text:
Why are apps logging me in as someone else?
Device: Samsung Galaxy S II (i777) running Cyanogenmod 10 nightly 20120929
I'm having a very strange issue that I'm hoping someone else has seen before. In two separate apps, I'm being logged in as other users with no input from me. It first showed up in ESPN ScoreCenter, where it would identify me as someone else and import all their favorite teams.  This "someone else" would change somewhat regularly (I didn't look too close at this, but it seemed like it was different on a daily basis). I assumed this was an issue with the ScoreCenter app and contacted ESPN (they were less than helpful). I gave up on that one, and just assumed it was a bug. However, just recently I noticed that Scoreloop had a similar issue. In Cut the Rope, when I open Scoreloop, it identifies me as someone else again. I initially submitted a ticket to Scoreloop, but this morning noticed it was logged in as someone else, just like the ScoreCenter app did.
I saw this same issue when using Cyanogenmod 9. I'm not sure when it started exactly, but now that I'm seeing it in two separate apps, I'm starting to think it's an issue with my phone, my ROM, or some Android piece that both apps tie into. Is there a way to fix this?

This has happen to me with some apps...
Did you lost your IMEI?
I mean, maybe in the process of rooting, sim-unlocking, rom updating your phone, etc... you did something wrong and "lost your IMEI". It seems having an IMEI of 004999010640000 indicates so. At least this happened to me with my Galaxy S (I9000)
Some apps seem to uniquely identify a user by IMEI. If you have this 004999010640000 IMEI you are now part of a club of hundreds with that exact same wrong IMEI. So someone who also "lost his IMEI" might have registered to those apps before. This happened to me with OpenFeint for example.
To check your IMEI go to Settings > About phone > Status

Ah, yes. I do have the "generic" IMEI. I believe it happened when I got a warranty replacement device, as shortly after I was temporarily suspended because my device was supposedly stolen. I'm guessing I should look to fix that. I found an XDA thread about Docomo-modified devices, but is there something relevant to the general AT&T i777?

No idea, about that, sorry. I've seen some threads about recovering lost IMEI's but never tried yet. Probably because it has not been much of a problem for me yet :D


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Right swipe on contact defaulting to internet calls
My problem is: right swipe is defaulting to internet calls instead of 'regular' calls.
First off, these are my relevant call settings:

as you can see I have no accounts and the internet calls are not enabled.
My contacts came from Google contacts (configured them online and then the phone got them).
After they came I used the "Mark as Default" function to select the correct phone number and emails and that's when things started behaving strangely. Doing a right swipe showed me this:

Instead of calling the contact 'normally'.
I started experimenting and was able to reproduce the bug using other similar contacts (contacts that I got from Google with 2 phone numbers + 2 emails). But if I created the Google contact locally (which would sync Ok with google) I didn't have any issues.
No other calling functions are affected: moving the phone to my ear still calls the correct number, direct dial widget still works.
My phone is a Galaxy S III running android 4.1 (but the same thing was already happening in 4.0), if that makes any difference.
What is causing this? How can I fix it?
Seems to be related to: How do I prevent "No Internet calling account" error? but I was still unable to fix it.

tldr: I have found a solution work-around:

Go to google contacts in your browser and remove the emails from the contact (you can put them in the notes to avoid losing them).
Let it sync with your phone.
Add emails back to the contact (still from the browser).

You can now do all the "Mark as Default" you want because it will keep calling correctly.

Long version:
I decided to do some other experiments.
I started by creating a contact specifically for this (with 2 fake phone numbers and 2 fake emails) and let
it sync with my phone. Used "Mark as Default" to select just the phone number.

It kept working fine. Then I selected the default email.

Thats when the phone started to try to make internet calls.
To continue my experiments I needed to deselect the email (which is not possible from the phone),
so I went to google contacts from my browser and removed the emails and let it sync with my phone.

I then re-added the emails.

To my surprise the issue vanished completely for that contact.
Sure enough I did the same for my problematic contacts and everything is fine now. :)

Mr. Portela has it right, and I figured out a way to solve the issue more quickly:

Select the misbehaving contact.
Long press the 'default' email address.
Select 'Clear default'.

Voila.
I'm not sure what will happen when you try to email these contacts from now on, but at least calling works as intended.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How can I reset my SGH-999?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (SGH-999) and am trying to do a hard reset. Somewhere along the line, things got a bit messed up. It keeps telling me I have a firmware update, and when I click start to start the update, the phone reboots and does not boot back up. To restart it, I remove the battery and then restart, but at the top it says "Recovery Booting" in blue text.
So then I shut down (remove battery) and restart in flash mode. Then when I restart, it boots up telling me that the upgrade failed.
So now, I want to completely reset my phone, but am unable to do so. I've tried all of the methods listed at http://www.hard-reset.com/samsung-galaxy-s3-hard-reset.html and no success, it continues to boot into the Samsung Galaxy SIII screen with the blue text at the top.
Any ideas?

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


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Airdroid modifies timestamps of copied files
MTP does not work in Ubuntu so I am using Airdroid to copy photos off my phone (Galaxy Nexus) to my computer (Ubuntu 12.04).  My problem is that the files downloaded via Airdroid all have modification date of when I transferred them.  I want the files to keep the timestamps they have on the phone (which is the date and time I took the photo).
How can I do this?

This is also an Ubuntu / device issue.

Reason is your client saves them at that time, and doesn't ask the "server" (your Android device) for the original time stamps.
You could try using a SSH server on your Android device. DroidSSHd would be a good choice, for example. To copy your files then you need to start this SSH Server first on your phone, which usually tells you the IP and port used. Now you can use any SSH client on your Ubuntu workstation, or from the shell, use the scp command:
scp -p -P 2222 192.168.1.15:/sdcard/DCIM/*.jpg .
would be an example:

-p: Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the original file
-P 2222: Use port 2222 (that's what DroidSSHd uses by default)
192.168.1.15: IP of your device (replace this with what the SSH server shows)
/sdcard/DCIM/*.jpg: All JPEG files from your camera folder on the SD-card (check for the correct path)
.: Copy files to the current working directory

Note that at least on Linux, for ease of use you can tell SSH in its config to always use port 2222 for this IP adding the following lines to your ~/.ssh/config file:
Host 192.168.1.15
    Port 2222

Having done that, you no longer need to specify -P 2222 with each command.
There might be graphical solutions available as well -- but I mostly work from the command line, so I cannot give you examples for those.

This is the classic push/pull issue with FTP.  If you copy files to your PC (push), it does not trust the source (and replaces the time/date stamps).  If you copy files from the device (pull), your PC has control and retains the time/date stamps.  The same issue occurs when FTP copying between two Ubuntu hosts, using Nautilus.  If you can configure settings, you can overcome this.

When I push files with scp or rsync, this issue does not occur either. But confirmed, the described issue is "incorrectly titled" Airdroid modifies timestamps, as the modification is rather done by the receiving client. And also agreed, it is more likely to happen with FTP.

Thank you, using scp worked fine.  I do think it was airdroid modifying the timestamps in my case, because all my pictures were packed into a .zip which was downloaded via browser.  I don't care what the modification date of the zipfile was, but the photos inside all had new useless dates generated too - surely this was airdroid.

Oh -- in this case I agree. But as you didn't point this out before, I couldn't know :)

@Izzy Hi, I stumbled upon this answer while trying to copy files from an Android phone to a computer. I've installed and configured DroidSSHd and tried something like this: scp -p -P 2222 root@192.168.1.19:/storage/sdcard1/*.jpg ~/Desktop/pull/ but I get this: sh: scp: not found. Any hints/ways around that ?

@GeorgeProfenza I suggest you open a new question for that. You can link to this one for reference.

@Izzy Sure, I've posted a question here

Should I replace sdcard by other path if I don't have an extra memory card in my device? I have only the internal memory.

@Sigur I don't think so. This path usually points to the "primary external storage", which is the internal SD card (if available) or the external (if no internal SD card is there). You can use a file manager to check if the path is present.

The solution that required to use the SSH Server on Android Device worked absolutely beautiful for me. My PC is on Ubuntu 16.04, using Gigabit LAN to Router, Android HTC One M8, WiFi 5G - resulted in download speeds over 10 MB/s. See below screenshot.  Thank you for this idea. Regards,
Bobesku

Running an SSH server on your phone helps you with this problem, just as the previous answer explained. However, because DroidSSHd is older and may not work with newer phones on more recent versions of Android, SSHelper might be a better choice, and I use it regularly for purposes similar to this.

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


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How to enable voice-activation of S Voice when in car?
I am only interested in using S Voice with voice activation (i.e. "Hi Galaxy!") when driving.
Is there any way to activate S Voice when I plug my Samsung Galaxy S3 into my car's charger?

Take a look at the app Tasker. Also the free app Llama may also be able to do this.
Tasker and Llama automate tasks on your phone. So you can have them say IF this condition (car charger plugged in) THEN do something (activate SVoice).

Could you be a bit more specific on how these apps solve the problem?

