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Google Play Leaderboards Hack
As you may have noticed, on plenty of Android games with top scores, they are linked to the Google Play Games Leaderboards. Of course these will contain plenty of hacked scores. I was wondering How do you hack a game score and have it appear on the online leaderboards?
I have tried editing local files containing scores etc. and I've tried using game guardian and both worked for changing my offline score.
Games like Flappy Bird, Crossy Road and Don't Tap The White Tile are the sorts of games which I have successfully modded offline and wish to mod online.
Any help is appreciated

I could only understand... if you have a thousand dollar "high-score" bet on the table to have to spend time trying to hack leaderboards. Anyway...
Your best bet IMO would be to write an Xposed module, that loops into a static method in the Google Play Games API library bundled in each game to (re)set the private String or private Integer that holds the score.
You'll have to use Xposed (IMO) so the Google Play library doesn't detect the modified code via md5 check.
If you have questions about programming this, go ask on Stack Overflow, lots of people ready to help there.
Hope this provides some insight.


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Can't change my lock screen password remotely
I've tried changing my lock screen password using the Android device manager for my Samsung Galaxy A3 with Lollipop, but when I clicked on "lock" the following message was returned:

Since Google has verified that a screen lock is already set, the
  password you entered won't be needed.

I want to be able to remotely change my lock screen password using the Android device manager, is that possible?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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OnePlus Two Freezes often
I have been using the OnePlus Two for few months now. About two months ago it started freezing and slowing down. Often I have to power cycle the phone in order to get it working again. Usually it happens when I charge the phone, listen to music, or watch videos.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Any ideas how to find why its being so slow, and how to fix it?

Related: My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do? Also see our performance tag-wiki.

I did clear the cache on all the apps, i removed a whole bunch of apps as well. It seemed to work at first, but then it started all over again. The phone is not rooted, not modified in any way.

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


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Cannot mount mtdblock partition
I'm trying to mount the boot partition of a tablet with MTD partitions. This is the output of cat /proc/mtd:
root@android:/ # cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00400000 00004000 "misc"
mtd1: 00c00000 00004000 "kernel"
mtd2: 00c00000 00004000 "boot"
mtd3: 02000000 00004000 "recovery"
mtd4: 04000000 00004000 "backup"
mtd5: 08000000 00004000 "cache"
mtd6: 40000000 00004000 "userdata"
mtd7: 00400000 00004000 "kpanic"
mtd8: 20000000 00004000 "system"
mtd9: 169400000 00004000 "user"

So, I make /mnt/testfolder then run:
mount -t vfat /dev/block/mtdblock2 /mnt/test

And I get:
mount: Invalid argument

Same error with ext4. I tried yaffs2 and I got:
mount: No such device

This is how it looks with DiskInfo:

How can I mount this partition?

Related: How to find out which file system is used by my device?


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Google Now opens when not needed
From time to time Google (voice) search randomly starts on my phone (Huawei Ascend Y300, Android version 4.1.1)
I'll be listening to music for example, change songs, and out of nowhere Google voice search will open, I have completely no idea what button I'm pressing or what I'm doing to activate this, but knowing what opens this will be of great help.
I've gone to the settings, Google Now is already turned off and there doesn't seem to be anything relevant there I can do.
How do I solve this? Thanks.

When you change your music, do you use buttons on your earbuds? Also, I don't really understand what your second question is. Could you explain more?


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Why does my Moto G 2nd gen show H and not LTE?
I just switched from T-Mobile to Cricket today, for 2 Android phones. One is my existing OnePlus One and it shows LTE next to the signal strength. The other is a (new) Moto G 2nd gen, which I read supports LTE but shows "H" next to the signal strength. And boy does it seem slow.
In addition, if I go to the Preferred Network Type in Settings, only 2G and 3G are listed. No LTE listed.
Is this correct or do I have a bad SIM?
Thanks.

The 2nd gen Moto G comes in a bunch of variants. The US models don't support LTE, only the Asia/EU ones do. You'll need to figure out what specific model you have (possibly in your device settings) then you can compare it to a list such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moto_G_(2nd_generation)

Wow, I never knew about the variants. I just Googled the specs before and it showed LTE without mention of this. OK well that explains it, thank you.


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Disable call back link on text message previews?
Android 5.1.1 on a Samsung Note 4.  Text message notifications show the text message and then "CALL" and "REPLY" links.  Sometimes I accidentally hit the "CALL" button and find myself calling someone I did not want to call at that time.
How can I disable/remove the "CALL" link? (or if there is an alternative way to avoid the accidental calling)

You might not be able to remove that link – but you could use a Call Confirm app.

In case you ever get some spare time, you can experiment with Tasker and AutoNotification app. Disable notifications for your default SMS app, have Tasker listen to incoming messages and pass the info to AutoNotification to create a notification for the received SMS, with added flexibility of showing buttons of your interest.


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Busted Verizon Galaxy Note 5 screen, trying to use adb to unlock
Recently, I dropped my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and busted the glass, lcd, digitizer, and maybe the speaker. Before, I try anything with replacing the broken parts, I would like to get the SMS database and my photos off via usb cable. Unfortunately, I can't unlocked the screen and the adb devices shows nothing on both a Mac and Linux machines for me to send a command to simulate an unlock gesture. Also, I don't have usb debugging turned on and have no way to turn it on. As a last ditch attempt, I have tried to modify the ~/.android/adb_usb.ini and /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android-rules to try to get adb working. Adb still couldn't find my phone.  I also have thought of going the OTG route but nobody that has a Verizon GalaxyNote5 has had any luck with that. What else can I try to get my data off of my phone? Fastboot?
My problem is similar to this except I don't have a Nexus phone:
Broken screen while debug mode was disabled. How can I re-enable adb?

"and busted the glass, lcd, digitizer, and maybe the speaker." -- did you like drop it from Burj Khalifa? Anyhow, you may be able to flash TWRP (a custom recovery) from download mode. If you achieve success in that, boot into recovery mode and adb should be able to detect the device as well as give unrestricted access to data.

Nothing that cool, I went out for pho and they had a tile floor.Will try the flash TWRP and report back.

TWRP is touch based... to even use the custom recovery idea you'll need CWM with a volume button user interface and a second device to learn the combinations that will get you through the backup menu. you also have the risk of having bootloader locked.

You can use CWM or Philz Touch recovery to make a full backup by just using the volume/power buttons.
You can also use an OTG adapter and a USB mouse/keyboard to interact with the phone. If you can't see the screen either, you can use a MHL to HDMI adapter to hook up your screen output to the TV. You may or may not be able to use an OTG mouse or keyboard daisy-chained to the MHL adapter (depends on MHL adapter, unbranded one didn't work for me).
If your bootloader is locked and MHL+mouse idea doesn't work out, your best bet is to get the phone fixed. I would recommend to buy a second phone with Bad ESN off ebay, and just swap the motherboards, with the amount of damage you have. Then you can resell the leftover parts.

Will try it and report back.

Ok, so I rebooted into the bootloader and turned on usb debugging. I was able to connect as a mass storage device from my mac and get my pictures off. I might do so more experiments in the future  to see if I can load the recovery firmware to get my SMS messages off. I was not able to get the OTG route to work with the HDMI option. :( Thanks for all your advice.


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linux kernel not seen from android filesystem?
I'm reading 'embedded linux' and in chp.6 "filesystems" there is a figure that I do not understand.

here it says that the 'linux kernel' is not seen from android filesystem. This give me some confusion:
-> The linux kernel image is definitely stored in a storage attached to the device. So when this figure says 'not seen from the android target filesystem', does this imply that the filesystem seen from the 'linux kernel' and 'android framework' is different?
In other words, if the kernel is to do its job, it needs to be able to see and access all the files available to the system. On the other hand, since android is practically a 'user' from kernel view, its scope is limited? And it does not have access to the actual linux kernel image due to this reason?

In Android, kernel enjoys a dedicated partition, often named boot. In case you're interested, see Can somebody explain the boot process of an Android device?

The linux kernel for an android device will be built separately from the vanilla AOSP.
Of course, one can configure to include the build of linux kernel inside the Android build process.
The kernel will be compiled and compressed into an image along with the ramdisk image. This is essentially what constitutes the boot.img which will be placed in the boot partition.
BTW there are several partitions divided inside whatever storage is used for the target android device.
While the linux kernel resides in the boot partition inside the boot.img, the android system will be stored in system.img which will be located in the system partition.
For a typical android build, the root account is inaccessible to the user(android system). Thus, a typical android user will not be able to check out the root directory.


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phone is stuck on welcome screen (samsung galaxy note 2) when using other battery
hi i have a samsung galaxy note 2 n7105 and i have 2 batteries. when i am using battery A, everything boots okay but when i use battery B it is stuck at the samsung logo and will not go on. sometimes it reboots and just end up stuck again at the samsung logo. i just want to know what is the reason for this and hoping that there's some kind of fix for this. your help is greatly appreciated!

Sounds like your battery doesn't have enough charge, or is a crap knockoff. Do you have an external battery charger for battery B? See this answer for tips on a battery charger w/o the third pin.

When I worked at a cell phone shop as the "tech", I had this exact same thing happen, except with a Samsung Galaxy S3 or 4, I can't remember which. In my case, both batteries were apparently the same official Samsung OEM battery, however upon careful examination side-by-side, there were tiny differences in how the non-working battery looked as compared to every other one that I could find. I finally realized that the non-working battery was NOT an actual OEM battery; it was a knock-off designed to pass as an OEM. So, the non-working battery, in my case, was a counterfeit. Basically, this behavior means that you have a faulty battery, whether it is OEM or fake. I've never had an OEM battery do this but that's not to say that it might not happen with them or with legit, non-OEM batteries as well. The only time it happened to me, though, was with a counterfeit, so...

my faulty battery was working well before.

