text:
Can't I change the sound volume with the screen locked?
When I'm listening to my podcasts, with the screen locked and turned off, isn't there a way to enable change the sound volume (with the physical volume buttons)?
--update
I'm on a Motorola Razr D3.

It really depends on the device. Some that is a standard feature with others it takes a little work.

That most likely depends on what phone and interface you have. On, say, a Galaxy S3 with the stock TouchWiz UI, when music is playing in the Samsung player or in Google Play Music, the volume control is enabled at the lock screen. On some other devices, it may not be possible. May I suggest editing your post to include which phone model you have?

Included, it's a Motorola Razr D3.

In CM they have a hack (or implementation) so that you can change the volume over the lockscreen by pressing the volume up/down key. Also pressing it multiple times will seek/change the track. Now I had two cellphones Optimus one from LG (GB) and another mobistel clone (running ICS) and the CM rom worked for both of them. Firstly requesting, include the model of your phone here and if possible check for some GB/ICS rom to have this feature by default.
EDIT: Is this device the same you have? http://get.cm/?device=solana
In case you are - cheers ! you are going to be a cyanogener shortly :) Try for a nightly build. I must not say they are super stable but you can get a feel of it, assuming you are running a root device.

My phone is a Motorola Razr D3, no CM available yet.

I'll award the bounty, and when it work I can mark as an accepted answer. Thanks!

By the way, the Droid 3 is another one. Mine is Razr D3. But looks like waiting for the CM is the only option for the device volume buttons to work. Thanks again!

VLC supports such a feature. It is the official Android version of the world-famous VLC media player. You can change the volume of what you are listening with it while your phone screen is locked. It is available for free on the Google Play Store. VLC is still in Beta status however it is quite stable and it works well.
It should be noted that VLC is only available for devices with a ARMv7 hardware architecture. And it is the case of the Motorola RAZR D3. ;-)

Not working here. Not sure if I was clear, but with "screen locked" I mean locked and turned off. In the lock scree, with the screen on, the players work fine.

@TomBrito : This is what I understood. I have got a Nexus 4 and volume control of VLC works fine with the screen locked AND turned off.

If you are wearing a headset when listening to your podcasts (which I assume), and those are wired and provide a physical button for play/pause, there might be an additional option using physical controls:
The playstore offers a bunch of headset control apps -- some of them manufacturer specific, others explicitly manufacturer independent (in praxis, both mostly work manufacturer independently -- it just might take you a while to find the one working best with your headset). Those utilize the single button most headsets offer to perform different tasks. For volume control, with most of them long-pressing the button increases volume, while a short press followed by a long one decreases volume (in both cases, until either you let go of the button or the volume reaches the end of its scale, whatever happens first).
I personally tried two of them: first I used JAYS Headset Control, which worked fine for increasing, but failed in 90% for decreasing volume -- which I address to the fact that I don't have a Jays headset. So having a Philips headset, I tried Philips Headset next, and as expected it worked perfectly.

JAYS Headset Control, the rather device independent HeadsetButton Controler, and Philips Headset (Source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
As you can see by these example screenshots, "command sequences" seem to be almost standardized (for combinations up to 3 presses, that is -- the "quadruple click" seems to be an added speciality of HeadsetButton Controller). So if you want/have to switch at a later time, you do not even have to change your customs regarding this :)

If you can use Bluetooth headsets which support HSP profile like Jabra BT3030 you can control the volume without even touching the phone.

Really sad, the Sony phones that I like don't have any button, but will search for new ones. I consider a huge fail of the system not being able to handle the device own volume buttons with screen locked. Even my old Sony Ericsson w300 would handle the volume fine. Anyway, thanks for the help!

I really wonder why it shouldn't work via the hardware volume buttons anyway. It did on all of my devices I ever had (including a Motorola Milestone 2, so it's not just Motorola per se). Admitted, none of my phones run JB, as you can see in my profile...


text:
Is there a way to automatically hide the status bar when the landscape keyboard is open?
For reasons I will not go into, my cellphone has a very small screen. It would really be nice if the landscape virtual keyboard would open in fullscreen, to leave a bit more room for larger keys. Any ideas how to achieve this?
If it makes any difference, I have an old-timey Motorola Droid running CyanogenMod 7.2.0-sholes.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to simulate a slow internet connection on an Android phone
I basically use internet using wifi which provides a very high speed internet and LAN connection. I would like to simulate a slow speed internet and LAN connection to understand how my web site works on slow speed. Is there any app that I can install on the android phone and simulate it?

