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Help with internet on Samsung Galaxy S3
I have just got a Samsung S3 and am having trouble getting it working on the internet properly, I've put in all the settings required from the giffgaff site and checked the network coverage link on giffgaff website and it says the area I am in has a strong signal strength. I've sent an agent on giffgaff an email to ask if my SIM has a bar on it as couldn't access the internet very good either in my iPhone just before I got this Samsung. So I know it's probably something to do with the SIM and the settings and apn all entered.
I am unsure if the phone is locked to only one network but when I brought it in the title it said it was unlocked to all networks. Can anyone else suggest anything else before I have to put in a new SIM card and have a different number?

Are you trying to connect over wi-fi or over the 3G/4G mobile network in your area? I'm not familiar with giffgaff. Is that like a pre-paid network or a contract based service?

What do you mean by having a "a bar" on the SIM card? I don't fully understand your situation but I'll try to give you an answer you can work with. I've checked out Giffgaff and apparently this is a pre-paid network in the UK.
Let's forget about Internet for a second. Can you make calls with the Giffgaff SIM card in the phone? If you can, then you know your phone is not locked.

Get a Giffgaff SIM card.
Unlock your phone (if not unlocked already).
Activate your SIM card online.
Top it up.

Check out the joining giffgaff guide.
When you're done with all that you need to receive and apply the MMS and Internet settings. I believe Giffgaff will send you a special SMS message as soon as you activate your SIM card. This is a special kind of SMS that holds your Internet and MMS settings. The phone will usually prompt you to save the settings.
If you don't get this prompt you need to check the phone user manual. If you don't receive the SMS you need to re-send it from the Giffgaff website (if possible) or contact Giffgaff to have them send it to your phone number.
This covers the automatic method of setting MMS and Internet settings. This can be also done manually (recommended only for experienced users). In that case you will need to configure the APN and MMS settings.
These are the details you will need to put in the phone.
For Internet:
APN - Access Point Name: giffgaff.com
Login - Username: giffgaff
Password: password

For MMS:
APN - Access Point Name: giffgaff.com
Username: giffgaff
Password: password
Server - http://mmsc.mediamessaging.co.uk:8002
Port - http://mmsc.mediamessaging.co.uk:8002
MMS proxy: 193.113.200.195
MMS port: 8080

You can find a more complete guide here.
For settings these values in Android, you will find a guide here.
Android might ask you for details like MNC and MCC. The details above are usually enough, but here are the more complete details you will need for manually configuring MMS and Internet access on Android.
Access point name: giffgaff
APN: giffgaff.com
Proxy Server Address: 193.113.200.195
Proxy port / MMS port: 8080
Username: giffgaff
Password: password
MCC: 234
MNC: 10
Server / MMSC: http://mmsc.mediamessaging.co.uk:8002
APN type: mms

You will find a step by step instruction here. For instructions specific to your Samsung device you will need to see your user manual for the phone. You should have received a printed copy with your phone, but if you didn't receive it or have lost it you can find it online here.
For further assistance please contact Giffgaff here. You will need to log in with your username and password. There is also a community forum here. Same thing here, to ask questions you need to log in with a username and password.
You're probably better off presenting your problem to the Giffgaff community than asking here at Android SE, as these are Giffgaff users who probably better understand how this network works and what the requirements are than any average user here at Android SE would know.
If you still need Samsung specific instructions for setting up Internet and MMS, drop a comment here below. Good luck!


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Share PC storage with BlueStacks?
I am using BlueStacks Beta 1 but its storage capacity is limited. Is there any way that I can share PC storage so that I can install more apps?
EDIT: I have Bluestacks 0.7.5.2700 installed and it does have limited disk space :(
Please find below screenshots to illustrate the problem.

How limited? How many apps do you have?

You have to choose "Install Here" option to install to the PC. Choosing "Install to phone" will obviously push-install the app on the phone. I am not aware of any storage capacity limitations that are built into Blue Stacks App Player. As long as you are installing to the PC there should be no limitation. The only limitation, if any, is the storage capacity of your PC disk drive.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to find files related to a process
I was using adb shell to have a peek at what's going on a Sony Xperia Z phone. I've noticed a few services (e.g. com.sonymobile.socialengine.plugins, com.google.android.youtube, etc.).
I'd like to know more about, like where would such a service live and what files it uses.
So far I've using find or other typical linux commands, but the phone isn't rooted so I'm a bit stuck.
Is there a way to do that ? If so, how ? If not, what are my options ?

That's a broad topic, and hard to answer in short -- as it involves many aspects. As DevOfZot already pointed out, apps store their "private data" below /data/data/<package_name> -- a place usually only accessible by the app itself and root. But there are some other places as well, where apps e.g. save their cached data, temporary data, downloads, and more.
Some good places to start your investigation include:

the file-system tag-wiki plus most frequented file-system questions, including questions like e.g.

Where in the file system are applications installed?
Where on the file system are SMS messages stored?

highest voted "processes" questions, with things like e.g.

how to find application that is opening proccesses
Is there a way to list all Intents and all processes associated with them?
How to find pid of Battery Service?
Why is Google Maps always running in the background?

the shell tag-wiki and its most frequented questions, like e.g.

How can I use shell commands and interact with the Linux system underneath?
How can I run a script on boot?
Where can I find documentation for shell commands?

As you can see, here at Android Enthusiasts (and on other stacks as well), tags are a good place when looking for general information:

From the navigation bar on top, follow the Tags link. On the page that leads you to, you can filter the pretty long list to find those tags which might be of interest to you.
Move your mouse over the tag-of-interest, and from the popup select "info". This brings you to the wiki of the corresponding tag, which often contains first-aid and other useful information.
From there, use the navigational links to discover most-frequented, highest-rated, and otherwise sorted questions using this tag.
You'll easily find your way from there, using further links -- be it "Amazon-style" links like "Questions tagged this were also tagged that", related questions (automatically selected by our friendly droids -- ahem, robots), or questions manually linked by users.

Enjoy your research! Btw: If you want to dig even deeper, a good book is Andrew Hoog's Android Forensics and Mobile Security. It not only explains file structures and how apps work, but also shows weeknesses, attack vectors, and more -- using good examples and a Linux VM :)

Wow, this is a very comprehensive response, thanks! (+1).

Yupp -- my idea was it might serve as index :) Btw: It was set up the very same way it describes: by following the tag links #D

Applications normally store their data in /data/data/com.foo.bar but you won't have access to that via adb on an unrooted device, by design.  I don't think there's a way around that without rooting the phone.

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


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How to connect 3rd party tcp/ip device to Nexus7
I have a wired tcp/ip based device that I need to access from an android app running on a rooted nexus 7.
There is only one hard-requirement1. The tablet's primary internet connectivity must NOT be affected (3g and wifi).
and a couple of preferences...
 2. Preferably the device would be accessed wirelessly.
3. Preferably this would be accomplished without additional hardware physically attached to the tablet.
The options as I currently see them...

Bluetooth
obviously this would require some sort of ethernet to bluetooth gateway.  I would rather not pay more than the price of the table for an industrial device which has significantly more capability than what I would need. So does a consumer version of this even exist? If it does would the resulting bluetooth connection on the tablet interfere with the 3g/wifi internet connectivity or is that something I can workaround with special routing rules or just coding the app to use bluetooth rather than sockets?
Wifi
Is there a way to accomplish this while still meeting requirement #1?  Maybe attaching a USB dongle via the tablet OTG connection and running two simultaneous wifi connections with special routing rules?
Wired
USB RJ45 dongle via tablet OTG connection?  This is similar and possibly simpler than the wifi option yet has the same potential issues regarding having two network connections active concurrently.

Any thoughts, suggestions, creative solutions?

The obvious solution would be to use a device that has both ethernet and Wi-Fi as a router or a bridge. If it joins the same Wi-Fi network that the Nexus 7 is on, then the Nexus 7 will be able to make a connection through the router/bridge to your mystery device, while also talking to the Internet through the same Wi-Fi network. Alternatively, if the Nexus 7 is on 3G, switch on its Wi-Fi hotspot and have the router/bridge connect to that.
I don't know if any commercially available special-purpose Wi-Fi routers have the ability to act as a client rather than an AP, but this would be easy to rig up with a Raspberry Pi or similar small Linux machine.

Yes, A wireless-bridge/gaming adapter would turn the tcp/ip device wireless, thankfully thats the easy part.  However, connecting it to the tablet in a consistent way that doesn't affect the tablet's internet connectivity is more difficult.   Unfortunately the tablet will switch between 3g and wifi (and individual wifi hotspots) as needed, trying to manually keep another device's configuration in sync with that just isn't viable in this case.


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Do I need to root my phone to get a tcpdump?
I'm troubleshooting my aCal installation and the good folks at aCal asked me for the output from tcpdump -A -- do I need to root my phone and install busybox or can I do this from a terminal emulator?

All apps on Google Play which use tcpdump seem to require root. A quick test on my Linux machine showed: as root it works, as unprivileged users I simply get an error message stating "tcpdump: no suitable device found". So I guess that would require root. On the other hand: it doesn't hurt to either install a terminal app and try, or try doing it via adb shell.

While the answer is up to date for 2.3, it must be noted that tcpdump, or features similar to tcpdump, should be available in newer Android version by establishing a software VPN

Yes, tcpdump is an administrator-level application (I highly doubt there will ever be an Android permission level to view all other apps' network traffic). Once rooted, if you have tcpdump binary (compiled for your device's cpu type) on sdcard, try:
su
mount -o remount rw /system/
cd /sdcard
cp ./tcpdump /system/xbin

Now you can use tcpdump command.
Without rooting, you could intercept traffic on your wifi LAN by setting a proxy to your computer in your device settings, and installing mitmproxy in a virtualenv on your computer and running it.


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Disable camera's lockscreen shortcut
How can I prevent the camera app from opening directly from my Nexus 4's lockscreen? It opens frequently and easily when the lock screen slides from right to left, even if the phone is locked with pattern. My phone is running Android 4.2.2.

