text:
How to prevent Galaxy S4 from connecting as "Connected as Installer" instead of "Connected as Media Device"?
I have my Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy S4's developer options enabled with USB debugging turned on. Whenever I connect it to my machine, it displays "Connected as Installer" in the notification window. However, after about thirty seconds, it switches to "Connected as Media Device" without me having done anything. This behavior is seen no matter which operating system I connect to (tested in OSX and Windows with appropriate drivers installed). I would like it to connect as a media device by default.
Does anyone know how to permanently keep the phone in "Connected as Media Device" mode?

I have sort of the opposite problem myself, though I expect the solution would be the same (to make one's chosen option stick!) Going to search some and see if I find anything...

I think I would actually rather have it connect as "Connected as Media Device" by default.

I agree there. and it seems to switch back to installer for no reason. Aggravating!

After researching this for a while, I think it may be Verizon's doing, as the "Installer" connects as a disk that has some software that one can install. Then it goes back into the regular "Media Device" mode. The only reliable way to turn it off is to root your device, which I would rather not do at this point.

I think that makes sense. I just went ahead and let it install to see how that works out.

Unfortunately, mine is still starting in "Installer" mode when I plug it in. Argh.

After connecting via USB and receive the message "connecting as installer" on your phone's screen, make sure you're phone isn't on the lock-screen and swipe down from the top (or at least on my Verizon device) you can access "USB PC connection" settings under the "ongoing" tab.  Check one of two options, MTP or PTP. This would be the same pull-down where you would quickly alter various settings, view downloads and be able to link to recent notifications. This will effectively switch out of installer mode so that you can access your phone's directory and that of any sub sequential micro SD card. Hope this helps.

Yup; that does work, however; that setting isn't "sticking". Each time I plug mine in, it starts in installer mode, and I have to switch it... and sometimes, it randomly switches back. I know... First World Problems, and all... ;)

Yup, this is what I have been doing. I am going to mark this as the accepted answer, but I hope that there is a better solution.

@BVB I've noticed since doing the install that when I connect, it first connects as an installer, and then soon thereafter switches to Media Device. I guess it's checking if it's installed, first.

That's unfortunate. I wish that it was not designed to be like this, but I guess I will have to deal with this poor workflow.

If you have a Verizon Galaxy S5, please follow the instructions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s5/general/disable-verizon-cd-installer-t2849481
1.In the phone dial pad, enter but don't dial *#0808#
2.Will now show the following, choose the items with *
USB
( ) CP
(*) AP

USB Settings
( ) MTP
(*) MTP + ADB
( ) PTP
( ) PTP + ADB
( ) RNDIS + DM + MODEM
( ) RMNET + DM + MODEM
( ) DM + MODEM + ADB

[OK] [Reboot]

3.Push "OK" (no need to reboot).

In android 4.2, it was possible to access a hidden setup menu and fix the usb settings. The 4.3 update reverted usb setting to the broken default. The access codes for the advanced setup menus have been changed or removed. Samsung claims they've removed access, for what ungodly reason I don't know, and repeated requests and hours on the phone with them got me nowhere.
Until someone can break back into the advanced setup menus, there isn't any way fix this behavior besides rooting the phone or reverting to a previous version of android.
http://www.linuxine.com/story/hidden-services-menu-galaxy-s3-android-43

In case anyone with a Samsung S4 running USB Mass Storage Enabler and Busybox runs into this issue, be sure that the USB computer connection is set to MTP. This setting sometimes toggles
off for some odd reason on my phone.  Click the text box and you should be good to go.

Are you using a USB 2 port? I had the same issue and I was using a 1.0 port. The issue disapeared once I plugged into a 2.0 port. I have an S3 instead, but it may be the same problem.

Yup, I tried both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports - same issue. I think the software on the phone is to blame.

I've had the same problem with my Verizon S4 Mini LTE (SCH-I435).
I was able to solve it through the hidden dialer. Here is a utility that was able to bring the dialer back for me, since it wasn't accessible (I am not the author):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2434415
If you'd rather not trust the apk, it just implements this technique:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2303905
Once the menu comes up go to USB Settings and change the usb protocol to MTP+ADB. Note, the first time I used it it was already on MTP+ADB. I had to switch to PTP, save come back and switch to MTP+ADB to get it to work.
The settings stick now.

The big problem: Does it require root? Yes. :( Thank you for the information, though! I am sure it will help rooted folks!

When you plug it in, it says "connected as media device - touch for other options." Click that and then on the next screen turn 'Software Installation' to the off position.
Done. You can now easily access the files on your phone as any other drive.

I do not have those options. Do you have a Verizon S4?

The files needed for rooting are not able to be transferred via MTP, switch to 'Camera' for PTP file transfer and it should work just fine!

How is this relevant to the question, which mentions nothing about rooting?


text:
How to nexusify galaxy s4?
I was an iPhone user for long time and recently switched to Samsung Galaxy S4 which is supposed to be the best android phone out there (at least best samsung phone). I like to try the real android the Google experience. What kind of apps, widgets, launcher, ... should I install?

Also Flash a smartphone with vanilla Android ROM. We don't do "what do you suggest" style questions, but the two linked questions have other resources.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Remove unneeded 'system apps', and notifications (tool)
There does appear to be cumbersome methods: (that you may not know of ..)
(1.) Goto: Settings > Applications Manager
For each application, un-tick 'Show notifications', press 'Ok'.
( repeat 100 times )
(2.) Goto: Settings > Applications Manager > (scroll to right) (select ALL)
For each SYSTEM application (you don't want, eg. Google+):

un-tick 'Show notifications', press 'Ok'
click 'Force Stop', wait .., click 'Ok'
click 'Remove Updates', wait .., click 'Ok'
click 'Disable', wait .., click 'Ok'  (option not visible, until updates removed)

( repeat as needed, for: Chat On, Group Play, Hang Outs (Talk), You Tube, Game Hub, WiFi Direct + WiFi Direct Share )

My real question ..
Is there a tool to automate this? (global disable-notifications, simple un-tick for system 'bloatware')

Why is this not in Google Play (from desktop browser)? More of a philosophical question.
What portion of (unwanted) data traffic is caused by this 'bloatware'?

As WiKi says, such a tool would require root on your phone. For security reasons, only system apps can enable and disable notifications for an app, only system apps can force-stop other apps, and only system apps can disable other apps. You really wouldn't want every app on your phone to be able to turn on notifications for itself and disable the Settings app so you can't turn them off again.
If you want to disable most of your system apps, it sounds like it might be better for you to replace the OS with a custom-rom. The tag wiki for that page will give you some hints to get started. Be warned before you decide: you do need to unlock the bootloader to achieve this, and you should take a backup first as it's an advanced procedure: people do manage to brick their phones this way.
As a quick note: most of the apps you list are Samsung's apps. Samsung are known for shipping particularly bloat-heavy software, so you may find it easier to buy a phone from a different manufacturer next time. Nexus phones in particular run a very minimal Android: that's their main selling point.

You need to root your phone for this.

Can you provide a better explanation? I can do the cumbersome method, and don't need to 'root' the phone. What can I do, after I 'root' my phone?

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


text:
Why does Exchange ActiveSync not keep more than 'x' days of mail?
I have a HTC Desire X. I have set Exchange ActiveSync to download past 3 days. However, why does it not keep older mails which are already downloaded? i.e. on Friday, I can see mails from Tuesday on. On Saturdays, I can only from Wednesday on. The Tuesday email which was already downloaded and read is no longer visible?
Is there a way to make not delete the local copy of older emails?
There is an earlier question which is similar - Why does stock email app only keep 25 latest emails?
However I don't think the accepted answer there is relevant here. From that answer

to prevent large transfers of data that end up using the device communication thus leading to a faster battery drain;

Why would keeping older mails cause large transfer of data? The older mails are already downloaded and are there on your phone.

to preserve memory consumption that in turn would leave your device slow and inefficient.

Just because the older mails are there on disk, it will not increase memory consumption. A better way to program it would be display '3' days but have a way to show older ones on demand - since the app would read it from disk only on demand, it wouldn't increase memory consumption.
My phone runs Android 4.0.4.

This answer doesn't talk about phone storage or any other storage you may have, performance and data transfer are mentioned regarding the view and download of 25 emails at a time. Your phone may have 1000 emails, but your app lists only 25 each time, you get 25 more if the end of that list is reached. You can also get 25 new emails if you sync or in some apps if you pull the list down!

The issue you're having here appears to be related strictly to the application you're using and has nothing to do with the answer and/or question you've referenced. Your problem isn't the view of X emails, you problem as I read it, appears to be the fact that you can only see 4 days at any given time despite the fact that you've setup the app to present more than 3 days (which appears to be working by one day difference)!

@Zuul - I am using the default mail map which comes with the HTC Desire X - there is no setting on how many days to present. The only settings is how many days to download which I have setup as 3.

This sounds like an admin policy. Is this a corporate (or otherwise managed) email account?

I don't think this is a setting on your phone or has anything to do with data transfer or memory consumption (at least as far as your device is concerned). I think this is a policy enforced on your Exchange account. Exchange ActiveSync allows account administrators to define policies on how email is delivered to and stored on your device.
Specifically, an email retention policy called Maximum Email Age specifies the maximum number of days of email items to synchronize to mobile devices. According to Microsoft, Exchange 2013 allows the following options for this policy (emphasis added):

All, OneDay, ThreeDays, OneWeek, TwoWeeks, OneMonth

HTC has a PDF document that outlines the Supported Microsoft Exchange Policies in HTC Sense (Sense is your phone's stock UI) and this policy is supported by your device. It would seem as though your account's administrator has set this policy to only allow three days' worth of email storage. Justifications for this kind of policy vary; I recommend contacting your account administrator (or whoever operates the Exchange system you use).