There is no such setting on Android phones, but you can use the Emulator for this. Install the Android SDK from developer.android.com and launch it. On the DDMS view undet the Emulator control tab, you'll find the following options:

After you have created an emulator and ran it, you can set these values according to your preferences and test how different networks affect your site.

When using Emulator is not an option for testing certain functionality (frequently), our team hot-spots for physical Android devices with an iOS device and uses the Network Link Conditioner on that. Obviously, for some this isn't an option, but it works very well and is easy to implement.

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

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


text:
My Lg P500 will not connect to internet servers
I was using my LG P500 perfectly fine on the internet when all of a sudden a messaged flashed up on the screen internet disconnected.
So I went into settings to my wireless & network settings and turned off my WiFi, then turned it on again then went into WiFi settings. When I went into here there were no known networks showing up and the scanning wheel was just going round and round.  So I thought since I know the pass word, I will just add a new network. Then after this on the screen popped up another message saying unable to scan for networks.
Then my WiFi turned off on my phone. So I rebooted my phone and again this is still happening. It is not just at my house but everywhere I go I cannot connect to networks. :(
Please help I am a person whom needs Internet !

Did you maybe install something new shortly before "all of a sudden" all the above happened? Just asking whether maybe some malware is involved, as what you describe sounds strange. If not, and nobody else has a better idea: Make a full backup and then a factory-reset might be your last ressort. If that doesn't help either, your WiFi hardware has gone nuts, and you would need to turn-in your device to service.

Try to enable 3G/GPRS data and enable Portable Wi-Fi hotspot. Give a unique name and password and try to access this network from other WiFi enabled device. If you could get access, then you can rest assured that your WiFi hardware is okay.

Thanks guys for the ideas , i tried both but i had to factory reset it :L


text:
Changing Play Store default language and/or country
I bought a Samsung S4 here in the Philippines but the default language in the Play Store is Korean. Also, the prices of the apps for sale are in Won (Korean currency). How do I change the language to English? And how can I see the app prices in Philippine Peso? Please help me!

Can you also try the solutions here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/26809/is-it-a-way-to-turn-off-translation-in-google-play

System settings > My device > Language and keyboard > Language.
Note: I also have an S4, and also from Philippines.

Hello @geffchang. I went to the Language and Keyboard option and it's already in English. :( My Play Store's still in Korean :(

@user33951 Where did you buy the phone? From Globe, Smart, or a cellphone shop?

@user33951 Does it have "English (Philippines)"?

I got it from Globe. Yes, it does have English (Philippines) and that's the one I chose.

@user33951 That's weird. Are you using any proxy, or bypassing Globe somehow? The phone is probably detecting you are on a Korean IP address.


text:
How to forward all traffic over a VPN (without rooting) using Forwarding Routes
I noticed this feature in Android 4.2 but was wondering how you can use it to forward all traffic over a VPN connection? When editing a VPN under advanced settings it has a Traffic Routes option that you can put network identifier in that it will forward traffic for. Most people currently seem to root their phone and use SSH tunnels which seems a bit overkill for such a simple feature.
here's the screenshot of the input box I've mentioned.

Could you be a little more specific what "this feature" is and how it is supposed to work? A reference won't hurt either. Together it would make it easier to answer your question :)

Turns out you can forward all traffic over the network by entering 0.0.0.0/0
You can then check by doing a google search for your IP and it should now be the public IP of your VPN's gateway

forwarding all traffic seems to be the default behavior

confirm, forwarding all traffic is the default behavior.


text:
How to turn off ringer when connected to particular wifi network
Is it possible (in built or via an app) to silence the phone when it's connected to a particular wireless network, and then unsilence it when the network is out of range.
Use case : When I'm in the office on the company's wifi I want my phone to be quiet, but when I'm back home (or not connected to a wifi, e.g. outside) I want the ringer volume back.

I've just added the automation tag to your question. It's a good source to check, as this kind of question comes up very frequent -- so the answer very likely does already exist on our site. See e.g. Any way to schedule a passive profile-change? (connectivity, volume etc.), Switching profiles based on networks availability

This isn't built-in functionality, but it's something you could achieve with a trigger/event app such as Tasker. This kind of app runs in the background, and lets you configure certain actions to take (such as turning off the ringer) when certain events occur (such as seeing a particular Wi-Fi network). Tasker's not the only such app, but it's very complete and has some users who contribute to this site, which means that if you have questions setting it up you can probably get them answered here. See tasker.

The Llama - Location Profiles application should help too. This application uses phone masts around you to determine your location and switch profiles.

