text:
What is error code 495 on Google Play and the YouTube app?

"Facebook" could not be downloaded due to an error. (495)

How do I solve this error?

Armed with google-fu, and searched yielded this makes me wonder, is your clock out of sync completely, perhaps on the wifi network's router and not your device?

For reason unkown to me, I cannot add an answer, so I'll add a comment here then. I faced this same error while trying to update Facebook app, while few other apps updated just fine, while using mobile data. For a time I was wondering why Facebook refused to update, until I did remember that I had prevented several apps from using mobile data. One of them was "Media". After allowing it to use mobile data, Facebook updated just fine.

There is a helpful official 'Google Play' help page which boils down all the advice here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/troubleshooter/6332137 I'd post it as an answer but don't have the rep.

According to a user on The Transformers' Forum:

"I had the same problem but fixed it. Go to Settings - Apps- All- Download manager and Clear data. Then go to Settings - Apps - All - Google Play Store and Clear cache. Play Store should work and if not try restarting your device."

There is another answer that says that Uninstalling the updates of Google Play app and restarting the device and updating it again solved the issue,

"Uninstall all updates to Google Play, reverting to the original market, then re-starting that, and letting it re-update to Google Play, then re-starting it again."

However vague, clearing the data on Google Play Store app might do the job.

I have tried but same error and my device works with other WIFI networks.

Wherefore occurs this error?

Can it be possible that the network you use is blocking downloads (or even the word "facebook") in some way or the other?

I get this error myself, and it looks like this is mostly a network issue. May be because of some stale values on device, clearing application cache for Google Play or Download Manager can help.
However trying a different network (wifi instead of data) works for me. It might also help if you change DNS addresses on device, I guess.
D/Finsky  ( 4507): [1] DownloadImpl.setState: com.google.android.apps.books from DOWNLOADING to ERROR.
D/Finsky  ( 4507): [1] DownloadQueueImpl.onError:     com.google.android.apps.books: onError 495.
D/Finsky  ( 4507): [1] DownloadQueueImpl.remove: Download    com.google.android.apps.books removed from DownloadQueue
D/Finsky  ( 4507): [1] InstallerTask.cancelCleanup: Cancel running installation of com.google.android.apps.books
E/Finsky  ( 4507): [1] RestoreTracker.onInstallPackageEvent: Restore package com.google.android.apps.books download error 495
I/ElegantRequestDirector( 4507): I/O exception (org.apache.http.NoHttpResponseException) caught when processing request: The target server failed to respond
I/ElegantRequestDirector( 4507): Retrying request

Had the problem on an Alcatel device where "all apps" in settings - apps does not exist. Using WLAN instead of 3g for downloading from Play Store worked. Not sure if it will now also work again on 3g.


text:
Why hasn't my Galaxy Nexus received the latest OTA update?
I have a Galaxy Nexus and I live in Belgium (so my phone is not locked to a specific carrier). The Android version is still 4.0.4 and when I go the system update menu, it doesn't do anything, no OTA update. I thought the version 4.1 or even 4.1.1 was available. How can I update it 'officially'?
Of course, I already searched but I only found update packages that I'm not sure I can trust.

For official you have to wait.

You may have a device that's configured to receive updates from the carrier rather than from Google directly. You can use an app to check if that's the case.

it's configured to received updates from google

My phone was a yakju and I don't know why those ones are updated like 2 months after the takju. I had to flash it manually to turn it into a takju and after reboot the update was directly available.

I have the same problem for about half of a year. I've tried entering "checkin" secret code in phone Dialer many times, many weeks in a row, tried to clear data of Google service framework - no luck.
But yesterday I've finally get updated to Android OS 4.1.1! Here is how I did this:

open phone Dialer, enter *#*#2432546#*#* (numbers is representing word "checkin")
wait for message "checkin succeeded" in status bar (you need active internet connection, WiFi or mobile - doesn't matter)
open system Settings -> Apps -> All -> Google Services Framework
click "Force stop" button, wait few seconds
next click "Clear data" button
when open Settings -> About -> System updates. You should see something like "Last checked for update on 1/1/1970"
click "Check now" button
if you didn't receive update yet, repeat this procedure from first
step few more times (I've succeeded after second attempt). You could also try to replace step 7 by step 1.

All this sounds very strange for me, but I've tried some separate parts of this sequence many times before and it didn't work. Yesterday I've repeat all 8 step exactly as them written above, two time in a row - and I've finally get Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus (I have yakjuxw firmware).

Two possible reasons:

Your carrier hasn't released the update to their customers yet.  Check their support website or call their support to ask.
If you have ever rooted your phone and removed and of the systems applications, which includes bloatware apps like Facebook that come preinstalled, you cannot get OTA updates as your phone's system won't match the update anymore and so it won't install.

p.2 is incorrect, OTA updates come no matter if you have modified your system or not. the only difference is the error message, which appears during the installation. so get can get OTA, just cannot install.

@lenik: A distinction without a difference...

ok but for me OTA updates don't come at all and I didn't flash or modify my ROM.

@jafar: part 2 of my answer doesn't have anything to do with flashing or modifying your ROM, unless you count removing apps as modifying the ROM.

No I don't. I have the stock ROM, not rooted and not modified and independent of any carrier...

If you have a third party phone, then contact your manufacturer (Samsung) or search their support website for details on an update.

Maybe wait, I had a Nexus One and my phone get OTA three or four month after the Google release, because of my carrier.
But you can get the ZIP file of the OTA package and make a manual install.
You can find the file on XDA I think.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to limit cache of internet browsers?
I use the default browser as well Opera Mini.
I can't seem to find any setting to limit the cache to a certain amount (in MB for example).
They eat up disk space quickly.
Anyone knows if it's possible limit the cache disk usage of these browsers?
If not, can you recommend a browser that can do this?

There's no way to limit the cache of browsers or apps, however you could use one of many cache cleaner apps to sweep the cache/temp files in one stroke.
Take a look at Dolphin Browser as well - it has an option to store the cache on the SD card, so that will eliminate your space problem. There's also the option of clearing the cache/history each time you exit the browser. Also has sync, extensions and Flash support (depending on your device).
BTW - I don't think Opera Mini stores a cache as Opera Mobile does. Opera Mini does however store pages in folders specified by the user.

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


text:
Standard email Android 4 client doesn't keep local copy of emails
The new standard email client with Android 4, doesn't seem to keep local copies of emails once they are deleted off the server.
Honeycomb did. The email was downloaded to the tablet, and kept even after the email was deleted from the server.
I'm using an Acer A500 with Android version 4.0.3 (kernal 2.6.39.4+).
Email set up is 'normal'/standard POP3 account.
Setting is Delete email from server: Never
What am I doing wrong?

Are you really using POP3? It's a behaviour of IMAP... not POP3. If yes, it's certainly a bug. Better, use different email client like K9-mail.

I prefer k9mail.
I think it's much better than the stock email client. It also has option to delete local mail when deleted from server.

k9mail is great for phones -- not as well suited for tablet where you have more space and need larger tapping areas. It seems that this 'new' android4 email client operates the same for pop3 and imap accounts.

This is almost certainly a bug, because ironically messages that have been moved to the trash are still on the device.  Only messages in the inbox seem to be deleted. So it looks like the workaround is to delete the messages you want to keep (assuming you don't have it set to delete them from the server when you delete them).


text:
Can't delete "Layar" app from rooted Samsung 551
I rooted my Samsung 551 with Android 2.3.6 to delete some useless apps such as Orkut, Midnight Bowling and Layar. In trying to delete the Layar app (from /system/apps) I couldn't find it there and there is no layar.apk file or even another file name with layar's icon. Is there another path where Layar is installed? Should I config something to find its de-installation path?

Are you using adb or a file manager? That's a bit what it sounds like. Using Titanium Backup to uninstall might be easier since it will give you a nice GUI and such.

Solved (at least Layar is not being showed as installed anymore). On this site I found that I could also remove the /data/app/com.layar.apk file. I did it and now I have +8MB of free space on my Galaxy.


text:
How do you load a local ROM with beebdroid?
I downloaded beebdroid, the bbc micro emulator and its working great but i cant figure out how to load a rom other than the ones it lists as being online.

You can't, sorry. We open-sourced it so that people would get involved and make these sorts of enhancements. So far, we've had precisely zero contributions back. Wanna be our first? :-)

I might be interested.  How much work would you foresee, roughly, to add local ROM loading support?

Go take a look at the code on github, and see what you think. Probably not a massive task.


text:
Internal SD periodically becomes inaccessible
I'm having an issue with my Samsung Galaxy S. My phone has trouble reading my internal SD card. When the problem occurs, I cannot take pictures, or even access the "My Files" folder.
When I check the settings in the SD card and phone storage area, everything is unavailable or greyed out. The phone is not USB mounted when this happens. A battery pull fixes the problem, but this seems unconventional. Also Kies does not work as well with my device.

That sounds much more like a hardware issue to me, personally. Have you taken it in to where you bought it and asked them to look at it?

not yet..before I take it to the store I wanted to know what you think guys?

Any results so far? It's almost a year gone. Maybe meanwhile you can answer the question yourself?

(for Izzy)If you want you can close this - I replace my phone.

I had the problem with my Ainol Novo 7 Crystal Quad Core and the solution was simple but took hours of research.
The internal SD partition that goes beyond the memory reserved for the OS and some apps may have become corrupted.
Go to the backup/reset tab in "settings" and click the erase SD card.
You will be told that you will lose all the information on it but you will only lose that which you cannot access anyway.
Erase the card.
Once it is erased, you will be able to mount it when you go to "storage" and you push the remount button.
Hope this of help and use to you. It worked for me.


text:
Is there a way to recover deleted photos?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I recover a deleted file on Android?
Data Recovery - How to Restore Deleted / Formatted Files on HD Micro SD Card

Is there a way to recover deleted photos from my device? I deleted some pictures but now I want to restore them. I tried several file recovery applications, but they only gave me empty image files.

Have you looked at How can I recover a deleted file on Android?

