text:
Android Auto language tied to phone?
I have a Nexus 6P and just got a car with android auto, i use my phone and most of my things with English language (i'm used to English for tech) even tho i live in a Spanish speaking country.
Now heres the question, is there a way to set Android Auto to Spanish for example without changing the entire phone setting? Other people than me might want to use the head unit and would have to use English.
And then here's another interesting thing, when using the TTS feature to read messages, obviously its impossible to understand anything when reading Spanish with an English voice but what happens if i have messages in both Spanish and English, wouldn't it be nice to have it auto detect the language and use the appropriate TTS system regardless of the phone language?

For future reference: What worked for me was setting the search & voice language inside the Google App to German. Voice commands / TTS is now German while the UI is still English (my prefered way).

I actually had the same question today, I tried using http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.mods.appsettings to change Android Auto locale settings, and it sort of worked... the home notifications are in Spanish now (i.e. shows "X mensajes nuevos"), but the maps, music, and notification aloud reading are still in English, I will try setting other components to Spanish later (whenever I have time), but let us know if you find something useful first.

What I ended doing (and worked), was to use Tasker + SecureSettings to change my android phone locale to Spanish when connected to my car, and to english when disconnected. Not the most elegant solution, but it did work, and the language change process is fairly quick.

I use the xposed App settings module mentioned early, and change the android auto locale, but also change the google search app locale and notifications and voice recognition work in Spanish


text:
What "password" am I being prompted for before a wipe?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 with Verizon. I've also had my phone wiped 4 times because of our corporate policy requiring a device wipe after 4 or 5 attempts and, when hiking with my phone in my pocket, somehow triggering invalid fingerprint login attempts (my hands when hiking and climbing are definitely not in my pockets).
But my question here is what "password" I'm being prompted for right before my phone is wiped. It just says, "Please enter your password" (or something equally vague) and gives me an alphanumeric keyboard. In the past, I've tried my Google account password (tied to the phone) and even my PIN. This last time, I meticulously made sure I entered my Google account and the phone was wiped right before my summit bid (I was going to snap a photo and ended up loosing a few to date; the worst is when I lost some climbing route beta and we got off-route).
Here's my set up:

I have a PIN set up (required by policy).
I have fingerprints set up.
I do not have a lock screen password (could this be it? Samsung said I should be prompted for one but support doesn't seem to understand what I'm asking about anyway).
My Google account uses 2FA, so in most cases my raw Google password won't suffice. Do I need to generate an app password?

The phone is stock (i.e. not rooted and only apps from Google Play). The vague "password" screen looks the same as my lock screen PIN screen (i.e. alpha-blended with same font).
For now, I'm not planning on rejoining it to our corporate network but may want to in the future. I've also ordered a cover for when I'm hiking or climbing to hopefully avoid this situation (it's only ever happened in these situations). But should I be prompted again for this "password", I want to know what I'm supposed to enter before loosing everything and spending hours resetting up 2FAs for various sites, apps, etc. (the backups never seen to restore everything, but, then again, I'm usually trying to restore while on the fringe of network connectivity).

Without seeing the actual screen I'm just guessing here, but probably a corporate administrative password. Sounds like your corporate security policy for BYOD is pretty tight, try removing the corporate account and device administration rights before a factory reset.

Unfortunately, I can't do anything to get into my phone when this last prompt is shown. One chance, and it's all gone. Samsung support didn't know for certain either. I'm assuming, though, it's not some corporate password. There's nothing about this in the information provided, nor any instructions to call IT should we see this.

I don't know how far you want to go with this since it sounds like the device is working, but here is what I would do (this would drive me nuts)... Delete all accounts off the device in Settings-Accounts and remove all Device Administrators in Settings-Security, my guess is when you try to remove one of these you will get prompted, telling which one is the culprit... if not, do the factory reset, removing your Google account should remove any FRP.

Not sure what you mean by "when you try to remove one of these you will get prompted". When I disable phone administrators, nothing much happens. I would assume that at some point (i.e. when a policy check is triggered) functionality that requires said administrative access may cease functioning, but this password dialog looks like it belongs to Android (or any shell customizations Samsung made). For what it looks like, take a look at a PIN prompt when unlocking the screen and imagine it was for a "password" instead with no other information.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
What does this notification bar icon mean in the HexoLibre theme by Cyanogenmod?
The icon in the middle it looks like dancing wobbling phone or something. Totally confused. Not using OnePlus. I'm using Cyanogenmod 13's HexoLibre theme.

Looks like the vibrate icon on the OnePlus One... http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/81525/whats-that-icon-oneplus-one/81527

Yes, it's possibly OnePlus One, and the theme appears to be "Hexo".

It's the vibrate icon. Interesting, Android has two vibrate icons. Turning ringer volume down all the way, you can see the other icon one.

Even more confusing, when it's not down all the way it shows a ringer icon

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


text:
Android keeps asking me to add a new or existing account after factory reset
I factory reset my android phone but now I can't get pass the  "Provide existing or new account" screen. It allows me to provide my existing account, we walk through the screens, I skip the credit card screen then it takes me back to the add account screen, so I already added like 3 accounts but it seems like is an infinite loop so what can I do?

Credit card screen?!?! What device and Android version is this?

@acejavelin Could be google wallet. It tends to be a bit annoying sometimes, when restoring from google cloud.


text:
Why are apps excluded from Titanium Backup?
I have been using CM Browser for couple of years. A couple of months ago I set Titanium Backup ( Pro - version 7.5.0) to backup on schedule as shown below ( 3 as maximum backup versions ):

After the last update of CM Browser, which I didn't like, I uninstalled it, being sure I could switch to the earlier version. Surprisingly, I didn't find CM Browser backup !
To doubly verify, I installed CM again and took a manual backup (by force-running the schedule) and sure enough it didn't show up – despite of the "backup completed" toast being shown (no error message in between either). And yes, I've verified that I didn't have any filters set that might be hiding it.
It can't be a version issue of Titanium as the previous version should have retained 3 backups.
Why is this so? What makes apps "unbackable" ? How do I fix this?
Device: Moto X Play, 6.0.1, stock, rooted
Edit:

As suggested by Izzy in comments, searched the backup directory and found backups of Browser. Installing the apk from there got me my old Browser version but minus the bookmarks ( Data for apkalways included in preferences).Backup of newer version also present in apk
Mailed the developer. Will post updates but meanwhile ideas to troubleshoot are welcome

Edit 2: when I took a logcat for the second time (in the process of installing app and forcing a backup), TiBu mysteriously decided to show me CM Browser with all previous versions and data intact. I haven't the faintest idea and will post an answer if the developer clarifies. I have mailed him the logcat. Pastebin here
You are welcome to post your answers

It didn't show up in filter not backed up also

In over 5 years using TiBu, I've never seen such. I'd recommend repeating the manual backup while taking a logcat, and reporting to Joël (the dev). Keep us update, please :)

By the way: with the app not showing up in the list at all, how did you do a manual backup of it? If it doesn't show up in any list, TiBu obviously isn't even aware of it. Also, please check your backup directory if there's anything related to the app.

Where you configured TiBu should place the backup files. Usually the TitaniumBackup directory on your SD card (if not explicitly set up, on the internal one – first thing I do on new devices/installations is to point it to the external card, as I want access to the backups even if "the device dies").

Thanks, I've integrated some more stuff out of the (now removed) comments. If you repeated the backup while taking a logcat (as suggested), and were able to isolate the corresponding parts: consider putting them to a pastebin (minus any PII, if there are any ;) and link that here. Maybe it rings a bell to someone.

@izzy : Thanks and added an edit.  Surprising.

Ugh – indeed. So if you just try hard enough, it will finally show up… Well, most important part of your results: Backups have always been taken, so no data was lost. // And where's your pastebin? ;) // Curious for Joël's reply.

Izzy: Added pastebin -deleting portions I thought were not relevant . First time i used it so it doesn't allow me to paste in full unless I pay- which I see no reason to at least for now

Nope. After removing empty lines, it got a lot smaller. Then, TiBu is started in line 1328 (15:22:19.725) – so everything before that is obsolete anyhow. Uninstall of CM Browser at 1696 (15:26:53.563)ff… Ouch. Check for com.ksmobile.cb, that app seems to have several issues. There could even lie the reason for TiBu not showing it. ReInstall at 2223 (15:27:33.679). Only TiBu related entry is when MediaScanner finds the backup (.tar.gz) at 3263 (15:28:38.655), except for its starting and being brought to foreground. Maybe Joël sees something else, I don't.

Wow...impressed...thanks. CM family has always been a suspect but I quite like the browser

No Cheetah on my devices (fetching Garlic, silver bullets, etc. just in case), they're completely bananas. One specific reason against this browser: Flurry Analytics. No, thanks. Much too invasive. And btw used by the other CM apps as well. As to the effectiveness and usefulness of their apps, read this – they can't even explain it themselves. My personal opinion: it's just about gathering data. Better pick one of these :)

Thanks Sir- uninstalled and going for the first in the list Privacy Browser

Yupp, good choice :) Still: Please keep us updated if Joël responds, especially if he finds something and there's a solution.

Sure but looks like he has a team to take care of things- hope it reaches him or there would be a response. Read up a little on Flurry and that little was enough to opt out from their logging- whether it works or not


text:
App updation- Google Play Store wants to update an older version of app when latest version is already installed?
I manually update apps and on selective basis. Recently, I noticed that apps that have been manually updated continue to be shown in awaiting updates list, despite manually updating them

Example of Macrodroid. On the left is the Play Store showing an earlier version and on the right is app version , which is much later

Few other apps show the same version - on the device and awaiting updating on play store.
Some apps get removed from Play Store once updated.