Llama uses phone masts to determine your location, so that you can
  change your ringer, vibrate and ringtones depending on where you are
  as well as the time of day. Llama provides you with sound profiles so
  you can quickly switch between quiet, loud, silent and normal sound
  settings. You can set your family, wife and children to ring even if
  your phone is set to silent! You can create events and home screen
  shortcuts to manage your sound profiles and more:
  -Silence your phone at work
  -Turn your Bluetooth on ready to connect your headset for a morning run
  -Set your phone quiet when it's late at night and you haven't gone out
  -Start the music player when a headset is connected

User rules in Android 11 - System, Rules.

I personally recommend AutomateIt. Not only can it achieve what you are wishing for, but it can also save you some battery life too. The app lets you scan surrounding cell towers in order to determine location. So in this manner you can silence your phone as soon as it connects to a nearby cell tower at your workplace. This way you save some juice by not having to keep your wifi on to determine location.
Give it a try, and if you love it enough, upgrade to the Pro version to make fancier rules that can better suit your needs.

I wrote an app that might be able to help you - Free Busy Silent Mode.
You can use the location feature in your office, and it shall auto silent/vibrate your phone when you are inside the radius


text:
Is There Any Way To Increase Internal Memory?
My internal memory is 1 GB. After I reboot it changes to 64 MB. When I check the space on internal storage, I only see built in apps and shows no free space.

Welcome. Have you searched for related questions and answers? You may use the tag [tag:insufficient-memory].

Not only that -- this again looks like the old "free RAM" question. Or is the question rather referring "storage" instead of "memory"?

No, there is no way to increase internal memory; this is installed at the factory and is fixed.  You can, however, free up existing space on your internal memory by removing apps, cleaning out caches and deleting end user files that are stored there.  Modifying stock apps (ie, removing bloatware) usually requires a rooted device, and will prevent you from receiving over the air updates as well as most likely voiding your warranty.

Look under Settings / Applications / Memory    then narrow down to "running", and see what is taking room.
Before I found "running", I noticed that NFS Shift and Let's Golf took a very large amount of "memory" (akin to disk space) so uninstalled them.
Then under Running, I could see if there were any things running that I didn't want, in my case skype was running (I use the chat), IMO was running (I use the chat), etc.  but if I'd have found things I didn't want running I would see what I could do with them.

The best solution is to swap the 'Storage Memory's ' . It's to swap internal to external and external to internal.
If your phone's rooted it may be easy just to edit a file(depending on the model).
So better search How to Swap Internal and External for your model.
Better search XDA forums.


text:
How to disable Play store from updating itself?
I don't quite like the new design of the play store, and wish to stay with version 3 of it.
Is it possible (by root if needed, and I think it is needed) to disable it from auto-updating?
Will I even miss anything from the new versions ?

In the past, there was a MarketUpdater.apk which did this. If you can find that app and disable it, it might keep updates away -- not sure, I didn't test. And yes, the latest version is horrible: hard to hit the "update" button, and then this "update on WiFi -- yes, later" missing the "never" option...

it's not just that. they have a new style which shows everything so large as if i have horrible eyes sight, and they still don't allow anonymous comments on the play store (what if i don't want a google+ account, or i have one but don't want to use it there ? ) .

For now, the only solution I've come up with is to use the really old 2.3.6 version of the market app.
This is the only one that doesn't auto-update itself.
In order to install it, you have to uninstall the play store, install it, and convert it to a system app.
If you wish, you can use titanium backup to backup the old version for later use.

You can try to found out the Play Store update IP address and have it blocked using the
iptables tool (using busybox)

won't i mean that i won't be able to install/update apps from the play store? besides, how can i figure out what are the IPs being used by another app? is it even possible?

It depends, if the same IP address is used for both downloading apps and checking for google play updates, it'll be a problem.
You get the IP address by doing one of the following:

Decompile the google play apk, search for the methods that responsible for the store update, look if there is a url that the app check with and then use nslookup to check what's the domain IP address.
2)Use tcpdump on your device and wait for the google play to check for update. After you are sure it updated, you can stop the tcpdump and start researching it on wireshark.
Both are not so simple, it's up to you:)

that's reverse engineering. such a thing might broke up some day. anyway, this is quite an interesting tip, but i think that i will just leave this question, as it seems google made a good job annoying me with bad updates.

Any results? Did anybody find the IP addresses?

The only way I've been able to do it is with Lucky Patcher. It has a "custom patch" for the play store that disables the self updating. It may not work with all versions but it worked for me running 4.9.13

Could you provide the link to the app?

