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How can I ignore an incoming bluetooth connection/pairing request? Major Android Flaw
I accidentally tried to pair with a mystery bluetooth device from somewhere in the neighborhood awhile back, confusing it with a device I was trying to pair with. Now every time I turn on bluetooth in my house I get a pairing request from a mystery device. The neighbors don't know anything about bluetooth devices and I would feel weird going through their home looking for devices (plus that's really inappropriate). Can I get android to ignore this pairing request or is this a bug in android? If so, it seems like a serious flaw in the android OS itself. It's driving me nuts. I would pay money to stop this from happening. I use a Samsung Galaxy S5 with android 6.0. My next step is to reset my phone and see if that helps. I can't believe google left this big of a flaw in the android os that you can't block things when they spam you via bluetooth.
Just an update as of 8-23-2016. This looks to be a flaw in Android. I just wiped my phone completely and set it back up and the mystery device is still spamming my phone with connection requests and there is no way to stop it.

You're saying that device is requesting to pair with you? Because that's not your fault, that's just sketchy.

Yes, I turn on Bluetooth every day and get a pairing requests from this device every few seconds. It goes away when I get away from the condo. The requests are non stop

I would try contacting Samsung support, or your carrier. This could be fixed by a factory wipe, but there's really no telling. I've never heard of an issue like this.

Just did a factory wipe on my phone and when I turn on bluetooth the device is still spamming me every two or three seconds.

Unfortunately, I think it's not your phone, but the other device. When you tried to pair with it, it remembered that (I can almost tell for sure you did not only try, you succeeded to pair with it). So now, when the other device sees yours in range, it automatically fires up request to pair. That's how Bluetooth works, and that's why the protocol is so convenient.
Check if this thread works for you:
Ignore / stop incoming bluetooth connect/pair requests

Yeah, Android really needs an ignore list for incoming bluetooth requests

The OP question is really about suppressing the pairing request: you can't control the other side.

So it turns out it was the bluetooth on my CPAP machine. I installed an add-on unit to my cpap machine for phillips respironics dreammapper. The device was named pr bt bf0d. The code for that is 1008. Android should have a feature where it can add and remove devices to a bluetooth ignore pair request list.

I had the same pairing request problem. I thought my Android Galaxy S5 was trying to pair with my Plantronics Back Fit PR BT 9A8D bluetooth device. I kept getting a pairing request for Plantronics PR BT 9A8D. The device was turned off and unpaired but I kept getting the request.
Apparently my Galaxy S5 was seeing my bluetooth Dreammapper on my CPAP machine.  Once I entered the CPAP code 1008. I was able to get my CPAP data and the pairing request stopped.

I've been told that if you pair to the device that is asking to pair with you from another device (not your phone), then it will stop spamming your phone.
Just make sure the other device isn't one that will normally be in range of the spamming BT source, otherwise you'll just get the notice elsewhere.
In my case, the spamming BT device (Uconnect in a Jeep) can't be connected to from any other device.  So I'm going to have to destroy it with a sledgehammer, once I found out where it's located.

My problem with the constant pairing tries was related to the smartband app (fitpro). I erase all data, force stoped the app and it was sucessfull.


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When a processor speed is given for a multi-core processor, is that the cumulative speed or the speed of the individual cores?
For example, if we're considering an quad-core processor, and if the speed given in the "specifications" is 1.8 GHz, does that meant that the combined speed of the entire set of 4 cores is 1.8 GHz, or that each of these four cores has a speed of 1.8GHz individually?
In other words, if the printed spec is "quad-core 1.8 GHz", does that mean that there are 4 cores of speed 1.8 GHz?

Frequency is not cumulative. The chip runs at 1.8 GHz, each of the cores runs at 1.8 GHz, all four cores run at 1.8 GHz. If one car travels at 100 km/h and another car runs beside it at 100 km/h, you just have two cars running at 100 km/h, you don't have anything running at 200 km/h.
Instruction execution rate, on the other hand, is cumulative. If a single-core processor running f GHz can execute k instructions per second, then an n-core processor running at f GHz can execute n ⨉ k instructions per second*, just as our two cars together carry twice as many people as one car.
*In practice you won't see an n-fold increase in speed, as some resources are consumed in co-ordinating the cores.

Okay. So, for practical purposes. Would you choose a 1.3 GHz hecta core processor (Yes, I understand that in the real world, hecta = 4 + 4, and not 8 individual cores) or say, a 1.9 GHz quad-core processor, everything else being the same (brand, model etc.) Thank you

I suspect you meant octo-core. (Octo = 8; hecto = 100. A hecto-core system would be considered many-core, which is an entirely different beast.) In any case, the answer depends on what you want to do. A single, single-thread app would run faster on the 1.9 quad, as would a small number of single-thread apps. If you have many background processes, on the other hand, or an app that does a lot of preforking like Apache, you'll likely find the slower chip gives better performance overall, since each process gets roughly twice as many chances to be in core. Better still is a multi-threaded app on

an OS that supports thread-level parallelism (as, AFAIK, Android does) in which case individual apps may perform significantly better. All this is a long-winded way of saying that in a phone I would likely go for more cores over more Hz.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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One icon keeps vanishing from home screen
I have looked around for similar issue but I think mine is different.  Now and then, only 1 icon vanishes from my home screen.  It is always "Aces Cribbage" (available on Google store for free) and sometimes it won't come back after restarting. It is currently set installed on the main memory and not SD card so that is ruled out.  I have removed and reinstalled it and cleared cache.
I have a few other apps and games installed that are not having this issue (some on SD cards, some on only main memory) so I wonder if there's something with Aces Cribbage that is glitching the home screen icon?
Once in a blue moon, the icon reappears behind another icon, forcing me to rearrange a few to get that game back out and accessible again. When it is missing and I want to play it, I have to use apps screen to find the game, which is a couple steps more than having it stay on the home screen.
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime G530, 8GB internal + 64GB SD mainly for pictures and video, less than 6 months old. Not rooted and all stock other than 64GB SD card added.

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


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How to make bind-mounted (mount -o bind) folders visible for non-root users?
I want to mount-bind an app data folder in /data/data/... to a user subfolder in order to automatically synchronize the contents for backup purposes. As root I use the following command:
mount -o bind /data/data/org.blabla.app/database/ /storage/emulated/0/blabla_database

The command seems to work and I can access the files in the mounted folder as long as I am root. However, as soon as I exit root, the files become invisible and the bind-mounted folder is empty.
How can I make the files visible for non-root users so that my sync app can access the files for backup?

Just a guess: Are you using SuperSU? If so, please check whether switching off "mount namespaces" helps. For details, see What does “mount namespace separation” in the app SuperSU do?

Thank you Izzy, you are right! Un-checking "mount namespace separation" in the SuperSU preferences makes a difference. But here comes the weird part: When I change back from root to normal user in the remote SSH, which I am using, I can effectively see the bind-mounted files now. But the files remain still invisible in the file manager and even if I open a new Termux shell and cd into the folder. Isn't that weird?? If I change to root (su -) in Termux I can see the files again %-( Any ideas?

Unfortunately no more ideas, sorry. Hopefully someone else can pick up from here.

In order to have different file ownership and permissions for every app in /sdcard, since Android 6 every app is run in an isolated mount namespace. /storage/emulated is bind mounted for every app with private / slave mount propagation to a different VIEW:
/mnt/runtime/default/emulated
/mnt/runtime/read/emulated
/mnt/runtime/write/emulated

It depends on if the app has READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE or WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission granted or not. For details see What is the “u#_everybody” UID?
Mounting directly to /storage/emulated won't appear in apps' mount namespaces unless you enter every app's mount namespace explicitly. The same is true if you mount from some app's isolated mount namespace as mentioned by @Izzy in comment. See Partition gets unmounted automatically in Android Oreo.
So you need to mount from root mount namespace to one of the above VIEWs, so that mount is propagated to all apps' mount namespaces.
For more details see How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions?

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


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Is there a way to configure the Samsung keyboard quick punctuation pop-up to close after I choose a symbol?
The Samsung keyboard has a handy button to the right of the space bar that pops up a window to input basic punctuation symbols like commas, parentheses, exclamation etc. What is annoying about it is it won't close after I choose a symbol so, after I press a key (a comma, for example), I have to press the phone's back button to return to the alphanumeric keyboard. Can this be configured?


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Using drony to enable system wide ABP
I am trying to get system wide adblock set up on android 5.1. After setting up the proxy as asked in was told that it would only work on the default "internet" browser. After further research I found that this could be done with drony but after trying I have had no luck (with ABP and Drony enabled) wondering if anyone could help,
Thanks!

Its better to block ads on android through the hosts file rather than via a proxy but you need root for that. If you have root access the you can use Adaway along with  an updated hosts file from XDA for a stricter ad blocking.( You can add the source location of the hosts file in adaway)
http://adblock.mahakala.is
If you don't have root access then you can use adgaurd. But it sets up a vpn. For more effective ad blocking in apps, you should get adguard premium version.

Ad Blocker can also be found on F-Droid, if you don't want to risk loading it from some "unknown site". I personally use AdAway and am quite satisfied with it. As pointed out, it needs root to adjust the hosts file. AdGuard is also available via the F-Droid client (if you add my repository to it), so you can keep it automatically updated :)

Will look into adgaurd premium as not rooted. Thanks for the help!


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Please help me with this icon that is next to my singnal strength icon,which is round with a minus like line.
Please help me ,its urgent. I shall be indebted to you for life. Thanking you.i have never seen this icon. It appeared after a few months after updating my phone to android marsmallow 6.0.1. Is it a malware,trojan,virus icon? If so then pls help me to remove it.

Based on how you describe it, the icon seems to be the one for the "Do Not Disturb" notification mode.

It might help to [edit] your post and include a screenshot.

Possible duplicate of What does "Restricted" (aka. "Do not") system icon on Lollipop mean?

Juni: Can you please take a look at the screenshot in the linked question and let us know whether it's the same icon you're seeing? The one looking like a "no parking" sign? Does the behavior match?

