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How to fix Cyanogenmod 7 hanging on boot animation after NO firmware changes
I've been using my Google Nexus S with Cyanogenmod 7 for about a year now. Sometimes it rebooted out of the sudden or locked up but all in all worked well.
Today I rebootet the phone und since then it hangs during boot at the animation with the rotating circle.
How do I fix the phone and get it booting again?
Unlike many issues I found on the web I did not play with the firmware recently. Unfortunately it's been quite long since the last backup. I need to dig my data from the device.
Ways acceptable for me to go:

analyzing and fixing the issue
getting all my data and install new firmware (while updating to CM10)

Analyzing the issue
I installed the Android SDK on my computer (for adb and fastboot) and successfully ran ClockworkMod Touch Recovery image which proves the the phone hardware is actually fine. Copying files from the /sdcard directory worked and I could open a shell but adb logcat doesn't work for me. The program keeps "waiting for device".
This is what I had done before:

phone hung and restarted by removing and reinserting battery
date and time were set to 2005-01-01 00:00, reset (never had that before)
installed or updated several apps through F-Droid app "store"

installed And Bible
updated Barcode Scanner
maybe updated/installed something else, but can't remember because I browsed through F-Droid quite a long time and read dozens of app descriptions

status bar crashed, phone still usable but started reboot to get status bar again
Booom! Phone hangs forever on boot animation

I have the feeling that the Google logo with the open lock which is displayed before the CM boot animation begins stays longer than before. But I am everything but sure.
Making backup
As I cannot run any backup apps I have difficulties doing a reliable backup. I set up my phone not to sync most of my data to Google. Yes, I missed doing regular backups for some time because I find doing so is not elegantly possible with Android (compared to tar c /home or even mksquashfs or rsnapshot on Linux).
What I need at least in declining order of priority:

calendar
contacts
some app's data
saved wireless credentials

What I already got using ClockworkMod Touch Recovery:

copying /sdcard with adb pull
Running backup from the ClockworkMod Touch Recovery menu -- I have no clue what is actually backed up

The ideal way would backup the whole phone so I could install CM10 and retrieve any missing data from the backup or restore the backup to get the current state.
Any suggestions?

I installed the SDK and successfully ran Clockwork Recovery image Clarify this? Do you mean you went into CWM recovery? The status bar crashing.. installed or updated severall apps through F-Droid app "store" what apps did you install exactly for this to happen? A Nexus was out since circa December 2010 - so how did it revert back to 2005?

I guess Android will set the data back to 2005 by default. Probably that not a question of the individual device. But I don't know for sure. I update my question with details you requested.

And the apps? What sort of apps did you install as well? Might help to post a logcat by plugging in USB and reboot handset and capture the logcat, (from boot, to full Android environment) into pastebin

It could even be a corrupted cache file. If you are able to boot into recovery (CWM) you can perform backups, wipe dalvik-cache  and cache and install a current CM7.2. Once in recovery you should be able to mount /data with adb also to run tar, but try the gui.

Will wiping dalvik-cache, wiping cache or install CM7.2 harm my data? I find loads of forum posts but could not verify that. What portion of my data is contained in /data? If I backup /data and install CM10 will I be able to use the old data?

all your data is in.data, nothing in cache. Yes, you can upgrade, though certain apps may need their data cleared.

First wipe the Dalvik cache, then reboot. If that doesn't work, wipe the cache too.
If clearing cache is not working:

Backup your device's system partition with adb pull /system
Backup the data partition with adb pull /data
Or use adb backup -apk -shared -all -f something.ab

After that do a factory reset and restore the backup afterwards.

I would say save the trouble of using ADB if one already has the custom Recovery installed which can take Nandroid backups.


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Restore whatsapp chat if no SD-card
I have Samsung Galaxy S3 which I formatted it then when I re-installed WhatsApp, it did not ask me to restore back my chat.
I don't have an SD-card installed in my phone.
What can I do to get back my chat?
Please help.Thanks

You cannot recover them because you erased them when formatting, and Whatsapp can't recover them for you from their servers because they are deleted as soon as they are received by the client (you):
http://www.quora.com/How-long-does-WhatsApp-keep-the-delivered-data-like-images-or-etc-in-the-server
https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/20887921

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to boot the Mele A1000 in recovery mode
I installed CWM on my Mele A1000 and I was able to reboot into recovery mode
using adb.
At which point I got the CWM menu where I was able to install files from SD, wipe cache etc...
After installing all the files (Cyanogen) I rebooted, now when the device starts all I see is the Cyanogen splash screen for a few minutes and then a message indicating:

Encryption Unsuccessful. Encryption was interrupted and can't
  complete. As a result the data on your tablet is no longer accessible.
To resume using your tablet, you must perform a factory reset. When
  you set up your tablet after the reset ....

This message looks like it's part of the standard Android system.
Since CWM is installed I should be able to access it in order to install something
else,but I cannot figure out how to reboot in recovery/cwm mode. There is no hardware button other than the power button on the Mele A1000

Once the encryption screen comes up, Android may have gotten far enough in the bootprocess for the adb server to start. If you have adb set up on the computer, check and see if the computer can recognize the phone by typing adb devices. If you see device with a serial number, then just simply type adb reboot recovery. (If you don't have adb, there are several guides that can be found via Google that explain how to get it set up.)

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


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How do I have my Galaxy S3 automatically switch into Driving Mode when I am moving in a car?
It seems like I read something about how to do this once, but now I can't find it. I thought it was a feature of On{x}, but it doesn't look like the Galaxy S3 Driving Mode is exposed through their API.
What I want is for my phone to automatically switch into Driving Mode when it detects I am moving faster than a certain speed (doesn't need to be immediate), and then when I am moving below that threshold switch back (again, after about a minute).

How about using NFC to tell the phone that it should switch itself to driving mode when inserted into the cradle?
You can get nfc stickers for few euro/pounds on ebay..., put one to the back of the cradle, setup your phone and off you go :-)
That probably isn't what you're looking for but still, it's nice and elegant solution ;-)

Take into account to have NFC always on will probably drain battery.

Nice suggestion. I like it. I haven't done anything with NFC before. Can it switch back after it stops scanning the NFC, or does that require a different NFC or manual steps.


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I need remote access to my MyTouch 3G Slide using a web interface with no access to the phone
I have a MyTouch 3G slide that is currently in Missouri and I am in North Carolina.  I have my Google Play account information and access to a PC.  The phone is not password locked but it is plugged in and has signal, no WiFi.  There are some apps I've seen that can install and as long as you accept the permissions in Google Play it will install and auto run without user interaction.  I've tried AndroidLost but I cannot get a stable enough connection to get the files and information I need.  Basically, I would like to access my SMS, MMS, phone logs, pictures and my stored files.  I thought maybe the AndroidLost App Launcher would help but to no avail.  I know all the phone info like IMEI and IP address using AndroidLost.  I just need an app that will activate and register itself with the phones gmail or by me sending an SMS with an activation code and it receives it.  Not that this may matter much but I'm stationed in Missouri and I'm in Fort Bragg right now for a school and being able to interact with my phone using my browser is detrimental to me right now, thank you in advance for any ideas!


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Lower Menu shortcuts disappeared
I use a Samsung Galaxy SL I9003 model phone with latest version of Gingerbread on it.
I recently started to experience this problem. The shortcut menus on the lower bar have some how disappeared.
Here is a screenshot of the same...

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)
As of now only the Application shortcut remains.. How do I get the remaining shortcut bak ?
Thanks
P.S : Reboot does not help.

Click that Applications button. Then, long-press and drag whatever icons you want from the list of apps to the drawer. You could drag: People, Phone, a browser, and something else.

how to drag to the drawer ? Here if I long-press I get the home screen and a remove option in the lower half of the screen.

@Yasser How about if you go to the applications list? Then, you go to the menu, and click Edit. (I'll update my answer later, if this is the correct procedure)

@Yasser Or in the home screen, open the menu, and click edit.

No, unfortunately couldnt find any option where I could drag items to my drawer

That might depend on the launcher used, but have you tried to drag and drop an app from the drawer to the "launcher bar" directly? Not all launchers support this, but it's worth a try. You could also first create that app icon on the regular home screen, and then try to drag-and-drop it from there.


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GT-S7572 Samsung App Store instead of App China
I've bought a Samsung GT-S7572, Android version 4.1.2 in China and thus just have an App China Store which is only in Chinese. How can I get the Samsung App Store from my own country?


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"CP Crash: Don't Power OFF & Contact us" every 2-3 days
Yesterday I unexpectedly got an error message on my 1 week old LG Optimus L9 saying "CP Crash: Don't Power OFF & Contact us" with a timestamp and lost contact with my SIM card.
Here is a screenshot of the error:

The time displayed in the message was 2 hours ago, the phone was in sleep mode, and I saw the message when I unlocked it.
After restarting the phone, everything went back to normal, and the message has reappeared 7 times since then, even after 2 factory settings resets, LGMobile Support Tool emergency recovery and SIM replacement.
What could cause such error and how can I prevent it in the future?
Android version is 4.1.2 (the latest official update).


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How to make "Navigator" my default mapping app?
Right now if I click a maps link my phone asks if I want to open in

Dolphin
Google Maps (Standard/classic interface)
Web

I prefer using the Google "Navigation" application for its features, such as  voice guidance and input.
How do I get "Navigation" to appear in the list of available apps, or even better make it the default for any map link I click?

When it asks you to chose, isn't there a checkbox below the question labeled something like "always use this app for actions like this"? If so, simply check it, and then tap the entry for the app you always want to use. This makes it a "default application".

The navigation not showing in the list is a bigger problem. Is there a kind of "navigate to" button easily clickable in the Google Maps app after you opened it? I'd assume that is how Google wanted it to be done. What Google wants might not equal what you want though

Izzy the problem is Navigation isn't showing in the list of selectable apps.  There is an icon for it on my desktop, and I use it all the time.

