text:
How do I easily create an image/button on my Android home screen which links to a website?
I know the below example is of a custom home screen app, much like Yahoo Aviate, but I'd just like to place custom designed buttons (like the "Attractions" button in the image below) or images on my home screen which links to websites that I specify links to. Is there an easy way to do that?

When I wanted to do this, I found the available apps sorely lacking, so I wrote a home screen widget which can do this. The image can be a static one, or you can refresh it from the Internet periodically (e.g. from an RSS feed). You can set it to open a website when clicked, or launch an app of your choice (amongst other things).
The app is called Showr, and it's a free download from Google Play. (There's a "pro" version with more options.)

This is cool - thanks Dan! One quick question - would it be possible to create something almost exactly like above with Showr or would there be inherent differences in Android that I'd need to account for?

Really, it depends on what home screen app you use. You can make a whole home screen full of widgets going to different apps or sites, but most launchers put quite a lot of padding in between each widget, so there'd be a lot more empty space than in your screenshot.

Can you recommend a home screen app to allow for the minimal padding like in the screen? I'd love to be able to create something pretty similar because I think it looks really clean. Sorry for the trouble and thanks for all your help!

Also, @dan-hulme is it possible to use Showr for images of any size or is there a size limitation to it? Pretty excited to try it out later!

The image size is only limited by the amount of RAM on the device. I've tested it with some pretty large images. It scales the image to fit automatically, so if you're creating images in a paint program to make a neat-looking panel like this, you might need to experiment with image sizes a bit to get things looking how you want. This is especially the case as home screens generally fit the widget into a "grid" with padding, so if you resize the widget to be 2x1 grid squares, it's more than twice the width of a 1x1 widget. I'm on [chat] if you want to discuss this further.

Oh, I guess I may have phrased the question in the wrong way. Are there fixed widget sizes or are the widgets of variable widths? Also, can you recommend a home screen app that allows for a minimal amount of padding? Thanks so much @dan-hulme

started using this today and it's pretty awesome! two questions:

Is there any way to program the widget to dial a specific phone number?

Is there any way to pass it a link for a specific action in an app? Instead of opening the app, I would like to go to a specific page in the app, so an app link method would be awesome

Bookmark the page in the browser, then exit the browser. There's an app called 'icon changer free' that can be used to change icons for apps and shortcuts. Use it to create a new Bookmark shortcut within that app, and change the icon to the one you want to use. It also offers a small selection of basic image editing tools, but it'd be better if you had the icon prepared beforehand.

Is this what you're looking for?
(Click image to enlarge)

(Those image blocks are hiding URL/app shortcuts/widgets inside them.)
It seems that Dan's Showr app does the job well as per the comments on the question. But for some reason it gave me a red cross for any category of widgets I tried to place on Home screen. Perhaps, an update can fix it.
Anyhow, let's focus on creating some image blocks on Home screen.  Also, this solution may seem a bit overwhelming at first but it's very easy to reproduce or create once you understand the flow.
Those nice screenshots that you saw at the beginning of this answer were created using Zooper Widget Pro. Its free version wasn't enough for my needs, so paid one is all you'd have to settle with for now.
The app is filled with multitude of options which gives you huge flexibility in making your widget, such as the custom margins that you can see in second screenshot. I'll give the basic idea to use it.

The first image block is a 4x1 widget. The third and fourth are 2x1 widgets. In order to create the first block, go to Home launcher → Widgets → drag Zooper Widget 4x1 to Home screen.
You may now resize it or tap on it to start customizing it.
Choose Empty → scroll down to Widget Name (used on main launcher) and name it AE or anything that you can recognize  later.
On the same page go to Layout → + → Bitmap → scroll and tap Bitmap → choose your image.
Scroll and tap Module OnTap. From this window you can attach apps or their custom shortcuts. Unfortunately, unlike Showr app, we don't have an option to provide a custom URL directly. You may either choose a Bookmark under Shortcuts or a Task/MacroDroid shortcut which can open our custom URL easily (we would come to its usage too).
Once you're done selecting a module, you would see options like X Offset and Y Offset. Use them if you want to create margin around your image-cum-widget. (The spacing between the image blocks in the second screenshot were created using these options).
Use Back key multiple times to come back to Home screen. Meanwhile, you may be presented an option to save some elements into SD card. It's optional but you can consider it.

Your first image block is created now!
But how do you  open a URL on tap? You can consider apps like Tasker (Paid) or MacroDroid (free/paid) to do that job.
MacroDroid

When choosing the Module OnTap in aforesaid step 5 choose MacroDroid Shortcut under Shortcuts → <Add New Macro> →  scroll down and tap Send Intent.

Target → Activity
Package → preferred browser's  package name such as for Chrome for Android it would be com.android.chrome. See View app's full package name? for more info
Date → URL, such as http://android.stackexchange.com

Proceed further.
Ignore Add Constraints and in the next step, name the shortcut.

URL is set now. You can test it by tapping your widget placed on home screen.
Tasker

In step 5 (during widget creation) choose Task Shortcut under Shortcuts → New Task → name it.
Tap + → System → Send Intent:

Cat → None
Date → set the URL
Package → mention package name of preferred browser
Target → Activity

Set an icon for it, come back to widget window and then to Home screen.

Your widget is ready to roll!
Popup Widget 2
You can also open any other widget (like this) by tapping those image-cum-widgets, if you use an app like Popup Widget 2.

Launch Popup Widget 2 → create an entry for the widget and save it.
In aforesaid step 5 of widget creation, choose Popup Widget under Shortcuts followed by the custom entry you made in it.

That's all for now. Enjoy the endless customization!


text:
Odin vs Clockworkmod
I want to flash a new Stock Rom on my Galaxy Mega. I'm quite hesitant using Clorkworkmod. Will I lose my Root if I use Odin to upgrade? Also, what happens to Clockworkmod if I use Odin?

They are 2 completely different things, Clockworkmod is the recovery on your phone, Odin is a PC appliction. The only way you'll lose root and lose Clockworkmod is if you flash a STOCK firmware to unroot and restore your device OR you are flashing a new recovery. Otherwise they won't interfere with each other. This question should cover the basics and also see this one

Can I use Clockworkmod to flash a stock rom? and will I lose my root if I do? Is there a performance gain if I use Odin to perform the Stock ROM flash instead of CWM and will I lose root?

You can't flash stock rom in Clockworkmod you need the STOCK recovery, which you can flash in ODIN. If you flasha stock rom in odin you will lose root yes. The stock ROM and CWM are totally different things by the way, your recovery is a different OS and has no bearing on the ROM, Samsung bundle the stock recovery with the ROM pacakage and it is flashed by ODIN as part of the stock installation.

So, I can flash any custom ROMs via Clockworkmod but Stock Roms can only be flashed via ODIN. Correct?

That's it yeah.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Compatibility with cyanogenmod
Is the galaxy s5 compatible with cyanogenmod 11? It is not on the list of supported devices. I am not sure if it is worth it to try. Has anyone else in the community tried?

It is not "Officially" supported, but if you take a look at XDA Forum you'll surely find some unofficial builds.
Here's a link to one

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


text:
Just updated to Android 4.2.2, Facebook Messenger doesn't push notifications now?
I just updated my Samsung Galaxy S3 (model SCH-I535) to Android version 4.4.2. It seems fine, except for one bug I've noticed recently.
Facebook messenger will not always give me a notification that a message has been received. I've got it set to flash the light and show the icon on the top task bar only, but here is what I have determined:

If messenger is currently open while the phone is locked or the screen is off, no notification is pushed.
If messenger is off screen but still running while the phone is locked or off, some of the time it pushes a notification, and sometimes it does not.
Mostly I notice a small (1) next to the messenger icon, but no light notification.

Is this just a new feature? I have tried everything I can think of with the settings, uninstalling and reinstalling, clearing the cache and stored data for messenger, and I'm out of ideas.
Does anyone know what this could be?

Seems that Facebook Messenger has updated overnight, and I do not notice this issue anymore. Sorry for jumping the gun!


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How to make your own CWM flashable stock ROM from "SP Flash Tool" Flashable Stock ROM ?
I can't restore my stock ROM of device XOLO A500S IPS by using SP Flash Tool. I need a stock ROM that can be simply flashed by CWM recovery. There is no such ROM available on the internet, as I have searched for it, but couldn't find it.
Can I make one myself ?
How to do this ?

There are stock firmware images available for download here that can be flashed with the SP Flash Tool.
In terms of creating your own ROM (CWM-based or otherwise), that is beyond the scope of this site.


text:
Application cannot be installed in the default install location (all apps)
I am updating 30 apps, and they are all giving me this error. I'm trying to update through the normal Play Store. I have tried restarting my phone, no luck.
I have the Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Android 4.0.4.
I thought I might be out space, but I checked and I'm good. "Device memory, available: 250MB. USB storage, available: 164MB"
What could be wrong?

Pretty sure you need more space free than that. Try clearing some more space and try again

164 MB is not nearly enough to update 30 apps I'm afaraid. It mightn't be enought to update 2 to be totally honest. Check the questions around memory and low storage space on here and hopefully you'll find a solution.


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How to measure the charge left in a dying battery?
This question is not relative to a specific phone model, even though I will cite my P1000.
My P1000 is 3 years old, and it is often suddenly turning off (no shutdown sequence, just goes dead) out of the blue while the battery marker is at the 31ish percentile. If I try and turn it on right away, it goes dead again during boot sequence. If I plug the charger, the charging icon shows some battery left. Turning it on with the charger plugged shows the 31-ish percent on the charge indicator. If it is left on standby, it goes below that threshold without dying, but dies soon after.
The battery is almost dead, that is sure. Now the question is,
How can I measure how much energy the battery really have left before dying, and is there any app to tweak the display of battery charge so I can have a new "zero" at this dying point?

You would need to re-calibrate the battery.
I would suggest reading the answers on:

How frequently is it okay to let the battery discharge fully or as low as possible?
Looking for a consistent answer about battery calibration
Is there an efficient way to calibrate the battery than using some apps?

How to re-calibrate the battery if the device dies before hitting zero?


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Cannot take screenshots of Android L emulator
No matter which method I use, I cannot take screenshots of the Android L emulator. I tried through Android Studio, using the Android Device Monitor app, and through adb with this method (first answer) which produces a 0 byte file. I can take screenshots fine with all my other emulators. However, this emulator is a bit different than my others. For the first time, I am using the X86 system image and I enabled "Use host GPU". Is there some new way of taking screenshots I don't know about?