Sure :   http://luckypatcher.net/

Here is how you do it:

Open Play Store
Tap the top left corner to open the menu
Select "Settings"
Under "General" there is an "Auto-Update" with 3 options

That setting refers to the apps installed by the Play store not the store itself.


text:
Can I remove the last 3 widget host of the tablet I have?
This is maybe silly question but I don't know how to get it.
When I start my android Tablet then I see 5 widget host where I can drag my app for easily run. I have removed few apps and now end 3 are blanks.
Now I want to remove them how I can do it. My android id 4.0.3.
Any guess.

"Widget host"? Do you mean "home screen"? Removing unneeded home screens is largely a function of the launcher you're using. As far as I know that's not a function of the default Android launcher.

Please update the question to say what tablet you have. Different manufacturers have different home screens on their tablets.

To remove any icon from the home screen, be it a widget or an app shortcut:-

Tap and hold to pick it up
A bin/trashcan icon will appear
Drag the icon onto the bin
Drop it

I want to remove the spacer (what you call in programming language) where I have host my icon to fastly use.


text:
file sharing between android devices without bluetooth and internet connection
what if you dont have internet service on your android devices but still want to use the wifi to transfer files. I have found there are many ways to transfer files but they all use the browser and need it to get on line and bluetooth is not an option on my tablet which is android also

I use ES file explorer.  It lets me access my home network disk drives via WiFi.
To test this, I opened my phone to the DCIM photo area, press/hold one file, "copy to" then navigated UP from the SD card, where it gave me my network connections (which I'd already browsed to with ES File Explorer).
I could then navigate down to a directory and say [OK] and the file went to my NAS
I was able to view it (or transfer it) on another machine just fine.
IF you want to use WiFi directly from android device to android device, then both need to be able to go into "Ad Hoc" mode which means something like "without a central WiFi router".  I doubt that's in the "settings" but there may be something in the app store.  (Sorry I refuse to use that new name Google gave the app store, as I am serious, not playing around).  haha.

In researching further, Wifi Direct is apparently not supported on Android, but the HW can do it and there are ways if you are into "Rooting" your android.

Nowadays Wifi Direct is supported. I think from Android 4.4 upwards. In the sense thatt you can pair devices like with bluetooth. Probably still need a compatible app to transfer files.

You might want to take a look at WiFi Direct and alike. There are several apps on the Playstore making use of this, like e.g.

SuperBeam | WiFi Direct Share (with a fall-back to "hotspot mode" in case of WiFi Direct problems: one device creates a hotspot, the other connects to it)
WiFiShare : Share Files Freely states it brings WiFi-Direct like functionality on lower version of Android, it also enables to send large size files to multiple people at a time -- which I understand as it does not depend on WiFi Direct, but emulates it itself.
Fast File Transfer utilizes WiFi tethering to achieve the same. The description states you could even send files to an iPh**e (censored ;) It plugs into the "Share" menu.
WiFi Shoot! WiFi Direct uses WiFi direct

One of those should be fitting your needs :)

I'd add Airdroid to that list, as it is popular and doesn't require internet (just a LAN, like most wifi-direct apps).

@jiggunjer this site is not about "popular lists". I was just giving examples for WiFi Direct. And Airdroid doesn't even use WiFi Direct ;)


text:
What does the online status on Viber mean?
Does it mean that the contact is msging/calling another viber contact, or just that the app is activated in the phone and running in the background? My contacts complain about me not replying to them even when I'm not using the app at all!

It means that the Viber contact's phone is on, and the Viber service is running.  Check your notification-settings in app.  Is it also possible you have notifications turned off for Viber via Android's app settings?  You can check by going in to settings, apps, selecting the Viber app and making sure the checkbox of "show notifications" is selected.


text:
How do I root Android 2.3.3 on HTC Desire?
I just flashed my HTC Desire with the Android 2.3.3 upgrade from HTC developer website. But now when I try to root it using the Unrevoked (recovery reflash tool) version 3.32 which is what I used the last time, it fails to root it.
Does Unrevoked support rooting 2.3.3?
If not, what other tool or method can I use?
Like I said, I used Unrevoked last time to root 2.29.405.2 and I used AlphaRev to set S-OFF. Is there a way I can flash it with 2.29, root it, set S-OFF, and then only upgrade Android to 2.3.3 without affecting other parts of the system?
I have visited the wiki pages of the Unrevoked project, but there are no specifics about what Android versions are supported.
Screenshots
Here are some screenshots of Unrevoked.