Tasker and llama automate tasks on your phone. So you can have them say IF this condition(car charger plugged in) THEN do something (activate SVoice)

I took the freedom to integrate this with your answer, so it is better recognized as part of it. Thanks for the update!


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Dropbox export folder to SD card?
Is it possible to download a folder (or at least download multiple files at once) from Dropbox to SD card?
I do not seem to have the export option when selecting folders

Note the "Share" option doesn't have save to SD either.

I think this is unfortunately still not possible with the Dropbox app (discussed back in January here: Can I download whole folders in Dropbox app?

I use DropSync to keep a folder on my SD card synced with my Dropbox (it works more or less like the desktop app). The DropBox mobile app is more of a mobile app version of the web site, rather than a real sync tool.

@MichaelKohne I don't really need to sync my SD to Dropbox. I just need to download a folder from Dropbox to SD.

ES File Explorer has support for several cloud storage providers. It allows to "copy" folders from your dropbox folder to your SD-Card etc in a similar fashion as you would copy files locally. The "Network" Tab allows you to add an account.

Nice! I had ES Explorer installed but I didn't know about this feature. Thanks.

Is there a way to keep the folder synced with ES?

Astro File Manager (like ES File Explorer) also has support for dropbox and allows you to download folders.
For a dedicated app, there is Folder Downloader for Dropbox which works just with your dropbox account.

(I don't use the Dropbox app on Android; does it not keep local copies?)
DropSync keeps specified Android folders synced with specified Dropbox folders. No need to export; it's (almost) always there. 'Almost' as in: the changes I make on Android get uploaded right away; changes made to Dropbox files by some other device get downloaded at the next scheduled (or manually initiated) sync. The only time I ever need to think about it is when I have two devices open and I'm working with both of them.

I highly recommend Total Commander for Android and its totalbox plugin for Dropbox files manipulation tasks. It's almost as convenient as on a PC.


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How to import GPS coordinates track for using offline
I have a map (GPS coordinates) of a route. The coordinates are in TRK,GPX,KMZ,PLT formats.
During my trip I will not have internet connection, so I can't upload the map too GoogleMaps and use it.
Is there an application that will allow me to use the map offline?

You can choose one specific route and save it to use later:
C|NET - Save maps for offline use in Google Maps for Android

the article explains how to save a section of a map for offline use but not how to make a track available on top of it

The solution I use is TrekBuddy. I have been using this app for the past 5 years in various platforms from Java to Symbian to Android.
This app can load offline map and show your (GPs) position on it. It can show and record your trail (as GPX) and you can show predefined way points on the map (using GPX again).  Being a free project from beginning, it does not have a great documentation and support.
In spite of all these downsides, I can still vouch it as one of the most useful and most powerful GPS-Navigation-Tracking app.  It requires a bit of learning curve and some serious homework, but that comes at the benefit of using the navigation with out Internet connection.
There are quite a lot of documentation, tools and How-Tos in wiki style in their home page.
I have been using this app for my trekking, city navigation and touring. Few capabilities of this app are:

Display a previously downloaded map tiles and over lay current GPS position on it.
Show the trail as an overlay on the map.
Display previously defined way points on the map
Display previously defined route on the map.
Play a sound when the current position is with in a given radius of a way point
Log the entire trail as GPX
Switch between various maps
Available for Java, Symbian, Android, BlackBerry phones
Display statistics like average speed, average moving speed, altitude change, number of satellite seen etc as seen in the following image:

All the above without Internet connectivity
All the above free.

PS: I am in no way associated with TrekBuddy other than I am using it and amazed by its usefulness, which you would have probably guessed by now ;-)

There are other apps like OSMAnd, which can do the above with AND without Internet connection. Few features will not work without Internet connection, but all that you asked will work.

Official Google maps now allows pre-downloading map tiles. With this you can select an area which you would be visiting and download them when you are with WiFi connection.  However there are no way you can record the route. For that you may have to use MyTracks app from Google.

+1 for the OsmAnd suggestion, trekbuddy on my htc sensation appeared quite buggy to me and not intuitive at all.

You can take a look at Locus Maps, which allows for importing many different formats, including GPX, KML and KMZ. If the latter are nicely organized, a KMZ can even include images for POIs etc. to be used offline (how to do this, is described step-by-step in this tutorial on the Locus forum), see the screenshot below2 for an example of detail display, showing an older version of the app. The app even allows for navigation (network only needed at the start, for route calculation), offline maps (downloadable right from within the app1), and much more:


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Can an Android device  play ALAC and WAV files?
I have a music library in iTunes with all files being ALAC or WAV format. I currently play them on an old iPod that supports both files types.
I will be getting a new phone device (replacing Symbian) and am looking at either Android or an iPhone with the capability of also being a music player. I really prefer going to an Android device but need to confirm that I can play both types of files on the Android device and would also be able to sync with my iTunes library.
Can anyone confirm I can make this work?
I really prefer not to buy an iPhone which I know will work. From what I have read it looks like apps like Poweramp and doubletwist might do the job. I am a bit of an audiophile and want to keep the files in lossless. If I had it to do over again I would not have used iTunes but it is what it is now.

The app suggestions part of your question is off-topic. Please read the [FAQ].

Thanks for the edit- I tried to add the audio tag but kept getting an error message about it being a new tag.  ?? First time on this site.

did you try VLC?

I use Poweramp as my player on an S3 and it works fine for AAC, AIFF, FLAC, and apple lossless, even for FLAC HD files from HDTracks.  I simply use Android File Transfer to transfer music from my MAC to the S3.  The only problem I fine is static in the music, if I use the EQ or The Tone controls.  I am still trying to find an answer for that, but with those controls off, sound is fine.

This often is not a question of the device, but of the player and codecs used. I cannot tell from my own experience, as I do not use that many formats (mostly I play MP3), but on the Play Store you can find audio players advertising this. Examples include:

Winamp
Rocket Music Player (not advertizing it in the app description, but some users report it working)
NRG Player

and more. Just do a simple Search for ALAC on the Play Store.

Where did you get your  ALAC or WAV format,you transfer it to the iTunes library or just purchase them on iTunes store. If you bought it on iTunes store, it may have DRM protection which prevent you playing on other devices.

Best player ALAC/FLAC (today found):
andless

This audio player can play lossless files (FLAC/APE/MPC/WV), or any
  files directly supported in Android. Now supports Apple lossless files
  (in M4A container) as well. CUE sheets and playlists are also
  supported

(description from project website)


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Retaining applications and settings when flashing custom ROMs
The one thing that's been keeping me from flashing a custom Jelly Bean ROM on my Verizon Galaxy S3 (SCH-I535) is the fact that, unlike OTA updates, when I update my phone with a custom ROM, I'll lose all of my apps and settings.
I don't want to have to reinstall and reconfigure all of my apps every time a new version of Android comes out.
What options are out there for backing up and restoring applications and application settings between custom ROMs?

:o am surprised - look at Titanium Backup

That looks great - care to add an answer?

Synopsis
Titanium Backup, is the most popular tool for everybody, not just for ROM Flashers, its for everybody, due to a large number of features such as:

Backing up user apps and their data
All backups are saved on the SD-Card (really, I should be calling this external storage to future proof this answer as SD-Card readers are in favour of getting dropped)
The capability to store up to fifty backups
Extract data from a CWM recovery image (via CWM's backup within recovery)
Freeze an app, and put it into a state of "suspension" such that, it gets removed from the app drawer temporarily.
Schedule backups on a regular automatic basis or via a widget, and by tapping on the widget, Titanium Backup will perform the backup.
There's far too much that you can do with it.

What is this Titanium Backup you speak of, in plain english?
Think of this as a "Time Machine" application, where a backup is instigated, to backup user applications and their application data, and then can "revert" back in case of unforseen circumstances or... playing Angry Birds, and got to a euphoric state of delight in getting the high score, and decided to backup Angry Birds and the high-score data in place, "just in case" a foul-up is made.
The tool is often used heavily by ROM flashers, have AOSP Gingerbread, decide to go to AOSP JB, backup the apps etc, flash the new AOSP JB, and restore the apps.
Astute readers will point out a vital step that I left out, where does the Titanium Backup come from then, The answer is quite simple, every time there's a new update to the Titanium Backup in which Google Play automatically updates, first things first, instinctively, always, I do the following,

Launch Titanium Backup
Hit 'Menu', tap on 'More'
Finally, tap on 'Create "update.zip"'
Select 'TitaniumBackup-w.x.y.zip' under the heading titled, 'Select the name of the output file:' (Latest version, is 5.6.0)
The zip file is created and saved onto the /sdcard/TitaniumBackup-5.6.0.zip, so, its' just a matter of adb pull on that file, unzip it, and install on to a newly flashed ROM, for example, in this case, AOSP JB, via the adb install method.

Then from there, after installing it, Titanium Backup will simply re-load the archived information about the backups already in place on the SD-Card.
The full information wiki can be found here on the developer's website, if any further information is required. Also take a look at our titanium tag.


