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How to edit hidden settings from Developer options?
I have a chinese tablet with very specific Android 4.4.2 ROM - it's Developer options menu has only USB debugging available, and all other settings are hidden.
The problem is that i switched off the Developer options toggle by mistake, so now all settings are back to their defaults, including the transitional animations (when changing tabs) period.

They was not active before, so it was the default behavior of the ROM.
The device is not rooted.
Is there any way to edit the hidden settings?

I'm uncertain on bringing those lost options in GUI back other than to recommend clearing data of Settings app from Settings → Apps → All apps → Settings → Clear data. Reboot and see what happens. In the event of failure, you can consider factory-reset.
That said, if you're simply concerned with changing Window/Transition animation scale and/or Animator duration scale, then you can use settings or content tool which do not require root access. You can refer to Christopher Galpin's method for an approach requiring root access.
(Solution tested on Android 4.2.1, 4.4.2, 5.0.2 and 5.1.1.)
Setup adb in PC and execute
adb shell settings get system  window_animation_scale    # for Window animation scale. Some ROMs have this key under global table instead of system. So replace system if command gives null
adb shell content query --uri content://settings/system --where 'name="window_animation_scale"'  # an alternative to above command. Make replacements as appropriate

If the first and the second command returns you a decimal and a string beginning with Row:, then you're on the right track. Now do
adb shell settings put system  window_animation_scale VALUE   # Replace VALUE with a decimal, such as 0.75 or 2.0. The minimum and maximum I've seen are 0.0 and 10.0
adb shell content update --uri content://settings/system --bind value:s:VALUE --where 'name="window_animation_scale"'  # an alternative to above command. Make replacements as appropriate

In order to change Transition animation scale, replace window_animation_scale with transition_animation_scale. For Animator duration scale, replace with animator_duration_scale.


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How can I change the vibrate duration for Google Calendar app reminder notifications?
I have a Nexus 5 running Android 6.0.1.  I have vibration enabled, and when a Calendar reminder notification triggers, my phone vibrates twice, quickly.
This is often too fast/too weak for me to notice when my phone is in my pocket, so I'd like to increase it somehow.  How could I do that?

This may interest you, if you find that there is no native way to achieve what you want: Decrease default vibration length on notification? (other [tag:automation] apps would do the job as well)

Solution here for a very similar requirement worked on Lollipop http://android.stackexchange.com/a/133214/131553. You can try it out on your device . For quick start, settings etc see http://android.stackexchange.com/a/133394/131553. Ensure you implement settings and revert do that it can be posted as an answer. Hesitant to post as I can't test on Marshmallow

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Can an app enable/disable the wifi-hotspot without root?
I want to setup my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S6 (stock/not rooted Android 5.1.1)  so that the wifi-hotspot can be automatically enabled and disabled.  I was able to set things up nicely with the Trigger app, except that the wifi-hotspot isn't actually enabled and disabled.  I tried a few other apps that were unsuccessful as well.
Manually enabling works fine with the stock Mobile Hotspot button.  Is there a way that an app can automatically enable/disable the wifi-hotspot with the default settings on this phone or does Android 5.1.1 or the Verizon modifications block this?
Update: This is the log of the WiFi Tether action of Tasker:
21.16.19/E current state: 1
21.16.19/E WiFi Tether: cur: false new: true
21.16.19/M lastWifiDisableAgoMS: 1452568579452
21.16.19/E check AP state
21.16.19/E AP state: 1
21.16.19/M lastWifiDisableAgoMS: 1452568579452
21.16.19/E current state: 1
21.16.19/E curval: 1
21.16.19/E WiFi: cur: false new: false
21.16.19/E wait for 200ms
21.16.19/E wait finished
21.16.19/E WiFi Tether: setWifiEnabled()
21.16.19/Mirror setWifiApEnabled: InvocationTarget: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException, java.lang.SecurityException: ConnectivityService: Neither user 10278 nor current process has android.permission.CONNECTIVITY_INTERNAL.
21.16.19/E WiFi Tether: enable failed
21.16.19/E Action WiFi Tether failed.

Do you have Tasker or MacroDroid or Automate (llama) or AutomateIt or Automagic? Tasker definitely enabled it in my Android 5.1.1. MacroDroid was unsure but worked too. Use Secure Setting if the first things doesn't work. It is also possible that Verizon doesn't provide the necessary APIs.

I don't like this solution for my needs. It's documented in case someone else has a use for it.
Create a task in Tasker with the following actions:

Secure Settings plugin with the "Actions" -> "Launch Activity" configuration

Select "Settings" as the app.
Choose "[Mobile Hostspot] .wifi.mibileap.WifiApSettings" for the activity to launch.

This action opens the Mobile Hotspot setting screen where the hotspot can be turned on and off.
AutoInput plugin use the "Action" configuration to record the click on the switch.

This solution has the following drawbacks:

Screen needs to be unlocked.  (It may be possible to add steps to check if screen is locked and unlock the screen if it is.)
The "AutoInput" service needs to be enabled under the Android Accessibility setting.  This allows the AutoInput app to interact with the gui.
It's a hotchpot of paid apps, fragile setup, and weakens the security of the device.

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


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Set default location mode to device only
On my Motorola Moto G XT1068 with 5.0.2 whenever I'd turn on "location" it would ask permission to use high accuracy mode, and if I remember rightly, send information to Google. I always chose disagree because I don't want to do this.
Today I was helping a friend trial an app and in order to get it to function properly I was forced agree to this. Now I have two problems:

When I turn location on it always defaults to high accuracy, I cannot get it to default to device only
I have no idea how to revoke this permission that I agreed to

So, my questions are:
 1. How can I get it to default to device only?
 2. How can I revoke this permission?
Ideally I don't want to have to do a factory reset.
And yes, I know, I shouldn't have said yes if I didn't agree, but silly me assumed I could easily revoke this permission.

For first part: Toggle location services via adb in Android 5. I'll see what I can do for second part: Toggle location services via adb in Android 5. Is the Android rooted though?

When you long-press the location quick setting, you would be shown a screen. There, change Mode to Device only. Tell us the result after switching location on/off multiple times.

@Firelord as I said, it always defaults to high accuracy, no matter how many times I change it or turn location on and off

Can't say whether it would work, but deleting Play Services' data works here. Reboot after deleting the data and make sure location is turned off. There is something to be said about Google Services Framework as well. Two keys in one of the databases are network specific that affects the location mode toggle, but Play Services contains the crux I believe. If you can afford to lose Play Services' data, then try following my suggestion.

That got it. The original message is now appearing again and the location mode goes to device only. If you want to write that as an answer I'll accept it.

I could use some reputation but while finalizing my true findings I happened to came across this post: Location Consent & undo Remeber This Setting# Would you mind closing your question as a dupe of that? It is essentially the same thing and I'm considering posting my answer there. :)

I'm done posting my answer: Location Consent & undo Remeber This Setting :)


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Disable Android lock-out (un)feature
Unfortunately, someone thought is was funny to mash my lock screen buttons (phone fell out of my pocket while sitting on the floor), which required me to sign in via my Google account. Now normally this would be somewhat OK, but I was not connected to WiFi or Data. So I was forced to perform a factory reset on my phone. Lost lots of data. Is there someway to disable the google password lockout (preferable) or another solution that will keep my phone locked and button-mash-proof (preferably without rooting)?
I have a LG Ultimate 2.
Thanks for your time!

There is something I want to clarify. Were you forced to [tag:factory-reset] (not [tag:hard-reset]) because the device was not connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data (internet, in short), during lock-out? If that's the case, why not ask for a way to enable Wi-Fi or mobile data using some secure method?

@Firelord it is a factory-reset (fixed), and sadly there is not a way to do that, that I am of aware. Spent a lot of time on the web with no success. Anyway I have my phone factory reset, and now I want this not to happen again while still having my phone locked.

While you've made your point clear already, I still want to suggest this for your consideration: what about sending a particular SMS to activate Wi-Fi and/or mobile data? That can be done easily using [tag:automation]. Or, what about using using custom gesture/swipe to enable Wi-Fi and/or Mobile data? There can be other possibilities that you may have thought but couldn't find an answer for.

@Firelord I do not want to depend on WiFi or Data being present to login. I want a fully offline way to always have access to my phone.


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How do I safely "copy" my gpg keys from kgpg on Linux to an Android app like openkeychain?
The title says most of it. I have a key pair setup on kgpg running under Kubuntu 12.04 Linux on my notebook. My smartphone (Galaxy S3) has no SD card slot.
I want to be able to transfer files between my notebook and my smartphone. Since I don't have a card reader for the phone yet, I figured I could do it using email or dropbox.
But both of those ways expose the files to other people and I would prefer they were encrypted.
The first file I want to send is my password vault from my notebook and although it's encrypted itself, I really need to be sure it's locked tight before it gets anywhere near the Internet.

Why do you need a card reader for a phone without an SD Card slot? Just hook it up via usb. There's a question on here somewhere helping you with that if you have issues. On a side note, my S3 has a card Slot, so I'm rather mystified why yours doesn't.

@ionree - Mine doesn't seem to have an SD slot per http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201409/20140905012624453/SPT_SPH-L710T_Galaxy_S3_English_User_Manual_KK_NE5_F3_AC.pdf But just plugging it into a USB cable was entirely too simple to occur to me LOL. Make it an answer and I'll accept it.