I'm not aware of any native settings for this, but there is an app that was built to bridge the gap: Lockscreen Policy. When you first launch it, you'll need to hit the "Activate" button to give it device administration permission, then you simply toggle the camera to "Off":

One caveat to this app that the author notes on the Google Play page:

Does not work on TouchWiz Android 4.2.x firmware (such as Galaxy S4)

However, this does not apply in your case, since the N4 is not running TouchWiz.

Thank you but there is no such app named lock screen policy in my phone please let me where I may get it.

Thank you so much I just got that app from play store. Thanks again for your helping hand.


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Simulate menu button in older app (Android 2.x) on Android 4.x tablet
I've got a new Android 4.1 tablet. I am trying to run an old app which was created for Android 2.1 and relies on the menu button.
Can somebody points me to a ready-made application which returns the new menu button? Any idea?

I don't think this is something you can do with an app. A custom ROM might work, but apps (to my knowledge) can't alter the menu bar on a system-wide basis. You'd either need a ROM that supports this as a configuration option (or a modified framework for your current version of Android, possibly) or you'd have to alter the original app to properly support newer Android versions, most likely.

When a newer device loads an app that targets an old Android version, it displays a menu button on the system bar, near the home, recents, and back buttons. It has the same "three dots" icon that you see on newer Android apps. Pressing this has the same effect as pressing the menu key on a device that has one.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! The three dots were so tiny I couldn't see them.

On my S6 Edge plus (just upgraded from an S4), I found a long press on the back button solved it.

Yeap back button worked for me on Samsung S2


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How can I get wired tethering on the Galaxy Rush to a WinXP?
I have a Samsung Galaxy rush that I would like to tether. I assume that it does not support wireless tethering, but it should do wired. Will I need to root the device? How would I do that?

@Izzy: I think that's the opposite direction; it sounds like the OP wants normal (phone => PC) USB tethering. Ian: Does your phone have settings for either of these built in? Both are supported since Android 2.2 (IIRC) but carriers sometimes disable/block them. Check Settings -> Wireless & Networks for any tethering options. On ICS or later it should be Settings -> More... under the wireless group at the top.

Oh -- yes, you're probably right with that. So make it How do I enable USB tethering on a JellyBean device?, Can I set up Wi-Fi and USB tethering on the Galaxy Nexus without rooting it?, or How can I share the internet connection of my HTC Wildfire ( Android 2.2 ) via Bluetooth or USB? ...

@eldarerathis: It does not have settings for it as far as I can tell.


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How to install CyanogenMod on an MK808?
How does one install CyanogenMod on the MK808 MiniPC? I can't find a good tutorial nor can I get it to work myself.
At this point I'm hoping I didn't brick my device. I attempted to follow a YouTube video where a guy installs some operating system into it. But the guy never said a word, or at least no word that I could understand. You see he was Chinese and the computer he was on was in Chinese.
I could tell that I have the same tool that he does this "RKBatchTool.exe" thing. So I tried to follow it I downloaded the Cyanogenmod 10.1 for RockChip 3066 devices. I also downloaded and installed the RockUSB drivers. I got it to connect, loaded the image into the batch tool thing and told it to upgrade.
I got errors and now I don't know what to do. I Googled around for a good hour or so but I can't find a tutorial or a how to. Not even on the Cyanogen page where they say they have a howto page but that just goes to a 404 error. The device packaging says its an MK808, here is the exact device. To add insult to injury, I can find all kinds of videos of people who have it working. Thanks for the any help!

apparently you missed this part of my comment: "you are going to have to include more details about what you've already done and what the current state of your device is." on SO...

yea... i just read that part


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Email doesn't sync anymore with Hotmail after the JellyBean update
My email app used to sync with Hotmail. After the Jellybean update it stopped syncing. I checked the settings: The peak and off-peak schedule are set to 'Push'. I also tested it with 15 minute pull. I always have to manually get the new messages.
The Exchange server settings ->Sync Email says 'Sync is turned off' with a green check mark. All the settings for Exchange are disabled and I can't change them.
Any ideas how to get the syncing working again?


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Using Galaxy Note 2 and stylus to draw in Photochop CS6 on Computer
Is there a specific and ultimate complete working application that I could use to draw with my stylus on the Galaxy Note 2 in Photoshop CS6 on my computer? IDK if that makes sense, but what I am trying to do is to use my Note 2 as a tablet to draw with instead of using the mouse on the computer. Please Help!!!

See this previous question that seems to cover the same ground as yours: Use an android tablet as a wacom drawing tablet for a PC?

Or Use Galaxy Note as digitiser tablet for PC


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How do I upgrade the OS on my Galaxy S2 I9100MUGKG2
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do this.  I don't know what's wrong with me.  Maybe I"m losing it.  I'm a Software Engineer with an honors degree in Computer Science and I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT!
I am absolutely at my wits end.  lol  Help me before I do the unspeakable.

If there is an update available for your android phone in android you go to
Settings -> About Phone -> System Updates
Good Luck!


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S Planner (Mini) widget in Galaxy Note 2 (running on 4.1.2 JB) doesn't update
Recently added the S Planner (Mini) widget to the home screen to have a quick glance of my calendar for the current day. But the widget is not updating by itself. When I tap on 'Today' then the date and the events are updated. Am I missing any setting for the automatic update for the widget?


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Google “Play Music” app constantly running!
Why is Google Play Music constantly running on my galaxy s4? I don't use any music app.
NOTE this has been previously posted but the answer given does NOT work

Go to Settings→Apps→Manage Apps
Go to the All tab
Scroll the list until you find Google Play Music
Tap the entry
On the screen which opens on the tap, you'll find a button labeled
Disable -- push it.

THEN it asks you to press OK or Cancel, pressing OK, then it says "Do you want to replace this app with the factory version?
A little bit of a merry-go-round, the s4 for is so full of crap that you CAN'T remove its a real JOKE - samsung are fools for thinking anyone would use have the space wasting crap on an otherwise great phone

Well, it looks like your only option is to root the Samsung Galaxy SIV and delete the google play music app and other bloatware from your service provider.


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Do Android devices become slower with time?
I own a Galaxy S (2.3.5 / GT-I9000 / BVJV3) and use it since two and a half years. I also have bought more recent hardware, like an iPad Mini and a more recent Android tablet, which comparatively are much more reactive.
So I was wondering if the slowness of my device was just a feeling, or if devices actually become less responsive with time ? The phone is always lagging (click sounds always a second behind), running the basic functions of the phone (messages, phone, contacts) always need a good 4 seconds to actually show on screen, returning to the home screen sometimes takes 5 to 10 seconds while it's doing something to the icons. A game like Pudding Monsters is bacically unplayable, but I didn't expect this phone to run recent games.

Have you tried doing a factory restore? Was it like this when you bought it?

I would say yes. I know for instance that my Windows computers become slower with time. This is because I am using them every day. I install and uninstall applications, most of them leave shitty data behind, some of them manage to screw up and bloat the registry, and it all just adds up. Even when not installing too many applications, just by using them data is generated. Therefore I try to keep it a policy to reinstall Windows (or any other OS) at least two times a year. Now-days Windows and applications for Windows have become more efficient and effective though.

I didn't want to evoke Windows because I haven't used it for a very long time (before XP) , but this was a recurring problem at that time (the slow bloating of the system that invariably ended by "formatting the computer") that looks similar to what I'm witnessing.

Yeah, it's like that Daft Punk song, Technologic. "Name it, rate it, tune it, print it, Scan it, send it, fax - rename it, Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it, Turn it, leave it, start - format it." It's all part of a technological life cycle. So I suggest you "format it". I'm sure it wasn't like that when you first bought it?..

You might want to take a look into My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?


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How to make packages from f-droid to be treated as from a "known source" (if I have root)?
I usually get packages from http://f-droid.org/ repository through their package browser (because then I have a guarantee that I use free (= libre) software); and they are signed with their key.
I use CyanogenMod 10; and I have root access.
I don't like allowing packages from "unknown sources" for this.
Can I set up the system so that f-droid counts as a known source, and packages from all other unknown sources are not allowed to be installed by default as before.
Perhaps, something can be patches in the CyanogenMod distro to add f-droid's key as a key for a "known source" of packages.

Almost every F-Droid app is signed with a different key, though all keys are in the same key store. In order for the switch to be bypassed, F-Droid client would have to be installed as a system app and made to work safely as such. Some code has been supplied for this to work, but it hasn't been integrated yet.

So, in principle, one could add a new "known" key, but in the case of apps from f-droid, there are so many keys, that this is not practical; the only practical way is to have the f-droid client itself as a system app which would perform the signature check. Have I understood the situation correctly?

data/app is owned by the system user, so any system app can put an apk in there without having to go through package installer. So it's nothing to do with signatures of the apps but F-Droid would need to be signed with the system key.

I'm not sure why but it's not necessary for F-Droid apk to be signed with the system key, at least if one is using CyanogenMod.

So, should I try a new f-droid or new CM for this feature?