Select Google Maps as default and then you only need to select Navigation to open Google Navigation.

Right. The extra step is required because Navigation answers to a different Intent.


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Swap z and y keys on Xperia Mini Pro with Android 4.0
I got a Xperia Mini Pro with a hardware keyboard, which has a German layout. I switched to US layout on the computer and would like to use that on the phone as well.
Is there some way to change the layout of the phone? I do not care about the button labels.
Update
I checked the “Language and Input” section of the settings:
http://wstaw.org/m/2013/04/27/Screenshot_2013-04-27-21-48-01.png
For German (“Deutsch”), I can only select QWERTZ and AZERTY, but not the QUERTY that I want.
http://wstaw.org/m/2013/04/27/Screenshot_2013-04-27-21-48-13.png

I don't know if Sony devices might have a different keyboard pre-installed. But the usual place to look for this is Settings→Language & Input, look for Keyboards and input methods. Here you should be able to configure your keyboard:
On my ICS device, next to each input method available is a "gear symbol". Tapping that, opens the settings for that input method. The topmost entry is labeled something with "Input Language". Tap that, and you'll find the available languages, again with a "gear symbol" letting you select the keyboard layout.
As all languages in the list have their keyboard layouts announced, you might also simply enable the language with the correct layout there. My list e.g. has:

English (QWERTY)
English (AZERTY)
English (QWERTZ)

So you'ld just need to enable the one you want. You also can enable multiple languages you then can switch between directly from the keyboard, of course.

I can select the languages, I can select English, but there are no options for changing the layout to anything but QWERTY and AZERTY.

In that case I have to pass out. Maybe one of the alternative keyboards available on the playstore might offer a solution -- or somebody else knows a "trick"...

Will that work for a hardware keyboard?

For a hardware keyboard, there was even an app to configure it. If it's about that, take a look at External Keyboard Helper Demo and, if the features are convincing and your device compatible, you might need to "go pro" -- but all I've heard that should be amazing!


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How to get my Android device to connect in USB Debugging Mode?
I have videocon (vt10 - android v4.1 jelly bean) 10 inch tablet.
I want to connect my device to my computer (Windows 7 32-bit) in USB DEBUGGING MODE.
I searched a lot and didn't find any USB drivers for my device, I also contact Company Customer Care but they said that they didnt made any kind of USB drivers for that device.
I also installed PDAnet software for connecting android devices but nothing happens.
Please any one tell me how can I connect this device in debugging mode ?

You need the Android SDK installed on your computer to be able to do anything in the debugging mode. I think that will also install the relevant driver. Try installing it and see if it works.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html


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link2sd not linking properly
I have a galaxy ace s5830i .I have done rooting and linking the sdcard after partitioning .But in the beginning it was working fine from few days back when i downloaded  apps and link it to the (ext2) sdcard,it shows me the that it has got linked.But the internal phone memory(i.e just 180 MB approx) decreases .also i have tried remounting the script and relinking the new installed apps but still not able to solve..
.please help me solve this problem.

Link2SD can't put the whole app to the ext partition. There's always a little part that takes the memory.
Use simple2ext. There you can select which folder to move to ext. After rebooting the whole dir will be placed at ext, and linked (mounted) to the internal memory. (mount has a mode when you write into the shared folder it will be mergred into the mounted folder) It seems like it's internal but not. :)


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Will a nandroid backup save me from a bad upgrade?
I have a Rezound on 4.03, and verizon has pushed an update to it today. I have delayed the install because there's little information about it. What little I have found claim it make the phone unstable.
I made a nandroid backup, with the default options. That means:
[Boot], [System], [data], and [cache] were selected.
[recovery], [sd-ext], and [.android_secure] were not selected.
My question is, if this OTA update does make my phone worse, will simply restoring the backup pretty much guarantee a seemless "undo"? Or is it possible the update could change something that I can't revert?

The update might include a "radio image" (the hardware layer, one could say) which is not included with a Nandroid backup. It could also include a "recovery image" which you didn't include with your backup.

An update might include a new radio-firmware (see: What is radio firmware?; basically you can think of it as the "hardware-layer" or an API to give the installed (Android) system access to the hardware), which is not included with a Nandroid backup. It could also include a "recovery-image" (see: recovery-mode), which you did not include with your backup.
For the latter, you could simply include it with your Nandroid backup. The radio-image is a different thing: I know of no method to extract/backup it from a given device. You could, however, check which radio version is currently installed with your device, and see if you can get a "RUU" (Radio Unit Update) specifically for that.

Thank you, I will just have to find a good way to turn off the OTA notifications.

Some custom roms have an app named 'fota-kill' for that. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it on the playstore -- but maybe XDA has it somewhere for download :)


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Galaxy note 10.1 reset s-note picture import preferences
When I tried to import a picture earlier I accidentally set the S-note picture import preference to Gallery. Before that I was given the choice to import from Astro etc. .
I tried to delete all s-note data/cache in the preferences, but I was unable to reset the picture import to the non default value. (It didn't even delete the Documents on the device, they were back after a reboot).
The reset to default values button in the Task manager is greyed out.

One has to delete the Gallery user settings get the choice for the Import back.


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Clockwork Mod Can't find backups
Yesterday I performed a Nandroid Backup on my phone, because right after I knew I was going to wipe the phone and cache and remount Cyanogenmod on my Galaxy Nexus to hopefully solve another issue I had.
However, I guess when you do a new fresh mount CM recreates the 0 (profile) directory on the internal memory. So I ended up having to move the folders that contained the backup up one directory level.
The problem I have now is that with the latest backup I am running dangerously low on storage space, so I can't restore all my apps and data and therefore I need to delete an old backup (I have 3 but need only 2). I can't delete the folder using Astro or file manager even when giving them root access, and I thought if moving it to the same location as before CWM would be able to see it and delete, but it just says can't find any backups.
Is there a way to fix it so CWM can see it and I can delete?
The files are currently in the path /storage/emulated/0/clockworkmod/backup

Have you tried looking for these directories while booted in Recovery mode?

ClockworkMod needs to be updated to properly understand Android 4.2's new filesystem structure so it can see its previous backups.
Technically, everything stored on the sdcard is actually stored under /data/media, however Android uses bind to essentially make a really fancy shortcut to various other places. This includes /storage/emulated/ and /sdcard.
As for deleting, without knowing the errors you were running into, it limits my options on recommendations. But you can use adb to delete files (with the code below, replace "old-backup" with the folder name containing the backup you want to remove).
adb shell
su
rm -rf /data/media/0/clockworkmod/backup/old-backup

You can fix it by symlink.
1) remove clockwork dir  "rm -rf /data/media/clockworkmod"
2) switch to directory  "cd /data/media"
3) create a symbolic link  "ln -s /data/media/0/clockworkmod clockworkmod"
that should do it


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Is there any adb shell command to focus camera?
I would like to record some movie on my desk but camera doesn't focus so I would like to force my phone to camera focus. Is it possible?

if you know the exact position to touch for focusing the camera, you can use
 adb shell input tap <x><y> . This will simulate a touch on the particular (x,y) cordinates.

i would recommend you to download some camera manipulation app like Vintage Camera by Fine Droid Devs
though it would have been better if you had mentioned your device.

Before you take a video, focus the camera first.
I had a similar issue with a digital camera (Canon S95). Sometimes, I'd get a blurry video. It turns out that I forgot to focus the camera first, before pressing the record button. The concept would be the same with a phone camera.


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How to avoid application autostart when a usbdrive is plugged to tablet
When I plug a USB drive to my Samsung tablet (using USB connection kit), my Android 4.0.4 automatically starts the Archive application, in order to see which is the content of the pen drive. The same happens with an application that I wrote, Android popup a message to match plugged device with my application.
Is it possible to avoid this autostart? How?
Thanks

Try following the instructions here to remove it as a default application, not sure if it works with OEM apps though: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/17128/how-to-change-a-default-application-in-ice-cream-sandwich

That won't help if there's only one app installed for the purpose, as that would become the "default app" nevertheless. And even if there were no default app (but still app(s) listening on the "plug event"), then a popup would appear to select an app. If I understand correctly, nothing shall be opened when the drive gets attached (correct me if I'm wrong, Ant4res).

@Izzy Yes, you're right, nothing shall be opened when the drive gets attached. Is there a way to avoid the popup appears?

Why are there any apps starting when the drive is attached?
First you need some background information what's going on there. Many things on Android are "event-based". That is, when "something" happens, the system issues a "broadcast" saying so. Some well-known and easy-to-understand events include

boot completed
storage (un)mounted (usually sdcard removed/inserted, or some external drive)
battery low
network changed

Apps can register "listeners" for specific broadcast-events (intents), so they get started/awakened/informed then. Again some examples:

media-scanner wants to know when a new storage "entity" got attached, to check for music/pictures/videos to insert into its internal database
location service wants to know about network changes: if there's a new network, it might be interesting to determine the current location
several apps (far too many) want to start at boot

So obviously, your Archive app has registered a listener for the storage broadcast, and similarly your app.
How to get rid of that?
For your own app, you could adjust its code correspondingly. But that's no task for us here, but if needed, you can discuss that at our sister-site stackoverflow.com.
For all other apps (the following is applicable to other combinations as well), you will need your device to be rooted (details can be found in the rooting tag-wiki). Then go to the playstore and get yourself an app like e.g. Autorun Manager PRO (yes, for the following you will need the Pro if you decide for this app. I chose it nevertheless, as it turned out to be the best in my tests a while ago):

AutoRun Manager (click image to enlarge)
As you can see in the screenshot, AutoRun Manager permits you to disable each listener an app may have registered separately. And their names are (in most cases) quite descriptive. So use ARM, go into its "Advanced Mode", look up the Archive app, and check what listeners it has registered. Disable the one sounding reasonable -- and your issue should be solved.
You can change that anytime you want. Whenever the modified app is updated, you will have to do that again. You also can simply revert all changes with two taps, as ARM has a specific "restore" feature for that.