This inconsistent behaviour foxes me
Why does this happen and how to fix it?
Details: Android 6.0.1 on Moto X Play- Play Store 6.8.24. F- all 3085398

Isn't v3.14 newer than v3.13? It's quite common to have a {x}.{y}.{z} versioning system where a bug fix increments {z} and a new feature increments {y} or maybe {x}.
Also, the developer doesn't actually have to change the 'Version' number that shows in the Play Store, they only need to increment a build version (which is not visible anywhere in the Play Store) so the version that is shown may not change. This allows for quick fixes to be pushed out without incrementing the actual version number.
Although the information isn't visible in the Play Store it can be seen in the AndroidManifest.xml within the apk. I use Solid Explorer which can display this information without needing to extract the apk manually. In the screenshot below you can see the 'Version code' which is the build version that must be increased when uploading a new version of an apk to the Play Store.


text:
Is there a way to remove the stock Google apps without rooting your phone
Hi I'm using Moto X style and most the space consuming apps are stock Google one which I basically don't use at all. Is there a way to remove them without rooting the device. I know it's an hard ask but I'm just taking a chance here ?

Is this the stock rom you are using?

Not a chance, sorry. You cannot remove pre-installed apps (System apps) without write access to /system – which you won't have without su (rooting). All you can do is deactivating parts if the Google Apps – you probably cannot even deactivate them all, as some will show up as "protected" (aka "I am too important").
Best way to really get rid of all of them is to flash a custom ROM, which usually comes without GApps.


text:
Can I download an apk of an app I have payed for?
So my dilemma is that I paid for Minecraft PE some years ago, but then I deleted my Google Play Store account, and got a new one.

What I'm wondering is if it is okay to download the apk because I'm not paying for it again, and I think it would because technically an apk file is kind of like a rom backup of a cartridge game and those are legal to download if you own a legal version of the game
My issue is that I'm downloading the apk of the newer update then I bought, so is it legal? Since the version of game is different from what I have purchased

Since you have changed the account from the one from which you purchased the app and are now using a different account , you cannot" use the app purchased. Purchases are tied to the account
Use of a product purchased in one account in a different account
Add Google Play Apps from Other Google Account?
As You can see in the discussion, you cannot. Google play purchases are tied to the account from which you have purchased and can't be transferred
Google product forums says the same
Second part of your question is not relevant because you can't use the app purchased under a different account

If you deleted your account, you've also dropped everything connected to it. So no, there's no legal way to "download and use that APK" – as the license was bound to your deleted account. You could ask the dev to transfer your license to your new account – but how you prove you're the owner of the old one, and indeed have paid for the license, is between the two of you. The dev is in no way obligated to comply: if he does so, it's just out of goodwill.


text:
Kies/ Smart Switch data transfer
How do we transfer data, music, or videos from S4 to the computer? Tried KIES but it says it's not compatible and to use smart switch instead. Installed smart switch, it says my device is not compatible.
Looked up FAQ for compatibility and found I must have  Software: Android OS ICS (4.0) or higher
Looked up my Android OS and found it to be 4.4.4 . Now I am unable to understand why is my S4 not compatible to use Smart switch. TIA.

Smart switch has had issues in some models. There are two versions of Kies. Try the latter one http://www.samsung.com/in/support/usefulsoftware/KIES/

I have tried both the versions.


text:
alt tab taken over and trying to get it back
I am running a Galaxy Tab A with Android 6.0.1, but it differs from my cell phone in one regard.
On my cell phone I can press-and-hold the "Home" button center bottom, and get a list of open applications, and can then select one.
On my Tab A, I get Google.
I want to get Google out of the Alt-tab feature WITHOUT removing Google itself from my tablet (as I have Gmail etc.).  How do I do this?

The feature you describe is the "last used apps". Most recent devices have a separate key assigned to that, looking like two intertwined rectangles. Seeing some screenshots of the Galaxy Tab A, isn't that the key to the left of your "Home button"?

@Izzy : yes and thanks.  This accordions through them and is better than the alt tab as it gives me a reduced view of the last visual state of the app, AND allows me to close the app with the X upper right.  For the record, I had a bazillion of them open. Thanks, I feel much more in control now!

Thanks for your confirmation! I've converted my comment to an answer. As it solved your issue, please consider "accepting" the answer by clicking the green check-mark next to it – so other "seekers" can identify your answer as having a solution. Thanks – and enjoy!

The feature you describe is the "recently used apps". Most recent devices have a separate key assigned to that, looking like two intertwined rectangles:

Seeing some screenshots of the Galaxy Tab A (and finally approved by you), this button is located to the left of the "Home button" on your device.

In more recent Android versions the icon is just a square, and it's to the right of the home button.

@KeithThompson That might well be – but on the Galaxy Tab A (which the OP asks for) it looks like that. And when talking about Samsung, the button is always "on the other side".


text:
Edit hosts file from terminal IDE with root accessed
My terminal IDE accessed root but cannot edit hosts file.
root@172.16.0.151:/system/etc #vim hosts

But vim just opens hosts file as readonly. Where do I missed here?

You've missed that the /system file system is mounted read-only.
mount -o remount,rw /system
cd /system/etc
vim hosts
# edit, save, then make /system read-only again:
mount -o remount,ro /system


text:
Can I use my android's wifi to let another device to connect it through wifi?
Im using a terminal-based environment, but connecting to the internet requires a browser-based authentication. Can I use my Android device as a work-around, connecting it to that WiFi and then establishing an "authentification-free hotspot" to use from my computer? My thoughts were:

Suppose I have an android phone can access internet through wifi-A.
I want my computer to connect to the internet, however it can't direct connect to wifi-A because the computer is using a terminal environment, it can't access to the browser based login system of that wifi.
Can I create a WiFi hotspot wifi-B using the phone, to share the internet with my computer? Note that the phone has internet access because it already connected to wifi-A.

In short, can I create a wifi hot spot using phone, but the phone has already connected to another wifi.

In theory this would be possible, if you have a dual band phone... You could use the 2.4Ghz band to connect to the WiFi network, and use the 5Ghz band to act as a hotspot and connect your device, or vise-versa. Actually implementing it could be interesting though since Android isn't designed to work that way. You would probably have to code it yourself with source from a custom ROM, I don't know of any implementations at this time. So the answer, for all practical purposes, would be no.

@acejavelin yet I am still a practical man ;)

Unfortunately this is not possible. If the WiFi chip in your phone is connected to one host (mostly your router), it can't be used as repeater.

That's basically the same as what this answer says, but doesn't add to it?

No; your phone can only connect to one wifi at a time. (Unless you add a usb-otg AP and write some code to make it work.) Although there are multi band wifi chips in phones it's unlikely the driver has the liberty to make the hardware work that way and writing your own driver is not practical anyway.
A more simple solution is to use curl on your (non-android) computer in the place of a web browser but the details of that are better left to stackoverflow.

curl? the web based login interface can be used via curl? I don't believe that...

Can you login your facebook account using curl?

I will have a try.


text:
App update downloads but successful update doesn't show in notification bar
This thing happened to my LG G4 (Android 6.0) 2 times in the last month.
I have google play store updates on manual so once every week I manually update the apps myself. Some updates are successful but for other apps the update is downloaded, tries to update but the app doesn't appear as successfully updated at the notification bar at the top of the screen (usually it says that the apps 1,2,3 and 4 were successfully updated). No error is being displayed either.
The first time this happened (Viber app didn't properly update), the phone could not start after restart and stuck at LG logo. I had to factory reset it to make it work again.
The second time, I saw that a specific app (this time it was the android webView system app) didn't update properly so from google play store I removed it and then reinstalled it and everything went fine.
Does anybody know what is going on, why does this happen and how to stop this from happening?


text:
Cyanogen nightlies updates
There are daily nightly updates on CyanogenMod, and I have some waiting.
Can I just omit the older ones and update straight to the newest one?

Usually you can, since the ZIP completely rewrites the /system partition.

Unless the maintainer of your device states otherwise, this can usually be done with no issues as long as it's the same version (CM13 to CM13, but not CM12.1 to CM13).
CyanogenMod's update system contains a script which "saves" Gapps from being overwritten, and writes a new /system partition, then clears caches, essentially just refreshing the core operating system... Basically the same way as doing it manually. Skipping is not only safe general, it is actually quite common as many people do not take well to the idea of flashing their phone daily. Many users often do it weekly or monthly, or just as they deem necessary.
You can always post in the official forum for your device and reference your current build and what you want to update to, if there is an issue the maintainer or other users will likely let you know.


text:
Automatic Do Not Disturb rules for calendar events do not work with imported calendar
Update: I've updated the question, check the bottom of this post for the details I've found so far and the last problems standing in my way
The problem
My work schedule is provided to me as an online iCal file, which I have imported into Google Calendar. This way all events are visible in my Google Calendar. I'm attempting to set up my phone to switch into do-not-disturb mode when I'm at work. This is a feature that has been added in Android 6.0.
Android 6 added a neat feature to switch to Do not Disturb mode during calendar events. I managed to get this working using my default Google calendar. However, the imported events from the external iCal URL don't seem to get picked up: only events I manually add to Google Calendar turn my phone into do-not-disturb.
Time-based rules work perfectly so the feature itself is not broken.
My current settings are as follows:
Rule name: work
During events for: my.email.address@gmail.com (into which I've imported the iCal URL)
Where reply is: Yes, Maybe or Not replied
Do not disturb: Total silence
What I've tried:

Add the iCal URL to a different Google account
Add the iCal URL to the Outlook app and select that account in the automatic DND settings
Modify the iCal (using a PHP script) to add the RSVP status to every event (every event now says it has been accepted)

My phone details
Device: Oneplus One
Software: CyanogenMod 13 (the latest nightly)
Root: available if necessary
I know my way around ADB and the Linux shell if I need to modify my system files. I know apps are available to do the same thing Android is supposed to do, but I prefer not installing an extra app.
Update #1
I found the Java file which handles these events. It seems like the problems lies with line 124: getPrimaryCalendars.
The code seems to only accept events from primary calendar. Imported calendars are not used as primary calendars though...
Update #2
Okay, so the list of requirements for the Do not Disturb event detection to work seems to be as follows:

The current time must be greater than the beginning of the event and the current time must be less than the end of the event
The calendar the event is in must be

Visible
Primary

The event availability field must NOT be "free" (so it should be marked as AVAILABILITY_BUSY, AVAILABILITY_TENTATIVE or something else, as long as it's not AVAILABILITY_FREE)
It should meet the attendee requirements: the event has an attendee with the same email address as the "calendar owner". This means an attendee value needs to be set for in the iCal file, containing the email address of the Google account the iCal file was imported into.
The "reply" field must be equal to the option the user selected. This means the attendee status must be ATTENDEE_STATUS_ACCEPTED if the user requests to only activate the rule when an event has been accepted, ATTENDEE_STATUS_ACCEPTED or ATTENDEE_STATUS_TENTATIVE for "yes or maybe" or anything but ATTENDEE_STATUS_DECLINED when the user selects "yes, maybe or not replied".

