text:
Recover Hangouts data using Android File Transfer
My nexus 5's screen just went black :( ... In the past days I noticed a bit of flickering and was planning to do a full phone backup, but didn't get to it on time.
Luckily, I removed the passcode (just in case) and that allowed me to connect the phone to my mac and back up basically everything using Android File Transfer.
The only thing I haven't got to are the text messages and images stored in the Hangouts app. I know I could use something like this, bud sadly my phone's screen is completely black.
I can't seem to find them in the filesystem,

and the SMSBackupRestore is from a previous backup.
Is there a way to get all of the texts and images directly to my mac using Android File Transfer?
I found online a bunch of links (listed below), but they all seem to require to install a program on the mac (which I most definitively do not want to do):

http://www.androidphonesoft.com/resources/backup-sms-from-android-to-pc.html
http://www.android-file-manager.com/resources/transfer-text-messages-from-android-to-computer.html
https://www.recovery-android.com/transfer-sms-from-android-to-computer.html
https://www.mobikin.com/android-backup/transfer-text-messages-from-android-to-computer.html
https://drfone.wondershare.com/message/recover-messages-from-broken-android.html

Afraid not, as the relevant data are stored in the app's private area you only can access with root powers. With a totally blank screen, adb backup is out of the question as you'd have to confirm that on your device's screen.

@Izzy - Thanks for your reply. Have you ever heard or used any of the recommended programs i listed in the question?

I'm not a Mac guy; but recovery-android.com links often turned up as spam here. Got the same feeling about wondershare, but cannot tell for sure. The others I've not even heard of.

Unless I am completely off-base here, doesn't using Hangouts for SMS/IM's back that up on Google's end anyways, so if you get a new/replacement device and login to Google/Hangouts, everything should be there already?

@RMarkwald - I'm not sure, are you suggesting that all the conversations would be loaded automatically by syncing my gmail account to the new device? I know this happens for contacts but not aware of hangouts. Can anyone confirm?

@Matteo I used to have a Nexus 6 on Project Fi, and then switch to a carrier (Verizon) and logged into Google, opened Hangouts, and was able to send/receive texts from that, and the conversations were there (both on phone and via web browser on computer).


text:
No Bluetooth on CM12.1
  I recently updated my phone (using a custom ROM), and it appears to be that my phone now doesn't have bluetooth.
Well, it do have a bluetooth radio, and that Bluetooth.apk on /system/app, but when I turn the bluetooth on, it doesn't do anything; I mean, it just immediately turn itself off everytime I turn it on.
My phone is Samsung Galaxy Core Prime SM-G360HU, running Android 5.1 Lollipop  with CM 12 / 12.1 (I can't remember; I'll update this one ...) and TWRP Recovery installed.  It is, of course, rooted.
Upon Googling, it only suggests things about Bluetooth Audio (which I am not looking for ...), and how to fix them.
I've done a bit research, and found out that newer versions of CyanogenMod ROMs come with an unfixable bluetooth.
Should I install a different type of ROM (such as Resurrection Remix), or should I go installing the stock ROM?
Please HELP!

Update (1) :
The ROM that my phone is using is CM12.1

UPDATE (2) :
So, the link (outdated) for the quick patches is now dead.  Luckily, I still have the file.
Here is the updated download link.

This seems to be a known problem when using
[ROM][5.1.1][SM-G360H/HU] CyanogenMod 12.1 for Samsung Galaxy Core Prime
The original developer >>doesntexits<< already knew this and provided a flashable zip file which seems to fix problems related to bluetooth.

This flashable zip file has to be downloaded and installed through the recovery.

all this information can be obtained from the original post on XDA-Forums

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Locate Mails of k9-mail
Unfortuantely I lost mails on my Desktop and I'm now trying to restore them from my phone. k9-mail shows them all, but I can't find an mbox file or something similar to reimport them into Thundebird.
Does anyone know where exactly k9-mail stores its local mails?

Is your device rooted? If not, I'd try with an adb backup for the k9 package, and then analyze its contents. Mails are most likely stored within the app data directory, my guess would be a database. Cannot check currently, as I'm not at my desk.

no its not rooted. it worked with adb backup, here's the description (just the first two steps to make it a .tar is enough): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2011811
they are not saved as simple mbox files though, it's a SQLite db

So my guess was correct (and yes, I know that 2-step tar conversion, which is what I had in mind). So then it's a question now on how to extract your mails and convert them into a format Thunderbird can read.

right. So make it an answer and I can mark this question as solved

Isn't there a detail missing? I just explained where to find the mails, but not how to make them available in a "standard format". Missing the details for that :) Being at my desk again, I've checked with one of those databases – and couldn't see an easy approach, as a single message is split across multiple tables and columns. So I can put an answer to "where does k9 store its mails", but had to skip on "how to convert them to mbox". Would that be acceptable?

Well, I can navigate through them with sqlitebrowser. for now thats good and its a technical task to write a script to convert them into an mbox file... Would be glad, of course, if that has been done before...

K9 stores mails with its own app data, so you cannot access them without root except through the app. However, you can indirectly get hold on that creating an ADB backup (without password!) and converting that into a tar archive:
adb backup -f k9mail.ab com.fsck.k9
ab2tar k9mail.ab

ab2tar is a small helper script you can find in the tools/ directory of my little program Adebar (free, open-source; based on Bash and ADB). Alternative approaches for this conversion can also be found at XDA: What is an android adb backup?.
That done, extract the tarball and navigate into its apps/com.fsck.k9/db/ directory. Here you will find one or more .db files (one per mail account), which are SQLite files you can explore with apps like SQLiteman or SQLiteBrowser.
Mail headers and contents are spread across multiple tables and columns, so I cannot offer you an easy way to convert them into e.g. mbox format. On a "quick duck" (a search with DuckDuckGo) I found that question asked multiple times – but the closest and most precise answer was "you could to that in Python" (of course, without instructions). Still, as requested by you, the first steps as answer: At least you can browse your mails that way using a proper SQLite browser ;)

I can't backup com.fsck.k9, because it doesn't exist. Is K-9 storing the data now somewhere else? If yes - where?

I can 'adb shell' into 'data/data' and if I run 'ls' I get permission denied. I can however cd into com.fsck.k9, but how to continue from there on?

Without root powers, there's not much you can do inside /data/data. And if com.fsck.k9 does not exist, how comes you can "cd into it"? That contradicts each other. Also, no idea why you "cd into" and what you expect to do there: adb backup is invoked from a connected computer, not on the Android device.

That it doesn't exist was my first impression, because even 'adb backup -all' didn't backup that directory. As far as I understood it, adb backup is backing up the data from data/data or isn't it? What's interesting is that I can cd into '/data/data/com.fsck.k9' (which is not included in the tar-file), but I can't do it for packages that are backed up into that tar file.

Apps can opt-out of ADB backups. In that case, you need root powers to back them up (e.g. with Titanium Backup, or the new root-based backup scripts in Adebar's tools/ directory. And yes, /data/data/<packageName> is one of the things adb backup backs up, but not the only. If you study the scripts I've just mentioned you'll see there's more involved.

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


text:
Why are some emoji not displayed?
I am wondering, on what does it depend which emoji are available on which system? I was using an emoji from the Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs code page and it displays on OSX, but not on Android. Looking at the chart from the Wiki article, I can see that it displays in full on OSX, but only some of the emoji are visible on Android Nougat.
Why is that?

It depends on the NotoColorEmoji.ttf font file you have installed. If that file doesn't include a glyph for the Unicode code point you want, it can't show it. Here's an SO post about fonts and glyphs:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3582944/how-does-a-unicode-character-get-mapped-to-a-glyph-in-a-font
This reddit post talks about replacing your system's NotoColorEmoji.ttf font file with one that includes EmojiOne emojis:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/3xezb9/emojione_on_android/


text:
Files and folders in USB drive lost after connecting to Android phone!
I have been using a Kingston 32GB OTG USB device (pic-1) on my Samsung J1 Ace, for some time now. Today I plugged it to the phone and moved several folders to the USB drive. Then I plugged it to my laptop. But all the old files and folders in the USB were lost, except for those folders that were moved from the phone.
I have posted a screenshot (pic-2) of how the folder looks like when the USB pen drive is opened from the laptop (it’s the same when opened from the phone as well).
Can someone please explain what happened and how to recover the folders (hopefully)?

pic-1

pic-2

All your data seem lost or corrupted. Improper removal of drives could cause data corruption, or in worse cases, put the integrity of your drive at risk.
We need to consider three different protocols your drive may use when connecting to your computer. Two of them don’t need to be ejected at all: MTP protocol and PTP protocol.
But If your drive  connects using the
USB Mass Storage protocol then it should ideally be ejected, this applies even if you’re not actually using the device at the time.
The reason is because operating systems use a process called write caching . The operating system doesn’t always write a file to a drive immediately, but instead caches it and waits until it has multiple write operations to complete.
Doing these all at once improves performance, but if the cache is still full when you remove the drive, your data will become corrupted. Clicking the Eject button causes the cache to be emptied and any remaining data to be written to the drive.
That’s the reason why there’s often a delay of several seconds between ejecting the drive and being notified that it’s safe to remove it.
Your data can be recovered partially or in integrity using file recovery softwares. Try Recuva, Puran File Recovery, File Scavenger or get a complete non-exhaustive list from here.
Good luck.

this problem accure when you connect a flash to android device.
android phone partitionized your usb device and format it.
then your usb is proper for working in phone.
but problem is your perevious data lost due to formating.
you should recover it by recover software if possible.

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


text:
google play services crashing on login attempt
I have a Moto E gen1 and android 5.1 installed on it.
After factory reset , google play services crashes every time, whenever i try to login to my account. Apart from this login problem everything is working smoothly.

Try clearing the data for it again, or upgrading it by sideloading a newer APK.