Yeah, my theory is that the knock-offs go bad in a particular way due to their differences in manufacturing that an oem doesn't.

my mother bought me the spare battery and i'm not sure if it's a counterfeit or not and also i could not identify which is original and which is the spare. all i know is that it worked well since it was bought  and it became defective last november or december last year. could it be that it became defective because of constantly changing custom roms, rooting and unrooting? ('cause i'm really fond of doing those)

Also, it is an accepted fact in the cell phone world that a defective battery can cause your phone to reset itself although I myself do not agree with what they say. They say a defective battery can be identified by the fact that it is bulging, however I have had many batteries that had a bulge and were never the cause of any problems other than less battery life. Also, the battery that DID do this to me was, in fact, NOT bulging. This theory says that a defective battery will not be able to supply the power needed for an instant or two, which makes the phone reset. Hope this helps

I don't really see how your battery could become defective from anything rooting and installing any custom roms might do. I have much experience with rooting and custom roms on a BUNCH of different phones and I find it highly unlikely that you could have screwed up your battery in such a way. I suppose it might be somehow POSSIBLE if you wrote your own rom and messed AT LENGTH with the charging characteristics or something,  but I'd bet money you didn't do it.

haha yeah i didn't. so i guess the battery just became defective? i checked today which one is the OEM and which is not and found out that the defective battery was in fact the OEM (it had the date of manufacturing and the working one doesn't have any).
thought i really took good care of the batteries for it not to reach that far


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Moto G3 Marshmallow SD card as Internal storage
I have recently updated my Moto G3 and inserted a microSD card, formatting it for use as internal storage. I have used Solid Explorer app for file management before and I was able to manage internal & external storage separately before the OS update. Now the app cannot access the internal memory. It can access the SD card as internal storage only.When I connect my phone to my PC (Windows 8), it can also access SD card as internal storage only. Why is this happening? Is there a file management app which can access the real internal storage?

What method did you use to merge your sd card with internal memory? You will need to elaborate your post to include links & guides you used.

@AaronGillion given "Marshmallow" in the title it's safe to assume OP used the standard method for this (chosing "format as internal storage" when prompted, see the adoptable-storage tag-wiki).

This is intentional. Android Marshmallow allows you to use the external SD as internal storage at the cost of the internal storage.

This is intentional by the Android system. When you format a microSD card to be used as internal storage, 2 things basically happen:

The microSD card becomes locked-in to the device (as it is specifically encrypted for the device)
The real internal storage (eMMC) becomes invisible to non-root and non-system privileged users. You could still technically access it by rooting your device and using a Root Explorer app, but it's not properly mounted, but your PC still con't be able to detect the real internal storage over USB MTP.

Notice that the space is not increased by the size of the sdcard, but to the size of the sdcard. You’re basically swapping out your internal storage (which is typically eMMC, which is fairly quick), with your sdcard (which is typically slower than the built-in storage chip). You’ll be trading speed for capacity.

You could use ADB as root to push/pull data, but doing that via the command line is cumbersome, and even using a GUI ADB client for this purpose seems like a waste of time.
As to what you can do, you can reformat the microSD to be used as portable storage, and then you will be able to use it as you did in previous versions of Android (but you won't be able to move apps to it).
The procedure:

You can change it back by heading to Settings>Storage & USB, then selecting the card, hitting the top right menu and then select ‘Format as portable’.

Source: How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+? and links therein.


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Samsung Galaxy 3 will not go into recovery boot
Samsung Galaxy S3 won't boot. tried the 3 buttons goes to recovering boot and Samsung, then Galaxy S3, then blank. A few times I got it all the way to the recovery page, then android dies and says no command, then goes blank. Never giving me enough time to scroll down to error messages to delete. Any suggestions? If I try to turn it on sometimes shows a picture of a blank battery, sometimes an almost full green battery or vibrate then nothing. It won't start to use it in anyway.

Here, you may need to flash your recovery again as it seems in problem.
To boot into recovery mode you can use adb command: adb reboot recovery. For this you need minimum requirements for adb. Here  you can download this.

Your answer is missing core instructions for "flash your recovery again"

My first line was for that thing only. I just wanted to confirm that by proper booting in recovery. Sometimes we are unable to perform button task to open recovery. We need to check before taking big step.

This is a question-and-answer site, not a forum: please don't add comments as answers. Use actual comments when seeking clarification of any issues.

Let me make this short but sweet. If you had enabled "USB Debugging" on your device before this started happening to you, then you can flash another recovery using Odin, simple and easy.
GO HERE ONLY if you are 110% sure that you have "USB Debugging = enabled" on your device.
** This tutorial is only for Galaxy S3 GT-I9300. Don’t try this guide on any other Android device. Also, we are not responsible for any damage caused due to the instruction given in this page. Try this at your own risk. However, it is very unlikely that your device will be damaged if you follow all the instructions as it is mentioned in the procedure. **

If you DO NOT have or cannot remember if you have "USB Debugging = enabled" on your device, then you want to use Samsung KIES to get back into your device. WARNING: Using Samsung KIES WILL delete the data on your device. You can find the process to use Samsung KIES => RIGHT HERE
** I am not held responsible for anything bad that happens to your device such as bricking or whatever. Doing this is entirely up to you. Still, this is a whole lot safer than flashing, since it is an OFFICIAL method of reinstalling a firmware. Any issues you get should be redirected to Samsung, the creator of KIES **

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Otherwise, your answer becomes useless in case the link dies. For further hints, please see: How do I write a good answer.


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Can I know who is changing Android's media volume?
Recently my phone's media volume will be changed to a fixed value in period automatically. I guess there's a bad app running in background or by alarm doing this, but I have no idea which one is the convict.
Is there a way to let me know who is changing system media volume? My device is an HTC Butterfly 3 running Android 5.0.2 official ROM – and power saving is not turned on (in case it matters). Thanks!

Need to know what device you are using. Also, do you have the "Power Saving" feature turned on, on your device. (Cannot tell you how to check as you did not list what device you are using.) If you know how to turn the "Power Saving" feature on/off on your device, try turning it OFF, and see if your volumes auto-set themselves again.

In my COS12 (Android 5.0.2), I noticed that whenever the volume was changed an intent was broadcasted with action android.media.VOLUME_CHANGED_ACTION and that was all I was able to see using dumpsys or logcat. The extras in that intent did not contain anything useful to trace the app.
Anyhow. Following is what I can recommend as an approach and as of now:
Install aSpotCat1, uncheck Ignore system apps from its settings and under List apps by permission browse the  section Audio Settings. This app missed some system apps which my answer here took care of2.
(Click image to enlarge)

I suggest you check View app's full package name? and find out the package name of all the apps listed by aSpotCat. After that, uninstall all the user installed apps involved. Since removal may not be a preferable option for you, you can consider hiding/blocking them. Setup adb in PC and do:

adb shell pm block PACKAGE # for KitKat
adb shell pm hide PACKAGE  # for Lollipop

PACKAGE should be replaced by package name of the app. In short, the effect observed from that command is akin to removing an app from your OS with major difference that the app's data and UID would remain preserved.
To reinstate the app, replace hide by unhide and block by unblock in aforesaid commands.
You would have to wait and observe if the volume is getting changed. If yes, hide/block/remove those user installed apps singularly or in bulk and then go into observation mode again. If all the user installed apps are removed yet the change in media volume can be observed then a system app is involved in the process. If you've a custom recovery installed or you're ready to factory-reset the device, only then you should consider hiding/blocking/disabling a system app listed by aSpotCat since the stability of the OS can be affected.
As you would have guessed by now, this is a messy solution, relies on trial and error and doesn't guarantee much that you would be able to pin-point the app. However, I don't think there is any way to easily pin-point the app affecting the media volume.

1 You may try any permission checker app. The helpful list maintained by user Izzy on his website may come handy.
2 Input the permission android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS.

With ADB, one might also consider adb uninstall -k <package_name> to make sure the app is gone but not its data (-k = "keep data"). So if it turns out an uninstalled app was not the culprit, one can re-install its .apk using adb install -r <file>. Or, if the app didn't opt-out, use adb backup -apk -f <file.ab> <package_name>, then uninstall, and adb restore <file.ab> if the app was found "not guilty" ;) +1 for the thorough answer!


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Remove Most Frequently Used Apps Container from Apps menu
In Android 6.0.1 I got this unnecessary feature which displays most frequently used apps on top of all other applications.  I don't need it (You can see on the pic the top 4 apps underlined). Is it possible to disable this feature at all?

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

To remove the most used app bar follow the steps :

Open Google Now ;
Open the sidebar (hamburger menu or slide from the left) ;
Click the "Settings" button ;
Scroll down to the Home screen section
Toggle the option "App Suggestions".

Source : Reddit.

There was recently an update (Android 7.1.2) that makes the previous answer incorrect, the new directions are as follows:

Press and hold on the home screen until this dialogue appears:

Then simply press the settings icon and change the one that says app suggestions.

Source: experimenting

Oct 2019: This is the answer that still works:
Hold home screen > Home settings > Suggestions > Apps (disable)


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How to sort Google Account on Setting
lot of email currently signed in to my phone.
I accidently remove my email due Google Play Games problem. I want to my email back at top on list.
Is there any a way to do it?
Thank you

Which Android device and Android version are you using? Is it rooted?

If the device is rooted, change the order in the column _id of table accounts for your Google accounts in the database located at /data/system/users/0/accounts.db. Reboot and it would work. I successfully tested this on Android 5.1.1.

You will have to remove all of the other accounts and then add back the one you want first before the others.  There is no way to re-order accounts that have already been added.

that's the one I want to avoid.


