text:
Is the back Chassis for the Canadian Rogers I747M the same as I747 T999?
The camera protection lens on my Samsung Galaxy S3 I747M broke some time ago. The camera itself stopped focusing correctly some time ago as well due to that. At some point, I had to have the camera replaced, though the establishment did not have replacements for the camera protection lens unfortunately. The gentleman I talked to said I could find 2 methods of replacing the lens.

Go on EBay and purchase only the protection lens that attaches with a 2 sided tape.
Go on EBay and purchase the back chassis piece of my phone. This was the method he said would be preferable as it's the better option for the phone. I think he also mentioned something about OEM but I don't remember that part. (If someone knows, do tell)

After looking on EBay, the majority of Chassis replaces seems to be that of the AT&T's I747 T999. From what I understand, the phones are almost identical. Though, I'm not sure this includes the chassis.
So, my question is, is the back chassis of the Canadian Rogers I747M, the same as the American I747 T999?
Below is a link to an example of what I'm talking about. This is actually my best option so far. At least, from what I've found. If anyone has anything better or that would pertain more so to my phone, it would be appreciated.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/R036-New-Housing-Back-Chassis-Frame-For-Samsung-Galaxy-S3-i747-T999-Black-Tool-/190875018764?&_trksid=p2056016.m2516.l5255

There's no such thing as an "i747 T999".
The I747 is the model used by AT&T.  There is no relevant difference between the i747 and the i747m used by Bell and Telus, or the i747R used by Rogers.  They're identical as far as software or repairs are concerned.
The T999 is a different model used by T-mobile, Wind Mobile, and possibly others.  The only real difference is the supported frequency bands, though this means they're not intercompatible for ROMs.  Casings are identical, as are common parts like the camera or screen.
I would presume that by "I747 T999", they mean the part is compatible with both the i747 model and the T999 model, which it should be, as the physical form of them is identical.

Alright, awesome. I was worried that by purchasing the link I posted, I would be risking ordering a part that would not fit on the model of my phone. Thanks for the help man. It was really nice of you. I'll look into if there's anything a bit cheaper, otherwise I'll be ordering this part then. Thanks again! You've cleared that up for me.


text:
Root Sony Xperia Z1
Is possible to do root Sony Xperia Z1 (c9603) with 4.4.2 version?
I searched on google, but all the tutorials are for other versions. I don't want to do a downgrade, so, is possible root without downgrade?
Thanks

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Unable to overwrite CWM with TWRP
I'm trying to get TWRP running instead of CWM on my HTX One X.
When flashing the recovery through fastboot, and rebooting the phone - the bootloader choice for "recovery" goes straight to CWM.
I tried flashing TWRP through GooManager, and the same thing happens.
It kinda seems like the files doesn't get overwritten...
This all started because I wanted to swap the custom rom running (at the moment it's Cyanogen 10.2.0). But even overwriting the boot.img file seems impossible, since all other ROMs just throws the phone in to a bootloop.
The same happens when trying to update to Cyanogen 10.2.1.. (As I've seen many have to manually flash a new boot.img through fastboot)
Any thoughts on how to solve such a case?
Edit 1 ->
Commands ran in fastboot:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot reboot

Started phone in bootloader and selected "Recovery" from the menu. CWM shows up and no sign of TWRP.
When trying to flash the new Roms (not cyanogen), I flashed the accompanying boot.img through fastboot.
fastboot flash boot boot.img

No luck, and it get stuck on the HTC-Screen..

Have you tried flashing using Flashify?

I have not tried using Flashify no. I'll have a look at that.

Added more information as you asked for @Chahk

@xstnc Try different release of TWRP for Your device.

I found, that in my case flashing with heimdall did the deal. In my case, the CM recovery was in the KERNEL partition, so reflashing that partition with an apropriate zImage did the trick for me. The command I used:
sudo heimdall flash --KERNEL zImage

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


text:
Google location is inaccurate without GPS
Using a Samsung Galaxy 4S. I'm using Google location history. I pulled location history and broke it down by the minute. GPS was not on, only mobile data and location services. I drove through and area and it just kept showing me on the map with a large circle around me. When I pulled the times it has me in one location and the next minute jumping to a location that is 10 miles away.
How can that happen? Did I lock onto a cell tower? The previous 3 days passed the same place but never picked me up. Times of travel were different on the previous 3 days.

It sounds like you already understand that with GPS turned off the location won't be accurate, so I'm not sure what you're asking. What's left to explain?

Go to settings > location > mode and select high accuracy. This will ensure that the gps is used for location.

Without the GPS on how accurate can it be then? I see other times it looks like I'm walking around me neighborhood. I'm sure that has to do with wifi.

Without gps it will use the mobile towers to find your location

And wifi, as @jennifer mentioned.

authors: Игорь Тулиголовец


text:
Why is "Force GPU rendering" disabled by default Developer options?
Why is this feature disabled? When I turn it on, many apps and become snappy and awesome with smooth graphics. Seems like it'd be nice if it was enabled by default.
The linked article in this question says that hardware acceleration wasn't default up until 4.0.
Is the "Force GPU rendering" option then targeting apps that use API for 3.0 and lower?

When GPU rendering was first added, it was very unreliable. Sometimes it would be slower than software rendering, and there were some kinds of GUIs that it just couldn't work with. For this reason, it was up to the app developer to test their app with GPU rendering, and set an option in the app's manifest (the same place that it declares its permissions) to enable GPU rendering for that app. The option was mainly to make it easier for developers to test the effect of GPU rendering on their app. This makes sense because:

most users don't know or care about what GPU rendering is, and don't know whether it should be on or off for any given app; and
the setting really needs to be per-app, not device-wide, because some apps just wouldn't work with GPU rendering turned on.

After further development, when 4.0 came along, GPU rendering got more reliable, so it became the default for all apps: it's now up to the developer to explicitly disable GPU rendering if it causes a problem in their app. (That's very rare now.) The "Force GPU rendering" option is vestigial and rarely used even by developers now, because it's already the default.

Do you know ho to tweak Force GPU rendering with build.prop ?

To quote from an XDA post:

Enabling this preference in developer options offloads task of
  rendering window components like buttons, text and complex 2d graphics
  calculations to GPU. This often results in much faster UI rendering
  including animations. On one side you will definitely achieve better
  frame rate (and hence smooth experience) throughout system, but you
  may end up using more battery. On certain devices, GPU consumes more
  power the CPU, hence you may observe 5-15% lower battery life with
  option enabled.
I would recommend having this option enabled on devices with weaker
  CPUs e.g. You should seldom need to enable this on dual-core 1.4ghz
  ARM CPU.
Offloading UI rendering to GPU has obvious benefits so that CPU can
  work on other important tasks like database IO, data manipulation,
  layout calculations and responding to other user inputs.

That said, it should be up to the user to decide if he wants to trade battery life for performance. AND, I think most people would want their phones to last longer, and keep performance at an acceptable rate.

It is meant for developers to test their apps thats why it is not enabled by default.


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How to root Samsung Galaxy Ace II X
I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace II X smartphone, and for various reasons, would like to root it. It is running android version 4.0.4. How exactly do I root it? Should I download the necessary files, or make them myself? (I have no idea how to make them). I would also like to somehow have a way to undo the rooting if necessary, and have a backup of everything on my phone now. I have heard that rooting could cause my phone to become a "brick" or be completely useless, should I be concerned about this?
Also, my computer is a mac, if that makes any difference whatsoever in the rooting process.

There are several root options for Samsung devices.
EDIT: It seems like the first method is not available for your device.

CF-Auto-Root: Created by XDA developer Chainfire, this method consists of a modified recovery image which injects the su binary into the system and restores original recovery upon reboot. This is the safest method because it does not require user interaction.
Root programs: These PC apps, like OneClickRoot, require you to enable USB debugging and connect your phone to your PC. It will then execute an exploit which will allow it to inject su to /system.
Framaroot: Created by XDA member alephzain, this is the only root method that does not require a PC. Once installed and opened, Framaroot will present you with a list of exploits compatible with your phone. Once you choose an exploit, Framaroot will either a) tell you that the exploit was successful and that you need to reboot in order to enjoy root, b) tell you that the exploit failed and that you should try another, or c) it used a so-called local.prop trick to root your device with a squashed file system, and that you should reboot to try and see if you have root.

All methods install a Superuser apps which governs the use of su.
An example of a su app is SuperSu, which has an unroot option in its settings tab.
As for the bricking, it's very hard to do that unless

You interrupted a flash process
You deleted something you shouldn't have
You flashed something meant for another device

Check out the XDA FAQ thread for the Galaxy Ace II X.
After you thoroughly research rooting and its pros/cons, if you decide to root, the instructions are in that thread. Since you are on a Mac, you will not be able to use Odin, which is designed for Windows. You will have to use the Mac/Linux alternative, JOdin, as explained in this video. Good luck!
Note: About bricking your device: I wouldn't worry about it, in all my years of rooting and tweaking, I have not had one brick. The only way to brick is to modify something you know you really shouldn't, unplug something while your bootloader is connected to your computer, or using a corrupted download for rooting/bootloader operations. Just use this general rule of thumb: Look on the XDA thread. If someone has done it and their phone is not dead, then it is typically safe to do.


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Cyanogen and Google Play compatibility
I already read, how to install Google Play on Cyanogen. But then what? Do the apps from Play store install seamlessly, like on "standard" Android?
Some apps require minimum version of Android. Google Play "tells" me, if certain app is compatible with my device. If eg. app requires Android 4.4, does it mean, that it will or will not work on Cyanogen?