If none of the tools work then your images have probably been overwritten and are now unrecoverable, unfortunately.


text:
Can mobile websites (not apps) access androids GPS Radio
We're creating a brief for a mobile website (not web app) and would like to know if a mobile website can access a handset's built in GPS radio to display the handset's location on a map.
In short is GPS functionality limited to apps alone?

While Websites can not directly access the GPS, then can get the current location from the device (But of course only if the user has granted the permission). I think that this is done via HTML5's gelocation API, but I am not sure.


text:
The UI sounds on my Galaxy Nexus no longer play - how can I re-enable them?
I kind of like the touch sounds and unlock sound on my Galaxy Nexus, so I typically leave them enabled. Today I noticed that both of these sound effects had simply stopped playing, possibly after I unplugged my phone from my car stereo (using a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone plug). For that matter, it appears that all of the UI sounds (camera click, screenshot, etc) have stopped playing of their own accord.
I have tried:

Silencing and unsilencing my phone, as well as adjusting the available volume sliders in my phone settings
Disabling and re-enabling the settings for touch sounds and unlock sounds
Rebooting my device

None of these methods has fixed the problem. My GNex is running CyanogenMod9 (built May 10, 2012) and Franco Kernel r107. Is there any way for me to re-enable these sound effects?

This appears to be something of a bug, either in ICS or the Galaxy Nexus (though I am unsure which). Unbeknownst to me, there is a "system volume" level that controls, among other things, the output of UI sound effects. This volume level does not appear to be modifiable within the normal system settings, but you can modify it with third party apps.
Based on this information (which I obtained from an XDA thread), I downloaded Volume Control + from the Play Store and launched it. The very last slider on the interface was for "system volume", and it was set to a value of 0. Once I cranked it back up to the maximum, my UI sounds began playing normally again. I do not know what causes this to become muted inadvertently.

Hey look, it's my thread! :P Yeah, it's an annoying bug. It's a terrible design to have a volume setting that there is no way to modify without a third party app.


text:
answering machine app on Galaxy Note
I want to install an answering machine app on Galaxy Note, didn't find anything interesting in Google. What do you recommend? Or is there such a feature on the phone itself, in settings or somewhere?
Something with a recorded message saying "I'm not available now, please leave your message or phone number".

I found two questions quite similar to mine asked, but they didn't get any satisfying answers.

What's wrong with using your carrier's answering service?

Are you looking for voicemail providers? Like youmail or google voice? Or something different?

@Chahk: It doesn't have any.

@AlexB: If those two do what I want, then it'd be okay.

Google Voice should do what you want if you're in the US.  On my phone I can go to Settings -> Call settings -> Voicemail and set it as the "Voicemail service" (you'll need the Google Voice app to do this).
There might be other apps to hook into this voicemail service setting but I can't find any at the moment.


text:
Installing RAM Into Your Android Powered Tablet?

Possible Duplicate:
Can you upgrade the RAM of an Android device?

I recently purchased the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.
I am aware that it only has 1GB of Ram.
I am running the Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4(?) Operating System.
I am curious as to wonder if there is a possibility that I can put more RAM into this bad boy.
Let me know,
Thank you,
Aaron

Check http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/22997/nexus-s-ram-upgrade and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7652/how-can-i-fit-more-ram-into-my-g1

Thanks @roxan, I've made the former more general and merged the latter into it.

I dont think so. Usually computers with remove able ram have visible screws or parts that are designed to be detachable. An android tablet does not and it is not designed to be ripped apart or tinkered with. Even if you are able to access the ram which looks nothing like pc ram, you'll have a hard time getting it out because its soldered in there. You will probably have an even more difficult time finding a 2gb stick that will fit into the device. Why would want more ram anyway?

Why wouldn't you want more rám?


text:
How to root but not root Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0
Recently my family signed up for an offer from Google called Screenwise Select. As a part of the deal we got a smartphone used to connect to our TV and monitor TV shows that we watch. The phone is a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0. However, evidently the Screenwise app is more than an app; it's taken over the phone. When I turn it on, the "swipe to unlock" appears for a split-second, then it flips over to this app. I can't get out if it. I suspect the system has been somehow modified so that the phone can only be used with the app.
So, my question is - is there a way to "root" but "not root" the phone - that is, to get the system back to normal with the app running like a regular app?
I think the app is in the AppStore so the other option is to factory reset the device and then install the app, but I don't want to do that without confirmation from the Screenwise people.
Any ideas?

Do you have ADB installed on your pc along with device drivers? If so what do you get with adb devices?

You can't do it....don't do it unless you want to get booted from the Screenwise panel and also be billed for the device (currently over $200 retail).
It's running a skin over the top of the device, similar to how Samsung runs their own TouchWiz interface over the top of Android OS. It's not just an app that's running on top (although there is a separate and completely different Screenwise app on the Android Market that is used with this panel, it's not the same thing).

I'd say it's a custom launcher, not a skin...

It's definitely a launcher and not a skin. They'd need Samsung's source for that.

I recently got 3 of these devices and discovered that they are already rooted (superuser is installed) and all you have to do is install a launcher. Since you can't access anything other than the Screenwise app (yes, its just an app), you will need to sideload it via adb.
What I did was connect to my computer, let windows get all the drivers installed, and downloaded a gingerbread launcher apk file. Then I used the adb command 'adb install launcher.apk' where launcher.apk was the file I downloaded and put into the root of the adb folder.
Hope this helps!


text:
Remove Facebook and Gmail contacts
Some time ago I have synced my Facebook contacts (using Facebook for Android app) with my contacts. I also have my Gmail account synchronized. Having all those contacts is too much.
I went to Account and synchronization and turned off Facebook synchronization. Also in Google account I unchecked the Synchronize contacts box (however I still synchronize Gmail, Picasa, Calender and Google Reader).
Now the contacts are not in my contact list, but when I want to send SMS, I still have to browse trough all Gmail, Facebook and local contacts. That's too many entries and it's hard to find the right number. How to get rid of Gmail and Facebook contacts completely?
Also, when I go to Dialer, all my Facebook friends, who shared their phone numbers, appear there. How to remove those entries also?
I'm using Android 2.3.5

Do you use the stock SMS App?

Yes, my device has vanilla Android without any branding/mods/custom UI.

On Contacts tab of stock contacts app, hit Options button. Then, choose more ~> Display Options.
On this screen, un-check Only contacts with phone numbers. Then, check all accounts whose contacts you want to delete (like Facebook, all Gmail groups). And, un-check all accounts whose contacts you don't want to delete (like Phone, SIM). Tap Save button after you finished checking and un-checking.
On Contacts tab, hit Options button again. Choose Delete this time. On next screen, tap Select all and then Delete button. Done!
After this, again go to display options to display your contacts which weren't deleted.

The trick is, that I needed to check at least Local contacts as well. Otherwise list would be empty when I go to Delete.

@Tschareck No... Delete pulls list from current view.


text:
Does Ice Cream Sandwich support native screen capture?
I understand that earlier versions of Android do not support a native screen capture feature, unless provided by the specific device, or you have a rooted device, or you have the Android SDK and link via USB. However, I have read that ICS should support a native screen capture, but the suggested volume down + power combo in that article does not work for me.
I have also tried home + power, as seems to work on other devices, but that does not work for me either.
The official Android Developers site for 4.0.x states that this should be possible, but doesn't say specifically how...

Sharing with screenshots
Users can now share what's on their screens more easily by taking
  screenshots. Hardware buttons let them snap a screenshot and store it
  locally. Afterward, they can view, edit, and share the screen shot in
  Gallery or a similar app.

I have a generic (DGM T-703) 7 inch tablet with ICS (Version 4.0.3)

@onik: Ah YES, that's it (I feel a little stupid)! But crucially it's [Power]+[VolDown] (in that order) for a couple of seconds, not [VolDown]+[Power]! If I hit the [VolDown] key first I simply get the volume control on the screen and eventually the device switches off because I've been holding the power button for 5 seconds! If you'd like to put that as an answer, I'll accept, thanks! :)

The Power+Vol- combo isn't instant, you have to hold it for a couple of seconds. And, as you noted, press the Power button first or you'll get the volume control and power off your phone.

Wow, this is a useful trick! On my upgraded Nexus S it's tricky to get right though, but it does work.

How well this works I think is dependent on hardware (or maybe it has been improved in later versions of Android)? As mentioned above, on my tablet this is a little tricky. However, on my (new) Nexus 4 phone I've been able to get a screenshot every time without fail.

After seeing onik's reply I tried the screenshot feature on my phone. On my Nexus S, upgraded to ICS 4.0.4, I have to press the Power+Vol - buttons simultaneously. Anything else gives me a volume-down or power-off situation.

I do find that at times the device is more tolerant of a marginal (<1sec) delay between pressing [Power] and [Vol-]. And at other times I can't seem to trigger the screenshot at all!?


text:
What determines power management policies in Android?
I am just approaching to the Smart Phone and Android world and have a couple of doubts:

Which modules (and SW or FW?) decide the policies with which power is
  given to any component of the Smart Phone that requires it?

furthermore

Are power management modules on Smart Phones implemented in the
  Android OS or in some special dedicated firmware?

Obviously power management must work also if the OS is not yet loaded, but who is responsible of it?
And to what extent can I modify the power management with an application running inside of the OS?
(I hope these questions are not Off-Topic, in case can you please direct me to the correct Stack-Exchange site?)

Browsing around forums and sites I found out the following answers to my doubts.
I'm not completely satisfied but it helped understand more.
Every device's power management depends on some suspend/resume policies that are implemented in the firmware controlling that particular device.
This is very device dependent: how and when each device turns off (suspends itself) and wakes up (resumes) depends on the HW specifications, you have to read the datasheets to understand which particular registries must be manipulated to suspend/resume it.
You can control this stuff via software in the drivers of the devices, inside of the kernel's source code, by accessing some funcions in the form <something>_suspend and <something>_resume.
E.g. From the source code of the kernel of the emulator "goldfish":
in file drivers/video/goldfishfb.c (the driver responsible for the frame buffer)
#ifdef CONFIG_ANDROID_POWER
static void goldfish_fb_early_suspend(android_early_suspend_t *h)
{
    struct goldfish_fb *fb = container_of(h, struct goldfish_fb, early_suspend);
    writel(1, fb->reg_base + FB_SET_BLANK);
}

static void goldfish_fb_late_resume(android_early_suspend_t *h)
{
    struct goldfish_fb *fb = container_of(h, struct goldfish_fb, early_suspend);
    writel(0, fb->reg_base + FB_SET_BLANK);
}
#endif

So the early_suspend writes a 1 in the register FB_SET_BLANK to turn off the screen, or a 0 to turn it back on.
So it seems to me that a process in the application execution environment needs to access and corrupt the devices drivers to manipulate maliciously power management of a device.

