come packaged this way.  Save it to an sdcard, preferably in the root directory for easy access.
This page lists the different ways to access CWM depending on your phone model.  For the SGS2, turn the device off, then hold Vol+, Home and Power buttons until the screen flashes, then release them and wait for CWM to display.  From there, use the volume buttons to scroll and the power button to select, as touchscreen is disabled.
Select "install zip from sdcard", then navigate to the zip file and select it.  (Protip:  scroll up to skip the huge list of folders)  Wait for the installation to finish, then select "reboot system now" and you're done.  Enjoy your new RIL.


text:
Is there a way to see which apps are using GCM?
I'm interested to know how many of the apps I have installed are using GCM.  Is there a way to find out?

In Settings -> Applications, in the permissions section, tap on Show All and under Network Communication there should be Receive data from internet if the application has requested push (GCM) permission.
Tested on 4.1.2, labels and positions may differ.

Wow, could they possibly have come up with a more mystified way to describe GCM / C2DM in the user interface?!  I was honestly very skeptical of your answer, until I looked around, and indeed those apps that "receive data from the internet" don't have the "Receive data from internet" permission, but only those might that (might) implement GCM do!

@cnst: Well, there's a bit of logic in how it is worded, it kind of plays on the syntax : the app doesn't fetch, doesn't request the push, it receives the push! :P You must read it in reverse : "Internet sends data to my app".

@cnst: So, to be sure, I made an app (the basic Hello World when creating a project with Android Studio) and I only inserted <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE" /> in the app's manifest : the only permission listed in the menu is Receive data from internet.

You could try Greenify. It's an app for hibernating apps so that they don't take up a lot of resources; thus, improving battery life.
However, it also lists apps in a way that lets you see which ones support GCM.

looks very promising.  does it require a rooted device?

@cnst Documentation says it supports non-root, but not so sure for the hibernating features. Check it out. It's free anyway.

Cool, greenify is free and so easy to see which one uses GCM. Hopefully it retrieves the data from system instead of from some database. :D

Unfortunately, some apps (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, FB Messenger) request the GCM permission but still establish their own persistent background sockets and services.


text:
Does GCM always work over cellular data, as APNS?
APNS always works over cellular data, even if you are connected to WiFi (because WiFi uses extra power, and thus iOS devices turn it off during sleep, without affecting APNS).
Is GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) capable of doing the same thing?

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/61554/is-there-a-way-for-3g-to-not-disconnect-when-connecting-to-wifi

It seems as though you've posted multiple valid questions about GCM. Have you taken the time to read over Google's developer documentation on the subject? You might find it beneficial.

@Mr.Buster, thank you for your suggestion.  Since you agree that my questions are valid, may I ask why they are not being voted up at all?

Just a note aside : I always read (and my tests confirm) that it is data that consume more power than WiFi, especially when sleeping...

@Shywim, could you give more details?  The rationale of data consuming less than WiFi is that GSM or UMTS radio is already required to be turned on in order to receive voice calls, thus it's not supposed to be consuming any extra power, compared to WiFi, which could be completely turned off during the sleep.  Remember, we're also talking about a single persistent TCP connection here, not transmitting lots of data over WiFi vs. the cellular data connection.

@cnst: Only GSM is required to receive voice call, not mobile data (EDGE and up). It's true that there's always Cell Standby usage, but having mobile data enabled (and not wifi) uses more power as the phone search for the best network protocol (LTE>HSPA>UMTS>EDGE>none (GSM functions only)) and the best antenna available.
When Mobile Data is not activated (or when WiFi is connected), Android search only for an antenna and that's all.
So it may answer your principal question : GCM works also on WiFi (and I would say that it would be dumb, think of the tablets without sim).

APNS also works on WiFi.  I'm not familiar with what the procedure for phones that support LTE is, and I do agree that a simple look at the datasheets would indicate that WiFi is more power efficient at data transmission compared to LTE; however, in the case of GSM/EDGE and HSPA, it is my belief that a single network connection is used for data and voice, thus there is no need to power on any extra radios for data compared to WiFi.  Indeed, this may not be the case with LTE, as, I presume, you might still have to have either UMTS or GSM for voice capabilities.

@Shywim I decided to ask over at AskDifferent what does iOS do in the presence of LTE in regards to APNS: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/118421/does-apns-work-over-lte-or-only-umts-gsm-and-wifi  If I had to guess, it'd be that it turns off both WiFi and LTE during sleep.

