text:
If I relocate to another country, will I still be able to access the Play Store and use my purchased Apps, Books, Magazines, Music, Movies and TV?
I have a friend who shall be moving to Switzerland during the early part of 2013. He wishes to know is their a Swiss Google Play Store, or do Swiss residents use the German Play Store? If this is the case what happens (if anything) to his UK account and is the transition relatively straightforward. If this is not the case and a Swiss Google Play Store does not exist, neither do Swiss residents use the German Play Store - is their a way around it.
Would he still be able to access the UK Google Play Store ?

In order to do so doesn't he have to still be a resident (can he use someone elses  address ?)
In order to access it, is all that is required is to maintain a British Bank Account ?
Is it simply a case of you can access any Play Store from where ever you are residing in the world ?

What happens therefore if he wishes to order a Nexus device from the UK store in terms of postage costs and import duty ?
If he is able to register at the German Play Store would this be a more viable option as surely postage and import duty would be less than that from the UK ?
He has heard that even though Google has a HQ in Zurich, most Swiss are heavily iOS orientated.(He is reluctant to follow that path if it can be helped)
Perhaps a Swiss person can give some clarification or advice regarding the above matter for him (or what do the people who work for Google in Zurich do & what did the employees who came from countries such as Germany, USA & UK do with their accounts ?)
Thankyou for your understanding regarding this matter

IMHO that doesn't matter that much -- except for apps with regional restrictions, which would be unavailable while in another country). Nothing strange will happen to his account by moving to a different country.

What does IMHO stand for ?

@Simon In My Honest Opinion

Thx very much for clarifying :) @rnh16

He will still have access to all his purchases.
He will NOT be able to access the UK Google Play Store, unless he uses alternative methods (VPN/Tunneling/Market enablers..).
Assuming he managed to access the UK Play Store (2), he will be able to purchase as normal provided that he has access to his UK credit/debit card.
In order to purchase a Nexus device, he has to use his UK credit/debit card, and select a UK address for shipping, and then have someone forward him the package.
Provided that the devices he purchased was activated in the UK, he should still the Books and Movies apps on his Android phones/tablets. Some devices however will automatically freeze these apps on boot if the device was not activated in a supported country.

NOTE: Devices, Books, Magazines, Music and Movies and TV are NOT available in Switzerland without using methods that bypass the restrictions.
NOTE: The answer above is based on my experience with dealing with Google purchases, market restrictions, and international shipping. I have never dealt with the Swiss Google market specifically, but the experience should be the same.

Thanks v. much for that informative answer. Can I ask though would it be therefore advisable to register with the German Play Store if possible(as i'm assuming a Swiss one as yet does not exist)

A Swiss Play Store  does exist, it just does not have access to the same content as the UK, US, or German Play Stores. The German Play Store will have access to the devices excluding the Chromebooks, and will not have access to Magazines. And he will have to be in Germany (or use bypassing methods) and have access to a German credit/debit card for it to work.

Thx for that, I guess the Swiss Play Store must be in its infancy then, and will only get better with time. Unless Swiss people are heavIly preferential to iOS.

You are welcome :) The Play Store is in its infancy in many regions, but that is because of licensing issues, and the fact that Google usually focuses on select markets then expands slowly to cover other regions.

Right, but isnt it strange that Google has a HQ in Zurich, surely their employees have access to all the Play Store Goodies, without restrictions imposed by geographical location - if i'm making sense

Hah! I guess they have to suffer like the rest of us ;) Unless Google has a special setup for them. Only an insider can clarify that.

Bring on the insiders :) Android cant be that popular in Switzerland as not one Swiss person has come to answer

All the Swiss people must be over at Think Different !


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Moon+ Reader Pro TTS
I know that there is a TTS ability in MOON+ Reader Pro.
Can someone explain me exactly how I can TTS a ebook with MOON+ Reader Pro.
I don't see any option or speak button.
regards

Have you tried this: Shake the phone to speak (Text-to-speech, TTS engine support) source

You find it in the options, in the "control" section. If you tap on an action (e.g. for "shake"), a drop-down opens where you can select many things -- a.o. Read (Text-to-Speech). If you enable it here and then shake the device, Moon+ will start to read the text to you. Shake again to make it stop.
You also can assign it to your DPad keys, or the headset controls (just scroll further down on that page to see for yourself).

There does not seem to be a way to fully disable the shake feature. This is very annoying when running and using TTS. :|

It no longer fires for me (I had that issue as well originally). I don't remember exactly what I disabled for that, but I don't use TTS in Moon+ at all – so I definitely disabled all relevant stuff in this app.

The best way to do this: At the bottom of Miscellaneous Options page, there's an option Customize Reader Bar Icon. Tap it and check Speak.
Now, you can easily access TTS from bottom bar.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks?
I guess most of you at least have heard about WakeLocks. Many of you will have experienced them already -- wether knowingly or not. Some may know how to deal with them in general -- but only few know how to deal with the "more complicated candidates".
For those who don't know, though above link leads to an explanation, a short summary: Apps may request a WAKE_LOCK to keep a device component from "sleeping", so they can perform a task even when the display is turned off. This is very useful in most cases (e.g. keeping the screen on while navigating, keeping WiFi active to stream music) -- but used in the wrong way, it causes your battery to be drained within short term (up to 25% per hour).
Most times it is easy to identify the source (usually a bad behaving app) -- I will show this in an answer below, as it might prove helpful to many users. But what to do if the app which requested the WakeLock exits without releasing it? The Android system will not take care of it. Sure, a reboot would solve the issue -- but it is not always an (desired) option.
So, from a users perspective (I'm not asking about development solutions, but how a user can handle things):
What can be done *by the user* to solve the issue and avoid further battery drain?
I prefer answers not involving root (so all users can benefit from it). However, "rooted solutions" are fully valid and welcome as well.

I was under the impression that this was only true if you created the wakelock the "wrong" way, by using /sys/power/wake_lock, but that if you did it the "right" way using PowerManager and PowerManager.WakeLock, the service would both hold the real wakelock and release it even if your process was killed...

According to the information I linked, that's obviously not the case. Somebody reports there having checked the kernel sources, and did not find any hint to that. Hint for developers: seems like "partial wakelocks" can be requested timed, so they'd expire automatically when the timer's up and the wakelock aquire was not refreshed. That must be the "safe way" you refer to.

How can I tell I'm affected?
This is probably the first question to those not familiar with this topic. With Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and above, you've got a service aboard helping you to figure out: battery statistics. Though manufacturers tend to place it at different points, it's mostly found in Settings → About the phone → Battery or similar, and shows a list of the apps having used most of your battery. On top of that is a small graph. Tap that, and it brings you to a screen similar to this one:

Screenshot of battery statistics on Android 2.3
I chose a screenshot from one of my devices which illustrates the issue. Looking at the lower two blue bars ("Aktiv" = Device was kept awake (active), "Bildschirm an" = "Screen on"), the right-most blue bar on "Aktiv" indicates a WakeLock: Device was kept busy despite the fact the screen was turned off. So by this we can be pretty sure we've got a WakeLock -- but we cannot tell who caused it.
If your device does not offer this screen (or the bars at the bottom: I just discovered e.g. the LG Optimus 4X running Android 4.0.3 has cut these bars off), you can find them e.g. using GSam Battery Monitor:

Similar information from GSam Battery Monitor -- here the mentioned "blue bars" are yellow/orange
What caused the WakeLock?
Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered using pre-installed apps (except for, maybe, some Custom ROMs). But there are tools available that can. The best known candidate for this is BetterBatteryStats, and shows us the cause in its partial wakelocks section:

Screenshots from BetterBatteryStats
In the first example2 (taken from the app's playstore page), the event causing most of the WakeLocks was a desired one: We don't want the playback stopped while listening to music. So the second example3 (taken from a real case on one of my devices) might prove better: the topmost 3 events are caused by the very same app, which needed the WakeLock to keep the IMAP push service active.
For an alternative to BetterBatteryStats, check out the Wakelock Detector app mentioned in UzumApps' answer -- which seems easier to handle especially for non-techies:

Wakelock Detector -- Click image to enlarge. (Source: Google Play)
What can be done?
If the case is as clear as in the second example in the previous section, the action is quite obvious -- at least in my case: I don't need to be informed immediately when a mail arrives; a delay of 30min is absolutely acceptable. So I went into the mail app, disabled IMAP Push (see also: Push Email), and instead switched to a 30min poll interval. WakeLocks did not entirely disappear, but dropped markably -- battery life improved noticably.
Then there's the case mentioned in the question itself: A bad behaving app not releasing its WakeLock. Confront the dev with your findings and ask for a fix. If he delivers: problem solved. If not: There's almost always an alternative app available.
What if it is the Android System itself?
Yeah, sometimes it looks like just that: 98% or more consumed by some Android service. Oh, if it's 98%, in most cases the candidate is named LocationManagerService. Bad guy spying at us? Not necessarily. In this special case, the listed "bad guy" is not even guilty -- at least not directly. Here it is another app requesting the current location too frequently. There's an excellent article on Setera.org about this: Pinpointing Android LocationManagerService battery drain. To give an abstract: It uses Android's dumpsys feature (requires root!) to dump a system state, and lets you investigate the listeners established for the LocationManagerService. A closer look at their configuration shows which are constantly "hammering" it for location info (some do so permanently, i.e. without a break). As the app's ID is listed along, and at another place in the dump even together with the apps technical name, you can still identify it and take appropriate actions.
And what about UFOs?
Unfortunately, there are such: Apps which registered a WakeLock -- and then exited without releasing it. What's left are *Unused F***ing Obsoletes* -- WakeLocks held for no use. So no way to simply bring the app to foreground and re-configure, or making it release its WakeLocks.
Here the only solution known to me is a reboot -- and I would like to have a better solution. Of course, if you know the guilty app, the steps concerning it are the same as above: inform the dev, get a fix -- or replace the app. But about getting rid of the current WakeLock? Maybe somebody else can provide a better alternative to the reboot?
Are there some recommended further readings?
Sure. One for now, I may add more later:

[GUIDE] Wakelocks Definition and how to prevent them (XDA Developers, March 2013)

Better education to developers to say... "Release wakelocks when you are done with them and clean up after yourself"?