As Death Mask Salesman said, it's the icon for the Do not disturb feature.You can toggle it on and off by swiping down from the top bar. You can customize your notification rules during the 'Do not disturb' mode, from Settings -> Sound and Notification -> Do not disturb.


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Charging my device from power bank with two-way USB-C cable?
So I have Nexus 6p with USB-C port and a Xiaomi Pro 10000 power bank.
Charging my device with bundled USB A -> microUSB -> USB-C Cable works. But when I connect them with my two-way USB-C cable that was bundled with my phone my phone is charging the power bank. Is it possible to charge my phone instead?

It certainly is unusual- can you charge the power bank fully first and then see if the behaviour persists

I actually already got my answer from reddit. I guess I'll post it here

Xiaomi Mi Pro does not support discharge through the USB-C port. It's not possible. I've tried everything.
If any store promises this feature this might just be a translation error (source)
Quickcharge through the usb-c port on nexus 6p is not possible too.


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Turn off Yahoo News notifications without turning off email notifications
I just recently downloaded the Yahoo app to get my email on, and I am constantly getting notifications from Yahoo News. I want to turn off the news notifications but not the mail notifications.
I turned off all notifications, but I get time-sensitive email messages and I am missing a lot of deadlines with the notifications off, so I turned it back on.
But now I'm killing my battery because I am constantly having to check my phone because I never know if it's an email or news that I don't care about.
Can this be done?

Is there an option to mark emails from Yahoo News as spam?

The news notification can be set inside the Yahoo Mail app itself.

Open the left navigation drawer (e.g. by swiping from left to right, or tapping the "hamburger" icon on the top-left)
Tap Settings at the bottom
Under General, select Notifications
Under News notification settings, tap Enable notifications to switch it off/on

Settings -> Sound & notification ---> App notifications.
Turn off the app you don't want to raise Notifications
Also see Advanced option if any application can read notifications and should be allowed or not.

If I do that, it turns ALL notifications for Yahoo off, and I only want to turn off the news notifications. I still have to get "new message" notifications.

I guess, you will have to see into Yahoo app's settings for that. If they haven't provided that, then you should contact Yahoo for that.

Select the three bars next to "inbox".  Select "Settings" in the list.  In the General section select "Notifications".  Scroll to bottom to see News Notification section.  Turn off "Breaking News".

when you see the alert, press and hold for a few seconds until you see two icons. tap the one for notifications (looks like a bell with an "x" through it).


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Mock Locations option keeps turning off
I am trying to test an app i have been sitting on for a while.
In order to do that i need to use the option "Allow mock Locations", so i set it to on. But as soon as i refresh the page it's gets automatically turned back off every single time. So i am unable to use this option.
I tried finding if an installed app does effect that but as it turned out was not the problem there. This is the only rooted phone i have so i need to get this working on this device.
I'm using 5.1.1, OnePlus X
Anybody maybe with a similar problem or any suggestions?
Thank you.

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (OP hasn't visited the site after posting the question, and no answers have score above 0). If anyone can evaluate the existing answers, feel free to vote accordingly and reopen the question (or mod-flag the question requesting for reopening). For anyone else having the same issue, please post a new question and refer to this question as additional context.

Things you can try:
If testing on an actual device, make sure that you have the "Developer options" turned on, and a check on the "allow mock locations" checkbox.
From the phone's location settings, make sure the location is not gotten by using Wi-Fi and mobile networks, so only "GPS" or in some models "Device Only" checked.
Finally, if you are developing the app yourself and/or have access to it's manifest; check to see that the manifest contains the correct permission:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_MOCK_LOCATION" />

for further help concerning development issues, you can read from this post on stack overflow for assistance: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2531317/android-mock-location-on-device
I left this answer here for further reference in case it will be useful for others.

Yea i got that...
The problem is, right after i CHECK the "allow mock locations" it get's UNCHECKED (turned off) again.
P.S. If i did not hade "Developer mode" activated i would not be able to access the screen...

have you verified that it is only happening for the "allow mock locations" checkbox? for e.g. if you check the "stay awake" checkbox, does it also revert back to default unchecked, or is the problem only occuring with the mock locations checkbox?

Yes, onley for "Allow mock Locations" any other option i set in the DEV mode it's stay's in place, onley this one get's unchecked.

I got that, i also thought that was missing so i went and check everything but it is there.
Also no mather if start the app or not, or if i have ANY app running or not the "Allow mock Locations" still get's automaticly unchecked.

I realize this answer did not fix your issue, but I edited it to contain the follow up information from my comments for possible future help for others. I cleaned up the comments, as they are now integrated in the answer.

It is possible to modify this setting with command lines as your phone's rooted. Maybe it works, or u can make the config file read-only so nothing can turn it off.


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Why aren't my apps updating automatically?
i recently bought a Nexus 5x and installed all my previous apps. Everything was ok until i realized that Play Store was not updating automatically any of the aplications. I have checked the options menu and it is set to update automatically with Wi-fi and all apps have the option update automatically activated. What can it be? If i want to have my apps updated i have to open Play Store and select Update all on my apps sections. Thanks for the help

Automatic updates are run irregularly when you are not using your phone.

It's most probable that Play Store's background process is being killed. If you have a task manager app or any app that helps free up RAM on your device, add an exception for Google Play Store and Play Services so that the app doesn't kill these processes.

I've turn off an option at the developer menu which was supposed to be doing this, but nothing changes, the apps continue not being updated

Today i realized that when i was charging it, then it suddenly started updating everything correctly, strange

Yes. As @GiantTree already said, automatic updates do run at irregular intervals.


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How to prevent Wi-Fi from disconnecting during a WhatsApp call?
On the latest version of WhatsApp (2.16.133), the Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting during a voice call.
I suspect it's due to the screen going off (here's a similar problem on the iPhone), but it's just a wild guess.
Anyone knows a fix for this? I'm on Android 6.0.1.

If you have Avast battery saver, uninstall it. It keeps disconnecting your wifi.


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Moto G XT1045 is stuck in airplane mode
My Moto G XT1045 (Android 4.4.4) is stuck in airplane mode. I did not put it into airplane mode, but in the menu shown when holding the power button it shows that it is in airplane mode, and in the phone status page in Settings it says "Radio off". However, the airplane mode icon is not shown in the status bar. I have rebooted the phone and cleared the system cache multiple times, but it has not worked.
Edit:  From comments(deleted to clean up)

Removing SIM , reinserting did not help
In Safe Mode also problem continues
Factory reset did not help
Device not rooted

The problem is still there in safe mode.

That did not fix it either.

Removing the sim and rebooting the phone did not fix the issue.

No (at least 15 characters)

please see if any of commands here can be used to get out of airplane mode. Not sure if they can be run without root. Also , you can delete your comments, since they are edited into question

This answer might help.

Or maybe this article

The most likely case here is that your "modem" firmware is corrupt.
IF ON KITKAT (4.4.4):  I would suggest reflash of the factory modem firmware package available from here (note this link is the FULL firmware package, download and extract the 2 necessary files).
You must have working fastboot and drivers installed so that the device is recognized by fastboot devices when in the bootloader. Then extract the correct firmware image for your device from the link above to the directory that contains the fastboot executable, and open an elevated command prompt (Right-click and select "Run as administrator" in Windows, or perform a sudo su in Linux prior to starting) and change to your fastboot directory.
Enter:
fastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.bin
fastboot erase modemst1
fastboot erase modemst2
fastboot flash fsg fsg.mbn
fastboot erase cache
fastboot reboot
This will reflash the device's modem firmware. If this fails you can attempt to flash the full image to the device, instructions are in the linked post above.
IF ON LOLLIPOP (5.0.1): the procedure is the same, but substitute the Lollipop modem firmware from here.
Make absolutely sure you have the correct modems, flashing the incorrect modems could result in "undesirable" effects, although your current condition isn't of much use either.


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Force emoji to display as it was sent
I understand that apps exist to change one's global emoji font,
and therefore send and display emojis universally in a specified emoji font.
Does any software exist
which checks the font in which an emoji was sent in an SMS and
which then displays the emoji in that specific font,
without changing the set of emojis the user uses by default?
(I use the standard Android set of emojis,
and I am all for varying sets of emojis;  however,
I suffer from constant miscommunications when receiving IMs
from someone with, say, an iPhone.)
I'm preferably seeking a solution which does not require that
I know the sender's model of phone,
I use a specific messaging app,
the sender also install the solution on the sender's phone.
(Even so, I'd like to hear all options, if any exist.)

Emoji's are special "character" codes. Really, just numbers that all* software agrees that a particular number means a particular emoji.
Custom "fonts" change how those are finally displayed to the user—how exactly each emoji looks. But under the hood, it is just sending/receiving a number.
So when another user gets a message including an emoji number, it loads up the fonts that user's device thinks that emoji number matches.
No other data is transmitted besides that number.
Therefore no, there is no way (through standard SMS/MMS/IM protocols) to supply which custom "font" you used.
The only way for this to be possible if both sender and receiver agree to use a special communication tool that adds the extra "font" information to the message.
I'm not aware of any specifically do this. Others may correct me on this. But either way, there isn't a standard communication protocol to share an "emoji" font choice.
** Well, most software, agrees on emoji codes. There are some companies that disagree in some cases. This is a known issue with emojis. There is a standardization committee, but again, not everyone agrees with them. Keep hope though; emojis are more standard these days then they were in the past. And maybe the standard will extend to allow for communicating custom emojis (or whole custom emoji fonts) over the protocols? Hopefully, one day in the future, we will have a utopia of emoji agreement from all!

Alright, since we now know for sure that the standard does not provide this information, does a software exist which WILL transmit the information.  (Probably not, seeing as no one is going to want to make such a niche software across multiple platforms and get them to play nice with each other..)

This couldn't be too difficult, yeah? You'd need a few fonts installed and you'd need the sender to send the font information.  Why doesn't this exist? Do typographers hate SMS?

@kando An app could be created to do this. The space is notoriously difficult to enter. But i don't know if there is a definitive answer why no one has made a serious effort at that feature yet.


