text:
How to downgrade an app if it has been updated via Play Store?
I have an app installed on my phone, which I've installed from the Google Play Store.  If I update the app and don't like the upgraded version, is there a way to undo the update and downgrade back to the version of the app that I had previously installed?
I tried searching a bunch on this site, and I found lots of questions about downgrading the OS/ROM/firmware, but nothing about downgrading app versions or reverting an app update.

The best way I think is to have a backup of the app (at least its APK if not the data files; APK of earlier version of an app can also be obtained from some websites (beware of malware) if you updated the app and doesn't have the backup) so that if you end up disliking the updated version, then you can simply use that APK to revert back to previous version. That was for non-rooted devices. For a rooted device, well, use Titanium Backup to take complete app backup.

There is an idea  by Firelord in the comment here which I think should work:

The best way I think is to have a backup of the app (at least its APK if not the data files; APK of earlier version of an app can also be obtained from some websites (beware of malware) if you updated the app and doesn't have the backup) so that if you end up disliking the updated version, then you can simply use that APK to revert back to previous version. That was for non-rooted devices. For a rooted device, well, use Titanium Backup to take complete app backup.

Yes it is a great comment, it's not really an answer. Rooting would work, but it's more of a work around, as opposed to a solution. Cause unless you root(which isn't officially supported by google/manufactures unless you are on a "dev" device) downloading apk's from 3rd party websites and etc could lead to all kinds of problems and isn't recommended unless you know what you are doing. Maybe that's why it was a comment and not an answer. But to each their own, I guess.

@jer3my May be I'm misunderstood in the comment because of its length, but I focused very less on rooted solution. Android device be it rooted or unrooted will allow at least the backup of user installed apps (APK). There are many third party apps on Play Store that takes  backup (APK) of user installed apps. I mentioned about websites considering when the user updated the app from Play Store and is in dire need of downgrading it. -- not a  mention of root anywhere, right!  :)

@Firelord, True. While my devices have and will always been rooted. I have only heard bad things about non-rooted backup apps. Maybe I should try them before pushing people to root. XD I'll look into them! =p

Brian: Adding to Firelord's upvoted comment on this answer. If a comment seems to hold an answer, the approach at SE usually is: 1) leaving another comment asking the commenter to make that an answer, 2) wait at least a couple of days for the commenter to react, 3) if there's no reaction for a reasonable time (say 2 weeks), then write it up as an answer and consider making it community-wiki unless you significantly add to it. What you did is considered an "attempt to steal rep" – though that might not have been your intention ;)

My apologies. I'm new to posting on SE. Thanks for the polite criticism. I edited the answer to restore Firelords intent.

@Brian I appreciated that you want to learn and follow SE culture by editing your answer. However, your edit now invalidated the answer, and as such is not an answer anymore. In this case, it's probably better to delete your answer instead, unless it's rollbacked to previous state (honestly, considering for the site's moderation, I'm a bit confused what to do on this post before any participating users notice your latest comment)... [cont'd]

My suggestion before deleting this answer is, go to chat, tell participating users (Firelord and Izzy, possibly) that you will delete your answer acknowledging the mistake (though I honestly see it as a new user's misunderstood), and then delete this answer (deleting answer also remove reputation, in which you need 5 rep to be able to chat). Let's see what they'll think, and if they are ok with it, you may undelete, rollback and perhaps expand this answer.

@Brian I've rolled back to revision 1 with slight edit. But it's not enough to help the question. You might wanna add some input from you like how to take app backup (root/non-root) before updating it on Play Store, what are the safest or community trusted sources to download APKs if the app is mistakenly updated on Play Store. Both points are discussed already on this site, so you just have to search a little here.

@AndrewT. I bear no grudge towards Brian here (agree with you on "new user's mistake"). As it is currently put, it makes no sense: If a comment is an answer, the commenter should be the one converting it (and then, optionally, remove the comment). If Firelord agrees, I'd say we leave it as that for now (no need to make it a "big deal" – count it as "lesson learned" by Brian). To finally "save the day", I'd recommend Brian meeting us in chat: let's improve the answer to make it stay – and then the comments go away ;)

I have successfully downgraded an app just now. I have the old apk file, but when I try to install the apk, it won't install, because it's an older version (logcat tells me this).
I have to uninstall the app and then install the old version. This will lose all the app data, but fortunately I have that backed up too. I ssh into my phone and manually replace the configuration file because the app doesn't provide a way to export / import configurations. This step requires root access. I have the backups because I have root access, too.
UPDATE:
I followed Firelord's suggestions, but it succeeded a little different:
adb install -d -r xxx.apk

The two switches should be used together (-d for downgrading, and -r for replacing the existing one; so -d would mean to downgrade a non-existent app...). They can't be subtracted to -dr like GNU tools.
I'm using Android 6.0.1.

For system apps, there is a way to revert back to the version that initially came with your phone.  If you updated a system app from the play store and want to revert the app to the original system version, you can do so by opening it up on Play Store and click 'uninstall update'; this will revert it to a system update. Furthermore you can't even uninstall system apps through Google play, so it's a fail-safe method.
If it's a non-system app, this doesn't work.

Check out this website.
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/apps
On this website you can find freeware applications and many older versions.
Other alternative is F-Droid who allows you to choose which version you want to install. And all available apps on F-Droid are here.

I can figure one way to test if the applications are identical and it goes this way...
After the update let's say, and the user is not happy with the version of the application, but on the freewarelovers.com website is an older version. He can easy check if the application is the same. First leave the updated one, and then download the one from the website. he starts the installer. If the installers asks does the user wants to "update" the application that means it's the same app, if not it means it's the opposite.

Since most apps on Google Play are not open-source, I don't think this can be considered an answer of how to downgrade apps from Google Play.

authors: محمد البباوى


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In spite of sync is disabled, sync icon is shown in notification bar forever!
I am talking about Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos2 (GT-S6802). The undesirable thing is that Sync icon is always shown in notification bar. I checked Accounts and sync settings many times to make sure Auto sync is disable.

In above screen-shot you can see that Auto sync is not enabled. However, Sync icon/symbol is shown at notification area.
I also tried after enabling and re-disabling Auto sync options, restarting many times but sync icon at notification bar po-pups sometimes (1 min) after booting and remains forever.
So, Why this is happening and How do I get rid of it? (Is there any thing I'm missing?)

Note: I also tried turn-off data connection and background data as well but not succeed.

Unchecking "Show Notifications" under Settings -> Apps -> All Apps ->  and then checking it should remove it from Status Bar. You can leave it unchecked but it would make it would never ever show up in Status Bar and neither any notification in Notification Bar. But that's one option. // The other option is to force-stop the app which would also remove the icon, but that's a temporary solution.

@Firelord This is android 2.3 and no such option is available  for phone mentioned in question

I see. Then it would be better if you mention this detail in the question, and not in the comment.

I recently had the same issue - I have an old Samsung Galaxy S with Android 2.3.6.  I think somehow an app got updated when I was on WiFi, but I didn't know what it was. I noticed a "sync" icon appeared and would not go away.
I finally realized I could go to Settings → Applications → Battery Use, and find out that YouTube was the culprit.
Then I could force stop that app and the icon went away, but it came back after a reboot, so I also uninstalled YouTube app updates.

All you have to do is go to your google account, cancel the sync process and untick all google items for syncing

I had a same problem, by uninstall google play service this symbol can be removed

Good find, but that's not incredibly useful, because many apps won't work without Google Play Services.

@DanHulme If it can be uninstalled at all, on a non-rooted device, as it's a system app. Anyway, for 99% of users, even trying to uninstall Google Play Services is a horrendous idea!

I uninstalled YouTube and it went away.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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App permission management is running notification
Is there any option to get rid of those not useful, permament notifications on Android 5.1, in particular App permission management is running
They are just taking space and focus, are not helpful to the user at all.

Edit: please note that I'm asking about the notification messages, not the icons.

You can disable the notifications  for individual apps if you hold the notification and tap the bell icon.

@Firelord that didn't work for me, there's no bell icon for the "App permission management..." notification

I am sorry to say that it is not possible without root access.
If you do have root access, then there are a number of options. One simple method which I have used in the past is an app called "Notifications Off" from the Play Store. Another more advanced option is to use GravityBox via the Xposed framework.
But care needs to be taken. You can only choose between all or nothing for a given app. Therefore it is only safe to disabled the App Permission Management notifications if you have Permission Management switched off, otherwise you will miss all the dialog boxes which occur when an app requests a permission, causing many apps to be completely unusable.

causing many apps to be completely unusable So the simple answer is that it is impossible to have notifications without at least one (per app) permament notification displayed?

@Sfisioza it shouldn't be quite like that. It is only one App Permission Management notification which we are stuck with, and that is only if you choose to have it enabled. If you disable app permission management then you can dismiss the notification once after power up and it won't return until next reboot

The easiest way to fix this is to block the notification from showing. There are two ways to fix this.
First method

Go to your notification and long press the persistent notification.
Tap ! mark on the right side. That will take you to Settings
Select Block and turn it on.

Second method

Go to Settings → Apps
Select the app with the persistent notification
On the same screen select Notifications
Select Block and turn it on.

Yeah great block all notifications from the App permission management app and then dont get notified when an app needs to be granted permission, so you cant grant it. Great idea.

Well you choose if you want the notification or not

The detail is... We want to retain the pop up notifications which occur as part of the Permission Management app, but just not the one permanent one which is stuck there all the time. There doesnt seem to be a way to distinguish

Nonetheless, a vote up for the shortcut to notification settings. Didnt know that.

You can block both or non

Unfortunately on some phones with Android 5.1, you may not have the option to block notifications from the permissions app, i.e. the block button is absent for it; example: http://i.imgur.com/VMejQmA.png

Go to Settings -> Security -> Disable "App permissions" under Device administration section.

-1 this isn't what the OP asked for.

I had to turn it on first. Then turn it off.