Sounds interesting. Are you suspecting a virus keeping your device active? Apps can keep wifi and screen and keyboard on from the Java-side, see https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/PowerManager.html

@NoBugs - I don't suspect any virus, but maybe I'd be interested in writing one ;D...just kidding!the link is cool..thks

Power management is determined by governors which set the CPU clock speed according to use. Each clock speed operates at a certain voltage and a lower voltage means less power. If you have root access you can change the governor and the allowed CPU clock speeds. Also there is sleep state into which the CPU will enter when the screen is off and nothing is working in the background. There are probably battery-charging functions that can't be messed with, but everything else can be changed even the cpu and dsp voltages.

If you have root access you can change the governor and the allowed CPU clock speeds: so you're saying that a simple process having root privileges can decide to slow down CPU and change dsp voltages?When you have time can you please provide a little more structured answer?Thks in advance, I really need your help!

You must write a string to /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor . But if you install a custom rom there will be an easy app provided.

Apps like SetCPU require root, and let you change clockspeed/governor. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=505419

@daithib8 - I've provided an answer too, what do you think about it?Do you know if I've got it right?

@NoBugs - I've provided an answer too, what do you think about it?Do you know if I've got it right?


text:
How can I change the default location for bluetooth file transfers?
I have an Android 2.3 device (Samsung Galaxy Y Duos, S6102) and want all files that I receive via bluetooth to save to my SD card.
How can I do that?

The default location is already on your external SD card in the /bluetooth folder.
It's not possible to configure it up to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean:
With the included stock bluetooth receiver you cannot change the location as of now, because it's hard coded. You need a 3rd party app like Bluetooth file transfer which might be configurable here.
In ./packages/apps/Bluetooth/src/com/android/bluetooth/opp/ you can see it.
Constants.java defines this:
public static final String DEFAULT_STORE_SUBDIR = "/bluetooth";

BluetoothOppReceiveFileInfo.java has no switch for the location:
File receiveFile = new File(uniqueFileName);
if (sDesiredStoragePath == null) {
    sDesiredStoragePath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getPath() +
        Constants.DEFAULT_STORE_SUBDIR;
}

The Bluetooth file transfer app works well.  You can change your home folder in settings and to get higher up the folder tree (to get to your ext SD) you need to use the back button (took me a while to figure that one out).  You may also need to change your destination folder in settings.  Just doing home alone won't cut it.

FYI, the default directory is not always on the external SD card.  (Mine was on my internal storage.  I deleted the folder Bluetooth on internal storage and created a new empty folder with the same name on the external SD card.  When I tried to transfer something, it ignored the external SD card and re-created the Bluetooth folder on the internal storage.)


text:
Is there a reason why I need to remove my phone's battery after it crashes before I can turn it back on?
I have a Galaxy Nexus running on 4.0.1. I've noticed that when it crashes it usually requires a battery pull to get it working again.
I was wondering if the pulling of the battery to get the phone to work again is a "feature" of Android. The phone will otherwise stay off after a crash indefinitely until you pull the battery out and put it back in. Is there a specific reason why it cannot be turned on again without first removing the battery? Is there some benefit to this?

I've tried to make your title a bit more descriptive (and cleaned up the formatting a little) now that I believe I understand what you're asking. If I've misinterpreted your question please re-edit it or @reply to me with a new comment.

You can't remove the battery on the RAZR or MAXX, so the magical key sequence to power off is holding the volume down and the power key for 10 seconds.

That's not entirely true. When your device crashes, Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds. The device will be rebooted. It works at least on my Galaxy S. You should try it, too.
If this method is not working, you shouldn't blame Android for that. This is the way computers work. When the Kernel runs out of memory, the device is crashed. Your screen is on or off, it doesn't matter.. The data is intact in memory (mainly RAM). The RAM is designed such that it can hold data as long as it has power supply. It's not like hard drives, DVDs etc which could hold data without power supply. When you remove battery, the RAM loses its data. So, when you start the device after that, it's like a fresh start, the kernel is loaded again in RAM to handle everything as usual.
(If you have problems understanding any terms or process in last paragraph, please see this question for some definitions.)

It's not a benefit or a feature per se, but rather a design issue.  Some devices' hardware won't respond to hardware buttons to force a reboot, necessitating a hard power off (ie, removing the battery) if the system crashes.  It depends on how the hardware is designed - ie, if there is a separate circuit, not dependent on the OS, that a physical button can trigger to force a hard reboot (similar to many PCs, where holding down the power button for 5 seconds will force a hard reboot).

In fact, most phones with removable batteries and all phones and tablets with fixed batteries have such a circuit. But most users aren't aware of the key combination to trigger the hardware reset (means: soft cpu reset to reboot, i don't mean 'factory reset the device').


text:
Is there a way to set the default stream in the TuneIn Radio app?
I love TuneIn Radio, especially when using the 32kbps AAC audio stream.  But, every time I turn the app off and back on again it defaults to the mp3 stream.
Does anyone know if it's possible to change the default stream?

Open the app,
Go to Settings -> Playback.
Check auto restart player option.

I came up with this idea: In the general settings, at the preferred stream setting, I selected the low one. In most cases this will work fine (at least in my case). This way it will choose the lower bit rate AAC stream over the higher bit rate MP3.


text:
How to browse securely, anonymously and without blocks on Android?
So here's your Average Joe at a coffee store, using the open Wifi on his shiny new Android phone. Obviously there are the same issues with using a laptop or any other device on an open network, including having the Hotspot owner as well as other users snooping on poor Joe's web traffic. What sorts of solutions exist for dear Joe?
Joe finishes his coffee and heads to work, and his work Wifi is set up with a proxy (with username and password authentication) to 'protect' (as well as monitor) their workers from such useful sites as Superuser when Joe would really like to utilize such sites. Of course, Joe is obedient and uses Proxydroid which does allow his browser access to his works' white listed sites, though he can only access sites using http connections, a further let down as Joe really does like to check his email and do some banking on his phone. Joe has tried solutions like Orbot, by Tor, though that doesn't seem to work. How can Joe get past these issues?
Obviously this is phrased in a rather happy-go-lucky manner, though certainly the first point is a serious issue for many Android users.
All comments are taken gratefully.

Has Joe tried using the Opera Browser, as everything you do with Opera is pushed through the Opera proxy server?  They call it a feature, since they will compress images and such to speed up performance on mobile phones... but it also has the advantage of... well... being pushed through a proxy.

@BonGart Is the connection to Opera's servers secure?

@BonGart I have tried Opera and it doesn't appear to work with work's set up, unless I set it up to use their proxy.
Matthew Read Apparently the servers use encrypted connections.

If Joe's device is rooted and Joe has a server (with full SSH access) running somewhere on internet, Joe should use SSH Tunnel app with socks proxy option checked (for dynamic port forwarding). There's no need to install VPN server or proxy server. There's no need to do complicated configurations on server. Plus, Joe's data will be secured inside powerful encrypted tunnel, too. With this method, Joe's data will be under his own control (There's no involvement of third-party services).

I'm hoping to answer this both for myself as well as others out there running Android, and despite personally having a rooted phone, many do not.
Sadly I sit behind a firewall and router that doesn't allow port forwarding, though I intend to get a server set up with a third party.
Thanks for the response.

@Kryptonite The firewall and router can't detect anything inside SSH Tunnel because traffic is encrypted. So, they can't block such port forwarding. In fact, all of traffic will use port of SSH (default 22).

well, Joe is a smart guy who has already reached the solution by researching VPN technology, it solves the issues of security from non social elements (hackers and sneakers) in an open wifi hotspot, the VPNs like hidemyass or Purevpn will help better in this regard, thanks


text:
Is there a way to use Google location service without tracking my positions constantly in background?
I want to use Google location service based on wifi or cell tower data without gathering and sending my (later anonymized) positions to Google in background when I do not explicitly make the requests. When I decline to send my location information for  in "settings - location", the location service is disabled.
I suppose this would be possible on a rooted phone only.

So, you're asking "How can I get Google to tell me about things that are near my location without telling Google where I am?"

No, I'm aware of that I need to send wifi and cell signal info when I make the request. But I don't want to share this information constantly when I do not make such a requests.

I don't have a source to back it up, but I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons for continuously monitoring location is to improve the accuracy of the service.

Won't shutting it off and turning it on only when needed accomplish this?

Richard: yes you are right, for Google the data from phones is the cornerstone of updates of location service. One may consider not contributing with own data as hypocritical, but the privacy implications are too severe for me.

Matthew: this would probably do the thing, but some permanent solution would be better

If your device is rooted, there is a solution available to you:
Location Cache can not only show you what currently is contained in your location cache, it can also delete cached locations, and even "lock" it -- i.e. it kinda "write protects" the location cache, so no new entries can be written into. Effects are multiple:

no data cached means slower location, as the last position is no longer available
as uploading your "latest locations" is handled "bulk-wise" from the cache, it also means: no data in cache -- no bulk-upload to Google's servers -- privacy protected.