The guide is only to install Google Play and other related and necessary Google Apps. The installation is such due to licensing issues which prevent CyanogenMode from packaging it in the ROM directly.
Once you go through the install of Google Apps, you can use Google Play same way as on any other Android device.
Regarding versions, every CyanogenMod version is based on particular version of Android, e.g.:

CyanogenMod 11 is based on Android 4.4 KitKat
CyanogenMod 10.2 is based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
CyanogenMod 10.1 is based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
etc.

The play store will treat CyanogenMod versions as Android of appropriate version, so you will have no problems regarding that.


text:
How do I delete a WhatsApp group I'm a member of but not an admin?
I'm in a WhatsApp group and the topics discussed there are more of vulgarity. I need to delete that group. Please help.

If the question has been answered, please consider to mark a question as the right one.

You can leave this group only, you can't delete it for everyone.
Go to the Group -> Group Info.
On the very bottom of the user list, you can see the button Delete and exit group
You will exit this group and the group will be deleted on your phone.
You won't recieve new messages (as you're no longer in the group) and the messages you already have will be removed.

A group admin can remove you even if you don't have the app.

Just go to what'sapp
Step 1:go to the group which u want to leave
Step 2:go to the bottom
Step 4:you will see "Exit Group"
Step 5:Click on that,and give ok
Step 6:now click on "Delete Group"
Step 7:and now you are no longer a participant in the group

This answer seems very similar to the existing answer.


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Is it possible for Google to detect app updates that have not been delivered through Play Store?
I'm playing a game that is developed by a sub-division of Google. (Ingress/Niantic)
Usually new versions of this game pushed out through staged roll-outs, which means if you are not one of the lucky ones you have to wait a while to get the new version with sometimes cool new features.
Of course, the APK files for the new version could be found all over the internet on various sites. This naturally leads to two things:

There are APK files that are tempered with
Players get banned for using an unofficial version of the game.

As a curious player I want to have the new versions as soon as possible. To verify I'll have an valid build a downloaded the APK from the previous version, that I installed through Google Play, to my computer via adb.
$ adb pull /data/app/com.package.name
$ unzip -p com.package.name-1.apk META-INF/CERT.RSA | keytool -printcert | grep MD5

Which gives me:
MD5:  A7:E9:93:81:E9:F2:10:0E:48:39:AB:48:34:F3:93:67

Now to do the same with the APK for the new version that I downloaded somewhere from the internet and the MD5 of the certificate matches the one from the official older APK.
My question are now:

Is it safe to assume this is a valid APK that is not tempered with?
Is is possible for Google to detect that I installed the new version of the app not through the Play Store?
Could they somehow detect the unofficial update from within the app. For example through the Application Licensing service?

I used to play Ingress before, and I was able to update to newer versions using APKs uploaded by other players. I don't know if Google's verification process has changed, but as long as it's an official APK (i.e. not modified), it should be fine.
Also, according to this Google+ thread, the verification process uses Google Play Services.

I stumbled upon this when researching. In the end my question boils down to: Is it possible to detect a manually updated app from a Play Store updated app via the Google Play Services.

@TheHippo When you install an app that is not from the Play Store, it is not linked to the Play Store. Therefore, it won't detect updates for that app. However, I think your Ingress log-in account will still be verified by Google, if it's legit.


text:
What are the files with a tilde ~ in their names?
I recently see a lot of files and directories with names like "T9XY3G~X" on my android device. I find them in the directories I sync with my PC, even though they are not copied to my PC.
My device is a galaxy note with Android 4.3 and I use SyncMe for syncronization.
So, Is it safe to delete them? Can I prevent such files from appearing in future?

Including a real example (with path) might help to give a final answer. There are at least two possibilities: a) temporary files created by the sync process (should be automatically deleted by the sync app once the sync completes, but may be left in case of a crash), or b) as they are exactly 8 chars, that reminds me of FAT 8.3 aliases for long VFAT names (like "Progra~1" for "Program Files" on Windows). Are all those files on the external SDCard only?

The files are generated by Samba when it encounters file name having invalid windows file name characters like :, \, <, >, | or directories ending with dot. The reason the files appear on your Android device is they were synced back from your PC. You can safely delete the files, but they will mostly likely reappear again, as long as files with invalid characters are created by Android apps.


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Cannot access library e-resources on campus
I own a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet(Wi-fi only model) featuring Android 4.1.2. My problem is that I cannot access and use library e-resources on campus although I have my tablets MAC address registered at the computer center in our university and connect via the wireless network available in campus. I consulted the library staff but that did not resolve my issue as I already had VPN and proxy disabled (they told me to disable any proxy and/or VPN). From the same wireless network on campus I can access the e-resources on my laptop and its MAC address is registered in the same database. May this problem caused by lingering VPN and/or proxy settings since I had Tunnelbear installed for some time. I am looking forward to hearing your response and suggestions on this matter.
Edit: I think that it may also have something to do with DNS settings. Can these settings be changed for a particular network without modifying other settings such as IP, Gateway etc.?
Edit 2: The problem is exclusive to Google Chrome, I can browse using Firefox without major problems. Which setting in Chrome might have to do with this?
Thanks

While I cannot answer the main part (first paragraph), the second one is easy: Settings→WiFi, check for the AP, long-press its entry, chose to edit, enable "advanced". Now you can change all that; but it might require you to use a fixed IP address.

Yeah it requires me to use a fixed IP address and also specify the IP of the gateway which I do not know.

You can use some diagnostics app (to be found e.g. in the network section of this app lists to show the DHCP settings applied currently, including your IP and Gateway. If you enter those values in "fixed mode", it should at least work temporarily (until your IPs lease-time runs out), so you can test settings.

@Izzy Well thanks for pointing that out, I will try it tomorrow when I am on the campus.


text:
How to directly measure or read the screen capacitance
I am looking for a way to directly measure or read the (total or individual grid) change in capacitance as observed by the touchscreen of an android device. Is it possible to achieve this with the default android SDK, or does this require a more extensive knowledge of the hardware?

What exactly do you mean by "capacity"? The amount of pressure one gives to the Touchscreen when he's using the app?

No, the actual change in capacity of the capacitor that is induced by applying your finger to the screen. If i'm not mistaken, this is measured by the hardware to determine the location of the touch.

This is not possible. Not even through the SDK. (Okay. It might be possible if you have access to the drivers for the screen and run a self compiled version of the kernel.)

Thanks for your clear answer! I will look for possible open-source drivers to, at least, try to make it work.

@TheHippo Can you post your comment as a separate answer? Afterwards, maybe Iska can accept it as an answer. :)

Keeping this question open. It seems valid, if only to know if the capacitance can be determined in Android.

No. It is not possible to get this information with the Android SDK.
You might get this information if you have access to the drivers and the kernel of your device.


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motorola DROID xt926
My phone has a cracked calibration ( the fore glass) with a good screen but yet it freezes while loading and then restarts. i never get to even see the homescreen before it restarts over again. Nw, I'm confused because i'm not sure if its going to work properly once i change the screen/calibration or its just another hardware problem from the board. Can someone please enlighten me on this?.. i want to know if the cracked calibration is liable to make the phone hang while booting.
 Thank you!

The crack in the glass itself can't cause the kind of problem you're describing, but it's possible that it's not just the glass that's cracked, but the touchscreen sensor. This looks like a thin, transparent plastic film under the glass. If this is damaged, it could be causing a power short or sending bad signals to the rest of the phone hardware, causing it to fail during startup.
In short, from what you've described there's no way to know for sure whether replacing the touchscreen will fix the problem. An experienced phone technician might be able to examine the electrical signals and determine if the touchscreen is still working, but that's probably harder and more expensive than simply replacing it to see if it fixes it. That said, taking the phone apart to replace the screen might make it obvious by letting you see any physical damage to other internal components.

Thanks a bunch Dan, i feel a little more relief, knowing the problem still surrounds the screen as a whole and not other parts from the main board. I would gladly purchase the whole screen, but the only issue i'm having now is getting the phone accessories since it happens to be so scarce here in Nigeria. I cant even say i've seen any other person using this my exact model, except lots of xt912s and xt910s. And the idea of shipping it down scares me because it costs quite much. Whew!


text:
What is this annoying sound on my S3 running CM 11.0?
I'm running CyanogenMod 11.0 on my Galaxy S3 I9300, Android version 4.4.2.
I didn't have this issue before installing CM, so I'm thinking it may be a CM sound. Basically, sometimes this sound keeps playing when I have my phone on loud.
It sounds like an error sound, as if I'm trying to complete an action that's not allowed. It plays even when I'm not even touching my screen, and I think there is actually a small issue with my screen.
I'm not too fussed about any issue with the phone, I just want to delete the sound so it can't play anymore! It really drives me mad because sometimes I can't have my phone on loud without this sound playing constantly.
I tried looking and listening to all the sounds on my phone to try and find it, but I didn't have any luck.
The sound can be heard here (at about 0:02):

This question reminded me of this one, can you check if it's the same problem?