Do you need to take screenshots inside the emulator or can you use the OSs screenshot function?

Are you using windows? Why not ALT + Print Screen it the easy way? Or in Linux you could use gnome-screenshot or gnome-screenshot -w or in the UI itself with the emulator as the the  current active window alone, select “Grab the Current Window” and click “Take Screenshot”.

Screen Shot of Emulator:
Firstly start the emulator then go to the DDMS
please select the emulator then left side we have button Screen Capture click this button screen Shot is taken.

Run your application
Click Android Icon >> Screen Capture Icon from android studio
Save

Tutorial: How to take screenshot from android studio


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LG G2 (d800) Stuck in Bootloop
After rooting my new G2 and tinkering with some XPosed modules I am now stuck in horrible bootloop limbo. My phone starts, shows the LG splash screen, plays the AT&T startup sound, and starts the boot animation. The boot animation slows down and freezes after a few seconds, and after a few minutes the sound plays again and the animation starts over ad infinitum. I didn't bother installing a custom recovery like an idiot, factory reset doesn't seem to do anything, I can't adb in when I'm in download mode, and I can't find a stock KDZ for a d800.
Please help me!

Try flashing this zip (the xposed disabler attached to the OP) in recovery. You can also try repeatedly pressing any hardware button during boot until the phone starts vibrating. Xposed will have entered "safe mode" when it vibrates for a longer duration. From the post:

Quick explanation of the safemode: It was developed by @Tungstwenty and makes it possible to disable Xposed by repeatedly pressing one of the hardware buttons during early startup. The phone will vibrate twice when the first key press has been detected. Then you have five seconds to press the same button four more times. Each key press will be confirmed with a short vibration; the final one with a long vibration. It creates /data/data/de.robv.android.xposed.installer/conf/disabled, which prevents most of Xposed’s actions (e.g. no hooks are made and no modules are loaded). There’s no 100% guarantee that this will get you out of a bootloop, but in most cases it should.

So I was able to find the TOT file for reinstalling your firmware here for kitkat and the directions to install the TOT method here. You just have to scroll down half way and there is also a video and picture instructions.
Hope this works and be very carful!!

I have long since switched phones, but I appreciate the response and hope it helps someone else in the future.

Hi, whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Consider [edit]ing to summarize the content and/or expand the answer!


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Does the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Support ANT+ WSN technology
Is the Note 3 compatible with ANT+ WSN technology?
Do all variants of Note 3 come with this or just a select few?
Also, do all networks use Note 3 with ANT+ WSN sets?

This is the current list of supported devices.  There look to be 3 top level variants for the Note 3.  If you select the model then press the more info link there is a list of the actual model numbers.
I am not sure if all the Note 3 variants are ANT capable but I think the majority are, you need to check the exact model number really to be sure.


text:
Can't send/receive text messages on Nexus 5
My Nexus 5 has been able to send and receive text messages perfectly fine for 6 months now but as of a day or two ago it has just hasn't been able to send or receive messages from any text messaging app.
I am with Amaysim (in Australia), my phone is running Android 4.4.4 and I have tried sending messages from Hangouts, EvolveSMS and TextSecure and none have worked.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Do any of the apps give error messages? Have you tried sending messages from a different SIM or a different phone? Do phone calls still work?

Haven't tried that. Yes, phone calls still work.

I should of made myself more clear, I can still make calls but I don't think I can receive them.

To narrow down the issue, as keepcalm suggested, try placing the SIM into a different phone and see whether it shows the same symptoms there. If so, it's not your Nex, and you rather need a replacement card (or other help from your provider). Also, try a different SIM in your Nex for the same reasons.

I can't do that for another 2 days (I'm camping and have to stay where I am). Would it help to mention that I still have mobile internet access?

It could be the network, have you contacted customer support and asked them about any issues? Have you tried re-setting up your APN and settings and so on?

I have tried contacting the support team but they weren't able to help. I found out today that Google was dropping text support in Hangouts as of the 2nd of July (yesterday for me) so perhaps that could have something to do with it? I haven't changed any settings at all so I'm not too sure what the problem is. I haven't tried re-setting up my APN settings yet.

Hangouts from WEB is not supporting SMS, nothing to do with the app on your phone. Notably, the SMS feature from the Hangouts app for Android will still be available. Users can still send and receive text and multimedia messages in the Hangouts app. from this site here The network should be able to send your SMS settings to your device, and should be looking into this!

Sorry for the bump, I just want to say that I FINALLY got the problem fixed. Amaysim was not able to tell me what the problem was but they escalated it to Optus and had them sort it out. This can now be closed.

I face similar issue on nexus5, wish the solution had an answer.


text:
What are the differences between the two Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0" models?
I have just got a new Samsung GALAXY Tab 4 7.0" (SM-T230NU).
What is the difference (or improvements) between the 'stock' SM-T230 model GALAXY Tab 4 7.0" and the 'newer' SM-T230NU, recently released for US/Canada and in EU?
Are there also other NU devices? I have also seen references to the GALAXY Tab 4 10.1" as SM-T530NU.

I have found one possible issue, with the SM-T230 not having multi-user mode:

The multi users setting is not available. According to the manual it should be at settings => General => Users.

(My device does have multi-user capability)

I also saw a reference to the two different models on XDA Developers:

Do make sure your tablet is a T230NU model and not just a T230
  model.

UPDATE: 04-Jul-2014
There are three variants: T230, T230NT, T230NU
from: Samsung T230 | T230NT | T230NU Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 WiFi Firmwares

According to other reviews, the plain SM-T230 does not support OTG,
but the SM-T237p does.
I remember how disappointed I was to find this with my SM-T210R.

SM-T230nu has an IR remote, while a simple tab 4 (SM-T230) doesn't have one.

The SM-T230NU (Tab4 7.0) is a regional model, for North America (US/Canada). I can confirm it DOES have an IR 'port', whereas the SM-T330 (Tab4 8.0) does NOT. I have yet to examine an international model SM-T230 (Tab4 7.0).

Is there anything to suggest that is the ONLY difference?


text:
adb and fastboot drivers for Xperia ARC S
I am trying to flash boot.img via Flashtool 0.9.16.1 but when i connect my xperia arc S in "Fastboot" mode then i get error message like
"Device drivers are not installed, you can find it in drivers folder"
I installed Flashtool-drivers.exe but no success.
Still error is same.
Please help me to solve this

Do you mean this one? You should add links to what you've installed so you won't get duplicate answers...

The latest package is this, but the first link worked for my Xperia Z,


text:
Google USB driver cannot be found
I am trying to connect my phone (archos 40 titanium) on my computer (W7 x64) using USB Debug mode (to make a backup). Here is what I've done:

I've downloaded google SDK and extracted it in C:/adtbundle
I ran SDK Manager.exe and enusured google USB driver was up to date
I right clicked on Computer (in start menu) and I selected Devicesin the right panel of the new window.
In other devices I select A40ti and right clicked, then Update driver.
Then, I choose Browse my computer for driver software and then browse. I selected C:\adtbundle\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver.
I get something like Windows can't found any drivers (I am translating since my system is in French).

When I run adb devices it shows an empty list.
How to install them and get adb working?
EDIT:
Here are the new steps:

I downloaded from here the driver, which I extracted in an new archosfolder next to google's like this:

C:/adtbundle/sdk/extras/

android/
archos/

amd64/
i386/
adb_winusb_driver.zip
android_winusb.inf
androidwinusb86.cat
androidwinusba64.cat
source.properties

google/

Same as 3-5 but with path C:\adtbundle\sdk\extras\archos
Same as 6

Google's USB Drivers are for the Google reference devices (Nexus series) only. You'll need to install Archos' drivers. They can be found on Archos' support page with instructions on how to install them and get ADB working.

Install the drivers
Add the vendor ID 0x0e79 to your adb_usb.ini, e.g. echo 0x0e79 >> "%USERPROFILE%\.android\adb_usb.ini"
Done!

Edit: The driver's from the support page didn't work, but these did. They came from an unreliable source and had other drivers from 2005 with them, but I stripped them and repacked. Feel free to verify with virus scanners.

Thank you very much. But I still get that message, please see edit

Did you try unzipping the ADB driver package adb_winusb_driver.zip?

Yeah, that's the files just next to it (android_winusb.inf...)

Hmmm... If I remember correctly, my Android devices showed up as Android Debug Bridge even without the drivers when they were in ADB mode, are you sure you have it on in the phone?

Yes, I think so, I've checked it and I can see it in my notification bar

I managed to select the inf file, but it says my device isn't compatible or it is my system that isn't. It is x64 with an old AMD athlon 5000+

Weird. I found another driver package, looks a bit more shady but I opened it on my Mac and there doesn't seem to be anything evidently malicious. Try at your own risk here

3/46 have antivirus have detected a threat https://www.virustotal.com/fr/file/47d774cdda79f29bbf21c899f0ca68779775a25a3556dd159928d79233c62e40/analysis/1403953954/

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
Will flashing other region's ROM unlock GT-I9515?
I bought a Samsung S4 GT-I9515 from Saudi Arabia. But returning to my country found that this phone is locked and I don not know of any unlock code. It is also not possible to contact the seller in KSA.
Now I'm thinking if flashing stock ROM from other country will solve the issue.
Any help appreciated. Even any known unlocking technique.

Hi flash the phone is not the solution to unlock your device, flash and unlock are different things.
In case you like to flash your phone the only thing that you need to be careful is if the rom that you choose change or replace the modem, in this case you need to check if the rom has the supported bands for your country, The Samsung S4 GT-I9515 supports by hardware the following bands:
GSM:
850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
UMTS:
850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
FDD LTE:
800 (band 20), 850 (band 5), 900 (band 8), 1800 (band 3), 2100 (band 1), 2600 (band 7) MHz
Data:
LTE, HSUPA, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
You could check the bands/networks to your country in this link:
http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html
However if you like to unlock the phone be careful with software methods because you can loss your imei or brick your phone (all software methods need root the phone).
You could check this this link on ebay to unlock your phone, unlock by imei its a more safe solution.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/INSTANT-REMOTE-UNLOCK-FOR-SAMSUNG-GALAXY-S5-G900A-G900T-G900T1-AT-T-TMOBILE-/121748816957?hash=item1c58cb843d
I hope this help you to resolve your question.

