text:
Why do we need Kies (ADB driver) in Windows but not in Linux?
Why do we need an ADB driver in Windows but not in Linux?
I have been working on Android for the past few months in Windows. To run my project on my Samsung device I had to install Kies first. Similarly for my LG device there is a LG ADB driver, and another for HTC.
But when I shifted to Ubuntu Linux recently, I didn't require any other drivers like Kies and ADB. I was able to debug directly without any third party driver. Why is that?
I know it is something very common, but I haven't found anything which explains why this is the case.

added update #2 to my answer

Chor WaiChun mentioned this on a locked question you posted on StackOverflow:

I've seen somewhere stated that this behaviour is because both android
  and linux run on same kernel, and same situation goes to developing
  android on mac. Both OS runs in very similar OS kernel with Android,
  that is why they don't need any drivers. These are just something I
  remembered seeing from other threads, can't give 100% sure

UPDATE #1: The Android site also mentions this:

If you are developing on Windows and would like to connect an
  Android-powered device to test your applications, then you need to
  install the appropriate USB driver. ...
If you're developing on Mac OS X or Linux, then you probably don't need to install a USB driver. To start developing with your device,
  read Using Hardware Devices.

UPDATE #2: There's a comment on StackOverflow regarding libusb. I think this may be the reason why Linux does not need additional drivers.

Actually adb under Linux accesses USB devices using libusb without any
  specific kernel driver. Also adb has a list of vendor IDs which it is
  allowed to use, but this does not explain the problem in question,
  because vendor IDs for both phones are the same. And in case of
  permission problems due to missing udev rules adb devices clearly
  shows “no permissions” in the list, so this is also not the cause of
  this problem.

my question is why? Do you have some links and all so that i can get total idea, +1 for the answer though!

I am unsure why Linux doesn't typically require a specific ADB driver.
However, there is a "universal" Windows USB ADB driver that works with most Android devices.  It was developed by Koushik Dutta (Koush), a famous Android developer who works on ClockworkMod.  It should work quite well for you.  Download here:  http://koush.com/post/universal-adb-driver

I think you misunderstood my question, My question is why is this behavior , And i know about universal ADB driver.

As others already responded, in linux there is common USB driver, which adb uses. It seems that in Windows there is no common USB driver, so adb uses the "provided" driver - different for every device/manufacturer.

In Windows there's no universal driver pre-installed. There's one available however, as Neil pointed out. On the other side: There's no Kies on Linux, so you need no Kies driver #D


text:
Nexus 4 bricked by OTA upgrade
In early august, both my nexus 4 and my nexus 7 got the OTA upgrade. The nexus 7 one worked without any problems. The one for my phone actually bricked my phone.
First it was stuck on the X-logo screen. I reflashed 4.2.2 and suddenly the phone had problems it never had before: random shutdowns, sudden locking of the SIM card, not booting unless plugged in.
I also did all the wipes and factory resets Play support told me to do, and a factory reset and everything. I even replaced my SIM card and flashed 4.2.0 and it still has the same problems.
I found a way to get 4.3 to get beyond the X screen, by flashing the radio back to an older version, but the above problems persist.
Is there anything that isn't overwritten when you reflash an older version? (I'm thinking drivers or something like that) If so, what could it be? And how can I get them back to an older version?
Since I voided my warranty (screen was broken and repaired by third party), I'm wondering if I can hold Google (or at least Android) responsible for breaking my phone...
TIA

Apparently, I'm not alone either: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/mobile/gsBvuZzG_xc%5B1-25-false%5D

If you've wiped everything you have probably wiped the system partition meaning there is nothing to boot up to. Try following the steps here to install a factory image which will wipe your device and completely re-install everything.
If this doesn't work then it is likely that there is a hardware issue, which due to you having the screen replaced is unlikely to be covered under warranty (nor will Google/LG take responsibility for it)

I have installed so many factory images in the last week, that i can do it blindly :)
The problem is that even with older factory images flashed, my phone has problems that I didn't have before the 4.3 update.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Pin deleted but pin lock screen still comes up
I was fooling around with VPN on my non-rooted Galaxy Note II and created a PIN as required. When I was done I disabled VPN and disabled the PIN by entering my PIN again. Later on my screen locked and it now requires a PIN to unlock. My old pin does not work and there is no new pin. I cannot get the prompt to unlock via my Gmail info after entering the wrong pin 50 times.
How can I get into my phone? I am hoping for an answer other than wiping my phone.

I've just added the appropriate tag (locked-out). Please see its favorite question: Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection? It gives all variants of remedy currently known in its answers.

There ONLY way to get into your phone is to wipe all downloaded applications but keep all data on your internal sd card. This can be done by switching off the phone. Then hold the volume up button and press the switch on button. Select to delete all user data. Do not worry as this will not delete data on your internal SD Card. Select reboot. The proccess of selecting is done by volume buttons. You confirm using the MENU button.  If backed your apps with ES File Explorer you can have them back without any internet connection. Select the back app file in MY FILES and install all your apps back again without any internet connection.

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


text:
contents of playlists being deleted but playlist files still exist
Sometimes (probably on reset/power-cycle, which I do every now and then) I lost most of the content of my playlists. I have about 15 playlists that I have created. I have put songs in them several times (several hours of work) and then have come back later and found them all empty -- except for 1 or 2 which remain intact. There are .pla files for the playlists in sdcard/Playlists.
The music files are all on the external sd card.
I have done tests like setting up several playlists, then restarting or power cycling, then checking to see if the content is still there. It usually is. But if I don't use the play for a while then come back, the playlists' contents have been whacked.
Anybody know the 'right' way to store playlists for Android 4.1.x? In some db? Playlist files? Either one? Does one supercede the other?
I have tried both the default player and MixZing player. Phone is Galaxy Note 2 Android 4.1.3.
Sure would be nice to be able to depend on the playlists not being emptied out all the time.... Any clues greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Have you tried other music players? Like Shuttle? Is your phone rooted? Do you have any problem with installing a custom ROM or something?

@rjt.rockx the original question says they have this problem with MixZing player as well as the default. And I'd say installing an entire custom ROM just to get playlists to not randomly delete themselves is excessive.

@user568458 LOL I was just kidding. But what about other music players?

I had a long journey and did some trial and error. I think I've figured this out  - with a big disclaimer that the details may vary between devices, Android versions, music apps and maybe even types of SD card.
The apparent cause
It seems to happen when this happens - this fits my experiments plus the details in the various angry "Arrrrgh why are my playlists empty" forum threads I've read:

Something causes the phone to need to reconnect to the SD card, such as restarting the phone or connecting it to a computer by USB.
Reading the SD card doesn't happen instantly - kinda like plugging a pen drive into a computer, it needs a little time, seconds or maybe a few minutes. The more stuff on the SD card, and the older/slower/cheaper the SD card, the longer this will take.
The important part - something causes the music app to look at the playlist while the SD card isn't fully connected. It sees a bunch of references to files it can't find.
The music app, instead of sensibly realising that the files are on a card that is being connected, freaks out and deletes each item in the playlist it can't find. If all your music is on the SD card, that means emptying the playlist.

Possible fixes
So far, the first two of these seem to have been enough to fix it for me (Sony music app, Xperia Z3 Compact, 4+ year old nearly full 16GB SD card).

Don't touch the music app until the SD card has definitely finished connecting. For example, wait 5 minutes after restarting the phone or unplugging from a computer. Some versions of Android show a notification like "checking SD card for errors" but in  my testing relying on this wasn't quite enough.
If you use a music widget, move it off home screen 1 and maybe delete it. This was a crucial one for me. If I had the music widget on my first centre home screen, or, if I swiped over to the home screen with the music widget immediately after restarting the phone, the playlists got wiped (even though I hadn't touched the widget or app). If I had the music widget on the home screen one swipe to the right, and I didn't look at that screen until a few minutes after restarting the phone, the playlists didn't get wiped. Clearly the widget being visible on the screen caused the music app to do some startup process which then triggered this problem if the SD card wasn't fully connected yet.
Maybe play a second of a song you know is on the SD card before touching a playlist. I thought this would fix it for me, forcing the music app to have successfully read from the SD card before giving it a reason to look at my playlists, but my music app doesn't seem to work that way. Others might, though.
Test anything else that might start the music app before the SD card has loaded. For example, some phones have music players on the lock screen, or things that auto-start the music player if headphones are plugged in.
Consider getting a faster SD card. This is a last resort option, I've seen people post that this solved it for them. I guess maybe some modern SD cards connect fast enough or leave some sort of trace that stops this happening.

You can try deleting the empty playlists cached in the phone, forcing it to rebuild them from the Micro SD.  Here's how:

Power off.
Remove the Micro SD containing your music and .m3u playlist files.
Power on.
Open your music app and delete all your empty playlists.
Power off.
Reinsert the Micro SD.
Power on and open your music app.

All your playlists should reappear.
Unfortunately, in my experience with a new Samsung S8, the problem quickly reappears.  The Micro SD is mounted as a file system during boot but it's possible the playlist software often starts sooner (especially on a very fast phone) and that the playlist software simply does not anticipate this.
So it's quite possible that for playlists to work reliably on any given phone, both the playlists and the associated music files have to be in the phone's internal storage.