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Is it possible to do a complete image backup of an Android device via USB connected to a Windows PC without the Android device being rooted?
I recently purchased a Nexus 7 tablet from Google and I also have a Samsung Skyrocket from AT&T. Neither of the devices is rooted. I'm not too enthusiastic yet about rooting either of them, especially since it voids warranties and severely limits support options. Is there a way to obtain a complete image backup of either (or both) of these devices via the USB port on my Windows computer? If so, how? Thank you!

If you're on ICS or JB, adb backup might be the way to do this!

@t0mm13b that will not be an issue, cuz Nexus 7 is JellyBean originally.

Most articles I have encountered where people wish to undertake a complete image backup of their device requires root. However I have come across an article written in How-To Geek entitled "How To Create a Full Android Phone or Tablet Backup Without Rooting or Unlocking Your Device".
The Article will take you throught the steps of :

Installing the Android SDK
Device Setup
Testing ADB
Backing up your device
Restoring a Backup

http://www.howtogeek.com/125375/how-to-create-a-full-android-phone-or-tablet-backup-without-rooting-or-unlocking-your-device/
The article concludes by saying the complexity of using the Android SDK to create and restore backups is a bit much for the average user.

This might help:  [GUIDE] Full Phone Backup without Unlock or Root
Although it is talking about Galaxy Nexus, but this method is completely compatible with your Nexus 7.


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Can Android Chrome be linked to an account other than your main Android account?
Say that your main Android account is account1@gmail.com. Can you set up Android Chrome to use account2@gmail.com?
(Ideally Chrome would allow multiple users, which will no doubt happen in Android too eventually.)

"Use" in what way? For synchronization?

Yes, in terms of synchronization. I have read in the meantime that under Jelly Bean Chrome has become the default browser for Android, so I very much doubt it now.

Launch Chrome

In the overflow menu, choose Settings
Under basics, tap the entry for your account
Disconnect the account; you'll be warned that the data will remain but you'll lose your synchronization
Tap Sign in to Chrome at the bottom of the screen
Choose the account you want to use for synchronizing

Obviously for this to work you will need to have already added the account to your phone.

Thanks Al! I don't yet have a 4.x Android device, but this possibility is a must for me. Thanks again.


text:
How does one copy all the data AND apps from one Asus tablet to another?
I have an Asus Transformer Prime TF-201, and am upgrading to an Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF-701. Before I sell my old table, I want to backup all my data and apps, and somehow transfer them to the new tablet. Is this possible without rooting the tablet? Both are currently synced with my Google account, and on both tablets, under Settings->Backup and Restore, both tablets are set to backup information to Google.

For the "Backup and Restore" you are referring to, please see What exactly is synced with Google? -- it's much less than you'd expect. Especially it's not "all your apps data".

Thank you, that does explain why nothing else transferred... Except it didn't save my Asus settings either :( Oh well. I'm going to try the solutions below too

I could start with the very same lamentations: No root no fun. As except for root only the app itself can access its data, there's no real way around -- except...
But first an elegant alternative to the mentioned Titanium Backup: While running both (rooted!) devices simultaneously,
AppSync can synchronize apps and data. So you could even start some game on one device, sync, and continue on the other -- just to give you one example.

The one possibility without root requires at least ICS (Android 4.x). I'm not sure whether this works betwenn different devices (or whether some device component is used for encryption), but as far as I understood it should do: Using adb backup and adb restore, which requires the Android SDK installed on your computer, and is described in detail in the article on Full Backup of non-rooted devices.

I know you would like to have the transfer done without rooting.  But in my opinion it can't be done. So, in case if you are ready for a compromise on rooting, you can use Titanium Backup Root app to back up and restore apps with its data and settings.
I once did this kind of transfer between two rooted phones. On the first phone, I backed up all user apps with its settings and data. I copied the TB's folder in SD card to my computer and in my other phone (already rooted) I used the same Google account and downloaded Titanium Backup. After a first run, I copied the previously copied TB's folders from computer to the other phone's SD card, over writing the existing content. After running TB in the other phone, I opted for restore all user apps with its data and I got back everything as it is.

I have news for whomever said: "Without root it's not possible" yes it is. I got a Asus transformer TF700T in Oct 12. It came with app backup. It gives you the choice of just backing up the app or app/data. Tested it and it works!

The fact is not new (see: Full Backup of non-rooted devices). But that an app for this comes pre-installed on some devices means somebody with "root" did so, and arranged the required privileges. This might be specific to that manufacturer, or even to this device line (here: it might be the case for the TF700T as shipped when you purchased yours, but not for previous versions or other product lines as e.g. the TF-201).

What about FruitMobile App BackUp? I haven't tested it but it looks like it can backup/restore apps and app data to/from the SD card without root.

Checked the play store and www.fruitmobile.com: No where it is mentioned that data will be backed up. Emphasis on root privilege is required especially to read the data and not for extracting the APK for the apps. Can only ensure by using it.

Right. It backs up the APK only. My mistake.

You are only trying to help :) I had sent an email to the developer seeking clarification. I am yet to receive it.

The short answer is, this is not possible without rooting.  Application data and settings can't be accessed outside the application/system by the regular user account for security reasons.

Sorry Logos, but "not possible without rooting" is simply wrong -- except if you limit it to "prior ICS (Android 4.0)". See my answer and follow the link for details (or just follow the link in the "Linked" section of this question).

I did say it was a short answer.  I'm taking into consideration the fact that any user who stipulates non-root solutions likely isn't going to be capable of installing and using ADB effectively - particularly as transferring settings (which I assume is included under 'data') between two different devices is problematic even for the extremely savvy.

OK, so let's agree on "is difficult without rooting" :)


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Speaker makes rough sound when connected to wifi!
I have a tablet with android version 4.0.4. When the tablet is connected to wifi network the speaker makes some "non-electrical" (irregular krrrrrrrr) sound. I don't exactly know when did this problem started.  I bought it just a couple months back. Is ti some software problem or hardware problem? How can I resolve this?
Thanks

In my opinion this should be due to the interference of WiFi signal. Normally, these radio wave generators and sensitive components like speaker should be shielded. This shield might have been damaged or lost its efficiency.  This could happen when you drop the tablet or due to manufacturing fault. Either way, I would take it to the service centre for a fix or replacement.

What tablet? It sounds like a hardware problem. I would check the warranty on your device and get it returned/repaired.


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Multiple Touch Gestures in Android?
Does Android allow for multitouch input?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Y phone with Android 2.3. On the Samsung Homescreen, when I rotate two fingers simultaneously in a clockwise direction, I get the option to add/remover spaces from the home screen.
Because of this, I assume it must be possible, but I have never come across any app for Android that makes use of it. Several iPhone apps make use of them. Why is it? What is the state of multitouch in Android?

There are many apps in play store which support multiple touch gestures.
For example you can zoom in or out in many video players like (mx player, bsplayer)
E-book readers like mantano reader uses two finger touch to scroll pages...
GestureControl app is totally based on multi-touch and gestures...

The new Jelly Bean notification drawer is multitouch. Draw outward with two fingers on a notification and it will expand to show more information.

I was not aware of that @AlEverett Will try on my paranoid android note... :)


text:
How to change screen resolution on android rooted device?
I run android-x86 as VMware image, and I dedicated the whole second display for it. Display's resolution is 1024x768, but resolution in android is lower, it seems something about 800x480. Is there a way to change physical display resolution in Android to fit monitor resolution? I have a root access to the device.

I know on VirtualBox you have to force it via the VBox config, so it's possible you may have to do something similar on VMWare. In other words, there was basically no way to do it within Android, it was dependent on the virtual machine's configuration.

@eldarerathis Really, I was able to set needed resolution by modifying kernel boot options. See my answer below for details. Thx for comment!

Thanks to eldarerathis comment.
Indeed, I was able to set needed resolution by modifying kernel boot parameters. Instead of video=-16 in kernel boot options I use video=uvesa UVESA_MODE=1024x768 and all is working in native monitor resolution!
More detailed description is here (in Russian language).

Thank you very much. it's a pity that all search results shows how to do this in virtualbox not VMware workstation. but is there anyway to make these settings permanent?

I tried several screen changers. The one I like best is:
Resolution Changer
May not work on X86 though.

You could try LCDDensity to create the effect of a higher resolution. Not sure how this would look in a VM though.

LCDDensity will not work. It doesn't change physical resolution, but only dpi.

A good option is to edit the GRUB boot loader and put vga=ask at the end of the line. This will pop up a menu asking you which resolution you want to run the device at every time you boot. Higher res = more overhead. Off the top of my head, mode 333 works reliably (1024x768@16-bit color), and I have a little better luck with 16-bit color modes and standard VGA/HDTV resolutions
The currently-accepted answer works well if you always use a certain mode


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Skype does not use the proximity sensor
Skype does not use the proximity sensor, i.e. when I hold the phone to my ear the screen stays on and most annoyingly still responds to touch input. What may be the cause?
The sensor works fine for normal calls. I didn't find a related setting within Skype.

Which phone please?

