text:
Why does my Galaxy S3 make a noise when I put it down?
Occasionally, when I put my Samsung Galaxy S3 down relatively firmly, it makes a noise that's sort of half way between 'BONG' and 'CLANK'. When it happens I can immediately pick it up and put it down again to make it happen again. I can repeat this for as long as I like. Pick up, put down, BONG/CLANK, repeat.
There are no on-screen messages, just the noise. Why is it doing this? Can it be stopped?
Thanks

Sounds similar to how my laptop alerts me when it's been jostled and the head has been retracted from the hard disk ... but the SGS obviously has flash storage so that wouldn't make sense :P

Similar, but not quite the same. I imagine if you shake your laptop from side to side it would alert you, but my phone only BONK/CLANGs when I place it down flat, so I guess it's not simply telling me to be more gentle.

Well, I've figured it out. Sort of. I habitually put my phone down on top of my wallet, which contains my NFC-chipped credit card. It turns out the phone actually makes that noise when it finds an NFC chip. If I push my credit card against the back of the phone the same thing happens.
I'm still not sure what it really means, though.

+1 - I totally just did this same thing. Mine was responding to the RFID/NFC chip in one of my credit cards. The noise it makes is saying "I recognize an NFC chip is close but I cannot act on its information," which is appropriate as your phone can't read the encrypted data stored on your card. Pretty cool if you ask me!

There are NFC cards and tags that contain data on which your phone can automatically act, such as open a webpage or connect to a Bluetooth carkit, for example. Examples of such tags are Sony's Xperia SmartTags and Samsung's TecTiles.

Thank you! I was so close to throwing my phone at a wall.

Thanks! I also have that habit, and that wired sound bugs for quite a while. Finally relieved today.

For me it was the New Delhi Metro Rail smart card


text:
How to find saved wifi password?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I find out the wifi password from android setting

A friend entered his wifi password into my android phone so that I could connect to his network.
I don't want to ask him again for the password and I want to use it on my laptop.
how can I find the password that he entered?
thanks.

If it really is your friend, just ask for the password.

There is an option in the setting to display "show passwords" on all. So basically when you click on the WiFi name in "Wireless and Networks" you will find the password.

This only works when you're in the act of entering the password. Once it's entered re-opening the settings will not show it to you.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Reset battery status after changing battery?
If I plug in the charger of my Galaxy Nexus, I'm able to replace the battery without switching the phone off. However, the battery status does not adjust to the new battery. For example, if I replace an empty battery with a fully charged one, the phone still shows an empty battery symbol.
Is there any way to adjust the battery status to the new battery?
When changing the battery while the phone is running, do I risk breaking the phone or the battery in any way? For example, if the phone thinks the battery is empty while it's actually full, do I risk to overcharge the battery if I connect the phone to a charger?
Edit:
I just noticed the following:
If I enter *#*#4636#*#* and select battery info, it displays a charging state of 100 after changing to a new battery. So the phone notices that the battery was changed. I'd just like to see that as well in the battery icon in the notification bar.

You might need to reboot. Your battery won't be damaged by hot removing it. It has an internal circuit to prevent overcharge. Removing it while (dis)charging doesn't matter.
See this post from Android developer Dianne Hackborn.

Thanks for your answer. The link doesn't work for me, it looks broken...

link is fixed now

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text:
Is there a way to make the Gingerbread notification behave like ICS?
The ICS notification allows users to "swipe" single notifications away. I was wondering if this can be done on a rooted Gingerbread phone?

On a stock carrier/manufacturer's ROM there's probably not a whole lot you can do I would imagine, but CyanogenMod 7 (its Gingerbread-based version) allows you to dismiss individual notifications by swiping them away. You can see it in action in this Lifehacker article.

Are there any 3rd party apps or mods that will allow me to do that on the Xperia GB rom?

@ShedoSurashu: I've never seen one (although that doesn't mean one does not exist somewhere). Re-working the notification bar's behavior is somewhat non-trivial, though, and AFAIK it's not really possible without modifying the Android source.

There is a mod for this by, I think, TeamNocturnal...I have it working on Stock gb 2.3.5 for ZTE Merit.  Google search "swipe to clear notifications mod."


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Why does android ignore my etc/hosts change in the browser?
I've remounted /sys as rw, added one entry to etc/hosts (e.g. 10.0.0.1 x.com www.x.com) and rebooted my device.
After rebooting, if I check etc/hosts, the entry is fine. If I ping x.com, it pings the correct IP address I entered.
But, if I open a web browser (either stock or Dolphin), and browse to x.com, it'll go to the IP address the DNS resolves to.
What's happening?
(My phone is a Nexus One, which is running the custom Cyanogen 7.1 ROM based on android 2.3.7)
Update:
On the app 'LAN Droid' I get the edited address (so 10.0.0.1) just fine too. It seems like that it's only the browsers where it behaves wrongly.

Just curious: what if you do it the other way around, and set a well-know domain (or some advertisement site) to become localhost instead? Does it fail to load that then? And is it really such short domain name like used in your example? (Not-so-fun-fact: Internet Explorer stopped accepting cookies for two-letter domains. Of course, unrelated to your problem, but maybe short domain names have other odd limitations in some browsers? I guess not though.)

can you do this - ls -l /etc/hosts, possibly permissions/ownership problem?

@t0mm13b "-rw-r--r-- root root"

@t0mm13b you're spot on! In my case it was the permissions. chmod 644 /system/etc/hosts sorted it out

This sounds exactly like this, down to ping working but not the browser. His eventual solution is quoted below:

Stupid question, but are you editing the file on the handset or just pushing the file that
  you posted here?  The one you posted is in dos format, so it has extra linefeed characters
  at the end of the line that could confuse a linux system.

I don't know what you used to modify it, but you might want to check what kind of linefeed/newline characters it's using.

edited with vi on the terminal emulator. tried to force ff=unix now and set list to see any DOS line  break... even went ahead and run a regexp as if there was any DOS line break, nothing found.

Not sure if this helps but I had a problem of an ignored hosts file and it was solved by a guy on this thread - the answer is to put a blank new line at the end of the file.

Can you install strace and compare the output running strace on ping with strace on the browser to see why DNS lookups are being handled differently?
Are you sure there isn't persistent caching going on? What's the TTL on your domain records?
Android doesn't appear to use /etc/resolv.conf, but maybe there are some properties that control which apps use /etc/hosts and which go directly to DNS lookup. https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/android-platform/K2Wr4WaEneI

good points. TTL is 1h, the default for the catch all rule i have.  The g.groups thread is mostly about the decision of which nameserver to hit during DNS queries, this logic happens after the etc/hosts. i hope. Now i will run the strace (find out how to before) and report back.

If you are creating the hosts file on a windows machine, make sure each line is separated by an LF only (not [CR][LF], only [LF]). You can verify that and create a proper hosts files using notepad++.

I think you need to flush DNS on your Android check this question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2101762/android-flush-dns, especially "go into settings -> applications -> Network Location -> Clear data."

don't even have this option on android 2.3.7. But the phone is with this change on etc/hosts for months now. and i reboot it frequently... i hope DNS is not cached for months for any reason.

My suspicion would be that the browser is configured to work through a proxy.
You might be able to tell using netstat -n or looking in the /proc/net/tcp (or better yet, /proc/#browser_pid#/net/tcp) what address it is actually connecting to.  If that does not match your website's address its likely you are going through an intermediary.

I'd normally say (but this doesn't apply to you, alas):
Just try a reboot if changes go unnoticed because the Dalvik machine instance or the underlying system might have cached a former DNS request.
You could try AdAway to manually add entries to your hosts file (just to cross check if it does the same as you did manually).


text:
Why can't I re-install YouTube? Error message: "Duplicate provider authority"
I'm in a bit of a problem. You see I have a preinstalled youtube app on my phone. Normally, there's an update and so I wanted to make the preinstalled one up-to-date without keeping the older version so I uninstalled it using Link2SD. Now when I was about to reinstall youtube with the latest version, I keep getting an error. So now my phone is stuck without a YouTube app. I even tried sideloading but it still fails to install.
The error I'm having is

Don't make people go somewhere else to get the information they need to answer your question.

I don't see why you uninstalled the app in order to update it. Try the reinstall the app provided by the manufacturer.

@AlEverett That is just a screenshot of my screen. I posted this using my phone last night so it's kinda hard to embed and get the image link from dropbox.

@slybloty I uninstalled it so that a new fresh installation should get it installed to my SD card.

I recommend using Titanium Backup's "Integrate updates of system apps into ROM" feature instead, it's nice and simple.

Screenshots are actually pretty easy to embed. See my edit :)

Is your device rooted? If so you may use adb or any root supported file manager to manually remove it and re-install it from Play store.

I had the very same issue except for the reason that YouTube got messed up.
I recovered using Root Explorer (installed from Google Play) on my rooted phone.
I used the search function to look for youtube (search is case insensitive) and it came back with five files.  I used multi-select and deleted them all.  I rebooted the phone just in case and then I was able to install YouTube with no more errors.


text:
New TF300 is not showing anything on the screen
I purchased an ASUS TF300 from Amazon and it arrived today. The manual says to charge it for 8 hours for optimal battery life, so I plugged it in and let it charge for a bit. The power button is now displaying a green light after about two hours of charging (it's still plugged in), and when I press the button the tablet's backlight comes on. However, the screen is blank - nothing is being displayed.
I've tried forcing a reboot (holding the power button down for 8 seconds). The tablet makes a chiming noise and appears to reboot - based on the backlight turning off and then back on - but there is still nothing displayed on the screen.
Any suggestions? Is it possible it's DOA?

The manual actually says that? Bunch of idiots there.