You need to use ODIN to flash to a non-branded firmware... BUT... The S4 Value does not have an unbranded firmware available.
Go here and pick what country you live in, and flash that firmware via ODIN: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/?model=GT-I9515
This will break KIES updates, but other than that, you'll be golden!

to unlock galaxy s4 i9515, insert a saudi sim  and do outgoing or receive a call for minimum
5 minutes after that u can insert any country sim without unlock code. I did this and using indian network card.

Also,
it might be possible that you will Need to change the IMEI purposely (Like in Turkey - they filter IMEI Numbers to prevent non-taxed imports) from used domestic phone that is not used anymore - since I don t know what Country you live in. Be VERY careful with flashing Images of different models / countries as it was already said might be different bands etc.)
It does work to unlock by using the SIM Card for 5 Minutes (I think though that the five Minutes Need to be done in the respective Country (carrier))

No flashing another rom/firmware will not unlock the device. put a non SA sim card in the device it well ask for a unlock code which you can buyfrom most phone providers or online


text:
Change orientation whithout accelerometer
I didn't notice when I brough this phone the lack of accelerometer. And now is an ordeal to read/see certain apps and webpages. Is there a way to do this? I'm looking for a solution that works ootb for 2.2 through if there is a way that requires to upgrade I accept that too.t

To easily toggle the portrait/landscape mode you can install the app Power Toggles from the Play Store. Then add a notification toggle with the Rotation Control. Once enabled when you click on the rotation control icon it allows you to choose between the two view modes (port/land).
Being in the notification bar means you can almost always access it. I find it really useful!


text:
Android's Chrome bookmarks won't show up in desktop's Chrome
I have a Moto G (Kitkat 4.4.2) which I've synced to my Google account. The desktop Chrome bookmarks show up just fine in my cellphone's Chrome but the bookmarks added via the phone, which are stored in a Cellphone bookmarks folder in my phone, won't show up in my desktop's Chrome (elementary OS Luna).
I have Sync everything enabled in my desktop's Chrome. How can I force Android's Chrome bookmarks to sync with my desktop's chrome?
Edit
I just realized that the Cellphone bookmark folder is present in my desktop's Chrome but I can only see it if I go into the Bookmarks manager (or Manage bookmarks, translating from Spanish here) option. The folder does show there but it doesn't in the bookmarks bar. This is starting to look like a bug in Chrome. Anyone else can reproduce this?

So, you can bookmark folders in your bookmarks manager. Just hit the star to bookmark your bookmarks manager while viewing your mobile bookmarks and stick it in your bookmarks bar, or where ever you want.

This is an interesting workaround. I never realize you could bookmark the "Bookmark Manager". Fortunately, when selecting a folder, Chrome append the ID to the URL, making the folder bookmarkable just like you said (albeit, we cannot expand the folder from "Bookmarks Bar" directly).

In your android chrome browser go to Settings. Under settings you'll be able to see your email id in the Basics section (its mostly located right on top). Selecting the email will take you to the Services section. There you will find an option called Sync. Select it. Make sure sync is enabled and the bookmarks section is checked. I hope this solves your problem.

Unfortunately this is not what I need. In both devices (Android's Chrome and desktop's Chrome) the Sync option is selected with All checked, which includes bookmarks.

Give this a try http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/steps-to-resolve-chrome-bookmark-synchronization-issues/

That site might be onto something. I checked my https://www.google.com/settings/chrome/sync and it shows 234 bookmarks which is about rigth, but 251 opened tabs (!) which is definitely not right.

I had the sync enabled, I just disabled it and enabled it back again and it synced my bookmarks.


text:
How to Repair IMEI of rooted phone without backup
I recently rooted my Samsung Galaxy S2 AT&T phone (SGH-I777) with KitKat AOCP version. I used ClockworkMod 6.0.4.6 recovery. However, I encountered a problem "E: Cant mount storage/sdcard0" . I formatted my sdcard0 and then it worked.
However, in this process I deleted my efs folder which supposed to have the IMEI information. Hence, now the phone can not get telephone service, so I can not call.
I have gone through the forums explaining how to restore IMEI if you have a backup, or how to edit a corrupted imei file. However, I coudn't find a suitable solution for my case.I don't have anything inside my efs folder to start with.
I know my EMEI number, since its written on the back of my phone. Is there any way I can generate a fresh IMEI file for my phone from the number. What steps I need to follow to get my phone running again.
Thanks for help.

I'm pretty sure there's a way to hexedit your IMEI back in, but only if you manage to regen the efs folder...

The efs folder is created by the custom rom. But the file which holds the imei info: "nv_data.bin" is empty. If I can get a sample file, may be I will be able to edit it with my IMEI number.


text:
CWM: Almost any rom I try to install returns "(Status 0)" [HTC One GSM]
CWM version: 6.0.4.3 touch
I tried to update my CM 10.2 to 11, but I always run into this error when installing a zip from SD card:
E:Error in /data/media/0/[filename].zip
(Status 0)
Installation aborted.

This happens for every rom I try to install, except a Kitkat AOSP rom I tried.
Even the 10.2 Rom I still had around on the card threw an error, but a different one.
I can't remember what exactly, but it looked like it couldn't match my phone's type (m7) to m7  or m7ul
I think my phone somehow forgot that it is an m7
Anyone got an idea how I can install roms again?

Have you tried reflashing CWM? Or flashing a different recovery? Also check whether you have data and system unmounted (In CWM you go to "Mount and Storage"). Oh and also flash CWM 6.0.4.6 because I'm sure you need newer updates of CWM to flash newer ROMs. Just tell me what (if any) of these work and I will write out the answer.

Thanks to your comment on "updating" CWM I found the problem. For whatever reason, I the m7att version instead of the GSM/general m7 version installed before. Which explains why it couldn't match the m7 version of the roms

The problem was, that I had the m7att version of CWM installed. Must have misclicked when downloading.
Updated CWM to the generic m7 version and rom flashing works again.


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Android Wear - How to change device the watch is paired with?
I have an LG G Watch, which was paired to my Nexus 4 phone with the Android Wear app, and was working perfectly.
I then got a new Nexus 5, and I wanted to switch everything (accounts, &c) to it. However, when I tried to pair the G Watch using the Android Wear app on the new phone, it didn't appear in the list of possible devices (even after unpairing it from my old phone).
The only way I found to do this was with the "Reset Device" option in the G Watch, but this loses "local" data (such as the number of steps, and other configuration).
Is there a less destructive way to accomplish this?

According to this page, you need to reset the watch to factory settings if you want to pair it with another device, each time you wish to switch phones or tablets.

You're right. That is unfortunate, though.

BeeLink works for me for exactly that use case:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trainday.androidapps.beelink

The link that worked for me is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beelinkapp.Beelink&hl=en but I don't see how it answers the question.

This has been removed from the play store because 4.4W2 broke it.

Using ADB worked for me. Turn ADB on on the Watch through Developer Options. Then connect the watch to computer with Android SDK installed on computer while turning Bluetooth off on the initial phone. Type: adb shell "pm clear com.google.android.gms && reboot"
Turn Bluetooth on on second phone. Type following in ADB shell: adb shell "am start -a android.bluetooth.adapter.action.REQUEST_DISCOVERABLE"
Follow watch on-screen prompts. You can now pair your watch with your new phone!

And I've doubts reserved that you came up with this solution without external help:http://forum.xda-developers.com/android-wear/development/app-reset-wear-client-switch-phones-t3058962 Correct?


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Race conditions in Tasker?
I'm trying to learn Tasker, and it seems that it runs its steps asynchronously, so I end up with a race condition where my task doesn't have the data it needs to continue. I made a simple pair of tasks to test. (Hardware info: LG G2 on Verizon running stock KitKat ROM, rooted.)
Task 1: Echo

Variable Set: [Name: %ret; To: %par1]
Flash: [Text: Par1 = %par1]
Return: [Value: %ret; Stop: On]

Task 2: Echo Test

Perform Task: [Name: Echo; Priority: 2; Parameter 1 (%par1): 5; Return Value Variable: %var]
Variable Set: [Name: %dbl; To: %var * 2; Do Maths: On]
Flash: [Text: %var * 2 = %dbl]

Expected output:

Flash: "Par1 = 5"
Flash: "5 * 2 = 10"

Actual output:

Flash: "%var * 2 = 0"
Flash: "Par1 = 5"

My question is, why doesn't Tasker wait for step 1 to complete before continuing on to step 2? In fact, I'm not even sure it's working correctly in the first place. In my Echo Test task, I added a 2-second wait after calling the Echo task, and now my output is this:

Flash: "Par1 = 5"
Flash: "%var * 2 = 0"

So the %var variable doesn't seem to get set at all. Am I doing something wrong, or is my Tasker installation bad?

There are 2 potential solutions.
One, when you use "Perform Task", you can pick the priority of the task you're asking it to run. If you set the priority the same or higher than the current task (a good way to do this is to specify %priority + 1), the new task will completely execute before the current on resumes. If you set the priority of the task lower than the current task's priority, the current task will finish before the new task starts.
Since I've had mix results with the use of priority, you could add a "Wait Until" after the perform task. Example:
1. WAIT UNTIL
      MIN: 1
      UNTIL: %Done IS SET

The variable, %Done, is set at the last line of the task you called. You can set %Done to anything but one it is set the 1st task will know it is okay to continue.

It turns out Priority was the culprit. Thanks. Sorry, I can't upvote yet -- I'm too new myself.

Great answer. I use the priority+1 frequently, but I like the additional suggestion of using wait until if you have a situation where you need to be sure.


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Updates reinstalled bundled apps I have uninstalled
I've recently purchased a Samsung S3 Mini, and as I do with all my new devices, I go through and uninstall applications that I know I will never use.
Twice now since I've owned the device, there have been android updates, and in both cases it has re-installed the apps I removed (as well as add a few new ones that can't be uninstalled but that's another question).
So is there a way to configure my phone to not install these unwanted applications?

I'm afraid not. These bundled apps are part of the ROM image, so the app updates are part of the system update. When you install an update, it just copies the data wholesale into the phone's system partition: it doesn't install apps one by one. For this reason, there's no way to filter out individual apps from the update.
You can't even remove those files from the update image on your PC: removing files would make the update signature fail to match. The phone would detect this and not install the update.
You just have to disable the bundled apps you don't want after each system update, or unlock your bootloader and install a custom ROM.