Click on it until it changes to an android face and permission control text with an (i). Click on the (i) and disable it. Click on the app and force stop.
I think it does the trick.

Follow these instructions:

Launch Settings app → "Sound & notification".
Under "Notification" go to the entry "App notifications". You can search for application you want to block, open it, switch the "Block" button and you are done.

that application is not there

Actually Yes,You can do it some Apps that are available in PlayStore the app i came across is 360 Security it has an option to stack all your system notifications using Notification Manager Still it puts up an permanent Notification where you can see your unwanted notification Its better to have 1 notification compared to several occupying your Notification panel :)

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


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Read-only mode for Android?
I need a read-only Android test device like a https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
The system should run on the Samsung S4 and not on a CD.
Is there a way to set the android system in read-only mode?

Afraid not. Mind to explain the background? Maybe there are other ways to achieve your goal.

I consider to use the Android device for online banking instead of the LiveCD on the notebook.

And you don't want that to leave any traces, I see. If your S4 is already updated to Lollipop, you could check with Hueys answer and see if that works out. It's not really "read-only", but if changes applied in guest-mode are non persistent (i.e. gone as soon as you "log out of guest mode"), that might work for you.

In Lollipop, there's Guest Mode

(source: androidpit.info)

Swipe down from the top of the quick settings panel
Tap your profile
Select add guest to enable guest mode

The phone will look like it originally did without your custom settings, home screen changes, and most other personalisation. Guest Mode is also read-only, meaning no one can mess with the settings you've set (e.g. your ringtone, wallpaper, etc.)
If you add a screen lock (passcode or pattern), users won't be able to switch between Guest Mode and Owner at will.
Do note that even in Guest Mode, users can sign into the Play Store and download apps, though I believe the apps will not be available to other users and are not persistent between sessions.

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


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How do I manage users on my HTC One with Android 5?
I have HTC One (M7) with Android 5.0.2 (the unlocked ROM 7.17.1540.7 from HTC website). I want to set up several user accounts.
I've found two documented ways to do it:

The one concerns Nexus and consists of opening the settings and “ under 'Device,' touch[ing] Users.” There is no “Device” group, the only groups I have are “Wireless & networks”, “Personal” and “Phone”. There is no “Users” in any of those three groups.
The other one (also here) seems to apply to any Android 5 device, and asserts the following:

Pull down your notification shade, and you'll see your user icon

There is no user icon there. At the very top, there is the name of the operator. Below, I can see the time and date at the very left, and a settings icon at the right. If I expand quick settings panel, at the left of settings icon a new icon appears, allowing to go to “Edit Quick Settings.”

In settings, there is “Accounts & sync” element, but it looks like it handles online accounts used by different applications, making it possible, for example, to associate my Google account with the device. This is how “Add an account” looks like:

What am I doing wrong? How can I create users?

Open your Settings app and look through its list. There should be a 'Users' option somewhere in there.

@Arielle: nope, no “Users” option there. Checked twice, the only option related to accounts is “Accounts & sync.”

Multi-User AFAIK is not intended to be available on phones (one issue with that: who shall receive calls/SMS?) but for tablets only.

@Izzy: while this makes sense, several articles claim the opposite. Example: “Even a smartphone [...] now offers multiple user accounts.” The article asserts that: “When Google released Android 4.2 it included multiple user accounts for tablets; however, smartphone users were left in the cold. This has now changed.” If you have an official source which supports the lack of users for smartphones, please, promote your comment to an answer.

I have no current one. Still, experience is that only few manufacturers chose to include this feature with their phones. Some simply "hide" the corresponding menus, some chose other ways. You can check the settings app with e.g. Activity Launcher to see if the former is the case for you. If so, that gives me enough leverage to make it an answer :)

@Izzy: indeed, it seems to depend on the model of the phone. For instance, an official source indicates that “You can create up to 4 users on a phone and 8 users on a tablet.” on a Nexus device. On HTC One, Activity Launcher displays Users activity, but when launched, it just shows a blank screen.

This might not be a solution1 for your device and situation, but explaining the issue and possible help others working around it:
When it was "invented" with 4.2-jelly-bean, the multi-user feature was intended for tablets only. One of the reasons behind that was e.g. what to do with incoming calls and SMSs: to what user should those belong? Does the (one-and-only) SIM belong to the primary user? So what shall we do when (one of) the secondary user(s) is currently logged-in and working?

"It is not at all clear how it should work on a phone, specifically with respect to SMS and phone calls," writes Dan Morrill, Google Engineer and a regular on the popular /r/Android subreddit

Source: AndroidPolice
With 5.0-lollipop this seems to have slightly changed, as you've pointed out in a comment on your question:

Even a smartphone […] now offers multiple user accounts.
[…] When Google released Android 4.2 it included multiple user accounts for tablets; however, smartphone users were left in the cold. This has now changed.

Source: CNet
And the official pages even state, without explicitly restricting that to any manufacturer:

You can create up to 4 users on a phone and 8 users on a tablet.

Still, not all manufacturers decided to "jump that train". Some simply "patched out" the corresponding menu entries from the settings app (in which case you can use e.g. Activity Launcher to reveal and use it), others removed that functionality altogether (seemingly the case with your device). In the latter case, there's nothing you can do without rooting your device.1

1: solutions in your case require the device to be rooted; then follow up Arielle's answer

Warning: This solution requires a rooted device.

Download the Xposed Framework installer by opening this link on your device: http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer
Alternatively, scan this QR code.
Install and open the Xposed Installer app.
Enter the 'Framework' section, select 'Install/Update' then reboot your phone.
Once you've rebooted, open the Xposed Installer again.
Enter the 'Download' section, and search for 'Multiple Users'.
Select 'Multiple users for phone'.
Swipe right to the 'Versions' tab and select 'Download' on the newest version of the module (which will be shown at the top of the list).
Wait up to two seconds until a popup appears.
Select 'Install' and wait another two seconds.
Select 'Done' (not 'Open') and change from the 'Download' section to the 'Modules' section.
Tick the checkbox beside 'Multi Users'.
Reboot your device.
Open 'Settings' and go down to the 'Users' option, which will now be there.

My device is not rooted and I don't want to void the warranty, so I can't do that. Still, +1 for the solution which may work for people who can root their device.


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How to flash stock ROM over ADB sideload
After successfully rooting my phone, I mistakenly soft-bricked my phone by modifying the build.prop file. Some research tells me that the only way to repair it was to flash the stock ROM.
I have already downloaded the stock ROM. All I need to do is flash it.
I tried flashing the ROM using SP Flash Tool, as my phone uses a Mediatek processor. However, it doesn't work.
So now I thought of flashing over ADB sideload. So could you please tell me how is that supposed to be done?
In the command adb sideload <filename> whether the <filename> has to contain the zipped version of the stock ROM or something else.
Thanks.

What didn't work with SP Flash Tool which is the champion in flashing MTK phones? 2) Which device have you got, and which Android version did you brick? 3) Can you share the link or the tutorial from where you obtained the stock ROM? 4) Do you have a custom Recovery installed? 5) See this for ADB sideload.

The SP flash tool doesn't do anything when I connect my phone and click on "Download". 2. It's a Karbonn A52+ running 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. 3. I downloaded it from http://www.needrom.com/download/karbonn-a52-2 4. No, it's running the stock recovery.

Do you have a backup of the original build.prop? Can you still boot into... oh, stock-recovery. Strike that part. Can you flash a custom recovery (e.g. CWM/TWRP) to your device, and would that be an option?

Unfortunately I don't have the backup of the original build.prop, but I remember what I had edited.. I had just added a line to the top.. And unfortunately I don't have much idea about flashing custom ROMS..

The ROM you downloaded is a scatter based ROM meant to be flashed using SP Flash Tools (the instructions at that needrom page are half-baked)  and I don't think adb sideload would help with that ROM (that just an opinion because I never tried flashing a scatter based ROM using adb sideload) // There is an alternative here.

And please use @ followed by the name of the person to whom you want to convey your point, otherwise, no body will come to know what you wrote. (e.g. @Izzy for your last comment).

Yupp, @Firelord is right: without his comment I'd get no note (only OP always receives notifies). To get an idea, you could start with our clockworkmod-recovery tag-wiki. It would allow you to run ADB while in recovery, mount /system, and revert your changes. // Hint for "next time": Most stuff you can try out using adb shell and the setprop command. If that crashes your device, a simple reboot fixes it :)

@Izzy I tried adb shell command but it shows error:closed..

@Firelord could you please hunt me a .pac ROM for my device, as I'm unable to do so..

@Firelord thanks for the link.. It shows me a link to Google Drive, i.e., https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0Bx-UuraN82UeQWNPR05SSmUwWVE
So after decompressing it would it give me a .pac file?

@TanmayVij Sure, stock-recoveries usually do not have an ADB daemon running. custom recoveries like CWM/TWRP do, that was what I was pointing to. So you'd first need to get a custom recovery installed, then boot into that, and then you can run adb shell. That's not only a restriction of MTK devices, by the way ;)

FINALLY MY DEVICE IS RUNNING FINE :) :) The SP Flash tool worked like heaven for me :) The problem was I didn't have an SD Card in my phone while using it. After inserting the card it worked fine for me :) :)

As I said the very first time, it is the champion. Now that the problem has been solved, could you please write an answer to your question so that others can benefit from it? Please be detailed.

I finally was able to solve this problem, as Firelord said, adb sideload wasn't able to help in the case of this ROM. And SP Flash tool turns out to be the best for MediaTek devices.
Most of the ROMs (Stock or Custom) are available on http://www.needrom.com, so I would recommend it to others for downloading ROMS. However, the website requires signing up in order to download ROMs.
SP Flash Tool, in order to work, needs the following things:

A formatted SD Card in your Mobile Device
Battery to be re-inserted after removing (within 10-15 seconds)
Media Tek VCOM drivers to be installed in your PC. (Link: https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B9srKhKuVIMnalFkV3EzWjVXdUE)
A scatter-based ROM for your device.