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What to do about app that starts using excessive storage space?
I have noticed that sometimes an app will start using an excessive amount of space.
For example, I've recently seen a few examples where the Amazon app was using over 350MB of storage.
One solution is to clear all the data for the app.  But then the user must reconfigure the app from scratch.
Is there any way to fix this issue without clearing all the data for the app?

One option would be to freshly install the app, set it up, then back up its settings using Titanium Backup or another similar app.  Then you can freely wipe the data when needed and quickly restore the basics.  This won't necessarily work if they significantly change how a new version of the app stores its data, of course.

Thanks.. How do you backup/restore the app's settings without backing up the rest of the data?

@RockPaperLizard Ah, sorry if I was unclear -- I meant doing this after a fresh install (or wipe) and set-up, so there would be no "rest of the data" in the first place.  There's no general-purpose method otherwise, you'd have to know where the specific app is improperly storing all the extra temp data (it should really be in the cache where Android can clean it up automatically).

Got it.  That makes sense now!  Now the second sentence makes sense too :-). Interesting idea... I hadn't thought of that.  Thanks.


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Sync old google accout to a differnt Galaxy 6
My phone died, and I had to get a new one.  My husband took new phone and we transferred my number to his old galaxy 6.  How do I register MY stuff on this phone so I can retrieve my photos, apps, etc.  It thinks I'm him.

You will need to sign in with your own Google account.
Having said that, unless all your photos, contacts, etc were all synced to Google, it's a bit of an unknown really exactly what will sync back to the replacement phone.


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How to get a clean device tree to build the drivers of the msm8939/snapdragon 615
I come to you with many interrogations about qualcomm msm8939 SoC.
I bought the Archos 50 diamond last year and have since been waiting for archos to make their move regarding android software updates.
As of october 2015 Lollipop has been released but in a beta version, no sign of any progress or any comunication ever since.
Whereas Samsung or others have released binaries and device specific configuration for their boards, archos on the other end seems to have other things on it's plate.
I know the binaries for a specific SoC wich is needed to build android or GNU/linux on embedded systems are sometime proprietary and surely in this instance they are, but..
Even if it's only for limited development purposes, would there be any way, known to man to acquire a personal license for a tailored driver binary?
Or maybe is it possible to get an exhaustive list of specific msm8939 device tree configurations options?
Is it safe to think that i can gather that exhaustive list of parameters from the various sources available on github?
Wherever I look for the device tree of the msm8939 I only find repositories for other phones based on this SoC... with a few minor differences. The only thing worth of mentioning (IMHO) is the work of cyanogen Inc. who signed a partnership with qualcomm regarding snapdragon SoC.
Then again even if Cianogenmod is an open source port of AOSP(Big up to anyone contributing), Cianogen Inc's work for those boards still remains behind closed walls.
That's why I would like to know if it is manageable to use another device tree (based on snapdragon 615/msm8939) to build something worth "risking" flashing?
The 50 diamond appears to be a rebrand of the chinese K-touch Touch7 and it would seem it didn't attract a sufficient amount of good FLOSS developpers for me to find the "good & easy to understand" informations in English or in French.
I've been puzzled about another thing in regard of this rebranding. In my build.prop the board name is msm8916(Snapdragon 410) instead of 39!!!!! How come? Is this a trap? Did they just tricked us Or even worse, did they advertise the wrong board ??
If Archos or K-touch or both did in fact used the msm8916 device tree to build the drivers and Android for this board, wouldn't it be missing a whole world of features?
Maybe someone knows of a good forum or repo wich might house the golden goose!? (not including the Cyanogemod repo)
And by that I mean any curated informations about embedded developement for GNU/linux and/or Android (free as in free beer if possible)
It's a shame for smartphone manufacturers that I can't progress on this matter, with a little luck i would brick the damn thing and would have to buy another one :D
I'll leave to it!
This community rocks!
Thanks in advance and see you around!!
Bye bye etc, etc...

One minor thing I can answer: Archos is not deceiving you by using an SD410. It's just the "platform board" is for SD410, and due to SD410 and SD61x being of the same generation and using the same core architecture, using the same board is alright.
As can be freely verified, many SD S4 Pro (APQ8064) / SD600 (APQ8064T) devices use the board msm8960, because ultimately they're using the same Krait 200/300 cores. That doesn't mean they're dual core instead of quad.
As for the main question, I think it's a bad decision to ever purchase devices from such minor manufacturers if you're looking for development, even if these devices have popular SoCs.


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How to change the default action for when phone is plugged in to a computer?
When I plugged in my phone to my computer for the first time it gave me a list of options to choose for what to do when it is plugged in. I tapped one of the choices and then mistakenly tapped "Always" instead of "Just Once." I want to choose a different action, but how do I reset it to give me the choices again?
(And yes, I tried going into Settings>Apps>Reset app preferences, but no luck.)
I am running Android 6.0.1, unrooted.

When plugged into computer:

Pull down notification bar
Click on the USB connection notification
Choose either MTP (Recommend for daily use) or Camera mode

Done, you device will still charge, and now you are able to tansfer files between devices
Side Note: You are also able to use USB tethering(Under mobile hotspots settings) when connected to share your phone intenet data.

In sufficiently old versions of android this does not work. As USB connection notification does not show up if you pressed on "always". The solution is to use dev options to change it. once it has been changed once in dev options it will show up again and you can switch it with the "just once" selector

Go to Settings > Developer Options.

Once you enter developer options. Switch to ON.

Scroll down to Networking. You will find  Select USB configuration. Select what you want to do with your USB when connected.

If you don't see the Developer option, then you can get it by the following steps:

Go to Settings

Scroll all the way down and tap on ‘About phone.’

Now scroll down again and you’ll see an entry labelled ‘Build number.’ Keep on tapping till you see a prompt that says ‘You are now a developer!’

For the USB configuration, the common case is to select either MTP or PTP for a PC to be able to detect the Android device.

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


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How to write android shell history to file
Using Terminal Emulator for Android, is there a way to enable a persistent command history?
So far, I've tried the following:

initial command of export HISTFILE=$HOME/.mksh_history
user mksh profile /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/app_HOME/.mkshrc containing export HISTFILE=$HOME/.mksh_history
system mksh profile /system/etc/mkshrc containing export HISTFILE=/data/data/jackpal.androidterm/app_HOME/.mksh_history (though preferably the solution does not involve writing to /system)

I'm able to get other Android shells (ash and bash) to write histories into app_HOME without issue. I'm also able to get mksh to write HISTFILE on Linux without issue.

I believe you cannot, but I'm not 100% sure.

you can use a project ive built, https://gitlab.com/rafi-gana/superadb just install the requirements and run it.

mksh developer here.
We disabled persistent history for mksh on Android, in order to not tax the flash memory with too many write requests.
You can re-enable it in a custom ROM by setting -DHAVE_PERSISTENT_HISTORY=1 in LOCAL_CFLAGS in Android.mk. You can also recompile mksh like that and copy that onto your ROM, if it’s rooted and the base OS version is the same.
Furthermore, you can copy any statically-linked binary for the same architecture on the phone and use that. The mksh-static binaries in the Debian package, however, also exclude persistent history.
If you really think this feature is worthwhile, persuade Google to enable it; for that, they need to edit mkmf.sh and remove the following lines…
# even the idea of persistent history on a phone is funny
HAVE_PERSISTENT_HISTORY=0; export HAVE_PERSISTENT_HISTORY

… then rebuild Android.mk from it (which they do for every new version anyway).
Oh, and you could ask the Terminal Emulator for Android developer to bundle a version of mksh with history enabled. This is probably no bad idea anyway, as it’ll be newer than what you get in the stock ROMs, and it won’t overwrite the system shell /system/bin/sh, but be available to CLI users.
That all still won’t enable persistent history by default (I’m strictly opposed to it, as it’s a surveillance feature), but enables users to set $HISTFILE themselves to enable it.

I agree, bundled with Terminal Emulator for Android would really be the proper place. JuiceSSH does it, but with bash instead. Anyways, in the meantime I've just compiled it and copied it over. Thanks for the info!

GNU bash is tricky due to possible licence issues (GPL); also, mksh is much smaller and smoother. Furthermore, mksh builds with bionic (Android’s libc) much more easily, so the bundling has low effort needed. Glad I could help!

"a surveillance feature"?

To write android shell history to file from android terminal type
history > /path/to/file/history.txt
If you use termux instead of terminal emulator then your history is then preserved.