PS: As you have tagged your question auto-start, you could have hovered your mouse over that tag, and select the "info" link. This will bring you to the tag wiki, where you can find most of what I just wrote (and maybe even some additional information) -- so I recommend reading that as well. Furthermore, take it as hint for the future: Many of our tag-wikis contain first-aid. And in many cases that might already be enough to solve an issue :)

Thanks for your answer! I solved the problem with my application, but there is a way to prevent android to show a popup requesting permission to access the usb device (the "use as default setting for this usb device" message)?

No idea. I have not yet used any external storage other than microSD cards. // Btw: if my answer helped you, why not upvoting/accepting? :)

Always glad to help -- thank you! As for your USB drive message: You might try to google the complete message which pops up (enclodes in quotation marks), that might turn up something useful.


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How do I enable the character count when typing an sms?
I have a Sony Xperia U with Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread. I don't know exactly if the SMS composer is Android's or belongs to Sony's launcher, so I don't know if the question applies to all Gingerbread users or only Sony's.
I'd like to see the character count when typing SMSs, and I can't see that setting available. Do you know if it's possible to enable it or I need to replace the texting application? Also, is it possible to do it without rooting or flashing?

Have you looked at any of the SMS apps in the Play Store? I'll wager some of them have the feature you're looking for.

@AlEverett I considered that option, but I think it's a basic feature that should be somewhere in the default application. And I would avoid to install another one for a such simple thing.


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Android Tablet (4.0.3) home icon (lower left corner of the action bar) does not work when clicked
Alright, so I am having trouble with my brandless tablet. It's running on Android 4.0.3. When I click the home button in the lower-left part of the screen, action bar, nothing happens. The button looks like a "house". I have tried resetting the device, but it doesn't help. I have no idea on what to do as I am a "noob" when it comes to Android. Please help me out with whatever you can, thank you.

Where are you when "nothing happens"? Could it be you are simply on your homescreen? Then it's normal that nothing happens, as that button should bring you exactly to where you are then. Try tapping it when you have another app in the foreground, and see what happens then: you should be returned to your homescreen (hence the "house" aka "home" symbol).

I know what the button is supposed to do. And no, I click it when I am in an application (Internet for an example). I tap the button, hold it, click it, whatever you can think of, and nothing happens. The button just flashes like normal, but doesn't bring me to the home screen. Further help would be gladly appreciated.

Sorry, Nikola -- no offense meant. You didn't include that fact with your question, but rather referred to "noob" -- so I had to expect the worst :) Of course, in this case that's not the expected behaviour. As it "flashes", it seems to register your touch. If it happens just with one app, this app might "catch" the intent somehow (as could be the case with any other app running at that time). As you have reset the device, and it happened even before you installed anything (?), I'd consult the shop where you've bought it, or call the service.

It happens with every application, not just one. When I bought the device, the button was working properly for about months, until one day, it was at a tech. to change the screen(It had a crack, so it had to be changed). Ever since then, the button isn't working. I will call the tech. tomorrow, and ask him if he had done something. IF you have any other ideas, please feel free to type them down. Thank You. :)

Ah, that sheds some light. I am not sure (as I'm not in assembling), but might be he forgot some contact or attached something wrongly. So the response you see is just from the touchscreen itself, not from the "soft button", so to speak. Good idea to talk to the very same tech, he should know! // Btw: If he can solve it (or you can otherwise achieve a solution), feel free to answer your question yourself (and accept the answer after two days, which is the earliest you can do so for your own answer) -- so others can see this problem has a solution attached :)

Alright, I'll get in touch with him tomorrow, thank you for your time. And sure, if I get it fixed, I'll make my answer the solution.

Did the issue solve meanwhile?


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running jelly bean 4.1.1 on Galaxy note screen flashes when I retrieve voice mail
running jelly bean 4.1.1 on Galaxy S111 Note, the input screen flashes when I retrieve voice mail so bad, you can't input password.


text:
How Do I Turn Off Google Now Card Notifications?
How do I turn off Google Card notifications?
Let's say I search for an address - Google will then show me a card in the notification area with driving directions to that location.  I don't want the notification.  Is there a way to prevent them from showing up?

Is this Google Now?

@wbogacz Yes, I believe so.

According to this help, Google Now notifications can be limited or turned off.Most notifications for Google Now cards can be turned off or set to low or standard priority. Low priority notifications appear at the bottom of the notifications shade without any additional signal.From the lower right corner of the Google Now screen, touch Menu > Settings > Google Now > card name > and adjust the settings under Notifications.

Yes, that's it.  I actually chose to turn them off entirely.

If you are on Jelly Bean and rooted you can use an app I built to manage notifications for all applications from a single place.
Notifications Off allows you to turn off notifications for all applications. It can also automatically disable notifications for new apps as soon as they are installed.
The next version will have support for profiles, tasker integration and a widget for switching profiles.

Just start Google Settings (grey gear icon, with a g in the middle). Then choose Now Maps and switch off the top slider show maps. This will turn off the notifications as you wanted.


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Why does the manta (nexus 10) not "mount" with MTP selected?
Two android (nexus 4, and nexus 10) devices with cyanogenmod (nightly) are connected to windows 7. When the nexus 4 is connected windows shows it in explorer and it is possible to transfer files to/from it though MTP. Attach the nexus 10 and nothing appears, unless MTP is deselected (under storage) and PTP is selected. Then it is possible to transfer files to/from, yet only from the "Pictures" folder of /data.
Further information
android sdk is installed and the google usb drivers have been loaded for both devices. ADB recognizes the nexus 4 but not the nexus 10 unless the nexus 10 is put into PTP mode.
How can this be explained?

It could just be that the CM nightly you installed happened to have broken MTP support. Nightly builds are unstable and often have missing or unusable features. Try a stable or milestone release instead.


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Configure Play Store to download temporary files to SD Card
I find that every time I start to update an application using Google Play, my phone's internal memory starts to run out (i.e. the Play app downloads temporary files to internal memory). In a number of cases, the size of the update is quite large and I end up with less than 10% free space left which corrupts the installers and I end up with no update. :(
Is it possible to in any way instruct Google Play to use my SD card (which has over 10GB free space) as the temporary location instead of the space-constrained internal memory? As much as possible, I'd like to do this without having to root my device.

Unfortunately, there is (currently) no way to do so on a non-rooted device, at least not to my knowledge.
The Play Store app always downloads to /data/local as far as I know. So if your device is rooted, you could create a directory wherever you like, and symlink it here. This could be done either from a terminal app, via a file explorer supporting the creation of symlinks (and root), or via adb shell. For the terminal/adb-shell variant it could look like that, assuming your sdcard being mounted at /sdcard:
$ su
# mkdir /sdcard/playstore-temp
# cp -r /data/local/* /sdcard/playstore-temp
# rm -rf /data/local
# ln -s /sdcard/playstore-temp /data/local

Explaining the commands:

get root access
create the new "temporary storage directory"
copy all current content (recursively) to the new location
remove the old location
create a symlink from the new location to "fake" the original

I didn't try this, but it should work. Like with Link2SD (which uses the same principle for installing apps on SDCards), for the Playstore app this should be "transparent", i.e. it should be fooled into thinking it still works the same way as before :)

Symlink works, but when i was updating Cuth the Rope 2 and checking internal memory size while Play Store was downloading the apk - it was getting lower. So maybe now Play Store doesn't donwload temporary files to /data/local?

@Cyr4x I didn't investigate this lately. You might try monitoring the directory next time to see if stuff still goes there.

I revisited this recently with my rooted phone and I found that the temporary files aren't downloaded to the /data/local directory any more. This was was probably the temporary path for older versions however, as of version 5.8.8 (which I tested with), the files aren't stored in the /data/local directory.

Thanx for the hint, @AlexEssilfie – if you ever figure out where they're going to now (wild guess: /tmp or /data/tmp), would you let us know?


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T-Mobile Prism won't boot
My t-mobile prism, will not turn on. It is unrooted. The only thing that happens is the backlight for the screen comes on and the buttons light up. When I try and boot it into recovery mode. Nothing happens when I press the volume buttons and the power button together. Can anyone help? It's been like this for 2 days, I have left it on and off the charger hours and no change.


text:
Galaxy Note 2: Disable MTP/PTP
When I connect my HTC Sensation (firmware: CM 10) to some PC I need to enter a passcode (to unlock the phone) and explicitly allow mounting as usb drive.
But when I connect SGN2 it enables MTP or PTP without confirmation so, for example, if I ask some guy to charge my phone from his laptop he will immediately gain access to all photos on the phone!
So I wonder how to disable this feature. The configuration dialog allows me to choose which mode to use, not to disable multimedia transfer.

Have you checked your phone's settings? On my LG Optimus 4X I can define a default in Settings->Connections->USB Connection Type, might be your Note has some similar setting.

@Izzy cant find the setting =(

Sorry about that. I also can't find it on all of my devices, only on some. It might be "hidden" in another place (again those "customizations" by manufacturers), though there's no guarantee.

I've rooted the phone just now, will try to find some brutal solution %)

I've probably found the solution:
run the following command as root
setprop persist.sys.usb.config adb

and reboot the phone.
Now my phone doesn't show an "usb connection" notification and "Android File Transfer" (an MTP implementation for MacOS) doesn't see the phone. In the same time adb works fine.

When you say "as root" I presume you mean you had to root the device?


text:
Install Android. v 4.0.4 on a STAR H3000+
I've got mobile "STAR H3000+" (a rip off iPhone5) with Android v4.0.4.
I just wanted to ask if it is possible to install Android v4.2. or newer.
Does anyone know how to do it?