Note: SP Flash tool needs to be Run as Administrator while using it.

A factory data reset from the Recovery mode is advisable after successful flashing.


text:
Hotmail contacts not syncing in android 5.1 GPE
I've just recently flashed my rom with Android GPE 5.1 on my HTC M7 and it's working great however there's a slight problem where for some reason my hotmail contacts are not syncing after I've set up my hotmail account in Gmail using exchange setup. On my old HTC M7 sense my hotmail accounts synced up and all appeared fine.
When I go to Accounts settings I can see my hotmail account is there under Gmail and I can see it shows Contacts, Calendars and Emails show as synced but only Calendars and Emails are indeed synced as I could see them in Gmail and my calendar app but I can't see any of my hotmail contacts.
I also tried installing outlook and adding my hotmail account but outlook is not appearing under the Account settings.
Anyone got a similar problem and know how to resolve this as I don't want to manually export and import my hotmail into google account?

I did a clean wipe, set up my hotmail in Gmail as an exchange account. At first it didn't seem to work after a few updates I now see the contacts again.


text:
How to transfer (and then watch) video files from PC to my Android phone (mi4)?
I have an Android Xiaomi mi4 and I'd like to know if I can copy video files to it from my PC. Is there any straightforward way to do so ?

Which OS are you using on PC? If its Windows 7 or above then MTP mode in Android would work straight out of the box. If you're using Linux then it depends upon what does straightforward means to you, but the default is to use MTP. You can  take a look here or here. // There are also options like using Airdroid which would work on any desktop OS.

Do you want to copy the files manually each time – or would you like your "video storage" to be synced between your PC and your Android device? Or would you like to hear about both options?

Using a USB cable is a straightforward way to do the file transfer. But if you want to do it wirelessly there are lots of app in play store which does this but your phone and PC have to be connected to the same network or you could use your phone's hotspot feature but that requires a computer a wifi-receiver to receive file via hotspot or simply a laptop will do. I personally use Xender for file transfers as I'm mostly connected with the same network. Incase I'm not I use my mobile hotspot feature to transfer file from and to my laptop.

You should be able to do it quite easily if you have installed the correct drivers on your computer. If you want to do it wireless, AirDroid (http://web.airdroid.com/) can be a solution.

And what is the need of the drivers? I've three different phones running different Android versions, and I never explicitly installed drivers for any of them for the purpose of transferring files.

Indeed I now it works out of the box in many cases, but few phones are less easy to deal with regarding usb drivers. Can you try installing the correct driver from this website ? http://androidxda.com/download-xiaomi-usb-drivers

@victorleduc since when does AIRdroid need a cable? Sure, it can be used via USB. But as the name AIR(droid) suggests, it was built to work wirelessly over WiFi. Last time I've used that app (a few years ago) it worked that way – and I very much doubt the dev removed that feature. Au contraire, it now even works over the internet if you want that (which was when I stopped using it).

You are right. That is why I said "If you want to do it wireless"

The official Xiaomi Mi PC Suite should solve your issue. The Global (English) version can be found here.
In case it doesn't, you may try to download USB driver for your device manually on MIUI forum through this link. However, do take note that these drivers are not officially endorsed by Xiaomi.

I own a Mi4W myself and it really doesn't connect to PC out of the box.

Note that the link to the official Xiaomi Mi PC Suite is already dead. You might still be able to find alternative sources for the download, but be careful of suspicious sites. Also, the particular link to Android XDA (not the XDA Devs) is also dead.


text:
Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos: Odin flashed the custom Recovery but device boots into stock Recovery
I am new to rooting Android. I tried using Odin 3.10 to root my Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos. I successfully flashed CWM (Odin displayed pass message). However when I restart phone in Recovery mode, it shows Android with an error symbol, and then loads the stock Recovery.
I am trying to flash CM12. What's the issue, and how do I fix it because I want to root my phone.

Before you flash the recovery, untick the Auto Reboot option in ODIN. Then flash the recovery. After flashing in done, reboot your device directly to recovery mode from download mode bu pressing Vol up + Power + Home button together. Now you will see the CWM recovery is booted in your device. Now you can reboot normally and your CWM will be installed.

The question is about CWM, not TWRP. This is the kind of mistake you'll make if you paste your other answers without paying attention.

sorry about the mistake. I will be more careful. But my answer is correct. This is the way to install custom recovery in samsung devices when this problem is occurred.


text:
Unable to use all the memory of Allview A5 Smiley
I bought some days ago an Allview A5 Smiley. I installed some applications and made some photos. Now, I saw that I can't install files bigger than approximately 200 MB because it is only free space on phone. This is strange, because the phone has 4 GB of storage. I looked in Settings and I saw that I still have about 1.5 GB free, but I can't use for applications. Why this happens and how I can fix it?
Some screens shots:
(Click image to enlarge)

Thanks!

Try the insufficient-memory tag wiki , it may be helpful

I added a as of diskinfo.

Sorry, Mihail: that's an all-present issue. Aleksandar pointet to the correct place for how to deal with it. User data (and apps you install) are stored in a separate partition, which is almost full on your device – so no matter how much space you've got elsewhere, apps still want to go there and can't.

I had the same problem on an Allview P5 Life and I solved it by simply upgrading to Android 5.0 Lollipop.
I used to have an A5 Smiley before this one as well, and I had the same problem... what I did to make it better was to root the phone and remove the bloatware saving a pretty substantial amount of space. This is however not really recommended and you should do it at you'r own risk.
You could also try to install another ROM. There's no official upgrade but you can probably find an unofficial compatible ROM on the internet. This is a very risky endeavour and I really don't recommend it... even I didn't do it and instead left the phone as-is and gave it to my father who uses it only for calling.
TLDR; There's no official or easy way to get more space. The only two ways that I know of are risky and require at least some technical know-how. You'd be better off getting another phone.


text:
AndrOpen Office opens SD documents in read-only on Lenovo A7600-F
I've got a fairly new Lenovo A7600-F, which has updated to Android 5 since I purchased it.  I'm also fairly new to Android, having gotten my first device (Galaxy S4) five months ago.  I wouldn't call myself a power user.
Because I write on my tablet, and on my home computer (Kubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, kept up to date), I searched for a method to directly edit the ODT files from LibreOffice on the tablet, and found AndrOpen Office.  Aside from font availability limitations, this has been working pretty well, except for one thing: when I connect the tablet to my computer, I can only access files on the SD card, and then only write to a single folder (LOST.DIR), and files stored there open in AndrOpen Office Writer as read-only, even after formatting the SD card in the tablet.  I've tried moving the AndrOpen Office app to SD storage, and that failed, but Android gave no indication (that I've seen) why.  Opening a document from internal storage and using "Save As" to put it on the SD card also fails; though I didn't note the exact error message, it said something about "nonexistent object" and "nonexistent file".
I'm able to install other apps directly to SD card when I've selected the SD card as primary write location via Settings.  I'm able to copy files to and from the SD card using the File Browser that came pre-installed on the tablet (I'm not sure if this is part of Android or something Lenovo installed; my phone is a Verizon device, and they modify the OS a good bit, making it uncertain to compare built-in apps between phone and tablet).  This makes me confident the SD card isn't mounted in read-only mode.
How can I save documents from AndrOpen Office directly to the SD card, or open documents from the SD card in editable form (i.e. to save back to the original file)?

I've got no Lollipop to check and confirm, but with Kitkat Android was messed up concerning SDcard completely (apps only had read access), which on Lollipop was rather "worked around" instead of being fixed: apps need to be specifically prepared to work with the new API if they want write to SD. My guess is AndrOpen is not prepared for that. If that's the case, you'll have to contact the devs.

I haven't had problems saving to SD with my phone (even before it upgraded to Lollipop) -- but I haven't tried to run AndrOpen Office on it.

Go to 'Other cloud storage' and your external sd card will be listed there, somewhere on the bottom left. Navigate to the document and you will be able to open ït in read/write mode.


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problem loading fastboot and recovery
I have a Croma CRXT1125 tablet. I was trying to flash a custom recovery and some problem occurred. The recovery failed to flash and the stock recovery is also not opening now. Stock recovery worked fine earlier but now when I press vol down + power button the options for normal boot, fastboot mode, and recovery mode appear; when I try to open recovery mode it just shows the name of the tablet as in boot screen and switches off and then switches on after few seconds to boot into normal mode.
I think I have deleted my stock recovery by mistake. Apps like Flashify require an already installed recovery and thus they too shut down the tablet AND THE SAME THING REPEAT itself.
So I tried AIO flasher on PC. It required my tablet to boot I fastboot mode. But when I tried to boot into fastboot using the same way as recovery vol down + power and select fastboot the tablet suddenly hangs and I have to hard reset it.
In simple words: I cannot open recovery nor fastboot and thus I'm unable to flash a custom rom. Please help anyone.


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How can I control my tablet from my PC, while using it as a second monitor?
I have a not-so-powerful computer, and sometimes, when I'm running games, tabbing out is bothersome. I managed to connect my android tablet as a second monitor for Windows, however I'd like to shift workload even more, by using the Android OS, and not just streaming Windows's stuff to the device.
Basically, I'd like something like this:
I'm playing a game, I decide I want to lookup something on chrome, move mouse to the left/right, it appears on my tablet, I open the chrome app, and google what I was looking for.
Is this possible, and if yes, what apps do I need?


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Is Link2SD completely safe on a rooted device?
I have a rooted device, and I was wondering:
Is Link2SD app safe to allow root access to? Is it a scam or anything?
Does it work as is says it does and does it actually save the stuff to the SD card?
And can it break or damage my device or apps in any way?

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Nobody can give you guarantees, but Link2SD has a good reputation. Check out our link2sd tag-wiki and questions using that tag to read more.

Like what @Izzy said, can't guarantee anything, but with 10m downloads and 1/4 m reviews with an avg rating for 4.3 in the playstore. I am pretty sure its safe. Edit: As far as, how does it work and whatnot. Take a look at their faq. http://www.link2sd.info/faq or the Wiki link Izzy provided.

