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Remove "Recent files" from My Files app in Samsung Galaxy Core Prime
As you can see the "Recent files" in the picture, it's really annoying - it remembers every image which I just opened, thus violating my privacy.
Note that "Recent files" even remembers and shows my hidden images (which Images or Gallery won't scan and show).
I can make the "Recent files" forget about my recent images by going to Settings -> Application manager -> All -> My Files -> Clear data (check the second image), but that's just exhausted.
Is there anyway to completely remove this annoying "Recent files"?
In the past, I used Samsung Galaxy V and it doesn't have this  "Recent files", then why my Samsung Galaxy Core Prime has?
(Click image to enlarge)

Ugh, no but you can use other file explorers like es explorer, it doesn't has recent file.

How is it violating your privacy? It's only showing your files on your phone to you. The only way it could hurt your privacy is if you choose to let someone else look at that list on your phone.

@DanHulme Imagine you give your phone to your 8 year-old nephew to keep him busy, and you have some sensitive photos...

That's not a privacy violation, that's just you sharing some stuff you shouldn't.

The solution is Clearing data in App info of My Files, After a few years using this phone, I think this is the only solution.
Slow way: Settings -> Application manager -> All -> My Files -> Clear data.

Quick way: you can quickly open App info of My Files by holding the My Files app then drag it into the App info

Disable "Recent File"
1 Long route:
Settings -> Application manager (or Apps) -> All -> My Files -> App Info -> "the Gear" (immediately below the three dots bar) -> Customize My files home -> Disable "Recent files"
=> in this route, the three dots bar leads to "Uninstall updates".
2 Shorter route  (You don't see the "Gear", because you clicked directly on "My Files"):
My Files -> The three dots bar -> Settings -> My files settings  -> Customize My files home -> Disable "Recent files"
3 You have better eyes than I do:
Settings -> Application manager (or Apps) -> All -> My Files ->  "the Gear" (located on the right of the name) -> Customize My files home -> Disable "Recent files"
4 The final stage (this is where you should arrive)

Samsung just added this feature, my old phone doesn't have this Disable Recent File feature, maybe some of Samsung dev read this question, lol :D, Thanks for sharing anyway.

I'm using an LG Q7 to delete the files I went into file manager pushed the  three dotted settings button, and selected show hidden. and searched through internal storage, found most of the thumbnails and cache in the pictures. A little digging as well in Android and DCIM was looking for anything that had a period in the beginning.

In fact it is possible to do so. You just need to remove the cache files from Gallery and My Files then it removes recently added folders from Gallery and recent files from My Files.

Actually, the solution is already in the question: Settings -> Application manager -> All -> My Files -> Clear data.
Note: that you can do it quickly with Holding the "My Files" app, drag it into the "App info" (I don't remember the exactly word is App info or not), then the app info page appear, in this page you can: Turn off the app, clear the app cache, data,... Thus you can Clear the app data in this page.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! This post does not contain enough information to be considered an answer. How did it solve the issue? Where to find it? What are the steps to perform?

Just open your files and tap the 3 dots in right upper corner, and select settings, then turn Show recent files off.

Don't know about that, but I never saw that option on my phone. Can you post the image?

Go to Files
select the 3 dots on the upper right
Pick Settings and you'll see the screen below
Turn off Show recent files


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"unfortunately adobe air has stopped"
I decided to hard reset my huawei y511 due to some personal reason. Now, since then everytime i log in to google at midst of my browsing it pops up "unfortunately air has stopped" and it goes over and over. Please help me how to resolve this? thanks a lot

Can you uninstall then reinstall Adobe Air? AFAIK, it's not a system app, but I'm not sure on Huawei devices.

Make sure all your applications including Adobe Air is up to date, if they are uninstall and reinstall Adobe Air.
Additionally make sure you phone's RAM and CPU usage isn't too high. You can check this by going into settings > application, and the running tab.

That's a very general advice and it doesn't tell us what could be causing the issue. Please be specific.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Can we modify or replace kernel and shell of an Android Device?
Is it possible to modify the kernel and shell of an android device? Devices like Samsung Galaxy S6 or Xiaomi Mi4i?
If yes, how is it possible?
Does the Manufacturer need to provide the Kernel before development?
Can we use any kernel in any Android device

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! This site is for users of Android, which means that questions about development/programming are off-topic here (see the What topics can I ask about here?). Development questions are on-topic on our sister site Stack Overflow. You might also wish to consult Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions? for a fitting place to your question.

Kernel yes, shell don't know of there is any way. By the way shell is the command line interface of android that you can access by rooting, and using busy box or adb. You can't change that as it is architecture based. Just like you can't change cmd on windows to use Mac commands. But if you are taking about firmware, then yes, ROM yes, recovery yes, boot loader no. If it answers your question.

authors: Виктория Самохвалова

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


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Can't find music I downloaded from Google play music
I just downloaded the Google play music subscription and downloaded a bunch of music that is supposed to download to my SD card but cannot find any of my music and its also not downloading to my SD card. Almost any app or music I try downloading or moving to my SD card says it's downloaded or moved but doesn't move it stays on the phones memory. Don't want to keep paying for this music subscription if I can't access my music I downloaded, and need to figure out why my phone memory doesn't free up space when I move to my SD card. I have the SD card and another external memory device that says I can transfer my media and most times it says I did move them but I don't get any free space on my phone afterwards. I also cannot find anything in downloading mainly music I'm worried about now since I'm paying for this subscription, if you can please help me out that would be great.  Thank-you for your time only got this phone less then a month ago and I'm having a lot of problems already, cannot receive texts or phone calls when I'm online or in a game. Pretty much of anything is running on the phone nothing will come through and phone won't even ring, only way I know I have a missed call is if a message is left and that takes awhile to come through.

See: Where does music downloaded from Google Play go on my phone?. Apart from that: your question is a "big wall of text" and very hard to read: almost no punctuation, no paragraphs. Most people will just skip it because of that. Please, work on your formatting (and remember: you can always [edit] your post to improve it).

Possible duplicate of Where does Google Music store offline songs?

Google Play Music app is storing music files in your phone's internal memory, which means that you can't access them without root access.
They are located in /data/data/com.google.android.music/files/music folder. To access them you need to root your phone.
But if your phone is not rooted, going to this folder will show your downloaded files named something like 1123.mp3 / 1234.mp3 and etc.
You will have all your files, but name of artists, tracks and everything else is erased from mp3 file's metadata.
I hope this helps!

I had a similar problem. My music don't download either even after it says download complete. Also I couldnt hear my ringtone when I got a call. For this I wrote down all the apps and contacts I had  and I reset my phone. That worked and freed up a lot of space on my phone from the built up misc. files I had.
Hope this helps if you haven't figured it out already.

I figured it out after racking my brain. When you open Google Play, swipethe menu left until you open PLAYLISTS. Then it should have a playlist saying "most recent" or along those lines. When you open the list up, click the little download circle with the arrow down, and it downloads to the SD card. At least it worked for me. Hope this helps

It's looking for music in a particular folder - a folder called "Music". Nothing more, nothing less. If your music is in a folder otherwise named, it won't find it


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How to get out of non-responding screen swipe on locked Galaxy Edge 6?
I have a Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge phone and twice now, the phone has gotten into a locked state, but the screen swipe does not work, it does not respond to finger swipe to unlock the device.  I can push power button to get screen on or off, but no screen finger action has any effect.  I cannot get it to reboot.  Pushing power off button for a while brings up screen with choice to reboot, but that requires touching screen to select reboot.
I pressed power and volume down keys for several seconds to force restart, and chose normal boot from the menu, but after rebooting the issue remains, no screen swipe response.  Booting into safe-mode didn't help either.  I did a factory reset and still no response to screen touch.  Is this a hardware issue and I need a new phone?  Should I use ADB and redownload the operating system onto it?

It sounds like you've tried all the user steps necessary. ADB does allow for some screen unlock in certain situations, but it still may not be enough. It is possible it is a hardware issue. I think the next step is to take it in for service. Sorry.

Verizon had to replace the phone due to hardware issues evidenced by these symptoms.

I've had the same problem and after many restarts it continued. I tried holding the power button and down volume and home button all together. It will take you to another screen in which you need to push the down volume to cancel and that worked. Hopefully it helps

If you have a case or screen protector on your device, try removing it.
Clean the screen with a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth.
Unplug your device.
Restart your device. If you can't restart it, you can force restart your device.

Mine was stuck due to the home key/fingerprint sensor. I tapped it in multiple directions and the problem went away.

Had same problem with Galaxy 6 yesterday. Tried all of the above. No help. Tried volume up button for 10 sec. Got screen asking if i wanted to down load OS , but in middle was an option to restart phone . That worked, touch swipe function opened and works now.

Always try this last step before concluding. Any smartphone, computer or tab has something they call safe mode which bars installed apps and user system apps from at least running automatically to running at all. Get to google and search how to get to safe mode on your device try it and see if it works. If it doesn't, either take it to service centre, reflash the phone yourself or install a third party OS like Cyanogen of the Samsung Touchwiz is messing up. Many people have been complaining. This is a bug in Samsung ROM's

The questioner already said, "Booting into safe-mode didn't help either."

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


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Is there a way to use a phone as a virtual keychain for NFC tags?
So let's say I have a bunch of things that can be unlocked via NFC. Each thing would correspond with one tag and one tag only. The problem would then be that I'd have to carry a bunch of tags around. What would make this much more easy to manage, would be to use a phone as a keychain for these tags. A keychain in the sense that all tags would be virtually stored on the phone. When I then would need to use a tag to unlock its corresponding thing, I'd need to emulate the tag through the phone.
The question is then: is there a method available to store multiple virtual NFC tags on the phone, and can the phone in turn act as a tag emulator?
P.S. My current phone doesn't support NFC, but my near-future phone will (and it will of course have the latest Android version that's available at that time).


