text:
How to get rid of voice bar over keyboard in Android 6?
I want to remove the horizontal bar with the microphone button (voice input) showing over Android 6 keyboard (marked with the red border).

I know which settings are supposed to control this behaviour and I'm able to accomplish the task in Android 5. Yet in Android 6 this seems not working as expected anymore.
Here is my Language settings (including Voice typing):

And here is my Ok Google settings:

Most interesting part is that while the Voice typing option is off, its summary does actually read "automatic" (which is suspicious and illogical). Yet in Android 5 it works the same way, and the voice input bar is not showing over keyboard.
One more thing to note is that in Android 6, with the given settings, the voice input does not function - that is pressing the microphone button has no effect at all. Yet the horizontal bar wastes valuable space.
I've sent a feedback to Google - no responce. I've tried to send a message to a couple of public Google's emails (including published in Google Play as contacts!) and got responces from robots that those are no-reply emails. So there is no support from Google. I hope the community can help to solve the issue. Thanks in advance.
PS. Should we have Voice typing tag (which I'm unable to add)? google-voice-actions is most close from existing tags, but still not completely correct.

I think you forgot to check on Settings - Language & input - Google Keyboard - Preferences - Voice input key?

As for the tag: I think the voice-recognition tag might be what you were looking for (the opposite of "text-to-speech").

@AndrewT. I don't have such an option there. There are only 3: Auto-capitalization, Double-space period, and Sound on keypress.

Seems like the only solution is to install a 3-rd party keyboard - they are numerous, provide much more options than Google, and work without its issues.


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Use Android device to enable my computer to access Bluetooth devices
My computer can communicate with my Android due to being on the same WiFi network. I have Bluetooth headphones and perhaps other Bluetooth devices (Bluetooth mouse, etc). I just bought a Bluetooth dongle for my computer. However, given that my Android device can communicate with my computer anyway via WiFi, I wonder if it's necessary?
If anything, if it's possible, will quality deteriorate?
My question is a bit more awesome than How to use an Android device as bluetooth USB dongle?. This one asks if Computer -> USB -> Android phone -> Bluetooth is possible
I am asking if Computer -> WiFi -> Android phone -> Bluetooth is possible. In fact, I am interested in Computer -> Bluetooth -> Android phone -> Bluetooth too.
Why would I? Well, Windows 10 cannot connect to 5 Bluetooth headsets at once. Maybe sending the sound to my smartphone that can connect to 5 would solve that?

Possible duplicate of How to use an Android device as bluetooth USB dongle?

Maybe it's not quite a duplicate, as the other question is specifically about USB, and this one mentions Wi-Fi, so I'll wait for the questioner's opinion.

That one asked how to use android phone as bluetooth dongle. What I want is something even more awesome. The phone doesn't even have to be connected to the computer.

So, actually making your phone into a Bluetooth dongle is a little bit nasty due to permission issues. But, there is another way.
As you are willing to use this "measure" to stream your PC's audio to your Bluetooth headset, you can download an audio streaming app from the Play Store (such as SoundWire for Android), set up the connection between your PC and your smartphone, and then you share your phone's media through the phone's Bluetooth service to the headset.
Maybe there can be a loss of synchronization for games and videos, but music will be just fine!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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hangouts - How to see the properties of my partner to a discusson?
It must be a simple question.
I'm chatting a while with the man. I have his contact in hangouts program (I have not his contact in my phone contacts).
I have added this chat by email. Now I want to see the email.
The email is the main identifier, and it must be there.
The question become principled.
It is so complicated, I can't figure it out.
How can I find the email of contact in hangouts?
Thank you, in advance.

To get your interlocutor mail adress in Hangouts, go in the conversation, then click on the 3 dots (top right corner), then Partcipants and Options (not sure about the translation) now click on the green circle at the bottom of your screen and your contact's mail adress chouls appears.
]

I do not know why, but I have not e-mail bullet in that tab(((

What device are you using?

Sony xperia M. Android 4.3.

Is your Hangouts updated ? The current version is 7.0.

Yes, it is. I think, it is a specific bug. I have not g+ account, and contacts are not in circles. I have added them in earlier versions of hangout. Program had no place to remember the properties and now it only has that in internal data, program has no method to convert to visible data and show me. This is what I suppose.

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


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Getting Android 4.x on the HTC Holiday (with complications)
Device: AT&T HTC Holiday w/ Android 2.3 & no service
Goal: To get Android 4.x (any derivative) working on said device.
Problem: When I tried to install the PACMAN ROM (by loosely following the instructions provided at Update HTC Raider/Velocity/Vivid/Holiday TO Android 4.4.4 KITKAT) I got my phone stuck in a boot loop, meaning I can't S-OFF it using the tools provided at unlimited.io. (ControlBear is too impatient waiting for the phone to reboot because the phone is perpetually in a slow-to-start first-run state as it can't get past PACMAN's language selection screen before restarting itself, I'm assuming because the phone knows PACMAN isn't signed by HTC so it kills it) It doesn't help that ControlBear is closed source, meaning I can't modify it to suit my specific conditions.
The bright side: I have the recovery "CWM-based Recovery (by @KDH4865) v5.0.2.7" installed on the phone, so I can flash any OS ROM I want, it's just not guaranteed to work.
Problem (cont'd): I don't have a backup of anything.
The bright side (cont'd): I imagine installing a ROM that is signed by HTC might work, such as that over-the-air update to ICS which was never received. Alternatively, I have heard chatter on the PACMAN forums about "flashing boot.img" as an alternative to S-OFF, and I have no idea what that means. All I know of are the OS partition, the user data partition, the bootloader (on a separate BIOS chip?), the recovery partition, and the GSM antenna which does that nasty S-ON security stuff. I am clearly missing a small chunk of information in my brain.
Where might one go from my current situation in pursuit of one's goal?
EDIT: It turns out HTC gives away what it calls "ROMs" in Windows executable format for its devices free of charge. Apparently it's some kind of "RUU" thing, which I guess is like Android open heart surgery. I'll try that and see how it works.

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


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OTA update (Marshmallow) failing with "error" while installing it on a device running Android One
I live in Australia and during my recent trip to India, I bought an Android One phone called the Lava Pixel v1. The phone is running Android 5.1 and since I have gotten back to Australia, the phone notifies me that I have an update that I need to install. It downloads the 770 mb update and when I try to install it, it shuts down and restarts the phone and then starts installing the update, I can see the Android mascot. After it(the install progress bar) gets to about 20% or so, I just get a message saying "Error" that is all. The Android mascot is lying down or so and from it's open belly there is an exclamation icon (!have a look at the attached image for what it looks like). At this stage there is no sim card on the phone. Additionally, some apps like Facebook fail to install. Facebook messenger can be installed. I am a developer and I have purchased this phone mostly for dev purposes and would like to get the latest update for my new Android phone, so would appreciate some help with this.

Whats with the color in the photo.Android gone blue

I have managed to solve this, have a read of my answer!

I think the answer was quite simple, all I had to do was to switch off "Automatic date & time" and "Automatic time zone" in settings and I could install the updates. I no longer "use the network-provided time" or "use network-provided time zone" I am running Marshmallow on my phone right now.

The apps failing to install and the system update failing to install are probably unrelated.
For the most part, the system update is just a big zip file that gets unzipped to a protected part of the storage.  You can't write to the protected part while Android is running.  Unfortunately there are a range of things that can go wrong here, and during the system update the bootloader doesn't have a lot of code.  (We're talking bytes, not megabytes.)  Any descriptive error message it would give would be useless to a user anyway, as you can neither fix the bootloader nor fix the 770 mb update.
I would recommend you contact the manufacturer (or whoever is pushing you the 770 mb update).


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Not ringing for incoming calls (Micromax Canvas Tablet P480 - Android 5.0.1)
I have Micromax Canvas tablet P480, using Android 5.0.1.
When screen is locked it does not ring for incoming calls. Why?
(But rings when the screen is unlocked)
Due to this I am missing many calls.
Anything I should change in the settings? or is it a bug?
I tried all the audio profile setting as well as notification setting, including interruptions for priority calls.
Please let me know if you need any other information.
Any suggestions will be greatly helpful.
Thanks!

Suggest you to set any of the screen lock(swipe, pin, etc). and try ringing, and then even when screen lock, phone rings. It worked for me.


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Must I unpair one device from another in bluetooth?
My PC and 2 computers can detect bluetooth device. The device  is already paired with one of my smartphone.
The other smartphone cannot see my bluetooth device. Is this normal?
So once a headphone is paired with a cellphone, I need to unpair that headphone before I can use it on other smart phone?
What about if I no longer have access to the original smart phone (say I factory reset the phone). What would happen?
I unpair one of my headset. Now it shows up on my other cellphone. I paired with one and now it's not seen again. It's as if paired headset is invisible.
Update, I cannot pair my headset with one phone if it's paired to another. If I unpair from a previous phone, I can pair it with another phone.

What device? Most manufacturers do not implement the full capabilities given in the answers below. Most headsets allow only one or two pairings, but placing the phone in pairing mode and pairing to a new device usually over-writes the previous ones. I know most Plantonics devices you can clear all previous pairings, but I have had my headset paired to dozens of different devices with no issues.

The other smartphone cannot see my bluetooth device. Is this normal?

A phone that isn't already paired can only see the device while the device is discoverable. This is a special mode you put the device into (usually with a button or combination of buttons on the device). The manual for the device probably describes this as part of the pairing procedure. If you repeat this procedure, your new phone should be able to pair just fine.

So once a headphone is paired with a cellphone, I need to unpair that headphone before I can use it on other smart phone?