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How do I get the location consent prompt back
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I do not mind when the location consent screen pops up when I turn on GPS, in fact I prefer it As I always choose disagree
The one that says "allow google's location service to collect anonymous data... etc "
Yesterday I hit agree and now the prompt does not come on when I turn on GPS.
In the past, if I went to location services and turned off high accuracy mode (GPS Only) it would bring back the prompt so I could disagree again.
Does anyone know how to get this prompt back (Get the dialog box back). I have tried resetting app preferences to default, disabling google app services, google play services, clearing the cache, opening location services and selecting GPS ONLY then re-enabling the google app and google apps, but nothing has worked..
I do NOT want to share anonymous information with google so I need this prompt back.
Also - Is there a way to get Location Services to default to GPS only instead of High Accuracy?
This is the opposite of THIS problem
Location consent annoyance

I tried this solution and it did not work

I tried the solution found here :
Location Consent & undo Remeber This Setting
It did not work the first time.
The second time I left GPS only enabled with GPS on when I rebooted.
That did the trick.
When the phone rebooted GPS was still in GPS only mode and when I turn GPS off then back on I got the "Improve location accuracy prompt again"


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Using Tasker to know if I'm at work for more than a minute
I use Tasker's Wifi Near option to activate some tasks in my phone when I arrive at my workplace. My problem is that sometimes I pass by my workplace, with no intention of entering, and the tasks get activated.
Is there a way to make Tasker activate the tasks IF I've been near my workplace's wifi spots for more than a minute?

Have you tried with multiple contexts? A location context may be helpful.

Use Tasker › Wait in the task. When your WiFi near fired, just have it waiting for e.g. 5min, then exit if no longer WiFi near, otherwise continue with your task.
You could also bring variables into play, e.g. setting %STAYATWORK to 1 if the WiFi is still in reach after the wait, and have your other tasks using that as context. In this case, don't forget to reset %STAYATWORK to 0 (or unset it) if the WiFi is no longer in reach :)

How would I know that Wifi Near is still active after the waiting time?

There's e.g. the %WIFII variable you can check, see user-guide.


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Android : How to load a custom ROM without SD-card
I have an Asus TF-201(rooted), on which I would like to install Android. I have downloaded the Cyanogenmod ROM/OS, which is in a ZIP file(200Mb), contains files like boot.blob, system.new.dat(405.9mb), etc.
I have copied the zip file in a Pen-drive and the pen-drive is plugged in on keyboard of its Dock. After that, I booted into the recovery mode by CWM, but when I say mount SD-Card, it says, cannot mount SD-card.
I also cannot find the option of exploring the internal-storage in recovery to point the location of ROM.zip. What should I do?
Next thing I tried was to sideload as I have a UBuntu system running which can recognize the tablet. As soon as I start the sideload command, I don't see any progress or anything, the command just waits with a blinking cursor, waited for 1 hour and pressed ctrl+c.
So, now I have a ROM image sitting on my tablet, but no way to boot into it. Can anyone help me with booting from it. Please note, the memory-card slot is damaged.
Is there any way to get to trigger the installation? Kindly let me know. Thank you.
Update
This is what I see :

In CWM there is an option Install Zip. Go into it and  you would be shown a  list with available storage as the options. Are you saying you're not getting that option?

There was a CyanogenMod Installer. But I think it was cancelled due being dangerous somehow. Might wanna check that - on your own risk of course.

@Firelord : When I click on choose zip from sdcard, it says E:Can't mount /sdcard/

What other options do you see there?

@Firelord : I updated the post to show what I see.. I see myself as well :D

@WeareBorg Can you try TWRP? Your CWM version is too old?

@Firelord : Should I uninstall CWM from the tablet. Also, I made a mistake, my tablet is tf101, not tf201. I will update the main post, and have already downloaded ROM for that. Right now I am installing TWRP manager from play-store. Correct?

I prefer flashing from fastboot but you can try with app and see if it works. The current recovery will be overwritten.

@Firelord : That TWRP thing didn't fly, I tell him to select zip, I mark two of them, Gapps and the ROM, it selects nothing. Uploading image. Can you please come on chat.#

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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One of my account can't login to google play
Now if I login to that account I got this screenshot

Obviously I press try again. It doesn't work.
A few hours ago I used that account to get some US apps.  However, I think I can logged in just fine afterward. Then suddenly I couldn't sign in to google play on that account.
I have no idea why.
It happens very recently. It's at roughly the same time google is asking me to create new ID.
Only happens on my xiaomi phone. I can play clash of clans with that account just fine at bluestack.
The other 2 accounts work fine on my xiaomi phone.
I tried deleting google play games app data. Removing and readding the account. Nothing works. The account works well on other phone or devices.
Other google apps works fine. drive, maps, youtube. All fine. Just google play game that somehow can't login to that account and only to that one specific game.

Google is in the process of switching to Gamer ID's. They've been rolling this out for around 6 days now since they announced it (they're further moving away from Google+).
Until you get the notification to choose your Gamer ID (or go into Play Games and receive a popup notification to choose yours), you could temporary downgrade your version of Play Games.
First, look version of your Google Play Games on Setting > App > Google Play Games.
Memorize the last 3 number (mine 038)
Second, download older Google Play Games from here (the last 3 number)
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-games/google-play-games-3-5-17-release/
Third, uninstall your current Google Play Games, and install the downloaded Play Games.
Good Luck.

still cannot login and still only on that one phone

I can logged in from my other phone on that account or from other accounts on that phone but not from for that account and that phone

make sure to disable auto update Google Play Games on Play Store.

It's fixed.
So basically I tried to switch to the account. Didn't work.
So I go to google play. I switch to the account there.
Rather than asking for login it asks me to gives id. It works. So basically what AMZMA says is correct. It's a temporary thing. However, it can only be fixed by going to google play and switch to the account.


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Play Store app download 100% then starts over to 0%
I can successfully download small apps like solitaire, but when I try to download larger apps/games that are 65 MB large, it downloads 100% then it starts over until I go in and cancel the download.
I have plenty of room on my phone and it can download apps (like booster, cache cleaner, etc) from other websites. I also have restarted my phone.
What could it be?

My suggestion is to clear your Play Store data, by accessing the app's info from your phone's Settings, and tapping on Clear Data. Please note that you'll have to reconfigure the Play Store's settings, afterwards.

You must clear cache of Playstore and download manager from Apps setting. and then restart your mobile.
I have done through this way, bro.

The 65MB thing is the APK of the app. An APK is a type of file which we can install on our devices.
The other thing is the additional file or the OBB. We cannot install OBB on our devices because it is a huge file and it would not be able to run in most of the devices. Therefore, Play Store uses this method. This process is completely normal and happens with everybody.
Let's assume that you download an app of 300 MB. The first 100%, Play Store would download the APK of the app. The next 100%, it'll show you, "Additional File for: XYZGAME" where it actually downloads the OBB file.

There Probable Causes Of Your Issue :-
Your device doesn't have enough space
Your device is Lagging (e.g Lower RAM)
Playstore is Misbehaving

You can try :-
1. Clear Complete Cache Of Playstore and data and then do fresh sign in with your existing email or new. 2. And make sure PlayStore is Updated. 3. Try Force Stopping PlayStore, it may also help..
If none of above solutions work and you want that App badly then you can try some Populer and even better PlayStore alternetive like Amazon App Store, Uptodown App Store or several like this (Check on Google for more Stores)..

It's the Play Store itself. Either download an old update back in 2015 variant or try the newer ones for 8.1+ Android devices

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


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Why does my phone automatically power off when there is still 2% battery?
My Moto X Play on Android 6.0 would automatically power off when the battery displays 2% remaining. When I try to turn it back on, I would get a "low battery" symbol, which means my phone didn't exactly run out of battery yet.
Why does this happen?
Additionally, how can this behaviour be overridden? (say in the event of an emergency and I need to use every last bit of the phone's power?)

Really bad behaviour of your device to wait until it's only 2% left. It should shutdown at 5% already, as deep-discharge is something LiIo and LiPo batteries really don't take easy (shortens their lifetime drastically, see e.g. When should I start charging my Lithium battery?)

@Izzy you're forgetting about battery saver mode of Lollipop and above.

@Firelord that doesn't change anything when the battery already is deep-discharged. And 2% really is dangerous.

@Izzy it does change things because it is suggested to user to be kicked in at 5% as well as 15% of battery level. So technically Google and the vendor considered battery level reaching below 5% not a bad thing. https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6187458?hl=en

If they'd not consider it a bad thing, they'd not suggest at 15%, would they? :) Nevertheless, it's not healthy to the battery to get "dry discharged". Even though the battery's processor hopefully keeps it away from a "sudden death" – and force a shutdown before it's too late. I'd say Aaron put it quite plastic in his answer :)

Prowler answers your first question well: "Why does this happen" -> Prevents data corruption.
To answer your question "How can this behavior be overridden?"
You can try:
setprop status.battery.level 50 from a shell terminal.
Note that bypassing the shutdown is 10x more risky than a battery pull. However, in a true emergency, benefit > risk.
Why it's more risky:
Battery pull = power loss to logic board, only unsaved data or partial writes / data-locks can cause corruption.
Dry-discharging battery = undervolting entire logic board, 3.0 volts instead of 3.7 volts can be like running your car on 8.5 volts instead of 12: Canbus stops responding, voltage leaks into serial connections, capacitors explode, etc. The same can happen inside your phone, except it's that RAM doesn't hold its correct value, processor misinterprets, accidentally writes the wrong NAND cells, etc, more so after hooking the phone w/ trashed battery up to a charger. The voltage difference between live power and undervolt battery can cause the same leakage onto the I2C bus. (Ever use a car charger with aux cord hooked up to the stereo... The alternator feedback is considered a "safe" amount of leakage onto the I2C bus.)

Why does my phone power off?

It looks like that Android code automatically shuts down when the voltage is 3.4V , battery is 0% . See this answer
Purpose of shutdown as in this answer and also clarified here

This is intended to make sure applications save any required information to disk that is specific to shutting down to prevent loss of user information.

Why does it show low battery symbol indicating phone hasn't run out of battery yet?