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Clear popup/push notification of an app without getting it removed from Notification drawer
I'm currently using an LG G3 with Lollipop 5.0.1.
The problem I'm having is that when I'm using an app (or just doing something general on my phone) and I receive a text or similar notification a pop-up shows up on my screen explaining what the notification is. For example, the first sentence of a text, or a snippet of a Facebook post. I know this is normal but the issue is that if I'm currently doing something important and I want to clear the pop-up, if I swipe right (or press the "X") to dismiss the notification it clears it entirely i.e. from the Notification drawer too.
See the example of a situation where this happens, in order to clear up any confusion with my issue:
I'm sending an important email to a coworker when my friend texts me. I don't want to read my friend's text right now but the pop-up still blocks a portion of the screen. In such a situation my options are:

Wait about 5 seconds for the pop-up to disappear.
Clear the pop-up so I can resume emailing my coworker (preferred because it allows me to resume typing the email immediately).

The problem with option 2 is that if I clear the pop-up notification all other indications that I received a text are also cleared (meaning the top bar notification & the little red "1" on the messaging app). So if I happened to send a really long email to my coworker, there's a chance I'll completely forget to respond to my friend once I'm done.
So, is there a way to clear a pop-up notification without clearing all other signs of the notification?

Possible duplicate of How to dismiss Heads-up Notifications quickly without clearing them from notification bar?

Unfortunately, in Android 5.0.1 any action done to the notification that isn't opening it will dismiss it. If you can, upgrade to 5.1. In this version, swiping up on the notification will hide it but keep it in the notification panel.

In case, you'd like to globally disable the popup-cum-push notifications, you can consider the following method. This will only disable the popup ones, but notifications will continue to show up in Notification drawer, as usual.
Setup adb in PC, connect the device with USB debugging enabled, launch a shell on PC and enter:
adb shell settings put global heads_up_notifications_enabled 0

Done! Method is tested on COS12 (Android 5.0.2) running WhatsApp.

But some apps can evade this solution such as SlideLocker. Don't know how but they do.

But It can be set to disable Heads-up banners in SlideLock locker as that's what the OP wants to achieve. This solution works for me, +1 for being the best solution.

@Manubhargav I'd prefer not to disable popup notifications totally. What exactly are you talking about when you said Firelord's answer achieves what I want?

@PaulWarnick The above solution disables the 5-seconds-popup but the notification is present in notification drawer when you slide down. Firelord 's method fails only if you use the 3rd party app called slidelocker app which you clearly don't use. It suits your need, have you tried it yet?

@Manubhargav Ah thank you, that clears things up. I've never tried slidelocker but I'll definitely look into it.


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Programs in background keep shutting down, Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, LG G2 mini, LG-D620r
I have the LG G2 mini, model number LG-D620r, smart phone on which Android 5.0.2 Lollipop runs. Every since the phone updated to this version of Android, it keeps shutting down programs that are in the background.
For instance, if I have a navigation program running, and for a moment use another program, I cannot resume the navigation program. It just restarts which takes a lot longer.
What can I do to retain the programs running in the background instead of them being shut down all the time?

Don't forget to take into account device's 1GB RAM (only) and the apps' ever-increasing appetite for memory.

@Firelord Indeed, this is unfortunately always the case. I'm still supposed to install an app with which I can monitor the memory usage. Any recommendations?

Recommendations formally are off-topic here. But you can get good results on [softwarerecs.se]. Anyhow, see if OS Monitor helps to monitor the memory usage.


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Factory reset is disabled by kill switch on LG L16C
I cannot do a factory reset on a LGL16c, it comes up with screen to confirm reset and agreeing to wipe data, I say yes to both. Then it comes up with a screen that says

Factory reset is disabled by Kill switch

I reboots and nothing happens. I cannot reset through settings on phone, security, it says factory reset disabled by server policy.
I found out that all new smartphones have this new "Kill switch" installed by all manufacturers because a new law passed prevents a thief from accessing a phone if there is a password on it and trying to factory reset it.
Is there a way to bypass the kill switch if I have the phone and there is no password and I want to wipe data and reset phone?

You would have to enable debugging in developer options, hook it to a PC,  flash a custom recovery, and flash another ROM. There are other steps to disable the KillSwitch, but I will not post those steps on a public site because of illegal activity that can be done using those steps.

Related on XDA: LG G3 locked by Mcafee (kill switch) and AndroidCommunity

"Killswitch" wouldn't allow me to turn on my usb debugging yet, I was able to bypass "Killswitch" by using Android Device Manager and wipe my phone as if it was lost or stolen. Which in turn reset the phone "LG L16C".

While it's true that newer smartphones are neccesary to have anti-theft kill switch, this particular kill switch on LG devices were installed by McAfee. From Android Community

LG Electronics announced that it has partnered with McAfee to bring an anti-theft feature to the new LG G3 phones. The mobile devices will now be pre-installed with the latest version of the McAfee Mobile Security, which includes a Kill Switch function so that you can erase data and disable the phones when it has fallen into the wrong hands.
Not only will the software protect the LG G3 from these malware infections, it also has a kill switch that will enable you to disable your phone’s functions, including unauthorised factory reset, when it gets stolen. Even attempts to root the phone will be blocked and the lock screen will require password authentication, and the user can control the device from a web console.
(Emphasis added)

From XDA Forum post by twisted_twice,

it seems you have to either:

Turn off Lock Down Device on McAfee: you can then initiate factory reset, but you may be asked for PIN after that, or
Unregister your device on McAfee Mobile Security (not really recommended security-wise)

The default PIN is 123456.

Well, I have had a lot of experience with android devices, and I might have found a solution:
If your device is rooted, and you haven't already gotten your phone locked, you can get a "bloatware" remover, find com.android.systemUI.factory.KILLSWITCH.apk.ODEX and remove it. I hope this works!

Are you sure on the file to remove? I just wonder about the .apk.ODEX extension. Usually, the app files (which is what those "bloatware removers" go after) have the extension .apk – while .odex files are the "Optimized Dalvik EXexutables". So could you please [edit] your post and include some background/details? Thanks in advance!


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Nexus 6 Not Showing up in "My Computer" or ADB with Debug Mode Enabled
I use my Nexus 6 for the purposes of developing Android apps, and I have been using my laptop along with my phone to write and test the apps. In the past, I have never had any issues with connecting my phone to my laptop, but as of today, my phone only shows up on my computer when Debug Mode is disabled. When debug mode is enabled and I plug my phone in to my computer, my computer plays the tone that indicates new hardware, but the phone never shows up on the "My Computer" listing, and adb devices does not show it. I have tried rebooting both the computer and the phone, but that has not resolved the issue.
My computer is running Windows 10 Pro x64, and my phone is running Android Lollipop v5.1.1 Build LMY48M.
I do not know if there is any connection, but prior to installing the latest update to Android System WebView from the Google Play store, this worked just fine. The only reason that I cite this as a possible cause to the problem is because after getting this update, my app drawer was updated to look like the Android Marshmallow app drawer which I thought was not going to be released ahead of Marshmallow.
UPDATE: I tried plugging my Nexus in to my machine running Fedora Workstation 22 and it works just fine regardless of whether Debug Mode is enabled or not.
UPDATE 2: Whatever the issue is, it's got something to do with my computer. I tried it on my mom's laptop and it works just fine. She does not have the Android SDK installed, but aside from that, her machine is identical to mine.

Have you tried to use a different USB port? Sometimes that is the issue. If not, open your SDK manager and make sure your drivers are up to date.

I tried both of these things and neither warranted any results. Thank you for the suggestion though.

Installing Universal naked drivers shall solve your problem. Assuming you are skillful enough installing drivers manually as you intend to make use of ADB, here's a reference link to Universal Naked Drivers: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/development/adb-fb-apx-driver-universal-naked-t2513339
It generally supports all Nexus devices(probably all), if it doesn't help, uninstall the current installed driver from Device Manager and replug your Nexus device to make it install its drivers again.


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How are good, fair, poor and bad defined for signal strength?
How are good, fair, poor and bad defined for signal strength in terms of dBm, in most Android phones or telecommunication community?
Are they defined the same for mobile network and for WiFi network?
Thanks.

Signal strength is always expressed in terms of (decibels) dB whether it is Wifi or Cellular Network signal. Only difference is the spectrum and bandwidth...

It depends on the technology of the mobile, i.e. CDMA 1xEVDO (Verizon & Sprint 3G), UMTS (AT&T and T-Mobile 3G), LTE (all carriers 4G LTE).
In general, for 3G:

-116dBm to -108dBm is bad
-108dBm to -103dBm is poor
-103dBm to -95dBm is fair, and
pretty much anything > -98dBm is good to very good.

For LTE, it's:

-120dBm to -115dBm is poor
-115dBm to -105dBm is bad
-105dBm to -95dBm is fair, and
> -95dBm is good

None of this however is absolute to guarantee the quality of service (QoS).  There are many factors that go into QoS. In urban areas, there is much more interference from various sources including the operators' own network that affects speech quality and throughput speed.

I can answer this for WiFi:  received signal strength indicator (RSSI) in the 802.11 standard is only required to be orderable. This means for a single device you can tell when its reported value x is greater than its reported value y, but not by how much because there may be no real scale. Every device can report different values for the same real signal power, and the values across devices are not directly comparable because they can each use different values and they may have no scales. A device is only required to be able to tell a signal is stronger or weaker than another signal.
For reference, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_signal_strength_indication


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Where does Android store offline contacts and email account details?
Basically, I want to set up a home-rolled sync for these, but I have no idea where they live by default on a CyanogenMod without GApps. Could someone please help me out?

Check if its present in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db ? You may need a SQL manager to take a look at it

The email accounts are saved in the the file accounts.db under /data/system/users/<userId>/. If you're the primary user, then the userId should be 0.
You can also consider taking the accounts' backup using Titanium Backup.
Offline contacts are handled by Contacts Storage (com.android.providers.contacts) app and the contacts are stored in its data directory under the file contacts2.db. Your profile details are stored in the file profile.db. Both files are at the location /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/. I recommend backing up both.
You can consider Titanium Backup again if you want to backup Contacts Storage app or simply the contacts which it allows you to export using its menu. Although the Contacts app allows exporting natively  all the contacts into a VCF file.


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How to configure portable WiFi router in Xiaomi mi 4
I hv miui 6 version of rom. How can I configure my connected users like allow or block them etc that r connected to my hotspot which I created on my mi4.... Plz help

You can block them by their mobile's MAC(Physical) address.
But the better way is to change your Wi-fi hotspot password if you do not want to share your internet connection with others.

