text:
Android 4.4 can use printer over Wi-Fi?
I searched on printing using wifi printer and I came to know that Android 4.4 can do this (Android apps can now print any type of content over Wi-Fi) but I did not found any idea how to connect to wifi printer and give it command to print. Only I found that I can do this using Google cloud print (what if I want to use only wifi not the concept of Google cloud print). And provide me suggestion if it is possible (1. detect available wifi printer 2. connect to one 3.give command to print)
I found similar app PrintBot, PrinterShare , iCanPrint, but unable to guess "How they accomplish this?" I found some are using Google Cloud Print!
Something similar to Apple AirPrint

As the link you provided mentions, "Printer manufacturers can use new APIs to develop their own print services — pluggable components that add vendor-specific logic and services for communicating with specific types of printers."
This means that the printer manufacturer has to supply an app to enable direct printing over WiFi. Without this, cloud-based services like Google Cloud Print are you only options.

Thanks onik for your suggestion! But I want to detect wifi printer and connect to it without printer manufacture app and google cloud prin

Similar to Apple Air print

This is not possible directly, it requires an app to act as a driver for the printer. Apple's solution has a defined protocol (AirPrint), and the printers you can use directly have to have AirPrint support. Google decided not to create a new standard for printers, but instead use a PC as an interface for the printer and handle the printer with the PCs drivers. The list of available printers is synced to your Google account, and this is why you can't use the printers directly without the cloud.

Thanks @onlik for your precious information! But what if I detect  all device connected to same wifi then fetch its' ip address and port and then send it to print using socket connection

Then you'd have to deal with the print protocols (LPR/LPD, JetDirect, RAW, IPP) directly, and that is independent of Android, and therefore out of the focus of this site.


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How do I get the stock icon for MIUI apps?
I want to change the icon of MX Player to the same as MiVideo, but where do I get the icon for MiVideo within MIUI os itself? I tried /data/system/customized_icons but IT isn't there.

FIgured it out by looking around the system files. Apparently, it's stored in /system/media/theme/default/ in the file called icons which is just a zip file without an extension. Simply extract icons and I got the stock icons I needed.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to prevent Chrome tabs or any kind of app from sleeping when in background?
I want to listen to things on Youtube (app) or on the web (Chrome) while doing other things on my Asus Transformer. Is there any way to prevent background Chrome tabs or background Apps from falling asleep?

No, it's designed like that by the app's developers, so you can't.
Though for YouTube, if you're rooted, there is a Xposed Module called Green YouTube that have an option to play music from YouTube in background (but it doesn't work on my phone).

+1 that's about it. Green YouTube won't work for me in KitKat either. The only other way I've used is the split screen option on Samsung Devices which allows 2 apps running simultaneously, but obviously that won't apply to most devices. Google changed Youtube around 2.3 Gingerbread to not play when screen locked to stop people using it as a music player, and to push Google Music I'd wager. It cannot be a background task. They have never relented on this.

Shywim Are you a developer? Do you know of any ways to make the app believe it is in the foreground without rooting (A simple way to achieve what @RossC says about Samsung allowing 2 apps in the foreground, but without touching kernel code)?

I would imagine root access is a fundemental of overcoming this difficulty as Google have made it explicitly to work like this. Try Green Youtube in Xposed if you are rooted, otherwise you'd need to make BIG changes. You can't just port the split screen as the hardware may not be able to handle it and more importantly it is part of the Touchwiz framework and not Android itself sadly.

@Domi: Well there's some "floating apps" that enable you to have an apps on top of another. Search for floating <name of your app> android on Google, should return something, but there's no chrome and the last time I tried one for youtube, it didn't work (again).

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


text:
Change title of phone when connected to Windows PC
I inherited my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone from the employee who preceded me in my current position.
When I connect the phone to my Windows 7 laptop, it displays in Devices and Printers with a name matching that of the former employee.
There are none of his accounts left on the phone.
The phone is running Android 4.3.
How do I change the name of the phone I see in Devices and Printers?
UPDATE: I think this name is a Windows setting.  I think I was seeing an old title, from when the phone had accounts belonging to the other employee.
There was another device under Devices & Printers called Galaxy S4.
I right-clicked on the device with the old employee's name, clicked uninstall.
When I disconnect and reconnect my phone I no longer see a device with the old employee's name, but I do see "Galaxy S4".

Did you just edit an answer in your question? Move that answer as a separate answer, and accept it as an answer two days later. :)

I think this name is a Windows setting. I think I was seeing an old title, from when the phone had accounts belonging to the other employee.
There was another device under Devices & Printers called Galaxy S4.
I right-clicked on the device with the old employee's name, clicked uninstall.
When I disconnect and reconnect my phone I no longer see a device with the old employee's name, but I do see "Galaxy S4".


text:
Mount external SD-card for the secondary user
When I create a new user on my Asus MemMO Pad 10 (in addition to the existing primary user), the new user does not "see" the external SD card (I've tried a 64gb Micro-SDXC/exFAT and a 2gb Micro-SD/FAT32). When I switch to the primary user, "Preparing an external device" is displayed at the top of the screen and the SD card becomes "visible" as "external device".
I.e. external SD card is not automatically mounted to the secondary user, only for primary one.
Is this a feature of the Android system or ASUS tablets only? How can I make my Micro-SD card mount for the secondary user? (In case I need root access, I would consider installing it)
Device: ASUS MeMO Pad 10 (ME102A), Android 4.2.2, root access not installed.

Sorry for my English

Hello, did you manage to solve that? Thanks.

Some people wrote in 2013 that this is impossible, or at least was impossible back then. Here is what I found on a SonyMobile forum:
"Each user gets their own [internal] space and only the owner has access to the external SD-card."
"One of the reasons for not sharing the SD card is security: FAT file system doesn't allow even for the basic Linux type permissions, thus it's impossible to secure a user's files. I agree it's a bummer but they [Google] have to go w/ the most secure of the solutions..."
(Link to the SonyMobile forum)


text:
Screen Sharing between two android devices
Is there any way to share the screen from one device to another?
Sharing screen means not just accessing data from one to another device but it should be real time, suppose If I open any Application/file/video on my device the same should be seen on all shared devices as I see on my device?
For desktop environments I have seen teamviewer, join.me – but the opposite device should have access to my file explorer. Did anyone come across a solution?

Are you looking to share video/images etc, or share the "desktop" on the devices? Have you tried any screen sharing apps from the Play Store, any of these: http://appcrawlr.com/android-apps/best-apps-screen-sharing

@RossC tried it,but as i mentioned there is no applications which let me to explore files during sharing

Maybe some VNC server offers a suitable solution for you?


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Undo "Flag as spam" on Google Play Store?
I've accidentally marked some reviews for some apps as spam, and they were removed (or were hidden from me).
The problem with clicking on this button is that there is no going back. It doesn't ask you anything about it.
How can I undo my mistakes?

I've done this myself. I don't think there is a way to undo it in the store. I can't find any of the reviews I've marked as 'helpful' or 'unhelpful' on my Google+ account or anywhere.

it was an accident. i was confused with the other buttons (maybe because I was tired, I don't remember). I don't want to harm others by this silly mistake. I don't even know what happens when I click on the "flag as spam" button, other than making it disappear for me.

It's probably the usual "investigate if x number of users report it as spam" system to be honest. And as you say it hides it from you. I doubt it will really effect anyone if just the one person does it. As I said I've done it by mistake myself a bunch of times. Edit: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4971/does-voting-on-market-comments-have-any-effect   Seems like what I said is about right, I think you're ok!

@RossC buy I was wrong and I wish to fix my mistakes... :(


text:
How do I transfer all my contacts from HTC Wildfire to HTC One?
My HTC Wildfire does not have an SD card. I am changing phones and providers, from HTC Wildfire on 3 Network to an HTC One on Vodafone. Please advise how I can transfer my contacts from my 3 Network sim card?

Back them up to Google, then your new phone will just download them from Google.  Settings > Accounts > Google and check Contacts

If I recall, HTC phone tend to come with an application for that. Backing them up to google is likely simpler however

Yep HTC do, but I found Google more reliable and easier. It also has the advantage that they will transfer to any other phone, not just a HTC. Google Synch will also import all the extra information HTC store in XML (link to Facebook, notes etc) about the contact. Once you backup you can go to http://www.google.com/contacts and ensure they are all there!

Does the phone automatically move contacts saved on the phone to Google contacts? I had to do this manually once by sending all contacts to my own Gmail as a vcard and importing to Google contacts in the web interface.

See: Transferring contacts, calendars and applications from one device to another / How to transfer apps, contacts and settings between two identical phones? / How can I transfer my all contacts from old HTC Wildfifre android 2.1 to LG Optimus Vu

I will recommend you this HTC's official app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.htc.dnatransfer.legacy

Some of the 3 methods,

Go to Accounts and Synch and then synch your contacts with your google account.
You could export all contacts in the .VCF format.
You could take a backup using a third party software such as Super Backup


text:
APK via bluetooth
I recently bought a Nexus 5. I tried to send an .apk (via bluetooth) from my mobile to other mobile. Its working fine and I installed the app on other mobile. But when I tried to send the same .apk from that mobile (HTC One X) to my Nexus 5, the HTC shows "cannot send".
I am able to recieve a video from the HTC One X, but not any .apk. Any clue on how to receive the .apk via Bluetooth on my Nexus 5 from it?

Is there a more detailed error message? Also: Does it show "failed" on the sending device, or on the Nexus 5 when receiving it?

Its showing as " cannot send"

OK, so it's "the other" device. And the problem is not receiving the .apk, but sending it from that "other device". Could you please [edit] your question and add some details on that device (name, brand, Android version)?

I am able to recieve a video from Htc one x. But not able to recieve a apk from it

I thought apk sending was blocked via bluetooth to stop people spreading malicious applications (like sending an exe in certain Windows mail clients)? There are Play Store apps that circumvent this afaik. Edit: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/33858/my-new-nexus-7-doesnt-allow-me-to-receive-apk-files-with-bluetooth One workaround there is to zip the apk and send the zip file..

Im just thinking if there is some setting in nexus 5 that will make me allow recieving apk via bluetooth.

Try this:

Rename the .apk to something legitimate like .png or .jpg and send it across via bluetooth.

