text:
Quickly send an email
I'm looking for a way to send an email to myself as quickly as possible. I am using my inbox as TODO list, and sometimes even send emails to myself to add new items…
The optimal solution would be one where after a single touch on homescreen and typing a line of text (like: “Buy Milk”), some app or service would automatically send an email to my address with subject equal to what I typed. I wish to avoid choosing destination address, being forced to type something into the body and so on.
I'm currently using Evernote for that, occasionally moving items to my INBOX manually. But even then it's 5 or 6 touches + several seconds needed to load Evernote on my a bit dated Milestone 1.
Thanks for any ideas.

You might want to take a look at e.g. Mail Myself / SelfMail (which integrate into the Share menu), or Email Me / Email To Self:

Create homescreen shortcuts which use a preselected email address and/or label by long pressing on a blank space on your homescreen, then select Shortcuts, then Email To Self.

Guess that's what you're looking for ;)

After pressing “Send” Mail Myself still goes into my default email app (k9mail), so that's additional 2 touches. But it's better than using Evernote… Thank you!

You're welcome! There are more/similar apps on the playstore, maybe one of them does a better job? Check e.g. Email Me or SelfMail (the latter again a candidate for the "Share menu")?

I checked few apps, and settled on Mail Myself. These apps have surprisingly many problems for my case: I don't use GMail, which eliminated one of them; the ones that send emails on their own don't use encryption, so email password would leak out; one of them also lost my message when it was unable to contact the server…

Would you mind to point out which was which? I'd update my answer then to include those details, which might prove helpful to others.

I haven't taken notes, sorry. But skimming over lowest-rated comments on all those apps seems to agree with what I found.

Google Voice Actions has what you want.
Simply enter voice command mode, say "note to self", then say whatever your note is. When you're done an email message will be sent to you with the text of your message.

+1 - the "note to self" feature is very handy. These actions are built into Google Search in Jelly Bean (and I believe ICS, possibly older versions as well).

I remember doing it on my Droid, which never got past 2.2.

My phone is not set to English, which seems to be required by Voice Actions.

I tested on my daughter's Droid Incredible 2 (Android 2.3) and that requires hitting "Send" after it translates your speech. On my Galaxy Nexus (4.1) it sends the message automatically once it figures out you've stopped speaking.


text:
Setting the lock screen timeout
On my Nexus 4, when I press the power button to access the lock screen (say, to check the time), the screen doesn't turn itself off for 30 seconds. This seems like an excessive delay. On my previous Froyo phone, the lock screen would time out in about 5 seconds. Is there an option to set the lock screen timeout? The only timeout-related settings I found are "Display -> Sleep" and "Security -> Automatically lock", but these don't seem to control what I want.
I could, of course, press the power button again to turn the screen off, but... laziness.

Have you tried setting it to a lower timeout (15 seconds)? Would it sleep?

In that case, it does sleep from the lock screen in 15 seconds, but it also sleeps in 15 seconds when I'm reading a web page or something, so that's not quite what I want.

Try changing it to 30 seconds now. See if it works. :)

I don't understand how that's going to make it do what I want?

By the way, are you using stock ROM, or custom ROM?

I'm on stock Jelly Bean 4.2.1.

You could watch out for an automation solution. I e.g. use Tasker for a lot of things like that (yeah, it's EUR 5 -- but you can obtain a free 7-day trial at the project page, and according to the dev even make it work another 7 days by exporting its settings, uninstall, reinstall, import settings). Rawly described: You combine events/conditions with tasks. In your case, you'd e.g. set the default timeout to 30s, and have Tasker take care for specialities:

Profile "Reading":

Condition: App running (Browser, eBook-Reader, ... -- make your choices)
Task: Set screen timeout to 2min (automatically reverts when condition is no longer met)

Profile "LockScreen":

Condition: [Screenlock On]
Task: Timeout 15s

You've got the idea. Unfortunately (as indicated by the square brackets), Tasker seems to have no condition for "Screenlock active" (or I did not find it), so this might require some addon (Locale addons are compatible). Nevertheless, you've got the idea -- and there are other automation solutions out there on the Playstore which might do the job to your liking, and even may be cheaper. I'd look out for addons, then check Llama - Location Profiles etc. as well.

Actually there is a way to do just that in tasker,
basically you can simply set the screen timeout to 15secs once the screen turns off (which usually is the trigger to turn the lockscreen on :) )
and there also is an event which is called Display Unlocked (which is lockscreen unlocked)
and with that simply turn the screen timeout back to whatever u choose, i.e. 30 minutes.

Can you add the actual contexts and tasks/actions as a step by step process?

I just found a simple way to reduce the display timeout while on Lock Screen (in case you just want to wake the device, see what time it is, and then want it to lock itself more quickly than your android sleep timeout setting) :
Condition: SecureSettings - failed login attempts 1 and tick the "invert" box.
Action: Display timeout (put your desired seconds here).
This profile will detect the Lock Screen and not look for any failed attempt and will turn off the screen with your desired timeout.
Note that this condition requires Secure Settings plugin to be installed.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How do I root a ZTE Fury?
I've tried many methods (ZergRush, I get [-] Hellions with BLUE flames!).
SuperOneClick uses ZergRush which doesn't work.
I'm running Android 2.3.6.
Baseband Version is: N850B01 (first update after launch)
Anything else I'd be happy to tell.
I've tried flashing a ZTE Warp CW mod to it using some batch files, but it pauses at the "Waiting for device" when it's in recovery mode.
It has a way to "apply update from SD card" but it needs a signed .zip and the ZTE Warp's ROMs don't work because its signatures fail (I think that's why)..
If anyone out there could help me, I'd be more than happy to receive the help.
Even if that means you experiment with the phone somewhat.
(As long as it works at the end of the day.)

I've added your question to our rooting index, as your device was not yet mentioned there. Until you get a response here, you might want to check that index. Might well be there are answers for the ZTE Score which might apply to the Fury, or any of the mentioned methods on the rooting index prove helpful. And please don't forget to let us know if you found a solution there :)

I will, thank all of you for improving my question and helping me.

Good luck! We at ASE always give our best to help :)

A bit of an update, I've tried the ZTE Score method, and its outdated first off, the 'ZTE ADB drivers' don't exist (Gives a 404) and the ZergRush as said above is giving "[-] Hellions with blue flames!" error, meaning there is an error with the buffer most likely.

Update, number 2.... I've tried Z4Root and other Amazon Appstore apps, including p00t and they both don't work. They just freeze.

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


text:
Microsoft Exchange Active Sync issue when roaming
I bought new Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Last week I went to a different state ( roaming). During roaming my office outlook mail is not syncing. Whole purpose of having Email on phone is gone. I don't think it's problem with the device/service provider. Gmail ,yahoo or internet is working without any issues. I was able to read emails on my other phone (iphone 3g) without issues (when roaming).
Can someone help me on this?

I believe this issue has been fixed.

This is a known bug in the Android OS. A senior AT&T engineer let me know that this is a problem and hopefully it will be fixed soon.
it is not a AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile issue. it is a problem with Android  :(
edit: he let me know that there is an app on the google store  called "Touchdown" that is a workaround for this issue.


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File Manager opens when connected to charger
I am using Sony XPeria with Android 4.0.4. If I connect the device to an AC adapter/charger, the ASTRO File manager opens by default. How to stop the app from opening when the device is connected to the charger?

I believe this is because the Astro file manager sees it as a connection instead charge only.
When you connect the charger, pull down the top notification menu -> click on the USB icon -> change the settings to "USB charge only"
This should fix it

No...any option is display notification during file manager is open

Notification bar is always there on any Android device - just swipe down - picture http://www-static.se-mc.com/blogs.dir/0/files/2011/12/manage-statusbar-notification-panel-xperia-smartphone-PS103.png

Notification bar is their but no message is there


text:
I.Robot 7180 ICS OS4.0 tablet stucked loading in the black screen with android logo showing. How to make this work again?
My I.Robot 7180 ICS OS4.0 tablet was drained, when charged i tried to open it again but it was only stucked loading in the black screen with android logo showing. How to make this work again?


text:
Why can't music players find my audio files?
On my Nexus 4, there's a folder called /sdcard/Music/ (or just /Music when browsing the phone's storage; Windows 7 calls it Computer\Nexus 4\Internal storage\Music) and I've put a lot of songs in there but the music player doesn't see any of my songs.
Why can one app (the file manager, and e.g. Dropbox) see the files, but not another app (Play Music, Apollo, Jukefox)?
Notes:

LG Nexus 4 16GB, unlocked, with CyanogenMod 10.1
(nightly build 20130212 because nothing more stable is available but there are no crashes.)
The songs are stored in the path format /sdcard/Music/Artist/Album/Song title.mp3 (simply because that's how they're stored on my media drive).

Computer\Nexus 4\Internal storage\Music\Eagles\On the Border\1 Already Gone.mp3
Computer\Nexus 4\Internal storage\Music\Kashmir\The Good Life\10 Kiss me goodbye.mp3
Computer\Nexus 4\Internal storage\Music\Christina St眉rmer\Freier Fall\1 Geh nicht wenn du kommst.mp3
(yes there's a Chinese character in there and I don't know why; it's a German ü (umlaut u) on my original Windows media drive)

I know that the songs are present and that they work because the CyanogenMod File Manager shows them and I can play them individually. They do exist!
Running Rescan SD as suggested below didn't make the files appear in any of the player apps.
I'm fairly certain there are no .nomedia files: The CyanogenMod File Manager doesn't display files that begin with a . (I renamed an existing TXT file and it promptly disappeared :)) but I used the Root Browser Lite to look through /Music and subfolders -- the only match I found was the one I had renamed, and I have deleted that now.
My Windows pc at work couldn't see the files either, but after unplugging/replugging the USB it now can see+open+play the files. (I've now revised this question to remove the Windows part.)
I'm still mystified by the fact that file-browser apps see the files but music-player apps don't.