@Shywim, I found formal proof (in a book) that you're wrong. http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1230000000545/ch07.html#MOBILE_POWER_REQUIREMENTS In practice, when transferring large amounts of data, WiFi is often far more efficient if the signal strength is good. But if the device is mostly idle, then the 3G/4G radio is more effective. For best performance, ideally we would want dynamic switching between the different connection types.


text:
How does Google find devices for Android Device Manager?
I've seen the news story a few weeks ago that Google has finally implemented a feature similar to Apple's Find My iPhone.
The weird thing is that Google says that somehow magically all old devices with old firmware can now be found, which were released months and years prior to the announcement of the feature.
How does that work?

It's not hardware or even firmware.
It's part-and-parcel of Google Play Services, which is what Google is using to try to free Android users from the tyranny of OEMs and mobile carriers which do not provide timely OS updates (if at all).
It's not quite an app, although it installs like one. It's a framework upon which other apps and services can be built.
Since Google Play Services is needed by so many of Google's apps (plus others, such as Twitter) if you've updated any of your apps in the last six months or so you've probably already got it.

So, are you claiming that this is done through the Google Play app?  Or is there a separate app, specifically called Google Play Services?

If memory serves, it's part of Google Play. I'm not seeing an app in the Play Store, but there is a separate entry for it in Settings > Apps.

Here it is on the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms&hl=en_GB   HOWEVER, it auto installs on most devices, can change its own permissions and it can add functionality like Android Device Manager, which was auto added to many devices. E.g. it just turned up one day on the Galaxy S4 in Device > Administrator. Play servcies is needed and uninstalling it will result in google apps failing / not working correctly. Here's more info: https://developer.android.com/google/play-services/index.html?hl=en


text:
Multiple phone numbers per SIM contact
Some time ago I owned an Sony Ericson mobile phone. It was able to store a contact on the SIM card and add information like adress or multible phone numbers.
Why isn´t it possible to do the same thing on newer Smartphones?
I heard that old phones stored multiple contacts on the sim card by creating a contat for every information and combine it in the view, could that be true?

What phone are you using? What Android version?

The SIM card isn't capable of managing complex records. Due to its limited storage, it only holds one phone number per contact, and also misses other details.
So when your "old phone" allowed for multiple phone numbers with one contact while storing the data on SIM, it must somehow have used multiple contacts, and displayed them in a kind of "merge view" (had it used some own format to achieve this, your SIM contacts would have become incompatible with other devices, so that approach is unlikely). While that would be doable on Android as well, it's not a standard for good reasons: How to tell which contacts to merge? By their name? There might be multiple "John Smith" entries, not necessarily pointing to the very same person.
As long as there's no standard defined, implementations might differ and thus leading to different results – which is the most likely reason it's not done at all.


text:
Samsung galaxy Nexus Dead/ Bricked
I have installed a custom rom (Cynogenmod 10.2) on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus i9250 GSM three months before, and everything was running good.
But starting 4 days ago, my phone reboots constantly after every boot up. I am unable to uninstall apps, not able to do factory reset, also not able to wipe data from TWRP recovery, not able to copy files to internal sd card.
I tried flashing stock ROM from google using wugfresh toolkit, using fastboot commands and odin tool. Also tried flashing through adb, given permissions through adb. But none of them seems to work.
I erase all partitions through fastboot and created partitions, but everytime I flash a ROM, it stops at writing system.img file, giving an protocol error:
writing 'system'...FAILED (status read failed (Protocol error))

I tried all the possibilities I know, including wiping /system from recovery before flashing. Please help as I am getting frustrated as my phone is not working and is almost dead.

If it always fails at system.img even with different ROMs, there seems to be a problem with that partition. What's the exact error message? Have you already tried "wipe system" (or "format system") from recovery immediately before initiating the flash process?

Thanks for editing my question :)
Exact error message is "writing 'system'...FAILED (status read failed (Protocol error))". Yes I have tried "wipe system" before flash process but didn't help.

OK, I did it again (integrating the facts from your comment). As I cannot imagine all the ROM images you've tried had a broken system.img, I assume the status read fails must apply to the partition. Still, I've no clear idea how you could fix that – so having collected additional details from you, I now must pass this on to someone more experienced in this area. Good luck!

Try adb shell -> mount -o remount,rw /system just before flashing a rom.

I tried above command before flashing stock rom, but still it's same result. Rebooting the device constantly.

Have you tried a sideload?
I found I couldn't do anything after loading an initial release of the Ubuntu for phones OS and a sideload revived my Galaxy Nexus.

I faced the same issue. After searching lots of forum, chatting with experts in XDA, I found out that:

Samsung used a cheap substandard emmc.