This should get around the in-built filter of what files can be transferred. Some, if not all, ROMs have the .apk extension blacklisted for obvious reasons when bluetooth is activated.
Use a filemanager of any kind, to do this for you, send the "PNG" or "JPG" across, on the other end, it will be saved, use the same filemanager on the other end to rename it back to .apk and you're good to go.

Do you not get a pop-up notification saying "Allow this transfer" when sending executable (apk) files? That happened to me but you can also try to play around in Bluetooth settings in regards to file receiving.
If you cannot get it to work, I often use AirDroid which works flawlessly.


text:
Force Android's default photo browser to display only images on KitKat
I have Android 4.4.2 KitKat currently on my ASUS Nexus 7 LTE tablet and I have two native photo browsers applications: Photos and Gallery. Both of them displays both images and video stored on my device.
Is there any way to force them to display only images (as they names suggests)? Or the only option, is to drop using them in favor of some 3rd party real-only-photo-browser obtained from Google Play?
(my photos and movies are stored in separate folders (photos in Pictures/Photos, videos in Movies), but even so, KitKat scans entire storage area and put everything all together)

When I use 'photos' I can click on the little Clackcer Board icon (the "Scene 1, take 2" clicky board thing) icon in the top left, and then I get headings of "Camera" and "Video" seperate from each other. would that do?

What's Clackcer Board? When I open Photos, I see two tabs: Camera and Favorites. Second is not available to me, as I didn't sign-in to Google+. First contains only one element (Folders), which I always have to tap, though there are no other options or elements to tap. When I tap it, I see, what I wrote above -- a stream containing movie folders at first followed by all photo folders. The most irritating thing (quite common to Google) is the fact, that Photos list my videos as well, though it is unable to play them (all in AVI/MP4; had to install MX Player to play them).

Above the tabs I have 2 icons, search and the clacker, it's the one that isn't the search magnifying glass!

Are we talking about the same application. This is, what I see, when I open Photos application on my 4.4.2 Kitkat. No search icon, no clacker, no nothing. Only two tabs, one folder (that I have to always tap as first, which is very annoying) and standard three-dot menu button, which holds only settings, which doesn't allow me to set, that I want to see only photos.

That is so strange, I'm on KitKat, it's the same application, but I don't have the the Three Dots Menu icon, I have search and the "Clapper Board" as I've learned they are called. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard  But it certainly isn't there on your one. Mine, however, is on a custom ROM so maybe it's an older/modified one. Sorry for the confusion. It's version 4.2.4.58179886  for your reference, dev says it is unmodified. I'm absolutely baffled. Maybe because I have multiple folders and media types it has more options? Or because it's tied to my Google+ account?

I just noticed, mine has the "Hamburger" menu on the left that slides out (same as in Google+ and the Play store) while your one doesn't seem to have that either. That's even stranger, it could be down to setup, but I'll have to defer to someone else on this one.

Thanks for your contribution. We can summarize, that if I sign to Google+ (which I personally hate), I'll have an option to filter and to force Photos to display... only photos, right? LOL! Stupid, like a hell, but possible -- it's Google, right!

That is how it appears to me, and it may not be exactly what you want either. Maybe 3rd party gallery is the way to go. I'm not a fan of Google+ and I wouldn't sign up on the off chance that it will change things! It's very odd to be honest, but not a surprise.

If I'm not mistaken, you can sign-off Google+ just in Photos application itself. Google was (I think) kind enough to let you browse your photos, without need to publish everything at once to the entire world. Then you could check, if -- after signing off Google+ -- your Photos application start to look closer to my screenshot.


text:
Softbrick after Phone hanging. Rooted but Stock ROM on Nexus 5
I have a really big problem... I have my Nexus 5 for 2 months now and not it doesn't restart anymore.
My phone is rooted and on Stock Android 4.4.2 and enabled developer mode (tapping that 15 times on the build number in settings menu) but I haven't changed that much. And it worked for over a month now. Since the last change in software or settings, the phone was rebooted at least twice.
The last thing I have done was using the app OpenSignal to check my Signal coverage while playing some music over Bluetooth. Because I had enabled that visual feedback for touch, i saw, that my touch on some diagram in OpenSignal was recognized. The Music stopped immideately and the device freezed. Then I tried to reboot it by holding the power key long. The screen went blank.
Then I tried to restart it by holding down the power key long. "Google" appears on screen; screen went blank. Nothing. This is repeatable.
Connecting to a computer shows the "Charging" screen. This is repeatable.
The tried to put the phone into recovery mode. By holding down Vol Down and Power for a quite long time i got that in that mode. than double Vol Down and Power. The screen showed a strange glitch. Like a gameboy that runs out of battery, the lines shifted inside each other. Screen went blank again.
I still can reboot to the Google screen and get the charging screen. I hope it is only a Softbrick and not a Hardbrick. How can I get it working again?
I just have recognized that sometimes after the Google-Logo the system goes to these balls but freeze before the first ball (Red one from left) could be seen completely.

Did you make a Nandroid backup? Since the last change in software or settings, the phone was rebooted at least twice. Did you update something after rooting (other than the OpenSignal issue)? Can you get an ADB connection at all?

I updated some playstore software. One reboot was because the battery was nearly empty and I shut down the phone to have emergency backup and the second reboot was beaucse I killed some services that drained the battery but started up automaticly. So atfer the reboots the system was totally normal.


text:
What is the difference between AMD Appzone and the original Bluestacks app player?
i would like to know what is the difference between these two ? Is AMD Appzone just a launcher, or appstore, or what ? They have different UI, but is that the only difference ?

Bluestacks have entered a partnership with AMD, and released AMD AppZone which is powered by Bluestacks technology.
As one article puts it:

Another rather fabulous step towards total cross-platform compatibility has been made this week as the AMD AppZone Player is announced with full BlueStacks power under the hood.

Here is one article on the partnership.

BlueStacks today announced a collaboration with AMD to launch AMD AppZone, the largest collection of Android apps which can be run on PCs. Powered by BlueStacks, the AMD AppZone Player brings hundreds of thousands of Android apps to the next generation of Windows 8 based slates, laptops, tablets and AiO desktop PCs. AMD AppZone is also available for AMD’s massive global installed base of Windows 7 based PCs. The collaboration with BlueStacks with optimizations for AMD GPU and APU technology enables a superior experience through AppZone on AMD powered PCs relative to other app stores like AppUp.

 Here is another article on it and an excerpt:

BlueStacks made quite a splash when they released their alpha x86 Android app player for Windows late last year. When AMD invested millions of dollars into the company, it was clear that they were planning on leveraging the ever-expanding Android platform to put a shot into the arm of their PC chip business. Nearly a year after the initial investment, they're ready to make good: head on over to the official site to check out the shiny new AMD App Zone.

AMD AppZone official site
Here is a link to the AMD AppZone  App for Windows (Microsoft Site)

So, it is serving as an appstore, right ? And also, it provides some smoothness by working with AMD gpus.

Exactly, using Bluestacks technology and AMD as a partner to enhance it running on AMD chips, as it says above. It SHOULD be smoother, but as you know that's always relative and depends on hardware/software/setup etc in real life!


text:
Exchange client puts signature before response
I have a nexus 5, and I use the built-in exchange client for handling my work e-mail. I've noticed that when I send a reply, my exchange server adds my signature, but it seems to add it on top of my response text, instead of like my normal e-mails where the signature is after the response text.
I've used Samsung's exchange client before and it ordered these two correctly, is there a way to do this on the Nexus 5?


text:
Transferring videos from Android to iOS Camera Roll
Trying to find the easiest method of getting home videos (up to 3 minutes long) taken on my Nexus 5 (Android) phone and sending it over the internet to the family to save to their iOS (iPhone/iPad) camera roll. Needs to be quite idiot proof on the receiving end (for the family)
Ideally it will compress the video so it doesnt take up too much space as well.
I tried uploading from my Nexus to Dropbox then sending a dropbox link via email so they can open in their Mail app however it will not let you save the video to the camera only view it in Safari.

It sounds like you need to find out what services and methods on an iPad will let the user save the video instead of just playing it. Once you've found what will work on the iPad end finding an Android app that can use that method will be much easier. It's probably worth asking a variation on this question over at http://apple.stackexchange.com but not asking them about the Android side

Have you tried with email? I have not tried with email but I can save photos on an iphone from email...

Easiest way is via WhatsApp or any other social networking sites which can send video.

Can you save videos from whatsapp?

Yes u can for sure

Can you save videos from Dropbox? – Yes for sure. But still, that doesn't work for the OP. Trouble isn't the upload, but rather the "receiving end" being unable to save the content.

Also whatsapp is not available for iPad!

authors: Сергей Жидель


text:
Smart e Machine tablet stuck on "Boot into recovery..." screen
So I finally got my first android tablet, some cheap brand "Smart e Machine". It has android 4.0 on it. They just barely have a website and no type of support pages or anything, and apparently the phone number listed is for the company that designed their web page.
But anyways,
It was working fine, but I decided to do a factory reset anyhow. Then it rebooted and got stuck on a "Boot Into Recovery..." screen. Let it sit for a long time, and still nothing. I can power it off and on again, but it does the same thing. If I try to boot into recovery manually by pressing the vol up and down and power buttons it asks me if I want to boot into recovery and to long press power to do so. I do that and it freezes on the same screen. Even if I do that but then don't long press power to confirm I want recovery mode, it still freezes on the same screen.
It does have a pinhole reset button, and pressing it seems to just reboot the machine. Tried holding it down for a while, and tried holding it along with the power button, but it doesn't do anything different.
It has a usb port, but it looks kind of round. A usb mini cord fits in just fine, but I get no response from my computer and the charge light doesn't come on either. I'm not sure if it can charge through usb, it came with a standard power adapter and no usb. I'm also not sure if it just isn't booting into a mode where it can connect to a computer yet.
I have not been able to get the back cover off to try and pull the battery, I need to get a new screwdriver so I'm going to try that tonight.
I cannot get into the recovery menu.
If anyone has any ideas or has encountered something like this before I would love any advice.
Thanks

The battery most likely is not removable. That's what the reset hole usually is for.

you're right, the battery wires are all soldered. i've tried holding in the reset button for over 30 seconds but no change. i discovered that if i hold down the power button and then click the reset button, it will flash the power button off and on, as well as the lcd backlight. i wedged it between two things to hold in the power button, im gonna let that run for a bit and see if it clears anything.