Update2:
I used SuperOneClick version 2.3.3.0 and it seemed like it managed to root it. Here's a log.
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
export PS1=""

$ export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.release > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=32532

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

2.3.3

END:32532export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.manufacturer > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=28422

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

HTC

END:28422export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.model > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=96072

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

HTC Desire

END:96072export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.incremental > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=51591

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

96875.1

END:51591export PS1=""

ls -l /system/xbin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=91434

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/system/xbin/su: No such file or directory

END:91434export PS1=""

ls -l /system/bin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=42250

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/system/bin/su: No such file or directory

END:42250export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=51294

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:51294export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=26328

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

whoami: unknown uid 2000

END:26328export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=60490

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

rm failed for /data/local/tmp/boomsh, No such file or directory

END:60490export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/sh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=51670

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

rm failed for /data/local/tmp/sh, No such file or directory

END:51670export PS1=""

chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=73418

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:73418export PS1=""

cd /data/local/tmp/ > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=32307

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:32307export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=46286;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;./zergRush

[**] Zerg rush - Android 2.2/2.3 local root

[**] (C) 2011 Revolutionary. All rights reserved.

[**] Parts of code from Gingerbreak, (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew.

[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0x00000118

[*] Scooting ...

[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...

[+] Zerglings found a way to enter ! 0x10

[+] Overseer found a path ! 0x000151e0

[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...

[+] Zerglings caused crash (good news): 0x401219c4 0x0054

[*] Researching Metabolic Boost ...

[+] Speedlings on the go ! 0xafd1950b 0xafd395f7

[*] Popping 24 more zerglings

[*] Sending 173 zerglings ...

[+] Rush did it ! It's a GG, man !

[+] Killing ADB and restarting as root... enjoy!

# export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o rw,remount /system > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=20944

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:20944export PS1=""

mkdir /system/xbin > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=80223

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

mkdir failed for /system/xbin, File exists

END:80223export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=98688;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;/data/local/tmp/busybox cat /data/local/tmp/1108121.tmp > /system/xbin/su

cannot create /system/xbin/su: not enough memory

END:98688export PS1=""

export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox rm /data/local/tmp/1108121.tmp > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=29466

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:29466export PS1=""

chown 0:0 /system/xbin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=58396

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Unable to chmod /system/xbin/su: No such file or directory

END:58396export PS1=""

chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=42924

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Unable to chmod /system/xbin/su: No such file or directory

END:42924export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=42250;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;/data/local/tmp/busybox cat /data/local/tmp/5025101.tmp > /system/app/Superuser.apk

cannot create /system/app/Superuser.apk: not enough memory

END:42250export PS1=""

export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox rm /data/local/tmp/5025101.tmp > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=22516

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:22516export PS1=""

busybox true > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

busybox: not found

export TEMPRANDOM=19154

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:19154export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox mount -o ro,remount /system > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

Note this part specifically:
[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0x00000118
[*] Scooting ...
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings found a way to enter ! 0x10
[+] Overseer found a path ! 0x000151e0
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[+] Zerglings caused crash (good news): 0x401219c4 0x0054
[*] Researching Metabolic Boost ...
[+] Speedlings on the go ! 0xafd1950b 0xafd395f7
[*] Popping 24 more zerglings
[*] Sending 173 zerglings ...
[+] Rush did it ! It's a GG, man !
[+] Killing ADB and restarting as root... enjoy!

It says "restarting as root". But the thing is when I run the Root Checker Basic app it says "sorry! this device does not have proper root access." What gives?
So I'm back on square one again.
Update 3:
I tried the GingerBreak tool, as mentioned here. I installed the APK manually from my computer with ADB. I then launched the app and let it do its thing. After over 10 minutes without any results I aborted it. It doesn't say in the article if the phone needs to be connected to the computer when you do this. They mention that USB debugging needs to be enabled. I don't understand why if the phone doesn't need to be connected. But I tried both connected and disconnected, didn't work either way I tried.
Update 4:
Use the Revolutionary method!
I would have posted a step by step instruction with screenshots but as you can see the question has been marked as a duplicate and I can no longer post an answer to it. So I can just tell you to go to the "duplicate" question and look for instructions there (the link on top of this page).

Sammy, you might always want to take a look into our rooting index before asking "how to root..." (btw, our tag-wikis, here rooting, are pretty good resources to find such ;) -- How to root a HTC Desire running official Android 2.3? should answer your question and tell you the correct tool to use :)

So Revolutionary is the answer? Isn't that based on Unrevoked?... and it has been a developer preview for at least a year without any official release for the "mass destruction" of rooted devices. I'm desperate, so I'll give that a go anyway. Thanks!