I've seen this on my Samsung S7 on Nougat. My music audio files are stored on the external SD card. It's sad it's still happening in 2018.
The most recent time I lost my playlist items happened when my battery died but when I charged it and booted it up, the Samsung Music app was still in the 'Recent apps' list (as it was a app I had just used). This must have prompted it to verify the playlist links before SD was mounted, and it removed any links to audio files in based on the SD card that it couldn't find.
I am now using a playlist backup app from the Play store (it's called PlaylistSync but there are several others) to regularly backup the playlist to Google Drive and when this calamity happens I have just restored the most recent back-up. This saves a lot of frustration from having to re-build your playlists again.

authors: نورالله نظری


text:
4.3 issue on nexus 4 while taking screenshot
I've just upgraded my nexus 4 from 4.2.2 to 4.3 few days ago. And now i found that i can't take screenshots with volume down button + screen lock button anymore. It was working perfect on 4.2.2.
Anyone having same issue? Or it's just me? Any workout for this?
Thanks a lot!

I would recommend wipe Dalvik cache and cache and try again it will work. If not then try reflashing the stock rom.
And the only way to clear dalvik without root would be to factory reset your phone as cache and dalvik get cleared during this process.
For advanced help visit http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1907#root

I had the same problem and restarting my phone fixed it. Try rebooting your cell if you haven't done it yet.


text:
Is there a way to detect that SMS text messages have been deleted, or is there a text message deletion history?
I don't know if this is possible, but is there a way to detect that SMS text messages were deleted on an android phone, specifically the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone, Android OS 4.2?  I'm not looking to find the content of deleted text messages.  I'm curious if you can, essentially, see a text message deletion history.  For example, you deleted 5 text messages on this day from this person.  Is this possible?  Has anyone ever heard of something like this?
I would appreciate any help.
Thank you.

Sqlite database which is where the SMS are stored, are purged depending on Settings from within Messaging App, specifically Delete Old Messages as limit is reached which is IIRC defined by Text Message Limit.

I heard a while back that all of the text messages you send get kept on your SIM card. I just did some quick research and I guess it is true:

http://www.pimall.com/nais/phonefilepro.html
http://hiddencameragear.com/cellphone-sim-card-file-retriever-recover-calls-texts-history-and-more

These devices will allow you to see the contents of the text messages and also the sender and receiver. If you are looking for a way to do it through your Android device, then it would be a lot more work. You would have to try to do a data recovery on your hard drive (which is a lot of messing around). Even if you did do a data recovery, the chances of you getting any of your text messages back are slim, and if you have encryption enabled forget it.

AFAIK, most newer phones nowadays no longer save text messages on the SIM card.


text:
Unexpected random shutdowns in Galaxy S2
Recently my Samsung Galaxy S2 has been doing this very strange thing, it just switches off on its own. However the screen flickers like two or three times really quickly before it switches off.
It all started when i went on holiday and the signal was poor up in the mountain (not sure if this helps but i'm gonna type it anyway). so since then I've had it on flight mode accessing WiFi only and making use of Bluetooth, yet it still randomly does it. are there any logs I can check to maybe see what the problem is!?

With the information you supplied it could be a lot of things. A full log report will help a lot. How do I get the log file from an Android device?

Automatic shut off can mean any of these;

too many running applications running in the background. (Start your your phone in CLOCKWORLD and select to clear CACHE)
refrain from charging your phone while playing games and running so many applications as this may speed up the aging of your battery.
maybe its time you replace your battery if the above doesnt seem to work.

i'm so smart lol. OK today i actually did do the following:

Started in Recovery mode
Clearded the dalvik cache
Fixed permissions

this seems to have done the trick, just gonna use it for a day then see. thanks for your help

@CraigWayne if this fixed your problem you should accept it as the answer, you should also go back and accept answers to your other questions.

thanks for all the help but i think the problem is my battery, i'm pretty sure, cyanogenmod has never failed me before AND also the battery has a bump on it as a result of misuse and abuse whilst on charge. thanks everyone though.

Just to clarify: the second bullet was the cause of the problem.


text:
ES File Explorer suddenly not allowing connection?
I downloaded the ES File Explorer a while back to get access to my shared files, folders and my 2TB external drive. Everything worked fine until today.
I tried to access my external HDD but got an error back.

So my big question is: Why can I access my other folders but not my external HDD? As stated above everything worked fine until today...

I didn't change any permissions in Windows nor did I reinstall it.
My login works, because I can access my other HDD without any problems.
I did however install a secondary Graphics card. (Hardly think its the GPU :P)

Any Ideas, help would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Update:
So today I backed up all my files on my 2TB disk that is not recognized by ES File Explorer. I then went into Windows Disk-management and Deleted the 2TB Volume. After that I created a "New Simple Volume". I then tried to connect to the device through ES File Explorer, but still got the error (see picture above). So it defenatly has nothing to do with the windows permissions.
I also re-installed ES File Explorer without success.
So I went and opened up the 2TB ext. HDD and connected it to one of my internal SATA Connections. I then deleted the HDD and created a ned simple Volume. Formated the disk and tried again. I still get the same error.
Going to Report this as an application error.

I noticed that ES File Explorer had an update today (2013/08/16) for me, and I accepted it. If you did not do so explicitly, you may have gotten an update you're not aware of if you have auto-update set for Google Play. Maybe there is a bug in the new release?

Yeah I also noticed the update, but the update was done after the error showed up. :S after the update I also played around with the permissions in windows withou success. :(


text:
Accessing and transfer sim contacts to Droid 2 global phone
I have a Droid 2 Global and I can't seem to access the contacts on my sim card. How do I access them and transfer them to the phone?

You can use an app such as SIM contacts manager or SIM Contacts to manage your contact on your SIM card, including accessing and transferring them to the phone.
If you have Android 4.0+, you can do this straight from your contacts app.
Open Contacts > Menu > Import/export > Import from SIM card


text:
Sony Xperia Ray contacts lost after deleting the contents of /data/log
I have an Xperia Ray.
It showed low internal memory. So, I freed up memory by removing the contents of /data/log/. Unfortunately, my contacts got deleted. To add to my misery, my laptop crashed. I lost the backup file for contacts.
How do I recover these contacts?

Did you sync your contacts via Google sync?

If you syncronised yor contacts with google then turn sychro on in settings you will get back all your contacts
 or

Just log in to your gmail adress and press contacts on the left side pane then show all contacts.

You can also do the following
Make sure no External SD Card is inserted.
- Go to MY FILES
- Touch the SEARCH Button
- Type "vcf" in the search box.
- Start searching.
- Click "vcf" button that appears.
- Follow instructions that appears.

please don't post separate answers. merge this with your previous answer.


text:
Share mouse and keyboard between multiple androids
I'm new to android but I have an application in mind that I'm willing to work long for: setting up three or four android tablets upright, as if I were looking at a four-monitor desktop pc, and use one bluetooth mouse and keyboard between the four of them.
Where should I start. I'm sure that some combination of android packages must allow me to do this... :)

AFAIK it isnt possible, because Bluetooth protocol currently allows just one-to-one connection. You have to create "master" device which next share keyboard and mouse throw diffrent protocol, eg. WiFi.
But I still do not see any use for this :)


text:
Is there a way to find out the Google account currently registered to my stolen phone?
Unfortunately Android Device Manager does not provide this information. It also doesn't provide an SMS feature where I can send an SMS to my stolen phone telling the current user that the phone was stolen from me.

What phone is this?

If you report the device stolen to your carrier, they will blacklist the IMEI.


text:
How to diagnose malfunctioning wifi?
Nexus One, cleared internal user storage to near-factory settings using the boot menu.
My computer is connected to wifi, and I have a USB tether to my phone.
But when I click on "Connect to wifi" -- even in the virgin "user setup" menu -- No networks are found, and the device becomes unbearably slow.
The device had functioned properly for 1.5 years ... until yesterday.
I don't know whether the problem is hardware or software.
If it is in software, I would like to fix it... but I don't have wifi, and I don't have 3G.
What are the steps to diagnose this problem?
If it is a software problem, what are the steps to fix it?

From my experience working on Service Centers I would say it's probably HW. But you can try some things to confirm it or not:

Usually Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on the same SoC. If BT is also not working it's a good indicative that it's HW issue on that SoC.
If you go to Settings -> System -> Advanced -> Reset Options -> there is an option "Reset Wi-Fi, mobile and Bluetooth". Have you tried that?
Another option is to take a look at kernel logs, even if you don't understand much. With USB debugging enabled, try to connect to wifi and while the device is slow type "adb shell dmesg". If you get a "permission denied" error try "adb bugreport" and in the generated text file look into the "Kernel log" part.
If you see consecutive error/fail messages of somthing related to Wlan or Wifi, this probably means it's a HW issue.

Tap the Menu button on your handset.
Tap Settings.
Tap Wireless and Networks.
Tap Wi-Fi settings.
Tap the Menu button again.
Tap Advanced ( Figure B ).
Tap the Proxy setting and make sure your
Android device is not set up for a Proxy.
(Unless the Wi-Fi network you are on
requires a Proxy, this setting will get in the
way of your device's access to the computer)
If you tap on Proxy and see an IP address or
domain, delete it.

Tap Advanced : "The Application "IP Address settings" is not responding [Close / Wait]

After rebooting, I tried accessing this menu again, and there were no proxy settings, just settings for MAC address, IP address, and static IP address. The MAC and IP address fields are set to "Cannot use", and the static IP is not in use. In order to use these settings, wifi must be turned on... but as soon as I turn wifi on, the device becomes too slow to access this menu. I'll try it once, then I will have to reboot to speed up the device again.