I have tried everything from adb, Odin to jtag. The emmc just died,no way to fix it.
First there was this awful lag issue : Galaxy Nexus GSM bad eMMC chip type V3U00M phone is almost unusable
Later within 2 years, emmc will die and you will stuck with bootloop issue :
Galaxy Nexus GT-I9250 with hardlocked NAND ?!? need help !
Galaxy Nexus S (i9250) stuck in reboot loop - gets to OS loading and restarts
Almost all of us with V3U00M chip and other defective mmc chips would have now got there emmc fried.

What to say, on my side I'm blacklisting Samsung, this phone has been a joke for me since the beginning (the fstrim bug has been a nightmare), if you dare you can try to replace the board.


text:
Transparent notification bar after Android 4.3 Update on Samsung Galaxy S3
I've just updated my Galaxy S3 to the OTA 4.3 update and whilst its fine, there are a couple of really annoying niggles.
The main one is the notification bar at the top - where the little icons are shown. This used to be black with white icons and they were easily visible.
Now its transparent.
I use a nice landscape image as my wallpaper, so I have pale blue sky and white clouds, and you can imagine the white icons on white cloud background isn't exactly what I'd call usable. short of editing my wallpapers to have a black bar at the top, is there a way to revert this?
It seems the update is fine but for the lock screen that has so many pointless changes that result in usability problems I'm tempted to downgrade.

You could install a 3rd party launcher, but the lockscreen will not revert to black without a third party lockscreen. Touchwiz may override this even so. It does on the S4 most of the time. You may not be able to downgrade if you have a Knox bootloader I'm afriad. Kitkat is now transparent statusbar by default so this is the general trend. Samusng introduced it with 4.2.2 on the S4 as AMOLED screens are prone to 'burn in' and the black bar had to go. It's not pointless, what I think is a bit pointless is not giving users the option for what they want, but it was done for a reason.

@RossC thanks. An option to change the text colour would have been nice.. I guess they're not bothered by burn-in of the little battery, signal, smarteye, wifi icons :)

From what you said in the comments above, there is a way to change the text colour & the icon colours along with the colour / transparency of the status bar.
It requires a rooted phone unfortunately but once rooted download WANAM Xposed from the play store here is a link Wanam Xposed work's on Samsung Android 4.2+ so you shouldn't have any issues
Once this is installed it will ask you to install the Xposed Framework, don't be alarmed it is required and will not harm your phone. Once the framework is installed you'll be prompted to enable Wanam Xposed from the new Xposed Installer, if not you can simply click on Xposed Installer, Click Modules and Wanam Xposed should appear and check the checkbox.
Now go on Wanam Xposed, note everytime you make a change it will only appear after a Reboot!
You can now go on Theme and click either Background Color (or Colour as it should be :) ) and this will enable you to select a colour for the status bar, or you can click on the following

Circle Battery Color
Stock Battery Text color
Signal Icons Color
Clock And Date Color
Status bar icons color (remaining icons)

Each of these will change the icons instead of the status bar background colour
Hope this helps!


text:
Can I route a call via SIP based on a phone number using native SIP android?
My Android 4.x phone supports SIP.
However, the options when to use the "Internet calling" are very limited: "For all calls", "Only for Internet calls", "Ask for each call".
I would like to use Internet (SIP) calls based on phones number (e.g. all international and long-distance calls should go via SIP, all phone number starting with +395656 xxx and local calls should go via my regular voice account).
I don't want to use any application like csipsimple, I want to use native support.

If you don't want to use 3rd party apps, this is currently (as of Android version 4.4) not possible.


text:
How do I backup and restore a Moto X to a replacement Moto X? (Apps, icons, and SMS)
I used the Motorola Migrate utility to copy my data such as SMS, photos, and other stuff to my replacement phone.
What I'm missing is my apps (Google Authenticator) and the data that goes with those apps (all the saved OTP pins in Google Authenticator).
Id also like to keep all the icon positions and not have to re-drag them into the specific places I'm used to.
How do I copy this data to my new phone?

Did you take a look at our backup tag-wiki? You'll find the solution there. Hint: If you've got a custom recovery, a Nandroid backup should do that (provided hardware is the same). Otherwise, adb backup is the one coming closest (provided Android 4.0+ on both devices).

Your best bet would probably be to backup using adb backup and restore it to the new device. The command you would use is:

adb backup -all -f C:\backup.ab
Or substitute the path of your choice in place of C:.