Do you have ROM Manager installed?

@GreenGuy: Yes - why does it matter?

As GAThrawn mentioned, there may be a .nomedia file, which might be related to ROM Manager. Look for this .nomedia file and delete it.

Apollo is the Cyanogen music player. As for your files: Can you mention some example file names? Might be a compatibility issue, and before one asks for the type, the next for special characters in the names, etc., it might be easiest to have some "full examples" available ;)

Examples added in the post. I would expect all files to work that don't contain special characters in their path, even if other files have weird names?

Just my guess: The media scanner could have "crashed" at those. For a test, try removing/renaming files with Umlauts and other special chars (luckily we are not French or Turkish, or it would be more :) Those "Chinese" thingies most likely turn in when Windows doesn't care and simply uses its own charset (MSANSI or WIN-1252 or whatever), while Android thinks it is UTF8. That's why I avoid Umlauts etc. in file names (though the word "Gruesse" looks really weird this way ;))

@Izzy: You win! I rebooted the phone and, as the very first thing, started Play Music -- now it does see all the files. The media scanner must have crashed. I did not remove any umlauts. Would you post that as another answer so I can accept it?

@TorbenGundtofte-Bruun Done, see below :) Glad it solved your issue!

Seeing a file name like Computer\Nexus 4\Internal storage\Music\Christina St眉rmer\Freier Fall\1 Geh nicht wenn du kommst.mp3 points to a special problem with "special characters" (such as German Umlauts) which got messed up on data transfer: While Windoze uses its own character set (MS-ANSI or wone of the WIN-12xx, depending on configuration), Android expects UTF-8 -- which is why it's a good custom to use only 7-bit ASCII characters in file names.
Due to this mismatch and the "unidentifyable character", the media scanner most likely has crashed. Which resulted in the media database not being populated, from which follows: The players think "no media files there".
Proposed actions
I'd suggest to either temporarily delete or at least rename all affected files, so that no file with "special characters" in its name remains. Then have the media scanner run again (e.g. triggering it with Rescan SD). Once that's finished, I'm pretty sure your media player(s) will find something to play (with).
That being approved, you know what to look for in the future. As said before, I strongly recommend to restict characters in file names to 7-bit ASCII -- that avoids a lot of problems, though some names might look a little strange ;)

Accepted: Because everything worked just fine after a reboot, your hypothesis about a crashed media server was probably correct. I'd hate to have to limit my files to 80's-era ASCII names so I'll leave them alone for now -- it seems to work, and the characters actually show correctly as umlauts in the app (no Chinese!).

The app most likely uses the ID3 tags of the MP3 files, which might at least explain that part. I still wonder that the files still appear, and did not crash the media scanner on subsequent runs: if they crashed it in the first place, why did they work at all? But most important: issue solved :)

To rescan the media, one can also use a clearly open-source app, SD Scanner, from F-Droid.

After the rescan, it helped me to kill the Apollo app (with long-pressing the "back" button in CyanogenMod) and starting it again -- to get the updated list of albums in Apollo.

Thanks for the answer! It was useful for me after I uploaded a music album to my CyanogenMod device through ssh, and couldn't figure out how to make Apollo see and play it (as a whole album).

Hmmm. My players (all of them) have quit seeing new songs. I wonder if this is why? Searching my huge collection for a single badly-named file is not gonna be fun...

Might well be something different, @T.E.D. – take a look at our media-scanner tag-wiki, maybe that thing stopped working properly.

Once again - WHY Windows, WHY?!

In the stock ROM the Nexus 4 default music player should be "Play Music" with an icon that looks like yellow headphones, never heard of Apollo but it's possible this is something your custom ROM's changed.
Most music players on Android get their "media library" from the built-in media scanner service, this should pick up MP3 files stored in any user-accessible storage location on your phone and add them to the scanner's library. Sometimes the media scanner doesn't "notice" new files you've just added and needs to be told to do a rescan, there are apps on the store that can do this, such as Rescan SD, you can find a selection of them with a search of the Play Store if you run one of those and wait a couple of minutes all of your media should be picked up.
It's unlikely from what you're saying, but it's also possible that a hidden .nomedia file may be sitting in your Music folder, or one of it's parent/child folders. The presence of this file tells the media scanner to ignore the contents of that folder and it's child-folders. If you find that file somewhere in your Music folder's hierarchy, delete it.

Oh, I also have "Play Music" but when I launched it, I thought it was a music store (buy songs from Google Play) -- my mistake. I launched it again just now and it says "No music kept on device." The Settings menu just has two non-touchable lines: open source licences and music version v4.5.9101.560208.

Apollo is the default player of Cyanogen, is also available on Play store. Just for clarify.

I've updated my question: Rescan didn't help, and I'm fairly certain there are no .nomedia files. Intriguing!

It might be unsupported formats as well. Not sure which formats are supported by what player, but I could imagine that some don't support .ogg, for example, while others do. Another cause might be the sampling rate/method -- but that should not affect the "being seen" but the "playing fine" part.

@Izzy: I see what you mean, but the file manager can play the files so I would think that both the path and the format is valid and works. It's just that the player apps seem oblivious to it...

Neither the pre-installed android music app nor Apollo music player could see the files I side-loaded until I flattened the directory hierarchy to one-level.  For example, Music/Band/song.ogg works, Music/Band/Album/song.ogg does not.  If only music players could see through those shallow id3 tags and get back to basics!

This. All contemporary music players seem to take ID3 as gospel, when the fact is that such data is frequently misspelled, corrupted, misleading or just plain wrong. If only my android player could just play a folder, and sort the entries by file name. Corrupted sorting due to bad ID3, or a "deep" hierarchy, has made entire audio books entirely unlistenable to me, frequently requiring me to merge 200+ 5MB .mp3's with custom made single use scripts.

Had the same problem on Android 4.4.2.
My solution:

move sdcard/Music to sdcard/media/Music
reboot to recovery mode
wipe cache (system cache, not the dalvik one)
reboot system

enjoy with Google Play Music! ^_^

move
sdcard/Music
to
sdcard/Media/Music
reboot opo.
All files showed up on players.

What is  'opo' here?

Delete the .nomedia found on your music folder. Internal and external sd card music folder. Install player pro media player. Go to settings and point it to where your music folder at on your external sd card. Once your songs showed up, it will show on your stock music player too. Good luck

Could you please include a link to the mentioned app? It will be hard to find otherwise, as many apps have "player pro" in their names/descriptions. Thanks!

Your music library might not be set up to scan even the /sdcard0/Music/ folder.
Connect your android phone the your computer and active "USB Mode"
On your computer access the SD card on your phone over the USB cable. So on windows it might look like "F:\Music\" as a drive letter.
So, in this instance my issue looked like this "F:\Music\Music_aa\"
I renamed it to "F:\Music\Music_ab\"
The Android USB helper service on the phone automatically starts a new scan for all media inside /sdcard/Music/Music_ab on the phone once you disconnect from USB mode.
Hope this helps.

Ok guys.... Last night out of the blue my stock android media apps album and music player could not find any of the photos or songs that were actually in my sd card. After escaping a stroke by a little....and four hours letter after readind a lot of forums I found a solution:
For the music player I used an app called "Next music" which could actually see the songs. I went to an option called scan by hitting the refresh button, did a full scan and magically my songs were readable by every other app including the stock player. Without any rebooting
For the photos I used quickpick. It was the only one that could actually see the photos. I opened each folder in my album then by pressing the hard menu key there was an option called" Fix Date". Did that for every folder and tbey appeared on my stock album app. Without rebooting
Ps :deleting every .nomedia I found did absolutely nothing...

"Next music" found only sound recorder files (on the external SD card). No other music found (stored on the internal SD card). The My Files app does see the music files, as well as AirDroid.

I had this problem and I found the solution, when you go to your phones "file manager", disable "show hidden files". Then the installed players will not recognize your mp3 files. So make sure the hidden files are hidden in the file manager.

Seems weird, as I can't find any relation with that setting. Just my 2 cents.

I experienced the same thing on my Samsung Galaxy S3 mini.
I just used Rescan SD/Rescan (used them both because I wasn't sure where my music was SD card/Internal SD)
After that - it just worked and my Samsung stock music player worked!!

I had the same problem with the Samsung Galaxy s5 running cyanogenmod. Here is what i did. I put the music into my internal storage and it was working fine. Then i copyed the files over to sd\media\Music, if you dont have these folders, create them. Then test and see if the file shows up by deleting one of the songs in the internal storage. if it doesnt pop up, then unmount and remount the sd card.

Rename the folder or move your files to Some new folder like (Music/). It will automatically fetch your mp3 files.

Create folder media/Music. Put all your media folders and files. Make readdressing and rescanning in your player (I use VLC) Problem should be resolved.(LinageOS 15.1 on Nexus 5X)

.nomedia - I had 2 of them files on phone and one on sd - deleted all three and Hay Presto Music player now sees all songs on SD card and phone - all good thanks - using Samsung Galaxy Ace 4 lite - had tried reformatting SD - reboots of phone - different media players - but by deleting all .nomedia files was the only solution that worked - worked a treat - didn't even have to reboot phone - just a quick rescan from media player

I mounted and un mounted my sd card and all apps recognized the files again

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


text:
Can receive but cannot send SMS on SGS3, help me debug with logcat?
For a couple months now (during which time I've tried ~20 ROMs), I can receive & make calls fine, receive & send emails fine, sync fine, everything is fine except I cannot send SMS. I've tried HandCent but it didn't work either. I have 15 seconds of logcat I can't understand at all - can someone help?
And is this the best way to isolate the problem or should I be trying something else?
(click image to enlarge)

Edited to add confusing APN logcat messages.

Why does it want to get Neighboring Cell IDS? There are hundreds or thousands of messages where it tries but gets denied. Is this like a worm attempt being blocked?

With those APN=null messages, does that confirm your concerns about it being an APN issue after all?