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


text:
Will google accounts automatically update my friends addressbooks
I was with Verizon Wireless when I had my HTC Eris (now due to issue with VZW and upgrading my phone I cancelled with VZW). I moved over to sprint and to a phone OS that shall not be named, but now I am on the verge of getting the Samsung Galaxy S4. During my switch, I did NOT keep my phone number and took a new number with Sprint. The problem is that my friends may still have my old number in their Google contacts and I am concerned that switching on the Galaxy S4 would cause Google to update my number to anyone who has my number in their Google contacts.
So my question is, if I link my Google account on to my new carrier/device, will Google update anyone who has my number in their Google contacts automatically?

NO. Their contact list (that is synced with the Google account) is based on the GMail contact list. It is a local copy; so any changes must be made from their side.
However, if they synced/merged that GMail contact to your Google Plus account, and you updated your contact information in Google Plus, it's still possible for them to know your new number.

I have that person blocked on Google+ so it won't be possible for her to get the number, but that is good to know. Thank you.


text:
Change the fallback notification sound
Is it possible to change the fallback notification sound that is played when the active sound is not available?
I have a sound file I use for notifications on my SD card and every time I have the phone connected to a computer and the SD card is not available to the phone it plays an extremely annoying alternative notification sound.
I can not simply copy the file over the phone, the sound is only available for selection when I place it in the folder Notifications on the SD card, everywhere else it just doesn't show up.
The phone is a SE Xperia Arc.


text:
How can I disable automatic Facebook photo sync?
Device: XPeria P
Android: JB 4.1.1
I recently enabled automatic photo sync, but I could not remember how I did it. Now, all of my photos gets synchronized to Facebook, and my data/3G charge is skyrocketing as the photos are always get synced.
So, how can I disable this feature?

Open the Facebook app and tap the top right (hamburger) menu item in your sidebar. Scroll to the bottom and select Account > App Settings > Sync Photos. Choose Don't sync my photos.
Source.

Thanks for the response. But I do not have such an option in my facebook app. But i was able to do this by disconnecting my facebook account from the phone.


text:
How to change Moborobo's SMS time
I'm currently using the Android Smartphone Management Software Moborobo and was amazed of what it can do. But I noticed that everytime I send a SMS, the time in my message is not synchronized to the one either in my PC or in my smartphone.
Please help, Thanks! :)

The time issue seems to be a known bug has already been reported and fixed in Aug 2012:

SMS times bug - August 2012
Timestamp for text messages - May 2012

I suggest you update to the latest version, currently at 2.1.3.767 Beta. If that still doesn't work, I suggest you report it.


text:
Cyanogenmod 10.1 becomes unstable with usage?
Does CM 10.1 become more and more unstable with usage? I have a Galaxy Mini S5570 running CM 10.1. After flashing the ROM my phone works fine for one or two weeks. But soon my phone starts crashing more often. The phone starts rebooting every now and then. Apps (especially Camera.apk) start crashing often even though I haven't installed any new apps. This doesn't happen for the for the first few days after flashing the ROM. Is there any fix for this? Any patch available so that my phone can run smoothly even after 2 weeks?

If you don't get any answers here, I would suggest asking in the CM forum: http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/forum/666-samsung-galaxy-mini-tass/

I wouldn't run the "Addon Apps" like "RAM Manager" or the "Seeder" script. I am not sure if you are using those, but the RAM manager could cause instability because it forces applications to close to "free ram".
The need to free RAM is a myth, if an application kills other apps, to free up some RAM, the OS will find something else to fill that RAM. Android does not want free RAM, it sees free RAM as wasted RAM.
As for "Seeder", if you are running that, I would either try updating, if you don't have the latest, or fresh install official CM without this script. Even the developer of this is acknowledging that it has been causing instability, like locking and reboots.
The biggest issue, really, that I see is that you are trying CM 10.1 on a device that has not been supported by CM for some time. This device's last official build was CM 7.2. So another reason you are seeing instability is because you are trying to run a version of Android on hardware that really doesn't support it. The CM team usually only drops support for a device when they can no longer get the latest builds to run on the device.

I flashed the ROM with and without the performance scripts but ended up with the same result. Does CM 10.1 store any cache that could possibly use up memory? How is it that the ROM runs smoothly in the beginning?


text:
Is it better to detach a charger when my Android device gets fully charged?
When using my Android device at my desk, is it better to (from a battery health point of view) detach a charger as soon as the device gets fully charged, or is it ok to keep it on the charger? I like to use it at my desk while it is plugged in so that it is fully charged when I walk away, is this ok?

There are a lot of theories and myths about battery life and I haven't seen enough statistically significant data to support any of those 'theories'. I have heard that it is bad to use a phone while it is plugged in but I will tell you why I think this is wrong.
From my own experience as an Android developer, my phone is ALWAYS plugged in when I am at my computer and it is almost always fully charged while I am using it. I have been an Android developer for about 2 years now. I program just about everyday, which means everyday my phone is plugged into my charger while I am programming. I have an old Droid 3 that I use for testing compatibility for Gingerbread (2.3.3). When I got the phone it needed to recharge every other day. Now, unless I use it constantly, it will survive for just over a day. For a 2 year old battery, that is pretty standard degeneration.
If you think about it, everyone pretty much plugs their phone in at night and it will take about an hour to two hours to charge (if the batter is completely dead). That means that the device is sitting on the charger for about 6 hours fully charged every night (if you sleep 8 hours a night). I don't think that a few hours of it on the charger while you are at work will affect your battery's lifespan enough for you to notice.
If anyone has any logical reason or statistically significant data to support the fact that this is a bad idea, then I will eat my words but from my experience I would say that your battery will not experience any significant lifespan decay from you plugging it in at work.
If you want to know more LifeHacker thinks it's a bad idea, but they give no statistical support for their tables
Over at Android Forum it seems the general consensus is that it doesn't matter.
Here at android.stackexchage it seems like the general consensus is that constant charging doesn't really hurt your battery, but you should do maintenance discharges to keep it healthy:

Although constant charging cannot hurt, it looks like you may want to periodically run the battery all the way down so the digital circuits can correctly calibrate

If you really want to get to the bottom of it you can read this article. Although, Jeff Atwood has done a pretty good summery of the article:

Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.

Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.

Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level.

Consider removing the battery from a laptop when running on fixed power. (Some laptop manufacturers are concerned about dust and moisture accumulating inside the battery casing.)

Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries for later use. Observe manufacturing dates. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices.

If you have a spare lithium-ion battery, use one to the fullest and keep the other cool by placing it in the refrigerator. Do not freeze the battery. For best results, store the battery at 40% state-of-charge.


text:
How can I force-disable all dock detection/HDMI connectivity?
Context:
I have a RAZR MAXX XT912 with 4.1.2 (3.0.8-gbacb1cf). As soon as I wake it for any reason, it immediately acts as if it is connected via HDMI, despite the fact that no cable is connected.
Many people have this problem, and it is usually a result of a software issue or a shorted connection somewhere in the HDMI hardware/plug that results in a phone thinking it is docked.
For me, it occurs constantly (some people experience it intermittently)--as soon as I wake the phone from sleep/non-lit states, it immediately rotation-locks itself into widescreen and presents me with the docking choices menu.
Question:
Is there some way to permanently disable HDMI dock detection?
What I've tried:

I've tried the "HDMI Connection" setting; whenever I uncheck it, the phone goes back to normal. However, leaving it unchecked doesn't work: if I restart the phone with it unchecked, the phone acts as if it's docked when it starts again, and I have to go into settings, check the box again, and then uncheck it before the phone behaves. The phone also periodically "forgets" what that I've unchecked the setting (without a reboot), and I have to go check/uncheck it again.
I've tried clearing all application caches, to no avail.
I tried clearing the cache partition, to no avail.
Finally, I tried a factory reset, but the symptoms persisted.
I've fiddled around with a hand lens and a needle inside the HDMI connector, but couldn't observe any shorted pins and didn't manage to affect the symptoms at all.


text:
Battery charging indicator and USB has, sort of, stopped working on my Samsung Google Nexus I9250
I know the battery is still being charged because
1) when I power off the phone while the phone is plugged into a USB connector the screen shows the battery symbol with a lightning bolt and then a battery with a animated fill.
2) When I power on the phone the battery charge status screen now displays an expected and much higher value than before the phone was rebooted.
The indicator is now not showing that it's plugged in when I've tried three different chargers and cables which worked just fine in the last few days.   The battery percentage slowly drops even though it's still plugged into the USB cable.
This started happening shortly after I installed the Lock Screen app.   It has since been uninstalled but the problem persists.    I don't quite see how it could've mucked up the settings but the author does have a related Battery Saver app so I suppose there could be some code in there.  I tried installing the Battery Saver app which didn't make a difference.  I've uninstalled it.   I've emailed the author but haven't heard back from them yet.
Added later:
Further testing shows that after I power cycle the smart phone the USB connection is recognized once per connection cycle.  That is the AC USB cord works once indicating that the device is being charged via the AC.  And once the AC USB cord is pulled and plugged back in it no longer changes the status.   The same thing happens with a USB cable connected to my laptpo for data interchange.
However this doesn't always work.  Just most of the time.

Did you try a different battery? Is this one the factory one? It may be faulty and possibly not charging reliably.
If worst comes to worst, you can try reflashing your GNexus with the default google 4.3 yakju images (after backing up all your data of course) to see if the problem goes away. If it does not then the battery needs to be replaced.