@RichardBorcsik "To prolong battery life, fully charge the battery for up to 8 hours when using the ASUS Transformer Pad for the first time and whenever the battery power is fully depleted." :) Seemed a little off to me as well, which is why I just gave it a shot after it got a few hours of charge.

I was unable to resolve the issue through all types of hard/cold resets/reboots (PWR+VOL, PWR for 30 seconds, hard reset pin, etc), so I returned to Amazon and received a working tablet today. It appears that mine was just DOA.


text:
Who are responsible for pushing out the OTA updates?
There are many parties involved in an Android phone. My question is who is responsible for the OTA updates of my phone. Is it the manufacturer, the phone service provider or Google?
I thought this answer could be answered generally but maybe not. My phone is the Galaxy Nexus i9250 witch is manufactured by Samsung.

Can you re-edit your question to include what carrier/handset you're with?

If your handset is Google Nexus, then yes, Google pushes out the OTA updates.
The rest is down to the carriers, depending on who you are with, what handset you have.
Edit: Added more thought for clarity.
Some may not roll out the OTA updates, its all dependent on the market, region. I am with O2, and never get any OTA updates what-so-ever. Some manufacturers do include a 'PC companion' suite that accompanies the handset  and it is through that pc companion suite, that there may be a "firmware" update that is independant of the carrier used. That would be an exception to the rule, although the trend seems to be, to "use the official manufacturer's handset companion software for Windows" and to check on that regularly.

Some devices get the updates from Samsung instead of Google or carriers.

I really want the new 4.1 update. So who is responsible for me getting it. From what I can tell Google has released the official update but i have not gotten it to my phone.

Try this: a mate of mine in Ireland, he recently bought a Nexus which had ICS, and learnt that by going into Settings > Applications, look for running apps called Google Framework Services or similar, tap that, > clear data, you might have to do it a few times, eventually the update pushes through, fwiw, my mate, he was on vodafone ireland, and had to do it several times...

@Anders You probably have a Nexus that's not getting updates directly from Google. Check my other posts (shameless self-promotion) for info on how to detemine which variant you have and how to update (might void your warranty).

The manufacturer is responsible for the Android updates (not only if it's an OTA Update).
But some carrier branded phones receive a different firmware as the unbranded ones because of custom carrier modifications, like removing the WiFi tether feature. Therefore a delay for an update can also be caused by the carrier. Usually you will see an update first on unbranded devices and maybe later for the carrier branded ones. But there have also been cases where the carrier released an update that wasn't released officially for unbranded devices (IIRC a Samsung device in the UK got 2.3 before it was officially released by Samsung).
To sum up: The main responsibility lies with the manufacturers but the carriers have a word to say too. Which is IMHO a bad thing, that's why I prefer unbranded devices.

The carriers don't just have a say. The carriers are often the gatekeeper for the public release. The big carriers all have their own labs that test the builds, often for weeks at a time, before they allow the OTA to go out.

With the Galaxy Nexus it's sometimes tricky to tell who is responsible for the updates. There are (at least) four different variants of the GSM/HSPA device and one CDMA device.
GSM/HSPA:

yakju
takju
yakjuxw
yakjukr

CDMA:

mysid

There used to be an app in the Play Store which could tell if your updates come from Samsung or Google, but it's been removed for some reason. As far as I can tell, yakju and takju get the updates directly from Google, and other variants get them from Samsung or operators.
This is why I flashed my yakjuxw device with the takju ROM, no more delays from Samsung.

I like pretty pictures (visual learner) so I tried to combine the other answers into a generalized graphic:
If anyone has any issues with this, point them out in a comment and I will update accordingly.


text:
Why are individual apps not listed in my battery usage statistics?
I'm using an Asus Transformer TF300 running Ice Cream Sandwich. When I check Settings->Battery the only things listed are Screen, Tablet Idle and Wifi. Why aren't apps that I use being shown in these statistics?

The only apps shown there are the ones using significant (>=1%) battery. If the app is not particularly resource intensive, it won't show up there.


text:
How can I create a downloadable file with my contact info
I'm trying to create a link on my website where you can click and add my info to your phones contacts. Is there a file format that android will recognize & load a contact from?

The easiest way is to use a barcode you could e.g. create with an app like My QR code Generator. If you do not want to install an app for the purpose, there are also web services available like e.g. GOQR.ME -- simply search google for QR Code generator vcard.
The result is a QR-Code -- a simply image you can put on your web page. On Android (and other) devices, a QR code reader (best known and widely used on Android is Barcode Reader) utilizes the camera to take a picture from it, analyzes the coded content, and then offers an appropriate action. In case of a VCard, this would e.g. be to add it to your contact list -- exactly what you intended.
Of course you could simply export your contact data in VCard format for download (on opening that, the user would get the same choice to add the content to the contacts). You also could combine both, linking the QR-Code image to the downloadable VCard (make sure the file extension of the vcard file is set to .vcf, so the web server gets a chance to set the correct mime type -- otherwise it may be treated as "plain text" and opened inside the browser instead of being downloaded). This way a visitor could either use a barcode reader, or click on the code to download the VCard. Thus it even could be imported to apps on the PC: MS Outlook, Gnome Evolution, and others understand the VCard-Format as well.
Troubleshooting:
If you linked the VCard .vcf file for download, and it still only gets displayed in the browser window, here's how this can be fixed with Apache web server (solution by MrGlass -- thanks!):
Edit your Apache config (or, if you cannot access this, edit/create the .htaccess file in the directory your .vcf is stored) to contain the following segment:
<FilesMatch "\.vcf$">
  ForceType text/vcard
  Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</FilesMatch>

I ended up doing something like this. One important note is that if you just stick the vcard file on a normal webhost, android will simply display the text in the browser. You need to force the content disposition header to attachment, so that its downloaded. I did this in apache by modifying my htaccess file.

@MrGlass thank you for this addition! Of course the web server must be configured accordingly. Probably adjusting the mimetype to reflect the correct value (text/vcard or text/x-vcard) would help as well. Maybe Apache didn't recognize it by the chosen file-ext -- did you name it something with .vcf (just added that part to my answer above)?

No. I'm a web developer, and it always seems like apache never detects things like this automatically.
<FilesMatch "\.vcf$">   ForceType text/vcard   Header set Content-Disposition attachment </FilesMatch> in htaccess seems to fix things

Thank you for this hint! I just added it to the answer above. As in the comments formatting gets lost, please check whether I applied the line breaks correctly. Feel free to edit if I didn't ;)

You got it right :) Now I have to see about makign it work with iPhone (boo hiss). Hard to make things work without a unit to test on :)

Why shouldn't this work with eye phone? VCard IMHO is a standard format, and QRCodes are as well -- which is why I recommended this combination. It not only works on Android, but also with Windows (Outlook), Linux (Evolution), and I suppose on MacOS and others as well.

Oh, I agree, it should. I'm just getting reports that it isn't. No idea why yet - currently only method of testing is begging friends over IM or email.

Would be interesting what goes wrong there. Please update when you figured out.

Check out this: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/26766/force-a-link-to-open-in-safari-instead-of-the-in-app-browser if I understand, the QR code app loads my URL using the embedded browser, which doesn't know how to handle a vcard, so it errors out.


text:
How do music players survive hot reboot?
When I do a hot reboot, everything is killed and restarted, but I never ever experienced any interruption in music playback. How?
System: Samsung Galaxy S (ICS)
Music Players: Stock music player, PlayerPro, Rocket Music Player

What phone, rom and music player is that? I just tried this with Poweramp on ICS and it stopped.

@Richard I didn't thought that could be useful. Anyway, I've updated the answer.

The typical implementation of a "hot reboot" does not actually shut down the OS and restart it (see What does Hot Boot mean? for related discussion). In essence, it's killing the UI and other foreground processes, then restarting the UI components, making it somewhat analogous to restarting the X server on a *nix machine.
The music player spawns a background service that actually handles playback, and services simply aren't interrupted in the hot reboot process. Using the *nix analogy again, restarting your X server typically doesn't kill your daemons, but it will stop any currently running X applications. It's a similar principle on every hot reboot implementation I've seen.
Now I should probably also qualify this with a disclaimer that this is based on my understanding of one such implementation of the "hot reboot" feature. There may be others that do it differently, but since this is not a standard/native feature and it's generally not documented anywhere you'd likely have to reach out to the developer of your particular app or ROM for more information. Heck, this may even vary depending on the music player you're using - the above is just my analysis based on the limited information I've found available on the subject.

Can you cite a source or experimental evidence for the claim that services are not interrupted (ie, same pid after as before)?  I'd expect all android services - pretty much anything that using dalvik classes - to die; but purely native daemons to keep running.

@ChrisStratton: No, but I've also never seen a description of "hot reboot" that is more detailed than "restarts the graphical shell". It's not a native feature, so it's not documented anywhere. This may even vary depending on the hot reboot app/feature being used.

My suspicion is that 'hot reboot' is the equivalent of typing 'stop ; start' at the adb shell prompt. When I tried this, music playback from the default player stopped.  However, I think it is possible to hand an mp3 file to the native mediaserver process, which did not die, and maybe in some implementations that, almost as a "bug" just keeps playing.

@ChrisStratton: That's actually a good point, too, which I didn't really think of initially. It may be  dependent on both the specific 'hot reboot' implementation and the specific music player being used (or at least how it interacts with the mediaserver process and so forth).


text:
What launchers support Tasker's Go Home to a paticular page?
Tasker's Go Home action has a slider that lets you select which page of your launcher will be displayed. Trouble is, the launcher has to be written to support this feature (specifically, it needs to recognize net.dinglisch.android.tasker.extras.HOME_PAGE as a parameter to the launch intent).
Anyone know which launchers support this feature? ADW doesn't and Go doesn't. Tag Home doesn't. Nova does, according to its readme, but it's ICS only (I'm still on Gingerbread). I'm willing to download every launcher to see if I can find one, but I was hoping someone would know before I resort to that.