Bootloader unlocked? Rooted? Have you looked around XDA? :)

I don't think so. Most Custom ROMS are developed by users in the XDA forums. Apparently there are no ROMS for Android 4.2.2 for this phone. 3rd party developer support for this phone seems to be rather poor. You won't be able to install Android 4.2.2.


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Non-root backup with multiple users (non-owner or secondary users)
I really did spend some time researching this and was surprised to not find any answers (this great thread doesn't address this problem at all....  I'm trying to recover from my unfortunate situation: I set up a secondary user on my Nexus 7 4.2.2 and my device is not (yet) rooted.  Now I like many others realise that rooting will wipe everything in order to unlock (if I had only read that first), and I'm trying to backup all app data for the secondary user.
When I try to run any adb-based backup on the secondary user, it just hangs and then times out, creating an empty .ab file.  The owner's user account backs up just fine.
Any ideas?  Is the multi user just too new?  I have run into other annoying things with it (no VPN client will connect, can't get into developper settings, can't even change the TIME settings, etc...)
Thanks!

Is the secondary user still set up after a wipe? Or did I understand wrong that you already performed the wipe/unlock? If you didn't do so already, is USB Debugging enabled when you try connecting to the secondary user? Does adb devices list the Nexus?

This is all pre-wipe! Everything is still stock, two users total.  Since I cannot enable USB debugging as the secondary user, I enabled it as the owner.  When I plug in as the secondary user USB Debugging Connected is displayed on the tablet's status bar and I do see my device listed in adb devices - but when I run adb backup... and it says "unlock your device and confirm..." nothing is ever displayed on the tablet.  Again, as owner the message is displayed and the backup works.

Have you authorized that device with ADB? 4.2.2 onwards will ask for an RSA confirmation the first time you connect, and that dialog only opens if you are in the main user. It works across all users after authorized though.

I'm not sure what you mean by authorize outside of the typical adb connection...  When the owner's profile is active, the backup works fine as stated above: the pre-defined encrypted device password is asked for and when entered allows the backup to complete.  Once I switch to the non-owner account, my computer counts it as the device being disconnected and reconnected, and then, as stated, I am never asked for confirmation and adb hangs until it times out leaving an empty .ab file.

If you are on Android 4.2.2 there is a way of unlocking the bootloader without wiping the device. Use towelroot to root your device. (It works on a neuxs 7 as long as you have a kernel build < Jun 3). Afterwards you can use the following app to unlock the bootloader (It doesn't wipe the device). Then you can use titanium backup to backup everything on your device, even when logged in as a secondary user.

It would be helpful to be more explicit in what you're doing, like specific adb commands, although I think I'm running into the same issue.
I believe what's happening in your situation is that you're (unintentionally) taking a backup of the Owner user. Since you are in the secondary user profile, you will not see the prompt to start the backup for the Owner user. So adb hangs waiting for a confirmation that you never see.
An important thing to note is that adb sessions always run in the context of the Owner user. So if you are not passing a user id to the backup process, it will be doing a backup of the Owner profile.

So how does one initiate a backup/restore to a non-Owner profile? It helps to know that the adb backup and restore commands end up executing bu on the system. When you run bu help from the adb shell here's the output I get:
sunfish:/ $ bu help
 backup [-user USER_ID] [-f FILE] [-apk|-noapk] [-obb|-noobb] [-shared|-noshared]
        [-all] [-system|-nosystem] [-keyvalue|-nokeyvalue] [PACKAGE...]
     write an archive of the device's data to FILE [default=backup.adb]
     package list optional if -all/-shared are supplied
     -user: user ID for which to perform the operation (default - system user)
     -apk/-noapk: do/don't back up .apk files (default -noapk)
     -obb/-noobb: do/don't back up .obb files (default -noobb)
     -shared|-noshared: do/don't back up shared storage (default -noshared)
     -all: back up all installed applications
     -system|-nosystem: include system apps in -all (default -system)
     -keyvalue|-nokeyvalue: include apps that perform key/value backups.
         (default -nokeyvalue)
 restore [-user USER_ID] FILE       restore device contents from FILE
     -user: user ID for which to perform the operation (default - system user)

Okay great, so apparently there is a -user option. Great! So now I try running a restore for a secondary user from adb and here's what I get:
$ ./platform-tools/adb restore -user 11 <path to android backup>
WARNING: adb restore is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
adb: restore requires an argument

Okay, maybe its finicky and wants the backup file as the first argument. But this results in the same output. I haven't figured out why adb won't take the -user argument.

But there's another option, we can run bu directly from the adb shell. Unfortunately, I've yet to get this to work either, but I get farther along. I first upload the backup to the Owner profile and run bu from the Owner profile using the adb shell. I know of no way to get an adb shell on a non-Owner profile. This shouldn't be a problem though because that's what the -user argument is for. I've tried two scenarios to no avail.

Run bu -user <uid> <backup file> while logged in to the profile of that uid, in this case uid 11. I see no restore confirmation prompt or anything visually happen. Here are relevant logcat lines:

03-14 17:58:29.286 11753 11753 D AndroidRuntime: Calling main entry com.android.commands.bu.Backup
03-14 17:58:29.288 11753 11753 D bu      : Beginning: restore
03-14 17:58:29.289  1493  1731 I BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] Beginning restore...
03-14 17:58:29.289  1493  1731 D BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] Starting restore confirmation UI, token=30388736403-14 17:58:29.289  1493  1731 I ActivityTaskManager: START u0 {act=fullrest flg=0x20000000 cmp=com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation (has extras)} from uid 1000
03-14 17:58:29.289  1493  1731 W ActivityTaskManager: startActivity called from non-Activity context; forcing Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK for: Intent {act=fullrest flg=0x20800000 cmp=com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation (has extras) }
03-14 17:58:29.293  1493  1731 D BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] Waiting for restore completion...
03-14 17:59:29.388  1493 25093 I BackupManagerService: Full backup/restore timedout waiting for user confirmation
03-14 17:59:29.388  1493  1731 I BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] adb restore processing complete.
03-14 17:59:29.388 11753 11753 D bu      : Finished.

As can be seen, the BackupManagerService knows that I'm requesting a restore of uid 11. Also it says its starting the confirmation UI, even though I see nothing come up. Eventually the requests times out.

Run bu -user <uid> <backup file> while logged in to the Owner profile. Here are relevant logcat lines:

03-14 18:00:39.448 11948 11948 D AndroidRuntime: Calling main entry com.android.commands.bu.Backup
03-14 18:00:39.450 11948 11948 D bu      : Beginning: restore
03-14 18:00:39.451  1493  2786 I BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] Beginning restore...
03-14 18:00:39.451  1493  2786 D BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] Starting restore confirmation UI, token=606614021
03-14 18:00:39.451  1493  2786 I ActivityTaskManager: START u0 {act=fullrest flg=0x20000000 cmp=com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation (has extras)} from uid 1000
03-14 18:00:39.451  1493  2786 W ActivityTaskManager: startActivity called from non-Activity context; forcing Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK for: Intent { act=fullrest flg=0x20800000 cmp=com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation (has extras) }
03-14 18:00:39.459  1493  1994 W ActivityTaskManager: Tried to set launchTime (0) < mLastActivityLaunchTime (22366588)
03-14 18:00:39.462  1493  2786 D BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] Waiting for restore completion...
03-14 18:00:39.572  1493  1757 I ActivityTaskManager: Displayed com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation: +112ms
03-14 18:00:43.431  1493  5565 D BackupManagerService: [UserID:0] acknowledgeAdbBackupOrRestore : token=606614021 allow=true
03-14 18:00:43.432  1493  5565 W BackupManagerService: [UserID:0] Attempted to ack full backup/restore with invalid token
03-14 18:00:46.213  1493  2063 D InputDispatcher: Waiting to send key to Window{200410c u0 com.android.backupconfirm/com.android.backupconfirm.BackupRestoreConfirmation} because there are unprocessed events that may cause focus to change
03-14 18:01:39.563  1493 25093 I BackupManagerService: Full backup/restore timed out waiting for user confirmation
03-14 18:01:39.563  1493  2786 I BackupManagerService: [UserID:11] adb restore processing complete.
03-14 18:01:39.564 11948 11948 D bu      : Finished.

As in the first attempt, we see that the BackupManagerService is trying to do a restore for uid 11. It starts the confirmation UI, which does pop up. I then confirm the restore. But then we see that its uid 0 which confirms the restore and I believe that's why the resulting token is invalid. Makes sense, why should one profile be able to cnofirm the backup/restore of another? (make a little more sense for the Owner profile to be able to do that)
So I think I've hit a roadblock here. I'm not sure how to get the confirmation UI to run in the correct user. I suspect this has (still!) not been tested by the android community, though why have a -user option at all?

Here are some other log messages that may be clues to a way forward:
03-14 18:00:28.422  1493  5597 W WindowManager: Attempted to set replacing window on app token with no content Token{b3c5879 ActivityRecord{23cb9be u0 com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation t1100006}}
03-14 18:00:28.610  1493  2786 I ActivityTaskManager: Activity reported stop, but no longer stopping: ActivityRecord{23cb9be u0 com.android.backupconfirm/.BackupRestoreConfirmation t1100006}
03-14 18:00:37.042  1493  2063 D InputDispatcher: Waiting to send key to Window{6f7d966 u0 com.android.backupconfirm/com.android.backupconfirm.BackupRestoreConfirmation} because there are unprocessed events that may cause focus to change

Did you check whether backupmanager service was running for your user 11? What did dumpsys backup users report? In my Android, backupmamager service was not running for my secondary user account even when such user account was active in the device. Hence, -user didn't work  IMO.

I don't think there is a way short of finding a root enabling exploit. adb backup -apk -shared -all only backs up for user 0 for both /data/user/ and /storage/emulated/ (For non devices without expandable storage). No luck with 4.4 either.