I don't think my account administrator has set a policy that I can store only 3 days of email - because my phone has a setting "Download Past mail" - it can be set to 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 days or all. Now I changed my client setting from 3 to 7, the client is now storing 7 days of email. If I change it to 30 days, it will store 30 days. Basically, the client seems to store the same number of days as number of days to synchronize which is rather stupid. There is no reason to delete already downloaded emails.

Whether or not that kind of policy seems stupid, I'd check with you administrator. Admins live in their own world with their own rules some times...  :-)

I am not saying the policy is stupid - I am saying the client is stupid. Because the administrator has not set a policy that I can store only 3 days of email.

This a Policy enforced by the server admin to control the access to mails. It is a normal behavior. The client just sticks to the Exchange policies.
In other case, it is the operators that want the client to behave in this manner.

Who are the operators?

I mean to say providers like Verizon, AT&T, sprint etc...they govern all these behavior...


text:
Trying to vacuum all databases under /data with sqlite3, but fails with error 14
I would like to vacuum all my database files under /data, to achieve somewhat better performance so I ran the following script:
for i in $(find /data -iname "*.db"); do
#echo $(basename $i);
sqlite3 $i 'VACUUM;';
resVac=$?
if [ $resVac == 0 ]; then
    resVac="SUCCESS";
else
    resVac="ERRCODE-$resVac";
fi;

sqlite3 $i 'REINDEX;';
resIndex=$?
if [ $resIndex == 0 ]; then
    resIndex="SUCCESS";
else
    resIndex="ERRCODE-$resIndex";
fi;
echo "Database $i:  VACUUM=$resVac  REINDEX=$resIndex" | tee -a /data/vacuum.log
done

As you can see this script vacuums and reindexes each database file under /data. REINDEX works fine, but VACUUM does not. It returns "Error: unable to open database file". (error code 14)
I am dealing with /data. So, it can't be a mount problem.

Is there an strace utility? Maybe that sheds some light. Also: is this an Android 4.2 device?

A quick unrelated shell scripting tip: you don't need a semicolon at the end of each line of your script. You only need semicolons to put more than one command on the same line (and inside SQL queries, as you know).

You might wish to read: Android SQLiteOpenHelper cannot open database file and SQLite - Error 14 - SQLITE_CANTOPEN, the latter giving a good argument: If the table is locked by another process the sqlite3_exec will through an error. Not sure if that's your problem, though. Google Search on "sqlite error 14" might give you additional hints.

no, the device has no strace, and it's not included in busybox. it is android 4.1.2 device.

and this script runs at early boot stage, so i do not think all of these databases are locked by other processes.

Unlike REINDEX, the VACUUM command needs to create a new temporary file to work in. It then replaces the database file with this temporary file. This means that it needs write access, not only to the database file, but also to the directory it's in.

Working on the databases below /data per se already requires root (even to read), so it's safe to assume above script has been running as root (or it would not be able to work at all). So file system permissions should be no issue -- or do I miss something?

Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me either, but it's the only explanation I could find for why REINDEX might work but not VACUUM.

Admitted, you've made your point (as technically, this really is a difference). Though it shouldn't make a difference permission-wise. Confusing thing.

yes it's confusing to me too :) as Izzy pointed out this script runs as root.


text:
Adding a 2x Picture Widget on home screen
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4.
I have a picture that I would like to have as a 2x2 widget. I don't want to set it as  background; I want it like the Weather widget.

There is a 2x2 Picture widget. Drag it to your home screen.

Here's what it would look like:

You can do this with my free app Showr. With Showr, you can choose a picture from another app (such as the Gallery or Dropbox), you can take it directly with any camera app, or you can have it download from the Internet and update by your schedule.
Showr lets you resize the widget to any size. You can also set what happens when you click on the photo widget: you might want to view the photo in the Gallery, or start some other app, or launch a website. And because I'm active on this site, you know it's going to be easy to get help if you need it.

This link is now dead


text:
How to upgrade android version in spice Mi 350n
I have a android phone spice Mi 350n, android version is 2.3.4. I want to upgrade it, is it possible, if yes upto which version?
Any link for tutorial is helpful.
Thanks!
Edit - Come on guys, if you are a android user you must know that updating android is not a general question can be asked for all android smartphone. Update depends on particular device/hardware etc.

Please see: When will my device get the Android 4.0 update? / When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)? / When will my device get the Android 4.2 update? / How do I upgrade to a new version of Android? / What is involved in upgrading Android to a later version, if the manufacturer no longer supports the device?

One more global source: How do I update the OS on my device?


text:
How install gapps with adb commands
How can I install google apps with adb commands ?
I don't know how to unzip .
I used busybox. But it is not useful.
Please guide me .
Thanks to all and everythings. :)

No chance without unzip if you want to use anything other than the recovery-install-procedure described in Flow's answer. See also: How do I properly install a system app given its .apk?. Note, however, that to my knowledge the adb install doesn't handle system apps (parts of GApps need to be installed as system apps), so this variant won't work for you.

If you have a rooted phone with a custom recovery, you can do it:

Reboot to recovery
Go into Sideload (might be under advanced - if your recovery doesn't have this feature, then you need to update your recovery.
On your computer, run adb sideload <gapps-version.zip>
Reboot.

this works ... note NO need to unzip as other comments suggest

Good question. While it's technically feasible (mount /system rw, unpack the zip, install the apks), I don't think that it is currently possible.
The gapps are usually installed with help of the recovery. For more information see "How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, …) on my Android device?"


text:
How can I use "The Old Reader" on Android?
The Old Reader is so far my best replacement for Google Reader.
Is there a way to use it on Android, for example an RSS app that syncs with it?

The Old Reader's website has a list of apps that are known to use its API. The only Android app currently listed is: Listener Launcher which is an alternative Launcher, so probably does more than you want.
However a quick search of the Play Store for "the old reader" comes up with: The Old Reader (unofficial) app, and the gReader (free version) (paid version) app both of which claim to sync with The Old Reader, amongst other services.

I searched on the play store and didn't find them ... odd. Thanks!

@ripper234 with the Google Reader apocalypse happening right now I'm guessing there's a lot of RSS apps putting out new versions over the last few days with alternate back-ends. Both of those apps have had new versions pushed to the Play Store in the last 48 hours, so it might be that there really weren't any results when you searched, but there are now!


text:
Tethering options for the laptop and the phone
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S3.
I am about to go abroad and will need to connect my laptop
to the Internet without having someone come and install a
DSL or cable router (as the waiting time to install these is
quite long I would be gone before the internet technicians drop by).
So what I have decided is to purchase a SIM card and connect my laptop
to my android phone to do internet browsing. My understanding is that with tethering I can transform this phone into a router or wireless hotspot.

What are tethering options (settings or apps) for this phone?
Is it better to connect the PC to the phone wirelessly, via a USB
cable to use tethering, or via Bluetooth tethering? In terms of speed, I guess Wi-Fi tethering would be superior here.

Have you checked the most frequented questions tagged 'tethering'? Lots of solutions there :)

In my experience, bluetooth tethering (using Bluetooth Garden) has been problematic. It disconnects too often, or can't open certain sites.
USB tethering (via ClockworkMod Tether) was OK. This way, my phone would be charging while providing internet to my laptop. Downside is I needed to install a program (not an issue, because the program is safe) on my laptop. Another downside is I couldn't tether another device (like a tablet) to the phone.
Turning my phone into a hotspot, was a better choice. I could surf with little issues. I could connect my tablet or laptop to the phone via WiFi. However, this drained my battery quickly. I'd occasionally fix this by plugging my phone to an outlet with a charger.

I use all 3 methods and prefer USB tethering if possible.
Some notes on each:
USB tethering

Exclusive for one device (there's only 1 cable)
charges the phone
Safe (network is not exposed wirelessly)
No driver needed (recent Macs/Win/Linux)
Best speed and latency (USB 2.0 has 480MBit/s)
Tethers any active connection on the phone (wifi, 3G)

Wifi tethering

more than one client at once possible
Wifi chip may draw extra power in this mode
Easy and well known setup on clients
No strings attached :-)

Bluetooth tethering

Doesn't draw extra power when enabled
Can be enabled 24/7
Capps speed at respective BT speed (2MBit?)
It's really OK (speedwise) for surfing

I tether my PC via USB (most of the time to a wifi network], my tablet tethers via BT primarily, but I switch to wifi as needed too. I use this app to automatically enable BT tethering on my Nexus phone. The "BT tethering always on" is very cool when I'm on a train and use my tablet: No need to enable (and remembering to afterwards disable) wifi tethering, the phone just stays in my pocket.


text:
Windows 7 Laptop unable to recognize Samsung GT-S7562 and Micrommax A116 Android Device
I have two Android phones: a Micromax A116 and a Samsung GT-S7562.
I am able to connect both of the devices on an XP Machine at the office. But at home I have a laptop running Windows 7. When I try to connect it, both of the phones are not getting detected.
I have installed Samsung Kies for GT-S7562 and I have also installed the Micromax A116 drivers on both XP and Windows 7.
I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling all the drivers. But no use.
I need help. Thanks in advance.