Noting related  to root is completely  safe (tampering may brick your device) ,  but, like the fine men above me said ,  it is deemed reliable and safe

That safe part you asked would only invite opinions here since when it comes to testing the code only the source code investigation would lead you to final answer. If you've the complete code, start investigating it, or look for somebody who already did that.

But does it actually move the apps to the SD card like it says? And if I install an OTA update will my apps still work as I will lose root?


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How to report a contact as spam in Whatsapp?
I received a message from a new phone number about some advertising information. When I opened the message I saw "Report Spam" option to report the spam to whatsapp. However once I replied to that message to not to send anymore ads to me, the option for reporting that contact as spam is not visible.
In the menu there is an option to block that contact. However, I feel that blocking a contact is personal choice of an user of whatsapp. And blocking the contact is different from reporting the contact as a spammer right? Or Does the "Block" and "Report Spam" option does the same job?
I haven't added that contact in my phone yet. But I want to report that number as spam to whatsapp. Now that Report Spam option is gone, Is there any method to report a contact as spam even after replying to that contact?

After replying to the contact, the option still gets invisible. But in the menu you can still go and report the contact and block it which reports as spam and blocks it.

Open contact which you replied and want to mark as spam.
Open menu, and press "More" and press "Block" option
There will be three options "Block", "Cancel" and "Report and Block". Press the report and block option to mark the contact as spam and also block it.

Try this:
Don't save the contact and delete the conversation. If the contact messages you again, the option to report as spam and block should technically show up again.

Okay. But there is no guarantee that the spammer will use the same number to send message again to me. What if I want to block that particular number as spam? Doing that will stop the spammer from sending any messages to anyone in the future.

@Lucky In that case, your problem solved itself. ;) If it does come from a new number, you already know what to do.

Ahh! You din't understand my question. Yes we cant report spam for a new number. But what if I replied a known spammer and how do I block that number from sending spams in the future? Got it?

@Lucky Try deleting the chat. If the option to report doesn't come up... someone else will hopefully report it in future. :P You slipped up on one spammer. Don't slip up on the others. ;)

You can do one of two things:

Hold your finger on the Spam-chat, and press the crossed-out speaker button at the top. It does not block it, but it mutes it.
Go onto the Spam-chat, tap the menu icon (top right), tap more, then tap block.

Then to report it, you can either contact WhatsApp, or just hope for the best. They removed report spam because, ironically, people were spamming it.


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Why are some old images downloaded from the web always sorted under "Today" in Gallery?
When I open the gallery and sort by Time, there is always a section "Today", and it has several images I downloaded from the web...... months ago.
That's literally it. Why are old images showing under "Today"? There are other images I got from the web that are actually correctly sorted in older sections. But under "Today" I got around 20 web images that have been sitting there for months.
One thing I noticed is that this doesn't happen with photos taken with the phone. Such photos are always correctly sorted. So it's something with web images.
Android 5.0, Galaxy S5.

I don't have S5 so I would like to know: is the problem specific to the default Gallery or with any Gallery app like Piktures?

@Firelord interesting! I installed Piktures and the same photos are at the top when I sort it by date! Not sure what's wrong with those images.

Could you please check for surety the time-stamp on those images, using your file explorer?

@Firelord in the Gallery, I use "details" on the images, and I discovered that the year is set to something like 4235 or something high like that. This explains the sorting problem. However, I don't understand how could that have happened and, more importantly: how to fix it without actually deleting the images.

Which OS in your PC are you using? 2) Is the device rooted? See if this app helps in your case.

@Firelord     1) Mac OSX     2) No it isn't

You may want to look into some EXIF editors to edit the metadata of those images (specifically the time). I can't name any great editors in particular, but there are plenty of apps and programs available as I looked through. If I find any good ones, I'll be sure to tell you the names of them. Best of luck!

Here's one that seems to work great, and allows multiple photos to be edited at a time: Photo exif editor

Ok first, if the photos already have a wrong timestamp, there's nothing your phone is doing wrong. You just need to readjust the time stamps. Do this easily by using any photo editor on your phone or pc and open them and save them with a different name or as is. It will change the time to your specific machine, phone or pc time, do it with every photo and then delete the previous one and add these to your gallery and let it sync again. It will correct itself after that.


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How can I view an Excel file in MS Outlook OneDrive on my phone?
I have a Moto E.
I have an Outlook mail account that has some MS Excel files I uploaded from my computer to OneDrive.
If I log in to my Outlook account (using the Chrome App) and go to OneDrive in my Outlook account, I can see my documents listed. I can open one of my Excel documents. But, when I try to open another one, I get an error:
"We can't open the workbook because it contains features that we can't show in the browser."
There is also an Download button below the message. When I click on that button, it just reopens the same error page.
I really don't know why one file opens and one doesn't. They were both created with MS Office 2007 versions of Excel on a computer. They open fine on a computer.
Anyone have any ideas?
Note: I am only using the Chrome app. I am not using the Outlook app or the OneDrive app.
I only want to open/view the file.

I realize that there is a lot going on here. There are a lot of layers/systems working: Android, the Chrome app, the Outlook website, OneDrive, Excel...
One thing I have tried to do with my new smartphone is to NOT load it up with things. I thought the most efficient thing to do in this case was to use the Chrome app to access the Interest where I could check my Outlook account through the website. But, I also realize in the short time I have had my phone that there are times when getting/installing an app is the best way to go.

I found an easier solution than going through my Outlook mail account to One Drive. I tried the MS Excel app for Android. You can access a One Drive account through it by signing in to your Outlook account. So, if I need to check email, I will go to that website. If I need to access One Drive, I will use the app.
I really don't like some app versions of various websites.  I have no problems using the Yahoo! email web page through my phone. I like it better than the app. And, I can use the Outlook website just fine. I don't see a need for the app. I guess it is personal preference on stuff like this.
Thanks for all the replies.

The issue is with Chrome not working properly with some web apps, especially MS ones. Basically Chrome is trying to load a OneDrive app, which is also trying to load an Excel app, all of this on a mobile device using nothing but JavaScript.
The solution I use is to open Office documents such as Word and Excel in Google Docs. Google Docs is a free download for Android devices and is able to open most common Office formats.
I would also suggest downloading the OneDrive app as this will allow you to open files stored in your OneDrive from other Android applications directly without having to download them locally first.
If you're having problems downloading Excel files from within Chrome, it's likely because the wrong default program is selected for that file type. Since this is being done in the Chrome app, you need to go into the app settings screen on your Android device, find Chrome and choose the option to restore or remove default associations. Once you do this, the next time you try to download an Excel file from within Chrome, you should see a dialog box asking you which program you want to open this file with.

Thanks for the reply, Andrew. I am going to try the OneDrive app first. I was hoping to just access the file through my Outlook account using OneDrive. I was hoping I didn't have to download it and then use another app to access the file. I also have MS Word files in my One Drive account.  I cannot find the settings on my phone for the Chrome app to select the program to open certain file types. I have seen such windows on a computer.

In Android only the running program can decide which external app  to use when launching a file type. There's no way to change this outside of the program (unless you're rooted and want to edit some Linux files).

Instead, when a program interacts with a file type it doesn't support for the first time, it prompts the user to select an application to use. Once made default the only way to change it is to go into the originating app's settings (from Android-Settings-Apps) and choose the option to rest defaults. This will let you choose a new program to use the next time that app encounters an unsupported file type.

Thanks for the info. I am still new to my smartphone. Apparently, I didn't have any app to open an Excel file which is why I didn't get the prompt you mentioned. I did try the OneDrive app. But, apparently I still need another app for the Excel file. Good thing this is not a pressing issue for me.


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Decrypt SD card on a phone with a broken screen
I have a Glaxay S4 and I know the password to decrypt the card, and the phone's memory... but the screen is broken and doesn't display anything. Otherwise, the phone is fine.
It's my understanding that one phone cannot decrypt another phone's sd card... so that leads me to wonder if there anyway to remote into the phone and get it to decrypt it's own card without taking any input from the screen (or maybe some other method that I haven't thought of)?

Do you have a computer with an SD card reader (and an adapter for microSD cards)? If so, you can use that to decrypt the card. The actual solution depends on what operating system you're using on it - may be a bit easier if you're using Linux.

I'll be more than happy to install a linux VM on my machine, if it works. I'm just not sure how the encryption key is built and whether or not there is a device specific salt.

Assuming that only the screen is broken, that your device thinks everything is ok and boots up and runs normally you might be able to remotely decrypt the card or access the data, but I think it's a long shot. First, the phone would have to be rooted. Then you would have to connect it to your computer and run a remote access program like Telnet or SSH. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to do this without enabling or configuring the client device first.
From what I've read, the S4 doesn't use any hardware encryption so you should be able to reproduce the phone inside a VM running on a PC. You would need to obtain the exact ROM your S4 uses,  load it into an Android emulator (try Virtual Box) then configure the ROM with your phone's unique (ESN/IMEI, etc.). There's no guarantee this will work as I haven't come across any information on what algorithm the S4 uses for encryption or how it builds the key, but I don't think there's any other way besides fixing the screen.

The phone is encrypted as well, so I have to enter in the password during the boot process, it restarts and then boots up... I'm then prompted to enter in the password again, to unlock it. Because of this... I don't think that telnet or ssh is an option. I can't even get it to boot without interacting with it.I'll try the VM option... it would REALLY surprise me if it didn't use some kind of device specific salt, though.


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What are the current rooting options for Galaxy S6?
I've sort of been following the development scene for the A6, enough to know that there are multiple rooting options, each with their own pros and cons. What are the current ways people are rooting their S6s?

It seems the more popular way people are rooting the S6 is via Chainfire's autoroot method. You can find more info on XDA. http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/orig-development/cf-auto-root-t3056630

Pingpong Root, Uni Kernel, Odin, CF Auto Root. Google them along with your device model and you should be good to go. Keep in mind, once you upgrade to 5.1.1 there is no way to root without tripping Knox, unless you have the T-Mobile or international variant, using the engineering bootloader (http://wyckedroot.com/). If you want root you need to trip knox.