You're welcome! I cannot give you more details on this -- I just picked the question for you, as it perfectly matched :)

I also have a blog post on how to root HTC Desire 2.3.3. http://techspalace.blogspot.com/2011/10/perm-root-htc-desire-gingerbread-233.html

Thanks guys, I got root and S-OFF now using Revolutionary. About that Beta key... do I need to safe keep it? Or will I be able to generate a new one next time? I'm not sure why that is needed. Just because the tool is in Beta development stage?...

Since HTC provides a tool to unlock the bootloader on there phones why not use the official tool... http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/

Yeah, I saw that last night. Though I'm not sure how this will help me. So what if I do unlock the bootloader? Does it give me root access?

If you unlock the bootloader you can easily root without any hacks, you can flash any mod without hacks.


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Why does Android 3.x have no market share?
According to the Android Developer Dashboard, the market share of Android 3.2 is only 0.1%, and no other 3.x version has even as much as that.  Versions 2.x and 4.x have all the market share.
Can someone please explain why there's a whole major version of Android that is apparently unused, while the previous and the next major versions are in wide use?  Was 3.x quickly replaced by 4 and all devices forced to upgrade?  What would have made 3.x so bad that no one uses it?

Honeycomb was a tablet-only version of the OS
It was only ever released for a few devices
The source code was never released not released until the source for Ice Cream Sandwich was available, and even then the Android devs noted that 3.x source was not complete
It never had much in the way of market share

See also:

What percentage of devices have each of the Android versions?
Is Android 3.0 Honeycomb only for tablets?

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/android-building/T4XZJCZnqF8/WkWhGUYb4MAJ  "This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb
releases. However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich. So, we haven't created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the changes are present in the history.)

I'd add one more bullet point, that a lot of devices that were initially sold with 3.x have since been upgraded to 4.x.

To build on Al Everett's answer:
Yes, 3.x was a tablet only version of Android. The user base is phone dominated until more recently, but now Android tablets are coming with 4.x. Since the first Android tablets came out with 2.x (the first Galaxy Tab) I am assuming that there was an initial tablet crowd that picked that up instead of an iPad, which was dominant in the market at the time to begin with, and then when 3.x came out there was some hesitation for the unfamiliar since there was no way of knowing what 3.x was like since it was not available for the phones that users already possessed.

For a Vendor to release a 3.x tablet its hardware needs to be approved by google. Very few vendors hardware was approved to release their Tablet with 3.X version. Devices with 3.x are less in the market so are the downloads


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How to get fm radio back after Desire X was updated to Android 4.1?
My HTC Desire X recently updated to android 4.1. With that update, the FM radio disappeared. How can I get it back? I can't find an app the does this in the Play Store. Are there other ways?

The problem is solved by restarting the phone.

Take a look at this forum: http://www.htcforums.com/desire-x/12477-updated-4-1-1-no-fm-radio.html. The only other way (I know) to get a fm radio on your device is to root it or install an .apk from outside the Play Store.

Use Spirit Light. Works well on Desire, excellent app.

What spirit is light? I mean, with enough spiritus you hear everything, be it there or not... Maybe you could add a link and a little explanation what "Spirit Light" is? ;)

@Izzy lol! Maybe it's liquer spirits? JD on the rocks please! :D /ot

@t0mm13b Excellent! That gives the "on the Rocks" another dimension (it simply rocks on, and thanks to the spirit in the JD part, sounds even better than a full HiFi rack :D)


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Is it possible to play music from an Android device to Airplay speakers?
I'd like to play my music, podcasts, pandora, etc. on a Libratone Airplay speaker in my house.
I bought the Airplay add-on for DoubleTwist thinking it would let me do this, but it appears to only support AppleTV http://www.doubletwist.com/help/question/what-devices-are-supported-by-doubletwist-airplay/
The reason appears to be that there's no UI to select a device in airtwist.  Instead, you have to broadcast your availability and then pick the device from the AirPlay device.  Sadly, most airplay speakers do not have a UI to select devices.
Is there a way to send music to my Libratone or other UI-less Airplay speakers?

Bubble UPnP works great, although I don't find the interface all that easy to use

A link to the app would be good, also have you tested this with the speaker the OP mentions?

Yup, I am the OP :)

Gj adding the link and hah, I missed that when it came up, sorry.

you can always try beta version of our AirPlay & DLNA media streaming app for Android. We are just looking for beta testers! Have a look at our landing page: http://streambels.com

Cool I'll give it a try!