I built a working custom mksh from source on an android device using termux and replaced /system/bin/sh with it (rename or backup /system/bin/sh first). You need to install build-essential in termux then:
wget http://www.mirbsd.org/MirOS/dist/mir/mksh/mksh-R57.tgz
tar -xvf mksh-R57.tgz
cd mksh
mkdir build
cd build
sh ../Build.sh -o CFLAGS="-Wall -Werror -Wno-deprecated-declarations -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv -DDEBUG_LEAKS -DMKSH_ASSUME_UTF8 -DMKSH_DONT_EMIT_IDSTRING -DKSH_VERSIONNAME_VENDOR_EXT=\" Android\" -DMKSH_BUILDSH -D_GNU_SOURCE -DSETUID_CAN_FAIL_WITH_EAGAIN -DHAVE_STRING_POOLING=1 -DHAVE_ATTRIBUTE_BOUNDED=1 -DHAVE_ATTRIBUTE_FORMAT=1 -DHAVE_ATTRIBUTE_NORETURN=1 -DHAVE_ATTRIBUTE_PURE=1 -DHAVE_ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED=1 -DHAVE_ATTRIBUTE_USED=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TIME_H=1 -DHAVE_TIME_H=1 -DHAVE_BOTH_TIME_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_BSDTYPES_H=0 -DHAVE_SYS_FILE_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_MKDEV_H=0 -DHAVE_SYS_MMAN_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_PARAM_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_RESOURCE_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_SELECT_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_SYSMACROS_H=1 -DHAVE_BSTRING_H=0 -DHAVE_GRP_H=1 -DHAVE_IO_H=0 -DHAVE_LIBGEN_H=1 -DHAVE_LIBUTIL_H=0 -DHAVE_PATHS_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -DHAVE_TERMIOS_H=1 -DHAVE_ULIMIT_H=0 -DHAVE_VALUES_H=0 -DHAVE_CAN_INTTYPES=1 -DHAVE_CAN_UCBINTS=1 -DHAVE_CAN_INT8TYPE=1 -DHAVE_CAN_UCBINT8=1 -DHAVE_RLIM_T=1 -DHAVE_SIG_T=1 -DHAVE_SYS_ERRLIST=0 -DHAVE_SYS_SIGNAME=1 -DHAVE_SYS_SIGLIST=1 -DHAVE_FLOCK=1 -DHAVE_LOCK_FCNTL=1 -DHAVE_GETRUSAGE=1 -DHAVE_GETSID=1 -DHAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY=1 -DHAVE_KILLPG=1 -DHAVE_MEMMOVE=1 -DHAVE_MKNOD=0 -DHAVE_MMAP=1 -DHAVE_FTRUNCATE=1 -DHAVE_NICE=1 -DHAVE_REVOKE=0 -DHAVE_SETLOCALE_CTYPE=1 -DHAVE_LANGINFO_CODESET=1 -DHAVE_SELECT=1 -DHAVE_SETRESUGID=1 -DHAVE_SETGROUPS=1 -DHAVE_STRERROR=1 -DHAVE_STRSIGNAL=0 -DHAVE_STRLCPY=1 -DHAVE_FLOCK_DECL=1 -DHAVE_REVOKE_DECL=1 -DHAVE_SYS_ERRLIST_DECL=0 -DHAVE_SYS_SIGLIST_DECL=1 -DHAVE_PERSISTENT_HISTORY=1 -DMKSH_BUILD_R=571 -DMKSH_DEFAULT_PROFILEDIR=\"/system/etc\" -DMKSHRC_PATH=\"/system/etc/mkshrc\" -DMKSH_DEFAULT_EXECSHELL=\"/system/bin/sh\" -DMKSH_DEFAULT_TMPDIR=\"/data/local\" -static -PREFIX=\"/system\""

Got most of the compile flags from here. After that, edited /system/etc/mkshrc to include export HISTFILE=/sdcard/Android/.mksh_history. This was a permanent solution so it worked with remote adb shell and persistent after reboots. You could copy the binary to terminal emulator home folder and set it as the shell command but ~/.mkshrc ~/mkshrc ~/.profile does not appear to work so you will also need to add export ENV=/sdcard/Android/.mkshrc to /system/etc/mkshrc.
Download the compiled binary here. sh for android with history enabled


text:
I want to install 2 WhatsApp accounts in my mi4 mobile
I want to install 2 WhatsApp accounts in one phone, iam using mi4 mobile phone, so please let me know the procedure and settings which should be used for the process

Please also see Separate user accounts on one Android device: if your device runs Android 5+, you can simply take different user accounts for that (as this answer states).

There are many apps available on play store that help you install 2 whatsapp on a single android phone. You can try parallel space app from play store.


text:
Making volume controller more fine
My Sony Xperia has buttons to control the volume as most of other smartphones. The control is rather coarse, there are only 8 steps including max volume and silence. Especially for use of (Bluetooth) headphones this is silly coarse.
How can the volume adjustment more fine? I would like to have e.g. 32 steps here.
Edit: The device isn't rooted and I don't plan to do so.

Depends on whether your device is rooted. If it is, and you've got the XPosed framework running: XVolume provides 30 steps, VolumeSteps+ does something similar.

No way to do so if your device isn't rooted.
Every app you find for the same will require root access.


text:
error while retrieving information from server rh-01 play store
I have rooted android phone it gives following error :
Error retrieving information from server [RH-01] for play store.
So I am not able to use any Google application. I installed custom ROM on my android. I did all help provided on internet and on this question: Keep getting “Error retrieving information from server. [RH-01]” from the play store.
So can i do anything to log in to my Google account.

Talking about custom ROM: How did you install Play Store? Did you flash the correct GApps archive (it must match your ROM)?

Kept getting the same error message on Play Store (previously have uninstalled updates on Google Play Store and Google Play Services) after trying the steps in: Keep getting "Error retrieving information from server. [RH-01]" from the play store. Guess this is an instance not caused by corrupt cache. Thought of reversing the previous uninstallation of updates by installing the latest Google Play Store and Play Services. First proceeded with installation of latest Google Play Store apk but the same error message persisted. I then uninstalled the Google Play Store updates and installed the latest Google Play Services app and viola, Google Play Store auto-updated to the latest version and the error message was gone!
Therefore installing the latest Google Play Services app solved my problem. I googled for the latest Google Play Services app and downloaded online.


text:
Can I increase the frequency at which location history gets my location?
I've recently discovered Google Location History, however my history map is made up of lots of very long straight lines because it doesn't appear to get checkpoint/location information very often.
Is there any way to increase how many times it gets the location in order to get a more accurate view of my movements in a day? I understand that this may reduce battery life.
Thank you.

Have you tried using some tracking app? Some of them allow you to define intervals. If you insist all those data should be going to the cloud, so Google can profile you: I don't know for sure, but I would expect them to pick that up if it's available.

"Start driving"[1] in Google Maps increases the frequency to 15 seconds per sample. Then send it to background, turn off the screen. It consumes more battery but not much.
[1] since the side menu has been removed, the feature can only be used by adding a shortcut (sometimes called widget) to your home screen.

From experience, I've noted that Google Maps increases the frequency with which it captures location data if I'm using another device that intensively uses the phone's GPS, such as a Bluetooth-connected activity and fitness tracker. When it is active it seems to induce Google Maps to collect the same data with the same frequency as the fitness tracker.


text:
Charging speeds between USB C/USB C and USB A/USB C
I just bought the Anker power core 20100+ and it came with 2 cables.One Usb C to Usb C cable, and One Usb C to USB A.
I am just wondering which one would give me better charge speeds for my Nexus 5x or if it wouldn't matter at all.

Your device comes with USB Type C which is equipped to handle higher power for charging and hence that is recommended over using the USB C to A conversion
USB 3.1 – Type-C Connector

....Rather than using four-pins as in the classic type-A and type-B, the type-C connector has 24 pins and is reversible, meaning it can be plugged in either way. It supports 900mA and, on command, delivers 1.5A and 3.0A over a 5V power bus while streaming data. This results in 7.5 and 15 watt power consumption respectively, as opposed to 2.5W using the original USB (current times voltage = wattage)

Also see a decent comparison of  Type C Charging


text:
Any security difference between root based firewall (AFWall+) and non-root based ones (NetGuard)?
What are the technical differences between root based firewalls (like AFWall+) and non-root based firewalls (like NetGuard)?
Is there any impact on the security effectively provided by such software?
I've already checked a bit in NetGuard's source code to make myself an idea, but I think this may still be a good question and I'm interested to get other people's analysis on the subject.
I would like to restrict such question to the core technical feature provided by such software (like the kind of firewalling: stateless or stateful, are there any hardcoded exceptions, the robustness of the code handling untrusted packets, etc.) and not on secondary features or anti-features they may have (ads, tracking, cosmetic, ...) unless they concretely affect the core objective of the software.
In other words: no rants please ;) !
In case there are limitations, it might be worth mentioning if they are implementation specific (the consequence of some choice made by the development team) or a consequence of the technology used (relying on very different systems, it is possible that one has to cope with limitations that the other does not have).

As the author of NetGuard I have first hand experience in this field.
A disadvantage of a firewall based on a local VPN is that not all traffic types can be handled, because the (Android) Linux kernel does not allow forwarding all traffic types over a socket based connection. An example is IPsec, which is being used for IP calling by some manufacturers. A partial (not for IPsec) solution to this would be to use a remote VPN server to forward traffic, but this is privacy wise not acceptable for a lot of people and would come with additional complexity and probably also with extra battery usage. In practice handling TCP and UDP traffic appears to be sufficient for 99,9% of the NetGuard users. Since Android 5 it is possible to exclude applications from being routed into the VPN (the VPN implementing application decides if this is mandatory or optional), which can be used to address problems arising from not being able to forward all traffic. Another option is to exclude address (ranges), which NetGuard uses to 'fix' IP calling for some manufacturers.
Another disadvantage is that forwarding traffic will increase battery usage on mobile devices, because it involves some processing, because packets needs to be inspected and to be forwarded. Using iptables, which is integrated in the Linux kernel, is more efficient as thus more battery friendly.
In general it has appeared that Android routes all traffic into the VPN, even traffic of system applications and components, but a manufacturer could decide to exclude certain traffic types, reducing the security that can be achieved by a VPN based firewall.
NetGuard does not analyze the data itself, except for DNS requests to provide ad blocking, but if it would it could raise a privacy concern. Nevertheless, technically seen this is an advantage of a VPN based firewall (if you still want to call it that way), because it would allow state-full inspection of data streams beyond what is possible with iptables. This would likely be at the costs of battery usage, because of the processing involved. Note that it would require a local MiT attack to inspect SSL streams.
Yet another disadvantage is that Android doesn't allow chaining of VPN's, so using a local VPN to implement a firewall will prevent using of a real VPN service, unless the firewall provides such a service itself or alternatively a forwarding or proxy mechanism to another VPN application.
Lastly, a VPN based firewall depends on the application providing the firewall VPN service to be running. This seems to be trivial, but it is not, because some manufacturer Android versions/variants are too aggressively killing processes in low memory conditions (IMHO it is a bug if Android kills applications providing a VPN service).
Finally, rooting of Android devices is becoming increasingly difficult, leaving a VPN based firewall as the only choice for many people. I don't expect Google to add a system based firewall anytime soon, because it could affect their ad revenue significantly. iOS does have a system based firewall.
Let me know if there are any questions and I will try to answer them.

Thanks for you answer. "it would allow state-full inspection of data streams beyond what is possible with iptables", iptables is modular and AFAIK nothing prevents it from providing such Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) techniques. There even are several projects implementing this (ndpi-netfilter, https://github.com/thomasbhatia/OpenDPI, l7-filter), but I suppose the actual demand for such thing is too low compared to the required work so they all seem abandoned now.