According to this changelog the upcoming f-droid version 0.71 should support this.
Another mention of this is in:
https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/issues/127#issuecomment-51065857

there is f-droid privilege extension
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota/
with it you should be able to install apps without having to enable "unknown source".
there are two ways to install. one using sideload. another using adb root. i will explain both below.
if done correctly fdroid with the privilege extension should even survive a reset to factory settings. it is a part of the system then.

preparations for both install methods

download the f-droid privilege extension from f-droid website to your pc.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota/
to download you need to scroll down then download the latest zip. the filename should be something like this: org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota_2110.zip

install adb on your pc and enable "usb debugging" on your device. search the internet for how to do that.
adb is a command line tool so open a terminal. then navigate to the directory where the privileged extension zip file is located.

connect the device to your pc using an usb cable.

verify that the device is recognized using the command adb devices.
it should show something like this:
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
<some number> device

if it says unauthorized or anything else you need to debug your connection. search the internet for how to do that.

the sideload method
for this you need a custom recovery which allows sideload installed on your device.
if you have lineageos installed you typically already have a suitable custom recovery. otherwise download and install twrp (https://twrp.me/).

connect your device to pc with usb cable. verify device is listed under
 adb devices

boot your device to sideload
 adb reboot sideload

OR: boot your device to recovery
 adb reboot recovery

then on your device in recovery set the device to sideload. in the lineageos recovery this is called "apply update" then "apply from ADB".

install privilege extension by sideload
 adb sideload org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota_2110.zip

reboot device back to android.
 adb reboot

OR: click on reboot in the recovery menu

check if privilege extension is enabled. see below for how to do that.
more information:

https://android.izzysoft.de/articles/named/fdroid-intro-1
https://android.izzysoft.de/articles/named/fdroid-intro-2

the adb root method
for this you also need "rooted debugging" enabled on your device (alongside "usb debugging").
it seems "rooted debugging" is only available if you have a custom rom like lineageos installed.
unzip the downloaded privilege extension.
now run the following adb commands one by one
adb root
adb remount
adb push F-DroidPrivilegedExtension.apk /system/priv-app/
adb push permissions_org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.xml /system/etc/permissions/
adb push F-Droid.apk /system/app/
adb push 80-fdroid.sh /system/addon.d/
adb reboot

verify that there are no error messages after each step. except adb remount which seems to be unnecessary on recent lineageos versions. but no harm done (as far as i understand) so continue anyway.
after reboot check if privilege extension is enabled.
more information:

https://forum.f-droid.org/t/privileged-extension-ota-workaround-for-los-17-1/11058
https://github.com/Toasterbirb/fdroid-privileged-extension

how to check if the privilege extension is enabled

open f-droid
go to settings
scroll all the way down
enable expert mode (will open more settings to the bottom)
scroll all the way down again
if you see a green checkmark beside "privileged extension" then it is enabled.

"privileged extension" is the very last option in the settings page. if you have scrolled all the way to the bottom and the last option is not "privileged extension" then the privileged extension is not enabled. also probably not correctly installed.

notes:
i have installed many fdroid with privilege extensions on many lineageos on many devices. often there were hiccups along the way and it does not work for reasons that i do not understand.
most of the time i managed to get it working after some searching on the internet and some tinkering. sometimes it seems just dumb luck getting the right command combination by coincidence to get it to work.
sometimes it just does not work. sorry that i cannot help you further then.

You have this as Magisk module too

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


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Backup Android 2.3.6 app data before rooting
I want to create a backup of application data (game highscores etc.) for Android version 2.3.6, before I try to root. How to do it?
Helium (Carbon) and Z4Root aren't compatible with my OS version / device.

Not a chance: To backup app data before Android 4.0, you need root. Except when the apps themselves offer a backup feature (be it export/import or Google Cloud Backup integration).

How can data on an unrooted phone be backed up?, How do I perform a full pre-rooting backup of an Android phone?, Full Backup of non-rooted devices (Android version 2.3.X and below)

Yupp: 1+2 basically say what I wrote (just with some more details), 3 has no answer (and I just marked it duplicate of 2 -- which I will now do for this one as well).


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My HTC One X seems to be self destructing after Jelly Bean update
I upgraded to Jelly Bean on my AT&T HTC One X last month, and ever since then it's like my phone has just given up on life.
I had to upgrade through the installer package from the HTC Website and was walked through the process by HTC tech support.
Things that have been happening:

HD Widgets would stop working off and on, the widgets I've had on the screen would simply disappear
Tasker crashes constantly and profiles don't work. I have used this app on my last 2 phones as well as on the HTC One X since I got it back in Nov.
Swype is no longer my keyboard and no matter what I do I can't seem to get it back.
most importantly : My microphone quit working on phone calls. It still works on speakerphone, but no longer works normalls.
Other various weird happenings here and there. I swear it's like my phone is haunted or has become sentient and given up on life.

These are all apps I have used for a very long time and have never had issues with. At least 2 of them are very popular and respectable apps.
(I would link to them, but Google Play is unfortunately blocked at work)
My phone is not rooted. I have not dropped my phone in water or even dropped it on the ground. Literally nothing major has changed in the past 2-3 months except the Jelly Bean update about a month ago.
If you need any more information to help me get pointed in the right direction to resolve my issues, please let me know.

If those problems started right away after the update: did the update process include a factory-reset? If not (and nothing else helps), this might be your chance:
Backup all things you can backup (luckily on JB that's not too big an issue, see Full Backup of non-rooted devices -- but I recommend to have all your apps into separate packages, as otherwise a full restore might bring back your problems). Then do a factory-reset.
Before restoring anything, check if your problems are gone. Then restore your apps one-by-one (just to make sure to not bring back the problem).
As for the backup process: check with Helium - App Sync and Backup, this is the easiest way to go. You can mark all your apps, make sure to check that .apk files are included (by default, Helium only backups data), and give it a go. Helium creates separate backup archives per-app, so you can restore them separately. Make a copy of the backup folder to your PC, just in case -- if restoring via Helium should fail for any reason, this still gives you the chance to use adb restore via USB.
Background: It might very well be that some settings got messed up on update. A factory-reset will erase all your apps and data, plus the Dalvik-Cache (optimized app code -- this might be the culprit if it doesn't 100% match the new Android version), so all settings revert to "default". Your Android system ROM (JellyBean) will not be reverted to what you had before, so no worries for that :)

No it did not. I was actually expecting it to be reset and backed up all my important information multiple times before I updated to Jelly Bean, but the apps simply weren't installed but still completely there in the folder structure.
I'm not too worried about the apps themselves, I can re-install them from the Play store.
I will try this tonight, thanks much.

That description makes a "system confusion" even more likely, while at the same time it seems a factory-reset will really be the remedy to that. As you already have everything backed up, go for it -- I keep my fingers crossed meanwhile and wait for your feedback :) Good luck!

Glad to read -- and thanks for your feedback!


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How do I get offline voice detection on my tablet running JB (4.1.1)?
I just got myself a budget tablet (Halo Value) from "Swipe Telecom", and I was wondering how I can get offline speech recognition on it, since JB should support it.
My language is set to English (US), and I can't seem to find any option to download offline voice recognition files. I looked under Settings > Language & input > Google voice typing settings and it has just one option, to block offensive words. Under voice search settings, I have "speech output", "block offensive words" and "Hotword Detection".
Any ideas how to get offline voice recognition on the tab?

There's a tutorial on How to Activate Offline Voice Typing on Jelly Bean which you could follow. Here's an excerpt:

Open the system settings of the device.
Go to language and placing.
Make a tap on voice search.
Now do a tap on Download ricon. VOC. offline.
With a swype moved All tab and select your language, it will begin the download of the package.
Eventually the card INSTALLED will appear.

Now you should be able to use voice input in offline mode.
Just in case, here are several additional howtos:

How To: Enable Offline Voice Typing in All Jelly Bean Android Devices
Download and Install Google Now with Voice Search (Stable Version) On Galaxy S3

.

From the first "additional link", the description looks a bit different:

Go to Settings
Go to Languages and Input
Check if the language is selected as English(US). If not, then set it.
In the Inputs, look if the option Google Voice Typing is checked. If not, then check it.
Select the gear icon beside the Google Voice Typing. This will take you to the voice typing settings.
In the Choose Input Language, uncheck automatic and select English(US).
Below, in the Download Offline Speech Recognition option, select English(US).
After the download completes, close the settings.
Go anywhere for typing, like Messaging.
Select the little gear icon in the bottom left area. This will give the option of selecting Voice Typing.
Speak out your words clearly and the device will type it out even if Internet Connection is Inactive.

You should be able to do this with other languages as well (e.g. English(UK)) -- just make sure they match in all places.

As I said in my question, my language is already set to English(US), and I have looked in those places, bit I don't have any option to download offline voice recognition files.
Also beside google voice typing, I have a settings icon and not a gears icon.

Not having a JB phone, I cannot check that currently. Will do so with my tablets at home. But AFAIR they all have the "gears" icon for settings. Apart from the icon used, shouldn't the link go to the same pages?

+1: I've got an S3 with JB 4.1.1, and the above instructions are accurate.

That's the problem, i saw that setting on several videos on youtube as well...but it isn't there on my tab. i don't know if it uses a different ROM or something, but the setting simply isn't there, and that's why I am looking for other methods

Maybe you could add a few details: 1) exact Android version (from Settings->About), 2) a link to device specifications (or anything coming close to that), 3) screenshots (or links to them, I'll integrate them then). This might help us to narrow things down. As techie007 already checked on 4.1.1, that's all I could have done (same version on my tabbies), so we can skip that for now.

Is there such an option on nexus 5 with kit kat?


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My Nexus 4 says it's charging but it's actually discharging
I plug in my Nexus 4 to a charger cable plugged into a wall outlet each night, and each morning I disconnect it.
But sometimes during the day when it's not plugged in, like today, it says "Charging - 95%", and later, it says, "Charging - 92%", and continues to discharge normally. The battery icon also shows the little lightning bolt symbol to indicate charging.
I've seen the related/similar questions but they don't match my device or situation, as far as I can tell. Since other devices have similar issues, is it a software problem?

What happens if you restart your phone?

@TronicZomB That seems to work. Also, a few hours later, it seemed to have changed to the normal "discharging" status.

Next time this happens, go to Settings => Battery and check what app is consuming your power. Normally it should be screen 70%.

is the charger cable the one that came with your device? did you flash anything into the device? have you tried calibrating the battery?

@svarog Yes, no, no. For the record, I haven't seen this behavior lately... it may come up again, as it does, but we'll see.

i am experiencing the same problem, the phone is running Android 4.3 and the charger is the MC-02A

I have the same problem. Rebooting the phone clears the condition but the same thing happens the next day. Factory resetting the phone (any phone) is always a pain. I will consider it for the sake of seeing what happens but now that the Moto X is available and a Nexus 5 is around the corner I'll probably just upgrade my phone. I do not have time for this kind of operation. This phone is only six months old and is my second Nexus 4!

Either the battery is damaged or it's a software issue. You should first try to reboot the phone. If it doesn't fix it, try a factory reset.

This happens to me too. But only when leaving the screen on with full brightness, having a wifi hotspot, using location services, and playing a game at the same time. Basically, you are using more power than your charger can provide.