Maybe just try to go in developers mode
Google service, google+, app store etc stopped working
I tried all the recommendation to clear cache, etc etc and after the factory reset still getting the error. What finally worked for me is going to Developers mode (easy to do, search how to for you phone in google).
I bet some developer tested something and push his code to PROD without testing real user mode. Once I did, the error magically disappeared.


text:
I need detailed instruction on how to recover a ZTE z828 lt from soft brick caused by Kingo root!
I need detailed instruction on how to recover a ZTE z828tl  from soft brick caused by Kingo root!
I bought this “simple mobile ZTE Midnight pro LTE” off eBay, and simple won't unlock it, so I can use it with anyone else, so I was playing with KingoRoot trying to root it, the computer version said root complete please donate, the phone rebooted into boot loop, I can access the stock recovery screen, but can't do a factory reset, and I can get to ftn!!!
Please help, I am a newbie to android, cell phones, but have messed with tablets for years, and usually can get a factory ROM restore for flashing, but this time I've searched all over without any luck..
Thanks.

I did the same thing as you and ended up in a boot loop but then I wiped the cache when I entered recovery And then restarted phone, let it boot up for a while then it restarted on its own.  I immediately did the button combo for recovery again and then did a factory reset.  I downloaded SuperSU and was still rooted. Hope this works for you.  Please let us know.

so basically MTND G you did a factory reset installed SU right after and you was good?

To be more precise.  No. I wiped the cache.  Then let phone bootloop a few times and THEN did a factory reset.  Phone booted normally then I downloaded and installed SU and all was good.

Try installing ADB and then going to FASTBOOT MODE inside of your phone or tablet.
Please download the the .img file for your version of android and device specific.
------Commands------
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flash (.img file location)
fastboot reboot
that should fix it just setup your phone again!

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


text:
does ATT ZTE Z831 Android disable the internal storage option
My son just got the  ATT ZTE Z831 Android and I am putting in a 32GB sd card. I was wondering if this phone has an internal storage option.

not by design. see SuperThomasLab's answer here (sm partition disk...) to trick it. "mixed 50" corrupted my card (YMMV), but assigning the whole card to internal seems to have worked for me. open the card when you're done and tap "migrate data." card will no longer work as a portable (unless you reformat it as such).


text:
Rear camera not working
My phone is an HTC Desire 816G dual sim and it's not rooted. My rear camera doesn't work. I dropped my phone on the carpet. Since then, it stopped working. Whenever I open any camera app, it shows the front camera and doesn't have the option to switch the camera to the rear. Even the flashlight app won't work.
Tried another camera app, tried to clear the cache, and rebooted the phone several times, but no luck. I read in some posts that the issue is with hardware and even resetting the phone won't work.
Is there any other solution?

It's quite obvious now that you should go consult repairs. Quite possibly it's only the camera module connector that broke loose, so a quick disassembly might just do the job.

I had a similar problem, and after a month-long research, I now realize it was my secondary camera's cable that was disconnected.
But now I am able to use the flashlight function normally when I have determined that my damaged secondary camera is the root cause of my inability to turn on the camera.
And this was when this problem first started, the flashlight would not turn on.
Thank you for providing a similar experience, which helps me determine the probability of the cause of the problem.


text:
I need to connect my samsung tablet to my laptop to use it as a drawing pad but it is not working
I need to connect my tablet to my ASUS computer but it is not working.  I've tried a usb port but it still doesn't work.  Please don't ignore this text and please awnser it.*

You can't just connect a device and expect it to do whatever you want ! The device must be designed to do such a thing. You should need drivers and even software ro make it possible.

GfxTablet shall make it possible to use your Android  tablets like a graphics tablet using the network instead of USB.
It consists of two components: The Android app and the input drivers for your computer.
The driver creates a virtual "network tablet" on your PC that is controlled by your Android device.
The GfxTablet app sends motions and touch events via UDP to a specified host on port 40118.
So, you can use your Android tablet or smartphone to control the PC and, for instance
use GIMP (Image Manipulation Program) with your Android tablet as a graphics tablet (even pressure-sensitive, if your hardware supports it).
Check the Homepage.

Cool stuff, never knew it's actually possible. Linux only, though... Still, +1


text:
android vpn allow connection dialog
I sometimes use light screen manipulating apps on my galaxy s4(such as twilight app,...) and when the apps are enable,in my vpn apps,ok button in vpn allow connction dialog does not work(cannot be tapped) but cancel button works az usual!
I want to know what is the behind?i think this is not a bug, it is something like a rule.

Screen overlay apps cause this; this is to prevent malicious overlay from manipulate your operation.

Your security is the reason
This is to prevent Tapjacking . See bmdixon's answer here Screen overlay detected, what is the problem? for details
So, VPN is not permitted but if you don't have a Cancel option to go back ( and disable the screen app, normally option for this is available in app settings) - how do you go back ? You can't, therefore, Cancel option is NOT greyed out


text:
Genymotion 2.8.1 - Can't flash Play Services on any Virtual Device
So, on Genymotion 2.8.1, I've tried flashing Play Services on a number of Virtual Devices. None works. I get the error along the lines of "Flashing xyz zip failed for an unknown reason, check the logcat for more info"
In the logcat, I move to where the error starts, and there's NO error message giving info as to what is happening, except something like 'Flashing stopped'
I've downloaded about 4 different virtual devices of different OS versions, and I'm beginning to suspect Genymotion 2.8.1 has a problem.
Any idea how to use or flash Play Services onto Genymotion 2.8.1 or any alternative means to install apps from Play Store?

You can use old vision.  v2.5.4 is usable.
http://azodl.blogspot.tw/2015/06/genymotion.html


text:
How to track time spend on website?
Is there a way to track how much time I spend on a website? So far I've only known about app usage tracking, which tracks the time I open and quit apps. I want to do that with websites as well. Maybe a browser with time tracking can do this.

How is this in anyway related to Android?

You can use Android secret code ##4636## to track the usage time of browsers but not specific sites

@Rexford because I use an Android?


text:
ADB: device unauthorized on device without screen
I have special device, that have no screen at all. Only 3 buttons: volumes and power. So the problem that I've used hard reset option and after that on all my computers I got error:
error: device unauthorized. Please check the confirmation dialog on your device.

The problem, that I can't check that dialog - no screen or input methods. I've tried to connect from recovery mode, but from it the same.
What can I do in that situation?

In Android 4.2.2, Google implemented Secure USB Debugging, aimed to prevent adb from being connected to malicious computers. The user has to authorize a computer before it can connect with adb.
The intended design of secure USB debugging, is that the user needs to manually to authorize new adb hosts. If the user attempts to use adb without authorizing the host, it will throw the following the mentioned error.
However, there is a bug on Android 4.2.2, fixed in Android 4.3.3, it was discovered that by navigating to either the emergency dialer or the lock screen camera,  it was possible to trigger confirmation dialog.
All of this implies physical interaction with the device. So I'm not sure this could be possible without confirming the host. Try connecting it in a computer where you already confirmed the device.

It is Android 6 on the device. I am able to interact with device physically, but as I said, there is no screen on input method to do that. I've tried to confirm dialog with that three buttons, but nothing happens.

The buttons are not set to confirm anything. Physical buttons have their own purpose. Just get a new screen and a digitizer. What is the phone model?

As I said, it is not phone, screen is not broken, it's not exists at all :)

What kind of device it is? Providing more details will help us to help you!

It is typical Chinese device, so it is hard to get info from developers. It is exactly like phone from Android developer view but no screen (device purpose is ADAS and video recording so no screen is needed). Is there some way to solve that problem? Seems that it is not normal to get that kind of error in recovery, even if device after hard reset.


text:
Why file permissions work in unexpected manner? And what makes it possible
My app doesn't have storage permissions, yet I can read/write files in /data/user/0/com.myapp/files .
When on emulator connected as root I can push a file to this directory, but then the app cannot read it.
After I chown it to my app's uid:gid it still cannot read/write to it.
If I do run-as com.myapp touch newfile and then as root cat pushedfile >> newfile, then my app can read newfile.
What kind of dark magic is that? Why regular unix file permissions don't seem to work, and what mechanism prevents the app to read pushedfile even after it was chowned?
I tried reading the docs™ but they don't seem to clarify anything.

What you experience seems to be SELinux/SEAndroid. Files outside of the appropriate SELinux context are not accessible in a given context. Your app is in a different context than your root user.

@GiantTree you're right. This is it.


text:
Can't write to Micro SD portion
So I have a 16GB SD card in my Samsung S5.  And I was copying some files over and the copying stopped, saying I don't have enough storage.  The phone says I still have 10GB left on the card.  I took the micro sd card out and put it in a USB card reader and placed in the PC.  The PC said I had 10GB but I couldn't copy any files to it from the PC to the card reader, saying there isn't enough storage.
What could be blocking me from using that 10GB on the card??
Info:
Samsung S5
Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
My Micro SD card: 16GB (looks exactly like the one of the left, but without the word "Toshiba".  There is no vendor name on mine.  But it was shipped with my S5)

Card Reader I used:

You should try formatting the SD card in fat32. If it doesn't help, your card may be fake.

@esQmo D'OH!  That would stink.  I've got photos and games on it.  I also remember my original SD card breaking and the insurance covering to give me a new one, which is this one.  Maybe I'll give them a call.

Did you partition the SD Card?

@esQmo no.  This just suddenly happened.

Formatting should solve the issue.

@esQmo  I was hoping that was the last resort.  But I did end up fixing it.  I'll post it.

UPDATE:  So the problem went away.  I think what the problem was that when I was copying files, the phone would go to sleep and it would disconnect from the PC during the copy.
After taking the SD card out of the phone and connecting it to my PC with the card reader, the PC wanted to run a scan disk on it.  It found some issues and corrected them.  I then put it back into my phone and the SD was fine.  I was able to write to it.
This was very odd.


text:
Andriod 4.4.2 "optimizing app x of 50 android" after flash Gapps
I've flashed Gapps for kitkat in my andriod 4.4.2, and now when I turn on the phone, The problem is that always said "optimizing app x of 50 android", the which take much time. (I also happened to this with a cell phone jellybean after flash Gapps)
I've tried advance factory reset from TWRP but this not change, also reflash other Gapps..
Note: I dont wanna update kitkat to Lollipop because lollipop have so many bugs in my phone (Azumi A50+)
Help me please, thank you very much

Download another Gapps and flash it.