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can I transfer a game app from galaxy s3 to galaxy tab 2
just got a galaxy tab 2 today and I would like to transfer the fashion story game my daughter plays on my galaxy s3 phone to it so she doesn't have to start from scratch... she's 8 and found it sooo long to get where she is at

Is the game developed by TeamLava Games?

What Android versions are running on the devices? While Sparx answer looks good to me, it would require both devices to be rooted. You didn't mention whether they are?

Use Titanium Backup to backup the game + data and then transfer the backup to your new device where you can use Titanium Backup on the new device to restore the app+data again.
However, please check whether the app is compatible with your new device.

Try this app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.traber.blueappsender
Using this app you can send the app to another phone or tab.
If you also need the data  simply copy the game data folder (mostly in android>data)


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LED light DROID 4
Can you change the color of the LED light on the DROID 4? Like is there an app or anything? If so, what's the name of the app, and how?

You can use Light Flow to customize LED notifications; it also has a lite version.

Light Flow allows you to take control of your notification LED colors
  and makes them successively flash one color after another.
It also allows you to set repeating sounds on vibration patterns for
  you notifications. You can also set a "sleep" mode or "on charge"
  where the lights and/or sounds and vibrations will not be heard or
  seen.


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Phone / Skype Dialing Option
I have a Samsung Galaxy SII.GT-I9100 Android Version 4.1.2
Recently I installed their latest upgrade. I still have the option to choose between Phone & Skype when I am dialing, which is great, but now they have a second annoying choice which must be made each time. That is ALWAYS or JUST ONCE which then immediately sets that as the default.
This means there has to be an extra choice pressed each time I want to make a call.
Is there a way to disable that ridiculous feature & still retain the Phone/Skype option.
Thanks for any help you can give.

So...you want a choice to be presented but you don't want the choice to be presented? I'm a touch confused. In any case, try double-tapping the app of choice to have it open immediately when the choice box shows up.

Confused, "You want to disable that Always/Just-once option, is that your question?"

Sparx/MattLin: Easily understood when you encountered it once :) While up to ICS, you had a single popup with the app selection plus a checkbox "always use", with 4.1 you get two popups: 1 to select the app (no checkbox anymore), and a second whether you want to remember that choice. Peter obviously wants to get rid of the second, but keep the first popup; basically the pre-4.1 behavior to be restored. Is that possible?

Android 4.2.2 (Touchwiz ROM not available yet) updates this functionality by including Always/Just-Once in first popup itself.

You can't get the old popup back, but Sparx's suggestion is correct: if you double-tap the app, it has the same effect as clicking "Just once". Hopefully this is quick and easy enough that the new-style chooser doesn't annoy you any more.


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"Contacts' birthdays and events" calendar does not update on S3
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.1.2.
I have several calendars which I access through S Planner and it all work fine, except for "Contacts' birthdays and events". It shows the events and all, but if I change some birthday, or add a new contact with a birthday, the change doesn't show in the calendar.
On Google calendar, they are updated just fine.
I've found that if I clear the data of "Calendar Storage", it syncs again, and the events are shown properly. But then again, it doesn't update any new changes. Also, all the info not stored on Google Calendar, like tasks, gets deleted.
Any ideas?


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Turn off GPS, when the mobile is switched on
When ever my mobile is switched on/restarted GPS is automatically enabled. Is there a way to turn it off till the time its explicitly enabled?
Is this because of any of the third party apps?
Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Jellybean 4.1.2

One way to do that is using Tasker together with the Secure Settings addon. But this requires your device to be rooted since, um, ICS at least (Android no longer permits apps to switch GPS as it did with e.g. Froyo and before). You could configure a condition for "boot completed", with a task to disable GPS. So it would be disabled at startup, and not touched from then on.
You might even want to go a step further, and let Tasker automatically switch GPS back on as soon as you start selected apps (useful for e.g. Maps) -- so you would not even need to remember turning it back on when needed.

Tasker and the Secure Settings Addon (Source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)
Apart from that, once you've got used to setting up profiles with Tasker, you'll find many more things you can automate with it. Sure, the app has its price (worth every cent of it), and takes a little time to get used to. To first try it out, you'll find a free trial on the homepage, working for 7 days. If that seems to short, here's what the dev himself recommends: Take care to export your configuration before the 7 days are up. Then, at the end of the test period, uninstall Tasker, re-install it, and import the saved backup -- you're ready for another 7 days then :)

Thanks for the response.
Is this the default behavior for the android devices? When ever the mobile is switched on/restarted GPS turns on by default..

No - but this is the behaviour if I factory reset my (LGP500, v2.3.3) phone (after factory reset, GPS will be set to on. If I disable GPS and restart the phone, GPS stays switched off).