I don't completely understand the log, but I see a lot of "Mms:app" appearing. Are you sure you are sending smses and not mmses? Next to that, some general suggestions: are you sure the number of your provider is correct? Maybe you should check with your provider, maybe it is a problem on their side? Was everything working correctly before on your stock Android OS? When did you start having these problems? etcera

Hi I'm just using the Stock Messaging App Messaging version 4.2.1-eng.bajee11.20130213.072212 - I presume it sends both SMS and MMS but I'm not sure I've sent an MMS in my life. Number of provider? They gave me a "Messaging Center" number but I don't know where I'm supposed to enter it; there's no field in the App settings or the Systems settings that I can see. I had a problems on my stock Samsung BloatBean which wouldn't update OTA but the SMS problem didn't start when I rooted my phone, but during one of the many ROM changes (no idea which one, but doesn't work for any ROM now).

How many characters had the message you've tried to send? Any pictures included or files attached?

Thx for the edit @Izzy - I've just tried a few standard words, nothing over 30 characters. No pictures or files, but that would turn it MMS  I imagine. Might just try to send a picture....

That was the intention of my question, hence fully answered: Unless you explicitly said it should be sent as MMS, that should have been a SMS (less than 160 bytes, no attachments). But a buggy app might not care. Any "bill" you could consult (unlikely if the messages really did not make it)? As for the edit: Gladly helped. Saves a little scrolling :)

@Izzy So you've had an inspired moment and - amazingly - my MMSs get through but my SMSs fail. I owe you a debt of gratitude already as, although it's inconvenient, I can turn every SMS into an MMS but this should make the problem extremely isolated no?

Which means you've tried to explicitly send an MMS and it worked? So we can rule out SMS might be converted to MMS and sending then fails due to missing/wrong MMS-APN? I don't think it will really help, but is worth a try: using a 3rd party SMS app to see whether the "generic failure" is caused by the app (and not the service).

@Izzy That's correct. All MMS go through but all SMS instantly fail. I've used a couple 3rd party SMS apps and the same thing occurs; MMS goes through but SMS instantly fails. So this means the "generic failure" is caused by my service provider?
I see a heck of a lot of logcat error(?) messages about this MMS-APN you mention; I might see if I can add the screenshots to my OP as there seems to be some chaos in my logs.

You could also place an excerpt of your logcat at e.g. PateBin and link it to your OP, that's easier to handle/read than images of it. Also, you might contact your provider with those details and have him send you a service SMS for configuration (your device then will automatically pick the data from the SMS and adjust its configuration, hopefully).

Ah sorry I was presuming the reverse re: "easier to read" 55. The thing is my logcat is like 60,000 lines after a day; it's doing my head in with too much information of which I understand very little. When I Pastebin should I filter for specific keywords or...
Would changing service providers be expected to result in a fix? Cause AIS is totally unsympathetic and belligerent, saying "You root your phone, your problem"; which I do empathize with but they load it up with 200 bloatware apps so (in Toddler voice) "They Started It!"


text:
Mere presence of SD card causes all sort of issues - what can be wrong?
My Galaxy S II started to act weirdly recently - application can't be installed or updated neither in Google Play, nor locally, the Settings > Apps (Storage) says "Computing" forever, my SD card fails to dismount etc. But other than that, the phone operates normally - all files are accessible, all apps work etc.
As I needed the updates and installs to work, I needed to fix this. It appeared that when I physically take the SD card out, all is suddenly fine. When I put the card back in, I can access the data on it, the files are visible over MTP on my Windows machine etc. but the above mentioned problems are back again.
I've checked the card itself and it seems to be fine - it operates normally under Windows, the Windows check tool didn't find any corrupted sectors or anything like that. So I guess the fault is either in my phone or in Android - does this sound familiar to someone here? Is there anything I can do to try to fix this?

tl;dr: Have you tried with another SD card already? Have you tried the SD card on another phone? Try formatting the SD card and resetting the phone.
Maybe there is some problem with a file on the SD card, that isn't recognized by your computer, but that your phone doesn't like. Maybe you could try to format your SD card, so that everything is removed (also the possibly bad file). Or check if you have the same problem on your phone with another SD card.
Could be that this doesn't fix your problem, then I would suggest you try to reset your phone (don't forget to take a backup of course). And see if you still have the problem.
If this (formatting SD + resetting phone) also doesn't help, then I am out of ideas. Maybe then there is something wrong with your hardware, but I hope one of the above will fix the problem.

Thanks. I've tried a different SD card (16GB this time, my newer one is 32GB) but it is still the same. Really strange - the card is "working" - I can access it via file explorer, over MTP etc. but its presence causes problems to seemingly unrelated parts of the Android OS.


text:
root-android.org - A scam?
I would just like to know whether the website root-android.org and its product is a big scam when it comes to rooting Android devices. If it is, then I advice other would-be rooters to stay away from it if they were to come across it.

30 bucks to root your Android? We would be rich if we would charge only half of the amount. Instead we give away this information for free @ Android Enthusiasts.

@Flow Very good point

According to this ScamWarners post, it may be a SCAM.

The site Root Android.org supposedly carries out the service of rooting and unrooting mobile phones with a "special" program. Like all scam sites "100% money back guarantee if not satisfied" is a in your face feature, alas nothing is further from the truth.
  After initial email contact regarding technical issues with the downloaded program, there is nothing and certainly no contact when exercising the refund option.
  I have since searched and found that the program Root Android.org uses is a free download from a few specific sites that deal openly with the global community.
  The old warning of buyer be ware rings true, I sincerely would not use this site again and warn anybody who is contemplating mobile phone rooting to steer clear of Root Android.org.

For sure one program can't possibly be used for multiple devices, rooting depends on your specific phone & the version of Android running. My main point was to warn potential newcomers to Android, if they unsuspectedly came across the site and thought it was good idea.

What would prevent one program to be used for multiple devices? E.g. SuperOneClick comes with many rooting methods.

@Flow I thought that in order to Root, the method was specific to your individual phone, thanks for advising otherwise

@Simon each rooting exploit is specific to a "kernel bug", and such bound to (a range of) Android version(s). In some cases, manufacturers might backport fixes, so the exploit cannot be used on that device -- but in general, the exploit is not device-specific but Android-version-specific.

@Izzy Thx for clarification

They are absolutely scammers. Their software, whatever it is, didn't work for me. Support "helped" by telling me to install a number of free software apps from the web and then never responded to further emails. SafeCart did not respond to email requests for a refund. After a week of trying to get someone to answer an email I finally called SafeCart and they issued a refund no questions asked.

Nothing better than an account from first hand experience

They list testimonials, which are from anonymous people who may not exist, so like most testimonials those are worthless. They don't list any reviews from any publications or other sources you might trust. They talk about being mentioned on Google and other places, but those are just search engines that have found their site.
So they've got no credentials.
Maybe it works, maybe it bricks your phone, you MUST be prepared for that because everyone who roots is screwing around with things that sometimes brick phones, sometimes work, and none of the free advice is written clearly or works for long, as files keep getting taken down or obsoleted.
Use a credit card, if it bricks the phone charge it back if you don't get a prompt refund. if it really worked so well, how come they can't get anyone to review it and post the review? Not even forum threads from "known" forum members?
"If it sounds too good to be true" it must be a rooting solution. The guys who say rooting is easy and reliable, somehow never are capable of writing really clear and complete instructions on how to do it. Never.

Most likely they gather rooting software or rooted kernels from XDA-Developers and sell them along with a guide also copied from there.
There isn't any fast way other than those you can find through a Google Search.
While I can't say it's a scam, I don't recommend you paying $30 for that. Better search Google for how to root your device and also add your Android version, because most of the time that matters.


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Creating Backup before rooting
I am planning to root my android ICS phone. How can I create a backup of android OS before rooting it?
Will creating a backup brick my phone?

See this post asked by @Izzy entitled http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28296/full-backup-of-non-rooted-devices The question contains links to other very useful posts that may interest you.

is there a danger of bricking the device while rooting it?

@TechGeek Rooting a phone can potentially be risky if you are not familiar with the phone and the rooting process. When rooting, you should carefully follow the instructions for your specific phone and operating system (OS) version. If done properly, you should not have any problems. Should any problems arise and you brick your phone (completely locks up), you could try returning it to the store, but more likely your only recourse will be to turn to the internet and specifically the XDA Forums for help.

@TechGeek There will always be disadvantages - dangers as you call it, but generally people will tell you the advantages to rooting far outweigh any disadvantage. However only root if you really need too !!

If you made a backup before, and have the current stock image at hand for flashing, in the worst case you've have to factory-reset and re-flash, then restore your backup. It's unlikely that any rooting method woould brick your phone so complete that you cannot at least boot-up your phone to recovery/fastboot/whatever and flash the stock image back.


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Is it possible to read SMS headers?
Is there a way on Android (I've got Samsung Galaxy S3) to read SMS message headers? If yes,  how can I do this?

This question has been asked in StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3298088/is-it-possilbe-to-read-and-or-modify-the-sms-header-on-android

I asked not about code. I asked about application, which can make it.


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How to mark and delete some or all contacts?
I've accidentally "imported contacts from storage" and now all my Gmail contacts I've ever emailed to are in my contacts on my phone! Now I can't find any option to be able to get rid of them, "export from storage" doesn't work as expected. What should I do?

Since it doesn't look like a feature that Android natively supports, you can try Contact Remover; it lets you to mark the contacts you want to delete.

Thank you for your answer, but it says "This app is incompatible with your Samsung Galaxy Nexus."

Try a similar app like Mass contact Delete


text:
Confused by the many locations of the virtual /sdcard/
Some devices (like my Nexus 4) don't have an external slot for an SD Card. Instead, there's a root folder called /sdcard/ that is treated the same way. But I also find other paths that all point to the same files -- there must be some kind redirects going on (I think this is called symlinks in Linux).
All these paths contain the same files:
/sdcard/
/storage/sdcard0/
/storage/emulated/0/
/storage/emulated/legacy/

Which path is the "actual" one? What about the other paths? What are they used for, why do they exist?