How many USB slots do you have? Have you tried moving the data cable to those slots?

It has 3 USB slots. Yes I have tried in all the slots.

Any android phone can be easily detected based on the purpose of connection.Just check and ensure the type of USB driver you download is for the correct purpose.
Basically we have two modes of connecting an Android device to a system.
1.As a Personal user(can be any,file transfer,update,backup etc.)
2.As a Developer(to debug,deploy an application etc.)
1.As a personal user
If you basically want to connect your device for personal use.Then you need the simple USB drivers which can be downloaded from Samsung.Depending on your Operating system you need to install the required file.For Samsung.Contact micromax for the USB drivers as i didn't find any.
Ex:-If you have a windows 7 Operating system then it will automatically download and install the USB drivers and if it's Linux then you need to search for the respective drivers regarding Linux and install based on your procedure.But if it's Windows XP then you need to manually search for the USB driver's download it and install them  as and where required.Once installed you can connect your device and do your work
2.As a Developer:-If you need to connect the android phone as a developer/tester then you need to download the special ADB debug drivers.These drivers are way different from the normal U.S.B drivers as they provide you to test/debug the application on the device but not for file transfer or any other use.
After downloading manually or automatically from the SDK Manager you can connect your device but you need to configure it .Check this site for more details.Once done your device will be detected by the eclipse software and then you can do you work.
Based on the use of yours you can select the choice of connection.
Note:-The basic connection setup is the same for all the devices irrespective of their manufacturer.Although there may/may not be any slight changes based on the Android Version.
The difference is may be you have restrictions/U.S.B drivers are missing in Windows XP machine.So just check whether the U.S.B drivers are not disabled and you have access to the U.S.B as well

Have you tried going to device manager and right-clicking the top of the tree and selecting "Detect Hardware Changes"? Maybe your "Shell Hardware Detection" service isn't running or not running right?
Or are there any exceptions on the USB controllers of the system in your device manager?

Yes I have tried these things.


text:
Open Web Page in Browser (not on SD card)
My question is similar to this one, but my HTML file and resources are not on an SD card, as my phone does not accept SD cards. It is currently at file:///Download/AnotherFolder/here.html. I have resources like images and javascript in a subfolder. How can I run this is in a browser, preferably Chrome? Just entering file:///Download/AnotherFolder/here.html does not work in Chrome.

Is there an error message your seeing in Chrome?

It says the page is not available (net::ERR_ACCESS_DENIED)

Is it in the internal SD card? Try file://mnt/sdcard/Download/AnotherFolder/here.html.

Or better yet, use file:///sdcard/Download/....

Even if your device has no SD card slot, there is an internal SD and memory hard coded into your device. So the path to your html file would be something similar to file:///mnt/sdcard/dir..... or file:///storage/sdcard0/dir...... You can find it using a file manager app.


text:
Google Music 'Unknown Artist' only in Android App
So I have an album that for some reason shows up as of an 'Unknown artist' in my library in the Google Music app. I already fixed the tags in Foobar (and also checked them again with MP3Tag) and then deleted the old files off my sd card and copied the fixed ones back on it. Yet still, they show up without an artist in the app...
I tried several things:

Uploading them to my Google Music Library, then they show up just fine. (So the files should be correct. But I want them on my extra SD card, so this was just to see if there was still something wrong with the files.)
Clear all the data of the Google Music app (menu->apps->google play->clear data.) Didn't change a thing.
Reinstall the Google Music app.
Remove the com.google.android.music folder.
Restart phone.

Nothing fixed it... Now I don't know what else I could try. Obviously something went wrong, since at first the tags were wrong, but I fixed them. Any other program I tried reads them just fine. Any ideas on how to fix it?
Edit:
I just tried another music app on android (doubleTwist) and that also shows those songs under 'Unknown artist'... Yet when I copy the file back from my SD card to my pc it does show both Artist and Album artist correctly. I'm stumped. Is there some kind of cash of android I can clear? (Already tried clearing the Google Music app cash.) I'm completely stumped on what's going wrong :(
Edit 2:
I just found that the 'unknown artists'-songs apparently use an older/different version of Flac than the other files. According to foobar the bad songs are flac 1.1.1, while the other files are 1.2.1. When looking in Mp3tag the bad ones says 'FLAC (FLAC ID3v2)' and the good ones say 'FLAC (FLAC)'.
Thanks a lot!

I know I have this issue occasionally, but did you change the artist and the album artist as well? Sometimes I can have all the artist information, but if they album artist is left blank or different, Google Music puts more importance in that instead.

Yea, my Foobar configuration needs me to set the Album Artist correctly to make it show up as I want it. So yes, both are set correctly. Both exactly the same (just like all the music of that artist.) Usually that indeed fixes the problem, now it didn't and I'm stumped :s

I keep all of my music stored online with Google Music, so when I edit the information it's all from Google Music on my computer, but have you tried syncing the Google Music App? Sometimes I have to sync for it to update the information that I changed or to be able to see the music that I have added.

How do I do this syncing? Tried to find that option but nowhere to be found. (I'm looking in the Google Music android app, correct?) I did find a 'refresh', but that didn't help :(

The refresh is what I was talking about, but your phone  also has to have "Sync" on. For mine, it's in the same place that I toggle data, wifi, bluetooth and all of that stuff.

Ok, so refresh didn't help :( I also enabled sync, but that should only change something for music uploaded to Google Music right? All the music I have is on my SD card (not uploaded to Google Music.)

Ok, I fixed it!
The problem was apparently the version of the Flac files. The bad files had version 1.1.1, the good ones had 1.2.1. So I used Foobar the convert the bad files to version 1.2.1, replaced the bad files on the SD card and then their artist showed correctly!

For anyone who comes across and this is not the reason... I got a new phone and transferred all my music from an SD card to internal storage... i then noticed that a whole load of songs had unknown artists...
I came across this link and realised all the songs with 'unknown artist' were wma files... absolute nonsense
https://www.htc.com/sea/support/htc-u11/faq/cant-play-wma-in-google-play-music.html

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


text:
Does Android 2 support swap space?
With Android 2.3 being Linux-based, can Android 2.3 use a swap partition without being rooted?

As using swap is a system-wide thing (even on Linux/Unix, you need to be root in order to activate/deactivate swap), this cannot be done without having root access to your device.
If your device is rooted, however, there are several apps available to help you manage swap space. You might want to take a look at e.g. Swapper 2 (for Root users) (free) or ROEHSOFT RAM-EXPANDER (SWAP) (paid, and not really cheap). Both seem to have quite good reputation. Of course there are several other solutions available as well.


text:
Samsung Fascinate - Custom recovery without USB
I have a Samsung Fascinate that has a faulty USB connection. No computer / cable connection will recognize that there is a USB connection, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and using ADB and "lsusb".
But the phone is rooted. Plain and simple, is there ANY way to flash a custom recovery without USB?
I get this when I try to flash Clockworkmod through the app or apply update.zip:
--Install from package...
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
E: failed to verify whole-file signature
E: signature verification failed
Installation aborted

The only way I could think of is flashing a Recovery SD card, hopefully that can get you started.

@John thanks for the reply. I googled "flash recovery sd card android" but didn't really find anything specific -- can you elaborate?

Recovery SD
So I found a pretty good tutorial that shows you how to make a bootable CWM recovery. It was written for the Nook Color, but I'll help you through it.
Source: http://androidforums.com/nookcolor-all-things-root/327798-guide-how-make-bootable-cwm-clockworkmod-twrp-bootable-sd-card-06-04-2013-a.html

You need an SD card obviously, the guide says 1 GB is good enough. To be honest I'm not even sure if you can buy a 1 GB SD card at a store anymore (you can most defiantly get them online but don't waste your money). Just go to the store and pick out the cheapest 4 or 8 GB SD card, they are pretty cheap these days. You can get them online if you want to save a couple bucks but I don't think it's worth the wait.
Download a bootable image file. This is what your Android device is actually going to boot up onto. Make sure you find one that matches your device.
You need software to burn an image to an SD card. If you have Mac OSX or Ubuntu you are in luck because those systems come with software to write images. If you are a Windows user, you can just download some software. If you don't know how to do this, just check the tutorial, their instructions are pretty good.

If you did all of the steps correctly, you should be able to plug the SD card into the device and it should boot from SD automatically.
adb over wifi
I'm not sure if this will help you, but maybe it will if you couldn't get the Recovery SD card working. You can use adb over wifi to talk to your Android device.
Here is a guide to get you connected to adb over wifi:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1685736

from there you can push a custom ROM to install over your current one (which could restore your USB connectivity).


text:
Rooting trouble - Using Odin3 but unable to flash device
Rooting Method: mrRobinson
Phone: Samsung Galaxy SIII
Model number: SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
Android version: 4.1.1
Carrier: ATT
Downloaded: Odin307 and root66_ATT_I747UCDLK3.tar.md5
Sumsung Driver: Updated
Kies: Stopped and Disabled
What I did:

Extracted the root66_ATT_I747UCDLK3.tar.md5 from the .7z file I downloaded.
Used Odin, put phone into download mode [with phone off, hold vol. down + home + power ], connected to computer and opened Odin.
once in odin clicked the PDA field and selected the root66_ATT_I747UCDLK3.tar.md5 I downloaded.
Left Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time checked.
clicked start and...