The now (almost) obsolete LauncherPro supports this feature.

Would hate to have to fall back to this launcher... but it's a possibility I guess.

Is this feature that big a deal to you?

I don't really need it. But I don't really need a smartphone in the first place...


text:
What does "H" mean in the signal indicator?
I understand that the colour of the signal indicator tells me whether or not I've got a connection to Google servers or not, but what is the "H" that sometimes pops up?

Usually my indicator says "3G":

But, in addition to having an "H" now and again, sometimes it has no letters at all:

I assume this is telling something about what kind of data network I'm on, or not on, but what exactly is happening?

It's HSDPA which if I'm not mistaken is referring to 3.5G.

and you're using Cyanogenmod -- plain old Android doesn't display an H, at least mine doesn't.

Actually, it does.  Seems to depend on version.

@offby1 From my experience I have seen H since the first day I bought my first Android device, which was HTC Hero GSM.

To be accurate, it means HSPA, which includes HSDPA (download) and HSUPA (upload). Also, if there is no letter, it means there's no data connection or it's trying to connect to one.

or you're  on wifi.

Let's state all the possible letters in the signal indicator, in descending speed (indicated speeds are roughly theoretical maximum):

5G = 20 Gbps
LTE+ = 300 Mbps
LTE = Long Term Evolution (commonly and falsely known as 4G), 100 Mbps
H+ = HSDPA Plus, 10 Mbps
H = either HSDPA (3.5G) or HSPA+ (3.95G), depending on your network provider, 2 Mbps
3G = UMTS (3G), 384 kbps
E = EDGE (2.5G), 40 kbps
G = GPRS (2G), 14 kbps
(no letter) = voice only, no data connection, 2.4 kbps

and also:

R = roaming (this means you're not on your home network)

(source for some of this.)

There's also "4G" on my Nexus 5 running Lollipop (Optus, Australia).

My HTC One M7 also displays, 4G. I'm not sure if its LTE?

Can you expand on why LTE is "falsely known as 4G"? Other sources I've seen indicate that these are synonymous terms, so an explanation of your contrasting position could be informative.

@DanHenderson - "4G" is a marketing term, LTE is what it's actually called.

Well, I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's odd that you don't make any such distinction for 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 3.95G, nor 5G. Is "4G" the only "G" that's a misnomer? Also, the one source that you cited directly contradicts your position. "4G, aka LTE - Long Term Evolution 4G, also known as LTE, offers speeds of up to..."

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


text:
Application or software by which we can access tablet or mobile remotely over internet?

Possible Duplicate:
Any VNC solutions for an unrooted device?

I am using TeamViewer and other VPN remote access software to access my laptop or PC from my Android phone. But is there any software by which I can access my Android smartphone remotely over Internet either through Android phone or through laptop.

See these previous questions: Any VNC solutions for an unrooted device?, Remote login into the phone from a PC, How do I access by android phone from web browser and control it?, and How to Remote Control Android smartphone, if not in same subnet

I want exactly same remote access as we are using for desktop application. mean complete screen of the tablet or phone should apprear in PC or laptop. So I can get feel as I am working on my tablet only. mean playing on tablet without having tablet on hand.

Remote Phone Access from Google Play Store does what you want.

I want exactly same remote access as we are using for desktop application. mean complete screen of the tablet or phone should apprear in PC or laptop. So I can get feel as I am working on my tablet only. mean playing on tablet without having tablet on hand..


text:
what is the use of VPN Connection in Android phone?

Possible Duplicate:
What is this VPN setting good for?

Is it used for remote machine access? How to configure the VPN setting?

It is the same use of using VPN with desktop computer.  You can connect to a network and become a part of it to access its resource.
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which means that you can join a network (typically a organisation's LAN/WAN) through Internet and access its resources link printing or accessing intranet web portals etc.
As you has asked, it can be used for remote access for computers which are not exposed to Internet and are connected to LAN only.
You can see this link for more information.


text:
Turning on Wi-Fi on demand
Is there a way to reconnect to Wi-Fi whenever an application accesses the network?
Background: I have a rooted e-book reader that runs Android 2.2 (Sony Reader PRS-T1). The system offers an option to automatically enter Wi-Fi standby mode when the connection is idle, which I like: This behavior saves a lot of battery juice when reading an e-book.
Some of the preinstalled apps know how to reconnect the Wi-Fi whenever they need network access. Unfortunately, conventional Android apps do not know how to do this and fail. For example, I have installed the Kindle for Android app, and it fails to sync reading positions unless I have manually re-enabled the the Wi-Fi before trying to do so.
Is there a method to leave Wi-Fi standby mode and reconnect to Wi-Fi whenever there is demand?

Like everyone seems to be saying I too say that you can do this with Tasker and here's a small tutorial
In your profiles screen, click the + button and select application.
In the following screen that shows with the list of your installed apps, choose the app that you would wish to turn the WiFi on when opened.
Go back and you will be asked to create a new task. Create one and add the action WiFi and set it to on.
Now go back and long press on the task you created and click 'Add exit task' do the same thing as you did before but instead of setting it as on, set it to off.
So now whenever you open that app, the WiFi is turned on and at other times is off.

I'm not certain, but I'd expect Tasker to be able to do this.

Not that I know of, at least not out of the box. I have Tasker on my phone, and I cannot find an option to trigger a task when an app accesses the network. Maybe you're thinking of a specific Tasker or Locale plugin?

The behavior described in the question sounds to me like a custom WiFi standby solution - this wouldn't be something available in Tasker. What one could do, though, is have Tasker toggle WiFi on/off (perhaps with a short wait in between). That might kick it out of standby.

Sure, Tasker can kick wifi out of standby. The question is -- how can this be triggered on demand, automatically?

Easy to do if Wifi should always be active when certain apps run in the foreground (just select those apps as conditions for a profile). But if they simply "want to access" while in background, there's nothing I can think of.

I'm thinking of WeFi app, but it's probably not a good idea since it would be looking for a WiFi connection all the time.

WeFi app wouldn't do, it has a completely different job (checking for available Wifi networks close-by). The question is not about Wifi availibility -- but about the apps demand to use it.

You wont find any app to do it. By default Wifi maintains the connection while consuming very less power. Power gets consumed only when data is exchanged.
Also, I am not sure which ROM you are using but most ROMs should contain something like "Wifi Sleep policy" to help you turnoff wifi when your phone enters sleep mode. If you cant find this option then you can try an app called Llama (similar to tasker) which allows you to control your wifi sleep policy based on location, time, profile, etc

The only way of doing this would be Tasker. This app allows you to set conditions for functions of the phone and apps. For example I'm using this to enable lock screen when I disconnect from my home WiFi and connect to 4G when I'm not connected to any WiFi. Give it a try.


text:
Can I use an external bluetooth mic for android applications?
I need to use external microphone (from bluetooth headset) in application with voice input.
Is it possible?

Is there a reason you haven't just tried it?

Of cause, I try, but only built-in microphone was active. But I need external.

Appears that Android still lacks some skills regarding Bluetooth headset to Voice Input capabilities. I couldn't make it work either.
But there's an APP for everything, and this is no different ;)
Skyvi (Siri for Android) available from Google Play Store:
Key Features:

Voice Texting
Fast find and call places
Get directions
Call Contacts
Play music
Local weather and time
Fun chats, witty remarks, tells jokes
Access Facebook with voice
Access Twitter with voice
Text by Voice                                                       <- what you seek
Tweet or Update Facebook with Voice
Ask questions with voice
Car Mode


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Jelly Bean's Offline Voice Typing APK
Is this possible to get Jelly Bean's Offline Voice Typing apk for other Android versions like Gingerbread or ICS???

Possible? Maybe. The source code for Jelly Bean has only recently been released. If the voice typing isn't too deeply baked into the OS someone will likely soon port it out for other versions. I wouldn't hold out much hope, though.


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Android updates for Nexus bought from Amazon
Is there any difference in terms of either phone features, software versions or time to get new updates if I bought the Galaxy Nexus from Amazon instead of waiting for it to be sold direct from Google in the UK?
Any reasons I should wait?

Galaxy Nexus goes by variants such as yakju, yakjuxw, and takju. However yakju and takju will receive updates directly from Google. While the rest will be receiving from Samsung or probably network provider.
The difference between yakju and takju is that takju has Google wallet while yakju does not. Takju can only be purchased from Play Store.
I assume the one being sold directly from Google in the UK is the same one offered at Play Store which runs takju while the one on Amazon runs yakju.
In term of phone hardware they are exactly the same.

Where can you see those model codes? Nothing like that shows up under "About Phone" as far as I can see?

Thanks. So in theory the Amazon one is better with support for the wallet? Is it as unlocked as the one from Google. Yes I'm talking about the one from the play store btw.

@GAThrawn There are two ways you can do it:

By viewing build.prop.
Or the easier way by using GN Official Update Checker

@Adam I won't say that it's better just because it has Wallet. As I don't find much usage for Wallet since it is not supported in my country. I'm not sure if it is unlocked thou. Sorry.

Thanks, in the end found it this moprning in Android System Info, under System -> Build Info. Contrary to what you've said though, my Galaxy Nexus bought through my provider in the UK, with no Wallet support, is a YAKJU.

It seems like it's the same case with me. There is no Wallet although it's Yakju. I guess Yakju with Wallet only available in the US.

After further reading I discover that I had it wrong. Takju has Wallet while Yakju doesn't. Sorry for providing incorrect information.


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Creating and handling an encrypted folder on sd-card for unrooted devices
I'm looking for a way to create an encrypted folder on the sd-card and provide password protected access to its contents. Ideally, this would provide a UI to encrypt new files by moving files to it and retrieve them back.
I know there is EncFS but it only works in rooted devices.
And also BoxCryptor which is only for Google Drive or DropBox.
I need a solution which would work with sd-card folders and on unrooted devices.

