text:
I Need help unrooting my device
Device: HTC Inspire 4g.
My Device was having some hardware issues, so i complained to AT&T and offered to send me a new device.  I have to now return my old device but it is ROOTED.  I do not want to send it back in this condition because I fear I will get caught and have to pay full price for the device.
My question is how should I go about unrooting this device.  I've seen many different forums and topics, but most of these methods are not working for me.
Install stock AT&T Rom - Could not find the zip file anywhere on the internet.
I've tried using an RRU but my device cannot be detected by my PC.
If anybody can help me get either of these 2 methods to work, or come up with a new method it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You

For the ROM, you might want to check Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. Your device not being detected: PC running Windows? If so, have you installed the drivers for your device?

When I plug in the unrooted device it is detected without a problem, when i plug in my rooted device I have an issue.  I have also browsed each one of the sites on the link provided with no luck of finding the rom I need.  I think my best bet would be just dipping my phone in water and sending it in.

Check out this link that is what you want:HTC

Could you please include an excerpt of what's behind the link? Link-only answers are not considered helpful here, as when the link goes down they become useless.


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What is this in my system tray?
Every so often, seemingly random, this notification appears in my notification bar, but not in the tray.

The circles on the left in the notification bar. I have no clue what it's related to. There's no notification if I slide the tray down. It doesn't stay long, about the time I check for it in the notification tray, it's gone. I develop for my phone. Would anything on the development side of things trigger this weird notification?
It's a Samsung Galaxy S3 running CyanogenMod nightlies, specifically 10.1-20130405-NIGHTLY-d2spr which is Android 4.2.2.
EDIT:
I've noticed that this appears very consistently when I have Moon+ Reader open. It does not appear to be a notification caused by that app, but instead appears to be that the app is somehow "muting" notifications that happen while it is open. Is there something in the API that allows for the silencing of notifications originating from other apps?

To make sure what we refer to: you're talking about the "gray dot" in the very left of your screenshot, right? The one on top of the blueish area?

Yes. The dim, gray, concentric circles on the left.

OK -- with your permission, I modified your screenshot to make that clear (the original is still linked when you click on the displayed image). Not that I have any idea what that might be, but being on the left side usually implies it comes from some (user-) app.

There must be some service running in the background - perhaps CM stats?

I've looked through some of CyanogenMod's GitHub pages, but I can't find the resource in either CMStats or CMUpdater. And thanks @Izzy, I didn't think there was much room for confusion.

Obviously there was :) And you're welcome! If you figure out yourself, don't forget to let us know (after you made us curious). Feel free to answer your own question, just in case.

I've found it in the Android API: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#setSystemUiVisibility(int)
A flag, SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LOW_PROFILE, can be passed to indicate that certain UI elements be put into a Low Profile and offer less of a distraction to the user. If I had a nexus device (really any device with soft buttons across the bottom) then I would also notice those buttons being replaces by the same dim circle I'm seeing in my navbar.
This has been available since 4.0 and is intended for book readers, games, and other immersive applications.

This is the indicator for low priority notifications, for example from Google Now.

This is correct. I can assure you it's not something we have added in CM.

From what I've discovered, it's not the notifications that are set as low priority, but the currently running app. Google Now's "low priority" decides if a notification gets an icon in the tray or if there's any vibration or audio cue. They share a name but not functionality.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Import my Personal Profile contact from a vCard
Is there a way or an app to restore my own personal contact (the one available in Contacts selecting the Personal Profile command) from a VCard (*.vcf)?
All contacts can be exported to the SD card (so also the personal one), but importing back the personal vcard put it in standard contact and not in the personal one...

That's probably the "Me" profile/contact. Have you tried via the Web interface (Google Mail)?

@Izzy: I didn't find anything useful in the webmail. It looks a more Android-related feature than a Google-related one.

OK, was worth a try. I do not use that personal profile, so I could not tell.

Btw: Is root available on the device? On a rooted device, there should be possibilities. As the data are stored somewhere, Titanium Backup should be able to catch it. Or one could possibly catch the data with a script utilizing sqlite to extract them from their database.

@Izzy: Thanks for your comment, it let me understand my question wasn't clear. So I refined it. I already use Titanium Backup, so all of my data should be safe and recoverable already. Actually I would like to get my Personal Contact "outta" my phone to be used with other devices and apps. That's the cream in open devices! :>)

Must it be via vCard? If the intention is to use it as a kind of "business card" to share with others, I might have a much better idea :)

If your intention is to have your "personal card" available as a kind of "business card" to easily share with your partners, there might be a much better idea than exporting it as vCard: Export it as QR-Code. So you only need to display that QR-Code on your device, and your partner can use a QR reader to "snap" it. It would then be detected as a "business card" (actually, the QR Code will represent a vCard -- AFAIK even in vCard format), and so your partner can directly import it into his/her contacts.
How to do that? An app I started using a while ago is QR Droid. It comes with some pretty practical widgets offering shortcuts, and has several add-ons on the playstore for sharing your current GPS position as QR Code, and more... OK, back to topic:

QR Droid "business cards", history, selection to create a code (source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)
As the screenshots show, this app is able to create "business card QR-Codes". You can even edit them (e.g. embed an image into the code to make it nicer looking). To show it to your partner for scanning, you can easily pick it from the history (second screenshot). And as a side-effect, it can do much more -- not only create, but also read QR Codes.
PS: As the contact will be exported as vCard, you can also share it with your other devices this way. It might not be imported to your "personal contact" on the other devices, though...

Select your contact -> Settings menu -> Share -> Gmail -> and send that to your own Email address.
Then you will get a e-mail with yourContact.vcf attached to it. simply download it. (Downloaded file will be available on SDCARD/Download)

download Super Backup from play store and export sms ,contact and app to your email

Does that Superbackup (could you provide a link, btw?) take care for that personal "Me" profile? igi did not ask for SMS or Apps, but just and especially for that one profile. So I'm not sure whether your suggestion really answers the question.

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


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i am locked out of my android after forgetting the pattern
I forgot the lock pattern to my android zte groove and the phone has locked me out.  I attempted to use my google email as it requests and it still won't let me in.  Is there anyway to unlock my phone?

What happens if you try to unlock the device with your google mail account?

[comment by Psb] If you are unable to open the lock via gmail username-password facility; then I suggest that you go to nearest Service center. They shall mostly format it! Either way, you shall lose data...

Yes, at the bottom it should say "unlock by email" and type in your gmail account that you set your phone up to and voila it should be unlocked. And then change your password in the settings


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how can I auto connect to open wifi?
I have Galaxy Note2.
Is there a way to tell it to auto connect to open wifi when availble?
Whitout me needing to scan and choose open wifi?

In your devices settings (under Settings → WiFi or Settings → Wireless & Networks → WiFi, depending on your Android version / ROM) you should find a check-box to enable notifications for "open networks". If you enable that (and, of course, have WiFi enabled), Android will always scan for networks in the background (which it does anyway with WiFi enabled) and display a notification in the notification-bar to inform you whenever an "open network" was detected.
This does not automatically connect you to that network, for security reasons. Otherwise hackers would have an easy job to lurk you into their honey-pot, hack your device, and leave you - virtually - "naked". It's not a really good idea to simply connect to any open network around. Many background connections are not secured, or at least not well secured, so it would be easy to sniff your passwords or personal data transmitted (same for your "manual connections" via e.g. the browser). So pick your "open networks" carefully.
However: once you manually connected a network, Android will remember that -- and connect you automatically the next time it is in reach. Until you go and remove its configuration manually from the settings.
There are also apps available on the Playstore helping you in this context. While Android's default scanner shows networks using a "captive login" as open as others not using it, they even differentiate. A good example for those is e.g. WeFi Pro (at least it did show these differences in the past -- it's some time ago when I used it last).

I thought most mail/sync apps use https though.?

Hopefully. But are you sure of that? The last scandal on a topic like this is not too long ago. And do you know who set up that "open access point", and whether it might be modified to fiddle with data running through from unsuspecting "guests"? I might sound a little paranoid -- but better safe than sorry, right? ;)


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Terminal-IDE: Is there a working wiki somewhere to discuss issues unique to this environment?
I'm trying to use the "Terminal-IDE" development environment.
I think it's FANTASTIC from what I can see so far, but at the moment its promise is more than it delivers (to me at least) because I'm having trouble getting to / from the phone as discussed in the HELP literature.
The wiki link on that page is non-functional.
While I have specific issues that may appear to be more of a generic nature and may appear to belong on, say ServerFault or SuperUser, I think they're likely to be common to people using Terminal-IDE...
I'm going to post those issues here in AndroidEnthusiasts as so far this seems like the best place....
Thanks.
BY THE WAY, a new tag, "Terminal-IDE" should be created, but, while I have plenty of reputation in StackOverflow, et al, I haven't got that reputation HERE. Would someone PLEASE create this tag (and let me know!), so we Terminal-IDE users can find related questions and answers? THANKS!

In communications with the coder who created Terminal-IDE, known only as Spartacus Rex, the Terminal-IDE community is fairly new and no one had yet created a community.
So, I did.
You can now find:

A Web Site where there may one day be a wiki (help needed - can YOU help set up a Wiki?).
An email list to join to ask and answer questions. This list has a
searchable archive.
A new Blog-Site.
And, at least one new contribution of code to help user's out. It's
called Resolver.

Happy? Give it a thumb's up!