It wasn't really a new question. It's the same as this one but with all the mentioned precautions already in place. Plus a full power off would preclude apps from preventing a battery charge since it's not idle but off. So my contention is that these temp fixes seem t circumvent a major flaw in the system but nothing actually seems to permanently fix it. The comment is on topic it just expands the parameters a bit since we're not all experiencing the same results from many different fixes. From what I am seeing most of these fixes are temporary and don't actually fix anything they are workarounds that must be repeated often.

To me, this content looks like a mix of commentary and a possible answer (needs sources to back it up).


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Nexus S and phone charger get unusually hot when plugged in
I was using my Nexus S today and it turned off suddenly. I plugged it in to charge and saw it load to the boot splash screen, and then I went to sleep.
When I woke up 2 hours later my phone was dead. I plugged it in to the charge for another half an hour, but both the phone and the charger started getting very hot. I tested my charger and battery with another phone and both seemed to work properly without the excess heat. What happened to my phone that's causing it to heat up like this?

Probably something is messed up inside the hardware of your Nexus S?

I have that sometimes, too. Usually it's some app or android itself being rather busy. Look at Settings => Battery which one is causing it. Usually there should be Display at 70% consuming the most power.

If there's a short in the USB port on the phone it can cause charging to stop and heating up to occur. I guess that's well past your warranty period, but you could still take it into a phone shop and ask about getting the port replaced. I just had that done on my Galaxy Nexus and it only took about 15 minutes once the part came in.

There are 90% chances of it should be a hardware defect. Most probably the micro USB pins inside your Nexus might have been damaged. Also there is a possibility of your battery nearing its lifetime. Sometimes one in a million batteries die young. So I advice you to check your phone with another compatible battery.


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Can I use the internal storage in the Wildfire S to store music and photos?
I have a Wildfire S for a couple of weeks while my actual phone is off for repair. I can't use the camera or anything like that because it just says "Insert SD Card". If I look at the storage I can see there is plenty available.
I don't want to buy an SD card just for this temporary phone - my Galaxy S2 has never had this problem.
Can I use the ample internal storage available or will I have to shell out?

You need to setup the camera to save the photos on the internal storage. It's probably set for external SD card, which is not available.

As Alex wrote: Open the camera app, and check its settings. It should contain a "storage" section. If it does not (which is the case sometimes), there's no much chance -- except trying some other camera app.

The Wildfire S only has 512MB of internal flash.  None of this austere allotment is allocated to a user storage partition like is done on the Galaxy S2, S3, etc.


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How to automatically connect to a wiFi network and turn off 4g LTE
I'd like my Samsumg Galaxy S4 verizon phone to be able to connect to my preferred wifi networks (office and home) automatically, while at the same time turn off the 4G LTE data plan.
As of right now, I have it set up such that it'd connect auto to wifi, but when I am connected to wifi I still see the 4g LTE active.  I could deactivate the 4G LTE and activate it later, but I am looking for a way to do this automatically, no user involved.
Any ideas?

Usually, mobile data should be turned off automatically by the system when WiFi is connected. If you're sure it's mobile data which is on, you could try some automation tools to handle this, e.g. Tasker (Condition: WiFi connected, Task: mobile data off), or Llama - Location Profiles (here I don't know the steps, but it can do that as well).

nice app, just got it and it solved my problem ;-)

Great! Which of the two did you decide for? If Llama, maybe you could describe the steps involved with a few words?

Oh no, I decided to use Tasker.

Yepp -- just thought so when seeing your new question :) You won't regret those few bucks it costs. On some forums, as soon as somebody starts "How..." it shouts "Tasker, Tasker" from all directions before he can finish his question #D


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Google+ Auto Backup failed
When looking at my photos in the Google+ app, at the bottom is a footer that says "Backup failed" with a retry button. The backup still fails when I click Retry.
Is there a way to find out why Auto Backup is failing so I can correct the problem?

Taking advice from this post: http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/google-plus-discuss/d3s4VKI3yWo/bq39QiqknWoJ

Another solution that worked for me was turning off Standard size in
  the Auto Backup settings altogether. When taking a new 8MP jpg using
  my camera and when Photo Size was set to Full Size in Google+, all the
  photos seem to be successfully uploading without error. This further
  confirms that the error is arising when Google+ is trying to convert
  larger jpgs to standard size.

I tried taking pictures at different resolutions, from 1.9MP to 8MP. 3.8MP and below uploaded without a problem. Anything with a higher resolution still failed.
So, the solution for now seems to be:

take pictures at a lower resolution

or

Change the Photo Size setting in Auto Backup from "Standard size" to "Full size"

Try deleting Google+ data/cache, then start Google+ app. It will log you in and then you can choose Auto Backup setting. You can then go to Sync settings, untick "Sync Google+ Auto Backup" and then tick it again. Seems to work for me. You can also go to the Google+ app settings and get it to upload all your photos/videos to start the sync.

I've tried that, didn't work. I have even tried deleting the Google+ app and re-installing and it didn't work.

The photos might be damaged/removed but somehow still indexed in Google Photos. Delete photos with no thumbnail will correct this issue.

Thanks for the answer, but that wasn't my issue at the time. Having said that, I have experienced this problem and deleting the bad image worked in that case.

I found the solution for me to be that I had the sync setting turned off. I went to my settings -> notification drawer -> tiles and layout and then I put the sync button in my drop down tiles which I must have turned off thinking it was the orientation button because they have similar looking icons. Once that was turned on everything synced normally again :)

For me, Google+ syncing was off and that is why it wasn't working

I noticed that I had set the "autobackup only when charging" setting to ON. This also triggered the auto backup failed error message when pushing "retry" (when the phone wasn't charging, of course).

In my case I realised that my backup had gotten linked to another Gmail account of mine. When I changed the backup to my original Gmail account, things went back to normal.

This article helped me My photos aren't being backed up.

If your device's photos and videos aren't being saved to your Google account, try checking your backup status:
Open the Google Photos app on your mobile device .
  At the top left, touch the Menu icon  > Assistant.
  Read the first card. If it says:

"Waiting for connection" or "Waiting for Wi-Fi": You either need to change your settings or connect to a Wi-Fi or mobile network. Touch the card to change your settings.
"Back up & sync is off": Touch "TURN ON" on the card to back up your device's photos and videos, including ones that you capture in the future.
"A photo or video was skipped": A photo or video on your mobile device doesn't meet our upload requirements:
  Photos must not exceed 75 MB or 100 megapixels
  Videos must not exceed 10 GB
"Backing up photos" or "Backup complete": This means that your photos and videos should be saved.


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Problem connecting Galaxy Note 10.1 to Mac OS X Mountain Lion
I'm trying to connect my Galaxy Note 10.1 (running Android 4.2.2) to my Mac OS 10.8 machine via USB. I used Android File Transfer, but it gives me an error that says:

Could not connect to device. Try reconnecting or restarting your device.

I more time search answer for this question and found this: http://playaprogrammer.blogspot.com/2013/01/using-android-file-transfer-with.html

I found a reason of my problem. Before installing Android File Transfer i installed KIES. After installing AFT i uninstall the KIES. i understand that when  i uninstall the KIES uninstall USB driver too. So installed KIES again and AFT is working!!! Its really cool application!

Did you try to set the USB Connection mode to Camera (PTP) mode or Media device (MTP) mode? Might help to deinstall KIES. The USB cable does work on another laptop/pc?


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Micro SD not being found on phone or pc after replacing
My micro SD card filled up from pictures on my Galaxy S3 and previous phone. I went out and bought a larger capacity card to replace it. When I put the full card in my laptop to transfer the pictures, at first it worked. When I went to open the card, I could not find it anywhere on my laptop. I removed it and put it back in my phone and it is now saying the card is damaged. I have tried both multiple times, even in my camera, and still have not been able to find my pictures.
What can I do to find my pictures again and safely?

You might want to check questions tagged external-sd and data-recovery for what helped others in the same situation. If none of those 12 questions (including their answers) helped, please update your question with the new details, i.e. what you tried and where you got stuck. Thanks!


text:
My Karbon Smart Tab 7 Tornado EX SD CARD problem
My tab detects my sd card but the problem is.. it won't mount
can someone please help me..
I tried to format it into NTFS, ExFat, Fat32 but it doesn't work
Thank you for viewing!
Your answer is my gratitude
:)

Can you please update your question with some more details: Do you get any error messages? If so: can you quote some? You might also want to check your system logs aka logcat for details (depending on your device's Android-version, there are several logcat apps on the playstore; alternatively, adb logcat could be used with your tab connected to your computer via USB).


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Installing app from google play in my SD Card
I like hearing to songs through tuneQ app (Scosche), which I had downloaded from Google Play. tuneQ is a music player.
Unfortunately the player lists songs present in my Internal Memory. I want to install the tuneQ player in my SD card so that I can have access to all the songs in my SD card.

I hope I've picked the correct app to link from Google Play -- but there was only one by that name. So I'm sorry to inform you, but that's not a "music player": tuneQ is a graphic equalizer app -- so it's for adjusting your sound quality. But even if: you don't need to install an app to your SDCard in order to enable it reading there. Would you please check what music player you are really using, and update your question accordingly? Songs on your card should be automatically found. Make sure there's no .nomedia file in their folders.

Hi, tuneQ is a graphic equalizer as well as a music player.I have a couple of songs in my internal memory, But i dont see my songs present in my memory card listed in my tuneq player.About .nomedia can you tell where the folder is located? Thanks in advance

I would be very much thankful if you can suggest me a very professional music player with equalizer settings of high quality that is free, which i can download from google play.I would very much appreciate your help on this.

Please not that questions on app recommendations are off topic here (see our [FAQ] for details). As for the .nomedia file: it's a file which tells the MediaScanner to skip the directory it is located in. So you need to check the directories on your SDCard (where you say your music files are located) whether there's such a file present. You can use a file explorer for this, or check the card on your computer. Hint: files starting with a dot (like .nomedia) are hidden by default, so you need to configure your file browser to display hidden files.