Does anybody know how to pass an imported calendar through this filter? Or how to make a calendar "primary" so the check can succeed?

Please any solution? I have this issue too.

Unfortunately, no. iCal calendars can not be made primary in any official way.
It should be possible using a third party app though such as Tasker.


text:
iOS Passbook equivalent for Android
When I would board planes on airlines like Delta and United during my time with an iPhone, I would load the boarding pass into the Passbook app (which became the Wallet app with iOS 9) and would not have to print out my boarding pass. Now I have an Android phone and a United flight tomorrow. How can I use a United boarding pass digitally on my Nexus 6P? Is there a Passbook-like app for Android or do most airlines support in-app digital boarding passes, so I can board the flight with just the United app and no printed pass maybe?
US domestic flight, if that matters. Android 6.0.1.

Yesterday I searched for "wallet" in Play Store and there were apps that seemed like to work like Wallet on iOS. I'm not sure though, because that wasn't what I looked for. Maybe that's what you need.

In the end, it was not necessary to use any other app; the United app itself allowed me to store the boarding pass digitally. And I assume it's the same for other airlines' Android apps (you just need to download them). Easy enough.


text:
What does the report in "block and report" do?
In the August Marshmallow 6.0.1 update, there appears to be a new feature called "block and report", which is triggered for some new calls. In this case, it was actually spam. Blocking adds the number to the phone application block list. What does the report do?

I normally file call complaints with FTC Do Not Call Registry. Does report do this for me?

"Report" does what it says, report the phone number as spam to Google. This will help users of Google's caller ID (e.g. Nexus device users) in the future, since number reported as spam will be shown as "Suspected spam caller" or "Spam" as caller ID.
From Nexus official support,

Mark calls as spam
You can mark all calls from a number as spam to keep from getting any more and report the spammer.
Spam detection
If you see "Suspected spam caller" or "Spam" as the caller ID, the call might be spam. You can answer the call, or block and report the number.

I normally file call complaints with FTC Do Not Call Registry. Does Report do this for me?

I believe no, because DNC is country-dependent (e.g. FTC's National DNC Registry in US), and I've never heard Google working together with these kinds of government instance.

Actually it looks like Google is now working with government agencies, at least in the US: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-robocalls-idUSKCN10U18L


text:
Why do some apps not have to ask for the "Draw over other apps" permission?
In Android 6, Apps have to ask the user for the "Draw over other apps" permission, which is
android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW

However there are some notable exceptions that get this permission granted on install.
Examples are almost every Google app, like the Photos app. Being a Google OS, this makes makes sense (and they are probably in the /system partition), but the same also applies to Facebook and the FB Messenger apps, downloaded through the store.
How can this be? Does Facebook pay Google to be on some sort of whitelist for the permission? Doesn't this undermine the whole purpose of the permission system?
Where are informations about whitelisted apps stored? Is it by certificate?
Does something similar exist for other permissions, too?

I found this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36016369/ that answer should explain why apps get such permissions automatically sometimes.

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. Didn't find it myself.

Based on an answer by Mattia Maestrini on Stack Overflow,

It is a new behaviour introduced in Marshmallow 6.0.1.
Every app that requests the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission and that is installed through the Play Store (version 6.0.5 or higher is required), will have granted the permission automatically.
If instead the app is sideloaded, the permission is not automatically granted. You can try to download and install the Evernote APK from apkmirror.com. As you can see you need to manually grant the permission in Settings -> Apps -> Draw over other apps.
These are the commits [1] [2] that allow the Play Store to give the automatic grant of the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission.


text:
how to remove password lock when Google keyboard is uninstalled
I was creating space by uninstalling some apps.by mistake I uninstalled Google keyboard and kept quite. After sometime security Password lock was locked.when I tried to open the password lock ,the key is not displaying

Try connecting a usb keyboard to your phone.


text:
How to make my iOS (iPhone, iCloud) notes available on my Android phone?
I'm looking for the easiest way to make my iOS (iPhone, iCloud) notes available on my Android phone.
It seems that there's no way to move them to Google Keep, for example.
I'd be fine with using any apps for notes which would allow me to import them from iCloud and put them on my Android phone.

There is an application on play store called "WiFi file share pro with ios".. I'm not sure but I think you should try this may be it helps... Best.

Apple provides no official way of moving your notes off of iCloud. Here's their support article on exporting your data off of iCloud (hit Notes).
However, you can do it with unofficial tools. My method of switching over all of my notes from iCloud Notes and Gmail Notes in the OS X Notes app to Evernote was using Notes Exporter to export all notes to .txt files, then dragging each created file over the Evernote app to import. However, if you don't have a Mac, you'll have to use copy and paste (sorry).

Edit: If your notes are not in iCloud Notes but actually in Gmail Notes (let me know if you can't tell), this If This Then That recipe might help.

I'm not a fan of Evernote, but I guess it will have to do for now... I tried going through Gmail but couldn't wait long enough for IFTT to see my notes. So I used the Notes Exporter - thanks!

@ValentinGolev Glad at least one solution helped!

omg, I just realized that all my russian text turned into series of question marks: "????? ???????? ????"... I think the Notes Exporter can't work with it. I'll have to look for other options tomorrow.

@ValentinGolev Awkward. Huh.

I gave up trying all of the BS answers across the Internet. I use Linux and all of these "convenient" third-party applications aren't even targeted to users like me. I'm pretty sure they're all scams anyway. Anyhow, I couldn't find a solution. In 2020, there still exist none. Evernote can't export to Android easily, the GMail method is broken in iOS 13.3, and iCloud doesn't export to plain text format. Heck, I can't even access "Files" in iOS plugging it into my computer. So, I just used iCloud. I moved all of my notes to iCloud and copied one-by-one into plain text on my computer.


text:
How can I run a startup script for GNURoot Debian?
I've installed GNURoot debian on a rooted Android device and I can launch a debian shell programmatically using am, but I couldn't figure out how to run a command like starting dropbear.
What's the recommended way of running a command straight after launching and GNURoot Debian shell ?

I'm pretty sure you can write a simple start script and save it in /system/init.d/ given that the kernel supports this (most do) and you have write permission on /system

Thank you, I'll give that a go, so far I've tried the /etc/init.d route and didn't get very far

Can you edit or comment how to "launch a debian shell programmatically using am" for educative purposes?

@Redsandro I wouldn't mind changing the title if it makes clearer.
I've already launched  what I needed via am, my question is about launching an SSH Daemon in the background within GNURoot Debian as an init.d/startup script

@GeorgeProfenza I know you already launched it. I don't have an answer. But your question comes up when I google "how do I launch a debian shell programmatically." If you would be so kind and add the specific commands  for that knowledge you already posess to the question, people like me will be educated from reading your question, even though we cannot answer your question. :)

@Redsandro Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here, but there is little I can do to control the results of search engines :) My question isn't about launching a shell programmatically. I am confused

@GeorgeProfenza Forgive me for not wording this better. English is not my native language. If you replace the words "using am" with the words "by entering the following commands: [insert commands]", then your question would answer mine (and others who come here with the same question (my question, not yours) from google).

To install:
apt install dropbear
To start:
service start dropbear
Autostart:
Make sure enable is set to 1 in /etc/config/dropbear.


text:
Mount (physical) SD card on Linux
Soaked my phone (Moto G2, Marshmallow) and it died completely. I took out the micro SD card and unsuccessfully tried to mount it on my Debian system.
The SD card is recognized and I can see 2 partitions:
Device                                       Start                   End               Sectors                Size Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1                               2048                 34815                 32768                 16M unknown
/dev/mmcblk0p2                               34816               7744478               7709663                3,7G unknown

However, I can't mount either one. I tried this way:

root@laptop:~# /bin/mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt

Syslog contains the following:
[ 5880.536862] FAT-fs (mmcblk0p2): utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
[ 5880.537346] FAT-fs (mmcblk0p2): invalid media value (0x10)
[ 5880.537349] FAT-fs (mmcblk0p2): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem

Q1: Is it possible that the sdcard is encrypted? If so, how could I verify this?
Q2: I have another Moto G2 with exactly the same model number (i.e. HW specs). Is there any way to restore the data on the card? (I know, this would defeat the purpose of encryption)...


text:
Clicking a checkbox to an app using a script
I need to automate accepting a terms & conditions on a 3rd party app installed on the Android device. I just need to click a checkbox on that app's T&C UI. Can someone please guide me how I can do that? I assume I need to write a script??
Any advice would be highly appreciated.

You can simulate touch event with an adb command: adb shell input tap <x> <y>, where x and y are the coordinates of your checkbox.
More about input:
$ input
input
usage: input ...
       input text <string>
       input keyevent <key code number or name>
       input [touchscreen|touchpad|touchnavigation] tap <x> <y>
       input [touchscreen|touchpad|touchnavigation] swipe <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2> [duration(ms)]
       input trackball press
       input trackball roll <dx> <dy>

To the adb you have to enable Developer settings on your device and accept your computer's fingerprint.
With this you can write a script to tap on the box.

Thanks for the reply. Could you please provide me some hints to find the coordinates of the checkbox on a running app? I assume I need to run the same app off of Android Studio on a simulator or are there any easier way to find it?