See also these previous similar questions: Locking SDHC Memory card on Samsung Galaxy 2 and How do I secure/encrypt SD card data transparent to apps?

"Is there an app that does X" questions are generally not a good fit here. (Please see the [FAQ].) I've edited your question to ask for a solution to a problem rather than an application.

ok, I changed the title to comply with your comment. thanks

There are many available choices, depending on the features you need:

Cryptonite uses EncFS and requires root
LUKS also requires root and provides on-the-fly encryption (AES by default) to virtual folders
Eds provides encrypted containers and does not require root. It even is compatible to TrueCrypt.
DroidCrypt can encrypt single files or full directories. No root needed.
Encryption Manager is a file manager providing file encryption support, and so is AnDisk
FilesCrypter supports encrypted files and folders

And many more.¹ Just check the examples, and take a look at the "also recommended" stuff on their market pages to find more.

¹ disclosure: link goes to my Android site

Thanks, I will buy and try Eds. It seems to have everything I needed.

@BehzadMomahedHeravi There's also a free trial available if you want to check it first. Eds looks like the best choice to me as well, though I did not (yet) try any of those apps. Good thing about the TrueCrypt containers is, this way you can even safely store data in the cloud ;)

Most of these links are dead.  Are there new pages for these apps—were they renamed?  Only EDS and Encryption Manager still have pages at the given URLs.

@intuited you've noticed that answer is 6 years old? That's half an eternity technically :) May I suggest you check with my corresponding app listing? That's kept updated.

It might be helpful to update answers every half-eternity or so—otherwise they cease to be useful. That link to your app listing doesn't seem to work: it required a name and password.

@intuited please count the number of answers I've given here. Can't track them all. Core answers I update from time to time, but keeping track of all would be a full-time job. Apart from that: This is not app recommendations. So the apps linked are just examples. Even if the links die, the answer is still valid: There are apps for this, and their names look like that. // Included the link to my corresponding app listing, which (as I already wrote) is kept up-to-date.

There's LUKS Manager which is available in the Play Store. It also requires your device to be rooted, however.
It's also open source. I have not tried it myself however, so I can't comment on how well it works.
The closes you can get without a rooted device is probably full disk encryption.

Thanks, but I'm specifically need an app which works on unrooted devices.


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How do I backup data (SMS/contacts) from a device with a broken screen?
I just broke the screen of my (unrooted) Galaxy S.
How do I get back my SMS and contacts?
PS: I tried Kies but it won't detect my phone for some reason. (Kies works fine with another Galaxy I possess but not this one)

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/12834/broken-screen-cant-adb

A root method for contacts: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/215426/218526

All of the solutions above require USB Debugging to be on. If it is not and you are using Android 4.0 then you can press power and volume down buttons simultaneously to obtain screenshot. If USB is not connected it will be placed somewhere on the SD card (e.g. \Pictures\Screenshots). Then you can connect USB to see the screenshot, then disconnect, navigate further and so on till you navigate yourself to enabling USB Debugging.
When USB Debugging enabled it is all easy as pie.

Provided you have SDK installed you can use ddms.bat from tools folder to get screenshots fast and convenient, adjusting any options you need and even installing apps.
Classic way - adb
I've found Moborobo to be very convenient way to make full backup

I understand this is very late and hardly helps OP, but I hope it helps someone else lurking here for the way to save data, like me.

Screenshot idea is brilliant.

I am trying this in a Nexus 4 and even though the button combination takes the screen shot, nothing happens when I connect the USB cable afterwards.

Does your device has HDMI or TV out facility? If so, you can connect it to another display device (monitor/TV) and install applications to backup your stuffs.
Another solution you could try is to install an app called Remote phone access via adb and control your device through PC.  But the catch here would be that if have to configure the app for remote access, then you are in trouble as you cannot see what is happening as your screen is dead.

I think your idea just saved all the data on my hubby's htc phone with a dead screen. thanks for throwing it out there even if the galaxy s probably doesn't support that feature.

@JessicaBrown, I will be glad and rest like you might be benefited if you shed some more light on which procedure you adopted and how you did it (in brief).

Well, I'm still working on it, but in short I hooked the phone up to the TV with the HDMI output cable, enabled USB debugging by touching the black screen in the right places. Then I hooked the phone up to the computer and am using Android Screen Monitor to watch the screen, and side-loaded ShareKM to use the keyboard/mouse on the computer (laggy, but at least accurate), so I can install the appropriate apps to backup all the important data on the phone

+1 The "Connect it to another display device" idea is awesome , just saved me thanks

I confirm, this worked for me wonders : https://github.com/adakoda/android-screen-monitor/blob/master/README.md

These are located in
/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

and
/data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts.db

Edit: I couldn't get adb pull working (requires root, can't remember how to call adb pull with root) but I just opened adb shell and used cp as root to copy it to /sdcard.
Edit2: I found this thread and it looks like your directories might be different.

You can use adb root to gain root access. However, this only works with rooted phones and emulator images.

damn! my phone isn't rooted :/
Any other option?
Can i use adb to open up contacts and fire an intent to Export my contacts to SD card?

adb has no bearing or relation to controlling the GUI aspects of Android what-so-ever.

what version of Android does your Galaxy S run on? You can dissect most exploit kits to run their parts manually via adb and also get root. When you get that you could use android screencast as a remote vnc like solution to install Titanium Backup. Last resort : install a CWM recovery via heimdall and do a full backup. TiBackup can extract data from that

I've been successful at exporting my contacts to SDcard with the help of 'adb shell input keyevents xx'.
The first thing I'm going to do, after that fscking screen is repaired, is to root it and install android screencast. :)

I had the same problem with my S3 (broken screen, locked phone, Kies doesn't let me access it, etc).
Solution: Get another working S3 from a friend, take off the backs of both phones, take off some screws, take the motherboard out, put your motherboard in the phone, turn it on, back up, done).
Your data is saved on the motherboard, so you can just put it in another phone and back up from there.
Just go to youtube and type Galaxy S3 board swap. It's easy and works.

"Get another working S3 from a friend [but make sure they don't know that you are going to rip it apart ]"

Have you not thought of considering using DroidExplorer as the alternative to using Kies instead? It might help you pull in the contacts?
Using Kies can be quite obnoxious and not exactly on-the-ball...

DroidExplorer is
"A tool to manage your rooted android device with the simplicity of Windows Explorer."
I don't have root access and I am on Linux (Debian sid amd64)

Install mono and run it!!

I didn't know the Mono port is already that far? On his website, Ryan still states he's looking for help with that. Are you using DroidExplorer on Linux via Mono, @t0mm13b ?

@Izzy yes, very occasionally, it works... you'd be surprised how under-rated Mono is on Linux - provided there is no iffy Win32API used, you can actually run Win32 dotnet exe's under mono! :)

OK, so I will see to give it a try as soon as time permits -- thanks for the feedback, @t0mm13b !

I had the same problem trying to get contacts off my Galaxy S3 with a broken screen. The solution was a program called "My Phone Explorer" from http://www.fjsoft.at/en/ It's free. You DON'T have to be rooted, modded, or anything to use it. I had tried everything I could find on the web, plus the people at my Verizon store, but couldn't find a solution that worked for retrieving contacts AND SMS messages from a phone with a broken screen.

Hummm... I saw this identical answer posted on the other question Are you affiliated with this app?

I tried this, but connection didn't work. If you don't already have USB debugging on and the screen doesn't respond to touch, you're effed

Useless. Requires ADB turned on.

I suggest using MyPhoneExplorer and its desktop companion:
In my case, debugging was not enabled on the phone. MAKE SURE THE PHONE IS ON AND PLUGGED IN!!!
You have to make sure that the driver is installed and that there is not an exclamation mark next to the device in device manager:

right click My Computer
left click Properties
left click Device Manager

If there is an exclamation mark next to your phone:

go to Samsung's website and download the correct driver., there is one for sprint, Verizon, google, etc...
Install the driver by double-clicking the downloaded file.
go back to device manager and double click on the device
click on update the driver
click on browse my computer
click let me choose from a list of device drivers
click on adb interface
click on the newest android interface
click on whatever is necessary to keep the driver install going.
It will say complete.

Get MyPhoneExplorer from the Playstore and install it (it's well worth a donation if you can afford it, if not it is free). On your PC, download and install the app's desktop companion.
From this app, read the help file and sync!!! It's very easy to use.

Remark: This solution requires a Windows computer (to my knowledge, there are no versions of the desktop companion for other OSses). Should be fine for the OP, as using Kies implies a Windows machine :)

I don't get down-votes for this. This app with its companion is great (I have been using it for years) and it was exactly what helped me save my SMS messages while my phone was locked and not accepting Unlock Pattern. One thing thou, to run the app you should do "adb shell am start -n com.fjsoft.myphoneexplorer.client/com.fjsoft.myphoneexplorer.client.MainActivity". Then you can connect to the client from PC and backup your SMS messages.

Moborobo and Mobogenie both do great job of backup/update apps etc. (Windows)
Do not worry about downloading drivers etc. Both do the needful. Both are free.
http://moborobo.com/
http://www.mobogenie.com/
FYI I use Moborobo.

Can you install it and backup without having to interact with the Android device's screen?


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Installing ICS or JellyBeans on Sony Xperia U

Possible Duplicate:
Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?
When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?

I'm considering getting an Android mobile phone and Sony Xperia U fits my needs.
However, it comes with Sony TimeScape UI (which I don't like) and an old Android version.
Is it possible to install Android 4.0+ on Sony Xperia U? If yes, would you please tell me how?
I'm new to Android world and know nothing :)

Have you looked at http://android.stackexchange.com/q/24575/267 or http://android.stackexchange.com/q/14766/267 to see if there's an official version or if anyone has built a custom ROM?