These are my options by which you can root your device:-

Odin (I prefer)
Kingo
Oneclick

See this link to know more.


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Is there a way to reinstall a built in application in my Android phone?
I accidentally  (unknowingly )  disabled  built in apps, I recently realized that I really need a few of them back. How do I reinstall them or bring them back?

If you really just DISABLED the apps, you can go to the Settings> Application Manager> All, and find them alphabetically to re-enable them. Just bring up the setting screen for the needed ones, and turn them back on. If you REMOVED the apps some way (which generally required ROOT), some re-installation is needed.

You can find disabled apps in Settings, Then App Manager(might be named something similar, per your device) Then you should be able to swipe left and right to find Downloaded apps, Apps on SD Card, All Apps, Then there should be one for disabled apps. Select the app and it will bring up the menu you used to disable them. Then you can re-enable them.


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Android Studio doesn't detect my LG G Stylo
Thanks to help from this group, I was able to turn on USB debugging on my LG G Stylo phone. Now When I plug it in, Windows 8 detects it. Thing pops up asking me to choose what happens when the phone is plugged in, but it does not appear in the choose device dialog. It is empty, the device is not there.
I checked the device manager, and under portable devices it has it listed with the driver working OK, saying it came from Microsoft.

You might need to change the connection mode to PTP (happened on most of my phones)

Check out a site like. This [http://androidxda.com/download-lg-usb-drivers] and find a usb driver for your phone then install and try again. Because windows default drivers arent for debugging if I recall correctly


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Do OTA updates accumulate if you let them be? Or are they strictly incremental?
I'm on a Nexus 5 running 5.0. I used to get a system update notification for 5.0.1, but since I have Xposed, I decided to wait. After a while, I started getting an OTA notification for 5.1. What will happen if I choose to update? Will it automatically first install 5.0.1 and then 5.1? Or do I need to search online for an OTA zip for 5.0.1, install that and then proceed with 5.1?

I never encounter this "problem" (well, I'm rooted and always flash the full image file when it's available), but I somewhat believe you don't need to search for previous OTA for reasons: it's not user-friendly at all and very troublesome for casual users, when Google is trying their best to make it available for all. I don't have any references at the moment though.

The OTA zip size for 5.0 to 5.0.1 is 13.27MB. 5.0.1 to 5.1 is 220.68MB. But 5.0 to 5.1 is 220.81MB. o.O So what should I understand? It's clearly not A + B = C.


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Power Efficiency: Network mode 4G LTE vs 3G GSM/WCDMA?
Which network mode is more power efficient: LTE 4G or GSM 3G?
I assume using a 4G network uses more power even if you don't use the data connection, as from the little I understand about mobile networks - the frequency/encoding is completely different to 3G.
When I have "LTE/WCDMA/GSM (auto connect)" network mode active on my phone, I typically get 0-1 bars signal. But with "WCDMA/GSM (auto connect)" mode, my phone consistently has 4 bars signal.
Does the way Android handles network connections require less power when there is a stronger network signal - whether the connection is LTE or WCDMA or GSM - (I am thinking something like the network connection refresh rate might be dependant on the signal strength?!), or does the technology behind 4G simply require more power to keep connected and it doesn't matter what OS version you are using?
In case it's relevant, I'm using Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (SM-N910C) on stock Android 5.0.1.

This is a big one which is tough to give a complete definitive answer.
There are a ton of variables involved that could easily change the the end data as per you. A few of things are involved are conditions like theory, optimal, or real world environment:

The carrier and their network, the technology they utilize.
The data type itself and whose definition of what is really needs to be met to be considered truly that type.

To give you an idea in your question about refresh rate, first, whose definition of efficiency should you go by meaning? Is it solely based on an acceptable signal strength? Like, one data type refreshes at an exact unit of time because there's just maybe a chance of a better signal even if it's already at a super strong level, then add the tower hand-offs, oh my. Wow that grew fast.
Check out this excerpt from a book reference by O'Reilly which includes references to reports and papers to go deeper if wanted.

Wow, so its a lot more complicated than I thought! That book link was really helpful too @bo-lawson! Thank you :D


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Switch to default keyboard in password fields
I primarily use SwiftKey keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. I want to find a way to automatically switch to the default Samsung keyboard when I enter a password. Currently I have to pull down the notification tray and choose "Select input method". I want to have this automated. If it is not possible to detect whether you are entering a password then maybe I can do it on a per app basis.

I can think of two approaches right now. One is very easy, which is to use a Firewall to restrict SwiftKey from getting connected to Internet, so that you don't have to worry about logged passwords getting uploaded somewhere.  Second is, the table secure of settings.db (Settings Storage) has keys like default input method (Samsung/Swiftkey) and some related keys. Change their values using Tasker when your specific app is launched and you're good to go. I don't have a Samsung device, otherwise, I would've attempted to answer. //Is the device rooted, and which Android version are you using?

I like the firewall approach. I am rooted and running Kit Kat 4.4.2. Can you recommend an application I should look at to control firewall settings?

Since the device is rooted, look no further than AFWall+. It's easy as well as effective.  // There is a third method I forgot to write last time: you can on-the-fly disable the SwiftKey when your specific app is launched, because when Swiftkey is disabled (i.e. not available), Android will tend to fall back to what's available keyboard which would be the Samsung one. This technique can be achieved by Tasker, and while it's theoretical I believe it would also work.

Yes I have tried it. I can verify it is blocking SwiftKey from sending packets to the web. The app is a little annoying since at first it blocked all web traffic. However by using the firewall logs Im starting to 1 by 1 re-enable applications to access web. If you want to write formal answer. I can accept it as solved.

The goal may seem to be switching the keyboard app when the password is to be entered, but the real issue is to protect the password from being logged by third-party keyboard apps, or at least be restricted from being uploaded somewhere. In that case, I suggest using a firewall so that you can restrict any app from connecting to Internet, let alone it can send the passwords among other things.
Be it a rooted device or not, there are firewall apps available to suit your needs. Some of them are mentioned here:

Closing internet access for some apps (see my answer here)
Block apps from accessing the Internet on Android device

I've tested two firewall apps: AFWall+ (needs root access), and NoRoot Firewall, former tested on Android 4.2.1, 4.4.2 and 5.0.2, while the latter is tested on Android 4.2.1, and 4.4.2.
Since your device is rooted, I suggest using AFWall+ to be in control of the device. It runs default in White list mode i.e. all the apps including System apps and Kernel are denied root access. You can change that mode however.
Things to do

Install the app
Tap the three dots vertical line next to lens icon → Preferences, and check the options suitable to you. I prefer:

Show notification icon
Show filter option -- it will break the app list into "All", "Core", System", and "User".
Active Rules
Confirm box on AFWall+ disable
Enable Firewall logs
Turn on log service
Device Admin; and others you won't need

Choose Blacklist mode over White list mode if you intend to block specific apps while allowing Internet access to everything apps
 (Click image to enlarge)

Find your app in the list (under "All" or "User") and check the boxes at its left if you're in Blacklist mode, or have it unchecked for White list mode.
Choose Apply by tapping that three dots vertical line, and you're good to go. You can check Firewall logs after sometime for assurance.

As for NoRoot Firewall, it's very intuitive, straightforward, runs in Blacklist mode, so you would know what to do.

However, if you're still adamant to use the idea of switching the keyboard app, then I suggest you take a look at my comments:
Delve into settings.db

The table secure of settings.db (Settings Storage) has keys like default_input_method (Samsung/Swiftkey) and some related keys. Change their values using Tasker when your specific app is launched and you're good to go.

Enable/Disable the app on-the-fly

You can on-the-fly disable the SwiftKey when your specific app is launched, because when SwiftKey is disabled (i.e. not available), Android will tend to fall back to the available keyboard which would be the Samsung one. This technique can be achieved by Tasker, and while it's theoretical, I believe it would also work.

I'd like people to know that any app with Accessibility Service enabled can record what's being shown (including what is being typed) on the screen. This answer doesn't address that.

authors: Алексей Павликов


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How can I create a shortcut to a particular Google keep label?
I would like to create a shortcut to my Google keep items labeled "shopping". How can I do this?

That would be great. Of course, what I really want is a widget that opens a to-do list and lets me add an item via voice.

You can't do that. The only way is to add Google Keep widget on your home screen.
Then you can list all your labels and access the very fast.

Well that's suboptimal.

I know, I was looking for that solution too, but Google Keep doesn't  have that feature.

I'm leaving Google feedback on this. I hope they will add this feature soon.

Apparently that is not possible with Google Keep. You can only have a widget to the label list.
I assume you need to access a list/note very frequently. To resolve that let you most used note be on the top, that's how I manage.

How do you get a widget to the label list?

Just like any other widget on the Home Screen. Keep has two widgets of it's own. Check that on your device's home screen;varies from oem to oem.


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Android rooting from Ubuntu
I gather that when it comes to rooting an Android device,

one needs a separate machine (e.g. a desktop computer) to carry out the rooting steps from;
the details of the procedure depend strongly on the specific hardware of the Android device.

I want to root a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 tablet, and pretty much all the recipes I've found online for this particular hardware work only when the second machine (the one mentioned in (1) above) is running some version of Windows.
I have not been able to find instructions specific to rooting a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 device from Ubuntu (or Debian, etc.).
Any suggestions?
(I know that some people have managed to root an Android device from a VBox running Windows, but I'd consider this the absolute last resort, since it adds a whole new layer of complexity to the problem.)

I successfully rooted my tablet using Ubuntu.  In fact, I could not manage to do it on Windows.  I do not have suggestions specific to your device, but one thing that is different about Ubuntu is that you have to add a rule to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules so that your Android device can connect over USB.  In my rooting process I also had to install adb.