Go to Settings -> Developer Options -> enable Pointer location than profit.


text:
Samsung galaxy S3 Soft/Hard bricked
So, I used Mobile ODIN to flash my stock ROM (since PC ODIN fails) and It done something. When I came back to it, the screen was stuck on this:

and stays that way. Recovery Mode is dead (I cant boot into it) and my main OS has joined it. ODIN PC Does not recognise the device (but that is not new)
I have tried Plugging it into my PC, to get this:
So, can anyone help (I have tried re-installing the samsung drivers, which did not help. I did accidently cancel the 'installing device', so it may be a case of somehow restarting that.)

You have the International S3, correct, and not a US-based S3?

@RMarkwald Yes. If it matters, it is also unlocked (sim-wise)

Is Download Mode still accessible?

@MatthewRead Yes, but the device is not recognised. Do you think I can get away with taking it into game, and saying the +1 on the counter was a destructive trojan that robs data then kills the OS?

Probably not.  Anything that they do should be doable by you ... Samsung devices are quite hard to hard-brick.  I would suggest installing Ubuntu on a Virtual Machine, and enabling USB pass-through for your device, and then you can see if Heimdall will recognize it in Ubuntu.

@MatthewRead Good job I have Linux mint, eh? I'll have to look at it tomorrow, seeing how said Linux device is currently going through its monthly updates.

Ah yes, if you have another install/box that's best to try first. Good luck.

@MatthewRead Thanks :) also, since Linux mint is still debian-based, I doubt problems will incur.

@MatthewRead device not detected in heimdall (UI).Ubuntu and Mint show no device. Any ideas??

@MatthewRead or do I need to load the ROM in heimdall first? its heimdall 1.4, installed via apt.

That's not good.  Is the device in the output of lsusb?  Try following this https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/UDEV

@MatthewRead Device is not included in 'lsusb' and fixing the UDEV issues does nothing to help.

That's definitely not good.  Points to either a hardware issue or the device firmware being very very borked.

@MatthewRead Probably firmware- the last logs and kernel logs I pulled (I constantly have adb pull them- I forgot!) It seems a trojan used screen overlays to spoof a OS update to Get into download mode, and somehow flash itself. Yes, download mode, not recovery.

@MatthewRead With that in mind, do you think it will fall under warranty, considering a trojan flashed itself (which did trigger the Ol' Knox counter)?

Yes you could definitely argue that!


text:
LG G5 Slowing down the house internet
The story started about a month and a half ago. At random times the internet speed went down drastically, changing between 0MB/s to 75MB/s (which is my maximum).
I have called countless times to my internet provider/supplier. They claimed they supply the maximum amount I paid for. In 3 weeks we replaced about 3 different routers and the issue did not disappear.
I have heard that video games, videos and some programs on the computer can cause those issues. In my house there are 5 computers, and this issue never occured until now. I ran virus scans on every PC, checked for torrent programs, but everything was completely fine with the computers.
In one of the calls with the internet provider, one of the workers told us about a special case where his phone did the same thing we described.
My family and I started investigating more into it and we found out the LG G5 my sister owns is affecting the internet as long as it's connected to our WiFi.
The internet "slow-down" happens at random times, but it always happend when the phone was in the house and connected to the WiFi. Each time it happened as soon as we disconnected it from the WiFi the internet speed jumped straight up to 75MB/s. I can verify that it is indeed the phone and not a PC or any other device that is connected to the internet.
We have tried "factory resetting" but the issue kept occuring.
I'll list the applications and phone information down below:
Hardware Info
Model Number: LG-H850
Software Info
Android Version: 6.0.1
Android Security Patch Level: 2016-04-01
Build Number: MMB29M
Software Version: V10d-ISR-XX
Applications
Best phone ringtones
ai.type Emoji Plugin
ai.type Electric Glass Theme
ai.type Keyboard Plus
ai.type Hebrew Dictionary
Instagram
Tiny Flashlight + LED
To-do list & Agenda by Any.do
The rest of the applications came with the phone.
Now... I am desperate, very very desperate. I have been digging the internet to try and find a connection between a mere phone to the internet. This issue didn't not occur at the moment we brought the phone into the house, which makes it even harder to find a solution.
My question is:
Is there any solution to fixing that internet slow-down other than throwing the phone out of the window?
Thank you in advance.

I would talk to LG given that this seems like a hardware-related issue. They'll definitely offer you a hardware replacement if the issue persists and that will surely fix it. Contact LG: http://www.lg.com/us/support/telephone

Other idea: virus on the LG G5 (try downloading Avast or Intel McAfee). It could also be on of the app's fault, try checking which app is using your WiFi by following answer here

EDIT: Actually, follow these instructions to see what's using the most Wifi Data. That'll be your culprit.

Are the computers you're testing the internet speed from also wireless, or are they wired (Ethernet) to the router?

Whay kind of router are you using? Maybe it has a web interface you can connect to and see which devices are connected to your router. Also you can see if an unauthorized device has connected. On newer routers you could possibly see the bandwidth used by each device. Please post your router's brand and model.

Try disabling the background apps and auto sync. This might resolve the issue

Setting up another wireless network from your router could work. The process involves creating a network with its own password and security but which ultimately makes use of the same external connection. I have a friend who did this; 2 distinct networks running through the same router. There are numerous tutorials online.
It is possible that connecting the LG G5 to this new network could cause the problem to occur on the new network and not on your original one, as the problem is clearly not with the connection coming into your router.

Set them to use different bands maybe too? :)


text:
How to get the screen overlay to deactivate on an lgg stylo
I would like to deactivate this overlay over the apps so i can better use my phone apps. Please give detailed instructions on how to disable

When the popup appears which says "Screen overlay detected" just push the "Open settings" button and there disable all apps overlay permission.
If you don't get that popup follow theese steps:

Open Settings (nut/gear icon).
Scroll down to Apps.
From within the Apps portion of settings, again choose the settings nut/gear icon.
Choose Draw over other apps.
(Optional) Click on the additional menu (3 dots), then choose Show system to get at all of the apps that are asking to draw over others, including system apps like Phone Services.

After this you shouldn't experience any issue with overlays.

If that fails check: Settings, Accessibility, motor & cognition, and make sure the touch assistant and touch control areas are OFF.


text:
keep getting a spam voicemail but phone never rang
i keep getting a spam voicemail but phone never rang and it is always the same spam message, i'm on t-mobile with a moto g 4th gen.
tried searching for apps with adware, nothing found
ran lookout antivirus, nothing found

Is your mobile rooted or unrooted.

It's probably auto-sent to voicemail because either Moto or T-Mobile detects its spam. Nothing to worry about here, spam voicemails happen all the time. Consider blocking the number.


text:
How to root Samsung S4 SGH-M919V
Title. It has 4.2.2 android
Does the method for the sgh-m919 works?
It's not a duplicated question, I checked. Thanks everyone

Welcome to AE stack exchange! While I cripple over a bricked phone, try checking the rooting tag-wiki (tap the rooting tag, then learn more in the box near the top) In the meantime, look around, andnsee if you can answer anything!

The sane method would be to get a custom recovery and flash SuperSU, but how to get a custom recovery may depend of the specific device.

The easiest method to get root on your device is called CF-Auto-root.
Follow these steps:

Flash the CF-Auto-Root package as PDA in ODIN, and your device should reboot into a modified recovery (signified by a large red Android logo) and it will install SuperSU for you and restore the stock recovery, and reboot back into Android.
If you don't get to the red Android logo, boot into recovery manually (adb reboot recovery, or boot while holding Power+VolUp+Home).
Using this root increases your flash counter. You should run Triangle Away after rooting to reset the counter. Note that if you want to run custom kernels or custom recoveries, your flash counter will be set to 1 at every boot. Either configure Triangle Away to reset the counter at every boot (Play version only) or only reset the counter when you need to go into warranty.
Did you see the red Android logo during rooting, but SuperSU does not appear? This may sometimes occur due to left-over files and settings, however, you can usually install SuperSU from Google Play at this stage and it'll just work.

Detailed ODIN steps:

Download and unzip the CF-Auto-Root.zip file for your model (eg.: SGH-M919)
If you end up with a recovery.img and cache.img file, you've extracted twice. You need to end up with a .tar.md5 file - don't extract that one
(USB) Disconnect your phone from your computer
Start Odin3-vX.X.exe
Click the PDA button, and select CF-Auto-Root.tar.md5
Put your phone in download mode (turn off phone, then hold VolDown+Home+Power to boot - if it asks you to press a button to continue, press the listed button, or run adb reboot download command)
(USB) Connect the phone to your computer
Make sure Repartition is NOT checked
Click the Start button
Wait for Android to boot
Done (if it took you more than 30 seconds, you need practise!)

NOTE: Sometimes the device does not boot into recovery mode and root your device. Just do the entire procedure again if this happens. If it still will not install root and such, make sure that in Odin "Auto Reboot" is not checked. Then after flashing, pull the battery, and boot with VolUp+Home+Power button to boot into recovery manually. This will start the install process.
You may now optionally want to install and run Triangle Away to reset the flash counter.
If you have SIM locked device (AT&T, VZW, etc) do not use this method due to its locked Bootloader.
If your device Bootloader is locked do not use this method.
Disclaimer:
I am not responsible for any kind of damage you do to your android device
(This doesnt really mean you will damage your android device, theres a really rare chance something bad happens, but thats only if you do something wrong)
Source


text:
Play Store is not loaded, showing a blank screen instead
I am on an LG G4 running on Android 7.0 Nougat.
Whenever I try opening Google Play Store, I only see a blank screen, even after waiting for more than 10 minutes with the screen on:

I have tried the following:

Rebooting
Clearing cache
Deleting data
Uninstalling updates
Doing all the above with reboots between.

Yet nothing works, I still get the blank screen.
Is there a way to fix this without going through a factory reset?

I found these same issue in my device but after updating google play it stopped.

@JSLavertu Try uninstalling updates to google play, and reinstalling them.