Not usually. The pairing process just allows the two devices to swap special data (encryption keys) to allow them to recognise each other in future. After pairing, both devices remember the key. It's no different from saving the key for a Wi-Fi network in your phone, except it works both ways.
While phones can remember lots of pairings (and show you a list of paired devices), devices like headsets are a lot simpler, and can only remember a few. Exactly how many is different from headset to headset. Once it's reached this limit, most likely pairing a new phone with the headset just makes it forget the first phone you paired. Unpairing just means forgetting the key: it's something either side (the phone or the headset) can do without the co-operation of the other side.

What about if I no longer have access to the original smart phone (say I factory reset the phone). What would happen?

Nothing happens, just like if you lose or factory reset the phone after giving it the key to your Wi-Fi network. Your headset will still remember its half of the key, but that half won't do anything any more. If you pair the headset with enough other phones, it'll probably overwrite that key with a newer one eventually.

Bluetooth Wikipedia says (see Communication and connection-emphasis mine)

A master Bluetooth device can communicate with a maximum of seven devices in a piconet (an ad-hoc computer network using Bluetooth technology), though not all devices reach this maximum

While there is a limit on active devices that
can be connected , there appears to be no limit on number of pairings. See how many bluetooth pairing can be made?

Having said that, it seems to be device specific (as also pointed out in above link). I have a Bose WiFi speaker that can pair only 5 devices

The other smartphone cannot see my bluetooth device. Is this normal?

Shouldn't happen unless the device / second smartphone limit has been reached. Can be checked by deleting unnecessary / unused pairings on both devices (by wiping cache partition of your smart phone and resetting device as per instructions provided)
Seeing is different from simultaneous working. Simultaneous pairing is not always possible. See this good answer

So once a headphone is paired with a cellphone, I need to unpair that headphone before I can use it on other smart phone?

Not necessary. Previous answer explains

What about if I no longer have access to the original smart phone (say I factory reset the phone). What would happen?

Pairing info of smartphone would remain on the device and would be of no use. Harmless, unless you reach the limit and future pairings are denied on this account


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Can I waked a sleeping Android without an app installed?
I am aware of Wake on LAN, but that has been ruled out as it requires a device to have an app installed (doesn't it?).
A friend wants to develop an access point and wants to be able to wake any sleeping devices in range.
I don't think that that is at all possible, but would be happy to be proved wrong.
In fact, I don't see how he would even know that a device was in the area unless it was using his access point or was open for BlueTooth pairing.
Can what he wants be done? Note that these are random, passing 'phones, so we cannot expect them to have any app installed.

You are right. Waking a sleeping phone requires them to receive some sort of notification that turns the screen on (alarm or a phone call). If he wants to boot devices that are turned off (Wake on LAN) then this is not possible, because no phone actively connects to a WiFi network when turned off. Most phones don't even have a wake up procedure in their bootloader and only holding the power button can turn them on.

No. If you could do this it would be a huge security flaw. You could use it to run down the batteries of all phones in range of your device by continually waking them up.

An excellent point.


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HTC One M7 stuck on boot
I have a HTC One M7 since 2 years. I got a software update in December and i tried to update it and somehow after the update the phone showed me errors. So back then i did a recovery and the phone went back to the previous configuration. After this I avoided this update totally. But recently i totally ran out of battery and when i charged it, and started it, it upgraded automatically and now it is stuck in the HTC One white screen. Now if i want to recover it, it gives me the following errors -

E:missing bitmap oem_unlock_bg (code-1)
  E:missing bitmap oem_unlock_bg_yes (code-1)
  E:missing bitmap oem_unlock_bg_no (code-1)
  E:missing bitmap icon_ruu (code-1)
Write host_mode success
handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcard, 1 times
  handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcard, 2 times
  handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcard, 3 times
  handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcard, 4 times
  handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcard, 5 times

I tried most of the solutions i could find. Did a cache wipe, even did a factory reset by pressing the power button and the Vol down button for some time. After the factory reset it gets stuck in -

htc one m7 stuck in android is upgrading Starting Apps

How can i fix this? It has been 2 days and I am trying to get it up and running with no success. Any help is deeply appreciated.

It sounds like it is time to get the official RUU and reflash the device.

Need more details: is the bootloader unlocked? Do you have custom recovery? What's your carrier? What is/was the ROM version you were running and what was the upgrade to?  If you can post a screenshot of bootloader screen or just tell us what is shown at top of that screen.

When i do a hard boot it tells me Locked. I am not sure how can i find that i have a custom recovery or not. My carrier is o2-de. How can i find the ROM version from the Hard boot screen? The top of the screen shows locked and data such as - M7UL PVT SHIP S-ON RH, HBOOT-1.61.0000, RADIO-4T.35.3218.16, OpenDSP-v35.120.274.0718, OS-7.18.206.51, eMMC-boot 2048 MB

@Dan You can unlock the M7 without it being bootable, it doesn't have the OEM Unlock security (I believe, been a while since I had one). You shouldn't need to unlock to RUU as long as you are using the same or higher version of firmware.

@acejavelin - How do i unlock the bootloader? I found a process in the HTCDev website. is that the process?

@Dan Yes, follow the instructions there, that is the only way.

@acejavelin - What happens once i unlock it? How does it solve my problem?

@Dan I never said it would, unlocking would allow custom recovery to be installed (it cannot be done when locked) such as TWRP, allowing a custom ROM to be installed. I just answered the question you asked me.

I still recommend the RUU route first

I find the RUU page for the HTC One but there is no section for my carrier o2-de

@acejavelin - I successfully unlocked it and tried to use the image TWRP 3.0.0-0 here - http://www.teamw.in/project/twrp2/. But still no success :(

@acejavelin - Got the official RUU and reflashed the device. Now it boots and works as before :) Maybe you can post that as an answer.

You need to run/flash the official RUU file from HTC that either matches your device's current firmware level or is newer. This will rewrite the partition table, and all data on the device back to factory condition. If that does not work to bring the device back into service, you will likely need to send it in to HTC or replace it.


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Headphone Controls Android
Most threads I find on this information is pretty old, so I wanted to see if anyone has come up with a workaround.
My headphones are the RHA SA950i (wired), which are wonderful. However, the headphone controls (Volume Up, Pause/Skip, Volume Down) only slightly work. The center button, Pause/Skip works, but Volume Up/Down do not. I have a Google Nexus 6. I was wondering if there have been any apps or other workarounds created that allows for me to use Volume Up/Down? Also, I do have a custom ROM (OmniROM) with Root access.
Thanks!

Sometimes custom rom's have issues with Bluetooth, contact the maintainers of this rom and maybe check if other people have problems.

Sorry, I should have mentioned these are wired headsets.


text:
Connecting Android to PC so I can talk from PC?
Can I connect Nexus 5 to PC using wires, so I can talk from PC?
I have a 3.5mm-1-TRS(3ring)-female to 2-TRRS(4rings)-male-cable. (Don't know how to call it, sorry.)
After connecting LINE-in and Speakers port to the phone, I can hear sound from headphone on PC.
but my voice doesn't seem to go into Android.

Nothing in this set-up is Android-specific, so just try the usual debugging steps on your PC: if you talk to the PC with speakers plugged into the speaker output, does the sound come out? You might need to be careful about whether the cable connected to the mic part of the adapter is mono (TS) or stereo (TRS).

Thanks, Dan. Yes. It does work. Computer is fine. Computer side output is stereo, and phone side is mono. I'm trying to connect it as if the phone thinks the computer is 'microphone'. Doesn't it work?


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Can fastboot be used to backup device?
Many people say that fastboot can be used to flash an image on one of the partitions.
Is the reverse also possible, that is to take a binary snapshot and store it as a zip file containing the exact binary representation of the partition to be backed up?
The reason I ask this is
backup has two steps.

Take an image/snapshot and store it in the backup location (backup), and
Replacing the image/snapshot with the one from the backup location (restore)

To me, it seems that fastboot is only doing (1), while being able to write to the Android's internal flash (in binary "dd"-style) seems it should also be able to read from the flash.
This way, nobody would need to organize and run another potentially not trustworthy ROM to do the reading job.

Not possible with fastboot.  However, adb has a TWRP backup mode :)

I'm still low rep on this SE, so posting as a comment: New versions of fastboot have a fetch PARTITION OUT_FILE command, this was added in recent versions of Android along with the fastbootd machinery

@tux3 The question has been unprotected. Feel free to post an answer :)

If you check with our fastboot tag-wiki, and follow up the link to the List of fastboot commands, you will see the answer is NO. Fastboot only has commands to write to the device. A few exceptions include:

making sure there is a device at all, using fastboot devices
some OEM specific commands to read configuration values (fastboot oem <option> – note that all those, except for oem lock/oem unlock, options start with INFO?)
several bootloader specific commands
rebooting the device after "work done" (fastboot reboot / fastboot reboot-bootloader)

From the CyanogenMod Fastboot Intro, emphasis mine:

fastboot is a small tool that comes with the Android SDK (software developer kit) that can be used to re-flash partitions on your device. It is an alternative to the recovery mode for doing installations and updates.

Wikipedia describes fastboot as a diagnostic protocol included with the SDK package used primarily to modify the flash filesystem via a USB connection from host computer. (again, emphasis mine).
No source speaks about backing up partitions (or data) from the device.
Update: newer SDKs added fastboot fetch PARTITION OUT_FILE, so backing up partitions should be possible. However, I didn't yet encounter a device supporting that – plus you'd need to know the names of partitions in advance (I didn't see any fastboot command to list existing partitions).