Recommended lecture: Why did /sdcard/ turn into /sdcard/0/ with 4.2?.
In short: It has to do with the multi-user functionality introduced with Jelly Bean:

/storage/emulated/0/: to my knowledge, this refers to the "emulated MMC" ("owner part"). Usually this is the internal one. The "0" stands for the user here, "0" is the first user aka device-owner. If you create additional users, this number will increment for each.
/storage/emulated/legacy/ as before, but pointing to the part of the currently working user (for the owner, this would be a symlink to /storage/emulated/0/). So this path should bring every user to his "part".
/sdcard/: According to a comment by Shywim, this is a symlink to...

/mnt/sdcard (Android < 4.0)
/storage/sdcard0 (Android 4.0+)

/storage/sdcard0/: As there's no legacy pendant here (see comments below), the "0" in this case rather identifies the device (card) itself. One could, eventually, connect a card reader with another SDCard via OTG, which then would become /storage/sdcard1 (no proof for that, just a guess -- but I'd say a good one)

Though one might get to the conclusion there should be a /storage/sdcard/legacy as well, there isn't (see comments) -- which completely makes sense with my assumption of the numbers here are not related to the user, but rather to possible multiple cards: "0" would always be the one in the card-slot of the device, so no need for a "legacy symlink" here.

Thanks! And no, there's no /storage/sdcard/legacy path.

Strange. But that might have to do with the fact there are hardly any permissions on a real sdcard (due to the FAT file system not supporting them). Noting the difference (/sdcard0/ versus /emulated/0), the "0" here might be intended for the case one attaches multiple SDCards via a card reader and USB host mode then. Just a guess, not a hard fact -- but I'd say a good one.

/sdcard/ is simply a symlink to /storage/sdcard0/.
On older version than 4.0.0, it is /mnt/sdcard/.

And I assume, on Android 4.0+, /mnt/sdcard/ is a symlink to /storage/sdcard0/? Since both are navigable on my Nexus 4.

I'd say so, yes.

Your comment about /storage/sdcard0/ contradicts the answer to the question you linked, where you say the "0" in sdcard0 is related to the user ID.

@superuser No. Read again – and take care for where the slash is: /sdcard0 is the first SD card, while /sdcard/0 is the first user's SD card's part :) Apart from that, here it's asked for 4.0+ – while those multi-user stuff was introduced with 4.2+ only.

In Android6 (Marshmallow), /storage/emulated/legacy turns empty (at least on Nexus devices), where before upgrading to Marshmallow it contained the same as /storage/emulated/0

Yea a bit confusing but these are alternate paths for the memory layout
/mnt/sdcard0/ (Internal Virtual SD Card)
and Izzy your correct if more devices are connected, but the naming could be different depending on device.
ex. /mnt/sdcard1/ (Physical SD Card in SD slot)
but other devices such as a Usb flash drive connect with an adapter could be called
/mnt/media_rw/usbdisk (android kitkat 4.4 and above?)
or /mnt/usbdisk (jellybean 4.1 - 4.2)

Yes, naming might depend on the device/manufacturer/ROM. But usually, /mnt/* is only a symlink in all those cases – with the "real mounts" residing below /storage :)

Well, I have a shell folder under mnt too. I switch device ROM frequently and thus, for those roms, which makes external SDcard as the default memory, the shell folder behaves as my internal memory, and for other roms which don't swap sdcard as internal memory, shell doesn't even comes into picture. It just stays there in the folder with all the data intact, but is not accessible by the local file manager. Wanted to know, what exactly it is.


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Red notification light on Nexus 4, won't power on, device unresponsive
This morning my Nexus 4 wouldn't turn on, so I plugged it in, but the white battery recharging icon doesn't show up when I press Power, and holding Power doesn't turn on the phone. Instead the notification light blinks a deep red. The screen was totally unresponsive.
Lots of websites have plenty of doom and gloom hinting that red light = device is bricked, but I see no official source for this. What does this light mean?

This does not necessarily mean your phone is dead. Your phone will flash the red LED light briefly when the battery is completely drained. When I got this I left the phone in the charger for a while, and eventually the white "charging battery" icon appeared again. Upon turning on the device it had 0% battery. It was in fact so drained that it died while on the charger (at 0%), so I left it to charge for longer. After it regained 30% of it's battery I took it to work and it seems to be draining, charging and working normally.
I'm not sure why lots of sites claim this means your phone is dead, lots of them just say "what else would a blinking red light mean", but definitely leave your phone plugged in for a while and attempt to turn it on again before you attempt to get your phone repaired.
Also if a normal microUSB doesn't seem to be working, try the original charger + wall wart that came with your Nexus 4. My dad had this issue with the N4 and other chargers didn't seem to work. Not sure if the volt/amp/something just isn't enough from other cables or what, but Google recommended it and it seemed to work.

What about a solid red light, no flashing?

@DavidCaunt I haven't gotten that one; device doesn't work at all? Leaving it on to charge doesn't do anything? That's not the red light I got, anyway, so it may well mean something different

Solid red seems to indicate serious problems with the battery; the red light fo death. Fortunately, I left the device to charge overnight for several nights and managed to power it on after several days. Some users at xda have speculated that the on red it will use a very slow trickle charge but I don't think the problem is fully understood.

I put in Charger but after some time solid red light went. And i dnt know whats going on now in device. I can not able to start device. I should wait for couple of hours to get it charge.?

I think it could be possible that the mobile equivalent of BIOS selftest uses the red LED to signal that the power-on selftest had failed. In the good old times there was an exhaustive manual explaining the conditions when the LED could be red... ;-)

I just saw it. It was a simple case of 100% discharged. To fix it use the power socket charger and not the usb charger from your laptop or desktop. The red light first goes down, then it will blink and then the white charging icon comes. Let it charge at least 10 minutes after that before you switch it on, otherwise it would shutdown again (but won't go to red light mode).
In most cases the red light is not the light of death.

Yes, "power on" can use significant batter power, and that could be the last 5 or 10 percent of battery power.

I just had the same issue with my Nexus 4, phone suddenly died, press the power button and it would flash the white Google then turn off. I tried several times use the power button and even hold both volume buttons and power at the same time, nothing. So I plugged it in the charger and saw the blinking red light, thought, "Oh no this is not good."
Then I came here and read, "This does not necessarily mean your phone is dead. Your phone will flash the red LED light briefly when the battery is completely drained," so I left the phone in the charger for a couple minutes and the white battery indicator finally came on after a couple minutes. I now realize the battery was completely drained and I did not have a glass brick for a phone. All hail the forums!

This should be a comment, not an answer.


text:
How can I create a "shortcut" for the built in PDF viewer on Nexus 7
The Nexus 7 has a default PDF viewer, but it's a little hard to get to. How can I put an shortcut for it on my home screen?
Note that the default program (Document Viewer) doesn't show up in the list of apps. I can see it in the running apps (when it is) and in Settings > Apps > All ... it doesn't show up in the app drawer (the 6 dots in a circle).

If it shows under all apps then QuickShortcutMaker would help you to make the shortcut out of it.


text:
How to hyperlink to file in KingsoftOffice?
I have an Excel spreadsheet created in Windows and open in Kingsoft Office. I would like to be able to create a hyperlink to specific files on the tablet itself.  For example, I want to be able to link to /Root/sdcard/Cool Example Folder/12345.pdf.  How would I go about doing this?
If Kingsoft Office won't do this, is there an Android app that will let me do this?
Samsung Galaxy Tab, Android OS 4.0.4.


text:
Gmail has stopped syncing
How do I get my new email to update and notify me on my Android? On a regular computer I can see all my email. On my phone I will not see anything new; it's always just the same two email messages. I pressed the refresh button and it does nothing. How can I fix this issue?

Might be related: is your phone telling you that you have low memory? Usually google sync stops working until you free up more space (this only applies if the low storage space notification is showing).

Here's what Bryan refers to: Does the gmail app stop syncing once the “Low on space” message appears?. Other related questions can be found via this search.

It was and i tried to free up storage. although not understanding why i have low storage to begin with cdue to me only having this phone a week. it wont let me log out of my email either

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7098/gmail-app-on-lg-optimus-u-doesnt-get-email-anymore?rq=1

Have you followed the usual steps for dealing with a troublesome app?

i have not had the phone very long so i have no idea what the normal steps are. i dont even know what i am doing with the phone half the time.

Did you follow the link to that question?

You can lead a horse to water....   (This site should have an scheduled job which deletes the accounts of people who pop up, ask a question and don't return in the next couple of weeks)

Go to your Gmail settings. Most probably you can go by pressing your menu button. Then select your email address, such as xxxx@gmail.com. Make sure, you have notification option ticked. Go below and you will see Gmail Sync option, make sure it is ON. Now try refreshing.


text:
How can I determine what app put a spam shortcut on my home screen?
Recently, I discovered that some app on my phone had taken it upon itself to place a very nice "Free Games" shortcut on my home screen. I haven't installed any new apps in the recent past, so I would be very curious to find out what Application is behind this.
I've dumped logcat (with 'logcat -v time > log.txt') and gotten the last several hours of logs, but I have no idea what intent to search for.
Is it possible to find the culprit this way? If not, how can I proceed with my witch hunt?
Thanks for any advice!