I actually got this working again!!
After opening up the case and googling some of the different numbers printed on chips and the circuit board, I found out that this particular type of tablet can have its firmware flashed by putting the right files on the root of a micro sd card. When it boots up it will automatically check for said files and perform an update all by itself. When it finishes it asks you to remove the sd card and then automatically reboots itself.
It took me a few tries to get a good firmware with the majority of features working. Some were unstable, some wouldn't boot, some would boot but had no touch screen or soft button support, no camera, gyro, wifi etc. I finally found one that seems stable and has most features working, minus the camera. I have a few more left to try and see if I can get the camera working, but other than that it works great!


text:
Sim-Toolkit is missing from app drawer
I am running Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) on an Nexus 4.
A day before I changed from Dalvik to ART, and after the restart, I noticed that the Sim Toolkit is missing!
How do I get it back?

It may well just have changed name; check through all your apps. Happened to me a couple of times, so I assume it's just a carrier thing.


text:
Screen size off after porting ROM to my phone. How can I fix X and Y values of the screen?
I am trying to port JB 4.1.2 to my phone using a kernel from another phone of the same spec as mine. I have 98% of things working but the screen is probably the most troublesome.
CPU MT6577
Android version 4.0.4 ICS
Phones Display is an LG 720x1280 but not sure exactly which one.
The Screen driver is contained in the kernel and I wondered if there is anyway to make adjustments to center the screen either during the boot process with added commands in the init.rc or via adb and even after boot as completed with any kind of apk.
I have tried adjusting the screen with am and wm commands via adb which work but it is all contained within the frame. If that makes sense.
What I think I need to do is adjust the x & y values to shift the entire frame. Please see the image and all will be clear lol.
Please bear in mind my level is Noob so if this requires kernel decompile and rebuild then its a none starter and there are no sources for my phone anyhow :(

full size image here

I think this question is better suited for StackOverflow !

I am not sure if Stackoverflow deals with such questions. Anyway @bigrammy could you please attach the picture via the sites "add picture" function? The picture link is already broken.

Hi full size photo added to post as requested.


text:
List of supported A/V and Image Codecs
Using ADB, is it possible to obtain a list of audio, video and image codecs supported on a given device? Whether or not they physically play is another story. I'm just trying to poke the device and get a list back so I can attempt to play whatever, say Nexus 5 supports.
Thanks.

Did you try with adb shell getprop

The file media_codecs.xml located in /system/etc lists the codecs available for a particular device.
To read it via adb shell:
adb shell cat /system/etc/media_codecs.xml

Part of Media_codecs.xml content on my phone:
<MediaCodecs>

    <Settings>
        <Setting name="max-video-encoder-input-buffers" value="10" />
    </Settings>

     <Decoders>
        <!-- ffmpeg video decoders -->
        <MediaCodec name="OMX.ffmpeg.h263.decoder" type="video/3gpp">
            <Limit name="size" min="16x16" max="1920x1088" />
            <Limit name="alignment" value="2x2" />
            <Feature name="adaptive-playback" />
        </MediaCodec>

        <MediaCodec name="OMX.ffmpeg.h264.decoder" type="video/avc">
            <Limit name="size" min="16x16" max="2048x2048" />
            <Limit name="alignment" value="720x1280" />
            <Feature name="adaptive-playback" />
        </MediaCodec>

        <MediaCodec name="OMX.ffmpeg.hevc.decoder" type="video/hevc">
            <Limit name="size" min="2x2" max="2048x2048" />
            <Limit name="alignment" value="2x2" />
            <Feature name="adaptive-playback" />
        </MediaCodec>
    </Decoders>

    <Encoders>
        <!-- mediatek video encoders -->
        <MediaCodec name="OMX.MTK.VIDEO.ENCODER.MPEG4" type="video/mp4v-es" >
            <Limit name="size" min="16x16" max="1920x1088" />
            <Limit name="alignment" value="16x16" />
            <Limit name="block-size" value="16x16" />
            <Quirk name="requires-allocate-on-input-ports" />
            <Quirk name="requires-allocate-on-output-ports" />
        </MediaCodec>

        <MediaCodec name="OMX.MTK.VIDEO.ENCODER.H263" type="video/3gpp" >
            <Limit name="size" min="16x16" max="1920x1088" />
            <Limit name="alignment" value="16x16" />
            <Limit name="block-size" value="16x16" />
             <Quirk name="requires-allocate-on-input-ports" />
            <Quirk name="requires-allocate-on-output-ports" />
        </MediaCodec>

        <MediaCodec name="OMX.MTK.VIDEO.ENCODER.AVC" type="video/avc" >
            <Limit name="size" min="16x16" max="1920x1088" />
            <Limit name="alignment" value="16x16" />
            <Limit name="block-size" value="16x16" />
            <Quirk name="requires-allocate-on-input-ports" />
            <Quirk name="requires-allocate-on-output-ports" />
        </MediaCodec>
    </Encoders>

  <!-- <Include href="media_codecs_mediatek_audio.xml" /> -->
  <!-- <Include href="media_codecs_mediatek_video.xml" /> -->
    <Include href="media_codecs_google_audio.xml" />
    <Include href="media_codecs_google_telephony.xml" />
    <Include href="media_codecs_google_video_le.xml" />
    <Include href="media_codecs_ffmpeg.xml" />
</MediaCodecs>

It may also point to other files as on my phone to get a complete list. Therefore, use the command below to get the full list of files listing codecs available on your device.
adb shell find /system/etc -type f -name "media_codecs*.xml"

You can then filter the files on the codec types with the following commands:
cat /system/etc/media_codecs*.xml | grep "type="

Media Codec Info app offers an easier way to list the codecs on a device.

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


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Access Internet via Bluetooth from Windows 7 Desktop to Android 2.3.5 Mobile phone
Hi need to know How do we Access Internet via Bluetooth from Windows 7 Desktop PC to Android 2.3.5 Mobile phone? Please advice step by step solution and Thanks in advance.
When I was raising this question, found "How to use PC internet on Android mobile via Bluetooth [duplicate] 1" but it don't have the complete step by step details.
Please guide.

That's called "reverse-tethering", and dealt with e.g. in these questions. Especially see: TCP/IP tethering over Bluetooth.


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Is there a way to get Google Calendar reminders to act like Alarms?
I miss many calendar reminders because they're just too subtle. I might put my phone down and walk out of the room for 5 minutes, missing the reminder, then come back and not touch my phone again for an hour; completely missing an important appointment.
If reminders worked like alarms, they would make their notification sound continuously (up to a point, like alarms: ~10 minutes), and take over the whole screen, until silenced. That would be preferable to me. Is there an app that can do this?

Change your notification settings A link https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37242?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&oco=1&hl=en

I just took a deep dive in reminders vs events vs tasks turns out it's alarms. Set a recurring alarm if you have a scrum meeting every day at 2pm. Or set an alarm for your appointment tomorrow at 12PM, you will get a notification from your Google home.

If you want to stick with your Google Calendar as backend and frontend, you might wish to check Calendar Event Reminder. You can tell that app which calendars to look at, and to annoy you until you're going crazy. I almost guarantee you cannot miss such a reminder! I've used the app for quite some time, before...
I switched to a different calendar frontend: Business Calendar. Very configurable again, also concerning reminders: vibrates and makes "subtle noises" (I've told him so) until I lose my nerves and switch it off :)
There are probably a lot of similar approaches. But I know of no way to even come near to one of them without any 3rd party tool being involved.

Warning: Calendar Event Reminder was using a pay-for-ratings service. It's actual ratings are far far lower. Note the precipitous drop earlier this year. I have not looked at this product myself, just warning y'all to be cautious.

You can copy the mp3 file that you'd like (for example a 5-minute song)  to the Notifications folder in your Android (at the same level that the Download folder). This can be done as well for ringtones (Ringtones folder) and alarms (Alarms folder). Now, go to calendar Settings, General and change the tone to your mp3 file.

Thanks. Can also add vibrations in Settings > General. Works for me

No such option (set a ringtone) exists on vanilla Android (as of version 11).
Either it was removed or you had a custom skin back when you wrote this?
Anyways, seems like a 3rd party app is the solution.

I found a free app, Calendar Event Reminder, that achieves the requirement at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sk.mildev84.reminder

While this is a great app, it hasn't been completely reliable.  Even when I check my battery optimization settings.  I have been using this and another one called "Calendar Alarm".  I like calendar alarm better but it doesn't work for Outlook calendar items as of August 12, 2021

@KimballRobinson Could you share a link to the app that you recommend?

I used this one for a while, but it stopped working for me recently.

What I do is to set an additional alarm in my standard android "Clock" app. Alarms have the option to give them "memo text", e.g. "Reminder for meeting boss in 10 min". So the alarm will act as your intruding and persistent reminder. The alarm has also the option "Auto-start app", where you can select after switching off the alarm the calendar to be opened, showing you that you have an appointment in x min.

That is perhaps a tolerable workaround -- but it only works for events that are not more than a week away, and for those alarms that are further away than 24 hours you have to set a weekday which makes the alarm recurrent, i.e. you must delete or disable it after acknowledging.

@Peter-ReinstateMonica Check it again I'm able to set an alarm for any day in the future, any time, and have it recurrent or once-off.  Setting an alarm this way is 5 extra config steps, but guarentees a big vibration and big default or custom sound happen for 5 minutes, with up to three five-minute snoozes and tries again for 5 mins, until acknowledged, even if phone is set to do not disturb and 0 volume.  So if you step away from the phone for 25 minutes, you come back and it's still going.

@EricLeschinski Looks like you are right! I may have missed the option below the weekdays line, or did it come with a recent Android update?

I use TWO apps for this: [EDIT: I have stopped using both of these, see my other separate answer]

Google Calendar events: Event Alarm Reminder for Google Calendar

One drawback of this one: No support of Outlook/Exchange calendars (yet) (August 2021)

Outlook/Exchange events: "Event Reminder"

This app DOES support outlook
Isn't terribly reliable so I ONLY use it for outlook/exchange, hence both apps.