That is what I was afraid of. Are the bundled apps added by the manufacturer or by Google?

Google includes some Google apps (such as YouTube and anything beginning with "Play"), known as "gapps". The manufacturer adds some more to that (e.g. Samsung adds Group Play and several apps beginning with S). If you got your phone from a carrier, they can add some apps too.

Thanks Dan, I can only guess where all these amazon apps are coming from then.


text:
how do I access the SPDIF signal from my phone
my galaxy s has the option to have 5.1 surround enabled. what plug on my phone produces the digital audio signal to carry the 5.1 surround?
is this option only available through bluetooth or can it be used through the headphone port or USB port?

The Samsing Galaxy S series has a virtual surround, not a true surround. Therefore there is no way to get multichannel audio out of the device, only analog stereo.
Source: Phandroid, Unleashthephones, Intomobile


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Is there an easy way to to send a simple GET request from a lock screen widget?
I've built a garage door opener that can be triggered by a GET request (with the appropriate password, of course), and right now it's controlled by a webpage with javascript. It's possible to use this page from my phone to open the door, but it's quite a hassle to get to my browser before I can use it. What I'm after is a home screen or lock screen widget that will send off the request with the touch of a button, or an easy way to create one. I've attempted to write android apps before, and found it all very cumbersome.
I have a Nexus 5, running the latest cm-11 nightly build.

This could be achieved with tasker: You can create a "task" performing the HTTP_GET you need, and then create a shortcut to that task on your homescreen (the same way you'd create any other shortcut there: Tasker Task shows up in the list of available shortcuts, and lets you select the task to create the shortcut for).

Not only looks perfect, also looks great for tinkering around with, many thanks for your help.

Oh yes, definitely! Just follow up to the questions carrying the Tasker-tag. Or see my collection of Tasker resources for more :)


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Restoring backup from CWM recovery
I made a backup of my stock ROM before flashing a Custom ROM. I used CWM recovery. But that backup wasn't fully  made due to memory constraints. But still it created files worth 1.01 GB in the backup folder. There are 4 files in that backup -

boot.img (6 MB),
data.ext4.tar (577 MB)
recovery.img (6 MB),
system.ext4.tar (448 MB).

My question is, if I try to restore from this backup, will it work?

There's no way to know, those zips could be incomplete. The only way to know is to try, but my guess is that it will not work. It needs to be the complete image. Very unlikely.

@RossC I have tried opening those archives, and they open without error. Otherwise they would have been corrupted, if they were not complete !

Do you need to restore the entire backup, or do you just want to pick parts of it (e.g. some apps with their data)?

@Izzy I am concerned with the stock ROM only.

In that case, it might be a safer approach to take a look at Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?


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How to gain access to Android GUI having only remote root access to console?
I have remote root SSH access to my Android device, i.e. can upload and start programs there.
How to get GUI access, i.e. view the screen and press buttons there remotely.
For X11, x11vnc can be used to attach to X session. Are there analogues for Android?

Something like VNC servers for Android?

Yes, that can be installed remotely. Ideally - little tool one-file tool that can be just downloaded and started, like x11vnc, but for android.

Have you checked behind the link? That's exactly what it points to: A listing of VNC servers for Android. Including x11vnc, by the way ;)


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Galaxy S2, Hangouts app deletes incoming text messages
Incoming SMS messages tend to get deleted immediately on my Galaxy S2. The original messages app does not cause any issues, but if I turn on hangouts it goes nits.
Edit: were talking about an unrooted galaxy s2 with the latest Samsung firmware. If I disable hangout sms feature everything is fine.  Funny thing there was a big period of time when hangouts worked flawlessly.  I guess the desire is to use hangouts for sms if possible.

There could possibly be a bug which is causing the app to Delete the latest incoming messages .

Un-install the application.
Power off and wait for 2-3mins
Switch ON the device and install the App from the Play store
Check for and install the latest updates for Hangouts from the play
store

Always keep your applications up to date in order to avoid some bugs like this in the future

This cannot possibly work. Hangouts cannot be uninstalled and I tried removing updates.  It's always kept up to date.  Oh well was hoping someone knew of a workaround.

@DmitriyLikhten to be fair it can be uninstalled on many devices. What version of Android are you on? Have you rooted the device? Are you running a custom ROM?

@DmitriyLikhten if you cannot un-install the software then at least go for disable it .By this you won't have to update the application and it won't bother you for good


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how to make calls from my cell number, while using my laptop as the "headset"?
I want to be able to dial out from my laptop (a macbook pro), using my laptop headset to communicate and my laptop to initiate the call, however I want the number to be the same as my  cell phone's (Galaxy S4). I can get almost exactly what I want from Gmail / Hangouts, however the call does not show up as my cellphone (a number friends and family recognize) but instead as a number they do not recognize.
Is there any way to do this?

Are you using google voice? That is, do your friends and family know your "google voice" number, or your "actual cell" number? I see that the question is marked with the google-voice tag, but you don't mention it in your question.

It might be possible to connect your phone and laptop via the Bluetooth HFP profile for audio, and some control. Then use an app such a MightyText to initiate the call.

VoiceMac makes calls and SMSes via Google Voice. You can choose one of a GV number - which you keep, so your friends & family can recognize it - or you can port your existing phone number into GV. The incoming caller ID will show your GV number (but no name).
Another option is to use Skype and validate your cell# as your Skype caller ID.

No there's no least possible way to Call through the Laptop(either windows or Mac) even if your headset is connected or not.(try the play store for any apps if possible)
You can only send messages through Samsung Kies Air but not Calling.
Also check for some screen cast applications that support the Mac OS X


text:
Android full hibernation
I wonder is there a way to hibernate Android tablet as if it were a usual desktop computer, that is to save its current state on the disk for the quick restoration after complete shutdown? I really miss this feature for my tablet, which boots slowly and discharges quickly even being in the sleep mode. I know that there are  power managers available, but as far as my tablet has no SIM card even, I'd prefer to switch it off completely to really minimize battery use. Thanks.


text:
Does Android support the external USB devices?
Does Android support the external USB devices like PC keyboard, joystick, camera or other devices that can be connected to the PC? If so, then do I need some additional software, or is it enough to connect external device via Standard/Micro USB adapter?

Depends very much on Android OS version, and the hardware included in the device (you can find out by looking for specifications and manuals for your specific device's manufacturer and model number).  Please add this information to your question.

All that depends on your device, which must support this as well. Android itself does support this since 3.1-honeycomb – and I e.g. successfully use an external keyboard with my tablets, which is just plugged into the USB port.
The keyword to look for is usb-on-the-go. We already have more than 60 posts on this topic, which you might wish to check (or start with the 9 most frequented to easier get to the core points). If those leave open questions, feel free to ask those in separate posts :)
Edit: As Dan correctly points out in his comment, if your device has a full-sized USB port, there's no need for OTG. See our usb-host-mode tag for that.

You don't necessarily need USB-OTG: some Android devices have a normal (full-size) USB port for connecting peripherals to. Use the [tag:usb-host-mode] tag, which applies in either case.


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ART Runtime vs Dalvik Runtime
Recently I was looking through developer options on my Moto X and I was interested by the option to do runtime in either dalvik or ART. After doing some research I decided to change my runtime to ART. I was wondering if this was a good choice or if I should continue running my phone on Dalvik. Let me know what you think.

Android's Dalvik runtime was "just fine" in terms of performance, but it was still a bottleneck as it only ran at the moment assets were needed (what is called the "Just-In-Time" or JIT compiler). ART instead uses an Ahead-of-Time compiler (AOT) to process application code before it is needed. Some users have turned it on in 4.4 and report increased performance and battery life. But what are the actual numbers?
Android Police put this to the test 1 2 and ran actual benchmarks to put the claims to the test (6 benchmarking apps and 2 browser benchmarks using Chrome). While there are a few gains to be made, none of them make it really worth switching over at the time of this writing. It almost null effect on battery life and the numbers even "favor Dalvik by a little bit". ART also breaks some apps (like Xposed) which has prevented some people from even enabling it. The author even noted that "it looks like gamers would be better served by sticking to Dalvik, for now."
You probably aren't benefiting from ART just yet, at least not fully. Android L will have ART as its only runtime and will be fully polished and completely integrated. Developers will then follow suit at create/update their apps to be compatible and optimized with ART.
1: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/11/12/meet-art-part-2-benchmarks-performance-wont-blow-away-today-will-get-better/
2: http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/01/22/meet-art-part-3-battery-life-benchmarks-not-good-but-not-too-bad/


text:
How do I block this (carrier) advertisement dialog?
I receive this kind of messages almost every day, and I'm tired of them.

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)
I want to block them, but I have no idea how are they called.  I'm looking for a way to block this messages, either via an app (doesn't matter if it needs root) or programatically (if I can detect these messages, perhaps I would be able to create an app to block them).
EDIT:
The message icon is the same as the SIM Toolkit. Could this be related? As far as I know, Cell Broadcasts don't show with "OK" and "Cancel" buttons as this message.

From what I can see from this site (In Spanish):  this is a specific advertising service that only the Movistar network seems to push to phones.
The only solution I found is to Disable the "SIM Toolkit" application, Settings > Applications > SIM Toolkit but this may require root access to your device.
Removing SIM toolkit according to Android Forum users can be removed without any issues. I would Disable it rather than take the nuclear deletion option personally.
From the link:

Hasn't been on my phone in a year... no problems without it - that I'm aware of.

and

I know for a fact that 4G works without it... has not been on my phone for the last year - and every ROM I could flash made no difference. I'm really temped to believe that SimToolKit is for Metro's various services/bloatware (where they monitor data usage - for whatever reason)

From Wikipedia:

SIM Application Toolkit (commonly referred to as STK) is a standard of the GSM system which enables the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) to initiate actions which can be used for various value-added services.

These so called 'value added services' are what you want to remove.
Alternatively you could contact Movistar and see if they can stop it, tell them it is crashing your device or causing you issues and ask what can be done. Depending on your contract you could move to another network also.

Well, I was trying to avoid contacting them, but I'll have to. Anyway, disabling SIM Toolkit is an option for me. What kind of consequences should I expect if I do so?

I don't know to be honest!I'm on the bus, I'll update when the find out!

@DanielCastro I have updated my answer now. It seems safe to remove, but obviously at your own risk. I have provided links and quotes for further details. Please do not hesitate to ask anything further and if I can help I'll add it to my answer! Thanks for the upvote!