Here is a link: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#yakju
and information on how to do it: tutorial
You will need to have fastboot and adb installed.
There is a way to flash the images without erasing the userdata/sdcard partition if you don't want to backup. (it involves editing the flashall.sh to remove the -w option before running it)

I purchased this smartphone used so I don't know if it's the original battery.  It does say Samsung on the battery but that sure could be counterfeit.     But to me the symptoms don't add up to a faulty battery.   It does charge even though the indicator doesn't state it's charging.   I'm starting to think there's some kind of service/daemon that's exiting after you unplug a USB cable the first time after you power on the phone.


text:
problem with charging symbol,
I purchased a unlocked Samsung Galaxy 3 mini from the internet. Worked fine until I went abroad and change the SIM card. Now I am back in the UK, I am having trouble charging the phone.
The charging symbol remains on the screen after charging and sometimes it indicates its charging. When I remove the charger, the phone has not been charged. I can get the phone to charge and remove the charge symbol buy removing the battery and rebooting.
Will a reset fix this problem? I'm running android 4.1.2

Not sure if it will; but assuming it's a software issue, it should (if you are talking about a factory-reset, that is − a hard-reset obviously didn't fix it as you've already done so by removing the battery).

It seems unlikely to be a software issue. More likely there's a short in the micro USB connector: it's worth blowing at it and inspecting it with a magnifying glass.

It could be the charger not putting out enough power, the IPhone had a similar problem actually when you use a non-genuine Apple charger in the UK. Are you using a genuine Samsung charger? Are you using a wall USB adapter?


text:
Low resolution album artwork?
Why does Google Play Music and other music apps display album artwork with such terrible quality? This occurs even when high resolution images are embed into the audio files. How can we fix this?

There is a solution, but unfortunately it is a bit tedious. This issue occurs because Android caches the album art at a low resolution. It also generates file names for the thumbnails in a weird manner (apparently by the value of the system clock the first time the album appears). This means that the fix will be manual unless you employ some computer vision software.

Navigate to Internal Storage\Android\data\com.android.providers.media and copy the albumthumbs folder to some local directory.
You'll see files such as 1345139729376, 1345139731350, etc in albumthumbs. These files have no extension but are actually just jpegs. You can just edit these files if your image editing software supports it, but we could add .jpg to make it easier. In Windows this could be done via the command-line with ren * *.jpg.
Now if you're on Windows you'll probably see image thumbnails instead of the generic file icon and it will be easy to edit the images. I'm sorry if you have a lot of albums, but since the file names are as good as random we need to actually look at each image and replace it with its high resolution counterpart.
If you changed the file extension we can change it all back with ren * *. (note the period at the end). We can then paste our modified album art back into the original albumthumbs folder on the device.

The result:

That would defeat the reason for thumbnails. Though it might fix your issue with the media players, it would slow down the gallery previews − especially with many/large albums. Plus it would use a lot more space, and all your images would be duplicated. Of course, that also depends on what you understand by "high resolution counterparts": not taking the "full resolution" image 1:1 but chose a resolution "between" might make it a "relative issue".

I agree, but right it defeats the purpose of having nearly full screen album art. It is a terrible design decision, and it is unfortunate such a workaround is required. Personally I wouldn't accept anything less than at least the displayed resolution, but of course you can can experiment to see if there's any benefit with intermediate sized images. I've simply put this answer out there for those that were equally frustrated with the low quality.


text:
How to upgrade my samsung galaxy ace plus GT -S7500 from Gingerbread to Jellybean
I would like to know How to upgrade my samsung galaxy ace plus GT-S7500 from Gingerbread to Jellybean.?
Details are as follows

Model Number: Samsung GT-S7500
Android version: 2.3.6
Baseband Version: S7500DDME1
Kernel Version: 2.6.38.6
               dpi@DELL235#1
Build Number: GINGERBREAD.DDMF2

Please help...

Upgrading your phone might be a bit tricky, because you can brick it and leave it unusable.
I will advice you to read some tutorials here.
There you will find information regarding different roms, and also the process to update them. I will advice to read carefully before starting.


text:
Be notified of an update to an app that is not installed
Is there any way to receive an update/new version released notification from the Play Store for an app that is not installed in my phone? I'm using 4.3 on a Nexus 4.

With Changelog Droid being currently "out of order"1, let me mention an alternative:
App Watcher claims to do the very same:

App Watcher notifies you about updates of applications from Play Store even the app is not installed currently on your device and provides quick access to the "What's new" section.

App Watcher (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
1:  (according to a comment from winchendonsprings); by a response I've got from the dev, he's quite busy with other tasks at the moment, but did not abandon the app – he still plans to update it, but cannot give an estimate.


text:
Nexus I9250 - Got stuck with updating android 4.3 update
Am not able to update my nexus i9250 to android 4.3. I have never rooted or tampered with the system earlier. Any system updates, i generally get a notification and then it starts getting updated. But now, under settings>about phone>system update, it states that "waiting to download - 139 mb" and is stuck there. There is no other icon for 'checking status updates' or 'download'.
Please let me know how to proceed in downloading the system update to 4.3?

Have you tried restarting your phone?

Are you on Wifi? Some Nexus versions default to only installing updates while on Wifi, but I can't remember where to check or disable this.

Building on Onik's comment, make sure that Wi-Fi only is not checked. In the Samsung Galaxy S4, this can be found in: System settings > More > About device > Software update > Wi-Fi only. So, check the About device section of your phone.


text:
How does back up data works in doing a restore factory in android device?
Im planning to do a restore factory in my android device but I'm quite curious about this back-up data thing. How does it work? Does back up data means it will automatically restore my apps and other files after doing a restore factory setting (given there is a choice of auto restore).
Edit by Izzy: OP refers to Google Cloud Backup, as the link to a screenshot in the comments shows.

Where did you see this back-up data thing?

As t0mm13b indicates: You must be a little more specific on which "backup data thing" you are talking about. There are multiple of them, just see the backup tag-wiki.

I dont actually know what kind of back up my device has. But I saw it on the reset menu . Here's a picture of it :  http://assets.cougar.nineentertainment.com.au/assets/TechLife/2013/01/11/Misc/android-privacy-settings.jpg

And one thing , Is it safe to do a restore factory in my device? Im worried that I might loss some of uninstallable apps. . Thanks (:

That's the Google Cloud Backup option. As far as known, it's 50% reliable (more precisely: backup seems to always work – everything else is questionable at best). So I wouldn't trust it bringing back your stuff, but rather investigate in one of the other solutions, even if only complementary.

Android has no way to backup your device. Some apps can choose to opt-in to saving some information. But if you do a factory reset you will lose the majority of your data, all saved  passwords, all apps, and most app settings.

I've just added the google-backup tag to your question. You will find some useful background information in its tag-wiki.


text:
Firefox freezes when typing into forms
Experiencing freezes or slowness of Firefox (current and beta version) on a Nexus 4 using Android v.4.3, only when typing into forms. I've read on Mozilla support that it was a known problem and that is could be solved using the Nightly build of the browser.
However, using a tests only build is not sastisfacting. I don't know what to do to get a better diagnostic for this issue, any help is welcome, thanks.

If it's a known issue, and it's already fixed in the nightly builds, then you shouldn't have long to wait before the fix reaches the stable version. If you can't wait that long, then the Firefox beta offers a middle-ground, and will probably get the fix sooner.
If you know enough programming, you could try and make your own Firefox build that consists of the stable branch with this one bugfix merged into it. (If you don't know how you would do this, you shouldn't attempt it.) But if the fix is non-trivial, your custom build is more likely to have bugs than even the nightly, because your build won't have had even the minimal testing that the nightly gets.


text:
Nexus S in reboot loop
My Nexus S (completely original) is stuck in a reboot loop. I don't know why. It just reboots, shuts down, and does the same again and again. I tried removing the battery, loading 100%, removing SIM etc.
I no longer care about the phone, but more about the pics of my two sons. The pics are on the iNAND flash memory (inside). I tried to connect to the PC, but its asking for Android 1.0 driver. Even with SDK 2.3 the Nexus isn't getting recognized.
Is there a way I can connect onto my Nexus and save my pics?
Thx for any help I can get.
A desperate dad.

Did you check our boot-loop tag-wiki, and follow the first-aid steps described there? Take a special look at the Safe-Mode part.

What version of android are you running? Do you have root? Are you running a custom ROM?

I'm running 4.2.2. No custom ROM. When I try power + volume- to get into Safe modus, I see Safe modus on the left corner but it restarts again after a few seconds. When I try power + volume+ I get into recovery mode. I only have a few options, reboot, recovery, shut down. When I use recovery I get a pic of an android robot lying down with a big red sign above it and nothing else happens. I'm afraid I will never see the photo's of my two little sons again :(


text:
How can I fix Google Speech Recotnition misbehaving: When it starts SR it freezes
Symptoms
If I launch Google Now it seems OK (I can scroll the list of Cards, etc.) but if  speak "google" it does not start voice recognition and it freezes (can't scroll the 'cards' down, etc.) or simply exits.
If I manually touch the mic, it sometimes works but usually it just exits without doing anything.
Google Chrome search (entering search term as text) works fine.
Google Speech Recognition freezes similarly in other apps when I choose the Mic from the keyboard (I.e., SR instead of keyboard for text entry)
Update:
This seems to be a general problem with Speech Recognition. SR isn't working in any other app I tried it with.
What I've tried:

Verified that Bluetooth is disabled.
Factory Reset
Cleared all Cache
Updated Google Now
Verified the Settings>Voice>Hotword ("google') detection is enabled.
cleared the App Data (not just the Cache) (for Google Search)
I'm going to try to figure out how to disable the offline Speech Recognition next.