Message in Odin:
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> root66_ATT_I747UCDLK3.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)

Nothing else happens, click on Start again and "All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)" shows again.
What am I doing wrong? Please help!

The issue turned out to be the driver.  I went onto Samsung's website and re-downloaded the USB driver and re-installed it.  Everything went fine.

I had exactly the same problem on the Note 2 SGH-I747. Windows XP refused to recognize the device, unable to install hardware. I had reloaded the drivers a couple of times. Today I was charging my other Note 2 which was working correctly. XP recognized and installed it. Huh! I plugged the broken one in. It was recognized. Odin then worked perfectly.

I was having the same issue, probably it came up because I had first time checked the box for re-partition. Then I unchecked it , did reset and start again, it was then I was getting the message "Success 0, failed 0"
I powered off the mobile and again put it in download mode and it worked.

For those with this issue, my problem ended up being the usb cable.

I had the same problem, I reinstalled the drivers and when it still wouldn't work, I hit the start button several times in a row and the it suddenly started.


text:
What version of Clockworkmod should I be using on my Galaxy Tab 2?
I have been trying to install Cyanogenmod on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (SGH-1497) (AT&T) over the last few days and I keep getting stuck installing CWM Recovery. I have been able to successfully root the device, but I can't seem to find the right recovery version to use.
I have tried using:

koush's ClockworkMod Recovery as instructed on the CyanogenMod
Wiki
CWM Touch 6.0.1.2 for GT-p5100
philz_touch_5.03.7-p5100.tar.md5
ROM Manager installed via Google Play

After attempting to install, I either can't boot into recovery mode at all (the screen goes blank after I see the blue "booting into recovery" text on the Samsung screen) or I just end up at the stock recovery screen.
I have tried installing using both Linux Mint (following the CyanogenMod Wiki instructions) and Windows using Odin.
I have read several different guides on installing CWM and Cyanogenmod on my device, but they all seem to have different information and I am having a hard time figuring out which ROMs I should actually be using.
I would really appreciate some guidance on this.

Have you tried installing TWRP through ROM Manager?  That's the recovery that I have had the least problems with.


text:
How do I play videos in a loop in the Samsung stock player?
I want to play a video repeatedly in the Samsung stock video player.  Is there a way?
Samsung Galaxy S3
OS: 4.1.1

The stock video player on the S3 doesn't have this functionality. You can achieve it by installing another video app such as VLC for Android.

I guess VLC doesn't have the popup feature like the stock does it?  I want to play a video in the background on a loop while browsing. Will the audio keep playing on VLC in the background?

No, it doesn't, and no, it won't.

I downloaded VLC but I don't see the loop button!

You should be able to do this by going to Settings => Repeat while the video is playing and enable it. (source)

I only see the option of "auto play off" under Settings while a video is playing. Where is "repeat"?

I think the linked thread is about a different video player.

Try IVideo Player , compatible for Android 3.0+, looping, child lock, brightness control, plays mov, flv, rmvb, mpg, mpeg and etc.


text:
Is it important to have an anti-virus application running on your phone or does the carrier protect it?
I use my phone like I do the computer.  Shopping online with a credit card etc.  Surfing unknown sites... Does my phone require an anti-virus application to protect the internal drive of my phone? Can it be damaged by a virus like on a computer?
OS: Android 4.1.1
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3

Android is an OS built using Linux, which is fairly resistant to viruses. Hence primarily there is no need to have an antivirus software in your mobile device.
As in your case, if you are browsing unknown sites, there is a chance that you will be attacked my malware and adware (which are very truoblesome programs and which cannot harm your moblie, but show ads, popups, etc.)
Also these malwares tend to come from the apps installed from unknown sources. Always install apps from the Play Store itself and you will be safe from the majority of malwares.
As a precaution, do not use untrusted sites and never enter your financial details into sites that do not have secured connections (https).
If you have to install apps from unknown sources, it is better to have a antivirus software, just to be safe. But keep in mind that any of those software cannot do much in protecting you with the transactions entered into with unsecured sites other that showing a warning.
Oher than that, the need for an antivirus software is very remote.

So, malware cannot corrupt the phone drive like it can on my computer?

Mostly not thanks to Linux. But there are some stuff out there that can. Don't install anything outside Play Store and you will be fine. Apps in the Play Store are scanned thoroughly before they are made available to the public and if something's gone wrong afterwards, the store can uninstall such apps remotely. So nithing to worry.

First off: no, your carrier does nothing to protect you from malware. It's entirely up to you. But you have a tool to help you keep your phone safe: Android's permission model. When you install an app on your Android phone, it tells you before you install it what it can do to and with your phone. It's up to you to decide whether you trust the app with that ability.
For example, you might go on Google Play and download a game that looks a little like Angry Birds, but it wants permission to directly call numbers. If you install it anyway, you may be surprised a month later to see it has been repeatedly calling premium-rate numbers behind your back, costing you hundreds of pounds. Even an app that wants internet access and the ability to read your SD card might be looking for your 'private' photos so that its owner can sell them on the internet: or if it wants to "take photos and videos", it might use that to take its own when you least expect.
The threat posed by malware on Android is completely different to on PC. "Damaging" your storage is not an issue, but there are more harmful things that malware can do, to invade your privacy, steal your money, or attack your friends and other contacts.
The question is trust, in two ways. You have to decide whether to trust each app you install with the permissions it asks for. Whether you need an anti-virus is down to whether you trust yourself (and everyone else who uses your phone or tablet) to make that decision.
If you're the kind of person who clicks on emails that claim to be from your bank, or on those banner ads that offer you a free download to speed up your internet connection, then you need an anti-virus. If you're the kind of person who doesn't even download an app from a reputable source without checking out reviews on independent sites, then it's probably not necessary.
Before you decide, bear in mind that most anti-virus products also offer browsing protection: they try to detect phishing sites and other harmful websites. App downloads aren't the only source of malware. And if a vulnerability is discovered, which would allow apps to bypass the permission system (such as the /dev/exynos_mem bug in the samsung-galaxy-s-3), they'll even protect you from malware that exploits that bug.

I can't mark both as correct so I just chose who answered first.  Sorry.


text:
Do away with/Hide Emulator Keyboard?
I learnt from here the various keyboard commands for an emulator. I therefore thought one could afford to do away with/hide the on-screen keyboard that has the DPad buttons, the home, menu and back buttons; and have the emulator occupy less screen space. For emulators that are not snapshot-enabled, one can do this!
However for snapshot-enabled emulators, I find that whatever hardware config I set it's not happening. By me, the hardware configs that matter are:
Keyboard Support
Hardware back and home buttons
For each of the above you either don't add them to the config, or add them and set value 'yes' or add them and set value 'no'. So far none of the configs I tried so far worked. By my tries, at least, it is found that no matter what I do with regard to the Keyboard Support configuration or Hardware Back/home buttons (independently of each other) - yes, no or don't add - the keyboard remains there. I didn't find a hot-key to hide the keyboard either.
I thought therefore that it's better to post a question on this here, than try booting with umpteen different hardware configurations (it'll be a precious 2-3 minutes spent on each configuration trial!)
Thanks in advance,
P.S. I use Gingerbread.

I learnt from here (in the question, not the answer) that if one sets a custom resolution in pixels rather than selecting from the built-in ones, then the emulator does not display the skin with the emulator controls.
Below is the configuration I therefore set to solve my problem, at the same time not creating new problems:

I just estimated the dimensions in pixels of a WQVGA size instrument and set that as my custom resolution.


text:
Bluetooth option not found on an ICS device
I have Android 4.0.4 (ICS) and the system report app says that it supports bluetooth. However this isn't shown in the settings for wifi etc. Is there any way of turning bluetooth on?

To help, we need more info. What is your device model?

So, if you go to "Settings", the first section should be "Wireless & Networks". Under that, I have "Wi-Fi" (ON/OFF), "Bluetooth" (ON/OFF) followed by Data Usage. How does that look on your phone? If Bluetooth is not there, I don't think the ROM you are running recognizes your ability to run Bluetooth (if you do indeed have that ability).
What device and what ROM are you running?

I have used an app called root browser which shows that there is a folder for bluetooth in the rom and also an app called android assistant which says that bluetooth is supported. My system is described as: softwinners SoftwinerEvb, version Android 4.0.4, CPU 1,01 Ghz. CPU identifier shows this as Boxchip Allwinner A13 1,008Ghz and Tablet type Android Share MID/Haipad A13 Tablet.

"I have used an app called root browser which shows that there is a folder for bluetooth in the rom" you do realize that this has nothing to do with the capability of your device running bluetooth? This page does not list bluetooth at all: http://www.dhgate.com/product/cheapest-512mb-4gb-haipad-a13-mid-tablet/137910125.html — I don't understand where you get the notion from that your device supports bluetooth in the first place, can you refer something you've seen or read?

I was just assuming that if both these apps show bluetooth support then it should be possible to use it.

I was just assuming that if both these apps show bluetooth support then it should be possible to use it. By the way I am not using the original firmware. I flashed FaaastJB-V2 which is what it is running at the moment. I don't know if this makes a difference? I am a bit of a newbie to android so please make allowances if some of my questions seem simple.