TIGO is doing this now too.  I can't seem to disable the app, it seems broken as pressing ok/cancel does nothing but re-open their dialog

@FrankSchwieterman Why can't you disable the app? Keep in mind that you need root access to do this. Did you try with the answer from Kevin?

I don't have the problem now (in Peru, with a different Movistar SIM) and I can't find the SIM toolkit anymore so I can't followup for now.

I deleted SIM Toolkit on LG G3 D856 (dual sim), and had to reboot after this as well, otherwise com.android.phone was constantly crashing. After rebooting it seems to work so far.

I was getting tired of those messages too, worse of all, the text was always garbled.
If you already have Titanium Backup Pro like I do, I simply "Froze" the SIM Tool Kit app. It disables the application and prevents the icon from appearing in your app drawer.
If you were ever to need it you can unfreeze or "Thaw" the app.
So far I've never seen the use of the STK. If I didn't have the backup app I would delete it without thinking twice.

Go to SIM Toolkit and search for Flash services and deactivate it. Worked for me.

Open SIM Toolkit app in your mobile.
Select the active Flash service
Click on "Deactivate" to turn it off.

The main challenge is choosing the correct service in Step 2. The name of the service differs from one network to another.
You can find Flash service names of popular Network providers here.
Disclosure: I'm the author of above linked article.

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


text:
Backup gmail emails offline
I have an Android 4.1 phone. When I typically login into my gmail app, even if I am offline, I can see / read already downloaded emails. So, I have those two questions:

Where are those emails saved locally on my phone? Is there a way to access this folder within Android or through a PC?
Is there a way to backup all emails downloaded / stored on the phone, while still remaining offline?

All the Gmail on your phone, is already in your phone... All of it is backed up on Google's server. I'm not sure you can do what you want to do at all. It's not the way it works. You could backup the DATA portion of Gmail and that will be all your mail, you'd need something like Titanium Backup and you'd need root access.

Imagine the following scenario. Some Gmail emails downloaded on the phone. Then GMail online account is deleted, when phone is offline. Gmail emails still on the phone (since it has not been connected to the internet) => backup - view offline emails on the phone

They stay on my phone when the Internet is turned off... Not every one of the tens of thousands of emails I have in the account, but a group within the Synch Settings range (eg 30 Days) in the settings. It should do this to begin with tbh, I'm very confused. Sorry I can't be of more help, all my devices do this anyway.

You can use adb for this:
adb backup -noapk -noshared -f gmail.ab com.google.android.gm

would backup all data of the GMail app to your PC, storing it in a file named gmail.ab in the current working directory. A restore of that snapshot then is as easy as running
adb restore gmail.ab

Note that this will include all the settings of the GMail app.
If you prefer doing the same via an app on your device, take a look at Helium Backup.
Without root, it's not possible to access the corresponding folder on your device directly (which would be found below /data/data/com.google.android.gm and be owned by the GMail app, which forbids access for other apps/users, including the shell user).

Good luck! To get started with ADB (in case you didn't already do that), be welcome to visit our adb tag-wiki for pointers. And btw: you even could restore that backup to a different device for testing etc, if you do not want to overwrite your "main device" GMail data. Should even do in some emulator.

It looks like Gmail can't be backed up with adb backup anymore.

If I understand correctly you're wanting to download all of your Gmail emails?
If so, I've used this tool before in the past to download my Gmail emails and it works well:
http://www.gmail-backup.com/

No I do not. GMail (online) gives you the ability to download everything in your account. What I want is to take a snapshot of the emails stored locally on my phone and I want to do it when offline.


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incompatible with other application(s) using the same shared user id
I have a nexus-5 with Android Kitkat 4.4.4, no root or anything like that.
I tried to install the game "The Walking Dead: Season Two" but after the download I got this error: incompatible with other application(s) using the same shared user ID. I don't know how to fix it.
Note: It's important for me to say that I don't understand about  ROM, ROOT and how the Android OS works. So please; if you post an answer, write as many details as you can.
I very much appreciate the help!
Thank you.
The error Message:

Have you side-loaded any apps (i.e. installed from different sources)?

Do you have any other apps by the same developer?

yes,i have the walking dead: season one on my device but i don't think that suppose to do any problems.... i installed it from a different source (not play store).


text:
Educational tablet mass-customization
I am working on a small nonprofit project to bring educational tablers to rural areas of Thailand. I would like to ask you guys to help me out with the task. There are 100 chinese tablets donated. I am looking for a way to upload multiple educational apps at once and customize the tablet look and feel, so far I have found solution to upload multiple APKs with mass-apk-installer.
For customization I have found Themer, which unfortunately is not compatibile with the tablet. Then I came across Desktop VisualizeR this one looks promising, but customizing manually 100 tablets will be ages of manual work.
At the end I will have lets say 20 APKs with educational games. I would like to change the home screen so every one has different background and customized big icons, preferably 4x bigger than original size. The 'icons' should have custom descriptions. At the end I would like to fully customize one tablet and have some kind of solution to easily port all settings and customizations to rest 99 tablets.
I would kindly request specific answer to my problem, not links to general tutorials. Please help me out! The kids will grately appreciate your help.

Are the devices all of the same type (i.e. brand AND model)? What Android version is running on them?

Hi Izzy! Yes all tablets are identical 4.2.2 Androids

As the tablets are all identical, and run Android >= 4.0, the following approach could be taken – provided all devices should be configured identically:

Configure one device the way you want to have them all
Use adb backup to create a backup of this tablet (see our adb tag-wiki for a starting point if you didn't use ADB before)
Use adb restore to restore the created backup of the first device to all other devices

This should transfer all apps and settings from the first, manually configured device to all the others (including homescreen settings). You can play with parameters to adb backup to speed up the restore process, e.g. by specifying to only include the apps you added/modified, e.g.
adb backup -apk -shared -f backup_customized.ab com.package1 com.package2 …

(replace com.package1 com.package2 … with a list of packages you want to include). Skip -shared if you don't need to clone SDCard contents (you also could copy those separately, which even might be faster).


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Unable To Open Google Play
I've encountering a problem. The problem is that i can't access my Google Play on a my Wi-fi. It is not on a particular tablet or phone. Its all the devices me an my family own. That includes 4 phones and 2 tablets. It only says "No Connection" even when the Wi-fi signals are at full strength. I don't know if this is coincidental but recently I've been receiving this notification that says "Sign into Wi-fi Network". Guys please advice immediately because how can i download awesome apps without the awesome store and i'm not planning to let 3rd party apps populate our devices.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/20855/why-does-google-play-show-a-no-connection-retry-error and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/46999/google-play-store-says-no-connection-retry?rq=1 and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/15947/always-seeing-no-connection-retry-in-android-market  and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/40763/google-play-store-gives-error-no-connection

"Sign into Wi-fi Network" says it all: No network, no connection. You most likely changed the password/keyphrase at your router, and forgot to adjust your devices. They cannot log in to the network anymore, hence you get that notification. Fixing your WiFi configuration will solve the other problem along.
Edit: Thanks to Dan for pointing out my omission: The phrasing of the notification indeed points to a "captive network", which requires a sign-in via browser first. To automate such a login, you might wish to take a look at WiFi Web Login and comparable apps. Also see Automate web login for Wi-Fi hotspots (captive portal) on Android at our sister-site.

It doesn't say "sign into Wi-fi network" if the Wi-Fi password is wrong. It only says that on a captive network.

@DanHulme That's true, and I'm aware of that (which is why I didn't suggest to update the password on the router). My phrasing might be a little unfortunate here; thanks for clarification!

Well as going by your point that the problem is not limited to you but to your whole family then the problem lies with the configuration of your modem.

If the wifi is not configured properly then it may or may not show
connected but you will not be able to download or browse any content
let it be Google play  or the internet.
As you have not specified any h/w details of your modem then I can
only provide a general solution which would be to configure your
modem properly either by yourself or from the relevant technician of
the modem.
Also do please check whether the Wi-Fi is displaying a Red cross with an error
of irrelevant settings on your Desktop or Laptop when connecting over the Wi-Fi or the connection is normal through the LAN Cable.
If its a yes for the LAN and Wi-Fi then you need to get your modem checked by the
technician for both Wi-Fi as well as LAN Connection


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Samsung galaxy s3 being slow and getting hot
I have a samsung galaxy s3 running Android 4.3, and it's always really slow and gets very hot sometimes. Does anyone elses phone do this? If so, have you found anything that helps?

Take a look in the battery settings, and tell us if any apps are using a high percentage of your battery.

It all depends the way you use your phone(more no of dents rough and tough use), The no of years of service of your battery.(the last time you changed your battery as recommended). Just follow these steps

Just try to avoid pro-longed usage of the device for gaming or
streaming videos or doing multi-tasking(streaming high definition
videos, parallel texting and downloading content all at once)
As this tends the battery to get heated up. Normally it should not
get the heat for just 1-1.5 hours of gaming
If your usage is more then you need to reduce it or else just
take your cell phone to any authorised Service Centre and get you
phone checked for the problems of heat and battery


text:
What factors constrain the highest possible Android version for an Android device?
I've read on the Sony's website that the increasing amount of RAM required for newer versions of Android is the limiting factor for upgrading the operating system of Android devices:

... if a
  lower amount of free RAM is available to applications after a new
  release of the operating system (due to increased capabilities in the
  system), phone speed will eventually be impacted (this is the main
  reason that a certain device cannot be indefinitely upgraded to newer
  releases of Android™).

But in the newest release of Android (KitKat) it is asserted that the new version needs lower amounts of RAM.
So, my question is what are the limiting factors that eventually constrain your device's OS from upgrading to newer versions of Android? I mean, what (hardware) factors should I consider when buying an Android device to increase the chances of getting the newest OS updates for a longer time?

You say hardware but you may also wish to consider whether the phone has either manufacturer and/or network provider modifications, this can cause delays or ultimately block updates if you are waiting for a manufacturer and/or network provider to provide an update. Compare this with the Nexus series of phones.