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


text:
Multi-language support packs?
I've purchased my Optimus Net in late 2011. Several languages are supported but not a whole lot of world languages. For instance I would like to add support for Chinese but it's not available from the Options application. Is there a way to upgrade so as to make this language available in the user input and in the interface even though I've got an older phone (I notice that several newer phones in the same price range offer more extensive language support for many more languages including Chinese).
Thanks,
Jason Posit

Have you checked How do I add a new language? Does it help you with your issue? If not, a good idea is to check the other high frequented questions tagged 'languages'. If this still doesn't solve your issue, please update your question and indicate what's missing.


text:
If I have Android can I respond to group messages from iPhone users?
I have Android phone and use Handcent SMS. I have gotten group texts from iPhone users who use iMessage and I can see what everyone is saying, but when I try to respond I only get a loading circle that just keeps spinning and it ends up saving as a draft and doesn't send. Is there a way to fix this?

Related: In a group/mass text message from an iphone to other phones, who sees my reply to the group msg from my android? / iMessage like group messaging / Cannot receive group messages from iPhone users / Can you send texts from iMessage to someone who has Android and uses Handcent?

GoSMS Pro will allow you to group message (including adding pictures) just fine to iPhone users. Just tried it and it works great! Messages come back as single addresses but that is because they are sending via iMessage. All people in the group do get them however. And as an added bonus, you can add GoSMS emoticons so you can send and see emoticon smiley pictures from your iPhone friends!

You can reply to iMessage group chats by using the Android 4.2 stock messaging app, GoSMS or possibly other SMS apps.  I personally used GoSMS until the Android 4.2 added group messaging.  GoSMS worked great, it wasn't perfect, but it did work.  I don't think Handcent supports group messaging.

Your issue seems to be related to sending MMS messages. Can you send picture messages with your carrier's plan?


text:
How to push website links from phone to chrome/other browser?
I can't seem to find an app for this. I have a Samsung Galaxy S3.

And I can't seem to understand what exactly you are looking for. Could you please update your question with an example scenario?

You could click the overflow button (menu) and choose to share the page. Then using an app like Evernote or Catch, sync the data to your desktop PC.
Alternatively, if you use Chrome as your desktop browser - use Phone 2 Google Chrome which uses the above concept. Also, take a look at Android2Cloud which has similar functionality.


text:
WiFi Connection problems Samsung Galaxy S3 mini
I have a Samsung Galaxy s3 mini. The wi-fi is turned on and the phone is not detecting my Trendnet 3G router at home. All my other devices e.g. laptop and BlackBery's are connecting seamlessly with the router, but not the S3 mini. How do I ascertain that the phone's wifi is working correctly. There are no other routers in range to cross reference with those.

Does the Blackberry support creating a wireless hotspot? You could try that and see if your S3-Mini is detecting that. There's also PC software available to create hotspots (as e.g. Connectify for Windows) -- however, they mostly generate ad-hoc networks Android does not natively support connecting, though it should detect them.

Hi Izzy, I am installing connectify. Will keep you updated on outcome. Thank you for your advice.

I have had the exact problem on galaxy s3. Did everything I read on the forums from rebooting phone, router,modify router settings e.t.c. I'll cut to the chase I simply went on the playstore and installed an app called Wi-Fi fixer which resolved the problem straight away and I haven't had any problems since.
Hope this helps


text:
HTC Desire Bravo low memory
It is constantly saying "Phone memory storage space is getting low" after I download app.
Even if I move that app to SD (some apps cannot be moved) it is still low memory, about 18mb of 156mb.
How to solve that problem?

I'd suggest to 1. check the insufficient-memory tag-wiki for "first aid", then 2. check the most frequented questions of that tag (you always can hover your mouse over tags and select "info" for the tag-wiki, or "faq" for most frequented questions on that topic). After that, either update your question with what's still missing, answer your own question if solved, or simply delete it if the same issue was solved in another question already :)

On the same boat, I'd like to point you my answer here, http://android.stackexchange.com/a/14862/8197


text:
Updating Unsuccessful, but Phone memory reduced
I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830i rooted smartphone. I tried to update to the latest firmware update by the default update option in setting menu and it started downloading update file of 26MB. Now during updating it got stuck on 26% and the phone rebooted saying FIRMWARE UPDATE UNSUCCESSFUL.
I guess that it may be because my phone is rooted, but then I checked my phone space and found it reduced to 19 MB from 41 MB.
So what is taking that much space? Please help me free up some phone space.

Most likely the downloaded update-file is still stuck in your internal storage. I'm not sure were exactly it went to, but /data/local is a good guess if it didn't save to your sdcard. You might find some initial help here: Something is secretly eating up my tablet memory and I need help finding it, also check these questions.

/data/local contains only 1 folder /temp which is empty

OK, so that's not the place where "stuff got stuck". Was the other linked question helpful on your search? You might also want to check Android “Internal Storage” used but not reported for more hints on locating "fillers".

I saw it, but still I 'm stuck on.how to solve my problem. As it happened after trying to update the phone I think it because of some file getting unzipped in the internal storage, I am just unable to locate it.

Which is why I was searching the other question for you, which I remembered includes several approaches on locating where the "big stuff" hides.


text:
Contact search in Xperia Z doesn't show all contacts
The contacts system on my Xperia Z doesn't search through all my contacts, for some reason. All of the contacts were imported from my Google account, which has no groups or anything special.
As an example, I have the following contacts:
Antti H*****
Antti J*****
Antti K*****
Antti S*****

Now, if I search for antti, I only get the last two contacts.
The same applies for sending SMS messages. If i compose a new SMS and tap the recipients field and write Antti, it only shows details for the same two contacts as the contact search. For the other two, I have to go to Contacts, scroll to the contact, tap it and then tap the SMS button. The type of the phone number (home, mobile, work...) doesn't affect this.
The contacts work fine otherwise (show up on incoming calls, SMS threads etc.).
It seems that the contacts that do show up are the ones I have on Facebook. However, I can't find any settings that specify which accounts to search.
Is there some setting that I've failed to find?
Oh yeah, everything is stock, but not vanilla.
Edit: Tried searching with Google Now, but that won't find the contacts either.

I was in contact with Sony support, and the problem was in the initial import (or sync) from Google contacts. Something was corrupted, even though no corruption was visible. I got this fixed by:

Exporting the contacts from Google Contacts
Deleting the contacts from the phone
Importing the contacts to Google Contacts
Syncing the contacts from Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> <my Google account> -> Menu -> Sync now
(optional) Removing HaxSync from accounts (or other additional contact syncs)
(optional) Adding HaxSync account

After this all contacts were included in the search.

For me all I had to do was add all contacts I wanted to be able to search to "My contacts" at http://www.google.com/contacts

I've always kept my contacts in the "My contacts" group, but glad to hear you found a suitable solution for you :)

I just got my Xperia Z and the contacts didn't seem to work properly in terms of filtering. The names were there when I scrolled through the list, but not all would show up if I filtered it with, say, the beginning letter. I enabled all ticks in the filter settings menu too.
Finally I figured that the ones not showing up were not assigned any group names like my contacts. They were showing as other contacts in Google contacts when I accessed the server through browser, but shown as undefined group inside android contacts, when I edited any of those contacts.
My solution was to log in to Google contacts server through browser, select other contacts group, click to select all, and add them to a group like say my contacts. Then log out from server. Go to Android Settings → Accounts, and force resync Google contacts by checking and checking the option. Wait for sync to finish. That's it. Now try Android contacts filter and it works properly!!!

Yes: Log with desktop browser, go to "Other contacts" (or any missing group), Select all contacts and click the button right of multiple selection "Add to my contacts": then it syncs on Android. You can only select up to 250 contact, I had to repeat that a lot.

My Son found this fix. Just go to contacts, then click the settings tab at the bottom of the screen, choose "filter", then click all the boxes for your Google account, the Xperia account and Local contacts. Then the search will actually find everything in the phones contacts list. Easy as, but wasn't intuitive for me unfortunately. Another reason to have kids!

I actually checked that, and all my contacts are in one big group under Google contacts, so my problem was different. But glad to hear you got it solved :)

Go to Setting -> Account -> Google -> Account & Privacy -> Search engine storage -> Google Search then Clear Data.

My phone has done this 3 times now. First time I took it to support, but second and 3rd time I managed to recover lost contacst myself. Just go to your contacts, press "view more options"-bar on the right. Choose bring contacts and choose "from sim".

In my case this wouldn't have worked, since I didn't use the SIM card memory at all.


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How to remove pre-installed apps from Xperia E?
I recently bought a Xperia E and since I am not a Facebook user I'd like to remove it from my phone. That also applies for Google+ and other stuff which is installed on my phone by default but I am realy not going to use it so it just consumes my memory and battery.
I tried to go for example to Settings->Apps->Google+ but there is only disable option, not unistall like with manually installed apps.

You might want to check the bloatware tag wiki. Hint: Hovering your mouse over a tag reveals additional information. Behind the 'info' link there you often find additional details and first-aid, while 'faq' brings you to the most frequented (and almost ever most interesting/important) questions for the topic.

If it came pre-installed with your phone then its a system app. You cannot uninstall it (unless you have your phone rooted, which i think you don't have). Best option for you is to disable the app. In this case, the app won't run and won't consume any CPU or battery (if that's your problem). If you are concerned about storage space running out then this won't solve the storage problem.

Ok, so I have to root my phone in order to delete this applications completely?

Yes. Have you followed the link I gave in my comment on your question? All required information can be found there. And as for the term "memory" in Sumit's answer, please replace it with "storage" -- an app which was not started does not consume "memory" (RAM) but just storage :) Besides, as those apps are installed on /system, you won't gain much "storage" removing them (only that occupied by their data, which is stored below /data), as /system during normal operation is read-only.