Thank you, for answering the question. I know that it must seem to you, that I simply was not looking well enough for the info myself. With uboot, recovery partition, recovery mod, clockworkmod, fastboot, adb, etc there are really lots of things that seem to have similar purposes and the info is sometimes confusing. the point in real is that writing and reading to/from memory are basic operations and it seemed idiotic that one makes fastboot only being able to do one of the both. It is great you can flash with fastboot, but why would it not be able to read seemed "wrong to me", so i asked

I didn't blame you in any way: Especially people new to it can easily get confused here (for the reasons you've pointed out). Had I wanted to blame you, I'd placed an "RTFM comment" – instead I rather thought a little summary cannot hurt .) // In fact, backing up partitions can be much more tricky (unless your custom recovery's Nandroid does exactly that). You can dd and transfer partitions, my Adebar can help you create a fitting script for that (working via ADB).

of course, I simply though you were in the right hinting on the available resources. your answer was great and nicely phrased, thank you! I missed stating some background when composing the message. The background (i added in the meanwhile) is simply -and as indicated on the tag wiki- that its absurd (to me) you can flash images but not take them.

That's not that absurd. It'd be absurd if you could create a backup that way but had no way to restore it #D But yes, I get your point of course. Glad I was able to shed some light!

I suspect there is also the issue of security. One could use fastboot to make a sector image of a locked device, allowing access to the filesystem content without needing to factory reset.

@jiggunjer good point. But that could also be protected by the "lock bit" (i.e. only allowed on unlocked device), for example.

We can temporarily load a custom recovery
fastboot boot <kernel> [<ramdisk>]

then backup system partitions.

For future readers: the device must support the fastboot boot command. <kernel> may be something like ClockworkMod (cwm.zip) or TWRP (twrp*.img).

On some phones (e.g. Xiaomi) this also requires that the bootloader is unlocked, which you can't do without a data wipe.

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


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Is there a way to improve S6 audio quality?
I just got a Samsung Galaxy S6 (Android 5.1.1) and I'm disappointed by the poor audio quality, as sounds are "chirping" and metallic, quite disagreeable to the ear. At first I thought it was just me, then I found several comments of people having the same opinion.
Is there a way to improve sound quality? For instance a built-in permanent equalizer, firmware updates, etc. ?

Get a custom kernel that has SELinux set to Permissive, install Viper4Android and after that Dolby Atmos. You are technically unable to have bad sound from there on. Configure both to your needs and enjoy the best sound your device can output. (I have an S6 Edge and using those mods improved the sound so much, that I can't listen to music without them)

I'm happy to report that apparently the problem went away with the recent update to Android 6.0.1 pushed to the device.

If you agree to void your warranty, your best bet would be to root your device and install a custom kernel, which can be further tweaked in order to improve the sound quality (amongst other things).

How exactly will tweaking your kernel improve sound quality?

After changing my kernel, I could mess up with the voltage of my speaker. That fixed up an issue in which I had a trembling audio output, so I guess it may work for the OP too.

That's a long shot imho just to get sound quality to improve. If its a known issue/bug, then probably will be fixed in next release by OEM. Sometimes, the issue might not be the kernel, as you suggest, but the medium of transport of the sound, like buggy bluetooth (software-wise).

I guess you're right. I'll leave my answer here as last choice, if there isn't a less dangerous method available.


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Intermittent Success of using Google Voice Actions "Search in App" Command
I am unable to successfully use the Google System Voice Actions "Search in App" action from the Google App (com.google.android.gms.actions.SEARCH_ACTION).
S3: Android v4.3; Google App v5.8.58.16.arm
S6: Android v5.1.1; Google App v5.8.58.19.arm64
Below is what I've tested on both devices on three apps: YouTube, Recipe App (this is the sample app used in the Android tutorial for "Search in App" implementation), and an app published onto a Google Play Private Channel (not alpha/beta test):

Command "Search for '[keyword]' on 'YouTube'": Successful on both
devices
Command "Search for '[keyword]' on 'Recipe App'": Never
successful on S3, worked on S6 before but not now (intermittent
success). I have not made any changes to settings between then.
Command "Search for
'[keyword]' on '[test app restricted to Private Channel]'": Never
successful on both devices.

(For the test app, I followed the manifest configuration in this tutorial, and using the adb command via Command Prompt:
adb shell am start -a "com.google.android.gms.actions.SEARCH_ACTION" --es query "[query]" -n "[test app]/.MainActivity

works perfectly, i.e. the app opens with the correct search query being processed.)
Both devices use the same wifi network which is stable, and all language settings already set to English. I'm quite baffled on why the voice action did not work as intended.

Are you asking how to get voice commands to recognize the names of any app?

More specifically, I'm trying to figure out why Google App fails to recognise that "Search [query] in [app]" refers to the Search in App action.


text:
how to fix the problem of google play store?
I have accidentally uninstalled the google play store updates. Now the play store is showing error and not working. The error message is continuously popping out which is very annoying. How to get it fixed?

Give us a screenshot of the error.

Exact wording of "The error message" might make this question answerable. Another good idea is to check with our google-play-store tag-wiki if your error is listed there.

Try each of these things at a time and then open the Play Store app to see if it works again.

Clear the Play Store cache: Settings > Apps > Tap All > Google Play Store then tap the Clear cache button.
Clear the Play Store data: Settings > Apps > Google Play Store, tap
Clear data.
Try downloading one of the latest Play Store APKs from here and installing it. Make sure you've enabled installation from Unknown Sources (Settings > Security > Check Unknown sources).


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Moto E (1st Gen) Bootloader Unlocking
There was some problem with my 1-yr-old Moto E 1st gen. It got dead and after some time the dead android guy appears with some red-blue thing on its chest. It appears for half a second. I pressed Power+volume Down and menu appeared saying 'Device locked status code 0'
Somehow I unlocked it using Minimal ADB and fastboot. Then it said 'Device unlocked status code 3'. On opening it shows window saying 'Bootloader Unlocked'.
Then I tried to install firmware 'RETAIL-DSDS_CONDOR_KXC20.82-14_cid7_CFC_1FF.xml' flash images whatever they say. But in every command it returned 'Failure' and not 'Okay' as expected. Now phone is at is, with dead android guy appearing since yesterday. Please Help.
I followed steps from here

EDIT : I downloaded another firmware named : RETAILDSDSALL_XT1022_4.4.4_KXC21.5-40_cid7_CFC.xml.zip
Again did flashing but got the same failed(remote failure) in all commands. After that I plugged out the phone and in the fastboot menu it said 'Last time flashing failed'. Now what to do ?

This means your bootloader is not unlocked first you need to go to the sit it gives a code on your mail you have to make sure that you have enabled OEM unlocking in the settings know apply the code in minimal adb and fastboot now flash a recovery and you can flash any rom you want

I think you are talking about motorola's site, i pasted some long code there then they mailed me Unlock Key which I wrote in command prompt with required code and unlocked it.


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Samsung Galaxy J5 connected to WiFi but network not available
I bought this brand new Samsung Galaxy J5 yesterday, but I'm stuck with an internet connection problem.
The thing is that the WiFi connection worked properly on the store and at some other places, but in my home, it connects to the WiFi but I don't seem to have any network (I open the browser but can't access any URL). All others devices that I have in my house work very well (other Android devices).
I'm assuming then that :

The J5 is working properly (as I can connect it at other places);
The WiFi in my home is working properly (as others devices connect to it and can access any URL).

I was digging many hours yesterday on the web to find a solution for this but nothing has worked so far. By the way, all "J's" devices seem to have a lot of these issues.
Is it correct to say that I may be facing some kind of compatibility issue, between J5 and my WiFi? If yes, what could I do to solve it?

Indeed that might be a compatibility issue. I vaguely remember there was something similar in the past with some devices concerning encryption. Check what your router's WiFi is set to here. It might be WEP (unlikely and insecure), WPA, WPA2 or – and that might be the issue here – WPA/WPA2 (i.e. let the client chose). Some devices had trouble with that choice; so if it's set this way in your case, it might be worth trying to fix it to either WPA or WPA2.

If you had previously made changes to the settings to the router to only allow selected devices, then you might need to add the new device as well. The same thing applies if you setup a only allowed device firewall on your network.

My dual SIM Samsung J5 has problems after restart to find the Provider Connection, so I can't take the calls.
The solution to fix this: after every reboot, start both SIM cards. After that, you can make calls again. Turn off 1 SIM card if you want to save the battery.
You have to do this after every phone reboot. It's easy but important to know this solution.

This looks like an attempt to solve an issue about mobile data connection, not WiFi connection.


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LGG4 marshmallow: third of apps uninstalled after turn off/on - playstore says they're still installed
My LGG4 was fine until the upgrade to marshmallow in January.  After the upgrade nearly half of my apps had lost their icons replaced by the android icon.  Clicking these, says app not installed.  But on google play store, it says apps are installed, so I couldn't reinstall them.  Native email was still there but crashed if I tried to open an email.   After several days, turning the phone off/on numerous times, the apps 'miraculously' reappeared.  All was well until I turned the phone off for a few hours 2 days ago to save battery, when I turned it back on, lots of apps apparently uninstalled again.  Play store app crashes, says play services not installed; go to playstore in native browser it says apps are installed, so I can't try to reinstall.  I have no idea what's going on or how to try to fix it.  Removing battery has no effect.

Is the external SD card working fine i.e. free from filesystem or hardware error?


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Light sensor values differes from device to device - are the readings reliable?
I have launched an onboard sensors reading application on 2 phones: HTC M8 (Android 6) and Motorola Moto G (Android 5).
Those phones lays on my desk one just next to the other. And light sensor's readings are completely different: HTC shows 150 luxes and Moto shows 365 luxes.
This is a nonsense to use those sensors if readings are so different. Can those readings be treated as reliable? Can we do something about that issue?

question updated to be a question :)

You sure your program isn't wrong?