Sure -- but see my question: I'm explicitly NOT asking about the developer side, but from a users perspective. Maybe I need to make that more obvious ;)

If I have time this weekend, I will poke around under the hood to see if there's a mechanism to get the kernel to boot out orphaned wakelocks.... ;)

Please do! And report your findings! I just had that described issue with the "orphaned" WakeLocks. Poking around for an hour, I didn't get further than seeing it was the LocationManagerService. Registered for updates all 0sec (sic!) was the Android Settings (=:-0). I exited it, stopped it, killed it at the command line... no way to get rid of the locks. WTF did Settings do there? A reboot solved it, of course -- but is this a WindowsPhone we have to reboot twice a day?

In short, this is a very good question but am afraid, it warrants more than just making the end-user aware!
Redesign the kernel to eliminate wake-locks and use a more thorough efficient way of managing the principle better thereby prolonging battery life.
Unfortunately, it has been accepted as a de-facto solution to enable "power management" despite it is not exactly efficient either! There was an extensive discussion about wakelocks (with Gregh Kroah Hartman - the Linux guru for drivers development - am googling for the exact linky), other sites such as LWN.net and another article explained on the same site here. This was the article Gregh Kroah Hartman referred to this blog, in which he appears to agree with the alternative solution proposed by Rafael J. Wysocki have documented a lot about the potential alternative. Am not sure if that is actually in place in the more modern kernel v3.x.x.
Badly designed apps can and often request wakelocks such as keeping the screen on, but in fact, in this scenario for keeping the screen on, there is in fact a more efficient way to do this:
getWindow().addFlags(LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);

Whilst, striving to keep this clear of jargon etc for the end user, really the core of the issue boils down to the kernel code in how the wakelocks are managed.
Here is a brief summary on XDA on what is wakelocks for the uninitiated. By using BetterBatteryStats, one could see exactly which process is draining the battery, the wiki is hosted on github, and is available on the market here.

Funny you point to the same XDA thread I mentioned. I agree with you that the system should take better care (e.g. by releasing WakeLocks requested by apps which are no longer running). And that developers should take better care in coding (by explicitly releasing them at the appropriate states of the LifeCycle). But that doesn't help us users know. I hope my answer gives some insight in what a user can do -- and that one of you "techies" can fill the gap left!

Check out Wakelock Detector: XDA-Developers / Google Play:
Wakelock detector groups the wakelocks of app into one expandable view for better look. And it shows which apps are running. And there are kill uninstall info buttons in expanded view of app.

Click image to enlarge. (Source: Google Play)
Disclosure: I am one of responsible developer for this app. Four more friends are with me working on this project as a hobby.

Thank you! That's a valuable information indeed. Would you mind to add some more details to your answer, e.g. what makes it so special? I would add some screenshots then. Until that's done: Here's the Playstore link to the app...

Thank you for the details! I merged them into your answer, I hope you don't mind :) Question of understanding: Say an app queries the location using an interval of "0 seconds". This would cause the LocationService to wakelock the device. Would Wake Lock Detector show the responsible app then as the real cause -- or the LocationService, as it's not a part of that apps package?

The answer for your question is 'no'  because wakelock detector groups wakelocks that belong to the same app packagename. As Location Service belongs to android os, the solution would be checking User permissions of app

Thanks a lot! I was hoping for an easy solution to the "What if it is the Android System itself?" part. Seems there isn't such a thing -- but if it's possible, it might be a good idea to integrate with WLD :)

A couple of ways that would help unrooted device users

Seeing that @Uzumapps, one of the developers of the app has posted a solution using Wakelock Detector (WLD), I am surprised that he has not updated about using the app which can also be used without root called Wakelock Detector Light ! I discovered this searching for a solution for my new device (unrooted).

This is a recent development and hence posting this for unrooted device users. Tested as working on Moto X Play (Android 6.0.1)

Download WLD from Play store link above
Manual for using WLD here
Instructions for  non rooted devices here. It has all the details but to summarise:

Enable USB debugging on device and adb
Download Wakelock Unlocker for Chrome on your laptop (also works on Chromium)
Enable it and you are done !
Wakelock Detector Light version does not display stats since Unplugged

There is another alternative on reddit which involves running command below in a loop as mentioned here

adb shell dumpsys power | grep -i partial_wake_lock

Note: I couldn't get the second method working, would welcome editing solution in making it work for non savvy guys like me

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


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How do you install samsung Kies to an alternative hard drive?
I am trying to install Kies in order to get Ice cream sandwich for my galaxy note 1, my C drive is full and I would like to install on D drive which has plenty of space.

Kies should be able to be installed on any drive regardless of letter... so what's the issue?

Assuming your version of Kies doesn't let you specify a path, use mklink.
Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

    /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
            symbolic link.
    /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
    /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
    Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
    Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
            refers to.

So if the default install path was C:\Program Files\Kies and you want to install to D:\Kies, you would create the latter directory and then run mklink /D /J "C:\Program Files\Kies" "D:\Kies" before installing.


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Where is the NFC hardware located?
I noticed that certain Samsung batteries say "Near Field Communication" on them.

Is the NFC h/w located in the battery? Does it differ by the manufacturer of the Android device?
A friend of mine claims (for Samsung devices) that only the antenna is located in the battery, and the rest of the NFC tag is located inside the phone, but has no evidence to back up his claim.

It would make sense since the back of the battery is close to the outside, and you could certainly hook it up through the contacts.

In this specific case your friend is correct, but it can probably vary somewhat.
We'll take the Galaxy Nexus as an example since it's a reasonably accurate internal representation of the other Samsung devices. The iFixit teardown helpfully identifies all of the major components of the device and their function. In step 5 they remove the wrapping from the battery to expose the NFC antenna underneath. Later, in step 12, they identify the NFC controller on the main motherboard.
Putting the controller itself on the battery is perhaps possible, but I'd imagine it is not really realistically feasible. For one, it would probably increase the fabrication costs of the batteries an unacceptable amount (the antenna, conversely, is likely not very pricey). It would also require the battery to have some non-standard and comparatively complex circuitry to transmit data from the controller to the motherboard, whereas the antenna is basically served by a simple conductive contact to pass the signal along. This is mostly conjecture, though - I'm not an electrical/hardware engineer (I don't even play one on TV).


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How can I take a screenshot on a Kindle Fire HD?
I thought that ICS, which is the underlying OS version for a Kindle Fire HD, supported a standard way of taking screenshots by holding down power button + volume down key. This does not work for me. Can someone confirm whether this is indeed the case or whether I'm just being slow in not holding down the buttons at the same time?

Supposedly it does support this: http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx1TD8HXMJ3BO49

Solutions for the original Fire: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/15675/1465

It was hard to take screenshots on 1st generation Kindle Fire tablet. You had to Android SDK etc and connect to your computer etc just to take a screenshot. We are used to Print Screen function on computers.
How to take screenshot of Kindle Fire HD or Kindle Fire 2
1. Press and hold Volume Down & Power buttons simultaneously. Your Kindle Fire screen flickers and takes a snapshot of tablet screen.

You can find the saved screenshot images in Photos > Screenshots. Make sure to select Device tab at the top as shown below.

You can send saved screenshot via email, skype etc. I did not any option to send them via Bluetooth. It seems Kindle Fire has limited sharing options.

This does not work for me even if I hold it down at the same time maybe I don't have a kindle fire hd but I know I have a kindle fire because when I am powering my tablet on it says kindle fire and I know my tablet is a 2016 version because I got it for Christmas.


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Why does my device turn Wi-Fi on by itself?
Similar to Why does HTC Incredible S turn Wi-Fi on by itself?, it seems my Samsung Galaxy Victory will turn on Wi-Fi at random times. It establishes a connection if certain networks are in range (i.e. any open Wi-Fi).
I notice a Wi-Fi setting which allows this phone to keep its Wi-Fi on during sleep, but this is currently disabled.
Is there a way to prevent the device from looking for Wi-Fi networks?  If this is specific to Samsung devices, has anyone figured out how to take care of this issue?

After some searching, it turns out this feature is provided by the Sprint network (although that doesn't rule out that other carriers/devices may provide similar functionality). The Q&A at community.sprint.com points to the Sprint Connection Optimizer, AKA the "Intelligent Mobile Network and Wi-Fi Setting." This setting "will automatically connect you to Wi-Fi networks on your device's remembered list."
This setting can be enabled/disabled by navigating to Settings > More settings > Mobile Networks > Sprint Connections Optimizer.


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Android directly uninstall from home screen by drag and drop
Currently it takes me two steps to uninstall one application  - go to application list and drag and drop it onto the bin icon.
I dont  like this way since it requires me to look for the application name from the grid listed.
Is there other ways to quickly drag and drop it directly from home screen?

possible duplicate of How do I uninstall an application?

Not really a exact duplicate, but one answer from the other question has the solution OP is looking for.

Unless your launcher specifically supports it then no.
Some launchers allow you to easily uninstall by long clicking and then dragging to an uninstall option, some require you to do it all manually.
You may wish to search for alternate launchers from Google Play if you really want to be able to do this.

+1. Didn't realize this wasn't common to all launchers.  (I think it ought to be!)

The default Cyanogenmod Launcher supports the solution mentioned by gary and here.

Yes, drag it to the trash can but hover there a few extra seconds.* You should then get prompted to answer 'Are you sure you want to remove this app?' Also, if the app cannot be deleted because it came pre-installed, then this will just remove its shortcut.
This is dependent upon the launcher.