@Izzy - I wrote my answer more than an year back and now when I read it I kept on wondering how could I write memory in place of storage/ROM :)
Anyways, I edited my answer.


text:
Disabled samsung keyboard- now can't turn on my s3
I am in a weird situation. Few days back (I believe) I disabled samsung keyboard using nobloat app as i use adaptxt all time.
But i have an encryption password and as samsung keyboard is disabled, i cant turn my phone on. I click on the text box for entering the device storage password when it boots, nothing happens (obviously) :(
I will appreciate any ideas or hacks to work around this issue, so that i will be able to use my phone.
Is there a way using command line to restore my keyboard app? I would ideally not want to restore/format my phone.
Thanks!
Also i am travelling and just have my ipad. Any ideas to solve this problem without use of computer will be greatly appreciated!

Do you have USB Debugging enabled on your device? Probably this won't do either as it most likely requires the de-cryption to be done before, but you might be able to do something with adb remotely. If not, the usual last-ressort remains: factory-reset...

I believe usb debugging is enabled.

And do you have the possibility to connect your device via USB to a computer with the SDK (or at least ADB tools) installed? Then you could check whether it is listed with the adb devices command and, if so, you can access it with e.g. adb shell (I doubt this due to the encryption, but who knows: it might ask you for the key there, just a small hope).


text:
Using speech-to-text in text messages
I've got an Android P690. When I go to compose text in a text message I would like to input it via the microphone by using Google's networked speech recognition engine. However when I hold down the search hardware button and speak, and finish speaking, Android opens up a web browser and performs a web search with the spoken text instead of inserting the text in the SMS text box. And when I press the back button the text I spoke is not in the text box either. So my question is, how do I use the microphone to compose an SMS's body?

Sorry, now I see the small microphone icon and globe icon for setting the speech language (keeping the globe pressed allows you to choose which languages to toggle back and forth between) on the soft keyboard that comes up.

If you've solved the problem, accept your own answer (with the little check mark on the left).

@DanHulme That can be done earliest after 2 days for "your own" answers. But yes, user2239505*, please come back in 2 days and accept. This makes it helpful for other "searchers" to identify questions offering workable solutions.


text:
Connect to external device via bluetooth. Who's master/slave?
Quick intro:
We have an external device (it's not android) that we usually connect to PCs via Serial Port->USB converter. But now we want to use also Android tablets to send commands to that external device so we are going to add a bluetooth module that can act as a bridge between the device's Serial Port and Android tablets.
Question
Should we buy a slave bluetooth module or a master one?
The external device is like a "server" that is always working, and the PC/tablet just connects and sends commands to it.
Master means "server" or "client"? It's a bit confusing cause the Android doc uses "server/client" terminology while hardware stores use "master/slave".

As almost all of the "master" BT modules can work also as slave (there are "master/slave" and "slave" modules, but not "master" only) I think master means server or host but I'm not 100% sure.

I think master means server or host but I'm not 100% sure.

It's not correct. For android device, master means client and slave means server.
  Slave device should always [Inquiry Scan] to wait for [Inquiry] which send by master. When slave get [Inquiry], it will send FHS packet to master. And then slave begin to [Page Scan], and master begin to [Page] to slave to complete the connection.

Is it correct that in Android nearby.connections API, the one doing the startAdvertising is the master? And the one doing the startDiscovery is the slave?


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Android ADB drivers installation error
I am trying to install the usb adb drivers. I turned the debugging mode on in the settings of my phone, connected to the PC. I click update drivers and manually selected the folder where the drivers are placed. For some reason the drivers installation fails and Windows gives the following error. Kindly guide me what is going on and how can I solve this issue? I am on windows 7
Drivers Installation error

(click image to enlarge)

Try generic usb drivers, as koush adb drivers. That helped

It sounds like your drivers are fine
Are you trying to use ADB with the Android SDK or are you using it for running commands etc...
If you are using ADB to run commands and ADB isn't installed as a recognized command ( universal installation )
then you'll need to run adb in it's directory.
Unzipping Easy ADB V1.zip will give you a few versions.

Auto Authentication ADB - Used for automatically asking for
authentication.
Normal ADB - Old device's  ... new device's will say Offline without
the authentication.
Fastboot
OPEN ME.bat

Double click on Open Me.bat to start a command window using the desired option, this is a simple batch menu to start a command window in the desired directory, right click and edit it to customize the colors etc....
Make sure your device is recognized as Android Composite Device etc....
And run adb devices from the command window you opened.

If you've chosen the Auto Authentication version, you'll need to accept the connection on your device.

Sometimes you will need to do this on the normal version as well. ( it's just an old version )
Hope this all helps simplify the process ...
Using the SDK
You should only download the entire Software Development Kit if you actually plan on developing software...
It should automatically use the correct directory in Android Studio, without modifications.
I personally use the Easy ADB files - I just slapped the .BAT file together to make easier for beginners to navigate without using cd.

If it is showing the Android Composite ADB Interface, then the driver should already be installed.
What happens if you type the below in the window's command prompt? It should show your device and serial number (assuming the phone is hooked up with USB Debugging enabled, and you are either running adb from the directory it is located in, or it is located within window's preset PATH variable).
adb devices

No it is not installed because windows automatically installed these drivers I don't know from where. So When I uninstall them and click update drivers and manually browse to the folder where the drivers are present, it still gives me errors. I have updated the question

Windows says, adb is not recognized as internal or external command

what should I do now?

You need to have adb on your computer (you can get standalone packages or install the Android SDK). Most likely, you won't have the location setup in your path, so you would have to manually navigate to the directory where adb is installed with the command line. And the drivers shouldn't need to be uninstalled/reinstalled if the computer already properly recognizes the device (which it seems it does).

Without having the Android SDK/Android Development tools(ADT) environment it would be useless to have the ADB USB driver as matter of the fact that the ADB USB drivers are used to connect to Android Devices only through the ADB interface for development/debugging/root purpose .
So as @bass has rightly said about the Android SDK you need to have it installed from this Android developer site.
After you download the SDK you need to install the USB packages from the SDK manager(if you are connecting nexus)/from the OEM site(clueless about which Make or device number you are trying to connect and different OEM have their own Debug driver's) for the Debug USB Drivers.

You don't need a massive software development kit for three files..

Try "Search Automatically for updated driver software" instead of browsing manually. This will check for your connected phone driver online!

Download ADB drivers from here. Extract somewhere. Now, go to Device Manager and select your ADB device. Update Driver Software > Search your Computer > Browse to the folder you extracted and let it install.

That sounds like the steps the questioner already took to get to the error they saw.

Not sure though if he downloaded the same package as the link above. I had problems with different packages on ADB before.

Downloading drivers from a random Mediafire share is certainly a good way to have problems. It's better to stick with an official source, or failing that, a trusted third party such as Koush's drivers.


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Using Tasker to block a specific number
I was wondering if someone could help me with setting up a tasker profile to block an incoming call from a particular number. I've seen tutorials on how to block unknown callers or callers not in my contacts list, but I'd like to be able to specify a small group of numbers that would be blocked. Preferably I'd like to be able to just hang up on these callers, but sending to voicemail would be ok. I don't want the phone to ring or notify me at all of the incoming call. Thanks!

With Tasker you will always get a second or half second of ringing when blocking callers. What kind of phone do you have?

Ah, bummer. I have a Motorola Defy on Republic Wireless.

You can set All calls to voicemail option for a contact to redirect all incoming calls from that contact (even the contact has multiple phone numbers). The exact text for this feature varies from version to version, but the one I said is as in 4.1.2

Enhancing Narayanan's suggestion: create a single contact, and add all unwanted numbers to that. As you probably don't want to call/text that "contact", this would avoid "cluttering" your contact list -- and you don't need a specific Tasker task for that.

Per this link you can create a profile that defaults to phone silence and changes the ringer to not silent when someone you want to take a call from or is not a person you blocked and then when someone you have blocked calls it will answer the call and hangup.
Here is a summary

Create new profile Allow Calls
Add context --> State --> Incoming Call

Specify who to allow calls from (ex. C:FAV (for favorites) or !)
"!" reverses logic (such as is not contact) and 0 can be used for anyone calling from a restricted or unknown number

Add Task --> Audio --> Ringer Volume

select ringer level (7 is highest)

Add Exit Task --> Audio --> Ringer Volume

select ringer level 0 (to silence the ringer once the phone call is done)

Create new profile Blocked calls
Add context --> State --> Incoming Call

Specify who to block (ex. !C:FAV (is not on favorites)  "0")

Add Task --> Phone --> Take Call
Add Task --> Phone --> End Call

This should allow your phone to ring when a favorite is calling and pickup and hang up on someone you wish not to talk to without you even knowing.

I tried to set up this mechanism on my phone but unfortunately the "Add Task --> Phone --> End Call" step will no longer work for me unless I run a specified ADB command sequence after each reboot, according to my phone. Is there an alternative? Rob


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Security lock pattern
My son playing with my phone used up the number of times the lock pattern allows. Now my phone is locked. I use a Gionee Dual sim phone with 4.1 Jelly Bean. Any suggestion???

Yupp: See the locked-out tag-wiki for first aid -- or directly jump to Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection?. (hint: hovering your mouse over tags reveals useful hints, and behind the 'info' tag there, you often find first-aid)

if you have USB debugging enabled already you could disable the lockscreen with:
adb shell
cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
sqlite3 settings.db
update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
.quit

Reboot, and then:
adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key

Reboot one more time.
If you don't have USB debugging already enabled there is no way to use this.
Source


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Setting "phone ringing" sound for outgoing calls
When I place a call I hear the traditional rotary dial phone ringing sound until the person at the other end, whose ringtone most likely is completely different, answers. What I was wondering is, can I set a ringtone for the person placing the call to hear until the other party answers? If so, can such "ringtone" be set differently for every person called?