Also check out my separate answer on how to use a phone automation app.

Thanks for separating out the separate answer. It helps to have separate answers in separate posts, so that they can be voted on separately.

Both links point to the same app.

Use an automation app like MacroDroid, Tasker, or AutoMate
I use MacroDroid for most things.
There are 2 strategies to detect upcoming meetings:
Detect meeting reminder notifications
In macrodroid:

Trigger: Notification - from (calendar apps) - anything

(for outlook, I filter by "\d\d:\d\d.*\d\d:\d\d" to match "09:00 - 10:00"

If "events seen" variable contains notification text, abort macro

(this avoids problems with ongoing notifications over-triggering)

Set variable "events seen" to "events seen" plus notification text
Set alarm with notificatoin text, plus "#macro"

Specifically watch for calendar events
Most automation apps can detect meetings/events, though it varies how hard it is to do.  I found MacroDroid does well at this, with some caveats: you must create one trigger per calendar.

Use MacroDroid
Trigger on meetings 5 minutes before they begin.

Exclude all-day events
Create a similar trigger for each calendar you want alarms for

Constraints: (either on the entire macro, or the trigger)

only during working hours plus buffer (7:00am to 5:30pm)
Or, only during waking hours (7am to 10pm)

Action: Check variable with event title [calendar_title].  Abort if it contains words/phrases like "out of office/OOO/paid time off/PTO").

This would be an abort macro action with an action-level constraint based on variable pattern matching

Action: Set an alarm 2 minutes in the future with title set to variable [calendar_title].  I found 1 minute ahead sometimes ended up on the next day.
The drawback of this approach is it always sets alarms the same amount of time before a meeting.
I usually use an alarm app that slowly increases in volume.  AMDroid and Sleep As Android work well.  I set them up so that single-occurence alarms auto-delete.


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How to disable GPU rendering on Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8"
You're reading it right, I'm trying to do the oposite as others. I want to use CPU for rendering.
The reason is simple. My tablet is freezing very frequently. I have no warranty, so I'm trying to solve problem by lowering performance of device.
I isolated a problem and I'm sure freezing is caused by GPU. It freezes on gfx intese moments(few seconds of video playback), or on overlay (Eg. opening search dialog in google play causes almost instant freeze).
So the question stands:
How can I disable GPU rendering on my device(I have terminal with root access if it helps)?
What I already tried:
1. Underclocking CPU has no effect on freezing. I tried powersave mode with 200MHz, with no impact on problem.
2. Underclocking GPU has also no effect on freezing.

did you check out developer options?

IMO, it's unlikely the issue is GPU rendering. The search dialog is hardly a graphic intensive view, and neither is playing a simple video. Can you play any graphic intensive games?

I didn't check developer options, but I will now, thanks for a tip.
I wrote it freezes on gfx intensive situations or overlay. Game CSR racing freezes after 3-5s when in 3D. Youtube app is the same as google play, hitting search button causes freeze (I presume suggestion window overlay).

Don't edit it as solved. Instead, post what you did (or consider to be the solution, even if it's buying a new motherboard) as an answer, and mark it as an Answer two days later. That way, this question doesn't get bumped for being unanswered / unaccepted. Thanks! :)

After failing to avoid freezing by SW settings, I resorted to last resort: Baking motherboard. :)
Result: Device is bricked. It wont even start. I will buy a new motherboard.


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How can I know which app is giving me notification sounds?
I've removed the permission for almost every app to show me notifications on the status bar but now that led me to a situation in that a lot of times during the day there will be a notification sound (which in my case is an annoyingly loud "boom", which I use because that's the only way I can hear the Redy Gym Log notification that my rest time is up with the loud sound in the gym) but I don't know from which app it came from. Is there any way for me to turn off sound notification? I can't find that on App Opps. Maybe an app that would show a behind the scenes system log would be great, if that kind of thing exists. I'm on a Galaxy Note 3.

FWIW, this helped me:
how to disable unlock screen sound on galaxy S3
I had turned on NFC to transfer data from an old phone. NFC makes your phone chirp every time you unlock / wake it to remind you it's on. Turn it off under Settings (Wireless & Networks) -> More -> NFC

Sorry, the question is about identifying the source of the notification sound. While your answer might be one of the causes of the notification sound, it doesn't really answer the question.

This helped me. When I turned off the NFC the sound gone. Thanks!

For system logs you have the "logcat" command.
you culd try killing apps one by one untill you find the naughty one. But unchecking notifications should work, so are you sure you disabled almost all? It's probably an app that is still notification enabled

how do I use this "logcat" command?

authors: Богуслав Павлишинець


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Help me. Can't update my galaxy
I own a Samsung SCH-i545 Galaxy S4 and can not update to Jellybean 4.3. The wi-fi it says: Software update is temporarly unavailable.vTry again later. Kies does not let me update either. I really want the 4.3 update so I would appreciate some help..

Identical question (first 2 sentences at least) here: Samsung galaxy S4 SCH-I545 Official Update! Further see: How do I update the OS on my device?

Try waiting. It's usually because loads of people are upgrading. There's a limit; you should be able to in the next 2 days.


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How to check, if my ASUS Nexus 7 LTE really is LTE version?
Following this question and my many further tests, I begin to fear, that my ASUS Nexus 7 II (2013) LTE isn't actually a LTE version and I simply has been cheated, paying for LTE version and getting 3G one.
What is the best way to check / prove, that this device really is LTE version?
Does the facts:

phone detects network as LTE (though is unable to connect to it),
after upgrading system to 4.4.2 KitKat I have access to new option Settings > Wireless & networks > More > Mobile Networks > Preferred network and I can select 4G there.

are enough to be sure, that this is really an LTE-based version of ASUS Nexus 7 tablet?
My doubts come from three facts:

When I insert a LTE-compatible SIM card, tablet is able to detect, that it is in LTE signal range, but is unable to login to LTE network and obtain an IP address. The very same card inserted into another LTE device (some Samsung phablet) logins to LTE network at once and works like a charm.
Working Samsung was checked at provider's office and provider's representative did check APN. Beside, SIM cards used by this provider are somehow self-configurable. Once inserted, they set APNs by themselves and select the proper one.
I've checked and verified, that my network carrier (Polish Plus GSM) is using LTE on the 1800 MHz band, which is confirmed to be all fine with ASUS Nexus 7 II (2013) LTE tablet.

Are there any other things, that I can check to make myself sure, that I really have LTE model?

Just a raw idea: Have you compared the APN config of the (working) Sammy against those of the (not working) N7? Maybe your provider uses/requires different settings for 4G.

Working Samsung was checked at provider's office and provider's representative did check APN. Beside, SIM cards used by this provider are somehow self-configurable. Once inserted, they set APNs by itself at selects proper one.

I've integrated that fact with your question. As APN selection can only be done by the Android system (based on information from the inserted SIM; I know this as a fact from e.g. CyanogenMod), and the ROMs of both devices certainly differ, I suggest a manual (visual) comparision nevertheless. It could very well be the database of your N7 is somehow "incorrect", and thus wrong APN data might get set up.

Your comment enforced me for a little bit deeper search and it seems, that you're right. I found some pages about detailed APN settings for this provider. I'll try to use them this day evening or next one (once I get back Nexus to my hands) and eventually report results here. Thanks!

I will wait for your details then to convert my comments to an "enriched answer". Good luck until then!

Hi Izzy. Turned out, you were right and carrier's customer support was wrong. SIM cards for this carrier (Plus GSM, Poland) are self-configurable, but only for up to 3G network. LTE network, since is still being a rather new / tested solution, requires special APN settings. Once entered manually, LTE on my Nexus 7 started to work immediately and I got godspeeds of around 27 MB/s download. Please, convert key points from your comments to full answer, so I can accept it. Thanks.

Done. Glad we were able to solve the issue, and you now have a fully operable N7 :)

The pleasure is all mine! :> Have a nice weekend and thanks! :]

The issue is most likely caused by a wrong APN configuration. Though customer care told you their card is "self configurable", this may well be relative: many ROMs (especially custom ROMs like cyanogenmod) come with a built-in list of APNs, which are matched against the provider as specified by the SIM card, and used correspondingly.
While those matches usually are fine, there might be exceptions – e.g. when the provider made changes to his configuration after the ROM was released. Or did not provide all details: APNs might need different parameters for e.g. 3G than for LTE. As you've got a second Android device where the card is working fine,

put the SIM into that device
go to Settings (usually network → telephony or similarly; different ROMs might place it slightly different)
tap the APN and select to adjust it
do not adjust anything, just write down its parameters

In a second step,

put the same SIM to your N7
go to the same Settings page
compare your values and, if something differs, adjust it

I bet your device then will connect fine. If not (or if there are no differences), it's probably a hardware issue, and you need to send your N7 for service.


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Slow Charging Battery!
I have a Samsung galaxyS3 the battery has been charging really slow. It can take up yo 10 hours to charge 100%. I have tried every thing I can think of. I've tried a new charger, new battery, shut down all apps running in the backgrond, taken out the battery and held down the power, volume and home screen button, deleted junk apps. I've thought about reseting my phone but idk if that would help or just make more work for me. Also I put both my old and new battery in a friends phone and both batteries worked fine. Any ideas?

It might be worthwhile to invest in a charge only cable. I use one for my tablet at home and in my car.
The quality of the usb cable will also make a difference. Cables do go bad. It sounds like you have ruled out all the other options so this might be worth trying.

Also, make sure the charger is the right one for the phone. Things are still a bit fuzzy in how the chargers identify themselves to the devices, and if you've grabbed (for instance) an iPhone charger, the phone might not know it can charge at a faster rate.