I just remember: In Android 2.1 and earlier, we were able to activate "network based locations" and still keep our privacy by unchecking the "share with Google" checkbox. If you try this with Android 2.2+, unchecking that second box automatically unchecks "use network-based locations" as well. So it is technically possible (and even was implemented this way) to respect our privacy -- but intentionally disabled. Don't think evil...
Remark: Location Cache does no longer work from ICS up, it seems -- according to the description on the playstore :( If I can see any alternative, I will update this answer. Meanwhile, it at least provides help to those with Froyo and Gingerbread... As I read in the description of Android Location Cache Viewer, this might be due to the fact the locations are no longer stored on the device (at least not in the same place; so either the place has changed, or transmission to Google's server takes place immediately -- which would also mean the "last location" would no longer be present locally, which I doubt).
Those of you who cannot stop Google getting those data, but still want to protect their privacy, could make use of location spoofers (e.g. Location Spoofer or CatchMeIfUCan) to at least cause some confusion to potential abusers :)


text:
How to fix - SD card works intermittently, rest of the time checks for errors
I bought a new 16GB micro SD card for my HTC Desire to replace the 4GB one it came with. I copied the contents of the old SD card to the new one and my phone loaded just fine.
Then, every few hours, the SD card would unmount saying the SD card was damaged. Turning the phone on and off a few times would result in SD card either saying "checking for errors" permanently or, occasionally, working just fine for a while.
I read a little about it and saw that perhaps I should format the card on the phone itself. So I did that (via ClockworkMod Recovery and then again in the OS itself) and recopied the files. It seemed to work for a while longer, but has now again started saying the SD card is damaged.
The SD card works fine when I put it into an adaptor and into my laptop.
Could the SD card really be damaged? Is there some other formatting I should try? Should I try making multiple partitions or something? Any ideas?
My phone runs CyanogenMod 7.2 (based on Android 2.3.7).

Please also check the Q&As mentioned in the "Linked" section at the right: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/25278/fix-a-damaged-microsd-card plus http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7289/micro-sd-card-physically-damaged as well as maybe http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14918/sd-card-keeps-getting-unmounted-on-my-htc-desire plus http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/7240/how-to-fix-damaged-sd-card

I never fixed this - ended up changing my phone recently and the card works absolutely fine in the new S3.

That's quite strange, as it shouldn't be connected (I mean, what has charging to do with errors on the sdcard?). But if the problem no longer exists: Glad for you! And no way to figure out what it was, as we cannot check anymore...

Have you ever tried another SDCard at that phone? Maybe the problem was with the phone itself. Anyway, I'm voting to close as "to localized" since one cannot help anymore.

@Izzy I said chaNging not chaRging :) I don't use the Desire anymore, just my new S3 with the SD card in.

@Zuul Yes, it had a 4GB one in there and that was fine. I'm happy for this to be closed because I can't test the potential resolutions any more.

Sometimes it's really strange. I had a similar problem with my Droid 2 when switching to a 16GB card: Freeze, hang, reboot. Old card (8GB) worked fine. Updated ROM from stock 2.2.2 to CM7.2 -- now the 8GB had problems, but the 16GB was working smoothly. Which was fine with me...


text:
How to install fastboot drivers?
I have a cheap clone android (benss b3) that I managed to connect to win 7 by editing the .inf file in usb drivers. Now I want to load different ROMs via fastboot. However, when I boot to fastboot mode (?, power on with back + power button pressed), I get a new device in windows  device manager. I can't get the usb drivers working and no devices appear with fastboot.
How can I get the fastboot to detect my device?

How did you edit the .inf file?  It should be the same process just with the new values.

I would like to get more help with the inf file also. I just copy-pasted the usb-hardware-id (usb/rev_&mid_&...) to values of %composite...% and %single...%. And also I put the hardware-name to the end of the list with google, nexus, ... But this does not work for fastboot mode. The id and the name are slightly different. I am not now on windows, but I will check the exact values soon. The procedure should work like this, right?

Also I am not sure if its fastboot mode that I booted into. How can I verify that it is? How should a fastboot mode be seen in device manager? Can it be that it is just showing the "disks". I could swear that in some point I saw 2 new android drives in device manager.

Your device should say "fastboot" or "bootloader" or have a picture of a yellow triangle.  You should also be able to get there by connecting your (normally booted up) device to the PC and running adb reboot bootloader.  And yes, the .inf editing should be exactly like that; see http://android.stackexchange.com/a/16195/1465


text:
ICS (Android 4.0.3), Samsung Galaxy S2, Exchange Email
My phone just updated to ICS (Android version 4.0.3). Before I was able to ACCESS all sub-folders in my microsoft exchange email account, now I can only see my inbox!
How do I fix this?  Does anyone know how to see the sub-folders when using ICS?  I was able to before my phone updated to ICS, now I cannot!
Is it because of my phone? I am using a Samsung Galaxy S2.

Sounds like a similar problem as How can I sync all folders from an Exchange server (not just the Inbox)? (same device, different version of Android).

Thanks for that eldarerathis.  I actually read through that but it doesn't deal with it.  That person can see the sub-folders but the mail in them is not updated.  ICS does not even SHOW me the subfolders!

Have you tried clearing the data or the cache for the app?

I just had the same problem and I found a way of seeing the subfolders on my Galaxy.
On the PC, open your inbox and create a new subfolder (eg foo).
On your phone, open email and open your inbox. in Options, select 'Folders'.
You will see your Inbox with a small green arrow icon. Click the icon (not the Inbox title) and your folder list will expand.
Note that this only worked for me after I had created the extra dummy folder. Before I created the folder, I could see the green icon, but it would not expand the list of subfolders.

I had / have the same propblem, and after all the folders went, by creating a dummy folder it seemed to have resynched - I'll see if they stay around this time!

When I choose one mail source - instead of the "combined view" - the folders menu option shows all the other folders. Guess the "combined view" shows only a smaller common (sub) folder list.

what I did is to go to the Inbox, click the Option, then Folders, and click in the Inbox ICON (the folder drawing, NOT the Inbox WORD), and it showed the sub-folders.

Click on the inbox and a drop down box will appear with all your folders

Some pictures would improve the answer somewhat

You can click your inbox to show the folders and also change sync options by long pressing each folder in the default ICS mail client.

You answer would be more helpful if you are more descriptive.


text:
How to lock touchscreen without turning it off?
Pressing power button both turns off the screen (even if some application holding wakelock) and stops receiving input from it.
How to stop receiving input (and require password to get into normal mode again), but still show what is the foreground application displaying, like "view only" mode.
Example scenario:

I open compass application;
I use that "lock, but not hide" thing;
Now touching the screen just does nothing, but the application is still updating things on it;
I press power button (unlock);
It asks to slide for unlock and/or password;
Unlocked.

There is an application which does it pretty well.
Check out at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.argotronic.touchblocker

I have same issue with my s5, the screen flickers and once it dims it's hard to turn back on. So i downloaded keep screen on app so it doesn't turn off, then i downloaded touch lock app to prevent apps from being pressed when it's in my pocket.


text:
How to turn off screen without affecting anything else?
When I press power button, it not just turns off the screen, but also locks the screen. I use WidgetLocker Lockscreen which is somewhat heavy. So, many apps stop working. For example, an in-app download is stopped after screen lock. The heavy foreground apps are unloaded from memory after screen lock.
When I need to run such apps for long, I make screen timeout period infinite. But, it consumes a lot of battery juice. So, I want to turn off screen and only screen. How to do this?
Please, don't suggest me to ditch WidgetLocker Lockscreen.
My device is Galaxy S which is rooted (ICS).

I'm not sure about this but on my phone (Xperia), there's an option to turn out the backlight. This, of course, doesn't turn off the screen but merely makes it dim. I figured one of the battery consuming things in the phone is the backlight of the touch screen. Just throwing this out there in case it helps.

Screen timeout is one thing -- but at least on my Droid2 with Cyanogen I can define a delay for when screen lock and, separately, device lock (pattern/passcode) should be enabled. I've read some phones also have that on stock ROMs -- but not all. So you might check under Security settings, or Device settings or... wherever in the settings they might have put it (on CM7.x it's in CyanogenMod->Lockscreen; others have reported before-mentioned places). Not sure if WidgetLocker honors this, though...

@Izzy I don't have pattern/ passcode enabled. Why are you suggesting this?

@Sachin you overlooked "screen lock". I mentioned the other because they are sometimes located in different sub-menus, so you should not think when seeing "device lock" and not "screen lock" next to it there might not be an option for the latter. And you want to keep the lock screen from being activated, according to your question -- or did I miss something here?

@Izzy Alright. There's no such option for separate settings.

Depending on your kernel it might be possible to turn the brightness off your screen to 0 via t he appropriate sysfs file.
On a Sony Xperia Acro S currently running a custom AOSP-Based 4.2.2 ROM (SlimBean 6.2) i found the following:
130|shell@android:/ # find /sys/ -name brightness
...
/sys/devices/i2c-3/3-0040/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness
...

the following command turns my screen off but keeps the apps running:
echo 0 > /sys/devices/i2c-3/3-0040/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness

if you combine this with an app which keeps the wakelock for your device, you should be fine.

for some reason it doesn't work, it only gets darker with "echo 1", but "echo 0" does not results in turning off the screen. Not sure why

Any idea how can this be done in Samsung Tab SM-T285?

find /sys/ -name brightness 2> /dev/null to avoid a bunch of "Permission denied" messages

If you set your screen lock to "none" (instead of slide or pin, etc) it should prevent WidgetLocker from starting when you turn the screen off. You can reenable WidgetLocker by turning the screen lock back to the previous setting.

Just, tested it... Its not disabling WidgetLocker.

D'oh. I was assuming it would since it does disable the system lockscreen. I just tested a couple other things with WidgetLocker and Tasker, also on ICS, and I can't get anything else to work.

It is two steps, but this should work: Disable (but not uninstall) WidgetLocker, then set the screen lock to "none". Then just reenable WidgetLocker when done.

That's not normal behavior of Android. At least in my HTC Desire running stock Gingerbread and ICS.
You must be running some battery saving program or using different CPU governor. Some CPU governor like 'battery save' may exhibits your mentioned behavior.

No battery saving method can save battery upto that extent. My device has Super AMOLED display which consumes most of battery.

I use WidgetLocker Lockscreen which is somewhat heavy. So, if heavy foreground apps are killed, its not a surprise. I just want to turn the screen off without initiating lockscreen. Do you have the solution?