The sound someone hears when they call a phone is dependent on the person they are calling. This is why, no matter where in the world you are, when you call a US number, you get the US "ringing" tone, whereas if you call a European number, you get the European "ringing".
The providers of the person you are calling are what provides the ringing tone. Some carriers, like Verizon, offer the ability for you to set tones for others to hear, usually for an added monthly fee. Verizon would essentially answer the call and play the music while it continues to try and reach you. Once you answer (or it is sent to voicemail), then the music would end and Verizon would connect the call on their end. This might be manageable on the phoen via an app from Verizon, but you would be changing their settings for your phone number that is stored on their servers.
Nothing locally on the phone is capable of changing what the incoming caller will hear for a ringtone.

I believe what you're asking about are similar to the Verizon ringback tones, right?  Ringback tones are not set from a phone level, they are a feature added and managed by the carrier.  Your wireless carrier could probably change it for you, but there is no way you could manage it all from your phone.  I know Verizon offers ringback tones, if that's the feature you're looking for you could ask about that.
Would be a cool feature, if it were possible.


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How can I take a screenshot on my Samsung Galaxy Fit?
I can't find how to take screen shot on my Samsung Galaxy Fit device. I noticed that it took some screenshots and I do not know how it happened. By installing third party app it works, but I do not want to do this because they run their services in the background.
Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated.

I've rolled back your edit because it served no obvious purpose. Proper nouns (such as "Samsung Galaxy Fit" and the pronoun "I") are capitalized in standard English. Your edit took a grammatically correct one and made it incorrect without adding anything.

Home + Power
--or--
Home + Back


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GPS and icons on the Android notification bar
I've read that the phone can use GPS, and if not Wi-Fi, and if not cellular triangulation to determine your location. How do I check what the phone thinks my location is?
Also, how come I am not seeing the image of the GPS satellite on the notifications slideout bar at the top of the phone alongside the signal, the Wi-Fi icon, and the circle with four line segments in the shape of a target (which I have yet to figure out what it stands for). Does it mean GPS reception is bad in my city or do I have to somehow enable GPS in some way?

To see what the device thinks is your current location, you can simply open the pre-installed maps/navigation app (if there is any; usually Google Maps comes pre-installed). If there is none pre-installed, simply install one from the playstore. Or check another GPS tool like e.g. GPS Status & Toolbox if you don't need a full-fledged "maps & navigation" app.
As for the status icon: this will only show when GPS is used (and not only "available"), i.e. when some app is accessing GPS to determine your current location. It has nothing to do with reception quality -- which, in case of GPS, is rarely location-dependent, but rather depends on other conditions such as clouds, trees, high buildings (all things which hinder the free view to the satellites).

Thanks for the suggestion, today I'm inside a medium sized-skyscraper, and the sky is a little bit cloudy. I've downloaded GPS Status and Toolbox and it keeps saying "Looking for GPS location...". I've even tried putting the phone out of the window but no luck. Any ideas of how to get it to work? Thanks, Jason Posit

The first fix can take a little time, aspecially under difficult conditions as you describe. With the help of network sources (AGPS), this can be sped up a little. To make sure it's not your device having trouble (radio-firmware), I'd first try under conditions as optimal as possible. If you can't go to an "open field", you might at least go on the roof, and chose a time with no or only few/light clouds. Try to make the conditions as good as you can: optimal would be no clouds and 360° free sky view. You can also check logcat for possible error messages.

Thanks, I'll go to the roof on a sunny day and check it out, then I'll post back here. How do I check logcat? Thanks, Jason Posit

Depends on your Android version. If 4.0 and below, aLogcat would be a good choice. With JB I don't know which app still has access to the full logs without root.


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New Galaxy Tab 2 10" backlight doesn't stay lit during use
We are definitely newbies - can someone help?  We will be in full use of the tablet and the light goes dim.  It can happen shortly after we've turned it on, or it can be hours after play.  Doesn't seem right.  I have until tomorrow to return/exchange tablet, but my son has been leveling up in games that he doesn't want to lose.  Can we move the memory to a new one if we change it out?  How?  Or can we do something to fix it?  Thank you!!

As for the "levels", you might want to start with our backup tag-wiki, which sums up available methods (and related questions with good answers). Concerning the screen, please take a look at our screen timeout questions. After that, you probably want to update your question to make it more precise -- once you know what it's all about, rawly :)


text:
Why does the new Chrome update want the permission to use my camera and audio recording?
Seriously, it specifically states that it can use the camera and audio recording any time it wants, whether or not I wish it to. Why is Chrome on Android requesting those permissions?
Should I be concerned?

(Emphasis my own.)

Compared to all the other stuff Google already knows about you, it is like being concerned about a particular lava current while being inside a volcano. But, if I were you, I would just root my phone and install something like Permissions Denied or Pdroid.

That doesn't sounds like a good question for a stackexchange site. If you don't trust the company/software then don't use it. There are plenty of good and open source alternative browsers for Android. Otherwise you just have to trust that they don't mess around with their permissions. I think that Chrome is requesting the A/V permissions because  of recent changes regarding Chrome and webRTC.

@Flow: OK, thought you were editing for style. Feel free to revert to yours.

I thought the edit message was pretty clear :(

Hah, like I read edit messages. :)

The lesson here is: Good developers include information about why their app is requesting the permissions it is.

The Chrome page in the app store says this about the new permissions:

This version requests two new permissions, Camera and Modify Audio Settings, to support WebRTC, an experimental feature under development.

WebRTC itself is designed to expose your camera and mic to the browser, so that web-apps can implement video-conferencing and other multimedia solutions in-browser.
The WebRTC people have at least nominally considered the privacy implications, by adding an info-bar to Chrome:

Chrome on Windows is said to have access to your camera and mic. So if you use Chrome on Windows (and soon Firefox too) then you are implicitly trusting the vendor of those programs to not take pictures of you when you don't authorize it. The same is true for Android. One hopes that they don't introduce security flaws that allow unauthorized access to the camera/mic by malicious websites.
As to what you can do about it, on a rooted phone you can uninstall Chrome or install a permissions-control app that denies permissions to installed apps. You can switch to a different browser that doesn't support WebRTC. Otherwise you're stuck with what Android provides. If you decide that you trust Microsoft or Apple more than Google, you can switch. Or maybe you trust an open-source Android variant like Cyanogenmod. For myself I consider the fact that Google already has a bunch of apps on my phone which have access to my camera and mic, so if Google wanted to spy on me they already can. Heck, they could build that right into the OS and just not tell anyone.
Google Apps that can access the camera/mic:

Search
Voice Search
Plus
Translate
Drive
Shopper
Goggles
Youtube Remote
Youtube

Not to mention the camera app which is built-in to the phone.
Edit: The question was updated with a screenshot of what the phone shows when you are prompted to update the app. Unfortunately at this time there doesn't seem to be a way for app developers to document why they need particular permissions, except in external sources. For example, this Chrome update states why it needs the permission in the "What's New" page. However, if you don't look there and just see the scary warning, you are left wondering what is going on. As an app developer I wish we could add help text to the permissions page to explain to the user why we need the permissions and how the privacy policy protects the user. Google could certainly make this more usable and less scary.

I don't really count the stock camera as a "Google app" since it is included in the AOSP and I can verify (by looking at its source) that it isn't doing anything malicious, unlike the rest of these google apps. Anywhoo thanks for the great answer =).

@Tim you're assuming that the stock camera app's AOSP code corresponds to what is shipped. It might be the case for Nexus devices, I suppose. Actually other phones are known to have modified camera apps and if they're spying on you it's probably for Samsung, Sony, et al. :)

right but at that point then it is also no longer a Google App, because it is Sony app, or Samsung app.

Great answer. I don't know why Android apps can't be a bit more dynamic in their permissions... WebRTC appears to be an extra (optional) feature that not everyone will use. Why can't permissions be requested at the time that extra feature is first activated, with perhaps just an advisory notice when the app is installed that more permissions are required in order to make full use of the app? I'm not an app developer, but I guess "it doesn't work like that"...?

@w3d: Agreed. The question is, why are permissions forced upon you: why aren't we allowed to grant or deny permissions as we see fit? The logic "take it or leave it" is severely flawed. That's what 19th-century factories said to their workers. An ethical company, and organisations founded to protect consumers, are supposed to act against this.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 One thing is missing from your otherwise OK answer: in all practicality, the problem is not so much that Google will spy on your, but rather that the browser is far more vulnerable to outside abuse than the other applications! Websites abuse vulnerabilities of browsers all the time. The camera application does not access tons of external websites on the Internet. Nor do any of those other applications. No, this is truly bad. Luckily, the risk can be lowered by just not using Chrome. The stock browser is better anyway, since it has Quick Controls and Flash.

@Cerberus: Slight snag, on later Nexus devices Chrome is the stock browser.

@w3d: Right, well, but we still indicate the old browser as "the stock browser" for lack of a better name, don't we? Even if it does not come pre-installed on the Nexus 4 any more. At any rate, you can still use a different browser and make it the default for everything.

@Cerberus I did mention that I hoped that they didn't introduce any security flaws in the browser. Anyway I'm fairly sure that they will make the user interface fire webrtc similar to the one for web geo location, where the browser requests permission before activating the camera. It shouldn't be too hard.

@Mr.ShinyandNew: I suppose that would be the best solution in the current situation...still, the user should be able to set permission per application. Make it an advanced, secret, rooted function if you're so scared of ignorant users doing it by mistake (there is really no excuse for not including it, none at all).

The idea about permissions on Android is that they can be distributed between different Manifests (apk's), which then can communicate between each other via IPC (Intents/Binder/...). Every apk can provide a given functionally with the permission(s) it has been granted. The user is then free to install a component of the app or not, which comes down to accepting a certain permission and getting the features the permission makes possible. But this approach is not very common with app developers.