The full process and entire list of options (which you could use to backup and restore specific apps and settings, like your homescreen) can be found here.


text:
Dialer screen doesn't come up when making or receiving calls
When I receive an incoming call the phone doesn't show the dialer/answer screen. If the screen is off already the phone rings but the screen does not come on. If the screen is already on and already dim the brightness will come back up, but the screen doesn't change. So if I was already on the home screen it just stays there. I cannot answer a call unless I use my Bluetooth headset to do so. It does this with or without the headset connected. If the headset isn't connected I cannon answer the phone.
If I hit the phone icon it comes up to the screen asking me if I want to return to the call in progress. I also noticed if I make a call it never comes up to the in call screen, so there is no way to mute, go to speaker phone, put the call on hold, or more importantly end the call.
This started shortly after upgrading to 4.4 from 4.3.
Android 4.4 Nexus 4

I disabled the Dialer app, cleared the cache, and the data.
Rebooted the phone and enabled the Dialer app.

Now all seems to be working well.

I just have had an issue that matches the OP description: on incoming calls the screen remained blank.
I am having it on Android 5 - Lollipop, but should be worth a try on a KitKat phone.
Solution:

Open "Google Dialer" (a.k.a. "Phone")
Open the : menu.
Select "Settings"
Choose "Call settings"
Choose "Phone account settings"
Tick the "Receive incoming calls" checkbox

Cause:
The option was turned off when the phone was in the "battery saving mode" due to low battery charge. After recharging the battery the option was not restored automatically.
Device details: Nexus 5, Android version 5.0.1-Lollipop.

download dialer app.
disable default dialer, clear app data and cache
restart phone (notice there is no dialer app)
install downloaded call dialer app.

Done. Works 100%. Tried it on my phone
p.s., search for "nexus 4 call dialer app"

Go to Settings>Sounds & notification>App Notification then unblock the Dialler App then everything will be normal again.

I had this problem after doing a factory reset and reinstalling apps on 7.1.2 (Lineage 14.1). I couldn't answer incoming calls and outgoing calls wouldn't show the call in progress. The notification settings were fine. Clearing cache and booting in safe mode did not help.
The problem was the Phone app was not set to be the default application for phone calls. Not sure why because there were no other apps installed that can handle the calling intents.
To fix, go to Settings->Apps-> ⚙ ->Default Apps->Phone app. If it doesn't say Phone immediately under Phone app, then tap and choose the Phone app.


text:
App for sharing words between PC web browser and Anroid device
I often surf www on my PC. For foreign language pages I use Firefox add-on gTranslate 0.9. It's quite convenient, just highlight a word in browser, right click, translate.
But I'd like to remember those words (along with its translation) in cloud and then have an application on my Android device which shows those words so I can learn my vocabulary.
Is there any similar application somewhere?
Eventually it can be only bare foreign word without translation, as it could be translated down in the Android application.

You could use something like Anki. It's a flashcard program using spaced-repetition to help you learn vocabulary and other similar things. There's a free desktop app, as well as a compatible free Android app called AnkiDroid. The two apps can sync to each other through "the cloud", so you could use it to add cards on your PC when you find a new word, then learn those flashcards on your Android device.
Anki supports non-Latin characters and scripts, and you can add images too (if you want to learn to recognise a sign, for instance). You can even download decks of cards made by other users.

+1 First thing I thought about as solution for this question was AnkiDroid.

It's almost it. Almost because there's no browser add-on to easy adding new cards.


text:
What exactly happen when flashing new rom?
I searched for a while without any satisfactory answer. What exactly happen when you flash a new rom on an Android device?
What the new rom contains of the Android architecture here:

A rom (es: Cyanogen) developed for s2 can't be installed on any other device (es: note) only because of the screen resolution or there are other factors (es: drivers)?
Thanks a lot for the answers in advice :)

Please see: What is the meaning of “flashing a custom ROM”? / Why is it that Android still can't be installed as regular OS? These two questions together answer your questions.

For additional information, you might also want to visit our rom-flashing tag-wiki (just updated now ;)


text:
How can I use Enter to send from a bluetooth keyboard?
I just purchased a Logitech K760 Wireless keyboard for my Nexus 4.  I have the keyboard paired properly to my phone, but I am unable to send from the keyboard, when sending IMs via Facebook, Skype, etc.
I also have SwiftKey installed, and have tried using both SwiftKey and the default Google Keyboard, and both behave the same way.
Is there a configuration option, or add-on app I can use to control how this works?  My ideal configuration would have ENTER send, and SHIFT+ENTER (or similar) insert a newline.  But I would also be willing to map the send function to one of the F-keys or something else, if that's what I must do.
I am using Android 4.4.2.

It does work on Google Talk so it's the problem which needs to be fixed by facebook in their messenger app.

control + enter works for me in my Logitech keyboard.

This behaviour depends on the application you use, and so, on the way developer(s) programmed their applications.
The application may provide an option to use enter as send, but if it doesn't, then I think you can't do much about this...