Can you elaborate the first part?


text:
Add a new laguage (Bengali) in my Huawei Honor 3C phone not having this language
How to add a new language "Bengali of India" in my Huawei Honor 3C phone not having this language.
I have checked SETTINGS -> Language / Input and my language is not listed here.
I saw Samsung Phones has Bengali Language in Languages List as I have Samsung Tab311.
So how to add this new language in my honor 3C Android Phone 4.2.2 JellyBeans

Related http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/83503

Bengali is only available as a system language starting with Android 5.0.0 Lollipop. So you can't add it as a  system language ( I don't know about options with root). However, you can configure Bengali input using a custom keyboard option such as Google Keyboard or Swiftkey Keyboard. These have a "Languages" option for adding languages.


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APK Installation Error
I have downloaded 3 apks:

5.39 MB
1.04 MB
4.32 MB

Now, the problem is when I tried to install the first 2 apks, I get an error message.

Out of space
The apk couldn't be installed. Free up space and then try again.

Upon installing the Third apk, it gets installed.
Now I go to Settings > Device Group > Application manager, to see how much space are still available on my device, and it's 422 MB.  My device still got more space yet, but why I can't install an apk just a 1 MB?

My device is running 4.4.4 KitKat

Please help!

possible duplicate of "Insufficient storage" when trying to install new app

On Addition, I also move all apps to SD Card that support move to SD Card.

Try to clear the cached data and then reinstalling
Clear cached data by going in Setting>>Storage>>Scroll Down a little you will see Cached data,Press on the Button to clear cache. Should Work


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Device in Bootloop using encryption
I have yu yureka android device which has octa core snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of ram, 16GB internal storage.
Recently I migrated to snapshot release of Cyanogen Mod 12.1 (android 5.1) plain without any Google Proprietary Apps.
I thought of using device encryption feature. There is no lock screen password/pattern set. There are no secondary users. There are no so many apps installed. My /storage/emulated/0 doesn't contain any media files (completely free).
So, I entered Settings > Security and selected Encrypt Device . It showed some boot loader icon for a couple of minutes and then Settings > Security showed Device Encrypted.
Is it really encrypted, since it took very little time and not having lock screen password. The device was fine on rebooting.
Then, i created 2nd user and protected it with lock screen pattern. Then rebooted, device was fine.
Then I created lock screen pattern for the 1st user (Owner). It prompted to ask for this pattern at device boot up and I selected Yes. I then rebooted the device. At first, it asked for pattern, I entered the 1st users lock screen pattern. Then the device rebooted and was in boot loop now (continuous boot loader animation) for 45minutes.

Was it encrypting the storage now or the process of encryption somehow corrupted??
Did I not do the encryption correctly? Is it must to have lock screen pattern before starting encryption?
The device is relatively faster and I guess it should not take so long for encryption. With my device specs how long can encryption be??
I have a 32GB external sdcard formatted with fat32. Is it going to encrypt that as well?
What happens possibly if I pull out the battery, apart from loosing data?

Please help..

After 2 hours of waiting, I long pressed the power button for 15sec which gives battery pull effect. Then I rebooted to recovery. Tried to format /data sparing /data/media which gave the error unable to mount /data. Then tried formatting /data including /data/media and it was formatted.
Then rebooted and first set a lock screen pattern and then tried encryption. This time, it got successfully encrypted in around 10minutes. The device asked for pattern on every boot, and it takes couple of minutes for every reboot.
So, I think the issue was doing encryption without lock screen password and then adding password later.

It seems to be an issue with the rooting. The simple trick I used was to wipe /data, install an AOSP system non-rooted, then do the encryption all over again, then wipe again and reinstall a rooted system from within TWRP. The recent TWRPs come with encryption password support so as long as you can decrypt, you'll be able to reinstall within the mount points (without formatting the whole disk), which makes things a lot easier. You don't really need the stock rom... Just AOSP does fine.
There's a manual command line approach too, but it require tampering with the partition size in text mode, so no I won't do that. ;)


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Unable to Setup Google Account on Android 2.3
After Factory Reset, In order to use Play store and Gmail I want to setup Google account on Samsung GT-S6802. When I tries to setup Google Account, In-spite of right user-name and password, following window appearers:

When I open gmail form browser, I've mail from google subject:Sign-in attempt prevented and says:

Someone just tried to sign in to your Google Account hidden@gmail.com from an app that doesn't meet modern security standards.

When I review, it shows unknown device but on browser it detects my device.
So, How do I face this issue and setup google account?

I had the same problem and I solved it this way:

Log in here using a web browser .
On Login and Security, at the bottom of the page there's an option "Allow less safe apps" which would be set as disabled. Set it to enable and now you can log-in using your device.

Allow less secure apps: ON
Some non-Google apps and devices use less secure sign-in technology, which could leave your account vulnerable. You can turn off access for these apps (which we recommend) or choose to use them despite the risks.

Note: The words might be a little different as I saw that Google page in Portuguese, but the option should relatively be at the same position on the page.

Here is the direct link:
https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps
But if you have 2-step-verification enable you should try generating a separate password here:
https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords


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Trying to flash a system.img I took with dd - failing
Long-time UNIX guy here, but relatively new to the world of Android. Read on.
EPISODE 1: A New Backup (I hoped)
I have recently purchased an Asus MemoPAD (ME103K) ; I then became root, and took a dd image of the read-only system partition to the external SD card:
$ su
# dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system \
         of=/storage/MicroSD/system.img bs=1M
# ls -l /storage/MicroSD/system.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2147483648 Sep 27 13:15 system.img

The size (exactly 2GiB) was a bit suspicious - could it be that this was because of the FAT32 partition on the SD card?
No, it was not - tune2fs -l revealed that this was indeed, a valid EXT4 image, exactly sized at 2GiB, which passed fsck -f with no errors at all.
And fastboot (from the linux machine attached to the tablet) concurred, after an adb reboot bootloader:
linuxbox# fastboot getvar all
(bootloader)  version-bootloader: 3.03
(bootloader)  version-hardware: rev_c
(bootloader)  variant: LEOPARDCAT 16G
(bootloader)  version-baseband: H00_0.16.F_0521
(bootloader)  serialno: 0a3dXXXX
...
(bootloader)  partition-type:system: ext4
(bootloader)  partition-size:system: 0x0000000080000000

That size, is indeed 2GB:
linuxbox# python2 -c 'print 0x0000000080000000'
2147483648

So, all is good - I have a backup of the image. Now to test restoring it.
I try to flash the system.img back to the tablet - to make sure I can recover from anything, the sort of bullet-proof backup we do in the Unix world (e.g. restore contents of a drive via dd if=backup.image of=/dev/sdXXX).
Everything related to adb and fastboot work flawlessly - so I try...
linux_box# fastboot devices
0a3dXXXX     fastboot

linux_box# mount /dev/sdcard /mnt/sdcard
linux_box# cp /mnt/sdcard/system.img .
linux_box# fastboot flash system system.img
error: cannot load 'system.img'

Hmm. I download and build the android-tools-5.1.1 of my distribution from sources, adding debug information - and step in the debugger, to see this failure:
linuxbox# gdb --args fastboot flash system system.img
...

Interesting - even though I am in a 64bit machine, apparently there are issues that turn the file size "negative" (in a 32bit world, the file size of my image, 2^31, is indeed considered negative - to be exact, -2147483648.
OK, fine - how do they flash large image files in Android?
Googling, searching - turns out they use this make_ext4fs tool, that creates flashable images. In fact it is part of what I just compiled, so I might as well use it:
linuxbox# mkdir /system
linuxbox# mount -o loop,ro system.img /system
linuxbox# ls -l /system
total 208
drwxr-xr-x 106 root root   8192 Sep 17 22:24 app
drwxr-xr-x   3 root 2000   8192 Sep 26 21:08 bin
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   6847 Sep 12 16:59 build.prop
drwxr-xr-x  19 root root   4096 Sep 26 21:08 etc
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Aug 11 22:27 fonts
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 Sep 12 16:56 framework
drwxr-xr-x  10 root root  16384 Sep 12 16:59 lib
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Jan  1  1970 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root   4096 Aug 11 22:18 media
drwxr-xr-x  59 root root   4096 Aug 11 22:29 priv-app
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 126951 Aug  1  2008 recovery-from-boot.p
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root   4096 Aug 11 21:02 scripts
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root   4096 Aug 11 21:02 tts
drwxr-xr-x  11 root root   4096 Sep 26 21:08 usr
drwxr-xr-x   8 root 2000   4096 Aug 11 22:29 vendor
drwxr-xr-x   2 root 2000   4096 Sep 26 21:09 xbin

linuxbox# ../extras/source/extras/ext4_utils/make_ext4fs \
      -l 2048M new_system.img /system
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 2147483648
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 8192
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 8192
    Label:
    Blocks: 524288
    Block groups: 16
    Reserved block group size: 127
Created filesystem with 2666/131072 inodes and 375014/524288 blocks

Cool - so I can apparently build system images from plain old folders. The sky will be my limit - I'll be able to add anything I want to this image.
Let's burn it...
linuxbox# fastboot flash system new_system.img
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.064s]
sending 'system' (2088960 KB)...
^C

I waited for 1h before hitting that Ctrl-C.  And had to power-cycle the tablet, which booted back in fastboot mode.
This is not looking good.
What if I build a smaller image? Maybe the 2GB are somehow an issue, and this partition is not used to full capacity - it has free space:
linuxbox# ../extras/source/extras/ext4_utils/make_ext4fs \
      -l 1536M new_system.img /system

linuxbox#  ./fastboot flash system system.img
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.065s]
sending 'system' (1572864 KB)...
OKAY [ 51.039s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [235.080s]
finished. total time: 286.183s

OK, this looks very promising (and only took 5 min). I guess I can now reboot back and everything should be normal, yes?
No :-)