Note: this is not a good solution.
I messed around in the account settings of my phone. For some reason, I could not remove my Google account (to re-add it after), but trying to do so seems to have triggered something in the software that got everything working. I believe it had to do with the syncing not working properly as my Gmail and calendar apps weren't working properly either.
So that could be a possible direction in which to search.

June 2018, just happened to my LG G4 (yes, it's still running).
Deleting cache/data for the Play Store didn't do the job.
Reinstalling the Play Store with APK didn't do the trick either
In the end, I took drastic measures:

Cleared the data + cache and uninstalled updates on both Google Play Store and Google Play Services (set them back to the factory installation)
Turned off data and used a secure/private WiFi connection instead
The Google Play Store app opened! I had to re-enter my Google account info and download all the updates, but it is working again, yeah!

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


text:
Samsung 4 left in rain and now black screen - can i recover files?
My Samsung S4 (in an otterbox) was left in a downpour for about 10 mins.  I brought it in, shook water out (only a little came out) and then (not knowing) plugged it into USB to try to upload files (I KNOW NOW DUMB) within a few mins, screen went black.  So then I put vacuumed it and put it in a combo of rice and silica gel for two days.   It has power but has a black screen and I was using the lock screen feature and had a password on it.....  Is my data on my SIM Card?  Can I get my SIM card reprogrammed for another phone and try to get to my files that way? I don't care about my phone just want the data recovered...

Does the phone vibrate if you try to type the password blindly? Does the volume key cause the phone to vibrate? Those are signs that it actually booted up; if you can't get signs of life, you may need to try drying it in rice longer.

If you know for sure your phone can be powered on, then there might just be another doable (albeit technical) way. I've extracted photos and contacts from another S4 of my classmate a while ago using this. I'll describe it and let you decide whether you can handle it.

While in the blind, get to Download Mode by using the key combo.
Load a custom recovery onto the phone via Odin. If the phone is recognised in Odin then your blind operation is successful, otherwise reinsert battery and try again.
Immediately boot into recovery by using another key combo.
Connect phone to PC and try adb devices to detect the phone. If the device is listed, you can proceed to extract stuff from the internal storage using adb pull.
If other data from /data/data (e.g. contacts, app data) are needed, navigate to the corresponding recovery menu item to mount /data and then adb pull what you want.

The above steps in practise are much harder than it sounds. You need to know how to use Odin and ADB; you need to get the right custom recovery for your device and Android version; the key combo has to be carried out precisely in time; you also need to know about Android file structure when using adb pull. Even though I'm quite skilled at those, it took me roughly 40 minutes to get the data I wanted for my classmate.
It's up to you to determine if your data is worth all the hurdles and risks above, or if you just want to hand the job to a repair shop.
P.S. The SIM card only holds your cellular details, not your data. Don't even think about it.

+1: detailed explanation, nice formatting, nice wording. This is what pleases a critic.

If it has power then try connect your phone to the computer via USB again. Any files stored on the sim card or expandable storage will stay there (that is if that isn't broken as well). Contact your sim provider if you plan on changing the sim.

You could try buying an hdmi/mhl cable to hook up to an external monitor or TV. If the touch part of the screen still works, you could then see what you're doing.
Or try using a USB OTG (on-the-go) adapter to plug in a keyboard. Use that to blindly type your pin or password to unlock the screen, and then try plugging it into your computer to access the files.


text:
Is it possible to mount on a PC an SD card that has been encrypted by an Android Marshmallow device?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 duos with stock Android Marshmallow, and I'm considering encrypting my SD card to prevent access to its contents in case I lose my phone. The main reason of not doing this is that I'm not sure if there's a way to mount an encrypted SD card on Windows (or other desktop OS's)
When I encrypt the SD card on my Samsung Galaxy S5, is it using a known implementation of encryption, or is it something that only works on Android (or perhaps Samsung) phones?
I do not want to use USB connection to my phone to access my SD card, it's terrible. Mounting the SD card is much easier and faster and less annoying.
EDIT: just to clarify, I am NOT talking about adoptable storage. I want a portable encrypted SD card that can both be read on PCs and Android phones (i.e. I want to be able to remove the SD card from my phone, plug it into my PC, provide a password to decrypt and read/write it like any other SD card)

Marshmallow has two ways to treat the external SD card :

Portable Storage : In this the entire memory of the ext.SD card is available for use, if it is not encrypted (natively) and you can mount it on your PC to read/ transfer contents
Adoptable-storage: In this the ext. SD is treated as a part of the phone and when you encrypt the phone, the ext. SD card is also encrypted. Once it is encrypted, it can only be read through USB and cannot be read independently by using a card reader to mount on your PC. You can read more on this at adoptable-storage tag and it's wiki has questions to answer the common concerns. So, for all practical purposes encrypted ext. SD card cannot be read on PC independent the device. However, if your device is rooted, you can try the method suggested here How to decrypt Adopted Storage?
Full Disk Encryption details different encryption modes on Android Marshmallow. Whether OEMs implement it with additional security features is not known and surely won't be shared on public domain

Edit: Answering OPs query in comments and edit to question
See How does Samsung implement SD card encryption?

Samsung implements proprietary encryption as evident from the question and also this
Reasons for full disk encryption differences between Nexus & Samsung
Encrypted card cannot be read without the device as on the first question linked

So, it would be not possible to read the card on your PC, by mounting it via card reader on your PC as you propose to do. To clarify further, it can be read if you connect your device using USB
Edit: For a technical understanding, see the excellent answer here How does Marshmallow encryption work technically?

The encrypted SD card cannot be accessed in a PC unless you are connecting via a USB cable with the parent phone.
Android Marshmallow (6.0+) have a unique feature to format SD card as internal storage (I think this carries some encryption along with the formatting process). I have tried this, and after it is formatted to internal storage, the SD card is useless without mounting in the same phone in which it was formatted.(Edit: Unless you have root access.)
However SD card can be accessed from a PC, after formatting the SD card.

After formatting doesn't help much if the OP wants the data. But without formatting helps: How to decrypt adopted storage?

@Izzy, that was a new knowledge for me. Thanks :)  But this works only with root access.

Sure – as most of the "interesting things" do. That's what they call "security" (keep the data securely off the hands of users ;)

@beeshyams I think it can be applied to any rooted device.


text:
I imported my Android contacts to Google contacts, and now they are all duplicated
I was under the impression my Android contacts are not syncing with my Google contact list, but after importing them to Google contacts they are all duplicated in Android.
Any tips how to undo this mess?

You need to access your G mail account from PC and remove duplicate . Then delete all contracts on your Android . Next carry out a sync

Ah, I see. Will try. Thx. Luckily, Gmail Contacts are not duplicated. Just the phone number contacts on Android were dupe synced from some reason, after importing them to Google Contacts

Check if you're contacts are duplicated by logging on to google on a browser...
If they are duplicated there then that means the back up screwed up...
If they are not duplicated there, then, delete all your contacts on your phone then back up from google again.
Hope I helped,
Sid


text:
Can i manually decrypt a folder encrypted with ES File Explorer?
I had encrypted a folder using ES File explorer. Then later on, I upgraded my ROM from cm12 to cm13. And then, I was not able to decrypt the data with ES file explorer, after the OS update.
I know the key used for encryption. Is it possible to decrypt the data manually?
I thought it was not possible, but then i saw this post How to decrypt Adopted Storage? And now i believe there is a solution for my problem too.

"I was not able to decrypt the data with ES file explorer" - What happened when you tried?

It worked till i flashed and changed my ROM. Once i changed the ROM, ES won't accept my decryption key.

Try this tutorial link - https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-decrypt-an-encrypted-ES-explorer-file-without-the-password And this - http://blogs.candoerz.com/question/159398/es-file-explorer-forgotten-password.aspx Hope I helped, Sid


text:
Compass not working on Doogee T6
I have a new smartphone: Doogee T6. According to Sensor Box, it has both a magnetic sensor and an accelerometer sensor.

My installed spirit level works fine, but no compass app seems to work.
Any ideas as to how I can get a working compass... and if possible a working AR on Pokemon Go where it tells me that it does not detect the orientation of the phone :-)

Unfortunately, I assume, your phone does not have a magnetic compass.
Some sources do confirm this assumption:

http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/model/fb273756 (under "Sensors")
http://www.doogeemobile.com/doogee-t6.html (scroll down to Ken's question)

Well, that's my conclusion too :-) Some page says it has compass, some says not - that's why I tried the app and asked in here as well

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


text:
GPS only works with WiFi
On my Blackview Crown with Android 4.4.2 my position is only ever available when I am logged in to a WiFi network. Using google maps outside works in general, but unless there is a working WiFi connection it just stays where it last had one or does not seem to find my position at all.
I've tried all three possible GPS settings (phone only, with mobile Internet, and with WiFi and mobile Internet) and they don't make a difference when outside. Connected to a network only the one using WiFi works, and does so instantly. It is not enough to have it turned on, I actually have to be connected.
The phone is a bit less than a year old and used mostly as an MP3 player, for playing free games, and, well, as a phone. I don't know a lot about Android and GPS in general and I'm running out of ideas.

I had a similar issue with my old phone (android jelly bean) last year but it would find the GPS signal after 10 minutes if I left open GPS and Wi-fi. I remember this happening after an update in Google maps (maybe Google is focused to support newer operating systems in recent updates?) . If I were you, I would also check if the phone's GPS system is broken.

Basic GPS can take 12.5 minutes to get a first fix from a cold start. Yes, this is slow, which is why most systems are built with other features to speed up the time to first fix.

With a data connection, your device will try to use assisted GPS to get a fix faster. Your device uses local infrastructure to learn which satellites are in view for the current location and corrections. The time to first fix can be reduced to seconds.
With WiFi, normally the first location fix is based on WiFi location; your device queries a large global database for the MAC addresses of WiFi infrastructure and gets back a answer quickly. WiFi location accuracy is worse than GPS, but it is much faster. Once you have this WiFi position fix, it can be faster to get a GPS fix.