Yes, it can be done using a Linux kernel module as well, but it is much simpler to do at application level. Linux kernel modules need to be compatible with a kernel version, which would not be a viable option on Android with so many kernel versions in the wild. It would also require root permissions and knowledge about how to insert a kernel module, which you cannot expect from the average user, though this can maybe be automated somehow.

To my knowledge, it's the approach:
Root based firewalls use IPFilter / iptables to control the flow. This automatically applies to all apps, whether there's a network connection available at all or not, whether the routing is working completely or not at all, or whether you're in a "closed environment" (Intranet) without access to the "outer world" (Internet). Apps you've got blocked are blocked. On a pretty low level.
Non-root firewalls do not have access to that low level, so they must use work-arounds. In most cases this is done using Android's VPN facilities. Depending on implementation, this either works completely on-device (i.e. again regardless of what network connection might be available), or via "external services" (connecting you to the app provider's VPN). In the latter case, things break as soon as that service stops being available – a fact you might notice or not. In either case, I'm not sure if really all apps honor the VPN or if there are ways around.1 Another nasty fact with VPNs I've read about is the annoying permanent notification coming along, saying "Your network might be monitored" – but AFAIK that should only turn up if the app in question needs its own certificate installed.2
Verdict: I'd personally trust a root-based solution more. But where rooting is not an option, non-root solutions should be almost as good. In that case, my recommendation would go towards open-source solutions like NetGuard (its developer also made Xprivacy and is well trusted). Speaking of which: For further details, take a look at the XDA introduction of NetGuard, which explains the background with some more details.

1 I'm not familiar with the technical details behind Android's VPN implementation, but quoting WhiteWinterWolf (see below comment), it's up to Android base system to enforce this, there is no reason to think this is not done properly.
2 Again quoting WhiteWinterWolf: the VPN API used by NetGuard allows all data to be intercepted by an unprivileged application, this is what Android effectively consider as "monitoring", it has no relation with any certificate and this warning is an unavoidable and expected consequence of using this API.

Thanks for your answer. "I'm not sure if really all apps honor the VPN": it's up to Android base system to enforce this, there is no reason to think this is not done properly. "the annoying permanent notification": the VPN API used by NetGuard allows all data to be intercepted by an unprivileged application, this is what Android effectively consider as "monitoring", it has no relation with any certificate and this warning is an unavoidable and expected consequence of using this API.

Thanks for the details! I've integrated them with my answer (credits given) to make them easier to spot. As for the "monitoring notification": Where ever I found that mentioned, it was in context of a user certificate being installed. But thanks for clarification!

Yes, it's rather sad for Android to reuse the same notification for several unrelated purposes. In the current context, this notification is to be linked to the following statement from the previously linked VPN API documentation: "A system-managed notification is shown during the lifetime of a VPN connection.".

Something to keep in mind regarding whether there are ways around VPNs, while searching something else I found this note regarding enhancements in Android 4.4: "Per User VPN. On multi-user devices, VPNs are now applied per user. This can allow a user to route all network traffic through a VPN without affecting other users on the device."

Aside from the general consensus that actual security is out the window for rooted devices and of course depends on the user, AFWall+ offers a kernel level approach to filtering traffic while NetGuard uses encryption. I think the ability to run as Android administrator with without the need to stay in the foreground is important...
AFWall+ optionally uses system level startup script preventing data leakage during boot time (and shutdown too, I believe)
If used, it also has a built-in tasker plug-in that offers the ability to auto-switch profiles when a connectivity change is detected ( I really like this one)
Linux based iptables as opposed to VPN method used by Netguard
I don't see any options to password protect the app's settings in Netguard, but I've also never used this feature in AFWall+, so...

I do think an important feature to note about Netguard would be the ability to filter specific addresses on a per app basis. This is a paid option.
I can't say certificate based VPN vs iptables. That would likely depend on your kernel and android version for iptables and for NetGuard, the algorithms used to encrypt the data, whether it is being logged and where it is stored. My answer may not be as technical as what you were looking for and as long time user of AFWall+ (donate version), I'm definitely biased towards it. However, I do know that the developer of NetGuard also actively maintains XPrivacy, a very well known/trusted and robust Android privacy manager. AFWall+ hasn't been abandoned at all but definitely hasn't received an update as recently as NetGuard has. They both employ different methods of maintaining control of traffic but ultimately, I think it mostly depends on the user how secure any part of their device is.

Thanks for your answer, the bullet in particular were very informative. As far know NetGuard does not apply any encryption, its just take advantage of Android's VPN API because this API allows to redirect the whole data-network communication to an unpriviledged user process. The initial intent of this API is to allow such process to handle a VPN connection (indeed encryption etc.) to a remote host, but NetGuard instead use this position only locally just to be able to analyze and filter traffic. As far as I know there is no actual VPN option in NetGuard (as opposed to AFWall+).

One thing my curiosity hasn't forced me to track down a definite answer to is if it is common at all for apps to tunnel their uploading shenanigans and how effective would it be at analyzing and filtering data being tunneled thru this VPN mechanism.

The VPN tunneling is transparent to the other apps, they think they have a direct access to the Internet while under the hood Android actually redirects the communication to the VPN interface. As far as I know, NetGuard does not analyze the data itself, only layer-3 protocol information (IP addresses and flags) and an Android undocumented trick to link the packet to the originating app, this is sufficient to decide whether a packet should be allowed or not.

There is no undocumented Android trick being used to link packets to applications, but a documented Linux kernel feature.

@M66B: Thanks for the precision, for this one I relied on the XDA article  linked in Izzy's answer: "we found that in order to differentiate between traffic from different apps, it was necessary to make use of undocumented access to files on the kernel’s “proc” filesystem, to translate processes into application UIDs. This access could easily be blocked in future versions of Android by SELinux, and may well even be blocked in some more security-oriented devices ".

@M66B: And by the way the term "undocumented trick" is not pejorative in my mouth: when there is no documented proper solution such "trick" may very well be the only way to get things work the way we want them to work ;) (and hope that one day an equivalent feature will become officially supported) !

@WhiteWinterWolf I just tried to clarify things, so no worries


text:
How do I recover from a botched adopted storage migration? I can't take pictures or screenshots
TL;DR: I messed up. Now my phone won't store pictures because it's probably trying to write to some directory that doesn't exist. How can I fix this? What directory structure is expected? I caused it by maybe screwing up a bit when moving to Adopted Storage, but that may not be important for the answer.

I migrated to adopted storage this morning. I wanted a mixed partitioning, but accidentally got full-card adoption (i used the GUI). As part of that I suppose I migrated the existing /storage/emulated to the adopted storage.
Because I wanted a mixed setup and I had backups of my data, I just ran sm partition ... mixed 25 and nuked the existing adopted storage.
Now I can't take any pictures. If I do a screenshot, it says it couldn't save it. If I take a picture with OpenCamera, it says the same.
I would like to avoid the hassle of factory resetting if it's just a matter of creating some directories and/or creating some symlinks. I tried setting up a symlink /media/expand/<my-adopted-storage>/user -> /storage/emulated and created DCIM (mode 1777) in /storage/emulated/0/DCIM (where it used to be). That doesn't help.
Am I on the right track and just getting the details wrong, or am I screwed?

As you can see from the tags, I'm on CyanogenMod 13 / Android 6 / Marshmallow.

Further investigation:
Looked where OpenCamera is looking, and it's looking at /sdcard/DCIM. /sdcard is a symlink to /storage/self/primary and that's a symlink to /mnt/user/0. Tried creating a symlink to the existing DCIM there, didn't help. Maybe it needs to point to the right place in the system to slip through the security tracks? Trying a reboot and seeing where things end up.
EDIT: It was /sdcard -> /storage/self/primary -> /mnt/user/0/primary. I created /mnt/user/0/primary -> /mnt/expand/*/user/0. No go.

There is a secondary user on the phone. When I switch to that, I get a bunch of "Unfortunately YouTube/Gallery/foo stopped." and I can't run any of the installed apps -- then I get the same message.

I had three SD "Cards" listed in Storage & USB: Purple (successfully adopted), Grey (first adoption, now abandoned, said "not mounted") and sdcard1. I figured that maybe it's still yearning for that unmounted (nonexistent) partition, so I clicked it and chose "Forget". Now sdcard1 is corrupt (!). Will reboot again and see what it makes of it.

Progress! After forgetting that original adoption and rebooting, now we have /sdcard -> /storage/self/primary -> /storage/emulated/0.
/storage/emulated/0 is a FUSE system that seems to have the same size as /data, so things look pretty normal now. I took a screenshot, and /sdcard/Pictures was created.
sdcard1 is back and looks fine.

Now there was a Migrate data command on both Internal storage and the adopted storage. When I clicked it on the adopted storage, emulated/0 was remounted as a FUSE proxy for the adopted storage and screenshots now go there instead of to internal-internal. I think this is like I want it now.

I've got no experiences with adoptable storage – but if the location is any help: Screenshots usually go to /sdcard/Pictures/Screenshots (at least that's where they were on all devices I've checked; I've never seen them going to DCIM, which is the camera app's default). I'd assume Android creates this directory automatically if it not exists – so maybe you can check the logs while trying to take a screenshot? That might give some clues on what's going wrong.

@Izzy Thanks for the clues. Will check this out.

I believe what solved my problem was that I ran Migrate data in the newest adopted storage. Until then the system was in a state where the abandoned adopted storage was the "primary storage", but wasn't present.
I'm not sure why Migrate data on Internal storage wasn't available before I abandoned the first adopted storage. Maybe all I would have had to do was to reboot and the command would have been available.
I am going to move more of the story from the answer to the question, to create a more coherent Q&A picture.


text:
What happens if you install another phone's kernel on yours?
What would happen if you install a Oneplus 1 for an example on a Nexus 5? Would it cause hardware problems, like my touch won't be recognized or something like that?
And how much tweaking would it need? I don't know anything about kernels by the way.