I've tried it too @esQmo

Download the minimal gapps from micro to nano, from here: http://opengapps.org/

If you have a stock firmware, there may be compatibility issue with the existing Gapps.

I've tried flash nano instead of pico, but its send me error 70 (because system haven't enough space), then the playstore and services are bugged, but it solved my problem xD, I dont know but accidentally the error solved my problem, now I've reinstall 'google services and playstore' with TitaniumBackup. Thank you very much dude @esQmo

You're welcome. I'm now going to put it as an answer, just mark it as ACCEPTED for other to find it.

@esQmo ty dude, with pleasure friend

I guess you have a stock firmware, this might lead to an incompatibility with the existing Gapps.
Try downloading the minimal Gapps,  nano or pico package from here

Note: I think that if this not work also could try remove all services of google with a tool as TitaniumBackup and reboot, then reinstall manually NOT WITH Gapps. Thank you very mucho. Greetings!

Does that happens only on first and second boot or everytime you boot phone? If you use custom rom it's probably rom releated bug, contact developer and report bug.

I happends Always after load the logo, in my phone I cant use custom roms, all roms have many bugs as "the camera lost 9 Megapixels"

@Milor123 Then why did you use TWRP to flash gapps?

Its my recovery, Is it wrong to use it?

The thing is why flash gapps when you use stock rom that allredy have gapps

Because I was problem and the playstore stopped, then I had to install Gapps

You should try factory reset, not flash gapps over. However now try flashing stock rom via software on pc or via download mode (depends on phone)

Factory reset not work dude

TRY FLASHING STOCK ROM, do you even read what I wrote?

Yes it could be solved with the stock rom, but I need my data system and others things, I want not lose my system information

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Update Nexus 9 to Android 7.1 and stuck in Google screen
I just tried to update my Nexus 9 from Android 7 to 7.1. Unfortunately, the system now seems to be in an endless loop of "Google" screen and black screen (maybe rebooting?). Goes on for hours, nothing happens.
So far, I found out this was a big issue back then for the Android 6 Update - and sometimes the system was so messed up, that the only solution was sending it back to the retailer.
Didn't find anything about the same problem with Android 7.1 - and I hope Google didn't repeat its big mistake here?

Did you try clearing the cache from recovery ?

yep, also tried a factory reset - didn't work either


text:
It is possible recover a deleted contact?
By mistake, I deleted a contact in my phone. The contact was not synchronised with Gmail so I can't recover it.
Is there some method, software or technique to recover?
What's the maximum time to recover deleted data?
I was reading there is sofware that can recover it. An other option to do that  is with my phone "rooted". What could be better option?

I has recover some contacts and the call historical  with a software "Android Data Recovery", i am amazed for this, it has some other functions.
Now, the joke, or in other words the irony i has not  recover the contact that i need, it is from a girl.
Greetings ;)


text:
Android 7.1.1 takes 4gb of space on Nexus 5x
I have recently updated my Nexus 5x to Android 7.1.1 and noticed that now operating system takes 4gb of my internal storage. These 4gb are a bit critical to me as I have 16gb model.
I have found one post on AndroidCentral what relates to my issue, but it is not clear if the issue got solved or not.
I have two questions:

How can I restore the 4gb taken by the new system update?
Is it possible to restore this space without factory resetting the phone?


text:
Why/How does Google Play music discover all my song file that quick?
I would like to learn and know why Google Play Music able to discover all my media file that quick.
So I can implement similar functionality for my own app.
In Android system is there some sort of index that indexing alm the media files whenever they got downloaded or moved into system storage?
I am guess there is some indexing in Android system and outside of the app.
Because when a mp3 file first downloaded in my download folder, the app was able to discover it.
But if I use a 3rd party app and moved to another folder (that Google Music Play have access to) , Google Music Play wll still recognize the mp3 file still existing in down folder and show error upon try to play the song.

My guess is it's associated with mediastore, a content provider in Android system.
Check this for information.


text:
Is it possible to extract the kernel and device tree from a rom?
Is it possible to extract the kernel and device tree from an android 6.0 rom?

If it was that easy then we'd have custom ROMs in no time for every phone on the planet.
What's on our phone are compiled, it's basically impossible to decompile them (modern decompilers are not as powerful as you'd like to think), and sometimes illegal when dealing with proprietary components.

I tought so with the knowledge I gained while searching the web, but didn't find a clear answer. Thanks!

Is it possible to build a kernel by creating the soure?

"Creating", as in writing it all by yourself? Sure, if you can do it and make it work... Or just grab the source released by manufacturers and base upon that.

That is the problem, The manufacturer never release a kernel

I figured so... Usually no way out, unless you know how to adapt one from a similar enough device. Think twice before getting your next device is all I can say.

Do you know if there is a guide to achieve that?

Nope, I'm not that into development, sorry...


text:
How to choose external SD Card in Storage Access Framework (Open Camera App)
I am using Open Camera, I want to store photos in an extarnal sdcard.
The FAQ says:

you can enable "Settings/More camera controls/"Use Storage Access
  Framework", and this should allow you to save to external SD cards. If
  when choosing a folder, you only see "Recent", you may need to click
  on the three dots at the top right to open the menu, to enable showing
  the drives

However when I do that, I don't see anything but this:

How can I include an sdcard option in that screen?

You can try either of apps mentioned here . Suggest try App Picker Classic first]

I read on the Dropsync faq that the app can crash if your sd card does not have a name.  Have you tried taking the card out Nd and in pc to Rename it?

I have just taken the card out myself (I have same problem) and noticed that the sd card was formatted with exFat (couldnt be read by stock linux distro), which is apparently a proprietary microsoft format. wondering whether  that is the problem. I I can view/use files on my phone just the permission storage didnt diplay the sd card.

none of the things i suggested worked for me...

can you give more information. what phone do you have? is your sdcard formatted as exFat?...

is your card sdxc or ...

I had the same issue.  I followed all your instructions and ended up with just "Recent" showing.  But if you tap the three dots at top right of your screen on that page you get an option to show the SD card.  That actually is the secret.  It seems to work!

well as you can see in my screenshot, there is no "three dots"

I had the same issue ( with different app) using HTC 728G.  I have 'fixed' the issue by reformatting from exFAT (default? for >32GB) to FAT 32. [I also relabelled but that hadn't worked on its own. ]


text:
How does software affect photo quality on different Android devices even though they have the same camera sensor?
Some say that two different Android smartphones with the same sensor have different picture quality because of the software. What do they mean?
The software, in this case, is it a camera app or something low-level, OS-specific, drivers, etc?
I totally understand that the camera is great in a smartphone because of the lens, sensor, pixel size, OS, and software. So what is software in that case?

Camera does not give you the raw data it captures. Before it outputs the format you desire, the data will be processed by a set of algorithm implemented differently by each manufacturers, giving effects such as sharpening, denoising and anti-Moire. How they decide to implement it is beyond our discussion.
Manufacturers keep the algorithm private, so in many cases it's unclear whether it's only in the drivers (blobs) or requires both the app and the low level to work together. However, it's clear that without these proprietary algorithms, image quality will degrade more or less, as evident in custom ROMs without the camera blobs. In Sony's case, that algorithm can also get lost once you unlock the bootloader, causing equally significant effect.

but is it possible (in theory) to process the captured data on a software level? What do I mean? As you said on some custom ROMs no proprietary algorithms applied. It means that we're able to read that data and apply our algorithms. Isn't? Or it's not possible because of lack available documentation for those sensors, chipsets etc?

@user1016265 As long as the ROM itself also supports RAW output you could just export it and do any edit yourself.

oh, you wanna say that if ROM supports output in RAW format, then it's the best quality what you're able to get it from that sensor? Or some proprietary algorithms would be applied still?

I'm not entirely sure about that, but yes since it's RAW it has the best potential. Editing on PC beats anything on the phone, of course.

The software controls the camera settings like aperture, exposure, iso and also autofocus. So if the software sets wrong settings or just uses settings which aren't perfect and another software uses better settings, you get a different image quality with the same camera.
The same counts for manual camera settings. If you configure your camera wrong, you get imperfect pictures.


text:
How do I fix malware installed automatically in the /system directory?
I bought a Lyf Flame 7 from Reliance Jio last september. It runs on Android Lollipop. My phone is not rooted and it has never downloaded any other apps from the internet except from the Play Store. Upto October it was working fine. In November I started seeing apps being downloaded automatically. My pre-installed antimalware app reported them to me and I uninstalled those downloaded apps. This happened in a 3 times/week frequency. Last week I found it again and then decided to look for any processes that might be downloading the annoying apps without my permission. It also started showing me pop up ads.
I found out that there's an app called "Wireless Update" and another called "flyee" and "fqad". I googled them and found out that Wireless update is a preinstalled system app in low end smartphones in Asia and it downloads random apps from the internet. I disabled it and found that it doesn't download files anymore. I later went to its settings and also stopped it from using mobile data to download apps automatically and to download only over wifi. I restricted its background data usage. Next morning I found out that there are a load of apps installed in my phone and the ram was totally eaten up. There were apps like a fake whatsapp, PhoneService, U Tobe(with youtube logo), flashlight, two fake phone apps and a lot of other apps. I figured that they were malware and the worst part was that I couldn't delete them. So they somehow managed a way to get root access to my phone and install them in the /system directory. They also started minimizing any apps that I am using.
Some other app also started downloading even more apps, and ads were popping up constantly. I force stopped them and disabled them only to find out most of them are enabled automatically. They were eating up the RAM and battery. I downloaded MalwareBytes and found that there were other apps installed as non-root too so I cleaned them up. But the /system apps couldn't be removed. I disabled downloads from third party and it stated downloading random apps from the play store one by one. To stop this I went into termux and generated a big 1.5 GB text file with random numbers in C++ to stop downloading any more apps. It couldn't download any more apps but then a new pop-up saying "Launcher Loading" came up and I couldn't use my phone. I couldn't open any apps or anything after the lock screen. This morning, I found out that the Launcher Loading pop-up is gone but a new problem came in. It started giving me alerts saying "Unfortunately PhoneService has stopped". And it goes on an endless loop. If for a moment, it's gone, another alert saying "Unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped" and the earlier alert appears. My phone is currently unusable and I cannot even make calls from it. What do I do?
I am in a really serious problem. I tried booting in safe mode but didn't help.