Rule of thumb: Don't trust light sensors. They are calibrated for the screen brightness, as their primary purpose is ambient brightness control. The screen brightness differs, so their calibration differs, as Android's brightness handling code probably does some standardized stuff, which has to be adjusted for the specific device screen.

This is probably because the Motorola's screen is brighter than the HTC's. But don't rely on me, as this is my 2 cents and my only source is personal experience.

Light sensor is sensitive to angle from light source too.
Make sure that your two phones have same angle from the light source.

From the conditions the OP provided, I suspect that had already been compensated for as far as possible. Check the comments to the question.


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Magic Earth Navigation POI import
Custom POIs. I have made a POI in a number of formats:  .rupi,  .gpx,  .asc, .csv, .ov2, .txt,  containing some 250 handicap parking spaces I Denmark. How do I import custom POI with corresponding icon into Magic Earth Navigation?

At first you have to install "RupiManager".
Then put your poi.txt in "Import" folder and export it as KML by the app.
In the next step you have to open your poi.kml in "export" folder with magic earth.


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No sound with bluetooth headphones on Meizu M2
I have a Meizu M2 and Bluetooth headphones. The headphones are paired, and the controls from the headphones work (next, prev, play, pause), but there is no sound. Note that the sound does not come out of the phone's speakers - there is simply none. No, the sound is not set to mute or low. Just so we are clear on that.

Does the same happen on Bluetooth call also?


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My GT-I9192 device keeps rebooting to "GALAXY" logo, even when trying to go into Recovery Mode
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini that turns on just to the "Samsung GALAXY S4 mini GT-I9192" logo and keeps rebooting to it..
even when I try to go into recovery mode it just reboots to this logo and restart again
I download its firmware from sammobile.com and tried to flash it with ODIN. ODIN said everything went successfully, but the problem won't go away
I also tried to install CMW recovery, it went successfully too in ODIN... but I still can't go to recovery mode
Please, what would be the best solution?

Have you already checked with our boot-loop tag-wiki? Strange thing in your case however is it also boot-loops when booting into recovery, which puts me at a loss.

@Izzy Yes, I did, and when I try to turn on Recovery Mode I get a blue "Recovery Booting....." line at the top of "Samsung GALAXY S4 mini duos" logo, but as you said the strange thing is that it restarts after few seconds and continue on boot-loop

Raw idea: maybe you could boot into bootloader mode and see if you can flash a new recovery/ROM via Odin/Heimdall?

Nothing happens when I press the Vol. down and power buttons, it seems that I can't boot into bootloader mode too, it just keeps rebooting! @Izzy

Afraid I'm out of ideas then.

That happened with me too, sorry, but your phone is probably bricked. I fixed my S3 by purchasing an un-bricking device off ebay/Amazon. They look like so:

(If your phone is rooted, make sure you have the right root file (International or For a carrier) I corrupted mine because I had the international root file when my phone was sprint.)
Hope this helps!

I see! Well I'll search for more solutions hoping that this isn't the case for me.. Thank you for the information. :)


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Accelerometer/gyroscope not used by apps LG L70
When I tried to watch a 360 youtube video, I noticed I couldn't look around using my accelerometer. So I installed an app to debug accelerometer information, and it seemed to work just fine.
I do have a custom rom (unofficial cyanogenmod 12.1) on my LG L70 but this was also a problem with the stock LG rom.
Any tips on fixing this?

The L70 doesn't have a gyroscope.

Note that it MAY be possible in a rooted device to emulate a gyroscope in software on devices that do not have a real one... I know it works on the Honor 5x and I plan on trying it on a Moto G 2015 this evening... http://forum.xda-developers.com/honor-5x/how-to/tutorial-enable-gyroscope-honor-5x-t3322256


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Brute Forcing Android Lock; How Long Does It Take?
We've seen that iPhone calculation takes 80 milliseconds per trial to complete. And there's further increasing time penalty with each wrong trial.
Android uses scrypt to generate its Encryption key, so how long does each trial take, and how is this supported by other defenses to hinder brute forcing an encrypted device?

Encrypted or password/PIN protected ? They are different.

"...to hinder brute forcing an encrypted device?", as stated, I'm asking about encrypted devices.

Please link your source of ios

Linked it under "references".

While this might not quite answer the question, you should keep this in mind: http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/16/technology/android-hack/


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How to manually turn on the screen during a call, while proximity sensor thinks I'm too close?
Something's wrong with my phone's proximity sensor and it sometimes thinks I'm too close to my phone even when I'm not.
Unlike the five related questions I found (1, 2, 3, 4, 5!), including one with the same model of phone, I don't want the screen to always be on, and I don't want the proximity sensor to be completely disabled (it sometimes gets it right). I want the screen to be off as normal during a call, and I'd like the proxmity sensor to continue turning the screen on if it thinks I'm "far", but I'd like to also be able to turn the screen on manually when I press a button (I'm not fussy about what button) and overrule the sensor during a call.
I thought this used to be standard... I'm sure my first few Android phones could turn the screen on manually during a call by pressing a button, but no button I've tried does anything (one exception - in Skype and only Skype, pressing the power button turns the screen on for half a second, then it turns back off again).
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, Android 5.1.1, not rooted (and ideally I'd keep it that way).

I've tried using MacroDroid, and while it can respond during a call, it can't turn the screen on. For example, if I create a macro to enable Bluetooth and turn on the screen if I shake the phone during a call, then I shake the phone during a call, the screen stays off but bluetooth does turn on.
There's no option "Turn off screen during calls" in my phone's Call Settings, nor do I have a "Turn on proximity sensor" option under Additional Settings. I do have an option to make the power button hang up during a call, but not to turn the screen on.

To re-iterate, unlike the existing questions, I don't want to stop the screen turning off or disable the proximity sensor completely, I just want to be able to manually override it and manually turn the screen on during a call, using a button.

I have the exact same issue on same phone model, would love a solution to this. I've tried numerous apps which promise to override the proximity sensor behaviour but with no joy.


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Xperia Z1 camera problem
I need someone who knows about flashing, bootloader unlocking and related topics for this problem:
My Xperia Z1 doesn't take photos when the app tries to focus. With no focus enabled it goes perfectly.
Details:

I've read that unlocking bootloader in this phone model could make the camera useless, but when I try to see the unlocking status I get this: Rooting Status: Unknown. So I don't know if it's been unlocked or not (I bought it used at eBay).
I've tried disabling stamina mode and flashing firmware again (5.0.2 and then autoupdated to 5.1.1) but stills the same.

Questions:

Does somebody know the exact solution to my problem?
If not, could it be related to camera software (I mean, the hardware's internal software, not the app)?
Could it be related to Android version? Maybe downgrading would solve it?
At least, how could I know which is my bootloader status?
Any other help you think that could help


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6.0.1 fails to send MMS over PIA Always-On VPN when using 4G LTE
Yesterday, I set up a PIA VPN. I've configured it to use IPv4 over T-Mobile 4G LTE.
I'm unable to send or receive MMS while connected to the VPN -- they can be sent/received as normal when the VPN is disconnected. Any insight as to the origin or solution for this problem would be appreciated.
SMS works. Voice works. WiFi calling works.

Using L2TP/IPSec PSK.
VPN server is configured on the Android device using IP, rather than domain name.
DNS server is also configured by IP
I have no L2TP secret.
No IPSec ID
Using IPSec pre-shared key
Not using any DNS search domains
No forwarding routes configured

I suspect there is some sort of configuration issue with my APN settings; the current configuration works when disconnected from the VPN.
** Update - I haven't yet found a resolution to this specific issue. After getting frustrated using the manual configuration in the settings menu I decided I would try their official Android app. It will set up the connection for you. Unfortunately, the currently version of the app doesn't expose what specific configuration it is using.

If you can send/receive MMS messages with the VPN disconnected, your APN settings are correct. Remember that MMS uses a data connection, not your normal "voice" connection like phone and SMS messages do. I can't say for certain, but this probably failing because you are not using T-Mobiles DNS servers or you are not accessing them from "inside" T-Mobiles network due to the VPN which will cause them to fail because the device is not seen as on Tmo's network.

@acejavelin Based on this, it sounds like configuring my connection to use TMO DNS is the correct option: this would seem to make sense if the MMSC can't be resolved. Will troubleshoot more later today and post updates...

It is just a guess, that is why I left it as a comment and not an answer, but it seems reasonable knowing that the APN is correct since it works when the VPN is disabled.

I've just found an issue in AOSP that tracks this and has a suggested fix for it:

I tried Textra as a texting replacement app (for other reasons). In
  the settings it has an option to use either System or Legacy protocols
  for MMS. It even tells the user to try System if they have a VPN
  enabled. I switched to System from the default Legacy, and now my MMS
  works flawlessly with a VPN running.

Thanks for sharing this @zamber -- I tried out Textra and it unfortunately didn't work for me. It appears to have worked for others in some instances, however. There seems to be a great many issues open against Android's Always-On VPN as evidenced by a site-specific search https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Acode.google.com+%22Always-on+vpn%22

Doing site specific searches will do you no good as you'll get closed issues too. It looks like there are 25 open issues that match "always on vpn" https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?can=2&q=always+on+vpn&colspec=ID+Status+Priority+Owner+Summary+Stars+Reporter+Opened&cells=tiles . Take a look through these issues (and the old ones too) to see how you could debug your issue.


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How do i connect my Galaxy S3 to my computer?
I Have tried everything i can find to connect my galaxy S3 to my computer, I have used different cables, and Different ports on my computer. My phone will connect to other computers just fine, but on mine it says "Can not recognise USB device. please reconnect and try again." Is this a computer issue, or just my phone?

What OS and version?

Have you checked Samsung's website for up-to-date drivers?