Related http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/37327/how-can-i-remove-unwanted-app-icons-from-the-screen/37332#37332


text:
Is there an app or setting available to increase video recording duration?
My question is similar, but not identical to this one. Essentially I'd like to record videos of unlimited length on my android device(s) - that prior question seems to deal with a technical limitation: max filesize for FAT32. My issue is with an arbitrary limitation: the GNex uses EXT4 so max filesize isn't a reason to cut off my recordings at 30 minutes so I can only assume that this limit must be hard-coded into either the camera app or Android itself.
I understand that for many users you need to do some hand-holding and keep them from sucking down battery life, but I intend to record on a tripod while plugged in so none of that really matters to me. I'm also aware of an antiquated tax act in parts of Europe that heavily taxes devices that can record for > 30 minutes as "video recording devices" but I don't live in Europe and don't want to be limited by the obscure tax code of a country I don't even live in.
Is there a way to disable this limitation so the built-in camera app can record for > 30 minutes? Is there some alternate video recording app that doesn't have this limitation? Do the answers to these questions change if I root my phone?

I've read that question some time ago, and yes: there were two apps mentioned not having this limitation. Just need to find the source again...

See Android limited to 1 hour video recording? -- there it is! I LOVE our search function! :D (try: "[video-recording] limit")

Except that there isn't any real answer there and the question is so old it's referencing Froyo. The "One Eye Browser" app linked actually has an even shorter 10 minute limitation as opposed to recording for longer and no actual suggestion to fix the problem was made.

P.S. I know how to type words in a search box. That question references an ancient version and an arbitrary filesize limitation that a GNex on 4.11 with an EXT4 filesystem no longer has.

Why was this closed as a duplicate? The referenced question, as I've stated, is speaking of a filesize-based limitation because of the format of that user's SD card and old Android version, this is not a limitation based on file size, partition type or version as that question is. This is an issue of an arbitrarily placed limitation hard-coded into either Android itself or the camera app. The answer on that previous question isn't helpful and doesn't apply to this scenario.

when you explained that, the question already had some close-votes (we unfortunately cannot withdraw once we've voted). I guess the other voter(s) may have missed the comment. Suggestion: Edit your question and add the fact you know about the other question, plus explain why that's not a duplicate. That should trigger the re-open process and, enough votes provided, re-open your question. Besides: the usual way in this case is not to simply create a new question, but to place a bounty to the original one "for update" ;)

I'll edit. I don't want to put a bounty on a question which, if answered, still wouldn't solve my problem. That question deals with a technical limitation, this is an arbitrary one :P

Where did you get this I'm also aware of an antiquated tax act in parts of Europe that heavily taxes devices that can record for > 30 minutes as "video recording devices" but I don't live in Europe and don't want to be limited by the obscure tax code of a country I don't even live in.? Never heard of it and that's a new one to me!

@DavidPerry Understandable. Just wanted you to consider ;) With your edit, it entered the re-open queue (2 votes now, so good chances). I would also be interested in the answer to t0mm13b's question: If that's true, we have a big problem. There are cams and dvd/blueray/harddisk recorders capable of much more than 30min, sold freely here in Europe.

@t0mm13b I got it from an article last year discussing an attempt to repeal it. Looking back at the article it might actually be an import tariff rather than a tax. It's not just Android either, a lot of still-frame cameras won't shoot more than 30 for the same reason. Still, Android is the open platform, right? If I wanted some 3rd party telling me how long my vids could be I'd buy an iPhone (which AFAIK can actually record ~50 minutes before its filesystem gives up the ghost)

I honestly find that incredulous... will dig up the Android sources for GB/ICS and JB and see if there's a time limit built in and get back on this - am intrigued and admittedly gob-smacked by that 30 min restriction which places nearly every manufacturer's camera within their smart-phone device, in that category classified as "video-recorder" if that is true!!!!

BTW OP - what device are you referring to?

@t0mm13b my bad, thought I'd posted it somewhere in all this mess. Samsung Galaxy Nexus - the Verizon version if that matters (it's surprising how often that matters).

@t0mm13b, a quick search on the web "30 minute limit on video capture" produced more mentions of this issue. It has to do something with the definition of a "video camera". So as far as I understood from reading other articles, if a device is able to record videos of lengths more than 29 min 59 seconds it is considered a video camera

Try Magisto. I just tested it initially and managed to record for almost 2.5 hours before I stopped it.

Lots of comments saying it's paid to use all features now (2019). Any alternatives?

open camera has done the job for me. https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=opencamera&fdid=net.sourceforge.opencamera


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HTC One S notification vibrate
I have a HTC One S and recently did a system update and am now running 4.1.1 (whatever that is called)
I have a few games that have push notifications e.g. bakery story, restaurant story. As soon as I updated these, the notifications play the sound I had set, but now annoyingly they also vibrate. I have been into the settings for each app and there is no option for vibrate.
I have searched through all the settings in my phone and can't find an option for notifications vibrating anywhere. I don't know how or why it turned on, but I want it off. The only option I have at the moment is to have my phone on silent all the time, or to turn the push notifications off.
Which means that I will lose out in the games. I know it's not very important but I have spent a lot of time on these games and it would be a shame to get rid of them.
Thank you. :-)

Go to your phone's settings. Go to Sound. Tick off the Vibrate (Vibration feedback for calls and notifications) option.

I only have an option for vibration feedback for calls, not notifications and yes it's off. But it's still vibrating with every push notification.

Now my phone has started to vibrate when certain contacts phone me. The vibration feedback for calls is definitely off.

Can you please attach a screenshot of your Sound Settings window

I have the same problem with my One X. Here's a screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9aqnv4uhfiy8zf4/2013-02-15_23-37-26.png

Did you check the Notification Sound settings. I would like to see a screen shot of it as well...

@Murshid: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eygd0r8yg948r1e/2013-02-16_11-21-35.png
If somebody could be so kind to convert this to a comment. [post from @MarkM]

My menu looks exactly like Mark M's. There is no option of vibrate for notifications. It's driving me mad.

Thanks, so far I have gone through a few forums and most of them are mentioning that vibration in HTC one S is controlled by per apps. Which means turning off a particular app's notification vibration lies within its settings. But since you couldn't find it I looked out for some other solution. Found this app, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cygnus.vibrationwidget&hl=en Try it and let me know whether worked or not. Cheers till that.

Also I would like to know if there is a setting called feedback in your sound settings. If there is please post a screenshot of it as well. I am sorry for asking you these things. Since I don't have an HTC with me I have to go through like this.

Hi. I tried that app and it still vibrated with the notification. There is not a feedback option in my sound settings unfortunately.


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Rooted Nexus 4 wants to update
I got the problem that my Nexus sometimes wants to update to 4.2.1 although the system update menu says the newest version is installed (4.2).
When I let the update do what it wants and it reboots, it fails at the recovery system with "apply patch check something".
Only thing I've done to my Nexus so far is rooting it.

The version check from the System Update menu, seems a little bit "off", whether that's a minor bug, not sure...4.2.1 is fairly recent, now that 4.2.2 is out - FYI! The apply patch check something is down to either boot-loader is locked, or that there is not enough space...

I don't think a rooted Nexus 4 will be able to update automatically. So you might have to turn auto update off. Rooting will void its warranty.
But not to worry, rooting is good. Some how you can flash an updated version of stock ROM manually to your device.

Rooting does not void the warranty in the EU :)

I saw stock ROMs available for the Nexus 7 but I cannot find them for the Nexus 4.

This thread will help you. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010887 .

@Izzy, I am sorry I didn't know that. :)

That's why I mentioned it -- no need to be sorry, just need to remember ;)

Ok thank you for the threadlink. I'm actually at xda forums but did not know I have to flash it manually due to rooting.

According to @Izzy's comment if you are from EU, then you don't have to.

Try @t0mm13b's steps as well. May be that could be a possible reason

The OTA update won't work with root. You can manually flash a ROM to your device.  You can get stock (factory) ROMs from Google https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images, Nexus 4 is about 1/3rd down the page. You can also go to XDA forums and get a custom ROM http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4, main forum page for Nexus 4.

The other way would be to use Wugfresh Toolkit for Nexus to relock/unroot device,  to be able to get OTAs.
Forum link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/orig-development/toolkit-wugs-nexus-root-toolkit-v1-8-2-t2015469
Wugfresh Toolkit download: http://www.wugfresh.com/nrt/
READ EVERYTHING AND MAKE A BACKUP BEFORE DOING ANYTHING!!!!


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How do you set the default search engine in firefox?
In firefox if I type a bunch of words instead of a web address and hit go it does a google search.
You can install addons for other search engines and they appear in a list below the address bar and you can click those to perform the search on that engine instead.
Is there a way to make one of these search add-ons the default?

There are some settings in the about:config screen that seem relevant to this (search the config page for "search" and you'll see them), but I've never been able to make them work with anything other than Google.

There is the "Second Search" extension for Firefox, which suggests to be available for Android as well. Not using Firefox on Android, I cannot tell if it really works here -- but it might be worth a try. I use it on my Linux machine, and it not only lets you set a prefered search engine easily, but also lets you easily switch between installed search engines.

Thanks guys. Figured it out by looking at the desktop version. See below.

Figured this out by looking at the desktop version.
Enter "about:config" into the address bar.
Search for "keyword.url"
Set the value of this setting to the new search provider. For example: "https://www.duckduckgo.com/?q="
UPDATE:
This has changed in the newer versions of Firefox (desktop version too).
You now have to install search engine addons.
Then enter "about:addons" in the address bar.
Long press on the search engine add on that you wish to be default and select "Set as Default" from the menu that appears.


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Wifi drops out only when I go to the play store? Any fixes?
On my Nexus 7 whenever I go to the Play store I get a "no connection" error and I look up and the wifi icon shows me there is no connection. I leave the Play app and go look in setting and before I know it, I have wifi again. I got to Chrome and sure enough, wifi is working fine. Then I go back to the Play store and the wifi icon goes blank and no connection. In settings I have 4.2.1.

Can you enclose the logcat of when that happens?

It there any personal information in the logcat? I'll see if I can get it.


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How can I disable the volume warning if you raise the volume too much?
I recently got a Nexus 4, and I've got a question regarding the volume warning that pops up if you raise the volume too much. Is it possible to disable or remove this warning? I want to be able to raise the volume with the phone in my pocket (with the volume buttons) without having to pick up the phone. I listen to podcasts with low or bad audio and need to raise it above the warning level.