Charging is a simple process and can be represented by the below (simplified) equation:
Rate of Charge = Rate of Electricity Flow - Rate of Depletion
To maximize the rate at which your phone charges at, you want to reduce the rate it's using up your battery as far as possible, and increase the speed at which current is flowing into your phone as much as possible.
Reducing Battery Usage
This is pretty standard stuff, turn off all unnecessary toggles and apps. Disable WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and any constantly running apps. If you happen to be charging your phone in an area with poor or no cellular signal, the constant searching for mobile networks could be a significant contributing factor.
Go to Settings->Battery Usage (or something similar, I don't own a Samsung device so I can't be sure), and look at what's using up your battery.
If possible, consider turning on airplane mode, or even turning your phone off completely to minimise battery usage.
Increasing Speed of Current Flow
Look at the thing you're plugging your USB cable into. If you're charging it via your computer, chances are the current flow is around 1A or lower. That's okay, but not great. Look around your house, or see if you can get your hands on a tablet charger. Those often provide current at 1.5A or even 2A at times. That's twice the speed of a 1A charger.
Also, look at where you're plugging your charger into. If the socket is already heavily overloaded, consider plugging it in somewhere else, for safety's sake at least
Still very slow...
If at this stage, it's still charging very slowly, your battery may be the issue. Since it seems to work fine in your friend's phone, it may simply be your phone providing inaccurate information. Try calibrating your phone's battery and see if that helps.

Thanks for the suggestions :) I also forgot to mention if I use my phone while it is on the carger the battery still dies.. :p

Take a tooth brush and clean off the battery connector points in the battery casing of your phone.

Using a 5v-2A charger will reduce the charging time. It works for me.

i just checked charging details of my phone through this app :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playfulgeeks.chargingreport

And? How did that prove useful? What did the app tell you?


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Can Whatsapp messages be restored from email chat history?
My Whatsapp chats got wiped after a ROM flash that resulted in a soft brick. The other person uses Windows Phone 8, and I have an email from that mobile with the chat history txt file. Can I restore the messages on my phone with this file, perhaps by editing the DB file that Whatsapp backups create? Just the message text would be great, I do not care for the dates or other metadata.
This is probably not an easy task, and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and dig in. Any general pointers to get started would be great.

WhatsApp uses SQLite databases for recording chat history. It's not possible to restore without writing custom code to convert plain text into sqlite database accepted by whatsapp. I don't know of any such tool.

Yes, you can do that but it's going to be a really tough work.
Try using DB Sqlite browser to access the mgstore.db file in your rooted phone by saving the same file on PC. Then you can create new records in the sqlite file and add on your old messages to your chat history.

msgstore.db is no more plain zipped sqlite database.
It is now encrypted (with crypt8) too using the keys from the device WhatsApp was installed on.
So manually injecting can be really difficult though not impossible once WhatsApp is installed.
I suggest you refer to the text file when you need it, and don't worry about putting it back in WhatsApp.


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Whatsapp profile picture of friend lost
I am using Samsung Note 3. My friend's profile picture has suddenly disappeared! Is this a known problem? Is there anyway I can get the pictures to show again ?
Thanks


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Gmaps location not obtained while using ART
I've been trying to get the current location on my Nexus 5. When I click on the location button on the bottom right corner it keeps showing "waiting for location", but nothing happens. But it does work fine in Dalvik.
Is it a bug or is it some setting?

Good question as I have a feeling ART is going to generate a lot of queries, and the answers below are going to be repeated a lot until ART is out of the WIP stage.

ART is still a work in progress and things may or may not work as expected. You can't do anything about except wait for the application's developer coming with a fix and/or wait for ART to be more stable.

ART is currently only included as an option so that developers can test their apps for compatibility, it doesn't offer benefits for normal people just running normal apps on their phones, quite the opposite in fact at the moment as many of them aren't compatible in their current version. There is a reason that the option to enable ART is hidden away in the hidden developer menu.


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Change action of headset button
I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2. When I connect my headset and press the button on the headset, it plays/pauses the music.
Actually, I need to record calls, so when I press the headset button, it starts recording, and after hitting it again, stop it.
Is there any solution to this kind of issue?

There are a bunch of "headset button controllers" out there in the wild, several are even going by that name. A search for "headset control" will give you a list of candidates. Some are generic ones, some are specific to a given headset manufacturer (but still working with others). Don't let yourself be disappointed if the first one you chose doesn't work exactly as you wish, simply try another (I found mine on the third match): it's not that your headset is "incompatible", it's the combination of headset, device, and app to make the perfect match which might need a couple of tries.

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


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How to stream videos from PC to TV
I have a PC with videos, an android mobile device and a TV.
I would like to use my mobile in order to stream videos from my PC to the TV.
Is the a way to do it?
The best offers I found out so far are:

connect my TV to "Rikomagic MK802 mini PC", install BSPlayer on
it and control the Rikomagic from my mobile.
Jailbreak AppleTV and use "Remote for Apple TV" app

I saw many discussions around this issue but couldn't find the right solution for me.
Any suggestions?

I have a Roku that is hooked up to my TV.  I use PLEX to handle streaming videos from my PC and other devices.
Rokus are pretty cheap and PLEX has done what I need.

I'd recommend giving BubbleUPnP a try. You will need a DLNA/UPnP server on your PC for that, but there are plenty of alternatives available. Then you can use BubbleUPnP as DLNA server and control point. I use it to tell my TV what video to play (TV acts as renderer then, and can be selected from within BubbleUPnP). You can also tell the TV to play media from your Android device, of course – either from BubbleUPnP (as control point), or from your TV browsing it.
Note, however, that for this to work, it has some pre-conditions:

your TV must support DLNA (and ideally act as a media renderer)
you need a DLNA/UPnP server software on your PC (if you're on Windows, I've heard Media Player should do)

Does your phone have a MHL connector? If so, you could get a MHL to HDMI adapter, connect the phone to the TV and use a video player to stream the content from the PC.
I'd recommend using Plex Media Server on the PC to host the content and the Plex Android app to play them. This way you don't have to deal with different video formats as they're automatically transcoded if the source file isn't compatible with Android.
Note that Plex supports streaming for many different devices, so depending on your TV you may be able to stream directly to it.

I can buy such a connector, but what I'm looking for is a behavior more like the Apple TV where I can control my Media center from my mobile to stream content from my PC

I have an AppleTV but I still have to use Plex to stream the content. Since I have a third-generation un-jailbreakable AppleTV, I use PlexConnect to stream the content. To control the aTV from Android, I think you still need a jailbreakable aTV. You could also use the Rikomagic to run Plex on Android, but I'm not sure about the remote control possibilities of this combo.

Quick'n'dirty, stream content to phone and cast screen to tv.
Try the allcast app.


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Android tablet does not receive notifications when screen is off
I have a Ainol Novo 7 Aurora v3 tablet using unofficial ROM, rooted, CM10.
Android OS version is 4.1.2, and I found that it cannot receive notifications such as WhatsApp.
After the screen is turned on, notifications are received.

Wi-Fi Settings > Advanced > Always ON
valid Wi-Fi Internet connection is connected

How can I resolve the issue ?

Update I found a thread about this issue, and I verified the issue is happening on my device with ping tool. When the screen is off, ping is immediately timed out.
However, Android 4.1.2 does not have the /system/etc/wifi/WCNSS_qcom_cfg.ini file. I'm stuck.

Possibly a silly question: are you SURE the cfg file isn't there? Have you enabled "Show Hidden Files" in your file explorer. ES File explorer has this option for sure, so maybe try that first.

I use Root Explorer, double checked with other 4.1.2 devices. No such config file

Do you have a battery saver app like Juice Defender link?


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"My Places" in Google Maps
I want to mark "My Places" from my Android tablet but can't find the option in Google Maps. Are there any alternative apps? If possible, how can I edit my earlier marked places and / or find their longitude and latitude?

If you long place on a location you can click the popup on the bottom of the map with the address then click "Save" which has a big Star Icon above it. What do you mean "option to find longitude and latitude" are you trying to write an app or what?

Have you tried with google maps engine ?


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How to turn off the spell checker in Android 4.4.2?
I have a Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.2 and I can't switch off the spell checker. I write messages in several different languages and it insists on changing foreign words to the closest English. Writing a message can take me several minutes to sort out all the errors Android itself introduces.
Assessing Settings > Language & input the Spell checker field is turned off, but this doesn't stop Android from messing up my messages.
Thank you.

Try going into Settings > Language & Input and configure the Google Keyboard.
In there you can turn off 'Auto-correction'. This should stop it from changing the foreign words to English.
You could also try adding additional dictionaries. This should allow you to enter words from different languages without it detecting them as mis-spelt English words.

For a good international keyboard that lets you mix languages within the same message, I recommend Swiftkey https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey I have no idea if the google keyboard allows you to mix languages now, but a couple of years ago, it didn't, so Swiftkey was a life-saver for me.

I did Settings -> Language & Input and turned off Spell checker.
And then still in Language & Input I went into the Google Keyboard config, de-selected Use System Language, de-selected English(US), then selected Alphabet(QWERTY).

On HTC One M8 what I did:
Settings -> Language & keyboard -> Keyboard options -> Advanced -> Word prediction unticked.
Worked for me.

Android 5.1.1.
Settings>Language & Input>Google Keyboard>Text Correction>Disable Auto Correction

Just turn off Swiftkey and auto correction on your remaining keyboards in Settings → Language & keyboard.

What has Swiftkey got to do with anything? It wasn't mentioned in the question.


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Better way to deal with "Only part of the message has been downloaded" mail warning?
I'm using the stock e-mail app on Android 4.3.  This morning, when I tried to forward an e-mail to another person, I got a warning that popped up which read:
Only part of the message has been downloaded.
If you continue, the rest of the original message may be lost.

I get the same warning if I try to reply to the message.  I tried pressing the "sync" icon above the message.  I tried waiting a while for the message to finish downloading.  I still got the warning.
I finally resolved the issue by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the message, but this is a rather bothersome solution, requiring time and lots of finger flicks. I don't see anything else that seems relevant to the problem at hand, but surely there must be some way better to resolve the problem?

What account type are you using for your mail account? The error IMHO only applies to POP (where messages are stored client-side and deleted from the server once downloaded). If my assumption is correct, switching to IMAP (messages are stored server-side, and only cached client-side) should solve your issue.

Strange. I'm using an IMAP account already.

@Izzy Double-checking my settings I found an option "Size to retrieve emails" which was set at 50kB.  I've upped it to "All"; guess I'll see if this makes any difference...

That makes no sense (I mean, the error message and IMAP). There should be nothing "lost", as the message stays stored on the server. Maybe you should use a different mail app then: I'm using K9, and have that setting on 25kB. No issues. That limit is there to save bandwidth; also it often makes not much sense to download all attachments to the device.