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Why did a crash at 100% battery cause instant drain to zero?
After charging my Galaxy SII (ICS) overnight, I unplugged and started using the web browser. Battery indicated 100%. After 20 minutes the screen went black and the phone rebooted, then it popped up a battery low warning. On plugging back in, it seemed to charge normally for a while and then jumped from 80 to 100% almost instantly.
I would post a screenshot of the battery screen but don't have enough reputation - it shows charge starting at 100%, dropping slowly for 20 mins, then instantly down to <10%. From there I plug in and it goes slowly up to 80%, then instantly up to 100% again.
Anyone fancy having a guess at what is going on here?

Are you rooted?

Until you can post screenshots, you can upload them to some image hoster and include a link here. Somebody with enough rep then can decide to convert that.

My guess would be that the battery calibration data got lost. Probably through the crash.

Should that really matter? I always thought that file (batterystats.bin AFAIR) only holds data about which app cunsumed how much. Isn't the current charge of the battery decided via its voltage?

The voltage and charging current depends from battery to batterylevel. Therefore Android needs some calibration information to display the battery percentage.


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SGS2 I9100 Suddenly relocked itself (network)
I was just using my phone, when the network dropped out completely. I rebooted, but it just wouldn't connect.
When I toggled airplane mode, it asked me for my network unlock pin (my device is SIM-locked to the provider) - I had already had my device unlocked.
Luckily, I was able to use an app to get my unlock code.
Has this ever been reported to have happened before? How did this happen?

You are always asked for your PIN when returning from airplane mode -- unless you completely switch of the SIM-PIN request (see deactivate PIN-request after airplane mode). For the question itself: No idea, unfortunately... Did you get your network back (your question is not clear about that), and if so, how?

@Izzy I wasn't talking about the SIM pin - I was actually talking about the block networks/carriers impose to stop it being used on another network. It was suddenly re-enabled, and yes - I did get it back.

Umph? Never had such a PIN. Talking about SIM-Lock (device locked to a certain carrier, and not useable with SIM cards from other carriers)? That would explain my lapsus, as I never had such one...

Yes, SIM Lock - it's with us being in different countries calling it different things.

OK, no prob. But you might want to include that into your question, to enable "foreigners" to catch it. Hope you don't mind me doing so :)


text:
Contacts and Phone icons missing
My Contacts and Phone icons are missing from my primary shortcuts bar. I can't restore from the Edit in the app drawer since they don't show there. Can anybody point me in the right direction?
(Samsung Galaxy Note)

Rooted? Custom ROM?

"Contacts" may instead be "People".

Same happened to me on my NOTE 3, and what I found was I had inadvertently TURNED OFF the CONTACTS app.
On Samsung phones go to Settings, General tab, Application Manager scroll to the last page labeled "TURNED OFF". Click on the app you need to turn on and select Turn On.
That did it for me.

I wish I had found that earlier. Well done! :)

In your app drawer (the main one), you should see them. You can then long press and drag them to the main bar at the bottom.

thanks for the reply but this is the problem: neither Contacts nor Phone icon shows in my app drawer.

@preston In any app drawer? Please reboot, and check again. Did it come with these apps? Is it a phone or tablet?

its a galaxy note running stock ICS, rebooted, they are still missing. In your first reply u said 'the mail one', did u mean 'main one'?

I tried to restore them via the blue Applications button, Edit (in grid view), then drag and drop. Works fine with other apps but Contacts and Phone don't show there.

But can you see Contacts and Phone anywhere else? If so, just drap and drop - no need to enter edit mode (long press on icon).

@preston: That's all important information you should add to your question.

Try deleting your launcher data from settings:
Settings → Apps → Launcher → Clear Data

Could you elaborate on why this would help?

Some apps show in the play store but nowhere on your phone.  In that case you can go to the play store and open you installed apps area.  Locate the app that is missing and click to uninstall it.  You will most likely be uninstalling the update that cause the problem.   Make sure the app is still install and saying to install uupdate and then reboot the phone.  Once the phone is back on you should be able to locate the missing app.  Also check the status of the app in the play store.  The update may not be needed at this time.

You just need to go to the settings>all apps>contacts>uninstall updates.
contacts are gonna reappear.

The problem appears to be with the contacts default contacts App itself. I simply downloaded another contacts App from Playstore and all my contacts came back through it

Go to Settings → Apps → All → Phone and press the Force to Stop button. Phone now will appear


text:
How to take a screenshot of an entire scrolling activity?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Y, and I have an application that has a scrollable activity. I wanted to take a screenshot but the "Home button - Power button" combination only captures the contents that are visible on the screen. What I wanted is to capture the full activity of the app including the unscrolled parts... I hope I explained it well ...

That cannot be done am afraid - ICS only takes the snapshot of the activity regardless if there's more views hidden in the scrollable area... only thing you can do is to scroll down a bit more, snapshot it, scroll down a bit more snapshot it.

Check my answer below, now it is possible from PC :-)

You could also take a screen shot every time you scroll down then edit them together into one big pic

Some others apps suggested as a workaround: Here's why you can't take scrolling screenshots on Android 11

You can check the scrollscreenshot tool: https://github.com/PGSSoft/scrollscreenshot
It makes multiple screenshots and simulates drag events to scroll content between each screenshot, then join all images into one.

Disclaimer: I'm author of this tool, it was published by my employer. Feature requests are welcome.

Linked my account just to upvote this. Just wish it was easier getting the inertia parameter right.

Awesome. Do you have an app ?. So I can do it with just my phone.

@FranciscoCorralesMorales - it would require rooted phone and deep trust such app won't harm you. Or at least gone berserk and reset your phone because of some unfortunate event sequence.

As was said - this cannot be done. I am just putting this in an answer form...
The reason being is that screenshots work by converting what is on the screen to an image - what is on the screen is pulled directly from the hardware.
Obviously, the screen doesn't know what is going to be displayed, a bit like we don't know exactly what is going to happen tomorrow (unless you're psychic, but we will ignore that for this analogy).
As such, there is no way to do this.
What you could do however, is to take many screenshots, scrolling down a bit, and then use a graphics package to stick the two screenshots together - may not look nice, but it will have to do I am afraid.

As said, a simple screenshot cannot do this for the mentioned reasons. What you could, however, do, is a ScreenCast -- which is easiest described as a video recording of your activities. AirDroid is one of the apps offering this for free (experimental, and root required). Searching the playstore for "screencast" will show you additional candidates. However, root will be required to operate them.
Aside from that, and not requiring root, is to make a series of screenshots, as suggested by t0mm13b already, and then using an image editor to connect them.

If you want to take a scrolling screenshot of any webpage in android or iPhone you need to install an app for this.
Android Users can install Stitch & Share app in your android device from play store and follow the simple steps provided in demo.
iOS users can install Trytailor app or Stitch It app  from app store. Once you download this app check the video and follow the steps. Also don’t forget to give access to your photos.
Source: How to Take Scrolling Screenshots on Android and iPhone
Disclosure: I'm the author of the linked article.


text:
Has Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean officially released for the Samsung Galaxy SIII?

Possible Duplicate:
When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)?

Does anyone know if Android 4.1.2 has been released officially for the Samsung Galaxy S3? If so, where can I download it?
I only want the official version.

If it has been released officially, then it will be available either OTA or via a Kies update - however, I am not 100% sure whether or not it has been released, I would say it hasn't - but don't quote me on that.


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How does Google Play work out if an app is compatible with my device?
I have one "generic" Android tablet, and often when I come to install and app, Google Play says it's incompatible with my device. It happens even on popular apps such as Twitter, Instagram, Evernote, Foursquare and even Google Maps!
I know it works, because if I copy the APK from my Motorola phone onto this tablet and install it manually, it runs fine (at least Instagram and Twitter do).
I'm not trying to make Instagram work on my tablet. I'm trying to find a way to install the apps from the Play Store.

How and where does Google Play performs a compatibility check on my device? I suspect said check is failing somehow. I want to be able to install apps that will work on my device and stop Google Play preventing me.

The apps are not blocked because of the country of my device, I know this because when it is blocked because of the country, the message is different http://i.imgur.com/B69bn.png and it won't even show on Google Play, I have to open the page on my desktop.

Both my Motorola Defy phone and my gerenic Genesis tablet run Android 4 (Cyanogenmod 9 in case of my phone, unknown rom in case of tablet).

When developers make apps, they have to specify any hardware/software requirements in a file called the androidmanifest.xml file.
These can be hardware or software requirements, such as if the app needs GPS, or telephony features - or if it will only work on a certain Android version.
When you use Google Play, it sends your device's 'features' to the server, and then filters apps accordingly.
The most likely reason it is deemed incompatible by Google Play is that it is set to require a certain screen resolution - or maybe portrait/landscape mode defaults.
Some tablets have a low resolution, and also tell google play that they cannot go into portrait mode.
It could also be, your tablet being generic, that it does not have the required GPS or sensors that the manifiest file says it needs, and the market is stopping you from installing because of that.
I shall find out what the instagram app needs (look at it manifest), and edit this answer for you.
EDIT:
According to the Instagram manifest, the only 'required' item is the glEs version - minimum 131072. It could also be because of your tablets country/carrier setting.
Twitter needs a minimum of Android 2.1, and may also need a Vibrator, as it uses the vibrate permission.

No, it is not because of the country of my device, neither the carrier. It has no carrier (no GSM or phone capabilities), and when some app is blocked because of the country, the message displayed is a different one -- http://i.imgur.com/B69bn.png

@ruda.almeida Just covering all the boundries...

No problem, I was just providing more data, thanks for your efforts!

@ruda.almeida If an app requests the telephony permission (to send/receive texts), then it will require telephony hardware as well.