Any other suggestions?
Motorola Droid Razr M, Android 4.1.2


text:
S-voice on Samsung Galaxy S4 "No response from server..."
I saw similar post about this problem from 5 days ago (8/15/13). That is also when S-voice stopped working on my Samsung Galaxy S4, even though it was working perfectly for the past 3 weeks. My internet connection is working.
I spent 1 1/2 hours with AT&T Tech Support and Samsung Tech Support on 8/17/13 and they could find no problems with my phone settings or internet connection.  However, Samsung tech suggested doing a master reset on my phone. I did not do this yet because I do not believe it is a problem with the phone, especially since I now see another posting for the problem occurring on the same day.
Is this a problem with an AT&T Server or is it Samsung?  How can we get someone to check this out?
UPDATE 8/22/13: I spent another 2 hours on phone 8/20/13 with new Samsung tech.  He was convinced that it was not my phone after he also checked all the postings about this problem online, so he "elevated" the "ticket" to a "system" problem.  Yesterday evening, I found that my S-voice just started working again!

What other posting?

The one from Enrico: S Voice "No response from the server. Please try again later".

Here it is: S Voice “No response from the server. Please try again later”. I'd say these two are a duplicate pair. Unfortunately, neither of them has an answer, so we cannot mark them.

@Izzy apparently onik didn't mind that the other one didn't have an answer =)

It is possible that there is a server down, it's possible that the functionality returns in a couple of days. I would not try a factory reset right away just in case it is a wasted effort.

@John With good reason. While "normal" community members (like me) cannot close such questions as duplicates, diamonds can. I asked the "diamonds" to please handle it this way, and onik is one of them :)

@Izzy oh alright, why did you flag the other one to be closed? That one was posted first so this one technically the duplicate.

This one showed more details as pointers for answers.

I was having the same issue with S-Voice on my Samsung Galaxy S4 all of a sudden. A Samsung support tech helped me figure it out by telling me to start the phone in Safe Mode to see if S-Voice worked that way.  He said if it did, it was most likely a 3rd party app.  Turns out he was right.  I deleted Music Download Paradise Pro, which was the most recent app I had downloaded and S-Voice has worked since then.


text:
Where can I find the 4.3 Camera app with Photosphere?
I just updated Cyanogenmod 10.1 to 10.2 (nightly) and noticed that the Camera app (not Focal) no longer has the ability to take Photospheres. I'm guessing it's related to this. How can I get the "regular" Camera app for Android 4.3 on my Nexus 4?

It looks like the default camera app is not compatible. You will have to download a 3rd party Camera app off of the Play Store. Here is a good list: 12 Best Android Camera Apps. If you are into open-source software and whatnot, you can start a Git repository for it and see if anyone will help you with it.

@John Why isn't the regular Camera app compatible? I could understand if I had some other device but the regular Camera app is designed to work with the Nexus 4. I've already flashed the 4.3 GApps package so I can't see why it wouldn't work.

Its possible the camera relied on some core function of the stock os, which must have not transferred over to the ROM. I'm not really sure why it's not compatible, you could post a new thread on the cyanogen forum if you want to know more.

The upgrading to 10.2 from 10.1 page links to a flashable zip with the Photosphere enabled Camera app. That link appears to currently be broken. Here is a working link. After flashing, the Camera app has the ability to take Photospheres.


text:
Remove built-in search-engines in Firefox Nightly
I don't use the default Firefox search-engines, so I like to be able to delete all the Amazon, Twitter, Google nativelly installed on every Firefox version.
Using current and beta version of Firefox, I am able to remove built-in search-engines on Firefox on Android, simply from the add-ons manager and disable the search-engine.
However, on the last Nightly build, the search-engines can not be found in the add-ons manager. My phone is not rooted, so I'm not able to directly set the search-engines list by editing the files or removing it through the search-engines list. Can't find a property in about:config either...

Could there be a magic folder in your bookmarks? If you can find them in the bookmarks tab (the one you get after you click the address bar but don't type in it), you can long-tap to remove.

Can't find the built-in search-engines here...

Ah well, it was worth a try. I don't use the nightly, so I can't offer anything more concrete. If you post on the Mozilla fora or mailing lists, you might get a more expert response: if so, please post an answer to help future visitors!

You're right, I've obtained an answer from Mozilla Support : Using Nightly you can find pre-installed search engines in 'Settings' → 'Customize' → 'Search settings'. I don't think there are plans to re-introduce disabling default search engines anymore. There are no plans to introduce removing pre-bundled search engines.

Good work! Please post that as an answer, so other users can see your question is answered.

I've obtained an answer from Mozilla Support, so I post it here for the community.
The feature seems to have been removed. However, any hack is welcome :-)
Support said :

Using Nightly you can find pre-installed search engines in 'Settings' → 'Customize' → 'Search settings'. I don't think there are plans to re-introduce disabling default search engines anymore. There are no plans to introduce removing pre-bundled search engines.

In the current Firefox 28 the issue is solved by setting browser.search.loadFromJars to false in about:config. Then only the search engines I added myself are shown.

Although you can't remove search engines from Firefox for Android any more (which I think is the wrong decision for them to have made, personally), you can at least reorder the list, which almost makes up for not being able to remove search engines (I really don't want to ever use Bing, thanks Firefox).
To reorder the list, go into Settings > Customise > Search Settings and set one of the search engines as default by long-clicking and clicking "Set as default". It will then move to the top of the list. If you then change the default to something else, the previous default is moved down one place (rather than going back to a predefined position). So you can reorder the list however you like by setting each of your favorite engines as default in turn, in reverse order of preference.
Say you wanted your list to start with Google, Wikipedia and Amazon in that order, you would first set Amazon as the default, then Wikipedia, then Google, and your list will end up with Google, Wikipedia and Amazon as the top three, in that order.

You can still disable the search engines if you have root access to your device.  Specifically, you need to pull and modify the file search.json.  On my device, I have:
adb pull /data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/rbn69ru0.default/search.json

Now, by default, this file doesn't format everything nicely, so you can use something like
http://jsonformat.com

in order to clean things up.  In any case, you'll see bits such as
   "_id": "[app]/bing.xml",
   "_name": "Bing",
   "_hidden": false,
   "description": "",
   "__searchForm": "http://www.bing.com",

You need to take the "_hidden" flag and change it to true.  Do this for all of the search engines to hide all of them.  Or, frankly, just delete everything under engines.  Then, upload the file back and restart firefox with a command like:
adb push search.json /data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/rbn69ru0.default/

Until an application restart, the changes won't be seen.
As a slight editorial note, it's dumb that we have to do this by hand.  Either we should be able to disable things under Settings->Customize->Search settings or we should have some way of turning things off in about:config.  While I understand that removing menu items that cause too many support issues, completely removing the option even from about:config is counterproductive.


text:
Python with matplotlib
Is there a way to set up python 2.7.x + matplotlib on a tablet so that you can run simple standard python code? I would like to be able to run the same scripts I run on my Linux desktop,

You can run python with SL4A but matplotlib is a graphical package so you are going to run into trouble there.


text:
Android on Samsung Galaxy Duos is too slow
I've bought a Samsung Galaxy Duos GT-S7562 with Android 4.0.4 3 months ago. The phone is so slow and getting slower by the ay, it has become almost useless. For instance, to look up and call a contact can take more than a minute. Some apps simply won't start, nor work and prefer crashing. I can literally count to 3 between the moment I click to take a picture and the moment the camera will actually take the picture.
I haven't found a solution to this on Internet so far. The only thing I can think of is tossing the phone on a wall, but somehow I think that won't help.
How can I make my phone be worth the 200$ I paid for again?

Have you considered a factory reset?

Yes, but it was slow very early already. If I will reset, I will have to reconfigure my phone and what difference will that theoretically make?

A point to check would be My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?. But if it was slow to begin with, it's rather something for the Samsung support team.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because we can't overcome hardware issues.


text:
how to move google email acct to new phone
I just got an HTC DNA (old phone is HTC Incredible). I need to move my gmail acct to new phone. I then need to remove a new gmail acct I created in error. Thanks, Jim.

Remove the new account from which device?

You add your Google Account to your new phone. When you're satisfied that all your old data is there, you factory reset the old phone. What, specifically, are you having trouble with?

As Al Everett said, the best way would be to just sync your new phone with you Google account. But before you do that, make sure you:

Make sure all contacts in contact book are synced to Google, not backup assistant or internal storage.
Make sure all bookmarks or other web data are synced (if you use Google Chrome on Android)
Make sure all of your Pictures and Videos are stored on your SD card, and not on your internal storage.

Optional: you could create a backup of your phone just in case if you need any of your data back. It's better to backup before and not use the backup than do it and need a backup and not have one. Just a thought.
Once you have everything synced to Google, then you are all set to sync your new phone with your Google account and factory reset your old phone.

Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset -> Yes, I'm sure -> Yes absolutely sure -> ...

Good luck with the new device!


text:
CM network connection icon is grey
I'm using CM 10.2 nightlies on my S 3 (i9305, intl. w/ LTE).
However, even though I seem to be connected to a network - the status icon is greyed out.
What's even weirder: I can access the web, but not the Play Store, which just displays 'No connection' and 'try again'.
See:

but:

Notice the grey WiFi icon in the top right corner - it used to be blue!
How can I diagnose/fix this issue?

That's not "weirder". It would be really weird if you could connect any Google service when the icons are grayed :) See the question Peanut linked for details.

@Izzy Although you can sometimes do that, I've found on older versions of Android the behaviour could be be a bit odd when it comes to the colour, haven't noticed it on 4.3 yet.