+1 Thank you. I started http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Android/Terminal_IDE . I hope you find that wiki page useful.


text:
Terminal-IDE / wifi routing issues
As cited here, I think there are likely issues unique to Terminal-IDE users because Terminal-IDE is, effectively, an "accessable-linux-on-your-non-rooted-Android" environment. And, therefore, it likely has unique environmental issues. So thank you for not immediately telling me to go to ServerFault or SuperUser...
After installing Terminal-IDE, I read all the help and set about taking advantage of the SSH tools - I really want to get logged in from another system so I have a full keyboard and can treat the phone just like any other networked system. However, I got stopped in my tracks pretty quickly.
I have several routing issues, but I'll put them all here in thinking they may well be related and one place is better than several for finding answers.
I'm using WiFi to get to/from the phone and, using my possibly lame Netgear WN802T WiFi unit (that doesn't have a DHCP server and requires another system to do that). The phone (and other devices) links up, gets an IP address, and surfs the internet from there just fine. I told the DHCP server to match up the MAC address and give a fixed IP - this way I avoid the "single IP for all interfaces when "fixed IP" is chosen" problems identified elsewhere on this site. I have confirmed that IP is indeed given to the phone.
So, I set up the sshd service as found in the official Help PDF. It runs. But no inbound connections succeed; they always end with "Connection timed out" (notably NOT "no route to host" - which is what I get when I ask for a non-existent IP). That tells me it MAY be actually getting to the port on the phone but nobody's answering! This leads to to immediate questions:

Is there a way to log inbound attempts?
Is there a "firewall" of some kind?

When I connect out-bound, it ONLY connects either on the wilds of the internet, OR on the default gateway the DHCP server told it about. It won't connect to ANY "non-routing IPs", even though other devices on the same WiFi will (so clearly the WiFi is routing to the local subnet just fine).

Do I have to create a route specifically pointing to the internal router (the netgear box)? Or;
tell the real outbound router how to route internally as well as externally?

Thanks for any insights.
EDIT TO SHARE MORE DATA
As I have continued to work the problem, and after many hours of frustration, I hooked up a USB cable to the phone and used "internet passthrough" to connect to a lap-top which itself is connected via the same wifi. Now I have more data.
I have confirmed the following:

connection via the laptop to the rest of the network is stable
connection to the phone from the laptop succeed in getting through authentication and, after discovering and fixing a minor typo in the sshd script, it works fine.
connection from the phone, through the cable to the laptop then has full access to the local internal network via IP address.

So, this strongly implicates that there are some issues with the phone's end of the WiFi and NOT with the WiFi itself, however, there's not quite enough data to say that since I haven't got sshd running on the laptop to know it is accepting connections through the net... Interestingly, it is not rejecting connection attempts out of hand - they take a long time to drop! (It's a Windows 7 laptop and, frankly, I don't really know how to tell it to open up specific ports - or how to forward to the phone!)
Note also that the only system that can connect to the phone via the wired connection is the laptop that the phone is wired to; so far I have been unable to find a way to get to the phone through the laptop.
Thanks again for any insight.

After some discussions on the (new, and not yet archived) Terminal-IDE community email list, I learned that the configuration should be working correctly!
A bit frustrated, I kept trying and then noticed something that I suppose should not have surprise me: I set one computer screen to 'pinging' the Android device, with ZERO reply for a long time, and forgot about it. Then, I later noticed the pings were getting through and there were zillions of them scrolling past.
From this, and a bit more investigation, I found that the stability of a WiFi connection on my Android device isn't very stable, especially as compared with my laptop.
In short, "be patient, ping the heck out of it while moving the device to find a good signal path, and it should eventually work."


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Does Google provide a global games achievements system like Game Center? or Xbox LIVE?
Does Google Play offer an achievement tracking system similar to Apple Game Center, Xbox LIVE, and Steam? For keeping track of achievements, game progress, time spent in a game, what your friends are playing, etc.
Are there any other third-party alternative tracking system? with a huge base of supported games? I am thinking of something like Raptr for Desktop systems.

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/21535/does-angry-birds-and-other-games-have-leaderboard-on-android-devices?rq=1

Just announced 24 July 2013 is Google Play Games.

The Play Games platform was first announced at Google I/O back in May, but until now, there wasn’t a dedicated app; you could see your achievements and online leaderboards inside your apps, but there was nothing that brought that all together.
The Play Games app changes that. It shows you all of your Play Games compatible titles, as well as those your friends are playing. And if you don’t yet have any Play Games friends, the built-in suggestion feature will help you find some.
Asphalt 8 Airborne, Riptide GP2, and Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame are just a few of the titles that support Google Play Games, and you’ll find hundreds more in Google Play.

That's not to say that individual developers or partnerships might not aggregate their own games in their own "game center". For instance Mobage, OpenFeint (recently killed), and the new Rovio Accounts.


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How to change message vibration type on s2?
How can I change message vibration type on galaxy s2? After jb update it vibrates the same (basic call). In settings I changed for example into heartbeat, but it doesnt vibrate this type when I receiving message. And in message settings is only enable or disablle vibration... Thanks.

On my Galaxy S III at least, you can only change settings for call vibration. However, I believe if you use a 3rd party SMS program (eg: Handcent SMS, or any other (mostly free) apps on the market), then you are usually able to set custom vibration themes.


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Three (UK telco provider) has blocked my tethering
I have a contract with Three (UK telco provider), which gives me unlimited data. My mobile is Samsung Galaxy S Plus (GT-I9001). Every time I try tethering, I get a pop up saying I can't tether. I have tried several apps but with no joy.
Does anyone know how to by pass Three finding out when I'm tethering?

@Yassar: I imagine that bypassing the tether block would be against their Terms of Service. Are you really asking us to abet you in violating your contract?

Tethering on Three's (or most other UK telco providers) unlimited plans is against their terms and conditions.  You'll have to switch to a plan that allows tethering or use an add-on.  See their Tethering info page for more information.  Also see their Terms and Conditions
However some phones will still allow you to tether, I'm surprised it doesn't work on the GS2.  Did you buy it from Three?  So the tether function still works, but when you do tether a Laptop, they send you a message?
Generally they detect mobile usage that comes from PCs and Laptops and then they ban you.  But tethering to other mobile devices seem to work, and also if you keep your data usage low, they may not bother.
Another possible work-around is to try and spoof the user agent and trick Three into thinking that the data is being sent by a mobile device.  However, this is not fool-proof and they may still be able to detect, for example downloading a windows update.
Just to be clear, I would still recommend you buy an addon or join a different plan which allows tethering.  If you think the Terms and Conditions are unfair, file a complaint or switch telcos.
Update:
Information on Three's The One Plan

SIM plans with All-you-can-eat data do not allow tethering (except for the One Plan). If you would like to tether, you will need to choose a Pay Monthly plan and / or an Add-On that does allow tethering.

So it is possible to get the One Plan, for unlimited data and tethering.
And from Tethering Explained

If your smartphone plan includes all you can eat data, then this is for data consumption actually on your smartphone.  It does not include using your smartphone as a modem to connect other devices such as laptops and tablets – also known as “Tethering”.  Tethering is included in (i) The One Plan; (ii) the One Plan SIM only; or (iii) By purchasing an Ultimate Internet Plan with the Tethering Add on. The add-on can be purchased via My3 on your handset and is also available to customers on our Talk and Text plans.

See their Pay Monthly plans

I bought the phone contract from a third party. Basically I'm asking for a way around it because as I have unlimited data I should be able to do what I like with it. As soon I connect it to my laptop I get a message from three :(

This is not correct, by signing up with them, you are agreeing with their terms and conditions and when you break those terms and conditions, they have the right to ban you

On the contract it does not say you can not tether or that you can,so therefore technically ishould be able to if i choose to. I have not broken the tcs, iv asked to upgrade but they say i cant......

can you provide info on which contract/plan you are on

Unlimited data n tx and 900mins

are you getting this? http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/36313/getting-rid-of-tethering-detected-popup-on-android-ics-4-0?rq=1

I've solved the problem with this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tetherunlocker
be careful to have only one apn for mobile traffic and remove the apn for tethering traffic.

Just reset your phone. If the issue persists, call them.

It'd imagine it's not an 'issue', more that it's done deliberately on 3's part.


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Apps take up space but do not show up on app list
I'm developing applications using Icenium (new IDE for hybrid app development), I have been testing all day without any problems, deleting the apps from phone, rebuilding the apps, etc.
At some point during the night, my apps stopped being displayed on my phone when I compile them, the apps take up space but don't actually show up anywhere on my phone.
Things I tried:

Reboot
App Cache Cleaner (app)
Fast Reboot (app)

I only managed to free up a couple of MB though (right now I have 15MB out of 153MB free - even though I have very little apps installed!!).
What can I do to delete these application files and hopefully being able tor rebuild my apps again?
EDIT:
Also, when I try to move apps from SD card to phone - I get the "Not enough storage space" error, even though it should supposedly fit (app is smaller than 15MB).

Is your device rooted?

Yes, I have root access.

To close-voters: Though it's a dev asking this, and it's about his self-developed apps, the real question is "how to remove an app from the Android device if it's not visible in the list of installed apps" -- which IMHO is perfectly suitable according to our [FAQ]. @JoaoFerreira you might want to edit your question's title, if I assumed correctly :) For the second part of your question: please check the insufficient-memory tag-wiki. If that doesn't answer this part, please ask a new question and point that out.

Install Titanium Backup.  Hit menu key on device.  Under storage option click clean dalvik.  Might not free up much, but maybe a little

As they are user-installed apps, thy should be user-uninstallable. Not being shown in the list of installed apps complicates things a little, but should not make them impossible: as you developed the apps yourself, you will for sure know their package names (I will use com.package.name in my example).
One-time setup

Your computer must have ADB installed. As you say you develop yourself, you most likely will have the Android SDK installed already (for other readers: Either install the Android SDK, or check Is there a minimal installation of ADB? if you don't need the full SDK).
Turn on USB Debugging on your device (if you not already have done so, that is)
Connect your device to your computer
Your computer must be ready to deal with your device. For Windows, you will need suitable drivers (see Universal Android USB Driver). On Linux (and most likely Mac as well) you just need to configure udev (see Is there a minimal installation of ADB? again).