I know you don't think it is due to your country HOWEVER I noticed that your screenshot was in a language other than English. I am an android developer so I am sorta familiar with localization. Basically apps have certain locales which "represents a language/country/variant combination. Locales are used to alter the presentation of information such as numbers or dates to suit the conventions in the region they describe" (see this on the Android development site). This caught my eye:

An application's Java code refers to just two strings, text_a and text_b. This application includes a localized resource file (res/values-en/strings.xml) that defines text_a and text_b in English. This application also includes a default resource file (res/values/strings.xml) that includes a definition for text_a, but not for text_b:
This application might compile without a problem. An IDE such as
  Eclipse will not highlight any errors if a resource is missing. When
  this application is launched on a device with locale set to English,
  the application might run without a problem, because
  res/values-en/strings.xml contains both of the needed text strings.
  However, the user will see an error message and a Force Close button
  when this application is launched on a device set to a language other
  than English. The application will not load.

Notice the part about how the application might compile without a problem but might also show an error message and Force Close if the device has a locale that is not supported by that app. I realize this is not what is happening to you but might relate to your problem because Google Play will see that your device might be set to a locale that the app in question does not support or have a specific set of resources for. Google Play might than hide that app from your device even though it could work fine due to the default resources the developer has presumable written, however Google Play may decide it does not want to risk an angry costumer over a Force Close issue so it might just hide it completely from you. Again, this is just an idea and I realise that you see a different message for incompatibility with your country. Hope this helps.

Interesting, I had no idea about it (and I suspect a few developers might be unaware too). However both my phone and tablet are set to work on the same language. I know there are a few different system attributes to define language, country, locale etc, I have a few system apps that display it, I'm going to run it and add the info to my question.

Glad I could open a new door for you. You might want to check out the two developer pages I provided because something might pop up there to help you out.

Google Play compatibility checks aren't based on locales. Additionally, it's normal practice for the developer to have one locale's resources (such as English) as the default, so in an unsupported locale it will just use the default resources.


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How do i find my Mobilenumber on my Samsung Galaxy 5
I've been trying to give my friend my number. When I first got my Samsung Galaxy S I wrote it down in the memos: a mobile number that had 11 numbers in it.
I can't remember where I got that from -- and now when I try to find it, I go into About → phone-status, but for phone number it says "unknown".
I don't know what to do. If I click on the "unknown" thing it does nothing. I also thought numbers were meant to have 10 numbers.
So how can I find out what my number is?

Just give him a call? He should then see the incoming number.

Use your phone to call a friend with Caller ID (usually any mobile phone nowadays).
Take note of the incoming caller's number. That's your number.


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Galaxy Nexus won't connect via USB
So my Galaxy Nexus has been fine until now. It has been running Android 4.2 and it was going perfect, then like a day ago I go to plug it in and it just won't connect via USB. It charges on USB but that's it. The drivers are installed and the problem is not my computer; I tried it on another computer as well, I haven't changed anything at all. The last option I think for me is to do a factory reset, which I reaaally don't want to do.
It won't even come up with USB connected on the phone.
Any ideas?

UPDATE
I sent mine back for repairs and the mobo was screwed on it. No idea what caused it.

I think I have narrowed this down to a thing called "fastcharge" being enabled.

When you've connected it via USB, check your notification area. On my devices I get a notification there asking me whether to connect it to the PC or to charge only. Not sure, though, if the same will still be valid with 4.2 -- but it's worth a look. Maybe you've simply set it to "charge only".

No notification, and I cant find any charge only option.

I've had similar problems with the Nexus S and also with the Glaaxy Nexus, I was never able to isolate a cause. Uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers, downloading drivers from Samsung's website and using a different cable have all worked at various times.

I have put it down to a fault usb socket on the phone.

Replace the USB port. You can find them (port and ribbon) on eBay for $13, including shipping.

There are 6 screws to open the phone up.
Separate the outside case; there is 1 screw at the bottom once you open it. Take out the large black piece (I think its the mic and vibrating mechanism).
Undo the bottom portion of the antenna.
Undo some of the connectors on the the main board to be able to lift the bottom up some and gain access to the USB ribbon.
Remove and replace with new ribbon. Be careful when lifting the main board and removing the USB ribbon to make sure nothing is connected so you don't rip or break anything.
Plug all connectors and antenna back in.
Put the battery in to make sure it turns on and you have reception.
If you're good, turn it back off and screw everything back together.

Make sure you get a little kit off eBay with the tiny screw drivers and the plastics tool to pull apart the case housing.

I think I will send it back to the suppliers under warranty. Its pretty new so this kinda thing shouldn't happen.

Funny thing is: Blowing into the phones USB solved the problem for me. Maybe you try that =D

Ah, the Atari Cartridge repair process.

as previously stated:

Blow hard into the phone's port to clear out the dust & other garbage
If you're connecting it to the front of the computer make sure nothing else is plugged in
Connect it to the back of the computer., much better & STRONGER connection than the front
If you're connecting to laptop, Again., first blow into the phone's port, do not connect anything else & try all different ports.

Go to Settings > Storage > overflow menu (three vertical dots) > USB computer connection. You can choose MTP. From now on, there will be a notification when you plug the USB device.

Definitely the cable for me. I notice that all of my USB cables have a much smaller diameter than the one that cam with my Nexus. When I use the the thinner ones I get nothing, no charge, no data connection. When I use the one that came with the phone everything works. Seems you just can't try different cables. Again a noticeable difference in the diameter of the cable.

I have used many different USB cables that are not for the device that I own. The only device that I have seen that used a "special" USB cable was my Nook Color, but I could still charge it with other cables, I just couldn't use that cable on other devices. The port that is used on devices is a standard, micro-USB.

Update 12/5/2013: Found out that fast charge was enabled, disabling USB debugging and storage access.
I know this might be late, so this is mainly for future reference.
What I have:
I am running CyanogenMod 10.1 M2 (Android 4.2.2) on a Galaxy Nexus,
Latest Firmware / Band Updates,
Using latest Samsung USB drivers.
I had the issues:
Will not connect to Windows 8 computer as mass storage device, or over ADB (However Android unit was charging).
Solution: Full reboot.
This might be a issue with Android 4.2.2; I will submit a bug report.

I have this problem too sometimes, with different cables and different computer. my samsung galaxy nexus charging full, charging usb, but not see the contents. I put something under the cable that pushes it a bit up just at the connector on phone and then suddenly it connects perfectly. hope it helps.

it's definitely a matter of USB Cable! I came here to solve my connecting problem, too. I then tried the cable that came with my Galaxy Nexus and now it works perfectly. Not every USB cable works, for sure now.

Go to Developer options and uncheck the USB debugging option and it should work.

Sorry. Read the comments. I am not some "noob" its nothing to do with adb. The actual phone its self doesn't connect to anything for data transfer

Try the Tethering and portable hotspot setting (located in Settings → Wireless & network), then check USB tethering. This worked fine for me.

Won't solve the problem.

Go to Settings > Storage > Options > USB settings and select a desired USB connection mode.

Check this out. Don't do a factory reset yet because the problem probably has something to do with the cable not the phone. This seems to be a relatively known problem. look at this Google search.

I have tried multiple cables. Still not working. When I get my dock it might work. But have no idea why its not working now. Really need it for development

And what is "this"? Answers on Stack Exchange sites are expected to be self-contained. At best, when that link no longer functions this answer has no value whatsoever.


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Clear search history in ebook reader App (Desire S)
Is there any way to clear search history in ebook reader App on Desire S?
(It is the default reader App for ebook on HTC desire S).
Thanks.

Here is the HTC Desire S user guide in PDF, but I couldn't find there anything about clear search history in the section Reading eBook (pages 148-151). So, being that the default eBook reader, I guess that clearing search history is not possible unless you clear data from that app.

Clearing data from the app clears also list of all books that have been loaded on the app.


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How to change the display refresh rate of an android device
I am creating a custom ROM for my android device (MT6577 + ICS 4.0.4).The base ROM I'm using is the stock ROM of the device. My device's display refresh rate is pre-configured at 30Hz. Now, I want to change the screen refresh rate to 60Hz (I'm sure my device supports 60Hz) in my custom ROM.
I've searched around the net and found that may be passing the display parameters as command-line arguments would do the trick, but I'm not very familiar with android kernel.
Requesting you to please guide me towards right direction... any website, any thread or your own answer.
FYI:

I have kernel code for the device with me.
My custom ROM is working fine at 30Hz(no issues)

Thanks!

ICS and above is enabled to run at 60fps (under the graphics subsystem, within the bowels of EGL layer) unlike GB and earlier versions which gave the impression that re-drawing was slow. BTW, you cannot explicitly tell it to run at a certain frequency i.e Hertz for refreshes as that is non-existant! The graphics subsystem was re-designed to take advantage of the newer EGL drivers thus appears very slick and smooth when drawing on screen...


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How to make custom apps to appear by default in the lower dock panel in my custom ROM
At the very bottom of my device (MT6577 + ICS + TouchWiz Launcher) are the default icons for "phone", "contacts", "web", and "applications". I want to replace them with my own apps in my custom ROM so that the custom apps appear by default on the dock.
Now, the problem is for instance, I removed stock "phone" and "Contacts" apps from /system/app and copied new phone and contacts app in there. Then I created the build, flashed the ROM and rebooted.
After reboot, the places for phone icon and contacts icon were empty.
It's like:
Before replacing the dock was - phone - contacts - web - App
After replacing the doc is -  empty - empty - web - App
Is there any specific file I need to edit to do the trick ?
Any help/suggestion would be immensely appreciated!
Thanks.

You'll need to edit the apk for the default launcher, which in this case is TouchWiz launcher. You'll need to figure out how TouchWiz gets its default setting, my guess is it would be in some of the xml files in the /res/values/ folder for the launcher, which should make modding easier as you'll only need to extract the apk, edit the files you need, and recompress and probably resign the package but it may also be hardcoded into the code in which case you'll need to decompile, reverse engineer, and recompile the Dalvik class files in addition to the previous steps.
These are some tools that might help you do these modifications:

apktool: A tool for reverse engineering Android apk files
smali/baksmali: An assembler/disassembler for Android's dex format
jarsigner: tool to sign an apk (included in SDK)


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Definitive Guide to Customs Roms?
For those people who are interested in flashing custom roms after rooting their android device:
Does a website exist that provides a definitive, quick & up to date guide to the numerous and varied custom roms that are available for the android platform (obviously not the whole kaboosh, but something that gave a flavour). Generally I hear about CyanogenMod, MIUI & occasionally AOKP (if i'm not mistaken).
Fair enough if you have the time in the day to watch various youtube channels and do searches on the countless android orientated websites, i'm sure most people don't.
(I have seen similar questions asked here, generally people have named a few or just said see XDA)

possible duplicate of Where can I find a good comparison of available custom ROMs?