So I guess you're saying there's generic "send" API call, and thus no (standard) way to write a third party app that could bind a key to "send" in every app?

@Flimzy, I think it might be more an event than an API Call, but that's the right idea.

Press the TAB/right arrow key until the send button of the app is selected. Then hit ENTER. That works for me.
Often, the TAB/right arrow key only needs to pressed once or twice before the send key can be activated using ENTER. However, I think this would depend on the graphical user interface of the app.

TAB + ENTER worked for me

Thanks a lot! This one should be an accepted answer.

TAB x 2 was good for me (emoji button is first TAB). This was a good solution.

Have you tried External Keyboard Helper Pro? That lets you make customised keymaps: I use it to kill the caps lock key on my Microsoft Wedge keyboard. But if the application does recognise any keystroke as "send" then EKH will let you map it to the key of your choice.

I have Swiftkey and Android 4.4. The following works for me:
Control + Tab, then Enter.

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


text:
DLNA through two routers?
I have been trying to achieve a DLNA / Media Share between my Nexus 5 and Xbox 360, so far I have been unable to achieve this and I decided to turn here to see if anyone could shed some light.
What I basically want to do is stream media from my Nexus 5 to my Xbox 360, now what makes this all quite confusing is I have a standalone router flashed with DD-WRT to handle connections upstairs, this includes the Xbox 360. The app I am using to try and achieve this is BubbleUPnP Pro.
The Xbox 360 has its own IP Address defined within the second router, I guess it is an Access Point as it simply connects to the main router wirelessly and then provides access through the ethernet ports.
My question is, is it possible for me to stream media from my Nexus 5 (which is connected to the Main Router) through the Access Point and to my Xbox 360? If so - will it require any action on the Main Router and what are the steps I need to take to achieve it?
Thank you -
(I have attached a image to document how everything is set up network-wise)

That's not really an Android question, but rather network related. But the short answer is:
It should work as long as all the devices described share the same "subnet".
I have a comparable setup here (TV→cable→router→cable→main-router→wireless→tablet), and can use BubbleUPnP fine to stream from my tablet to my PC. All share the same network (192.168.1.*, netmask 255.255.255.0), so UPnP/DLNA finds it's way from end to end. The main router acts as DHCP server for all devices in the network, no other DHCP server concurring.
If however your main router and router2 both use their own subnets, that might get tricky.


text:
Hebrew language to a physical keyboard
I have a Nexus 7 (2013) (Android 4.4.2). Recently I bought a Bluetooth keyboard to go with it.
For English the keyboard works as expected, however I noticed that there is no Hebrew language when adding layouts for the Broadcom BT HID.
I have Hebrew with the virtual keyboard (comes with it - I didn't have to use 3rd party software).
Is there a way to add/install Hebrew so I could use it with the physical keyboard (without 3rd party apps)? As I see it, it is a software thing since the keyboard sends the same signals only the mapping is different.
If no, is there a way to do such a thing with 3rd party apps?

External Keyboard Helper Pro (costs $2.50) has Hebrew support.


text:
DNS blocking on mobile networks?
I'm using my HTC One phone on Sprint's network in NYC, and noticed that my phone cannot access Imgur.
On Chrome, when using mobile data (3G/4G):

https://i.stack.imgur.com/n5hn4.jpg Fails to resolve "i.imgur.com"
http://i.lvme.me/hjzy57l.jpg Loads fine

On Chrome, when using WiFi:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/n5hn4.jpg Loads fine
http://i.lvme.me/hjzy57l.jpg Loads fine

Is anyone else seeing this sort of behavior? Might this be site-blocking at the carrier level? Or is there another technical explanation?
Any suggestions appreciated. (I'm missing my cat pictures already.)

If it "fails to resolve" the name, that's an issue with the DNS server used. While for WiFi that's easy to change via settings (in the advanced section of the APN), I never checked if/how that could be done for mobile data. If you figure out, and it can be overridden, simply replace the first DNS server entry with any open DNS server, leaving the second (of your provider) in as fallback.

I remember seeing that the DNS for mobile data can't be overridden...

DNS can be changed with apps like "Set DNS" and with the setprop command, however all fail on KitKat to modify resolvers ONLY IN CASE they were set by the mobile carrier.
An simple solutions was given at:
How to change mobile connections's DNS on Android KitKat?
(in brief: put imgur's IP's in /etc/hosts)
It will work, but myself, I'm still hunting a way to modify the carrier's resolvers.


text:
Setting up hardware accelerated Android emulation (HAXM) on Fedora or other RPM distributions?
I'm doing Android development, and the emulation is (unsurprisingly) slow.  I see there's some documentation for setting up hardware acceleration (Intel HAXM) at
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/speeding-up-the-android-emulator-on-intel-architecture
This documentation covers installation for Windows and Linux, but for Linux it's Ubuntu specific - has anyone had success with setting this up on Fedora, or other recent RPM-based distro?