Argh! Yes it is, thank you very much. It was my contactless debit card and my Oyster card doing it.
I guess I'll just disable my NFC, I don't use it much anyway. Thank you!


text:
CyanogenMod HTC One X+ can't boot
What I did so far
Today I'm trying to get CyanogenMod on my HTC One X+, however I'm stuck now.
I successfully unlocked my phone and the phone rebooted and everything was fine so far.
Now I wanted to put "cm-10.2.1-enrc2b.zip" on my HTC, which I got from:
http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=stable&device=enrc2b
and I followed this guide: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_enrc2b. However if I booted into recovery mode I still don't boot in ClockworkMod. I also can't select recovery, because then I will get a red exclamation mark (so I don't have a ROM backup, smart of me...). So I saw the note at the bottom of the tutorial which said "fastboot flash boot boot.img", which I did, however the only thing that has changed is that if I normally start my phone it gets stuck in showing the HTC ONE logo and just freezes there. My question is: How do I get CyanogenMod working on my phone?
Summary problems

Normal booting device stays stuck at HTC ONE logo
I don't have ClockworkMod working
I flashed kernel through "fastboot flash boot boot.img" (can't start phone normally anymore)
Not sure if "cm-10.2.1-enrc2b.zip" (enrc2b is HTC One X+) is in right location of phone.
In recovery mode I cannot select recovery (get red exclamation mark)
I can still get into recovery mode and fastboot. I'm still able to send commands through cmd (Windows)

ClockworkMod
HTC One X+ is not in the list of ClockworkMod: clockworkmod(dot)com/rommanager (Can only have 2 links)
flash boot
It seems I have to rename the /system/recovery-from-boot.p (to /system/recovery-from-boot.p-bak): android.stackexchange(dot)com/questions/18932/why-isnt-clockworkmod-recovery-sticking ,
but I cannot use an app like Root Explorer anymore, because the device doesn't boot...
cm-10.2.1-enrc2b.zip
How do I get this file on the right location on the phone by using cmd commands? I already copied manually to the phone storage directly in the first folder when you open your phone. Not sure if this is okay?
Thanks
Thanks for reading this and I really hope anyone can help me. How do I get CyanogenMod on my HTC One X+? I'm a bit desperate in what to do next now. Thanks in advance!

As for the lack of CWM, you might wish to take a look at its competitor, twrp, which seems to be available for the HTC One X+. Having a working custom recovery (the link is for enrc2b) should bring you a big step closer to solving your issue.

Thanks Izzy! I got TWRP working by using WinDroid Universal HTC Toolkit v1.1, but I don't know how to properly put cm-10.2.1-enrc2b.zip on my phone so I can flash the ROM. From my current understanding the only things I should do know is first flash the ROM and then flash the Kernel.

I'm not familiar with the device. But if it has an external SDCard, simply put the cm-10.2.1-enrc2b.zip in its root, then boot into recovery, chose to "flash ZIP from SDCard", navigate to and select the zip, and that should be it. Everything needed should be contained within the ZIP. To make sure, read the instructions on the corresponding CM wiki / download page again, but that's as it usually works.

It does not have an external SDCard, but it still has a folder which acts like an external SDCard. The problem is however, how do I put the zip in that folder? As I can not access it by HTC Sync manager. I can't boot my Android at all. What code (in cmd) do I need to push the zip in that folder?

In Windows command prompt try adb push [path-to-zip] /sdcard/

I figured out that adb doesn't see my device (cmd: adb devices), so somehow adb is not installed correctly (although installing it again says it already exist). So I'm trying to find the solution to that. I will post back when I finished solving this.

Glad combined sources managed to solve your issue – congrats!

Got it fixed :D with thanks to Izzy and Chahk
I did a lot of things so I'm not sure if I write down every step I took, but I hope it will help other users someday. This is what I did.
Restore manger
Install a restore manager (TWRP/ClockworkMod). I used TWRP which I installed by using WinDroid Universal HTC Toolkit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2499926
(If you still have a working ROM, backup this now by booting in recovery mode)
Flash ROM
Check in cmd if your device is recognized with "adb devices". If not try "adb kill-server" followed by "adb usb". Check again with "adb devices". If recognized use "adb push cm-10.2.1-enrc2b.zip /sdcard/" (or your own ROM-name.zip)
Flash Kernel
Now you should flash your kernel, not like how I did it at the beginning. "fastboot flash boot boot.img" in cmd. (Check first if your device is visible with "fastboot devices".
Extra Tip
Install playstore with Gapps or manually by moving "GmsCore.apk + GoogleLoginService.apk" + "GoogleServicesFramework.apk" to /system/app/ and run a playstore.apk (in my case "com.android.vending-4.6.16.apk")

I was a bit too hasty about the extra tip about the app store. It runs that way, but still crashes when you try to download an app/update play store (settings --> build version). So I opened a new threat for this: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/69018/minimal-apks-for-play-store

I've flashed the kernel as you suggested in your solution, but at next reboot I indefinitely continue to see the cyan logo with the circular arrow all around. No more. Any suggestions?

I've tried also cyan roms v10.2.0 with the same result: the cyan logo continues to rotate and nothing appens.
Only with v10.1.3 I was able to boot regularly the phone, using the same procedure.

Gabriele did you find a solution? Sorry I wouldn't know either. I have something like 1 in the 20 boots this problem, but then I just try again. I don't know what the cause is either :/

@GabrieleBertolucci, although just now I failed to upgrade to CM11, I'm pretty confident that your problem is related to Gapps. See: https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/guide-cm11s-cm12-nightlies.231709/


text:
Heimdall 1.4.0 (Final) error "Failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence!” on Galaxy S4
Using Heimdall 1.4.0 on Mavericks on a Galaxy S4 SGH-I337 to flash CWM, I get:

sudo heimdall flash --RECOVERY
  recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.4.7-jflteatt.img --no-reboot Password:
  Heimdall v1.4.0
Copyright (c) 2010-2013, Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
  http://www.glassechidna.com.au/
This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution
  is encouraged.
If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
  development please consider donating:
  http://www.glassechidna.com.au/donate/
Initialising connection... Detecting device... Claiming interface...
  Setting up interface...
Initialising protocol... Protocol initialisation successful.
Beginning session...
Some devices may take up to 2 minutes to respond. Please be patient!
Session begun.
Downloading device's PIT file... PIT file download successful.
Uploading RECOVERY 100% ERROR: Failed to confirm end of file transfer
  sequence! ERROR: RECOVERY upload failed!
Ending session... Releasing device interface...

Aware of the response, but it seems to have been triggered by the RC1 version of heimdall.
Heimdall errors, "ERROR: Failed to confirm end of file transfer sequence!"
I'm directly connected with no USB cable.

What do you mean when you say "I'm directly connected with no USB cable"?


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 choosing contact for text..takes forever to come up
When I am sending a text and i type in the name for the contact it takes several mins for the contact for to come up..this is very aggravating when you need to send a text fast..how to i fix this????

What version of Android are you running, this seems to be a 'feature' of Samsung devices at times. What text app are you using, default or hangouts?

If your contacts are stored on a SD card you may have a faulty SD card. Try moving your contacts to the device storage or sync them to your Google contacts.


text:
Can I delete multiple emails with the standard Android email app?
I am using LG L3II E430 mobile with standard Android email app.
Can I delete multiple emails?

DISCLAIMER: This is based on the stock email app on a Samsung Galaxy S4.
If you click on an email quickly, it opens that email.
If you long-press on an email, it selects that email without opening it. Then if you click another email, it also selects that. Now, you have two selected emails. You can then click the delete button to delete both emails.

FWIW: This is also true on my Nexus 5.

In the email list, tapping on the contact icon (or the colored letter representing the contact if it has no photo) also selects the e-mail.

@Chahk, is that the case on the non-Gmail email app as well?

@dotVezz Yes, i just verified it.

Tap on the Contact icon or colored letter according to the Starting Letter of your mail Sender and select multiple mails that you want to delete it!

Go to e-mail and select one by clicking on icon on left. Then click on checkbox icon on top banner to select all. You can then delete all or reselect those that you want to keep.

Go to settings
Long tap on the concerned account.
Under "sync settins" you will find "number of emails to load"
Long tap on this will give you a choice of 25, 50, 75, 100, 200 or all.
Select all
Then when you want to delete all just go to your inbox, select edit, select all, tap delete above reading pane.
All your emails will be deleted
You will have to repeat this in recycle bin to permanently delete them all

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


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Network security in Android
My question is quite simple. I've been digging around in the subject for quite a while now, but I can't really get a hang of how it works.
Scenario: I use Facebook on my phone to chat with some friend of mine.
The question is: How does network security in Android work? Is there any equivalent to a firewall on a computer?
I want to know how the data is transported from the phone to the destination, which ports are used (if any), if not what is used instead. But also which protocols are used.
My intention with this question is to learn how my android phone communicate with other devices on Internet.
I don't mind getting redirected to a forum or site where I can read about these things. But as I mentioned before, I can't really find anything about it.

There is no real firewall in Android, but this doesn't mean you are totally unprotected from the outside. (There are some measurements from the underlying Linux Kernel.)
Every app chooses it's own ports and decides weather the connections are encrypted.
Android apps usually do not open any ports, hence the there is not that much of a need for a firewall
Incoming data is often handled and transmitted through Google Cloud Messaging. (Here I don't know how it works and the data is transferred)

I would recommend AFWall+ as equivalent to a packet filter on a desktop computer. Note that AFWall+ is just a GUI to generate iptables/Netfilter (Linux Kernel feature) rules. To apply those rules, AFWall+ requires root privileges on the device.
AFWall+ gives you the possibility to allow/deny certain applications to open outgoing connections over WLAN/mobile data (which can be enabled separately). Another nice feature of AFWall+ is to allow/deny applications to open connections to hosts in your local network.
To see what is going on you can use the application Network Log which can show you the incoming and outgoing connections on your device. This application also uses iptables and requires root privileges.


text:
What is trying to connect to the network?
When I'm not actively using the network, I usually turn off Wifi, Bluetooth, and Data. Since upgrading from Android 4.3 (stock) to 4.4 (OTA update from my carrier) I notice two things:

Battery life plummets. The device could be fully charged at night, but when I wake up it reads < 20%. This with Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, and Data all disabled, and no applications actively running!
I often get a small system popup at the bottom of the screen that says something to the effect (translated) "Could not contact the network. Please try again when your have network access". This looks like a system popup, especially since it is in my local language.