I don't mind a temporarily bricked device, as long as I do get to control it in the end (machines that I am not a master of, are machines I don't care to operate ;-)
Any ideas on what I did wrong and what I can do to fix this?
Thanks in advance.
P.S. I checked the Asus support page for my tablet - they only provide the sources for the kernel, and the Over-the-air .zip file. That in turn contains a file-system level backup from the root - i.e. the system folder exists in there as just a folder, not an image, not a system.img that I can flash - so that doesn't really help me.
EPISODE 2: Attack of the Custom Boots
In the absense of any sort of recovery.img from Asus (why would a manufacturer bother to publish a fastboot-flashable recovery.img? Why indeed...) and a similar absence on recovery images from the CWM and TWRP sites... I am left to battle all alone.
Thankfully, the Over-the-air update file from Asus includes inside it...
linuxbox# unzip -l /opt/Asus/firmware/UL-K01E-WW-12.16.1.12-user.zip |\
     grep boot.img$
7368704  2011-03-22 11:21   boot.img

...my tablet's boot image. Now maybe - just maybe - I can do something with this.
linuxbox$ mkdir rootfs
linuxbox$ cd rootfs
linuxbox$ abootimg -x /path/to/boot.img
linuxbox$ ls -l
bootimg.cfg
initrd.img
zImage

Expanding the ramdisk...
linuxbox$ mkdir initrd
linuxbox$ cd initrd
linuxbox$ gzip -cd ../initrd.img | cpio -ivd
...
linuxbox$ vi default.prop

I set up default.prop to be root when the kernel boots:
ro.secure=0
ro.debuggable=1
ro.adb.secure=0
androidboot.selinux=disabled

I also copied /system/bin/sh (from the over-the-air Asus .zip file) into /sbin/sh. I did the same with busybox - quite handy tool.
And repacked the boot.img...
busybox$ find . | cpio --create --format='newc' | gzip -9 > ../initrd.custom.gz
busybox$ cd ..
busybox$ abootimg --create ../new_boot_busybox.img \
    -f bootimg.cfg -k zImage -r initrd.custom.gz

abootimg actually failed the first time I run this, since bootimg.cfg had to be updated - the bootsize parameter had to be changed, since the package is bigger now. abootimg reports what it needs, so that's easy enough.
And now, I boot my custom image...
linuxbox# fastboot boot new_boot_busybox.img

...and witness the following...
linuxbox# adb logcat
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: Permission denied (13) -

linuxbox# adb shell
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: Permission denied (13) -

Hmm... Maybe adbd is not run as root?
linuxbox# adb root
restarting adbd as root

linuxbox# adb shell
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: Permission denied (13) -

Fine... I hexedit adbd, and patch /system/bin/sh to be /sbin/sh (I copied the /system/bin/sh from the OTA image to the rootfs of the initrd):
Reboot, fastboot...
linuxbox# adb shell
- exec '/sbin/sh' failed: Permission denied (13) -

Darn. Is this thing able to do anything?
linuxbox# adb pull /proc/partitions
15 KB/s (1272 bytes in 0.079s)

It is... let's see:
linuxbox# adb pull /proc/mounts
16 KB/s (1358 bytes in 0.079s)

linuxbox# grep system mounts
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 rw,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered 0 0

OK, so /system is mounted. Can I see what's inside?
linuxbox# adb pull /system
remote object '/system' does not exist

What the...
Maybe I can check what /proc/kmsg contains (what "dmesg" would output)
linuxbox# adb pull /proc/kmsg
failed to copy '/proc/kmsg' to './kmsg': Operation not permitted

Nah, I need to be root to do that.
linuxbox# adb push /sbin/sh /system/bin/sh
failed to copy '/sbin/sh' to '/system/bin/sh': Permission denied

And that, too.
This is turning out to be quite a puzzle...

The only good thing that you did not do here (and should've done) is to flash a custom Recovery and then take a [tag:nandroid] backup of the partitions from it. That's one of the bulletproof methods out there to recover devices from such bricked state.  That Over-the-air.zip (OTA zip) is a recovery flashable zip i.e to be flashed when booted into Recovery and they follow a different packaging format but achieves the same goal. Long story short, flash a custom Recovery (or boot into stock one), flash stock ROM and then experiment as much as you want.

@Firelord: That's the thing - even though fastboot is still operational (responds to requests just fine) and I can therefore burn any recovery image, (a) I searched and found no CWM or TWRP recovery image for ME103K - I don't suppose there's a "generic" one that you are referring to, is there? (b) Powering off, pressing  power button + volume down does not bring up the recovery image - I still just get to fastboot state. Mo idea why. In fact I have never seen the recovery process (kinda curious to see it)...

Try other button combinations such as Power+Vol Up+Vol Down to boot into Recovery mode. If you've access to stock Recovery ZIP, then there may be the image file of stock Recovery somewhere which  you can flash  from fastboot or directly boot into it (fastboot boot <FILE>.img), then flash the whole stock ZIP file. Alternatively, see if there exists (on web) the stock ROM files which can be flashed using fastboot.

@Firelord: No, Asus doesn't provide a recovery.zip. From the OTA file, there's nothing .img-y ( unzip -l UL-K01E-WW-12.16.1.12-user.zip | grep recovery shows only a couple of shell scripts - I'll have a look, but there's definitely no recovery.img there). Googling didn't help either - there are no recovery images of this tablet anywhere... Guess I'll have to wait for some kind soul to dd their recovery partition and share?

Episode 3: Return of the Shell.
If I ever had any chance of solving this, I first had to figure out why the shell wasn't working. adbd itself was responding, so it was started on the tablet side - but it could not execute the shell, even when I hack-patched it to invoke a file (/sbin/sh) that I myself placed in the boot image - being 100% sure that it had the proper permissions and was accessible from the shell (id=2000) account that adbd uses.
Which left only one explanation - SELinux "cages".
So I checked how adbd was started from my boot image's init.rc:
# adbd is controlled via property triggers in init.<platform>.usb.rc
service adbd /sbin/adbd --root_seclabel=u:r:su:s0
    class core
    socket adbd stream 660 system system
    disabled
    seclabel u:r:adbd:s0

...and tried an obvious change:
service adbd /sbin/adbd
    class core
    socket adbd stream 660 system system

I re-packed, and to my intense satisfaction, saw ...
linuxbox# adb shell
$

I finally got access to the tablet - from "inside".
Checking the mounted /system, it became clear that the flashing process - even though fastboot flash system ... reported that all was Ok - had failed spectacularly. It was a wonder that the partition was mounted in the first place.
That explained why the tablet was not booting, and gave me the final idea that solved the issue.
I needed to boot the tablet so that it used my pristine copy of the /system partition, but at this point, even though I had shell access, I was not root - (the changes I did in default.prop are apparently ignored by the Asus kernel - I'll have to recompile it soon...) so I could not mount the external sdcard and dd over my good copy.
But I did have my own boot image - which meant I could edit the /fstab.qcom inside it, and do this:
Original line that told the tablet how to mount /system
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system  /system  ext4 ro,barrier=1 wait

My edit
/dev/block/mmcblk1p2  /system ext4  rw,barrier=1 wait

...and back in my linux box, I dd-ed the pristine backup of the tablet's system partition to my external SD card's 2nd partition - which I created via gparted to be exactly 2GB.
That did it - the tablet booted from my external SD card.
EDIT: The journey continued - I eventually patched and compiled my own kernel and became root.

I swear to Episode 4, I would've offered a bounty if this answer wasn't posted, for the sake of fun from all these episodes. It's good to see you solved your problem on your own. :D

@Firelord: Thanks, mate. In the process, I think I did something rather cool - I booted my tablet without touching it's insides ... the boot image comes from the outside (over fastboot boot ...) and the /system partition is on the SD card, tweakable to whatever I want. Sort of like, booting a PC from a USB stick :-)

It seems you've already found some kind of solution to your problem (there's a lot of text to read on this page), but it seems this probably could have been resolved much more simply.
linuxbox# fastboot getvar all
(bootloader)  version-bootloader: 3.03
(bootloader)  version-hardware: rev_c
(bootloader)  variant: LEOPARDCAT 16G
(bootloader)  version-baseband: H00_0.16.F_0521
(bootloader)  serialno: 0a3dXXXX
...
(bootloader)  partition-type:system: ext4
(bootloader)  partition-size:system: 0x0000000080000000

Among these variables, did your tablet return a max-download-size variable? If so, that might have provided a warning, outright, that the flashing process might have some issues with such a large image. The current fastboot code is made to work around a max-download-size that is too small, but I've experienced your same error even when the image is smaller than what the device says it can handle, so actually the point is kind of moot, I guess.
linux_box# fastboot flash system system.img
error: cannot load 'system.img'

So, anyway, it seems here, that for whatever reason, you are unable to flash. If you and I are right, and it's about size (your tablet does only have 1 GB of RAM, and supposedly most devices try to read the whole image into RAM before flashing), this is where I think the mere adjustment of adding the -S option to fastboot might have fixed your flash as it has for me:
fastboot -S 512M flash system system.img

Instead, however, it seems you tried to force your 2 GB image into a size that (1) might not be possible for it to be stuffed into and (2) is not the size that your device's system partition is supposed to be.

Regarding point #1, in my experience, I would not count on the
brittle Android build tools to complain if you ask them to do
something they will fail at, and it's possible that they might have
here.
Regarding point #2, I don't believe you can't just do that;
additional steps would be required to use a different system
partition size.

Assuming your tablet expects sparse image files, I believe the command you wanted to try instead of make_ext4fs -l 1536M new_system.img /system was make_ext4fs -l 2048M -s new_system.img /system. The adjusted command would make an image that inflates to the correct size, but is stored temporarily stripped of any excess fat like big pockets of empty data: a "sparse image file" (see the page I linked to earlier for more info on them; I don't have enough reputation on this site to repeat the link).
This old readme someone wrote for a collection of the tools should help understand how the process goes.
Cheers.

Thanks for answering. As to your questions, (1) no, there was no max-download- anything in the output from getvar. (2) I will keep in mind the -S option in my future flashings - as it is, once I booted, I became root (via recompiling my kernel) and dd-ed over the old system partition, so whether flashing with -S would work will have to wait for my next tests (3) I did try with sparse images, got the same result (i.e. fastboot reported that flashing was OK, but the system partition was messed up).

@ttsiodras No problem. I learned some things in the process.
(1) Ah, okay. I doubted that it did, as at least on my device using the build of fastboot I have installed, that variable is printed first in the list (thanks, btw, for demonstrating that all can be passed to getvar-- that's helpful).
(2) Ohh, okay. If it does work, let us know.
(3) Whoops! I didn't notice that. It's a lot of text, sorry. Was that mentioned in your posts? (Was it like the make_ext4fs command I suggested, with -s and the full 2 GiB length specified?) Maybe the tablet doesn't deal with sparse files.