A simple PC restart?

i'm on Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat

In my experience, this happens when there is another program or driver that is monitoring the USB ports for the operating system. I have had problems with my Logitech gaming device drivers causing this sort of problem.

Samsung has a webpage here for drivers for development purposes (ADB things) but I believe they will work for transferring files as well.

I had a very similar problem some time ago with my S3. The phone would connect and try to install drivers, but at the end the phone still wouldn't show up no matter how I tried to connect it.
If I recall correctly, I had to use the drivers that were shown on this XDA thread. Hope it helps.

Your PC has a fault in its USB port.
This might have been caused by some device driver errors. It could be hardware failure too.

How are you sure it is a faulty USB Port? Mind elaborating?

OP wrote: "I have used different cables, and Different ports on my computer. My phone will connect to other computers just fine". Please avoid making guesses in answers. Use comments for that.

This is not a guess. I have experienced similar problem. And I am pretty sure the OP is using some Custom ROM which can cause issues with the device drivers of the PC.

Updating the device drivers of the PC might correct the problem. Also, using a ROM which has high support and is fairly trusted would be better.

It can't be a fault in the USB port because it worked fine about a month ago and my PC can still charge my phone. (should have put that in the original question, sorry)

Yes, this could be issue with the firmware on your device then. And I would still recommend updating your drivers. And kindly post the screenshot of device manager(Universal Serial Bus Controllers) in PC.

What ROM do you have on your device?


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How can I find out if the Bootloader is locked or not?
Is there a direct way to find out if the bootloader on a new unrooted device is currently locked or not? I would like to do this without the risk of clearing or bricking the device. I am looking for some command in adb or fastboot that will just provide this information.
The reason I ask this, is because all my rooting attempts have failed so far. I suspect a locked bootloader.


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Weird "Unkown Error" message at specific times
i get this weird "Unknown error" message sometime every 56th minute of every hour. The error looks like this:

Screenshot (click to enlarge)
It used to pop at every 26th minute but recently moved to every 56th. Anyone got any ideas as to what this may be?

See if these two comments help: 'Authorization Failed' toast message at startup && 'Authorization Failed' toast message at startup

This is definitely an app installed on the phone, that has a 1 hour sync interval which fails to connect to its designated server. The sync will land on the same minute of every hour.
Things to try:

Find a connected account with a 1 hour sync interval set, by going to Settings -> Account & Sync. Remove or update the culprit through Play Store.
If you have DroidWall or AFWall on a rooted device, the culprit app might be blocked in the iptables rules.
Try connecting to a different network, the network you're currently on may have a firewall blocking the culprit app. If you're on cellular data (no WiFi), still try this, your provider may have a screwed up DNS record for the culprit site.
Update every app on your phone through Google Play Store, especially if you're on Marshmallow.
If all the above fails, disable one app at a time until you find the culprit. You may not be able to disable updated apps, only uninstall them. You will have to use pm disable com.example.application from ADB or a terminal emulator. When you find the app, uninstall it, or contact the developer for an update.

If you're rooted and have Xposed framework:

There are two Xposed mods that will tell you directly what app the error is originating from:

Buttered Toast - Xposed Repo: Adds the Application name to any Toast notification displayed.
Burnt Toast: Inspired by Buttered Toast, Burnt Toast shows the application icon in a Toast message. Screenshot:

I wouldn't recommend Burnt Toast in this case because not all apps have distinct icons, but it is more UI-friendly.
Hope this helps

i only have trusted apps installed so this is most likely a bug/outdated so regardless if i find the cause or not it shouldnt be a concern? is there a chance of this being a system problem where the android OS itself is trying to sync somewhere maybe caused by a failed update? is there a way to check the integrity of the OS for corrupt files and such? thanks for the quick answer by the way, im gonna do what you suggested and see if it resolves itself.

This is not a virus, although the nature of the toast notification does make one paranoid because it doesn't say what app it originates from. It also isn't an OS integrity issue, or a failed update. I've had failed updates in the past, it will ask you with a date picker when to download the update again. If your Google account sync was having problems it will show a sign-in screen, or a persistent "sync failed" notification. I'll update my answer.

Uh, pm disable requires root access. You didn't mention it explicitly.

thanks, i went through the apps and found out that it was facebook messenger that was causing the issue. thanks!


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Can't see photos when using Droid Explorer
I have Huawei Ascend Y550. It is rooted and I can see, edit, and change files with a root explorer app. However, I have difficulty doing the same in Droid Explorer. I am using Droid Explorer because no matter what I try, I can't seem to get my work PC to recognise and get access to my phone. I have tried all sorts of things, and the phone is recognised on another work PC but not on the one I use.
I'm new to Droid Explorer. I have followed all the instructions, installed it, and able to view my files and SD card as well, but I cannot see photos in the DCIM folder.
I can see the .thumbnails, 100ANDRO, and Camera folders inside the DCIM folder. When I go into the Camera folder, I can see the folders I have created that contain the specific photos. But when I get into each of those, there is nothing shown inside.
Here are the log files from Droid Explorer:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/inml7ubbdbhf518/Harold_Debug_Log_28.2.16.log
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1lxi7ss3aa7q8b8/DroidExplorer20160221.log20160221.log
http://www.mediafire.com/download/mxqhaznag62anat/DroidExplorer20160227.log
http://www.mediafire.com/download/xchike02rs9l9xq/DroidExplorer20160228.log
http://www.mediafire.com/download/inml7ubbdbhf518/Harold_Debug_Log_28.2.16.log

Based on the log files, I will say this is a bug, but I have a potential workaround for now.
The problem is the '. If you rename the folder without the ', you should not have a problem seeing the photos.


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Call a number on a website
Instead of having to highlight a number, copy, switch to call app, paste the number, and dial, is there a way to dial a number found on a website directly? I heard something about copyright issue with Apple, but is there another app or workaround to accomplish this?

It would be a patent issue, if anything.  That would be odd though, since Skype has browser plugins for that so I can't see how Apple's implementation would be unique enough to get patented.


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Does Android Device Manager Work if the phone was reset?
For this scenario let's assume the following:

The phone is stolen and locked. The thief does not know the lock combination and cannot determine it.
  There is an external SD slot.
  The thief might already reseted my phone

In case it matters, the phone is a Sony Xperia z2

A factory reset from Recovery Mode will remove/unlink Android Device Manager, but (since Android 5.0) it will require your Google account password on first boot so the phone won't be usable.

No, Android Device Manager will not work. It is so, as it does not have the data and information of its setting and accounts. But all of your data will not get in hand of thief.
Did you report it stolen with your carrier? They could report the ESN / IMEI as stolen so at the very least the thief probably wouldn't be able to sell it.

@LawleyGraceffa: that is a separate question and such category of questions are discouraged (asking them in comments, that is) since comments are primarily meant for suggestions and clarifications on the same topic. As for your question. try searching our site. The question already exist and has multiple answers.

Where should I report it?

First to police then to your network carrier.


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Headphone issues
Whenever I plug my headphones into my LG Ultimate 2 it triggers a variety of issues including: Randomly turning volume up and down, ramdomly start playing music, pausing videos ect.
I spent alot of money on these headphones and I can't afford another decent pair, please help me find a fix for this.

Is this just right when you plug it in, or the whole time afterward?  Are you inserting the plug all the way?

Bad headphones, or bad headphone jack. Hate to bring it to ya.

We do not know what etc. contains so consider mentioning every action. The category of events you mentioned are actually features in some apps or ROMs. Volume up/down is probably happening because system or an app stores your media level preference for speakers and earphones. Randomly start playing music is also a feature of many music player app. They assume that if earphones are plugged, you must be going to listen something.

Pausing videos is also a feature of media player apps because a developer may have assumed that you would be watching private videos at some time and accidental removal of earphones could be quite embarrassing.  Begin with editing your question to list the Android version, the name of apps which starts playing music and pauses a video. // On a second thought, this may be a technical glitch.


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Any reasons to update Android from stock firmware (via PC) rather than OTA?
Is there any reason to update Android firmware (5.1.1 -> 6.0.1) via PC using software like Odin, rather than just doing an OTA update? Is there any difference between the two methods in terms of performance, battery life, etc.?

Flashing stock firmware will void the warranty while OTA doesn't

@SuiciDoga no it doesn't. If You have signed official binary that is.

@JustMe Unlocking the bootloader does

@SuiciDoga My android phone has an option to unlock the bootloader in the setting app...

Then you use fastboot which gives you a warning screen about your warranty. Even mine has one in developer options

Is there any reason to update Android firmware via PC using software like Odin, rather than just doing an OTA update?

Yes.

Since Android Lollipop, Google has moved to block based OTA updates which means if the system partition is tampered with (often done when rooting the device) the OTA upgrade would and should fail. How would you update the OS then?
In Android versions prior to 5.0, OTA update still fails sometimes because checksum for a file in system partition doesn't match. How would you update the OS now?
During OTA upgrade, some users report the device being stuck in recovery mode. How would you update the OS now?

Note: I've never found an incremental update that can be flashed via fastboot and I'm not familiar with Odin or the likes of it.

Is there any difference between the two methods in terms of performance, battery life, etc.?

I can't give an objective view but note that there are multiple reports on this site where you would notice that OTA (it usually do a dirty flash) upgrade  caused performance issues, such as sluggish animation, frequent app crashes (result of dirty flash), automatic reboot and issues with functionality of some apps. Often, a factory-reset fixes them.
In the case of flashing the OS from PC, you're most likely going to clear the data partition as well so the resultant, once the flashing is completed, would be equivalent of buying a  device with OS shipped from a vendor. If the OS isn't faulty, you shouldn't be having major issues.
I speak from experience with OnePlus One. OTA never worked for me. They either caused overheating or radio issues.