Looking in the Network Usage area, I see nothing suspect. The largest user is Google Play at 1.89 MB, below that Skype at 804 KB, everything else is below 500 KB. Looking in the Battery Usage area, I see "Operating System Android" at 33%, "Screen" at 23%, and "System Android" at 13%. Before the 4.4 update, only one of the two "Android" listings were shown (I don't remember which) and it was in fact well below the screen usage (i.e. the screen was at the time by far the most battery-hungry app). Note that all three of these names "Operating System Android", "System Android", and "Screen" are translated from the system locale language.
Unfortunately I cannot peg the problem on the 4.4 update as during the same day I did install 3-4 calendar apps to see if any of them provided a better experience than the default app. I have since remove all of those.
This is on a Samsung Note 3. I currently have the following applications installed: Ankidroid, Appops, Earth, Waze, Skype, SatTrack, AirDroid, Opera, ES File Manager, JuiceSSH, Firefox, Galaxy Call Recorder, Pocket Planets, Widget Locker, VimTouch, LastPass, Translate, Dolphin Browser, XKCD, Podcast Addict, Swype, Swiftkey, Motion Planet, Read Later, DCentral1. Podcast Addict is set to never automatically check for podcast updates, though XKCD does automatically check. I don't use Swype's Living Language feature that was recently noted as a source of battery drain and network usage. I have tightened down some apps' permissons via Appops and later with DCentral1. Additionally, there have been other apps installed and since removed from this device.
How could I further troubleshoot the battery drain issue? Should I leave the network on to see what will use it? Additionaly, how could I check which app is trying to use the network when I get the "Could not contact the network. Please try again when your have network access" popup?

It turns out that the issue was that Location Reporting was enabled. Disabling this misfeature increased my battery life almost three-fold, stopped the notification popups (which I've since learned are called toasts), and now the spooks will have only a slightly harder time to find out where I've been.

Install a wake lock detector and see which app is waking up your phone.

Thank you. I am currently having some real trouble installing the wake lock detector as I don't have root and the device is now running Android 4.4. I'll keep at it though, thank you.

Yes, you'll need to be rooted odd course. That's the first thing i do when i buy a new phone. You can try installing CPU spy and see if your phone is getting any sleep (without root). But to pinpoint the culprit app you'll need CPU spy. You might be able to gather some info from the battery usage section in settings too.


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does google know my browsing history by virtue of my phone being linked to my google account?
I am completely new to the smartphone world - I have just purchased a Galaxy S4. I want to know if there is any way for me to "log out" of my google account and browse (and generally use the phone) without Google being able to associate my history with my account (which I understand is somehow linked with the phone?).
I am a longtime user of various Google services on my non-mobile devices, but I tend to be fairly careful always to log out of google when I am finished with the particular activity (gmail, calendar, etc) so that everything else I do (whether reading espn or anything else) doesn't become linked to my google account.
I am aware of incognito mode and clearing browsing history and cache - are there additional steps to take?

The title of your question sounds like you're talking about Chrome's "web history" feature. When you browse using Chrome (either on your Android device or on desktop), or from Google Now searches, the pages you visit are logged in your browser history. Chrome syncs your browser history to Google's servers, to let you access your history from any computer where you're logged into the same Google account, and for other Google services such as Google Now.
If you don't want your browser history stored on Google's servers or used in this way, go to the Google Settings app, click Accounts & privacy, and turn off Web History. (As Mr Kutch points out, there's also a web interface.)
If you use some other browser that isn't Chrome, such as Firefox or Opera Mobile, Google has no access to your browsing history.

Incognito mode should have you covered if you do not want your history seen within your browser. Be sure to clean up any files you download (Images, videos. etc..) As they tend to pop up in your photo gallery once downloaded. You can manage file with the "My files" application. The S4 also has a "Downloads" application that will keep a history of files you have downloaded so clear that too. Also be sure to check your Google web history if you have ever enabled it.


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What is YGPS and why does it have every permission that's in the book?
I have a FairPhone One. From time to time I look in the system settings and the battery usage to see what is draining the battery. I've disabled anything I don't use, including a number of builtins from Google. I've also looked at other apps and if their permissions are in balance with what they're supposed to do. (Simple games should not have access to my phone calls.)
What is YGPS and why does it have the longest possible list of permissions? Can I safely disable it?

YGPS, as far as I can discern (I don't own a FairPhone), is an app which lets you view what GPS satellites your phone is currently connected to. I'm guessing it probably provides the same kind of function here, and is likely draining your battery life because it's constantly making GPS calls in the background.
My guess is that, being a poorly developed app, the developers decided to call every permission possible to ensure they wouldn't run into any issues. It's likely only using the GPS function of the phone anyway, but considering you were going to anyway it's probably not a bad idea to disable it.

It has beau coup permissions because it it a system app running in a phone/sms/gps/sim process that needs those permissions.Battery usage may be due to phone, sms, etc monitoring.
I prefer GPS Status app to view satellite array info, compass, battery temperature, voltage, etc.


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Google maps road names too small. Solutions?
My parents can't read the road names the Google maps app, and I can't find a way round it. (Should have gone to spec savers). I have tried using Google maps via Chrome and Firefox and their increase text size features but Google Maps ignores it.
Options are flexible as I have rooted the phone and am willing to load any reasonably well tested custom ROM.
I've tried countless map apps and they're all as hard to read, so I thought I'd ask as Google Maps has probably been hacked around with more than others

You can't change the text size in Google Maps, because the whole map, including the labels, is retrieved from Google's servers as an image. (In fact, they're lots of small images called tiles. For this reason, using a different app that embeds Google Maps won't help at all: they're all just displaying the same tiles.
If you want a map that looks different, you'll need to use an OpenStreetMap-based app. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is like the Wikipedia of maps: it's a free, open map of the world maintained and updated by volunteers. Since the raw map data are available for anyone to use, there are some OSM apps that generate the map image on your device, instead of downloading tiles from a central server. Such apps have more options for customizing the map to suit your needs, so while I don't know off-hand of one with text size options, this starting point might help you to find one.

I should probably ask this on stackoverflow, but could the tiles be enlarged? (i.e. accepting a pixelated image? simulating a lower resolution screen perhaps?)

I am sorry but you are wrong. The latest version of Google Maps (7.7.0) does not use tile-images only. The street names in my version move while zooming which indicates that they are not part of the map image.

This answer is well out of date, maps are vector rendered - that means the lines and text are drawn to suit on the device.

@O'Rooney This was four years ago. We don't typically delete old questions and answers, because some people may be stuck on the old versions. If you have a similar problem now, you're welcome to ask a new question specifying that it's for newer versions of Google Maps with vector rendering.

Try going into Settings / My Device / Accessibility and turning on Magnification Gestures.
A triple tap on your scree will enlarge what is there including text and then another triple tap will take you back.  While it is enlarged, you can scroll with one finger.
That's the best I've found so far.

This works.  Not sure why Google maps does not have a font size.

I also suffer from this problem hence the reason for trying to find a solution. I have just compared the results of Google maps with an app I downloaded a while ago and keep forgetting about. The result is not massively bigger road names / numbers but much easier to read. Bonus is that the maps are used offline, just need a gps signal to show directions instructions. Check out MAPS.ME I think it's really good and definitely reduces eye strain. Enjoy.
Osarchos

Just so you know, Maps.me is not using google maps but an alternative called Open Street Maps, which means it will typically not be as up-to-date or detailed (although occasionally it’s better!)

In my Samsung Galaxy 6 (Android phone), I went into the settings,  searched "FONT". Got 2 choices: type of fonts and size.  I changed and applied.
Now can see the writings on Google Map.

There is a way to enlarge the map that a lot of people are forgetting. You can take a screen shot and then enlarge the shot just like you can zoom in on any photo. Some people don't realize that you can do a screen shot of your phone by holding down the power and home screen button at the same time.
I know it isn't a "fix" but it does show you a copy of the map you can see.

@CarlosHathhock, That's all right, but that's not what the OP requires. Please try to help him and don't be patronizing in your answer.

I recognize the issue with Google Maps, l suggest this simple trick: When you find e.g. a road-name hard to read, just TEMPORARILY stretch out the map near the name with two fingers (but do not let go! ) , then easily read the name, and finally (even if just approximately ) draw your fingers back together to see the main map again.

This is an issue with the newer Maps (7 and above). You could try reverting to the version 6, such as 6.14.4

I solved this on my iPad by taking a screenshot and expanding the screenshot as much as I need to read the text and road numbers. Take fresh screenshots anytime, delete the old ones.


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Distorted photos on LG G2
I've recently bought two LG G2's, and I'm having a hard time trying to get decent photos out of either of them.
The photos are distorted in a scary way.
Obvious jokes aside, look at my face in this photo (click on the photos to zoom):

And again here, with a weird line on my forehead, and smudges on the nose, mouth, etc:

Some of the photos are even worse...
Am I doing something wrong? I've tried the different modes or settings and I'm getting the same results. I keep reading the G2's camera is great, but I'm not seeing that at all...

I tried installing another camera app, and the results are much better. Is this a common problem? I have the latest update, 4.4.2.

Looking at the pictures zoomed-in, it looks like the default camera app is applying some heavy noise reduction which is reducing the number of colours in the image, causing this banding. If there's a noise reduction setting, turn it off. (I don't have this phone, so I don't know the specifics of each setting.) Otherwise, it may help to take pictures in more light so there's less noise in the first place.

@Kobi did you check what Dan recommended? Solved your issue? Then it would be nice to answer your own question, it might be helpful for others :)

@Izzy - I've added an answer, thanks for the reminder!

Rewarded by 10 points rep :) I rarely use the pre-installed camera either (LG P880 here), but have 2 favorite camera apps I switch between (mostly use A Better Camera from Almalence recently, as my other fav, after updating the P880 to the latest stock ROM, takes 30s between "pressing the button" and "making the shot"). Option #3 would be OpenCamera, you might wish to take a look at that. For a larger selection, here's my list of camera apps ;)

The only solution I  found is using another camera app, like Google Camera.
The problem is in the default LG camera app, and it still takes deformed images when I use it. I use it sometimes because it has more features and seem to take photos quicker, but I try not to take photos of people because the result can be scary and deformed.