Even of Sony is going to release an Update to ICS or JB, it will be packed with Timescape UI which I don't want to use. I'm looking to install plain Vanilla Android 4.0> on Xperia U


text:
Can I use Android's Holo theme on versions earlier than Ice Cream Sandwich?
I have recently used Ice Cream Sandwich and I really like the Holo theme. I would like to be able to use this theme for lower Android API versions (Gingerbread, Froyo, Eclair, etc). Is there a way to port this theme to older versions of Android, or any other way that I could use it?

You're looking for a theming engine for this to make it look like ICS ?

yes, did you know one?

a lot of apps on my Gingerbread devices use the holo theme, so I'd answer this with a clear "Yes". But if your question is about how to integrate it with an app you develop, I'd suggest you flag your question to be migrated to stackoverflow (as development questions are off-topic here).

There are Holo themes available for the T-Mobile/CyanogenMod Theme Chooser. If you have the theme chooser you just download a Holo theme from the market select it.
You can find out more about CyanogenMod (has the theme chooser built in) here.


text:
Install WhatsApp on Android running under Virtualbox
I've just installed Android using Virtualbox on Ubuntu, and now I want to install WhatsApp on it.
When I visit Google Play and try to install WhatsApp, it tells me that I have to associate a device via my Gmail account. When I'm connected, it's saying that I have to choose another device (because I've already installed it on my Nexus) but it doesn't list me the Virtualbox install as an option.
What's causing this problem?

Doesn't whatsapp need a SIM card?

yes of course ! But i've created it on the installation of the Android OS

It sounds like you don't have the Google Play app (or Google's services framework) on your VirtualBox install. You cannot download apps directly from the website, you must have the Android app installed if you want to get the Whatsapp from Google Play.

Have you tried getting the apk from another source?

as of 2019 this is easy. One can install WhatsApp via Playstore in Android/LineageOS (https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/releases) in VirtualBox. When Starting WhatsApp first time it asks for the phone number, which can be another phone. The sms will be sent there and you can type the code into the VM

I was able to install Android on Virtualbox normally but never got Whatsapp working on it, always errors and complications (Tablets are not supported, etc...). Finally I found the only solution that worked for me on a spanish website. NO SIM-card needed! Also beginners will understand!
Here's the way I did it:

Download Virtualbox for your system, install it...
Download Android with Whatsapp included Android_4.1.1_WhatsApp.ova.
This is a fully working Android version with Whatsapp already installed
If downloaded, open Virtualbox and

Select "File"-Menu
"Import Appliance..."
"Open appliance"
locate the downloaded "Android_4.1.1_WhatsApp.ova", select it and press "Open"
"Continue"
"Import"

Now you should have a Virtual Machine in vbox named "androVM_vbox86t_4.1.1_r4-20121002-gapps".
Select it and press "Start". A window with running Android will pop up, let it load, unlock it (if cursor doesn't work, disable in "Machine"-Menu the "Mouse Integration")
Your Android version will be in spanish language. With translate.google.com you will be able to select your own language in the settings menu in Android.
Whatsapp is already installed, just run it and type a number you can be called with... Follow the steps and there you go.
Hope I could help you, I'm German, apologize for bad english ;)

A user suggested trying "http://uploadingit.com/file/view/xsqwzsfvfzaab0p0/Android_4.1.1_WhatsApp.ova" as a new download link since the current one doesn't work, use at your own risk though!

Where does the ova file originate from and how to be sure that this is not malware/has malware included?

WhatsApp requires a SIM-Card as stated in a comment already. I know from various xda-developers discussions, that it's easier to do a backup from whatsapp on your phone with titanium backup, and then restore it inside your VM. Beware: the message database is local and messages are not synced across identical accounts.

as of 2019 that is not true anymore. One can install WhatsApp via Playstore in Android/LineageOS (https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/releases) in VirtualBox. When Starting WhatsApp first time it asks for the phone number, which can be another phone. The sms will be sent there and you can type the code into the VM

Download & Install Virtualbox.
Download & Install Android version.
Download whatsapp application in your host machine.
Copy Whatsapp Application to your pen drive.
Attach Pen drive to your virtual machine.
Go-to File Manager.

There you can find your pen drive. Access Your Pen drive and install whatsapp or any application you copy in your pen drive.

Could you mention the links for the said applications?


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Root Gone but still works for many Apps
I Have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus which was rooted. I used an OTA Rootkeeper to keep the root after I upgraded to 4.0.4 which worked great, I was able to use root well after the OTA update. But recently the root has stopped working however the apps that I had saved permission before the mysterious removal of root still work. So I can use Sixaxis, Wifi Tether, File Explorer with root permissions, etc. They all work great however any new app I download is unable to get root access. I first noticed it trying to flash a rom.
When I go into SU app says I have a outdated binary and when I try to update it (from 3.0.3) it fails to gain root access.
Any ideas why I've lost root access and how I can get it back short of going back through the entire root process?

What exactly do you mean when you say "root has stopped working"?  Are there any error messages?

No error messages. As I said in the post I had root on my phone that worked fine but recently something has changed which has caused it to break i.e. new apps I can install can't gain root access. But apps that previously had root permission still work.

Looks like problem with su program rather than root.

Having "root" just means you have a working su binary installed (the "su" application is generally just a management front-end for the linux-level binary installed in /system/bin or /system/xbin).  So, something has gone wrong with the binary, or the way its installed, or its permissions, or its location, or ...
I suspect the apps that still work must have chown'd themselves once at setup time?  So they only need su to work once, and after that they're good to go.
If you can connect an adb shell or run an Android Terminal (that was just the first play store search hit, I'm not endorsing that specific terminal), type "su" and see if you get a meaningful error.  You can use adb to copy a new su binary over, or just re-"root" the device.  See the FAQ questions here: http://androidsu.com/superuser/faq/


text:
Is the Google branded Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ the same as GT-I9250?
I purchased the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ directly from Google Play. I'm looking to buy a Proclip holder that's specific to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GT-I9250) http://www.proclipusa.com/brodit-device-holder/samsung-galaxy-nexus-(gt-i9250)/holder-with-tilt-swivel-511324-18854.aspx
Is the Google sold device the same form factor?

Yes, the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus phone from Google Play Store is the i9250 model.  That clip should fit it just fine.


text:
Call Log or now called Recent Calls
Where did the ability to sort and see your calls either by missed calls (those that you did not answer), received calls (those that you answered) and Dialed calls (those that you dialed.) There is no menu selection to choose like in previous versions of Google's Android System.

Open the phone app and open the Call History tab. (Icon is a clock.)
If you're using Google Voice tap the word "Inbox" at the top of the screen and it will pull down a menu of the different boxes for GV (e.g., Text, Missed, Received, etc.)

I think he means filtering this list by the criteria he mentions, i.e. three separate lists...

Doesn't exist. Might be an app that does that.


text:
Can apps be controlled through adb?
Can an installed application be completely controlled via adb?
For example:
Consider I need to to export my Contacts to SD Card. So here there are basically 5 Steps involved
1)Open Contacts application
2)Press Menu Key
3)Select Import/Export option
4)Select Export to SD card
5)Confirm Export
Can any/all of them be performed via adb?
This can be useful when you have an unrooted phone with a bricked display and all access you have is via adb.

Why didn't you have all your contacts sync through Gmail or Hotmail?

I prefer not giving up my contacts to google or any 3rd party for that matter.
I tried Kies but it won't detect my Galaxy S (The bricked phone)  while it works perfectly fine for Galaxy Mini.

Why not go back to your carrier's shop and get them to do it for you - they'd have the means to do this kind of thing for customers who are clumsy?

you can generate key events  with adb. technically it should be possible to launch a thoroughly crafted series of key events to an app.

Thanks a lot ce4. It worked!
Exported my contacts to SD card.

Yes and no. You can issue intents with adb but that's it. So the steps you described can't be achieved with adb.
Edit: ce4 showed a blog post which mentions the input binary which is able to simulate key events.
adb shell input keyevent <keycode>


text:
Has the copy/paste functionality been removed in the RAZR Maxx's Ice Cream Sandwich update?
Now that I have upgraded my Motorola Rzar Maxx to Ice Cream Sandwich the ability to do a copy and paste from Evernote and Office Suite are no longer available. Instead I have to cut rather than copy, then paste it back in the app and then go to the app you want to past in to paste it. Further there is no longer a menu item to select all text either. Has this functionality been removed by the update?

Please review the [FAQ]. This site works best for questions that are actual questions for an Android issue that have clear and concrete solutions. Rants disguised as questions are specifically called out as "bad questions".

ICS and Evernote both support "copy" functionality. Highlight the text you want and then press the icon that looks like two overlapping pieces of paper (circled in red):

If this is missing then you may wan to provide a screenshot of what you see. Although it's possible Motorola removed the "copy" functionality from the system, I would find it somewhat unlikely (and this forum post seems to indicate it does exist). Also, the grid icon on the far left (circled in blue) is "select all".