Odin is similar to fastboot, it doesn't do incremental upgrades.

It depends.
It depends on how the full flashable tar/kdz was obtained. If it was obtained from an OTA capture, what difference does it make? Just doing the OTA would then be the most direct from the manufacturer. Capturing is a popular deal, because big companies don't do free hand outs. The more experienced (ex. Sammobile) actually build their own tar files that are independent flashables using a combination method (OTA + live system pulls). As anyone can see, it's all still based off the OTA.
Your question could then be a) whether wiping data after an OTA makes it "run smoother" and have better battery life. And that answer is definitely yes, because certain old files (like app data) is converted to run on the new system, but can cause problems and complicated interpretation. And b) if AOSP/vanilla/slim roms would be a better option, and that also depends. They will usually run better, but you may get more bugs/crashes.
The bottom line is you have to do your research, and probably rom testing. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

Thank you for the comment. So companies like Samsung do not release official full firmware files, like Apple does, for instance?

I don't think this is official initiative but sammobile releases quite a lot of official roms.


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Can someone factory reset it? if its (5.0)OS and has a lock
My phone was stolen (it has a password) and I remember that its OS was 5.0. Can the theif factory reset it?

They will be able to factory reset the device from Recovery.  However, if your device has Factory Reset Protection (not all 5.0 devices do) then they will require your Google Account password to access the device on first boot, so the phone will not be usable.  Joel's answer mentions Android Device Manager — note that it will not work after a factory reset, and you have to have set it up beforehand as well.
Unlike Joel I would assume that yes, much of your data is recoverable unless you device was encrypted.  I see no reason to believe that manufacturers started doing proper full wipes beginning with KitKat just because the researchers didn't test those devices!  Files that were simply deleted / had their headers destroyed / etc. can usually be recovered because all of their data is still there physically, the OS/filesystem just doesn't know about it.
Also note that if your device's bootloader was unlocked, they could flash a custom recovery and access your data that way without a factory reset (again assuming an unencrypted device).  It might be possible to do this without a custom recovery as well depending on the features provided by the stock recovery.

Yes , factory reset will erase all data , including the password.
However he will not be able to recover the data (to the best of my knowledge)
According to this website

It must be noted that devices running Android 4.4 and above were not tested, so it is not clear whether devices running Android KitKat and Lollipop are also affected, although the researchers were quick to point out that it’s plausible that they could be.

If you are looking to locate it then use google device manager.
Sign in to the same account as your phone was signed in and it will show you the location of when it was last online.
Hope that helps


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How to find date a bluetooth connection was first paired
I have a rooted samsung Galaxy grand 4.1.2 with full file access, That has a paired bluetooth connection with another phone. Is there any simple way/app (non programmer) to see the actual date the original pairing request was made. I need to find it out exactly for a legal issue and am struggling to find out if its possible. thanks

You may have to do some work here. I believe that there cannot be a single way to achieve the goal. If I happened to have this issue, I would do this: setup busybox in Android, setup [tag:adb] in PC, pair a device with yours and after pairing immediately execute the command adb shell su -c 'busybox find /data/ -mmin -2'. Make an educated guess in the output and go through all the listed locations. You may be able to get the answer. E.g. In my Android 5.0.2, that technique listed out /data/misc/bluedroid/bt_config.old which did contain the timestamp.

thank you, using es file explorer in /data/misc/bluedroid/bt_config.old i can see order of connection and timestamp value of /N1 but i cant make out how to read it? <N1 Tag ="Timestamp" (next line) Type="int">1399293673 p.s i wouldnt have a clue how to execute a shell command!

That numeric string (1399293673) is Unix Time. Convert it here: http://www.epochconverter.com/ Also, I didn't verify much so you may also peek into the file bt_config.xml.

@Firelord can you maybe put that as an answer with some command usage and sample output since my answer was a little flaky (device dependant)?

@AaronGillion Mine is also device dependent since it doesn't work on my Android 4.2.1 (an MTK device). I'll try to post my answer after a bit of testing.

The database you're looking for is /data/data/com.android.bluetooth/databases/btopp.db
The full history should be there until you explicitly clear data in Application Manager.
I remember reading a full guide on a digital forensics site, can't find the link I had in mind, but this one tells us the log includes MAC addresses (good for legal evidence):
http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=11733/
Hope this steers you in the right direction.

On which Android version and device is this answer tested on? My Android 4.2.1 (on an MTK device) doesn't have com.android.bluetooth but my Android 4.4.2 (MTK device) and CM builds have. The link you noted has posts from 2014.

I now tried a fresh pairing between my Android 4.4.2 and 5.0.2. That database doesn't seem to list anything about connections but only file transfers. Please provide a proof. Thanks!

I found that database on my 4.4.4 device, but the table (btopp) is completely empty (though there are paired devices). Table structure seems to confirm @Firelord's suspicion this table (just) being for xfers. So all that could be found out here to come close to the question is the first data xfer. If the device-in-question never had such (like my smart watch I've connected), it won't be listed at all. // Interesting pointer nevertheless!


text:
Move saved YouTube videos between devices
Is it possible to move the saved/downloaded exo YouTube files (downloaded with the YouTube app) between devices to avoid having to download them again on other devices? If so, how?

Unless you downloaded them completely so, that you can watch them with any video player, I guess every device has its own key that is used to en- and decrypt the downloaded video files just like Google Play Music, Spotify etc do it.

Have you tried moving it? You can say us whether you are able to play the videos.

I am afraid to say this but moving videos between devices is not supported, Yet, AFAIK.
Here are few technical details.
When user download those videos, using official YouTube app, Android saves those videos on Internal storage(and not on external store such as sd-card)of the device. The path can be something like below:

Internal
  storage/Android/data/com.google.android.youtube/files/Offline/(system
  generated folder name)/streams

If you can go to that location, you will find that, all those downloaded files are saved as .exo files.
Since these .exo files are supposed to be system files, these are usually filled with System info(in another words, the device info) into it. Also, those downloaded videos are encrypted and the video file is split into chunks of .exo files.
Hence not only they can be played on the same device, but they can only be played with Official YouTube app.

You can not play these downloaded videos using any Other Media player.

You may want to check the links related to YouTube offline feature here and here for more information.


text:
Does swiping from recent app screen kill the foreground service?
I have read certain posts and done by myself and i found that on my device android kitkat 4.4.4 when i swipe the app from recent screen the foreground service doesn't stop, So does this behavior present on every version of android os or in some version foreground services are killed ?

What actually happens when you swipe an app out of the recent apps list?

Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30699011/service-stop-doing-its-job-after-removing-app-from-recent-apps-list

Yes, this clear the App from the RAM(memory). This is valid from the Android 5.0+.
The foreground services are definitely stopped if executing. Same does not affect any background services if any running.

How did you verify that?

Personal XP. When you run an app, say a game, and press home button . Home screen is shown, and as you go back to game by pressing recent key, game still runs. But, instead, if you clear the recent and then try and open the game, the game starts from beginning.

@firelord above shows that the Game was cleared from memory.

No, the only effect of removing a task from the "recent tasks" list is to remove the entry from the list. It doesn't have any effect on Android's process or memory management.

That's not entirely true. Compare your process list before and after swiping an app away. If there is a service in the background, not very much happens, but if there isn't you usually see that specific process die and releasing all its resources (just tested with some apps on my device).

@GiantTree can you list the name or link the apps? It would be interesting to test  and see whether Dan's claim holds or yours. :-)

@Firelord Facebook Lite (only the background service reappers, the main process dies), Logcat Extreme, Google Chrome, Camera, Settings. Usually all apps that don't have persistent services running are killed less than a second after swiping them away.


text:
Download old version of Amazon Appstore on android
I accidentally updated my amazon appstore to amazon underground without backing it up. It does not work on my device for some reason (I can't download normal apps I can ONLY download underground and paid apps, weird). There's no way to downgrade so I was wondering if someone could give me a direct link/ server directory to the old version before they went underground (e.g. http://s3.amazon.com/link/to/old/appstore.apk )

The simplest and trusted way would be to download it from APK MIRROR.
This is by far the best site for downloading Android apks(apps). You just have to type the name of the app in the search bar and you'll get  search result for the app with different version. You can download the version of the app you like. You should try it. Recommended.

Thanks but I can't find the old version of the amazon app. Cool site , I might use it ☺

Were you looking for this?   http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/amazon-mobile-llc/appstore/appstore-release-20-0000-912-1c_650000010-release/amazon-appstore-release-20-0000-912-1c_650000010-android-apk-download/

Not quite but it'll work. Thanks! What I had before was just called Amazon. But it had an apps and games tab. It was not amazon appstore but it'll work.


text:
Why does my Samsung Galaxy S3 quit asking for my Screen unlock PIN
I keep setting up a PIN to unlock my screen. It works a few times, maybe 3 or 4, then stops. My phone reverts to merely having to swipe the screen to unlock it.
I will then again setup a pin to unlock the screen, it will work a few times and then the phone reverts to no PIN required for screen unlock.

Is it rooted? Stock ROM?


text:
How can I install an Epson iPrint App?
I have a 10.1 inch Android Tablet (4.4 Operating System).
I want to install an Epson iPrint App so that I can use an
Epson wireless printer. I keep being getting the message
that there is insufficient storage available to install
the iPrint App.The App contains 26.4 MB.I have already
uninstalled 80MBs worth of Apps but the Tablet still won't
accept the iPrint App.The Tablet has a 32GB microSD storage
card.What can I do?

It is not relevant to us the size of the screen of your tablet. You may remove it and please mention the device name because that is important here (to easily ascertain the size of internal storage). Also, checkout the wiki of [tag:insufficient-memory] tag.