When the wifi icon turns grey, that means you have lost connection to the internet. You can still be connected to the local network, but if your device is cut off from the internet, the icon will remain grey. As @Izzy said, it would be quite weird if you could connect to google services while the icon was grey

Not quite correct, @John: It means you've lost contact to Google's servers. You can think of it as kind of "error indicator from the Google Services Framework". As the OP states (and screenshots show), he can even browse SE. And I doubt he's sitting in SE's server room to have that as "local network" ;)

But I can access Google.com and use the Gmail application. And also it has nothing to do with my local network, which is connected to the Internet.
I think the linked question is completely different. He asks what those icons are, and I'm asking how to fix it. Not to mention we're using completely different versions of Android.

Have you tried clearing the Google play cache? Have you tried disconnecting and reconnecting to your network? I would also try a quick reboot before you try anything drastic

@John: Cleared cache. Rebooted. Updated OS. Still nothing. Could it be an issue with the drivers or something?

Probably not a driver issue, are you using a custom rom?

CM (CyanogenMod) is a custom ROM, yes. (Right? I mean, everything is a "custom ROM", since the carriers and OEMs all modify vanilla Android.)


text:
Backup apps on SGS 2 with broken display?
the display of my Samsung Galaxy S2 got broken and I need to backup my apps. Is that possible without the phone's screen? There are no backup apps on the phone and it's not rooted. I don't know the exact OS version. Bought it 24 months ago.
After the crash I was able to connect the phone to Kies via USB and made a backup. Then I gave the phone to the repair shop of the accident insurance. But afterwards I read about that Kies won't backup your apps and as I still have one Bitcoin on the phone and also would like to restore other apps, I now think about getting it back from the repair shop, because if they repair it, all data will be gone.
So is there any way to get my apps back?
Thanks!!!

Do you have Developer options enabled?

See also: Backup and restore CM10 on broken razr / Can I set my HTC Desire into sync-mode without using touch screen (not CM-dependent) / the backup tag-wiki (also CM-independent ;))

no, developer options are not enabled.

Related: How to perform a full system dump/backup with a broken screen?

Requires CWM:
from codemink:

Backup Your Device
  Start the phone in recovery mode and make sure that it is recognized by the PC. Open a terminal in the folder where the executable adb (usually C: \ Program Files \ Android \ android-sdk \ platform-tools)  is located and execute the following commands:

adb backup -f boot.img boot
adb backup -f system.img system
adb backup -f data.img data

Restore Your Device
  With the phone in recovery mode, start the terminal with these commands as explained below:

 adb shell echo -n boot > /tmp/ro.bu.restore
 adb restore boot.img
 adb shell echo -n system > /tmp/ro.bu.restore
 adb restore system.img
 adb shell echo -n data > /tmp/ro.bu.restore
 adb restore data.img

The commands on the page you linked were formatted incorrectly, I replaced them from the original source. Also, if I understood correctly, this requires ClockWorkMod Recovery to be installed.

Thank you for the edit, I just read that now, I didn't see that before. Thanks, will edit.

there is no CWM on my phone.. so does that mean it will not work for me?

I see you also do not have developer options enabled. If developer options were enabled you would have a lot easier time with this, can you get your device into recovery mode perhaps?

Never started it in recovery mode, but I think it should work. Please note that I don't have the phone here right now. It would take ~1 week to send it back here, so I want to be sure that I will be able to make a backup.


text:
get webpages from command line
How can I get the contents of a webpage from the command line? On my mac I use the curl command, but there is no such command for the android command line. what command do I use?

There is a port for cURL for Android:

http://thesoftwarerogue.blogspot.com/2010/05/porting-of-libcurl-to-android-os-using.html

But I think that your best bet for this one is the git repo:

https://github.com/jahrome/curl-android

                             _   _ ____  _
                      ___| | | |  _ \| |
                     / __| | | | |_) | |
                    | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
                     \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|

README
  Curl is a command line tool for transferring data specified with URL
  syntax. Find out how to use curl by reading the curl.1 man page or the
  MANUAL document. Find out how to install Curl by reading the INSTALL
  document.
  libcurl is the library curl is using to do its job. It is readily
  available to be used by your software. Read the libcurl.3 man page to
  learn how!

I found this distribution of curl that is more easy to install http://curl.haxx.se/download.html It works just fine.


text:
Unable to get Vodaphone GPRS settings for Samsung Galaxy Young GT-S6312
I am using Samsung Galaxy Young GT-S6312. I am unable to download anything through Vodaphone internet (error message displays). Whenever I am trying to get Vodaphone internet settings, I get the reply "Your handset will not compatible to get the setting". So, I download the Vodaphone live setting, but downloading is not possible, whether I am browsing all internet sites.  I am already done anything such as restore factory data, mobile restart etc.
I am also trying with Aircel & Airtel SIM, & I am got the positive service (do anything) through these service provider such as browsing, downloading & online playing.

Have you tried entering the APN settings manually? Which Android version are you running? Which country do you live in?

Try sending a text message "VL" to 52586. If you get the same error message as a reply, you'll have to call the customer care and they'll guide you to set up gprs on your phone manually.
This happened to a friend of mine and he fixed it by calling the CC.


text:
Restore/enable wifi when turning off tethering?
When I turn on WiFi tethering it disables the WiFi logically. But when I restore it doesn't turn it back on again, so I have to do it manually. Is there any way to do it automatically?
I have a nexus 4 which is rooted and running CarbonROM 1.8.
I tried Tasker, but I found no way to check tethering status.

Just checked the tasker UserGuide: It in fact doesn't mention anything fitting. What you could try, though, is checking whether the %WIFII variable might hold something useful (have it logged or put a notification once with WiFi on, and once with Tether on, and compare – you could do so simply by creating a dummy task and directly execute it manually).

Tried it, %WIFII doesnt hold any thing related to tethering.

Thanks for the feedback. I couldn't tell as I never use Tether, but it was worth a try. Sorry that it didn't work out! If you've bought Tasker, you could contact its author. I wouldn't wonder if he'd consider implementing something for that: to me it looks like it should be there but just was missed somehow.

Newer versions of Tasker now include the %TETHER variable, its now possible to interchange the two (with %WIFI) so you check when either is active or not.


text:
How much RAM should I allow an app to use, and how much should I always leave free?
I have a chess app on my 2012 Nexus 7 (running stock Android 4.3, with a few small background services) that allows me to set the size of an internal hash table used by the chess engine.  Larger hash tables increase the performance of the chess engine, but it is ultimately limited by the RAM available on the tablet.  Typically, the Settings app indicates that around 450-500 MB of RAM is free.
How much memory should I allow the app to use, and how much should I leave free for the system?  As I don't want to change this setting too often, can I rely on this amount of memory being available every time I use the app?  (Note that the amount of memory used must always be a power of 2.)
The other questions and answers I've read haven't really answered this question, so I don't believe this is a duplicate.

If you want more thoughts on this topic, consider posting this question on the Chess SE site (http://chess.stackexchange.com/). Cheers.

If you've read around, then you'll already have read that the idea of "free RAM" is a bit of a nonsense for Android. PC operating systems take an app out of RAM as soon as you quit it, which leaves empty space that the PC probably has to spend power on filling again afterwards - probably with the same app next time you run it. Android tries to avoid this waste by leaving apps in memory after you stop using them or after they finish running, so that they're ready to run again next time. If it needs more RAM for an app, only then does it get rid of these cached processes.
Android will first get rid of cached processes, based on how soon it thinks it's going to need them again. If it still needs more RAM for the foreground activity, it'll get rid of background services (which sync your email etc. but aren't directly visible). If it still needs more RAM, it'll get rid of activities that are directly accessible but aren't currently visible, such as the launcher, the activity you'll go back to when you press back (maybe even in the same app as the activity that's running), or the greyed-out activity that's partly visible behind a dialog. This way, even if you have no free RAM, Android can free up quite a lot of RAM for the foreground activity: all the RAM on the device, except that needed by Android itself.
I suggest to work out the best setting using trial and error. Without more knowledge of the app, I can't predict the effect of having the setting too low: perhaps the AI will make worse moves, or take longer to decide. If the setting is too high, you'll notice that when you leave the chess game you have to wait for the previous app to launch: this is particularly noticeable when it's the launcher, and you get a spinning progress indicator instead of the list of apps.
If this were one of my apps, I'd consider this a bug. It's bad form to give the user a setting with no way to know what value to set. The app has more information about how much RAM the device has and can make available than you do: it should decide itself.

If an Android app provides a way to configure the amount of RAM used to trade RAM for lower CPU requirements the only way to decide the "correct" amount is to try different values and scale the value down if the whole system gets too slow.
As explained by Dan Hulme, Android will automatically close apps until the foreground app gets the RAM it needs. If your chess app eats nearly all the memory, the whole system will get slow because it will be constantly closing apps and restarting apps to e.g. check if you have new mail and to check if you have new facebook notifications - when RAM is low both cannot be done in paraller but both apps will repeatedly do their thing so Android will end up stopping and starting those apps all the time. Note that stopping and starting apps eats lots of battery even if you didn't have visible performance problems.
Note that the correct setting depends on the other apps you're running on your device. I'd start with 100 MB and test the performance. Then test 50 MB and 200 MB and see if either value makes the chess program faster without slowing down the overall system performance.


text:
Can `Phone Calls` application permission allow developer to read my contact book?
I wonder if other people can read my contact list when the app permission(s) has Phone Calls permision like below snapshot.