(3) yep, I passed -s to make_ext4fs - fastboot reported 'OK' for burning, but /system was messed up. My theory is that, as you said, anything larger than the memory of the tablet (1GB) would not work, and needed the -S option in fastboot to properly work (which explains the half-broken state - the partition was mounted because the first part of the image fit in memory and was actually burned, allowing it to be mounted - but files inside it were... randomly corrupted, depending on whether their sectors were burned or not).

With my Moto G I created a back up using dd like you did.  I needed to restore my system partition the other day, so I booted TWRP (I didn't flash it, I just booted the image to RAM).  I then used adb to connect while TWRP was running and I just pushed the img I made with dd to my SD card and then used dd to write the image to the system partition.
Check out the videos I've made about this here:
https://youtu.be/BHCamV-sHx0?list=PLcUid3OP_4OVI1Rtuwxk1RjABh1PxXXQq

Unfortunately that doesn't help me - I can't get to my tablet's recovery no matter what combination of keys I tried (in contrast, I got it immediately on my MotoG2 - so this tablet's recovery is hosed somehow). I can flash the recovery partition (since flashboot is operational) but I have no recovery.img from Asus, and no CWM or TWRP exists (for an ME103K) either.


text:
Unable to reset proxy settings
After watching a video only available in a certain country using a proxy, I wanted to revert back to my regular connection. I went and removed it in my settings (Screenshot showing No proxy).

But the thing is that the phone is still using the proxy. So, I downloaded an app for proxy change (Name: "Proxy Settings")

Then, I noticed that the proxy is still there. I delete it, press ok. Still nothing changed. I reopen the app, and the proxy is back!!!
I can't figure out how to have NO proxy!!!!
Thanks.
NB: LG G3, not rooted, Android 5.0.

Have you tried rebooting the router and the phone?

The first thing you want to do after clearing all Proxy configuration settings from your phone is reboot your device. Also, if you're connected to a specific WiFi network, press and hold the network name and "Forget Network."  Re-configure your WiFi settings with its regular password and it will clear Proxy settings.


text:
How to put all your photos on Android to Google Drive?
I want an automatic solution for every picture I take to go to Google Drive once I have a WiFi connection. Once it's synced to Google Drive, I'll just copy it to my other drive. On iPhone, every photo I took go to iCloud automatically.
Is there any way to do that?

There's Google Photos Auto Backup

I used Google Photos now. That seems to be the solution I want.

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


text:
Can't unlock Android
My Phone is locked, and I forgot the pin code. I tried to reset password using Android device manager, but it failed, I can't unlock device with new changed password. But when sending Ring using ADM (Just to make sure it detects phone) it works fine.
I cannot remote wipe or hard reset because I want the data. Please suggest the way to recover the Phone storage?
PS: Phone isn't rooted, and is connected to WIFI.
Thanks.

No! phone isn't rooted. And by Phone data I meant Phone storage. Thanks.

Please edit you question to include your comment. You can always edit your own question.

You can find most options to unlock your device after a lockout in this question: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/35847/can-not-unlock-my-android-device-as-have-no-internet-connection
Have you tried all of those?

Have you been asked to login using your Google a/c?

@gertmenkel Thanks  for providing very informative link. I will definitely try solutions from it, and will update here if my issue gets resolved.

@MorrisIriga, no I haven't been asked to login using Google A/c.

Your device should always ask for your Google password as a fallback. I know in kitkat "forgot my password" showed up in the bottom right corner.

authors: عبد الفتاح  القلش


text:
How To Sync Data From Specific App(s) Across Multiple Devices
I know some are going to skip over reading this and just think this is regular Android syncing, I can assure you this isn't the same. I'm not talking about sytem, email, social media, or calender apps. Most normal user apps don't sync data between devices. I'm not developing anything, so this question is posted from the viewpoint of an end user.
What I am trying to figure out
How to sync data from a specific app to all my devices on my home network, without manually entering the data?
(For Reference one of the apps I want to sync data from is ShowBox. There are others, but I would be able to duplicate the solution provided)
Steps I have taken so far is to

contact developer(s)/no luck
write a script/no luck
get an app/no luck
researched/no luck

The answer I'm looking for will be basically non-device specific, but for sticklers at least for Android 4.1 and up. If the answer includes an app or other method, please include details with step-by-step instructions. EDIT Please don't include steps or apps that involve user interaction everytime, because I could manually transfer the data myself just as easy. One last request, it must be done locally. Not online, but do on home network.
EDITED PER REQUEST
In the reference (example) app above, the data I wish to sync would be watched videos and favorites. User data. Like stated above there are other apps I would also use the same solution/steps on.
Also if there is a way to automate the syncing.

Now you're a bit vague when you say data but if I know what you're talking about then I would consider an app called OneNote by Microsoft.

You need to have a Microsoft account. Go to Outlook and sign up for an email there. You don't have to use that email. It just links all the Microsoft apps together.
Once you have created the email, download OneNote, both on your computer and all your other devices. Sign in with the email that you have created.
It will give you plenty of features in which you can sync all your information that you need across all of your devices. For example, I have it on my phone and when I take a picture it is uploaded to OneNote and I can automatically see it on my computer.
It will also sync all sorts of information and data that you need such as important documents like word Excel and PowerPoint and even video.

There are also a few other apps that can do the same thing.

I edited the question to reflect what data. I need a way to do it locally on home network, not online.

Its not the answer I need, so its not accepted. But I can use this for something else I want to do so +1

What are those others apps you think can do this? Can this be done locally?

This answer really doesn't address syncing data, and won't help others looking for a solution.

You're a bit vague. But I think you are talking about application back-end datas. This is possible. You may want to use an app like Helium and Dallas Thomas explains how to use it in this article: http://gs5.wonderhowto.com/how-to/back-up-your-android-apps-their-data-without-root-0158767/
In Helium you just select the app data you want, find the apps and choose cloud backup.

Please include steps in using the app, so others can follow along as well.


text:
Google Play Store is showing "top developer" sign randomly and wrong. Why?
I was trying to search for podcast apps. When the apps are listed, some of them have "top developer" sign (blue diamond), and when I select one app and go into it and come back to search results again, the "top developer" signs changes to some other apps.
For example, look at the following snapshots:

All apps are from top developers (click the image for full size)

Some of previous apps are actually not from top developers (click the image for full size)
Is this a bug or is my OS affected like in Mr. Robot?

I clarified that's not "trusted app", but "top developer" icon. Does this always happen on the first search?

I found it since yesterday..I can't say if it always happens


text:
com.newrelic.agent.android: how to get rid of it?
Phone: Nexus 5
OS: 5.1.1
I have a lot of apps on my phone: probably 100+. A lot of them I use only once or twice a month.  I hooked up my phone to ADB recently and saw a ton of crashes, etc.  But what worried me most was New Relic.  I have 2 questions

How can I find out which app installed this New Relic Agent?
How can I uninstall the app?

It's not an app, it's part of many apps.

Is there a way to find out which apps use it?


text:
Questions about "Nandroid" backups
I have a nexus 4 and I'm having issues with Android 5.0 so I was thinking to go back to 4.4.4, but first I want to backup the current state.
Before I do this, I have a few questions:

if create a full nandroid backup with Nexus Root Toolkit, then Flash 4.4.4 + unroot, then change my mind and restore the backup, will the Phone be in precisely the same state as before? Meaning Android 5.0, same apps installed, no lost config etc. ?
can i switch between backups as I please without any side effects? Like restore a 4.4.4 backup, then restore a 5.0 backup ...
can the contents from these backups be visualized on the computer?

thanks

Don't know how Nexus Root Toolkit takes the backup bit I would recommend TWRP/Philz to take Nandroid backup. Note that you may (I don't know so verify it) need to flash other firmware partitions as well to go back to Kitkat. // Yes, if you restore the backup all your Android settings and apps would be there, that's what backup literally means. // Yes, you can revert from one backup to another (but as I said, do verify the need of flashing rest of the firmware). // The only downside I see is flash storage have limited number of write cycles so if your device is already aging then go easy.

Good Thing you don t have a Samsung (KNOX wont let you easily downgrade).
To answer you questions to a certain extent:

depending on how you did your nandroid backup
it won't be "precisely" the same (e.g. most users dont backup the Cache).
no, but maybe you don't want the "EZ-backup and Restore" procedure - Sounds to me like you would like a "dual boot" maybe? If so see this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/orig-development/mod-multirom-v24-t2472295
define "visualized", you could copy the backup to pc and see the backup files. is that what you mean?


text:
How to revert Android kill-switched Nvidia Shield tablet?
Apparently Nvidia decided to kill most of their shipped Shield tablets because of a battery defect. Considering my shield already died, does anyone have any idea on how exactly could this be reverted?

Can you access the fastboot? If not, then your tablet is probably gone for good.

@AndrewT. How to check if I can get to fastboot? Anyway, the hardware is there. Surely there must be a way...

To get to fastboot, hold volume down+power at the same time. Anyway, "The only way to fix this would be through nvflash, and using it requires the SBK that is unique to each device and that only Nvidia knows, so it's pretty unlikely that we'll ever be able to fix these deactivated tablets.". I really hope for the best that this issue can be resolved easily, but it doesn't seem so...

@AndrewT. I see... I'll try and come up with something when I have the time...

any luck ? or any news ?


text:
How can I record sound before outputting?
I have some apps that I want to record the output sounds locally before outputting to speaker, Bluetooth or any other output.
So I get clean unadulterated audio, before any audio output mods.
My devices are rooted, some have custom ROMs.
Is there a way to do this internally, without any programming/coding knowledge? Can this be accomplished? Preferably with out hooking to PC as that prevents local saving.

include steps.
include references

Please excuse lack of tags, limited on choices.

Probably related, but not sure if the existing answer is correct: Is there a way to record internal audio?. Meanwhile, I think I found another way using SCR Screen Recorder, but I haven't tested it. Also might be useful: SCR Screen Recorder on XDA and Recording internal audio on XDA (warning: bad formatting)

@AndrewT. Even though the first link has an answer, that isn't exactly a complete answer.