Also, if you long press any of these icons a toast notification will show it's functionality.


text:
How do I make older images in my /sdcard/DCIM folder show up in Gallery?
I've tried a few builds of Android Jelly Bean coming from Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and one common thing that happens is that Gallery will only show pictures taken after the ROM installation. The images themselves are still in the /sdcard/DCIM folder, but they are just not showing up in Gallery.
My phone is a Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Found the problem via http://rootzwiki.com/topic/29214-still-havent-found-a-fix/#entry788587 . I put a .nomedia file in my /sdcard/DCIM/Camera folder and my gallery became populated with images from other folders in the file system. Removing the .nomedia file eventually causes Media to spin up again but it crashes and tries to restart itself. I wonder if Jelly Bean's Media scanner has a problem with too many files or something

the .nomedia is an indicator to the scanner to omit that directory from the index completely (e.g. for a game's media data so that icons, etc. don't appear in the gallery)

correct. by putting the .nomedia file in the /sdcard/DCIM/Camera folder, I was able to isolate that something in that folder was causing the media scanner to crash

The worst thing is that this was not a problem in Ice Cream Sandwich. I always saw my old pictures after doing full wipes and installation of different ROMs. QuickPic does not choke on the things that cause MediaScannerService to restart. I wonder what they changed in Jelly Bean's MediaScannerService

This behaviour is not uncommon, sadly.
I use SDrescan to fix it usually.
Here are some other questions targeting the same underlying problem:
The music player keeps displaying deleted songs. How do I remove them or refresh the library?
Picture Gallery Slow & Won't Refresh on HTC G2 w Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Unfortunately, this isn't the problem. Turns out it has to do with Media Scanner constantly crashing

Can you spot where it crashes? (Maybe use CatLog to view logs) instantly after issuing a rescan. Maybe it's just a single bad file that causes this

Unless I'm doing it wrong, it doesn't look like catlog is catching anything when I enable folders that cause MediaScannerService to restart

Maybe use the bisection method to find the faulty pic? E.g, 128 pics requires 7 steps to isolate a single pic.

This trick didn't work for me. So, I did what the system should have done with the .nomedia file present. I moved all of my photos to a hidden folder (with a . before the name) and removed the DCIM folder. Then, I looked for all instances of the .nomedia file (Root Explorer helped) and deleted them. Rebooted the phone. Started Gallery. Waited for 10 minutes. Voila! Gallery showed every little image file that was on /sdcard. To remove the files that I didn't want to see, I copied the .nomedia file from a random system folder and pasted it into all the folders that I didn't want indexed. Strangely though, moving even one of the original /sdcard/DCIM/Camera files from the hidden folder into the current Camera folder took Gallery down. Stranger that this also made the Internal Storage show a blank window when I connected the phone to my laptop. Almost positive that this has to do with JellyBean creating a /storage/sdcard0 folder that's linked to the older /sdcard folder. Looking it up and will post updates if I find any.
Update: The same trick works for Paranoid Android's JellyBean ROMs (even the latest 2.13) for the Galaxy Nexus. Something to do with the DCIM folder and how it is handled by Media Storage. A Linux-geek friend of mine confirms this has to do with the /sdcard0 symlinking. Although, why we need something like that is beyond my limited knowledge of the OS.

Thanks for looking into this more. I've since ignored the problem but was still hoping someone could find what the problem with Jelly Bean was. I'll await your updated response

I had the same issue. I created a new folder and moved a file that end with a non media format, in my case a .bin file I downloaded and then I unmounted my sd card and then remount it and then used the app rescan to kick media scan opend gallery and it was all there. I did all that you did and then some. Did not even reboot. Just create a new folder at the root of my external sd card  named dloads and look for anything that could be consider a system file like .bin .ini .nomedia and so on, only file was my router system setting back up I did gatewaysetting.bin and moved it. Left all other like PDF files, mp3, picture, gifs and so on.

I also found this issue for 2 days.
I usually like to have both QuickPic and gallery.
As I like Gallery Slide show. For other features i prefer QuickPic.
But for Last 2 two days it stuck at less num pictures. So i tried clear cache/data of app and media scanner. that b'com even worser. i end up with no image shown.
I fixed the problem by renaming the DCIM folder to something else, say DCIMM. Then I started Gallery and all the images showed up. After that, I could rename the folder back to DCIM and everything was fine.

Please do not provide link only answers. You can reference your blog post but the solution should be found in your answer here.


text:
How do, or can you hide account contacts on the Galaxy S III?
Okay, so I just upgraded from the Galaxy S Captivate to a shiny new Galaxy S III.
In both the stock TouchWiz ROM and the AOKP ROM I later ran, on my Captivate, i could set specific accounts to not show their contacts in my address book. Specifically, while I want to sync my Facebook contacts to get photos for people, I don't want all my Facebook contacts showing up in my phone address book.
Poke around as I might though, I cannot find any way to hide a specific account from the address book on the Galaxy S III. Is there any way to do this?
I should note, I am running the AT&T version.

Generally that stuff is under Settings | Accounts & Sync.

Well, the accounts are all listed there, but there's nothing about showing/hiding them in the address book. On my stock Captivate there was a setting directly in Samsung's contacts/address book app. But I see no such settings in their new on on the S III.

Hmm, backed it up and tried flashing in the stock ICS contacts app, and it would't run.  :(

I just encountered this same problem on a new Galaxy SIII with Verizon. I'm using stock Android 4.1.2 and found the answer to be simple. Just open the Contacts app, then click the phone's Menu button, then choose the "Contacts to Display" menu, the select the gear icon to the right of "Customized list", then choose the respective contacts account, then uncheck (or check) the email contact groups that you wish to hide, press "Done" in the upper right when finished. That should have activate the "Customized list", but you can return to that menu to confirm.
That's it! simple and no need to install custom ROM.

Same issue here, That particular option was in CYM7.5 on my Dell streak. was a nice addition IMO.
Only thing I can suggest, unless there's some sort of third party app for it, is to install a custom rom such as CYM or any other AOSP ROM, I doubt any of the Customized samsung rom's will give you this.
You will lose all the official Samsung junk with an AOSP rom, but at least it'll be stock ICS rather than the crappy samsung replacement apps.
(I like some of the samsung mods such as palm swipe to screen grab, but the SMS app and Contacts app suck)

Annoying thing is even Samsung had this in their old TouchWIZ, but took it out!  :-?  The built in Camera app is pretty nice too... that's really the biggest thing keeping me from jumping to an AOSP ROM; though I might once AOKP gets their JB ROM out.

Go to contacts and open context menu. You can hide contacts without phone number in settings or you can select which account to show.


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Skype randomly crashes on Android 2.1update1
After upgrading to Skype 2.8.0.920... it randomly crashes (I mean just Skype... I just suddenly hear that Skype is logging out..randomly, AFAIK it crashes..)... BUT WHY?? I can revert to an older version of Skype... My phone is a LG GT540..

Have you tried clearing the app data? Force stopping the app? Restarting the phone?

I installed a Skype 2.6.0.95 apk (which is an earlier version) and it works now.

There is no way to know for sure unless you view logcat. Use adb which comes with Android SDK and execute the command logcat.
I usually do the following steps to find out what causes an application to crash:

Enable USB debugging (Settings -> Developer Options -> USB debugging)
Plug in USB cable to your phone and connect it to your machine.
Run adb logcat
Run the application and try to make it crash while viewing the logcat.


text:
Can I see what apps I own that have been pulled from the market by developers?
Last year I purchased the app grüvtron by Sound Trends LLC. Presumably they later removed the app from the google play store / market. Their website used to have a "buy android version" but now only mentions ios.
The app can no longer be found by searching the market (neither on the device, nor on the web). I can no longer see it under "all apps" / "my apps" (again, neither on the device, nor on the web). The only reason I knew this app was "missing" was because I remembered owning it.
Using google I could find an old market link in a forum to
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soundtrends.gruvtron
This link normally gives "We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server".
However, if I happen to be logged in to my google account that owns the app, I get a market page for the app (!) from which I can chose to install it! Doing so, it indeed gets sent to my device and 'everything works' (though, the app graphics are broken -- but I don't think that is relevant here.)
This is worrying. Obviously I have no idea how many of the ~100s of apps I own that have silently disappeared from "my apps", and thus are left out when I browse that list for things to re-install. And even if I remembered a specific app, how would I find the corresponding market link so that I could re-install it?
So my primary question is:
Is there a list anywhere on the web or on the android device that lists all apps I own -- including the ones pulled from the market? and preferably with market links?
I have the google market receipts, but those are a pain to go through (it is not really a "list") Worse, in there I only see a company name and textual app name, i.e., no market link. If there had been any reference to the app id (e.g., here, 'com.soundtrends.gruvtron') I could at least have re-constructed the market url.

Edit: a few clarifications follows:

A satisfactory answer must describe a way to get a list of apps which includes those I have purchased, but which after the date of purchase have been pulled from the market by developers. The list should include either market URLs or package-names.
The single one of my purchased apps where I know this has happened (grüvtron) does not appear under my "my apps" list (Menu > My Apps in market app), and I assume this is intentional design for apps that have been pulled (though I find it an odd design choice).
I am currently on ICS, with market 3.7.13. The device is the ASUS transformer TF101 tablet.

Yeah I know exactly why you're asking. I had a malware app get removed only today and there may be more, but there's no easy way to track this. Good job, dude.

Related: How to get notified about removed apps from play store?

The application listed above, "AppBak," gets its data from the android package manager class; if you've got root access, you can see the source (/data/dev/packages.list) which is a simple text file that lists only currently installed apks, but there's also an XML file in the same subdirectory, of the same name, which is considerably larger:  packages.xml, and where it seems even uninstalled packages tend to remain. I found proof of my former bloatware freezer application in there once, and while it didn't do me a world of good, at least I had a resource I could check to see what went disappearing in the night.
The question I can't answer is if the Market can now wipe that data from packages.xml. But I'd point out that the PackageManager documentation has a Get_Uninstalled_Packages constant on that page, so I'd guess not.

packages.list and packages.xml are under /data/system/.

Looking at the f-droid's repository, this app, 'AppBak' will generate the list of apps installed on your handset into a simple flat text file on your SD-Card.
The crucial thing to remember, is the 'package-name' is the most important part of it, and is at the developer's choosing and discretion.
For example, an app called 'FooBar', that appears in the application drawer, the package name would be 'com.foo.bar.app', from there it is quite easy to reconstruct a market link from that as in:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foo.bar.app

Seems to be a useful tool, thanks! But this will only give you the package-name of apps installed on the device, right? The main issue here is to find package-names of apps I previously purchased, but do not currently have installed (and cannot install, since they are invisible.)