The main objective here is to keep the file local in order to minimize the risk of an outsider deliberately stealing your keys.
Method 1 (recommended)
Hook up your phone via the USB charging cable that came with it. In order to do this, plug in the small micro-USB connector into the respective slot on the bottom of your phone. Then plug in the large USB2 connector into your computer.
You should now have a notification on your phone prompting you to enable mass storage. If you do not see this notification, download and install the Samsung USB Drivers. Now do enable mass storage.
Open the device with your computers file manager and copy the desired file over.
Method 2 (potentially less secure)
Some apps allow you to run an FTP Server on your phone. This allows you to remotely access your phone from within your local network. The downside is that allows any other machine on the network to grab the data while it is being sent.
From my experience, ES File Explorer does the best job at this, supplying a ton of other useful features as well.
Once you have installed the app, launch it and press the Menu key. Scroll down to "Remote Manager" and hit "Turn On". Type the supplied address into your computers file manager. Now copy the desired files to the desired destination.
Method 3 (potentially less secure)
If your computer supports Bluetooth, you can exchange files using it. Again, the downside is that allows any other machine on the network to grab the data while it is being sent.
Turn on Bluetooth on both your phone and your computer, and set one of them to be visible. Then connect to it from the other machine. You will have to confirm the connection, and potentially type in a code displayed in the other machine.
You can now open the device in your computers file manager and copy the desired files to the desired destination.

Thanks for the suggestion - which should have worked. This would have been ideal - if it worked. On my notebook, the device keeps trying to connect using each possible slot - or something and fails after many attempts. I looked at https://askubuntu.com/questions/87667/getting-mtp-enabled-devices-to-work-with-ubuntu and http://gunavara.blogspot.com/2012/11/samsung-galaxy-s3-vs-ubuntu-1204.html and have tried some of their suggestions, but it still doesn't connect.

I just ordered a USB adapter http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDTV-Adapter-OTG-TF-Card-Reader-HDMI-Connection-For-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-2-S3-S4-/331578296112?hash=item4d339b4730:g:IDAAAOSwBahVdxoL Hopefully that will work. I'm also wondering if there is some sort of internal SD card slot. There isn't one on the outside of the case.

@Joe - On the top of your phone, you should have a small cutout in the plastic cover to pull said cover off. Underneath the cover should be SIM-Card, SD-Card and Battery slots, unless you are on some weird version of the S3. You can find details on page 2 of the manual mentioned in you comment above. Also, you shouldn't need any sort of adapter, just hook the changing cable up to your PC and phone.

I have updated my answer with more details and additional methods.

Sorry I forgot to accept this answer. Although it works, I ended up installing KDE Connect and it works great.

DropBox is pretty safe for this purpose. It is encrypted:

Dropbox uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS)
  to protect data in transit between Dropbox apps and our servers; it's
  designed to create a secure tunnel protected by 128-bit or higher
  Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption.

With Dropbox, I'm not so concerned with the transport - although that's great to know. I'm concerned that once I put anything there, it's there forever - at least in backups and may eventually get hacked like everything else. I will use dropbox for less sensitive things or if I can get gpg working on both ends to add another layer of protection.

The problem with any cloud service is that although the actual data is theoretically secure, someone might be able to guess the password and gain access to the files. This happened for example when a hacker grabbed nudes from celebrities' iCloud accounts.


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Method or Methods To View & Copy Notes Besides On Your Device
Recently i had been working on my mobile instead of my laptop and that turned into a problem. I had been writing notes and saving documents on a word processor. When i finally got home i found out that though i could transfer the documents to my laptop i had saved i couldn't transfer the notes files. My friend suggested that i copy the notes on a word file and then transfer that. Is their a quicker way or ways to copying my notes. Thank You In Advance for Any Help You Provide

Google Docs? Google Keep? Google Drive? Dropbox?

What notes app do you use? If its Google Keep, it's synced online. Try accessing https://keep.google.com from your laptop, you can find your notes there is they have been synced (i.e., the phone had an internet connection and Google Keep was the notes app you used).

I use Evernote, which can be used offline and can be synched at a later time. It also has a web app for online access, and a desktop app as well.


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How to turn off the beep sound when pressing volume up/down buttons on Lenovo s660?
Here is the sound on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H5ZOVelLEw
The sound video was uploaded by a person who has the same problem as me, though he has a smartphone of another model. In general, there are not few people asking the question but the solution still has not been found. I would like to place the links to the people's questions but I don't have enough reputation to put more than 2 links here.
I checked the /system folder and /system/media/audio/ui folder particularly and found the sound fallbackring.ogg only in the latter. But this is not the sound produced by the volume buttons (as I have learnt it is an input call sound playing when the Bluetooth is turned on and used).
Then I have found the page http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2378177 where the screen unlock system sound is replaced. The sound is situated in /system/framework/framework-res.apk. So I copied the framework-res.apk file and all the .apk files from /system/priv-app (as in the folder there are .apk files whose names sound like system: SystemUI.apk, Settings.apk, IputDevices.apk and etc. on my smartphone) to my PC, converted them to ZIP and searched there for any .ogg, .mp3 and .wav files. I have found some .ogg and .mp3 system sounds but not the volume button system sound and I have also found files like open.wav, open_bluetooth.wav, success.wav and failure.wav but I managed to play them with VLC media player neither on Windows nor on Linux and, still, their names have nothing in common with the volume button.
So here is my small investigation. Could someone, please, give me a tip where the annoying beep sound can be kept? Or, maybe, is it produced with hardware of the smartphone? I will appreciate any help.

If your phone is rooted and installed Xposed, you can try the 'GravityBox' module, which has an option to "Mute Volume Adjust Sound"

@GokulNC, thank you very much for your comment. I will try to install Xposed and GravityBox. I've never used the module before though I've heard of it. Hope I will manage it.

@beeshyams, thank you. Yes, I want to get rid of the beep sound by any means. For example, I have a sound file "silence.ogg" that is just a second length silence and I was going to replace the beep sound .ogg file with the silence file if I could only find the location of the beep file.

Just some clarification, the tone is not a media file that's played. It all done programmability as seen here: https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_frameworks_base/commit/3c786740240d8cc3b7615e36b6fad698bf79a825
After looking at your device, you probably won't be installing Xposed & Gravity Box as I couldn't even find TWRP available for the S660. Upload your SystemUI.apk and I'll have a look at it.

If it's not a configurable setting through the frontend userspace, you may still be able to find it under your device's settings.db files.  In order to access and edit these, you'll need to use an application such as SetEdit.  Note that you may need to grant SetEdit some permission via ADB (the app description in Play Market tells you which ones) before you can edit values within certain tables.
Individual volume levels should all be listed towards the bottom of the System table; however, if you can't find it among the entries there, it's still possible that it's located elsewhere, so expect to comb through the tables if that becomes the case.

Please don't post generic answers. How do you expect OP to know what table key they need to fix the problem? SetEdit is a tool to change table key values. But to use that the table and key needs to be known beforehand. You have not addressed the crucial "how to figure out the key" part.

I specified "towards the bottom of the System table" because that's where all the "volume" key values are located (at least on my own devices).  In order to find out the exact key value, I would need to have the subject device model available to test, which I do not have on hand; furthermore, these key values aren't typically something you can look up through a search engine (I've tried).

The key values themselves are not obfuscated, and in most cases, they are human-readable and their functions are mostly pretty simple to infer based upon the key names and values themselves.  @Firelord

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


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Manage display refresh rate/ resolution of a ROM via ssh?
Probably a silly question.. but
I have root ssh access to an android TV stick running openelec (on an sd card).
Long story short i am trying to figure out where the refresh rate/resolution settings could be stored, because an incorrect (higher) value that I had set seems to be preventing me to boot into the normal ROM.
I found this file, but something tells me its not the one to edit..
OpenELEC:/sys/class/video # cat frame_rate
VFrame rate is 0.00fps, and the panel refresh rate is 60, duration is: 35452,vsync_isr/s=59.99,vsync_pts_inc=1500

Any help Please ?
Thanks

Thanks, but don't have android command like dumpsys in openelec. I am trying to find possible files that are responsible for refresh rate settings...I'll edit them manually

from the android interface! After that it won't boot into it.. so I can't change it from there...

Sorry, this is again a shot in the dark but when we change the resolution in the device using adb shell wm size, a key named display_size_forced is created in the table global of settings storage database. That key stores the new resolution. Deleting that key followed by a reboot restores the resolution to stock one. Does your Android TV have wm  or settings or content command?


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How can I unbrick my Sony Xperia M?
So, I was trying to install CyanogenMod using this guide.
However, as you've probably guessed, this didn't work quite how it should have...
Probably because I forgot to root. I straight out, didn't root my phone. I unlocked the bootloader like it says in the CyanogenMod Wiki, etc etc, and I believe that I did everything correct in terms of Fastboot, etc, but I forgot to root, which means when I try to install the OS from the .zip on the SD Card, it fails. I can't remember the error, but it's something bad, I can remember that.
I wiped it, which worked, but now I can't install anything
Does anyone have any other ideas? I can provide more details if needed.
Oh, and if it helps, when I do sideload and... sideload the package, everything goes fine (I used TWRP this time instead of CyanogenMod Recovery, and went to Advanced > Sideload) until the error appears, right at the end:

E:Unable to mount '/data'>

The whole phone is full of "unable to mount" stuff. This is why I assume that it was a lack of root. The phone doesn't have permissions to access... itself I guess. TWRP then gives me the "Reboot now" button, I press it, the Sony logo comes and goes a bit, the USB cable still plugged in, then I press the volume buttons a bit, then CyanogenMod Recovery appears again... A picture of an Android with the blue apex type thing spins, then the menu appears with an Android lying on the floor, open, with an exclamation mark in a red triangle...

It's a long shot but from recovery do you have the option to perform a Factory Reset? /data is where user data is stored in Android. From recovery you could also try wiping /data (you might as well, because you can't really access your /data anyway)

You could also try to flash stock firmware and start the CM install over again using this tool by Sony

@Ankush Flashtool isn't supported on the Sony Xperia M...  Only the M2.  I've tried before, it won't work.  I tried doing a factory reset, I can see at the bottom it says "Formatting /data  |  E:  Failed to mount /data (Invalid argument)  |  E:  format_volume failed to mount /data, formatting instead"

This might be worth a shot

And just making sure, you didn't encrypt your device before trying to flash CM, right?

@Ankush No, I didn't encrypt it.  But,  the guide says I need to enable unknown sources and USB Debugging.  Is it possible to do from the CyanogenMod Recovery screen I get when I boot the phone?  Could another img for the recovery do it?