Xperia Neo V. (I'll add the tag)


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Reconnect to mobile via USB without rebooting
I am a developer (using eclipse) and regularly have my Samsung Galaxy SII connected to my PC via a USB cable. A few times per day I will unplug the cable and plug it back in again in order to take phone calls, go to lunch etc. About 4 times out of 5 this is all fine. But one time in 5 the PC fails to properly re-communicate with my mobile and eclipse does not recognise the phone as being connected. Repeatedly unplugging and replugging in makes no difference, the connection is lost. The only way I know to fix it is to reboot my PC - which takes ages!... Is there something else I could try?

Shouldn't be an issue, certainly isn't here with my Galaxy Nexus, you could try an "adb usb" from the CLI? Unless it's the operating system just not detecting it and loading the drivers. Is this a work machine, does it have any software added to not allow unauthorized USB devices?

Its my own "work" machine. I don't have software that bars unauthorised USB devices. I'll try adb usb next time it happens.

I've seen that happen on my machine too. I've never been able to reconnect without a reboot.

Sometimes my computer does the same thing, though it doesn't come up too often. In those cases, I try plugging the device into a different usb port. Usually it fixes the problem (though the first port is still 'disabled' for that particular device until I reboot).


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How can I get the location to update again in my News and Weather widget?
On my Galaxy Nexus running stock Jellybean 4.1.1 the News & Weather widget thinks I'm in Hong Kong airport, and has for the last week.

I have been to Hong Kong airport 3 times in the last month (it's a hub airport for Australasia) but never stayed there for longer than 3 hours. I'm currently in London, and have been either here or elsewhere in England for the last 7 days.
If I tap the widget and tap the refresh icon (circled-arrows) it does show the correct location until the next auto-refresh interval (I have it set for 6 hours) when it will switch back to "Chek Lap Kok Airport" in Hong Kong again.
Following the instructions in this previous question News & Weather Widget Not Updating I have deleted the widget from my home screen, done a Clear Data and Clear Cache on the News & Weather app in the applications listing, and then re-added to my home screen. This sorted it out initially, and then 6 hours later it switched back to Hong Kong again.
I have all of the Location Services in the Android settings enabled, Google Maps shows me in the correct location whether I'm outdoors (on GPS) or indoors (using network location). I leave Wifi switched on for most of the day, and this happens during the day at work when I'm using mobile data, and overnight at home when I'm connected to my wifi.

Bizarrely nothing worked to fix this while in the UK, but ever since I got off a plane in Chicago 2 days ago, the location's been working with no problems in the US, so far. Will try to work out what's fixed it and see if it breaks again in any of my next few countries (or when I go home again).

Tap the widget so it opens the News & Weather app.
Tap the overflow menu and go into Settings.
Tap Weather settings
Check or uncheck "Use my location" as necessary. Clear out the value under "Set location" as necessary

Thanks, I did have "Use My Location" ticked, and whether that's ticked or not, there's nothing set in "Set Location", tapping that just comes up with a blank "Type a town/city or postcode" box. Will try leaving "Use My Location unticked for a few hours, then switch it back again to see if it kicks anything back to life.

I was afraid of that. I'm thinking that Google hasn't been paying much attention to their stock Android apps except for the big hitters. There are some other Weather widget apps out there you might try instead. I like 1Weather.

Unfortunately I'm starting to think you're right and I'll have to look around at other widgets. Annoying when I've been to various parts of the UK and at least 6 different countries with the location working fine for the most of the last year until I got home last week!

Beautiful Widgets are also another good alternative


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Samsung Galaxy S3 sync birthdays
It seems that GS3 doesn't sync Facebook contacts' birthdays. Has anyone else had the same issue? How did you fix it?


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Override language setting for some apps?
Is there a way to override the locale for some apps? My Android is set to German but I want, for example, all apps that don't have a proper translation to be in English - reading Google-translated stuff is horrible.
I know there's no native way, but maybe there's an app for it which I just couldn't find...
My device is running 4.1 and is rooted.

Perhaps you could use tasker to create a macro that will change the system language after which the desired app is launched. And then use that tasker shortcut to start the app. Not a tasker user, but there are a couple of Tasker Gurus who might lend a hand.

Some applications let you override the locale within the app... e.g., Plume and Handcent

Somebody mentioned Tasker? So here I am. And in fact you could do that with Tasker and the help of the Secure Settings Plugin:

Create a new task:

Plugins -> Secure Settings -> Locale Picker (pick your target locale here)
App -> Run (select the app to run)
Plugins -> Secure Settings -> Locale Picker (pick your original locale here)

Assign an icon to this task
On a free place of your homescreen, long press, add a tasker widget, pick this task

I did not test it, but it should work like this.

I tried it with Google Maps, and it doesn't work for me. When I launch the task from within Tasker Google Maps launches with the regular locale. When I create a shortcut in my homescreen and click it - nothing happens.
Any advice?

I never had that happen. There's no condition to it that could "fail". So when creating a shortcut as described, having the task assigned to, the task should be launched. Maybe a logcat can give a clue here?

Since your device is rooted you can use app settings which allows that and much more

Changing system locale may cause a refresh of some tasks. This means more unwanted slowness of the device, more battery drain, and slow start of the original application. There are applications to do just that, but I think they need Root or do not work on every device or Android version.
The best solution would be changing our within app.

[citation needed] why it would cause noticeable battery drain


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USB connection broken, tried debugging
I have a Galaxy S2 that refuses to be picked up by any computer. I tried different operating systems, I tried a different USB cable, I tried debugging mode. The phone still charges fine through the port but maybe the data section of it is broken. Before I take it in for repair I just want to hear if there's anything else that can be tried? I'm thinking of doing a hard reset but don't want to lose any data. Any advice would be appreciated.

I guess your phone's not rooted/modded (if so, just use TitaniumBackup). Without, you can still copy over data from the internal memory (mp3, video files and taken camera images on the 16 or 32 GB) to an external micro SD card using any file explorer. Application data is not stored on the accessible part, so you have to iterate through each app and use the app's internal export data (like e.g. that of "MyTracks"), which is up to each app and sadly won't work with system settings like stored wifi credentials and such.

What Android version you are running? If it is 4.x, you can do a full backup via the Android SDK, using adb backup -- and lateron a restore via adb restore. This would include your apps and their data, so nothing is lost.

@Izzy so to run through SDK, you'd need to connect the phone through USB?

@BBking Yes and no. While it's mostly done via USB, it can also be done via WiFi -- see How can I connect to Android with ADB over TCP? plus the WiFi ADB app.

As my old electronics teacher told me, check the power then the physical connections before doing anything else....I have spent 3 hours trying various fixes on my phone, all to no avail. was working fine, then around the time of the most recent update it failed to connect (Hence software fixes searched for first). I finally thought I would try to clean the usb port on the phone...(compressed air had not worked) I had some copper soldering wick and a very small screwdriver, turned the phone off (Removing battery would probably be a safer bet in hindsight as well) and rubbed the copper mesh around every surface inside the port...works perfectly. Possibly many of the issues with using a different cable could be fixed the same way.

As usual, a factory reset is a possible last-ressort to sort things out and see whether the problem is software-related. And even if the problem remains, this way you don't need to worry about your data in alien hands :)
As a factory reset wipes all data (and 3rd party apps) from your device, you of course want to backup as much as possible, to be able to restore it later. Without root, this get's a little complicated -- but not impossible, if you're running Android 4.x. Since starting with ICS (4.0), ADB supports a Full Backup of non-rooted devices.
Which brings us to a seemingly chicken-and-egg problem: You cannot establish an USB connection, which is the most common pre-condition for an ADB connection. But fear not, there is a solution for that as well: You can connect Android with ADB via WiFi as well, and there's even a little app called WiFi ADB to help you with that1:

WiFi ADB makes it easy to debug/test your Android apps directly on device via WiFi TCP/IP connection. No need to use USB cable.

Trouble again is this requires root. Having a rooted device, you could of course also use Titanium Backup to backup your apps and data2.


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Have I completely lost my IMEI?
I'm stuck with the generic IMEI (004999010640000). I've tried a number of the various workarounds (GSII_Repair, manually deleting the /efs folder, flashing stock and trying both of those from stock, re-flashing CM10 and trying from CM10 again...) with no luck. I was actually missing files in my /efs folder before flashing stock, but even with the full /efs folder I can't find my actual IMEI. So am I screwed?

Have you tried all the suggestions from here?

All but the video showing to echo AT+EGMR=, but I can't find anything about that for US phones (the video and everything else I see is referring to multi-IMEI devices, and there are two parameters that I'd like to know the meaning of before I try this on my phone).

Also, it appears that the /dev/pttycmd1 device doesn't exist on the i777.

How did you flash stock?  Did you do it through Odin with re-partition?

Your handset is not damaged, not totally.
But you do need to get some professional help, someone who is willing to carry out the procedure in restoring it, provided that someone has the necessary tools at their disposal.
However, you can fix your IMEI using a highly specialized but expensive repair box such as Z3X, NSPro, to name but a few.
Mostly, smartphone users do not have access to them and only repair labs or specialists have them.

This is what I suspected after quite a bit of searching. I've since decided to just live with it, as it's mostly not a problem. The main time it causes trouble is if someone reports a phone using it as stolen, which has happened to me twice since I first lost the IMEI, but not recently. It's also troublesome for apps that use it as an identifier, but in one case it's worked to my advantage.