It lists the apps installed on the device - yes

It should show up on the play store app on your handset, tap Menu > My Apps, not on the web based on PC that is, unless I have misunderstood you? FWIW, my Play Store version is 3.7.13

Not for apps that have been pulled from the market, I think. I guess it could be a specific problem with the app I mention in the question, since I don't know another one I both own and that has been pulled. I'm also on 3.7.13. Can you confirm seeing any app in your "My apps" that has been pulled from market?

Based on above mentioned information, you could built yourself a script which checks the URLs (without you being logged in). For "disappeared" apps, an "Error 404" (page not found) should be returned.

Izzy, your suggestion assumes I already have a list of all apps I own (i.e., both those still on the market and those pulled). But the only list I can produce from google / android is a list over apps that excludes those that have been pulled.


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Instagram notifications on my PHONE
I'm wondering how I can get the notifications to pop up on my phone, in the top bar. I've gone through all the settings and enabled all notifications but they do not notify me. With my twitter app, when someone mentions me in a tweet I get a notification on my phone in the top bar as well as in the actual app.
The notifications on Instagram only notify me of new comments/likes IN the app, not on my phone.
Help?


text:
How to have a long Standby and Battery -life?

Possible Duplicate:
What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

My Huawei Android is dead after one day. I am looking for

ways to extend the battery life
a new Android -phone with long battery-life (3. hopefully a phone with two Sim -cards)

I don't know what I really need. For 1, the Wifi/3D-all-the-time-on eats battery -- but hey I like to read my emails on phone. For 2, I could buy more bulky phone. For 3, something here (not sure about the quality). Look I currently use my non-3G iPad with long battery -life, I could buy the 3G version to alleviate the battery problem. I also use Nokia 9300 or Nokia 1111 with 1 week battery life.
With Wifi/3G -problem, is it possible to have them in some energy -saving mode. 1 day battery in Android phones is totally ridiculous. How can I get long battery life?

Your second question is off-topic; shopping recommendations are not on-topic here. (Please read the [FAQ].) As for your first question, there are multiple questions here that cover eking more life out of a battery. I hate to tell you that a smartphone that lasts an entire day without needing recharging is doing well. Two days is pretty much unheard of.

Regarding this two parts of your question:

...ways to extend the battery life...
...With Wifi/3G -problem, is it possible to have them in some energy -saving mode...

I own a Huawei U8510-1 (Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread) and I also had to deal with that battery issue. When I've bought it, my battery lasted a day, forcing me to recharge it every night.
After some tests, by disabling and enabling stuff, I was able to give it a slight increase, specially when I've disabled the 3G, leaving only the WiFi.
, but couldn't get it to pass two days without a recharge.
The best solution I've found till the present day was this APP:

Easy Battery Saver free

Save power, extend battery life and perfect experience of using phone with Easy Battery Saver!

It works and really makes a difference. I'm able to control every small detail regarding what my phone should or shouldn't be doing, down to what apps can use 3G or WiFi. Now I charge my phone one, max two times a week, depending on the usage. :)


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Able to play only few mp4 files in Samsung Galaxy Y?
Why is it that I am able to play only a few .mp4 files in my New Samsung Galaxy Y Mobile but not he rest. What should I do to make even the other .mp4 files to play?
What should I do to make .mkv, .avi and other video formats to play?

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/10316/what-is-the-recommended-video-format-codec-and-container-to-play-on-android-devi?rq=1 and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/11498/video-player-to-play-all-files?rq=1

This seems like two very distinct questions - please consider separating them. You also may want to look at this previous question: Play High-Resolution mp4 Videos on Galaxy Y

Deriving from the link given in Comments:
Answer by Richard

You are not able to play the high resolution videos in your mobile.
  Your device should be able to handle videos up to 640*360, this is the
  resolution of HQ YouTube.
Note that there's absolutely no point in watching HD videos on your
  phone. It has a screen resolution of 240 x 320. Anything above this
  will be scaled down to fit the screen.

Comment by ce4

In General, HD videos need to be decoded by a specialized companion
  chip (h264 decoder) because the CPU is not powerful enough. For price
  reasons, only a subset of h264's Features may be supported leaving you
  without HD support

From the footer:  "user contributions licensed under cc-wiki with attribution required"

Try MX Player from Google Play.
It can play almost all the video formats in my Samsung Galaxy Y Duos. Review

Just install MX Player on your Android phone. Then, you can play any video format on your Samsung Galaxy Y Duos.


text:
Can I set my HTC Desire into sync-mode without using touch screen
The screen of my HTC Desire just broke (It's not shattered, but it's completely black).
I have no reason to believe anything else is broken (When I start it up, I hear the short tune that plays when the logo is normally displayed). Now, I'd really like not to lose any data, so I'd like to sync it to a PC using USB; however, I've set the default mode to tethering.
Is there any way for me to set the phone to sync-mode or any other way for me to recover my data?
I know that I can extract the memory card and use a card reader for that data. This question is specifically about the data that doesn't reside on the extractable memory card.

If the device itself works as you suggest you might be able to access the recovery mode, enable USB and then download the files you need. However this will not be a USB sync access, instead it can be a fastboot or ADB access.
To do so take your Desire which have to powered off and press and hold Volume Down. Now start it up by pressing Power.
In the recovery mode you are able to enable USB access via ADB. As the recovery mode uses only Volume Down, Volume Up and Power it can be controlled even without seeing anything.
You only have to know which keys have to be pressed in which order. This is of course the complicated part. I don't have an unrooted device with the original recovery here for giving you the orders which keys to press. May be you find an Youtube video showing it or a very detailed manual.

This is very helpful information. I'll see what I can work out and report back with the result.


text:
Unbricking HTC Desire HD - really need some help here!
Been given a Desire HD that seems to have had a bad Radio Flash
I have spent perhaps 50 hours on this problem as follows:
Screen is always black whatever I do (unless /sbin/recovery - see below)
Power on: 3 Vibrates and Orange light (flashing) and in Windows Devices shows: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM
Power on + Volume up: same as above
Power on + Volume Down: 5 vibrates and Green light and in Windows Devices shows: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM
Connect device power lead and don't turn on:
One Vibrate
Shows in Device Manager as Android USD Devices -> "My HTC" (installed OK)
Also shows an "HTC DIAG" device with question mark (can install this with software from the web)
F: drive comes up but cannot be accessed
can be seen in ADB devices as:
HTCxxxxxxxxxxxxx RECOVERY
fastboot devices
NO fastboot... (not seen whatever I do)
adb shell
At this stage I cannot adb shell into the device as the "sh" is missing, so I adb push /system/bin and/system/lib over to the Desire HD (from another Droid) and can then adb shell to a root ('#') prompt.
I seem to be in a ramdisk, with no changes saved across reboots (not persistent)  - but I do have write access to /dev/block/mmcblk0 partitions!!
NO SDcard mounted
The sd card is not mounted and seems not be recognized due to the faulty (radio?) flash.androidboot.cid is totally corrupt (crappy strange characters)
if the kernel boots why doesn't the screen come up???
Also:
dmesg
msmfb_probe() installing 480 x 800 panel
mdp_lcdc_probe: initialized (probably probing for the display???)
...some stuff....
err: Device config mismatch
is this where the screen fails?
also
#reboot
Issuing reboot from adb root shell # and the phone vibrates continuously and green led flashes!!
My only hope of recovery it seems is:
1) Reflash all mmcblk partitions with stock from adb (but I don't have the images).
2) Somehow rebuild the bootloader so I can get some life on a reboot/power on.
3) Flash a radio.img via adb (I don't have any fastboot access). And perhaps this will 'repair'the device.
4) Make PD98IMG.ZIP (or whatever) persistent in storage to allow me to access it on an /sbin/recovery reboot (somehow get it into /data which at the moment isn't persistent across reboots).
5)  "fastboot oem enableqxdm 0" somehow from adb (I don't have fastboot) so that an /sbin/recovery can retrieve the PD98IMG.ZIP from the sdcard and reinstall stock.
Any help appreciated. I really believe it can be done!

update, can mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p26 as /data after formatting as ext2.. so now have persistency across reboots!

Now pushed PD98.img to /data and /sbin/recovery --update_package=DATA:PD98.img and this kinda works! Fails with E:signature verification failed

Chat? PS: have you tried some of the patched hboot bootloaders? They should come with fastboot enabled. (I have only some experience with the original Desire here)

I have tried to write some bootloaders directly to the emmc, mmcblock... but although it writes OK, I still boot to stock recovery 3e and even then can't seem to boot into a signed zip... am I even doing things correctly? Do you know where I should write hboot to? I believe my faulty radio is causing the boot issues! Sorry I mean PD98IMG.zip earlier....!