At a simple level, the effects would be catastrophic. The system wouldn't boot, and you would probably hard-brick OR super-brick. Kernels are the direct system for managing communication between software and hardware, among other things, and the kernel needs to be just right. If the device hard-bricks, a USB jig would need to be used to force the device into a usable state, or just get a new phone. Super-bricks (which are usually Nexus-only, since even a Nexus can recover from a hard-brick easily) will require a new phone completely, whether you like it or not.
Luckily, it's a Nexus. It takes A LOT to break them. It will definitely soft-brick (the primary OS is unusable, and the rest is fine) and probably hard-brick (not too likely), and a very low chance to super-brick.
To sum it up..

No, kernels DO NOT work on other devices
You would be really, really, really lucky to have a usable device. By that, I mean that you would have to be lucky enough to get into recovery or fastboot and install a stock kernel. Then, plain sailing.

Flashing the wrong kernel usually only results in a soft-brick. You can recover most devices by simply flashing a compatible kernel (from my experience of flashing kernels). I think you are more specifically talking about the bootloader which you can't fix without a JIG or a replacement NAND chip.

@GiantTree And I would agree.... If it was not for the fact that the OnePlus one kernel is a mess. Ill still add your info though.

Basically, you just pointed out the worst case (soft-brick; as @GiantTree pointed out easy to cure by flashing the right one). In the best case (which rarely happens) you won't notice, that is if the 2 devices are close enough to each other in hardware. In between everything's possible :) The closeness mentioned is often used in the Custom ROM scene: I e.g. remember that ROMs for the Motorola Droid 2 were adapted from the Motorola Defy. That said, it's not recommended the "inexperienced user" plays with these "options" :)

@Izzy hehe, yeah. Gotta hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

So one thing as a big pro for the OP: Asking before trying. Far too many folks come here after they tried (and didn't prepare for what they got). “He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” (attributed to Mark Twain, though our Chinese friends argue :)

@Izzy +1 for mark twain.


text:
Sony Z GPS issue (maybe after root)
Apps on Sony Z could not find location using GPS after even like 15 minutes (about max I waited). I did not use location for some time, during which one thing I did is making root via Wondershare MobileGo.
Factory data reset did not help - neither it undid root access.
System check via *#*#7378423#*#* finds GPS location - in less then a minute.
I disabled and hide root via SuperSU app and still maps could not find location.
What could be done to help apps find location?
ADDED:
Installed GPS Test app. GPS Test is finding satellites after several minutes. After satellites are found by GPS Test, maps (e.g. MAPS.ME) start working (Pokemon Go still says 'No GPS').
Still interested why location is not working w/out such trick and what can be done about it.


text:
Know the url of File being downloaded from App on Android phone
This is the situation: I have an app named "ABC" installed on my phone. and it has some media files which can be downloaded.
when I click on files shown in the app it starts downloading and I can see in the download manager app which comes by default in the phone.
I'm trying to know the download url of the file being downloaded, but I couldn't.
could any body please suggest the way to know download url, so that I can use IDM/uget in the system to download in faster way???

This is the situation: You are asking an off-topic question. Please read On-Topic, How do I ask a good question? and What types of questions should I avoid asking?

One way would be to install a network packet sniffer app; there are some that do not require root, by acting like a VPN app.  You seem to be technically savvy since you mention IDM and uget so what you would also need besides the packet sniffer app is software to analyze the resulting capture.  Generally, once you capture the data you would transfer it to a PC then run a network capture protocol analyzer; such as Wireshark (available for Windows, OS X, and Unix) to analyze the traffic and you should be able to find the URL of the file.


text:
Find out available mobile network bands in my area and disable scanning for unused bands
I have an HTC 626g+ which was supposed to be released in India, but I'm using it in Russia, which probably has different cellular frequencies available. I've read on certain forums that smartphones try to scan and find the best band available, and sometimes they are set to scan for bands that are not supposed to work at all, which allegedly wastes precious battery life.
I would like to know if disabling scanning for unused bands would save any significant amount of battery life (10 minutes is significant IMO) and if so, how to figure out which bands can be used.

I don't think mobile devices scan all available frequencies- they only scan the frequencies used by the service provider

This guide at XDA reinforces my point above-that being the case, i am not sure how battery is wasted

From personal experience messing with the bands on my HTC One M8 & M9, disabling CDMA and unused WCDMA bands no significant impact on battery life.
If you want to figure out which bands can be used, a quick search on "carrier" + "bands" will tell you.


text:
Stream music as if it was a phone call
I have a car that handles Bluetooth and that plays on the car speakers my phone calls, but doesn't play my music.
Would someone know a trick or an app that would simulate a phone call and redirect the music sound stream as it was the caller stream?

I tested a similar App 'Blue Mono sound' github & opensource. I connected the BT to my car, then launched the music, then this App. After playing with the sound volume I finally got the music on my car speakers. YAAATAAA! Thanks for your input

I read that BTmono is an app that does that kind of thing, but I had no success using it in my car with a Galaxy S7 Edge.
Without any app, I noticed that sometimes after ending a call the car keeps hanging on the the BT stream allowing Google Map's navigation directions to be announced through the car speakers treating it like an in-call sound. But I'm guessing that's probably a bug with the software in the car's entertainment system.


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Samsung Galaxy S4 black screen
My cellphone Galaxy S4 fell out of my pockets, bottom lights turn on but my screen is black, if i shut it down and turn back on, can see the Samsung logo fade, is it possible to open my phone by using my pc, whatsapp, sms

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! It's a bit unclear what you're asking. Reading between the lines, it looks like your screen is broken and you look for a way to backup/rescue your data? Our broken-screen tag-wiki will be a good starting point for all things related to, well, a broken screen.

Don't give up. I tried the method where you take out the battery, press the power button for one minute and then wait for five minutes before reinserting battery. Did not work.
I then tried the heat method. Disassemble the phone and unclip five or six ribbon connectors. Take the main board and heat it with a heat gun or close-up hot hair drier. Fast, with sore fingers, press the ribbon cables back into sockets and reassemble the phone. Did not work either.
I then reflashed the ROM using Odin. Not easy with a black screen but possible. Reflashed successfully, screen still black.
Then took out the battery and waited for six days: the phone then booted first time.
Hence, it looks like some bizarre capacitance is stored somewhere and needs time to discharge. I hope this info saves someone else's phone. Neil, Dallas, Nov 7, 2016


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Nexus 7 2013 won't update to 6.x
On my nexus 7 I have not been able to install any of the 6.0.x updates. Whenever I try I download them and when I go to install half way through my t says error and I restart my tablet and nothing changed. I have tried a reset but it did not change anything. What could I do?

So I decided to answer my own question as I found a fix. I needed to on the computer download a program to flash my nexus to marshmallow. So I have found a guide and will post how well it works later.
Guide: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#razor

Google has given out an end of life (EOL) policy, which lists different hardware and versions and their final deadline for guaranteed software updates.
You can check if you can find your device listed here:
https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en
and see if the EOL time has been reached.
More news on the different Nexus EOL's can be found for e.g. here:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/06/21/google-support-site-now-lists-end-life-dates-nexus-devices/
If your device is listed, but the EOL has not been reached, you should still be able to access guaranteed google updates.

I can access the updates but when installing they just error out.

Asus Android Nexus 7 (2013) Jul 2017 is what my EOL is

I am now planning to just flash my nexus manually to marshmallow

flashing might do the trick if it has been hanging on the updating, yet it seems to be an odd bug that might be worth reporting to google. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful

I still give you an upvote since that will fix people who get this problem. (I have less then 15 rep on here so it is not public viewed)


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What is protected apps in Huawei phones?
There is a setting in Huawei phones that allow you to add applications as protected.

What is that setting mean? Are there other vendors that have a similar feature?
I've noticed that some applications by default added to protected (such as Instagram for example). How is it done? Where I can find the full list of such applications? Is this means that Huawei as vendor trusts those packages?

I've seen the same on a Galaxy S7 Edge I've investigated lately, so it doesn't seem to be restricted to Huawei.

@Izzy with the same name?

I cannot check currently (neither have the device at hand nor am home). Will do so later.

BTW: AFAIR "protected apps" are (system) apps you cannot even disable (installed in /system/app-private?) Could you please verify if you are able to disable those in Settings › Apps?

I have owned a Huawei phone (Honor 6) until recently so I can speak from personal experience.
Protected apps is a battery saving feature (like stamina mode in Sony phones). Apps not selected as protected apps will stop working once the screen is off and a wait duration. I discovered this when a voice recording app would stop recording after an hour of recording irrespective of the app. However, if the same app is included in the protected apps list, it would record indefinitely till stopped. Same was the case with an automation app that would work as intended only when included in the protected apps list.
A quick Google search from Android Central's review of Huawei 8 confirms the same

And then there's the whole "protected apps" system, which requires you to manually approve each app you want to be able to run when the screen's off.

According to this Stack Overflow question, developers can't include in their manifest asking for inclusion in the protected apps list, but Huawei OS apparently includes popular apps like Tinder and Instagram (in your case).
Scoured web for a full list of such applications but no luck. Writing to Huawei is an option technically but practically, with experience, they don't bother even acknowledging your mail, forget answering.
Thanks to Happy Coder for updating and confirming that Protected apps is found under Battery manager settings.

I went to settings and searched by "battery". Found "Batter manager'. Inside I found "Protected apps".

Related Delayed notifications on Huawei Mate 10 pro with Android Pie, EMUI 9.0

If you're familiar with Greenify Android app(Root only) you'll know this feature.
Every app that uses internet connection to refresh the data etc.,(every time you open the app) has to make sure that the application's services are running in the background as daemon processes.
Thus using up more power/battery.
Thus, if you haven't selected the app, the apps' services will not run in the background and thus everytime you open the app, it will refresh the data, instead of having it ready.


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How to root htc desire 326g dual?
I have HTC desire 326g dual SIM. It regularly revert back it setting. Like when installed apex launcher and selected always for using it but it always asks for launcher on restart. And it runs on kit Kat. I think now kit Kat is old so I want to replace the os too. I've tried to root it with kingo one click root apk as well as many more methods described in different sites. So any guide line.

first of all you've gotta unlock the bootloader on the HTC dev (you've gotta sign up first it's free) and you need to use the fastboot oem unlock command if they still support that model of phone. but the sad news is that phone is not a very well know phone at all so there is not root at the moment. so you stuck on a non rooted phone. theres no recovery like cwm or trwp.