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Why Galaxy SII reports on not enough memory for new apps when I have several GBs available on flash storage?
I have 5GB free out of total 11.5GB internal flash storage on my SGS2.
However, it doesn't allow to install new apps saying there's not enough memory. Also Settings > Applications Manager > All reports 1.7GB used, 281MB free (even immediately after reboot).
Why I can't use all 11.5GB of internal storage for my apps, but only 2GB? How can I make more storage available for applications?
Samsung Galaxy SII, stock firmware auto-updated to 4.1.2 I9100 XWLSE.

This post helped me:

since firmware version 4.1 (Jelly Bean), the memory became partitioned: roughly 2GB for apps, the rest became mass storage. The problem didn't exist in ICS or earlier.
to free up some space, dial *#9900# in standard dialer (called Phone) and select option 2 "Delete dumpstate/logcat" in the prompted menu

As for making more than 2GBs available for applications, here's an instruction on re-flashing firmware which re-partitions internal storage, allowing up to 12GBs of internal storage for applications.

The Samsung Galaxy SII is an older device which doesn't use the MTP protocol and so, applications' storage and internal storage is separated. Newer devices share the full internal storage seemingly.
If you in need of storage space for apps, you may look at some root options such as:

app2sd applications that enable you to transfer your applications to the internal storage
app2ext that enable you to extend your applications' partition
a ROM for your phone that change the partitions' size

What my friend is implying is that the applications you have on your Samsung, are eating up your Internal memory. What you need is to get the applications running from your external SD card.
In all android devices there's an amount of the memory assigned to run your android system just like in a computer there's a storage for your OS.This storage should be about 2GB, or less....now, your Samsung's memory is divided into three main parts,that is system storage , USB storage and SD card(external SD card)Try going to your task manager and checking the available memory.
also, Try moving the apps to run on SD card(external) using AppsMgrIII, hope it works.Otherwise if the memory continues to be as little as you imply, your S2 will start getting slower.Goodluck.

A quick and easy way to free up some space is SD Maid. It's a free software and is available on the Android Market. Sometimes log files take a lot of this internal space. But I believe even ~200MB should be more than enough to get new apps. Have you tried writing to the internal storage yourself or check if apps can write to it? This is easy to do if you have a rooted phone and you can use any file manager to create a file on it. I suspect that your phone is accidentally detecting your internal storage as read only and this is what is causing the issue. I have seen the same happen for external SD cards before but not for internal storage.


text:
Driving directions in new google maps
I've just got a new phone and downloaded the new Google Maps. I cannot find the written driving directions in this version. There used to be a list of the directions that appeared together with white circles showing where you need to change directions on the map.
Is this still there? Where can I find this view?

If you get the directions for a route, you can pull the bottom white bar up to see the detailed, written instructions.
You can also drag the bottom white bar to the left to see more of the available routes.

pff that was not so obvious to find. Google should implement some ui hints I think. Thanks anyway!

@Snuur - If you consider this answer correct, you should accept it by hitting the checkmark button next to it.


text:
Why did the app name "Android OS" suddenly spike in data usage?
I have a couple of questions here.  I am using the 2nd generation Nexus 7 tablet (wifi only) that was connected to my personal mobile hot spot.
Yesterday, I saw a spike in my data usage that was lumped under a process called "Android OS" that I had not seen before, in the few months that I have owned this device and started tracking its data usage.
In the course of 1 hour, it devoured about a gigabyte of (background) data according to the "data usage" under the settings.
I also have the Onavo app.  In that same time, it reports the data usage under the process "Streaming Media".
I presume "Streaming Media" and "Android OS" are the same underlying process.   Am I correct?  If so, why are they reported differently in these apps?
I have just discovered "Mobile Hot Spot" spot setting so I'm hoping that will help.  As I had not seen this process usage this much database before, I had not thought to look into tweaking this setting until I started Googling around.
Can someone fill me in a little more here, or why I might have seen this sudden spike in data usage which I hadn't seen before?  The only big streaming app I used yesterday was Spotify.

Your device must have been downloading OTA updates..

@SachinShekhar Are OTA-Updates streaming media (see question text)? Or is the reporting from Onavo supposedly wrong here? Though OTA was my first idea as well, until I noticed the "streaming" part.

No. Streaming Media is a different thing...


text:
Email Failed To Sync
I am using a Nexus 5, running 4.4.2 - not rooted. Sync'ing stopped working for my email. Below is what my log shows (I removed my email address). I use POP and Exchange and both are no longer working. I rebooted a few times, to no avail. Before I do anything more drastic, I'm wondering if anyone knows why this is occurring.
02-05 12:00:37.300 D/SyncManager(  754): failed sync operation <email_address_removed> u0 (com.google.android.pop3), com.google.android.email.provider, PERIODIC, latestRunTime 9040633, reason: Periodic, SyncResult: stats [ numIoExceptions: 1]
02-05 12:00:37.310 I/notification_cancel(  754): [android,-1971419177,NULL,0,0,0]
02-05 12:00:37.570 I/Email   ( 2225): ConversationListView hide sync status bar
02-05 12:00:37.780 I/force_gc( 2225): Binder
02-05 12:00:37.810 D/SyncManager(  754): failed sync operation <email_address> u0 (com.google.android.exchange), com.google.android.email.provider, USER, latestRunTime 9075555, EXPEDITED, reason: 10037, SyncResult: stats [ numParseExceptions: 1]
02-05 12:00:37.820 I/sync    (  754): [com.google.android.email.provider,1,3,13808728]
02-05 12:00:37.820 I/notification_cancel(  754): [android,-1235235863,NULL,0,0,0]
02-05 12:00:37.820 D/SyncManager(  754): not retrying sync operation because SYNC_EXTRAS_DO_NOT_RETRY was specified <email_address_removed> u0 (com.google.android.exchange), com.google.android.email.provider, USER, latestRunTime 9076485, EXPEDITED, reason: 10037

NOTE: Gmail is working fine.

NOTE: Gmail is working fine.

OK, so it's not a network issue. Unfortunately you're using POP, so clearing data from the email app would make you lose your mail. Try clearing cache at least, maybe that helps (numParseExceptions looks like something messed up; numIoExceptions even looks a little more drastic; could it be your storage is full?).

No, I have plenty of storage. But, I did clear Cache so let's see what happens.

Dang! Nothing is helping. Cleared cache, cleared data, readded the account and NOTHING! I can send but can't receive

Well, if we cannot solve the problem, we can look for alternatives: you could try another mail client. K-9 mail might be a good choice (I use it for years already without any issues).

An email was corrupt (not sure how) and once it was deleted, exchange started working again. I discovered it when I started clearing my inbox in advance of my IT group rebuilding my email box. Strange! A few days later, it occurred again and sure enough, I cleaned out my inbox and it started working.


text:
HTTP servers with scripting support on Android
I'm looking to host simple web apps on my smartphone in a group (like a LAN party, just not as hardcore).
Because of both lack of portability and lack of specific programming skills, I can't just develop a client app to play. Therefore, I need a server - preferably an HTTP one - which can serve dynamic content. I already found many servers to host static files, and I also found a few servers supporting PHP as a scripting language, but I couldn't find any app that did all these things at once:

Be a server, i.e. support connections from the local network;
Serve dynamic content, i.e. parse and execute scripts which I can edit;
Is free for personal use.

Wow. I'd be very surprised if you found a php server that runs on Android. *googles* OKAY LET ME GET MY FOOT OUT OF MY MOUTH. >_>

You might wish to take a look at my answer here for multiple candidates supporting PHP+MySQL and more.

@Izzy I found a decent server from the answer you linked. You might want to post an answer so I can accept it.

Very interesting, now, can you go one step further and use noip, to point to your smartphone's IP address and hit on your blog? (Am sure WP can be hacked to run off the sdcard?) then... profit? \o/ :)

@t0mm13b see my answer below :)

AndroPHP looks like it'll fill your needs quite nicely.
You can...

Deply dynamic PHP content
Serve pages over LAN
Use a MySQL Database

Heck, this'd be awesome for all sorts of events. Have people whip out their phones, navigate to your locally hosted signup form, etc, then export the mysql tables out later.

Neither satisfy the requirement, "is free for personal use" - one has a trial period and the other one is paid.

@GiulioMuscarello Ah, I didn't realize that the first one was only a trial. I've updated the answer with one that seems to be real freeware.

I'm testing AndroPHP right now.

I swear this is so amazing. Brace yourselves, LAN parties are incoming.

That unfortunately needs some 3rd party app, as there's no "native" feature included with Android. Apps you might wish to check for this purpose include:

AndroPHP (already described by dotVezz)
Ulti Server: PHP, MySQL, PMA includes DyDNS, FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SSH, PHP, MySQL (which also answers t0mm13b's comment)
KSWEB: server + PHP + MySQL also includes FTP and some administrative tools and a function to update external IP in No-IP service (second answer to t0mm13b, even with his favorite "no-ip")
NAMP nginx android web server with PHP, MySQL and FTP

upvote for you sir! :D \o/

All of these except AndroPHP look like trialware (is that a word?).

@trysis So you can find out if they fit your needs, and then buy the full version. Anything wrong with that? ;)

No, it's just the OP said he only wanted free versions and someone already called out the other answerer for including free versions. The OP didn't say anything about trials, though.

Right. That's why my answer has one free candidate (to fulfill the request); think of the others as "something to consider as well". If they offer significant improvements, they might be worth the money. And after all, this answer is not just for the one who asked – for others, the "free" part might be a "nice-to-have", as they care more for the problem to be solved ;)


text:
HTC One VX - Rooted and I can't remove bloatware!
My Note 2 was stolen during a mugging recently and I'm using an HTC One VX (ATT) until I can afford to get a better phone; insurance wasn't much help. The problem I'm having is that I unlocked the bootloader and rooted it (even though it's a temporary phone, it's slow as heck and I wanted to remove all the AT&T bloatware. I've used Titanium and ROM Toolbox Lite to delete those apps, but they keep coming back after a reboot. What can I do short of installing a custom rom (I don't want a custom rom on here unless absolutely necessary)? Or is there a "checker" system app that checks for and reinstalls these apps that I should freeze or remove? I'm open to experimentation and wouldn't mind "too" much if I accidently bricked it, I feel like taking a brick to this phone anyway, lol. This phone has Android 4.0.4.
TL;DR, rooted stock rom HTC One VX, trying to remove bloatware with Titanium and ROM Toolbox but bloatware comes back on reboot.