Not quite: this permission allows the app to read the IMEI of your phone, your phone number, your network operator, and to know whether you are making a call. It does also let the holder of the permission know the number at the other end of the call, but not any of the contact data associated with that number. These uses are described in the developer documentation for TelephonyManager.
A good use for this might be to disable some ongoing process while you're in a call, or show an indicator, or to help you report your device as stolen. A bad use for this would be for invasive ads to track your identity across different apps, in order to push targeted advertising at you; or to record your phone number and those you call, to make nuisance calls to you afterwards, maybe claiming to be from your network operator.
Reading your contacts is controlled by the permission called read your contacts.

Don't forget: Your phone number can also be accessed with this permission. With an ongoing call, also the number you called (or have been called from). Additionally, it reveals your network provider.

@Izzy That's right, I should have included that. I added a (related) potential misuse to the answer as well.

Thanks! Already upvoted :) and just updated the linked duplicate answer with details on this permission (including good/bad/neutral use cases, and the fact that this permission is implicitly granted to apps targeting Donut and older).

Adding URL to official site stating your answer would be great! Please add.


text:
Which Android runs which Linux kernel?
Is there a list of which kernel version comes in each Android AOSP version?
Or lets say, which version /proc/version would spit out.

Related: Why are there so many different Android kernels, What is the difference between the Linux Kernel and the Android Kernel?

Linux version in AOSP

Android Version
API Level
Linux Version in AOSP
Header Version

    1.5   Cupcake
3
(2.6.27)

    1.6   Donut
4
(2.6.29)
2.6.18

    2.0/1 Eclair
5-7
(2.6.29)
2.6.18

    2.2.x Froyo
8
(2.6.32)
2.6.18

    2.3.x Gingerbread
9, 10
(2.6.35)
2.6.18

    3.x.x Honeycomb
11-13
(2.6.36)
2.6.18

    4.0.x Ice Cream San
14, 15
(3.0.1)
2.6.18

    4.1.x Jelly Bean
16
(3.0.31)
2.6.18

    4.2.x Jelly Bean
17
(3.4.0)
2.6.18

    4.3   Jelly Bean
18
(3.4.39)
2.6.18

    4.4   Kit Kat
19, 20
(3.10)
2.6.18

    5.x   Lollipop
21, 22
(3.16.1)
3.14.0

    6.0   Marshmallow
23
(3.18.10)
3.18.10

    7.0   Nougat
24
 3.18.48 4.4.0
4.4.1

    7.1   Nougat
25
 ?
4.4.1

    8.0   Oreo
26
 3.18.72 4.4.83  4.9.44
4.10.0

    8.1   Oreo
27
 3.18.70 4.4.88  4.9.56
4.10.0

    9.0   Pie
28
         4.4.146 4.9.118 4.14.61
4.15.0

   10.0   Q
29
                 4.9.191 4.14.142 4.19.71
5.0.3

Table compiled from:

Wikipedia Android version history (in parentheses; can't find its source)
android / kernel / common / Makefile (the Linux in AOSP)
android / platform / external / kernel-headers / original / uapi / linux / version.h (the Linux headers as used by Bionic in AOSP)

Note: other “distributions” of Android might run different kernel versions.
Anyone is welcome to correct and expand this table. Please keep formatting.
Why Android OS/kernel version mismatches
OEMs tend to ship their major Android updates with a similar kernel to the one the device was initially released with. This is most likely to avoid hardware and driver incompatibility issues with a newer kernel. For example, a device that has been updated to run Android 8.0 Oreo but originally shipped with 6.0 Marshmallow may still be running Linux 3.18.x instead of Linux 4.10.x.
Vendor Test Suite (VTS) requirements on Linux version
According to a 2017 article on XDA-Developers (shortened):

One aspect that has been up to the OEM is the Linux kernel version but this is changing with Android Oreo.
As long as the OEM was able to pass the certification tests that Google lays out, then they didn’t care what kernel version was used in a new device. This generally wasn’t an issue as most OEMs would use the same version of the kernel for that generation that other OEMs were using, as it is tied heavily to what the hardware drivers support. However, some had been falling through the cracks and this started to cause security issues. This is something that Google has been taking seriously lately so it makes sense that they would want to start mandating this.
Starting this year with smartphones which ship with Android Oreo, Google is requiring that all SoCs productized in 2017 must launch with kernel 4.4 or newer.
Currently existing devices that are upgraded to Android Oreo are only required to run kernel version 3.18 or newer, and will not have to be upgraded to support Project Treble.

According to https://android.googlesource.com/platform/test/vts-testcase/kernel/, there was a requirement on the Linux version, VtsKernelConfigTest or VtsKernelVersionTest, on 8.0, 8.1, and 9.0, but later removed on 10.0. For 8.0 and 8.1, it requires the version to be either 3.18, 4.4, or 4.9. For 9.0, it requires the version to be at least 4.4.107, 4.9.84, or 4.14.42.
More technical and recent information available directly from the AOSP website: https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/kernel/core-kernel-reqs

There's no hard fast rules involved! For instance, ICS/JB on Zte Blade used kernel 2.6.35, ICS on Sony Xperia Mini was 2.6.32... take this with a pinch of salt as its only a guideline :)

I can completely see why different devices running the same Android version would run different kernels, but this table is just a rule of thumb and yes I would like a grain of salt with my rule of thumb =)

Let’s restrict the table here to AOSP Android!

But Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 based MIUI 8.2 using Custom Kernel, Version : 3.18.24
And Kernel Vers

Note that even Google isn't following this. Just checked the emulator with API 26 and the kernel is 3.18.56+

My Sony Xperia Z5 Premium runs Android 7.1.1 with kernel 3.10.84 yet the XA1 runs 7.0 with kernel 4.4.15. Likely due to kernel-mode drivers.

I installed 6.0.1 on a Nexus5 and the about page claims I have kernel version 3.4.0. Any chance there's a bug in the about page?


text:
Change attachment download folder
I use the builtin mail app to access a Exchange mail account. I have set it to download all attachments automatically, and it puts them in the Downloads folder. There is only an option to choose between internal and external storage for attachments, but you can't choose the folder. Is there and config file or similar that I can tweak to change this?

Just curious, but why would you want your email client to automatically download all of your attachments? Seems like kind of a security hole, even for a linux based system...

I download all the new mail when I'm using Wifi so that attachments are not downloaded later on a 3G connection

Ok, it is less of a security threat on Android devices because you are less likely to get a virus that can run on Android through email, I have personally had viruses sneak in this way on desktop computers. Just a thought.

Ok so you are wondering if you can change the download folder by changing some sort of config file. This sort of behavior has been sort of deprecated in Android. As an Android Developer, we are supposed to make all of our cache files private so that they cannot be accessed by another person or, more importantly, another program. Letting other programs root around in your files was a big security hole for linux, so it is kind of frowned upon now, so I would be very surprised if you found a config file where you could change the Download folder. If you want to be able to set your download folder, then you could try to find an app on the market that has such functionality.
And yes I know the frustration you are talking about, I used to use my Droid 3 for doing my school email and finding and opening attachments was next to impossible.

It would be nice if you could specify where you wanted a certain download to go. For one of my accounts I sometimes would like to save attachments directly to a network drive and avoid the hassle and overhead of going through the local filesystem.


text:
managing multiple contact sources as gmail contacts
I'm on a google nexus 4 (up to date, non-rooted) and I'm using gmail and google contacts for my contact/messaging needs. Additionally I'm pulling contacts from facebook, linkedIn, xing (German linkedIn clone) and google plus.
Is there an easy way to merge contact info from other networks into the gmail contact when joining/linking contacts from gmail and other networks like facebook and linkedIn?
I wouldn't mind using a third party app to do the footwork (joining, unduping, etc.) but I'd like to keep and update the data in my gmail contact list as I am using this list half of the time on my desktop. I don't mind using another contacts app for viewing/browsing and calling/texting my contacts but I don't want to depend on one forever and I don't want to redo everything again and again everytime I switch my phone and/or contacts app
I know that Smartr and Rapportive (Desktop only) can do a lot of association stuff but in  the end all the data that happens in Smartr stays in Smartr.
Things I'd like to have:

Data

Contact Name
Picture (assigned by me, default g+ with facebook or linkedIn as fallback)
Nickname
basic gmail stuff, multiple numbers, mails, addresses, birthday, other dates, urls
other network profiles as "profile URLs" or sound "other URLs"

Functionality

easy linking/joining and un-duping
data storage in gmail contacts as fas as possible
compatibility with other apps like smartr or rapportive

The usual answer on that was (at least a while ago) using the GMail web interface. But with all those re-desings lately, I'm not sure if that feature does still exist, or whether it was replaced by some colorful "tile"...

Thanks for the reply. I'm working primarily with the Gmail Web Interface since I'm a web dev and bound to my pc 9-5 + side projects. But everytime I start updating contacs I feel there are either fields or sometimes even entries missing...

Since their latest relaunch, I use those Google tools only when forced to. They're getting worse each day (at least that's my subjective feeling). But give me a few minutes, I just happened to remember an alternative solution which might work for you. Will place it as answer.