I've got this working on a Fedora 19 install, it's straightforward and worthwhile...
Install virtualization
This is documented at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Getting_started_with_virtualization
install package group "virtualization"
sudo yum install @virtualization

this installs packages virt-install, libvirt, libvirt-daemon-kvm, qemu-kvm, virt-manager, virt-viewer and deps

Start KVM and test
$ sudo systemctl start libvirtd

(if your distro uses the service command rather than new-fangled systemctl, you'll want use that to start libvirtd instead)
Verify that the kvm kernel modules were properly loaded:
$ lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_amd                55563  0
kvm                   419458  1 kvm_amd

You can also verify using the virsh management tool
$ sudo virsh list

this gives an empty list e.g.
 Id    Name                           State
----------------------------------------------------

You may need to log out & log back in.
Running the hardware accelerated device
I then tried starting a virtual device (having first downloaded an x86 system image using the SDK manager) and it seemed fast (started in ~10 seconds, and UI is snappy).  However the loading dialog didn't display the "HAX is working and emulator runs in fast virt mode" message specified by the Intel docs.  Don't be disheartened; it's a nice thing to see not an end in itself.
Finesse
Running on the command line showed an error message.  You can run the emulator on the command line in the SDK/tools directory, specifying the AVD name (same as you'll see in the virtual device manager):
[path/to/SDK/tools]$ ./emulator64-x86 -avd <AVD name>Nexus_S_4.0.3_x86 -qemu -m 2047 -enable-kvm

e.g.
[path/to/SDK/tools]$ ./emulator64-x86 -avd Nexus_S_4.0.3_x86 -qemu -m 2047 -enable-kvm

this returned the error
emulator: ERROR: Could not load OpenGLES emulation library: lib64OpenglRender.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
emulator: WARNING: Could not initialize OpenglES emulation, using software renderer.

this can be fixed by adding the tools/lib directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH
e.g. by running as
[path/to/SDK/tools]$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=path/to/sdk/tools/lib ./emulator64-x86 -avd Nexus_S_4.0.3_x86  -qemu -m 2047 -enable-kvm

Summary
I'm very pleased with how fast this is, and it's well worth the trouble.  The emulator starts in 6 seconds on my unspectacular desktop, and runs as nicely as the real hardware.


text:
Is it possible to transfer files to a powered off device?
Unfortunately, I have managed to delete an integral directory of the phone, which causes it to stuck on the boot-up screen.
It would be very easy to repair this damage if I could find out how to mount phone's internal memory, the root directory, to transfer over any files missing.
Is it possible to do this with a powered-off device?
This in an Android 4.1.2 stock, LG Optimus E440 (L4 II) of unknown bootloader status (I don't even know if this phone has an unlockable bootloader o.O).
Furthermore, I've discovered of this "LGMobile Support Tool" Windows program, is it a legitimate LG software, and would it do something to help me?

What is the device - care to embellish your question to include ALL info, such as Android version, rooted, locked bootloader status, etc, please provide as much info as you can in order for us to help you.

I really have no idea about the bootloader, but I do have a rooted LG Optimus LG E440 (L4 II), stock ROM.

In that case, please re-edit your question to include that information as it will get overlooked easily especially if there's going to be a lot of comments below the question :)

@t0mm13b Okay, done!

No, the phone is powered off, so no activities would be running to enable a transfer of files.
You need to have it powered on.

Well, does a stuck in the boot-up logo screen count as powered-on?

If its stuck on the boot screen, there's a potential problem as the adb's service on the phone may not be activated this is required so that when you plug in the usb cable, the PC will recognize it.

What about recovery/fastboot mode? I never played with those, but wouldn't it potentially be possible to access all data that way (provided the device successfully boots into one of them)?

@Izzy (Hiya _o/) uhmmm... if recovery can access and mount the /system partition, although the OP stated its Stock android, so would be safe to say that recovery is stock, but may not have root privileges to do so..? As for fastboot mode, maybe, it would require a stock image to be flashed - might run into the risk of b0rking up the device, LG are a bit funny that way..

@t0mm13b \o_ re-hi! Yupp, stock makes that tricky here, I've missed that fact. And LG... well, a special case (ask me! with my P880...) So right you are, unlikely in that constellation. Still, was worth a guess. Thanks for the details!


text:
Transfer Files to Nexus 4 with Terminal
I want to transfer files to my Nexus 4 using the Mac Terminal.
I tried to use the adb shell with adb push, but because I'm not root I'm not allowed to push to the sdcard.
Is there any way to mount the device as a regular drive or to use adb push without root access?