Assuming you want that only in certain conditions (otherwise you would not have installed WidgetLocker), you can use some automation tool like e.g. Tasker for this purpose. I will give you an example using Tasker, assuming the condition you're connected to your home WiFi:

Condition: WiFi connected (SSID of your home WiFi as parameter)
Task: Keyguard → Disable

That's it. As soon as you're connected to your home WiFi, the lock screen (aka Keyguard) would be disabled. As soon as that condition is no longer met (e.g. you leave the WiFi area, or turn WiFi off), keyguard gets re-enabled.
You can use plenty of other conditions for that, e.g. based on your location, on date/time, and more. See the Tasker UserGuide for details.

To the downvoter: could you please explain? I'm far from being perfect, so I'd like to learn where I did go wrong here.


text:
USB tethering not working after installing CyanogenMod 7.2 on Samsung Galaxy Ace (GT-5830)
I recently installed CyanogenMod on my Galaxy Ace and now its USB tether option is not working. The phone is detected by my PC only when I check the USB debugging mode. I can tether with external applications like Easy Tether but earlier USB tethering was built in for my phone when I had the Samsung stock firmware. What could be the possible problem?

It could be that CM's USB tethering feature is unsupported on your device (discussed a bit here: USB tethering with Cyanogenmod 7.0.3)

ROMs like CyanogenMod and others by no means are complete. They are always under major refactoring and between minor revisions major functionality may be broken. For a long time I have been using custom roms, and if some functionality is broken I would advise you to return to a previous version of the ROM, or switch to another ROM.
The problem can also be related to the kernel you are using. Kernel is different than the ROM. ROM is built on top of kernel meaning that kernel part covers the more low-level functionality. If the kernel you are using does not support some functionality about USB bus, then you can still have problems although the ROM has no bugs.


text:
Gtalk audio notifications with the application in focus
I have recently upgraded my Orange UK Samsung i9100p to ICS and have been having trouble with audio notifications for new gtalk messages. It seems it notifies you while you are in conversation with someone, obviously I don't need notifying when I can see the text appearing in front of me, so while I'm talking I will get constant unnecessary pings when I receive a reply. I don't remember this being the case for the gingerbread version, has anyone noticed this change? And found a method or app to sort out the notifications?

I have the same problem on my new Samsung S3 with ICS. Really annoying.


text:
Copy Text from SMS pulls wrong text
On my ICS 4.0.4 Nexus S when I go to a message that I've just sent to a person and select it, then 'Copy Text' and somewhere else 'Paste' the text it seems to pull the 4th/5th message above the one I've selected. However it only does this behaviour 2 out of every 3 times or so, I can't reproduce it at will. Is there a fix for this and/or is it a known issue?


text:
How does the safe/fastboot/recovery mode differ from the normal as seen from windows pc?
This is a related question to:
How to install fastboot drivers?
I have trouble using the command line fastboot program. I think that I don't have the correct drivers installed. How can I verify this? What there should be on device manager -> driver details when you are in fastboot mode?
What is the correct term for this mode?

You may check your phone manufacturer web site for a windows drivers download.

This might vary by device. If I'm remembering right, a Kindle Fire in fastboot mode (without proper drivers installed) will simply be listed in the device manager as "Kindle", or something similar.

The Motorola USB drivers can be found at http://developer.motorola.com/tools/resources/
On Motorola devices, it enumerates as "Mot Single ADB Interface"


text:
Want to disable album art in music player
My brain is wired to text. Album art conveys no useful information and I would like to just display the artist name and song title in large letters.
Is there a way to disable or drastically reduce the size of album art in any music player app? I've bought most of the popular ones and tried the stock player and many OEM players. They all want to display the album art and just put in a blank square if it's missing. Even apps with skinning functionality seem to always have the album art present.

Looks like the Apollo player is OSS. I've forked the build and I'll see about adding a "no album art" feature.

Google Play Music has two modes, one of which displays the album art fairly small (about 1/8 of the display). It doesn't really use the space to give the title and the artist more prominence, though. On the other hand, instead of a blank square it uses auto-generated album art that consists of album and artist name and a solid coloured area.

I've seen that mode in Google Play, but I have to turn it on explicitly each time I start playing music. I'd like something that just dispenses with album art altogether.


text:
How can I play a RealMedia stream?
I would like to play the RealMedia streams at http://www.cs.princeton.edu/theory/index.php/Main/AdditiveCombinatoricsMinicourse .
I have installed the RealPlayer beta but all that happens is that the browser saves a .ra file and then RealPlayer says it can't play it.
Interestingly, they work fine in mplayer on linux using mplayer -playlist http://acstream.princeton.edu:8080/ramgen/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm for example.  The stream itself is rtsp://128.112.131.181:554/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm and I thought Android had rtsp support.
Is there any way to play the videos in Android?
Edit: The answer shows how to play the rtsp streams. However, I would really like to be able to play the videos directly from their web page without having to extract each rtsp link manually using a separate computer.

That's weird. I could stream this perfectly on my Android 2.3 stock browser.
For you, I'd suggest you do the following :-

Download MX Video Player FREE (and a suitable codec for your phone)
Enter the URL rtsp://128.112.131.181:554/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm in your stock browser.
You'll see something like :

 The above URL for lazy beans:
Click on the MX Video Player and your video should load properly. duh! :D

Thanks! MX player does indeed seem to be the secret. I don't see how you played it directly from the http://www.cs.princeton.edu/theory/index.php/Main/AdditiveCombinatoricsMinicourse web page however. The stock browser offers you MX player as an option which gives me "Sorry, this video cannot be player" unless I feed it the rtsp link.  I am also on stock 2.3.

@RaphaelClifford Oh I didn't play from the page either. It wouldn't work anyway because the webpage has http:// protocols served instead of the rtsp URLs.

Oh OK. That seems to mean you need a separate PC to extract the rtsp link in order to play those videos on android doesn't it?

@RaphaelClifford Yes, the proper rtsp stream link needs to be found. Its a shame the website there did not configure MIME types properly for rtsp streaming. Maybe they want us to download the content instead of streaming.

Is it possible to download the contents instead of streaming it?

Basically I am just looking for an app/method that does the equivalent of mplayer -playlist http://acstream.princeton.edu:8080/ramgen/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm

@RaphaelClifford well here it seems the .rm files are simply plaintext files that contain the RTSP stream URL inside it. (meaning its a playlist file instead of the stream). You could perhaps set up a shell script that downloads these files and extract its contents or simply open these files individually using text editors on android and get the real link. I am not aware of apps that would do this currently.


text:
Android not registering A and PTR records with DNS server
I have been running ISC BIND and DHCP servers on my private lan for quite some time now. Recently, I configured the two servers to enable Dynamic DNS updates to my private zone. It seems to be working, as a couple of laptops and my old phone (Motorola Droid, rooted with an older version of CyanogenMod) did register their A and PTR records with my DNS server.
However, my current phone (Samsung Charge, rooted with Eclipse ROM v2.0) is NOT registering with my DNS server. I have noticed that in my lease cache (excerpted below), my Charge doesn't have any of the DDNS related entries that the other leases do. I'm thinking that the Charge, for whatever reason, isn't passing it's hostname to the DHCP server. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to confirm this suspicion, much less correct the behavior if I'm right. Any help in resolving this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Excerpt of /var/state/dhcp/dhcpd.leases:
# This is the lease for the Samsung Charge. It did NOT register with DNS.
lease 192.168.1.127 {
  starts 6 2012/05/19 01:10:38;
  ends 6 2012/05/19 01:20:38;
  cltt 6 2012/05/19 01:10:38;
  binding state active;
  next binding state free;
  rewind binding state free;
  hardware ethernet 78:d6:f0:69:af:9f;
  uid "\001x\326\360i\257\237";
}

# This is the lease for my mother's laptop. It DID register with DNS.
lease 192.168.1.126 {
  starts 6 2012/05/19 01:10:45;
  ends 6 2012/05/19 01:20:45;
  cltt 6 2012/05/19 01:10:45;
  binding state active;
  next binding state free;
  rewind binding state free;
  hardware ethernet 90:4c:e5:47:cf:ee;
  set ddns-rev-name = "126.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.";
  set ddns-txt = "0061e3886dfc34c99e5f945805f4197a39";
  set ddns-fwd-name = "hestia.[public name removed].dyndns.org";
  client-hostname "hestia";
}


text:
To add widgets from the app drawer, launchers need to be installed in /system. Why?
ICS' stock launcher, Apex, Nova and Trebuchet all support adding widgets by dragging them from the app drawer. However they can only do this if they are installed as a system app. One of them - I think Nova - also provides a helper app that can be installed in /system while the rest of the app remains a regular app.
Why can't normally installed launchers provide this feature?

I don't think anyone except the developers of these launchers will be able to answer this.  I would suggest contacting them directly with this feature request.

This is not a feature request, this is a question why something is impossible.

I have clarified question title. If you don't like it, feel free to roll back.


text:
What is the location of attachments that I download from the Gmail app?
I can't find where the files are saved after I download them from an email message.
I'd be glad if you could direct me to the location.

That should be /sdcard/Downloads, replace /sdcard with wherever your "data storage" is. You can also access them using the App "Downloads".

Also you need program like ES File explorer to browse /sdcard/Downloads.


text:
Having difficulty downgrading my Nexus S 4g
My Sprint Nexus S 4g is running CyanogenMod 9 (ICS 4.0.4).
I want to use stock 2.3.6 which I got from https://sites.google.com/site/baroqueworksdevandroid/offcail-binary. In recovery mode I get this error:
assert failed: getprop("ro.product.device") == "crespo" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "crespo"

Error

Status 7

Installation aborted`

Now I realize at this point that this has SOMETHING to do with the variety of cryptic code names for the Nexus S phones as well as a possibility that the current ROM I am using might have the wrong code name embedded in it, making my downgrading difficult.
1) What is the code name for the Sprint Nexus S 4g which is a CDMA phone but not the Verizon codename?
2) Does that link have the proper ROMs for this phone?
3) Other options? I need to flash this back to 2.3.6

1) What is the code name for the Sprint Nexus S 4g which is a CDMA
  phone but not a the Verizon codename?

The crespo codename is the GSM variant of the Nexus S (Verizon never carried it). Sprint's NS4G is simply codenamed crespo4g.

2) Does that link have the proper ROMs for this phone?