SCR Screen Recorder is a screen(+audio) recorder app.
Note: root access is needed for internal audio recording. Also, the internal audio recording was said to be an experimental feature, which might not work on all devices.

Download and install SCR Screen Recorder Pro v1.0.5 (not SCR 5+ Pro v0.1.3, which doesn't need root, but only works on Lollipop and doesn't support internal audio recording)
Open the app, it will display overlay buttons on the screen.
Open the SCR Settings (middle icon, the one with cog icon)
On the "Audio" header, tap Source and select Internal

Optional: if screen recording is not needed, it's recommended to select the lowest setting on the "Video" header to decrease the file size. (e.g. 426x240 resolution)

Open the target app to be recorded
Adjust the volume from the Android device (important!).

Note: since SCR uses the same audio stream as the source, the volume when the app plays the audio is used as the input. This means that if the audio is not recorded with 100% volume (e.g. 70%), the loudness of the audio will decrease when it's played back (i.e. similar to playing the "recorded audio on 70% volume" with 70% volume, thus the final output is more-or-less 50% volume compared to the original audio)
Ideally, if there is an external speaker, it's possible to set the volume to 100% in Android and adjust the volume to a comfortable zone on the external speaker.
Optional: turn off any notification on all apps to prevent noise.

When ready, tap the Record button (first icon with orange color)
To stop the recording, either:

open the app once again (from notification or app launcher), or
turn off the screen for 2 seconds

Addendum by anonymous user:
With root: when the settings have been configured to use internal audio and the notification icon is popped up, tap the home button (don't close SCR) and open any sound recorder. It will record the sound internally instead of with a mic. (tried with a 3rd-party HI-Q MP3 recorder, unsure about others..)

Great write up! I did a lot of research for recording internal audio only (about a years worth of scouring and reading). I didn't find anything, either. I'm going to the SCR app. I am also going to see if I can "sweet talk" the developor into releasing an audio only version (fingers-crossed). Thanks again @Andrew T.

@Andrew T. Upvoted . Thanks. You may like to post this or updated answer which can retain amr format to my question .  Will be happy to accept your answer there even if it can't record in amr format... The next time i visit


text:
What is "Cell signal with small house and 2 blinking bars" system icon?
I'm using Samsung Galaxy S5. There is an icon which looks like a house with 2 waves in the notification bar, in between (and slightly above) the 4G and mobile signal strength icons.
Here's the screenshot

Click to enlarge
I only saw it once and never again. I was reading text messages.

The small house icon is an indicator that you're connected to a Verizon Network Extender.

Click to enlarge source:androidcentral

They are primarily used for people that want to have Verizon Wireless service in their house, but there is no or very little network coverage in their area. They purchase the Network Extenders that hook up to their broadband connection and provide coverage for them. Someone in around you might have one of these extenders.
Source

Dialing #48 will give you a recording telling you if you're connected to a Network Extender.
Here's a picture of Network Extender

Click to enlarge


text:
What considerations govern working with the /firmware partition?
In some recovery options (such as ClockworkMod recovery's advanced options on some devices), there is a Format /firmware option.  I have searched for descriptions of this partition, but have found little:

This question asks about it, but there is no authoritative
answer.
Stock ROMs that I have do not modify this partition.
I see it mounted on some devices as:
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem /firmware ext4 ro,context=u:object_r:firmware_file:s0,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0

What are the logistical considerations surrounding this partition, including:

What does the /firmware partition usually contain?
Is it on all Android devices or just a subset?
What are the consequences of formatting it?
Can its contents be recreated?

etc.

For future necromancers: I'm still interested in finding an answer to this one! :)


text:
Nexus 5 weird charging behaviour
I've had my Nexus 5 for about a year and a half now, but lately it's showing weird charging behaviour (check battery history graph):

I leave it charging every night and it's supposed to reach 100%, now it doesn't even go beyond 48%. What's going on and how can I fix it?

Sorry, could you explain what do you mean by "weird charging behaviour"? All I see is, when charging, the mobile network signal and WiFi were turned off. Did you mean the charging power seems to be weaker?

@AndrewT. Sorry, edited question to make it more clear.

Based on your chart, the phone takes around 2h to reach 48% from what looks like 15%. This is considered rather slow generally. Are you using the official Nexus 5 charger?

@Huey yes I'm using the cable and charger that came with the phone, plugged into a wall socket.

Examine the connection. It's possible the connection isn't as secure as it used to be and the phone occasionally becomes disconnected. Also, try borrowing a charger (the socket as well as the cable) from someone that's rated 2A and see if that changes things.

There are 3 (or more) possible causes: the voltage source, the USB power adapter, or the USB cable itself. It happened to me when using multi-plug extension with USB input, turned out it "stopped" charging after a while (icon shows charging, but battery wasn't charged). OTOH, using the same cable plugged to a laptop on the same power source, I got it charged to 100%. I haven't concluded if the multi-plug is problematic, but anyway I solved my issue. So try different combination to pinpoint the cause.

In the end I just decided to let the battery drop down to about 3%, restart the phone and then charge. Now it's fine again!


text:
How to Force Stop multiple apps at once?
My HTC One X+ with Android 4.2.2 suffers a lag pretty often and I don't like that.
Sometimes I cannot even unlock the phone because screen doesn't come up.
I noticed that when I force stops all other apps (besides the one I am using) when phone lags, it runs smooth.
I have lot of apps installed so going to Apps then selecting the app and then force closing it takes a lot of time.
I am looking for a way where I can force stop multiple apps at once.

See if Fast Reboot helps.   It closes all user processes and restarts/refreshes system-core process.

There are plenty of app killers available on Google Play. You should just work through them to find one you like. The better solution is to really go through your applications and: 1. uninstall apps you really don't need; 2. make sure you are shutting down apps properly and completely after use (and not just using the "home" button"); 3. track down the heavy resource apps as it's probably only a few apps actually causing the issue.

@Manubhargav I am loving Fast Reboot. Whenever my phone lags or starts heating I tap on Fast Reboot app icon and it closes down all user processes and restart systems processes. Fast Reboot is the cleanest app I have seen so far. I am using it along with Phone Boost feature of Clean Master which automatically cleans up the RAM while phone is locked.

@devgr Glad to help. I'm going to post this as answer, for other people who have the same issue, for their reference.

Greenify is also an app that can help you in this problem. It is one of the best task killer and battery saver app that I tried.
Greenify's link on Google Play

There is also 3c toolbox pro, a complete package with various tools. One tool is Task Manager that allows you to kill an app or force-stop an app. The latter does what you need.


text:
Access Android file system through ubuntu 14.04 over LAN
I have SOC which run android 4.4. I have connect this to my network using LAN.
Now I want to access android root file using my Ubuntu desktop. Something like ssh. How to do this?

@Firelord I am new in android world ...so I have tried from file explorer and I have dual boot of android and Ubuntu so tried to see android file system from Ubuntu...but not having success. I thought do it without  install any app. is it possible? llike ssh (we use between target and host Ubuntu).

Droid VNC Server
Allows you to remote control your android within your computer.
Note:Your phone must be ROOTED!
Note:Will not work on Tegra3 Devices
On your android Phone:

Install Droid VNC Server from playstore.
Open the app and click on START.
It shows the ip-address and port number.Please note it down.

On your Ubuntu PC:
Install xtightvncviewer by running the below command,
sudo apt-get install xtightvncviewer

After installing xtightvncviewer run the below command to view your phone's screen,
vncviewer xxx.xx.xx.xx:xxxx

xxx.xx.xx.xx:xxxx - is already noted ipaddress:port

Or Use
WebKey
Using this application you can control your phone from any browser.
Note:Your phone must be ROOTED!
On your android Phone:

Install WebKey app from playstore.
Open the app and select start service.
Note down the https link generated.

On that same application,go to settings->User settings->Click on Create new user to create a new user with login credentials.
On your Ubuntu PC:

Open any browser.I prefer firefox.Then paste the noted link on the
address bar.It display like connection is not secure.Trust the
connection and allow it to load.
After that a page will open and ask you to give the username and
password.Login with the same username and password.
After loged into your account,you can view your phone and operate
your android phone from there.

Or Use

Team Viewer
Note: It will work on most devices

Install teamviewer on both Ubuntu PC and android phone to control
your phone from PC.
Hope it helps:).


text:
Moto E 1st Gen. network issue after Lollipop update
After updating my Moto E 1st Gen. to Lollipop by OTA, my phone indicates that the mobile network is available, but any callers receive a message stating the phone has been switched off.
Calling any number from Moto E with any SIM will fix this issue. Restarting phone also solves issue, but I don't know when it happens and why.
Needs some suggestions to resolve this.

Have you tried to Wipe cache partition?

I don't actually understand your second paragraph. When you call a number from your phone, does the call go through?

Try to factory reset your phone after taking a backup. It is recommended that before any system update you should do a factory reset and wipe the cache partition. This should solve your problem.


text:
Changing android password remotely
I have Nexus 4 with Android 5.1.1, lock with a PIN code.
Somehow the right 3 vertical dots don't response for touch, therefore I can't unlock my phone.
I want to cancel / change the password.

I don't have root
I don't remember if the Debug Mode is turn on or not, but my computer usually recognize the phone just after I unlock it - just connecting the USB do nothing.
In addition, the command "adb devices" show nothing.
Inserting 5 times the wrong password just locking me out, without giving me the "Forgot Password" option.
Using the "Lock" option of the Android Device Manager put black shade on the screen with a chosen lock message, but I can't find the place to enter the new lock password I chose. I only see the 2 soft keys (circle and triangle) and when I touch them the screen move to the regular lock screen with the PIN code... [See Edit]

I'll appreciate any help!
Thanks in advance.
EDIT:
When I try to set new password through the Android Device Manager (ADM), after 2 seconds the website says: "Since Google has verified that a screen lock is already set, the password you entered won't be needed.", it's mean that my new password that I chose will not set, and that the reason I couldn't use it from the first place. Still looking for help!

Try clearing cache from your stock recovery. Report whether it works."Sometimes happens to me - Pattern to unlock does not show me as trying to unlock the device.
In order to put my pattern in to unlock the device I have to click on the Google Now short cut and I am then allowed to input my pattern to unlock the device. " some user posted this see if it works "https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=42319"

Hi Daksh,
How do I clear the cache from outside?
The link you provided doesn't work.