Normally, when malware managed to install itself as system app, the best cure is factory-resetting and flashing a clean ROM. In your case it seems the device already shipped with the culprit, so a stock ROM won't be of much help (as it most likely would contain the bad app as well). I never heard of that device, so I don't know if any clean custom ROM might exist. If not, you might have to go for a different device – unless you want to go spend time and knowledge in rooting and manually cleaning up the current system.

Note: the following method is risky, you might delete core modules and your device will end up in bootloop or not booting at all. Do it at your own risk.

You'll need to root your device and install BusyBox (from Google Play).
Download Minimal ADB and fastboot
Enabled USB debugging
Install USB drivers

Open Minimal ADB and Fastboot tape the following :
adb shell
su
mount -o remount, rw /system
cd /system/app
ls (list all installed apps)

or even better:
 lsattr (display all installed apps with their attributes).
Then using the rm command, delete any suspicious app, like following :
rm com.exemple.malware.apk (tape the exact name displayed with ls command).
You may encounter some apps that refuse to be deleted with the rm command :

First check their attributes with lsattr + com.app_name.apk
i.e: -i-a--A com.app_name.apk
Then remove those attributes with chattr -iaA + com.app_name.apk
i.e: chattr -iaA com.app_name.apk

Finally you'll be able to remove them.
PS: Disable WiFi or data connection while doing this.

You can post the output of installed apps here, and we'll check out what to remove or not.

I'm using termux. Is there a way I can do a sudo or chmod inside it so that I can manually delete the files from there?

Don't you have a computer ? I never used termux.  If you're familiar with it, try adb commands and BusyBox commands

Go here to find out how to run adb from termux: https://github.com/termux/termux-app/issues/77


text:
Android get dns history
Can I get the dns history on android like on windows?
Like this: ipconfig /displaydns

You can use os monitor , it gives fair details on Connection tab

not working, not gives the dns history

I believe your answer is a duplicate of http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/18002/is-there-a-way-to-list-the-local-dns-cache


text:
What OTA updates did my S5active att gophone get 12-20-16?
I received am update yesterday day and it behaved as if it was a security patch. or even an OS update. but obviously it wasn't that. but I can't really notice too much of a change on my phone except FB gas some new features. (w/o fb update) and my about phone info says November sucurity patch?? did I just get that late? was it a marshmallow bug fix.

This would be a great question for AT&T, since they would've approved for a device update.  Did you contact them at all to ask about this?  Looking at their site here:
Release date: December 19, 2016
Android version: 6.0.1
Security patch level (SPL): November 1, 2016
Baseband version: G870AUCU2DPK2
Kernel version: 3.4.0-9723602
Build number: MMB29M.G870AUCU2DPK2
File size: 164MB
What's new: Android device security updates
What's changing: Call and data reliability improvements for certain network conditions


text:
WhatsApp group member's name not changing
I recently edited a friend's name in my contacts. Though the private chats shows the edited name, in groups (xxx is typing) where xxx is the same old name. What should I do to change this?

I thought WhatsApp shows users' name (the one the user put in the configuration screen)  instead of contact name (the one in your contacts list)

The 'User Name' is displayed only if the person is not in your contacts.After you add the person to your contacts, his/her name will be displayed as whatever you've given in your contacts.


text:
Can't turn on WiFi - Mac Adress Unavailable on Moto E
Like the title says, i'm having trouble with the WiFi. I just can't turn it on, and i think it has to do with the Mac Adress, which is "Unavailable".
I have tried the following things:
1 - Use another ROM (Cyanogenmod)
2 - Get back to stock rom
3 - Searching around the internet found some post that said it could be a problem with a deleted file ("WCNSS_qcom_wlan_factory_nv.bin") in the "persist" folder". I copied the file in that folder, but it didn't work.
Any ideas? Could be a hardware problem?
Thanks! And sorry for my bad english.

Are you sure that it shows unavaliable for MAC adress? Is it maybe under IP adress? Well acording to this what you wrote it is probably hardware problem.

It is under IP Adress, yes. WiFi mac adress - Unavailable

With out that MAC adress, you can't enable WiFi. Does Bluetooth not working also ?

Bluetooth is working

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
Can rooting remove all malware, viruses and backdoors?
I ask this question because I read somewhere that there was a Chinese smartphone with in-built malware which could not removed even by rooting.
(I searched the article everywhere but couldn't find it. So, no source. Sorry!)
Is there a possibility that any kind of malware or virus, that could harm your device and/or your privacy, will remain even after rooting your device?
EDIT: By rooting, I actually meant rooting and then flashing a custom ROM, i.e, reinstall android. Sorry for the confusion.
Can malware and viruses persist after this?

Probably my question is related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/164880/how-do-i-fix-malware-installed-automatically-in-the-system-directory

Maybe this is the news article you're talking about: Chinese-authored spyware found on more than 700 million Android phones

Even after installing custom ROMs some area on the internal storage is left unchanged and if the malware resides in that area of the internal storage it won't be deleted even after you flash a new ROM but it is a very rare case when a malware goes so deep into the system.
If you want another example for this then try to install a boot logo (i know it isn't a malware) but even after you flash 100s of ROMs it will never change the boot logo of your device and this proves that some code remains unchanged even after flashing new ROMs

What area that are both unchanged between flashes and stores executable stuff could affect userspace? Boot logo is a bad example as it strictly accepts files of very specific format. /data and /system are wiped when installing a ROM. /tmp and many are only generated on each boot.

Is there a way to clean everything?

What are bootkits? Obad? Oldboot?
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/601716/recurring-malware-immediately-after-factory-reset/?p=3905554
Can bootkits persist even after reinstallation of OS?
Are these what you were talking about?

Rooting allows you to modify the system and access all app data. It does not change anything regarding already installed installed malware or virus.
If you have rooted the device using an exploit the installed malware may also use this exploit to get root access.
Conclusion: If your device is infected delete it and reinstall an untainted system/image. However advanced malware may even survive a installation of a new ROM potentially in partitions that are not erased or in flash roms of embedded chips.
Therefore the only 100% secure way to get rid of malware is to physically shred your device. No device - no malware.

What I actually meant to say was: rooting followed by flashing. Sorry! Can this ensure that all malware, viruses and backdoors are removed?

What are bootkits? Obad? Oldboot?
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/601716/recurring-malware-immediately-after-factory-reset/?p=3905554
Can bootkits persist even after reinstallation of OS?

Rooting doesn't have anything to do with removing malware. Rooting is process when you get a superuser on your phone so you have full control over device (like accessing all files and folders etc.) What you can do is to remove system apps. And those chinese phones had malware probably on kernel level or built in into system, not as application.

How do I remove malware at the kernel level or built-in into a system? Will reinstallation suffice?

@Stack-Boi You can remove it with flashing custom rom in which malware is removed.

Can all malware be removed by flashing custom ROM? This was the question I originally intended to ask.

What are bootkits? Obad? Oldboot?

@Stack-Boi Maybe, maybe not you'll know when you try it's not exact science

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
How long does it normally take to make cyanogenmod for a new phone?
I know no one can predict the future, but statistically speaking how long has it taken in the past to create cyanogenmod rom? I'm most interested in the Galaxy S7 Edge. According to google, the S6 was released June 12, 2015 and this xda-developers thread said it was created 2015-12-13, so that's 6 months. Anyone have any more experience or think this reasoning is valid?
Is there any chance the S7 would never get CM or is it only a matter of time?

The S7 edge already has an alpha version of CyanogenMod 13. If you were to read the thread (and use Google correctly) you would find out that both versions (S6's and S7's CM) are both in a state you would call unusable. The issue is missing Kernel sources and documentation and that's why there were nearly a year of NO development for CM for the S6.

Based on the above reason and how S6's development scene is, you might as well project that it will never happen for Exynos variants. Snapdragon ones might have a glimmer of hope, but those are locked down tighter than Exynos ones too.


text:
How to lock some parts of Settings?
My android device is rooted.
Like other android devices, there are many sections in Settings Menu like

Wireless & Networks
Device
Personal
Accounts
Systems

And in all above sections, there are sub-sections also like following..
In Wireless & Networks; there are SIM Management, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data Usage and More settings …
I would like to lock some sections and some sub-sections of Setting Menu.
Is it possible to lock Setting Menu in section-wise or subsection-wise?
Please let me know, how to do it?
Regards
GNS

I don't think you can lock sections of settings, but you can lock whole settings with app like "App locker" and others like that

I am already using this app, App Locker but I am concerned with sections of settings.

@GNS Sorry, not possible

As per many experts, after rooting an android device, an end user has completer privilege for android device. However, its really an unfortunate that I can't lock Setting Menu in section-wise or subsection-wise. I am already using App Locker.

it all depends on the ROM you've installed. For a primary user (on any ROM) you can't lock any setting like you intend to do.
But on some ROMs like MIUI, you can create a second user, where some settings like Mobile Data, SIM Card Management, Lock Screen Settings are locked and available only for the first user. I dont know about other other ROMs but MIUI does provide an option like that

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
How to run multiple whatsapp accounts?
My Android device is rooted.
I use Parallel Space for running two WhatsApp accounts but Parallel Space gets stuck very frequently.
Please let me know how to run multiple WhatsApp accounts in my Android device in both cases; device is rooted and device is not rooted.

Maybe using Knox?

I'm using parallel space on my not rooted Oneplus 3 and it is working just fine. It may be due to you're using the older version of Android or an older device.

WhatsApp now officially lets you do it. More details here no root needed!

There is a custom app based on original whatsapp , named Whatsapp PLUS , it allows you to edit complete user interface and as well you can run multiple whatsapp account on a single phone .
whatsapp-messenger

My advice is, don't use this app. It will lead to getting your account banned by WhatsApp developers.