XDA has more info on how to get a engineering hboot onto the HD (see also here). You will probably need to do all the scripts by hand on your own (as there's no gui/reboot/etc. method to do it)

PS: the PD98IMG.zip only works if you are S-OFF already. Else you need to insmod a special kernel module and do it that way (see comment above).

thanks, will look at this, although it may require fastboot, which I don't have, I wonder if it is possible to get a shell version of clockwork I can run from the root shell? similar to what I'm doing at the moment with /sbin/recovery!

according to gfree_verify I am s-off!

http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/4046/discussion-between-nfcpro-and-ce4

To add, after a little thought I think the lack of a cache directory may have been my problem all along. I formatted this ext2 and this may have solved the problem. Therefore a damaged cache directory might have been the root cause of this problem.
after formatting the cache and running /sbin/recovery it went straight into Clockwork (it was a big surprise) .. I went to HBOOT and RUU'ed a new ROM immediately (unfortunately in my excitement and due to a mislabel by the uploader) it turned out to be a Telus one... which is giving me problems.. but heck.. simple ones.
The moral here is don't give up. Nearly everybody said this was a bricked phone. But, I think, if you have HBOOT/fastboot or (most probably need rooted) ADB access you can do many things to get things going - I learned a lot ))))

And many thanks for your help C. It was much appreciated!


text:
Samsung Galaxy Ace - HID Bluetooth Keyboard Connection?
I'm a newly arrived escapee from the iPhone Empire - I just got a Galaxy Ace and it seems better in all respects except one very important one for me... I used to use my iPhone to write / take notes etc, using an I-connex Bluetooth keyboard.   But it looks like my Ace won't allow this keyboard to connect - it says it doesn't connect to HID devices.
I've tried two different apps to try and fix this - BlueKeyboard JP (which only works with certain keyboards, not including mine) and Bluetooth Keyboard Easyconnect (which I think requires my phone to be rooted - at any rate, it doesn't work).
I'd be very grateful for any suggestions how I can fix this, as it really makes the phone seriously less good than what I had before, given how I use it!   Failing that I'd be very grateful if anyone could advise me if there is any version of Android that DOES allow HID devices to connect - and what phones run it.

Your device does include bluetooth support, however not the HID profile (with the Android version it runs). I only see 3 options: a) Wait until Samsung launches a firmware update (not happening, alas). b) Install a mod (Howto, download here or search XDA). c) live without it??

You can get better solutions for your problem, if you mention the model number and android version, which your device is currently running.

Bluetooth was enabled early on in Android (1.5 or 1.6 iirc) So any limitation in that regards is from your specific device and not the platform itself.
I have successfully used HID bluetooth devices with: Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and HTC Evo 4g LTE, Toshiba Thrive, Acer Iconia A200.
I was unaware that there were any devices that disallowed HID device connections actually.
In general though Nexus [anything] devices are the least limited devices on the market at any given time, so I'd say you can't go wrong with one of those.

Bluetooth HID support was officially added to Android in Honeycomb 3.1. Any device that uses either this version or Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0 -> ) or Jelly Bean (future devices) supports Bluetooth keyboards out of the box.


text:
Motorola Triumph & HyperShell in Titanium Backup
It would seem that Titanium Backup, everyone's favorite root backup tool (right?), does not particularly like the Motorola Triumph—or vice versa. I've been having problems with restoring apps (only the Manual, APK installer method works) and integrating system updates (it just hangs, and then the app it hung on is broken until I restore it from a backup).
My TiBU (5.4.0.2) main screen says that I have root, BusyBox 1.20.2-Stericson from system, and HyperShell—but then turns around and says "Fast/Auto app install: NO (HyperShell needed)". Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
The BusyBox I have installed is the latest version, and I had the same problem when I was using the BusyBox 1.18.x build included in TiBU. I have also tested using both the stock and Umph v1.0 kernels.
Why is everything on the Triumph so bloody buggy? I never had these problems on my old LG Optimus V.

Interesting question - I have Titanium Backup that is failing to recognize my license key (yes I have a valid license and donated!) I am guessing its something to do with how the partitions are laid out. And each time, it refuses no matter how hard I try, the darn thing refuses to recognize it and treats it as a free version, as you say, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! :D

Could you try manually mounting /system as writable and see if integrating system updates works then?

"/system mounted as rw!" — Remount // "Processing… \n Please wait" — Titanium Backup (for a long time, until force stopped) :-/ (I'm off now to fix Play Store so it works again.)

I'd suggest contacting the developer with as much details as you've got. Joel is very cooperative. There are some very special issues with some ROMs and devices -- but he cannot solve them without either buying all the devices available (not a real option) or good help from those using them (you in this case). I'd bet, once you've sent him the details, a fix is available within a week.

Is Joel someone I can reach by emailing the general Titanium Track support address? I never seem to get an answer through that channel.


text:
Is there a way to force an app to remain running in the background no matter what?
On Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) the OS categorizes your app and each category has its own threshold in which the OS uses for determining which app to close first when it runs out of memory.
Has anyone of you been annoyed by, say you opened a timer to run in the background to measure the time elapsed of something, then you opened few more apps and got back to your timer just to see it was reset or closed? I mean, seriously, it is really excruciatingly annoying.
Is there a way to force an app to remain running in the background no matter what even when the OS runs out of memory?

That is a sign a bad code by the App. A user should never have to bother with this and Android provides means so that an App can save their state and restore it later on (since the early Android versions). You should send an bug report to the App developer.

The accepted answer turned out incorrect or outdated. The "App Settings" module for the Xposed app allows you to specify on a per app basis to keep apps from being killed or freed:
http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer
http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.mods.appsettings
Responsible care should of course be exercised when playing with apps changing such low level behaviour.

One should note, that this requires root and is the installation of a heavy Android OS modification.

Simple answer: No. Android always uses OOM (Out-Of-Memory) prioritizing to free unused memory. You can change the priorities of apps (at least until reboot) with some task managers but even then if the memory runs low, apps in the background start getting killed.
Think about this scenario: you've downloaded a badly coded app which runs on boot, causes a buffer overflow and hogs all your memory. Normally, this app is killed, but if it's set to stay open it effectively bricks your phone until reboot, and after that starts again, and again, etc.
Some timers use services with high priorities to avoid this problem, but if you launch enough high-performance, resource-hogging apps while the timer is in the background, it will eventually get killed.

Looks like that's it. I wonder if there's any exception to that rule, you know, system apps like phone, contacts, alarms, etc. I do hope google will provide an option in the future for users to "pin" any apps that the user has manually started. It doesn't have to be done on startup to prevent bricking the phone. Or perhaps they could at least let the system attempt to pin it for a while and if the system gets unresponsive, let the user close it.

If this ever happens, the least I'd expect is a new permission category for such apps. This would help people who value their battery life and system stability to avoid those apps. I would.

It doesn't need to be that way, IMO. Let the system do its old ways by default and in case the user intends one particular app to run in the background just at that particular moment when the need arises, just provide that option. It doesn't need to have another permission category since it is users' discretion to "pin" an app. I don't want an app to be permanently unstoppable once it runs. I just want an option to do this when there's a need just like what I have described in my question.

@onik a buffer overflow has nothing to do with hogging memory.  Do you know what a buffer overflow is?

@dcow Yes, I'm familiar with buffer overflows. Since Android has dynamical memory allocation to it's sandboxes, a buffer overflow can go past the current memory boundaries and cause the sandbox to grow. Of course, due to Java's memory handling this was maybe a niche example, a better one would be an infinite loop in a LinkedList, which is not restricted to Integer.MAX_VALUE by it's structure and can be dynamically grown.

@onik so the answer is no, you don't know what a buffer overflow is.  Got it.

@onik here's a link btw: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow

@onik also an infinite loop in a linked list could certainly run you into an OOM long before you've looped Integer.MAX_VALUE times.  Why do you think things are limited by Integer.MAX_VALUE anyway?

@dcow so are you saying a buffer overflow can't expand the dynamically allocated memory size, or that it's not the usual presentation? And the limit came from the internal structure of arrays and Vectors, which I happened to think of first in this case. Oh, and thanks for the link, I had never heard of Wikipedia! ;)

@onik correct: by definition, a buffer overflow cannot expand the allocated memory size. If it expands the allocated memory size, it is not a buffer overflow. You're thinking of an infinite loop, I think.

No. However, two methods to alleviate the problem come to mind but both of them can only be implemented by the developer: The first one is to display a notification, Android will give apps that do this a higher priority than others. The second one is to save the start time so when the timer gets eventually restarted, it won't be reset.

Running Apps without reason with Foreground priority (that's why the notification is needed) is considered bad practice. As is said before: Android provides a nice Api that even allows timers/counters that aren't affected by the OOM killer. There is a nice post by Dianne Hackborn about this topic

I don't doubt that there is such an API, but where in this question has this been mentioned before?

Also, there is obviously a reason to keep the app running if at all possible in this case, unlike the game example you posted.

No there is no reason to keep an App running just because of a timer. Just use onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState to safe the App state, including the timer information. No need to run in Foreground. Even if it's a alarm you could use AlarmManager to make sure that it's executed later. The only reason where Foreground should be used is: 1. You have some actual foreground activity going on, like playing music or showing a video. 2. You want to keep a data connection open (e.g. IMAP IDLE (push)).

1st method :--If you make Sticky Thread in the program , yes you can forcefully keep your program on the run. However remember the user at advanced setting mode can stop background running apps.
However if you write a the sticky thread in a manner that it starts at any give event occured then this can be achieved.
2nd method : IF the user is non rooted android and u want to run an app on th background .
use SL4 script in the background form the app.
use a script that will do you background checks and programs and write the front end to show something else.
Eg: In most game engines this is in built. They connect to server s even though the user turned off the app. The reason the engine create multiple scripts in the phone which is randaomly checked at any particular events and that TRIGGER is used to run your app continously on th background of foreground.
***Sorry for the TYPO's .. spellchecker not available. Hope u achieve what u intended to get.

Welcome to Android Enthusiast, a Q&A site for Android end-users. As far as I can understand, the 2 methods you provided can only be done from the developer-side, i.e. those who have the source code of the app. Unfortunately, that might not be helpful for most of readers here because they are not developing an app. If this might be applicable for non-developer, consider [edit]ing the answer to make it clear on how to do these without touching the app's source code. Thanks.

There is sometimes an option to lock the app. This prevents killing or stopping of that application in the phone.
Lock option is not available in the OS itself, using some 3rd party apps like GO Task Manager, etc, can help.

OOM killing is done by the kernel and no app can prevent it or "lock" a process. The app you have linked to is a task killer that kills apps itself. The locking feature you are referring to will only prevent killing by the task killer.