Have you tried the "Apollo Music Player"-app by the CyanogenMod team? As far as I know you cannot read and play music from the external memory if the application is not able to. So you won't fix it by installing the app on the external SDcard.
The Appolo Music Player is:

Free
Great
Equalizer
High Quality

This cannot be downloaded from the Google Market, but you might grab it from XDA (just be sure to enable to permit installing from unknown sources):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2196385


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What's corrupting my ROM?
I'll have my phone running perfectly fine; however, after I wipe cache and dalvik cache in ClockworkMod Recovery, my phone freaks out and stops working.  It'll either get stuck on the boot logo or get stuck on: "Android is updating: Starting applications".  In a past incident, the phone actually booted into the home screen, but my wallpaper changed to black and wouldn't let me change it.
I've checked in the /etc/init.d/ folder to see if there are any scripts wiping something, but the folder is empty.  It's like my phone's hardware or a script (unfound) corrupts the ROM.  Currently, I'm unable to get into my phone to grab a last_kmsg log to see if you guys can debug the problem.  When I leave my phone for awhile on the boot logo or attempting to boot into the home screen, the phone feels very hot and I end up turning it off after unsuccessful boots.
The procedure for flashing my phone is downloading the Nexus 4 factory image from Google's official repository and using fastboot to flash all the partitions: bootloader, boot, recovery, radio, system, and userdata.
The kernel can't be the cause since the problem occurs when I wipe cache and dalvik cache, plus franco.Kernel is the #1 kernel developer @xda and there would be multiple reports of people having the same issue.  I never used to have this problem up until about a few months ago and I've been running the same setup since I got the phone when it first came out.
Nexus 4: factory stock 4.2.2, rooted, ClockworkMod Recovery, and franco.Kernel r140

Strange issue, due the fact you have a custom kernel it might be a better plan (hope you don't have any important things on your phone) to completely wipe your phone and reset to stock. So from CWM just wipe system, (Dalvik) cache, install fresh .ZIP from the internal SD (suppose you can mount the USB in CWM) and (re)install a clean ROM, install GApps and modem [optional], fix permissions, boot phone, good to go. If you can't grab a proper logcat/last_kmsg it's difficult solving this issue to be honest. If it's solved just be sure to make a Nandroid backup and then flash a custom kernel, if something goes wrong you can just reset it back to the current (working) state.

Yeah, I ended up doing a wipe and a fresh install.  Found out what was causing my phone to do this and the stupid thing is, is I ran into this before and got an answer from someone on xda to check and see if fsync is off in franco.Kernel updater app.  Apparently I confused the option with check marking it thinking that it would turn fsync on.  I did the complete opposite and resulted in corrupting data on my ROM when I would reboot.  I'll be sure to do Nandroid backups in the future, thanks!  Here's a picture of the setting in the app - fsync option

Great! Good you found out what it was/is


text:
Is that possible to upgrade HTC wildfire s os?
Is that possible to update the HTC wildfire s OS from Gingerbread to some other higher versions.

Have a look over here: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Unofficial_Ports#HTC_Wildfire_S_.28Marvel.29

See this previous question: When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?, according to that HTC have announced that the Wildfire won't be officially updated to Android 2.3 or newer as it doesn't meet the minimum requirements for the newer operating system versions (in particular its CPU runs slower than 1GHz).
There are unofficial upgrade options, as noted in that question CyanogenMod 7.1 supported the Wildfire. This question, How do I update the OS on my device? goes into some of those options.

There are even newer versions available at XDA, see e.g. CyanogenMod 10.1 weeklies for the HTC Wildfire S or CyanogenMod 10 with CM10.1 features for the Wildfire S.


text:
Is it possible to have my Android device see hand gestures to turn on the screen and scroll?
While I am cooking with dirty and wet hands, I want to see the recipe on my smartphone without dirtying it.
How may I turn on the display and scroll without touching the phone?
Is there a setting or application that makes my device react on hand gestures to turn on the screen and scroll?
(I do not know how to categorize this question with the available tags if you know a better tag please feel free to improve the categorization)

As Is there an app for X questions are off topic here (see our [FAQ]), I altered your question minimally; it should still fit your intention. What you describe comes close to "air gestures", which are partly supported by e.g. Wave Control; you might also want to check with Nanogest. Full support unfortunately seems not to be available to all devices; e.g. the S4 has it.

@Izzy Comments are for asking questions about the question, not for giving answers

I didn't consider "hints" as answers. Answers are giving solutions -- my above comment just shows similarities: Wave Control just works for music and video in selected apps, Nanogest is an SDK for developers to integrate this functionality into their apps, and "buying a S4" is no answer on how to get this functionality on any device (quote: on my smartphone without dirtying it), but rather the opposite (getting a device for this functionality). So: this was just for clarifications on terms, not an answer. But I'm glad you consider it helpful :)

I recommend getting Air Swiper with which you can turn on your device just by swiping above the sensor  (which is located with your front camera), and you can also turn it off by swiping as well.


text:
How to search Games with "Google Play Game Services integration" in play store?
Google recently introduced "Google Play Game Services integration" in play store games.
How can I list games that supports "Google Play Game Services integration" using play store App or using play store site?

A search of the Play Store for the phrase "Game Services" finds about 20 games at the moment.


text:
Services Google Play and Shop Google Play why both?
Why I do I have to have both Services Google Play and also Shop Google Play applications on my phone? They take quite a lot of memory space, which is quite small on my ZTE SKATE. I have an SD card with about 6GB space, but I can't move these over there. And when I try to delete Services Google Play it downloads on its own when I go to Shop. Why is Google doing this? When I got my phone I had only Google Shop there. Now this. I'm running out of space and there aren't any other apps that take a lot of space like this and I could delete/uninstall them.
Can anyone tell me what exactly is the difference between these two apps and why I need to have them both installed? And if I don't need them, how can I get rid of one of them so I have more space?

Try moving as many apps as you can to the SD card. You say you don't have many large apps, but even if you can get a lot of smaller apps to decrease their footprint in main memory it can add up. I used to use an app called SDMove which was quite helpful in that regard, although there are other, similar apps you can use.

Well I have everything I can moved on my SD card, so :(

Google Play Services is a library used by other Google and third-party apps. It allows apps to use:

Google Maps layers to show maps in other apps
Google+ sign-on and sharing
the new Google+ gaming functionality for match-making, leaderboards, and to store saved games "in the cloud"
Google Cloud Messaging to sync data from the Internet to your device efficiently
Location services to set up "geo-fences" so they can respond to locations and activities more efficiently than if they accessed your location directly

It's a lot of functionality that could have been made part of Android itself, but making it a separate library allows Google to update it directly, so app developers can rely on it being up-to-date on every device: unlike Android itself, which some manufacturers and carriers don't bother to update for older devices.
If you were to remove it, any apps that rely on it would stop working or behave unpredictably.

Is it okay if I delete the Google play shop app and just use the browser if I need any new apps? :D 10Mb too much for me :/

I don't think you can. When you choose an app in the browser, it just sends a signal to the Google Play app to start downloading the app you asked for.

Damn :( I guess I have to give up Angry birds...


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LG Optimus L5 e610 randomly reboots
I have got the phone of my sister in law. It is a LG Optimus L5  e610. While trying to flash CM it has been bricked. It is constantly rebooting after media scanning. It reboots even in the bootloader (CWM 6.2.8). The bootlaoder shows that the sdcard can't be mounted. The time the phone stays in android is to short to use adb.
The phone has been rooted using this guide. This guide has been used to flash CWM.
Well hence I can neither use adb to replace anything in the filesystem nor use the recovery to install a zip.
Is there any way to get this phone back working?

If it's re-booting on MediaScanner: does it have a SDCard inserted? If so, try booting without the card bein inserted. We already had the case with a broken card/file system on the card being the cause of exactly that behavior.

The problem was the difference in unlocked bootloaders between e610 and e612. Finally I ended up using the few seconds before the reboot to write the backed up bootloader and recovery back via dd. Wow I hardly often do backups, but this time it was quite helpful.

It would really help if you explained exactly how you did that. I believe I am experiencing a similar issue.


text:
Google Play UI language vs review language - what's happening here?
I'm Polish, in Poland, but use English for the interface. I posted a review on a Polish app (in Polish, of course)... and it's not visible to people with Polish UI language selected.
I've tried changing the language in Google Play to Polish, deleting the review, and writing it again. Still no change.
What must I do to make my comment visible in Polish?

Add &hl=pl to the end of the URL.
(So it becomes https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey&hl=pl )
This will force the Play store to change to Polish entirely, and display the Polish version of the site, not just the translation. (Works for all Google sites, and all languages) It will remain in Polish until you close the page or tab.


text:
Google+ Location Sharing: How to share only city level locations
For some time, Google+ contains the possibility to share your current location with your friends. This feature is similar to Google Latitude but uses a different permission-system: Where Latitude uses a seperate friend list (the Latitude Friends), Google+ uses the people from your circles to check, who can see your location.
In the settings of the location sharing (in the Google+ App, in the drawer "Locations", Settings), I can select which people can see "who can see your best available location". All these people see my exact location, so determined by GPS (if available). If a person is not included in this list, the person does not see my location at all.
Question: How can I select which persons can only see my city, but not my exact location? Just like it was possible on latitude? As expained above, I only see the possiblity to share the exact location or to share no location at all.

From what I can see, you can't, unless you change your location settings to be manually updated.

You still can't. However, if you check in to Google+, you can choose "city location".

This is now addressed in Google+ v4.1

4. Location sharing includes more controls
  Starting today you can share your pinpoint or city-level location with others (if you want), and you can do so on a circle-by-circle basis. For example: you can share your pinpoint location with family, and your city-level location with co-workers. You can also use circles to filter who appears on your “Locations” map.
It’s rolling out to Google Play over the next few days (goo.gl/xaxMx)...


text:
How do I use a periodic trigger in Automagic?
There's an app called Automagic which uses flow charts to create workflows that let you perform custom sequences of actions on your Android (essentially macros, but with an advanced interface for editing them).
Can somebody please explain how to use the periodic trigger?
I've tried using it to kick start a flow, but it never fires. I've ensured that the flow is enabled, I've checked the logs and there's nothing about any problems occurring with launching the flow.