You should try GBWhatsapp. It runs smoothly here on my 4.2.2. It's arabic website but hope you will find what you need

Follow these simple steps to go run multiple whatsapp accounts:

Root your Android device.
Make sure that you have WhatsApp app installed on your smartphone.
Install SwitchMe Multiple accounts on your smartphone.
Run SwitchMe Multiple accounts, it will ask for Superuser request that you need to grant.

Hope It will help you.

Simple steps: 1- Root your device. Almost half of all questions on this website are about how to root or how to save the device after failed root attempt. Too much for calling simple I guess.

There is one way to do that without root.
If you have a device with the Google Play Store, go and download Parallel Space app. If you have an arm/arm64 processor, download its extension Parallel Space 64-bit support as well.
After downloading this app, you can run two accounts of not just Whatsapp, but also of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat etc. This will not affect the first app installed in any way. You don't need to do any switching at all. Just add the shortcut of the Parallel app from Parallel Space on your launcher, and it will launch Whatsapp of the second account.
Regards.

If you actually read the question, you'll notice that the OP has already tried Parallel Space.

That is the best suggestion I can speak of. Others need device to be rooted

My device is already rooted. And I am using Parallel Space. I like this app for multiple accounts but unfortunately this app stucks very frequently.

One quite simple way of doing this that often gets overlooked, is adding a new user to the phone if you have android 5 or above, and installing whatsapp on there.
Hope this helps

You can use this App Cloner.
From the description:

Using App Cloner you can create and install multiple copies of your existing apps.

Note: WhatsApp is available in their premium version. So you can try it on another app and if satisfied - continue to the premium.


text:
How to change IGN in play store?
Before, I had a coc acc and I got bored so I gave my acc (gmail) to my friend. My friend then changed the ign to his name. Now that i got a new phone, I installed coc and even if my old acc is already installed, i cannot play my old acc and his ign appears at the top. How can I change my ign?  Do I need to log out my acc from his phone?

If you have two gmail accounts and want to use both of them in clash of clans you need to go to Google play games and for both accounts go to settings and uncheck "Sign in to gamed automatically" and "use this account to sign in" than clear data for game and it will ofer you to chosse between accounts. And one more thing changing name in clash of clans is possible only once.

To change your IGN

Open Google Play Games.
Tap the IGN
Tap on the Pencil in the top right
Change the IGN.

I think it's easy only you need to follow this step...
Go to settings->accounts->add account->and add another Google account with the new email. Then go into the play store and there will be your email with a drop down arrow. Tap it and select the new email.

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
How to partition SD card using LG G Vista as card reader(without root)
I am trying to root my G vista but all the methods I have found so far require an sd card formatted to EXT2 partition. I do not have an external reader so my only option is to use the phone as a reader. I have found some methods to do this with ADB but all of them require root. Other forums have said that I should be able to format it directly from settings but the option doesn't show up for me.
Either a good approach to formatting the sd card through the phone or a root method that doesn't require a formatted card would be nice.
I am running ubuntu but can switch to windows if that would make my life easier.

Where did you see that you need to format you SD card to root your device. I haven't seen that anywhere.

All of the tutorials to root a G Vista have said that I need to boot from the sd card in recovery mode and to do that I need to format the sd card, or so I"ve been led to believe

Can you give me a link to the tutorial(s). I have rooted without an SD card. You can boot into recovery with an SD or flash using a computer tool


text:
Transferring Apps to Kindle
I want Uber on a Kindle for an elderly friend who can't use smartphones. Currently, I'm using ES File Explorer (ESFE) on my Galaxy S7 and Kindle. I made a backup of the Uber APK file on my phone, then transferred it to to the download folder of my Kindle via remote manager (Android->PC via wifi, then PC-> Kindle via windows explorer). However, when I click install from ESFE on my Kindle, it just gives me a parse error. Any suggestions?  And yes, I have enabled "allow apps from unknown sources".

What Kindle device is that? What is its Android version ? You should know that, for most apps, the android version matters.
Apps downloaded from your Galaxy S7 (running Android 6.0, I presume) will not work on a device with a lower Android version, that's why you're getting a parse error.
Download it directly from Amazon AppStore.

That would make sense.  The whole reason I'm doing this though is that the app store won't let kindles get Uber/Lyft.

Check which Android version the Kindle has, then download an APK for that version. Did you a least follow the link I provided ?


text:
How to install windows software on Android platform
How. Can I install windows software on Android platform ?

It's just not possible. Android devices (generally) use the ARM processor, which is oriented towards mobile devices.
PCs in the past and today use x86 or x64 (amd64) processors, which are completely different and NOT COMPATIBLE.
The best solution I would have for you would be to use a software like Limbo PC Emulator.
The original Limbo (which I knew and used) was on Google Code, and will therefore go down with it in it's destruction.
However, it appears someone has made a fork of Limbo, at http://limboemulator.weebly.com/.
The original Google Code (for anyone who wants it), is available at https://code.google.com/archive/p/limbo-android/.

Note: it appears, on these websites, that Windows 8.1 is running on an Android device. However, these are test devices and might be faster. Also, they used a modified version of Limbo/QEMU with more hardware support.

As of 2017, Android doesn't support running Windows applications. However it's theoretically possible to install Windows on some devices and afterwards you can indeed run Windows apps there:


text:
How to delete the contacts saved in mobile?
How to delete the contacts saved in mobile?
In the contacts in mobile memory
mobile model : vivo V5

Go to contact option and click Edit option in the top-left
And select the contact and delete


text:
how can I prevent apps from immediately connect upon wifi connection
I often have to connect to public wifi networks, and upon connecting (automatically or otherwise), several apps will immediately connect to their host server and start exchanging data. How can I make sure that those apps will not start anything until I have my VPN turned on ? Even if I have my VPN auto-connecting, there is still a [sometime longer] delay during which other apps will start "chatting" on the net..........
I'd like to be able to give the go before apps automatically connect to the net. Some will let me configure a "connect on demand" but most will connect whenever they can.

Since Android 8 there's built-in option Block connections without VPN in VPN settings.
In other case you may use AFWall+ (root required) from F-Droid or Google Play to allow apps to connect to internet only through VPN (only paid version supports VPN).

You can do that by "Force stop" apps from app manager before connecting to wifi network that will prevent apps bring in background until you open them. Only that will be pain in the ass process because you will need to do that for every app you want to prevent using wifi until connect to vpn. You can try geenify or some app to stop background processes if you have a lot of apps.

Go to settings, then click WiFi or WLAN
Then press the extra option button,then you click advanced setting , then switch off scanning always be avaliable. It will prevent any app from using wifi.
If that doesn't work switch on app permission an deny all apps wifi access.
If it doesn't work, I suggest you see a phone technician.

What scaning have to do with this?

authors: Једноруки Крстивоје


text:
fastboot fails with mediatek 6572
I have issue with fastboot which get hangs on erasing.
Can't it work with mediatek 6572 ?
C:\Users\ransh>fastboot devices
0123456789ABCDEF        fastboot

C:\Users\ransh>fastboot flash system system.img
target didn't report max-download-size
erasing 'system'...

Thanks,
Ran

Flash with SP Flashtool. You need a scatter file, otherwise it won't work

can I flash just one image (like system.img). it takes too long to flash all images ?

Download the flash files, you get all files. Just load what you want to be flashed. Have you ever flashed with SP Flashtool before ?

Thank you! just one thing. what's the added value of mtk droid to sp flash tool ?

I don't understand what you mean

to load just what I want (with spi flash) I need to put in folder only the required file (like system.img) and remove the others ?

Not necessary to remove. Download the firmware, Unzip it, Download SP Flashtool, install it then run it. Click on Scatter file inside SP Flashtool, browse where you unzipped the firmware and select a text file xxxxxxxxxxx.txt (the only one that appears), it will load all files into SP Flashtool, uncheck what you don't need to flash

So the answer, according to your comments: need to use mtk sp flash tool. fastboot doesn't work with mtk (for some reason). Thanks a lot!

Did you solve your problem ?

I want to backup system.img and userdata.img partitions and then flash them back, so as I understand I need to use mtk droid and then sp flash tool. using fastboot was much more effecient.

Why do you need to back up when you can have the ROM which contains what you need.

Give a try to MTK Droid : Connect the phone with ADB. Download here: https://androidmtk.com/download-mtk-droid-tool


text:
How to fix can't install app error 505 on a rooted device?
I am on dirty unicorns 10.6 marshmallow rom. First I installed Gboard - Google keyboard app as system app through Lucky Patcher app. After restarting device I tried to open it through Lucky Patcher apps (There was no icon of Gboard app in my launcher) Launch App option but it didn't opened! So I uninstalled Gboard through Lucky Patcher. Then again I tried to install it normally through Play Store but I get this error 505 can't install app !!
So there must be Gboard apps leftover files conflicting the apps installation now right ?
So how can I fix this ? How can I install Gboard app now ?
Note: I can install other apps without any problem !!!

That is because hide icon has been selected. Go to language and input tap the settings icon beside g board. From there go to advanced setting and tick show icon


text:
Unlocked bootloader "can't" be checked
I have a Nexus 6p, and I unlocked it's bootloader. There is a message saying that my phone can't be checked for corruption since the bootloader is unlocked. I am a little confused because when I flashed Paranoid Android, the first time it booted into it, the message said that it was corrupt (so far I don't see anything wrong).
How does it know that my phone is corrupt if it can't check for corruption?

It has to do with dm-verity.  Taken from XDA Developers here:

The problem (it’s a problem if you like root and modifying devices)
  stems from something I pointed out a long time back, when it first hit
  AOSP – the introduction of dm-verity to Android. Verity is a security
  feature, originally found in ChromeOS, designed to provide assured and
  trustworthy computing devices, preventing malicious software from
  modifying a device. Back in Android 4.4, Google announced verity for
  Android, and then all remained quiet. While there has been some
  research into using verity, for the most part, things have been quiet.
  Until now, that is.
With Android 6.0, Google has begun to up their game on device
  security. One of the fundamental requirements for this is to prevent
  the software on a device from being modified without a user’s
  knowledge – while many here at XDA take root for granted, imagine a
  user’s device being rooted without their knowledge or consent, and
  root access being used to steal their data. For this reason, Google
  has started to implement verification of the system partition on some
  devices.