You should be able to use adb push even without root. What's the message you get when trying to adb push ~/file /sdcard/file?

As I wrote below it's "error: device not found"

What do you get if you try to run adb devices and adb shell?

Everything works fine. I see my device and I can log in to the shell. All normal commands like cd, ls, pwd etc work. Only push and pull throw this error

And just to confirm, trying to do cd /sdcard/ works? (I know I'm being tedious, I just want to make sure nothing has been overlooked).

Yes. I also can view its content with ls

You can't push to the sdcard's root, but you can push in any folder found in it, except /sdcard/Android/data.

I tried this but I got "error: device not found"

@user1839433: Have you enabled USB debugging?

Yes I enablded debugging, adb devices shows my device and I can see all data on my phone using adb shell and ls/cd/... I only can't push and pull

What do you mean when you say "You can't push to the sdcard's root"? Because you can push to /sdcard/ no problem.

@dotVezz: Because I heard here and there that we can't. I can, but I'm on 4.1.2 and rooted, so I assume we can't and I tell a solution that I'm sure would work under normals circumstances. Anyway, It seems he has another problem...


text:
samsung tab 3 cannot retrieve keyboard
My daughter got a new samsung tab it was working with no problems , she dowmloaded a few apps then the keyboard went , so i went to check the settings and there was no option to retrieve it. i went into the playstore to add another but kept getting an error message which wouldnt allow me to install anything,
i done a factory reset thinking it would wipe everything off and retrieve the keyboard which i didnt i m left with no keyboard and having to try and speak each command which is very difficult and doesnt work ,
can anyone offer a way round this ?

We'd like to help, and to do that we need a little more detail on the problem you're describing. When the keyboard "went", what exactly did you see? When did it happen? What error message did you get?

What happens when you go to Settings > Language and Input...? Is there any mention of ANY keyboard you have installed (you've tried others too right?)? You may need to just enable the keyboard. What happens when you click on an editable text box? Did she install any non market apps, anything Warez like at all that may have corrupted the device? I'm not clear at all on what you mean by 'went' and what steps you have tried. We need more detail.

the keyboard went after my daughter had installed a few apps via playstore, my daughter then said she could not type anymore as the keyboard had gone, the only option was to talk into a mic on the screen, so i tried to download another keyboard and got an error message 101 or 110 something like that . When i go into language input there is no mention of any keyboard just voice control, after this i completed a factory reset which didnt fix any problem as they keyboard will not inatall

sorry i dont know what non market apps are , im new to the samsung

Well there are apps in the Play Store (used to be called Market, sorry that's my bad) or the Amazon store etc. Then you can 'side load' applications downloaded from other sites. Some are very legit e.g. Android Police might have the installer for Google Search or such, but other less legal sites may have paid apps for free. Many are cracked and full of spyware, malware etc! Is it the 'Samsung' keyboard that came with the device? http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-tab/795688-unknown-error-code-during-application-install-110-a.html May be a hardware issue for '110'.

I've run out of space  in comments so let's look at some options:
1) Go to Settings > Apps then go to Google Play Store and 'Uninstall Updates'. Then let the Play Store automatically update. Try downloading another keyboard.
2) If you have error 110 it MAY be hardware related.  Thread on similar issue
You may need to contact the seller or Samsung on this issue.
3) If you have error 101 then perhaps  Google Play Services is to blame try installing this from the link provided, reboot and try installing another keyboard.
4) Go to Settings > Apps and see if 'Samsung Keyboard' or similar is there at all, it MAY be disabled or something simple like that! (It will say 'disabled' beside it) You can go into it an click enable in this case.
5) See if you can download any apps at all from the Play Store. Pick something popular like "Facebook" or something from a reliable source. If this also fails there is somthing more fundemental wrong here.
6) If you are a bit more adventurous you could pop to XDA Devlopers and ask someone to post the APK (android application package, basically the app to be installed) for your keyboard and see if you can install it. This is a bit more advanced and I think best left til last resort for now. I'll talk you through it if you think it is a valid option. "Side Loading" is the term to look up!

I discovered that you have to touch the bit that actually says default keyboard not the greyed out button below. So
Settings, language and input. Tap the header default and then slide the use onscreen keyboard button to turn the keyboard back on.

The user manual advised to restart the tablet it becomes slow or unresponsive and my keyboard reappeared. The slide out  icon / split screen function had stopped working on mine as well, that has started again too.


text:
Where does Android keep app permissions?
I have a rooted Android, and I want to disable (not read/write/execute) permissions to an app (for example, I don't want it accessing the camera or the phone).
Where does Android keep those permissions? Is it in a database somewhere?