At the time of this writing, there are apparently issues with the Periodic Timer trigger. (According to this forum post) Using the Period Timer (Inexact) trigger instead works, but is still not very consistent. (Which, yes, I realize is not to be expected since "Inexact" is in the title of the trigger)

You must enter the time. For example, if you want it to be every 5 seconds you need to write "5s".

Thank you, but I've obviously figured that one out. That much is apparent right in the interface and the help files that come with the App.


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Restore HTC One X to original ROM
My HTC One X came with ICS pre-installed, but then I upgraded it to Android 4.2.2 using CyanogenMod. Now I want to reset my phone to its original ROM, but couldn't find a way to do it.
Someone suggested that I download and run:

RUU_ENDEAVOR_U_ICS_40_Vodafone_UK_1.26.161.2_Radio_1.1204.90.13_release_251227_signed

but it didn't work. When I run the .exe I get the error:
 Error[155]: UKNOWN ERROR

My bootloader shows its version as:
version-main: 3.14.161.27
(bootloader) DEBUG: cid: VODAP001
ENDEAVORU PUT SHIP S-ON RL
*** UNLOCKED ***

How can I get the stock ROM reinstalled?

Where did you run the .exe file? If directly on the Android device, this would explain the error. It's most likely a Windows executable / self-extracting archive.

This is a protection that HTC uses to ensure quality in their devices. To re-install their custom stock, you must re-lock your phone. To do this, place your phone into fast-boot mode and plugin in via USB:
At the command line (or wherever you may have the fastboot binary), execute these commands:

fastboot devices
  fastboot oem lock

This will lock your bootloader and allow you to run the RUU. Your device should now report "LOCKED". After your device is locked, proceed with running your *.exe on Windows.
(Make sure you're installing the right one first!)
List of RUU's: http://androidfiles.org/ruu/?developer=Endeavor
Full Tutorial: http://androidforums.com/one-s-all-things-root/691874-guide-how-run-ruu-your-htc-one-s.html


text:
Using Micromax 353G Dongle with Penta IS701C tablet
I have purchased Penta IS701C recently. I have a Micromax 353G dongle, and want to know if it supports my Penta tablet. If yes, how could I use the dongle in the Penta tab?

By looking at product specification page of Penta IS701C, it appears that this dongle is not officially supported. But on same page it says that tablet does support 2G / 3G dongle so
I see no reason why it should not work.


text:
Do any launchers restore home screen widgets from Google backup?
Are there any custom/3rd-party launchers that, when you have Back up my data turned on in the Backup & reset settings, restore home screen widgets when a backup is restored? I know the stock one doesn't, so I hope that someone with more experience of 3rd-party launchers will recognise the behaviour.

Although the question is off-topic, did you get the solution?

@Firelord No, I still don't know of any launchers that do this.


text:
Desire password-required login for Facebook on Android
I would like the security of mandatory password login to Facebook from my phone.  How to do this on Samsung Galaxy Express?

I don't see a setting within the app. I think you'll need to manually log out.

As AlEverett has stated, there is not a setting within the app to do this. Though you could download the free app called App Lock and set a password that way on whatever apps that you'd like.


text:
Audio playing only on right side on my Galaxy S3
I'm using Cyanogenmod cm-10.1.0-RC1 on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (at&t US version)
With either a headset or bluetooth, I'm only getting audio from the right side. It doesn't matter which output device I use - all are only playing on the right side.
Is this a known issue with CM RC1 or is something else causing this problem?
The getprop("ro.bootloader") checks are all failing for the nightly builds, so updating after RC1 has been problematic. However, if RC1 is the culprit, I'll take extreme measures to update to a different CM version.
Thanks for any advice.

I had the same problem with google music. If you move the music slider to a different position, it will output sound on both sides, but the bug appears again once it changes track.
I believe this is a bug on Cyanogenmod 10.1 RC1. I just updated to RC4 and the bug seems fixed. Yay!

I was just going to mention that you're correct - it was a bug in 10.1 RC1. I was able to update to RC2, which fixed the problem, but unfortunately had the same getprop() errors for RC3 and RC4. Thanks for the reply. Now I just need to figure out how to get to the latest RC!

How did you update from RC1 or RC2 to RC4?

You go to Settings > About Phone > CynanogenMod Updates to check for updates. I selected for stable release only and RC4 popped up. RC4 was released like a week ago. Good Luck.

I was able to update to RC2 which fixed the bug introduced in RC1. As I mentioned in the comment to @mohdyusuf unfortunately I can't upgrade beyond RC2 now, due to the same "getprop()" errors mentioned in my question. But at least the right-side audio problem is resolved with RC2.


text:
How can I get my phone to boot again?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Mini (GT-S5570) and the ROM I'm using is CM10.1, I was messing with the developer options and I saw an option called "simulate second screen" and I  clicked that and selected 720 then it froze. I rebooted it and stops at the end of the boot animation and get stuck there.
Any ideas please?

Did you try "Volume Up + Menu Button + Power Button"?
That should get you to Recovery Mode and you should have an option there to Factory Reset your phone.

And if I want to have my data saved?

If you make a factory reset, then only the apps will be deleted, and if you have contacts or your phone. same goes for mms. If you sync your contacts with google then you will not lose any contacts. I don't know another way, sry.

Yep, it's a shame, well, I had to do factory reset. Thanks for reply anyway.

Hold down the volume down button while booting and go into 'safe mode'. Go to the developer menu and turn it off. Reboot.

Hah, you can't boot my model into safe mode. Only withing the OS.


text:
Wintouch Q75S - Removed wpa_supplicant on accident
I removed the wpa_supplicant file and now the Wi-Fi doesn't work. Is there anyway to restore this file back? I tried Factory Reset but that only resets the apps and removes user data. The device is running on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Will flashing a new ROM fix this issue?
Thanks in advance.

If you're only missing that one file, you could try using my copy of it:
http://www.freesoft.org/bbaccala/wpa_supplicant
I'm running 4.1.2, but I'll bet it'll work.

Be careful! What about binary compatibility with ICS 4.0.4 framework vs 4.1.2 JB framework....just saying!

Flashing a new (or old, for that matter) ROM will fix your problem.
That's why they say to back things up before you mess with them ;)


text:
How to cancel a download in Amazon Appstore?
A big app is being downloaded by Amazon Appstore. How to cancel it? I am unable to find any cancel button next to download progress bar.


text:
Double message notifications after upgrading Talk to Hangouts (CyanogenMod 7.2)

Phone: HTC Wildfire
OS: CyanogenMod-7.2.0-buzz

I recently upgraded Talk to Hangouts, and now each incoming message results in two notifications: one styled like the old Talk, and one from Hangouts.
I tried rebooting the phone, as suggested by Getting double message notifications after replacing Talk with Hangouts, but the problem still persists.
Looking through the lists of installed applications and running processes, I only see Hangouts, not Talk.
I considered completely uninstalling both Hangouts and Talk, and reinstalling Hangouts, but the application manager only gives me the option of uninstalling the updates for Hangouts, and reverting back to the system's built-in version (of Talk, presumably).
How can I stop the double notifications, or troubleshoot this further?


text:
Can i upgrade to jelly Bean?
I have a Zigo EON 5i. It runs ICS 4.0.4, has 512 MB RAM, a 1 GHz proccesor – ARM v7, Powervr and 128 MB internal memory.
Can I flash and add a custom rom? And if so, which one? I need Jelly Bean.

Take a look at the info for the 'custom-rom' tag to learn more.

Special recommendation from the list recommended by Dan: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. If you find a ROM there which is explicitly mentioned as for your device, there certainly should be a possibility to flash it.

See also: When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?

no they have jelly beans for ther nebula 6.9 and eon 6i but they are not palaning on making a rom to upgrade eon 5i..and going for a custom rom that created for another brand /model is such a risk.and personally im think that jelly beans will not suit the eon5i bcs its lack of low internal memory however Zigo technical crew  is much friendly once i've soft bricked my 5i by system change.and though didnt had a rom  bakup.and had go to service center they are very frindly and rooted by themself after resoftware.anyway if you need any help regarding rooting Zigo come to my group and feel free to ask questions.im still learning about roms and methods.
here is my group

Can you please re-edit your answer - its poorly written.

I'd suggest you should contact the manufacturer.

They doesn't got any answer. because they will not create official jelly bean rom...

And they for sure won't help a customer installing a Custom ROM -- as that usually goes with rooting, and thus (outside the EU) voids the device's warranty.


text:
How to fix a broken icon on an android phone
The icon is displayed as a grey icon name "Text Info" and an image of a small SD card on the bottom right of the the icon; when I try to launch it, it says:

Application not installed.