Battery status is not real time and probably would take some time to show the actual status

Most Android devices don't have a current sensor or Coloumb sensor (My phone Huawei Honor 6 has that sensor ).This sensor when coupled with voltage sensor gives more accurate charge levels. Voltage is derived from only from the voltage sensor, in the absence of current sensor.  The fuel gauge sensor uses this to track battery State of Charge (SoC), which may not be real time as this . Another source  Is the battery icon on your Android phone telling you the truth? says that
updating battery SoC information is manufacturer dependent and not Android driven (emphasis mine and I haven't found any other source to corroborate this)

We contacted Google about this, and the indication is that the battery data given in the Settings is the correct one. The updating of the icon happens "every so often", we're told; quite how often is entirely up to the manufacturer, rather than being part of the Android code

Further voltage is NOT a true indicator of the amount of charge. Li Ion batteries display a "flattish" voltage drop even though the amount of charge falls relatively steep as seen here at Fig.2

How can this behavior be overridden?

For versions earlier than 4.2, disabling auto shut down is possible per this DisableCriticalBatteryShutdown. I have not tried this nor do I intend ever trying it, since I always try to charge my battery once it drops to 20% for reasons that become clear on reading Table 2
IMHO, it is an awful idea to let the battery drain to such levels firstly and even worse to attempt to squeeze last drops of juice from it. I would rather recommend in investing in a power bank, if this is a frequent requirement with you
If power bank is not an option, you could use an automation app like MacroDroid to sound an alarm at desired voltage levels, say at 15% (uploaded macro accessible from main menu has a macro for doing exactly this). On alarm sounding, disable services/ apps not required to prolong battery life. In Marshmallow according to Compatibility Definition Document quoted here should give you a complete view of app and hardware power usage

It is not healthy for it to wait until 2%. It should auto power down at around 5%. It is a feature designed to help prevent hardware damage and data corruption. There is no way to over ride it unless somehow, you changed the core code of the OS.
Edit: There is a way to do it without recoding the OS. My bad.

Battery saver mode lets you use your phone below 5% and it is even recommended by Google. See https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6187458?hl=en. Nowhere it is mentioned there that below 5% would affect battery life.


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Screen angle and brightness
I experienced the same on some Android devices: when changing the angle the screen is looked at, I see that the image gets darker or brighter.
I would like to know if it is so on all devices or just some of them.

What particular device are you talking about. Are you using glasses? I never experienced something like you described on any of my devices (granted they are all Samsung devices with 3 out of 4 being former flagships).

This is affected by the manufacturer of your device, as well as your own device settings. Different manufacturers use different types of screens for different devices. Some of the different types are: TFT-LCD screens, as well as different kinds of AMOLEDs. I have had one Sony and one Samsung, and have noticed that even though the Sony has higher pixel density and brightness, it cannot be viewed from certain tilts and when natural sun light reflects on the screen, its content goes practically invisible until shaded.

here is a link which explains some of the differences of screen types: http://www.androidauthority.com/amoled-vs-lcd-differences-572859/


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Facebook message read on desktop, but still marked as unread on Android phone
So the problem is, when I'm on my computer and I'm chatting on Facebook through safari, the messages show up as notifications on my phone. They do not go away, even though I am reading them and answering them through my computer. Do any of you know if there is a way to sort of 'sync' this up? Right now, if I chat with 5 people simultaneously on my computer, I have to get rid of five notifications and chat heads on my phone afterwards which is pretty annoying..
Kind regards, Jonas

Delete Facebook messenger on your phone and use the latest Chrome for Android update with Webkit Push Notifications to browse Facebook. (More secure, still get notifications, no app permissions, FB can't access your SMS/calls but they'll still track you around via cookies for personal advertising...)


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Getting "App2SD is not supported" error when trying to move an app to my SD card
I’m using an Android LG Tribute phone, which I have rooted.  I want to move some apps to my SD Card and so I installed the “LInk2SD” app (because there was no “Move to SD Card” for any of my applications in the Settings -> App section of my phone).  When I go into Link2SD, select an application, and click the “Move to SD Card” button, I get the error
App2SD is not supported by your device. Because your device has a primary external storage which is emulated from the internal storage. You can link the app in order to move its files to your SD card.

I have read in other posts that the solution is to link instead of move, however in each application, the “LINK TO SD CARD” button is greyed out.  I don’t care particularly about Link2SD but I am interested in how I can start moving some stuff to my SD Card.  Any advice about fixing the above error message is appreciated, - Dave


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After deleting all pictures, internal storage view still shows over 6GB of pictures
I connected my nexus 5 to my computer in MTP mode and deleted all pictures I could find. But after deleting all pictures (I looked in the DCIM, pictures, panoramas, whatsapp pictures), it shows still over 6GB in pictures in the internal storage view.
I even used the windows search to search for *.jpg and *.png files, but besides a handul of small files, I cannot find the missing 6GB of pictures. How can I find where the other pictures are located?

It's possible that the storage left hasn't been recalculated. Restart your device and see if that does anything.

another explanation is Gallery application buffering old images in .thumbnails file. See if You have 'show hidden files' enabled in options, and next see also Settings => applications => Gallery : how much memory is listed under "data"? (if it is huge - cleaning cache would help)


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my device doesn't switch on it keeps restarting is there anyway i can get my contacts numbers
My samsung note 4 edge doesn't open after a software problem it keeps restarting every time it opens and it doesn't take even 5 seconds then it goes of , is there anyway i can get my contacts numbers although they are still in the device but cant copy them since it auto restart every time i switch on and i dont have a backup :'( , thank you in advance ..

Where/when does it restart? Be specific.

Tried booting into Safe mode?

@AaronGillion as soon as it goes on 5 seconds after showing the wallpaper it goes off and restart .

@Manubhargav i did try and still ..

That 5 seconds can be a life changer. That should be just enough to copy a few files at a time over plain USB connection. You'd really have about 15 seconds as MTP is initiated mid-way through the boot animation.
That will get your photos, but not the app data from contacts. Those should be synced with your Google acoount, even if you turned off "backup my data to Google" in "Backup and Reset", but you have sync turned on with a checkmark next to "Contacts".
If that doesn't help, try to use that 5 seconds to enable USB debugging from settings, and launch an adb backup -system -noapk via ADB from mid-way past the boot animation when USB is recognized. You may also be able to use adb from recovery mode, which will give you enough time for a complete backup.
This is all assuming you have a locked bootloader. If you're on T-mobile or international edition, your bootloader is unlocked. You can easily recover data after flashing TWRP, CWM, or Philz Touch via Odin.

That adb backup would never be able to achieve success since: 1) contacts are never backed up by ADB unless Samsung deliberately messed up, 2) all system apps can't be backed up in five seconds. Once the device reboots the connection would end and the partial backup would be of no use. Since the whole cycle would have to repeated, it would only cause headache. 3) Stock recoveries (at least <3e>) doesn't offer shell access let alone root access so contacts and photos still can't be backed up using a stock recovery.

MTP wouldn't help as well. MTP is slow to process, everyone knows. Once the device reboots and under five seconds you select MTP as USB connection mode, you'd still have to browse the files in PC needed to be  copied from phone. The time is too small to do anything useful. // That method about sync is a trial and error. It doesn't guarantee that it would work. Provide us a method that gives the user a good clue that contacts were indeed synced in five seconds.

// Since the rest of the methods are not useful or good, consider telling us how to flash at least one of the custom recovery and then how to use it for the desired goal.  Thanks!


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contacts are not showing when I don't add a phone number
Contacts aren't showing when I don't add a phone number.
I add tap the phone icon, I tap the person icon with the plus, I enter a name and email address.  I tap "done". It says "contact saved".   Then I hit back and look at the list and it's not there when it should be. I restart the phone and it's still not there.

Does it show in the People or Contacts app? Because the phone app contact list usually only shows contacts with phone numbers, but the People/Contacts app should show all contact, similarly the Email app usually does not show contacts without email addresses.

@acejavelin yes I know, see my answer. I answered my own question.

I have to wonder why you want contacts with no phone number to show up in your dialer application, of what use is that?

I didn't say I did want them to show in the dialer application I just said I want to see them i.e. see them somewhere.  I wasn't aware of "contacts" or "people".  (or was aware of "contacts", though couldn't see it, and it turned out it was called "people").

One semi-workaround is to add 0 for phone number, though that won't deal with contacts not showing prior to that i.e. when no number was entered at all.
What will work though is look for an app called "contacts" or "people". That app will list all contacts including ones where no phone number was entered.  That's  the solution. So those contacts aren't lost.
If you don't see the "contacts" or "people" app, then you could check if it's installed under settings..apps..all.  And you could try putting it in safe mode by holding the power button until it says "power off", and then when it says "power off", hold power off.  Then it asks to go into safe mode, then say ok, and let it restart into safe mode. Then see if you see the app, to make sure a third party app wasn't blocking it.. hopefully you will see it.  I saw it I think even in normal mode, it was just called "people" rather than "contacts. Whether it's "people" or "contacts" might depend on OS version.


text:
Unfortunately process.com.android.phone has stopped unexpectedly error whenever i disconnect a call
Instead of call duration and other details, i get "Unfortunately process.com.android.phone has stopped unexpectedly error" whenever i disconnect a call. I am not able to check the prepaid balance of my phone. No USSD code works properly. This is happening in my new LetV 1s phone.
I have cleared the cache mentioned in the sites as a resolution. I even did a factory reset. Still it is not working.
Kindly help me in this regard.
Thanks and Regards,
Veena

Try clearing data of

Phone (com.anddroid.server.telecom)
In-call Interface (com.android.incallui)
Dialer (com.android.dialer)

You could temporarily download TrueDialer or any other 3rd party Dialer.
If possible a provide a logcat.

Can you explain why clearing data of those particular apps would work even when factory reset (which already clears data of all the apps) didn't help?

Assuming the dialer crashes because of a bug, the best course of action would be to clear its data and install a 3rd party app. Since those 3 apps manage calling, USSD etc. wiping their data would make sure the crash did not leave bad data.