My findings(Posted Above) says that swipe up from your navigation bar to invoke google now and after that close it and it will allow you to  enter Pattern. I didn't confirmed, This is what a user shared on google forums. Check and report if it works.Wish you Luck :)

i forgot to tell you how to clear cache.Press and hold the Volume Down button, then press and hold the Power button at the same time until the phone turns on. You'll see the word "Start" with an arrow around it. Press the Volume Down button twice to highlight "Recovery mode."Press the Power button to restart into Recovery mode.You'll see an image of an Android robot with a red exclamation mark and the words "No command."
While holding down the Power button, press and release the Volume Up button once. And then just clear cache and reboot your system.

Thanks for the detailed description for cleaning the cache. Unfortunately it didn't help. If I understand you well, the second advice you mentioned is for case I don't see the PIN code dots. Sadly I see them all the time. Thanks for trying.

Then you need to do full wipe my friend. Wait for 1-2 days if someone comes-up with better method or a trick. Or if want to format system you can wipe the whole system with fastboot mode. Set up adb binaries with fastboot invoke the cmd if you use windows or terminal if you on linux and type "fastboot format userdata" and you'll get factory reseted device. and to go in fastboot use method above but select bootloader instead of recovery. Regards:Daksh :)

It might be a bit late but I had a similar issue and found a genius idea that might help others.
If you have an OTG cable, you can plug in a mouse and use that to unlock the phone, then cancel / change it as you normally would.
Hope this helps!

in your phone, go to recovery, wipe/ clear cache then reboot the phone. wait for 5 minutes, then through this link to lock the pin with new pin https://www.google.co.in/android/devicemanager
use the newly entered pin in the above link to unlock ur device
i forgot to tell you how to clear cache.Press and hold the Volume Down button, then press and hold the Power button at the same time until the phone turns on. You'll see the word "Start" with an arrow around it. Press the Volume Down button twice to highlight "Recovery mode."Press the Power button to restart into Recovery mode.You'll see an image of an Android robot with a red exclamation mark and the words "No command." While holding down the Power button, press and release the Volume Up button once. And then just clear cache and reboot your system

just try to enter wrong pattern or pass code for 5 or 6 times,then one dialog will appear saying you have entered wrong code and bla bla. Hit the ok button. then at the right bottom corner you will find one option called "Forgot Password?". Tap on that, then it will going to tell you to enter the email and password. Enter your gmail id and password. It will unlock your phone.

Quoting from the question: Inserting 5 times the wrong password just locking me out, without giving me the "Forgot Password" option.

This thing has been rolled out from roms after update to lollipop version.

Maybe logon to your Devicemanager and try to unlock it from there?
https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager
you should be able to unlock it there under "LOCK" ...
approaching from the "other" side to unlock your phone requires obviously Network Connection;).
After Login to Google ADM:
- Select your Device
- Select LOCK
- Enter Temp Password (you don't have to enter the recovery msg)
- Hit LOCK again
- confirmation should now be on Screen
- now, you should be able to see a Password field
- enter your temp Password
- rest your lockscreen Settings!!!


text:
Windows 7 VPN Connection over Android 3G network problem
What I have:

Windows 7 Notebook with VPN settings (username password),
Android 4 phone (ASUS 400) as Wi-Fi/USB modem,
VPN network;

What I need:

VPN connection in Windows 7 over 3g network shared by my phone.

But I get 619 error every time.
Someone says that android does not work with VPN connection when it shares internet-connection via modem.


text:
Android notification panel, rooting, android lollipop
How can I replace my stock notification panel with that of android lollipop? I have root access. I am using Sony's xperia.

Which android version are you on,now? You can install Cyanogenmod12 from http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices

Did you try searching for an Xposed module? See HTG guide about Xposed Framework: http://www.howtogeek.com/195476/7-things-you-can-do-with-the-xposed-framework-on-a-rooted-android-phone-or-tablet/

Install Xposed Framework.
Install Busybox.
Now install MonsterUI.

MonsterUI does the magic here. Xposed framework and Busybox are supporting apps and are mandatory.This module almost changes everything in Jellybean and Kitkat.
Edit: About MonsterUI:

This module allows you to theme your phone to look like Material Design devices (Lollipop). You can use theme accent color, use ripple effect, animated checkboxes and many many more!

YouTube Links:

MonsterUI 4.5 Lollipop recent panel & Animations
MonsterUI 3.0 - presentation -Theme your device to Material Design!

Could you please share screenshots showing the difference before and after the usage of this module?

Please go through xda-developers.com. I can't do it now because I have unrooted my phone recently. But I can assure that the module will work.

@Firelord- Nicely edited


text:
How to Plug and Play a USB Barcode-Printer in android devices
We are trying to print Barcode using USB Barcode Printer from an android device.
The available printer model is GODEX EZ520, we used printer-share app from Playstore and it detected the printer-device but they do not have supporting drivers for this printer.
Do we need to write separate drivers for printers to print from android or Is there any other ways to connect android device and Barcode Printers via usb.


text:
Why is my notification bar duplicated and offset on home screen?
The defect can be seen at the top right corner of the home screen. There is also a black bar running down the right side of the home screen. When compared with the second picture from Google Chrome, the notification bar appears normal and there is no black bar.
(Click image to enlarge)

What exactly has gone wrong and how can it be fixed? Thanks in advance :-)

This is probably a silly question, but is your wallpaper a screen capture? If so, is the right-side of the notification bar in the image?

The black bar on the left is part of the problem. The icons top left are duplicated and merged. But in Chrome, it's fine. Yes the image was PrtSc. Got a new case with built in keyboard. So much easier to take screenshots now! ^_^ YAY!

I hope that answers it. I wasn't entirely sure what you meant :-/ :-)

Hahahahaaa, I just checked and that was the problem. I know what you mean now. The reason I dismissed it because I could have sworn that I cropped it before setting it, but it obviously didn't work...  lol

There are two notification bars- the real one and a second one that is part of the wallpaper. Check the wallpaper image and adjust as necessary.


text:
Manually Rooting with AOSP
this is my first post here. I hope there is someone to answer my question.
First, I want to understand Android OS better not just copy some files and be finished.
I am attempting to root my Nexus 6 beginning with compiling Android for it. I was able to compile and upload all necessary images. Now I would like to root the AOSP configuration for shamu.
Currently I am able to access ADB root by replacing the boot.img with root access but how do I do a proper Android Root and not ADB root.
SuperSu: How to install it properly from ADB for Nexus 6 and which version!
Thanks in advance!

Generally speaking, you want the appropriate su binary to be executable from the PATH, such as putting it in /system/xbin.  What version you use is up to you, but if you're using SuperSU then use the binary that comes in its flash package (https://download.chainfire.eu/396/supersu/).

Thank you but do you know which is the proper version of SuperSu for Android 5.1.1?

@Orri The latest should work just fine.


text:
Cannot connect google account to Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500
I am helping my girlfriend to connect her Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus S7500 with a new android account. We set the phone to factory settings and are now trying to connect a(!) google account to the android phone. Both google accounts, the new AND the old one cannot connect via the settings.
The funny thing:
Logging into gmail with the new google account via the pre-installed browser works nicely. However connecting via settings>accounts and synchronization does not work and the error message is: Wrong username or password, even though the user credentials are the same as logged in via the browser. Furthermore, we have checked the password multiple times via copy and paste of the password.
Here are the details:
Android Version: 2.3.6
Kernel Version:
2.6.38.121500
dpi@DELL203 #1
Tue Nov 20 00:04:25 KST 2012

Buildnumber: GINGERBREAD.BULK1
My add account screen looks like that:

Btw we are connected to our home WIFI, while doing this!
I really appreciate your reply if you have any idea, what also can be tried!
UPDATE
As explained in this thread: Cannot connect my Galaxy Ace to my Google account
I changed the date to 21.November 2015 and get a new error:
'Can't establish a reliable data connection to the server.'

I also tried to log into my gmail app, but the login failed as I get the same error again:
'Can't establish a reliable data connection to the server.'

See if the answer here is of any use to you: Unable to Setup Google Account on Android 2.3

Does the account have two-factor authentication enabled?

@eldarerathis yep the two accounts have two factor authetification. And the phone number goes to  the same phone.

I don't think Gingerbread supported 2FA properly. I think you need to use an app-specific password for it (I have no way to test this, though).

problem happens when 2-step verification enabled to google account.
to solve this first of all disable 2-step verification method if possible, then try to do so-

on username write as
username@gmail.com
make sure your password is correct (maybe)

see https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

Rather than disabling the 2-step verification, an alternate one time password can be produced. Google allows creating app passwords.

actually it worked for my device.. may be the device or operating system doesn't  support OTP option.


text:
How to find out which app uses mdnsd
My battery life has dropped massively recently and there's an unrecognised app 'mdnsd' that's using a fair percentage of it.
AFAIK mdnsd broadcasts info about services running to a local network, but I can't think what APIs would need that. How can I find out which app is using this?

Why is “mdnsd” draining my battery and how to stop it?

This is a bug associated with firefox. From this source: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1215012.
It is also suspected to be caused by the patch Support Multicast DNS (mDNS)
Further tests showed these results:
 Actual results:

Excessive battery usage when using Firefox beta.
Phone Power setting shows MSNSD with increasing usage.

This issue was mainly noted in beta version of firefox and version 42.
Several users have complained about the issue and this how they resolved it:

Install this new version, run it once, and the mdnsd process starts
  busily running your battery life down. It took my S5 from 17 or 20
  hours before the battery would run out to 4 hours. This is true
  whether or not Firefox is running in the background. All the
  complaints on the web about this start around November 2014 time frame
  with complaints about the two other random apps, but only a couple,
  and a comment on the Mozilla Bugzilla platform that there was a report
  of extreme battery usage sometime in July of 2015

Source:  What is MDNSD and how do I get rid of it?
Uninstalling firefox proved to be the solution:

So by uninstalling Firefox, the mdnsd process stopped draining the
  battery for the rest of the day. After recharging the battery
  overnight and beginning to use the phone the following day, the
  Battery usage report no longer shows the mdnsd process!