Thx for that Izzy

There is no such site that lists all the available ROM's for all the devices - if there was, it would be huge.
The best way to find a custom ROM, as well as ways to flash & guides, is to check the more popular forums - such as XDA-Developers or the Android Forums.

Thats a shame, if someone came up with a site which listed 50% in a clear, logical and easy to access manner....I'm sure that would be good enough for most.

@Simon Even 50% would be loads. Think of all the Android devices out right now, each of them have more than 5 ROM's - some have as many as 20-50.

Anything between 1-5% would be helpful to most people looking at custom roms

@LiamW There are such sites. Just see what I linked as "possible duplicate" -- it mentions a bunch of sites, some of them are quite complete and up-to-date.

I have seen some of those sites previously, the Android Release Matrix doesnt look very friendly

What is the down vote for, downvoter?


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Droid 4 puts itself into silent mode
For the past couple weeks my Droid 4 has been switching itself into silent mode at night. At first I thought it was me, but it's not. At around 11pm I plug it in and set it on the table. At this point it is not in silent mode. In the morning it is in silent mode, which means the alarm has not gone off. After I take it off silent mode, the alarm volume is still at zero, so I have to adjust that too. And like I said, this have been the case for a couple weeks.
I have installed no new apps. There are no smart actions set. Any ideas? Thanks.

Do you use any auto-profiles app? I had a comparable issue not long ago where such an app went nuts (I was able to cure that by uninstalling and re-installing it).

Did you use night hours in preferences?


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Rooting Exagerate XZPAD700
I've just bought a device commercially known as "Zelig Pad", which reports to be "XZPAD700" in settings screen. The device looks made by Hamlet but distributed with Exagerate brand.
It carries Android 4.0.4.
Anybody knows how to root that device?
For sake of curiosity: the device goes in download mode by pressing VOL- + Power. Seeking for something to download into its ROM without bricking it.

If it is ICS which it is, it will be really difficult...

Why is it difficult to root ICS ?

@Simon up to Android 2.3 Gingerbread it was possible to root every device around the world because Android itself carried a bug that could be exploited to install root. ICS fixed that, so another vulnerability must be present to inject root executables. Fortunately, some ICS devices are actually "well open" like Samsung GS3 which offers a dedicated download mode where you can overwrite the firmware. HTC devices should be offering something similar after HTC opened its bootloaders' specifications

@djechelon : Oh I didnt know I thought all devices were naturally rootable ?

Believe it or not, the device is already rooted, and it's not documented anywhere.
I don't think that starting it in recovery mode for an odd number of times activates/deactivates root, so I just believe the system carries su on its own.
If my unit of measure of "rooting" is ad-freeness then I simply tried to run AdFree from the device. No superuser warning appeared but AdFree not even didn't complain about absence of root, but updated the hosts file!! And the device was completely ad-free.
I also tried to install ES File Manager, and found this magic file: /system/xbin/su


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Connectivity problem on LG Viper LS840 just updated to Ice Cream Sandwich
MY LG LS840 (Viper) is not opening Play Store after it updated to Ice Cream Sandwich  yesterday.  My emails are not sending either: they stay in my outbox.  How do I fix this?  I pulled the battery and it's still not working right.

Have you tried a factory reset?

UPDATE:  Apparently my phone is LTE and that's not available where I live, so my cell was working overtime trying to connect and it caused an issue with my data connectivity once I updated to ICS.  It took 4 days, a replacement phone, and 5 Sprint techs before SOMEONE figured it out!  I updated my profile, PRL, and clicked off LTE/CDMA to just CDMA and all is running perfectly!  GEEZ!  I hope my trouble helps anyone else with this particular phone.

you should post this as an answer to your own question...

Apparently my phone is LTE and that's not available where I live, so my cell was working overtime trying to connect and it caused an issue with my data connectivity when I updated to ICS.
I updated my profile, PRL, and clicked off LTE/CDMA to just CDMA and all is running perfectly!


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Incorrect Read Receipt generated by default mail app on Android 4
The default mail app on Android 4 seems to generate incorrect Read Receipts.
Here is the case:
User ORIGINATOR sends email (using any mail client software), with request for Read Receipt (SMTP header Disposition-Notification-To), TO: PRIMARY-RECEIVER with CC: SECONDARY-RECEIVER.
When PRIMARY-RECEIVER opens the email, his email client will (optionally) send a Read Receipt which is FROM: PRIMARY-RECEIVER TO: ORIGINATOR.
When SECONDARY-RECEIVER opens the email, his email client should (optionally) send a Read Receipt which is FROM: SECONDARY-RECEIVER TO: ORIGINATOR.
But if SECONDARY-RECEIVER opens the email on Android 4 (Galaxy S3 in my tests), using the default email client, the phone sends a Read Receipt which is FROM: PRIMARY-RECEIVER TO: ORIGINATOR, which is grossly incorrect.
Has anyone detected the same issue?
Anyone has a suggestion on proper forum or support channel for reporting this bug?


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My samsung galaxy player 5 does not connect to the internet, but apparently connects to my router
I have a cisco  linksys E1500 router, secured with WPA/WPA2 PSK. My samsung galaxy player 5, fresh out of the box, conencts to it but cannot access the internet. Based on this thread, I made myself a static IP of 192.168.1.12. It still doesn't work. This other thread talks about MAC cloning, but I'm not sure how to do that
EDIT: I remembered we have a messed up router/provider. We have to use DHCP addresses only, and set the DNS servers manually. How do you do this?

I'm afraid that's something the Android system does not provide by default. But you might take a look at e.g. Zakus WiFi Profiles, which lets you create profiles by access point (Android itself has only global settings here, which would apply to all WiFi APs you connect to):

As I never used this myself, I'm not sure whether it only deals with static IPs, or can handle DHCP with special settings as well. The app description doesn't explicitly state this.
Alternatively, IP Manager might prove helpful. It says to manage different IP profiles for different access points, but unfortunately gives no closer details (and the screenshots don't tell that much). Still worth a try, as it sounds promising.

How do I install anything without internet?

Don't you have a data plan, so you could use the mobile data connection? In that case you need to obtain the .apk (e.g. asking the developer for it), save it to your computer, use the USB connection to transfer it to your device, and then install it. Alternatively, use a friends WiFi once, or any other WiFi AP (e.g. from a local Internet Café or the like). As I understood, you only have this problem with your local WiFi, not general?

No, it's a galaxy player. It's not a phone.

Oh, true, didn't realize I could go to a friend... ^^

Yeah, that was so simple it had to be missed :) Good luck!

Izzy: Ok, installed both of those, neither of them have DHCP only. They do what they say and make static IP switching easy, but not more.

Sorry to read that! Is your device rooted? If so, take a look at Set DNS. After a longer search on the playstore, I've also found DNS Changer, which sounds as if it could solve your problem (only setting a custom DNS, and leave all else to DHCP). Again root needed. 3rd: DNS Settings doesn't talk about root.


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Install official Europe ICS ROM on Optimus 2x outside Europe
Now that ICS is available to users in Europe for LG Optimus 2x (p990): I have a p990 but it was purchased in India. Can I download the ROM for Europe and flash the same on my phone? Will  it work? Will it give any issues for network connectivity? Or do I wait till the official ICS ROM is released for India?

You shouldn't have any problems, likely you'll just need to set up an APN for the network you're using.

you can get official un-official and AOSP based roms (CM) for the XDA discussion here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1002 the AIO tool should help you install EU roms on your device
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2020737


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Default dialer on Samsung Galaxy S3
I have a new Samsung Galaxy S3 running ICS (4.0.4). I would like to use the Go Dialer as my default dialer.
The stock Phone app does not claim to be the default dialer, and in fact I've downloaded Default App and set the default dialer to be the Go Dialer. And yet, when I navigate through a contact to the "dial" press, it brings up the stock Phone app.
I've seen conflicting reports on whether this is possible or not. Is it?

Any dialer customize the things that are come before you press dial button. After pressing the dial button it can only use the stock interface.

The Contacts app and the phone app work as one, however the contacts app should allow you to make a call using any app that uses the call broadcast receiver.
Ensure that the standard Phone/Dialer app isn't set as default:

Uninstall set default
Go into Settings->Apps->All->Dialer (or Phone) scroll down and select Clear Defaults.
Go back into the contacts app, and select a Contact to call. It should ask you which app you want to use. Select Go Dialer and select to always use that by default.

So I did all that (I assume item 1 means to remove the Default App app, which I did). Now both the stock Phone , the stock Dialer, and Go Contacts say they are not the default for any actions. And yet when I select a Contact to call it simply uses the stock Phone app. Sigh.

@rogerl Please uninstall Go Dialer, and any other custom apps, reinstall and try again.

When you say "any other custom apps" you really mean "any", or just "any related to dialing and the like"? Thanks.

Sorry, mis-type. I meant custom dialer apps :)

Yeah, so this made no difference. Even when I go through Go Contacts it brings up the stock Phone app.
Do you actually have a Samsung Galaxy and made this work?

Strange - could be a bug with Go Contacts, or with your ROM. It may be some strange security feature...

Well, that really bites. It worked fine on my old Droid X. Do you have this phone, or some other?


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Installing custom apps on a Nexus 7
Does the Asus Nexus 7 allow me to create and install my own apps without using someone's app store (like Google Play or Amazon)? I want to create my own apps but not make them open for anyone else but me.