Deal with the app
Above steps only need to be performed once to be able to deal with your device. Now for the remove-part:

Connect your device to your computer with USB Debugging enabled
From a shell/cmd window, run adb shell pm uninstall com.package.name

Done. You optionally can add the -k parameter to pm uninstall if you just want to uninstall the app, but keep its data.
Edit: As Dan pointed out in below comment, instead of using adb shell pm uninstall, you also could simply use adb uninstall (which can count as an "alias", and thus also supports the -k parameter). One more remark is: if you've already got some terminal app on your Android device, you could also take this instead of adb, and simply use pm uninstall locally.

You don't need the shell pm business: just adb uninstall com.package.name does the trick.

Even if an app doesn't show up in the app drawer, it must still be listed in Settings → Apps. You can uninstall it from that screen. If it's not listed there, it really isn't installed.
Uninstalled apps get their internal storage deleted automatically, but files they created can still take up space on your SD card. Of course, it's also possible that they added content to other apps (such as contacts) which would continue to take up space.

If your device is rooted, another great option is to use ES File Explorer. it has a great root Explorer function that let's you view all installed apps at the system level. I've used this to delete apps on an amazon firetv that do not show up in the regular list. I'm all about using the terminal, but this is another option.


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How to pack a firmware update image
I've downloaded a several firmware versions to install on android tv stick to take it out of its boot loop.
I need to firmware packed as an update.img file and all the firmwares I've downloaded are in the form of a zip file with the following structure inside:
update.zip\
  |-META-INF\
  |   |-com\
  |   |-CERT.RSA
  |   |-CERT.SF
  |   |-MANIFEST.MF
  |-recovery\
  |   |-etc\
  |   |-recovery-from-boot.p
  |-system\
  |   |-app\
  |   |-bin\
  |   |-etc\
  |   |-fonts\
  |   |-framework\
  |   |-lib\
  |   |-media\
  |   |-tts\
  |   |-usr\
  |   |-vendor\
  |   |-xbin\
  |   |-build.prop
  |-boot.img

Note: I'm only showing two levels for clarity, it's not that those folders are empty.
Does anyone recognizes that directory structure? Can I create an update.img pack out of it? If so, how?
IMPORTANT: I need the new firmware in that format because Rockchip Batch Tool is the only way I have to install it my android tv stick.


text:
What kind of power saving smarts does Android already have?
I just d/l tasker and it's been really interesting (although not as interesting as I would've liked since I feel a lot of the good features require a root).
I would like to optimize my Galaxy s3 so that it uses less battery power in a way that has minimal effect on my usage.
I have a few suggestions but they seem fairly obvious things so I'm not sure if they are already implemented in the OS and I don't need to create a tasker profile for it.

Turn off 3G when I've got WIFI on. I only need the mobile networks for phone calls when I've got wifi so I would prefer not to have 3G on.
Turn off 3G if i'm in a low signal area - I hear if you're on the edge of 3G connectivity, it'll use lots of power constantly connecting to 3G. Does android have a way to stop that from running the battery down or should I create a tasker profile for it?
Power saving mode on when the screen isn't on. There isn't much the phone needs to do when I'm not using it so are there already processes built into android to turn the CPU down etc. or do I need to create a Tasker profile for it? It can chew up to 25% of my battery life overnight sometimes.

Anyway, do any of those profiles seem worthwhile to do or are they already built in features of android?

Relevant: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/476/what-can-i-do-to-increase-battery-life-on-my-android-device

Relevant: What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?, especially for your "low signal area" part (and besides, it even holds a Tasker-Profile :). #1 and #3 should be handled by Android automatically already (device should go to "deep sleep" when you turn the display off -- unless some "bad app" keeps it awake using wake-locks).

Turn off 3G when I've got WIFI on. I only need the mobile networks for phone calls when I've got wifi so I would prefer not to have 3G on.

3G and mobile data are two separate things. When wifi is enabled, mobile data no longer goes through the cellular connection, but it does remain connected to the 3G network (otherwise it couldn't receive calls or SMS/MMS). I know older versions of CyanogenMod included a highly customizable Power Control widget that had options that when wifi is enabled (not necessarily connected), it switches to 2G/EDGE. But there are some downsides with this. Switching from 2G to 3G (and vice versa) require completely losing phone signal as it shuts down the connection and then searches for the other network. In doing this, you are probably looking at at least 30 seconds of being without a signal when this occurs. One very bad thing I can see with this is if you are on a phone call when you enter or leave a wireless network, it will most likely get disconnected and you won't be able to call them back until you are reconnected. In my experience, switching to 2G-only really isn't as big of a battery saver as it was a few years ago. 3G modems have gotten a lot better with power consumption.

Turn off 3G if i'm in a low signal area - I hear if you're on the edge of 3G connectivity, it'll use lots of power constantly connecting to 3G. Does android have a way to stop that from running the battery down or should I create a tasker profile for it?

You can adjust the preferred networks under the Phone Information section, which can be accessed by typing the following into your dialer *#*#4636#*#* and then going down to the Set Preferred Network Type section. Most likely your phone is on WCMDA Preferred. This seeks out a 3G/HSPA signal and tries to keep it active and only falls back when the signal is really poor. If I remember right, you can set it to GSM/CDMA Auto (PRL) and it will pick the one with the best signal. But I read this a while back and haven't been able to find the reference again.

Power saving mode on when the screen isn't on. There isn't much the phone needs to do when I'm not using it so are there already processes built into android to turn the CPU down etc. or do I need to create a Tasker profile for it? It can chew up to 25% of my battery life overnight sometimes.

Samsung is the only device that I know of that includes a Power Saving Mode. Android is actually pretty good about being easy on the battery, but apps that we install are typically the culprits of our poor battery life. A device should be in Deep Sleep mode well over half the time it is off the charger (I tend to notice mine around 65%-75% Deep Sleep). This can be checked using CPU Stats. Unfortunately, to get more information about what is causing your problems, you most likely need root. The app I typically recommend to people on the CyanogenMod forum is BetterBatteryStats (which is free on xda for memebers). This will actually tell you exactly what in an app is keeping the device from entering deep sleep. This app may still have some functionality without root, but I've never tested it (I always put a custom ROM on my phone, so I am never using it long without root).
Finding out what apps are keeping your phone from entering Android's low power "Deep Sleep" when the screen is off will save you more on battery than Samsung's Power Saving Mode probably could.
As I mentioned above, Android already does a great job with trying to minimize power consumption. All phones support CPU stepping, which basically will lower the speed of your processor in various steps until it enters the deep sleep mode. The range of the processor speeds vary from device and kernel (3rd-party custom kernels can modify quite a bit). When the screen is turned off, Android automatically tries to enter deep sleep mode. The only way this doesn't happen is if something is holding a wakelock. A wakelock is designed to allow an app to finish something before entering the low power state. This could be anything from sending a text message, to being on a phone call, to syncing email. Ideally, these should only hold wakelocks for as long as needed, but occasionally they get buggy. This is where the above app I mention comes into play. It can determine what apps are holding those wakelocks, and if they are excessive, you can check the settings of the app to try and minimize it or try uninstalling/reinstalling the app to see if it is a glitch or corrupted somehow.
The other option comes with rooting and custom kernels. I give this only as general information. With custom kernels, they can significantly change how the processor operates. Everything from lowering the max speed of the processor, to actually sending less voltage to the processor, to severely limiting how high of speed the processor can get while the screen is off. This is part of the reason why a lot of people run custom kernels. The battery savings from undervolting the processor can be quite substantial. Also, when running a custom ROM, you can remove a lot of the bloat that carriers and/or manufacturers add to the ROM, all of which can increase battery consumption.
That being said, if you are noticing certain apps are using a large amount of battery or hold large wakelocks, but they are system apps, with newer versions of Android, you can still disable those apps (even if you can't remove them). You can do this under Settings -> Apps -> All -> App name -> Disable. If you want to reenable it, it can be found at the bottom of the list alphabetized with all other disabled apps (if any).

Turn off 3G when I've got WIFI on. I only need the mobile networks for phone calls when I've got wifi so I would prefer not to have 3G on.

Already done by default, unless you use certain apps that try to force 3G when WiFi is on. (Certain older versions of Skype come to mind.) Though you might want to check the advanced options in Wifi to see if WiFi sleep policy is set to "Never", since it'll revert to 3G when the phone is asleep elsewise.

Turn off 3G if i'm in a low signal area - I hear if you're on the edge of 3G connectivity, it'll use lots of power constantly connecting to 3G. Does android have a way to stop that from running the battery down or should I create a tasker profile for it?

Knock yourself out on that one. But you might want to consider how you'll know when to turn 3G back on.

Power saving mode on when the screen isn't on. There isn't much the phone needs to do when I'm not using it so are there already processes built into android to turn the CPU down etc. or do I need to create a Tasker profile for it? It can chew up to 25% of my battery life overnight sometimes.

First: why do you not plug your phone in at night? Second, this varies on a phone-by-phone basis.

I wouldn't bother with any of those optimisations, mostly for the reasons that others have already stated.
Optimisations I do use (with Llama, but I'm sure they're just as easy to do in Tasker):

Turn off WiFi when not at home. Otherwise it will use power looking for WiFi hotspots you won't use.
Turn off sync when at low power, and turn it on again when charging.

With turning Wifi when ur not at home, how do you manage to use less battery life checking ur location then you do looking for a wifi connection?