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Why is one of my WiFi networks not visible after connecting to the other one?
I've got two access points / WiFi networks at my home and there is a strange behavior with my Android 4.0 phone (SGS2): after my phone connects to one network or the other (whichever is currently stronger), the other network becomes invisible. It cannot be found in this list of currently available networks in the system menu, it is not visible in apps like Wifi Analyzer etc.
After I turn off the WiFi and turn it on again, both networks are visible again. Then I connect to one of them and after a while, the same repeats again - the other network becomes completely invisible.
What could be causing this? It is a problem for me because apps like Best WiFi then cannot work properly.

Which company's routers are they???

One is NetGear, the other one is Edimax. They use different ESSIDs, are on different channels etc. but are really a single network - i.e. of of the devices (NetGear) is a router with DHCP enabled while the other is really just a stupid access point.

How many other APs (Access Points) and devices are their in the vicinity?
If your first AP (on channel X) is causing overloading (or interference) on that channel, other APs are going to change signal strength and/or change to other channels.
Basically, you are dropping a large pebble into a small pond.  There is always going to be other effects.
If this happened under controlled conditions (i.e. out in the country), with no other signal sources or traffic, then you would have a legitimate puzzle ..


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WPA/WPA2 with my Nexus 7
I have this weird problem with my Nexus 7:
When the WiFi network on the home router (AirTies) is set to WPA/WPA2 it is always stuck in the "login" phase and never actually connects to the network. The network icon shows that it continuously connects and disconnects.
Now if I switch the network to WPA2 only, the Nexus 7 connects fine. But then, a Mac on the same network keeps forgetting the network and I have to insert the key by hand every time it boots. Switching back to WPA/WPA2 simply reverses the problem.
I accept even suggestions to switch the ADSL/WiFi router, provided that you suggest one that you know works for both machines.

I've read about that phenomenon of some Androids having trouble in mixed WPA/WPA2 mode a couple of times now. As you described, people solved it by using either WPA or WPA2 (or even WEP). So WPA2 only you tried (but got trouble with your Mac). Any chances to pin it to only WPA? WEP would be a last-ressort, as it offers only marginal protection.

I switched to WEP until I buy a better WiFi/ADSL modem.  Why not copy your comment as an answer, so that I can close it and give you the points?

Done, and added another detail I just found. Not sure whether it helps you, but it might :)

I've read about that phenomenon of some Androids having trouble in mixed WPA/WPA2 mode a couple of times now. As you described, people solved it by using either WPA or WPA2 (or even WEP).
So WPA2 only you tried (but got trouble with your Mac). Any chances to pin it to only WPA? WEP would be a last-ressort, as it offers only marginal protection.
Remark: Not sure about your settings for this, but in some cases people had SSID broadcast turned off on the router; turning it on again (i.e. broadcasting the SSID) solved the issue for some of them.

FWIW, I was broadcasting the SSID

Thought so -- but also thought it couldn't hurt to mention this possible cause. Maybe for somebody else it's exactly what sheds the light :)


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Why doesn't Chrome recognize mobile Blogger templates on the Nexus 7?
I use Chrome on a Nexus S and a Nexus 7, both with Jelly Bean 4.1.1. When I visit Blogger blogs that use mobile-optimized templates provided by Blogger, Chrome on the phone correctly displays the mobile version of the site, while on the Nexus 7 it apparently doesn't recognize the mobile option and displays the desktop version. To force the visualization of the mobile version I have to append ?m=1 to the blog's URL.
Why doesn't Chrome display the mobile version on the Nexus 7 by default? Is this a Chrome/Nexus 7 issue or a Blogger one?
Here is an example Blogger blog exhibiting the issue:

http://avventureplanetarie.blogspot.com

It's my blog and uses a Blogger-provided template, with very little customization. All such Blogger blogs I tried behave the same with the Nexus 7, i.e. the desktop version is displayed by default.

I'd use Wireshark to examine the HTTP request that the browsers are  sending. Perhaps the user agent, or some of the headers, differ, and Blogger is reacting differently accordingly.

Without seeing a concrete example, I can't really tell, but it is likely it's because of the way mobile detection works is usually by screen resolution/size. Nexus 7 may have a screen large enough that the it is being detected as a normal desktop/laptop.
With certain designs, a separate tablet layout may be unnecessary if the site are usable with both mouse and touch input.

I have updated the question to add a link to an example blog.

When you request a web page using a web browser, your web browser sends User Agent string with this request too. Using this string, a website can detect technical specs of user viz. web browser, OS, device etc. In case of Nexus 7, Blogger isn't pushing mobile version. So, better contact Blogger dev team for that. Its a Blogger issue.

You can force the mobile version to load by appending ?m=1 to the URL:
http://avventureplanetarie.blogspot.com/?m=1


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How to write Pinyin using default keyboard languages?
I need to be able to make one of the tone marks in Pinyin, specifically the one that looks like a little U over the vowels. (example: ǎ )
I have tested various languages, but can't find one to add that allows me to do this accent on all vowels (a, e, i, o, u) on my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Is there a way to do this?


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How to manually install ICS on Sony Ericsson Phones?
Attempting update from 2.3.4 to 4.x and the pc companion software keeps telling me my phone is up to date! Anyone know if it's possible to do a manual install?

what year is your handset?

Last September - it's SI is one of those listed as eligible for an update. I'm guessing it's something to do with my network T-Mobile in the UK?

FYI - I was constantly refreshing the sonymobile's page to see if my 2011 ST15i's SI number showed up. But no, it did not, it was when I checked Sony's PC Companion suite for an update itself, then after the software got updated, it recognized that the ST15i was eligible for upgrade to ICS.

You can manually install update using Flashtool,and also you need ftf file for it,
http://androxyde.github.com/index.html?1349610344000 -Flash tool
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1918920 -ftf file.

That will not work unless the boot loader is unlocked!

You do not need unlocked bootloader for it.


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3G Modem sim on my Nexus S
I have a 3G modem, and have tried it's sim card in a couple different modens with success.
However, I tried to put in on my Nexus S and use wifi tether, but it didn't work - although it seemed to have network signal, the data was not working. My guess was it misses the authentication part (for each different modem I tried, I had to add the operator's credentials).
I was wondering how do I configure my smartphone so it would act like a modem?
I have a Nexus S with Android 4.1.1

4.1.x would be Jelly Bean, not Ice Cream Sandwich.

Are you asking how to normally setup an Android device as a WiFi hot-spot ("tethering"), OR how to achieve this with the SIM card you using?

I want to do this with the data-only sim card.


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One-click access to alarm settings
I want to access the alarm clock feature built into Jelly Bean in one click. In the past, I've always done this by tapping the analog clock that's on the home screen by default. I want to switch to a third-party clock widget now, and it doesn't leave me enough room to keep the analog clock on the screen. (Besides, having two clocks would look weird.)
The only other way to get to the alarm clock setup page, as far as I know, is to open the clock widget and then tap on the "next alarm" bar. That, of course, takes a minimum of two clicks. How can I do it in one?

Some launchers (Nova, Launcherpro) can create shortcut on home screen which can launch custom activity from any app. This may allow you to launch alarm settings directly.
Also you can create custom app to launch activity from another app.


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How do i recover my data on a Galaxy Tab after a factory reset?
I forgot my password to unlock my Samsung Galaxy Tab, so I did a factory reset to get into it. Now I would like to recover as much of my previous data that I can. Is this possible? If so, how do I go about recovering it?

You still got your SDcard contents
You still got synced data on Google cloud associated with your Google account and other cloud services.
Everything else is wiped out and cannot be restored

All you can do is log in with same Google account on your device and it will restore some data from cloud like Google Contacts, Calendar and, maybe, settings for some apps. Purchased apps are still available from Google Play and you don't need to buy them again. Install Dropbox, Google Drive and other apps which store their data outside your device.
In future, try to keep copy of everything important on other device such as your computer or in cloud. Nowadays you can get lots of free storage on many services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Skydrive etc. You can avoid wiping your device in future but you cannot avoid losing it or breaking it, so backups is very important.

If everything could just be easily recovered after a data wipe/factory reset, that same data would be available to the finder (possessor) or any lost/stolen tablet (or smart-phone).  That said, there are forensic tools out there (if you can gain access to them) which may be able to recover ALL recent data and history.

@david6 which is only true when you have root access to the device in question. And even then only partly, as after the device is started up following a factory-reset, structures will be rebuilt (Dalvik Cache etc.), and new installed/configured apps write to the file system where other data might have been before. Plus, even with good forensic tools it's not "as easy as 1-2-3", but requires at least some, but more likely a lot of manual work.

I was referring to RAM/ROM-debug tools that (in theory) only LEO and Intelligence persons have access to.


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How to move Applications from phone to SD Card?
I have recently purchased Sony Xperia Tipo Dual phone, I couldn't find to move the apps to SD card. We can able to move the Apps from phone standard memory to Phone Internal Memory.
Can any one give me the solution to move the Applications from phone to SD Card?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. Have you searched this site? Your question is one of the most FAQ. Try Link2SD or Apps2SD apps from Play Store.