Android seems to need more space than the app requires to download and install it - as a rule of thumb on my older devices I cleared 4x what was required to get app installs to work.  However on newer devices (including my Nexus 7) most Google applications (including Play Store) won't let the device get below approx 500MB.
Things to try are

For apps which store a lot of offline content set them to use external storage (this may not always be available).  For example in Google Play Music - Hamburger > Settings > Storage Location > External
Clear the cache of an app - Go to Settings > Apps > Overflow Menu > Sort By Size and look for the largest app you're not expecting to be using much space (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) - try clearing the cache.
Remove some downloaded content (e.g. video, music) from the tablet (e.g. video you've downloaded from BBC iPlayer or Amazon Instant Video)

When you have sufficient space to install apps again, Disk Usage https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage is a handy app to have installed - it can identify apps which are using way more storage than you expect (e.g. offline video from an app you've long since removed).


text:
How to set android WiFi hotspot password on Android 4.1.2
On most operating systems, you can set up name, password and encryption type for your WiFi hospot. For some reason, Android only has this switch to enable/disable it:

When I enable it WiFi Android AP is created. Of course, I can't connect because I don't know the password. I would also like to change the name.
I also looked in Security and WiFi settings sections but nothing there either. What's wrong with Android?

On my Xperia S (also running 4.1.2) it's listed above Bluetooth tethering  on that same menu.  I've seen on other devices it only appears after you've turned Portable Wi-Fi hotspot on.

Is the device rooted? If yes, can you confirm whether the file /data/misc/wifi/softap.conf exist? If yes, what does it contain? (Note: the file should be containing SSID and password of hotspot). The SSID would also be available from /data/misc/wifi/hostapd.conf or wherever your device stores hostapd.conf. Some devices don't even use hostapd.conf to manage hotspot.

@Firelord No, the device is not rooted. I also didn't try to alter configuration program in any way, so settings should be on their places.

To access the hotspot settings you have to keep (tap-hold) your finger on the same field Portable Wi-Fi hotspot for a few seconds, then release the finger.
Unless there's a menu icon (three dots) on the top right corner, in which case you can access the settings by tapping on the menu icon and choosing Configure.
Generally speaking, in most apps you can tap-hold on a field to pop up a list of options. This is not very intuitive at a first glance, but after you've used Android for a while it becomes natural.

I tried that already. I will try once more to make sure but I'm little bit sceptical.

Try to do that both with the hotspot turned on and turned off, just in case.

The problem is one has actually to release the finger without moving it much. Normally, the toutch and hold gesture works so that you don't have to release the button.

yes, releasing the finger does solve it. Maybe @dr01 can include this in his/her answer? / This is the most horrible thing I have witnessed all day

@Blauhirn Done.


text:
What is my phone's hostname/network name?
This should be really easy to find, but I've done a bunch of google searching and haven't found anything that works.  On Linux, you just type hostname and it tells you, but that doesn't work on my phone.
I know I've changed the hostname in the past (was android-r at one point), but I don't remember how.  All I want to do right now is see what it is, though, so I can connect to it without knowing the dynamic LAN IP address.

Related: How do I change the name of my Android device?

@Firelord Ah, thanks.  The GUI method also works for me: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/61512/693

Interesting. Which device and Android version are you using? I don't have that option in Developer options. May be because I'm using an age-old Android version.

@Firelord It's specific to modded ROMs, just edited that into the answer

There's a way to retrieve your device's hostname, but you'll have to meet one requirement, which is to have a Terminal Emulator installed on your device.
Once you have one, just open an instance of the emulator and issue the following command, followed by Enter:
getprop net.hostname

Your phone will then answer with its hostname.

This will give me an empty line as answer.
Typing in hostname gives me localhost.

This depends on the device.
Some devices don't send their hostname to the router or that hostname is already used, so they are only reachable via their IP address or network local hostname (not device local hostname).
On Windows run tracert <ip> and you see the locally valid hostname of any device.
Example output:
1    94 ms     7 ms     9 ms  android-ce166eae64b93da4.fritz.box [192.168.178.24]´

So the hostname is android-ce166eae64b93da4.fritz.box for this specific network.
Usually the part in front of the network suffix (in this case fritz.box) is unique and works across networks (remember: only local).

yeah this didn't work for me, but I was hoping for something I could look at or run on the phone itself anyway

This worked correctly, as long as the IP address for the phone is known. This is extremely useful as my phone's IP changes a lot


text:
I can't install the Facebook app on Android 6 Marshmallow
I have just upgraded my phone (2nd Gen. Moto G) to 6 Marshmallow and now I can't install the Facebook app.
With Android 5 I had the app installed on the SD card (along with a bunch of other apps), but as part of the upgrade it insisted that I format the SD card so it could be used for apps. I'm assuming that the way 6.0 addresses the memory card is different to how 5.x did.
Once formatted I (obviously) lost all the apps that were installed there. I managed to reinstall them all - except Facebook. It doesn't say it's incompatible with my device, it apparently downloads OK but the installation phase just fails silently. I've tried it a number of times (after clearing caches, rebooting the phone, removing Facebook from the list of apps that have ever been installed) and get the same result. It will even crash the Play Store app and/or phone during the process.
I've examined the SD card on the phone and computer and I noticed that there were some folders dated from before today so I'm wondering whether the format was actually a format (or are the dates from the date the OS was created?) and there were still some folders that included "facebook" in their name.
Is there anything I can do to get the app to install - short of reinstalling the whole OS again - or am I just going to have to abandon this one for now?

Can you consider ejecting the external SD card and try installing the app again?

@Firelord I tried that (indirectly), but I would have thought that a problem with the SD card would have affected all apps, not just Facebook.

I gave it a couple of weeks - enough time for Facebook to issue an update or two - and tried to install again and it apparently failed silently again so I decided to abandon it once and for all.
However, a couple of days later I noticed that Facebook was updating - so it had installed at the previous attempt.
I can't remember whether I'd cleared the cache or not, but I have had the problem with other apps where they think there's not enough space on the device to either download the update or install it and I've had to clear the cache to get it to work. However, in those cases I was told that the update had failed.
The solution was obviously to just keep trying and clear the cache just to be sure ;)

Still facing same issue. Not able to install Facebook app. Facebook app size is 40MB so keep trying means waste lots of data usage.

@Hkachhia - try clearing your cache. It could be that the phone thinks there's insufficient space on your device.

Go to this link on your phone: Facebook APK
And install the apk yourself but make sure you have unknown sources checked in the developer settings.

Any particular reason for linking  apk4fun?

@Firelord it is the most convenient site to download the apk without ads and waiting times


text:
Tesco Hudl adb sideload Gets error "installation aborted"
I have a Tesco Hudl HT7S3 which was rooted and i corrupted a file in the system and it is stuck in a bootloop. All i can use is adb sideload.
I found the stock image and have sent it to the device with adb, but when it opens it i get this error:

In case you can't see the image, here's what's on my hudl's screen:
Recovery system v4.2.41

Now send the package you want to apply
to the device with "adb sideload <filename>"...
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
Installation aborted.

Can you link the source of that stock image as well as instructions you were following? I'm doubting whether the image you got can be sideloaded through recovery.

@Firelord The link is http://www.modaco.com/forums/topic/365575-stock-hudl-rom-for-rktools-updated-latest-available-rom-20131016200812/ but I can't use rk-tools because it won't pick up my device (my pc is windows 10)


text:
Whats App Web QR Scanner damaged?
I got a problem with my WhatsApp QR Code Scanner:

I use a Samsung Galaxy S5 with Resurrection Remix Rom (Nightly with Marshmallow) and WhatsApp 2.12.479.
Starting the "normal" camera and using it is no problem. It works fine.
All I could find with google are problems regarding a flipped scanner, but as you can see that is not my problem :/.
I already reinstalled WhatsAPP, but it doesn't work.
Thanks for your help,

after hours of searchng I found a post where a suggestion was just to hold the scanner on the qr code... It worked..
So nothing to do here ;)


text:
What is Android InCallUI?
What is Android InCallUI? I keep seeing it under apps I've used.
I googled it and I keep seeing it related to this xPrivacy Pro software. I have an Android ZTE Z812 phone and am wondering how I find out if this software is installed on my phone and how to access it?

Include links to what you found and post a screenshot please!

InCallUI = In Call User Interface.  It handles the display when you're in a call; it has nothing to do with privacy software and you can't uninstall it since it is a core system app.

Ok thank u. How do I know if privacy is installed on my phone?

Look in the list in Settings -> Applications.

Applications cannot install themselves in Android, not without your express permission, due to the very nature of how Android is built and it's built in security system. If you have not turned on Unknown Sources in Settings-Security, the chances of something being installed without your knowledge are near zero, assuming your device has not been out of your control for an extended period of time.


text:
Nexus 6 Powered On Strangely
Earlier today, when trying to power on my Nexus 6, I had a strange thing happen. I normally power on my phone when it is still plugged in to the charger, and I tried doing that today, but after holding in the button for several seconds, the phone did not start to power on as it normally does. I tried unplugging the phone from the charger and powering it on again, but still nothing. When I plugged the phone back in to the charger, the phone began to power on immediately, but not before the hidden notification light turned green for a second. After the phone finished booting up, I got a low battery warning, as my battery was 8%, even though it was at 75% last night when I plugged it in.
Does anybody have any idea what could have caused this? To make sure that everything was working properly, I turned the phone off and on again without it being plugged in to the charger, and everything seems to be working fine, but I am curious about what happened. I am running the latest version of Android Marshmallow available for the Nexus 6 (build number MMB29Q), and the device is not rooted.

Is everything working as expected at the moment?

@Rexford Yes, everything is fine.

@beeshyams I've only had the phone since August, and this is the first time this has happened. I have since charged the phone to a full 100%.