It seems to me that the GPS antenna/hardware is just too slow to find a GPS fix that fast.
I would recommend using an app like GPS Test to see how many sattelites your phone detects.
So just switch to "high accuracy" or "gps only" mode under Location Settings and open the app. There should be some grey bars at first and after a while these bars should become colored. Each bar stands for one sattelite. You need at least 4 sattelites "in view" to get a GPS fix ("in use").
Well, based on your description about your experiences with Google Maps it may indeed take some minutes until you get a fix.
This may be either caused by a bad hardware or bad/misconfigured software - especially "china phones" sometimes have GPS software configured for eastern countries.
There is a file with these settings under /system/etc/gps.conf (by googleing you can find a lot about this topic). But you need root privileges to edit it. Alternatively, you can also try the option "Update aGPS" in the menu of the "GPS Test" app.
If that all does not improve your first-fix-time, theres basically not so much anymore you can do.


text:
google play won't allow my Australian credit card whilst in Indonesia
I have a Nextbook and have just set it up with my Australian credit card. I am living in Indonesia temporarily at the moment. Google play store won't allow me to purchase movies etc, stating 'unavailable in current location'. How do I fix this?
Thanks for your help.

Create a paypal and link the credit car to it. then use paypal as your payment option in the play store.


text:
Does an android app show all permission it can access?
Generally when you install an application, a list of permission is shown what thing that app can access in your phone. But do they show all the permissions? The app developer don't want you to know  some things their app can access like an app can read your contents in SD card but what if it can also read your device ID and MAC Address, will this be written in the list of permissions specially when the developers intentionally want to hide this? Does google allow such apps on play store which hide some app permissions?

Few OEM company have given that feature in few devices.

Do you meam the feature to hide permission?

I've recently picked up Android development myself so I can tell you what I know.
Generally when an app needs access to features it has to declare it in AndroidManifest.xml, or else the system throws exception when the app tries to access the feature. Also, even if the app declares permissions in detail (e.g. it wants to send/receive SMS), Android and Google Play will show the permission groups those permissions belong to (e.g. "phone calls and messaging", or something like that). In that sense when you look at the permission list displayed in Google Play or when installing you gain yourself a knowledge of the maximum this app is capable of doing.
There can be some exceptions, for example a feature not yet natively implemented in Android but by certain manufacturers, but as Android version grows later, these permissions should automatically get added to the apps requirement, even if the app does not explicitly state it. You still get the maximum knowledge.
If any veteran developer spot mistakes in what I said, please do point out, as I'm only a beginner in this field.

Can a developer secretly add a permission in its updates without letting that permission to be displayed to user?

Requesting internet access no longer requires the user to acknowledge the added permission (if the developer added it in an update). Otherwise adding a permission requires confirmation by the user.
However, it is possible to programmatically request extra permissions. This will cause a popup that the user has to confirm in order to grant the permission. However, there are proof of concept "games"/exploits that use clickjacking to get the user to click Android buttons that are cleverly hidden below an overlay created by the malicious app.

@gertmenkel Android protects the user against clickjacking/tapjacking (unless some Xposed module is installed). I don't know how secure it is but it generally always works.

@GiantTree more recent versions of android are better protected better against this. However, the problem with Android security is that there are very few devices that still get updates after two years, or even run the latest android version at launch date. For example, according to Google almost 85% of all android devices run Android 5 or lower. Versions up until android 5 are vulnerable to clickjacking by abusing the accessibility framework. Newer versions are still vulnerable if a user (accidentally) gives the app accessibility permissions, which is harder to do now. It's still very viable.

@gertmenkel good point, I never use an "old" version of Android because I usually install custom ROMs but your point is very important. I hope one day Google will force manufacturers to push security updates for 2 years or so.

@gertmenkel Safe permissions are automatically granted without notifying the user as I know, so is it that "internet" is now considered safe? Also, good point on clickbaiting, even people here could fall victim for that.

I was thinking about to install xposed framework and its modules but by reading your all comments it sounds that they are malicious and they will have full access to my phone.

@user334283 By using Xposed modules and modding the phone in general you're trusting your phone with the developers. That's why we are told to only use trusted popular modules and stay away from one-click root apps.

I want to use Xprivacy to block unnecessary app permissions and for that it requires xposed framework

@user334283 I've been using that too and it works mighty fine for its purpose (I use it to prevent internet connection for certain apps). If you don't trust the dev for that then there's nothing else you can do.


text:
Why does a factory reset keep the operating system updated?
I recently did a factory reset to my phone and to my surprise, the operating system remained to the last updated version (6.0.0) and not the version I had when I bought the phone (5.0.0).
Why does this happen? Doesn't a factory reset reset the operating system too?

@beeshyams you're right.

That's fine - you got your answer from both :)

System updates overwrite /system. Factory reset wipes /data and /cache but doesn't touch /system. Simple as that.

can you backup /system to revert to an older version of android? Or is it more complicated than that?

If you have a TWRP backup of an OS older version, it can work - emphasis on "can" because it might not be compatible with the newer baseband, vendor, etc. partitions if the versions are too far apart.


text:
Is there any way to root Galaxy Tab A 9.7 (SM-P550) 6.0.1?
As far as I know Kingo  and CF-AUTO root are not compatible with the current time galaxy tab A. Any suggestions?
Side Note TWRP and CWM are not compatible with my device

When you say "TWRP and CWM are not compatible with my device", I reckon you didn't search hard enough, so here's something for you.
[ROOT][TWRP]Samsung Galaxy Tab A SM-T550/T555/P550/P555/T350/P350/T355/P355
There are also brief steps in the thread. Basically just load up TWRP in Odin and flash a compatible SuperSU from there and you're good.

Do the root manually,
Google it to get more info, I will describe shallowly,
Get Odin, get bootloader, download bootloader into phone from download mode... (Do it through Odin)
From the bootloader, download root apps, or get Cyanogenmod so you can get root permissions by enabling developer options
Sorry for the vague answer, I am in a bit of a hurry, you can google it and trust me, you will get a lot of answers. Be careful, rooting will void your warranty and may brick your device.
Hope I helped,
Sid

I think you're referring to custom recovery, not bootloader.

Sorry, that's what I meant! Oops


text:
Cannot download an app on my Android tablet
I thought if I deleted the internal SD card info it would help and I have downloaded apps since but the Facebook messenger app says application cannot be installed in the default installation location error 20 troubleshoot and I have plenty of storage space.

How did you download and install? Are you talking about Google Play Store here? Are you also seeing an error telling you there's "insufficient storage available"? Note that it doesn't matter if you had 1 TB free space on your SD card if the internal storage is filled up (see our insufficient-memory tag-wiki for details).

Thank you but what happened was I deleted all internal SD card info anthem it popped the empty card loose it said to mount the card so I figured zi would just pop it back in and now I have a lot more storage ang the play store is working but I also had to disable the play store and then enable it again to which helped but thank you do much for trying to he

Glad you were able to solve your issue, Sharon! May I suggest you answer your own question (and then "accept" the answer), so other "seekers" can see it has a solution?

I had deleted everything from the SD card, and it popped out asking me to mount the card and put a new one in. I just put in the old empty card and then I disabled play store and enabled it. After that I moved so many apps to the card I have a lot of space and the play store works perfect again – but this took me 4 hours to figure out! Hope this can help someone else oneday!


text:
Need to invert Accelerometer Axis
I need a way to flip the x-axis of my accelerometer (When the value would be positive, I want to make the output negative, and vice-versa). Currently, if I tilt the tablet into portrait mode (or reverse portrait) the screen is upside-down. The y-axis is fine. I don't mind editing an orientation app if I have to.

Are you running a custom rom? If so, you may have installed a rom for a slightly different product line than yours (ex. international model rom on a US variant).

As i understand you want to your the axis because of display issues on changing portrait to landscape. If that is the case, you can try solution on lines suggested here http://android.stackexchange.com/a/132948/131553

Are you using any 3 party library.

1.) I'm using android-x86 on a convertible tablet/laptop. 2.) It's not just for orientation, that's just an example. If I were to play a game with tilt controls I would mimic Disney and "turn right to go left". I already use one of those orientation apps, I want to make it a more complete fix.


text:
Salvaging a PDF with highlights done in Android
I was halfway highlighting a book using Acrobat Reader on an Android tablet when I dropped the tablet. The screen still 'sort of' works but is not usable as such (constant blinking etc). The tablet is still mountable on a computer.
Is there a way to salvage the pdf including the highlights?
(to be clear, i have the pdf saved elsewhere, but not the highlights)
Many thanks,

It turns out the reader on the tablet saved the highlights on the fly. The reason i couldn't see those is because i was opening it using 'Document Viewer' on Linux Mint.
Using Adobe Acrobat on Windows shows the highlights as expected.


text:
Is it possible to access data while a device is on bootloop?
I own a Samsung tablet (GT-n5110) and it is in bootloop. I don't have a data backup (yes, I'm an idiot). It isn't totally bricked, so I can access recovery mode (HOME+VOLUME UP+POWER), but before wiping it to factory configuration I am desperatelly trying to back it up. It isn't rooted.
I use linux (ubuntu), but I am open to trying to access it through Windows if anyone thinks it's easier (in spite both ubuntu and android are unix, right?). I've read in many foruns that it is possible to back up an android device through ADB tools in linux, but my device isn't recognized with $ sudo adb devices
I have alredy updated UDEV rules with the correct idVendor and idProduct and I have alredy reinitiated ADB server.
When I connect the device to the computer, it recognizes the tablet but says it cannot access it due to a MTP problem (this alredy used to happen before the bootloop, but it didn't bother me as I didn't use the computer to back the device up as I should have done). I have alredy installed and updated mtp-tools, but still receive the same message.
HERE IS MY MAIN DOUBT: IT DOESN'T WORK 'CAUSE I AM NOT CONFIGURING ADB CORRECTLY OR BECAUSE ADB CAN'T ACCESS A DEVICE ON BOOTLOOP?
Is there a way for ADB to recognize and access this device? Should I keep looking? Or is it simply impossible for a bootlooping device to be recognized though ADB or any other tools?
Thanks A LOT, I really need this help!