Yes, the Nexus 7 allows the installation of 3rd party apps.
Settings/Security/Unknown Sources

What you are asking is officially known in the Android Community as Sideloading.
The most "difficult" thing is to get a copy of the APK file of the app you wish to install, as you are bypassing the Google Play Store.
A very good comprehensive and informative  article written recently on September 15th 2012 for Make Use Of entitled "How To Manually Install (“Side Load”) Apps On Your Android Device" by D.Stieben will give you additional insight into what you wish to achieve.

As the OP is asking about developing an app, I doubt it will be "difficult" to get the apk file.

@dymutaos: Thats why I used inverted commas

I don't get one thing. A long, detailed blog entry for a process as simple as it could be expressed this way: "1. Contect via USB. 2. Copy files to device. 3. Browse for files on device. 4. Tap to install". Especially, sending to such "quality" blogs someone, who is developing own applications is a bit of misunderstanding -- I think that an average mobile developer knows how to handle with USB cable or copy files, right?


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Error 504 when downloading apps from Play Store?
My device is Motorola Xoom MZ604. The internet connectivity is 4G WiMax via my laptop as hotspot.
The problem is when I'm trying to download any app from Google Play Store, it gives me an Error 504 with the message I mentioned in title.
However, if I navigate to the application via browser and click: Install → Select Device → Install and then restart my device, it sometimes works.
Some googling brought me that it's a gateway timeout error. But I'm still unable to figure out how to work around the problem. So looking forward for your help.

A screenshot showing the full message would help, as error 504 can mean different things.

According to the list of status codes at Wikipedia, a 504 error means the following:

504 Gateway Timeout
  The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and did not receive a timely response from the upstream server.

In other words: the culprit should neither be (on) your device, nor (at) Google Play -- but in between.
A thread on the Nook forum describes the very same problem, and one of the conclusions there is:

Generally, that means a Gateway error and I would suspect the problem being on the router end rather than the Nook side. Sometimes a router reset will cure it.

Which corresponds to my conclusion. So if you're using mobile data, it might help to switch data off and on again (or better: switch to airplane mode and back), in the hope you will get a connection into a different segment of your provider's network (and thus a different gateway on that end).

From a thread on XDA about all the Google Play Error Codes

Method 1:

clear data
clear cache of google play store & google service framework

Method 2:

remove your gmail account
reboot
Re-add account

Funnily, the very same issue comes to a very different conclusion on Yahoo answers: here the user had not enough space on his device, so after removing some other app it suddenly worked. I suspect this was a co-incidence (when he tried again after having freed up space, the gateway was "fixed") -- but it cannot hurt to check for that.

Several more sulutions might pop up with the time. To me it proved helpful to search Google for '"Google Play" "error 504"'.

I added some info I found on XDA about the error code. Didn't want to create a new answer because this one has a lot of useful information about what it could be, and solutions.

Thanx, @RyanConrad – but I doubt that clearing local data can solve anything on the remove server: 5xx are server-side errors. So what should manupulating the local installation achieve here? Except, of course, if the connection "playstore error code <-> HTTP response code" is totally wrong.

I don't know if 504 error from google play is the same as a 504 HTTP error. If it actually is an HTTP 504, i agree, it won't fix anything on the server.

Yeah. Unfortunately, that XDA post doesn't speak about reasons, just about possible solutions.

found some more info that says a 504 error is INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED - this is comments to a bug fixed in titanium backup, but it's more info :)

Thanks again, @RyanConrad! And more confusion: What UID changed? That of the (installed) app? In that case, the XDA solution wouldn't help. Here are several pointers at SO on INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED suggesting completely different approaches. If that's the same error, that is: some of those questions rather connect it to the "-24" error.

UID is usually consider the UserID, sometimes called a SID in windows. Which if it did "change", then it would make sense as to why those methods do work, because it re-initializes the UID (method 2), or re-caches what it thinks the UID is (method 1).

-504 being INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED as opposed to HTTP 504 seems likely given that installing a Chrome update on the M developer preview fails with -504 (because the package is not built for M IIRC)

Hope this will help someone.
In my case I was trying to upgrade the app (currently installed on device) which has Target SDK 23 to the app (newly uploaded app in play store) which has target sdk 22.

Yes the log said : "Error -504 while installing : -26: Package  new target SDK 21 doesn't support runtime permissions but the old target SDK 23 does"

I'm not sure this is a comprehensive solution to OP's question.  For example, I uninstalled all previous instances of the app from my phone, tried to reinstall it through Google Play, and still getting this error.

@IgorG. unfortunately you need to uninstall the app from all the device which uses this a/c... (for ex. if three devices using same account and u have installed app using this a/c, you need to uninstall the app from all three  devices to get rid of the error.)

Try resetting the play store app. You won't lose your apps following these steps. Nothing important will be lost.
Steps to follow on a motorola xoom

Go to the app drawer (menu)
Tap settings
Tap applications
Tap the "All" tab
Scroll through and look for play store
Tap Play Store (not play store services!)
Tap "clear data"
You will then get a warning, click "ok"

That's it, go through your problem again and see if it fixed. Bear in mind you will have to re-accept the terms and conditions for the play store app, when this comes up, simply click "accept"

Great i will try this out and let you know.

Ok. Glad I could help!

Ya :) i will surely reply about how your solution worked for me but probably will be a bit late. being busy at this moment :(

This could also appears when you trying to install an app that is not install on the current user, but still installed on the guest or another user.
You have more that one user on Lollipop devices.

Setting the phone into Airplane mode and back did the trick for me. So it most likely was indeed the Gateway issue. Tip though. Dont just turn it on then off. Wait about 60 seconds before you turn airplane mode off again. If you just toggle it, it picks up the same gateway.


text:
Network Connectivity in GSM/WCDMA mode
I am using a Samsung Galaxy S Duos S7562 with Android 4.0. Whenever I disconnect a call, the network vanishes for a few seconds when the phone is in GSM/CDMA auto mode. The network is fine in GSM only mode. Please share any reasons and solutions for this.

In GSM/CDMA auto mode, the mobile uses its energy to keep updated on the network that surrounds you. That's why many people complain heavy battery useage when on GSM/CDMA auto mode. In finding a CDMA network it would try to switch to that network. And at this moment you experience a disconnection for few milliseconds.
The ideal way would be to manual switch between the two. GSM when you're on calls and CDMA when you're performing heavy data operations. If you got rooted phone you can use cyanogenmode controls to setup this effortlessly.


text:
LG DoublePlay: Boot looping after replacing framework-res.apk
I modified and replaced the original framework-res.apk on my LG DoublePlay (C729) and now it keeps bootlooping on T-Mobile logo. Even the recovery mode didn't help - the recovery mode displays only a unpacking icon and then it reboots the phone. I have the original framework-res.apk but I'm not able to get it into my phone. USB connection with PC is stable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

If the USB connection is stable, try using adb push to push the apk in the right place.

The command "adb devices" returns an empty list. Do I need a specific driver for it?

Normally the adb drivers are included with your phone, one thing I did overlook is that USB debugging needs to be enabled ahead of time.

Well, it was enabled, but the recovery mode restored the settings to default.

@A--C That is incorrect. ADB drivers are separate .exe files - IE drivers that are needed by Windows to use the ADB interface.

Too late to edit the comment, I meant included with the phone software, if you install the phone drivers, they almost always include the adb drivers.

In that case, how can I check if the drivers are present?

You could check for a supported driver here on http://www.lgforum.com/how_do_is/installing-usb-drivers-for-the-optimus-vortex-and-ally-android-phones

I have exactly those drivers installed.

I somehow managed to get into recovery - ADB work there, but when I type push, ls, su, mount etc. it returns permission denied.

I don't think anything can be done at this point, you should've been more careful when you messed with Android System itself. If it was SystemUI your phone would reboot into system, but unfortunately that ain't the case. The only reasonable thing to do would be flashing a new ROM.
ADB won't work until your phone reboots to system. I don't think fastboot will help you either, so that leaves only one option, flash it.
Next time you try to change either "framework-res.apk" or "SystemUI.apk" try this script.
It will get the job done without any mess.
Remember to run the script as root and put the apk files in external sdcard(extsd).
#!/system/bin/sh

mount -o rw,remount /system

if [ -f "/extsd/framework-res.apk" ]
then
    cat /extsd/framework-res.apk > /system/framework/framework-res.apk
    chown 0.0 /system/framework/framework-res.apk
    chmod 0644 /system/framework/framework-res.apk
else
    echo "Error: File(s) not found."
fi

if [ -f "/extsd/SystemUI.apk" ]
then
    cat /extsd/SystemUI.apk > /system/priv-app/SystemUI.apk
    chown 0.0 /system/priv-app/SystemUI.apk
    chmod 0644 /system/priv-app/SystemUI.apk
else
    echo "Error: File(s) not found."
fi

reboot

Have a backup of your system in case of problems.
Root your tablet if not already rooted.
Install a file manager with system r/w capability.
Copy the framework-res.apk from wherever you have it stored to \system. Do not copy the file to \system\framework at this point or you will cause the system to bootloop.
Change the file permissions to rw-r--r--.
Move framework-res.apk from \system to \system\framework, letting it overwrite the original. You will have been successful if the phone does not instantly reboot upon copying.
Completely power down your phone, then power it back up.

The user is using a phone not a tablet, they are unable to install any apps and/or root the phone because it is bootlooping and they also said that they can't push or anything because of root issues.


text:
Swype keyboard not swyping
Yesterday I installed Swype Keyboard to replace SlideIT. At first Swype was working but today it only lets me press the keys and not drag my finger. I think I briefly saw a message saying "dragging is not allowed in this mode" but it went away fast. I've tried disabling and enabling and selecting Swype again but not good. How can I fix this?

This happens when you use Link2SD or Apps2SD and move either the Swype App or the Swype installer App to your SD card. To fix it, move the installer and Swype back to the phone and reboot.
I found some of this information on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1042241 the rest I figured out by trying things.