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How to stop music apps from changing lockscreen
I am not new to Android, but this is the first thing that has actually stumped me. I noticed my default music app (Xperia Z1ˢ BTW) and Spotify both change my lock screen to the album of whatever I'm listening to. Is there any way to turn this feature off easily? I know my way around android, but I don't know the coding language. This isn't really a problem, but a few album art covers are not exactly school appropriate.
update
I have checked the default music app settings, and there is no option to change for this issue either. I'm using Android 5.0.2, and the offensive album art is through Spotify. I also have checked my settings for this, there are no "music" options.

Did you check your lockscreen settings?

As an aside, there should be a setting in the concerned app for disabling this feature. You could also delete any offensive album art (they are those JPG files stored with your music), in which case a blank screen with music controls will be shown on the lock screen. BTW, what is your Android version?

I have posted an update in the question.

You can achieve this by blocking all notifications from the app. This will prevent Spotify from showing any notifications, including the album art on the lockscreen. The app will still work and play without issue.
Keep in mind this also prevents Spotify from showing the play controls on the lockscreen as well, so if you want to play/pause/next-track/previous-track, you will have to open your phone. I would suggest adding the Spotify widget to your home screen so you have quick access if you need to pause playback quickly.
Thankfully, you can still control the volume with the hardware volume buttons, even if the screen is off/locked, so if you quickly need to stop music you could at least turn the volume down quickly.
Below is quick tutorial. I'm running an older version of Android but you should still have the option to Block All notifications regardless. Your options will just look a little different from mine. Hopefully this works and is sufficient for your needs!

Confirmed to work on Android 8.1.0

This option isn't implemented in the spotify app yet. This has been posted on the Spotify community forum as a "New Idea" -  Option to disable album art on lock screen and is still in the same status.
The only way I could think you can turn the album art on lockscreen off is by completely turning off the notification for Spotify app(Settings -> Sound & notifications -> App notification -> Spotify -> Block). But this would hide all the notifications.

More up-to-date version of the Spotify "idea": https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Android-Music-Disable-Album-Art-on-Lock-Screen-Option/idi-p/1411721

That is marked duplicate actually in the Spotify site already. Please check properly before posting any useful information. Thanks.

The "idea" you linked is inactive. I'm well aware that the one I linked is a duplicate but it's the one that's active.

Even if it is marked inactive it will still be considered by spotify. Inactive doesn't mean it's closed or rejected. The number of persons to vote that feature should be atleast 50/year to make that idea active again. So again as I said that a duplicate of the inactive idea.

There are 2 Xposed modules for this, I'm also a Spotify user and I hate when whatever OG rapper's explicit album art shows up on my lockscreen.
.
http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.chaimchaikin.lockscreenalbumartremover

Removes full screen Album Art (i.e. when playing music) from the lock screen for Android 5.x

.
http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.audio.privacy

Removes album art and title/artist information from lock screen audio
  controls (and any other RemoteController) On 5.0 and 5.1 only the
  album art hiding is effective as the controls are player specific. If
  you want to hide these too, set a password and configure your phone to
  hide notifications for your player.

.
I use the second one because I'm on Kitkat. Haven't had any issues.
You'll need a rooted phone to install Xposed framework, but it's definitely worth it. (GravityBox/XBlast Tools are the most common add-ons, which let you customize SystemUI -- status bar colors, clock, screen off animation, etc.)

There is a general way of blocking apps from changing your lock screen. Go to Settings -> Device -> Display -> Screen wakes to: and change it from "Lock Screen Notifications" to "Unlock".
Keep in mind that this will block ALL apps from changing your lock screen, not just music apps ...but it seems like only music apps use this feature anyway.
*This is for Android 6.0 but it is probably the same for Android 5.0. The exact path to this setting my be different depending on your OS.

if rooted + edxposed, you can use GravityBox:
lockscreen tweaks -> disable media art
tested on OnePlus 6T OOS 10.3.2 (Android Q)

Hello Snuupy. Does GravityBox [L] has this setting? OP has mentioned to be using Android 5.

I don't know but if you're on Lollipop in 2020 you might want to get a new phone :)


text:
Enter Issuer / Provider name manually in Google Authenticator App
In Google Authenticator app, while setting up the account manually (i.e. not scanning the QR Code), how we can enter the issuer name (i.e. provider / service name like Google, Evernote, Facebook, etc..) along with an account name (generally an email / login id).


text:
How to Root a Droid RAZR HD running Android 4.4.2?
I'm trying to root my Motorola Droid RAZR HD running Android 4.4.2, and I can't find any working instructions anywhere for how to root it. I've looked over the XDA Developer forums, but many results assume that the phone is already rooted.
I've made sure that all Motorola drivers are updated on my computer, as well as having developer mode unlocked on the phone.
I've tried following the XDA thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1943851, and when I run the run.bat file, the console either gets stuck on "Waiting for device" or "daemon started successfully", after which nothing happens. I've left both results running for >30min, with no results.
Is there something I'm doing wrong here with this guide, or is there a better/simpler way to root the phone? Also, do I need to factory reset my phone prior to rooting for best results, or can rooting be performed on a used phone?
I have checked the rooting index, and the Droid RAZR HD isn't indexed.
EDIT: I have been informed by Tamoghna Chowdhury that the above link is for Android 4.0 ICS, not 4.4.2 KitKat.

Is the phone showing USB Debugging Connected in the notifications area when you plug it into your computer?

Also, the thread you linked is for Android 4.0 ICS. I suspect it won't work for KitKat

Probably the drivers also won't work.

Confirmed. This won't work. It uses a root exploit limited to ICS only.

Have you checked this out?

@Tamoghna Chowdhury USB Debugging is connected.

The link you posted has a download for Hydrogen Peroxide, but my antivirus blocked it because it was an Android Rooter. Can you confirm if this is a problem?

Of course it is an Android rooter.

It shouldn't be a problem, but it's at your own risk (Note: People won't get away with posting malware on XDA, so you needn't worry)

Also, if you don't want that, use TowelRoot or KingoRoot.

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/93449/how-can-i-root-my-4-4-2-razr-maxx-hd-verizon?rq=1

As documented in the linked question, TowelRoot may not work.

My kernel is recent enough to fall into the Hydrogen Peroxide category according to your XDA link.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Thanks to Tamoghna Chowdhury for the links to the XDA Developers thread. Apparently, my kernel date is too new and I can't unlock the bootloader on my phone. In order to root it, I would need to flash XT926 firmware on it as well. Closing question.


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My bluetooth headphone is paired however sound is still from my phone?
I paired my bluetooth to my phone. Then I pair it also to my computer.
I turned on my headphone. I wonder where it will pair too? To my computer or to my headphone?
In any case both my computer and my smartphone say that the bluetooth is paired.

Screenshot (click to enlarge)
So it's paired. However, no sound would show up on my headphone.
Usually I turned on my headphone and I will be listening to my smartphone sound right away. Now it isn't.
Can Bluetooth device connect to several devices at once? Is that where the confusion is?

Can Bluetooth device connect to several devices at once? Is that where
  the confusion is?

Yes, but you can play sound from only one of the connected devices at a point in time, not both.
For example, my SBH80 headphone from Sony supports connecting two or three devices to it. But there's a catch. You could only listen to sound coming from the device that connected to the headphone first. In other cases, none will play through the headphone. Some headphones are kinda designed to play sound in a first-come-first-serve approach. Others get confused, and don't play anything at all.
To get your music playing, ensure only one device is connected to the headset.

Usually I turned on my headphone and I will be listening to my
  smartphone sound right away. Now it isn't.

This is happening because your computer probably connected to headphone first. Disconnect PC and sound should resume automatically. If it doesn't automatically, re-pair (not take to the repair shop!) the headphone with the phone.

What about if my bluetooth is paired with some device and then I lost access to that device? Is there a way to make a bluetooth headphone unpair from all devices?

@JimThio That'll be possible if there's a way you can, perhaps via an android phone app created specifically for the headset, make these kinda smart if-this-that conditions for the headset. I don't know of any of that kind yet, that you can let it disconnect from all if only single device is offline.


text:
Synch a phone to Linux PC without Google
Is there a way to synch the SMS/Calendar/Contacts/what not (I am not talking about files, and pictures, etc.) to a Linux (Ubuntu) PC? The quirk is to bypass Google in the process.So I would envision an App running on the phone sending all data to the PC in, say CSV or something like that... Can you advise?

Sure there is – at least for contacts/calendars (keywords: CardDAV/CalDAV). You might be interested in reading my Android without Google blog series, especially: Android without Google 2: ownCloud.

@Izzy
That makes a lot of sense! Thank you. (I think you should expand your comment into an answer.)

Why the heck did this question get down-voted?

I don't know. I just wonder why my answer didn't get upvoted – especially as you explicitly asked me to post it ;)

can anyone add something about integration with thunderbird?

There are multiple ways to achieve this, at least for calendars and contacts:

On Windows: Check out MyPhoneExplorer. Offers a lot of additional features like Backup Assistant, file browser, managing calls – and also syncs SMS.
Using a CalDAV/CardDAV server of your choice, such as Baïkal or ownCloud. I use the latter – so for details, take a look at my article Android without Google 2: ownCloud. This would be independent of the OS on your computer, but you will need a web server. Big advantage: You can access your data from anywhere you've got a web browser working. And with ownCloud this also can include your documents, photo galleries, and more.


text:
Unlocking the screen of Nexus 4 from pc
I am trying to unlock myphone through pc as the screen is broken and does not work. For now only power and volume buttons work.
I tried looking around and found about ADK but whenever I tried to run adb shell it says "no device found". Although my device is connected to pc but it only shows the internal memory if its unlocked.
Secondly, I saw some suggestions to update the values of tables using sqlite3. I also tried to use sqlite3 to update and change values to enable usb debugging on cellphone and also tried to reset the gesture lock but was able to do so.
I also have usb on the cable but I found out that Nexus 4 does not support usb mouse/keyboard.
For now I need to enable USB debugging somehow so I can use the mouse or keyboard.
Basically what I am trying to do is to enable usb-debugging on cellphone and unlock it. If I am able to do that then I would be able to use usb mouse
Is there any way to unlock and enable usb debugging through pc?