Can you check where that bloatware resides? Is the .apk installed in /system/apps, or rather /data/apps? I would wonder if it returned to /system/apps (as that's usually read-only), but could imagine a "fancy installer". Might help to pick up the log right after boot (adb logcat / adb dmesg) to follow the "initialization process".

The apk files are in /system/apps. Should I attempt to delete them first and then try the uninstall using Titanium? I'm concerned that this semi-imaginary checker might cause problems if it can't find the apks to reinstall when it checks for them, if you know what I mean.

If you uninstall them using TiBu, check the very same location before you reboot, to see whether the .apk files are really removed. But I guess the more important part is to check the logs, which hopefully contain hints on why the app comes back (and who does that).

Stumble across this in a quest ordained to you by the mighty oracle of el goog?
I had the same problem as OP described. After installing a custom recovery and rooting my HTC Desire 610, I began removing bloatware, only to find it reinstalled when I rebooted.
Using Link2SD, you can view where the .apk files are in the system partition, such as /system/app/ATT_I_EAT_UR_SPACE. I removed them as well as the accompanying .odex files after removing them via Link2SD via the file manager in TWRP and it worked.
I'm no android guru, but it seemed to work, so good luck fellow traveller and may el goog grant you answers more easily in the future.


text:
How to connect an Android device to an FTP server?
How to connect an Android device to an FTP server?

As Izzy suggested; did you try an FTP client?

AndFTP
Turbo FTP client & SFTP client
FTP Client
WM FTP Client
Greyhound FTP Client

I've only used AndFTP before and it worked fine so I can recommend that one.


text:
How can I get file from /data/data/com.myapplication?
I need to get an internal file out of the filesystem in tact. I see the file, using ES File Explorer, located in LocalDevice/data/data/com.myapplication/file/user.json. The device (Nexus-7) is rooted. I can copy and paste the file to another location, but I think this may change the nature of the file. One way to do this would be to email it, but Gmail (or whatever) doesn't have access to the that folder. Is there a way to give Gmail permission? or another way to get the file out?
I am debugging an app I am creating in which this json file is copied, programmatically, from res/raw to the data/data/... location. The parsing of the json file in data/data throws a parse exception, and so I want to look at the json file that has been written, to see if it has been copied correctly.

As you may already know, you can only access those files with root, i.e. if your device is rooted.

I can copy and paste the file to another location, but I think this
  may change the nature of the file.

Whut? No, copying a file will not change the file contents. They will be the same as of the time the copy process is started. Ideally, you should make sure that no process has a open write/append file handle to the file, by killing the relevant processes (e.g. com.myapplication)

Thanks for your reply. By 'changing the nature' of the file, I meant not the contents, but more like from one encoding to another.

Also, on your suggestion, I made certain that myapplication was not runnning, then tried sending the file as an attachment in gmail, but I still get the Couldn't find attachment error.

Copying a file doesn' change its encoding. And though your device has root access, Gmail does not. What Flow wanted to say is: 1) Use ES File Explorer to copy the file from /data/data/com.myapplication/file/user.json to e.g. /sdcard/user.json, then 2) open that new location in Gmail to attach the file, and finally 3) optionally delete /sdcard/user.json as it's no longer needed.


text:
Installed google apps on generic tablet, services are there but no entries in the menu
(This post is a follow up of my previous one
)
I managed to root and install gapps in my generic tablet, but now there is a small pending issue. When I go to Manage Apps->All, I can see some newly installed services like Google Play Services, but nothing in the menu. I have also cleared the cache from the Recovery, with no luck.
My first thought was to just get Google Play's apk from my mobile and install it to the table, but I am hesitating a little. I only care, about Play Store, the others will be retrieved from there on demand.
Has anyone encountered that before?

Not in that way. Could you please check whether all the .apk files from the zip are in the corresponding places on your device? Example: zip:/system/apps/vending.apk should be in /system/apps/vending.apk on your device. (background: it might well be the zip contents where flashed/unpacked incomplete). If that's the case, it should be safe to flash it again in the same way, and take care for any potential feedback/error-messages etc.

Indeed I cant see them...also an entire folder is missing(addon.d). I will flash again

Ok, tried again, no suspicious messages during the process and still cannot find the apps in the menu. Why not install the apk of Google Play?

Because you cannot (I mean, you can, but it won't run; it must be a "system app"). OK, 3rd variant: Copy the .apk files to the corresponding directories manually. Remember for that you need to remount /system read-write. Easiest way probably is using a root-capable file manager (recommendation: ES File Explorer, which can also do the remount for you). Then remount r/o, and reboot.

Tried with ES File explorer and it returned a permission denied error. My tablet is rooted. Please keep in mind that I have tried to mount the filesystem as rw with adb too, with no better luck. Seems that I need to unlock that feature somehow? Odin?

Did you remount /system first? I had to look a while until I found the corresponding menu item: Tap the menu button, tap "Root-Explorer" (the text, not the switch next to it). A popup should open, where you should find a "r/w" icon (second to last entry).

I have tried both unmount-mount and remount commands. I was unaware of that ES file explorer trick. I will take a look when back home

Oh dear lord...it's on, at last. I cant thank enough my good man. At the very least, you deserve to copy the instructions of success and let me accept the answer so you can get the extra bonus :)

\o/ YEAH! Congrats! Glad to read we tackled that one! Hope you like my answer below. Enjoy your new apps!

Usually this should be an easy task – provided you've got a custom recovery on your device. Turned out, it was not as easy in this special case, so I will list multiple options here. In combination, they finally lead to success – as one can see in the comments on the question itself.
Variant 1: Custom recovery
That's a one-liner: Put the GApps archive on your SDCard, boot into recovery, chose "Install update.zip from SDCard", and select the GApps archive. Done. After the next boot, Google Apps should be there.
Trouble in this case: No custom recovery. OK, next one.
Variant 2: Use ADB to side-load it
This variant was even figured by the OP himself. Requires ADB to be installed on your computer (see: Is there a minimal installation of ADB?), and your device setup (device drivers etc.) as well as connected via USB. For a detailed how-to, please see How to: use "adb sideload" on your Android device. Here, in short:

place the GApps zip file in the directory where your ADB executable is
Make sure you have USB debugging enabled in Settings → Development on your device
Boot your device in recovery mode, and connect it to your PC
On your device, use the volume up/down keys to select "apply update from ADB," then press power to select it
On your computer, open a command prompt window and navigate to the directory from 1., then execute adb sideload <zipfile> (replacing <zipfile> with the name of your GApps file)
When the installation is finished, select to "reboot" the device.

Done. Once the device finished booting, your Google Apps should be there.
Or not, as in our case. Services got installed, apps were missing. OK, let's trick the remains.
Variant #3: Doint it manually
Preparation

Install ES File Explorer on your device. This will help us a lot.
Unpack the Gapps archive into an empty directory on your SDCard. Might be an optional step, as ES File Explorer can deal with ZIPs directly, but might make things easier

Do it
Launch ES File Explorer on your device. Tap the menu button, tap "Root-Explorer" (the text, not the switch next to it – though you must make sure that's switched to "On" as well). A popup should open, where you should find a "r/w" icon (second to last entry). Tap that. This should remount your /system partition, so you can write to it.
Now use ES File Explorer to navigate to your (unpacked) GApps archive. Copy the .apk files from system/apps/ to /system/apps/ on your device. Similarly, files from data/apps/ should be copied to /data/apps/. Now back to the menu, and re-mount your /system partition read-only.
Reboot.
Now, the Google Apps should be there.
Still not? Bang. Variant 4: Get another device... or at least another ROM...


text:
Android crashes in a Bak BK-NB711G
I have a netbook device running Android, Gingerbread 2.3.x, but it does not load.
Upon boot-up, it is forever stuck on the familiar splash screen with Android written on it.
Can someone help me?
Edit: I have taken the liberty in editing this question, the device in question comes from this site

That looks like it's frozen during boot (rather than crashed). Can you boot into recovery? If so, can you delete cache from there, and try booting again? A last ressort (requiring you to boot into recovery as well) is to factory-reset the device (beware that this will also delete your apps and data from that device).

More than likely its stuck in a boot-loop for whatever reason - what was the last app you installed prior to this issue?

@t0mm13b I did installed nothing, it happened after some time of use. Thanks, by the way, I had forgot to put any kind of referring to the device. '^_^

Can you run adb logcat with USB plugged into netbook from another computer?

I'll try connecting the netbook to my pc. What should appear in the screen if something's wrong?

@bluefirebolt You already know something's wrong. The log output might help us work out what's wrong.

@DanHulme I think he's asking what sort of messages to expect.


text:
"Android broadcasting MAC when the Wifi is turned off" How authentic is it?
According to TheHackerNews latest article,

http://thehackernews.com/2014/02/chainfire-released-pry-fi-android-app.html
According to the expert, the latest versions of Android OS keep on
broadcasting MAC address of the Smartphone you are using; doesn’t
matter whether the Wi-Fi is turned ON or OFF.
“If your Wi-Fi is turned
on, even though it is not connected to any network, your phone will
periodically broadcast a unique number (the MAC address), as well as
all the Wi-Fi network names and addresses it remembers ever connecting
to. With newer Android versions this can happen even if Wi-Fi is turned off, due to a feature called "scanning always available", which**
helps your device better determine its location.”**

How true is this statement ? and what is the authentic source of this statement ?