This may help

@Ankush Will that work even if there is no OS installed,  just CMRecovery?   And how would I go about enabling USB Debugging,  or is that already enabled by default in the position that I'm in?


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Android reboots permanent after i activated OBB Move in Link2SD, data is aviable
I activated OBB Move in the Link2SD app (I don't know exactly what it does, but I already asked the developer, he hasn't answered yet)  and then I had to reboot. After I rebooted the system worked properly, but after a minute it said "Process system has stopped" and then it rebooted. After reboot I could use my system, all data was available, but about a minute later it again said "Process systemhas stopped". This results into an endless loop.
Is there any way to solve this problem? And if I have to reset the system is there any way to save important data?
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE (SM-T805), Android 5.0.2, rooted with KingRoot.

PROBLEM SOLVED: After i rejected root permissons for Link2SD and deleted app i tried move to sd my android works  properly.

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! On SE sites, it's perfectly fine to answer your own question, even our help center states so. So would you mind posting your solution as answer, and then accept that answer? That helps other users in similar situations to identify solutions. Thanks!


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Change android Jelly Bean google account with no data loss
How to do it?
What I'm doing:

add new account in phone settings
sync new account
remove old one

Is that correct?
Android Jelly Bean version.

That should be correct. If unsure, you can simply leave the old account and make the new one the default. You will want to do that especially if you're using apps you've bought with the old one, as those are bound to it. Also see: How to change the account for Android Market?

@Izzy Why not make your comment an answer? Seems about right to me.

@Ankush because I'm not 100% sure about #3 (or how to put it precisely). Though I don't thing OP will still be on Android 2.x (where account removal would remove associated calendar/contact data), and with 4.x+ it should work that way, I've not verified it myself (my devices are de-googlified) or have a source to rely on. But alright, I could state that in an answer :) This way OK?

That should be the correct steps. Up to step #2 I can say so with certainty, while I don't want to give guarantees for step #3:

on Android 2.x, removing a Google account also removed associated calendar/contact data. You didn't specify which Android version you're asking about, but assuming Android 4.x or higher this no longer should happen. However, I've not verified that myself (my devices run without Google apps, so I cannot verify even).
if you've used that account to buy apps, those apps might no longer run with the account removed (they are bound to the account), and you definitely can no longer update them.

So instead of removing the old account, you might wish to simply make the new one the "default account". For that, please refer to How to change the account for Android Market?


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How to fix media volume stuck on zero?
Today I tried to play a video but my media volume was on zero.
I used the volume button on my phone but it did not increase the media volume. I then went to the settings --> sound --> media but I could not change the media volume from zero.
The reason i could not change the media volume was because media volume slider was grayed out... So I could touch or change it in any way.
It's a very unintuitive problem and many others seem to have it if you Google.

Mine wasnt caused by an app.  My Do Not Disturb was accidentally set to do not disturb for anything.  Changing the settings worked.

My problem with this was also caused by the Do Not Disturb setting.

Just experienced this issue which still exists in Android 9 Pie. Toggling Do Not Disturb unintuitively disables/enables the settings and button sound effects sliders with no indication whatsoever as to why. I don't understand why DND should prevent me from listening to videos on Twitter either when the main reason to use it is to silence the ringer sound...

The problem seems to be somehow caused by an app. If you close the right app the media volume slider becomes unstuck.
If you are having trouble finding the right app, look for any app having to do with sound.
If you still can't, find the specific app keep closing apps until the media volume becomes unstuck.
Alternatively you can close all your apps and that should guarantee unlocking the media volume.

Sorted mine the now. It was DPT delivery app that caused it.
Media slider button now working.

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


text:
S2 with working Lollipop Custom ROM, stuck on boot , won't reinstall ROM in CWM
Someone gave my daughter a (hardly) used Samsung Galaxy S2, still on Gingerbread.
Did a lot of research online (rooting for dummies guide, S2 specific sites, youtube videos, etc) and managed to

Successfully Root it and installed CWM based recovery v6.0.5.1
Installed Resurrection Remix Lollipop specific for my S2 device (i9100)

It was a successful install, for 2 weeks. My kid used the new Lollipop ROM with no problems (except the occasional freeze, but still reboots OK).
Then one day, it just froze and won't reboot to OS anymore.
Symptoms:

Boots up, shows the logo for 2 secs, then shuts down.
We took out the battery for hours, recharged the battery, still the same.
Entered back to Recovery Mode, Wiped cache partition, Dalvik cache (and later, various storage area space) and tried to Install a ROM zip again (Resurrection Remix).
AT FIRST, it shows that its installing for a few seconds, then shuts down.
After several repeated attempts, it won't even show any progress, as soon as I choose the file and select it, the device shuts down.
Then it reached a point where even wiping cache will cause the device to shut down.
Plus, its getting increasingly difficult to enter Recovery Mode. It now takes me several attempts to boot back into Recovery Mode.
Download mode (Odin Mode) I can get into without much difficulty though.
I even downloaded a different ROM (CYANOGEN+OS+12.1S+V.1.0+s2+GT-I9100) but it won't install either (also shuts down).
Now Device just boots and gets stuck at the Samsung logo, and as I said, it's really difficult now to get back into recovery mode.
Is this a hardware issue or is there something else I can try?

Using Odin, I'd reflash the original official rom for your device (you can download from sammobile.com), this is to restore the original partitions. I'd format all current partitions in recovery, check your mounts that they all are unmounted.
The system partition should be mounted before formating (I usually mount everything then format all).
Reboot into download mode, hoping that your recovery options allow that.
Plug into odin and flash official firmware, you might lose your root access and custom recovery should you be unable to use the hardware buttons to boot into recovery immediately after the flashing completes.
If so, repeat your rooting procedure, custom recovery installation and finally, lollipop again...
P.S. Without a log, chances of getting specific assistance is greatly reduced.
Use ADB to diagnose any exceptions and errors thrown.
Remember to always make a full backup of the complete system before flashing new roms, or have the official ROM should such things occur, and they do...
Try a different ROM, or even better, look into building your own ROMs in the future... That's where the fun is...good luck and happy flashing

thanks for the advice... unfortunately, ive been trying to download the firmware for the Galaxy S (I9100T), but have had no luck from sammobile.com (using the FREE DL...I'm hoping I can get it somewhere else before I go to the Paid DL...)  Yes..my Bad... I didn't backup the existing firmware (Gingerbread), thinking its so old, I could just use a different custom rom or an updated one if something goes wrong... dang it.  Will explore further options and be back here for an update.  Meantime, I could still use advice (or help in procuring said firmware) if any can offer it... thanks again :)

UPDATE:  Finally got the S2 working again. Managed to dl the firmware from sammobile.com (I chose a different ver). Initially had problems flashing... turned out the culprit is a BAD BATTERY. It says 90-99% charged but ODIN says its low battery..  maybe that's why the unit kept shutting down after each Wipe? Anyway, with a new battery, managed to flash the stock firmware with ODIN, Re-Rooted it, and Installed a new Custom Rom (Minimal OS for S2).  So far so good...  Thanks again for the advice and also I wanted to leave the updates here in case others encounter a similar situation...


text:
"Lock & Erase" feature on my android phone
I lost my android phone and tried using Android Device Manager.  Normally when you got to Android Device Manage it gives you three choices:  "Ring", "Lock", and "Erase".
For some reason, on the phone that I am looking for, it only gives you two choices:  "Ring" and "Lock & Erase".  Here are my questions:
1.  If I select "Lock & Erase", will it give me a choice between the two?
2.  If I select "Lock & Erase", and it doesn't give me a choice will it ask me "Are you sure" before proceeding?
3.  If the Android Device Manage "erases" and puts the phone back to factory default, will the "finder" of my phone be able to re-activate the phone?
Thanks!

About that third point: see  what is the meaning of [tag:factory-reset]?

Can you please edit your answer to include a screenshot of what you see on Android Device Manager?

The Android Device Manager is only able to work if:
1 .You enabled it on your phone.
2. Your phone has an active connection to the internet.
3. At the time its connected to the internet, your google account is still signed into the phone. If your finder performs a hard reset on your phone or resets it to factory default settings, your google account is erased effectively rendering ring lock or erase useless.
Are you using a web browser to access the ring lock and erase feature?


text:
ssh: HOME variable issue
I'm in Cyanogenmod 13 and I'm having troubles getting ssh working properly.
Server:
With AuthorizedKeysFile commented in the sshd_config file, I get a weird path in logcat:
Could not open authorized keys '//.ssh/authorized_keys': No such file or directory

I set AuthorizedKeysFile and the server seems to work with no more problems.
Still I cannot get the client working:
root@i9300:/ # ssh 192.168.0.20
Could not create directory '/.ssh'.
The authenticity of host '192.168.0.20 (192.168.0.20)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts (/.ssh/known_hosts).
Permission denied (publickey).

As you can see ssh is trying to create the directory /, and we all know that it is not possible.
All of this led me to the conclusion that there might be something wrong with the environment variable HOME.
Another piece of information:
root@i9300:/ # echo $HOME
/data
root@i9300:/ # su shell
shell@i9300:/ $ echo $HOME
/

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Try storing the identity file somewhere in /sdcard/ and use -i IDENTITY_FILE and provide config using -F. $HOME is perfectly fine. Permissions on /data are beyond the privilege shell user can have.