Llama just checks which cell tower you're connected to. Using coarse network-based location When WiFi is turned off does the same thing I think. Not very power-consuming to check once every minute or so. Also, if the phone is asleep Llama won't wake it up, instead just waiting until the screen is turned on to check.

yeah i tried using cell towers with Tasker  but maybe it's where I live, it just wasn't very accurate. I would be miles away from my work or home and it would still detect the same cell towers. I was going to try coarse network location but I wasn't sure whether it takes more power to check WiFi then if it is to check location.


text:
Upload PDF file to Gmail
After downloading a PDF file from Gmail with the help of ASTRO File Manager in my Samsung Galaxy S III, I tried to find the PDF file to attach in the email (Gmail). Unfortunately, only images get attached, but none of the PDF files.
How can I do that? Where exactly am I going wrong in the process?

You can attach files with the gmail app. Just click attach image, select Astro to browse and select the PDF you wish to attach

I tried the same thing... But the PDF file dint get attached at all

I just did, worked fine for me... Try using ES File Explorer


text:
Download any Android apps on SD card
How can we download the files directly to SD card rather than phone memory on Android phones?
Is it possible?

Let's say: without rooting the device, it's quite unlikely to be possible.
On a rooted device, one could symlink the download folder to a folder located on the SDCard, and thus trick the system to directly download to the card (the way Link2SD works with installing apps on SDCard).

It is not possible AFAIK
Look at those two links:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/android-applications/246277-download-install-apps-sd-card.html
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-precedent/620201-there-way-download-apps-straight-sd-card.html
but you can download it and move to sd card. For that see this link


text:
screen keeps jerking and there are automatic touches
First of Tablet info :
Model number : Micromax P275
Android version : 4.0.4
Baseband version : v3.0
Kernal version : 3.0.8+ linda@SKYWORTHSERVER3 #52
Fri Sep 21 14:00:53 CST 2012
Build number : P275_HW.V0.1_V3.0_20120921
I dont know anything about android
now the issue is that the screen keeps randomly jerking and there are random touches that happen which will open apps and close apps randomly. this happens after few minutes since  Tablet turn on. When these things happen i cannot do anything. even if i try to power down by pressing the power key the dialog box disappears because of this random behavior.
i observer this behavior mainly when i travel in bus. so i'm thinking that the vibrations are affecting the accelerometer and thus causing the random movements. When i'm in a stationary place i rarely see this issue, but it has occured.
now i disabled
1)Auto rotate
2)Disabled all options in Developer options except Force hardware rendering.
the system update will happen and i cant turn it off(atleast i dont know).
my main useage in the Tablet are 1) pdf reading 2)videos 3)small c programmin(using CCtools).
please help me with this issue. its is very very frustrating. last thing,i brought this device 28 days ago. also i would like links on reinstalling android.

From your description, there are two obvious possibilities. The first is that some static electricity or oil on the touch screen is causing it to think you're touching it. Try giving the screen a good wipe. Also, earth yourself by holding a metal water pipe with one hand, and cover the screen with your other hand.
The alternative is a manufacturing defect in the touch screen. Faulty touch screens are quite a common problem with cheaper tablets. If you can manage to do this with all the false touches, try to install a paint program from Google Play and run it on your tablet. Leave the paint program running for a few minutes, and any false touches will paint on the screen. You can see where they are happening. You may see a pattern to them, such as all being in one strip of the screen, or always at one point. That would confirm that it's a fault in the touch screen, in which case you should return your tablet and get it replaced.

static is not what i doubt but its the defective touch panel. i'l try your idea. thanks

I have (currently testing solution, which I'm going to tell you) this same issue on my mobile, replaced my touch 2 times for a total of 25$ cost but the problem is still occuring, Yesterday I re-installed android 4.0.4 on my Xperia U(ST25i) but the problem was not gone, Now what is working for me is always using WCDMA/3G option because GSM/2G network of my carrier is slow,
This solution has worked for me from 2 days and I have no auto touches now, and I also have tested that as soon as I switch GSM back, auto touches are back too

Also be sure to not use device while charging or connect ur device charger to a socket where there is no other charger connected

Hello I have some problem with touch screen in past.
some time on low battery random touch appear
and on broken screen phone have same problem.
So I make some application for hot fix this until you change new screen.
app calls Partial Screene, easy to find on google play
Hope this can be helpful.


text:
Where is a good memory checker for Android?
Whenever I try to install/debug an app on my device (Android 2.2.2) I get this error:
E/appproc(2974): SETTING DB COPING FAILED, MEMORY DEFECTED....

Is there a command-line utility available (or one I could compile with NDK) that will test if memory is defective/mark affected area? I reset to factory data, restored from nandroid, still no obvious way around this error. :(


text:
fastboot flashall -w Halts
I have a Samsung Nexus S.
I have erased recovery and boot pertitions using fastboot erase <partition>
and when I do fastboot flashall -w it stops on
sending 'boot' (XXXX KB)...
What might be wrong?
UPDATE:
I successfully managed to flashed my NS back to stock ROM.
Please refer to my own answer below.
Regards,

Have you tried only flashing the system image, or recovery?

NOTE: attempting fastboot flash on ur device may cost you your data.
  So be careful

I figured out that I had an outdated Android SDK. I downloaded the latest one, and did:
fastboot flash boot
fastboot flash recovery
fastboot flash userdata
and in a couple of minutes I had the stock ROM up and running.


text:
How do I root Micromax Canvas 2 A110?
I want to root Micromax Canvas 2 A110 having Android ICS 4.0.4. How do I root it?

And added to our rooting index :)

The following instructions are from androidforums.com site.
The summary of the rooting procedure (just copied and pasted - credit goes to sagarwep the poster of the procedure) is as below:

Enable USB debugging on your device. To do that, go to Settings > Development > USB debugging.
Connect your device to any PC/laptop. The drivers will be installed automatically.
Download Bin4ry for Root A110 By sagarwep.7z and unzip.
Run RunMe.bat from the extracted location.

A command prompt with weird green letters will pop-up on your screen.
Follow the onscreen instructions carefully. To start off, you willl need to type in a "1" and press enter. [Note: If you ever want to Unroot your Micromax A110, follow the above steps till you reach this one and then, instead of typing "1", type "x" and hit enter. Follow the instructions that appear on the command prompt after that.]
Your device will reboot during the process after which Bin4ry will copy some files to your device.
With RootChecker you can verify whether the phone is rooted or not.

Please let us know about your success in using this procedure.

Actually I searched on this site only. Couldn't find any post regarding this. That's why I asked. :)

@Narayanan I have the same phone but my Android version is 4.2.1 Can I use the same method or should I post a new specific question


text:
pendrive was working well on tablet, before formating..but now not showing data
My 8 GB pendrive was working well on my android 2.3 tablet, before formating..but now not showing data on usb through tablet(but showing all files on PC/Laptop); Yesterday I've formated that pendrive in NTFS file system after that it is not showing usb data(detecting usb-but no data; I again re-formated using FAT32 file system then also tablet is not showing data through USB/pendrive...
Need your help ...

use partition manager. make partition in un-allocated space of pen drive then save the same. now pen drive works.


text:
how to acces to apk using backup?
I want to use adb backup restore, but I'd like to know if possible to know the contents back up file if yes so how. is it possible to have access only to apk. to install on other devices. i don't want to use adb backup -apk.

Possible duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/20606/how-to-take-backup-of-all-installed-apks-from-phone-to-pc

or maybe http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28481/how-do-you-extract-an-apps-data-from-a-full-backup-made-through-adb-backup depending on what exactly you're trying to achieve.

Dan is correct with his comment on the question, see especially my answer there on how to convert an .ab file to a .tar and then access the contents.
.apk files (if backed up, of course) are stored in apps/com.app.name/a/ then. But if adb backup was used without -apk: no .apk files then (your question is a bit confusing: "I want to use it...I don't want to use it" :)
If your goal is just to get hold of the .apk files of installed apps, you might also want to take a look at solutions like e.g. AppMonster, which allow you to get a copy of each installed app's .apk file to your SDCard (with the Pro-Version even in Batch Mode, and automatically on each app install). You could then use e.g. adb pull to copy the entire backup directory to your PC, and adb push to restore it to other devices for installation with e.g. adb shell pm install.


text:
remove pic in quick setting grid
In the "quick settings" grid you get by pulling down the right-hand end of the notification bar, the top-left item is a photo. I'd like to edit or remove this photo, but when I tap it, it says "The contact doesn't exist."
How can I edit or remove this photo?

I am sorry, it is not clear about what you are talking about. To help, you have to throw in more information - put yourself in other's shoes and see how those not involved with your problem can understand your question. You wouldn't get answers if your question is not understandable.

ok Narayanan, i'll try to be more specific now on. as per this one, its resolved.

Go into the People or Contacts app. At the top of the list is a heading Me with a special item to Set up my profile. Click that item and it takes you to the "New contact" screen. On this screen, to the right of the "name" field, there's a little grey "contact icon" box. If you click that you can replace the photo with a picture from the Gallery or by taking a photo.

Why is this not taken from my address book like every other contact?

@endolith I thought I explained that it is, it's just a special "me" contact.

The picture you are looking for is
/data/system/users/0/photo.png
just delete it to get rid of it.
God bless.


text:
Formatting Android storage "zero out" technique
I have an Android mobile (Galaxy S3), and am really worried that my corporate information will be retrieved after a reset. I've seen shared video showing it is possible to recover data after hard reset.
Mac has an interesting format option, i.e., to write zeros all over hard disks (lengthy but effective). Is it possible to perform such formatting on the Android phone? And how?

A magnetic hard drive has to be written over several times, best with random data.  Flash memory can simply be zeroed once.