Source: Mdnsd killing battery?
Probably the issue was subsequently fixed with newer versions of the browser.


text:
Selfie stick button causes music to play instead of taking photo
I am trying to get a selfie stick to work with a HTC One X running CyanogenMod 7.
The selfie stick is button activated with a 3.5mm "headphone" jack.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B010QPQDRC
The default camera app on the phone takes photos when pressing the volume down button.
However, when I use the selfie stick button, it starts up the music app and begins to play music (almost as if it is sending the play/pause signal instead of volume down).
I tried the selfie stick with a Nexus 5 running stock Lollipop and it works perfectly fine using Google Camera.
I have tried disabling the music app (Apollo) but that did not work.
Any ideas welcome!


text:
Broken screen and touch
I have a HTC One M7 and long story short the screen is completely destroyed but the phone still works because i still get beeps and LED blinks when someone messeges me. I would like to get my pictures and contacts off of it but when i try i have to unlock the phone to get a access to the files and the touch screen is broken so that isnt possible. Also i cant see whats happening on the screen which makes the situation even worse. Can someone please help me get my files off without having to physically put in the pattern. Please and thank you.

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Have you already checked with our broken-screen tag-wiki? Several hints and first-aid there. If you've checked already, what did you try and where are you stuck?

If you have rooted your phone you can try to use android control. It allows you to see the screen and touch the screen through ADB but it is a bit hard to get working sometimes.
If you can see the screen you can try an USB OTG cable with a USB mouse attached to it. I had this for a week when my touch broke down physically, people tend to look at you weird with this but it works quite well.


text:
Toast "The contact doesn't exist" shows up everytime I attempt to assign an image to owner account from User settings
I'm using CM 12.1 SNAPSHOT. Yesterday, I wiped the data and when the phone booted up I finished the setup of accounts like Google, CyanogenMod and everything synced successfully. But the Owner pic in status bar doesn't load and when I try to assign it from Settings → Users, I get the message "The contact doesn't exist."
Also I made that in Google+ settings
(Click image to enlarge)

So how to assign a picture to the owner account?

I see two independent ways to set the Owner's picture:

Contacts
Dirty trick (requires root access)

For the former trick, launch Contacts app → tap Set up my profile under All Contacts and select a picture and a name. Fill other details (optional). That's it. The Owner pic is set.
After this point, even if you end up deleting the profile contact under Contacts app, the contact name and the picture you chose during profile contact setup would remain in existence and in effect.
(Click image to enlarge)

The dirty trick: The Owner pic is located inside the directory /data/system/users/0/ named photo.png. The image location is mentioned in the file 0.xml located at /data/system/users/.
Look for the string:
icon="/data/system/users/0/photo.png"

That's the key. You can  move your choice of image (not restricted to PNG filetype) under the data directory and update that said string accordingly. Android normally uses the PNG image with dimensions YxY for the user account pic.


text:
How do you progress through the Droid Explorer unpack option?
I'm using a Windows 7 PC and am trying to unpack an *.ab backup file created using Helium. If I right-click on the file in Windows Explorer and select the Unpack option that now appears after installing Droid Explorer 0.9.0.4, I'm first asked for a password. I provided none when creating the backup, so I simply leave the password field blank and press OK to continue.
Then, something weird pops up, and I'm not sure how to continue. I see this window, asking me what I want to open java.exe with:

Is that supposed to pop up at this point? Am I missing something that should be installed that would avoid this? I have Java 8 Update 31 currently installed on this machine.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the question is not interfacing with Android. It's about a program  on PC which has some issue with a file (happens to be an Android backup).

@Firelord - completely understood.  The developer of this program asks for people to pose questions about it here, though.

I see. Ryan Conrad is the lead developer and usually follows the tag in question. May be he can clear what kind of questions does he expect to be posted here.

So this question, sort of looks like it could be answered here. I don't think it is a bug with droid explorer, because in the 2 environments I tested this in, I do not have this dialog. It looks like it could be an issue with your install of java. maybe your java path is not added to the PATH environment variable.

Weird, that was (sort of) it!  Java was in fact in my PATH environment variable, but it was using the directory C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath\ which contains only 3 symlinks to my actual Java bin folder.  Double clicking on any of the symlink shortcuts results in the window I noted above.  I temporarily changed my PATH variable to point to the real Java folder, and then your Unpack feature worked fine.  (I then put my PATH variable back, since I don't know what potential security issues I'd open myself up to by leaving it altered.)

@RyanConrad - feel free to throw that recommendation into a quick answer, and I'll mark it correct. Thanks!

This looks like (as stated in my comment above) that it has to do with the Path of Java not existing in the windows PATH environment variable.
I am adding your comment as well as part of this answer:

Weird, that was (sort of) it! Java was in fact in my PATH environment variable, but it was using the directory C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath\ which contains only 3 symlinks to my actual Java bin folder. Double clicking on any of the symlink shortcuts results in the window I noted above. I temporarily changed my PATH variable to point to the real Java folder, and then your Unpack feature worked fine. (I then put my PATH variable back, since I don't know what potential security issues I'd open myself up to by leaving it altered.)


text:
Space deleted but not reclaimed for re-use
I'm using Nexus 5. In the following image, you can see that I have  total space of 12.55GB.  Apps in the dark green bar on the left taking up more than 1/3 of that with 4.93GB.  The light gray "Available" which is nearly the same size is listed as 498MB -- that's much less.
If this were actually 498MB, that would be a tiny sliver, not nearly 1/3 of the storage space.
I've deleted a ton of pictures and apps from my device, basically bare-bones and otherwise not usable even to run the next OTA update. But no matter what I delete the space is never reclaimed on the device:
(Click image to enlarge)

Why is this happening and how can I fix it?
My current theories:

I had an earlier rooted Android but lost the root in the first OTA.  I was able to use SuperSU and whatnot then, so I know I was actually rooted.
On that update, I chose something listed as "Preserve root mode (experimental)" which did not work.  Since that root loss, when I go into my recovery which I believe was Clockworkmod at the time, I don't seem to have a recovery either -- it says "no command".

So maybe the space I cannot recover is controlled by the root user and I can't delete it as a normal user?
Is it possible to restore my ability to use my disk space without wiping my data?

The update from 4 to 5 disabled my access to clockwork mod, but did not remove Clockwork or prevent it from doing whatever automatic recovery process I had set.  So, that was building in the background until I deleted it.


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How do I change my WhatsApp number without losing my chat history?
I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab 3. I have important messages on my WhatsApp. Though my phone is backed up by Google Drive every night, I do not know how to use it for changing my number without losing my history chat.
Is there any way that I can restore my chat history, especially chats with a personal contact, when I change my number?

Did you check the FAQ of WhatsApp thoroughly? It's available on its website. Show us what have you tried so far to answer your own question?

Please check the FAQ on the WhatsApp website. The process is fairly simple.

Before beginning the Change Number process

Make sure your new phone number can receive SMS and/or calls and has an active data connection.
Make sure your old phone number is currently verified in WhatsApp on your phone. You can find the number currently verified on WhatsApp by going to the Payment Info screen (WhatsApp > Menu Button > Settings > Account > Payment info).

Note: When you change your WhatsApp phone number, your contacts will not individually be informed of the change. Only participants that share group chats with you will see that you changed your number. For a seamless messaging experience, notify your contacts that your number will be changing before you begin this process.

Changing your phone number
To change your phone number within WhatsApp, follow these steps:

Insert the new SIM card with the new number into your device.
Open WhatsApp.
Check if your old phone number is currently verified in WhatsApp by going to WhatsApp > Menu Button > Settings > Account > Payment info.
Go to WhatsApp > Menu Button > Settings > Account > Change number. Enter your old phone number in the top box.
Enter your new phone number in the bottom box.
Tap Done at the top of the screen.
You will be prompted to verify your new phone number.


text:
Back up all what app chats as text file and not as what app backup
I want to backup whats app chat messages as text file.
I tried to open whatapp backup but it wont open as text.
I tried to export whatsapp message to mail, the problem is that it work only for one conversion chat and not all chats.
How can i back up all messages as text file(or files)?


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How can you get a local filesystem link of an offline-accessible PDF file in Dropbox?
I would like to get a link to a pdf file in my local Dropbox of my android.
This is because I want to access the file by the syntax /local/system/something/file.pdf#page=116 in Internet Browser.
I have the file as Available for Offline Use in Dropbox.
I do not know if this stores the file as readable in my system.
This would help me a lot because then I do not need to browse books at the very beginning of the file. The Dropbox browser is so limited that I cannot add there #page=116 in Dropbox's pdf browser so I need a link to the file in the filesystem.
How can you get a local filesystem link of an offline-accessible PDF file in Dropbox?

It's in
YourLocalStorage/Android/data/com.dropbox.android/files/uXXXXXX/scratch/Your/Folder/In/Dropbox/file.pdf

Note that YourLocalStorage depends on your mobile. For example, it is storage/emulated/0/ on some LG phones.
To access the file from your web browser you have to put file:/// before the given path.

@Masi you can use some file manager to get the full path of a file. E.g. ES File Explorer


text:
Display only the sender's name in text notifications
When I receive an SMS, I get a notification displaying the sender name with the message. I don't want the message text to be displayed in the notification, just the sender name is enough.


text:
Only allow forwarded calls
My job requires that I am on call from time to time, and contactable 24/7. There is an on-call phone that I typically forward all calls through to my own personal device.
Is there a way in which I can allow only calls that were originally put through to the on-call phone while my phone is in quiet hours?
There's a related question and answer about whitelisting certain numbers during quiet hours, but my problem is different as I could get called from any number.
If it helps, the on-call device is an iPhone 4S on the o2 network, and my device is a rooted Nexus 5 with Cyanogenmod 12 on Giffgaff (also o2).


text:
I've lost my storage to update the phone Android
yesterday update the phone of a friend by clicking on software updates.
The phone is a Cubot s308 and the update version is v6_cq_4137c_v0.1.3_20150721 (4.4 Android).
After upgrading to pass to have 16 gb of storage to 1 gb. I can not install any app or do anything because the storage is full. It is as if had a partition that is not mounted and I think that on that partition will be photos, music...
Any thing that can be done to recover the lost storage and its contents?
Thank you!