Thanks @Firelord, it works! ssh 192.168.0.20 -i /data/.ssh/id_rsa does the job. I'd be very happy if someone could tell me where a template for ssh_config file is, it doesn't seem to exist. The problem of creating /.ssh/known_hosts remains. I managed a workaround creating the symlink /.ssh -> /data/.ssh/. It is not possible to create it by shell/script because I get error Read-only file system (even with /system mounted rw). I did manage with CMFileManager, and I wish I knew how it has done it!! /.ssh will disappear at every boot and I'd like to create a script to sort this out

Here is a solid workaround which requires a bit of work if you are not accustomed with the subject:
Edit BOOT partition.
In the BOOT partition (boot.img) are stored all the files that will be loaded in / at boot.
I added a symlink in it:
.ssh -> /data/.ssh

Here are two very helpful tutorials that will get you going:
HOWTO: Unpack, Edit, and Repack Boot Images
Android boot.img manipulation
a little hint:
Do edit the ramdisk in your Android device.
I spent three days in frustration trying to do so in my pc, I guess is a matter of "endianness".


text:
Forward tethered device?
Alright, so I have a raspberry pi (192.168.42.53 on rndis0) that is tethered to an android tablet to access the internet. The tablet is connected to my home LAN via WiFi (on wlan0). How do I forward the raspberry pi so that I can access all of it's services through devices on my home LAN? Could this work through iptables?

If SSH is on the default port, then allow port 22 incoming? Just a guess...

Have you tried using the terminal to change your iptables or what it's called?

@ionree yes, but I am not sure how to use iptables exactly

I found an answer to my own question that is a really easy fix.  Turns out, iptables is not at all needed.  There is an easy to use app on the play store that solved my problem: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.bherbst.net&hl=en


text:
How to make google play updates the apps one-by-one?
How to make google play updates the apps one-by-one (in sequence).
Notes:
- Device is unrooted, and rooting is not an option.
- Auto-update is needed and updating manually is not and option.
Thanks in advance.

What is the final objective? (I thought Play Store always download and install apps in series). I mean, what lead you to ask this question?

The point is: While play is trying to update all apps in a bunch, updates get stuck in the slow connection and may finally updates nothing.

Sometimes I stop Google play or restart the device when this happens.

If you're a good programmer, you can write an app that downloads all your updates one by one and installs them. Other than that you could hack the playstore apk (check with the playstore license if this is even legal) to do what you want. Both options are incredibly hard to implement.


text:
Reformat / reset an unrooted phone and wipe /system
I'd like to reformat / reset my verizon Samsung S4 (SCH-I545, baseband **OF1, Android 5.0.1). After doing a number of tests and experimentation, I believe that there is a malicious binary sitting in /system which is causing me to follow a random Russian porn Instagram account. I'd like to get rid of whatever is causing the auto-follow (it's not even good porn), so I thought a hard reset / reformat would be ideal... HOWEVER, I believe that a factory reset does not touch /system. Is there a recommended approach with a non-rooted phone to essentially start with a blank slate?
The phone itself was never rooted, but it did come refurbished a year or so ago from Verizon. Since it's running a OF1 baseband, I believe rooting it is out of the question? If it's possible to root, that might solve a lot of problems.

In theory, nothing can write to /system (and that is not even needed for the kind of issue you described). First try a factory reset, it fixes most malware issues. If this fails try to get your hand on a firmware image for your phone and flash it using Odin (or ask the service center to do it for you as ionree pointed out).

@GiantTree when some malware manages to convert itself to a system app (which is what OP describes, and what's currently in the wild – Google just removed several such apps from playstore this week), it is indeed needed to write to /system (as that's where the malware sits then). Only solution in those cases is flashing a clean ROM (stock or custom doesn't matter), which overwrites /system and thus the malware along.

The easiest way to fix it (without even voiding warranty because we will be flashing an official firmware image) consists of a few small and easy steps:
(Assuming you have already installed Samsung's USB drivers)
I take no responsibility for damaging, bricking or otherwise damaging you or your phone, but that's how I flashed since a few years now and it never failed me, even when I was at the glimpse of a hard-brick.

Get your firmware image: SamMobile has you covered on nearly all the Samsung firmware images. Get the latest image from Sammobile for your device by creating an account and downloading the .tar.md5 file. (Don't change the extension, even though you can open the .tar like usual, it prevents Odin from verifying the checksums)
Get Odin from Sammobile.
Boot your phone to download mode by shutting it down and then holding HOME + Volume-Down + Power until you are greeted by the bootloader. Then press Volume-Up to confirm that you want to install a firmware.
Open Odin and select the .tar.md5 as PDA or AP, leave everything else untouched (uncheck Re-Partition just in case! It can mess with your storage layout and is usually not needed)
Connect your phone to your PC (if you haven't already) and make sure it's recognized by Odin.
Hit the Start button
Wait until your phone automatically reboots and you are done. No factory reset is needed, the /system partition will be checksum-exact with the one in the firmware image.

(All images with a solid, non-grayed out KIES logo are exact with the one available form Samsung's KIES software)

This should be correct. I had not realized that Odin does not require root.

I'm not sure why you are certain that malware has written to /system. As pointed out by @GiantTree, no 3rd party should have been able to write to it. This partition is protected at all costs by your system, which is also what makes rooting so difficult on your device. In practice however, there is a rather high chance an exploit was found and not made public (regarding recent news kindly pointed out in the comments by @Izzy).
A google search lead me to believe that there is in fact a way to root your phone  (please regard the edit below). This would probably be the easiest method to solve your problem. Once rooted, either re-flash your stock ROM or any custom one, as you wish. This gives you a completely fresh and new /system partition, removing any malware that was mysteriously able to write to it.
Another option might be to go to a service center and ask if they could possibly reinstall the firmware without rooting the device.
EDIT: I was able to dig up an xda thread that deals with rooting a previously unrooted S4 from Verizon with your firmware version. There is a youtube video about it here.
HOWEVER, some reports indicate that this does not actually work and will brick your device. What to do is up to you, but be careful and don't blame me if anything goes south.

I'm considering the service center approach, although that just seems like admitting defeat :). That link you sent deals with only current and previously rooted phones - it doesn't apply in my case :(

I just realized that, sorry for wasting your time

This should've been a comment. This is unnecessarily extended into an answer. However, should you decide to keep this as an answer, please make sure to give clear and detailed instructions on how to get rid of the malware OP is having in their device. Should the answer require rooting and flashing a ROM, make sure to detail that here. Links die a lot, and so as the content behind them, thereby making the link-only answer pretty much unhelpful.

There are more than enough resources openly available on the internet, i don't see why I should reinvent the wheel, especially as OP seems rather experienced about the matter.

You don't see it because you appear to not familiar with [help]. Once you're thorough with that and your related queries on [meta.se] I don't think you would ever be asking this question again in future. :) Oh, please use @ to notify a commenter.

@ionree honoring your sureness – but read the news. It was just this week that a group of such malware apps was removed from playstore. Those apps did exactly that: using an exploit to convert themselves to system apps. Factory-reset is of no use then, as it doesn't touch /system (where the malware then sits).

@Izzy that is why I said that there is an ever so slim chance someone found an exploit. Apparently this chance not ever so slim anymore. No matter how secure the device may be, no device is ever 100% secure. I updated my answer to include a link to what I believe you were referring to.

@ionree well, not the link I had in mind. My article was from yesterday, but is in German. Brain Test re-emerges: 13 apps found in Google Play would be the appropriate English post. Quote: "Some variants attempt to gain root privilege, and persist factory resets and other efforts to remove it, especially on rooted devices."

It appears like the android world has left it's saftey bubble it had a few years ago. These mutliple reports of severly dangerous applications within a year are truly worrying.


text:
After reinstalling Android from stock images, why do updates complain about modified /system files?
After discovering the hard way that rooting modifying /system looking at /system the wrong way breaks updates, I've decided to drop all of the power-user stuff and just go the sanctioned route—no custom recovery system or rooting or anything; just pure, stock Android. To that end, I set about performing a factory reset [unrooting], so to speak.
These are the steps I've followed:

Acquire the platform-tools for your computer's operating system. Extract them and add the resulting directory to your $PATH.
Download a stock-Android image, making sure that the model identifier matches that of your device, but that the version is not the latest (this is necessary for step 8). Verify the image using the hash included in the table, then extract it. Fire up a shell if you haven't already, and change to the extracted directory.
Unlock the bootloader (fastboot oem unlock).
Reinstall Android (./flash-all.sh). Be sure to catch the device before the last reboot by holding down the boot-to-recovery key combination as soon as the script prints rebooting... after writing the cache image (this saves you having to reboot again for the next step).
Lock the bootloader (fastboot oem lock).
Reboot. Wait for Android to…do whatever it does when you boot a new version for the first time.
Go through the initial device setup. (I personally connect to a Wi-Fi network, and then skip everything else to save a bit more time).
Check for, download, and install an Android OS update. Wait some more while that happens.
Observe the following on the device's screen, with the text Error! in white beneath it:

Bring up the recovery menu and choose View recovery logs, then /cache/recovery/last_log. Scroll to the bottom and look for an indication of why the update failed. Transcribe the most relevant lines, along with the version and build ID of the image from step 2.

My device is a Nexus 5, purchased in November of 2013 from the Play Store. So far, I've tried this using Android 6.0.0/MRA58K and Android 5.1.1/LMY48M, which produced the following in the recovery logs:
6.0.0/MRA58K:
failed to stat "/cache/saved.file": No such file or directory
script aborted: "/system/priv-app/SetupWizard/oat/arm/SetupWizard.odex" has unexpected contents.

5.1.1/LMY48M:
Remounting and verifying system partition files...
script aborted: assert failed: sha1_check(read_file("/system/fonts/NotoSansTC-Regular.otf"), some_hash)

In both cases, the problem seems to be a file under /system with contents that aren't equal to the ones the update installer is expecting. This is exceptionally frustrating, given that my procedure specifically calls for official stock-Android images, retrieved from none other than Google's website and verified using the hashes they publish (and yes, I make sure to use TLS).
Did I miss a step? What's going wrong here? And how do I get back onto the blessed path and be once again deemed worthy to receive the long-sought-after over-the-air updates?

What was the vague error? Downloads from the Google android themselves factory images: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images?hl=en android current android SDK: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/index.html

@BoLawson The error is the linked picture of the Android mascot, with the literal text Error! below it. And yes, I got the image from the page you linked.

Well…okay. Any insights as to why OTA updates still aren't working?