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LG Optimus G Pro E985 - How to make pictures more colorful
I have this phone and it takes good pictures, but they are too bland - there is no life in colors, and they are low contrast and too white-ish. How do I increase the colors presence?
Here is one of the images I've taken

If the colors are washed out even on automatic mode and good lighting, it may be a hardware issue. Best option might be to use a 3rd party app to increase the photos' vibrance. I personally use Perfectly Clear and Pixlr Express to improve colors on my Samsung Galaxy S4.

you mean I cant just change the settings of my camera, I should edit the images after ive taken them? I dont think its a hardware issue, the phone is almost new. I am going to add an image to my question so you can see it

@J.Kowalski Take a look at this comparison done by Phone Arena. You will notice that the LG Optimus G Pro's colors are really washed out. http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-S4-vs-LG-Optimus-G-Pro_id3296/page/3

well I like those. they look better than mine :)


text:
How to recover my files from memo and mobilse note after format factory?
I have Samsung galaxy s plus i9001. i have format factory my phone recently but i had some important notes in memo and mobisle Note and i didn't backup them before formatting, is there a way to restore them? i think they were stored in system storage.
i have a full copy of my usb storage, but i don't have copy of system storage, and i just need memo and mobisle note data, is there any copy of them in usb storage?

I think you cannot get your data back...if you haven't created any backup.
But For now you should download some apps and create backup for future use.. All these apps are available on Google Play.
1. Avasti  Mobile Security
2. Helium - App Sync and Backup
3. Ultimate Backup
4. Super Backup : SMS & Contacts


text:
No 3 dots option on whats app on my Samsung Galaxy Grade
i don't have that 3 dots( which usually is in the top rhs) so I can't change my profile picture on my what's app

If your device have hardware buttons like menu,home,back buttons, you can get those options by clicking Menu button. Those 3 dots denotes menu options for an App. Actually its useful for devices with capacitive(software) buttons. Currently I'm not sure about your device, and I can't find any device named Galaxy Grade. I you meant Galaxy Grand it have hardware buttons and you can use Menu button as mentioned earlier.


text:
Google keep reminder sound/alarm
Is it possible to add an actual alarm to a reminder in Google keep? Currently it just shows a notification.

It seems Google Keep will only show a notification for a reminder. You might try MegaSound to set an alarm sound for the Keep notifications.

MegaSound app works only for devices running Android 4.3 or Higher and it seems that OP has Android-4.1 Jelly bean device (since 4.1Jelly bean tag was used while posting)

@AADTechnical Not only that, it can't be upgraded, support for my device has ended.


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MyMobiler unnable to connect to device (via WiFi)
I have a task for my company to remotely control Android devices in the whole company from PC. So I need an app which could control Android Device from PC (not vice versa). I found an app called MyMobiler (http://mymobiler.com/index.html). This app allows me to view/control Android device from PC. You just need to download an app from Google Play and standalone program for PC.
Everything works fine with USB (I can control and view the device from PC), but when I try to connect it via Wifi, I am unable to do it. Basically I get an IP address on my Android device, and I write this IP address in the "Connect IP" window (http://mymobiler.com/android-wifi-keyboard.html). But when I press "Connect", I wait for about 30 seconds and get an error which say "Unnable to connect your device ..... [my IP address]". Any ideas? Thank you for any responses and appreciate any help :)
EDIT: This is how I get IP address of the network on my Android phone:
I downloaded MyMobiler app from Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mymobiler.android). When I first launch it, I have to turn big blue button ON (http://mymobiler.com/android-setup-start.html) and when on my PC, I have to press "Connect" button to connect with USB. When in my Android app the screen changes from localhost to IP address. This is how I get IP address. When back to PC I press "Connect IP" and typ this exact IP (for ex.: 192.168.2.132). When I press "Connect" and after 30 seconds waiting, I get "Unnable to connect device ...[my IP]"

Are the devices in the same WiFi network, or on mobile data? Some carriers use NAT and/or firewalling on their data plans, which prevents these kinds of direct connections.

Also, please [edit] your question to describe how you're finding the IP address of the Android device. If that's wrong, then connecting will fail in exactly the way you describe.

onik, I pretty sure I am on the same network (I connected my Android device to the TEST WiFi network, and on PC I have connected to the same TEST network). I will ask my manager about NAT, but I have tested this stuff in home - same thing. Dan Hulme, one second :)

Do you see the mobiler service : yes and root : yes texts on the screen?

When I am trying to connect via WiFi it constantly changes from  Yes to No (just like with USB). I also tried to ping that IP adress (192.168.2.132), it says "Reply from 192.168.2.133: Destination host unreachable. ".

OK, I changed to another network and it started to working. It may be some permission which denied my app from working. Thank you very much, onik, for assistance.

I recommend http://www.teamviewer.com. For personal use it's free.

Does it let you control the phone from the PC, or only vice-versa? The website doesn't advertise that as a feature.

I suppose you can do it either way


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Device became slow after upgrade
After upgrading to Jellybean(4.2) my device became slow. I have done several resets, but  still have the same problem. How do I go back to 4.1 or can this issue be fixed?

What is your phone's model?

Generally with Samsung you can't revert to an older version as their official OTA (over the air) updates include a new bootloader locked to the version of Android you just installed. What reset have you done? Factory? Are you using your SD card a lot, could that be the issue? What device is it?


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Photo Sphere and Panorama are not available in Google Camera app
Recently Google launched a new camera app named Google Camera. Looking it's features, I found it has Photo Sphere and Panorama options. But when I installed it on my Moto G device it doesn't have both of those options. Only Lens Blur, (normal) Camera and Video options are available. See this:

What is the reason behind it? Or is there any setting I have to activate?

FYI: Moto G's stock camera app has a Panorama option.

Moto G doesn't have a Gyroscope Sensor (but it has an accelerometer). That's why Moto G didn't get the Photosphere option.
Actually, Panorama doesn't require a gyroscope. While there are obviously ways to do panoramas without a gyroscope. It looks like they use the same engine as Photosphere to do the panoramas. So the app also lacks Panorama.
Source Thread
Google Camera G+ Thread

There are several reasons for this, but it is mainly due to hardware limitations, Photosphere and panorama stitch together multiple images at the pixel level and require some pretty processor intensive work. Some users also mention that the lack of a gyroscope sensor as a possible reason.
I have googled and found at least 3 sources that corroborate this. Sorry but it looks like your out of luck.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/16/google-stock-camera-app-photo-sphere-lens-blur/
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/the-best-features-of-googles-new-android-camera-app-83124330305.html
http://www.slashgear.com/moto-g-google-play-edition-hands-on-vs-motorolas-g-15313328/

You can take panorama photos on the Motorola Moto G, if you use the Motorola Camera that was preinstalled. There is an option to take a panorama shot when you swipe from left to right in the camera interface. Hope this helps.

Yes this helped. But I already mentioned that in my comment.

@hims056 That's why you should always edit your post when you want to add extra information. Comments are for querying posts and seeking clarification, not for adding information.


text:
How do devices recognize their chargers?
Several android devices complain when they are not plugged into their manufacturer-designated chargers. One samsung tablet I own won't even charge if its not on its own brand charger.
Is there some code between the device and charger, or is it just the voltage / amperage gauges?

I know that on some samsung devices the charging pins are longer. So the device can tell if the original charger or another generic charger with shorter pins has been added.

Hum, Samsung is going the 90's Microsoft rabbit hole all the way (and we all know how it ends) but some Motorola devices also b** about the chargers too. So its not a Samsung specific question (hence no Samsung tags).

Yes there are parity strands in some cables that allows the device to identify if its own cable or not. I don't understand why manufacturers have to be like that but they are. I know devices that use the same exact cable (voltage and plug type) but they can't be interchanged, its ridiculous.


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Disabled app notifications getting automatically re-enabled
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.3.
There's an app I use frequently, but don't want notifications from. Under "App info" I unchecked "Show notifications", and initially this does dismiss the app's notifications. After a few days, I get a notification from the app. Returning to the "App info" page I find that "Show notifications" has become checked again.
It's happened about 5 times in the last month, using the app a couple times per day. Automatic updates are disabled, and I have not updated the app recently. I've checked and verified that notifications do not get re-enabled every time I launch the app, or after a reboot, but otherwise I'm not sure what specific condition precipitates it. The app crashes occasionally on startup, but I don't know if this correlates to notifications getting turned out, especially as the app only sends occasional notifications, imploring me to use it more.
Is there a way to prevent notifications for this app from getting re-enabled?
EDIT: It seems to be getting re-enabled every time I reboot. Will test further to see if  I can reproduce it with other apps.

What app is it?

Subway Surfers.

May have something to do with the app crashing. Do you have any log info as to why it is crashing?

The phone is not rooted. Can I collect any useful log info?

If an app force closes you can choose to preview and save crash info before sending it to the developer. There may be something in there that will help us out

I have the same issue (my son loves the app), and thought I'd add that I've not seen the app crash on my S4, so don't think that's the cause.

I'm having the same issue on my Galaxy S3.  Maybe a Samsung-created bug? I started a bug report on the Android Open Source Issue Tracker.  If this is still a problem for anyone reading this, please star it on the issue tracker to get it more attention.  https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=75544

Maybe "Show notifications" gets re-enabled every time Subway Surfers does an update! and it does update so often :)

I can confirm that a crash very often resets the settings in a program both on PC and Android.