I only seem to get the warning the first time I raise the volume after a reboot.

It's possible using Xposed Framework if you have a rooted phone. Detailed instructions here: http://gs4.wonderhowto.com/how-to/get-rid-annoying-high-volume-alert-when-using-headphones-your-samsung-galaxy-s4-0148825/

This is a known issue (or feature) in Android 4.2, and there's probably no fix for now.
UPDATE 2013-12-10: According to Marius Hofert, it is still an issue in 4.4.

Okay, to bad :/

It's (still!) an issue in Android 4.4 (kitkat). People have reported that it can be fixed with a custom rom, but I believe Google should provide a switch to turn it off.

Android source code explains it perfectly in AudioService.java
For any experienced Android hacker, It's quite easy to patch it out though.
//==========================================================================================
 // Safe media volume management.
 // MUSIC stream volume level is limited when headphones are connected according to safety
 // regulation. When the user attempts to raise the volume above the limit, a warning is
 // displayed and the user has to acknowlegde before the volume is actually changed.
 // The volume index corresponding to the limit is stored in config_safe_media_volume_index
 // property. Platforms with a different limit must set this property accordingly in their
 // overlay.
 //==========================================================================================

 // mSafeMediaVolumeState indicates whether the media volume is limited over headphones.
 // It is SAFE_MEDIA_VOLUME_NOT_CONFIGURED at boot time until a network service is connected
 // or the configure time is elapsed. It is then set to SAFE_MEDIA_VOLUME_ACTIVE or
 // SAFE_MEDIA_VOLUME_DISABLED according to country option. If not SAFE_MEDIA_VOLUME_DISABLED, it
 // can be set to SAFE_MEDIA_VOLUME_INACTIVE by calling AudioService.disableSafeMediaVolume()
 // (when user opts out).

How about an inexperienced "hacker" who happens to be a developer? What is the best option? Custom ROMS, patching the stock version, etc. I would like to ensure I still received OTA updates for the Nexus 4.

This seems to be an implementation of the European Union regulations to limit the volume to 85db unless the user confirms they want to raise the volume higher (BBC news article).
I guess this does not apply in the US and other regions?
It's possible that some custom ROMs may let you disable this feature.


text:
How can I stop my phone sending an SMS every time I insert a SIM card?
I have one Samsung tablet and one Samsung mobile phone. When I insert my Airtel SIM in tablet then it automatically sends one SMS to an unknown number, and when I insert the same SIM card into my mobile then it again sends one SMS to an unknown number. So every time an amount is deducted from my balance.
I don't know what is the problem and how to get out from this problem?
Is it a problem with the SIM card or with the mobile/tablet?

Possible duplicate of: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/32087/i-changed-my-sim-card-how-do-i-find-which-app-is-sending-sms-messages-to-my-ol

+1 for that hint with the duplicate, GreenGuy! @VinitVikash: Please check its first answer, it pretty much sounds like a perfect match to your problem.

Here in my case "Sim change Alert" box is unchecked then why it send SMS??? All the setting are factory set.

NO this question is not duplicate of other question. Here in my case "SIM change alert" box is unchecked but it till send SMS when I insert new SIM into the mobile.

Have you followed the debugging steps used in that post? Install RL Permissions and see what apps ave permission to send SMS, and then which apps can start at boot. The culprit is likely one of the applications that has both permissions.

Hey I got solution after giving lot of time on this problem.
This is the defect of Samsung Software. Actually every software version is linked with some number. But it not send any sms to that number. Because of licence, security reason they need to linked every version to particular number. If some problem occur in mobile phone then only it communicate with this number. But in some particular software there is some defect that's why it send sms when new SIM inserted into mobile.
The solution is go to your nearest Samsung Service Center and update your software.

Before changing the SIM, set your phone to flight mode. Then switch it off, and change the SIM. Switch on after 5 minutes, and disable the flight mode. It will help you save your balance deduction.

I had a similar problem. I had enabled mobile tracker & that why the SMS's were going. Disable the tracker & the sms'es will not be send out on sim change.


text:
where are Android Chrome bookmarks?
What is the path of the bookmarks file for Chrome in Android 4.1.2? eg is it in the /sdcard/data directory or somewhere else?

As far as I know, they are stored under:
data/data/com.android.chrome/app_chrome/default/bookmarks

unfortunately it appears that user must be root to get at that


text:
How do I remove stuck notification?
I have a notification from the TED app that refuses to go away. I tried clearing app data and rebooting and it didn't go away. I tried uninstalling and rebooting and it didn't go away. Is factory reset my only other option now?
I'm using a nexus-7 running stock build JOP40D (4.2.1). The device is not rooted.

What is the notification? Can you post a screenshot?

Please also include the Android version running on your device, might prove helpful.

Also what device you are using would be nice.

Go into the app info by going into settings applications and finding your Ted app or dragging it from the launcher to the app info button. Disable and re-enable notifications with the "show notification" button.


text:
Why do some applications have `Move to SD card` button disabled?
I've just downloaded an app, and I want to move it to SD card. At the application setting, the app has data like this:
Total       ... 10.05MB
Application ... 9.97MB
Data        ...  80.00KB
Next to 'Clear data' button, 'Move to SD card' button is disabled. Why?

There are some apps that have programming requirements that entail having to be installed on the system SD card.  Think of it as a flag that's set by the app as to whether or not the app can be moved to SD or not.  In this case, it can't be as it would destroy the app's functionality.

This question comes up quite often, and so we already have a lot of answers for it. Please check e.g.

Lie Ryan's explanation
My answer to a similar question


text:
Files with names with unicode characters get corrupted in SD Card
When mounting my SD Card on my galaxy SIII files and folders in the card with characters that aren't in  the ASCII range get corrupted. This happens by simply selecting 'Unmount card' in the Storage settings and mounting back. No need to physically remove the card and putting it back in. Turning the phone off and back on results in corruption as well.
Folders when viewed with a file manager on the phone show up as 0-size files with a date of Dec 31, 1969 (which is the linux epoch) and can't be navigated into to see their contents. They shw as empty folders. Files turn to size zero with that same date and can't be opened nor show in Gallery, music player etc. They open as an empty folder. (See image below)
I am using stock Android version 4.1.2.
The card is a SanDisk 64gb micro sdxc card (class 10). The issue ocurred when the card was factory-formated (with exFAT) and also after formating with the phone (settings > storage).
Examples of filenames that cause folder corruption are "Aṣa" or "דניאל". It makes no difference if the file was copied to the card using usb transfer or by taking the card out and using a reader on a Windows PC, or if the name was changed (using the phone) once the file was on the card.
Files with those same names don't get corrupted if they are in the internal phone memory and I can use them without problem.
When taking the card out and using it on a PC with Windows 7 files can be seen. But sometimes the affected folders appear duplicated. That is, twice with the same name both. Checking the disk with windows reports errors and attempts to fix them. But then when putting the card back in the phone the files are corrupted again.
How can I prevent this corruption from happening?

Update: with a 2GB card formated with FAT32 files didn't get corrupted. But after I formatted it to exFAT I could reproduce the file corruption. I think I can rule out a bad sd card.
More info, this is a report from Windows 7 after running checkdisk. Note that the 3 files existed in the TestFolder directory, which was corrupted:
[Window Title]
Checking Disk Removable Disk (M:)

[Main Instruction]
Some problems were found and fixed

[Content]
Any files that were affected by these problems were moved to a folder named "Found" on the device or disk. Your device or disk is now ready to use.

If you removed the device or disk before all files were fully written to it, parts of some files might still be missing. If so, go back to the source and recopy those files to your device or disk.

[^] Hide details  [Close]

[Expanded Information]
Volume Serial Number is 6518-E54A
Windows is verifying files and folders...
Corruption was found while examining files in directory \TestFolder\ (0).
Corruption was found while examining files in directory \TestFolder\ (3).
Corruption was found while examining files in directory \TestFolder\ (6).
Corruption was found while examining files and directories.
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

  62363648 KB total disk space.
  41656576 KB in 43 files.
       768 KB in 6 indexes.
       256 KB in use by the system.
  20706048 KB available on disk.

    131072 bytes in each allocation unit.
    487216 total allocation units on disk.
    161766 allocation units available on disk.

Folders don't get corrupted if they are created on the phone with hebrew names, then unmounted and checked on windows. Only after re-mounting on the phone.
MORE DATA: this is I think relevant info from adb logcat:
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): fsck.exfat 1.1.0p2

I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): [fsck] Invalid dir entry: (92675,0)
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): [fsck] Wrong dir entry name hash
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): [fsck] Successfully recovered

I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): Filesystem was modified.
I/logwrapper( 1897): /system/bin/fsck.exfat terminated by exit(4)

W/Vold    ( 1897): exfat -> Filesystem modified - rechecking (pass 2)
E/Vold    ( 1897): MDM :: sdCardWriteAccessBlocked 0
D/Vold    ( 1897): Detected exFAT file system.

And when booting without problematic filenames I instead get a cute little
I//system/bin/fsck.exfat( 1897): No errors
I/Vold    ( 1897): exfat -> Filesystem check completed OK

And from adb shell I can try and see the troublemakers (after remount, note 2 directories with apparently the same name, which in a windows console seems to be output as 2 characters per unicode character):
shell@android:/storage/extSdCard/Test $ ls * -l
ls * -l
drwxrwxr-x system   media_rw          2013-02-18 18:39 ╫É╫æ╫Æ
╫É╫æ╫Æ: No such file or directory
1|shell@android:/storage/extSdCard/Test $

From a first glance I'd say this has to do with incompatible character sets used (UTF8 on Android's side, and whatever Windows-specific charset on the PC) -- but file names look spelled correctly on your screenshot... Non-ASCII characters in file names seem to cause a lot of trouble in some cases (this is not the first I see this week), which is why I try to avoid them as far as possible. Luckily my Ethnix albums all use strict ASCII 7bit in the file names :)

@izzy One thing I'll have to update the question with is that the problems happen even if the card is never used on windows. Files created on the phone and then renamed to hebrew get corrupted on next card mount. Files in internal storage are fine.