No, those are all for the GSM crespo version.

3) Other options? I need to flash this back to 2.3.6

Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? covers your options pretty well. In this case, the first heading of the answer will be a good start:

Google Flagship Updates
Google hosts update packages for the flagship Nexus devices at
  http://android.clients.google.com/packages/. You can't browse that
  link directly, but web search is your friend here. Search for that
  link plus the code name of the device and the version you want; for
  example, searching android.clients.google.com/packages crespo ics
  results in a lot of pages with this link -- the OTA Ice Cream Sandwich
  update for the T-Mobile Nexus S.

Searching for android.clients.google.com/packages "crespo4g"  gingerbread returns a number of results. One of them is this XDA thread, with a collection of links to stock firmwares.

very helpful, now I get installation aborted on the image I chose. waah. okay I'm on the right track though


text:
Reason SD cards come FAT formated instead of Fat32?
I found my SD card to be FAT formated instead of a modern filesystem (at least fat32).
This comes with the disadvantage of large allocation unit size (32kb) whilst most of the files are less than that.
Is there a reason behind that and can I safely format sd cards to be fat32 in order to use another allocation size (8kb or less) ?
Phone: Xperia Neo V

Re: the safety of re-formatting with FAT32, Can I format SD to FAT32 from FAT16? discusses that a bit. I'm not sure that anyone can answer the "why" other than the manufacturer of the card (and, FWIW, the cards I've purchased have all been pre-formatted FAT32).

unless you have an sdcard that is 4gb or smaller, it is not formatted as FAT16. That is the max size for a fat16 volume.

How is it Android question?

The reason could have been that Android doesn't support FAT32, for example.

@SachinShekhar My android phone had this sd card FAT preformated. The actual filesize was around 500Mb and the size-on-disk because of the FAT was 1.3Gb. There should be a reason they ship a 2Gb formated that way. It takes space for no obvious reason.

Generally FAT is used when possible simply because it's compatible with more (older) devices.  While this is not much of an issue today, it probably continues out of (1) very slight market advantage and (2) the fact that factory machinery is set up that way and it would cost owners to change it.
In any event, Android can certainly read FAT32; if it couldn't nobody would be able to use SD cards larger than 2GB.  There should be no problem with Android being able to read your card after a format.

I know it's an old question, but I just formatted a card (2GB) as FAT32. It was FAT(16) and at this size the total available space is reduced. Was 1.90GB, now 1.88GB. Now comes in the question of effeciency. Under FAT the files are in 32KB cluster. If you have  text document, it is probably smaller than 32KB, but it will take up a full 32KB cluster. Under FAT32 the size should be around 4KB, that will be better for small files.

Excellent point, tho probably too technical for most users to grasp.


text:
Can installing Android on a Netbook reduce its power consumption?
I am running Linux Mint on my old netbook and it really consumes a lot of power.
If I install Android, will it actually consume less power? I actually want to use the same device for at least 2-3 hours whereas on Linux Mint, it only works for 1.2 hours. Is Android suited for such a use?

While there is an Android port for x86-based devices -- that is, regular PCs -- I'm not sure if it is ready for normal use yet. Even if it is, you won't get that large an improvement of battery life: Android may be optimized for using little power but desktop Linux has the most important power management features, e.g. CPU scaling, as well.
But 1.2 hours of battery life is really bad for a netbook. Since it's an old one the battery might be worn out. In this case you'll have to replace it but a compatible new one top get decent battery life again.
Before you go and spend money on a new battery you might want to make sure that management does actually work on you computer. You should find help on how to do this in your distribution's or a general Linux support forum, or possibly on superuser.


text:
How to see other partitions using the Terminal Emulator and mount them?
I just installed Android on my netbook and it caused it to not see Linux Mint on my machine and I'm assuming it removed it from the GRUB.
Now the first problem is how do I see the contents of my Linux Mint partition and explore them in Android? Can I use a Terminal or Mount manager?
I dont see anything called /dev/sda as expected. How do I mount the Mint and the Windows partition within Android? What commands would be helpful? What are the names of the hdd device file?
If possible please let me know how to edit the GRUB also!
I think I can see them in /dev/block/sda5 - What exact command to mount it? I have superuser access.

I think you're more likely to get an answer on Superuser as this isn't specific to Android.

@RichardBorcsik How to mount X from Android is Android-specific, even if X is a Linux or Windows partition.  user15225, I would use a Live CD or USB stick to recover GRUB.  Android doesn't quite follow the traditional Linux device model and wasn't designed for PCs or dual booting, so I would expect this to be difficult at best from Android.

The Android's linux kernel would not have the SATA/IDE hard drives drivers installed into the kernel, all it can see is flash cards MMC, understands ext3fs and ext4fs, vfat filesystems so the answer to the question is no you cannot see other partitions outside of the domain of Android itself! What you can do though is this, build a new linux kernel with the appropriate drivers installed in place, then the mounts would work :)

If Android can't handle SATA/IDE, how can it be installed to begin with? It doesn't seem to be installed on a flash drive from what the question states.

Android x86 is modified and treats /sda as "flash partition"

Or are you talking about Android on Smartphones/ARM chipsets? In that case, MMC drivers are installed and again, depending on the handset (Samsung uses RFS and there's another one I cannot remember, LinuxStore, Sony as well IIRC), Android's vold binary is responsible for mounting the "volumes" of the varying partitions on the handset - if you were to do this from adb shell, cat /proc/mtd you will see a list of partitions native to that and how its mounted.

There is a mount command builtin:
mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory

As I've yet looked into /mnt, I can see only entries owned by root, system or sdcard_rw. I guess you need privileged rights to perform mounting! If you have them you could just try mounting if you know the device name. As you questioned partition tools (in order to get the device name) I can't help you here, but you could just execute mount (with no arguments) and maybe your hard disk already shows up and/or you could conclude the partition you want to mount.

fdisk <device> will show you all the partitions available on a certain drive. If you've installed Android on the same drive as your Linux Mint, you already know that the drive works with Android, so just try something like fdisk /dev/block/sda in your case (no partition number, just the device sda).
From there you should be able to figure out what partition (sda#) contains Linux Mint and mount it from there with mount. As always, use man or google for explanations and examples  for all the commands :)

Install android without updating grub, then boot into your Linux system and put entries in /etc/grub.d/40_custom as follows

menuentry "android"{
   set root =(hdx,y)
   linux /android-version/kernel quiet root/dev/ram0
   androidboot.hardware=android_x86 video=-16 SRC=/anroid-version initrd /android-version/initrd.img
  }

Here in **hdx,y (as per your android system) install location and android-version as you are using, then make that file exexcutable.
chmod +x 40_custom
Then do grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Reboot, and while rebooting press Shift to see menu entry "Andriod".


text:
Where does the standard Android Web Browser keep its history files?
As in, the included web browser (which isn't Chrome or Firefox).
I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad, by the way. But the results might be generalizable to other tablets.

I believe the history files will be in the .db file located at /data/data/com.android.browser/databases/browser.db
However, you will require root access to be able to work with the files.

It's also available in a content provider for developers.


text:
How do I secure my Lenovo ThinkPad tablet against thieves when it doesn't have a Kensington lock?
The manual for the Lenovo ThinkPad doesn't say that it has a Kensington-like lock device on it, so are there any other ways for me to secure it against thieves?
I'd like to secure my tablet against the knobs that you can secure Kensington locks around. I know that Kensington locks aren't completely secure, but they can at least deter the vast majority of thieves.

You want to secure it, but where? On a kiosk? Coffee table? Backpack? On your cat? You need to be more precise! And it's not like Kensington locks are secure . There's absolutely no way that you could stop a thief that's smart enough.

I'd like to secure my tablet against the knobs that made me chuckle because, due to differences in culture and what-nots, "knob" is a slang for something else...

I believe your question is trying to ask 'Are there any laptop security devices out there that do not use a kensington lock slot?' The answer is, Yes.
To see a nice list of various types of locks that are available for notebooks and laptops, please see this website.
I in no way endorse this seller, however they are one of the few sites that seem to have a nice listing of many kensington-alternative locking devices for laptops. I am merely using it for informative purposes.


text:
Android 4.0.3 has virtual keyboard with Y key in wrong place?
Why the virtual keyboard of Android 4.0 has a different qwerty virtual keyboard? It seems the Y is in the wrong place.
Is it some configuration? Where it is?

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

Are the Y and Z keys switched?
It sounds as if you have the wrong language set for your keyboard (or your system, as it defaults to the systems language). Some European keyboard layouts, possibly German, have a QWERTZ layout instead.
Settings > Language & input > Android keyboard (Settings icon) > Input languages

Yes, Y instead of Z. So it already are in English (USA) input language as default. I reset the device but without success...

Hhhmm, curious. If it is a QWERTZ layout then there are likely to be several other differences, particularly with punctuation. What are the keys to the right of the L? Also, what exactly does it state as the input language? For instance, it should state "English (US)", not "English (USA)" as you mention. And the language for the device should be stated as "English (United States)".

I added the images.

Ah, I see from the screenshots that you are (were) using the "Samsung keypad" - this isn't the default "Android keyboard" that comes as part of ICS. The "Android keyboard" should also state (directly beneath it) which language it is configured for (which the "Samsung keypad" does not appear to show.)

Yes, I think is the Samsung German Layout. I can't replace it, so I installed Hacker's Keyboard from google play.

Had the same problem. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All -> Your keypad (Samsung Keypad for me). Force stop and then clear data. Solved the issue for me.

I solved installing Hackers keyboard of Android Market.

This is not a solution. BTW, there are many virtual keyboards for ICS.

I had the same issue, and solved it by doing this:

Open keyboard and click the settings icon
Click input language
Uncheck any languages you don't need

This fixed the problem for me.

I solved this problem here in the UK by changing the language to English (Ireland) keyboard and it was fine, the mic icon said EN again too, not DE which it had changed itself to. After that, I changed back to the UK and it was fine too. Weird glitch.

Open Settings
Go to "Locale & Text"
Then "Samsung keypad"
Then "Input languages"
Only tick mark on English US (note: unmark all other languages if it's ticked).