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There is a way to remove everything but one app from android?
I have an spare phone that I want to use with the music app 'Caustic 3'. My plan is to use this phone just to it. There is a way to remove everything and install just this program, like an ROM? Just turn the phone on and it open this app directly? And use all the machine resources to think just this? Thanks

It is possible to automatically launch an application on boot and you are probably able to remove all non-essential apps, but without any more information, I can't tell which apps are necessary for the system to function.

Removing system apps can damage your phone and make it unable to function.  I would recommend installing an app like macrodroid then setting up a macro to kill off all the other applications and only run Caustic 3. If you really want to remove the other apps, then installing something like System app remover (ROOT) would do the trick. The first method is a lot safer however.


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Why does Google Pinyin Input need to access my contacts?
A pop-up message says that Google Pinyin Input tries to access my contacts.  Does anyone know why an input method needs to access a user's contacts?
It is strange that this message popped up when I was NOT using the input method. I have never used it.  The app was installed by default on a tablet made in China.
Does anyone know if Google Pinyin Input is developed by Google's own engineers or outsourced to a certain country?  I will immediately uninstall it if it is effectively an app developed by a third party in a certain country other than Google's own staff.

Usually keyboard apps want to access your contacts for "predictive search" and auto-correction. If you don't like that, it should be fine to reject that request (and thus not giving them access) – without any "harm" to the app. Only it then won't know your contacts' names and cannot use them for auto-correction and "predictive search", of course.
That the request popped up while you were not even using the app might also be normal: depending on how it was programmed, it might want to update its dictionary while not being actively used. That it does so when you've never ever used it, is either bad programming or intentional bad habit (of course seen as a service to you, as it's always the case with pre-installed bloatware).
If this worries you, you can go to Settings › Apps, switch to the "All" tab (to show all apps, including the pre-installed ones), scroll to the app, tap its entry, and see if you can uninstall or at least disable it.


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Boot to... Nothing
I was planning to install xposed to my samsung tab 2 (Running lollipop. Somehow.) So naturally, I flashed the zip I needed in twrp. I tried rebooting, and the boot animation loads, then the screen goes blank. I've tried:

Factory resets
Just deleting /data (basically a dirty factory reset)
wiping the Primary and davlik cache.
Disabling my SWAP (Long story)
Updating the xposed mod installed.
Reinstalling ROM (Works until I turn it off, and then the nothingness happens again.)

Anybody know how I can fix this?
Keep in mind that my tablet is running both a custom kernel and custom ROM (It is meant to be 4.2.2 stock). I also doubt I need the special samsung version, since I can get other devices to run without it (even tough they should need it)

Samsung phones require a custom xposed version: http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/unofficial-xposed-samsung-lollipop-t3180960. Also keep in mind that a factory reset will not fix issues with /system where xposed is located.

@GiantTree well, a coupla things. First of all, my tab 2 jas a custom kernel and custom rom (after all, its supposed to be on 4.2.2 stock) and secondly, I have ran multiple versions of xposed without a special samsung version. I also (rather stupidly) thought it was an app conflict.

You may want to add this information to the question, so others have all information necessary to give better answers.

@GiantTree Done! Also added a bit I forgot.

Have you tried flashing the xposed uninstaller? That's what one usually does in such a case. Though re-flashing the clean ROM should have taken care for that as a side-effect. With the second side-effect that you've probably removed the backup files Xposed created on install and the uninstaller needs to revert the changes …

@Izzy Let me guess: XDA? All right, I will try it. BRB.

@DanB Yupp. Right where you found the installer, there you also find the uninstaller. Though it's most likely too late for that – as you've already done a factory-reset and re-flashed the ROM. Still, cannot hurt :)

@Izzy Damn it! Didnt work :( I will try patching the ROM again. Quick q - any idea on what "result was [0.2000000]" means??

Didn't suspect it would, after what you've already done (see above). Btw: When re-flashing the ROM, did you wipe everything? Last resort I could think of is wiping cache, data, and system and then flash the ROM again. Usually, ROM-flashing should take care of wiping system – so I'm not sure if this helps. Again, worth a try at least. If that doesn't fix it, I'm out of ideas.

@Izzy just wiped /system on the current attempt. Its trying to boot now. I have to grab another copy of gapps now lol. At least we have google.

Ahem... Not that I use GApps anymore (I don't, I use microG instead) – but AFAIK one should flash GApps immediately after flashing the ROM and before booting again. So if you see your GApps "unfortunately" crashing: Go to start, do not collect $200, but flash the ROM and GApps :)

@Izzy Ah, I'll live. The nano package seems to be flashable at any time with no real issues. I still have my get out of jail free card - a friend has a tab 2 with an identical setup. All else fails, I'll just clone their entire system. In other news, my tablet boots now. Yay!


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Stop Motion Video creation using external camera
my son is very interested in Lego stop-motion video creation.  There are myriad apps for stop motion capture on the Android platform, but using a device's internal camera isn't too easy, since you can't get a big phone or tablet into the correct position for the desired shots.
I have a USB webcam and a USB OTG cable.  Is there any way to use the external webcam as the image source for any of these stop-motion apps?
The idea setup would be to make the USB camera the default image source for any existing app.  Then he could directly capture into a simple, easy-to-use stop motion app instead of taking pictures first and inserting them frame-by-frame into the app later.
I have the following Android devices available, which can be used for this purpose:

Galaxy S2 (Sprint) android 4.x?
Galaxy S2 (AT&T) android 2.2
Alcatel onetouch Fierce XL - android 5.5
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - android 4.x?

I have a generic USB webcam, but I may be willing to purchase a specific external camera if this would ensure smooth functionality.
I'd appreciate any advice!

I'm in the same situation with my son today. Did you find a solution? Thanks XP

@xavier unfortunately no.


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Can I flash a separate radio image and have a working radio?
I have a rooted LGE Nexus 4. Installed on it are the Team Win Recovery Project and CyanogenMod 13 (Android 6).
I found this guide to installing stock Android 6 onto a Nexus 4, and it provides pre-built system and boot images, alongside:

... an OLD radio (initial radio release for Mako), [and then] this ROM will support LTE :)

In the comments section of that post, a user added how to install the pre-built image:

From command terminal:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash radio lte_modem.img (or normal_modem.img)
fastboot reboot-bootloader

My question boils down to, can I just flash the lte_modem.img alone and come out with a working phone with CM13?
If that isn't inherently answerable, then: if something goes wrong, can I flash normal_modem.img, or do I need a CM13-specific radio image? Where do I get that special radio.img?

You don't need a special radio image for Cm13

Radio.img or Boot.img

@user157947 what?

Your looking for the Hybrid Radio Images, which are a combination of the "old" mobile data modem and the "new" WiFi modem merged together, there are several sources for this on XDA, start by looking in the Nexus 4 General area. This will enable LTE which was disabled by Google shortly after release. The hardware of the N4 only supports Band 4 LTE, which is only used by T-Mobile network wide, AT&T in limited areas, and most Canadian carriers, it is not used anywhere else in the world.

(Previous) Nexus 4 owner reporting in.
People at XDA had long been using hybrid modems with custom ROMs like CM. It seems specific versions are needed for each major Android version (JB/KK/LP+), but there's a nifty app right here you can try out: LINK: Google Play.
Also, there's no special radio for CM13. No custom ROM team makes radio themselves. Just flash back to a stock radio if things go wrong.

Also remember this only enables Band 4 LTE, which is used in North America only... If your carrier does not use Band 4, the hybrid radios will do nothing but increase battery usage.

It sound's fishy ... or its a Brand specific image partition.
I have only ever seen the radio information built into the boot.img ... Unless it's an MTK aka MediaTek device, Then it requires flashing with SP Flashtool aka Smart Phone Flash Tool ...
The SP Flashtool version usually wipes the radio with a complete firmware upgrade, This is why most tutorials specifically state to use DOWNLOAD MODE .. In Firmware upgrade mode it will completely delete all partitions, and reinstalls the selected images...
Usually firmware upgrade will destroy NV-RAM " radio files " and then you will need to use IMEI Serial writer or SN Write Station to re-flash the NVram back with stock IMEI and Serial numbers (Bluetooth adress, Wifi mac etc...)     Under the battery or on original box
If you can ring *#06# and it says IMEI = null, Then you need a radio, otherwise the radio is fine... Usually your IMEI gets stored in the same place as radio for security i imagine.
If you open INFO by calling *#*#4636#*#* aka *#*#INFO#*#*You should see Phone info as a section,
- Open Phone info
- Press menu for more options or scroll down
- Press the WCDMA + GSM or whatever yours is, And try to select LTE ... If nothing happens then it's usually a hardware issue or limitation ..
screenshot

When I ring *#06#, it gives me my IMEI, not null. When I dial ##INFO## it says USSD code running and then nothing happens.


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How do I disable the "Screen overlay detected" security bandaid?
I use Toucher Pro (whose whole point is to always be on top) essentially in place of a homescreen, insofar as I launch apps from it 95% of the time instead of using a launcher. Now, thanks to the recent security update which doesn't let you change permissions while an overlay is running, I have to disable Toucher, change the permission, and re-enable Toucher immediately because I can't use my phone without it.
This is most ridiculous when installing a new Marshmallow app, since this includes initial permission requests even for basic behavior:

I'm an advanced user, and I can smell when a malicious app is trying to fool me, so I feel reasonably safe disabling this. Is there any way to disable this kludge?

Have you seen Determine which app is drawing on top of other apps? That should help you finding the culprit.

@Izzy please read my question.

I did – but reading it again, I've misread it the first time. You want to have the screen overlay ignored it seems – not much luck with that, I'm afraid, for reasons already pointed out. Sorry.

@Izzy I figured. Might there be a solution that involves rooting andor writing an app?

Would be off-topic here (development focused), but of course by altering the code one could do that. Maybe someone wrote a corresponding XPosed module for this – but there's no hit in the XPosed repo yet.

Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.

This bandaid seems to have been removed in Nougat. So... I suppose the answer is to upgrade to Nougat?

so... no way for a Marshmallow?

@Ooker I haven't found a way. If you do, make sure to add that as an answer!

That's sad. I've thought that Xposed will free us from any limitation. So, in Nougat, the screen overlay detection just disappears? You won't need to worry about it anymore?


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Can I charge my phone with many different charger speed types?
I have a nexus 6p, and various different chargers which I bought for the phone. One is a slow USB charger (comes with the box).
Another is a type c to type c cable connected to the AnkerCore 20100+ battery pack (this charges quick charge too but I charge that with a USB mini so the current is different).
I also have a charging dock and sometimes use my computer to charge it, along with a wall charger with the highest speed.
Does this effect the battery in any way and does it effect the time before I have to charge it again?

To complement the answer of acejavelin and elaborate on other aspects

Fast charging is believed to cause damage to both the short term and long term health of battery. Former by not giving enough battery performance for charge and latter by losing capacity to hold charge. Think of drinking soft drinks and maybe a slice of pizza to fill your stomach- your body does not get as much balanced nutrients as it would from a regular meal and you can't do as much work before feeling hungry (short term). If you keeping filling your stomach that way for a long time, effects are obvious (long term) - example is little stretched but makes sense if you think of empty calories
Same is explained  technically in answers How does fast-charge work? and Fast Charging by Qualcomm 3.0- impact on battery?
Technical details for Nexus phones  which use fast charging of USB type is Android phone "charging slowly": How to make it faster

And what if I charge the device a bit with one charger and a little with another charger?

Well it's like filling your stomach with pizza sometimes and eating balanced meals sometimes. Not as good as always doing the latter but better than always doing the former!
Related: Will charging a phone with a different USB *cable* affect the battery life?

All the chargers should work, to a varying degree... if they are QC compatible, the phone may charge faster than "normal", if not, the phone will attempt to draw current up to the maximum capacity of the charger or the phones "normal" limit.
Does this effect the battery in any way and does it effect the time before I have to charge it again?
Yes, of course it does... Different sources will vary the recharge time, one charger may charge the device to near full in a significantly shorter time than another device, causing you to have to recharge sooner or more often. Charging very fast, such as Quick Charge, can have a negative impact on the long term life of the battery itself.

Thanks, so will fast charging or slow charging provide more battery life after  unplugging from the charger?

And what if I charge the device a bit with one charger and a little with another charger?

@DevinErsoy I don't think you understand... It doesn't matter if you change the charger 5 times at every 20% mark or charge with the same charger... the chargers will charge at a different rate, one might charge 1% per minute and another 10% per hour, if the battery is charged by 50%, it is 50% more charge. it doesn't matter how it gets there (within reason).


text:
Recovery of QuickMemo+ data via SD - LG LEON bad screen
I have an LG LEON which has a damaged screen & digitizer. USB Debug is off. I can access somewhat via PC. I tried a USB OTG cable & mouse as well as various software to get some critical data from the QuickMemo+ app.
I have a new LG LEON, all updated & I noticed all the data for the QuickMemo+ app seems to be on the SD card.
Ive used various apps & the LG software to attempt to get at the data for the QuickMemo app off the old phone.
Under Internal Storage/data there seems to be a folder for QM+ but all it contains is images & screencaps not the .db I need.
Question: can I swap SD cards & have my old QM+ data? Or will that just over write the data I want?
Should I get a MicroSD to usb adapter & attempt a backup first?
Other options besides spend more than the phone is worth on a digitizer repair?
I will, sa the data is critical...
Also - I attempted to use the LG PC backup software to transfer the QM+ app to PC & restore to my new phone.
I just got an empty Qm+ with no memos. I hope that i didn't damage my memos on the old system.
Thoughts?

Going to try a microSD to USB adapter on the PC & make a backup, hope i didnt do any damage using the lg pc backup software, and look for my .db file in linux & windows


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How do I disable this MTP connection popup upon USB cable connection?
This appears whenever I plug it in:

I have gone through all settings, tried everything. I want the MTP mode to stay on (I have no desire to enable Mass storage). I know how to invoke this window manually from within the settings.
I just want it not to pop up.
Using Lenovo A536, 4.4.4, rooted, stock ROM.
Read through the other threads, they never offer a working solution (just bogus solutions). It always seems to derail towards FTP and/or MSD and making up menu items that are absent in my phone. I have sqlite3 installed, if you know the right database and key, tell me and I can fix it.

Just found a partial workaround: Installed this app from Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.launcher.plugin Then I set the Nova launcher as the app to run upon both power and USB connection. (It somehow didn't help to just add it to USB.) This only helps if the phone is just showing the home screen. If there is something running, it randomly shows said popup, then goes to the home screen. If it decides not to show the popup, it just goes to the home screen as expected. This leads me to believe an app could be made to overcome the popup.

This problem can have three reasons:
1- You connect your mobile phone to the computer, in this case, you should on this page, select the option to only charge and look for an option with the theme "Always do the same" and activate it.
2. Your charger has a problem and your mobile phone recognizes it as a computer. Try another charger.
3- If the problem is not solved after doing the above work, your phone probably has a hardware problem

There is no "Always do the same". It never is on any of the Android versions I have seen in this particular menu related to connecting the USB cable.

There should be a broadcast receiver for the "connecting to PC" broadcast, which this UI receives and launches itself.
If you're 100% sure you won't need to set this again, try using MyAndroidTools (requires root, of course) and disabling this certain broadcast receiver, or disabling the activity of this UI altogether.
Unfortunately, since I don't have the phone in my hands, I won't be able to figure out which receiver/activity to disable, but it should have "USB" or "MTP" in its name, so search that in MyAndroidTools and report back if anything comes up.

Thank you for the attempt. I have tried this and that in that MyAndroidTools application. I would seem that although it does show the relevant system app "Settings" listening for DockService, when I touch it, the switch doesn't flip and it stays enabled. The Superuser allowed does appear. There are several other toggles that seem promising, but won't flip no matter what I do.

Spent an hour trying many promising settings in that app. Some can't be toggled. The part that did toggle didn't do anything obvious; it certainly didn't get rid of the popup. The setting you suggested isn't there.


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Why are apps on Aptoide newer than the Play Store?
I have seen many of the usual apps such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google Maps even, that have a newer version in Aptoide rather than Google Play Store.
How is this possible since Google Maps and YouTube originally come from Google Play Store? Are these apps safe to download from the 'apps' store in Aptoide?
Also on the YouTube app in Aptoide, it doesn't have the 'Trusted' shield, it says 'Unknown'.

People may be uploading the various betas for these apps.

As you didn't tell which repo you've found them in, it might well be fakes with some "lovely addons" you'd better not try. Please see my answer to How safe is it to use Aptoide? on how to make sure you don't get "crap" (e.g. stick to "safe repos" like the one called "Apps", and watch out that the apps you download have a "green shield").

@Izzy  Yeah i did, i mentioned asking are they safe to download from 'apps' store in Aptoide?  because thats where youtube, maps, etc are available as newer versions. if its beta, it usually SAYS BETA. but in the current case, it doesnt. it just says newer versions are available. newer than google playstore?? i just dont understand.. this happens often.

Ah – sorry. I always said the name is a bit confusing. Especially when people spell it lowercase and not with an "uppercase A" :) Guess Andy's answer matches those candidates then.

Staged rollouts, alpha and beta testing.
APKMirror states testing builds clearly, for example on Google Apps:

Basically this. Since the update rollout from Play Store is staged, some people get the update earlier than the other, and they share the APK to other (e.g. XDA, APKMirror, Aptoide) for other people to sideload it. It almost always happened to me when reading new features of Google apps' update, when I haven't got the update yet.

Ok kinda makes sense now.


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Cannot Re-enable developer settings after ROM re-install
For.... Various reasons, I had to remove /system and replace it, I.e. fresh install my ROM. Now, however, I cannot do the build number trick to open developer options, and going through the dev tool menu states "Developer mode not available for you. You did enable it, right?". I doubt it is a kernel issue, since that copes fine, and the ROM is stable. I'm not gonna re-flash again today (Again, for various reasons). So, does anyone know how I can force it open?
Root methods will not work. Due to how the ROM is built, rooting and unrooting is done by flick of a switch... In the developers options.-NOW OUTDATED INFO, SEE EDITS BELOW
Edits

Root Works now! I managed to trip it on in SuperSU.

Have you used exactly the same zips as before? If not, have you cleared cache & dalvik?

@pzmarzly Exact same Zips - Though it somehow changed the SELinux state to permissive- and I have wiped cache and davlik that much recently, its unhealthy.

Some ROMs move settings around. For example, on Ressurection Remix a lot of options are moved to new entry "Customisation" in Settings. Check your Settings app.
You can also use ADB or Terminal Emulator and run following command (taken from there):
am start -n com.android.settings/.DevelopmentSettings

You can also check your ROM's forum thread to see if anyone else also had problems with enabling Developer Settings.

The issue is that I installed the exact same copy of the ROM, but bits have gone missing (I also can't use the home button) meaning I can't access the developer options. Tried the code, to no avail.

...can't use the home button - did you remove SetupWizard in the ROM package? That leads to a myriad of weird issues like this, a nonfunctional notification drawer and other stuff.

@AndyYan  Now that you mention it, no setup occured when I booted the thing back up. Any way to force it to life, or shall I just factory reset again?

It's strange for a ROM to not include at least a stub SetupWizard in its package. Check your current /system/app and /system/priv-app for an APK whose name contains SetupWizard. If there is indeed no presence of it, you have to put a compatible one in, set proper permissions and reboot. Flashing GAPPS (contains Google Setup Wizard) is another approach to this, but will introduce a lot of extras.

Also, if there's no SetupWizard presence currently, even a factory reset would do no good. For further assistance sake, please also tell us the device you have and the ROM you're now on.

@AndyYan I'll try reflashing gapps. Using a Samsung galaxy tab 2 GTP3110 running slimrom android 5.1.1 (version 0.15 beta, although it is about 95% complete.)