While that RAM restriction applies to several low-end devices (which came with less than 512 MB RAM), it is not really the main reason for missing updates. And looking into the custom-rom scene proves that many devices abandoned by their manufacturers (not too seldom for this reason) are in fact supporting newer versions. So when talking about "official updates", main reasons are:

manufacturers prefer you buy a new device. They do not get "fresh money" for updates.
sometimes the customizations done by the manufacturer are too ressource hungry (a live example is Samsung's Touchwiz preventing some of their devices from getting updated)
after a while (at least after 2 years, for some manufacturers much earlier; Google specified 18 month as minimum) devices simply get "out of service time", and thus all further development is stopped. While this might sound harsh, it's at least partly understandable: most devices require hardware-specific drivers which the manufacturer had to update to new versions, and that cannot be done indefinitely if an enterprise needs to work profitable – or prices would go up to something you're unlikely to be willing to pay :)

Nevertheless, as I already pointed out: if a device is used widely enough, the community often provides future updates in form of custom-roms. To install those, the device in question needs to be rooted, the bootloader unlocked, and often a custom recovery is required. So here's something the manufacturers should at least provide help: if they decide to no longer support a device, they should provide an official way to root and unlock it (could be done via a "last update" from their side), so users at least have a chance to take care for themselves. Guess they are simply afraid that would keep users from buying new devices ;)


text:
Are free messaging Apps genuine?
There are lot of free messaging Apps in the App store.
I would like to know whether the following two apps are genuine : way2sms and Kik
And I was just wondering, how are they able develop such apps and allow people to use it for free ?

In most cases, you don't use apps for free. You might not be paying money – but you pay with your personal data for advertizements etc.

Yes, such apps are genuine.
I am not familiar with Kik, but assuming it is similar to way2sms, they gain advertising revenue from page views.
Kik mentions having over 120 million users and way2sms has 40 million+ users.
For example for the 40 million users of way2sms, assuming that the advertising rate is $0.01 per 1000 page views (I'm not sure about the actual rates). And assuming an average of 10 page views per user per week. Which gives 400 million page views a week.
Then the advertising earnings will be $4000 per week. (The above is just an example, I'm sure I made a lot of wrong assumptions)

So the way2sms business model is to buy messages from network
  operators and give these messages free to the users, and recoup the
  cost from advertising revenue gained from page views.

I'm assuming kik does somethig similar.
A brief interview with the founder of way2sms can be found here.
And another article here.
Edit : I did some reading up on Kik, I didn't find much but I think they use a freemium model where their app and basic services are free but they charge for some additional services.
For example, they charge money for some stickers.

authors: Αρμάλντο Τσόυλχαι

authors: Δημήτρης Κοντιζάς


text:
Both Bluetooth and Wifi not working on Galaxy S3 Mini
I have a Samsung Galaxay S3 Mini. I bought it from Canada and used there for 8 months without issue. However, when I came to Pakistan I unlocked it, and started seeing lots of issues.
First, I have both WiFi and Bluetooth turned on, but they do not work, even though I have fast WiFi. The second issue is is that sometimes I lose cell service, and can't receive calls or messages.

When you say 'unlocked it' do you mean SIM Unlocked or you rooted the device?

I had the same problem. WiFi and Bluetooth modules use the same antenna. This is a hardware problem and I fixed replacing the antenna but you should the check other possibilities. Check this link out: http://blog.brokenlcds.com/samsung-galaxy-note-2-bluetooth-and-wi-fi-problem/
About your second issue, it also sounds related to the antenna of the communication module.


text:
Support Help! Warning!! A custom OS can cause critical problems
MY phone (Samsung S3) just went off today and started flashing the Samsung logo. I have taken out the battery multiple times and tried to restart the phone. Only once did it restart but then after ten minutes went back to the logo.
I tried to press HOME VOLUME UP and PWOER and nothing happened. Then i tried HOME VOLUME DOWN and POWER and i got the screen for Support Help! Warning!! A custom OS can cause critical problems....after a while it goes back to the logo flashing.
I cant restart or reboot my phone.
Please help.

Volume up and power should boot to Recovery, Volume Down and Power is 'Download Mode' if you were using ODIN or such to root your device? Do you have Kies installed? Can you use it to do a firmware recovery? Have you don anything recently like update firmware, or root the phone? That message is always there before you go into download mode by the way, that's totally normal.

The only thing i did today was upload Zynga Poker. The app froze at some stage and then i never opened it again. I did have Kies i think. Losing data isnt an issue for me. I just need my phone to work again!!! Thanks again for your help.

Assuming it was a legitimate copy of the game, that shouldn't matter. Install Kies on your PC and see if you can do an emergency firmware recovery. That's your first bet. Failing that you can get a copy of your firmware from Sammobile.com and flash it onto your phone again and see if that works.

Volume up with home and power doesn't do anything...it keeps flashing the logo.

I had the same problem with my S4. Whenever the phone goes off and I try to turn it back on the annoying 'Warning' Custom os comes on and I couldn't turn my phone on.
I read a few articles and discovered that it has to do with your volume button. I dropped my phone a few days ago and read that if the volume button is stuck that this happens. So I went to the kitchen and go a sharp knife, put the blade to the side of the volume button and pulled it up on both ends, to my amazement, the phone turned on!!! (make sure its plugged in because whilst that warning is on the phone doesn't charge)
Now I have to go and get my volume button looked at because it is a stuck volume key that causes this. It must be a secret sequence that the phone companies use to change an os. I also read that Knox program can cause it, nevertheless, the volume button release worked.
Hope that helps.

Amazing! The knife solution did indeed work for me, too, with a visibly dented volume button on an S4.


text:
Install apps on Android Phone automatically when installed in BlueStacks
I am developing an Android application, and I have to constantly mail the apk to myself to download to phone. I also use Bluestacks app player for testing. But also verify app in my own phone. Is there any way to have the app installed on the phone directly when installed on the Bluestacks App Player. I know the reverse is possible through Bluestacks Cloud Connect. Can I achieve the other way round?

With an installation of the official Android SDK, virtual devices are available to you (so you don't have to use Bluestacks).  You can simply install them via adb to your virtual Android device and test them there.  You can customize every aspect of the device, ranging from resolution, hardware buttons, modems, and software.
If you are developing using Eclipse, simply install the SDK and the plugins, and then press the "Play" button, and Eclipse will send the app directly to your phone.
Read more here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/installing-adt.html

That would apply to Bluestacks and any other Android emulator as well. I e.g. run Android-x86 in VirtualBox, and can access it fine via ADB.

When there is any app installed through the Play Store(through your Gmail Account) the app gets listed under My Apps>Installed apps.
So instead of downloading it again from your mail separately (the apk file) you can directly download the apps through the installed my apps in your device(under options from the play store on your device).
For this you just need to login with the same account you had logged in with the blue stack. In this way you could at the least save the trouble from sending the apk file to the email and then again downloading it on your device.
Else you simply download the ADT to develop apps and later test it on you own device through the USB cable. For further questions regarding app development visit this site


text:
Phone going into Emergency calls only after USB tethering for 30 minutes
Since the time I started using USB tethering, my phone has been going into Emergency calls only after 30 minutes of little to no use. I find it a bother to always have to restart my hone to use calls or USB tether again.
Why is this happening? Is this a limitation of USB tethering?
This is NOT a limitation imposed by my carrier.
I am using a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10i, running stock upgraded Android 2.3.5.
I appreciate any help.

This might be a limit imposed by your carrier, if you're not supposed to use tethering on your data plan. You should check with them first.

@DanHulme That was the first thing that I checked with my provider before I bought the connection. They told that they do not charge for it.


text:
Android: Default Battery Percentage Level for individual services to switch off
We all know Android OS switches off services one by one when the battery reaches critical level. But is there any fixed battery level to cut down individual services. For example, Bluetooth will be switched off at 20%, Mobile data at 15%, Wifi at 10%, etc. I am searching these information in Android documentation and Googling as well. But I am not able to find such information. Any help please.

"Services" doesn't mean what you think it means. A service is an app component that can run in the background. For example, an email app might have a service that's started every 15 minutes to check for new email (and stops itself when it completes). This means it's background apps that stop, not things like the Wi-Fi and mobile data.
App developers are encouraged to check for the low battery condition and stop battery-draining activities. This broadcast also triggers the "low battery" dialog, so it's easy to tell at what level it fires. It can be changed by the device manufacturer (since Android is open-source), but it's usually set to trigger at 15%.

Hi Dan, thanks for your response. I am very well aware of the term "service". And sorry for the confusion. I am actually writing a report where i need to provide the threshold values set by individual manufacturers. In fact, I guess even with the same manufacturer, the threshold values may vary with the device models. So I am just interested in at least 2 or 3 device models threshold values.


text:
changing the association of a contact
How do I change the account which stores a contact?
Right now, a lot of my contacts are associated with "Backup Assistant".  I no longer have Verizon so this is useless (and it throws a lot of errors, presumably because it is no longer authorized to talk to the Verizon server) and I would like to switch all my contacts to be stored with Google.  If I have to I will just delete each contact and re-create it with the new assocation, but is there an easier way to do this?  If I try to tap or long-tap on the "Backup Assistant Contact" header when I edit the contact, nothing happens.
Also, if I do have to re-create a new contact, is there some way to create the new contact on Google first, then delete it from Backup Assistant?  When I try to create the new contact first, attempting to delete it from my phone tells me I am going to delete it on multiple accounts.

First, export your contacts.  From the Contacts app, touch the menu button and select Import/Export.  Then choose to export to SD.  Then from the SD card, transfer the file to your computer (I used Dropbox).  At this point I simply deleted all the contacts off my phone.  I get an error notifications that sync had failed because too many contacts had been deleted, but when I tapped on it, it gave me the option to go ahead and delete them on Google.
Then I went to Google Contacts and imported all my contacts.  Then I did a bit of cleanup, and everything got synced back to my phone.


text:
How can I disable Google Voice Commands on an Android phone?
I prefer not root my phone, but I'd be willing to, if it's necessary.
Google Voice keeps popping-up Search and Voice Dialer randomly (about twice a minute). They enter random commands into Search bar and I can't turn them off.  The problem might be caused by inexpensive headphones.
I'd like to just completely remove the software from my phone.  If I can't do that, I'd like to get them to stop randomly popping up.

Here's how you can turn this off in most Android builds:
Look for an app called "Google Settings." By default, the icon will look like this:

From there, choose "Search & Now" → "Voice" → "'Ok Google' hotword detection" and turn that setting off.
If that doesn't apply to your phone's OS, you'll need to provide more info. If you are running the OS that came with the phone, provide the make and model. If it is rooted, provide the name and version of the custom ROM.