Hold the spacebar in and swipe left or right to quickly change languages you have it set to English Canadian atm.

I was having the same issue with the W and Z being in the wrong place and was going into the keyboard settings under my phone setting and still was not finding how to fix it. Doing what was suggested here, it did indeed change the letters but I was using Swift keyboard, so when I was changing my phones keyboard, it was not changing the Swift keyboard settings. I finally found a language option within the actual keyboard itself! Ah ha! Once I tapped the language option I found that you can choose from many different layouts on the actual keyboard. This is how I fixed it:
If you're using Swift keyboard, go in like you're sending a new text, from here tap the settings icon (sprocket, found on the top bar of the keyboard), then the sprocket+ icon on the right. You should see the 4 boxes that you can change for the keyboard (Languages, Themes, Typing, Account). Tap languages and then tap the language that you have set up under Your Languages. This will give you the option that you have now, but if you swipe to the left, it will show all of the different options you can choose from. Find QWERTY (or whatever you want to use) and tap on that keyboard. You will see a check mark, showing that you will now use this option.
Now go out and try the keyboard again and you will see that your keyboard is what you wanted it at..... then do a happy dance.

For Samsung phone with Samsung Keyboard:
Work On Android 14 (!!!)

Open "Settings" app
General Management (near the bottom) > Samsung Keyboard setting >
Languages and types > Upper right corner (3 dots menu ⋮) > Check for
updates
Update English (US) with refresh/update button

Possible cause:
Using Smart Switch which restores old and outdated setting to new phone

Steps with screen capture:
How to Add, Change, and Manage Language in Samsung Keyboard - TechWiser

Please note it requires manual update as Android system update, Google Play, and Galaxy Store update alone does NOT update this Samsung Keyboard (!!!).

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


text:
Odin not recognizing Galaxy Mini
I'm having a hard time with my friend's Galaxy Mini which I agreed to flash.
I am a happy owner of S5360,I've flashed using odin before this is not my first try.
Installed and updated kies on a clean install of Windows 7 x64.
Windows detects the phone in download mode and installs the required driver.
The whole process is the same as with my S5360 phone the difference being the drivers that are installed.
Odin won't recognize Galaxy Mini.
The device currently gets stuck at "Samsung Galaxy Mini GT-S5570l".I can access recovery mode and download mode.
Firmware I'm trying to flash: S5570XWKTN
Odin: 4.42 and 4.43, re-downloaded multiples times from multiple sources thinking it may solve the problem
Additional notes:

I've also tried this on my friends machine which has Windows 7 x86 installed.
Odin never recognized the phone even when it wasn't soft bricked.
At the moment I just want to make it usable.If there is any method can achieve that with or without Odin please reply.

How much time have you tried to leave it boot?

The firmwares files you are trying to flash using ODin have bootloaders removed and they are for s5570 while you have s5570i.
You should download the firmwares that are specific to your phone from here http://www.sammobile.com/firmware/?page=3&t=1&o=1&m=GT-S5570I&r=1#modelsa1
Hope your problem gets resolved if it isnt till now...

heyy man try odin 1.84 it's good with galaxy mini
http://www.4shared.com/get/ZqfLN-Si/Odin_v184.html

If you are stuck on Samsung Logo -> unplug your device from computer -> go in recovery mode -> reset to factory.. and try again installing everything as it should be. Also add your new ROM into your storage, and when you are in recovery mode install the new ROM and everything should be fine

I solved by enabling developer mode and disabling usb debug.


text:
Clock in Combined/Status Bar on ICS tablet overlaps the date when pops up
The Combined Bar (or Status Bar) on ICS shows the clock. When you tap this clock it pops up and shows details of any notifications. However, the clock in this popup overlaps the date on my DGM T-703 tablet when using 24-hour format.
I have tried altering the system font size, but it makes no difference to this part of the display.
NB: This is only an issue when using the 24-hour format, since the 12-hour format does not use a "0" prefix and the "1" (in 11:00 and 12:00) is such that it just about wraps around the date!

Is there any way to fix this untidiness and prevent an overlap?

I haven't seen this problem on any of ICS devices I have, most probably it pertains to the particular version installed on your tablet. Unless you want to modify the firmware yourself, the easiest fix would be to complain to the tablet maker and expect this to get fixed in the next release.

Yes, maybe so. My only puzzle is that, as far as I know, this is a very generic tablet with a very vanilla installation of Android.

vanilla installation of android leaves plenty of space to the left of time display, on my devices it's possible to write XXX hours (three decimal places) and there still be some space left. so I'm pretty sure your tablet maker customized framework-res.jar a lot.


text:
Cut power to a phone without a removable battery?
Well just as the title says, if you have a phone without a removable battery (HTC One X) and it freezes while modding it, how do you cut the power if you can't pop out the battery?
I could see non removable batteries being a huge issue to phone modders like me.

HTC's solution to this issue is to "Press and hold the Power button for at least 10 seconds, and then release it. HTC One X will be shutdown and then boot again."
This is the only solution I would be able to see. If you require something more, then as a phone modder I would recommend you take apart the phone and manually disconnect the battery. This is rather risky unless you are confident in what you are doing. You may be able to refer to this page: http://htcpedia.com/news/HTC-One-X-How-To-Take-It-Apart.html for a tutorial on how to disassemble the unibody of the HTC one x.
The last safe option you have is to simply wait a day or so (since it is stuck on) until the battery drains completely. From there of course charge it up again and continue with whatever software modding you were doing.

Asus do this, too, for their tablets. Hold down the power button for 10-15 seconds and it does a hard-reboot.

Same for Samsung phones & tablets.

It greatly depends on what conditions made your phone to freeze, but generally a long press (10 sec) on the power button might get your phone to reset itself. YMMV, though.

Holding down (volume up+ volume down +power button) at the same time worked for my HTC desire 826 dual sim mobile(Android 5.0.2). not worked holding down power button for more than 10 seconds or even more.

Works for Samsung A3 (2016) in bootloop. However this combination makes the phone just restart (not power off). So I needed immediately after that press volume up + home + power to boot into recovery.

On RAZR, it's hold the volume down button and the power for 10 seconds.

I have a Kyocera Hydro with an internal battery. Holding down the power button got it to power down and then immediately power back on. As though I told it to reset. I probably held the power button for a bit longer then 10 seconds but just keep holding it. It should do the trick. My phone is only partially rooted so I assume this trick would work for a fully rooted Kyocera Hydro or 1 with no administer permissions at all.

Yes. I can power down my frozen Galaxy Tab (with an unremoveable battery) by holding down the power button for more than 10 seconds. Before I found that out, I used to wait for the battery to drain overnight when the tablet had frozen.


text:
Auto retry failed SMS
Sometimes an SMS fails to send but I would not notice it as I already put the phone in my pocket?
How do I set Android to automatically retry sending failed SMS?

unfortunately this isn't an option on the stock android ROM's, regardless of the version. After doing a little research, it seems that if you wish to root your phone and install a new ROM that the Desire flavor of ROM's (I don't know if it is available for your model of phone since you didn't specify the model) has this feature built into the ROM itself.
After some more research (this was harder to find than I expected) there is an app that has built in auto-retry of failed sms messages. Please see This XDA Forum Post for details about it. It is a replacement messaging client for your android phone which includes this feature.


text:
How can I install ClockworkMod recovery on my Motorola Defy+?
I want to install ClockworkMod recovery on my Motorola Defy+ in order to install Android 4.0.3 (ICS). Where can I get CMW to install? Are there any problems with ICS on the Defy Plus?

Luckily rooting the Motorola Defy is pretty simple and doesn't require any extraneous measures. Please see this link for a tutorial on how to root and install a custom recovery (ie. clockworkmod) on your Motorola Defy.
As far as installing an ICS ROM, after doing some research it appears there is not a fully functional ROM available yet. However, if you are willing to give up a feature or two, you may be able to get a stable release running on your phone. Please refer to the xda wiki page specifically for the ICS development status on the Motorola Defy for more information about the project.


text:
GTalk sound notification doesn't always work
I have a Sony-Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro SK17i with Android 2.3.4 and I tend to use the GTalk app quite a lot. I also use Gmail chat whenever I'm in front of a computer.
Most of the time when I receive a new chat message, it appears both in my phone (triggering a sound notification and a status bar notification, like I've set it to do) and in Gmail (given that I'm on a computer with Gmail open). In these cases I read and answer these messages using Gmail and if I keep chatting in Gmail, my phone remains silent. If there's a break of some ten or fifteen minutes in the conversation, my phone beeps again when my buddy says something.
However, occasionally I just don't get notified of new chats. In these cases neither does my phone beep nor does my browser tab with Gmail show that "Buddy says..." message it normally does. Why is this? I think this happens with new chats only, not after a break in a recent conversation. Is it just a bug I have to live with, or something about which something can be done? Thanks in advance.


text:
Synchronize a folder in an Android device with a server folder

Possible Duplicate:
Application for automatic synchronization of remote folders?

How can I synchronize a folder in an Android device with a server folder? In other words, if in server a file is updated with the same name, then that file will also synchronize with the device.

You use service like Dropbox and Google Drive.

Use FolderSync (Free lite version is also available with some limitations). It supports FTP, SFTP, FTPS, FTPES, WebDAVs etc. protocols to connect with server. It has many sync options: Two-way sync, One-way sync (up or down).

Most of the "cloud" services that have an Android app should work for you (e.g. Box - app, Dropbox - app, Google Drive - app, SugarSync - app, etc.)
However, keep in mind that most such 3rd-party services store your data on their own servers.  If you are conscious about sensitivity of your data and want more control over how and where it's stored, the off-the-shelf services may not be the solution for you.  You'll need to set up your own FTP/WebDAV/etc. server, and make it available online by modifying your network's firewall rules to allow outside connectivity.  If you have a dynamic IP address from your ISP, you'll also want to register with a free service like No-IP which gives your server a static URL and little Windows/Mac/Unix utility to keep the server's IP address in sync, so that it's always accessible.
You can then use a different kind of a sync app which allows for specifying address/type of the server to sync to.  Sachin's suggestion FolderSync will work perfectly for that.


text:
How can install stock Android 4.0 on my rooted Galaxy S2?