Are you using stock recovery <3e>?

Could you tell me more about this ? I havent use that so far

I've just added 2 more tags to your question. Please check with our locked-out and broken-screen tag-wikis, which both hold some background and first aid on the issue. Btw: Some formatting of your question cannot hurt (adding some line breaks at least ;)

Given that you do not know about that, I would only assume that your device has stock recovery installed. In that case, note that any attempt to enable USB debugging in Android OS would fail since that recovery doesn't grant shell access, let alone root access. You don't have any option as it seems since flashing a custom recovery would require unlocking bootloader which would wipe the device. Best is to factory reset the device now.

Probably related: Broken screen while debug mode was disabled. How can I re-enable adb?

is it possible to unlock the cellphone through android system recovery?


text:
Why are calendar events spontaneously appearing in my phone, or Is My Phone Haunted?
Today my phone beeped during class reminding me of an event I never added to my calendar. It said, 'Jason 2/24/16'. Later today I have another event which I never added, 'Jason 2/24/16 3:30p'. Tomorrow I have an event (also never added myself), 'Jason 2/25/16 10-11a'. A few weeks ago I encountered a similar phenomena, but there was also another name used for a few events, 'Lindsay'. I deleted these old events, but I can post screenshots of the recent ones if anyone needs 'proof'. I say this because I expect some skepticism due to the circumstances of this situation.
What I am looking for is an explanation. There are some things to consider:

My phone is always on my person and is protected by a password, so it's nigh impossible for someone to have added the calendar events directly with the phone.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S4 (carrier Verizon), and the built-in calendar application (I believe its Samsung's own software) syncs with Google calendar. Checking my Google calendar shows none of these Jason or Lindsay events. So the events were not synced up, and they were added to the phone calendar somehow.
I don't use any apps that to my knowledge would affect the calendar, though I imagine there are some that have the ability to add to the calendar.
I have no friends or acquaintances named Jason or Lindsay.
After this happened the first time, I checked through the next ten weeks or so to make sure there were no more of these types of events. The last time I checked was probably a few days ago. So the events appeared recently.
Looking up Jason and Lindsay I found the Jenner Double-Murder case. I have no involvement in that case and knew nobody involved. For what it's worth, I live in California. The prospect of some connexion scares me.

I have three hypothetical explanations:

Some wayward app is adding events and is either doing this as an easter egg prank or just some bug or something like that.
Someone is somehow able to access my phone indirectly and is adding these calendar events. Who or why is unknown.
My phone is haunted or has a demon in it.

Sounds like an account that's added on your phone is logged in somewhere else, where someone is creating the events. Do you share a common computer with anyone where this may be happening?

Change your Google account's password and delete the events

I have two Google accounts on the phone. I checked both and they have not been accessed by any other devices besides mine. I also have two-step verification for both accounts.

This could be as mundane as someone invited to you a meeting incorrectly, perhaps they invited the wrong Gmail address? Look at the calendar entry and see who the Organizer is

Check your google calendars to see if your calendar is being shared to other people.

I think it is either ley lines or aliens. There is the highly unlikely possibility that someone just has access to your calendar. Sadly this question is also off-topic for SU as it doesn't involve computers.

I don't believe the top comments that was made in 2016 by these other people
I believe that there is something definitely wrong with this picture no one can never access to no one calendars or even email addresses.. This is a very good question that no one can really answer but I believe that there is an attachment to that phone from the past somehow.. Do some research on those specific dates and the name of those people from a possible past on those very same days.


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Disable TouchWiz launcher on a rooted Samsung device
I used a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (Android 4.1.2) and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 (Android 4.4.2) for a product. I have been searching for ways to disable permanently the Launcher of Samsung's TouchWiz application (leave the rest as it is). I've found only two approaches which do not fit my needs. Both of them are:

Replace the launcher with another launcher one, and
Rooting the device and replacing the stock ROM with a custom ROM.

This is what I'm currently doing, but it's not enough because if my custom launcher (developed myself) crashes, then the selection box will ask again to set the default launcher (mine or TouchWiz's). I want TouchWiz's to get out of the equation (list of available launchers).
Replacing the ROM is not an option because I would have to test again my whole product. So this is not an option.
Is there a way to disable the TouchWiz's launcher component of the TouchWiz app? Maybe through ADB? If anyone knows I would love the help.
My devices are rooted and my custom launcher is a system app.

It's easy. Install Nova launcher (or the like), set it as default, then root uninstall TW launcher. Your problem is your custom app is crashing.

@AaronGillion How would I uninstall Touchwiz Launcher without uninstalling the whole Touchwiz?

You can't uninstall the entire thing. That's why we have custom ROMs. You can find the launcher at /system/priv-app/TouchWizHome.apk. The rest of TouchWiz is contained in SystemUI and framework-res.

@AaronGillion There is no TouchWizHome.apk neither in /system/priv-app/ nor in /system/app/. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (4.1.2) and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 (4.4.2)

My S5 uses that location, the S4 uses /system/priv-app/SecLauncher3.apk and the Note 2 uses SecLauncher2.apk

Found /system/priv-app/SecLauncher3.apk and /system/priv-app/SecLauncher3.odex. Should I disable just the APK using pm or do I need to do something to the .odex file as well?

Yeah, pm disable and the odex doesn't make a difference after that.

There's no need to uninstall the TouchWiz's launcher or install a new ROM. The solution to this particular scenario is to disable the package associated with the TouchWiz's launcher APK (thanks to @AaronGillion for pointing out its name and location).
To do this, just execute the following command as root in the ADB shell:
pm disable com.sec.android.app.launcher

In both, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7" WiFi (Android 4.1.2) and Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7" WiFi (Android 4.4.2), the previous command worked correctly.
Having my custom launcher installed but having selected deliberately the TouchWiz launcher as the default launcher, after disabling its package, my custom launcher was set automatically as the new default launcher.
Just as a side note, notice that I had the same results on both tablets even though I installed the custom launcher as a regular app on Tab 3 and as a system app (/system/priv-app/) on Tab 4.

Use Titanium Backup to force uninstall it (possibly?) but make a backup in case your launcher doesn't work correctly.

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


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Wiped data, cache and everything on Sony Xperia Neo V MT11i, now it's stuck at Sony Logo!
I'm new to the enter flashing and rooting business. So I would like to get some assistance from you guys regarding this issue of mine... here's what I did:

Installed CWM via APK on my Xperia Neo V Mt11i
Got into recovery soon
Wiped the data, cache and everything...
I tried installing a ROM from the zip file, turns out it was for "Mt11a!"
And I exited the whole thing, pulled my SD out and got another ROM...this where things went wrong, my phone's stuck in the "sony" logo now... and I'm not able to get into CWM either...

Here's what all I tried and what I got in result:

Tried flashing the phone using flashtool, but I keep getting "error processing of loader.sin ended with errors" and flash is cancelled!!
Next I tried CWM install, it says "ADB server is out of date, killing"...

I'm out of options guys, please help me out and tell me what best can I do resolve either those 2 errors or just a new method! Please help me out!

First thing is to make sure your phone is charged fully, or at least above 80%.
Also make sure you're connection to the PC is undamaged, USB ports in good condition, USB cable too.
Make sure you have the correct drivers for your device and the all the correct information about the device to prevent installing another incorrect rom.
If you get the adb to work using those tips, clear the cache and data etc. On the phone to remove any chance of the correct rom being corrupt by the one you tried to install before. (Don't forget gApps!!)

Your answer doesn't address the errors "error processing of loader.sin ended with errors" and "ADB server is out of date, killing".


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Login to Android 6.0 with NFC card and Password
I am evaluating MI5 and its NFC functionality.
I am considering to compliment my Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9506 with MI5 because of various significant improvements in the hardware, software and sufficient expected userbase.
I am trying to have two-step/three step security for the login of the phone by

NFC card (preferably dynamic) and Password
NFC card, finger print and password

There is a Security application in the new MI5 but I have not been able to profile it. I think it provides finger print and password authentication by default.
I am going to replace the MIUI 7.0 OS with CyanogenMod 13 when sufficient experience of the device has been reached.
NFC card
I would like to have a dynamic NFC card with time-dependent generation of authentications for the phone, like many bank systems work.
However, I have not found such a card with battery yet.
I think it should be possible with the dynamic NFC technology.
YubiKey with smartphones motivated by Aleza's answer
I found this review about the product here in Amazon.com

Love it for the desktop (I'm using it for LastPass and Gmail 2nd form
  authentication), but it sucks on mobile (which the a big reason I
  purchased it). The NFC range is terrible! I've tried everything
  (different positions, moving it, holding it still, restating the
  phone, toggling NFC on/off, restoring my phone's O/S, etc.) to get it
  to register but it only works 1-in-20 times. When I contacted YubiKey
  support then said to hold it closer... saying that because it's an
  unpowered device the range is very limited. But, I'm pressing and
  holding (20-30 seconds) it right against the back of the phone right
  where they said to hold it -- the only way to get closer would be to
  take the back of the phone off ;-(.
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy 5, which they said they've had a lot of
  trouble with (though apparently the S6 is worse so be ware). I get
  that support from one phone to another can be iffy, but when 1/16" is
  out of range for a wireless connection, I would suggest there's a real
  design flaw.
Disappointing...