This doesn't seem to work any more on android 6.0 :( I turned of "Ok google detection" but I still get the microphone thing popping up all the time.

I also think the voice recognition is a nuisance.  On my phone (running CyanogenMod) the only setting I found was "Settings", "Language & Input" -> "Voice Search" then disable "Ok Google" detection.  I think it was mishearing my saying "Ok Google" when it would pick up random voice commands.

I'm super frustrated because my child is able to do things on my phone that she can't actually spell. My solution was to do as you describe here, and also change the speech recognition language to Magyr.


text:
GPS Doesn't Work
I have SGH-M919 (SGS4 T-Mobile variant). First, it had stock ROM, stock firmware, and it was SIM locked to T-Mobile, so I unlocked it with SRS server service (I live outside the US, so labs in my area didn't have the tools to unlock it, since it's only a US variant. Also, other methods of unlocking did not work for me, unfortunately).
In the unlocking process I had to flash custom modem file with Odin (it was required for SRS to work). After the successful unlock, I flashed CWM and CM11, rooted the device with Kingo ROOT and everything worked fine except the GPS. It didn't work: no GPS satellites were found.
How can I solve this issue? Thanks.
I have already tried:

Reverting to stock firmware (by flash. Kies doesn't work). No only that it didn't fix it, the WiFi broke and couldn't be turned on. I has to recover everything with a recovery file I have made with CWM.
Installing stock ROM via the recovery. The GPS worked(ish), but was very slow. I then restored my CM setup with nandroid restore (again, via the recovery), and the GPS didn't work again.
While using the stock ROM, I tried to get to LbsTestMode in order to fix the GPS, as explained here, but I couldn't reach it - it just doesn't exist in Android 4.4.2 apparently.

With the helpful assistance from couple of people from XDA Developers forum I was able to fix the GPS.
I have found a modem file that was supposed to fix it in this XDA thread, and did everything by the instructions there.
All I had to do is download a .zip file that contains two modem files (MK2 modem) in it, and flash them in order with Odin.
After that I checked the GPS with GPS status app and it locked onto a satellite blazing fast.
I noticed couple of hours later that suddenly the cellular signal was really weak in area that should have full coverage. So I flashed this modem (BN4) and it fixed it (and the GPS also fine).


text:
Touch screen not working
I cracked the screen on my android A13 Allwinner tablet so I got new screen and put it on the tablet but the touch screen is not working at all. Can someone help me please.

Sounds like you didn't fit the new screen correctly. That's something that can only be fixed with physical access to the device.

It doesn't do just to "put it on". You also need to take care for the contacts etc. to be connected properly. If you're not sure on what should be done where, it might be a good idea to use a service which does.

maybe this could help:
fix digitizer issues - Google-Suche
https://www.google.de/search?q=fix+digitizer+issues
Possible fix for digitizer/touch screen issues - xda-developers
http ://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1459569
[Resolved] Touch screen/digitizer issues (random inputs/not accepting touch input) - Android Forums
http ://androidforums.com/htc-one/728735-resolved-touch-screen-digitizer-issues-random-inputs-not-accepting-touch-input.html
Fix digitizer problems yourself
http ://www.thoracic.org/education/mobile-musings/articles/August-2006.php


text:
Tracing Android applications
I have been mucking around on my Android tablet (rk2928, Android 4.1.1) at a low level, removing and replacing ROM apps and such... aaaand now I'm getting a few applications saying "Unfortunately, <application> has stopped.", and I suspect that some apps are missing or at the wrong version. If this were happening on a desktop system then I could use strace or some other language-specific tool to see which part it's having trouble at, but I don't know how to do this on Android. What tools are available for tracing Android method or library calls on a device?

(If you've got adb enabled on your tablet and installed on your PC, skip the next two paragraphs)
If you've only been replacing apks, you'll need to enable Developer Settings
(Settings -> About tablet -> scroll down to "Build number" and tap seven times).
Then, go back, and into the developer options panel, and scroll down to the "debugging" section. Enable the "Android debugging option", and plug your tablet into your computer.
You'll also need the Android SDK. After installing it, navigate to the SDK folder, then the 'tools' subdirectory and run 'android'. You'll need to wait for it to load, and then check the platform tools package. Click install, agree to the license, and it will install.
Open up a command prompt/Terminal (Windows: Win+R cmd, Mac: Launchpad -> 'Other' -> Terminal, Linux: you know how), and navigate to the folder your SDK is located in using cd (i.e cd C:\Users\bobby\android-sdk or cd /Users/bob/android-sdk). Then, run platform-tools/adb devices. It should show up your tablet. If it doesn't try unplugging your tablet and repeat, and then try double-checking that you enabled USB debugging.
Now, simply run platform-tools/adb logcat, and run the misbehaving apps on the tablet. You should see lots of lovely stacktraces and whatnot.

Excellent. I haven't completely solved the problems yet, but now I know where to look (and what to Google for).

authors: الزعيم محمد فوزي


text:
./flash-all.sh: line 16: fastboot: command not found
I'm trying to "Get Started" with Setting Up the Preview SDK | Android Developers to Install the L Preview System Image Android L Developer Preview | Android Developers on my Nexus 7 (Wifi) "razor".
I'm getting following error:
mbp:razor-lpv79 alexus$ ./flash-all.sh
./flash-all.sh: line 17: fastboot: command not found
./flash-all.sh: line 18: fastboot: command not found
^C
mbp:razor-lpv79 alexus$

here is my fastboot, it's in /Applications/Android Developer Tools/sdk/platform-tools/ folder:
mbp:razor-lpv79 alexus$ ls /Applications/Android\ Developer\ Tools/sdk/platform-tools/fastboot
/Applications/Android Developer Tools/sdk/platform-tools/fastboot
mbp:razor-lpv79 alexus$

What can I do? I do NOT wish to modify flash-all.sh script (if possible).

Assuming you are using Mac/Linux OS, try using sudo ./ before all fastboot command.

This isn't an Android problem at all. You can simply run the commands from flash-all.sh by hand, changing each one to name fastboot by its full path, or you can set the $PATH in your shell.
PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Android Developer Tools/sdk/platform-tools/"
./flash-all.sh

You should also check that the fastboot executable is executable. This probably won't be the case if you've extracted the files onto a non-ext partition. The following output is a correct example: note the x in the fourth column, and that the files are owned by the user I'm running as.
z1@foyle platform-tools% ls -l
total 3292
-rwxr-xr-x 1 z1 z1 1355536 1105 27 Jun 14 adb
drwxr-xr-x 2 z1 z1    4096 1105 27 Jun 14 api
-rwxr-xr-x 1 z1 z1   47828 1105 27 Jun 14 dmtracedump
-rwxr-xr-x 1 z1 z1  225253 1105 27 Jun 14 etc1tool
-rwxr-xr-x 1 z1 z1  201380 1105 27 Jun 14 fastboot
-rwxr-xr-x 1 z1 z1   10071 1105 27 Jun 14 hprof-conv
-rw-r--r-- 1 z1 z1  720629 1105 27 Jun 14 NOTICE.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 z1 z1   16520 1105 27 Jun 14 source.properties
-rwxr-xr-x 1 z1 z1  771959 1105 27 Jun 14 sqlite3
drwxr-xr-x 2 z1 z1    4096 1105 27 Jun 14 systrace

I ran export PATH=$PATH$:'/Applications/Android\ Developer\ Tools/sdk/platform-tools/' (echo $PATH returns updated $PATH), yet still getting -bash: fastboot: command not found.

There's an extra $ sign in your command.

I was running today into a similar issue as the one that you are pointing out. I downloaded my .img file from https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images and tried to run:
flash-all.sh

But that was returning:
./flash-all.sh: line 17: fastboot: command not found
./flash-all.sh: line 18: fastboot: command not found

My solution (in my Mac) was to download the file RootNexus5.zip from http://downloadandroidfiles.org/download-rootnexus5-zip-2/ decompress the downloaded file and copy fastboot-mac into the same folder as flash-all.sh.
Now open flash-all.sh in your favourite editor (Sublime in my case) and change all the ocurrences of fastboot for ./fastboot-mac. Then try to run the file again. If you are not using a Mac simply use fastboot-linux.
Note: Linux users in my case was debian 9.8 stretch.
Make sure adb and fastboot are installed.
sudo apt-get install adb
sudo apt-get install fastboot

fixed my error straight away. I already had adb but not fastboot.

I also mention that i do NOT wish to edit flash-all.sh, as I could easily change path to it and call it a day!

The (if possible) at the end tricked me then ;-)


text:
S3 screen broken, developer mode on, how to transfer data
My screen on my Galaxy S3 broke and I need to transfer an app that's on my phone to my computer. I have developer mode enabled on the phone and I want to be able to transfer the app without opening up the motherboard. But I can't physically unlock the phone because of the broken screen, so how do I do this?
(When I say I have developer mode on, I mean that I can install apps that I wrote in Eclipse onto my phone and run it. If this isn't what that means, then my mistake. But if it is, how do I access my stuff with a locked screen)

When you say transfer an app, do you mean just apk or including datas?

@MinNaingOo just the APK

You can pull the apk from the android device using adb pull.

adb shell pm list packages

This will list the package name for all the apks. See the package name of your app. The app name may vary from the package name. It will be mostly in /data/app
If not get the path using adb shell pm path com.the app you need to.transfer
2 a.adb pull /data/app/com.the app you need to.transfer.apk.
This will transfer the apk from whichever drive you executed. Eg: D:
(or)
2.b.  adb backup -apk com.the app you need to .transfer
This will create backup.ab. You can make it a tar and extract using winrar
dd if=backup.ab bs=24 skip=1 | openssl zlib -d > backup.tar

If there is no zlib support you can try
dd if=data.ab bs=1 skip=24 | python -c "import zlib,sys;sys.stdout.write(zlib.decompress(sys.stdin.read()))" | tar -xvf -

Note : Dont setup a password for encrypt backup

Wow – nice one-liner to convert an ADB backup to .tar, deserves an extra point :) Guess I'm wrong assuming I could skip the zlib part, and get a backup.tar.gz then – as otherwise you'd used that here yourself? // Side-note: It probably doesn't work with encrypted ADB backups (i.e. when created using a password), right?