I see several possible duplicates in the "Related" list in the right sidebar. Here's a couple: How to install the application in SDcard (android phone)? Is there any way to move apps to my sd card in android 2.1 on my phone?

I just added the app2sd tag to your question. Clicking on that brings up some related problems, which might prove helpful to you. Also, the "Related" section next to your question might have some useful information.

possible duplicate of How to install the application in SDcard (android phone)?

possible duplicate of How to install APK files on SDCARD?

As the phones internal memory acts as the sdcard (internal SD card), that is what Android moves apps to.
You can use a 3rd party app to move it to the external SD Card, however.


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Recovering Twitter Account Created on Android Device?
A friend of mine has created a Twitter account on their phone but now can not remember any of the details they used. They remain logged in on their phone but I've had a look through the app but it doesn't seem to mention anything useful.
Have I missed something? I have a adb backup (and the password) to look through if that helps.

Are we talking official twitter app on android?

The twitter account should be connected to an e-mail adress. If it is, you always have the "I forgot my password" route available to you. Also, if you have the password, what is the problem? The username is in plain sight (twitter.com/user) and that's all you need except for the password.

Yes, the official app. Unfortunately the email address is unknown as well.

I ended up contacting Twitter support and they verified ownership of the account using a DM.

Take a backup of the same Twitter client on your phone, with a known handle and email, and then search the resulting files (or backup image) for the know handle and email.  Then look in the same place on the original image/files.

I'd be very surprised if the Twitter app saves the password, it most likely saves some kind of tokens that gives it access to the account as long as the token doesn't expire.


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Power button stopped on my Nexus S
My power button has stopped working on my Nexus S, everything else works but this!
How can i get my power button back?

Power button worn out?

You can remap either of the volume buttons to be a power button. I have remapped my volume up button to power button.
To remap, you should have rooted phone, with terminal emulator and busybox application you can edit the file /usr/system/keylayout/herring-keypad.kl
change the line
key 115 VOLUME_UP WAKE

to
key 115 POWER WAKE

And reboot your phone.

Here's a similar question: How can I boot my Nexus S with a broken power button? Can only boot to "Do not turn off target"
Best thing to do is get the power button replaced.  It is not too expensive.
You can also try the battery or bump tricks described in that chapter to try to get your Nexus S to boot while plugged into USB, but that seems like a short term solution.

Further to above, once you get the phone on by bump trick or fixing the button, remap power action to the search soft key and set awake on volume button press (available in CM and many other custom ROMs). I read about the power button when I got my Nexus S, and have done this as a precautionary measure since day one.

You can fix this issue by simply opening the phone up by removing the 6 screws on the back, and fixing the power button yourself. What is happening is there is a ribbon connector that goes from the power button to the circuit board and this becomes loose and disconnects itself.  You can simply press on it and reconnect it to the board to fix the power button issues.  This will only be a temporary fix, as the phone is a poor design and will become disconnect more and more frequently.  But this can at least let you use your phone.

There is no such ribbon connecting the power button to mother board, its soldered onto the board.


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Show only new available and new updated apps in Google Play Store
Is there a way to show only new apps and games or new updated games and apps in the Play Store? I don't mean the top new games section because apps in there are mostly old (few days/weeks). A few month ago there was such a section but it was removed. I'd like to get this section back, maybe on another website or with an API if necessary.


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Sony Xperia Tipo not recognizing SD memory card
I have installed an 8GB SD memory card in my Sony Xperia Tipo, but the memory card is not being recognized. Has anyone else had this problem with the Sony Xperia Tipo? If so, how did you solve it?

I used Link2SD apps. List2SD apps list out storage device such as internal, SD Card, External SD Card. I try to create location in External card. But I got following failure information.
"Link2SD could not obtain root access. If you have root access make sure you respond 'allow' or 'grant' to the superuser request."

sony unfortunately divided the phone into two drives BEFORE the microsd slot. So the internal drive and the sd drive are already assigned. the external card then formats itself as "ext_card" on the root folder.
i managed to redirect some folders from the internal to the external card via the program "directory bind" (search for it on google, it is not available on the play store). for this to work you need a ROOTED phone. the phone is fairly easy to root via a script (windows). you need to install adb drivers first (if you install sony compagnion, this will install the adb drivers and you have to enable usb debug mode on your tipo before you run the script to root your tipo).
overall this is a little complicated, so i advise you to be an expert user to try this, especially the configuration of "directory bind" is tricky. it would be best if sony "bundled both cards that are installed on the device internally to be just one and then the microsdcard slot would work as desired and could be used to install programs and other stuff much easier.
links:
directory bind: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262
root tool for tipo: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1886460

Actually you can move apps via any dir manager without rooting the phone. The trick is to get the larger apps to work, but you can always move app data to the SD card and leave the app to find it itself. That is just what I discovered. It doesn't work with all the apps, you'll have to modify the app itself to make it work.

I have the same phone, I didn't have any problems.
A few possibilities:

Make sure the card is completely inside the SD card slot.
Format the card.
Turn off the phone, take out the battery and pull the SD card out, turn on the phone without the SD card (wait for it to completely load), again turn off the phone, put the SD
card back in, turn on the phone (wait for it to completely load).
Remove any widgets that access the card on boot (like gallery widget,
etc), reboot phone.
Try another SD card.

Thanks .. Memory card now got recognized. But I have following trouble.
Setting -> Apps
In this menu I have following tab only.
Download - Internal - Running - All
But I can't see any tab like external memory card.
Then How Can I move apps Internal Memory card to External Memory card?

@ashokhein There is no external memory tab. However, you should be able to move it by selecting the app and clicking on the "move to internal storage" button.

Ya.. of course. But my question how can I move internal storage to External storage. Can I do manually when I connect to PC using USB?

Please help me :( (headbang)

I don't think it's possible with our phone, you'll have to partition the SD card to be able to store apps on it.


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Any way to hard reset a HDC A9100?
I need to hard reset my HDC  A9100 any way I can. Please, does anyone know how?
To clarify:
I need to overcome a forgotten screen lock, and the documentation provides no helpful information (it's here: http://www.swedishphones.com/uploads/7/4/6/3/7463877/hdc_a9100__manual.pdf)
A few attempts at the 'hold the volume buttons' etc while it powers on have been unsuccessful.
I do know the right username/pass combination for the "forgotten your..." screen, but it doesn't appear to work.
Does anyone have any recommendations?

Why do you need to hard reset? Surely your HDC A9100 has some booklet or documentation on this? If not, please clarify what Android version you're running. It could be a factory reset that is needed?

edited to include more info.

Still looks like you rather mean a factory-reset. Please hold your mouse-pointer over the tag to see what hard-reset stands for: nothing but a "forced reboot", which is unlikely to solve your issue. I'd rather re-phrase your question, as it is what we call a XY-problem: You probably don't want to know how to do a hard-reset, but how to overcome your screen-lock problem, correct?

See also: Q: Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection?, which has a lot of solutions to get around the issue.

Have you tried the standard Android hard reset? I heard this works for all Android phones.

turn it off (if you cannot shoot it down, remove the battery).
hold both volume-buttons and the home-button and then hold the  power button. about 5 seconds

use this at your own risk! You will lose all your installed data and get a clear reset to shipping settings, if it works.
there are some videos about it on youtube.

Is this standard across the board? Clearly the OP has not provided enough clues.

I added some more info, but I've tried this and it didn't seem to work...


text:
Install Cyanogenmod 7.2 on Nexus One using ClockworkMod Recovery - "remote: signature verify fail"
Steps I've done:

Downloaded & copied CM7.2 to my SD card (from here)
Installed the Android SDK
Downloaded & copied the ClockworkMod Recovery to the platform-tools directory in the SDK folder (from here)
Rebooted my phone by holding down the volume-down and power buttons
Went into fastboot mode
On my laptop I ran "fastboot oem unlock", then ran it again to make sure it really worked

On my laptop I ran "fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-passion.img"

This is where I get the error "remote: signature verify fail"

Anyone know how to fix this?

have you disabled signature verification?

don't know... how do I do that?


text:
Why does the CM7 Radio FM app require bluetooth to run?
The FM Radio app on my stock ROM(s) (Samsung 2.2 and 2.3) only required to plug in earphones. And that was the case with any phone radio app on any cell phone.
But why does the app which comes with CM7 require both bluetooth turned on and earphones plugged in?
(Apparently, from the "about" page in the settings, it is developed by MIUI)

What handset is this you're referring to?

@t0mm13b Samsung Galaxy Fit. But I don't think it's relevant as on other ROMs the FM Radio worked without this requirement.