This is most likely due to a licensing issue.
You should uninstall Swype and then use the Swype installer to install it again.

You don't say anything about what phone or Android version you currently have. But Android 4.2 includes now a Swype-like gestual typing keyboard.
There is a downloadable version for you to install, if your phone supports it.
Try out the new Android 4.2 keyboard now!


text:
Galaxy Note 10.1 recurring tasks in Exchange: sync problem
I'm syncing email and calendar with my corporate Exchange server on my Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. Problem is when I mark a recurring task as done on my PC the tablet puts it back. This only happens when the tablet is online, so definitely caused by the tablet. I've noticed that yearly re-occuring tasks that originally started for instance in 2003 are put back starting again in 2003 but the reminder date is 2013. When I mark it as complete the dates move to 2004 and 2014. I have to actually delete the task on the tablet and recreate it on the PC to get it right.


text:
How to find pid of Battery Service?
I am able to find the pid of System server using ps. And I can find info about the system server process through /proc/pidof system_server. But I dont see (or unable to find) the pid of the other Android System Services like Battery Service, etc..
Is there any way to find the pid of Android System Services ?


text:
How to avoid duplicate generated calendar entries?
I'm using Google Calendar on my desktop computer. It seems to auto-generate birthday entries for my contacts in Google Mail. Unfortunately these entries show up twice in "My calendar" in the generic Calendar app (version 1.1) of Android 4.0.4. How can I avoid this?
I don't see any duplicate entries in other calendars, and the calendar list only shows "My calendar" once.
Written on my Samsung SII :-)

You are using Google Calendar app on your phone from the Play Store, correct? Or are you using a ROM based Calendar app (Sense, etc.)?

@BryanDenny I'm using the one which came with the phone, not a downloaded one. It's simply called "Calendar" (version 1.1 according to the "App info" page).

What phone do you have?

@BryanDenny Samsung S II

Here are some options you can try:

Remove your Google account and adding it back. Source
Clear app data via Settings > Application manager > Calendar Storage > Clear data. Source.
UPDATE 2013-05-15: This worked for l0b0

@l0b0 Have you tried the delete data suggestion mentioned here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/855/why-do-i-have-duplicate-contact-birthdays-on-android-calendar

Clearing the Calendar Storage data worked perfect for me.

It's possible that the calendar app is showing the birthday in the  "My Calendar" and also from the "Contacts' birthdays and events" from google calendar (which you can set up from the website, birthay is in the more section of "Interesting Calendars"). If is the case they should show up with 2 different colors. You can turn on of these calendars off in the 'Calendars to display' options (from the menu).
The other option is that merging/linking contacts (i.e. if a contact has an exchange account and birthday info) ends up in duplicate birthdays entries added to the My Calendar, and show with the same color. So far I delete those by hand.

They actually show up with the same color and title. I checked in the app, and they both belong to the "username@gmail.com" calendar.

@l0b0 If you go to calendar.google.com, are there duplicate entries as well?

As mentioned in the OP, no.

Just to be clear, this solution is not applicable.

@l0b0 I think this answer will still get half the bounty though, since it has at least 2 upvotes.

And I can't vote it down because I have less than 125 score :(

Sorry to bump this up guys, but I think I got the solution to your problem, l0b0. I chanced upon this post while trying to solve the same problem faced by l0b0. I'm currently using Samsung SIII, and I synced my phone contacts to my gmail account. The birthdays of my contacts appear 3 times, with the same colour (under "My Calendar" in Google Calendar app).
I unclicked "My Calendar" in my Google Calendar App, and the contacts disappear. I think the duplicates are because of the contacts I have on my phone. To keep my friends' birthdays appearing on my calendar, I opt to click "Birthdays" instead. Hope this helps!

is it possible your Calendar app is synced with more than one account? If it is, the birthdays which were copied into your calendar from account A may have now been backed up onto account B.
You can check this by going to Accounts and un-syncing all but one of your calendars.

I have only ever had one account, so no. Also, I only see duplicates in Android, not on the Google Calendar web site.

If your calendar is showing twice same events, and even in the same color, it could be because your phone has a default option to show contacts birthdays. So go to settings in your calendar app (in your phone), and look for your "sync calendars", and uncheck the one called Contacts Birthdays. So in the website you'll see the one you're used to, and in your phone you'll see the one by default your phone comes with.
If nothing disappears, or both duplicated events disappear, means those events are stored in another calendar, or you have duplicated entries in your calendar. In that case, from the website go to your contacts and in the "more" option select "find and merge duplicates".
Hope it helps.

Both of the events disappeared when deselecting the "Contacts' birthdays" checkbox. I just verified that a random duplicate entry did not correspond to a duplicate contact (I regularly import contacts, and always use "find and merge duplicates" afterwards).

So if unchecking ONE calendar from the ones you have makes both events dissappear, means all birthdays including it's duplicates are in same calendar. I would recommend to check the calendar via web, unsuscribe from that calendar, sync the phone and make sure all birthdays disappear, and then, suscribe again to the birthdays calendar, make sure via web appears only once. If after doing that, in web appears once and in phone appears twice, issue would be the phone, so test your calendar in other android phone.

An after all of that, if in that other phone you test everything seems to be fine, I guess best choice is to uninstall calendar app (if you're rooted) or factory reset your SII.


text:
Can we install the stock ROM for P3110 on P3113? (7 inch Galaxy Tab 2)
The P3113 model of the Galaxy Tab 2 hasn't yet received the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update.
Is it possible to install the stock ROM for the P3110 ROM (take from sammobile) on the P3113 device?

What's the difference in the two models? I would assume they are most likely not compatible. For example, Samsung Galaxy Nexus exists on different carriers, each is a different model and they are definitely not compatible with each other due to hardware differences for carriers (mainly CDMA vs GSM)

Another example would be the Wifi Xoom vs the 3G Xoom. Not compatible.

Agree with Bryan but I can't find much by Googling.  Comments seem to indicate it might work but nothing conclusive.

@BryanDenny - The p3113 is basically the p3110 (Tab 2 7.0 wifi-only) with a IR transmitter tacked on.  They're otherwise identical.  CyanogenMod considers them to be the same device.  The p3100 is the different one, which is the 3G version of the Tab 2 7.0.

As a fellow Tab 2 user, I can quite happily tell you that any ROM for the GT-P3110, GT-P3113, or GT-P311X (Where X means 1 or 3) will work with essentially no issues, except you MIGHT lose IR capability. Other than that, Hunky-Dory!

You can install it, but not everything will work properly. Most things should work, but not all.
Read the forum / thread from where you are downloading the ROM. If you are okay with a few things not working you can get it. Otherwise, you might want to wait till a ROM is ported out for your particular device.
You can read the XDA Forum thread What's the difference between 3110 and 3113? to know what people have got working and what didn't work for them.


text:
How to prevent sleep while installing lots of updates?
Whenever I need to install a bunch of updates, I find myself sitting next to the phone/tablet and tapping the screen every 20 seconds, else the updates never complete.
There must be a better way! Right?
What I've got:

Sony Xperia Arc S, with 4.0 - pretty sure the updates stop when the screen goes out.
ASUS Transformer Pad, with 4.1 - will have to re-check whether the updates stop now that you guys mention they are expected to carry on.

How I'm connecting: Wi-Fi.

You mean the updates stop when the screen goes off?

What phone have you got, what OS version is running on it, and how are you connecting to the internet at the time (wifi, 3G, etc)? That's not how it should work, the updates should carry on downloading and installing regardless of whether the screen is on or off.

Just increase the screen out time. In ICS, it's settings>display>sleep. Maximum is 30 mins. Hopefully updating will be done before then

@romkyns How are you connecting to the internet when you're updating, if wifi we have a lot of previous questions about wifi disconnecting when the screen goes off, that could be the problem that you're having? See How do I keep my wi-fi on in sleep mode

The fix that I found satisfactory in the end was to set the sleep timer to 10 minutes, as suggested by @Sid. I'm the type of person who likes to manually turn off my phone anyways, since otherwise random things get activated in the pocket.

There an app developed to deal with that issue, Smart Timeout Keep Screen On by guidology available from Google Play Store:

Smart Timeout allows you to specify apps that will keep the screen / display on. Once there are no specified apps visible on the screen the normal screen timeout is enabled.
  Works great while reading articles in web browsers, email, or any app you specify. You'll no longer need to worry about touching the screen to prevent the screen from sleeping, dimming or timing out.

Ain't free, costs 0,76€, but "saves" you from the described annoying situation :)

Though I don't know about any "official way" (did I miss some option in the playstore app?), I can think of a work-around using Tasker (or a similar automation app). As a long-term Tasker user, I can best describe it for this app, which is the most feature-filled and complete automation solution for Android (but for sure not the cheapest and easiest one). You might be able to adapt that to a different tool.
Tasker combines "conditions" with "tasks" to so-called "profiles" -- so let's create a profile "AppUpdates":
Condition: App (select the playstore or whatever market app you use)
Task: Display (disable timeout)
That should do it: As long as one of the selected apps (you can select multiple entries there) is running in the foreground, the display will be kept alive -- and thus the device from going to sleep. Mission accomplished.

If you are connected to wifi, then it may be set to turn off when the screen is turned off.
You can use the video linked below to explain how to do it, in essense:

Go to the System Settings
Select WiFi
Press the menu key
Select advanced
Change Wi-Fi sleep policy to 'Always'

Video

You mean to "Always", I think, looking at how it's phrased. Mine was set to "Never".

Yes, that is what I meant. Thanks :) If it was set to never, that would most likely be the cause if you used WiFi :)

Hm. That doesn't work for me. I have "always" but it still stops downloading updates :-(

For the record, this didn't work for me either, not really sure why.

I saw this issue on my Moto X.  I also had the WiFi sleep policy to always and the download would freeze once the phone went to standby.
I found that if I put the Play Store in the background, it will continue to download and install.