Here's the solution that worked for me. When 4.3 came out the first thing i did was place all my apps on the SD card which was great for freeing up space on the phone. Unfort. all app notification settings reset upon reboot as you described which was super frustrating. Specifically i'm talking about the app notification check box you see in every app when in android settings. I took 2 games in particular that kept waking me up at night with notifications and moved them back to phone storage which fixed the problem. Did 2 reboots in a row and it worked perfectly. Boxes are still unchecked
Hope this helps.
Source : Android Central

This was a bug in Samsung's 4.3 ROM and SD card issue. +1 for this. Also worth noting, many apps have a notifications option within the app itself that can be disabled, rather than going through the Settings>Applications route.


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Avoid app to autoinstall
I have a "ZOPO ZP100" phone with Android 4.0.3. Eventually applications (Chinese) are installed without my permission. Any human action is not necessary for applications to be installed, and is quite annoying as it often happens that the phone stops working until the app is installed. I would like to know how to avoid that, or at least know if there is any way to know which application or process that performs that action.

Is your phone rooted? If so there are things you can do and I can help you but if not then unless you can get it rooted to get superuser access, you are at the mercy of the image and how it has been configured by the provider.

Could an app you've installed yourself be behind that? I'd recommend checking for apps having the INSTALL_PACKAGES permission, as only those could do things like this. And to do it without user interaction, usually suggests an app with root permissions, as that permission has the protection-level "signatureOrSystem".

I think it is an application that comes with the phone. The phone is Chinese and all applications are autoinstalled, they do in Chinese
@gardian: Yes, my phone is rooted


text:
How to check from where FWUpdate will check for updates?
I bought a Samsung Note 3 from a non-carrier, and I am using it with a SIM from one of the cheap national carriers. I would like to know from where FWUpdate is checking and downloading updates. Is it getting the information from the carrier? From the default Samsung repo? Possibly from a repo as configured by the store that sold it? How can one check from which repository is the Note checking for and downloading updates?
Note that my goal is not "How can I get the update faster", but rather I'm actually trying to prevent the system from finding and installing the update. After installing Dcentral 1 I see that FWUpdate is trying to update itself at least once per day.

There is no pre-configured repository for the phone to check.
In order to avoid their servers being over-flooded with download requests, Google along with manufacturers and carriers employ what is called a "staged roll-out."  Once they initiate the roll-out for a given region, a specially crafted message that contains the actual download location of the firmware image is sent to the eligible phones.
The carrier, manufacturer, and Google can all initiate such messages. It depends on where you originally purchased the phone who will be responsible for the updates.  This is driven by the phone's model number.  Carrier-branded phones will most likely get the notifications from the carrier, otherwise the manufacturer will handle the upgrade roll-out.  Upgrades for Nexus and Google Play edition lines are handled by Google themselves, usually without manufacturer or carrier intervention (with a rare exception of Verizon Galaxy Nexus model.)
Technically, it's possible to intercept such messages and extract the actual URI of the firmware file for manual download and installation, but you will be dependent on others to do that, if your device has not yet been made eligible for the upgrade.
After a while, when the initial rush of upgrades is over, the manufacturer will usually host the firmware images on their own sites for anyone to download.  It can take a while though.

Thank you. You address the question from the perspective of "How can I get the update faster", which is terrific, but I'm actually trying to prevent the system from finding and installing the update.

@dotancohen I see. That want clear from the question.


text:
Can't play video
I just want to know what could be reasons when video can't be played while streaming online though site using flash it shows error can't play video.
I am using Chrome browser on my Sony Xperia SP running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

Which phone are you using? Which Android OS version is installed? Which browser are you trying to view the video on?

It's xperia sp on 4.3 jelly bean and i am using chrome

It could be because Chrome for Android does not support Flash:

Chrome for Android will not be supporting Flash. As you may have seen
  in November, 2011, Adobe announced it has stopped investing in Flash
  for mobile browsing. Google has long been committed to making the web
  platform more powerful through open web technologies like HTML5 and is
  working with Adobe and other partners to further advance the web
  standard.

It not just that i was able to play before via chrome and also using mx player app but both does not work now.


text:
Configure Google instead of S-Voice
My s5 allows me to have S-Voice always listening for its hot word. I would rather have Google always listening for its  hot word. I don't see how to do this. Any ideas?
thanks

The latest updates to Google Voice allow me to "OK google" from any awake screen, even the 'swipe' screen as long as the device isn't locked. Even works from within many third party apps! Thanks Goog!

You can reach the Google voice settings by going to Apps -> Google Settings -> Search & Now -> Voice -> Ok Google hot word detection and turning the switch to "On" Google hot word detection only works from the home page where the Google search box is located.  If you don't have a Google search box, you can get one from your widgets which is accessible by touching and holding the home page with your finger.

Yep thanks for answering but I know all of that, I have the widget and I use the hot word. I'm looking to have it always listening.

Always listening is based on a special chip that is 'always listening' out for the key word. The Moto G (or is it X) has this and the Nexus 5... Not the Galaxy S5. There is a hacked Google Search, you need to install a lot of files and mess around to get it working, and even then expect your battery to last about 2 hours with it running, the device simply isn't made for this.

I looked at an app called S for Switch Voice Free that suppose to take advantage of the "Always Listening" chip on the Galaxy S5. The app developer claims that it will start Google Now. I haven't tried it but you can find it in the Google Play Store.

I had the same frustrations with my Note 3 back in the fall when it was new. I solved it by creating an app first for myself then made it available on the Play Store.
But first, on the S5 you have to enable car mode for voice wake-up to work.
Then you can install the app S for Switch Voice Free to have Google Voice Search (ie Google Now) answer your commands.

And finally you can now have something similar to MotoX touchless control using the app Touchless Notifications Free which does handsfree notification announcement and has something like the new "What's up" feature on the Motorola ~ if you give the command "Open my notifications" it will read-out the active notifications with pretty good looking display...

Per phandroid we have this, which I have just confirmed works:

Settings > Language and input > Voice Search > “Ok Google ”
Detection Check all 3 boxes Train the voice recognition by saying
Okay Google 3 times (say it a bit differently each time to improve
accuracy)


text:
How can I set Facebook to view by "most recent" rather than "Top Stories"
Facebook for Android, Version 8.0.0.26.24
How do I revert back to my preferred method of viewing the most recent stories rather than top stories? The "Cog" icon is no longer where it used to be, and I cannot find where (or if) they re-located a button that has the same function.

Is v8.x holo? Sorry, I'm on v9.x (beta).

Goto the last tab which has three horizontal lines as its icon. Scroll down a little and you'll see Most Recent

It's under the 'Feeds' heading > Most Recent. One of the worst design choices in an app I've seen in a while.


text:
Locking Emails on Samsung Galaxy S3
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3. I use the build-in Email application to access my email from my internet service provider (so this is NOT gmail, outlook etc.).
I am often on the road and I need access to my emails. However, I want to maintain the confidentially of the emails i.e. I don't want anyone else to open and read my emails.
I know I can lock my phone but I prefer to only lock the email application. In this scenario, I have no problem with anyone accessing my phone and looking at photos etc. It is just that I don't want them to have access to my emails.
Is there a way to lock the email application only so that if I want to access my emails, I will have to provide a password etc.
The emails I am referring to above are business emails, so I need to keep most of them confidential.

I'd have thought on a business phone, it would be just as bad for people to access or delete your contacts.

There's lots of apps that perform the function of restricting access to other apps. Simply head to Google Play and search for "app locker".


text:
Rooted Galaxy Nexus GSM silently fails to reflash/erase - Unable to wipe and its rebooting continiously
I have been struggling for a week. Searching all though the internet.
My Galaxy Nexus has suddenly stopped working. It is continuously rebooting.
Its rooted but has stock rom 4.3.
My problem is, I thought of wipe everything and do a fresh flash and I started with fastboot commands.
So I ran all the commands below:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-maguro-primelc04.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader

fastboot flash radio radio-maguro-i9250xxlj1.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader

Both went well with out errors and OKAY for all erasing, sending and writing.
This was taking endless time.
fastboot -w update image-yakju-jwr66y.zip

So, I disconnected. And now:
I am unable to Flash or wipe partitions or even a single file (from fastboot or recovery screens - wherever applicable)!!!
I am not able to erase and do a fresh install. The height of the situation is when recovery is falking me showing that the files and folders are deleted, but after a reboot all files and folders which I just deleted are coming up in list!
Moreever, when I do a ./fastboot oem lock (the bootloader screen shows that the lock status is locked) and do a reboot, the lock status again turns UNLOCKED!
I tried to flash the latest TWRP.
fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.7.0.0-maguro.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader

Its showing successs. But when I run it after reboot, its my earlier version 2.6 of twrp shows up!
I am not sure what is causing this! but please help me recover my device.

So 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.


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How to copy selected text in an SMS message
what I would like to do is be able to take a text message and copy a PORTION of it to use somewhere else. This comes in handy if an email address or phone number wasn't automatically picked up. Especially if it's part of a long text.
The problem is that I can only copy the entire text message, and the text selection arrows never show up. I have used several sms apps and they all seem to do this.
Usually, I long press on the message, then a screen pops up asking me what I want to do. I select copy, and now all the text is in my clipboard. However, as stated above, I only want a portion of that text, not all of it.
If you are wondering, I have an HTC One, running Android 4.4.2 and HTC Sense 5.5.
If anyone knows a way to do this, please let me know. I'm open to using a different SMS app if that's what it takes. Thanks.

This is not a direct solution, but a workaround.
You could forward the message (but not send it); this is a feature the stock Messaging app supports. When you forward a message, it puts that message into edit mode, as if you were sending a new message. From here, you can select the text that you want to copy.

After spending some more time searching around the web, this seems to be the way other people have figured out to do this. Does anyone know why they make this so hard?

I copy entire message and paste it as a reply. And from there I copy what I need. Mostly passwords. Then I remove rest of the text so it won't stay as a draft.