Since you have confirmed that the battery is just six months old, I am guessing that this is a different problem
Nexus and HTC phones seem to have an issue with battery reading showing incorrectly and have a method for battery reset logic. This method varies between various models and googling for "Nexus 6 battery reset logic" led me to this method suggested by Claire LP. The problems described in that thread are not the same as yours but if your problem is related to resetting logic, it may help:

Power off your phone.
Press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons. This will put the phone in fastboot.
Use the Volume buttons to scroll through the menu until you see "Bootloader logs"
Press and hold the power key for a long time (7+ seconds) until the phone reboots.

Thank you! If I ever run in to this problem again, I will try this.

Glad to help :)


text:
In Android 6, how to deny an app permission to access the network?
In Android 6, the user has (finally!) the possibility of approving or denying specific permissions to an app.
However, I couldn't find a way to approve or deny network access, either via Wi-Fi or via cellular data connection. The relevant permission appears in "Other app capabilities" and it's only informative -- apparently there's no way to change it.
Here's an example with the Chess Free app:

You won't be able to achieve success through the native mechanism of Android.
Cody Toombs at Android Police has very well pointed this out in the article: Android M Will Never Ask Users For Permission To Use The Internet, And That's Probably Okay.
In the section Normal and Dangerous Permissions of the document  Permissions Overview, Google has noted:

Permissions are divided into several protection levels.
There are two protection levels that affect thrid party apps: normal and dangerous permissions.

Normal permissions cover areas where your app needs to access data or resources outside the app's sandbox, but where there's very little risk to the user's privacy or the operation of other apps. For example, permission to set the time zone is a normal permission.
If an app declares in its manifest that it needs a normal permission, the system automatically grants the app that permission at install time. The system does not prompt the user to grant normal permissions, and users cannot revoke these permissions.
Dangerous permissions cover areas where the app wants data or resources that involve the user's private information, or could potentially affect the user's stored data or the operation of other apps. For example, the ability to read the user's contacts is a dangerous permission. If an app declares that it needs a dangerous permission, the user has to explicitly grant the permission to the app.

(Emphasis mine)
Surprising or not, the following permissions comes under the list of Normal Permissions:

CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE - allows applications to change network connectivity state - i.e. mobile data;
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE - allows applications to change Wi-Fi connectivity state;
INTERNET - allows applications to open network sockets.

If that doesn't suffice, checkout the permissions managed by AppOps here. If you don't find your permission listed there, you won't be able to do anything with it in GUI.
Since alternative methods are already extensively covered on this site, refer to:

Block apps from accessing the Internet on Android device
Are there any tools to sandbox a malware application even more than the granted permissions on Android?

Thanks for your answer. It's disappointing when features are crippled not because of technical impossibilities but because of market reasons.

You could use NetGuard (see my list of Internet Firewalls for other alternatives), which works without root and lets you block internet access for apps selectively (WiFi or mobile data, and even always or only if screen is off). It's from the dev of XPrivacy, so it has to be good ;)

NetGuard (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
NetGuard is open source, so you can also find it at F-Droid.
Update: Note that recent versions of Netguard include Google Ads as well as Firebase Analytics – two things which IMHO have no business in a firewall (or any other security) application – which most likely is the reason it is no longer updated on F-Droid's official repo (still available in mine with the appropriate warnings).
Update2: Situation from the previous update has been resolved, and recent Netguard versions are available from both repos now – without those proprietary components.

NetGuard's F-Droid variant actually has added functionality beyond that allowed in the Play Store.

Can it block in-app ads?

@ImmortalPlayer if an app is denied network access, it cannot load ads either. So the answer to that would be "yes".

The F-Droid version can also selectively block many in-app ads without completely blocking internet access.

There are some really cool apps that can do it without rooting. Here are two examples:

LostNet Firewall Free:
(Click image to enlarge)

Mobiwol: NoRoot Firewall
(Click image to enlarge)

If you have root access you could also use:

AFWall+ - there seem to be some issues with Android M, so you should check this first "...tested with Android version 4.xx - 5.
XPrivacy - requires the Xposed framework and supports "Android version    4.0.3 - 6.0.1"

I have updated my device to Android 6.0.1 and until now both seem to work.

Preamble
It may be late, but I wish to add my own take on your question, for completeness' sake. This answer is a surefire way to block internet access to an application. The downsides? It doesn't block Intents, it is convoluted and might make the target app crash, and it requires root privileges.
It has been tested and confirmed to work up to Android 7.1.2.

Rationale
As mentioned by the other answerers, any app which wishes to access the internet, must declare the android.permission.INTERNET undeniable permission within its AndroidManifest.xml. How does Android remember which permissions an app requested, though? By saving them inside packages.xml, a protected file located at /data/system.
It goes without saying that someone like us might be interested in editing said file, for the purpose of adding or removing a permission, provided they have root privileges. This is our way to negate internet access to an app without VPNs or firewall software.

The packages.xml file
The packages.xml file lists all of the installed apps, together with their paths and permissions. Each app is placed between the <package></package> tags; for the sake of my answer, I'll target Nova Launcher by TeslaCoil. The app's stanza in the file is as follows:
    <package name="com.teslacoilsw.launcher" codePath="/data/app/com.teslacoilsw.launcher-1" nativeLibraryPath="/data/app/com.teslacoilsw.launcher-1/lib" publicFlags="944258628" privateFlags="0" ft="16075caace8" it="16075cac965" ut="16075cac965" version="53000" userId="10083" installer="com.android.packageinstaller">
        <sigs count="1">
            <cert index="7" key="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" />
        </sigs>
        <perms>
            <item name="com.android.launcher3.permission.READ_SETTINGS" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="com.teslacoilsw.launcher.permission.C2D_MESSAGE" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.EXPAND_STATUS_BAR" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.INTERNET" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.SET_WALLPAPER" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.SET_WALLPAPER_HINTS" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.VIBRATE" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE" granted="true" flags="0" />
            <item name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" granted="true" flags="0" />
        </perms>
        <proper-signing-keyset identifier="10" />
    </package>

The indentation is reported verbatim from the file.

Procedure
Armed with the above knowledge, we can now proceed to examine Nova Launcher's permissions, wrapped between <perms></perms>. Soon enough, we will find the only one we need to edit:
            <item name="android.permission.INTERNET" granted="true" flags="0" />

To effectively deny internet access to the app, we merely need to delete the whole line and reboot our device. Commenting it out for future use is useless: Android examines this file at every boot, and will purge your comments.

Drawbacks
Following this procedure will net you an app which cannot communicate with the internet in any way. However, poorly coded apps and software intended for Marshmallow and above might crash upon trying to connect to the internet, as Nova does.
Moreover, as pointed out by Firelord, updating an app causes the changes to revert, effectively voiding our efforts and requiring the permission to be deleted anew.

Amending this procedure
To reverse what we did above, all that's needed is to add the permission we deleted back among the other ones and to reboot the device.

Disclaimer
I'm in no way affiliated to Nova Launcher or its developers.

Internet access cannot be denied for individual apps on Android natively. Ads are the major sources of Google's revenue.
However if you're using Opera Max, you can restrict internet access to individual apps. You can even save data, thanks to Opera's compression technology.
Install Opera Max from Play Store. It's completely free and easy to use. No root required.

Update: No longer a fan of Opera Max after they started serving too many ads.

In light of some recent events, I'd like to improve this question by introducing Triangle by Google. Get it on APKMirror or APKPure and install it with ADB.
Here are some of the key features.

It's not a VPN, it blocks locally your apps' access to Internet. Think of it as a new permission just like using the camera or having access to your location.

Does this use a VPN/proxy like similar apps?  Does it block access from native libraries?

@hackel I installed it (had to sideload since it said not avilable in my country). It asked me to enable a VPN. Also doesn't seem to block WIFI.


text:
Google app displaying temperature in Fahrenheit
When I use widget for voice search and say 'weather' I get the results, but it is shown in Fahrenheit, even though,in settings it is chosen to show in Celsius.
Any solution?

Pull down from one of the Os in the Google logo in the Google now app

This problem apparently is due to the device language selection.
If English (US) is chosen, Google defaults to temperature units used in US (Fahrenheit)
This is remedied by switching over to English (UK), where temperature units are in Celsius
Source: Accepted answer on Android wear,How do I change temperature units in Android wear weather app?

This will have the side affect of breaking movie titles in the Google TV app.  Only English US shows English titles and proper thumbnails.  I was using English (CA).

This isn't a solution at all. Temperature units aren't the only difference between English US and English UK.

The other answer on this question didn't work for me. My phone was already on English (UK) and changing it to US and back did not help.
Instead what fixed it for me was:

Open the Google app.
Scroll down to the Weather card.
Press the menu button on that card.
Press "Change temperature units to °F".
Press the menu again.
Press "Change temperature units to °C".

This worked for me! Even with English (US) settings.

Double click the At a glance banner (the temperature), an app will pop up where you can change the setting at the upper left corner

Long-tap on the home screen and go to "Select Widgets". Under Google, select the "At a Glance" widget and drag it to the home screen.
For me, this changed the unit from F to C instantly.

I don't know why this was downvoted. This actually did the trick for me as well, where nothing else was working. I added the widget again, and it changed it to Celsius for both of them, after which you can remove the duplicate widget.

If you use Android, just ask Google Assistant to change it from F to C permanently. It works for me. Google Assistant will say "I will remember your preference".

Touch the little red 'F' to the upper right of the days temperature (that's in big black bold numbers) next to the big numbers at the upper right.
There is a little blue 'C' for Celsius then a slash and a little red 'F' for Fahrenheit, and it will switch back to Fahrenheit or Celcius by touching either one of those little letters.