KADlancer - check out http://www.fullcontact.com. (Full disclosure: I work for them, so I'm a bit biased. But the issues you mentioned are exactly the issues we're trying to solve).
We currently have a web app in private beta that pulls in contacts from various Google Contacts/Gmail sources, as well as Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. It then adds social profile data to each, normalizes & de-dupes them, and syncs them back in real-time.
Within the next month we plan to roll out our public beta, which will support the linking of all of the above sources - meaning you can unify contacts across all your social networks/Google accounts and have all your contacts in one place, automatically up-to-date. Because we offer two-way sync in real-time, changes made in Google Contacts sync to FullContact, and vice-versa - meaning that your data is your data, and stays where you want it (no walled gardens).
Again, I work for them, so you'd probably be right to take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. But based on what you posted, it looks like the FullContact Address Book will do almost everything you're looking to do (with the possible exception of Xing, which is currently not supported, but on the roadmap). I'm not aware of any other app out there that does quite what we do, save Smartr - which it sounds like you've already tried.
Good luck!

sounds amazing, any chance for me to get into the closed beta and give it a go? I'm willing to put hours of work into feedback mails / posts if your solution ends up exactly what I need for this special problem (which bugs me ever since getting my first smartphone).

Unfortunately, I don't control that - I know they're pushing hard to get one universally-requested major feature finished before letting in any more beta users outright. But if you sign up for the wait list, they should be able to get you in within the next month. (& I definitely understand the "bugging me ever since my first smartphone" bit. I've been having the same issue as far back as my Handspring Treo. Ridiculous.)

Already signed on directly after reading your reply. Waiting and looking for some tea right now (sorry, reference to a German proverb). Looking forward to give FullContact a go.

after finally getting access to fullcontact, I have to say its definitely headed in the right direction. I'll give it a go for a while and report back as soon as I can tell if this is realy what I was looking for. Looking good so far!

Awesome! It's definitely in (open) beta, so any and all feedback is very much appreciated. We want to build a product that you love.

As Google's web frontends get worse each day currently (there used to be a nice way to merge contact with GMail, but with the latest re-designs I'm not sure which features are still left in working order), you might wish to take a look at a few app-based solutions:

Contact Remover Plus: Other than the name might suggest, the Plus version also offers to merge contacts, copy contacts between accounts, and move contacts between accounts
Contrack mentions some "linking" stuff (but not much details)

The first one looks the most promising in your context. Not sure about Facebook etc. though, as I don't use those networks.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. I just had a look at both. Contrack seems to go into another direction with a heavy focus on checkins and interactions. The first one (Contact Remover Plus) looks interesting but after reading the developer's description and warning about syncing merged contacts to external services that might result in data loss I guess I chicken out and continue my search.

I'll upvote you as soon as I have enough reputation as your links are helpfull even though they are not a perfect match for my problem.

As you have already more than 15 rep, feel free :) Glad I could help!


text:
External harddrive case to spin-down drive when idle
I try to make external 2.5 hard drives automatically spin down when idle and connected to android devices. The device I have got in mind is a HDMI TV-Stick with USB connector. I tried a few cases/harddrives and found only one old 3.5 case which will spin down the drive when a .nomedia file is present on the drive to prevent indexing. Are there general differences between external drives which can influence their ability to spin down idle drives? Also I would be grateful for hints to android software which can trigger the spin-down and for explanation which requirements to make this work exist in general (for software, disk and case).

It's entirely up to the drive and enclosure. The USB mass storage protocol doesn't have disk-specific instructions, e.g. for spinning up and down drives. The only thing you can do from the Android side is make sure the files aren't in use: e.g. by adding a .nomedia file as you already found.

So for what drive/enclosure features do I have to look? What about apps to spin down drives which support this on other platforms? As a side note: I figured that the ultimate way to prevent android from accessing the files is to unmount the drive (for which there are apps e.g.) Just the .nomedia file seemingly won't do.

Which drive enclosures support spinning-down when idle isn't an Android question.

I have been pointed here from superuser.com with similar argument. My question is not 'Which drive enclosures support spinning-down when idle?'. It is 'How can I realize disk spin down when idle on android?'. I don't really care if it is answered by 'Use drives which have feature xy' or 'Install app xy/run command xy'. I just want to realize this in an android environment.

That's why I answered that part of the question: you can't do it from Android, you need a drive (enclosure) that has the feature of being able to spin down. As far as I know it's not a "box feature" that'll be advertised on the enclosure: either it does it, or it doesn't.


text:
Nexus 4 not getting 4.3 update
I have a Nexus 4 Device. I had got 4.3 update in System updates about 15 days ago. But I didn't update that time.And now I want to update it so if I go and check for updates, its showing that your system is up to date, while I have 4.2.2 in my phone. Can you please tell me what should I do to get 4.3 update? please guide me.
Thanks!

Have you tried rebooting? That might force your device to check for system updates

As far as I know they're still working the phased rollout. What country are you in?

You can try clearing the Google Services Framework data. Disconnect from Wifi and mobile data, go to Settings -> Apps -> All Apps -> Google Services Framework and tap Clear data. After this, restore data connections and go to Settings -> About phone -> Software Updates and tap Check for updates, and the update should appear. If not, the update is still in rollout for your region.

You can force an actual update check (the "check for update" thing doesn't necessarily do a real check for updates) on some phones by dialing the MMI code ##2432546## (the numbers spell "checkin").  Don't push the call button after entering the code, just wait a few seconds.  A notification saying "checkin succeeded" should appear.


text:
ADB/fastboot over Serial/COM ports?
Long story short, my phone messed up and it's stuck in a bootloop. The phone in question is a Coolpad 7560U, also known as Orange Nivo, running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Data and cache wiping do not fix the bootloop. USB jigs are not a valid method either. The usual means of connecting to it using adb or fastboot don't work anymore -- neither will detect the phone in any way. I have tried all of the power on button combinations. All I can manage is to get into the stock recovery mode (the same one the bootloop passes through) and a QPST "通讯中 Secboot" Download mode.
I am connecting the phone to my Windows 8 x86 PC through an USB cable. For a certain timespan during the boot loop, the following devices show up in Device Manager, all at once:

3 storage devices : One of them is a CD-ROM drive and the other two are generic removables - None of them are accessible, returning the prompt "Please insert a disk into drive *:".
4 other devices:

Under "Ports (COM & LPT)"
Coolpad Android AT USB VCOM (COM7)
Coolpad Android Diagnostics USB VCOM (COM10)
Coolpad Android NMEA USB VCOM (COM9)
Under "Modems"
Coolpad Mobile USB Modem Phone

These four seem like my only means of landing a connection to the phone.
Update: According to Alex P.'s answer, I can confirm that the "Secboot" mode puts the phone into a QPST Download mode. The 4 serial port devices do indeed allow for access to the phone through Qualcomm's QPST software suite, and probably impossible to push adb or fastboot commands through.

Is it a Samsung device? I have had success in the past using a jig to fix boot loops on Samsung devices

Have not heard of ADB or fastboot working over COM! Fastboot uses USB protocol only, adb both TCP/IP and USB.

Only thing is the COM ports are emulating USB. Are you using generic adb binary or the one supplied with the handset (by way of CD software installed prior and on first occasion of plugging in the device)?

Try this linky on XDA?

One last thing - try it on a older Win 7 or Win XP machine!

The serial interface you see is a Qualcomm DIAG interface. It has nothing to do with ADB/fastboot. It can be used to recover the phone though by flashing the proper bootloader. You will need to use Qualcomm tools like QPST and find the proper flashing image in QPST format.

which one are you referring to exactly?

the BL being locked is irrelevant. What you need to do is to flash the original BL anyway - so it will be properly signed. As for not being able to find the proper image - that's something to think about before you "mess up" a phone

messing up system partition won't prevent you from booting into the fastboot mode.


text:
Is there any way I can delete individual text messages?
I have a Huawei U8850 running Android 2.3.7 and want to manage my text messages more efficiently. At the moment the only delete options I can see are to delete all thread or the current thread.
However, what I want to be able to do is delete individual text messages (both received and sent). The conversation with my wife (say) will include messages that are just acknowledgements of other messages being received or ones that are no longer relevant (shopping lists, say) and I would like to get rid of those, but keep the more important messages (at least for the time being).
Is there any way to do this or am I stuck with either keeping the entire conversation or deleting it all?

All you have to do is press and hold the text message you want to delete. You will then be prompted to select more text messages to delete or just delete the one you have selected. If your Android version  is too old for this let me know and I will emulate your specific version and figure it out for you.

D'oh. I can't believe it was that simple.

Haha no worries, when I got a device with Jelly Bean on it, it took me forever to figure that out.


text:
Where does Google Play Music v5 store music locally?
I know this question has been answered for older versions of the app, but where does the most recent app store offline music?
Clearly the mp3's I've selected are downloaded - because they play without an internet connection. But the default location for offline music is empty.
Any ideas guys?

do you have root?

New version of the app lets you choose external or internal storage. http://www.cultofandroid.com/46874/google-play-music-now-lets-you-specify-where-your-music-is-stored/

But the option only appears on devices with external storage/SD card.

Possible duplicate of Where does Google Music store offline songs?

My Google Music 5.3.1317M.940995 running on a Nexus 4 with CM11 stores the mp3 files under

/data/data/com.google.android.music/files/music

You need root to access that directory.
A older version of Google Music on a Galaxy S stored it on the SD card. And, as I read in the official changelog, Google Music 5.x seems to be able to use the SD card as storage too. Which makes sense for devices with low internal storage space (/data/data).

The issue of course is that it is root issue, if you are not rooted it is hidden from view.
The best way around it that I currently know is via the PC. Download and install the listen app for your PC, then you can download the music you have bought from the play store, and you can use the standard explorer to transfer to your music folder.
Which is how I deal with it and am able to use my preferred music player.
Only resort to listen when I want to listen to an album I haven't downloaded.

If you have a lot of patience and a little bit of *unix wisdom this shouldn't too hard for you. Just open up a shell or connect using adb and try:
become root:
su

search for the song:
find / -name "*.mp3"