I was just assuming that if both these apps show bluetooth support then it should be possible to use it. By the way I am not using the original firmware. I flashed FaaastJB-V2 which is what it is running at the moment. I don't know if this makes a difference? I am a bit of a newbie to android so please make allowances if some of my questions seem simple. PS. I meant to add that I am talking about using a USB dongle for bluetooth as the tablet supports OTG USB.


text:
Where has all my storage space gone?
This is actually starting to annoy me!
Every so often, I get the 'Storage space running out' notification. I go into my settings, and it says I have 60MB left.
The thing is, almost a month ago I erased the device because of the same thing - I have my 1.8GB available, and everything was fine and dandy, until now.
I haven't installed anything recently, however I suddenly only have 60MB left. I added up all the app sizes according to Android:
Chrome - 65.55MB
Can You Escape - 34.75MB
Facebook - 31.77MB (why does Facebook use so much?)
Gmail - 27.46MB
Skype - 24.04MB
Facebook Messenger - 19.74MB
Search - 18.98MB
Tapatalk - 17.50MB
Hangouts - 17.33MB
Maps - 13.49MB
Google Play Services - 13.49MB
Google Play Store - 10.91MB
Youtube - 10.80MB
System - 10.27MB
Google+ - 9.39MB
Shazam - 8.37MB
Titanium Backup - 8.30MB
Spotify - 6.93MB
Ingress - 6.70MB (I still have 3 invites if anyone is interested)
Media Storage - 4.50MB
3G Watchdog Pro - 4.05MB
Cerberus - 3.02MB
Secret Codes Revealer - 2.99MB
Email - 2.93MB
Contacts Storage - 2.62 MB
Super SU - 2.50MB
Screen Standby - 2.27MB
Settings - 2.20MB
Titanium Backup Key - 2.12MB
DeskSMS - 2.09MB
Exchange Services - 2.05MB
Browser - 2.05MB
Root Explorer - 2.03MB
TalkBack - 2.02MB
Beats Audio - 1.90MB
Google Services Framework- 1.86MB
Google Text-to-speech - 1.78MB
Gallery - 1.75MB
Spirit UL - 1.66MB
Contacts - 1.65MB
Spotify Community - 1.53MB
Sound Search for Google Play - 1.34MB
I then have ~80 apps < 1MB in size.

Add them all together, and I get 490.53MB - nowhere near the 1.9GB Android says I am using.
Why is Android reporting me using 1.9GB? What is using this memory? Why isn't it showing in the settings?
And above all, how can I fix it?
I am using a Samsung Galaxy SII with Android 4.2.2 Cyanogenmod 10.1
Output of df shell command:
Filesystem               Size     Used     Free   Blksize
/dev                   395.3M    48K   395.3M   4096
/storage               395.3M     0K   395.3M   4096
/mnt/secure            395.3M     0K   395.3M   4096
/mnt/asec              395.3M     0K   395.3M   4096
/mnt/obb               395.3M     0K   395.3M   4096
/mnt/fuse              395.3M     0K   395.3M   4096
/system                503.9M   340M   164M   4096
/cache                  98.4M    72M    26.4M   4096
/efs                    19.7M     8.3M    11.4M   4096
/data                    2G     1.9G    83.9M   4096
/preload               503.9M   204.3M   299.7M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackupPro-1     2M   100K     1.9M   4096
/storage/sdcard1         7.4G   126M     7.3G   4096
/storage/sdcard0        11.5G     4.6G     6.9G   4096
/mnt/secure/asec        11.5G     4.6G     6.9G   4096
/mnt/asec/com.thales.android.view-1     3M     1.1M     1.9M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.nianticproject.ingress-1    26M    24.4M     1.5M   4096
/mnt/asec/uk.co.nickfines.RealCalcPlus-1     2M   340K     1.7M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.mikersmicros.fm_unlock-2     3M  1004K     2M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.eclipsim.gpstoolbox.pro-1     2M    76K     1.9M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2-1     2M   912K     1.1M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.farproc.wifi.analyzer-1     2M  1000K     1M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.shazam.encore.android-1    10M     7.8M     2.2M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.hutchison3g.planet3-2     5M     3.8M     1.2M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.google.android.apps.plus-1    20M    18.5M     1.5M   4096
/mnt/asec/eu.chainfire.supersu.pro-1     2M    64K     1.9M   4096
/mnt/asec/com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer-1     3M     1.4M     1.6M   4096

May be the space reserved by the system/OS?

First step: Open a terminal and type df into the shell.

@Flow added to the end of the question.

Seems like your /data is full. Only 80 MiB left, which comes close to the 60 MiB you mention.

See also: Something is secretly eating up my tablet memory and I need help finding it :)

I use DiskUsage for situations like this. It graphs the directory structure for you in a very pedagogical way to show you what directories (and subdirectories) that are taking up the most space. It literally solves situations like this in 15 seconds for me, because I'll see a big square with the text "Movies" or something on it, realizing I completely forgot I put an entire season of Wonders of the Universe on my device or something — or I'll se a folder with a name of an app that has long since been deleted with a bunch of useless cache :)
Try it out, I'm not sure how well it works on non-rooted devices but I think it should work on those as well, I don't think it does anything else than list directories and add their content size up.

It says system data is using 1.5GB...

You're gonna have to be more detailed than that. Can you upload a screenshot of what you're seeing? You can click the subfolders to go deeper into the folder structure and see if a single folder is using all that space.

Found it! The logs are taking up 1.4GB of my data :P

All is well that ends well, although you might want to figure out what logs are causing this and why, or it might happen again. If you think my answer answered your question, please mark it as such above.

I was about my mark it as a solution anyway...

The apps are not the problem.  Sometimes there are huge log files or other files which take all the memory.
The solution:
Install SD-Maid app and use the system-clear function.
You may have to root your phone first.
This is the only thing worked for me.

In settings, superuser, you can switch off logs

Yeah, for the superuser app. I doubt those logs are eating much space – apart from the fact that, as app-specific logs, they're probably counted into the realm of that app. And besides: OP isn't using superuser, but SuperSU (hair splitting, as the same applies there as well).


text:
What are these dumpstate logs?
So, these files were filling up my /data/logs directory, causing me to run out of storage space rapidly.
What are they, why are there so many and how can I stop them clogging my storage?

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

Liams related previous question: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/48277/where-has-all-my-storage-space-gone

I googled the file name and found this post on XDA:

i'm still having the storage is running out error from 3.8. I found
  out it was caused by the signal lost issue because inside the log
  folder located in data folder, it will generate many dumpstate ril
  reset by........xxx..once my signal is lost. so, i'm wondering what's
  the best worldwide modem for 3.8 or lates nightly that won't cause
  signal lost thus my phone won't generate the dumpstate ril reset error
  and indirectly generating many dumpstate ril reset. I'm using dxlpa
  modem.

Looks like your phone might be affected by a bug in CM. I would switch ROM and see if it goes away, if not, you could try an app like GetRIL to find out what Radio Interface Layer you are using, and if there is another you can use that might help you not lose connection over and over.

I believe the problem is you have enabled the dumpstate in your mobile, please enter the keystring *#9900# and press SEND.
Will be open a new screen with some options, verify if SILENT LOG is OFF and DEBUG LEVEL is DISABLE/LOW.
This capabilities are used by developers to verify fails and debug application running in the device, as user you will never use it.

Dial *#9900#, and delete all your log and dump files.
Note: Only works on Samsung.

That doesn't explain what they are?


text:
Standalone program for managing encrypted partitions? Or, How can I manage encrypted partitions in recovery mode?
Android uses dm-crypt for providing disk-encryption as stated in the implementation notes. Those notes also state (emphasis mine):

While the actual encryption work is a standard linux kernel feature,
  enabling it on an Android device proved somewhat tricky. The Android
  system tries to avoid incorporating GPL components, so using the
  cryptsetup command or libdevmapper were not available options. So
  making the appropriate ioctl(2) calls into the kernel was the best
  choice. The Android volume daemon (vold) already did this to support
  moving apps to the SD card, so I chose to leverage that work for whole
  disk encryption. The actual encryption used for the filesystem for
  first release is 128 AES with CBC and ESSIV:SHA256. The master key is
  encrypted with 128 bit AES via calls to the openssl library.
Once it was decided to put the smarts in vold, it became obvious that
  invoking the encryption features would be done like invoking other
  vold commands, by adding a new module to vold (called cryptfs) and
  teaching it various commands. The commands are checkpw, restart,
  enablecrypto, changepw and cryptocomplete. They will be described in
  more detail below.

So Android does not an existing tool due to licensing issues... As a user in recovery mode, I do not have vold running and would like to have a minimum program that can:

Create a new encrypted partition.
Unlock existing encrypted partitions.
(optional) View information about the encrypted partition.

Does such a program exist? Ideally it can also run in a non-Android environment, but at the moment it is important to create an encrypted partition in recovery mode.
The subject OS is Android 4.2.2 with CWM 6.0.3.2 as recovery image.


text:
How to upgrade stock email client that came with CyanogenMod 6 Froyo?
For reasons beyond my control, I need to stick with the original stock email client that came with my CyanogenMod 6 phone (Froyo).
(by "stick with" I mean only the so called "package name", not that particular version)
I know that there are superior email clients out there on Google Play, but all I want at this point is to stick with the same client and only update it to a later version.
My problem is... I can't find it anywhere on Google Play as it doesn't have any distinct name other than the generic "Email" and this icon.
Is there a way to identify this app and find it on Google Play (or other Android markets)?

Pretty sure it's not distributed on Google Play.