Wow, so simple. This is counterintuitive and I would have never thought to try it. Thank you!
Works on Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) w/ CyanogenMod 11.2 (Android 4.4.4).

It works on a galaxy S4, android 5.0.1. Thanks!


text:
Mediaserver using excessive CPU time and battery
I've got a Nexus 4 on OS version 4.2.1 that suddenly started to drain it's battery very quickly. When looking in the battery usage I see "Mediaserver"eating 60% of the battery over time, with several minutes of CPU time logged and several hours of Keep Awake time. Typically the screen, phone idle or other services eat up the majority of battery life.
I tried closing all apps and charging it up, and sure enough overnight it still drained significant battery, again Mediaserver was the culprit as reported in the Battery usage chart; it had kept the device awake all night and drained 10% of my battery despite zero use. I haven't added a large number of files and I'm not playing music/etc so Mediaserver shouldn't be doing very much on the drive.
How can I stop Mediaserver from eating my battery life like this?

Killing all running apps didn't solve the problem, nor did disabling the automatic sync for Google account items like videos/photos (which I heard suggested for a similar battery issue).
What did work was simply rebooting the device by holding the power button and picking shut down. After rebooting Mediaserver no longer appears to use much of my battery in the usage chart and my charge lasts like it always did. So if you get the same issue, just reboot.

Funny -- that was exactly what I just wanted to recommend. It's the only way to get rid of "sticking wakelocks" I know of (those cases happen when apps request a wakelock and forget to release it lateron).

@Izzy that must have been what happened. I'm not sure technically what happened, but wanted to share the solution in case it's a common problem on 4.2.1 or something.

That's something common to most/all Android versions (not especially with mediaserver, but with many services). Also, badly designed apps add to this. For details, you might look into the question How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? and its answers.

Reboot, reboot, reboot. Is there a less annoying way to solve this? I hate rebooting. Can't I just kill that mediaserver?

The Mediaserver process scans your device for media files to add to your library. However, the 2012/12/12 (perhaps some more) gapps version is broken and gets stuck in an infinite loop on unfamiliar files on your phone. This directly translates to battery drain and is bad for the lifetime of your battery and other phone components. When running your phone for the first time or when starting media applications, the Mediaserver is invoked and will commence the horror.
How to fix:

Reboot phone and do not start a media application.
Put a .nomedia file on your SD card root to prevent library search, thus preventing Mediaserver from getting stuck. This means no media library!
Wait for the glorious Google to fix this anomaly.
Downgrade your Android firmware + gapps to a version which lacks this bug.
Use an iPhone/Windows Phone
Modify the gapps (Mediaserver.apk) to support all kinds of files normally. (advanced + time consuming)

Downvote because of recommending iPhone/Windows Phone. Btw, that's not a fix, the bug will still be there.

.nomedia file in root folder does not work.  On a Nexus 7 with Android 4.3.  There is no physical SD card but I put the .nomedia file in the SDCard folder root, and it has not stopped mediascanner from running.  I am assuming it is supposed to be applied recursively and does not need to be placed in every subfolder?  Should I place one even higher than SDCard, like in system root perhaps?

I think I may have figured out the cause and a makeshift solution for this bug, at least one that (finally) works for me, and that I have not seen mentioned often elsewhere.
On my tablet (Nexus 7 2nd gen), I had seen the mediaserver bug very often and practically given up trying to solve it.
However, on my phone (I9505G aka SGS4 GPe), I hadn't seen the bug once.  Both devices were running 100% stock Android 4.3.  Then one day I noticed the bug rearing its ugly head on my phone too.  I hadn't copied ANY new files to the device recently, so that threw any theories about "corrupt media files" out the window.  I racked my brains and realized the only thing I'd done differently in the past 24 hours was played a game (Rayman Jungle Run) on the phone, which I usually only use for calls, emails, and e-books.  On my tablet however, I play Rayman Jungle Run often.
So, I just ran this sequence of tests on both my phone and tablet, with the same results.

Full charge. Fresh boot. Run for several hours. RESULT: No mediaserver drain.
Launch Rayman, play for 1 minute.  Return to home screen but do not force close the app. Wait a little while. RESULT: Mediaserver drain begins.
Force close the Rayman app (I used an Elixir shortcut to do this, but using the apps menu should work fine). Wait a couple hours. RESULT: Mediaserver drain has stopped!

I did a lot of searches on the web and only found one other reference to similar phenomenon, and that post referenced the Rayman game as well as another game called Super Hexagon or something.  The apparent lesson here is that certain apps have the ability to trigger the mediaserver bug.  In my case at least, it has nothing to do with what media files I have on the device, or what Google services I allow/prevent running (these are both things I see frequently quoted as supposed solutions).
I would also hypothesize that if you have an app which triggers the mediaserver drain, and this app autoruns at startup or any periodic time intervals, then the only surefire solution in that case would be to uninstall the app, unfortunately.  This could explain why some people do not find that rebooting helps... if the offending app runs at startup, of course the drain will begin right away also.

This very thing happened me last night. Rayman Fiesta Run, exited out with home button, lost 40% battery overnight to media server. Thanks for this!

@RossC Awesome, glad it helped you.  I just installed Fiesta Run too and was disappointed to see that they still haven't fixed this bug (not sure whether the OS or app is at fault, but I know the app could fix it by forcing itself to close or at least including an option).  I keep forgetting to kill the app after playing a session and remembering hours later when I see how low my battery is getting.

Just kill the media server process. I created a shortcut which runs a command line and kills it
kill pidof /system/bin/mediaserver

or on other devices,
kill mediaserver

I had the very same problem with Android 4.1.2. tablet. Tried everything found on several forums, and the result was - nothing worked. Mediaserver kept draining my battery.
Intuitively, I tried two things:
1. Unmounted SD card where I keep all sorts of media files.
2. Deleted downloaded PICTURES from "download" folder.
Result = problem SOLVED.
Then remounted the SD card - battery life still normal!
Conclusion: bloody mediaserver keeps scanning the downloaded pictures and drains the battery.
Simplicity is always the answer!

For me, rebooting the Nexus 4 several times didn't help. The first time I started using the mobile phone, I logged in without the Google account. So, I did factory reset and made sure I logged-in with the Google account. This seems to have fixed the issue.


text:
Double calendar notifications
For some reason I'm getting 2 notifications for every 1 calendar event I enter.
I'm using Android 4.1.2 (CyanogenMod 10.0.0-grouper) on a Nexus 7.
Can someone please help me troubleshoot this issue?

What calendar app do you use? With some 3rd party calendar apps, you need to disable notifications for either the board calendar or the 3rd-party-calendar to avoid this, as the letter register their own alarms. Could that be your issue?

Have you set up Outlook or some other mail client? Or as Izzy mentioned any 3rd party calendar app?

i'm noticing the same issue on a SGS3 (d2vzw.)  No 3rd party calendar apps and i'm using gmail and do have an exchange account setup.  i'm getting the double notifications from both the events in the outlook and google calendars.

The problem was stupidity on my part.

CyanogenMod 10 includes an outdated Google Calendar app.
When I installed the updated one from the Play Store, I neglected to remove the system Calendar app.
Once I uninstalled the outdated system Calendar app, I only got 1 notification per event.

For those that are rooted, you can install Titanium Backup and then force-ably uninstall the old calendar app. The system app management tool doesn't allow it. I am sure that there are other apps outside of TB that will work as well.

I've always used the app called "/system/app mover" to make it a non-system app and then remove it normally..

This might be irrelevant since I don't use CyanogenMod
I faced the same problem with HTC One (running Android Version 4.1.2) Calenders conflicting were the pre-installed one from HTC and the Google Calendar (which I prefer). I installed it from Google play, the solution might work also in your case too, but I'm not sure.
From the apps menu go to the App manager, and swipe sideways to the "All" tab there, scroll down to the calendar app you want to disable, click it and then click the Disable button. This did the trick for me. It's worth trying.

Yes, I do think that may be a viable solution for those who are not rooted.


text:
Exchange e-mails deleted from Samsung Galaxy S III when downloaded on computer
When I have Microsoft Outlook running on my computer, exchange emails are self deleting on my Samsung Galaxy S III.
I can see the incoming email on my Galaxy S III, but it goes as soon as Outlook downloads the same email.
Why is this?

Note: This is not an Android problem. Your Outlook uses the old POP3 protocol to fetch mails and deletes them on the server afterwards. Switch to IMAP or activate a "leave mails on server" option (or similar).

This problem is due to your email server setup. Server is setup to delete mails from the server once they are downloaded to your Outlook. Your Android Email client only shows mails that are on the server, hence you can't see mails once they are downloaded.
You may have an option where you can disable deleting downloaded mails, however my corporate mail server doesn't allow me to do this and always deletes downloaded mails, so I'm not sure about this.


text:
Downloaded music plays on PC and transfers to phone, but some files don't show up in phone library after transfer
My music - which is in MP3 format - plays normally on my PC. When I transfer some of my music to my device, my computer says the transfer was complete, however I cannot see some of the music on my device. Why are some songs not appearing in my phone's music library?

I thank you for your help I will check the format again on these songs it may be one not supported

Please reboot your device.
Once you have rebooted, the music will show up in your music app.
When you boot, Android searched all SD Cards for media, and then adds it to the media database, so that media apps can use it.
Please reboot, and the music will then show in your music player.
If you have already rebooted, then please clear the data for the following apps:

Media Storage
Music (or Music Player, or Media Player)

If that still doesn't work, then copy the music direct to the music folder of the SD Card that is in your device.
Final thing - Android doesn't support ALL music formats. If the file is in a format Android doesn't support, then it won't show in the Music app.

MP3 files and when I rebooted they still did not show up

@donnybrookit MP3

@donnybrookit MP3 files are definitely supported. Please follow the steps above to reset the media apps. If that doesn't work, I suggest you use a file manager app to see if they transferred to your device or not.

@ LiamW WILL DO