I think the key is the little may be hidden in there (different paragraph from the one you quoted).  If you leave "scanning always available" on then basically the wi-fi will blip on and off every so often just to see what's around... this could be enough for a nearby wireless network to detect/track you.  If you read the google plus post (and bare in mind it's by the person who wants you to download his software) it actually points out you can still turn your wi-fi off in latest Android (off in the sense you'd expect - "One solution is shutting off wi-fi completely").
The paragraph you quoted is a bit of a dogs breakfast... the first part happens (wi-fi networks will be able to see the MAC address of any device polling them).  The only reason the second part would happen is when your device knows about wireless networks with SSID broadcast turned off (it used to be recommended to turn this off, but now the opposite is true for this reason) - if it knows of such cloaked networks it'll poll each network it meets to see if it's one of the ones it knows (simplified).  There's also allegedly some "known network sharing" between your device and google for the purpose of backing up your network settings to the cloud, but this isn't available/visible to the wi-fi network.
So the benefits... disable wi-fi completely a strange feature since the author recognizes you can do this with stock, but you wouldn't want to because you'd loose the "scanning always available setting".  Random MAC address this could be useful, it certainly defeats a series of networks from tracking your device's movement, but so does turning of wi-fi completely.  MAC addresses are supposed to be unique, and while it's a large namespace, one wonders with a randomizer if collisions will happen (if two devices have the same MAC address they won't work properly on wi-fi).  If you visit places that have MAC address filtering or identification (for legitimate reasons - your home network, a business network, a company that provides free wi-fi for a period and tracks that you've accepted their terms) you may find your device no longer works although there's mention of a setting that will restore your stock MAC when wi-fi is on.  war mode sounds like it just changes the MAC address more frequently (possibly during a wi-fi session) but this isn't without processing overhead.


text:
Mounting ext2 sdcard partition causes I/O errors
So I am attempting to mount an ext2 partition on a pen drive to a tablet I have, the actually mount is done with:
adb shell "mount -t ext2 /dev/block/sdb /mnt/ubuntu"

This works fine and ubuntu is a folder I already created on the android device.
Now when I go to access the files on that partition (the rootfs of a ubuntu install in fact) I end up with:
root@android:/ # ls /storage/ubuntu
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/android' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/bin' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/boot' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/dev' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/etc' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/external_sd' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/home' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/lib' failed: I/O error
lost+found
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/media' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/mnt' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/opt' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/proc' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/root' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/run' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/sbin' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/sdcard' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/selinux' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/srv' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/sys' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/tmp' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/usr' failed: I/O error
lstat '/storage/ubuntu/var' failed: I/O error

This doesn't look quite right. You say you mounted the partition at /mnt/ubuntu but you're trying to list /storage/ubuntu.

Funny thing is that it still finds Ubuntu specific entries there. Sure it's an ext2 filesystem? That's not used with Ubuntu since... well, for years (currently they use ext4 by default). And I never heard Ubuntu has an external_sd folder in its root fs. Could it be you tried mounting that into a mount point already in use (thus mixing things up)?

DanHulme yes sorry ls for /mnt/ubuntu is what I am using, @Izzy it is actually listing all the root folders that should be there (some are not actually from the stock rootfs rather stuff i added)

So just to make sure: that external_sd folder really exists in the root of your Ubuntu disk? And the file system on that disk really is ext2?


text:
My Gallery Won't Display Previously Saved Images
I'm usually one to give advice on Android-related questions, but one of my friends asked me a question I really didn't know the answer to. She said that she saved an image to her Gallery yesterday, and later that night she was looking through them. Today, the images aren't there. Any ideas on where they could have possibly gone? She said to save the images she just clicked "Save."

Where did she click "save"? Is this in some app?

She used Gmail, I assume because she said she e-mailed them to herself prior.


text:
Multiple Users in Android 4.0.4
I have a Toshiba Thrive AT105 running on Android 4.0.4.
I wish to use the multiple users function on it to share it with other users.
Can this be done on Android 4.0.4? If not, how can I upgrade to another android version which can support this feature.

There might be several approaches you could try. No guarantees whatsoever, and I didn't try any of those. Still mentioning them, so you can investigate for yourself. Note further that these solutions will require root access on your device.
First, there's an app called SwitchMe, which already was available before the multi-user feature was released with Android 4.2. SwitchMe works with Android 2.1 and higher.
Second, our friends at XDA have a thread on Porting Multi Users JB to ICS (but it seems that approach died before producing a workable solution).


text:
How to root Android 4.1 in order to use SD card for internal storage?
I made the mistake of buying a cheap Chinese phone on Ebay to use on Three or Orange in the UK, a 4" Malata I60 Android 4.1 Dual Core MT6577 1GHz. It's okay for what little I need, except the internal storage shows as a total of 179MB.
I've moved whatever apps I can to my 30GB SD card and using App Cache Cleaner, but I am still only left with 36.8MB of free space.
This is causing warnings whenever updates are found and even causing updates to fail for lack of space if I am actively using the phone.
Does anyone know where I could find reliable step-by-step guides to rooting Android 4.1 and using the SD card for internal storage?

How To Install Apps on SD Card For Androids
Try this no need to root.

It looks like that website's just a copy of these answers, with a bit of how to install ADB at the start, http://android.stackexchange.com/a/4976/156 and http://android.stackexchange.com/a/4978/156


text:
Managing calls between carrier number and Google Voice, using GV as primary
I'm looking for the best way to set-up/manage my calls between the carrier # and Google Voice as I use both.
I'm using a Samsung S4 on VZW (however I would prefer to use phone/Google Voice/app to manage rather than rely on VZW settings)
I have certain calls go to Google Voice and the rest go to carrier. The problem is that the 'other' calls are many and I was sick of hearing my phone ring all day when I only want to receive those calls at specified times. Part of my solution was figuring out how to set-up call blocking on the S4 (last phone was a Thunderbolt and as far as I knew this wasn't in the settings)
My big problem now is that every blocked call ends up going to my Voice-mail and a lot of them have automated recordings so my inbox is filling up. I'd like to find a way to block all carrier calls, and not allow them to forward to my Google Voice inbox for Voice-mail on a specified schedule.
e.g. Block all calls/VM's M-F 1am-1pm

If the "other"  calls are usually at certain times of the day, you could use Tasker to automate things for you.

Do you have the recipe for this?

I may be able to figure one out for you, but I'd need the specifics of what you're trying to do, and when... On a side note, I've only used Tasker a handful of times, and I'm not, currently, running it on my phone. I'm willing to give it a shot, though.


text:
Nexus 4 Downgrade from 4.4.2 to 4.3 Risks
So I bought my Nexus 4 last month expecting that it'll have a 4.3 OS version. However, my sister accidentally updated the version.
Now, I would like to downgrade my OS version. Following this guide:
http://www.cultofandroid.com/46632/downgrade-nexus-4-to-android-4-3-jelly-bean-from-kitkat/2/
what might be the possible failing scenarios and what am I going to do if that happens.

I am curious why you want to do this? The bugs mentioned in that article have been addressed in the update from 4.4 to 4.4.2.

That is not correct. I have 4.4.2 and I am suffering from all the bluetooth related bugs (service crash and bluetooth disconnect/reconnect crazyness). Plus on top of everything the new dialer and few other things quite suck. Big time.
For the first time ever, I am planning to downgrade Android.

Well that guide seems right, just reflash stock nexus 4 rom and you will be fine. However there is a possibility that you may enter boot loop/softbrick but thats easy to solve and very rare.
I recommend you following this guide it's from google tho : https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Sorry for my bad English if I made some mistakes, becouse English is not my mother tongue.

Once you unlock the bootloader, the only major risk you may face is bricking the phone when loading the aosp images of a previous android version.


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How to use adb to back up more than 2GB?
I'm trying to back up my Nexus 7 before installing a new factory image. (There is an issue preventing OTA update from succeeding.)  But when I run

adb backup -f android-nosystem-backup.ab -apk -shared -all -nosystem

the backup gets stuck after writing 2147483647 bytes.  This number is 2^31 minus 1, and I recognize the problem as a lack of Large File Support somewhere.  I'm running the adb that ships with my current Debian Linux distro "Jessie."  The problem occurs whether I try to back up to a local file or to a remote NFS-mounted file server, so I suspect that something in the adb toolchain has been compiled without Large File Support.
The Nexus 7 reports total storage in use of 4.2GB, so I'm expecting a backup file on that order of size.  Is there some workaround I should be using?  Is there a way to split the backup into pieces?

I didn't try this, but as you speak of NFS I assume you're running Linux on your computer. Raw idea is making use of named pipes (aka "fifos", see e.g. mkfifo questions on SU). Basically, you create a fifo, and specify that as "file" to adb backup. In parallel, you run a second process reading from that fifo, e.g. Create a tar archive split into blocks of a maximum size. If you try this, please let us know how it worked out.

I am running Linux as it says in the question.  I tried a non-NFS file system with the same problem.  Dunno if the named pipe will help; I realized that other programs can do more than 2GB on the NFS file system, and that I've had problems with my own code and large files, which were solved by recompiling.

In which case it wouldn't a restriction of the file system (as suggested by your original question). Thanks for the edit: I second your assumption of missing LFS support in the binary. To my knowledge, there is no option to split. But as using a pipe is different from writing a file, I'd say it's worth a try. Might as well turn out it doesn't work at all, as usually you redirect output/input when using pipes (which then act as a "buffer"), e.g. writerproc > mypipe and readerproc < mypipe.

I compiled GNU tar, which unlike android's normal tar, supports files over 2GB. My website's down at the moment, but I've got a armv7-a statically linked binary for 4.4 and higher (5.0, 5.1, 6.0, etc) here. You can put this somewhere where you can use chmod, like /data/local/tmp, and make a tarball that way and adb push it over.

It turns out this is a known issue and there is a patch.


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Daydream goes to standby when touched
My Nexus 4 runs Android 4.4 and is set to use the standard "Clock" daydream while charging. It has no screen lock. This works fine so far.
Expected:
I would expect the screen to wake up when I touch the daydreaming screen.
Problem:
Sometimes the screen turns off when I touch it, rather than waking up.
Symptoms:
There might be a time element because this seems to happen when I have not touched the phone for many minutes, but it seems to work OK if it had only been daydreaming a few minutes. AC or USB charging does not seem to make any difference.
→ Why does the screen turn off instead of waking up, and how can I "fix" that?

This issue still occurs on Lollipop. However, I haven't tested if it's daydream-dependent or not.

I had this problem some time ago. It went away after i flashed kitkat as i didn'twant to wait for OTA update.
Try rebooting or write what you already did to try solve the problem

I reboot regularly; that doesn't seem to be a solution.

Nope, even after I flashed Lollipop, the problem still persists (or it became worse, actually)