I think @eldarerathis is right. Unless you find a website that lets you download various versions of that Email app, your best bet is to find another phone with the version that you want, attach adb via USB and copy that APK over.


text:
Ask for help according to samsung Galaxy Gio GT s5660
I am honestly ask any professional who have an idea about Samsung. I forgot my password i made by my own. as a result, i cant do anything on my phone right now. i can't get through the screen. because I've forgotten my password. could anyone help please?
Thanks for your helps

Insert a wrong password again and again (maybe trying to remember the correct one). At a certain point (after several tries), you will be asked something like "Forgot your password?" and then you should be able to unlock the phone with your google account.
Of course, you must have had associate your google account with your phone.
This way works on some phones, I hope it works on yours too.

i did it for many times. but it didn't work


text:
How to create Android themes
I would like to create a whole new theme for Android jelly bean but not sure where to start. I have rooted my phone and have poked around the file system a little but haven't really seen all that much that would help.
I would like to completely change the LockScreen, Homescreen(s) the menu layout, icons, wallpaper, etc. It's not going to be just a launcher theme but a whole UI theme. I have spent a while searching for a solution (links, articles, any resources) but have not found anything that would be of much help.
If you know how to do this, or know of any resources at all that would help I'd be extremely grateful.
Thanks

Since this is more of a development question in which [android.se] consider out of scope, this question is more likely to be migrated to our sister site [so]. You would get better answers there. After some googling I came across some good tutorials in Android Developer site and in XDA

Thanks @Sid, I will head on over there and ask a new question.

I don't see a development question here. Just a user who wants to create a theme. I think this question is fine here.

I agree that this isn't necessarily a dev question, but if development can be involved (which shold mean greater options) then I'd prefer that. But if this question can remain here, I sure would love to see some answers. :)

@Sid This question definitely is not appropriate for Stack Overflow.

I was just saying. AFAIK when you are creating a phone theme, you have to do some coding, in which the folks from [so] are more interested. Just wanted to support the OP. You can start your work with the links I have added. At some point I have to agree with @Dan Hulme though. Good luck OP! (sorry. I can't type his name correctly). Let us know in [chat] when your theme is ready!! Cheers!!

Themes on Android are internal to apps: they're not user-accessible things. Replacing the theme of every app on your phone entails building a new custom ROM with your changes, and may cause some apps to behave oddly or appear wrong, because they're relying on details of the Holo themes. These days, even phone manufacturers can't replace the themes of third-party apps, because the Android conformance tests verify that the Holo theme has not been modified. That's why, if you buy (say) a Samsung phone with a blue theme, only the built-in apps use that blue theme: third-party apps use the unmodified Holo theme.
Replacing the theme of an individual app is more feasible, but without the sources it requires decompiling and replacing the app's APK file, essentially making a new app. This kind of reverse-engineering may be illegal where you are, even if you don't intend to distribute your themed app; either way, your new app would not have access to the original app's data, and will fail any licensing or anti-piracy check the app performs.

This really pisses me off (customization becoming so limited these days). Btw, I'm not really trying to change the appearance of apps themselves, but mainly just the overall system UI. (for example, background color of menus - I want it to be white, not black) :)


text:
Why can't I create a hard link?
I wanted to  create a hardlink but I  can't. I'm rooted and I want to offload my internal memory  and move the dalvik-cache to my sd-card.

You cannot create hard links across file systems, only soft links.

No. There's not an option in default and I have also tried to link it to cache partition.

Do you have any reference to back this up?

What do you mean?  Does this mean across Filesystem means also partition?

You can only hardlink inside the same partition/filesystem. It might help if you edit your question and include the steps you took (i.e. the commands you tried to execute). But from the phrasing it's quite clear you want to re-locate e.g. /data/dalvik-cache (located on the /data partition) to your SDCard (complete different medium). This cannot be done with hard-links.
I'd recomment you take a look at Root # All Data2SD card., Link2SD, and S2E, which help you to offload a bunch of things. For more details, please also refer to our app2sd tag-wiki, which gives you a short description on all these methods.

Yes that what I  think.  But question seems clear to me?  I know app2sd and link2sd but it doesn't move the dalvik-cache.

OK, read it again -- there was a third app :) But admitted: S2E says it works with CM only. One more chance: Mounts2SD - All-in-one SD-Ext, forgot to mention that. Oh, and of course there's Directory Bind.


text:
Failed to root Galaxy S (Fascinate) after three methods
I have tried three methods for rooting my previous Android device, running 2.3.5 (Gingerbread). It's a Verizon Samsung Galaxy s (Fascinate - SCH-I500).
I have all the drivers installed for the device on my computer (Windows 8) and have USB Debug toggled. SuperOneClick failed to work after three attempts. Local rooting (No computer used) did not work either as that only rooted it about five seconds after boot, displaying a message on the home screen. The last method involved installing and app from the Play store and some software for my PC which I have forgot the name. I'm at a loss on how to root it so I can flash a custom ROM I have.
I had a general idea on where to start but as you've just read, all has failed. Side note: during all of these methods the SD Card was in phone but never mounted as per all the various instructions.
How can I root this reluctant device?

Did you take a look at our rooting index (linked from the 'rooting' tag)? It lists How do I root my Samsung Galaxy S?. Tried that method? (I might be wrong with this suggestion, as there are multiple variants of the Galaxy S around, but it's worth a look).

I have tried that method. No luck

As you describe your Samsung Fascinate is running Gingerbread, there's a rooting guide provided at TheUnlockr which you could try. It uses the odin tool to root the device, so you would need Odin Tool, Samsung Drivers, ClockworkMod Recovery, and Superuser for this.
Install the Samsung drivers first, then install ClockworkMod (which is where Odin is needed). Copy SuperUser to your SDCard, then boot into CWM (turn off the device, simultaneously hold Vol + + Vol - + Power). Select install zip from sdcard, then choose zip from sdcard. Chose the SuperUser file you've copied to your SDCard. Let it flash, and reboot using the reboot system now menu entry. Your device now should be rooted.

Looks like this worked? Then I should see to add it to the rooting index :)


text:
How do I get my Nexus 7 to show up in the adb devices list?
So I have a Nexus 7 that I'm trying to connect to my Windows computer for debugging over adb. Adb works fine with my phone, but when I plug in the tablet and run adb devices in Windows I get an empty list back:
C:\android\sdk\platform-tools> .\adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached

C:\android\sdk\platform-tools>

The tablet is running stock Android 4.2.2 build JDQ39. USB debugging is enabled, I did click on the build number 7 times to get the developer options enabled, and I've tried connecting both as a Media device (MTP) and as a Camera (PTP). The tablet is not rooted and I have not unlocked the bootloader.
The computer is running Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 x64. I have the latest adb version, 1.0.31. The SDK manager tells me I have SDK Tools rev 22.0.1 and SDK Platform-tools rev 17. I've tried using the Google generic usb driver version 7.0.0.1 and 6.0 as well as the Asus usb_driver_r06 from http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Nexus+7&p=28&s=2. Each driver I try does show the tablet as connected in device manager as either "Android Composite ADB Interface" or "Android ADB Interface"
If I plug the tablet in to my Macbook Pro and run adb devices, I get the the RSA fingerprint dialog as I would have expected to see in Windows:

Also if I start the tablet in fastboot by holding down the power and volume down buttons. I can see it with the fastboot utility:
C:\android\sdk\platform-tools> .\fastboot devices
015d262e32540802        fastboot

I am completely out of ideas here. Any and all off the wall suggestions would be welcome.

In many cases, it helped using Koush's Universal ADB driver. Worth a try.

Thanks for the link. I couldn't get adbdriver.com installer to detect the tablet, but it did list my phone when I plugged that in. I installed Koush's ClockworkMod driver, but unfortunately I get the same results.

I finally found my problem. This might have been specific to my Windows machine, but I'm writing it down here in case someone else has the same problem.
Turns out I didn't have a usb.inf file in my C:\Windows\inf directory. Apparently some installers/uninstallers have been known to mess with that file. I found the tip in this thread while trying to figure out why my new mouse didn't work...
I copied the four files from C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\usb.inf_amd64_neutral_153b489118ee37b8 over to C:\Windows\inf and re-installed the drivers and the security dialog popped right up on the tablet.

I too had similar symptoms that seemed to be caused by underlying issues in my USB stack. A complete uninstall and reinstall of my USB drivers didn't immediately solve it, but did cause an option similar to "Composite USB Device" to show up alongside "Google Nexus 7 ADB Interface" in the list of compatible drivers for my phone (under Update Driver, Browse my computer, Let me pick).  In my case I had to first tell it to use the drivers for the Composite USB Device, then a new item showed up in device manager which I assigned the "Google Nexus 7 ADB Interface" driver. Hope this helps someone.

Huge kudos to your answer David. I had the exact same symptoms. After about 5 hours of trying different things, I finally found your answer. I needed a different folder for my drivers which is an important bit in that thread you linked to. And after that, uninstall tablet driver, reinstall, and it just worked. I was on the edge of just wiping the OS and starting over.

What fixed it for me was clicking on the "Connected as a media device" up at the top left corner, de-selecting Media Device (MTP) and then checking Camera (PTP).   This essentially made it show up as a different kind of USB device with different options and allowed the process to work perfectly.

That does seem to be a common cause of the problem, but I did switch to PTP and still got nothing. What finally did work in my relatively unique case was replacing a corrupt usb.inf in Windows.