I would like to get more pieces of information from the support about their sensitivity and reliability. They do not allow contacts from new customers; only from existing customers. I do not like such a philosophy; it does not confirm me.
Thoughts about the product

Why is YubiKey's NFC weak in some products?
Why you cannot get a replacement of weak YubiKeys? How are the warranty and return policies?
What is the company behind the product?
Can the company recover the NFC key of the customer?
Does the company maintain a database to whom they have sold those keys?

How can you use NFC card with password as login in Android >=6.0?

Not supported by default in Android 6-7 without extra applications. Waiting to get the feature in Android 8 or later by default because the feature is about security.

You can try YubiKey for an NFC card. It's not dynamic.
For NFC unlock + password, you can try SmartpassLock NFC.
Another (overkill) approach would be to use a contactless JavaCard (for example this one) that needs to have an applet in it, and infrastructure to support this kind of architecture. And then also develop an app on android for this(there are some smartcards apps, but havent tried them yet), the card uses a private and public key scheme.
Most apps, identifies the UID of the card to unlock, if you want something thats not off the shelf, a bit a coding will be needed.
Hope this helps!

Can you tell us how you came to know about YubiKey? Furthermore, can you give a use case of the software involved? I don't think an answer for a bounty should be a one-liner.

I extended the body for the review of YubiKey. Its reliability does not confirm me. Their support is also weak.


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Samsung S5 mini supports Gamepad through OTG?
I saw a video and some discussion where people just plug and play gamepads on to Android phones.
I've got a Samsung S5 mini (SM G800F, Android 4.4.2, not rooted). Bought a wire USB SNES Clone + OTG from ebay, plugged to my phone but nothing happened: tested on games, an app to debug gamepads, with a different and new USB Gamepad etc; I thought the USB OTG was damaged, because I tested with two different usb gamepads, so I bought a new setup ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301836055385 ) + a different OTG cable from a different manufacturer. It doesn't work!
Used this app to check for OTG support:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.btssm.doihaveotg
It's supported but no devices are listed / none found;
Devices tested:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-OTG-Android-Phone-Mobile-Retro-Gaming-Controller-Gamepad-Snes-Style-Pad-/291568165867?hash=item43e2d123eb:g:K10AAOSwVL1V~Rtn
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301836055385
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331719411548
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151860529835
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262031124734

What's your question?

Does the Samsung S5 mini supports Gamepad through OTG?

There is a fix for this OTG here http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5-mini/help/usb-host-otg-t2855675/page2 BUT you have to install a custom Kernel. I did this on mine and it means you cannot get the 5.1.1 update from your carrier. SO i had OTG working fin for a while. Then reset phone so i could update to 5.1.1 via KIES but now now OTG again. Not sure if I can use the customer Kernel with 5.1.1 , did it so long ago now id be no help helping anyone, but it is my 2 cents worth.


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Syncing entire SD card makes phone hot/unresponsive

Samsung Galaxy S Relay
Android 4.4.4
Cyanogenmod 11

I've tried many different solutions to sync my phone's SD cards with a computer over Wi-Fi, leaving them to run overnight because there's so much data (~30 GB), but in the morning the phone is slow and unresponsive, warm to the touch, apps like Gentle Alarm don't work, etc.  It becomes so slow that when I try to use it, it eventually stops responding completely and reboots itself.  I've tried:

FolderSync
Syncthing
Samba on phone
FTP server on phone
SSHDroid on phone and SyncBack on computer
iDrive Backup

At first I assumed it was because the apps were flawed, so I tried different solutions, but since it happens with all of them, it seems it's a more fundamental OS problem, like accessing too many files at a time or sending too much data over the network causes the phone to become unstable?  Maybe a memory leak or it opens files and never closes them or something?  How can I diagnose this and make it workable?  When I look at CPU/memory usage, it seems normal?  (Though it reboots while I'm trying to check, so a CPU/memory usage logger would be better.)

Continuous data read and write in massive amount uses a good amount of CPU and greater the spikes in CPU the greater the heat it would generate. Try using a kernel or an app which can set the CPU at a specific (low or moderate) frequency. It would affect the read/write speed but overheating would remain under control. I've a related answer here: High CPU load during file copy to SD card

@Firelord Ok, but why would the phone continue to have problems after the sync has been stopped?  I would guess that phones automatically throttle their CPU when they're overheating, but it probably depends on manufacturer?

Throttling  depends upon the kernel and then on the chipset. Mainly kernel controls the state of CPU. And you're forgetting that you're using a nightly build. Are you aware of this question: Recommendation for questions pertaining to a problem specific to a nightly build of a ROM

@Firelord It's not related to the nightly build; I've been trying this off and on with different solutions for months, including before I started using the nightly

How do you know it is not? But if you know it is not the OS then you would've already found the cause by now.  // The kernel you're using comes from a nightly build. // The solutions you've noted here doesn't seem to contradict my claim.

I know it's not related to the nightly build because it's been happening since before I started using the nightly build, as I said above.   Thanks for arbitrarily closing my question because it had a particular word in it.

There are some testings that I need to know if you're comfortable with it: does this happen if you don't use the apps at all? Have you tried syncing some files on internal storage and see if this occurs? I have a hunch it's a problem with syncing external storage to cloud. Also, are there many small files, or only some big files? How often you sync it?

@AndrewT. "does this happen if you don't use the apps at all" No.  " tried syncing some files on internal storage"  I believe it happened with that, too, but I'll check.  There are many small files.  It happens during the first attempt at syncing, so it's transferring the entire card.

@AndrewT. Full sync of 1 GB / 27,000 files from internal "/sdcard" had no problems, so you might be right that it's specifically related to the external SD.  do you have a theory for why?

I still don't have any conclusion (hardware is not my strength), but I think it might be related to SD card read speed, the device memory, or the network speed. Probably there's a bottleneck between reading the file while syncing, which make it fail, but due to retry policy, the app still tries to sync it (and probably memory leak due to it), overheating the WiFi/device... or the SD card "temporarily died" due to extensive read while the app syncs. Unfortunately I can only provide one theory, which based on my experience, but I can't certainly answer it.

I've removed some of my comments  since the post has been reopened by community and they would have only confused new readers when left intact.

Argh this happened again. I installed iDrive Backup, and in the morning my alarm didn't go off because Gentle Alarm had been killed.  Other apps would open but then would lock up when trying to access files?  I rebooted and it said "Rebooting..." forever and didn't actually do anything until I held down the power button.  So it's not any particular app, just something about trying to back up lots of files.

@endolith:  How hot is the phone?  For what it's worth, certain apps can tell you the battery temperature (with help from the thermistor built into every Android phone battery).  Also, other apps can tell you the CPU temperature.  Please [edit] your question and enlighten us.  Also, you can use some external device to measure the phone's external temperature.  Maybe a thermal imaging camera?


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How can blind users enter (keyboard) characters without resorting to a braille I/O device?
If I am unable to use my eyesight¹ and also unable to use my mouth², then how can I comfortably enter characters into my device using only one free hand?
Suppose TalkBack is enabled. Is there gestures I can perhaps (set up or register and then) use to enter characters or Chinese idiograms into the device (without using the keyboard given that hovering over keyboard keys and having each key sounded out by TalkBack seems awkward and using the keyboard with TalkBack seems unnatural to me at least)?

¹ for instance because my screen may be blinded by a very intense outdoors sun or because my eyes may be undergoing adaptation from intense light to dark light environments or vice-versa or because of an accident or because I may be taking part in an experiment requiring me to have my eyes covered with a bandage wrapped around my eyes or because I may have headphones on so as not to make noise and may be sleeping in a place with beds sharing a common room and the light coming from my device would wake others up and lead me into trouble
² for instance I may have a piccolo or other musical mouth instrument in my mouth, or I may be in the situation of a shared bedroom in the dark just described and talking would make noise, or may have a speech disability or disorder

You asked a lot of different questions here.  I have very tech savvy blind family members, and tech savvy deaf family members, so I'm always interested to participate in these discussions.  If you get some flack for your question being too broad, then I would suggest you split this into multiple questions over a few days and see what the community comes up with for each scenerio.


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Remove multiple contact photos at once
I made a mistake of using Micopi, an app that changes all of the contact's photos on the phone. This got synced back with my contact list on Google. I'd like to know if there is a way to do a multi-edit on all of my contacts to remove their photos from my contact database at once instead of manually going through my list.
edit: Device: OnePlus One, running Sultan's CM12.1 ROM, rooted

Is the device rooted? Which device is it? The photos most likely would be stored in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/files/photos

@Firelord Yes, it is.

@Firelord Device info added to original post, there are 6 files in the directory which don't seem to be pictures. http://i.imgur.com/w7Dn8Q5.png


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Grant an app write access to external storage that does not request it?
I would like to grant the Syncthing app write access to external storage in Marshmallow.  The app does not request it explicitly (unlike other apps that seem to use the Storage Access Framework to do so).
In the app permissions screen, there is no permission listed for external storage, only for 'storage' (which seems to mean internal storage).  So there does not seem to be any direct way to grant this permission.
My phone is rooted and I could just run Syncthing as root - but this option creates many problems and sometimes results in the app hanging indefinitely.
Is there any other way around this problem?

This appears to be an XY problem. Your problem is X and you think Y is the solution so the whole question appears to be about doing Y instead of solving X. // If your apps hangs, then contact the developer and seek assistance from them. Note that you cannot grant a permission which has not been requested (actually you can but it wouldn't achieve anything) by an app.

I appreciate your point. However, it would 'achieve' something in the sense that the app is perfectly capable of writing to these folders and in fact is attempting to do it.  Android is blocking it from doing so.

Other permissions can be granted without being requested - for instance, using the earlier app ops apps in earlier versions of Android (when rooted), or granting permissions in the current settings screen. The problem is that this permission is not listed.