That's in fact an important fact to include! So it affects only the external sdcard -- internal "sdcard" (the SGS3 has such?) has no such trouble, neither has "phone memory" (if you are able to test)? In this case it looks like a bug with either mount or fsck in combination with [ex]FAT. Question is: Does it happen at mount time, or at unmount (i.e. after unmounting, taking the card out and use a card reader on your PC, are they already scrambled)?

@Izzy I added that information. Corruption happens on mount, not on unmount.

In StickMount (an app to mount flash drive), there is an option saying "use UTF8 IO if supported by kernel". Will this be some clue?

@Narayanan that could be some clue indeed. I'm not sure, but I can imagine the mount process tries to auto-detect something, fails (an here breaks something), but finally mounts it correctly (when it is already broken). So if one could skip the first tep (and have it mounting correctly from the beginning), that could solve the issue. frozenkoi: If you have the possibility to get a logcat / dmesg from the startup process (e.g. via adb logcat immediately after boot, when the relevant entries are still cached), that would help!

@izzy Added the info about lolcat. Putting the full log seemed excesive. And this is starting to look more like a bug report. I haven't been able to find where to send Samsung this info.

You mean logcat, not Lolcat :) And from your entries I see I was right with my first guess (incompatible characters). How did that entry come there which you quoted from ls at the end of your question? That looks like one of the troublemakers. How should/did that name read originally? PS: It's not "two directories with the same name", the first is "normal" output from ls, the second repeats it in an error message. Looks like this goyishe Android doesn't really like Hebrew...

@Izzy (a) I totally meant lolcat (b) I created a folder with the file manager that comes with the SIII and named it אבג. Then restarted the phone.

LOL really lolcat -- cute... Yeah, if it's a bug report, this might be the wrong place. If you found a solution/fix, please don't forget to let us know! Good luck, and חג פסח כשר

Posted to Samsung's developers site: http://developer.samsung.com/forum/board/thread/view.do?boardName=GeneralB&messageId=225047

I updated my S3 from Android 4.1.2 (stock Samsung ROM) to 4.3 a couple of days ago.
The problem had happened consistently for me for a year and a half, exactly as described above, in two 4.0.x (ICS) versions as well as in Jelly Bean 4.1, but in 4.3 it appears to finally been fixed: After the update I copied many files with Unicode Hebrew names to my microSD card, and they have survived numerous unmount/remounts of the card & phone restarts with no issues.
Incidentally, another issue I had been encountering was that automatic rescans of the media folders on the card (done by Android's "Media Storage" system app), which occur every time a card is inserted or the phone is disconnected from USB, were taking a very long time (sometimes hours). This in turn caused issue with syncing my large music library between my Mac & phone using the iSyncr utility.
This issue has also completely gone away, and I suspect that the Android media scanner wasn't dealing well with the corrupted files.
Additional Details:
Phone:
GT-I9300 International version, unrooted, running the official Israeli unbranded Samsung firmware.
Card:
SanDisk 64GB Class 10 (same as original asker's IIUC), formatted to exFAT on a Mac.
I didn't even bother reformatting after the 4.3 upgrade -- I simply mounted the card on the Mac in order to erase all the existing corrupted 0-length files, which as noted cannot be deleted by the various Android file utilities.

Good to hear. I'm still waiting for the update to be available for my carrier.

The update was made available a couple of days ago for the carrier my phone is enslaved, I mean, locked to. Have been able to keep my files so far.

I have experienced the same with my 32gb Sandisk Micro SD card 10 class using in the Galaxy Tab 2. The SD card is genuine so I know that's not the issue.
However, I have found this to work for me.

Format the card on your PC or Mac, to NTFS file system.
Download Paragon NTFS / HFS apk app for your Android device
Without ANY NTFS app for the android, the android WILL NOT recognise the inserted SD card format as the android only recognises FAT file system
Put the Micro SD card into the device and restart the device (if the card icon shows in the notification bar, bottom right, ignore)
Goto and open on Android Paragon NTFS / HFS tool apk and check disk / format using the android app
Restart device again, with SD card inserted, leave card inserted and connect Android device to PC, the External Disk should now be available formatted to NTFS

The card should AUTO MOUNT via the Paragon NTFS app when the device is turned on.
I've tried every method possible to have the SD card in the FAT 32, but it just doesn't last, folder names change, files disappear.

According to the Samsung site it was a bug that is now fixed and due to be released in the next firmware update (whenever that might be).

You have no other solution but to buy another one. You're welcome. ;)


text:
How to get an alarm / warning when it starts to rain
How can I be alerted if the weather changes? For example, if it starts raining, I will receive an alarm / warning?  This would obviously be based on some local weather feed, rather than actually detecting rain.
It would be useful because sometimes I have windows open for drying clothes and stuff, and from the room I am normally in one does not notice immediately when it starts raining.   It would be very useful.

All I could think of is like examining a radar picture, e.g. from http://dwd.de => Deutschlandwetter => Radarbild, but it is always 15 minutes late. So the app must check a bigger area on the picture, then it could warn you in advance.

According to our [FAQ], this falls into the category Can you suggest an app that does X?, which is expressly off-topic. A hint, though: Search the Playstore for "weather-app" yields some useful results.

I've tweaked the question to be more about a problem to be solved rather than an app to be found.

This isn't an Android solution, but I think it will work for you.
This IFTTT Recipe will send an SMS if the weather condition changes to "Rain".
Trigger (Weather channel)

Current condition changes to rain

Action (SMS channel)

Send me an SMS message

My suggestion: look at Tasker, which is basically a scripting app for Android, and set up an alarm based on your weather app or a weather feed.  While not an out of the box solution, I wouldn't think that there would be an app already built that does what you're asking so that's likely you're best bet.


text:
How to format /storage/sdcard0 in ext4
I tried to create a symbolic link on the "internal SD card" of my Galaxy SD2. It failed with "permission denied" and I quickly realized this file system is vfat.
How can I reformat /storage/sdcard0 with a modern file system instead, like ext4?
Are there any drawbacks if I do this?

What OS you are using on your PC (or wherever you might want to mount that card), and is your device using MTP or UMS? There might be compatibility issues when other devices come into play. As long as your device supports ext4, there is no issue from that side I could think of.

@Izzy Good point. I am mostly MacOS and Windows, sometimes Linux. On Windows, I usually do not mount the USB but use MTP instead (because precisely, it avoids unmounting the SD card in Android)

I see no problems when one can be sure Windows is never involved (or just with MTP). But also keep in mind you might have to mount a card directly e.g. for "troubleshooting" (something broke and you can't mount it via MTP/UMS anymore). If  you sell your device, that's another thing: the buyer will not need your data, so you either sell it without/with a different card, or simply re-format it. -- I will sum this up as an answer.

Possible drawbacks
As for the "drawbacks" part, there are different things to consider:

Windows cannot read ext4
Mac/Linux/*nix should have no trouble with it
Using MTP, Windows won't have any trouble either
If your ROM supports ext4, there should be no local problem
You might want to switch to a different ROM one day -- that ROM might not support ext4 (unlikely, but not impossible)

There are several situations to consider, as well:

If you one day get trouble with your card which cannot be solved "locally" (e.g. the card no longer mounts locally, or cannot be mounted via MTP/UMS, or you need to do a recovery of accidentally deleted files), you might need to attach it to your PC using a card reader (ext4 ↔ Windows: Fail!)
If you lend your device to somebody only having Windows, he might encounter problems
If you one day sell your device, you have to keep this in mind, too

Though for the last two situations, the solution might be simply to remove/replace the card, or re-format it (in the last case).
How to do it
Still here? OK, so the drawbacks seem to be negligible. There are multiple ways of how to get your card formatted with any file system:

use a card reader on your Linux-PC or Mac, and the mkfs command with the -t ext4 option (and additional parameters)
use a terminal app to do this locally on your device (see my answer on How can I format a flash drive using terminal emulator? for details)

Note that it's the internal sd card, so using a card reader is not an option.  Formatting the SD card using the device terminal app assumes that this is an available command.  http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/help/how-to-format-internal-sdcard-to-ext4-t1123833 indicates that this may in fact be difficult or impossible to do.

True. I just tried to keep my answer a little more generic, so it applies to internal and external cards. For internal cards, the parts using a card-reader of course don't apply ;)


text:
on grid view, when updating an app, this one is taken at the end of the grid
In the app drawer, when an application is updated, its icon goes to the last page, in the last free place... Is that normal? Is there a way to make the application stay where I put it? I mean, I sort everything in folder, but after some days (and some updates) many apps are taken to the last page, outside the folder... This is annoying...
This happens on Samsung S2 Android 4.0.3
I try to explain it better:
in the app drawer, i have a lot of apps, i usually order them in "pages" and each page in folders, so i would like to have the page with all the folders containing all the "work apps" such as google drive, the email client, some editors and so on, then, i've got another page, with all the folders for all the games, i mean, i've a folder with arcade games, with 3d games and so on... now, after few days in this fantastic order, some of those applications get updated, automatically, by google play, you know, when there is that notification "application xxxx is been updated!", you know what i mean. well, when this happens, that particular application is deleted from the folder it belongs, and i found her in the last page, in the last free place, the example i've made has 2 pages, one for work apps, and one for games, if something gets an update, i'll find that app in the games pages, outside any folder, hanging around and looking at me... :D

Your question is unclear. Where are you seeing this updated icon? The app drawer? A home screen? The list of apps in Settings? The list of apps in the Play Store?