My nexus showed up in the list when I unchecked "Media Device (MTP)". As soon as I checked it (or PTP) then it disappeared from the list.

I have exactly the same device as you, down to the Android version and build number. I discovered that it was necessary to change my USB transfer mode.
You can do this on the Nexus 7 by going to Settings > Storage, clicking on the strange menu icon in the top right hand corner and selecting "USB computer connection". I then changed the storage mode to "Camera (PTP)", and it immediately prompted me with the permission dialog as shown in your post above. I was then able to deploy apps, debug, etc and it all worked.
Unfortunately I am very new to Android development so I am unable to say why this is the case. I am also unable to say why this worked on your Mac. Perhaps this is what must be done with this particular device on Windows. Anyway, I hope that you find this information useful.

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately I had already tried both USB connection modes each driver I was able to find.

David, it is possible that something I did previously fixed this. I also installed the drivers from the Android Package Manager as well as attempting to install the ASUS drivers: http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Nexus+7&p=20&s=16

Furthermore I note a difference: You're running Windows 7, and I'm running Windows 8. That shouldn't affect anything but perhaps you might try this on a Windows 8 machine.

I followed Google's instruction to update the driver from Device Manager, but it wouldn't recognize the drivers.  Once I changed my transfer mode on my Nexus 7, I repeated the process and voila it worked.  Thanks!

Got the same issue, and fixed it by updating the driver from the ASUS usb_driver_r06_windows.zip driver pack.
The issue is that this driver does not report properly the supported devices (at least mine were not listed)
My device is reported as a PID 4EE2 which is not part of the supported devices.
I had to add the following lines in the android_winusb.inf file (in the Google Nexus 7 Section)
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE2
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE2&MI_01

Device now appears properly in the Device List, and the Google Nexus 7 is part of the list of devices in ADB.
In addition, "tap" 7 times on the Settings|About Tablet|Build version to enable the USB Debugging.

I had to add the following:
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001&REV_0228
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001
If you Go into device manager and open the properties for the Nexus 7 entry, click the details tab and drop the property section down to hardware IDs under value you will see the updated Hardware values.  Take these values and add them to the Nexus 7 section of the android_winusb.inf file.  Try re-running the driver install.  It will complain that the driver is unsigned.  Just ignore...  ;)
If you are using Windows 8.1, you're going to have to reboot in Advanced Mode with Driver Signatures disablled for this to work. See this post: http://www.howtogeek.com/167723/how-to-disable-driver-signature-verification-on-64-bit-windows-8.1-so-that-you-can-install-unsigned-drivers/

Try to delete the key UpperFilters from
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{EEC5AD98-8080-425F-922A-DABF3DE3F69A}

Helped me after 4 hours of trying to connect my Nexus 7 to win 7 64bit.


text:
Creating a symlink (symbolic link) to files
I'm looking for a way to create a symlink with Android. I know I can write a  script but I don't want to spend so much time when perhaps somebody has a better solution?
I know app2sd and link2sd, but I need to link all files, not just what the application sees. My internal memory is full and I have already app2sd installed. I need to free more space (for example, dalvik-cache). Unfortunately hardlink doesn't seem to work, so I need a better solution. When I softlink the cache, I can't install anything. The path seems to make a problem to Android.

What problem are you trying to solve?

My internal memory is full and I have already app2sd installed.  I need to free more space for example dalvik-cache.  Unfortunately hardlink doesn't seems to work so I need a better solution. When I softlink the cache I can't install anything.  The path seems to make a problem to android.

@Flow see his other question: Why can't I create a hard link?. Probably Directory Bind is what he needs, I mentioned it already over there.

Directory bind is only folder level. I need softlink to files.


text:
How do I get rid of mysterious stuff displayed on my cellular's screen?
There is tiny writing listing currently running systems and a red frame around my screen and a white dot wherever I touch the screen and a thin white and red line blocking my notification bar with writing that looks like stock market listings.  How do I get rid of all these items?

Could you provide a screenshot?

Just turn it off in Settings->Development. This sounds as if you turned on the process overlay and some other feedback options there.

You most likely switched on several feedback settings in Settings→Developer Options:

Developer Options (Source: AndroidAdvices.Com)
In these screenshots the reason for the "white dot" wherever you touch the screen is already marked. Additionally, you probably have enabled "Show CPU usage" as well (right screenshot, lower third). Just turn everything off here which you don't know what it's for; by default, nothing is checked in this menu.

Settings → Developer options → Uncheck Show layout boundaries.


text:
I want to delete my Whatsapp account
I don't want to appear on my friend's phone. I want to delete my Whatsapp account. Will my number disappear from my all friend's Whatsapp friend list when I delete my Whatsapp account? Basically, how can I remove my number from everyone's Whatsapp account?

I am using samsug galaxy y GT-S5360

You can delete your whatsapp account through the following steps.

Open WhatsApp.
Press the [Menu Button] => Settings => Account => [Delete My Account].
Enter your phone number in the full international format and tap [Delete My Account].

Please keep in mind that deleting your account is an irreversible process, we cannot undo a deletion if you complete the process by accident.
Goto whatsapp FAQ for more infomation

but my friend did it for me.. but still his account and his chat history is appearing on my phone. :( means my friend has deleted his whatsapp account but still he is appearing in my whatsapp contacts and his chat history is also appearing.

Then Download the app again, log-in and go through the above steps again. Your account should go away if the steps are followed correctly.

its not working ... :( :(

Did you use Correct international format ?

he added +91 before his mobl nmbr.india's code

Yes +918234123456

ohk. finally just tell me that how longer the whatsapp chat remains in phone when we never delete them by ourself. I mean by what the time the chat get deleted autometicaly

It won't be deleted automatically. You can do it manually with a long press on the full chat conversation or the individual message. :)

Your account will be deleted permanently 30 days after you deactivate it. So after deleting your account, don't use your WhatsApp account again for 30 days.


text:
Latitude's "Enable location sharing" settings disables automatically
I want my latitude friends to see my location. However, I am seeing that this setting disables automatically after few minutes, even after enabling again and again.
Any ideas ?

Are you using any battery saver applications? or anything like that?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because Google Latitude's service has been discontinued since August 2013.


text:
My phone's screen died but it still works. How can I get the text messages from it?
People are still sending me texts even though I can't read them. I've gotta get a replacement quick, but I also need to get the important texts I missed. Is there any way I can get them through my pc?
To be clear, the screen is completely blank but I can still unlock it via touch pattern.  It takes a few tries but Android File Transfer on the mac will tell me if it can or can't connect.  If it can't, I just try again and I can get it.  So the touch part still works, it just doesn't show any information.
The phone is a Galaxy Nexus.  When I connect it to my Mac, I can see the files in it via the Android File Transfer window. However, I can't find the texts here.
I have the Android SDK installed and I was told I can do this:
adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

However the device shows up as offline when I do adb devices.  I can't figure out a way get it showing up as online without being able to use the screen.

AndroidLost is an app that might fit your need. Though the aim of the app is different and can do much more, the abilty of the app to read sms and send it to email is an interesting
solution to your problem.
Read its FAQ and Getting Started sections - you need not even touch your phone as long as it is connected to Internet for installing this app.

I just tried this but after about an hour, the androidlost.com website is still saying "waiting for phone to be registered."

I have found a reply at the discussion forum (groups.google.com) of AndroidLost. May be it is helpful.


text:
Invalid IMEI after factory reset
After factory reset my phone starts showing "Invalid IMEI" on both sim slots and I can't call or be called. What might be the problem?
Android version; 2.2.1 , model: A601

What is A601? I can only find a missile ship (doesn't run on Android),  a WiFi router, and a Motorway... Ah, you probably mean this China phone?

@Izzy Oooh! I like the China Phone :P
AFAIK, this error results from fake IMEI's. Did you try rolling back and checking the IMEI again? Maybe another factory reset?

It could be that this manufacturer's way of storing the IMEIs for the dual SIMs is not preserved across factory resets, so the reset has deleted the IMEI.

If it has a Mediatek (which usually cleared IMEIs after flashing), you can try entering the IMEIs (found on the retail box) manually using *#*#3646633#*#*, and finding the option in Radio settings. I can't be sure if this works with newer MTK devices.


text:
Android stuck in downloading mode
So what happened is that my mobile (Galaxy S4 - GT-9500) ran out of charge.
When I plugged in the charger and tried to turn it on, it went directly to what I think is the recovery mode (Android logo with text "Downloading...Don't turn off target")
I turned it off, pulled off the battery and tried to turn it on again nothing happens.
I tried different solution but nothing happens, just the black screen Here is what I tried so far:
1- Home + on/off button + volume up
2- Home + on/off button + volume down
3- plug it in the PC for hours and then along press on the on/off button
Any other suggestions ?

Leaving the battery out for a little longer (e.g. 1 minute) might be worth a try. Also check that there's no "stuck button" which might causing this (unlikely, but who knows).

@Izzy Unfortunately this did not work also.
I even plugged the wall charger in for a long time and nothing happened

I'm reluctant to suggest the last-ressort: Can you still do a factory-reset? Apart from that (and giving the device to service), I'm out of ideas as well.

IF you mean the (volume up, home, on/off button) no I am not.
However I guess I am not getting it well, could you please tell me how to do it ?

Too long for a comment, but see hard-reset.com. If that works out, I will include the steps in an answer, of course.