It just happens sometimes but it could just be a corrupted download. You could check the recovery logs in recovery. It should be the last option to see what they state.  It might have the last_log within it. /cache/recovery/last_log

@BoLawson Hmmmm…two different things jump out at me: failed to stat "/cache/saved.file": No such file or directory and script aborted: "/system/priv-app/SetupWizard/oat/arm/SetupWizard.odex" has unexpected contents..

Your still not stock flash the factory image from Google again.

@BoLawson No? What am I flashing, then, and where do I get the factory image?

Can you adb sideload the OTA update package in recovery? What are the OTA updates for (which version to which version)? You can search for xxx OTA zip on Google to get the zip file to sideload, as long as the xxx represents the correct corresponding OTA. It could indeed be a bad download of the OTA package itself, and this should help clarify the problem.

I don't have an explanation for you, but try more versions in general, and build MRA58N in particular.

I have absolutely no idea why this worked. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the two images I originally tried installing from had bad /system files, but a mistake like that seems extraordinarily unlikely.

Reverting back to original rom requires a full format as partitions as well as their attributes are usually different on different ROMs. This will solve your problem with the advent of a possible change in the device's info such as IMEI or similar. Another setback is the reduction in memory from formatting, especially if your partitions contained a lot of user data during the format.
Suggestion: repeat your steps again, but this time make sure to mount your /system partition and format it as well, unmount it after (it should automatically unmount).
Now. Let the flashing begin...

I really don't think this is it, given that each script indicated every time I ran them that they were erasing 'system', then downloading 'system' and writing 'system'.

Also…what? I've never heard of trying to format a partition while it was mounted. And why would I lose storage space if there was a lot of user data before a format?


text:
How do you get to the hidden phone settings on Android 5.0
I have a Galaxy S4 running lollipop and the old way to get to this menu was *#*#4636#*#*. How do you do it in other lollipop devices?

*#0011#*  is the code I used on my S4 VE.
Also, I used the Phone info app - it has a tab that has the Android dial codes.


text:
Can't charge/power on Nook HD+
The device won't power on.  The screen and status light show no indication of activity when pressing or holding the power button (or any button / pairwise combination of buttons for that matter).
The Nook HD+ (model BNTV600) has been unused for at least six months.  It would not power on, so I presumed that the battery was simply dead and left it plugged in overnight to charge but would still not power on the next day.  I suspect that it is not charging.  When initially connected to a charger the light shows green for three seconds and shows orange/amber for three seconds and then remains off (there is a brief flicker orange/amber -> green at the transition between colors).
The device was functioning normally before storage.  I've tried charging with two different Nook HD+ -> USB cables and two different USB AC adapters and the behavior is all the same.
Is this device completely dead?  Are there any tricks to get this thing to charge / power on?

Since the device showed brief activity (the six seconds which the status LED was illuminated) I set the owner of the Nook on a mission to force a trickle charge to the device.  Using the factory cable and USB power adapter plugged Belkin Conserve Power Switch to easily interrupt the power (a surge protector could work as well) they found that it was possible to give the device a minimal charge so that it would permit normal "unattended" charging.
The procedure that worked for them was:

Apply power
Interrupt power at the point the status LED would transition to amber
Wait some seconds before re-applying power and repeating (we don't recall how long it was exactly only that it was the minimum amount of time before the same illumination pattern could again be elicited; somewhere around 5 seconds)

After 15-20 minutes of this the device finally displayed the charging icon on the screen and has been functioning and charging as expected since.

I had similar symptoms with my Nook HD+ : when plugged into charger the indicator light turned green, then orange, but only for a second, then went dark. When left on charger for many hours, the indicator would start blinking red. Nothing worked, until I read technical details in this post:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2796915
The bottom line: if the battery voltage drops below 1.8 V, the stupid control chip assumes the battery is "bad" and refuses to pass the charging current; consistent with the observed symptoms. This gave me an idea on how to fix this:
Step 1: Open the Nook by prying the front panel to get access to mounting screws, then unscrew the back panel.
Step 2: Locate the battery cable composed of three red, three black, one blue, and one yellow wires.
Step 3: Locate the gold test points on circuit board under the wires: "VBAT" under the red wires, "BAT-" under the black wires.
Step 4: You have to trick the control chip into "thinking" that the battery is still "good". For this, you'll need an external voltage source. I used my homemade adjustable DC power supply setting it to 2.5 V. I guess, any voltage between 1.8 - 3.7 should work.
Step 5: Connect the positive lead from the external power source to the "VBAT" test point, connect negative (or ground) lead to the "BAT-" test point.
Step 6: Plug your Nook into charger and wait a few seconds: the indicator light will now stay solid orange meaning the charging current is passing through. Yay! You should disconnect the external DC source; it's no longer needed.
Here are helpful pictures:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mmr2gdfpalaw4w4/AAA7leNYExGbPunGciLDP8Vna?dl=0

Li Ion batteries have a protection circuit that kicks in when the discharge falls below a certain level. The device may have been kept in storage for long, with a low battery level. Batteries "self-discharge", at a slow rate but in your case, it drained out faster , since the initial charge current may have been low (guessing).
Whatever be the actual reason, the Battery refuses to charge, since the protection circuit has kicked in. This hypothesis is corroborated by the attempt to charge but failing as indicated by transition of coloured lights. It requires certain current to be applied to it before charging can happen. This is called "Boosting". How to awaken sleeping Li-ion explains it and suggests ways
In case you don't have access to such chargers (I haven't found one where I stay), the best bet would be to visit a service center to see if they have and in all probability replace the battery
Edit
Here's an article How to fix a dead Li-Ion battery which suggests a way to "jump start" the Battery (do read the warnings) and if you decide to try this method, please update outcome (method involves stripping a USB cable and connecting it with right polarity to the battery directly for a while)
All the best

I had issue with Nook HD going green for a few seconds then amber for a few seconds then nothing.
As stated above its because the battery went flat after sitting for too long w/o charger.
If you only have one charger you can try the plugging in, green to amber then you, un-plug, wait a second or two, replug and repeat cycle, or try another charger.
I tried the plug unplug for about 10 times then tried the wall-wart from a Samsung tablet and it stayed amber.
Lesson learned: keep the sucker charged up! Even new Samsung tablet will discharge over time if not kept charged.

Don't need to do any of the above, certainly don't open the device. Find a Mac USB port, I've seen MacBook Pro USB port recommended online. I don't have one of those but I do have an old Mac Mini Power PC so I switched that on and plugged the Nook HD+ USB cable into one of its USB ports and bingo! Fired up and the charging symbol appeared on the screen of the Nook and it is now charging. Find yourself a Mac or a friend with a Mac.

Thanks for the tip on using a MAC power connector.  My Nook has not been used in a while and the battery was below 10% when I first tried to charge it.  It never seem to recover and I could not power it on or perform a hard reset.  I ended up plugging it into a multi port (USB) MAC connector for an MAC Book Pro.  BAMMMM.  It almost immediately came a live and I was able to power it back on under normal procedures.
One last point.  While the Nook is still plugged in you should do a reboot; otherwise, it will revert back to a zombie mode when unplugged.  This too can be corrected by simply plugging the device back in and again powering it on, then rebooting.
I’m back in business.  Thanks again ... great tip and would recommend it to any one with a similar issue.
PS: If you do not have a MAC power supply or the proper USB based connection for one, then try and go to an Apple store to see if they can do you a “solid”.  You might want to can ahead and ask and/or make an appointment.

I had the same problem with my nook. I don't have a Mac but that gave me an idea. I have a portable phone charger so I plugged it up and low and behold it came back to life!!

I tried a number of different wall chargers and PC ports to charge mine with no luck.  Tried the trickle charge trick by repeatedly connecting/disconnecting and did it for over 30 minutes with no luck there either.
What did work was using a battery backup like people use to charge their cell phones.  I happened to have a little one I got for free at a work conference.  It outputs 5V/1A.  I immediately got the Nook to start recharging when I plugged in this little battery on the first try with no screwing around or disassembly needed.

Another success with MacBook (not pro).
2 ea. Nook HD, 3 ea. cables, multiple power supplies all failed with the green, amber, red, dark LED and no charging symptom.
Both charged fully overnight when using the cable in the MacBook USB port.
Unfortunately, after charging successfully from the Mac, they still won't charge from the power supplies directly.
I now have a very large charger (the MacBook) for these very small tablets.

Ok, this isnt really an answer, my friend. It'd fit more as a comment - once you reach 200 rep, you'll be able to do so,

Okay, got it going. Do not open the tablet or get fancy ideas. What I did was simple but took patience. I plugged it in and it turned from green to amber after 5 seconds. Did that several times at 10 second intervals then left it plugged in on amber for 15 minutes to go do something. Came back, it was still amber but charging. Tried doing a few more greens to amber each time it aent amber but was charging. Left it alone 5 minutes and it blinked then went green all by itself. Now charged up and thanks for everyone's ideas.


text:
Android Phone SD Card only shows folders no files in Windows Explorer
When connecting an android phone to a PC and viewing the files in Windows Explorer there is an issue trying to view the files. When I try to view the files on the SD card it only shows the folders not the files. This does not occur on all of my PC's only one. What can I do to view the files on my SD card from an android phone connected by a USB?
Thank you in advance for any assistance


text:
What does "Can't send message on card 1, error 21" mean?
I'm trying to send an SMS with Messenger on my new Nexus 5X running Lollipop, but sending always fails with Can't send message on card 1, error 21.  Receiving SMS and making phone calls works fine.  What's going on?

Please check message service center settings for SIM1/2 and uncheck  use same service center for sending/receiving messages in Message settings. This is the most common problem if everything else is fine.

I got this error when my phone bill was overdue.

Most likely the destination phone number is formatted wrong, which can happen particularly when importing contacts via third-party tool.
In this particular case, I used My Contacts Backup for iOS to export my contacts to VCF, then imported from Gmail.  In the process, some numbers were wrongly formatted as +61 0 4xx when they should be just +61 4xx, causing the highly uninformative error message above.  (The 21 error code actually comes from the operator's network, and has nothing to do with Android as such.)  Removing the extra 0 solved the problem.