Possible Duplicate:
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I've just rooted my Galaxy S2 to remove all the Samsung applications.
I wanted to install stock android 4 on my device, but i can't seem to find anywhere where the android zip exists.
So please if you can point me where to find the latest release and how to install it.
Note: I have a Mac so I can't install odin.

There is no official AOSP* rom for Galaxy S II, but there are many custom roms of ICS available. I'd suggest trying Cyanogenmod 9 nightlies, which are not stable yet, but usually work pretty well. You can find more information from the Cyanogenmod Forums, specifically here.
Note that the nightlies come with no guarantees, use at your own risk.
*AOSP: Android Open Source Project, also known as stock or vanilla.

Thank you. Is there a stable alternative for Cyanogenmod ?

Well, there is AOKP (Android Open Kang Project) which has Milestone releases, which are quite stable (at least on my GTab10.1)... You can find more info at aokp.co (down right now) or rootzwiki.com. Or you can try your luck with XDA-Developers forums.


text:
Why does my Android device create a CD-ROM device on my computer?
When connecting my Android phone (HTC One V) to my PC via USB (in HDD mode), it creates two removable devices for the internal memory and the sd card - as it should.
However, it also creates a CD-ROM device which is always in the "no media inserted" status. Why does it create one and does it have some purpose?

Some network-branded devices use a virtual cd-rom device to supply their own tethering software. If your phone's tethering isn't restricted and the device created is empty, I'd say it's safe to ignore it.

Heh, sounds kind of stupid that it's created even if it's not used at all.

I agree, it should be removed if it's unused. I think it's there to help operators integrate their own proprietary software easily.

Just an observation : For me, this stuff was happening on stock rom on u8150 and now when I installed custom roms, CD Roms don't show up anymore.

@Power-Inside Exactly. This is because custom roms rarely include this kind of bloatware and even more rarely operator customizations.


text:
How can I re-enable my keyguard?
When I first got my Droid Bionic, if I pressed the power button on the top it would lock the screen; pressing it again would display the keyguard, requiring me to slide to unlock. I had it configured so that if I pressed the power button in less than 5 minutes from the time the screen went off, I got the keygoard and then was able to use my phone. If I pressed the power button after 5 minutes past when the screen turned off, I had to enter my PIN.
On my new Samsung Galaxy SIII, the behavior is not the same. It's acting like my Bionic did for a short period, which was resolved by updating the Bionic to Android v1.4.2: If I press the power button less than 5 minutes after the screen turns off, then I am right into the phone, with no keyguard and susceptible to pocket dialing or deleting.
The behavior I want is:

Power button turns the screen off
If the screen is off for less than 5 minutes, power button activates the "swipe to unlock" screen
If the screen is off for more than 5 minutes, power button requires a PIN to access the phone
If the screen is off, something should be required to get back into the phone, either "swipe to unlock" or a PIN. I should never be able to get back to the last app/homescreen without doing one or the other (or both) to prevent pocket dials or accidental UI actions.

Settings I currently have set under Settings > Lock Screen:

Screen Lock: Secured with PIN
With Swipe Lock: Enabled
Lock Automatically: 5 Minutes
Lock instantly with power key: Off (On requires PIN immediately after power key. I want the swipe, and PIN after 5 minutes)

How can I restore the functionality where the keyguard (swipe to unlock) activates instantly but the PIN lock activates only after 5 minutes?

Obviously something has disabled the key locking mechanism - do you know what app was it you installed prior to the key lock getting messed up?

@t0mm13b No, sadly I don't! Maybe I just have to uninstall one by one. UG.

There must be an app that has the permission "android.permission.DISABLE_KEYGUARD" in their AndroidManifest.xml that you unwittingly installed somewhere.

@t0mm13b If you know a way I can find that (I have SSH access but not rooted) please do answer!

This function is also referred to as the "keyguard." Most of the phones that I have had do not allow you to toggle this on and off in the settings.  Clearly something, possibly another app, toggled this off.  I use Tasker to manipulate this setting.  You may need to be rooted to do this but you can enable or disable they keyguard manually or programatically.  There are also third party apps for toggling the keyguard.  They are usually advertised as ways to disable the keyguard but they slice both ways.  Depending on what disabled your keyguard in the first place, you may only need to use this solution once.

+1 for the proper term "keyguard" -- searching google for "android toggle keyguard" led me to MyLock which has intermittently resolved this issue... I suspect some app I have is activly trying to disable the keyguard...

Right, the best you can do is download this app called 'aSpotCat' from the Google play store.
This will iterate through your listing of apps installed on your device.
To carry out the task -

Tap on 'aSpotCat' that is the app that was downloaded from the Google Play store.
Tap on 'List apps by permission'
Tap on 'System tools', this will expand, and there will be a button called 'Details', tap that.
Scroll down to see 'Disable Keyguard', tap on the arrow beside it, and it will expand itself, in there, you will see apps that have the permission to do so.

This will help you track it down and there should be an app listed in there responsible for disabling the keyguard, uninstall it and fingers crossed it will resolve it!

OK, I had a number of apps capable of disabling screen lock. Simply uninstalling them didn't fix the issue, but let's see if a reboot will...

Sadly, not. Unless it's a built in app which I can't remove. I was really hopeful this would work. I guess I'll have to wait for the ICS update and see if that fixes it. +1 for aSpotCat though, that's awesome!

Same issue for me.
Solved removing last "Maps" app update. Found it using "aspotcat", like t0mm13b said.

Sadly this didn't work for me. Did the problem go away immediately after removing the maps update? Did you have other apps with the Disable Keyguard permission or was Maps the only one?

I'm not fully sure if this is what you want, but you might want to enable the setting "Power button instantly locks" setting in the security section of the preferences. (That's where it is in ICS, I assume name and location are similar in Gingerbread.)

My new phone has this, but sadly that requires the PIN immediately after lock. I want the keyguard (swipe to unlock) after pressing the power button, and the PIN only after 5 minutes.

Its called "Set up screen lock".
You can find it under Settings -> Security -> Set Up Screen Lock
You'll want to change it to slide.

This is already set to "Numeric Pin" -- the issue is when I press the lock button on my phone, the swipe lock is not activated. I have tried changing it here and it does not take effect.


text:
Call waiting beeps
My phone is the HTC Desire S.  I have call waiting enabled.  On the original HTC firmware I got bundled with the phone, this meant that when another call was coming through I heard a double-beep twice in the background, and then it stopped.  Now that I have installed CyanogenMod 7, I'm getting that double-beep continuing for the entire 20 seconds that the call is waiting, if I don't answer it.  How can I restore it so that I just get the double-beep twice and then it stops when a new call is coming through?

AFAIK, CM does not (yet) support to configure it. Issue 5268 at the CM tracker addresses this (yours, i take it?) - so anybody else affected is encouraged to "star" it.
Meanwhile, an app named Call Waiting Configurations might provide a work-around (not sure, I didn't test it myself) until the CM team adds the possibility of configuration. Or you could instead activate the checkbox to "vibrate on call waiting":

Additionally, the following apps might be worth checking:

Advanced Call Settings
Call Wait Vibrate

May I ask which detail solved the issue for you? Just being curious :)


text:
How does an app such as "Plants vs. Zombies Great Wall Edition" get downloaded or purchased on Android?

Possible Duplicate:
Why are some apps on the market incompatible with my device?

I read that Plants vs. Zombies Great Wall Edition is available on May 18, 2012, but on an ASUS Transformer T300, searching on Google Play, Amazon App Store, or QQ game install app, all gave nothing.
Does someone know how to purchase or download it?
The related news is:
http://www.techinasia.com/pvz-great-wall-edition-and-kingdoms/
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2012-05/11/content_15265342.htm

It's very likely that the app has not been listed as compatible with your device and/or it is not available in your region.

Have you tried searching from a PC rather than your Android device? For instance, searching from my Android tablet returns nothing. But searching from a PC (whilst logged in) finds something but tells me that, "This item cannot be installed in your device's country." - so it at least gives me a clue.

Yeah i wonder if it is Apple app store, then it can be purchased at exactly one place... I am happy and the company that earned the extra money should be happy too

Apparently it is not compatible with Asus Transformer after ICS update. Source:

Amazon page for the game
XDA thread about this problem
Wikipedia page for Transformer Prime

Plants vs. Zombies is listed as incompatible for my Transformer too (on Google Play).


text:
Does a nandroid backup contain the hboot?
If I restore a nandroid backup will it restore the hboot and the corresponding partition tables?
I'm on bravo-stock hboot now and I want to try the CM7 hboot. Will I be able to switch back to stock hboot just restoring a nandroid or do I need to flash the stock hboot first?

Generally speaking, no, ClockworkMod (and other custom recoveries) do not backup your bootloader. You can physically look at your backup directory to verify this, but I have never seen a custom recovery that included a bootloader in the backups. What you typically get is:

Boot partition
System partition
Data partition (also /sdcard/.android_secure depending on the recovery/version)
sdext (if you have it)
WiMAX partition (if you have it)

The general rule is to make sure you have the correct HBOOT version before you restore a nandroid backup, and you'd have to flash it separately.


text:
Twitter keeps showing a notification about the same Direct Message
I've deleted the message from twitter on my computer, and from my phone both using the native twitter app, TweetDeck and the builtin social app. Yet every morning I've got a notice in my status bar and it's the same DM. I've received other DMs since then. Any idea what's going on?

Which app did you originally use to send the DM? Try clearing data for that app.

It's a DM I received!

Do you know which app is showing the notification?

I'll add here that I had a similar problem, where Tweetdeck (TD) kept notifying me of a particular DM every time I opened it (like every few days on restarts for whatever reason). It was quite annoying. I searched and found this discussion, though no solution.
And then I found the solution (in TD, at least): it turns out that in TD's column holding my messages, I had not specifically clicked on the message to "read" it (which I guess marks it "read").  Clicking on the "notification" pop that TD was showing didn't do it.
I realize the OP may have solved this long ago. Hope it may help others.

This seems like a bug in one of the apps you use. Best you can do is report it to their developers through the Play store.