To answer your question of "How does it know..."...any changes to the system partition at boot (or when accessed) could cause one of three warning/error messages.


text:
Toggle Mobile Data Based Upon Wi-Fi Network
I would very much appreciate assistance.
In my home ATT mobile network is just strong enough to keep my Samsung S7 from using Wi-Fi calling however there is not enough signal to have a conversation.
I wish to have Tasker turn Mobile Networks OFF when I am on my home network and then to have Tasker turn Mobile Networks ON when I leave my home network
Any help (the more detailed the better) anyone can would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you again for your time and assistance.

Are you rooted?

No, my phone is stock

I don't think Tasker can do this without some add-ons, probably one to emulate "touch" by accessing the settings menu and toggling mobile data, a daunting approach for a novice with Tasker to use any plugin, much less one of the more complex ones that requires scripting. Probably better off to put a toggle on the desktop and just do it manually.


text:
How can I prevent a downloaded Google Play Book from being purged?
I have purchased a digital book on Google Play. To read a book, the Google Play Books application downloads a copy to my Android device. This all works as expected.
The problem is that I read this book only intermittently, and when I return to the Google Play Books application, sometimes the application needs to redownload the book. This is a problem in situations where data is unavailable (on transit, for example). I guess some kind of periodic cache purging is taking place.
Are there settings that will prevent the book from being removed from the Android device? I have plenty (~5GB) of storage space available, and I would prefer that the book simply be saved until I manually remove it.


text:
Keypad Freezing Up - think it's a Touch Wiz issue? (can I get around this with a Launcher?)
I would be grateful for some feedback/suggestions.
In short, I have an ageing (badly) Android 4.4.4 - Samsung Galaxy Ace 4, AVG and some Avast Apps on the Virus Checker side, and Touch Wiz.
Something that has happened since Day 1 is occasionally when using Social Media Messaing apps on data (e.g. Whatsapp and Signal in data mode, never happens in SMS) occassionally the keypad will just totally lock up (e.g. be visible, but won't take any input or I will get a delayed input, and it won't pick up the right letter - e.g. tapped 3 times for a "C" and I get an "A" - 45 seconds later).
When I re-start the phone, everything is back to normal (until the next time it happens - which is never far away - e.g. no more than 15 messages).
I have done a little reading around and someone suggested clearing the Touch Wiz Cache which did seem to help and delayed the re-occurance of the problem (I don't know why?).
From doing a little more reading it seemed that I may be able to get around this by using a Launcher (e.g. Nova) to bypass Touch Wiz (which doesn't seem to have a lot of fans).
Would this be the case or have I misdiagnosed the problem?
I would be grateful for any advice.

Is the issue related to the keyboard or the launcher? Is this happening with another keyboard also? I cannot imagine the launcher doing this... Try Google Now launcher.

@esQmo sorry for the late response on this. The launcher switch made minimal difference. It still freezes up, just less regularly. I can work around it, it is just annoying


text:
ADB is causing kernel panics in OS X
The following question is irrelevant. While MDM is problematic in many other ways, it is not responsible for the kernel panics.
I also learned that Motorola mistakenly cites that its drivers must be installed to use ADB, this is not the case for OS X, which is the OS in question.

I have a Motorola X 2013 Developers edition. The ADB drivers for the phone are part of another software provided by Motorola called the Motorola Device Manager, and it caused 3 kernel panics on my laptop today, and more than I can count over the last week before I isolated the responsible package. I linked 2 kernel panic logs below, but this is the last line in the console before the crash every time.
12/22/16 8:13:16.000 PM kernel[0]: stalling for detach from Motorola ADB Interface
Then all hell breaks loose. It appears that the driver crashes when the computer enters sleep mode while the phone is plugged in. And no, it doesn't matter if the ADB is activated or not.
I've contacted Motorola about it and they said that they have never heard of this happening before, but they'd look into it. I have no expectations of them fixing it any time soon.
http://pastebin.com/yBHzWK2E
My question is, is there any alternative that would allow me to use the Android Debug Bridge with my phone?
Thank you in advance.

Try this : http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/development/recovery-unofficial-cwm-recovery-moto-x-t2406409

@esQmo I'm using a Mac and that driver is for Windows. Also, the download page is hosting viruses. My anti-virus goes nuts. I'd recommend removing the link from this page.

What like has viruses?! XDA Developers is a serious website !  And you didn't specify which OS your computer was running.

The link provided to the drivers on the page is what I'm talking about, not the site you linked. I know I didn't provide the OS, sorry about that. That's not your fault, but mine. However, interestingly enough, I uninstalled the software and the drivers appear to be unouched. Hopefully this stops the panics.

adb does not require any extra drivers to work on Mac besides the generic Apple USB driver.

just FYI: the Motorola ADB Interface string in the log does not come from any software on your computer - it is just a string from the phone's USB descriptor.

I learned that this morning. I completely uninstalled the Motorola Software and the kernel panics continue. This goes deeper than the Motorola Software.

would you like to edit out all that unbased and misdirected hate towards Motorola from your question then?

It's still problematic in many other ways, but sure.


text:
Where i can find my stock rom
Recently I bought a Chinese made android phone. Specifications of the phone is given here. The phone has mediatek mtk6577 processor. I been thinking to install different ROM in my device. But, I can not find source to download this ROM. Is it possible to install google stock rom in this phone and where can I find this rom? How do I know which rom is compatible with my device?

Which one is your device?!? The link provided doesn't lead to a specific phone! Edit your question by adding the device name, Android version.

Knock-off brand Chinese devices rarely have any custom ROM choices, there just isn't sufficient demand for developers to do make any. And the manufacturers rarely even release the factory ROM image or abide by the GPL licensing and release source code. Sorry, but those devices are usually "as is" and throw away when something goes wrong.

@acejavelin Not necessary. All those phones listed there have ROM, Xiaomi is a perfect example. The others also have stock ROM principaly read from a working phone. Micromax is a serious manufacturer.

@esQmo And I wouldn't count Xiaomi or Micromax as "knock-off" brands... I was referring to the no name clones that pumped out of China at an alarming rate. And since the OP didn't state the make model and gave a link with no info, I went worst case.

For finding other ROMs, Google is your best friend. If you can't find anything with Google, chances are that there aren't any custom ROMs for the phone. Any ROM that is compatible with the device will specifically list the phone. If it is not listed, it is not safe to flash the ROM and may result in hard-bricking the phone forever.
As far as the stock ROM goes, Google is again your best friend. Many manufactures post the stock ROM on their website for just this reason, however, if it is not there, you can always take a nandroid backup of the phone which also captures the stock ROM, allowing you to flash back the stock ROM if you wish to do so.


text:
Connect to emulator from another PC in LAN
I have two PCs. One runs Ubuntu and another runs Windows. Both have adb installed. I have an emulator on Ubuntu and I want to connect to it from Windows. I thought I could use adb forward but it doesn't work. On Ubuntu, I set up
adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:5555

adb tcpip 5555

Then, in Windows, I tried to connect:
adb connect user@ubuntu-ip-address:8080

But it cannot connect.
PS: I can connect through ssh from Windows to ubuntu and use adb normally.

https://stackoverflow.com/q/1754162/3191896

Suppose you have PC1 and PC2. According to the official Android Developer documentation, adb forward is not for forwarding a TCP port of the PC1 to another port of the PC2. It's for forwarding a TCP port of PC1 to a TCP port of the Android device.
For your situation, you can use any port forwarding tool like Port Forwarding for Windows.
There is a nice tutorial below copied from hasper.info by Philipp Hasper:

I often use the Android emulator to check my apps with different display configurations and to stress-test them. But the problem is that it is really slow on my development laptop. So I installed the Android emulator on my desktop PC running Windows and connect to it over my LAN. The major advantage is that you can continue using your development machine while a “server” deals with emulating – one could even emulate several devices at once and still continue programming.
The approach in a nutshell: Forward the emulator’s port so that it is accessible in the local network. Then connect the ADB to it.
On your desktop – the “server”:

Store the executable of Trivial Portforward on the desktop system (e.g. directly in C:\trivial_portforward.exe).

Create a virtual device to emulate (HowTo) and name it “EmulatedAndroid”.

Create a batch file:
<your-android-sdk-path>\tools\emulator -avd EmulatedAndroid &
echo 'On the development machine: adb kill-server and then: adb connect <desktop-pc-name>:5585'
C:\trivial_portforward 5585 127.0.0.1 5555

If you execute this batch file on your desktop PC, it will open the emulator with the specified virtual device.

Now on your laptop – the “client”:

Now – given that both systems are in the same network – you can connect to the emulator from your laptop by typing in a terminal:
adb kill-server
adb connect <desktop-pc-name>:5585

Now you can upload apps, access the logcat and execute adb commands on your remote emulator like on any other Android device. And all without performance impairments on your workstation.

If you are experiencing communication losses, increase the emulator timeout in the eclipse settings to maybe 5000 ms (Window → Preferences → Android → DDMS → ADB connection time out (ms)).

I have noticed using this way, Android debugging doesn't work. it tries to connect to new port which they decide to meet using abd default communication channel.

How to do this from a mac to an other mac ? Or from a macOS client to a Linux hosted emulator ?

This almost works, except that I see that the port is restricted using Resource Monitor. After adding an exception rule in Windows Firewall, this works like a charm!