Have you tried KingRoot? It looks like the only non-Odin method, but I haven't tried it.
Install KingRoot (enable external sources to install)
Run KingRoot
Tap "Try to Root"
Check success with Root Checker app (available on Google Play)
link to download:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/devdb/project/dl/?id=13663
My source:
http://trueandroid.com/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-8-4-sm-t705-without-pc/
Here's some extra info on it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/one-click-root-tool-android-2-x-5-0-t3107461


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How to upgrade my AnkiDroid flashcards from 1.x to 2.0?
I am upgrading from AnkiDroid 1.x to AnkiDroid 2.0.
What is the upgrade procedure to make sure my flashcards and learning progress is not lost?

Copied from https://code.google.com/p/ankidroid/wiki/Upgrading because Google Code will become read-only and shut down soon.

How to upgrade to AnkiDroid 2.0
Introduction
With the release of AnkiDroid 2.0, you need to upgrade your decks to the new (significantly improved) Anki 2 format. Besides upgrading your decks, you also need to upgrade to version 2.0 or later of Anki on your desktop if you use it. Anki2 brings a number of fundamental changes to the learning style which also affect AnkiDroid. Please take some time to read about them here.
Upgrading Decks
This guide is for Windows users; please allow 15-60 min to do this depending on your level of familiarity with Anki/AnkiDroid/PC.
If you are still having trouble after following this guide, post in the forum for personal assistance.
Please ensure that you have the latest version of AnkiDroid installed!
Part A: Backup old AnkiDroid files to your PC

Connect your device to the PC with USB cable
Open windows explorer and click on your Android device
You should see a folder called "AnkiDroid" listed in your device
Copy this "AnkiDroid" folder to your Desktop
You should see all of your decks as DECKNAME.anki files. If not, go to the backup folder and copy and paste them into the AnkiDroid folder.

Part B: Upgrade old decks with Anki desktop software

Install the latest Anki desktop software from http://ankisrs.net
Open the Anki desktop software that you just installed
In this Anki desktop software go to file->import
Now navigate to to Desktop/AnkiDroid -> Change ("Files of type" > "Anki 1.2 Deck") -> Choose the first .anki deck
Do the same thing for each .anki deck in the AnkiDroid folder
Check that all of your decks are now listed in the main Anki software

Part C: Copy the upgraded decks back to your device

In Anki Desktop software go File->Export and click "Export" button
You should see a message saying a file called "collection.apgk" has been saved on your desktop
Go to your desktop and copy the "collection.apgk" file
Now open your mobile device again with windows explorer
Navigate to the AnkiDroid folder
Right click and paste the "collection.apgk" file
Now open AnkiDroid, open the menu and choose "Import cards" then click OK
Now you should see all your decks there ready to start reviewing.

Part D: Move any media on your device to the "collection.media" folder
This is not necessary if you don't use media

In windows explorer open the AnkiDroid folder on your Android device again
Confirm that there is a folder called "collection.media" and some other folders that look like "deckname.media"
Open the first "deckname.media" folder
Select all files (press Ctrl+A on the keyboard)
Right click and Copy
Now go back and open the "collection.media" folder
Right click and paste
Wait for all the media files to finished moving
Repeat steps 4 to 8 for each of the other "deckname.media" folders
Confirm that all your media files are now in the "collection.media" folder
Optional: you can now delete the "deckname.media" folders if you like since these are not used in AnkiDroid2

Note: This method can't handle different files with identical names.
More help
If you are still having problems with upgrading, please visit the main Help page.


text:
How to reset Battery chart
I have an Android tablet (wifi only; no cell service). Sometimes, I want to reset the chart it shows in the battery menu, so that it only shows the last few min instead of the last who knows how many hours.  I know it can be done because I did it once before, though I wasn't paying attention to how it happened that time. Thus, I no longer remember what I did that time. So how can I do it again?

By clearing that Chart you mean that you have to reset the "batterystats.bin" file in your system. For that few apps are available on the Playstore but unfortunately you need to ROOT your device since those are system files.
One such app is here
Hope that helps!

what about the opposite?  after 5 days i am at risk of the battery chart resetting by itself as soon as i start charging, even if I don't hit 90%.  i was able to get as high as 8 days but recently i can't even get to 6 days.


text:
Android Jellybean stock browser in Samsung S3 is rendering SVG improperly
I have been using SVG to render images in my App, the images render improperly in Samsung S3 device's NATIVE BROWSER only. They work fine in CHROME browser in the same device. What could be the reasons for this anomaly? The App is built upon Sencha Touch (Ext.js) framework and all UI is tended by the Sencha. Also this issue seems to creep in certain images only. Some images appear fine while others don't. Additionally, images that aren't rendered properly in potrait orientation, appear fine in landscape orientation and vice versa. I have attached screenshots for reference.
Thanks.

This is probably NOT an Android issue, but would be true for any device with a smaller view port. See the SVG Specification about things that would limit the field of view. Most likely a combination of transform, viewbox, and canvas.
If you believe these are correctly stated in your code, some other combination will maybe serve better. If not stated at all, you risk the app to make approximate guesses during rendering.


text:
How to get rid of Emotion UI which is drastically slowing down my Huawei Y330-U11?
I have Huawei Y330-U11 which performs sluggishly  due to Emotion UI installed by Huawei (I concluded it to be the reason because other phones having similar specifications but native Android UI works quite well).
Can anyone let me know how to get rid of Emotion UI? And, how to root and upgrade to Lollipop?

Flash custom recovery (mine is CWM) with SB Flashtool.
Reboot your phone into recovery mode.
Flash root.zip.

Google for more details on flashing.


text:
How to protect my files from the Mobile repairers?
I'm using Samsung Galaxy Core GT model. I have some problem in my Mobile. I want to have my Mobile serviced, so I want to protect my photos and other data from the Mobile repairer/technician. I've heard that now a days those people are hacking the personal photos of the Mobile users. They are using the photos for illegal purposes.
So how do I protect the photos from those people before giving my phone for servicing?

Welcome to Android.SE! Your question is a bit unclear: what "mobile service person" are you talking about? Are you talking about repair service? // Please also take a look into our privacy tag-wiki, which probably already holds the information you want. If my above guess was correct: I have sold my phone on eBay. What should I do before I send it off? / What's the most complete way to erase all the data from my phone so it cannot be recovered?

Just move all your important and private data to your computer via a usb cable or to your external sd card and remove it while you give it for servicing. Once you serviced your phone, copy those file back to your phone.

If your really paranoid about your data then backing up all your information to your PC would be one thing - syncing your contacts to your Google account.
If you have a later version of Android then should have encrypting software to encrypt your device and data. But to be safe, anything personal backup to your PC.


text:
SELinux context init_shell in boot.img permission denied with Android 5.0.2
I'am used to start a service in the android boot image with inherited context of the init.rc script (u:r:init:s0).
In Android 5.0.2 (Samsung), my service does not inherity the init context anymore, it has to be set explicitly.
The tool sesearch allowes to find the corresponding domain to the filetype. This is an output of a rootfs executable search:
allow init_shell rootfs: file { ioctl read execute open ... }

This means that the init_shell context is able to execute rootfs labled files.
-rwxr-xr-x  system  system  u:object_r:rootfs:s0  my_binary

But if I set the init_shell label of my service in the init.rc script (running as init) , I still got permission denied in the dmsg output.
service my_service /my_binary
    user root
    seclabel u:r:init_shell:s0
    oneshot

Does this error refers to the executing of the service, meaning the init_shell context does not have permission to execute a rootfs file or does it mean that init is not allowed to set the init_shell context?
I've already tried other contexts like "shell" > "shell_exec" with the same result.
If I do not set the context, I receive a warning about a missing selinux context, but the file will be executed, unfortunately without the needed permissions.
UPDATE:
Injecting the permissive statement to the init_shell context works. Is there no other way to use existing contexts to stay enforced? my_binary should run as deamon with init_shell context to hand over its context to other processes.


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How to fix "Google Play Services won't run unless you update it"?
My device is a Sony Xperia Z and it's running Android  5.0.2. It prompted me to update my Google Play Services, and when I followed the notification it delegated me to the Play Store to update it. However it would seem it is already updated.
My current version of Google Play Services is 7.8.93.
(Click image to enlarge)

The notification keeps coming back and I can't seem to find a solution. How do I get rid of this notification permanently?
Here's a look at the notification :
(Click image to enlarge)

I see this quite often. In my case, it always helped to 1) switch back to the list of your apps, then 2) tap the app to update again (in very rare cases, repeat 1+2 again). This usually makes the "Open" button turn into "Update". Does that work for you? On the other hand, if just this app is affected: it usually auto-updates itself, so it might be you're just not fast enough :) Check which version is installed now, and then check again after the next update pops in (updates are quite frequent here).

When you refer to "list of your apps" do you mean going to the play store and then navigating to the my apps tab? If so Google Play Services is not listed.

Yes, that's what I meant. Didn't check for play services there yet as I had no need, but neither did I get any update notifications for it: that app just updates itself without asking me – which is why I suggested checking the version numbers (in Settings › Apps › All).

OK. Check again when your issue happens the next time. I bet it then already has updated itself – so your issue would be "how to get rid of those useless notifications". Please verify, and then [edit] your question accordingly (also include the Android version running on your device then).

It's a simple notification. Unlock the screen, go to notification bar, tap and hold that notification and choose a bell icon with a slanted line on it.

Alternatively, go to "Settings -> Apps -> All apps -> Google Play Services" -> uncheck "Show notifications".

That could work but only hides the problem. But will give it a try

Settings > Apps > Google Play Services > Notification settings > off
Settings > Apps > Google Play Store > Notification settings > off
That's it.

Since the question body also mentioned "How do I get rid of this notification permanently?", this answered that question, though as the OP has commented before, "That could work but only hides the problem".