Check this and note what it says about Multimedia Broadcast section, specifically, 'Analog Radio';  http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=2750&view=1&c=samsung_gt-s5670_galaxy_fit

The radio chip-set is more than likely, shared with Bluetooth and thus issues the commands specific to bluetooth to be able to switch on the FM receiver. This will depend on the handset in question.
You do need the headset to be plugged in as that acts as a FM Antenna.
The FM radio framework was an add-on to the CM source at the time of GB 2.3.7; the headset acting as antenna is indeed the mechanism (don't ask me how/why, but its common among certain chip-sets that requires it).
The actual FM Radio app was developed by Andorko, he used to hang out on the Zte Blade Community, developed the radio and one of the CM devs on that same community, integrated the Radio framework into CM, (Which was non-standard). As due to the popularity of the FMRadio application, it was tweaked and adapted for other chip-sets in question based on handset.
Depending on handset, Silicon Industries is one, si470x (x being 8 or 9) is common (used on Galaxy 5, Zte Blade), there's Texas Instruments (TI) which shares the bluetooth functionality within the TI chip-set - we're talking SoC (System on Chip), by sending a series of bluetooth HCI commands, the FM radio receiver starts up.
By your comment below 'why did it work before?' that is assuming it was a stock ROM that came with Galaxy Fit handset, then in that case, the FM radio support was based on some proprietary software within the stock FM application itself.
CM 7.2 handled it differently using a non-standard framework for communicating with the FM radio, in which the above radio application that comes with CM, was adapted for that very reason.

Can you elaborate a little bit? How does the headset act as an antenna and uses the Bluetooth chip? And why did it work before (is it the app just assuming the "worst-case scenario"?) Thanks for the answer anyway :)

Ok, so I guess in the stock rom, they knew which chipset they were dealing with, so there was no need to make compatibility maximal, right? Maybe there is no way to "detect" which chipset requires what. Thanks a lot.

Well, of course, Samsung knew exactly what was involved and used some proprietary features of the Stock ROM to do just that. There is no way to detect it what chip-set is required. This was down to both, driver in the kernel (mostly Si470x and TI) and within the CM source to communicate directly to the kernel to handle the FM facility, some are open, others are closed!

Googling a bit, I found lots of "BT/RDS" receivers. I didn't know they were related in any way.

Well, you've learnt something ;)

hehe thanks :) too bad android didn't set a "standard" regarding this, as it does for all the other hardware. But we can't blame it :) we should blame manufacturers here :)

Well, tbqh, it's not Google's position to set standards for extras on top of vanilla Android, in respect to hardware differences. But yeah, manufacturers wants to stand out as "unique", on top of that, carriers too... its brutal business behind the scenes! :)


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How to hard reset of a Samsung Galaxy GT-I9000 which I cannot put in recovery mode?
I don't have much hope. Here is what's happening
Galaxy S GT-I9000 keeps crashing at startup :
com.sec.android.provider.logprovider crashes
and other ones android.process.acore

So I cannot reach any settings to disable some system settings like Settings/Privacy
So I cannot connect usb (it's never seen by my PC)

And a very good joke : it cannot be put in recovery mode !
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_Series#Recovery_Mode
Does nothing
Somebody have notices some i9000 in this case :
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/fix-3-button-combo-download-recovery-mode-in-samsung-galaxy-s-gt-i9000/
Too bad I can't do this : "Now plug the USB cable into the phone. Start a new command prompt window and navigate to the folder/directory where you have installed ADB."
As my phone is not able to make the usb work !
So is there a way to reset the phone the hard way ?
I mean by opening it and erasing the memory to revert to an empty phone fully ...
PS : I cannot tell the android installed on this phone. It's not mine. All I know is that it's pretty old and that it's a custom "Orange" ROM.

Thanks all for your help
I can confirm that :

I had a rom (from Orange France) without any way to put my phone in download mode
The little device here http://galaxy-download-mode.blogspot.ch/ works
I was then able to upgrade my GT-I9000
And now Home+Vol down + power works (so not download mode was not an hardware issue)

now I am upgrading my phone from 2.3.6 to ... (I don't know yet I'll what version the phone can hold)

total non-sense device, don't buy it

I know that it looks like total non-sense.  But IT WORKED

you can access the recovery modes with volume+home+power, just switching between volume up ad down does sometimes the trick

I know that.  I tried that but this recovery WAS NOT available with the rom installed

Did you try this:

Turn the power off. If your Samsung Galaxy S is frozen, pull the battery out and reinsert it
Hold the Volume Down button
Press and release the Power button
You are now presented with a menu that allows for Fastbook, Recovery, Clear Storage, and Simlock
Select Clear Storage by pressing the Volume Down button
Press and release the Power button
Now simply confirm your decision: Volume Up for YES and Volume Down for NO

(Source: KnowYourCell.Com -- the first hit on a little Google Search)

UPDATE: Alternative approaches are listed at Hard-Reset.COM, e.g.:

charge your battery fully before doing a hard reset
PRESS AND HOLD VOLUME UP + Home Button (or VOLUME UP + DOWN)
Keep pressing these 2 buttons + press Power button for 2-3 Seconds
Release only power button, but KEEP pressing Volume up + Home Buttons (or VOL UP + DOWN)

You also might check with the following question here: SGS doesn't go to download, recovery mode nor does it connect via USB after installing a battery MOD

It doesn't : the phone simply starts and boot.  I am going to try this trick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjDkShT-65Y

I just edited my answer and added a second approach (and source). Maybe you have more luck with that.

Volume UP + Home and power for 3 seconds helped me get into recovery.

That was "Option 3" from my last update – thanks for confirmation, @OstapAndrusiv!


text:
How do you resize the Gmail widget?
I can't seem to get the Gmail widget resized to full screen on my SG2. How do I resize it so that it covers the whole screen area?
Android 4.0.4.

Can you resize other widgets?

If you're using the stock launcher, you can't.
If you use an alternative launcher like Nova Launcher or Apex Launcher (one which has support for scrolling & resizable widgets), then you can. Put the gmail widget on your homescreen by long-pressing and selecting the label of choice. THen long-press the widget itself and from the popup menu, choose RESIZE and resize the widget's dimensions as per your liking.
You haven't mentioned what version of Android you're using and Nova/Apex work only on v4+ (ICS). If you have an older gingerbread version, try ADW launcher. Instructions are similar, if not exactly the same.
You may also have to enable the functionality for "scrollable widgets" from within your launcher's settings panel to get the full benefit.


text:
Is there a way to fix the sms notification in Galaxy S2, ICS
The SMS notification behavior is inconsistent on the Samsung Galaxy S2 after upgrading to 4.0.3 ICS.  When receiving a text message, the phone does not make a sound or vibrate, regardless of the notification settings, and regardless of the sms app used (including the default).  The screen will turn on.  This problem will go away after rebooting, but then it will return after time. This is a problem that has been discussed in several forums.
Is there a fix for this?  I'm open to rooting my phone.  I have already done a factory reset since upgrading from Gingerbread to ICS.

I didn't see this issue on a custom ROM - is it an issue with the stock Samsung ROM?
I would suggest you find out - and if you really want to get rid of it, install a custom ROM onto your phone after rooting - I find Sapir's CM10 ROM to work well, and I do not see this issue.
Please check http://forum.xda-developers.com for more info on rooting and installing custom ROM's to your device.

Yes, this is an issue with the stock ICS ROM.  It was actually because of this issue that I decided to install a custom ROM.


text:
How to transfer iPhone contacts to Android Samsung without using iTunes?
For some reasons, the iPhone 4 does not talk to iTunes and I need to transfer the contacts from this to the new Samsung Android phone either Samsung Galaxy 3 or Note 2.
How can I do it?

Can you export your contact data to .vcf (VCard) format on your iFhone, and get that .vcf file to your Android device?

Does it have something like "Send contacts via Bluetooth"? or send by message? I remember my old dumb phones used to have these features. So, iphone (as a modern dumbphone) shouldn't have them?!!

Apple believes that ones you use iPhone you won't move to any other platform. I read this while I had to transfer contacts to Nokia dumb phone for one of my relative's iPhone. There are few 3rd party software that can extract contacts out from iTunes backup. So extract the contact and importing should be fairly easy.

You can sync your contacts with gmail in iPhone, then use same email ID in android device and it will automatically sync contacts.

This is by far the simplest and best solution. If you have an Android device, you pretty much need a Google account anyway. Might as well sync the contacts to the Google account before switching phones.

Try using a third-party tool such as copytrans contacts to export your iPhone contacts to your PC in an Android-readable format:

Also, have a look at this tutorial:
How to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android?

If you can export your contacts into .vcf (VCard) format and transfer the export file to your Android device, no 3rd party utilities are necessary: the contacts app can directly read (and import) this file, and you are done.
If not, there's an app called Contacts Importer available in the playstore, which claims:

Contacts Importer is a quick and easy cross-platform solution to help you back up and import your contacts between Android, iphone, ipad, Symbian and Blackberry.

I didn't test this (and have no iWhatever), but you might give it a try and report your success here for others to learn.

You don't need a computer to transfer contacts from Samsung mobile to iPhone5. You can follow the steps below:

Switch on the WiFi in both phones
Select contacts in Samsung
Select the import / export option
Click send name card via...
Select all contacts
Send
Select GMail and send to your own email ID
Open your GMail in iPhone
Open the attached contacts (v cards)
Add all the contacts

DONE!