Was your debugging mode on before bootloop? Do you have custom recovery installed?

Unfortunatelly not, for both questions. I have the factory custom recovery, which does not have the option "backup and restore". Concerning debugging mode,  I am not sure and I am afraid it wasn't. I had adb alredy installed, so I might have activated debugging mode when installing it, but I really can't remember (never used it as I should have). It has crossed my mind that adb can't detect the device because of that.

(sorry, I had the factory recovery, obviously not the "factory custom recovery", as written above, lol). Also, I don't know if it's relevant, I couldn't update adb to the latest version, as the latest one available on ubuntu's repositories is 1.0.31. I've tried to update it manually but couldn't accomplish replacing the old executable files by the new ones, probably due to my lack of knowledge (I am still trying to do this as we speak).

If not a custom recovery, I do not see another option, since USB debugging was also not on. You could try installing a custom recovery using fastboot since fastboot does not require USB debugging to be on, but only if your bootloader is unlocked.

Ok, Dhruvil, thanks a lot! I am surely gonna try it (hoping my bootloader is unlocked), as well as the battery option suggested by user 157947 below.

USB DEBUGGING CAN BE TRIGGERED BY PULLING OUT THE BATTERY...
If you have a built-in battery, You need to force a reboot by holding all the buttons on the device simultaneously for 30 seconds...
Try to remove the battery and replace it,   or force reboot ...
This will or should enable ADB Until boot logo starts to loop .. It will only enable it for enough time to check the settings and then disable it.... This means you can only run one segment of adb commands, So type them out first or just paste the following in CMD with ctrl+v
adb wait-for-device
adb pull /data

Thanks a lot, user157947. I am gonna try it, as well as the custom recovery installation through fastboot sugggested above by Dhruvil. I have two doubts, here:

Will recovery obtion "Reboot" work in this "force rebooting" option (I wonder it would work in a similar way than pressinf all the buttons, wouldn't it?) or is it mandatory to open the device? (Which I am willing to do if needed).

As for the commands, if I obtain the reboot as needed I am gonna try it through linux. Is "adb pull /data" better then "adb backup -all"? When you say it will only enable it for enough time to check the settings, does it mean that once the connection stops the pulling of the data will also stop?


text:
How to save backups taken with Titanium Backup?
I used Titanium Backup to backup an app and its data. I will be flashing my phone with a new ROM/firmware. How do I ensure I can latter recover the backup? I would like to copy the files to the computer but am not sure what to look for. Does anyone know where Titanium Backup stores the backup files and what files to look for?

Titanium Backup (TiBu) saves the files it has backed up by default on your internal or device storage, unless you have specifically pointed it to save on your external SD .
Saving on External SD is the preferred option, since you can do a factory reset or wipe your device as you would do now to flash new ROM
OP has confirmed  that the initial directory of backups was in internal SD /storage/emulated/legacy/TitaniumBackup

Now it is required to be saved on the external SD for transfer to PC
Steps to create a backup directory on Ext SD and copy the earlier backed files from internal storage

Menu → Preferences → Backup Settings → Backup folder location to display the current backup location (in pic below /storage/0000-0000/moto titanium is my current back up location, where 0000-0000 is my external SD)
Press Back key (to jump to parent folder of device) →Create a new folder  → by name Example
Select Use the Current folder and on the nest screen accept the prompt to move all earlier backups to new folder. (takes some time depending on the number of backups and it may look like app is doing nothing, be patient, it is working)
You are done ! To confirm that the location has changed refresh the application by hitting Back or reload to go to the home screen and see the changed location
Now you are set to transfer the files to PC or upload to cloud - ( TiBu also has uploading to cloud options)

Aside, you can set up the frequency of backups by scheduling them . Additional details and steps to schedule here

Note: An alternate way of specifying a backup folder is shown by OP in comment. That is also fine but requires to create a folder using a file explorer before and then specifying it.  Method suggested above, reduces one step of using file explorer to create a folder but that's not a big deal

"Titanium Backup saves the files .. on your SD card, unless you have specifically pointed it to save on your external SD" I didn't know there was an internal SD card :/

I have resolved the problem and here were my steps. I had to click "storage provider: Filesystem (click to change)" and selected  Ext. SD card, then specify new folder I created with the file explorer. However, by default, the folder does not have permissions to be written to so you must fix that somehow, for example using the app SDFix (reboot required). This part about fixing write permissions may not be applicable to all versions of Android. Also note, I had the error the application isn't responding. Click "wait" as it may take a long process to move existing backups to new location.

Here I ask how to restore? https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/155394/how-to-restore-from-titanium-backup-with-file-on-computer

I prefer to give a few days before accepting an answer in case someone else has other ideas to contribute.

I am doing this again and still get "this folder is not writable". You mentioned your instructions include a simple way of solving this but I don't see where? As I said, I think it's necessary to download and install an app like SDFix to save to the sd card.

I am afraid this is a problem specific to your device / OS.  I don't see any references to this in the app help out my usage of app. Sorry, I can't help here


text:
ES File Explorer Pro: root access error on Android 6
When I try to enable Root Explorer in ES File Explorer/Manager PRO 1.0.7 there is a error toast notification saying that...
Sorry test failed. This feature cannot run on your phone.
I'm using a rooted OnePlus Two with OxygenOS 3.0.2 / Android 6.0.1.
Can this error be solved somehow by the user?

I found a solution:

Install Busybox and Android Terminal Emulator.
Open the terminal app and write these commands "enter" separated: su, mount -o remount,rw /system, touch /sbin/su /system/bin/su /system/xbin/su, mount -o remount,ro /system, exit.
Reboot

Now you can enable the Root Explorer feature in ES File Explorer without any error!

Credits go to Maik F.!


text:
Bricked Galaxy Tab A. Help? Please
My device: Galaxy Tab A 9.7 (SM-P550) 6.0.1
So installed TWRP via Odin
-success
Then I flashed supersu via twrp
-success
Then I tried to flash xposed via twrp
-fail
What I think happened was that it was the wrong SDK. I was supposed to install SDK 23 but I installed 21. So then what happened is that it failed and I tried to reboot back into the system and now all it does is reboot back into the TWRP menu and I can get into the lockscreen. So I tried formatting the data, factory resetting, wiping Dalvik/ART Cache and the Cache and tried repairing the file system and still can't boot into the lockscreen.
Please Help

Wiping /data and /cache of course won't help because Xposed writes to /system.
EDIT: As @DeathMaskSalesman points out in the comment, you should try the Xposed uninstaller available in the official Xposed thread. If that succeeds then great, you won't need to continue reading the risky part!
The Xposed zip shouldn't have allowed flashing on a wrong SDK at all, but now that the damage is done, back up data (internal storage) via TWRP first (you've already done a factory reset so I assume no app data needs to be backed up), then flash a factory firmware available at SamMobile with Odin to get a fresh start.

Also, quite a coincidence I get to answer your question again in hours, eh? :)

You may want to link back to the Xposed Uninstaller, which you can find at XDA here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3034811

@DeathMaskSalesman Ah derp, forgot about the uninstaller O_o (never used it myself) I'll include this shortly, thanks!


text:
GRUB for Android taking too long to install
I have this Digital2 10 inch Windows 8.1 tablet and I want to install Android Lollipop as the main operating system. So I properly load the android installer image to a usb, boot the tablet from usb, and it loads and even runs live just fine. The problem is that when I select install grub bootloader, it seems to hang on the screen. The confirmation window stays there, but a black bar with a blinking MS-DOS like cursor for more than 10 minutes. Is the installation of grub in this manor supposed to take this long, or should I try some other images?

It appears that I just needed to go into the bios and enable some kind of linux mode. That's something I didn't expect to find on a Windows tablet.


text:
What does "protect this backup" in Titanium Backup do?
After creating a backup, there is the option "protect this backup". What exactly does this do and when should it be used?

Raw guess (as I've never used this feature): Keep TiBu from deleting it once the limit of generations is reached? I.e. if you told TiBu to keep 3 backups per app, when creating the 4th it would remove the 1st. But if you protected the 1st, it instead would remove the 2nd – the 1st would be "kept forever".

What they said... It could also password protect the backup with some method of encryption and md5

@user157947 there is a different option for encryption

Good question. Discovered one more feature of TiBu. Wiki (Titanium track) does not explicitly mention what it does and searching net gave clues pretty much aligned to Izzy's comments
Most likely use case

.... protect backups of certain apps that have gotten worse with an update. This keeps my "good" backup from being overwritten when my schedule runs.

Implementation of this seems to have a troublesome history as can be seen here and here apart from the above post which quotes the use case and several others of similar nature. Cursory reading reveals that:

It was initially meant only for devices not having external SD card

Initially worked only on FAT 32

Above coupled with read- write permission changes across Android versions made the implementation shaky

There were issues at different points of times in protecting and unprotecting app

Change log of app reveals, it was dropped as added later, and modified

As it stands it works on my device (rooted), running 6.0.1 with backups stored on external SD.
What does it do?
TiBu permits you to have a maximum backup history ranging from 1 to 50 (Preferences → Maximum Backup History ). On my device it is configured to 7. When I protect any version of an app it creates a kind of master version which is not counted for the 7- that means the protected version stays and with subsequent backups, old backups are deleted new ones added subject to ceiling of 7
Edit I just noticed (27/12/19) that one can have more than one protected backups! I was somehow under the impression that protected backup can only be one but with version 1.3.2, I was able to create 3 protected backups of an app whereas the maximum backup is set to 2
Protecting App
Select the desired app by short pressing and follow steps below

Unprotecting App
Simply the reverse of above

Good question, awesome answer. That's what I thought, intuitively, surprised to learn that this option changed many times. The current definition you explained makes a lot of sense to me.


text:
How do I move my AnkiDroid data to external SD card?
My phone is Samsung Galaxy J7. Internal Memory is full and I want to move this large pp to SD. How can I do so?

It is NOT recommended by the AnkiDroid team. Here is the Github issue about this: https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/issues/3106
Someone reported success using the procedure below, please make backups and remember that you are on your own if you choose to do it.