If you're looking for your shift key, there should be one left to your space key ;) I fixed that. And most likely you're speaking of the app drawer? Then it would help to know what launcher you are using.

no launchers, it is the "default" one


text:
Twitter app signs out continuously
I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace running CyanogenMod 7.2.0. The problem is that the Twitter app signs out randomly from time to time. Sometimes it happens in a couple of hours or in a day or so. It's annoying having to sign in almost every time I want to use it.
Is anyone having the same problem? How did you solve is?

I think the problem is caused by moving the app to the SD card. Moving it back to internal storage solved the problem. Too bad the Ace has really little internal storage space.

Confirming that moving app back to phone from SD works still in 2019.

As Federico Perez pointed out in his comment on the question, the problem was caused by moving the app to the SD card. I moved the app back to internal memory and it worked for me as well (so thanks to Federico for pointing out).


text:
Android ADB Shell Recovery Mounting
*Question:
I need assistance mounting an Android phone's internal data using the Android ADB Shell while the unit is connected via USB and in recovery mode. How do I form a proper mount command? See below for more detailed information.
*FYI:
I have experience developing with the Android SDK using Java/XML. I have found little documentation for the Android ADB Shell for my purpose.
I have a Samsung GT-i9000 Android phone with a smashed screen. Screen is black, and unresponsive to touch. The phone does not have USB debugging enabled or USB auto mount enabled. I cannot simply plug the phone via USB to access the desired files (photos, and other internal data). I unfortunately cannot confirm the OS version. The phone has no SD Card, all the desired data is on the internal board. The phone is not rooted.
*What I've tried:
Doing some research I have booted the phone into recovery mode using the three button method (VolUP + Home + Power) and managed to access the device using the "adb devices" command on my Win 7 machine. It displays as "recovery". This is the only way I have been able to make the computer recognize the device via USB. I've tried Kies, and androidscreencast with no success.
I have been able to use the "pull" command to access all the Android system files from the phone. I presume this is because recovery mode only mounts the required system files for updates/repairs and doesn't bother with the internal data. Using the mount command I can see what I consider to be the paths to the files I am looking for:
$ mount
mount
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
nodev /tmp tmpfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/stl6 /mnt/.lfs j4fs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/stl9 /system rfs rw,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,iocharset=
utf8 0 0
/dev/block/stl3 /efs rfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,
iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/block/stl11 /cache rfs rw,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,iocharset=
utf8 0 0

All my efforts to mount fail, usually with a usage suggestion:
$ mount rootfs / /mnt/ rw 0 0
mount rootfs / /mnt/ rw 0 0
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory

Is there a possibility I could turn on the USB setting through XML using the system files I have aquired?

is the goal to mount the /data partition to extract the files using adb ?

ls -l /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc/by-name/

to find the path to user data partition. Then
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 /data

Check the correct file system type as well as mmcblkXpXX from first command.
If successful, /data should be mounted correctly

All of my mount commands result in mount: Operation not permitted. I believe I've found what you are referring to, although they (mmcblk0p2, mmcblk0p1) exist in the block directory. The platform directory does not appear to exist.

your answer ist right but he stated that his device is not rooted so it will be of no help.

Samsung Galaxy S2 partitions with usefull data are /data and /sdcard (internal memory) or /emmc depending on the recovery.
To mount a partition, you issue the following command: mount <partition> <mount_point> or mount <mount_point> if the mount_point is already defined. For /data or /sdcard, you can try with mount /data and mount /sdcard.
If the mount_point is not already defined, you would have to use the partition: mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 /data. The -o parameter defines the options when calling mount, but since you only want to get all the data (read), the default options would sufice.

Thank you for the migration to the proper forum. The only proper mount command I could run was mount -t jpg /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard -operation not permitted. I used mmcblk0p1 because your mentioned location does not exist.

Why are you using -t jpg along the mount command?

This is a kind of tricky situation. As you don't have root access you won't be able to mount the data partition through adb in recovery. You won't also be able to do: adb backup.
The only possible way to get somehow your hands on your data coulb be as following:

flash a custom recovery via odin (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2204700 maybe)
boot into recovery as before
mount data via adb if you have root permissions with this recovery
or use the key navigation in recovery in order to mount data(there is usually an option to do so) You can navigate with eh vol+ vol- and confirm with power. You just need to know how your recovery looks like from a device with a working screen.
pull everything from data and be happy

Maybe you will run into problems connecting via adb as you computer won't be authorized. This has to be checked. If yes you are screwed unless you find a recovery which has this security feature disabled.
UPDATE:
I just found something which pretty much could help you. It is a rooted kernel taken from the stock ROM and a  security disabled recovery included. Flashing this Kernel via odin should help you mounting data or any partition you want to mount in order to get your data back.
Do:
1. Download the right CF-ROOT for your android version here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8238938&postcount=3

Go to download mode with the key combination(hold down the volume down button, home button and the power button)
Open odin(could be great to download it before)
Click the PDA button, and select CF-Root-xxx-vX.X.tar
Connect the phone to your computer
Make sure repartition is NOT checked
Click the START button
Wait for the phone to reboot

Now you can enter this recovery like before and mount data thorugh adb as you should have root permissions.

Thanks for your input on this old thread. I will do my best to attempt your solution in the next week and follow up as soon as possible.

Lets' see if this helps. So my assumption is right that you have the stock ROM installed?

You can also try using heimdall instead of Odin depending on what OS you're using.  Maybe install TWRP2 recovery from your computer onto the phone.  Then boot into recovery mode, and you should have root at that point, which gives you options including mounting manually as suggested then adb pulling files you need or you can pull the entire partition to your computer then mount locally and recover that way.

from the adb shell
cat /etc/fstab
or
cat /fstab.qcom
~ # cat fstab.qcom
# Android fstab file.
# The filesystem that contains the filesystem checker binary (typically /system) cannot
# specify MF_CHECK, and must come before any filesystems that do specify MF_CHECK

#<src>                                              <mnt_point>  <type>   <mnt_flags and options>                                                                           <fs_mgr_flags>
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8                                /boot        emmc     defaults                                                                                defaults
/dev/block/mmcblk0p13                               /recovery    emmc     defaults                                                                                defaults
/dev/block/mmcblk0p17                               /system      ext4     ro,errors=panic                                                                                wait
/dev/block/mmcblk0p15                               /cache       ext4     noatime,nosuid,nodev,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic,barrier=1                  wait,check
/dev/block/mmcblk0p28                               /data        ext4     noatime,nosuid,nodev,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic               wait,check,encryptable=footer,length=-16384
/dev/block/mmcblk0p28                               /data        f2fs     rw,discard,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,inline_xattr                                           wait,check,encryptable=footer,length=-16384

# zRAM
/dev/block/zram0                                    none         swap     defaults                                                                                zramsize=201326592

# vold managed volumes
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.4/mmc_host               auto         auto     defaults                                                                                voldmanaged=sdcard1:auto,noemulatedsd
/devices/platform/msm_hsusb_host.0                  auto         auto     defaults                                                                                voldmanaged=usbdisk:auto
~ #

should give you the partition name you are looking for.
Device: SG-i9001 - Samsung Galaxy S Plus

I had the same problem before. The main reason you cannot remount your file system and other partitions of your Android device is because you are not running the adb shell in root mode. Here's what I did before:
$ adb shell
$ su
# mount -o rw, remount /system

This should solve your problems. Of course, in my case I am running this on a rooted Android device (LineageOS Android 7.1.2 build). It might be different in your case, but basically the idea is the same.

Try this:
$ adb shell
$ su
# mount -o rw,remount /system

su: not found. The mount command persists to fail even using the # method.

If the phone is not rooted, it won't be able to run su (or as root)


text:
Music covers aren't shown correctly
I have copied my mp3 files to my new Google Nexus 7 (Android 4.2.1) via USB into the Music folder. It can be played with Google Play Music (version 4.5.910l.560208), but it is always showing one and the same cover for any track. This problem also shows up with other music players such as Rocket player. In VLC and iTunes on my PC the mp3 covers are just displayed fine!
Do I have to change something on my mp3's in order to display the covers correctly on that device or is there some kind of bug in the mp3-decoder? I couldn't find such a problem report in the web, so my assumption would be that there might be something wrong with my mp3 files.
Thanks in advance ...

It's an older question, but still pretty much holds true: How do I assign cover art to songs?. Do your MP3 files have art embedded in them, or is there a folder.jpg or cover.jpg file in the same folder as them?

They are embedded! I usually add the cover in iTunes, save it and remove the cover.

iTunes and Windows Media Player encode album art into the song file's metadata.  Googly Play Music uses an 'old hat' method for adding album art.  Linux or WinAmp users know about this.
In your Album directory drop the image of the album in the directory and rename as "AlbumArt.png" or "AlbumArt.jpg".  (Note the capitalization).
Google Play Music should pick it up, if not the artwork may not have fully synced.  Try resetting your droid and it should re-sync. :)

This would seem to be different behaviour to when you are using Google Play Music to stream/store music from your online library? In which case the embedded album art in the ID3 tag of the MP3 file itself appears to have priority (as it should). Only if there is no embedded album art will it look for an image file in the corresponding folder.

Capitalization is not necessary, see the official google support: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1250234

From my experience if you want android to "forget" the old album art, you must rename the album and the artist to a new name. Adding spaces is not good enough. Example: Dancing Queen ABBA --> Dancing Queen2 ABBA2


text:
Connecting phone to PC internet using Connectify
I am trying to connect my phone running ICS to my PC running Windows 7 to the internet using Connectify. Everything goes fine except when the phone tries to connect to my laptop wifi hotspot, it gets stuck at obtaining IP address . I tried to set the ip address to static in android but now it says connected but actually the phone is not connected to the internet.
As a static IP and DNS1, I set the address provided for the connectify network created in windows. I set the network length to 24 cuz without setting any value for network length, I wasn't able to save the setting in my phone.
How can I solve this problem?

Most of the other questions here tagged [tag:connectify] look to be similar. have you looked at any of them?

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You're from connectify? Awesome!