Have check Google Play store of installed app but not found.
Listing installed package
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
shell@android:/ $ pm list packages -u
pm list packages -u
package:air.com.sarahnorthway.rebuild2
package:android
package:android.googleSearch.googleSearchWidget
package:br.com.beholdstudios.knightspp
package:ccc71.bmw.pro
package:com.IOIO.cs
package:com.akvelon.signaltracker
package:com.android.MtpApplication
package:com.android.Preconfig
package:com.android.backupconfirm
package:com.android.bluetooth
package:com.android.browser
package:com.android.calendar
package:com.android.certinstaller
package:com.android.chrome
package:com.android.clipboardsaveservice
package:com.android.contacts
package:com.android.defcontainer
package:com.android.email
package:com.android.exchange
package:com.android.htmlviewer
package:com.android.keychain
package:com.android.mms
package:com.android.musicfx
package:com.android.noisefield
package:com.android.packageinstaller
package:com.android.phasebeam
package:com.android.phone
package:com.android.pickuptutorial
package:com.android.providers.applications
package:com.android.providers.calendar
package:com.android.providers.contacts
package:com.android.providers.downloads
package:com.android.providers.downloads.ui
package:com.android.providers.drm
package:com.android.providers.media
package:com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks
package:com.android.providers.security
package:com.android.providers.settings
package:com.android.providers.telephony
package:com.android.providers.userdictionary
package:com.android.server.device.enterprise
package:com.android.server.vpn.enterprise
package:com.android.settings
package:com.android.settings.mt
package:com.android.sharedstoragebackup
package:com.android.smspush
package:com.android.stk
package:com.android.systemui
package:com.android.vending
package:com.android.vpndialogs
package:com.android.wallpaper.livepicker
package:com.dropbox.android
package:com.facebook.katana
package:com.google.android.apps.authenticator2
package:com.google.android.apps.docs
package:com.google.android.apps.maps
package:com.google.android.apps.plus
package:com.google.android.apps.uploader
package:com.google.android.backup
package:com.google.android.calendar
package:com.google.android.feedback
package:com.google.android.gm
package:com.google.android.gms
package:com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
package:com.google.android.gsf
package:com.google.android.gsf.login
package:com.google.android.location
package:com.google.android.maps.mytracks
package:com.google.android.marvin.talkback
package:com.google.android.partnersetup
package:com.google.android.setupwizard
package:com.google.android.street
package:com.google.android.syncadapters.bookmarks
package:com.google.android.syncadapters.calendar
package:com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts
package:com.google.android.talk
package:com.google.android.tts
package:com.google.android.voicesearch
package:com.google.android.youtube
package:com.google.zxing.client.android
package:com.hangseng.servicemenuapp
package:com.infraware.polarisviewer4
package:com.lifevibes.trimapp
package:com.monotype.android.font.shaonv
package:com.ookla.oftaperformancetest
package:com.osp.app.signin
package:com.pccw.pccwHotspotFinder_Tourist
package:com.playstation.psstore
package:com.samsung.SMT
package:com.samsung.android.app.divx
package:com.samsung.android.livewallpaper.deepsea
package:com.samsung.app.playreadyui
package:com.samsung.avrcp
package:com.samsung.inputmethod
package:com.samsung.map
package:com.samsung.scloud.scloudstarter
package:com.samsung.scrc.idi.server
package:com.samsung.sec.android.application.csc
package:com.samsung.shareshot
package:com.sec.android.Kies
package:com.sec.android.allshare.framework
package:com.sec.android.app.DataCreate
package:com.sec.android.app.FileShareClient
package:com.sec.android.app.FileShareServer
package:com.sec.android.app.SecSetupWizard
package:com.sec.android.app.bluetoothtest
package:com.sec.android.app.camera
package:com.sec.android.app.clockpackage
package:com.sec.android.app.controlpanel
package:com.sec.android.app.factorymode
package:com.sec.android.app.fm
package:com.sec.android.app.gamehub
package:com.sec.android.app.kieswifi
package:com.sec.android.app.launcher
package:com.sec.android.app.lcdtest
package:com.sec.android.app.memo
package:com.sec.android.app.minimode.res
package:com.sec.android.app.mobileprint
package:com.sec.android.app.music
package:com.sec.android.app.myfiles
package:com.sec.android.app.personalization
package:com.sec.android.app.phoneutil
package:com.sec.android.app.popupcalculator
package:com.sec.android.app.popupuireceiver
package:com.sec.android.app.samsungapps
package:com.sec.android.app.samsungapps.una2
package:com.sec.android.app.selftestmode
package:com.sec.android.app.servicemodeapp
package:com.sec.android.app.shareapp
package:com.sec.android.app.sns3
package:com.sec.android.app.sysscope
package:com.sec.android.app.twdvfs
package:com.sec.android.app.videoplayer
package:com.sec.android.app.voicerecorder
package:com.sec.android.app.wallpaperchooser
package:com.sec.android.app.wlantest
package:com.sec.android.cloudagent.dropboxoobe
package:com.sec.android.daemonapp.ap.accuweather
package:com.sec.android.drmpopup
package:com.sec.android.dttsupport
package:com.sec.android.fotaclient
package:com.sec.android.gallery3d
package:com.sec.android.inputmethod
package:com.sec.android.motions.settings.panningtutorial
package:com.sec.android.preloadinstaller
package:com.sec.android.provider.badge
package:com.sec.android.provider.logsprovider
package:com.sec.android.providers.downloads
package:com.sec.android.sCloudBackupApp
package:com.sec.android.sCloudBackupProvider
package:com.sec.android.sCloudRelayData
package:com.sec.android.sCloudSync
package:com.sec.android.saslideshow
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.SPlannerAppWidget
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.analogclocksimple
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.analogclockunique
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.ap.hero.accuweather
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.ap.hero.accuweather.widget
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.ap.yahoonews
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.ap.yahoostock.stockclock
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.digitalclock
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.dualclockanalog
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.dualclockdigital
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.memo
package:com.sec.android.widgetapp.webmanual
package:com.sec.app.RilErrorNotifier
package:com.sec.bcservice
package:com.sec.ccl.csp.app.secretwallpaper.themetwo
package:com.sec.chaton
package:com.sec.dsm.phone
package:com.sec.dsm.system
package:com.sec.enterprise.permissions
package:com.sec.factory
package:com.sec.modem.settings
package:com.sec.pcw.device
package:com.sec.phone
package:com.sec.spp.push
package:com.smlds
package:com.studiokuma.callfilter
package:com.whatsapp
package:com.wsomacp
package:com.wssnps
package:com.wssyncmldm
package:de.android.wifioverviewpro
package:jackpal.androidterm
package:jp.co.ponos.battlecats
package:kr.sira.vibration
package:lysesoft.andftp
package:lysesoft.andsmb
package:me.kiip.skeemo
package:org.adblockplus.android
package:org.simalliance.openmobileapi.service
package:org.zwanoo.android.speedtest
shell@android:/ $

Gather log file with:
adb logcat -s "Launcher"

Log file:
E/Launcher(  762): Unable to launch. tag=Item(id=71 folderId=-1 screen=-1 cell=-1 title=Text Info componentName=ComponentInfo{com.android.stk/com.android.stk.StkLauncherActivity2} unavailable=true) intent=Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[ xxx ] flg=0x10200000 cmp=xxxx }
E/Launcher(  762): android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: Unable to find explicit activity class {com.android.stk/com.android.stk.StkLauncherActivity2}; have you declared this activity in your AndroidManifest.xml?
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.app.Instrumentation.checkStartActivityResult(Instrumentation.java:1512)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.app.Instrumentation.execStartActivity(Instrumentation.java:1388)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:3195)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.app.Activity.startActivity(Activity.java:3302)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.launcher2.Launcher.startActivitySafely(Launcher.java:1735)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.launcher2.MenuAppsGrid$StateNormal$1.run(MenuAppsGrid.java:1084)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.launcher2.PagedView$2.onAnimationRepeat(PagedView.java:1588)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.animation.ValueAnimator.animationFrame(ValueAnimator.java:1128)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.animation.ValueAnimator.setCurrentPlayTime(ValueAnimator.java:551)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.animation.ValueAnimator.start(ValueAnimator.java:934)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.animation.ValueAnimator.start(ValueAnimator.java:957)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.animation.ObjectAnimator.start(ObjectAnimator.java:370)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.launcher2.PagedView.animateClickFeedback(PagedView.java:1596)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.launcher2.MenuAppsGrid$StateNormal.onClickAppItem(MenuAppsGrid.java:1081)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.launcher2.MenuAppsGrid.onClick(MenuAppsGrid.java:196)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:3567)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:14224)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:605)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
E/Launcher(  762):  at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4517)
E/Launcher(  762):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
E/Launcher(  762):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:993)
E/Launcher(  762):  at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:760)
E/Launcher(  762):  at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

I know that you can simply hide the broken icon from display. but the question is: "how to fix it" rather than hiding it.

You or Android moved this app to the SD card, but either you removed the SD card (maybe you replaced it with a different one) or the files on the SD card are corrupt. Either way, you can't run this app until fixing the problem.
If you removed the SD card, replace the card that the app is on. (The icon won't change right away if you do this, but you'll be able to click it to launch the app.) If the SD card is corrupt, you probably need to reinstall the app. It might be possible to recover the file from the SD card but that's probably going to be more work than reinstalling.

My SD card corrupt. i manage to locate the message in logcat, any more suggestion?

@AntonyLee As I said, the easiest thing to do in this case is delete and reinstall the app.

i have no idea what that app is, by the way, how can i delete the app ? I just unable to do it since it is in no where.

tried adb uninstall com.android.stk, but it simply return failed.

If it's a microSD card, you could remove it from the phone and attach it to your computer using a card reader. If the computer still can read it, copy all contents to an empty folder on your computer. Then transfer it to a new card, and re-insert that into your Android device. Should the card be unreadable on your computer, you might have to do a fresh start with an empty card; you could simply try to re-install affected apps (which should work), then uninstall those you want to get rid of.

@Izzy it failed when runnning adb uninstall com.android.stk, how u can uninstall it, when u cannot do it through goole play, nor from command line, and there is nowhere offer this package to install either. I didn't add it manually either, the icon just appear from nowhere somehow. This is a non-rooted phone and there is no point to root for the issues.

Simple: you cannot. The app you mention is a system app (Sim ToolKit). You didn't install it, neither some other app loaded it -- it's simply part of your ROM.


text:
How to add/remove an individual song from device in May 2013 update Google Play Music app?
I have poked around (and prodded) the three-dots menus in the new Google Play Music UI (app version 5.x) and, for the sake of all that is free storage space, it appears to only allow managing on-device/offline tracks on a group basis, e.g. by album. Not only can I not figure out how to pin only specific, individual tracks to my Nexus 4 (without resorting to hacks like pinning a playlist and managing it that way), but I also cannot find a way to remove a single track that has pinned itself to my device without waiting for the entire album to download just so I can unpin it.
Reading the official help page on offline listening was of no help, because I simply cannot find the pin icons described in the article.
Am I just thick? Or did Google decide that storage space on the Nexus 4 isn't scant enough and needs to be filled with even more unwanted music tracks?

Listen the entire song and the song will be cashed so you can listen to it offline, but be sure that the "cashe during playback" is enabled... And for the removing a single song... try swiping left or right.
p.s. this is the only way other than the path of making a playlist etc...