App permissions are defined in the code of the application (the manifest to be exact) and cannot be changed without actually "un-building", changing and then rebuilding the apk again.
the solution you're looking for is using permissions controlling/restricting applications.
Here are some examples for these kind of apps:
LBE Privacy Guard
PDroid
App Ops - Permission Manager

/data/system/packages.xml is the file you want. For each package it follows a template. For an app it would look like this:
<package name="com.spazedog.xposed.additionsgb" codePath="/data/app/com.spazedog.xposed.additionsgb-2.apk" nativeLibraryPath="/data/app-lib/com.spazedog.xposed.additionsgb-2" flags="572996" ft="14f1b3d2848" it="14f1b348243" ut="14f1b3d30a2" version="71" userId="10120">
<sigs count="1">
<cert index="20" />
</sigs>
<perms>
<item name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<item name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" />
<item name="net.dinglisch.android.tasker.PERMISSION_RUN_TASKS" />
</perms>

You're after the entries between <perms> and </perms>.


text:
How do I get my keyboard back?
I recently got an Android Polaroid tablet and I noticed it was incredibly slow so I disabled and force stopped a lot of the apps that were pre-downloaded onto the device because I knew I'd never need them. That seemed to help and for a few weeks everything was cool and way faster until I started getting this notification every two seconds that said, "Unfortunately, Android Keyboard has stopped."
A little bit after that, I went back to college and I tried to connect to my school's WiFi and it wouldn't work because you need to type in a username and password to connect, and you can't type without a keyboard. So, I know you can install keyboards onto your tablet to replace the old one, but

I can't connect to WiFi without typing,
I can't connect to Google Play without WiFi, and
Even if I could, how would I search for keyboard apps without being able to type them in?

You could re-enable the apps you force stopped, until your device is restored to functionality, with your working keyboard, then disable slowly and carefully until you reach an acceptable state again?

How would I go about doing that? I think on my Apps list in Settings after I force stopped them they all went away

The (Settings > Applications) applist on your device, if it sticks to convention, is in 3 panels. View "All" panel at the far right, and find the disabled apps at the bottom of the list there. Select each in turn and use the button to "Enable", "Turn On" or whatever similar terminology is used.

It is possible to connect your device via USB to push an apk from the computer. There are a number of sites that allow apk files to be downloaded to a pc and file transferred this way. Search google for "android keyboard apk download" for an acceptable one. Once the file has been placed in a folder on the device, double click it to run "Package Installer" to install. You will have to enable the setting "Unknown Sources" in the security panel to install this way.

Okay thanks, I'll definitely try that, I'll just have to get a mini USB adapter first

The mini USB adapter is the same used to power the device. Unless you have a power-only plug, it will have a detachable cord with USB already at the other end. That will connect your device to the PC.

I just had the same issue. I used the "touch" to copy and paste the word keyboard into playstore. If you cant get wifi because you cannot VOICE it in. Then VOICE your information into Google. Copy. Paste. Hope you solve this is terrible when it happens!
I was hoping someone could just tell me the app I accidentally flipped off... Literally and. Figuratively!

maybe you can install new keyboard via recovery.
i don't know what your device is, but you could try install this keyboard.
you could use this
"get the flashable zip here"
go to recovery and install it.
good luck.

Where can I find Recovery on my device? I have a Polaroid Tablet

Go to Google play, push another keyboard apps to your mobile from any pc or notebook, after installing newly installed keyboard app set it as default, then from setting make google keyboard as default, you will get the keyboard back....... .........

This will only work if the device is connected to a WiFi or a data network, which it doesn't seem they have access to.


text:
Flashing CM 11 on Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 (SCH-I535)
I have a Galaxy SCH-I535 from verizon (SGS3). It is not rooted, and I want to install CM 11 on it.
Is there anything else I have to do besides just running the installer?
I love my phone and don't want to break it. Do I have to root or install anything else before running the CM11 installer app? And, what should I use to back it up before hand in case anything goes wrong?
Could someone tell me what I should do step-by-step before actually running the CM 11 installer?

If youve updated your phone to android 4.3 or higher you cannot get cm 11, but this may help: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_d2vzw

Too lazy to post a detailed answer. But no, you need don't necessarily need root to install a custom ROM like CyanogenMod. But, you need to flash a custom recovery like ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery which you will use to install CyanogenMod. Some custom ROMs (like CM) will give you root.
For detailed installation guide for your phone, refer to (CAUTION: This is for CM 10.2, but the steps should be similar for CM 11) CM's official wiki . It contains all the information you need, including back-up.