With Textra SMS you can copy selected text

Since I only need to modify a standard SMS answer, I found that : swipe the model/standard  message to the right then menu copy text works, then open new SMS and paste in it; then delete whatever is not appropriate anymore.

for anyone still having this issue like I did; try double-tapping on a message, on oxygenOS it opens the message in a new view and selecting becomes possible.


text:
SMS App with DIFFERENT conversation list style for unreplied threads.
I've been searching everywhere to find an SMS app where I can see at a glance which conversation threads might need my attention. I often forget to reply to a text and would love to be able to look at my conversation list and see the threads where I was the last person to reply shown in green shading and ones that might be waiting for a reply shown in red.
I find it ridiculous that all the SMS apps I've tried rely on memory alone (or estimation based on texting style) in order to remember who was the last person to reply.
I'm a self employed musician and have about 100 contacts that I contact regularly and it takes me ages to go back and check if there's anyone waiting for a reply because I have to open each thread individually.
It seems like such a simple thing!  You could even have threads highlighted in bright red where the last message was from someone else and it had a "? " in it!
Seriously does anyone know of an app with any distinction between threads like this?
Any help would be much appreciated!

You might want to take a look at GO SMS Pro. Unread messages have a NEW indicator at the top right corner of a conversation. Also, the contact name is usually bold (see screenshot below). You can also select other themes which may have different indicators.
Caveat: There is no way to filter by UNREAD conversations. So, you still have to scroll through them. But the indicator should help a bit.

Thanks Geff. I tried that. Unfortunately GoSMS pro only makes a distinction between unread and read threads. I usually read a message but forget I hadn't replied!  Looks like I might have to make my own app:( just looking for a way to save time!


text:
Banner Ads on bottom of different apps- Is this a Virus?
I have Android 4.4.2. On a couple of apps (like Huffington Post and NBC 4 LA)I've noticed different banner ads that appear on the bottom of the screen inside different apps. The thing is these banner adds on the bottom of the page look very similar. I don't know if these apps use the same advertising company or what the situtation is. They're right on the bottom of the page so when you're scrolling you often hit them when I don't want to.
Are these normal or do i have a virus that installs adds inside some of my apps on my phone?
EDIT: I've added an image of the type of ad. This type of banner ad appears on the bottom of the screen inside different apps on my phone. Is this normal?

There are various advertising networks that will use cookies and the likes of which to track you and profile your online movement, and then later use those to target ads at you. It is possible that the NBC and Huffington Post Apps are using the same avertising network and thus showing the same/similar adverts.
You might want to check out adblockplus for android, it no longer requires root access and their installation instructions are quite easy to follow.

I have adblock plus as a add-on for Firefox on my phone. Is Adblock plus for android different than the firefox adblock plus extension?

In short, yes. Adblockplus for firefox, is a firefox extension and only works with firefox. The Adblockplus app, is a system wide proxy, that detects adverts via a list of adserving ip addresses, hosts and servers, regardless of what app your using, and blocks the content from those servers. The rest of your content continues to show on your apps. You can install it and test it.

I installed the AdBlock plus app and followed the instructions for correctly configuring the proxy settings. For my IP setting I have two options DHCP or Static. Should I change this setting or leave it as it is? It is currently DCHP


text:
Anything else works besides safestrap to install ROMs on n900a (at&t) Note 3?
Question is pretty self explanatory.
Is there any other method available to bypass bootloader and install ROMs like other models?
Is at&t bootloader still under lock and key?

At the moment... no man, but be sure, there would be a way!


text:
Opera off-road mode: Automatically switch on for mobile but off for wifi
I like Opera's off-road mode, especially the fact that I can disable loading images specifically for it, but when on WiFi, I have to manually disable it, which is an extra step.
Is it possible to set Opera to use off-road mode for mobile data, but switch it off when on WiFi?
Note: I've tagged this with Opera Mobile because only Opera Mobile and Opera Mini tags are available, but I'm talking about Opera for Android.

No. There is no auto off-road mode in Opera.
My suggestion is that you keep both Opera for Android and Opera Mini on your device. When you're on mobile data, use Opera Mini. Else, use Opera for Android with off-road mode off.


text:
No Incoming Call Screen Shows & No Sound [Wildfire S Cyanogenmod 10.1]
I have updated my HTC wildfire S to cyanogen-mod 10.1 yesterday.
I am facing Two main Issues.
1st: I am unable to receive a call because when i called from other cell, there was no incoming call on WFS but on the other cell after one beep there was a "Number Busy" notification.
2nd: Power button does not enable the pattern lock.As i have set a pattern from setting>security.
Please help me with this.


text:
Strange "update twitter" notification
A few weeks ago, a new notification item appeared on my tray. It's worded in a way similar to normal update notifications, but it's not one of them, and it makes reference to software I haven't installed. See this image:

The screen grab shows two standard update notifications: "X applications updated" and "X updates need approval". However, there's also a different one that reads "1 new update - Touch to download Twitter". Not only this one is different, the really strange thing is that I DON'T have Twitter installed, so there should be anything to update.
Aside: I use a Twitter client, but it's called Tweet Lanes and it normally upgrades through the normal routes. This doesn't seem related.
My tablet is a 2011 Samsung Galaxy 10.1, running Android 4.0.4. Maybe the notification is generated by the OEM software provided by Samsung?
Is there a way to tell which programs are showing which notifications?

The notification appears to be coming from apps installed from the Firefox Marketplace on Firefox for Android.
These apps can be found by opening the menu in Firefox and going to Tools > Apps.

authors: สมภพ อุ่นเรือน


text:
Keep Samsung apps/"features" after rooting?
I know that if I root my samsung phone, I will lose a lot of Samsung features (like fingerprint scanner probably, and apps like S Note etc). And I understand that its the base that a rom is created on which determines if it can support things like that (I think?), but is there any way I can use a custom rom and still keep Samsung features, especially things like gestures and the customizations/settings screen from my S5? OR 'import' those features back in onto Cyanogenmod or something similar?
I want the best of both worlds, and can't seem to find any answers

Rooting and installing a custom ROM are different (but related) things. Do you actually want Cyanogenmod, or do you just want to root the phone?

@DanHulme I want a custom rom with the touchwiz features I think

Rooting your phone (standard rooting procedure; not from flashing a custom ROM) will not make you lose Samsung features.
If you flash CyanogenMod (which is a custom ROM that also has root pre-installed), you will no longer be able to use Samsung's features. Samsung is Touchwhiz-based (TW), and CyanogenMod is AOSP-based. Apps developed only for TW-based ROMs are not compatible with AOSP-based ROMs.

Riight I think thats what I was looking for. So I think I just need a TW based rom?

@user60251 Yes, you need a TW-based ROM if you want to use/install Samsung features.


text:
Using Android GPS as NTP refclock?
Is anyone aware of an existing or potential way to make an Android device run an NTP daemon which takes its reference time from the GPS hardware attached to it?
I'm talking about configuring the ntp daemon with a refclock from the list in http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/refclock.html (or an additional driver, if nothing in this list works).
I found http://time-server.android.informer.com/, which seems to enable the Android device to serve the time over the network to other devices using NTP, but it doesn't sync the system clock from the GPS time.


text:
Meaning of lines in Charging History details view in 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
In 4.2.2 Jelly Bean when one goes to Settings -> Battery Use and tap the graph at the top can find the History details of the charging/discharging of the battery. There are some other historical data below the diagram:  - Mobile network signal was cleared  - Charging seems to be clear (green when charged, black when discharged)  - Screen on is also OK (blue when lit on, black otherwise)  - Wi-Fi may be similarly indicates the On/Off state of the function  - Awake is a mistery for me I can not see any correlation between the graph and the On/Off state of the phone  - Finally What does the GPS on line exactly indicate?
I have some GPS problem and try to report it. I need to know whether this line indicates the On/Off state of the GPS module or the positioned/lost position state. On my screen it is almost totally black however the module was switched on a day before. There are two or three momentary blue ticks. What do they indicate anyway?

posting a screen shot may help

I know. I have the screenshot but how to post it?

Enabling GPS and using GPS are two different things, when you enable the use of GPS on the menu/toggle, you are just allowing the use of GPS, that dose no mean you acutely using it, when you see in the graph the little blue lines, that means that some application tried/used the GPS and get the exact location (e.g google now).
starting with Android 4.4 you can check which application used the GPS and when under the App permission menu.

When the screen is off and no apps are running in the background (e.g. to check email), your device goes into a low-power state called sleep. In this mode, the CPU runs more slowly (or maybe the main CPU is turned off and a smaller, more efficient one takes over) to save power.
The Awake line in the battery chart shows when the device is not asleep: that is, it shows blue when the screen is on or when an app is running in the background. Depending on what kind of background apps you use, you might see brief ticks every 15 minutes or every hour, where the device woke up to perform some scheduled task. If there are long blue segments even when the screen is off, then some buggy app is keeping your device awake. You can investigate which with a tool such as Greenify or Wakelock Detector, and if an app is keeping the device awake, you should report this to the developer.
The GPS on line indicates when the GPS receiver is powered on. This happens whenever an app requests a precise location, and it'll show blue regardless of whether the GPS receiver has calculated a position or not. A brief tick means the GPS was turned on and then turned off as soon as it calculated a position. This is used by Google Play Services' geofencing functionality, by Google Location Sharing, Google Now, and other similar apps that don't track you all the time but want to sample your location occasionally.


text:
Tasker: How can I delete a file after a month
Is there a way to delete all files in a folder that are over a month old using Tasker?