I just want to update answer, since approach with trivial_portforward is not easy, because issuer is not online anymore and you have to compile it. And also this page is first in google results.
Best approach for port forwarding is to use ssh.
If you want to install SSH on windows,here are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zin9xhU5P58 - (Windows install OpenSSH server)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/android/troubleshooting/questions/connect-android-emulator-mac-windows

On Host:
a) nodaemon server:
host$ adb kill-server
host$ adb -a nodaemon server

b) create ssh server
Just create ssh server on host machine, if it is windows. I did it this way.
On Client:
a)
adb kill-server
ssh -L 5037:localhost:5037 <host-IP-or-hostname>

b)
adb kill-server
ssh -L 5585:localhost:5555 serverusername@<host-IP-or-hostname>
adb connect localhost:5585

Then authenticate. Also portforwading is possible do on host or client, if both have ssh server.


text:
Google flight notifications
For some time now my phone notifies me every day about some flight status, which I'm not interested in. I looked in Google Now settings and can't find a way to disable it. There isn't even a card related to travel. Is there any way to turn it off? It's really annoying.

Maybe it's picking up from Web and app activity? Settings >app Settings and then Google Personal info & privacy and then Activity controlsand
Turn the switch on or off.

Do you have Google Allo installed and configured?

I don't have Allo. I found a flight I searched some time ago on my desktop and this seems to be it. Well, at least it's not a random plane, but still I don't wish to see it.

So, did turning off the web privacy fix?

I'll wait till tomorrow morning - that's always when I get the notification.

Nope, still getting the notifications.


text:
How do I remove an automatic bug/virus premium messaging/MMS box from popping up and stopping sending texts?
I have a Google Pixel phone and I received a shady message saying something like: "You have been subscribed to such-and-such and are paying such-and-such amount. To unsubscribe text whatever to whatever".  Unaware of the the malice I foolishly replied to the text. A box popped up saying "this may cause charges on your mobile account remember my choice" Instantly I knew I made a mistake to I tried to rectify it with my my phone provider. As I tried to text them, the same box popped up. I closed it I tried to contact an alternative number provided by my phone company and the same thing happened. I used a different SMS app from the play store. Same thing. I factory reset my phone, then hard reset it. Same thing. How do I get rid of it? What do I do?

Please add a screenshot.

It’s typically not a “virus”, per se. A virus is a program that can infect another program or active content data file (such as a Microsoft Word Document) with itself, as a result of running or opening the infected program or document.
It’s most likely malware or adware, that you’ve unwittingly installed it on your phone, or if not, you may have had your DNS settings in your router hijacked, or you may simply be visiting sites that have JavaScript-based redirectors that trigger after conditions are met.
The process you will need to use depends on how it operates. For a lot of malware or adware, it typically comes in when you install an already infected application from the Internet.
There are a lot of people who intentionally propagate these infections through either third party “App Stores”, or through “sideloading” of applications. Typically, they operate by offering the application for a discounted amount, or for free, when the app typically costs more, or would normally come from a different location. If you use Windows PC, freeware from the Internet may bring such adware or malware.
This is most common in Asia.
The largest contributors to this problem are:
Companies who are pirating applications, and have decided to “make a little money on the side”
Government agencies
Pirated/redistributed development environments (for example, the most common way Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch applications get infected is a pre-infected copy of Apple’s “XCode”, which downloads very slowly when obtained from official sources in many areas of the world).
Region locking/region restriction; this is mostly a copyright and distribution rights issue, which is very annoying if the App you want has not been licensed for distribution in a given region (if it’s this: I suggest you learn to live without the App for now, and contact the manufacturer of the App, asking for it to be made available where you are).
The first thing to determine is exactly what’s doing the redirection.
For example, if it’s your router, it’s not even your phone’s fault, and it can usually be fixed by updating your DNS settings in the router, or having the ISP doit for you.
If it’s a JavaScript redirect built into a template page that you’ve downloaded and applied to all of your browser pages, it’s a multistep process; her’s an example for the malware known as ad-type.google.com:
Disable JavaScript in all your browsers
Install anti-malware software, such as “Malwarebytes for Android”
Run the anti-malware software to remove the store JavaScript copy of the malware
Reenable JavaScript in all your browsers
If it’s from an App installed from something other than the Google App Store, then you will need to deinstall the application. You are on your own, determining which one(s) brought the infection onto your phone.
In rare cases, there have been infections due to infected software hosted on the Google App Store (not even Google can catch everything!), and if this is the case, updating your Apps relatively frequently, and deinstalling Apps that are no longer listed on the store can also help.
In additon, Resetting you Ad identifier from
Google settings -> Ads
(Google settings is an app in your app drawer)
This stops the malicious adscript being targetted to your device based on a previously dropped cookie from a malicious app/site.


text:
How To Remove "Insert Metropcs Sim Card. Emergency Calls Only" Msg On An Lg?
This is the message I am looking to get rid of:

I learned that you can get rid of this message on other Androids by going to the app that it generated from and clicking "disable notifications". However, I have no idea where to find the app that causes this message and I also can't long-press the message to see where it comes from. So any other answers to solve this problem? Or do any of you guys know what app cause these sorts of messages to pop up on your homescreen?

I think your phone is SIMLocked, meaning it works only with SIMCards from a certain service provider, MetroPCS in this specific case. Your phone doesn't detect any MetroPCS SIMCards inserted. Therefore, it limits your calls to emergency only. That notification doesn't originate from any app. It originates from the OS itself. Only way to make it go away is, assuming you wouldn't root your device, installing a proper SIMCard.


text:
Nexus 5x stuck in download mode after flashing
I flashed my nexus 5x following the instructions from the official android website https://developers.google.com/android/images . I installed fastboot on my Ubuntu 16.04 and started flashing. After executing the script flash-all.sh, it indicates that the phone was properly flashed in terminal, and even my phone shows commands that the firmware is getting installed. But after the end of the flash, my phone reboot and get stuck on a the message :
Firmware Update
Do not unplug the USB connection until the process is complete

with a progress bar stuck at 0%.
I've tried flashing with the firmwares : 6.0.0 (MDA89E), 7.0.0 (NRD90M), 7.1.1 (NMF26F, Dec 2016). And with every firmware I get stuck after the flashing ends.
Note
When I visited a link given by sancho.s , I noticed that I can't get into recovery mode, my phone get stuck into the same Firmware Update screen unstead.

You might edit your question with a detailed list of the alternatives you tried (description step-by-step), and what you get. An image may also be useful. That will help others help you. Did you remove the battery?

There was no specific question posted, so I asume you have your phone bricked (unusable) now, and you want to get it out of that state.
Here you find a few alternatives:

Two people reported here that unplugging the cable, then holding the power button down restarts the phone, and it likely brings it back to life. Similarly here... And there are plenty of similar posts around.
You commented that this does not work.
There are further instructions here.
From here:
"If a battery pull doesn't fix the problem, turn your phone off, charge the battery sufficiently (while it's off) and then unplug from the charger. Hold Volume Down and Power to enter HBoot and enter recovery. Once you see the error symbol pull the battery out again and then reinsert the battery and start as normal. This (for some reason) works for a lot of people. If all else fails enter recovery and do a factory reset."

I've already tried that, but nothing happens. It is always stuck in the Firmware Update screen.

@Sidahmed - Please see updated answer. You might edit your question with a detailed list of the alternatives you tried (description step-by-step). That will help others help you. Did you remove the battery?

I just edited my question, that's basically all what I did. I will try to pull out the battery, but I will need sometime for that to get the appropriate material.

I'm trying to open the phone, but I can't even move the screw, is it normal ??

I think that I won't resolve this question before the end of the bounty, but thank you for your help. The bounty will be given to you.

@Sidahmed - I never tried opening a Nexus 5x, so I wouldn't know about the screw. But a couple of videos may help, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3WImb3povQ , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOOfoX78mpA . And also https://www.google.com/search?q=remove+nexus+5x+battery&tbm=vid


text:
Cannot remove root and Kingroot
I installed Kingroot  and rooted my phone. I don't know how it happened but Kingroot became my system application and now it cannt be removed. If I open Kingroot and go to its settings and try to remove root, it says we have a problem removing root. Kingroot has became my system application and now what I can do is only disable it like other system apps

Download Uninstall from Google Play. It's a system apps remover. You'll be able to remove Kingroot app from your phone.


text:
Don't count some application celullar data consume
I have a cellular data plan which allows me to use 3.5GB of mobile internet, using WhatsApp and Facebook with no data charge.
Android counts always the data consumption for Facebook and WhatsApp. Is there a way to make the SO not-count these two apps consumption?
PD: Sorry if my english isn't that good, still learning

Your phone and your carrier count for data usage differently. I don't think there is a way to exclude some apps to the counter.

Not even a third-party app? I've searched and haven't found.

Give a try to Onavo count. It shows how much data you use on each app.


text:
Nexus 6P wifi issues, wont connect, no internet
This hasn't been addressed in other 6P threads. Nexus 6P running Nougat can connect to my 5Ghz Wifi network in my home.
I'll connect to my 5Ghz band of my wifi network, but the status on the phone will either say "connected, no internet" or even "connected" but the internet wont work. Phone shows good signal strength and link speed, but browsing or trying to download anything doesn't work.
Everything on LTE works fine though. And I have other devices connected to my wifi network (on the 2.4Ghz band) and they work fine as well. Plus my desktop has no LAN issues, so I'm guessing it's not a router problem.

Here are the solutions I've tried thus far with no avail:

With or without VPN
2.4Ghz or 5Ghz bands
Restarted in Safe Mode, same problem. Will connect to my networks but internet wont work
Powered off, waited a minute, powered on
Disabled security authentication for the network on the router
Re-enabled security authentication
Factory reset router
Factory reset Nexus 6P

I called Google and explained the process I've gone thru. They are sending a new Nexus 6P. We'll see then I guess what the issue was/is. One thing I haven't done yet is try to connect the phone to another network (I dont have any public networks nearby). I'm just going back to the fact that my tablet LAN work just fine that it wouldn't be my router.

Update: I am at my parents now.. and similar to before, I can connect to their Wi-Fi network with multiple devices, but the internet doesn't work on the Nexus-6P. At least I know it's not the router. Just waiting on that new phone from Google now.

Update #2: I have received a new 6P from Google, RMA'd my old phone, still under warranty.  I hope to receive feedback on what the root cause of the issue was, but I'm not holding my breath.  The new phone has no issues.