There is an app for this called Secure Deletion for Android, which can be used to overwrite the data. Another way to obfuscate the data would be to encrypt the device before using factory reset. This encrypts all your data, and after the device is reset, it will be very unlikely that the data can be recovered.

Any recommended encryption application?

Newer Androids have encryption built-in, just go to Settings -> Security -> Encrypt phone.

Excellent mate. Great info

@onik is it possible to programmatically carry out a total "wipe" off? I plan to change my phone and there's a trade in policy. So I want a full wipe off.

I can personally recommend free Forever Gone (SD Card Cleaner).
It is not paid app and it has:

much better rating
no suspicious permissions
100x times bigger user base
often updates

This link is a 404 for me. Do you know if the app has been taken down or renamed?

The link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kovit.p.forevergone is perfectly working for me.
Try another appstore: http://www.appbrain.com/app/forever-gone-%28sd-card-cleaner%29/com.kovit.p.forevergone


text:
Stream music from Android phone to PC over WiFi
I've been searching on this site and can't find exactly what I'm looking for:
I have a PC (can run Linux or Windows) that's connected to my surround-sound speakers. When my friends come around they can listen to their music by connecting their phone to my speakers using a standard 3.5mm jack.
Is there a way that would let them connect their phone via WiFi to my PC and they could just play their music like they are connected directly to the speakers via a 3.5mm jack? One of the main requirements would be that they could use the standard music player in their phone.
Also does anyone know if this software or configuration this would require on the PC side to work?

This was part of the purpose of the not-quite-fully-baked Nexus Q, wasn't it?

@AlEverett: The Nexus Q only streamed directly from Google's servers, not actually from phone => NQ. In this use case it would seem to be effectively the same as long as you were using Google Music, but media solely on the phone wouldn't be available.

Also, this seems like a possible dupe of Stream music on Android to Desktop speakers

There is a program that does this for the iPhone call shairport4w.  It basically uses the air play feature of the iPhone to play all audio through a wifi router to a pc running this software.
Edit: Ok so download Airstream. Then go to the PC you want to play from, and download Shairport4w.  You'll need the bonjour service from apple installed for this to work and if I remember correctly there is a way to install only the service without installing all of iTunes. I think it is get the iTunes full package installer and extract it as if it were an archive and only install the bounjour package.
After installing bonjour start shairport4w since it is only a small program running in the background. Then start Airstream. It should find your PC that has shairport4w running on it and then start playing whatever you want. It will go over wifi and play on the PC. I tried is using Amazon Cloud player and it worked great.
Edit: I've just added the links to the mentioned software. Though Kevin explains it the other way around (streaming from PC to Android, so he's probably rather referring to this Airstream app), the app I've linked above is the one for Android → PC streaming.
Edit (2):  This actually is stream any music player on the Android Device to your PC via WiFi.  The new name for the app is Allstream.  Look for it in the Play store.  Unfortunately for it to work, you're phone or tablet must be rooted.  I use it all the time since my Sound system is hooked up to my PC as it is a Media Center, and listen to Pandora, Google Music and Amazon Music from my tablet through the PC.

If you can skip the part with the "standard music player", there would be some solutions involving DLNA/uPnP. This would require an uPnP compatible device at your speakers end (e.g. a fitting programm on your PC), and a streaming app on the devices.
Some devices have such a streaming app pre-installed, so you can share directly from your device. If not, you find several apps on the Playstore, e.g. BubbleUPnP. They act as a "DLNA/uPnP server" (mentioned BubbleUPnP can act as client as well, in the other direction, so basically you could use this on an Android device connected to your speakers instead of your PC as "receiving end" as well).
As for the PC software, you might check with our friends at AskUbuntu for a Linux solution, there are plenty available -- see e.g. UPNP / DLNA (client) player recommendations?, where several good choices are mentioned. I cannot speak for Windows, as I live in a MS-free zone :)

If your computer has Bluetooth capability, it may be easier to use this for streaming the audio.
You need to enable A2DP on your Bluetooth settings (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile), then you pair the phone with the computer and all multimedia audio from the phone will be played by the computer.
This means you can use the default music playing app and play your Google cloud stored music too.

Squeezebox by Logitech. Allows you to play your music as well as Pandora remotely to PC.

As of February 2024, the online service has been taken down.

[...] as of February 2024, we will discontinue our UESmartRadio.com and MySqueezebox.com servers. [...]
[...]
As a consequence of this shutdown, support for services integrating with MySqueezebox.com/UESmartRadio.com will no longer be available on your devices. Most notably this will impact users of TIDAL, Pandora, and Deezer.
Nevertheless, you will still be able to use your UE SmartRadio/Squeezebox by accessing the Logitech Media Server locally. All users will need to download and run some software locally, which can be found here. That means you can continue to enjoy much of the functionality you love.
[...]
If you have any questions, please reach out to us at https://forums.slimdevices.com.

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


text:
Distinguishing between placed received and non-received calls
On my Android phone, under the list of all phone calls, there are several distinct icons to distinguish between:

outgoing calls (a green arrow pointing away from the phone)
missed calls (a red arrow bouncing off the phone)
received calls (a blue arrow pointing into the phone)

However, the user interface does not distinguish between placed calls which were answered on the other end and calls which were not answered on the other end.
Does anyone have a user interface which distinguishes between these two scenarios or does anyone know of an upgrade I may perform in the user interface (perhaps even by going as far as installing CyanogenMod) so as to account for this difference in the user interface?
I am running Android 2.3.4 (GingerBread) on an LG Optimus Net P690.

You can use a new dialer which supports this. I have tried Swipe Dialer Free and it does this (You get the same icon for all outgoing calls whether they were answered or not but for the un-answered call, you will have "Not Answered" mentioned"
P.S. - If your dialer shows the duration of call then I think for Non-Answered outgoing calls, it will show "0m 0s". All other calls will have different durations. So, you can differentiate between them (if this is what your purpose is).

True, unanswered calls show "0 mins 0 secs" although you need to click on the entry in the call log in order to see this, but otherwise you're right.


text:
Phone favorite - remove picture icon due to screen real estate
Using a new Nexus 4 with OS 4.2.2.
I've pulled my contacts onto the phone (from Exchange/OL using Companion Link) and they are synchronized to the phone's Contacts (people?) app.  I can see them from both the Google People app and from the phone app.
I have over 3000 contacts, and am trying to set up my favorites for people I call regularly (a list of about 20 contacts.)  This was very easy to do on my last Android phone, and the favorites would show me a list of contacts.
On this 4.2.2 phone, the favorites area is displayed with the contacts' pictures as a huge tile, with the contact names at the bottom of the tile.  I do not maintain pictures for my contacts, so I do not want to take up all of this screen real estate for non-existent pictures.  And, even if I had pictures, I wouldn't want them to appear as these huge tiles when I'm trying to look at a list of contacts.
How can I do one of the following things?

Force the phone/people apps to not show the picture tiles in lists.
Remove the picture tiles altogether.
Ensure that the picture tiles do not appear when there is no picture.

Beneath those tiles will be a simple list labeled "Frequently Contacted", and they're listed with a much smaller photo (if one exists). So, as you use the phone, it will automatically build that list up for you of the people you contact the most.
Otherwise, there's not a way to change the layout of the app. Even if you were to create a contact group for those contacts, the group contact display uses the same sort of large photos.
Your other option would be a third-party app.

Got it; I will give that a shot and see if it will work.  It looks like I can still set up a default phone number for each person, and that is a much better display.  Not entirely within my control, which tends to make me cranky, but I suppose I'll manage.  :)  Thanks very much for your thoughts...


text:
Can you send texts from iMessage to someone who has Android and uses Handcent?
Can you send texts from iMessage to someone who has Android and uses Handcent?
And if yes does the iPhone user need to have Handcent?

I would think, no. iMessage is a different beastie than SMS. If iMessage can indeed send SMS, then it wouldn't matter if the recipient uses Handcent or not, as it's just a client for SMS. Any SMS client would be able to read and respond to the message.

If you are wondering if the text will be received through Handcent: yes.  If you are wondering if you will get the group text styled messaging from iMessage while using Handcent: no, I don't think you will.
There are several other SMS options that do support group messaging though.  Android 4.2+ offers group messaging built into the native Messaging app, so if you are on 4.2+ then you probably just need to enable the settting in Messaging app.  If you are on something before 4.2 then you could use GoSMS.  That is what I used until I was updated to 4.2 and it does a great job.  It's not perfect, because Apple likes their iOS exclusivity with iMessage, but it will do the trick.
Again, I am assuming you're looking for a group text solution.  If you are not, disregard my advice.  If you are wondering if Handcent can receive an iMessage, it should, but you wont have a group text to reply to.


text:
Undo "marked as spam" on Facebook Messenger
I was texting with my friend, but I didn't lock my keyboard. I marked her as spam. Do you know how I can get back notifications from her messages?

How did you manage to 'mark her as spam'? As far as I can see there isn't an option in the Facebook Messenger app to do that nor is there one in the Facebook app's messaging bit. EDIT: Do you mean you just turned off notifications for her messages?

on my telephone htc evo 3d when i open conversation and i click on 4 lines next to house button (http://www.fony.sk/obr/htc/htc_evo_3d/pic03.jpg) it opens "window" and there is option mark as spam but now it is going. thank you for the assistance

Odd, I have the same '4 lines', the options button. When I click it on a conversation the options I get are Settings, Logout, About, Archive and Delete. Were you using the main Facebook app or the separate Facebook Messenger app?