That is what I tried, however it didn't work. Pressing and holding these buttons did not change anything

OK, then I'm out, an leaving the field for somebody else. Good luck!

No problem, Hopefully there is some one else could help me

Sound like you got stuck in an OTA update and ran out of battery. Take it back to the shop for service or replacement. Sorry, this is a lame answer, but I see no reason for a non-expert to have to deal with this Samsung crap, especially for their top-of-the-line devices.


text:
Unwanted unlock code screen on Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
This screen has been appearing lately. It appears in a few seconds after I have inserted a SIM card, rebooted the device, and draw the right pattern or inputted the right unlock code. The screenshot of the unwanted code is below.
Model number: GT-N8000.
Android version: 4.1.2 (stock).

No more unwanted unlock screen. Something might have been wrong with the firmware.

This looks like you have a tablet with SIM lock.
You have to unlock your tablet to use another SIM card (or a SIM card from another provider). You have to contact the provider which has sold the tablet for the first time.

I'd rather say that this tab is not sim-locked to a specific carrier but instead the SIM itself has a PIN protection which needs to be unlocked after a reboot/re-insertion. Change it under Settings->Security->Setup SIM card lock

@ce4, the "Setup SIM card lock" checbox is unchecked. I inserted another SIM card and had to input the same unlock code.


text:
Samsung GT-S7562: Network Goes off
I have Samsung GT-S7562. I did update the handset with KyleOPEN custom ROM. Was not satisfied with the custom ROM so again ported back to Original ROM.
I updated the ROM + Kernel using Odin tool. After I update, the network goes off suddenly. I have re-register with the service provider to gain the network back. This happened thrice.
Also, is there Cyanogenmod or any other custom ROM (Apart from KyleOPEN)for this handset.
Any suggestion will be helpful.
Thanks.

If the phone's not listed on the Cyanogenmod website, there's no Cyanogenmod for it.

For the second part of your question, you might want to take a look at Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

you've lost the efs file that contains the serial number

That could be right. It's not very helpful in itself: do you have a suggestion for what Nishith can do about it?


text:
Disabling predictive text for just a single language
I am using three languages on my phone - English, Dutch and Lithuanian and predictive text on the English and the Dutch languages are all OK. What I am trying to achieve is to switch off predictive text for Lithuanian but the only way I've found to do this was to switch it off completely for all languages.
Predictive text for Lithuanian is a pain for me as the language uses some special characters like ą, č, ė or ū which reduces the limit of characters in an SMS message to 70 instead of 140 and which I can easily substitute with Latin equivalents like a, c, e and u.


text:
Keyboard on Android phone disappears after starting VNC server, and reappears only after restart
As the title says, I want to remote control my Android phone (LG-F160K) using a VNC server. I tried droid VNC server and VNC server. I can connect to my Android phone, but after connection is made, the original keyboard (I am using Google Chinese IME keyboard) is gone and replaced with a single row with a few buttons. The keyboard cannot be restored after I close the server, and it restores only after I restart the machine.
Considering that as a nuisance, I wonder if there is anyway to restore the keyboard automatically after closing the VNC server?


text:
Edit default applications to open KML file?
This is a more general question than simply handling KML files, but this is the issue I currently have.
I was looking for an application that could not only download maps for offline use (so I can turn off roaming and avoid paying for data access while travelling), but also display a list  of user-defined applications (created on a computer with eg. Google Maps).
MapsWithMe Pro is supposed to be able to open a KML file, but when opening the attachment in Gmail, I'm not given the choice of opening it with MapsWithMe: For some reason, it opens it with MoboPlayer, which handles audio/video files and obviously complains that it doesn't support KML fils. Google didn't help.
Does someone know how to reconfigure Android (4.2.1 on Galaxy Nexus) so that I'm prompted for which application to open KML files with?
Thank you.

To my knowledge, an app has to register for that -- so it's not simply a question of configuration. You might want to try some other apps which are able to handle KML files, e.g. Locus Maps. With some luck one of them is registering for this file type.

Thanks for the infos. Without rebooting the phone, at some point, MapsWithMe did show up in the list of apps when clicking on a KML file.

As it helped solving your issue, I summed up an answer you might want to accept (so other "searchers" can identify this question has a solution). Thanks fpr your feedback!

To my knowledge, an app has to register for that -- so it's not simply a question of configuration. You might want to try some other apps which are able to handle KML files, e.g. Locus Maps. If it registers itself for this file type, it then should appear in the selection, and you can make it the default app.
As it turned out, this was exactly what happened with Maps With Me, so that's one candidate working for KML files.

Generally, apps register for a MIME type, not necessarily for a particular extension. If the email has the attachment marked as the wrong MIME type, then Android will show apps that handle the MIME type that the email claims it is. Perhaps the sender of this attachment needs to configure his email client to report the right MIME type for the file.
As a workaround, you could try saving/downloading the attachment to your phone and then opening it directly: that way, the phone will detect what type it is instead of trusting the email's claim.

I found a workaround: Move the .kml file manually into the maps.me folder.

What maps.me folder is this? Is it on the SD card?


text:
Does Android have a "router setup page" when acting as a wireless or wired hotspot?
I can edit all the crucial aspects of my hotspot/router within the setup options for the hotspot/router configuration.
I am confused as to how the DHCP works when using up the Android phone as a wireless hotspot/router and wanted to figure that out.
One of my attempts to get this information for myself was to try and navigate to 192.168.6.1 via a web browser - this is, of course, the phone's IP address.  I was hoping to see some sort of router setup page as you would normally see when configuring a normal ethernet wired/wireless router via a web browser, but unfortunately, there was no such page.
I did some research and found out that you can get some basic information about the phone's IP configuration by downloading a terminal emulator and running a few basic *nix flavored commands.
I was looking for something more - a GUI would be excellent, but I'll take any suggestions on how to access the phone's routing configuration specs.
Is there any sort of "router setup page" that I can access when I enable my wireless hotspot on my Android phone?

See this answer — if you are using the builtin tethering support, there is no configuration, IP addresses used for Wi-Fi hotspot and USB tethering are hardcoded.

Up to Pie dnsmasq is Android's DHCP/DNS server. You can configure it somewhat through dnsmasq.conf e.g. to permanently assign a static IP address to tethered clients, or through some hacks e.g. to permanently change hotspot tethering IP address or to change the default hotspot DHCP IP address range.

The Android builtin wifi tethering is designed to use 192.168.43.1/24 as the server, with netd handling the tethering, using dnsmasq. First DNS range is 192.168.42.1-254 and and 2nd DNS range is 192.168.43.1-254.
Netd is not easy to change. It requires a socket to communicate with it, and that socket is taken when android starts tethering. But going through the source files for Tethering.java (I used Froyo) we see:
// usb client will be provided 192.168.42.129
private static final String USB_NEAR_IFACE_ADDR      = "192.168.42.129";
private static final String USB_NETMASK              = "255.255.255.0";

// FYI - the default wifi is 192.168.43.1 and 255.255.255.0

private String[] mDhcpRange;
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_START = "192.168.42.2";
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_STOP  = "192.168.42.254";
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_START = "192.168.43.2";
private static final String DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_STOP  = "192.168.43.254";

And Later on we see those ranges used, AS BACKUPS.
    mDhcpRange = context.getResources().getStringArray(
            com.android.internal.R.array.config_tether_dhcp_range);
    if ((mDhcpRange.length == 0) || (mDhcpRange.length % 2 ==1)) {
        mDhcpRange = new String[4];
        mDhcpRange[0] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_START;
        mDhcpRange[1] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE1_STOP;
        mDhcpRange[2] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_START;
        mDhcpRange[3] = DHCP_DEFAULT_RANGE2_STOP;
    }

The main source for the dhcp ranges is not the hardcoded 42 and 43, but read from array.config_tether_dhcp_range, an internal string array. But it is currently empty.
You could edit the android framework. On my phone, it is /system/framework/framework-res.apk. There are a ton of tutorials online for editing framework-res.apk, from simple strings to full theming. Find one for your phone and android version.
Main thing you want to change is the /res/values/arrays.xml
Look for <array name="config_tether_dhcp_range" />
Change to:
<string-array name="config_tether_dhcp_range">
     <item>192.168.x.y</item>
     <item>192.168.x.z</item>
</string-array>

compile/zip/sign as needed (follow a tutorial), then reinstall.
If you want more than one range, just copy the two items over and over. You always need to provide a start and a stop for each range. Try to keep it in the same /24, ie 192.168.50.5 and 192.168.50.99 or whatever. You can confirm it is working with busybox ps | grep dnsmasq or if you don't have busybox ps dnsmasq then use the pid in cat /proc/pid/cmdline. You should get (or similar):

/system/bin/dnsmasq --no-daemon --no-poll -no-resolv --dhcp-range=192.168.50.5,192.168.50.99,1h

FWIW, my WIFI tethering uses the default dnsmasq ranges, yet my computer was assigned 192.168.43.147/24 and gateway 192.168.43.1/24. Not sure why yours defaulted to a 42.x address.

FWIW, using "Ethernet Tethering" on my Samsung S20, My attached device gets a 192.168.13.200/24 address and a 192.168.13.25 gateway.
Interestingly, my "Net Analyzer" app shows my phone's external IP as 172.58.200.200 and an internal IP of 33.15.32.108/28.
How many routers are there in my phone...?

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review