I came across a solution using airplane mode on another forum. The method is turn on airplane mode, then turn WiFi on again. After it settles, turn airplane mode off. I did this and it made a difference. Like it was trying to connect but was still struggling.
So then I noticed that the time was not set correctly. Like it did it was 10am and it was actually 5pm. So quite the difference. I fixed the time and bam! Everything back to normal. I hope this helps some one!

You may have been able to fix it without an RMA, your 6P probably had some artifact in its settings that caused the issue. I had a similar problem where the 6P would not connect to my 2.4GHz network, but it did connect to my 5GHz network.
The Fix: In your 'Wireless & Networks' expanded menu, click on 'Network Settings Reset'. This gives you a clean slate to try and reconnect to your networks.
^For anyone else stumbling onto this thread

why wouldn't this have been fixed with a factory reset?

Ah my bad, I didn't read his last bullet point.


text:
Google Assistant won't read notifications
So I've recently gotten a Google Pixel and have been putting the new Google Assistant through its paces. I was driving and got a notification of a text message. I was expecting a message from my wife, so I said:

OK Google. Read notifications.

And got nothing.
On my first-gen Moto X I had used "read notifications" or "what's up?" many times. Is that a feature specific to the Moto X (or, at least, to Motorola devices)? If not, how can I get Google Assistant to read back my phone notifications?

I have found this article that states and I quote:

Motorola updated their Touchless Control app this evening to include a
  feature that allows you to ask your phone “What’s up?” in order to
  hear what your current notification situation is like. By asking “Ok,
  Google Now, what’s up?” your phone will read the time followed by
  notifications back to you, letting you decide if any are important
  enough to act upon.

What is Touchless Control though? According to this page:

Touchless Control is a separate application from Google Voice Search
  but it works with Google Voice Search.  Touchless Control's main
  purpose is to wait for the launch phrase, "OK Google" or "Ok Google
  (Now)"  and then either execute the command or send the request to
  Google Voice Search.

In the same page you'll see that What's up is a command for Touchless Control that reads notifications. Touchless Control is now called Moto Voice.

Is that a feature specific to the Moto X (or, at least, to Motorola
  devices)?

Short answer is yes. The reason same command doesn't work now, is because the original feature was originating from a for-Motorola-only app.

How can I get Google Assistant to read back my phone notifications?

Even though the app was made for Motorola phones and has official support only for them, there are ways to get it on other phones too according to this page.


text:
S5 shows charge icon but is not charging the battery. Tried three different batteries
In the last couple of days, my S5 stopped charging the battery normally, even though the charge icon is displayed as charging in the top right.
When plugged into a wall outlet with the wider USB 3.0 cable, it usually fully charges in an hour or so.
Now, it's not charging battery even when plugged in overnight.   I've swapped cables, swapped wall adapter, and even tried a brand new spare battery.   Nothing improves this situation.
What could be wrong?

What happens if you charge in safe mode?  Try using Ampere to measure while charging. If no current is being shown, it's almost certain hardware Issue. Likely USB port fault. Some phones display charging icon on being connected to charger and not necessarily charging!

Can try cleaning the charging port and other things suggested here


text:
How should I charge my phone ( avoid fast charging)?
I've recently got a new Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) running Android 6. It's great, but I'm not sure how to charge it properly.
By using the charger that came with the phone I get a notification saying "Fast Charging" and the phone heats up like crazy so it can shorten the life of the battery (although it does actually charge really quickly).
Alternatively I can use 3rd party chargers (none of which obviously suport fast charging), but many websites say it can harm the battery because they can be of really bad quality, so I don't like that option.
The best option I see is to charge it using my PC, but I can't have my PC everywhere I go and leaving it on overnight seems like an energy waste (no, my PC can't charge when it's off).
Disabling Fast Charging seems like a good idea, but since the Marshmalow update, the option is not in the settings anymore.
The text on the stock charger says:
Input: 100-240V 50-60 Hz 0.50 A
Output: 9V DC 1.67A or 5V DC 2.0A
With all that in mind, what is the best way to charge my phone and do minimal damage to the battery in the long run?

Try keeping your phone in like tables or other hardened places (Not on a blanket,pillow,bed or any soft clothes). This helped me!

Upvoted for caring for your battery !

You have multiple options :

Power bank that doesn't support fast charging
Normal 5 V 2.0 A or 5 V 1.0 A charger ( since fast chargers are backwards compatible )
Using a USB hub between charging port and device
Using a custom kernel that can lower charging current ( if device is rooted)
Using a Power only ( no data ) cable

As confirmed by OP, the last option worked and they wanted to know Is it safe?. To answer that, we need to understand how such cables are designed

A  Power only ( no data ) cable uses Pins  1 and 4 ( refer  USB layout )
Which means pins D + and D - are NOT used. These pins are responsible for negotiating the power requirements -  (see Overview of USB Charging for more details )
Li Ion batteries charge in stages ( see Figure 1 ),  which means that different voltage and current levels are required at each stage.  Stage 1 corresponds to < 20% and Stage 3 > 70-80 ℅ ( roughly - from experience )

Since D+ and D-  pins are not used to negotiate the power required for each stage, such a cable will provide a constant Voltage or Current at all stages, which is not desirable
From a theoretical point of view it should be OK,  if you are charging from 20 to 70-80% , but this may not be practically feasible. So, it is safe , IF, you ensure this charging limits
From a purist point of view ( as your question indicates), it is safer for battery to use the option of using a normal charger (that   negotiates requirements, while charging ) and that is the best way ! You can buy older OEM chargers that charge at 2A

Nope, nope, nope. You're assuming the charging electronics are in the charger; they're not. It's just a simple power supply, with selectable output voltages in the case of the fast charger. All the voltage and current regulation going into the actual cell is done in the phone. If not, well, what do you think happens if you hook 5V2A straight onto a Lithium cell?

@SomeoneSomewhere: I know that. How do you read or interpret the answer to imply otherwise? But to make it clear the charger does house the IC that  is involved in fast charging mechanism. Else, if it had nothing , how does it charge as a normal charger a device not equipped with fast charging or how is it backward compatible?

Because you talk about the 'stages' of lithium battery charging, which are only seen by the buck regulator built into the phone. It's that regulator that adjusts the current/voltage supplied to the battery. Most chargers do no more negotiation than saying "I'm not a PC, draw as much current as you like until I turn off".

Most chargers do no more negotiation than saying "I'm not a PC, draw as much current as you like until I turn off-- Have a look at Table 4 and Fig 17 here for the negotiation done, which is way beyond Am I a PC or not?. Fact that it is a power bank does not make a material difference- is talking about fast charging and role of D  pins // As far as stages of charging are concerned, suggest you read the Overview of USB charging linked in the solution

You may also like to see the various stages and corresponding implementation in battery charger of 2008, when fast charging was not available. You can Google and download "APPLICATION NOTE S3F84K4
LI-ION BATTERY CHARGER" ( caps unintended , copy paste result). Not withstanding this, if you like you may share background for your conclusion. My solution is based on understanding which is supported but there well could be something I am missing. If you like you can point that out in a chat

@SomeoneSomewhere: Sorry, above comments were not tagged to you so I am not sure if you will get notified.

The vast majority of phones and chargers still do not support QC. It's still possible to charge quite 'fast' on a 5V-only charger. I assumed you were talking about slowing the charging down to the 500mA level found on a normal PC.

Since D+ and D- pins are not used to negotiate the power required for each stage, such a cable will provide a constant Voltage or Current at all stages, which is not desirable. It will not, because QC's negotiation only defines the voltage and maximum current, and standard USB negotiation only defines maximum current. The phone's charging IC will under no circumstances put more current into the battery than is safe, no matter what is negotiated. Again, that would give you a fire.

@SomeoneSomewhere: 1. I said it is not desirable from the POV that each stage  requires different voltage and current,  which can't be negotiated in absence of D pins NOT from risk of drawing excessive current ( fire) . 2. Standard USB negotiates both voltage and current as you can see from the Samsung PDF I referred to ( I assume any standard OEM would do the same). May I suggest that you post a solution explaining in detail why you feel differently, since justification can be elaborate? Thanks

A standard USB charger will always output ~5V; varying of the voltage to the typical lithium cell voltage of ~3-4.2V (show me a phone with multiple cells...) is done inside the phone. The S3F84K4 is an IC that could be found (battery management is only one use case for that micro) in the device with the battery - you'll note that it talks about a 5V (the example given is literally USB) or 9V input, not the typical 100-240VAC input of a phone 'charger'. Also, an answer would not be the place to discuss another answer.

@SomeoneSomewhere:  I have presented my answer with reasons which are backed by documents or other evidence.  Your views have not been supported by any ( doesn't mean they are wrong). Asking you to post an answer is to study a substantiated different PoV.  If you don't care to post one, well, it's your choice. With courtesy, I have no wish to continue this chat further, since it doesn't help. Thanks

And I'm saying you're completely misinterpreting your supporting documents. I suggest you read this question and the USB battery charging specification.

Also, in reference to one of your previous comments, the risk of over-drawing is not 'fire'. The output voltage should sag as it approaches maximum current/power.

Oops, dead link. USB battery charging spec V1.2

@SomeoneSomewhere: My last comment on this chat 1.  Fire was in response to your previous comment, which suggested that. 2. Have a look at this please http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1225958.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I would recommend getting a Samsung travel adapter which outputs at only 5v.


text:
Nexus 7 does not start
My nexus 7 does not start after updating the system. It is in a never ending loop. I would appreciate any help.

Probably, something went wrong during update. /data partition might be problematic after updates sometimes. Or it might be directly related to the system files that are downloaded during update. Try to boot into recovery mode using guides from here and here and factory reset your phone. It'll format /data partition clean and therefore delete every user data you have on your phone such as apps, apps' datas, SMS, call logs, etc. If the problem is related to a bad/corrupted or a non-compatible /data partition, the problem will be solved.
However, if the problem is related to other things such as bad system files or problem(s) during installation of downloaded files, flashing a clean ROM will be necessary.