Based from an edit suggestion by Harry Jackson "If you mean marked as spam, then you have put them somewhere that you can't see them or read old messages, but there is one way you can get this back: on the message app, type the name of the person that you want to unmark as spam and send them a message. This will then unmark them"

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'marked as spam' since I can't see this option in either the Facebook app or the Facebook Messenger app. I'm assuming you mean you turned off notifications for her messages since you mention you want to get them back. I'll explain how to turn them back on.
Facebook Messenger

Open up the conversation with person
Press the 'i' in the circle in the top right

Click on Notications and set to 'On'.

Facebook App

Go to your messages and open up the conversation with the person.
Click on the gear icon in the top right

In the Settings tab make sure 'Alerts On' is selected.


text:
Can I restore downloaded paid apps after a factory reset?
I need to factory reset my phone.
However, I need to know whether I will be able to download
the applications I paid for on Google Play once I do the
reset, and download them onto my phone at no additional cost.
If once I do a factory reset I need to pay again to download
all the apps, then is there a way to back them up prior to
doing a reset, and then reinstall them back again?

Before doing factory reset, you can backup your phone settings to the cloud by going to Settings > Backup & reset and checking the box that says Backup my data.
Once done, you can reset your phone, and when you set it up again with your gmail ID it was backed up with, the settings and apps, everything will be restored (wifi APs as well).

This has never ever worked, except on Google pixels.

Once bought, always yours. New device, factory-reset, does not matter -- as long as your account stays the same. Paid apps are bound to the Google-Account you've purchased them with.
To give some proof: I use several apps I bought once on 3 devices simultaneously. I never was asked to pay again when installing them on the next device. Provided I used the same account, of course.

What about in-app purchases?

@qed Same AFAIK. All bound to the account they're made with.

This may have been true or intended at some point, however if the application has been removed (even a paid one!), you may no longer be able to download it. This happened with the "ConvertPad Plus" application on Google's Play Store.

@ruquay which is why you should take care to have your own [tag:backup]s, and not rely on the built-in which saves to Google. The latter one AFAIK does not include the APK files, by the logic you could "always" get them from Play Store. You could e.g. grab them all easily using Adebar's getapk script: getapk user would extract all user-installed APKs from the connected device.

Even if you don't back up downloaded applications you can still download them again, your play store will show you the list of all installed and downloaded applications even after factory reset you can download any paid or free application again. Once you have paid you don't need to pay again, you just log in by your google account and you can download all them again. But backing up applications is a better way, it will automatically install all your applications.

Download Easy app backup & restore.  It will create a backup folder in your memory card from where you can get all apps. Whenever you need the app you can install it from there.

Given that you can download the apps from Google Play again, this seems a bit irrelevant. What's your relationship with this app?

Are you sure you can back up paid apps from secure storage with this app? The reviewers on Google Play don't seem to think so.

Please don't promote software piracy on this site.

I was trying to help you .I dont know how to use this site coz am new user .thanks for giving suggestion.

@DanHulme Is it "software piracy" to want to restore a purchased app that happens to have been removed from Google Play Store?


text:
What is the method to debug Android kernel from booting in tablet?
I have to test a custom Android build on a tablet and I need to know the method to debug the Android kernel from booting in the tablet?
The tablet has only a screen, 2 USB ports and an HDMI port.

What do you mean by 'from booting'? Also this question comes close to a development one which would be better on StackOverflow.

I mean that i need to read the debug message since the boot stage

Have you tried to turn on USB-Debugging, and then after boot call adb shell dmesg >boot.log? As on Linux systems, this should store all messages from the device boot into a file called boot.log. // What is it you want to achieve? The more precise you are with your question, the more precise we can be with our answers :)

Generally, what you need to achieve this is to connect to the serial console of the system. Like on a desktop system, this gives you all the kernel and init messages as the device boots, and access to a shell once the device has booted.
How to connect to the serial console varies between devices, and you haven't told us which device you have. Usually, you need to take the main board out of its case (this is irreversible in some devices, as you have to damage the case to get it open), and find the serial port. In most cases, there won't be any connector there, just exposed points on the motherboard to solder a connector or ribbon cable to. You need to find the datasheet for the device online to find the right point to connect to.
On some devices, the serial console is instead provided by connecting a special adaptor to the headphone jack. With a proper build of the kernel, the device can be made to send serial output on that connector, and you can connect to it with an adaptor you make yourself (if you can get the specifications from the manufacturer).

Interesting that serial console can be sent to headphone jack! mind giving more details? :)

I'm not sure I can give any more details, as I used this feature while working under NDA. It's a relatively recent thing, and requires hardware support.


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How do you "Share via" email & wifi option from gallery ? It's missing
I recently upgraded to ICS (4.1.2) and have lost the ability to share photos from the gallery via email and wifi. The option was there before the upgrade. But not now. Is this a bug ?

After some mucking around, I discovered Google (un-intuitively) changed the way you can share photos in the gallery for email and wifi. You now need to do this
Open Gallery > Select Menu button > select "Select Items" > select the share button at the top of screen. All the icons should appear now in the share dialog window.


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Installing ADB drivers for Micromax A89 Ninja - Windows 8
Micromax does not provide any drivers for its phone - Micromax A89 Ninja. We are trying to use the phone for development and are unable to install the device driver in Windows 8.
We tried the ADB drivers at  - http://www.droidextra.org/2013/02/06/install-adb-drivers-for-any-android-device.html
and got the error

Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error when trying to install it. Android ADB Interface - The system cannot find the file specified.

We even tried this link - https://laslow.net/2012/03/14/disable-driver-signature-enforcement-in-windows-8/
But that does not solve the problem. How do we install ADB driver for Micromax A89? Is there any other workaround to use the phone as a development device?

Have you tried this guide? If still fails, try the same on Windows XP (either virtual or real).

Please try official one - works for most devices:
https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb.html

AFAIK, if you meant "Google USB Driver", then it only works for Google devices. For other devices, users need to install respective USB driver for their device (though no source for Micromax).

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


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Is there a way I could sync my Facbook galleries with my Android Gallery?
Is there a way that allows me to sync my Facebook galleries to my Android phone if possible? I use HaxSync but that only seems to handle the calendar and the contacts, and the Facebook app doesn't have any such functionality.

Photosync is set as "ON" by default IMO. Anyways read this

Please don't post link only answers.


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How can I install APK file on Bluestacks app player?
I have created an Android application using Eclipse, and now I'd like to install the APK on Bluestacks which is running on Windows 7. How can I install an APK on the Bluestacks player?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/24361761#24361761

I just copied my APK file into the Apps folder, which is created by default in the Libraries folder at the time of BlueStacks installation. Then I just double clicked on the APK file to install it to the App Player. Now I can see the application icon on the home screen of the App Player and I am able to run it from there.

Save as app name.apk and right click on that file and open with HD-apk handler.exe which is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\BlueStacks.

I logged in just to upvote you. Good and simple solution.

The correct name is HD-ApkHandler.exe. Also Bluestacks installs to C:\Program Files on 64-bit systems.

To install an app from your pc, just double click on its apk file; it doesn't matter in which folder it is.

Wow... this should be the answer. Worked immediately.

its quite simple......
you need BlueStacks app player for this
just download the .apk file of whichever app you wish to  install.
and then open the downloaded .apk file with ""APK handler"" of BlueStacks(the .exe file of the apk handler is present in the root directory of BlueStacks)


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My SGS3 is recognised but does not connect or transfer files, not even a backup!
My SGS3 is recognised -- but it does not connect or transfer files, not even a backup!
I have tried everything from numerous cables to different PCs & even a Mac (because I'm a Mac user). I've used a PC to satisfy myself that it's not my Mac and nothing has worked.
Any suggestions? Should I contact samsung and say "Give me a new one"? But what good is that when all my files photos and music are on this that won't back up!!

Have you checked what USB connection mode is set? Maybe it is set to "charge only"? Do you have an USB entry in your notification area when connected?

I've had this issue with my S3 sometimes. Alternatively, what you could try is download and install the drivers from here: link. Or you could also try changing the USB mode from MTP mode to camera mode (from the notifications). Don't forget to restart after installing!


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Android phone taps touchscreen on its own
I have an LG P690 Optimus Net. The issue I am having is that the phone often enters a state where it keeps on pressing the touchscreen's buttons by its self, and I have to press the back button several times to try and go back while it keeps opening new screens or entering text on its own.
I was wondering, is this something anyone else has experienced? How common is this defect, and has it to do with Optimus Net phones or with phones in general? Are some line of products more susceptible than others? If common then how does the problem I just described typically arise? Could accidentally dropping the phone or humidity in the air cause it for instance?

Have you tried removing the battery for 30-60 seconds?
Did you kill the facebook app once. As in https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/768059
If this still does not solve your problem, please do let us know...

Seems to be a current epidemy -- this is already the 3rd such question I see within 3 days. Related: HTC Hero touch screen don't work correctly, screen keeps jerking and there are automatic touches

I have no Article to show, I have not cross checked on Internet.
  Below is my personal doing.

Phone screen taps on its own. This usually happens to me when the phone is charging and I try to use it.
There could be some possible causes which I suspect:

Phone screen might not be clean. Sweat, dirt, food particles from hand can cause pseudo taps.
When charging or after charging, static electricity on the phone surface might also be the cause.

How I fixed it?

Get a clean cotton cloth
Rub it steadily on the screen to remove any particles causing taps.
For static current removal, just remove the battery from phone and press the Power button for 10 seconds.

Yes. Seems there is a problem. The touchscreen takes inputs that was never made. Have a look at this http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/mobiles-tablets/122921-official-android-discussion-thread-73.html#post1836923
There are various problems of Android that LG ships on the P690. I'd suggest installing a good custom ROM, which should fix the problem if it is not a hardware issue.

I had the same problem with the touch-screen of LG p690. I've installed a new custom ROM and searched a lot for answers.
In my experience, it's a hardware issue causing the touch-screen to randomly press itself.
My solution? I have a new phone.