If above mentioned methods are not working, you may try installing 3rd party SMS applications (eg., EvolveSMS) instead of Google messenger. Hope it helps.


text:
cannot recognize SIM card
I am using Samsung Galaxy Premier(I9268) running CM 12.1. Several days ago, after some reboot, the phone Suddenly not recognize the SIM card. I have tried to use older updates, they all don't work. I have also tried to use the SIM on another phone, it is alright, proving that the SIM is OK to use. Can anyone tell me what problem I am having or help me solve that? Thanks a lot.

Have you tried carefully cleaning the SIM and socket and reseating it?

yes, of course. Though I am done now by flashing to stock image in 4.1.2, I am still curious about that recognizing problem.

It works in stock 4.1.2, but not working in cm12/12.1


text:
Can a hacker simply copy shared prefs from one device to another to hijack a user session/state?
I'm an Android apps developer. I'm trying to address a security concern in one of my apps.
I need to test a scenario in which someone will try to copy the shared prefs file (or files) from one Android device to another in order to have the same state that the original user has and use the app as if he is the original user (hijack his existing sessions for instance).
I tried to copy the shared prefs file from one device to another (where I had installed a fresh copy of the app with an empty shared prefs file). Copied the file from the original device using adb , copied it to the sd card of the target device and move it to the right shared prefs directory using a file management app with root privileges. This didn't work.
When I start the app on the target device - I can see that the shred prefs file get "rolled-back" to its initial form. Maybe Android has some kin of mechanism to prevent manipulation of an app's files/data.
So my question is - how can I test this scenario in other ways? any way to transfer the shares prefs from one device to another ?
Thanks!

define hacker, xD

Hacker - an evil tech person who wants to steal the user's session or state from an app by accessing his device , getting his prefs file and copying it onto another device.

There is more data inside the prefs file and because it doesn't fit your device (different serial no. for instance) it deletes the whole file. This can have many reasons: Incompatibility, Configuration, Security even. Maybe the server even refused to accept the session and already invalidated it. It all depends on the app and the developer.

In this case - I am the developer responsible for this app. I've gone over the code and verified it does not reset the prefs file.
I work with the server side team so I know for a fact that it is not the server that causes the file to be reset. I've disconnected the device from the network and the app behaves exactly the same.
The data inside the prefs file is encrypted and it would be difficult to decrypt but the scenario i'm examining is not that of information loss but app "duplication" by copying to another device. thanks for your comment.

Normally you need to copy de data folder from app.
Every app cotains cache to restore you own data. If you run your app > generates a shared prefs > minimize/close app > and remove that shared prefs. When you open/resume the app, the system restore that sessiom data from the cache.
Somethimes, this depends of the size and content from sharedprefs.
If you are worried about "hack" your app you can protect the saved data with some encrypt method. like base64 + salt, hash + salt, or any method what you want. Reversible or not.
Or simple you can storage your persistent data in a custom path/file and protect how you can with above methods.


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Google Maps forces offline mode
I've been able to use Google Maps as normal at home (strong WiFi; 2 bars in 3G) with no problems for ages. Suddenly it says it is in Offline mode so won't plan a route; tapping the message bar does nothing. I understand that offline mode is now available, but why should that disable online mode? How can I get it back online?

It's not the version, and permission to access Internet is on. I think it may have been a temporary glitch: after an hour, it was back to normal & has been ever since, so hopefully problem solved.

You may have accidentally turned off the permission required by Google Maps to access internet.
Applies to rooted  Lollipop+ devices: go to Settings -> Privacy -> Privacy guard -> look for Google Maps and grant it the permissions you want.

If you have something to post as a comment, but you do not have sufficient rep, post and/or answer questions in order to increase your rep. (Yes this is frustrating but its the rules of the site).


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What exactly is the procedure while granting root access on a device?
I have read a lots of articles regarding root. But I haven't found any specific information on what's the proccess and the steps that are required to grand root access on a device.
For example. If I copy "su" script and install Superuser.apk, I immediately grant root access?
And last but not least, I want to program a temporary root application.(Root until device reboots) Does that even possible?

To the first question: No, you need a service (daemonsu, invoked by init.d, which has root access already) to manage root access, but the procedure isn't any more complicated than copying 2 additional files. To the second question: Yes this is possible, if you remove everything related to your rooting procedure on shutdown of the device.

Thanks for answering! Do you know any good way on how to invoke daemonsu or a how to get all this proccess done? Like a tutorial?

Not a tutorial, but it needs to be invoked during init, so putting a script into /system/etc/init.d will likely be enough to launch it. The hard part is: Make sure the kernel supports init.d and how do you even write to /system.

I see..what do you mean by "putting a script in init.d". What should this script contain?

Everything that is needed to invoke daemonsu. For example SuperSU's way: #!/system/bin/sh /system/xbin/daemonsu --auto-daemon &. This launches daemonsu in the background (&) with the parameter --auto-daemon.

And after invoking this service.. Then what? How   will I ccontinue?

Then you are better off asking the creators of SuperSU, Superuser, KingRoot etc. I only know about the basics of gaining root access on an Android device.

Yeah and thanks for replying! In case you have a Facebook account, can I add you, so we can chat more easily?

@GiantTree I believe Captain Lemon simply wants to know how to makes lemonade. Not learn how to grow lemon and make sugar :) If you add the phone information on your question, I can teach you how to root it.

Possible duplicate of How does rooting work?

Every phone model and manufacturer will have different processes for gaining root access. Make absolutely sure that you are following the specific instructions for the device, kernel and software version for the phone. Otherwise, you can easily "brick" your phone, effectively turning it into a paperweight.
That being said, here is a great resource for rooting Android devices.


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How bulk move apps' data to SD card?
Ever since I bought my phone, I've never used SD card, since the storage is full. Using one now. I've got like 50-60+ apps and games. I manually can't go into each App's page and move to sd card.
There are apps to move the data to sd card, but as far as I've seen, there are no apps to automate the process or bulk move it.
Is there any app to do it? It's so hard to go into each app's page and wait for it to get moved to sd card.
Any suggestions would be appreciated! :)

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Please note that recommendations like Is there an app for X are off-topic here (see What topics can I ask about here? for details). For where your question might fit better, you might want to look into Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions?. With the correct phrasing and details provided, you might try your luck at SR.

Are you sure this could not just be done manually, once? Do you plan to do and undo and repeat the process many times? The process takes at most a few seconds per app. The 4 hours since your posting would have provided clearly enough time to have done so.

Well, since no app was there. Went to apps section, and moved out the 60MB+ games and some big sized apps. Hope that'd do for now.

You can use app like app2sd to easily see what program can be moved to SD card.

Yeah, but you can't move apps bulk. That was my query.


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Memory leak in 5.1.1
I have recently got a new phone and I decided to root it. I have installed custom ROM ( CM 12.1 ). I am now experiencing quite severe memory leaks.
When I open YouTube it plays the video for 7 seconds and then it force closes due to OOM state. I even tried to raise the maximum RAM allocated to Youtube and that didnt help either. Does that have something to do with zRAM compression or OOM grouping ?
Thanks for you answers !

Have you asked other users of the ROM about memory leaks? I assume you got your ROM from one of the many XDA threads that cover CM ROMs. If you are using a nightly, this is more or less expected behavior as bugs are found and fixed in a daily manner. Better ask on the XDA thread about this, maybe the developer even answers you.

I actually asked that and no one doesn't have a clue about it.


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Which version of Xposed should I use for Nexus 5X?
Xposed have 3 different versions: arm, arm64 and x86
Which one should I use for Nexus 5X?

Not a problem. You can try to flash any Xposed installer you want. The flash script in Xposed installer checks et al these build properties: ro.product.cpu.abi, ro.product.cpu.abi2, ro.build.version.sdk. There are checks here and there for platform and the installer would fail if the installer is not meant for the installed Android and device's  architecture.

The LG Nexus 5X is the first device with Android 6.0(.1) so it's running SDK23.
X86 is only for x86 processors, which except for the ASUS Zenfone, no one is using.
ARM is for usual 32-bit ARM processors (and 32-bit ROMs). This was the standard about 1/2 to 1 year ago.
ARM64 is the newest generation of 64-bit ARM processors and ROMs supporting this architecture. I suspect your phone is 64-bit capable (at least the processor is).

Head over to the official Xposed thread on XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3034811
Download the appropriate Xposed version (xposed-vxx-sdk23-arm64.zip)
Copy it to your device.
Flash it using a custom recovery.

So taking this into account: Kernel Architecture: armv8l
Should I use ARM and not ARM64?

I'd say try ARM first. If it works, good; if not, try ARM64. Always take a backup before messing with the system.

Take a look here: http://www.arm.com/products/processors/armv8-architecture.php
The ARMv8 architecture introduces 64-bit support to the ARM architecture with a focus on power-efficient implementation while maintaining compatibility with existing 32-bit software.

Given that your device supports 64-bit, I assumed the ROM to do so as well. Look at this answer to a similar problem and see what you get.

If you have custom ROM please define it. And if you are using stock ROM you probably have ARM. Or just download cpu-z from play store and find it there.
Hope that was helpful, Nik

I am using the stock ROM, rooted.

OK, so you have android 6.0 installed on Nexus 5X ( the newest update ) ?

Yep I have Android 6.0.1, Build: MMB29K

You probably have ARM not ARM64. Besides I think you shouldnt install xposed framework on 6.0 canuse it will make it quite unstable.

It says armv8 inside CPU-Z, so i am not sure which one to use..

Look at System->Kernel Architecture. If it says aarch64 it's 64-bit.

Kernel Architecture: armv8l, then I should go for ARM?

ARM ( 32-bit ). Altrough I dont recommend installing Xposed framework, cause it makes the phone unstable.

Go ARM, not ARM32, so far all the Armv8 phones I have use 32 boot loaders, 32 bit Roms, and etc, a lot of them dont even have the memory to utilize 64, I believe Armv8 is more of a performance tweak, with a future capability to go 64. I could be wrong, but you KNOW Armv7 software will definitely work.