Each time I have reset my phone, exactly the same thing happens. I cannot update individually only Google Play Services as it goes into an infinite loop of popups saying that you cannot Update until you Update.
The solution which worked every time is to go to the Google Play Store into the Apps and Games (sometimes called differently depending on the version) and doing a Update All. Obviously, it may update more than you want but that is the only reliable way that worked on Android 7.0. Hopefully, this can work (or some similar steps) for your version too.

No 'guru' here, running LG tablet w/Android v5.0.2, updated software yesterday and was unable to 'update' Play Services, altho I was constantly reminded to do so.  Finally, for some reason, I decided to move Play Services App button to a different location and, when I did, it updated automatically and (I hope!) OK. Notification is gone.

That's nonsense :D

I think you're likely confusing coincidence with causality.

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


text:
How to root the SM-G900F Android 5.0 without tripping KNOX?
I know the Galaxy S5 can be rooted without tripping knox on Android 4.4. but that "bug" has been fixed by Samsung, and the developer of TowelRoot won't fix it because he works by Google now. So TowelRoot will not work for me because I have already updated to Android 5.0.
Is there any other possible solution to root the Samsung Galaxy S5 G900F Android 5.0 without tripping the KNOX WARRANTY VOID to 0x1 or 1.

Screenshot:

(Touch for a larger image.)

Hope anybody will find a solution! Thanks!
Edit: Just updated my phone. Still on 5.0, updated the screenshot.

Well, I guess you got a pretty good change with the recently released StageFright vulnerability. Unfortunately it's not yet disclosed but will be on the BlackHat conference. I'm pretty sure that once it's disclosed there will be some apps exploiting it.

I did it following from this guide here. Broadly (though I strongly suggest you follow the guide):
1) make backups
2) buy mobile Odin Pro from android market (5 USD)
3) downgrade using Odin (normal one on PC) to 4.4.
4) install towelroot and run it
5) use mobile Odin to flash rooted lollipop ROM *
6) use normal odin to flash compatible bootloader and modem.
*For some reason, using mobile Odin did not trip Knox when I did this, per the guide I linked. It still warned me that Knox would be tripped, even though it wasn't. I have no idea why it didn't trip Knox, so I can't guarantee it won't when you do it.

Thanks! I am going to think about it (because of the risk) and report to you later.

Alternatively you can just downgrade to 4.4 and root that, I don't think there is any risk there as I believe Knox allows you to downgrade without voiding the warranty, but don't quote me on it. And 4.4 is good enough for a year or so, and by then your warranty will have run out anyway so there will be nothing to lose by voiding it.


text:
adb backup command on non-rooted device creates an empty backup file?
I recently tried to backup my Motorola Moto G2 XT1068 phone running Lollipop 5.0.1 and after connecting it over USB with usb-debugging ON and I ran the adb backup command to backup my device completely and this question Full backup of non-rooted devices and the solution guided me. However running the following adb command,
adb backup -apk -shared -all -system -f D:/backup.ab

din't work in my case. The command instructed me to Unlock my device and confirm the backup operation. However doing so displayed the Backup started and Backup completed toast message back to back in just one second duration. And obviously the backup.ab file generated too was an empty 0kb file.
Removing and changing the parameter din't help either.

I had a similar problem on a 4.4.2 device, but your solution does not work for some reason... although it had worked before.. curious.

@jpaugh Try this answer http://android.stackexchange.com/q/83080/96277 which is specifically for KitKat.

The workaround was to set the desktop backup password under Developer settings. It seems there is a bug in backup process. If you didn't set a desktop backup password under the developer options settings the above problems occur and your backup will eventually be incomplete(empty backup file). However, I couldn't find an official source for this bug report that setting the desktop backup password solves adb backup issue.
Got this information based on the XDA Forum [GUIDE] Full Phone Backup without Unlock or Root

Note: There seems to be a bug in which backup and restore operations will
  fail unless a desktop backup password is set under Developer Options.
  It will not work with a blank password.

After I set my desktop backup password under
Settings > Developer Options > Desktop backup password
adb backup -apk -shared -all -f D:/backup.ab
I am now able to run the above adb backup commands successfully. Note that I left the -system parameter as it is default one and the backup.ab file is almost 6GB now.

Did you check whether a bug has been filed? Your answer is at odds with this question (for Kitkat though).

@Firelord No I couldn't find a bug reported on this issue. But I don't remember encrypting or set my desktop backup password earlier. I input 1234 in current password field and luckily it accepted. :)

Good to have this, so thanks for sharing – but it's a work-around at best (not a "solution"). Sometimes one needs to have the backups without password encryption (e.g. to convert the .ab file to a .tar for investigation).

@Izzy But Android Backup Extractor can convert the .ab into .tar even if the file is encrypted with a password. Of course, you've to supply the password during conversion. :)

Might be – still makes things a bit more complicated :) Just saying, no criticizing intended!


text:
Photos in the Camera folder in the Gallery were deleted automatically in my Android phone
I am wondering about how it is possible that all the pictures in the Camera folder in the Gallery were deleted without my knowledge where I am the only user of my Android phone. I don't remember exactly how many pictures were there in the camera folder that I have been capturing for almost six months. But they were there till the last night and only this morning I was shocked to have discovered the deletion.Although I know there are many software through which I can recover my photos,I want to know the possible causes behind.Is it due to the maximum size of photos that can be kept in the camera folder in the Gallery,surpassing which may trigger automatic deletion of the photos or just something else? If so,then how do I manage the size or number of photos? My phone is not rooted. Any advice is welcome!
The screenshots of my device memory is:

Screenshot - Storage (Click to enlarge)

I doubt that any system function would trigger such an "automatic deletion": if there's "no space left", that would at maximum trigger an error message, so it must be something else. If you're lucky, you might still find a hint in the logs.

I have found many previously sent images in WhatsApp now which confirms that images has not been deleted. But the matter is that the images are not shown in the gallery. What should I do to recover image? @Izzy

Can you check with a file explorer whether the photos exist somewhere else then in WA? They are usually stored below /sdcard/DCIM. It could be that just your media-scanner had a hick-up. If you can confirm the files are there, we can take a look into that.

In the comments you said:

I have found many previously sent images in WhatsApp now which confirms that images has not been deleted. But the matter is that the images are not shown in the gallery. What should I do to recover image?

So you are telling me that the images are still on your phone, but not deleted? If that is the case it may be cause of a .nomedia file in the same folder as your photos.
You should check in your whatsapp folder and look for a .nomedia file. (/Whatsapp/).
And for your photos you made with the camera app, you should look in /DCIM/Camera/ (you can do that e.g. using the "My Files" app which is pre-installed on your device; the .nomedia files could be in DCIM or in DCIM/Camera – ignore other locations for now).
If you find a .nomedia file in one of these directories, then you should delete the file and then your photos should appear again in your gallery. If you still don't see the photos after you deleted the file, reboot your phone.
Hope my answer helps! If there is no .nomedia file, leave a comment below so I can help you further.

In the device storage> DCIM there are two subfolders namely thumbnails and camera are present. But camera folder shows 0 items :(.  device storage> android>data shows .nomedia file, in whatsapp>sent folder there is also .nomedia file, but in the images folder there is no such .nomedia file @SuperThomasLab

@rosemary And in that images folder, do you see your photos?


text:
Can I use my smartphone as a WiFi network adapter?
I have this PC that doesn't support wiFi and I have to use usb tethering.
But I want to see if I can project my phone's WiFi onto the computer, so it can see all the available wireless networks, whilst its still connected to USB.
I don't know how much difference this would be considering, even if I projected my wiFi on to a computer, so it can see available networks (just like a usb wireless adapter, you see these days - except using a phone) but still very much connected to a USB. So I'm not sure what the difference between this and USB/WiFi tethering, but I'd imagine it would be faster.
Edit: I actually want to be able to connect to a wiFi and see other available connections, using my phone and USB. This is to compensate for the fact that my computer doesn't support wiFi and hardware require for it.
USB network adaptors are a very good example, of what I'm trying to want to do, except with a phone.

Why do you want to see the list of networks using PC? Can't you operate the phone for some reason manually?

No, please re-read my question.

I don't think you would be able to project the Wi-Fi interface on your PC (perhaps a hack may do, but that's a different matter), but you can use ADB commands to list Wi-FI networks available, and you can even select a Wi-Fi using the commands. However, you would still need USB tethering to access the internet since as I said, Wi-Fi interface won't be available to the PC. // Other option is to use a screen-sharing program to control  the phone, but that's I think you don't want.

Hmm I see. I'll try Digvijay's method and I'll get back to you on that. But I don't see how a screen-share to control my phone would be applicable to my situation? But thank you!

I have asked similar question. I couldn't get access to PC connected via USB (USB Tethering) from PC connected via WiFi (Mobile HotSpot). Solution was add routing for USB Tethering net on second PC.
$ sudo ip route add 192.168.42.0/24 via 192.168.43.224 dev wlp5s0

Here 192.168.42.0/24 is USB Tethering net, 192.168.43.224 is IP of Mobile HotSpot, wlp5s0 is WiFi interface of PC (Linux). (In my question I had two Android devices, so maybe this step is optional, I haven't checked).
Second, you should flush all the chains in ip table on Android device, e.g through Android Terminal Emulator. Assumed that device is rooted:
$ su
# iptables -F

This way you'll have to add route on every device connected to WiFi hotspot or USB tethering network so that it can access devices on other network. A simple approach is to use Proxy-ARP on the device(s) used to create tethered networks. But it requires a rooted phone.

If you want to see all available networks on the PC over your phone, I can think only one solution.
Phone on screen. Connect your phone to PC, and all the function will be available on your PC desktop screen. Any function can be used by mouse.
Application Phone on Screen is official LG's software, but you can search on Google Play similar apps.
EDIT 2#
Small tutorial on
"How to use Android device as Network adapter".
This is alternative way, not the direct solution!
Small note, I have tested this on LG Flex device, and it works, plus the software is called "Phone on Screen" and it's LG's software for the same purpose as it says.