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How to convert .img to .tar to flash using Samsung odin tool?
I have downloaded touch recovery from clockworkmod website. How do I flash downloaded .img file using Odin / Mobile Odin tool?

where do i fine that recovery.img file? Link please

Quoting the answer from XDA Forum.
In linux or windows with cygwin.
$ tar -H ustar -c recovery.img > recovery.tar
$ md5sum -t recovery.tar >> recovery.tar
$ mv recovery.tar recovery.tar.md5

where do i fine that recovery.img file? Link please


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Will Dropbox re-upload a changed file if I don't access it from within the app?
I know that when I edit a file from within Dropbox (using an external application), after I close said file Dropbox uploads the updated version. Does this also work if, once I have accessed the file from within Dropbox once, I open the file from within the editor app (e.g. using a "recent files" menu?)
If this is not the case, I'd be looking for a way to achieve this effect.

Why don't you test it? Its a simple thing...

For solid Desktop type experience, I would recommend Dropsync and FolderSync...

For Dropbox and OfficeSuite (if you edit from the recent files), they seem to sync.
I'm not sure with other apps. In any case, if you need a two-way sync, you can always use DropSpace. See this similar question: How do I sync with DropBox?

OfficeSuite seems to have Dropbox support according to the description in Play

I don't know if the Dropbox app does this or not - last time I looked (shortly after it came out), Dropbox's app wasn't really doing sync on Android, it was more of a nice version of the web interface.
I use Dropsync to achieve this effect - you can even set how aggressive it is on downloading/uploading vs. battery status. I use it to keep my KeePass database synced across devices, so I have it set to upload right away if it notices changes, but only download when things are good, battery wise.

There's an important distinction that needs to be made: Accessing a file vs Downloading/exporting a file...
The Dropbox app and other 3rd party apps that use the Dropbox API allow you to "Access" files in their cloud location.  Everything you do to this file is synced (assuming the app is well made and working correctly).  Essentially the file is being downloaded in the background so you can open and work on the file and then reuploaded in the background when you are done (ie syncing).  I use apps like Estrong File Explorer and several note taking apps that use the Dropbox API and every change I make to a file is synced when I save the file.
Downloading/exporting the file is different.  In the Dropbox app you can "Export" a file which means download it to a local directory on your device.  Apps like DocsToGo don't support the Dropbox API so there is no way to directly access Dropbox files from within the app.  In cases like this you have to download the file to your device to access it with this app.  This downloaded file is not monitored by or synced by Dropbox so you'd need to upload it or sync it manually somehow.  There are third party apps that do this, I use DropSync.
TL;DR: If you are editing a file directly in an app that has built in access to Dropbox you don't need to worry syncing, it will happen on it's own.  If you are downloading a file from Dropbox to edit it in an app that doesn't access Dropbox directly, like DocsToGo, you'll need to use a 3rd party syncing app like DropSync.
EDIT:
I think this is the scenario that you have... You open a file "example.txt" through Dropbox and it opens a dialog that lets you choose the default app and you choose "XYZyadayada" app and the file opens in that app.  You make changes and save them, Dropbox will detect this and will sync the changes.  If you skip Dropbox next time and just open up XYZyadayada and see example.txt in the "recent files" list, that is probably a locally cached file.  If XYZyadayada truly doesn't communicate with a Dropbox API then that file is saved locally, probably in it's own directory and opening and editing that file will not be detected or synced by Dropbox because it's a copy of the cloud file that is saved locally on your device.

What I did was tapping the file inside dropbox; it opened the file with the default application which is not Dropbox aware AFAIK. When I returned to dropbox it uploaded the file at least once.

Since I'm able to open the same file later using an app that knows nothing of the cloud, Dropbox obviously doesn't delete the local (semi-temporary) copy it creates for the app.

Yes, once. I want to know if Dropbox continues to monitor the file it downloaded for changes later.

If the app is automatically caching the file and the next time you open it you open it from the cached location Dropbox will not pick up on the change because it is a change to the local file, not the dropbox file.  It would be helpful if you mentioned the app you are talking about.

No it does not.  If you want Dropbox to detect the change you'll need to open the file with Dropbox like you did originally or use a third party app the accesses Dropbox directly.


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What does the "VimTouch Full Runtime" do?
I just installed VimTouch; it works as well as you expect a text editor to work on a phone. What is the point of the separate "VimTouch Full Runtime" app?

From browsing the source code, this appears to be the same as the vim-runtime package as provided in most Linux distributions. It ships a variety of Vim scripts which provide additional functionality, such as additional color schemes, file type handling, automatic indentation, etc.
Without this package, Vim operates in a minimal mode and many features that are provided by these scripts are not available.


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How to get my tablet listed by adt
When I run adb devices from my Windows XP machine there is nothing listed. The tablet's Vendor ID is 18D1 and the Product ID is DEED. It gets enumerated as a USB device with a name MID. When I enable "USB storage" on the tablet, I can see the tablet's files in the Windows File Explorer as drive G: and the SD card on the tablet as drive H: -- however the Computer Management shows a big yellow question mark next to a device named "MID".
I searched for a suitable driver but all I could find was a list of drivers for well known brands. My tablet is a no-name version of the Hyundai A7 Art.
I've been struggling with this for quite a few days. My purpose is to collect a logcat to document another problem that I posted here. I hope you can help me out.

Have you enabled USB debugging on the device? (Settings -> Developer options -> USB debugging)

Yes, it's enabled.

I have also tried to connect with >adb connect 192.168.21.23 and I got the message unable to connect to 192.168.21.23:5555 even though I get replies to ping 192.168.21.23

Do you have the correct device drivers installed? This may sound odd, but you can you try installing PDANet which includes drivers for a lot of devices (although your tablet may not be common enough) http://pdanet.co/ You can uninstall it after you have the correct drivers.

Thank you Bryan. I was just about to post about my success after installing PDANet, when I came to this page and found your message mentioning it :-) I am glad you told me I can now uninstall it, as I was not clear what the main purpose of that software is.

Try to re-install the USB device driver for that specific tab, and try it once again.

That was exactly the problem: I didn't have a device driver to install. Anyway, I just solved it with PDANet (see above). Now I can move on and debug why I cannot login to the Google Play Store


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Phone will not let me ENCRYPT
I want to encrypt my apps and personal data, such as passwords to email etc.
If I have factory reset my phone (GS2sprint) and it is fully charged (over 90%) and plugged in. So I went to Settings→Apps→Security, and from there to Encrypt or Encrypt SDCard -- but it won't let me encrypt: The buttons are grayed out.
Why won't it let me encrypt? I have a new file that I have not seen before which is sprint extention. It will not let me stop it and like I said after Hard Factory reset it still will not let me encrypt anything.

I updated your question accordingly, JAY. Please do the same with the following details: What kind of lock-screen security have you set up -- PIN, password, pattern, or none? AFAIR encryption does not accept one of them. You might want to read How to Encrypt Your Android Phone and Why You Might Want To -- which says it must be either PIN or password set up before you can encrypt.

I've set up a pin for my lock screen.

To get it right: You've set up a PIN and now it works -- or you already had set up a PIN and it still does not work?

Mr Izzy one more question. Ive tried what you said and Ive put in a password with numbers and this dang phone still wont encrypt its data. It factory resets its self with a error mssg that reads interuption when there should be none because it is over its percent to start encryption and its plugged in. Then I did the only encrypt data on phone or short encryption and I still have the same mssg... Encryption failed due to interuption omg! He is coming

Sorry, then I'm lost, too... Who's coming? Where to? [locking my door, just in case...]

I know I am late to this discussion, but, for others out there that may have not gotten an answer to this yet, device encryption on some devices may only work with a strong password. A (medium security) PIN may not be enough.

You already have to have a strong password selected and installed and then the encryption button will be available for you to press.

The Android phone must be fully charged (100%) and charging in order to encrypt your phone. The button will change dark when your phone is fully charged and charging. There is now a notification text about the thing in the Android 6.x. It also says that the encryption may take one hour and more.


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Sync Google contact photo to Android phone
I created a contact a while back of a friend, just her name and mobile number. Today I added her Gmail address to the phonebook in her contact card.
When I go into Gmail Contacts I see her Google+ photo - How can I get my phone to sync that photo.
FYI - We are not friends on Google+

After some playing I figured it out.
I went to the App Manager - found Contacts and Contact Storage (cleared the cache from Contacts and cleared all data from Contact Storage)
After recreating my profile an automatic sync took place and all my contacts came back with associated Gmail contact photos

Also check out the Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts on http://contacts.google.com under the More link. It should merge the email contact with the phone contact.


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Home button or back button to leave an app?
Is there a difference between leaving an app by pressing the "back" button vs. pressing the "home" button?
I've got an app which includes a countdown timer. The app says it will notify me when the timer reaches zero but only if the app is minimized (home button) and not if it's closed (back button). Is there really a difference here?
Note that I've confirmed that the app stays available in the list of running apps (the "history" button, or whatever it's called) regardless whether I use "back" or "home" so I am confused. Has the developer misunderstood this?
Details: I'm running the app Ingress Portals on a stock Nexus 4.

A quick note about the "list of running apps": it's not a list of running apps, it's a list of recent apps. Having an app in that list doesn't mean it's running, and you don't need to remove apps from the list to "save battery" or "save memory". Conversely, an app could be running a Service and not be in the list at all.