@Izzy yes it wont work with encrypted backup

Thought so (maybe you should point this out in your answer, to NOT put a password?). Will try out the "zlib vs. .gz myself at home then :)

@Izzy did u try skipping zlib? , I added for non zlib support

I tried. Format not compatible to gzip or bzip2. Nevertheless, very helpful! I made it a tiny little shell-script named ab2tar, with a little addition: dd if=$1 bs=24 skip=1 | openssl zlib -d >${1%%.ab}.tar && gzip -9 ${1%%.ab}.tar. Simply pass it the .ab file as first argument, and the result is a .tar.gz :)

One more side-note: while being a nice idea, adb backup won't work for the OP, as it must be approved on the touch-screen :(

@Izzy I managed to do an adb backup with a broken screen, without root, but with USB debugging enabled. I had to use the TouchControl app (the linux version) and some help from this answer. I used the TouchControl app to see my phone screen on my PC with a combination of "input keyevent" 61 and 66 (TAB and ENTER) and "input swipe" (based on the code of the tool) to be able to unlock the screen and press the OK button. Awesome answer and awesome script, thanks!

Thanks for the feedback, @jadkik94! Mind writing up an answer, describing that step-by-step? Ping me when done, so I can upvote :)

@Izzy done. As detailed as I could! :)

I managed to do an adb backup of my phone based on @sameer's answer. However, as noted in the comments there, you need to confirm the backup using the screen after running the adb backup command.
So first, you need to have adb installed. Make sure your device shows up and is authorized:
# adb devices
List of devices attached
EP732284Z8      device

Then run adb shell input to make sure the commands we're going to be using are there. You should see something like that:
# adb shell input
Usage: input [<source>] <command> [<arg>...]

The sources are:
      mouse
      keyboard
      joystick
      touchnavigation
      touchpad
      trackball
      stylus
      dpad
      touchscreen
      gamepad

The commands and default sources are:
      text <string> (Default: touchscreen)
      keyevent [--longpress] <key code number or name> ... (Default: keyboard)
      tap <x> <y> (Default: touchscreen)
      swipe <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2> [duration(ms)] (Default: touchscreen)
      press (Default: trackball)
      roll <dx> <dy> (Default: trackball)

Next, we'll install TouchControl to be able to see what is happening on screen. This won't work if your device is not already in USB debugging mode and authorized already (i.e. if you see "unauthorized" or "offline" after running the first command). I installed the Linux version. I had to install boost to make it work. It should work on Windows too.
We need to unlock the device. For that, we will use "adb shell input swipe [x1] [y1] [x2] [y2] [duration]" with (x1, y1, x2, y2) depending on your device and duration could be 250 (in ms). For reference, you can look at the numbers in this file (look for "shell input swipe"). In my case the resolution of my device is "1920x1080" so I looked at the part that said "   if (i.toStdString() == "1080x1920") {. That code does a swipe from left to right. I need to unlock my device by swiping from bottom to top, so I used (300, 1100, 300, 950) with a duration 300, i.e. "adb shell input swipe 300 1100 300 950 300". You'll need to experiment with the values and see what changes on the "virtual" screen to get it right. In my case (0, 0) was the top left and (300, 1100) was towards the bottom middle.
If you have a password or PIN you can input it using adb shell input text "<yourpasswordhere>". If you have a pattern, then you'll have to figure out the coordinates of every dot and make your pattern using adb shell swipe commands. (Good luck with that, it'll take some time). Otherwise, you could try some screenlock bypass apps and install them via adb install. I didn't have any of that, so I'm not sure what will work for you.
Now run the adb backup command:
# adb backup -apk -shared -obb -all -system -f ./android-backup.ab
Now unlock your device and confirm the backup operation.

Next, you'll have a screen like that one (click image for full size):

So now, we will press "TAB" twice to get to the "BACKUP MY DATA" button, then press "ENTER" to confirm. Basically, based on the numbers in that answer:
adb shell input keyevent 61
adb shell input keyevent 61
adb shell input keyevent 66

Now your backup has started. Yey!
P.S. To see the progress of your update, you can watch the file size grow. On linux, you can run a command like that one: watch -n 5 "du -h ./*.ab" or watch -n 5 "du --time -m ./*.ab"
P.P.S. You can use a command like adb shell input swipe 300 0 300 950 300 to open your notification drawer and abd shell input tap [x1] [y1] to press on notifications then adb shell text [sometext] to write. And you can use adb shell input keyevent [61|66] to press on practically anything without knowing their coordinates.
P.P.P.S. I'm on an Xpreria ZR running "10.7.A.0.222" android version 5.1.1. Your exact commands may vary depending on your screen resolution and android version (e.g. different way to unlock, different number of times to press TAB, etc.).
Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for this detailed answer (+1)! I didn't manage to install TouchControl (didn't compile from the sources, obviously due to dependencies, and the binary didn't work – again due to dependencies). Reading your answer reminds me of a recent addition to my Adebar, which now can do the same (remotely confirm ADB backup/restore calls, but automatically without the user having to manually input keyevents) – and has less dependencies ;)

Haha that's the script I wrote to make this whole process easier (I cleaned it up a bit before putting it online, but it's still a mess). Adebar sounds sweet. I'll give it a try!

I've made Adebar a separate answer, if you wish to check. Feeback welcome if you try it :)

With usb-debugging turned on (which you describe as "developer mode"), you can use e.g. Adebar to create an ADB Backup. Recently, automatic approval of backups as well as automatic unlock (experimental, and only working with "slide to unlock" – not with PIN/password/pattern lock) was added. In its config, set AUTO_CONFIRM=1 (to automatically confirm backups on the device), and optionally AUTO_UNLOCK=1 (might or might not work, not widely tested yet). Adjust the other settings to your wishes, then run it.
Afterwards, you'll find two backup scripts in the output directory: one for "user apps" and one for "system apps". Optionally check them before (and comment out what you don't want to backup), then run them. Separate backup archives (.ab) are created, one per app; for user-apps they include the .apk and data, for system apps data only.
Note that adb backup doesn't work for all apps: apps can opt out of this, setting ALLOW_BACKUP=FALSE in their manifest. On rooted devices with Xposed, a module called Backup All Apps can be used to work around that. But in your case, this might be difficult to install (with a broken screen).
Disclosure: I'm the dev of Adebar.

If you can debug your application written in eclipse in your phone, I guess you have already enabled USB debugging.
Moborobo PC Suite can transfer files from your phone including applications with data and it needs USB debugging to be enabled. In the App manager, Right click on the app and there will be Export option. There you can save your app into your PC.


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Device got bricked while installing JELLYBEAN
I was trying to update my ICS4.0.4 to Jellybean and clear cache partition and also Dalvik cache and unfortunately my tablet got restart and now it is hard bricked just show vendor logo and boot infinitely and now usb debugging was off now anyone please help me to get it unbricked.Thanks in advance. I know last option is to go to vendor service centre don't want to do so.
Now one more thing that if someone can help me to install any android version from starting then all posts are welcomed such as new device with no boot loader. Delete completely and install new boot loader hope you understand what i am saying.
Thanks in Advance.

"Clear Cache" and "Wipe Dalvik" shouldn't brick a device, as both only affect temporary data. If your tablet booted during this operation (and not during the update process to JB), simply repeat. // Apart from that: Is it stuck at the boot screen, or does it boot in a loop? In the latter case, please take a look at our boot-loop tag-wiki.

with fastboot tools you should still be able to access your device via usb. get the android-sdk-tools from google, and give it a try
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_fastboot_intro
http ://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_adb_intro
in this wikis you will also find plenty ways to unbrick your device:
unbrick android xda - Google-Suche
https ://www.google.de/search?q=unbrick+android+xda
Unbrick Any Android Phone
http ://www.beingtricky.com/unbrick-any-android-phone/
These 6 methods will help you unbrick any Android Device - Droidiser
http ://www.droidiser.com/2013/07/how-to-unbrick-any-android-phone.html
FASTBOOT-UNBRICK YOUR DEVICE WITH 'NO DISPLAY' - My Community
http ://forums.droidbeans.com//tutorials/fastboot-to-unbrick-your-device/
xda-developers - Threads Tagged with unbrick
http ://forum.xda-developers.com/tags.php?tag=unbrick
[RELEASE] One-Click UnBrick updated 10july11 - xda-developers
http ://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1153310
hope this will help

Your answer should not purely rely on links: someone in the future might find this answer and the links will be dead.


text:
How do I collapse outlines in OneNote app?
I understand OneNote for desktop can collapse/expand outlines to any levels. However, I failed to find this feature in OneNote Android app (version 15.0.2727.2300). Did I miss it?

I suspect the answer is no. :-(

Almost one year later and version 15.0.3232.1047 and this critical function is still missing - unless someone can explain how to this?
So I would say the answer is no


text:
How to change the demo OS in Sony xperia tablet z
I have bought a sony xperia tablet z yesterday.. the showroom dint have the stock right now, so he sold me the demo piece in the display.. it is working fine, so i took it.. but after using it i understand that..it is running some kind of demo settings.. a demo video is being palyed for every 20 minutes.. if i re arrange any icons and go to another screen.. when i came back.. the icons are automatically restored to defaults..similar with volume settings.. how to remove those demo settings.. make it work like usual tablet.. thank you

Since you don't have a dialer app in the tablet, Ali Kabiri's answer can't be directly used. But there's a way to get into a mode where you can enter these "service codes". See this blog post for images.

Open the Contacts app
Exit the initial setup if it pops up
Go to Menu -> Settings
Long-press the blank space in the bottom of the screen, in the middle (see images in link)
A button called "Enter service code" should appear
Tap the button to get a "dialer"
Enter the code *#*#73556673#*#*
Demo mode should now be deactivated!

You can dial *#*#sellmore#*#* or *#*#73556673#*#* and you will not see the demo mode anymore,
but a normal retail phone doesn't have demo mode activated...
and you have to consider that demo-activated phones doesn't have warranty.
Edit:
as Onik said,
if your tablet doesn't have dialer application installed,So you have to access the service menu for inserting service commands, so you can do the following as described in the link: Xperia Tablet Z: How to access the service menu

The tablet doesn't have a dialer, so the code can't be entered normally.

Had no luck with the ##sellmore## solution. Downloaded towelroot (search Google)and titanium backup (Google store) You have to enable unknown sources in the security settings to install towelroot. Also in developer options there's a toggle upper right to enable that. In that screen enable usb debugging. Install towelroot version 3 and run it. Then install titanium backup and wipe data and uninstall the "retail demo" program. You'll never have to see that dude looking at how thin the tablet is again...or readjust your brightness.