Download "On screen Phone" from this link or from LG's official page and install it.
Since this software is already installed on LG android devices (I think only newer) there is no need to download it.
Connect your device to your PC. And select tethering mode.
Start "LG On Screen Phone" software who you downloaded it from internet. (By this I mean start the PC software not the actual app on android device)
Connect your device with cable to your PC
Follow the wizard who will guide you easy trough the configuration part.
After you have been connected to your device you'll screen the screen and controls of your device on the PC screen.
Now enjoy your WiFi on your Phone and your PC.

The proof of my test is this image:
One note! There are possibilities that there would pop up some error while running configuration. The error is result of selecting tethering mode over Lg software mode, and when this happens just click "Next" a couple of times just so it could reconnect again to your device.
P.S There is a feature to connect Phone and PC with Bluetooth, if someone has installed Bluetooth adapter on PC, please try and comment the result, I'll add it to this small tutorial.

I think you misunderstood, I actually want to be able to connect to a wiFi and see other available connections, using my phone and USB. This is to compensate for the fact that my computer doesn't support wiFi and doesn't have the hardware for. USB network adaptors are a very good example, of what I'm trying to want to do, except with a phone.

As sad, you'll still be able to use the phone the same way + on the PC.
You'll still be able to connect to WiFi networks and view them on your phone and your PC.
Basically you'll control your phone normally + on PC.

Would you go over in detail on how to do this and maybe screenshots? It would be very much appreciated.


text:
Send SMS through internet to another country
I came to Europe from Canada for a month, but I want to keep in touch with relatives and friends back in Canada. Assuming I have WiFi access on my Android, how can I text them, and be able to receive texts back? Texting overseas would be too expensive for both me and them, so I must find a way to do it through WiFi, but they would receive and send actual texts.
I have a Nexus 5 with Android 4.4.4.

If you would like to send and receive SMS messages over Wi-Fi, I would suggestion using Google Voice (Now integrated into Google Hangouts). You will be able to send/receive SMS free of charge (As long as you are using Wi-Fi). I have done some quick Googling, and didn't see anything that says it doesn't work in Canada. Give it a shot and see if it works for you.
If for any reason it doesn't work in your region, feel free to let me know and I will try and find other services that may be of use to you.

yep its what i use for calling, its the best. they recently added google dialer, but i dont see any way i can text through it

Where are you using the service? Google Voice Website or app, or through the Hangouts service?

i tried it in hangouts, it was a while ago i noticed i can only call and not text. ill try to do a little more research, but i dont see a way to do it

what you looked at is probably to use hangouts as a texting app, rather than an app that sends texts throguh wifi

Try using the Google Voice app maybe. And when using Hangouts, usually, you just type in the phone number you want to SMS on the Contacts tab within the app, and it will prompt you asking if you would like to send the message with Hangouts or Google Voice SMS. Check in your app settings at Settings->Current Google Account-> Incoming Phone Calls & Messages. Make sure those two options are checked and see if that helps. EDIT: The app indeed sends full SMS messages via my Google Number, free of charge. I use it daily to text friends, as I have a limited texting plan on my phone currently.

i dont ssee incoming phone calls and messages anywhere in the options. please help me further, i really need this to work. googl voice was replaced by hangouts dialer? i only see it allowing me to call not text

maybe the andorid app dossnt have texting, i would do it through the web

The Android app does include SMS. It may not be available in your region though. I will do more research and try and help you futher. Please be patient...

After some research, it turns out that Google Voice SMS services are not available in Canada. Only US users can use it.  I will search for another service that may be of use to you.

I have found 2 free SMS services that may work in your area. FreeTone is the 1st: http://www.free-tone.com/. NextPlus is the 2nd: http://nextplus.me/. Give both of them a try and see if the work for you. Hopefully these will work.

freetone didnt work, but nxextplus seemsz to work. i hope it wont randomly lock out and say i have to pay to keep using it. This seems to be the most accurate answer, involving an app that only works in us and one that works in canada too. ill accept it. Thank you for your effort

I'm glad I was able to help you. As far as I am aware, NextPlus does not require any kind of subscription. You can pay to remove ads, and you can pay to send!/receive phone calls I believe, but texting is free forever. Hope you enjoy your stay at Europe!!!

I don't know about Canada, but here in the UK some carriers have apps that let you use your WiFi connection to send texts and receive using your normal phone number. I'm not sure about using this overseas but you could probably use a proxy (like Hola) if this is blocked. Even if an app exists but you cannot receive texts with it then this is generally free when roaming because you have no control over who sends you an SMS.

we should have that too. im having trouble finding it on the site. whats the feature called?

You might not have a similar feature but if you do, then I don't there is a general term for this - every carrier has there own. For example, 3 in the UK has Three inTouch (http://www.three.co.uk/discover/three_intouch). I can see that Canadian home-phone providers have their own versions (TELUS Extend and Rogers One Number)

To see if your network has a similar service just google '[your network name] wifi calling/sms app'

Use Viber or Whats App? There are also numerous of app similar to them.
Typical SMS is impossible, because it's send over your telephone carrier.

so i'd be able to send messages but not receive them?

No...telephone companies have agreement with each others where if you are in one country and want to send to other company,you'll sms first travels to your registered carrier,then to other telephone carrier who's in receivers country, and finally to the telephone where is the receiver.This is a lot more complicated, but I have tried to explain it to you as easier I can, so you could understand. But your problem solver is one of these apps. They are multi platform,so iOS,Android and Windows support them+you can send anyone anywhere in the world but you and the receiver must have internet access


text:
Can I open Chrome on Android from command line ?
Is there command line alternative to Chrome Remote Debugging ?
Manually, I can open tabs from chrome://inspect/#devices . As well as I can open Chrome on desktop from CLI - e.g. chrome.exe --incognito --remote-debugging-port=9222.
But is there option to open tabs on Chrome on Android, which is connected to PC from CLI ? I need such option to semi-automate tests.
thanks !

Note: You would need root access to run any command mentioned below for Android 4.2.1.

Contrary to traditional desktop OS, apps in Android are called upon using their component, an Activity. While developers can call the activities using the programming, the end-users are left with command-line to do the calling.
Android has an Activity Manager am to manage the activities, and among other things it can do, the most basic thing it does is to call an activity of an app.
Before we proceed,  setup ADB on PC if you haven't since we're going to rely on it. Also make sure that the device is getting detected in PC and by ADB.
The Chrome for Android app's activity responsible for managing tabs is com.google.android.apps.chrome.ChromeTabbedActivity. You can find this activity listed in the said app's AndroidManifest.xml (inside the APK). As for how I came to know about it, I simply launched Chrome, opened a tab, and looked upon the most recent activity using the command:
adb shell dumpsys activity recents

Replace recents with activities for Android 4.2.1.
The real question is:

[Is] there [an] option to open tabs [in] Chrome on Android?

(Obsolete) Enter the following command to do that:
adb shell am start -n com.android.chrome/com.google.android.apps.chrome.ChromeTabbedActivity -d "<URL>" --activity-clear-task

(Tested on Sept 21, 2015) It seems that Chrome has changed the name of the activity responsible for tabs. The new command is:
adb shell am start -n com.android.chrome/org.chromium.chrome.browser.ChromeTabbedActivity -d "about:newtab" --activity-clear-task

See step 3. in this answer to know the details of the command, if you're interested.
Replace <URL> with the address you want, e.g.  127.0.0.1, google.com.

thanks !
btw, is there a documentation on options for Chrome for Android activities ? Want to explore the possibilities.

@Firelord Any way to start in incognito mode? I tried: am start -n com.android.chrome/com.google.android.apps.chrome.document.IncognitoDocumentActivity -d http://google.com, but it didn't work..

You can also use
am start --user 0 -n com.android.chrome/com.google.android.apps.chrome.Main

I recently use the follow command
adb shell am start -n com.android.chrome/org.chromium.chrome.browser.ChromeTabbedActivity -d "https://www.google.com"

The activity name can be found from adb shell dumpsys activity recents | grep -i chrome


text:
Exclude possibility of damage of Android device while chargin with another charger
Is it true, that if I have one Android tablet with mini-usb from Philips, one Android device with mini-usb from Sony, then if I connect Philips charger to Sony charger, then it is possibility for a device to blast or cause any damage?
I heard about a story, where woman connected charger of other manufacturer and during phone call device blasted. I don't know if it is a rumor, or this is truth?
In the other hand, workmate says that solution is on a hardware level and devices detect voltage and solve this issue automatically.
Is it safe to charge with different manufacturer charger or not?

Workmate is correct: all USB chargers supply 5 V with current limited by the design of the charger.  However, the device won't draw more current than it needs -- connect a 2 A capable device to a 500 mA charger, and it'll charge at 500 mA, but connect a 500 mA device to a 2 A charger, and it'll still only draw 500 mA.
Battery fires and explosions are caused by internal shorts and excessive current draw from the battery, not by charger mismatches (within USB voltage spec).


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No app icons on home screen for newly installed apps in Galaxy Tab S 10.5
My Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 running Android 4.4.2 is not creating app icons for newly installed apps, I have checked the settings in Play Store, and they are correct.  What's wrong, and how do I correct it?

For how long have you been facing this issue? Did you change your launcher app meanwhile?

If you are using any third-party launcher apps in your phone then make sure you have your desktop unlocked in your launcher settings page.

Have you checked to see if your tablet started a new homepage?  I have a SGT-S 8.6" Wi-fi (T-700). When I started using mine I noticed that it will put new icons on a new page even when there is room on the first page.
On your homepage; bottom center, above the app tray symbol (circled dots), there are dots in a row indicating which home page you are currently using and how many pages there are.  If you are using the Google Now launcher it's page will also have it's own dot to the left off the one you are on.  If there is another dot just swipe left to go to the next page.  Now you can drag your new icon to your homepage and drop it where you want.  You might want to check into grouping your icons into folders.
Here it's a link to the manuel:
http://www.samsung.com/us/business/support/mobile
hope this helps!