In general, when you leave an app with home, or by launching another app from the recents menu, Android keeps the state of the app around for a while. That includes the stack of which screens you've looked at, the position of scrolling things, selected items, the state of checkboxes and the text in text fields, and other such things. It'll only discard that state if the device runs low on memory, or if you don't come back to the app for a long time.
If you instead press back, it takes the current screen off that stack, throws away that state, and goes to the screen you were looking at before. Repeated back presses keep doing this until you're all the way out of the app, and it has no state left. (Note that this is only the state of the screen as I described above. The app ought to save any persistent state, such as the document you were editing, or your high score.)
As Sachin Shekhar says, use home if you want to come back to the app in the same state; or back if you are done with the app and you want to see the main screen or starting screen next time you start it. In addition, note that apps can change the behaviour of the back button (such as how web browsers usually make it go "back" in the browser instead of leaving the browser completely), but they can't change the behaviour of the home button. You can always use home to get out of a misbehaving app.
There's one more thing. Android also allows apps to create what it calls a Service. This is a part of the app that runs in the background, with no visible part (unless it sends notifications). Any app that has a long-running task to perform, such as a download manager, or a torrent client, should use a Service so that the download keeps going even if the app isn't on your screen. It should make sure the Service exits when all downloads are finished, so you don't need to worry about how to exit it.
Perhaps this app is using a Service to run the countdown, and it has changed the behaviour of the back button so that as well as leaving the app, it also stops the Service. That could be why you get that instruction. But it's only that way because the author chose to do it that way: he could just as easily enable and disable the countdown with a checkbox or button inside the app. It's not standard behaviour, and in general, you shouldn't expect to have to use home to keep downloads or long-running tasks running.

Generally, Back button calls onDestroy() method of current activity. But, Home button pauses the activity. This is the difference if a developer follows standard guidelines (a developer can choose not to respect this behavior).
In layman's term, when you exit app with Back button and start it again from Recent Apps list, it'd be app's fresh launch. And, when you exit app with Home button and start it again from Recent Apps list, the app would be resumed from where it was left. It means that Back button kills an app whereas Home button sends an app to background (Android memory manager can still choose to kill it if system runs out of memory).
The app in the question is simply showing standard behavior.

What a difference! That is absolutely not clear to me as an average user. So you're saying I should not use back, except to dismiss a menu or similar.

@Torben You can use Back button to exit the app if current session isn't important to you. If you just want to pause the session or you want to run app in background while using another app, use Home button.

@Torben Example: Let's say there's a torrent download client following standard behavior. If you want to stop the download (to save battery and/or internet congestion), use Back button. And, if you want the app to continue the downloading while you read an ebook or surf the web, use Home button. Its not that hard to understand (think about multitasking of PCs).

I'm not saying that it's hard to understand -- it's just that it's absolutely not evident from simply using the phone. Now that I know, it's easy enough to remember, but from a user perspective, there doesn't appear to be any difference unless you deliberately try it out (but even then you would still need a hunch about what you're going to test for).


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SIM vs. USIM inside Android smartphones
I've browsing through some jargon and cannot figure out what exactly the difference is between USIM and SIM. While not strictly an android question I figure all android phones are bound to have either one or the other so any clarification on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

SIM is a old guy, but USIM (card's name is UICC, USIM is logical module) is new designed specially for UMTS (3G) generation. While SIM can also be used to access 3G, USIM has extra advantages over SIM:

3G Video Calls (not supported with SIM)
Higher Security: USIM introduces new algorithm to prevent unauthorized access to phone line. Plus, it encrypts your calls and internet traffic with stronger encryption keys. It stores contacts securely too.
Bigger and Improved phonebook: USIM allows you to store thousands of contacts (limit on SIM is 255). Each contact can now contain email id and more than one phone number.
USIM can run small applications like computer (SIM's analog is simple SIM menu which can't compute something by own other than communicating with carrier's server).

USIM could mean one of two things.

Universal Subscriber Identity Module, which refers to the software that runs within the SIM card (technically now called a UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card) in UMTS parlance).
uSIM could also mean microSIM (using u rather than μ), a SIM card format (technically known as 3FF) smaller than the miniSIM (2FF) used in most devices.


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What is a "native web app"?
I've come across the term "native web app" also known as "hybrid app".
I know what "web apps" and "native apps" are, the difference being that
the former are downloaded and run within a web browser and the latter
are code (not html) and run a little faster without requiring a web
browser to interpret them. So what is a "native web app", how can
a web app be native?

Unlike native apps, web apps can't access low level API of system (to access hardware etc) unless it is supported by web standards (most aren't supported to maintain web app portability). Here, native web apps comes to rescue.
In Native Web Apps, web codes (HTML, CSS & JS) run in a native wrapper code. The wrapper code is native (can use low level API) which contains webview to render the web app. So, it taps the benefits from both worlds (that's why its called Hybrid App).
For example, Facebook app (in Play Store) is a native web app. When you see your timeline, friends' profiles etc in this app, you actually see webpages. But, at the same time, this app can access your camera, Android's system-wide share menu etc.
Another great example is Google Currents.

Native app sounds like a contradiction of terms. The better term, as we see in this post, is hybrid app.

I am sure that the performance of native web apps should be better than wep apps. But how are they in comparison of native apps?

The exact capabilities of each of the individual web technologies is not what matters. This term works whether your markup is HTML 4.01, HTML5 or HTML37. It doesn’t matter, and the term won’t be obsoleted by the next version of any spec.
    It covers the case where the runtime is a regular browser, a webview, an OS such as Firefox OS or Chrome OS, or something like node-webkit.
    The key point is that it’s written for the technologies that are native to the web platform.
    The term makes a clear distinction from the serverside.
    It even works OK as an acronym if you’re into that sort of thing.
Other benefits include:

Dynamic loading of external libraries
   Zero configuration installs
   Expressive, extensible, event-driven native language
   These runtimes are already installed on billions of devices
   Can be "wrapped" into "native-feeling" apps on a wide variety of platforms
   It’s easily the most open and accessible platform on the planet. We don’t have to pay homage at the "walled gardens" of the world,
like the Apple App Store.

Exact copy of this BlogPost. Please see the help center for how to reference correctly. Edit your answer accordingly please

Native Apps :
- Apps that are fully programmed in the development environment specific to each operating system.
- Stored on a device and require installation.
- Tend to have better graphics and a smooth user experience due to the interface with the device.
- Have full access to the device-specific features, including GPS, camera, gestures, and notifications.
- More expensive to develop, as they need to be developed for each specific operating system
- Take longer to develop. Maintaining apps on multiple operating systems is also expensive and time consuming.
Web Apps :
- Apps that are written entirely with web technologies (HTML5). and the code is executed by the browser and installation is optional.
- Content is a lot more discoverable on the web.
- Platform independent.
- Use features that are available in HTML5 like the GPS, the tap-to-call feature and native features remain inaccessible.
Hybrid Apps :
- Developed partly with the native development environment and partly in WEB language (HTML5).
- These are native apps with embedded HTML. They have most of the benefits of native apps.
- Like native apps, they live in an app store and can take advantage of the many device features available (including GPS, camera, gestures, and notifications)
- Platform independent, Increasingly rising in popularity as operating systems become more fragmented.

This answer is plagiarized from this blogspot article. Please consult the help center for referencing other works.


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Sony xperia ringtone
I am using this mobile for over a week now and accidentally, I tapped on open (always open) on my ringtone such that, now I cannot set any MP3 ringtones and stuck with default Sony ringtones.
Is there anyway that I can change it to use MP3 ringtones.

Which Sony Xperia? What version of Android?

You opened the ringtone with what app? Can you improve the clarity of language?

Have you tried to go to Settings->Apps->Manage Apps, scroll to the app you made default, open its entry, and tap the 'clear defaults' button?

Almost every Android file manager or music player has option to set song (not only mp3) as ringtone - so just use it. This video may be helpful.


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How to filter my Google contacts?
I have synced contacts from my Google account on my Samsung Galaxy.
Now in my contacts are all kinds of people I've written once an email to, which Gmail stored in my contacts.
Some contacts even show up when I search, while they are not even to be found in my contact list on Gmail.
I would like to keep some control over which contacts I want to see in my phone or not. I would like especially to show those who have a phone number in my phone.
How do I filter my contacts from Google?

Okay I found out one of the first things to do is change the option in Gmail so that "I add contacts myself" instead of Gmail adding to my contacts any address I ever mailed with.
Now how can I show specific groups in my phone and not all my contacts?

Click on the people (contact) app and click the menu button and go to Settings -> Contacts to Display -> Customize. Then make sure only "My Contacts" and "Stared in Android" are enabled. Google shouldn't be adding random emails to My Contacts (since those should be ones you specifically added and the "All other contacts" should contain all the addresses you sent emails to).
If those emails are part of My Contacts, I believe your only option is to manually go through your contacts and change it. Luckily, Google has a web interface to allow this at http://contacts.google.com. When you are there, you can click the checkbox on all the contacts you don't want shown on your phone and then click the Groups icon (3rd button over, it shows 3 people on it), and then uncheck the My Contacts checkbox. The next time your phone syncs your contacts, it will fix your contacts list.

Thanks. Also when I want to add an sms recipient, I look up my contacts. There it shows all contacts including those who have no phone numbers. Is there any way to change this unintuitive behaviour?

The reason behind this is you are able to send MMS messages to email addresses using the same app. This is why both phone numbers and emails will show up in the contact list. I know I can filter only mobile contacts with Handcent. And not that it will necessarily help you now, but the CyanogenMod Messaging app won't show email addresses (if you ever decide to install a custom ROM).

Seems like they changed the interface since then, I cannot find all these buttons anymore :(

If you're running lollipop, it hasn't changed much. You no longer need to press "settings" since "contracts to display" is directly under the 3-dot menu button. Within there, it's just a matter of picking which contact groups you want to display. If you don't have that option, your phone manufacturer may have replaced the stock Android Contact/People app with their own.

authors: მამუკა ჯიბლაძე