Caching during playback does work. However, swiping on the song either in search results or in an album list appears to do nothing. (I tried in "On Device" music, so it should have been removed from the list if deleted.)

@dgw there is an update for the Google Play Music app, so now you can delete songs directly from the app.

Took my device a while to get the update. The "Delete" menu item just moved the track to the Trash. It did what I immediately wanted—removing the track from the phone—but it had a pretty big side effect that could only be counteracted via the Play Music site.


text:
My phone- HTC One V reboots when I insert my SDCARD
I have a HTC One V that reboots whenever I have my 8GB SDCard (Sandisk) inserted. Currently it has 2.5GB data in it. Once i remove the sdcard, my phone works fine.
I have many apps and photos on my SDCARD. I am able to read the sd card contents on my windows PC. I formatted the SDCARD and copied the contents back, but the reboot problem persists.
What else can I try to get rid of those reboots?
I went through this forum and one way to overcome is to fool your phone stating part of your sd card as internal memory itself. Can it be done without rooting your phone?

No, that "fooling" needs deeper access into the system, and thus requires root.
But apart from that, I'd recommend trying it with a different card. Important: not the same brand and size and class; try e.g.

a card from a different manufacturer
switch between classes (class-6 is good enough, it does not have to be class-10)

There are several incompatibilites reported here and there, and in most cases a card from a different brand worked fine. Maybe you can borrow some from friends if you cannot effort to buy a bunch.
I always buy microSD with SD adapter, so in case of incompatibility I can use it in my camera or other devices, and the buy was no loss in any case.

Please check if that solves your issue. If it does, it would be nice to accept the answer -- which then helps other possibly affected users to recognize the solution as such. Thank you!


text:
Stuck on "Turning Wi-Fi on..."
I've a Wintouch Q75s Tablet running on Android 4.0.4 ICS. I was using its Wi-Fi with no problems until yesterday, the Wi-Fi didn't want to turn on. I've noticed that my MAC address changed to Unavailable which I think indicates an error.
What can I do to use my Wi-Fi once again?
I contacted the vendor but they didn't respond. Is there any hope my Wi-Fi can run again?
Edit: It started happening when I removed the wpa_supplicant. Now the WiFi does not want to turn on. However, the portable hotspot starts successfully without any problems.
Edit: The problem was solved by flashing a new firmware from Wintouch's website, the firmware was Q75SJ30401.IMG (Barcode Q75SJ304xxxxx)
A list of available firmwares for Wintouch devices can be found here
Thanks for everyone who helped me :)

It "didn't want to turn on"? What steps did you take, and what happened? Please add this information to your question.

@DanHulme when it displays the MAC as "unavailable", that's as if there's no WiFi card/chip existing, so you cannot activate WiFi as there is no supporting hardware. Giovanni: Have you tried rebooting the device? Last ressort (after a full backup) would be a factory-reset. If that doesn't solve the issue, and you're still under warranty, let them have it back (exchange/repair/money back if none of the other two).

@DanHulme It started happening when I removed the wpa_supplicant. Now the WiFi does not want to turn on. However, the portable hotspot starts successfully without any problems. Please help!

@Izzy Yes I tried restarting, did a factory reset, and now I'm thinking of flashing a new frimware. It only happened when I remove the wpa_supplicant from system/bin/, so I guess it's my fault

Oh -- yes, that's definitly your fault then :) You didn't think of making a backup of that file first, or simply rename it instead of deleting? Well, next time you know better then :) Don't forget to update us. You might even want to answer your own question once you've solved your issue!

@Izzy Hahaha, yep. Would you like to point me to the correct wpa_supplicant to download? Will flashing a new frimware solve this issue?

As it turns out, the problem was caused by deleting wpa_supplicant. Wikipedia can offer a little insight on what that means:

In addition to being a full-featured WPA2 supplicant, it also implements WPA and older wireless LAN security protocols.

It further is responsible for the job to

review a list of currently visible networks, select one of them, provide any additional security information needed to authenticate with the network (e.g. a passphrase or username and password) and add it to the preference list to enable automatic reconnection in the future.

As it is said: curiosity killed the cat -- and deleting wpa_supplicant makes it quite impossible to use WiFi.
There are three corresponding files on Android:

/system/bin/wpa_supplicant is a binary (i.e. the program itself)
/system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf is the default configuration (as the path correctly suggests, in the read-only /system area), which also includes device-specific settings, plus some "inline documentation" in form of comments
/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf is located in the writable part. It repeats some of the contents from the system file (most likely copied from there on initialization -- as /data gets completely wiped on a factory reset, those things must come from somewhere), but skips the comments. Furthermore, this file memorizes those networks you've connected to, including SSID, encryption used, and the passwords, all in plain text [sic!] -- that's where those "WiFi password recovery" apps get their information from

So if the latter config was deleted, it simply would be re-created after a boot. Of course, all your saved networks would be lost -- but that's a minor issue compared to the others:
If the system-config file gets lost, the binary does not now where to look for the interface, as that's configured here (e.g. ctrl_interface=tiwlan0). This would also explain the missing MAC address: no known device, no known MAC address. Still, recovery from that should not be too hard: there are not too many different interface names, and other settings (like the chipset used) can be taken from specifications -- so root provided (which is the case, or you could not have deleted it), you could re-create a matching file with a little try-and-err.
If the binary was removed, options are narrow without a backup. Having a similar device available running the very same ROM, you could extract the binary from there (the config as well, or course). If you have at least an image available for your current ROM, you could extract it from there as well.
If all above fails: Yes, flashing a ROM would solve the issue as well -- as this ROM should contain the necessary files. It's quite unlikely you damaged your hardware that way.

I flashed a new frimware and the WiFi problem was solved. But now the touch is not working! I downloaded the frimware from Wintouch, but I guess I downloaded the wrong one. So I'll keep trying to get the right one. Thanks for your help :)

You're welcome -- and good luck! That's the tricky thing with minor brands: not so many people around who can tell the exact right files etc...

Thanks a lot for your help! I flashed a new frimware and the device is working perfectly, just as new! Thank you a lot, couldn't have done it without your help! I've added this information to my question to help future visitors as well. Thank you! :)

Glad you solved it -- and thanks for the update! Sure it was "frimware", not "firmware"? #D

Now that explains why Chrome indicates a spelling error on this word. Hahahaha, thanks for pointing it out =D


text:
Lock screen unactive for 8 seconds - Exchange security setup on Android 4.1.2
Can someone reproduce this issue.
I have setup exchange account on my SGS2 with Android 4.1.2. When you setup exchange on android it is required by security policy of exchange server to have screen lock on - in my case it is secured with PIN.
When i try to unlock the phone, my screen is not active, i can just wait and after about 8 second it responsive again and i can unlock it. This doesn't have every time. Let's say 5 times/day .. probably some issue with light sensor.
Please don't post solutions like "You can install 3rd party program ... ", i want to have this security enabled.
Thank you.

What makes you suspect the light sensor?


text:
Where does the Foursquare notification come from?
Yesterday, I got a Foursquare friend request in the notifications panel.
The only running services at that time were, I believe, the same that are running now. Definitely there was no Foursquare service running. I hadn't used Foursquare in weeks. From Settings:

Settings
Google Services (GoogleLocationService)
WhatsApp
My Calendar
Google Services (Cloud to Device Messa…, Google Messaging Ser…)
Maps
Android keyboard

I was logged into Google Latitude.
By what mechanism did the friend request reach the notifications panel?

Push notification, I expect. If you could only receive notifications from apps that are running there are a lot of notifications I'd be missing.

@AlEverett I wonder why Whatsapp is not using push notification. The Whatsapp service is quite heavy weight at 13MB!

When Google Cloud Messaging receives a message from Google, it sends a broadcast to the related app. The app can receive this broadcast even if no service was running, and it can respond by starting a service, or by creating a notification from within the broadcast receiver itself.
Part of the Android developers' documentation explains the process step-by-step. There's a lot of detail there that you only need to know to write an app that uses Google Cloud Messaging, but it might help satisfy your curiosity.

So Foursquare instructed Google to send a broadcast a message to the Foursquare app on my phone? Why call it broadcast, if it's only to one app? If you could outline the process step by step, then that would be great!

It's called a broadcast because the same mechanism is used within your phone to inform many apps of an event, such as connecting to a network. I wrote up an explanation of services and broadcast receivers which may help.


text:
How to install bundles of additional terminal commands for rooted devices?
I rooted a HTC Wildfire S device recently and flashed an Android 4.1.2 AOKP Jelly Bean Custom ROM. One benefit is that I can use the terminal now.
I'm a little used to using terminal emulators on desktop machines but never did that on an Android device before. I noticed some commands are not found, for example:
$ tree
/system/bin/sh: tree: not found

Is there a way to add more commands to my device, maybe a bundle of GNU packages for Android available somewhere?

Yes that's possible with the termux terminal.

Homepage | Google Play

You can install additional shell commands using apt.
$ apt update
$ apt upgrade
$ apt install tree

Screenshot:

Bonus: Also works on non-rooted devices!

Termux only works on >= Lollipop devices

The tree command is not installed by default. I don't know how to install it in Android via the terminal, but you could always use the ls command. Yes, it doesn't show you a tree format that is easy to understand, but it still does the job.
ls -d */

Only list the directories in the current directory.
ls -ltr

List all files by the time they were last modified in reverse order. In other words, the last files listed are the most recently modified files.
Also, install BusyBox to have more Unix commands available.
Reference.

tree

Isn't even installed on Ubuntu by default.
That said, you can install BusyBox on non CyanogenMod ROMs that lack common utilites. YMMV, but on most "stock" ROMs seem to lack the utilities. AFAIK Busybox doesn't include tree.
ALWAYS DO A BACKUP FIRST!

You can install packages by first installing termux, then you install the desired package, next you type cd /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin.
Now all you have to do is run these commands
su
cp DESIRED_PACKAGE /bin

Make sure to enter your desired package name at DESIRED_PACKAGE.
If you're not sure which packages you want to install simply (while in this directory) type ls