Go to your external SD card folder via file management app and create a folder with
the apk's package name ("com.ichi2.anki") containing an AnkiDroid sub-folder: the exact path depends on
your devices.
E.g. On my Desire 820, the path of the external SD card folder is "/storage/ext_sd/",
and after I created the folders the complete path of the AnkiDroid folder is "/storage/ext_sd/Android/data/com.ichi2.anki/AnkiDroid/"
Install AnkiDroid, open it, and change the storage path to the path I mentioned
above.

Specifying where your AnkiDroid collection is:

This did not work for me. What is the path for the Samsung Galaxy S4 with Android 6.0.1?

If you want to use anki in external storage above Marshmallow, use the following folder:
/storage/Your_SD_Card/Android/data/com.ichi2.anki/Ankidroid

Replace Your_SD_Card with your SD card's name. Check it with your file manager.

Those who are facing problem by this method is only because you are not correctly putting your external storage name properly best way is to download Es file explorer and copy the file location and paste it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYoQ_7tT0I0

Just use any other file manager. ES File Explorer has been removed from Google Play following findings of click fraud.


text:
Cannot mount /system rewritable
I have rooted my phone and changed /system/etc/hosts file to block Facebook(just for test).
However, since I did it, I am not able to edit the hosts file again. As a result, I cannot visit Facebook from my phone! I've tried some hosts editors in Google Play but without a result. I've also tried to mount system rewriteable but it returns error ("Mount: Operation not permitted").
I've already rebooted the device, didn't help. I have no custom recovery installed. I've used Playstore apps that promised doing the remount, but mount -o remount,rw system has the same issue. The superuser app in place is the one from KingoRoot.

Could you clarify the error with a screenshot?

@Death_Mask_Salesman I think I have low reputation to post a picture.But it sais: Mount: Operation not permitted.

OK, integrated that with your question (and will cleanup comments now). Maybe you can [edit] it again and include the command you've used to remount the partition? It should be mount -o remount,rw system and be run as root. Some typo maybe? Or forgotten to run su first?

@Izzy Your suggested command also returns the same error. I want to mention that I have used Google Play apps that promise to mount /system rw but nothing. I think something does not allow this. Maybe, the SuperUser app by KingoRoot is "is affraid " of being unistalled and secure that nothing can change /system permissions.

Uh-oh, Kingo again... No idea, but we've had a lot of trouble reports of that one here, yes.

@Izzy Well, unfortunatelly, I had not read one of those (reports) before I desided rooting with Kingo.. I tried unrooting, but this cannot be done as it cannot access /system where KingoRoot apk is stored.Btw, thank's for editing my question. I will probably complain to the KingoRoot support.. :(

David, I've not tried Kingo myself. We've had several Kingo issues reported here – but as usual, people come when they have issues, not when they're happy with it. Still, it cannot hurt to complain to their support (and keep us updated about progress on that end).

Well, at least Kingo is a well-oiled app. It has issues, but none as bad as kingroot.

@David "I tried unrooting, but this cannot be done as it cannot access /system where KingoRoot apk is stored."
-Did you try to Unroot going on their "Superuser" app?
Superuser -> settings -> Remove Root.
That should do the job of uninstalling Superuser/Unrooting. It would still leave Kingo, but you can uninstall it from normal android settings -> Apps panel.
If you lost the root but their Superuser app is still installed, i would open kingo and re-root, then "Remove Root" after :-p
If the above fails and i could not remove it, i believe a factory hard-reset from the stock recovery options should fix it - have you done it ? you said "reboot" i dont know if thats what you meant.
(back up your data first, make sure you remember your credentials).
I would do one, and If it still did not solve the problem i would flash the SAME stock firmware i was using, then move my data back/reinstall apps.
And yes, like people say on the comments here - and also from personal experience - these "one click root" apps have the advantage of being really easy to use (maybe not the ones in chinese language lol) and work GOOD for lots of different brands/models... the disadvantage is these "half-rooted" cases (devices with Android 5+ ?) when the SU binary is not fully functional and will not work right for many apps that need SU permitions.
I had many similar mounting issues and some others with yet another chinese 1click app called "360 super root". UNfortunately, it was the only one that worked for my device so far. Kingo, king, iroot, wmroot all failed. This "360root" (aka permroot) was the only one to work, but its SU was buggy like yours seem. Fortunately now i managed to install a good root via custom recovery... root now works 100% for the stuff i need.
There IS a way of replacing Kingo's Supersu by a different/better SU app without losing the root Kingo did. There is a paid app that does this trick that is called "Super-SU-me" and also a manual/free way to do it, but dont ask me how :-/
By the way, what is your device brand/model and android version ?

@Piri_Droid thanks for your answer.First of all,I have tried removing root through the Kingo app,but it fails.What is more, I think factory reset will not remove Kingo app,as it is a system app,since it is located under /system. I've already re-rooted my phone with success,but unrooting still cant be done. Finally, I hate Huawei Ascend y530 running Android 4.3


text:
How long does it usually take to erase cache?
While in bootloader, I connected a USB cacble and ran this command to erase cache:
#> fastboot flash cache cache.img
target reported max download size of 1073741824 bytes
erasing 'cache'...

PROBLEM: It has been running for 10 minutes already. The phone's screen still says erasing....
The cache.img is 14 MB, downloaded from Google.
Should I give up?
About how long does it usually take? A few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours?

For a particular reason I can't use erase. Thanks for the info, feel free to make that an answer, thanks!

Just being curious: why would one want to download and flash a cache partition image?

@Izzy: I was wondering that too as well haha... erase does not work so I am trying to understand what is wrong. My phone is probably dead, so I might as well try that, never know, a miracle could occur :-)

If you have a "twin" of that device (or another device with a cache partition of the same size, or can create an image with an empty partition using the same file system), there might be another approach: finding what partition corresponds to it (i.e. /dev/mmcblk*), and then simply cat cache.img > /dev/mmcblkX. That's the approach I often use to flash recovery on devices not having a proper bootloader mode (like my LG P880), and also my Adebar creates scripts for ;)

Why flash cache? Just erase or format would be enough.
Comment made me curious - care to share for what reason erase is unusable?
Either way it should only take a few seconds. Try flashing some other partitions (ones that won't touch your data, of course) and see if they pass.

erase actually fails on my device: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/154827/stuck-at-google-screen-recovery-mode-just-turns-the-screen-black I will need to try format.

Thanks for the score! I had an answer in that question too, didn't realize the 2 questions are linked together...

Also, I came across link which seems to indicate format is not a good idea. Anyway, you now have format and factory image as last resorts; if those fail I'd put the blame on hardware.


text:
Is it possible to identify where apps come from?
I have a new tablet that I installed CM12.1 and Pico GApps on. Here is a picture of the app screen:

I'd like to understand where each app comes from (either AOSP, CM or GApps). Is this something I can deduce from the apps' location on the filesystem, or the apps themselves perhaps ?
I have tried to find the information on the relevant sites for AOSP, CM and OpenGApps but have so far drawn a blank.

EDIT: Gathered additional content from the comments.

CM will list the package name of the apps in Apps Info. Those with com.cyanogenmod, org.cyanogenmod, cyanogen and com.cyngn (thanks @Izzy !) are certainly Cyanogen-specific, those with com.android are possibly AOSP-based and those with google are from Google. Alternately, list package names via adb shell pm list packages and find out the app name of a certain package (e.g. using adb shell 'dumpsys | grep -A18 "Package \[org.cyanogenmod.audiofx\]"').
For launcher entries that are parts of other apps, dragging them either to Apps Info or Uninstall will reveal what parent apps they belong to.
Explore your Pico GAPPS zip package to see what it installs. The apps might not be in APK format (OpenGAPPS compresses them in tar packages) but the filenames are still recognizable. Every app not in the package is part of CM itself.

As for which CM apps are based off of AOSP... I'd say it's hard to definitively find out without digging into CM sources.

The only app I cannot identify ysing the above messages is the one called "Google Settings". I guess it is part of com.google.android.gms but that's what it is - a guess!

Cyanogenmod 12.1 comes with built-in (official CM) apps  which contains the following apps (com.cyanogen.*):

File manager (CM version)
Theme Store (CM version)
AudioFX (CM version)
Gallery (CM version)

There is available for CM12.1 builds an app package called "C-Apps Package" which (ships by default with CyanogenOS and) contains the following apps (com.cyngn.*):

Theme Chooser with per-app theming (Cyanogen OS version)
Theme Store (Cyanogen OS version)
AudioFX (Cyanogen OS version)
Cyanogen Accounts
Gallery (Cyanogen OS version)
Dialer with TrueCaller integration
Email powered by Boxer

This package will allow you to take your existing devices running CM 12.1, and make them more like the Cyanogen OS experience. […] C-Apps is being offered as an optional download and will not be preinstalled on CyanogenMod releases.

GApps Pico contains the following apps:

Google system base
Google Play Store
Google Calendar Sync
Dialer Framework
Google Package Installer (replaces stock/AOSP Package Installer)
Google Play services

The rest apps are from the core Android system.

I don't have the C-Apps but I do have AudioFX (org.cyanogenmod.audiofx) and Themes (org.cyanogenmod.theme.chooser), plus the AOSP Gallery (com.android.gallery3d). I wonder if the CM versions of AudioFX and Themes are the same as the C-Apps ones... (but I'm going a bit O.T there)

From what I can gather, CM (12.1) provides AudioFX (org.cyanogenmod.audiofx), File Manager (com.cyanogenmod.filemanager) and Themes (org.cyanogenmod.theme.chooser). There is no Theme Store - the chooser direects the user to Google Play or the CM Wiki.

@starfry and Bálint: I've integrated parts of your comments with the answer, and also made clear how to tell the C-Apps from CMod and COS apart (package prefixes). Comments are cleaned up now (this last one will self-destruct in a few minutes).

I wish I could accept two answers :) @andyyan answer explains how to discover the information.

No problem, glad to help you. :)