Wow. Nice guide. Unfortunately, the wrong direction: OP wanted to transfer from iPhone and to Samsung. So either it's the wrong answer, or you've picked the wrong question ;)

Use a service like Mobyko, the syncing of contacts is done over the air. It is a trully global service that works on most phones & networks. All you need is a phone & an internet connection - let Mobyko do the rest. It is however a paid for utility
For more info:
http://www.mobyko.com/Home.do
Alternatively this free application named Uptact which is a contact syncing App & maybe beneficial:
http://www.uptact.com/


text:
Instagram app is not working when using wifi internet through out proxy server
In our organization we use a proxy server (Traffice Inspector) and I connect to internet usin wifi of my HTC Sensation. Most of the apps work fine except several apps that don't work at all. Say show error message that there is no internet connection at all.
How can I fix this situation please?

The only thing you can do is ask your system admin for help.The fix needs to be applied on the proxy server.


text:
How to display comments from devices that I don't own?
It is now possible to filter the comments in the Google Play Store using the devices you own as filter. Is it possible in some way to filter comments by devices that I don't own?
I am trying to check how some apps behave on my device because it is not so popular, and I would like to try instead check comments with other devices with similar hardware specs.

I don't think that's possible. Filtering comments from devices that you own is the only option

When you specify one of your devices (to narrow down the comments), the web page sends an AJAX query to google. It passes a GET variable, specifying the device; it also passes some POST variables, one of which is a token (so you can't simply browse to the page).
You could write something that requests a different device to get the comments. The only problem is that google has their own definitions for device models. You would have to find out the model id used by google for the device(s) you wish to browse.
Here is a starting point for your code. I grabbed my token value by using Tamper Data.
app_id = "com.rovio.angrybirds";
token_id = "FIND_YOUR_OWN_TOKEN";
device_id = encodeURI("LGE LG-VM670"); //this is sent as a GET, so encode
page_number = 0;

$.ajax({
  type: "POST",
  url: "https://play.google.com/store/getreviews?id="+app_id+"&reviewSortOrder=2&reviewType=1&fn="+device_id+"&pageNum="+page_number,
  data: { xhr: "1", token: token_id},
  dataType: "json",
  success: function(json) {
    parse_reviews(json);
  },
  error: function(json) {
    // it seems like the standard behavior from this url call is a response 'code' of ")]}'", instead of a 200 or other standard code
    parse_reviews(json);
  }
})

function parse_reviews(json_object){
  //this should extract the comments to a readable format
}

Here's a starting point for your list of devices. My two devices are the

Optimus V: "LGE LG-VM670"
Nook Simple Touch: "BarnesAndNoble NOOK"

Readers: Feel free to add your device in the comments.

By the way, this particular script requires jQuery.

You seem to have glossed over how to create the token - I have had this problem for a while and the token is the only problematic thing for me, yet you seem to imply it's obvious. It's not! Can you please explain what the token is and how I can programmatically generate it from a script?

No, this is not possible.
Unfortunately, Google have not implemented this feature into Google Play as of yet.


text:
Display Shuts Off During Calls
Hate to post this - however, I searched all other posts related to this and have not found a solution or the exact same problem so here it goes.
Phone: Samsung Galaxy SII X
Android: 4.0.4
This is so bloody annoying. During any call whether on speaker or using the phone in the traditional manner, the screen shuts off after a minute or so, even though my display is set to shut off after 5 minutes of inactivity.
I have taken the following actions to no avail:

my screen protector does not cover the proximity sensor;
the proximity sensor is clean;
I have disabled proximity sensor (phone>call settings>turn on proximity sensor);
I have disabled automatic brightness (settings>display>brightness); and
set the Bluetooth visible time-out setting to "never time-out" (settings>bluetooth>settings>visible time-out)

All of the above have been suggested within this and/or other forums. However, none of these solutions corrected this most annoying problem.
Some have suggested that the phone is the issue - however, I suspect that there may be a software issue and that a patch or fix may be available and would hate to have to exchange phones yet again.
Any and all suggestions would be most welcome.

Duplicate? When making calls the screen turns off

Read the post you referred me to and I had seen that before, hence my list of actions taken to date. However, I did miss mentioning that I also tried dialing *#36# as per several suggestions and received the following responses "USSD code running..." followed by "Connection problem or invalid MMI code" Am I doing something incorrectly?

*#36#, is unique to the device in question, "Karbonn A9, Android 2.3.6" and thus not the right code for your handset, so no worry, you're not doing something incorrectly. Best to google for samsung shortcodes to see what's the right code for your device. :)


text:
Neo V with 4.0 ICS update -- battery problem
My Sony Xperia Neo V battery performance has gone down very badly after upgrading to ICS.
It mainly happens when I have my mobile data/internet turned on. How can I improve the battery performance?

Well you can try managing battery life with JuiceDefender, which does a great job at disconnecting data connections when not needed and turning it back on when needed. I can personally attest to this fact although I use gingerbread on my Xperia Neo V. Give it a shot and see


text:
How can I add a shortcut to a particular Google Drive document to my Android homescreen?
How can I add a shortcut to a particular Google Drive document to my Android homescreen?
This is the Android analog to this question.  Using a URL doesn't work, since I don't want to open the browser and I want to directly access a Google Drive file I have made available offline.
Could QuickShortcutMaker be used?  Looking through it briefly, (see here) it doesn't look possible because the "intents" used by QuickShortcutMaker don't take arguments such as a filename.

There is a related question that discusses the older version of the app as well, but the app has changed quite substantially since then so I think it's okay for the questions to co-exist.

You should be able to do this natively.
Android 3.0 (and below):
In your launcher, press and hold on a blank area and click "Shortcuts". Select "Drive Shortcut", then your document, and it will create a link for you.
Android 4.0 (and above)
Open your app drawer and jump to the Widgets section. Swipe until you get to "Drive Shortcut". Long-press and drop on your desktop. Choose the account to use (if necessary) then select the document.

It appears that this doesn't work everywhere though. :( I'm not sure what's different but the widget appears to be provided by the Google Drive app however on one device (a ZTE phone with 4.something) it's not there in the list of widgets.

You can only link to docs that are in your drive ; shared docs won't automatically appear. But you can fix this if you go in drive, select the shared doc and click on "add to my drive".

Seems this widget is no longer available. There is a "add to home screen" option in the drive app itself but this doesn't do anything

Here is a slightly different take on Mike's answer, with screenshots:
(Click an image to enlarge it)

Open the Drive app (not the app for the specific document type; this won't work in the Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. apps)
Click the 3 dots (or touch-and-hold) to open the context menu on the document

Scroll down if needed and click "add to homescreen"

If the document doesn't have three dots because it is showing in 'recently opened' one will need to try and get it to display as part of some other list (e.g. search results) before being able to do Step 2.

@Pocketsand You can long-hold a document in 'recently opened' to get the (same?) context menu.

Figured this out.. Go to drive, long hold on the doc, copy link, copy to clipboard.  Open web browser and paste url, then copy page to homescreen.  For reference I had copy to device turned on.

Could you explain better? Tried and didn't work.

Recently (August 2016, Google Drive app version 2.4.311.34.34 on my 2013 Moto X running Android 5.1), there is now an "Add homescreen shortcuts to your favorite files" feature. Press the three dots menu to the right of a document (in my example, "Facebook fodder"):

then scroll up until you see an "Add To home screen" item. That will put a link to your document on your current home screen.

(FYI, the first time I tried this, Google Drive failed to open the document. I killed the Google Drive app, tried again, and successfully opened the document. I have no idea how common this problem might be.)
Edit: Adding Home screen screenshot

Here's the result on my home screen: http://i.stack.imgur.com/B2wJ9.png

The thing that confuses people here is that the way to do it is from within Google Drive, not from your phone's home screen.  So open the Drive app on your phone, open the Drive file you want to create the shortcut to, and then go into the settings/options menu from there.  You'll see "Add shortcut to Home Screen" option and you can click that to make it.  Then exit out of the Drive app and look around your phone screens for wherever it put the shortcut badge and move it around to where you want it.

The mistake I was making is the "Add to home screen" button only exists in the Google DRIVE app. I was trying to add a document directly from Google DOCS/SHEETS app. If you are currently using Google SHEETS, Google DOCS, or Google SLIDES this button will not exist. You must exit that app and go to Google DRIVE (every android should have it downloaded) and from there hold down the file you want to add the the home screen the drop down and "add to home screen" button will appear.

This worked for me on moto g(6) Android version 9:
Open the google drive app (Drive) on your android phone, then navigate to the folder containing the document that you want a shortcut of. Tap on the 3 vertical dots next to the name of the document, then tap on 'Add to Home screen'. You have to scroll down a bit to find the 'Add to Home Screen' button. (Also of note, I only see the 'Add to Home Screen' button if I navigate to the actual location of the document in the drive directory - not from the 'recently used' shortcut.)

add to home screen no longer appears.
workaround was as some one suggested above, to create shortcut via launcher -> select google drive in the list -> and then google drived opens allowing us to choose folder and file press SELECT and voila shorcut to a specific google drive file in your android screen.
hope this helps.