That's rather a question of shell stuff. See this example shell command:
find /some/dir -ignore_readdir_race -cmin -depth -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f +1440 ! -execdir fuser -s {} 2>/dev/null \; -delete

This would delete all files in /some/dir which are older than 1440 minutes (i.e. 24h). Just multiply the 1440 by 30 to get 1 month, and fire the command via a time-based profile.

authors: Евгений Вербовский


text:
Where's exactly the NFC area in the Nexus 7 2013?
I've had a Nexus 7 2012 and in the tiny manual there was an indication on where exactly I should touch my phone on it to get NFC communication - near the "e" in the back. That worked great, as I know the NFC area on my Nexus 4 is somewhat in it's middle, but... In a big device like a tablet that's not a guarantee.
However, I have trouble doing the same in the Nexus 7 II. I touch my phone's back to its back but the connection is bad, it comes and goes before I can actually beam stuff... I've tried touching the phone in several different places but didn't get better results.
Where's exactly the NFC touching point on the Nexus 7 II / Nexus 7 2013?

Looking at a teardown of the new Nexus 7, it looks to be near the center again (here
you can see in the photo the NFC is under the inductive charging). iFixit did a pretty good teardown of it here which may give you more detail.

From Google Support:

If you're using a Nexus 7 and touching its back to another device, make sure the other device is near the "u" in "nexus" to successfully beam content.

"Beam" in this quote is referring to Android Beam, Android's name for NFC content transfer.

as I said in the question, that's about the original Nexus 7, not the second edition. unfortunatelly I yet can't vote down.

Why do you believe that statement is referring to the original Nexus 7? I trust them to keep their support documents up to date and therefore believe they're referring to the most current Nexus 7 model. If you think Google Support is incorrect, take it up with Google.

I won't take this up with Google because it was you who brought it here :)
Besides that, the original Nexus 7 is usually simply called "Nexus 7", while the second generation is explicitly called "Nexus 7 II" or "Nexus 7 2013". Try to look for a pic of the old nexus 7 and you WILL SEE the other answer is right and the page you linked is not about the new device.


text:
Automate sending messages using whatsapp?
I want to automatically send a whatsapp message to a specific number on a specific time every day. How can I accomplish this?
I toyed around with tasker but since I'm a newbie I haven't yet figured a way.
Any other way to accomplish this?

CAUTION: Doesn't use Tasker.
Take a look at [WhatsApp] Scheduler ROOT BETA. It lets you schedule messages, and also lets you specify the frequency (once, every minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, anually, steps). Requires root access.

Any good reason for the caution?

@Firelord OP is looking for a Tasker solution. This isn't a Tasker solution. It should probably be "NOTE", instead of "CAUTION".


text:
How to boot htc desire ss510e into recovery
I want to install 4.0 ics on my htc desire ss510e, so i want to know how can i boot into recovery in order to install the custom firmware. Please help!!

Boot up your phone using power button and volume down button together. You'll get something called hboot. Now using your volume buttons, goto Recovery Mode listed on the screen. Press the trackpad button to reach recovery mode.


text:
Minimal .apks for play store
Introduction
I just installed CyanogenMod 10.2 on HTC One X+ and I want to install ONLY the Google Play Store. I know there is Gapps, but I want to have even less apps on my phone than what is in that package. I searched already for a long time on the internet, but couldn't find a clear solution. I hope you can help me :)
(I know about F-Droid, also have that on my phone, but I wish to have Play Store too)
What I did so far:

I downloaded Play Store (cm.android.vending-4.6.16.apk) from Android Police: http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/03/13/download-latest-google-play-store-4-6-16-with-new-require-password-option-tweaked-ui-forced-self-update-and-more/
Got the Gapps zip for CM 10.2: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps
From Gapps I took the files "GmsCore.apk", "GoogleLoginService.apk" and "GoogleServicesFramework.apk".
I moved these 3 apks to my phone and relocated these 3 apks to the folder /system/app/
I installed the Play Store (cm.android.vending-4.6.16.apk)

Note
If you don't put "GmsCore.apk" on your phone, Google Play Store will start, but you will have no connection in the store.
The Problem
I can start Play Store and have connection with the store, but the moment I want to install an app or check for updates (settings --> Build version (4.6.16)) it says: "Unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped." How to solve this?

Not a clear answer, but you might wish to take a look at Open Source implementation of Google Play Services. The NOGAPPS packages might prove helpful here :)

Well... finding an old package, looking at those files I discovered the answer. Sometimes it takes very long to find it and the solution is simple.
Short Answer
You should also move "Phonesky.apk" to /system/app/ folder and then restart your phone.
Summary

Download the latest Play Store .apk (Try for example Android Police): http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/03/13/download-latest-google-play-store-4-6-16-with-new-require-password-option-tweaked-ui-forced-self-update-and-more/
Get the Gapps .zip for your system: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps
From this .zip, move these 4 files to your phone storage: "GmsCore.apk", "GoogleLoginService.apk", "GoogleServicesFramework.apk" and "Phonesky.apk".
Use a File Explorer (like File Manager with root right) to move these 4 files to /system/app/
Install Play Store .apk (for example: cm.android.vending-4.6.16.apk)
Restart phone
Done :D

Edit: WARNING 2015-05-16
Even though this works, I now recommended just installing the whole gapps. Just now I tried to update my cyanogenmod to CM 11, which failed, but when trying to set my backup back, all was reset to the state when you just flashed CM (although the data was still there, so smart apps recognize this). This was solved by 1 of the following 2 things:

First flashing a clean CM 10.2, then restoring my backup with TWRP (if did this the trick, you can ignore this warning)
Flashing Gapps for CM 10.2: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps

In my opengapps 6.0 on cm13 all these apks are in /system/priv-app/; should I still put them in /system/app/ if I try your method to get rid of gapps?

@მამუკა ჯიბლაძე this was on Cyanogenmod 10, which is equivalent of Android 2 or 4? It seems that 6 changed quite a bit, so don't take the folders literally in this answer. I don't even know if this answer even works anymore in Android 6. If you found them in /system/priv-app/, then it's more likely to put them back there, but that's pure speculation.

authors: მამუკა ჯიბლაძე


text:
Owner Information on Galaxy S3
I just had a software upgrade on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. The Android version is 4.3.
How do I update the owner information on the locked screen?
There is no option under "security" in the setting.

Have you selected a lockscreen? Make sure it's not set to None.

Hello. Did any of the answers below solve your problem? If so, please mark it as an accepted answer.

From SM: Go to Settings → My Device → Home Screen Mode and select "Standard Mode", then hit "Apply".
Next, go to Settings → My device → Lock screen. All will be active now.

Settings > Lock Screen > Lock Screen Widgets > Personal Message/Personal Information.
That should be what you're looking for if I understand correctly.

Yes! But for some reason, "Locked screen widgets" is inactive. I can see it but it is not an active menu item.

@JaveerBaker , that might be due to your Screen Lock type. For example, mine is set to the simple "swipe" setting. I also have "Multiple Widgets" disabled. "Shortcuts" on. "Unlock Effect" off. "Help Text" off and "wake up lock" off. Maybe these similar settings will enable them as an active menu item?

There is several apps which can display the same info, try mine: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skjolberg.instaowner


text:
updating from 4.3 to 4.4.x
I would like to upgrade my current nexus 4 that's already rooted on 4.3 to the latest 4.4.x android, ideally while keeping my root.  Any tips on how to do this?  I've fallen so far behind on the updates that I don't know what's safe anymore.
Thanks in advance!

SuperSU has a maintain root option, and you could always flash a pre rooted stock firmware. XDA developers is probably your best bet. As for ROMS, that's really down to your taste in these things. Kitkat is nice on the Nexus 4 and 4.4.3 is due soon with some bug fixes in place!


text:
Android SD Card Free Space Issue
I've got this problem...I use a Micromax A110Q with the stick Jelly Bean...FROM the past few weeks(OR Months) I'm having storage issues with my SD card..I find that it's free storage space is zero bytes...I removed many pics and junk such as cache, hpns folder, lost.dir etc...for some time..I'll get free storage for the things I deleted...but..after an hour or so...I find that my free storage is decreasing slowly and gradually it comes to zero bytes..as I mentioned above I've deleted many junk files and used many apps...but no luck!! It will get to zero again..!!! And the stats don't seem to match up in the storage section inSYSTEM SETTINGS!!
HELP!!!!

Have you tried inserting the SD card into a card reader and checking the disk space on a PC?

Yup! I did..but same storage status on the PC as well..I connected it the PC using the USB cord...I think probably there are hidden junk files which i m having trouble to locate...but I've identified some junk files and folders like HPNS, lost.dir, .temp files etc...and I meant *stock Jelly Bean in the first few lines

And I also use my home WiFi a lot...maybe any app is downloading data and buffing up my card...but the apps are mostly in my internal storage :/... Now I can't take pics! :'(

Try using WinDirStat to see what takes up the storage space. If you can't make sense of the output, screenshots will help.

Hey! Thanks buddy...!! (Y) Your first suggestion to connect to my PC didn't work at first but today ...it worked!! Yess !! And even my phone is showing the storage stats correctly now...3.75 GiBs free!!


text:
Can not read MMS on dual SIM phone
A have two SIM card phone: LG E455 (Optimus L5 II Dual). Primary SIM card is full operation, secondary is receiving calls and SMS only. SIM cards are from different providers.
I received MMS message notification to the SIM2. Trying to open it I get the message "Switch default data network SIM card to retrieve MMS: Cancel, Settings". If I'd choose "Settings" I'd see that my default data network is SIM1 (SIM2 is not able to transfer data at all). So the message can not be loaded.
What can I do to go through this dump bug?

If you don't have data service at all on your secondary SIM, you can't download the SMS. Since the SIMs are from different carriers, the primary SIM can't connect to the other carrier's MMS service, and therefore the message can't be downloaded.
The only solution would be to replace your primary SIM with the secondary one, establish a data connection and download the MMS. Otherwise you can't download it.

That's a pity :( In my case secondary SIM card is limited not by the phone but by operator.

Couldn't you physically swap it into the primary SIM slot just until you get the MMS message?

It will not help, SIM2 is not able to transfer date at all :(