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How can I secure-wipe free space?
Any way that I can securely wipe free internal storage on Android? I am not talking about secure deleting, but just wiping whatever is possible to recover.

The most reliable method is to manually copy large non-sensitive files (such as Linux images or the LibreOffice Installer Setup File) to the partition that you wish to erase the free space from, delete and repeat it around THREE to FIVE times. Ensure the files you copy fill up the drive as much as possible, i.e. start copying small files when the large ones are too big to fit in the last remaining MB / KB of free space.
If you don't want to mess around finding files to write, you can use a utility called Dummy File Creator: http://www.mynikko.com/dummy/
This will allow you to create files of a specific size containing random data (ensure the Random File Content option is selected).

I quite like this. might try it.

There are several apps claiming to help you out with this, see my Secure Wipe app list. They support different sub-sets of actions (e.g. only wiping free space versus "secure deleting files", or only working on SD card) – so make sure to read their descriptions. Secure Eraser might work for your case.

Nice and detailed list. I tried Secure Erase with iShredder 3 and Secure Eraser. It eliminates most of data, but still a lot of files are recoverable. I am using DiskDigger Pro to recover files.

That's surprising, and not good news. Bad enough if it happens with one of those apps, but two? Did you try some of the others, e.g. Andro Shredder or Disk Sanitizer as well?

The result is same. About 1600 files are very well recoverable. However, initially there were about 22000 files.

OK, so it's "better than nothing" – but far from "working as expected". All those apps claim to securely wipe all free space, which they obviously don't manage. Maybe too much space? Tried running them multiple times? Not that I think that will make a difference (unless "free space to wipe" is selected "in random order"). Thanks for testing!

Yes, I have run them multiple times. Many of those 1600 files(mostly pictures) are partially damaged, but still can be recognizable. They are from deleted gallery items. One strange thing I noticed - none of applications produced low memory warning on device, which makes me think that the file they create to wipe data is not exactly as much big as free space. Unless app can suppress low memory warning. Internal memory(which is only thing my phone has) is consisting of 32GB. Free space is 6GB.

They might write in chunks, relying on the controller cycling through the "empty blocks" (see Wear Leveling). I don't think they address blocks explicitly (which might require root – which these apps AFAIR do not request). Wow, until today I thought "military grade security" (iShredder) was not supposed to have holes a tank can drive through – but now I'm not sure if it didn't rather mean exactly that :)


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Says "SD card not inserted" when it is
I just got a BLU Energy 2 phone and I love it. The only problem I have is that it's not reading the 64gb sd card that I just bought for it. I made sure the software was up to date, rebooted it multiple times with the sd card in it/without the sd card in it, connected it to my computer to see if there would be a file for it. I don't know what else I can do other than get a new sd card but I don't want to buy another new sd card and find out that's not the problem.


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ICal Events Not Showing Up In Device Calendar
I have a Sony Xperia Z with Android 5.1.1, and I'm trying to get events from calendars I subscribed to on Google Calendar's web interface to show up on my stock calendar app. Specifically, some of the calendars I subscribed to don't show up in the app. I tried checking if they were disabled but they aren't even in the calendar list on the sidebar.
Using this app I was able to find that the calendar subscriptions I wanted actually exist on my device but are listed with "0 events," even though their events show up on Google Calendar's web interface.
I have tried rebooting my device, checking that all calendars are enabled both in the stock calendar app and in settings, and manually syncing from settings.
How can I get the calendar events to sync and show up?

I finally managed to fix this.
If anyone else has this problem:

Go to Settings > Apps > All and clear data and cache for Calendar and Calendar Storage
Go to Settings > Accounts > Google, choose the menu and re-sync all
Wait for sync
Open the Calendar app and set it up again

It's either a sync issue like the previous answer OR you might have multiple Google accounts on your phone and Google Calendar is only showing calendar events for your default Google Account.
In your app settings make sure that the tag group for ICal is set set to sync.


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The Tab Switcher in Google Chrome on Moto G(3rd Gen) is stuck in accessibility mode
Ever since my phone came from Motorola service centre after a SIM slot repair some things are wrong with it.
1)Like the title says, Google Chrome's tab switcher is stuck in accessiblity mode. I've tried uninstalling and updating, factory reset, chrome://flags accessibilty setting and also upgraded to Marshmallow but it's still the same.
Here's a screenshot from an XDA-Thread.

I've looked at many places but haven't found a solution. Seems like only some people are having the problem.
2)Google now offline commands have stopped working as well and "Ok Google detection" from any screen option is missing as well.

Can anyone suggest any solutions?

So after looking a lot and not getting any solution, I decided to flash my firmware. Reinstalled the stock factory OS from scratch and now it's good as new and the problems mentioned above are solved.
The following is for Moto G(3rd Gen).
Here's a simple tutorial an how to do this by lost101 of XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/2015-moto-g/general/guide-fastboot-flashing-factory-t3187750
The link to the page with factory firmware images is also mentioned on the page above.
Make sure you download the right firmware according to your phone model.
Now I ran into an issue with my wifi after flashing with fastboot(My phone couldn't detect wifi during the initial android setup), so if that happens, use mfastboot(I think it has better compatibility with Motorola devices).
Just google to download the latest version. The commands for mfastboot are same as fastboot; just replace "fastboot" with "mfastboot".
Also note that this doesn't void your warranty as long as you don't unlock your bootloader, so make sure you don't type any wrong commands. The commands mentioned in the XDA-thread should be enough.


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Android lollipop Wi-Fi murders battery
I have an unrooted galaxy S6, Verizon, and Android 5.1.1 on it.Each night I fully charge my phone,  and it never leaves my pocket after 6 am or gets used until 2 pm. At 2, the battery may be around 90% or it may be at 50% without any use. I discovered the battery was much lower if I had Wi-Fi on,  even though I was never connected to Wi-Fi. Battery chart in settings says Google services or Google play services used all the battery.Please help,  I've tried everything I can think of,  and I'm usually good at this sort of thing.

Google Play services runs in the background to keep applications up to date and to sync your information to Google.

One possible cause of the battery drain could be if you have multiple accounts on your device. Your device will drain more battery to keep up with the demands on the services
Another possible cause of the battery drain could be a third-party application running in the background and using data from Google Play services

To fix either of these problems, you may want to boot your phone into Safe Mode. This will ensure that the Google Play services or anything else that could drain the battery aren't running. But at the same time, you can freely use Wi-Fi or any application that you choose to run.
To boot into Safe Mode:

Turn off your device and wait about 2 minutes
Once it is off, hold down the power button and the volume down button. You may release the power button when you see the screen turn on, but do not release the power button until the phone is completely turned on.

(Google Play services battery drain is from this source)

Does S6 have a hardware button combo dedicated for safe mode as well as recovery mode? Are you certain that you meant safe mode and not recovery mode? Safe mode,often can only be accessed when device is rebooted into it from Android's power menu.

It is definitely Safe Mode. I tried it, since I have an S6 myself.

I see. So how does it look like? Can you explain what difference do you seen in normal mode and what you refer to as safe mode? Sorry, my clarification may appear to be intimidating but I'm only trying to know something here.

Everything on the phone is displayed as if it came right out of the box: it temporarily resets the current theme, icon placements, and makes the applications that are not pre-installed with the phone unavailable. It would be useful for this case, in which the person wouldn't be using it (so the reduced functionality wouldn't be a problem)

I rebooted into safe mode (accessed power menu and held the power off option) . I had all day with Wi-Fi on,  and battery was like it usually is with Wi-Fi off. So I'll try all of the methods to reduce Google services battery usage. I'll report back with the results tomorrow.

After several days, I still don't know what the problem is. I do have two accounts, but sync is completely off on one and minimal on the other. Is WiFi battery usage part of Google (play) services? WiFi seems to be what triggers the battery hit


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Flash a ROM without using recovery mode
I have an LG Prada 3.0 p940, running Android 2.3.7.
I have a problem accessing recovery mode. Is it possible to flash CyanogenMod ROM on stock ROM through PC without installing custom recovery?
Does anyone know a software that is trustworthy to do that, or to back up my current ROM?

What phone is it?, try to be more specic

Try LG Flash Tool

No. You can not delete the system while it is running. If you have root access, you could "program" the stock recovery to flash your custom ROM on the next reboot by using a specific command line in a terminal.
There is LG Flash Tool for your device, but it is not official.


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Connecting Xbox 360 wireless controller to Samsung galaxy tab 3
I am attempting to connect a wireless Xbox controller to my tab 3 however after following the instructions Here and Here but to no luck ive also tried using logcat to find out the vendor and product id of the adapter incase it was different but still no luck as they are the exact same numbers as in the posts.
any help with figuring this out would be much appreciated.
thanks in advance.

Does it work when wired? That would help narrow things down a bit.

I don't have a wired controller to test it with unfortunately

You can verify the OTG setup by connecting a wired USB mouse. An arrow cursor should appear and you should be able to drive the device via mouse. Just trying to narrow things down to whether the problem is with the Xbox hack or something else.

Yes mice and keyboards work as well as storage media it seems to only be the Xbox wireless receiver. The receiver does also light up however the controller won't connect

I have the same problem, I tried to follow this post https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/289047/i-want-to-connect-my-wireless-xbox-360-controller-to-my-galaxy-s6-rooted but as it is for a different device, the file I need to copy as root is different, and I don't know which.


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why my nexus 6 dosn't open as a folder on my laptop
three month ago I have bought a phone Nexus 6. Firstly when I connected it to my laptop all its folders appeared on a window on my laptop.
Some time later on I tried to move some files out of the phone to laptop but all of a sudden on the window appeared a script 'This folder is empty'.
Today I reset my phone but no any difference.
My question is why my Nexus 6 couldn't be open as a folder on my laptop?
Now I can't remove files from the phone or to place file in it.
Any clues?