@ShankarG The permissions an app will request access for when it is being installed is defined at its androidmanifest.xml file that is stored under the base.apk file which can be found at /data/app/<app's package name>

I'm not sure if the link you provided is for Android, but if what you're using is Wrapper of syncthing for Android, then it's already requesting writing to external storage permission

And I think the relevant bug report on GitHub

You could manually add the related permission to write on external storage to AndroidManifest.xml but it won't work.
I found myself in a situation similar to yours, and I also tried to decompile the app, add the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission request to the AndroidManifest.xml and recompile the package, but it didn't work.
Since Lollipop, Android's new policy concerning the external SD requires any app which needs access to the above-mentioned to use the DocumentProvider interface. Unless you prefer to work in Smali, there's no way to implement it without the Java source code. Just editing the Manifest is not enough.
So, no. There's no way to manually add a working WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission, neither in Lollipop or in Marshmallow. Your only choice is to ask the dev to implement it.

I do this for the AMAZING terminal app Termux which for reasons that I do not understand also does not request this permission.
The procedure is rather complicated, involving copying and editing an xml file manually, and puts you at risk of preventing your system from booting.  You'll also need to do it again every time the app updates.  I guess if you use an editor that has root access you wouldn't have to worry about the copying part. Hmm.  Maybe I should do it that way too, actually.
The following are the steps I use to fix perms for Termux.  You'll have to adapt them to work for your app.  They should probably be the same except for the full app name.
If you're not familiar with XML you should be suuuper hesitant to try this as you'll probably render your phone unbootable if you make an error.

Make sure you're not updating apps (turn off auto-update) or doing anything else which could result in modifications to the packages xml file while you're editing it.
Start a session in Terminal Emulator.  su - in this session to give yourself root permissions.
cd /data/system
ls -l packages.xml

write down the permissions and ownership of packages.xml.  They will be essential later.
When I did this ten minutes ago, these values were still -rw-rw---- system:system as they have been for the however many years I've been doing this.  Might be different on a different type of phone.

cp packages.xml packages.xml.orig to make a backup copy of this very important system file
cp packages.xml /storage/emulated/0/tmp, or some other location depending on how your phone's file system is laid out.  If that directory doesn't exist, just create it.

Now edit the file whichever way you prefer (I use vim under Termux, but use whatever text editor) to make the following change:

Find the second line containing /name="com.termux"/.  It should be a shared-user tag (i.e. a line starting with <shared-user)

For your app this might end up being a different line containing the full name of your app, depending on whether your app has an entry in the earlier section in this file.  There might also not be a permissions entry for your app, in which case you'll have to make one from scratch, I guess. I would think this would probably be okay but I really don't know; you might cause system issues by doing so.  Caveat emptor.  But yeah if you find this node for Termux and copy it and paste the copy below Termux's entry that would probably work.

Copy the last <item ... /> line and paste it right underneath.
Edit the pasted line to change the permission (currently mine has WAKE_LOCK) to read WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE.
so the last node within the <perms> node should be

<item name="android.permission.WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE" granted="true" flags="0" />

Save the file and exit your editor and go back to your Terminal window (where you still have a root session running in /data/system).

cp /storage/emulated/0/tmp/packages.xml .

Use cp here and NOT mv as mv doesn't set the permissions correctly.

VERIFY that the permissions are the same as they were when you started.  This is VERY IMPORTANT because the phone won't boot if the perms are wrong.  I did this once and managed to rescue it somehow, I forget how.

At this point you should be good to reboot.  It's probably prudent to do a diff packages.xml packages.xml.orig1 or whatever to verify that you made the change correctly.
After you reboot your app should have write access to the external SD card.  Good luck!
If anyone is aware of a cleaner way to do this, please let me know!  This is clunky AF and carries no small risk of having to spend another hour afterward fixing my phone.


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Is there a way for a blind user to find the TalkBack tutorial?
How can someone unable to see find and go through the TalkBack tutorial available on an Android device?

They probably can't do it on their own. Why?

It would be nice if they could. It would make blind users more autonomous. A google now command "launch talkback tutorial" would do. I am appalled by the scarsity of commands google now can understand, and why can't apps including the settings app register their own google talk commands (android 4.4.2)?

In theory when a blind user first starts up the phone they have the option to start talk back.  When it is turned on at start up, the tutorial automatically starts.

This option is available for devices running Android 4.0 and above.
When you first turn on your Android device, you can enable TalkBack from the initial setup screen.
Source

In reality sighted assistance should be considered a requirement for initial start up.
Assuming a blind user, who is key board dependent, with no previous mouse or touch screen experience. I suggest this process.

Sighted assistant completes initial set up, with feedback from blind user on desired options.

Both 'talk back' and 'explore by touch' should be activated. (sighted assistant completes tutorial)

Sighted assistant should become familiar with gestures.  Combining 'talk back' and 'explore by touch' create gesture combinations that are unique and different from neither or only 'talk back' being active.

Many of the gestures on a touch screen are easily grasped by users with mouse experience.  To users with primarily keyboard experience they will be unfamiliar.  Before starting the tutorial, give the blind user time to practice on the home screen, and get used to it.

Once the blind user has a basic grasp of moving around on the touch screen the tutorial can be accessed in the Accessibility menu.

With some experience the blind user will be able to re-access the tutorial without assistance. I think there is a only a small window of time when a blind user can access the the tutorial without assistance and will still get value from it.  For the most part consider sighted assistance for initial training a requirement.

So I guess a blind user cannot complete a phone's setup without a sighted assistant.

@JackMaddington I have only made a single attempt at talkback set up.  But in general we don't even attempt Jaws updates without a sighted assistant on hand. There are so many variables that you should anticipate issues with any upgrade or new install that relies on a screen reader.


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Bluetooth Battery Level on Android Marshmallow
I'm using LUXA2-Lavi O In-ear Wireless Earphone on my Nexus 6P with latest Android – Marshmallow and I cannot find where I can see battery level for my Bluetooth device, I am however able to see battery level when using same headphones with iPhone, (seems like pretty essential feature to be missing), unless I just didn't find it...
Can someone tell me where I can find that? I do NOT want to install any 3rd party apps for that.
Thanks!

Quoting from Bluetooth documentation at Android Developers, it appears that this capability is based on connected device profile. Android supports this functionality from API level 18 (4.3). How to get Bluetooth Headset battery status in android from Stack Overflow indicate similarly, with vendor specific implementation links

Generic Attribute Profile (GATT)—The GATT profile is a general specification for sending and receiving short pieces of data known as "attributes" over a BLE link. All current Low Energy application profiles are based on GATT.
  The Bluetooth SIG defines many profiles for Low Energy devices. A profile is a specification for how a device works in a particular application. Note that a device can implement more than one profile. For example, a device could contain a heart rate monitor and a battery level detector

Perhaps, ios ecosystem enforces this  as  mandatory and hence you can see it on your ios device
Since you do not wish to use a third party app like Potential Beta, it would be better to contact earphone OEM to ascertain
Edit  I don't have marshmallow so am not sure if this setting tweak will help display-battery-percentage-android-marshmallow

+1 for System UI Tuner, however Show embedded battery percentage toggle switch (inside of System UI Tuner) is for main battery and not for Bluetooth device(

@alexus: Thanks for updating. Since I don't run marshmallow, wasn't  sure, that's why qualified by saying am not sure if this setting tweak will help.  It would be interesting to learn what ear phone OEM has to say. Internet is rich with complaints of similar nature. Thanks for +1

Actually on bare android it's impossible no matter has your device GATT profile with Battery Service or not. This issue has been reported in 2010 and still open.
So right now you have only two options:

Install Cyanogenmod firmware for your phone.
Find suitable 3dparty app I'm working on this one Baton


text:
How to access SysDump menu on Samsung Galaxy S5, Android 5.0
My Samsung Galaxy S5 tells me I have insufficient storage to update apps.  Looking at the storage menu, I have enough space, and it will work if I clear the cache through the storage menu.  This is only a temporary fix, though.  I had 21 updates this morning and I had to clear the cache 6 times just to update them.  Looking on Google I found many people suggesting accessing the SysDump menu and deleting the dumpstate/logcat to fix this issue.  However, everyone says to dial *#9900# in the dialer to access this.  This does not work on my phone, maybe because I have Android 5.0, and most of these articles and posts were written years ago.  How can I access the SysDump menu?
Or is there a better solution for this?  I only have 512MB free of 16GB, however, most apps are <30MB.  I see 5.56GB in Miscellaneous files though when I look through them they add up to 105MB.

See if the answers here help: Getting "Storage space running out" message in Galaxy S4; *#9900# does not show any menu

That didn't help.  Deleting /root/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails cleared up only 10 MB.  LOST.DIR doesn't appear to exist on my internal memory.  And /data/media doesn't contain anything, because my phone isn't rooted.

Keep in mind to update apps it needs something like 3x the actual size. Not sure why you want a sysdump/logcat as your only real solution is just to clear space from device. Install an app like DiskUsage that allows you to see how the space is being used and start clearing up space.
As to your actual question if you need a logcat, enable developer options (settings/about and tap 3+ times build number), enable adb and use logcat command through the pc using adb.
Also through adb you can you can run adb shell and dump dmesg (kernel log).

download CM LITE and scan junk files.
It cleares up all the cached data,  unnecessary residuals.
Check if you have any previous obb files of games uncleaned.. if you are a gamer.
If that didn't work,  set file manager to reveal hidden files and check every folder for misc. files.
hope this helped..

Can you please edit your answer and add a link to the app from the play store?


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Change navigation bar icons
I have a Nexus 6 that I am currently playing with which has the "soft key" navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen. It has a triangle for the back button, a circle for the home button and a square for recent apps button.
I also have an HTC One that has the same on screen navigation but the icons are a lot better looking in my opinion. It has a curved arrow for the back button, a picture of a Home for the Home button and overlapped squares for the recent apps button.
Is it possible to change the icons on the Nexus 6 without modding/jailbreaking the phone?

Not without modifying/rooting/custom rom

@xangua you might want to elaborate alittle (i.e. adding why, how to once rooted, etc.) and repost your comment as an answer so that it can be accepted.