@flow I wonder how well putting the web rtc functionality into a separate app would work for chrome. Sure, in principle apps can cooperate to share data but this typically involves leaving one shop to invoke the other. So, for example, if chrome just wants to allow photo uploads it can defer to the camera app via an intent. But to do in-page video conferencing using JavaScript? I doubt that would work.

Android has a very efficient mechanism, called Binder, for IPC. But you are right, Intents are not suitable for such a job.

+1 for the description about webRTC. I just want to add about permissions (Dev POV) is that they are to help the users, not the developers. Devs would love dynamic permissions. But it'll open many security loopholes. Static permission tells user that what access the app can ever have in it's lifetime, unless it gets updated with new permissions. So I'd extremely oppose any dynamic permission feature.


text:
What data will be lost if I update my phone (WT19i)?
I have this WT19i (currently on ICS). I use a phone lock (it was pattern lock). My friend tried 20 times and it made the phone go to only accepting answers to my security questions. Unfortunately I am unable to remember the answers.
I browsed and found out that I have to update the phone to be able to unlock it. I don't think I ever did backup my data. It said my personal data will be lost after the update. What kind of data is that will be lost?

Most likely all of your data on your phone. Could you possibly go in to your google account, change your security question answers and then unlock your device?

"Update"? Do you mean "reset"?

Before acting too early: I just added the 'locked-out' tag to your question. Please check its tag wiki for some first-aid, you might still be able to get away without a reset.


text:
Rooting Desire permanently
If I root my Desire permanently  can I reset it to default manufacturers settings by installing official android version?

Whenever you root your device, you are adding root access to the current OS. If you just perform the Factory Reset, it will retain root (as this just deletes user data), but if you restore the stock image, it will completely wipe the OS and will put the system back as HTC intended it (which would remove root). You would then need to re-root the device.

Note that if you replace the original recovery with clockworkmod (or some other recovery), that will not get restored if you flash the original image. If you are trying to restore your phone in order to get warranty service done (for example), you'll have to find an image for the original recovery along with the original rom.

This depends on the manufacturer. I know with previous HTC devices, when you use the RUU, it will completely replace the phone's software including the recovery. Also, if you replace the system image, most OSs will automatically restore the stock recovery on every boot unless you modify the OS to prevent it.

That's what Stephen was referring to with "original recovery along with the original rom". Sometimes both are bundled, sometimes not.

what is stock image exactly?

The stock image is basically a snapshot of the system as HTC intends it to be. This will either be an image file of the exact OS/version that was shipped with your phone, or sometimes they will release newer images from updated versions they've put out.


text:
Could not turn wifi on
I just installed 9 and 10 version of CyanogenMod on my Xperia mini pro (downloaded from http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=stable&device=mango), but I could not turn the wi-fi on. Version 9 is stable version. What is wrong?
Does the method of ROM installing have any influence on the issue?

Might be compatibility issues with the radio image version. Or a known bug in CM. The official CM wiki does not list the mini pro -- so it is most likely a port from another device, which might cause some issues. You need to check the documentation where you got the images from (XDA?).


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Email rejected by Yahoo! but Android's Mail app keeps trying to resend
I am using Android's Mail app on my Motorola DROID RAZR M for my Yahoo! account.  Last week, I tried to "reply to all" on an email that was sent to over 100 people and Yahoo! rejected it, claiming it was suspicious activity. That's okay, but the email is kept being resent. Every few minutes I get an error message on my phone saying that the email was not sent.
What I have tried:

I deleted it from the drafts folder in my Yahoo! account, but that didn't help.
I see the message in the "Outbox" but I can't do anything to it there. When I touch it, I get a message saying "Cannot open message. Message is currently being sent and is unable to be opened."
I stopped the app from running but it still won't let me do a/t to the email in the outbox.

How do I get my Razr to stop trying to resend the email?

Your emails might be set up as "auto resend". Go into email options, and select none.

Based on the asker's (now deleted) comment:

I turned off mobile data and WiFi and then I was able to delete the email from the outbox. Looks like this worked.

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


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Problems with the Clock
The clock on my lock screen is showing the correct time but the clock in the upper right hand corner is an hour behind how can i fix this?

what kind of phone? What version of Android?

Who is your carrier? Please edit your question to include this information.

Could you provide the settings for Date & Time regarding "Automatic, network provided time" and "Automatic time zone"? I suspect the lockscreen ignores them, leaving the status bar clock to be incorrectly set, and the lockscreen to portray correct time.


text:
Enable Location Services via Remote Control
I always disable (Google) Location Services on my phone because they are always drain a lot battery (probably because my mobile Internet is very slow). But in case I lose my phone I can't use any Phone-Lost tools, because they need it...
Is there a way to enable the location Services remotely?
Any better alternatives for me?

Same problem, but it's not enough to turn the location ON remotely, you first need to turn internet/data's ON. Google "finds my device" needs both, it should do it by itself, but I'm afraid it doesn't.

I think Cerebus (paid, but they do free promotions from time to time) can activate location services remotely on Android 2.3+, but only if you have root.
Alternatively, if you just want to enable GPS via SMS, you can look into AutomateIt (free) or Tasker (paid), they also need root on 2.3+ though

Cerebus doesn't do it (got a free promotion some time ago), AutomateIt and Tasker might work I've 4.2.2 with Root :)

About cerberus, did you try to install it as a system app as per the FAQ?
`- Uninstall Cerberus from your device

Download Cerberus.apk and put the file on your sd card
Open a terminal emulator and execute:

su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp /sdcard/Cerberus.apk /system/app/
chmod 644 /system/app/Cerberus.apk`

I found that lost Android devices operate using Google Play Services with the phone's background data. It seems to locate my phone using GPS, network, or WiFi even when GPS is off, but won't work if I have restricted the background data under the data manager settings on the phone.
I used active GPS hoping it would allow my GPS to work, but I'm not sure it's made a difference.
Air Droid connects straight to my phone. Seems to use more battery but does okay locating the phone. I was also looking at adding a task manager to see if I could activate the GPS remotely. Still checking it out.
I found PingBot SMS - GPS Tracker which is supposed to briefly enable GPS when a keyword you set is received by text. It seems to work on my phone.
Out of all of this, just making sure the phone background data is unrestricted was most effective. You can also use Where's My Droid.

According to the reviews Wheres My Droid seems to be quite useless...

On Samsung devices, you can use Find My Mobile which will turn on the GPS if it is off.

Xiaomi/redmi does it too (at least on miui 11)


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can't remove persistent android widget (accuweather.com)
I am facing an annoying problem due to the widget called "accuweather.com". It pops up while I'm using applications on my phone (Samsung galaxy s2 with gingerbread 2.3.5). I can't uninstall it because the option isn't there, it is not a "downloaded" app but appears on the screen of all applications. When opening it there is an option to stop it (it runs as a service) but not to uninstall it, and shortly after stopping it, it would run again.
It is really like a malware and preventing me from using my phone propely. Please help, thanks.

It sounds more like a notification or possibly toast message rather than a widget (which simply lives on the home screen). Have you tried going into the app to see if it has any options for notifications?

Just to make sure: Do you have AccuWeather installed? And what does that popup say? Is it a simple text-line stating something like "weather update successful", or something else? A screenshot might be helpful.

As Izzy said, can you post a screen shot?

I think it is a recent Accuweather update that displays the weather when you go back on your home menu. It's really annoying as when you click on the "home" button, it brings you back to that page and not the actual menu, which means you can't navigate between applications without clicking the back button all the way.
I think I may have fixed it the brute force way, however. I don't care about the Accuweather app, so I just went in the Setting->Applications->All menu and deactivated Accuweather altogether. You get a warning message telling you that deactivating built-in apps may interfere with other applications, but I hardly think that Accuweather is necessary for your phone to work.

as you said, some of the apps cannot be uninstalled since it comes preloaded with the Samsung phone itself.
The other way to calm down an annoying app is to clear its data.
Goto :: Home -> Settings -> Applications -> All -> App Name (in this case, accuweather) -> Clear Data.
Wait for a day. if this solves the problem, then try using this app as usual.


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Clear memory and recent task automatically after an app is closed using Tasker
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3 on Android 4.1.2 JellyBean. I would want to create a profile which clears memory and recent tasks when an app is closed (example: Chrome).
Is it possible to do it without root access?

What do you mean clear "memory" and "recent tasks"? Do you mean history and cookies/cache?

Sorry for not beeing clear! I want it to clear ram memory and close recent apps!

There is not a way to clear recent tasks without root(possibly at all) but in theory you could clear memory by killing all apps on app close. I can provide an answer for that if you like.

Yeah it would be great thanks! I have on other small question ... i've made a pop up when i launch chrome to ask me if i want to load some tabs. I'd like to specify that i want it to show only on app launch not every time the app is "loaded", it's kind of annoying because if i press the home button and do something on the homescreen's and get back into the app it pop's up again!

I use Clean Master for this.
You can invoke separate parts of by holding the clean master button when using the launch app function.
then I used this booster
and I used this process cleaner

I know this works because I have an app that crashes on startup if there is insufficient RAM. When I use this it never crashes.
I hope it helps, even after two years.

I use Advanced Task Manager and Auto-Shortcut in Tasker to Kill apps.
For your other question, you could create a variable "%Chrome=1" the first time you launch it, and only pop up the menu if the variable is set. On exit, wait a couple minutes then clear %Chrome again.

To clear ram memory You can use Greenify. It also supports non rooted phone.
Few things from the app description:

Unlike the "Freeze" feature in "TitaniumBackup Pro" that totally
disable the app, you can still use your app as usual, share content
with it. No need to freeze & defrozen it.
Unlike "Autostarts", you can benefit from almost all of its
advantages, without needing to deal with the complexity and risk of
obscure app components, and never lose functionality when app is
actively running.
Unlike any "XXX Task Killer", your device will never fall into the
cat-mouse-game of stealthy-running and aggressive killing, which
unnecessarily consumes more battery juice.