Is it connected as an MTP Device? When you plug it in you should get a notification, clicking on the notification will tell/allow you to choose the mode it is connected in. (sorry, I can't tell you the notification name in detail - I don't have a USB cable handy)

When you connect the phone using USB, a notification comes up saying USB for charging. You just need to click on it to change the setting. Ankush's comment helped me arrive at the solution.


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Mobile data can't connect (with exclamation mark) but wifi
My phone is Motorola XT1033 dual-SIM (Lollipop 5.1)

have active mobile-data internet packages
can connect and open provider's website (to check package status & quota)
valid APN settings (at least following provider's instructions)

There is a problem on mobile-data connection, see the differences here:
Data ON, Wi-fi OFF

there is an exclamation mark on the mobile-data signal bar
NOT connected to internet (even the signal is H)

Data ON, Wi-fi ON

there is NO exclamation mark on the mobile-data signal bar
connected to internet

What I've tried so far

rebooting my phone
turn mobile-data off and back on
re-attach the SIM card
install my SIM card to another handset (can't connect to internet)
install another SIM card to mine (can connect to internet)

Does anyone have the same problem? I'm looking forward for the solution.

Have you tried switching to GSM only mode ? maybe the WCDMA network falling short in your locality.

@reachrk i just try it but it still not works


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My phone storage is empty when connected to pc
I need to back up all data and media on my phone but every time i connect it to pc everything is fine and my pc recongize the phone but not every time i need to plug and unplug phone several times to make pc recognize it .what ever when i open my phone storage it say folder is empty iam sure that using MTP not PTP my phone storage working on all computers except mine and all phones storages appear on my pc except my phone i have checked drivers and all working properaly .
any help ?

SD card not showing files when connected to pc the first answer fixed my problem, just clear media storage and external storage, and boom, it shows all files in internal storage.

Well spotted. In future, if you think the question has already been answered, flag it as a duplicate. It makes the original question and answer easier to find (e.g. in search results).


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Phone reacts to "OK" without "Google"
I need to change the voice command from OK Google to something else. It reacts to my voice in meetings when I answer OK. That is a problem!!

Do you have  the "OKGoogle from lock screen" option turned on? Disabling it if it's on should solve your meeting problem.  As for changing the OK Google phrase try Open Mic+ (it's free despite the '+' :) )

Possible duplicate of http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/55447/can-i-change-the-phrase-ok-google-now-to-something-else


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Android space not usable
I have a Moto G 2013 (xt1032) and whenever I check the storage first it shows the free space before calculating everything (393 MB) and later on (after calculation) I see in the bar that the free space is bigger but it still registers 393MB. Why is this?


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Missing encryption
I have recently bought an Android smartphone (Doogee X5) with Android 5.1. But I'm having difficulty locating full disk encryption option. There is nothing in security and storage menus. The closest thing I saw was "data protection" for files which is clearly not a full disk encryption.
PS: I tried adding screen lock (PIN) as suggested in guides, but I see no change.

Can you create a guest or a secondary user in your device? I suppose no given the hardware constraint. It may be possible that your OEM dropped support for encryption for the same reason. Section 9, sub-section 9.9 - though I'm still looking for some hard and convincing fact for my speculation to be true.

I have the exact same problem with the siswoo c55 longbow

Full disk encryption is mandatory for all devices shipping with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Since your device is shipping with 5.1 it probably doesn't have it implemented or does not meet the minimum requirements to support it.
Note that even if you upgrade to 6.0 chances are that you still won't be getting it since its only mandatory for devices that ship with 6.0 out of the box, upgraded devices are not required to have it (for ex. Nexus 5 has Marshmallow but has no encryption because the hardware does not support it).
So, it just isn't implemented by the OEM.


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Multiple layouts with SwiftKey and physical keyboard?
I use SwiftKey with external Bluetooth and OTG keyboards. SwiftKey is designed for this.
However, SwiftKey only gives me the English keyboard layout. When using the soft keyboard, my layout is Norwegian, and I alternate between typing in Norwegian and English. Norwegian layout is important to me as it contains special characters.
How can I get Norwegian (or any other latin-based) layout when using the hard keyboard with SwiftKey?
What is the easiest way to switch between different layouts quickly while using a physical keyboard with SwiftKey? (Something akin to the Samsung stock keyboard's alt+Shift Shortcut)
My details: Samsung I9305 running rooted stock 4.4.4 with Xposed Framework and SwitKey 6.1.0.71.

With swiftkey you can configure the hardware keyboard input in the "voice and other inputs" option under the "typing" section. The configuration is rather limited though, and for example doesn't allow for (let alone let you choose) a shortcut to open the virtual keyboard (the google keyboard does this on the pixel c).

In the 3rd option from the left on the top row.

Where in the interface can I find the "other inputs" option?

May I know if the screenshot is from Pixel C? It looks different from the most of Android Settings screen.


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Create a profile to disable other profiles
I have a couple of profiles defined in Tasker that I would only like to enable while traveling abroad. As Tasker cannot recognize the state "traveling abroad", I would like to set this state manually which should then disable all the profiles related to this meta profile "traveling abroad".
I envision this in Tasker:

Category: Traveling abroad (switch off/on)

Profile 1 (switch off/on)
Profile 2 (switch off/on)
Profile 3 (switch off/on)
...

Disabling a profile constitutes as an action so you need to do something in a task only. Tasker supports toggling the status of profiles from a task.
Create a new task and use this action: Tasker → Profile Status

Name: name of the profile to be toggled
Set: On/Off/Toggle

When would you or how would you like to run this task is upon you to decide. You can setup a location profile, a time trigger or perhaps, bind the task into a widget (1x1) to toggle all those profiles from a single touch on a shortcut.

You can create a Profile that is always active when it turned on, then use the %pactive variable state in the other profiles so that they are only able to be active when the main profile is.

Pactive doesn't seem to work in my case 12.24.24/Variables doreplresult: |%PACTIVE| -> |,Home,Cell@Chaturb,|
12.24.24/TD getStatic: Active load: true - ExecuteService
12.24.24/E Profile Status: unknown profile ',Home,Cell@Chaturb,'
12.24.24/E result: stop task (error)
12.24.24/E Error: 1
12.24.24/MacroEdit action finished exeID 1 action no 6 code 159 status: Err next 6


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How to get a lense while moving the cursor?
How do I get such a lense while moving the typing cursor in Android 4.2.2?


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How can I enable the internet on other apps other than the web browser?
The wifi that I am using requires me to input a username and password for it to work. I can successfully do this on the web browser (chrome) as it brings up a webpage (ie 192.168.1.1/login). However, I can't access any other apps as I believe that I haven't inputted my username and password into those corresponding apps(and I don't think I'm actually able to either (like with gmail or spotify)).
So I was thinking that a solution to this would be to find an app that would allow me to globally access internet to all apps. Any suggestions?

It doesn't make any difference which app you use. Logging into the Wi-Fi from Chrome makes it work for your whole phone, not just for Chrome. What symptoms are you actually seeing?

This indeed sounds like a "captive portal". For details, see Wikipedia. As Dan wrote: once logged in, your device is authorized – not just the browser. That "portal soft" stores your "access permission" based on your device's MAC address – though maybe for a limited time (usually a few ours up to a few days).

You normally can login in your browser i.e: http://1.1.1.1 (or any local address)  and put your credentials, user and password.
If are valid, your mobile its accepted to use the network for all apps, until you disconnect.
Otherwise you can set a proxy for some apps, as social apps or browsers.


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How to restore android phone system folders
I have deleted my rooted android phones system folders from pc and when I turned off phone, than turned on it doesn't turning on. how can I install new ROM when it is turned of. it is only showing phone brand logo (Huawei G700)

Start with our rom-flashing tag-wiki plus Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. And next time, before using "root powers", better make sure you know what you're doing – and be prepared for eventual results ;)

You'll need to boot into the bootloader, and if not already done flash a custom recovery (ClockworkMod or TWRP). After that boot into recovery from the bootloader. In your custom recovery, you should have the option to flash a package. Use your favorite custom ROM or your stock ROM as flash package and flash it. If it succeeds and you haven't deleted your data partition, you should be able to boot into your ROM without loosing any data (apps, settings accounts, etc.)


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Can you limit data for a number of apps and leave others unlimited?
I've got a monthly plan that gives me 100mb of data for use with any app except for WhatsApp, Facebook (messenger) and Twitter, which are unlimited and will not consume my data. Is there a way to limit the cumulative data usage for all the other apps while leaving the other four without a limit?
I've already restricted apps in the mobile data and installed no root firewall, but I'm looking for something more specific that will limit my data consumption when I've hit 100mb with everything else except the apps I mentioned before.
I have an Xperia Z3 running Android 5.1.1 unrooted

There are multiple approaches you could take:

You could restrict background-data for selected apps. That way they can only use your data plan when you're running them in foreground. See: How does “Restrict background data” work?
You could use a Firewall app to block selected apps completely from accessing the internet. Usually those apps distinguish between mobile data and WiFi, so you will have no restrictions on WiFi if you don't want to. Though most of these solutions require a rooted device, there are also several solutions for non-rooted devices, e.g. NoRoot Firewall.

Setting up a "cumulative limit for selected apps" has no easy solution AFAIK. I won't say it's not possible – but still, I know of no such solution.

I've already done that, I just wanted to see if there was an even more particular way to solve my problem, but thanks!

I couldn't know you've already done that, as you didn't specify it with your question. Always a good idea to do so if you want to avoid getting the same things recommended you've already tried :)

Sorry, first time asking, I'll edit the question with those changes. Thanks :)

No prob – we're all learning :)


text:
Does WhatsApp keep my status when I change phone?
I am also changing my phone, maintaining my same number. Will my status be restored to "Hi there using whatsapp"?. i.e., the default?

No, the account informations (including status) associated with your phone number are transferred to the new phone.

No. The status is stored on WhatsApp's servers along with other basic information about your account, such as phone no, profile picture, last seen and changing your device doesn't automatically change them.