Same for my phones: once turned off, GPS stays off. Not sure about default after factory-reset, as I don't do a factory-reset that often :)


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Backup Wifi SSID and password on SGSII
I updated my sgs2 [I9100] to JB, I want it to format or wipe that clean and stable install. I can backup everything except wifi keys. I guess kies seems have it, but it was not work before.
How can I export or backup them without rooting? Then which way should I follow to format-wipe-resetfactroy like as a brandnew phone?

On newer versions of Android, WiFi settings are backed up along with your Google account (If you've enabled it in Settings -> Backup & reset -> Back up my data), and restored when you link your Google account back to your wiped or new device.
Note that in my personal experience, the Google backup feature is a bit flaky, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. On new devices it usually works, but when wiping/installing ROMs it may fail.

I have forgotten to say I do not want to share wi-fi and etc.. parsonal stuff with google and as mach as I understand it may not work properly anyway.
Is there any working solution without rooting nor google?
Or this result is Google want to collect everything?

Use Titanium Backup PRO to do so.
Start the app. Tap MENU in the top right corner. Scroll down to the SPECIAL BACKUP / RESTORE section and choose BACKUP DATA TO XML
There - choose Wi-Fi Access Points.
To Restore, choose RESTORE DATA from XML.

Can I do it without root with Titanium Backup PRO?

There are apps other than TiBP that allow a user to backup/restore the WiFi access point details. Unfortunately, ALL of them need ROOT access. May I ask why you opted for an Android device when you're unwilling to use a Google account (perhaps even a non-essential throwaway Google ID just for backup purposes) ?

http://sadevil.org/blog/2012/10/23/copying-over-your-wifi-access-points-on-android/ shows how to perform a backup/move manually using ADB but that too depends on elevated privileges as evidenced by the use of 'su'.


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IM+ Disable status string
How to disable status string "On Android with IM+" when using IM+ for skype? I do not want to show that I am away from PC.

According to this site, it's possible to change the status by tapping it and selecting another status message. It's possible that this is not available in the free version, since they usually contain ads.


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Ports on the Android PHONE
I often use my Samsung Galaxy Note2 on local WiFi networks which are protected by a firewall, and experience problems with some apps which are most likely caused by strict firewall rules.
Is there somewhere a list of ports to open for the apps on our Android devices (e.g. Facebook, Google play app., etc)?
And last the Google play store port was 5228, did they change it again???

I doubt that's on-topic here. We deal with issues/questions from a user's point of view. Put into this context, what purpose shall such a port-list serve?

Then we all no what ports to open on our firewall so that we can use our Android Phones from behind an Firewall.

OK, you've made your point -- that makes it an end-user question. I hope you don't mind if I include this fact directly with the question, to make it clearer? If needed for firewall rules, it's e.g. not necessary to have explanations for each port, and in some cases even "port ranges" might be fine.

Btw: Until someone comes up with a port list, you might want to take a look at e.g. OS Monitor. In its "connections" tab it shows you which apps hold what open connections, including the ports used -- so you can at least collect the most important ones yourself.

Thx Budd.. you better than Google today :-)

Only today? #D If you count "ways to figure out the ports yourself" as answer, too, let me know -- and I compile something for you.


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Flash Samsung Rugby Smart AT&T to factory conditions after installing cyanogenmod
I have tried installing Cyanogenmod 10 on my Samsung Rugby Smart AT&T, but now I want to revert back to my old factory ROM. But how?

Did you make a Nandroid backup before flashing CM?

If you don't have a Nandroid backup, you'll have to find a stock ROM for your device. Your device is not that well-known, the only resource I could find is on XDA-Developers. There you can find information on how to use ODIN to flash a stock ROM (post #5).
In the future, creating a Nandroid backup is always recommended before flashing a ROM, just in case something happens or you want to go back.

thanks for your comprehensive answer, I would try this solution and tell about my experience here.

When looking for ROMs, a good place to start is our question Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? and its answers :)

@Izzy: I almost know that, but problem is a little different and complicated about Samsung Rugby Smart and the AT&T. That's why I open a new thread

@MaziarBouali That was perfectly fine and absolutely correct -- my intention was not telling you "please ask there", we are not a "forum" :) Just wanted to give you the ressource to check, in case the XDA thread fails :)

@Izzy: yup :) I got it and I'm so grateful for your sense of duty about keeping "StackExchange" family disciplined. Thanks. :)


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How to display a contact address on Google maps offline?
For each contact there is a personal address field which can be filled with informations like street name, city, country, and so on. The problem is that in order to display these informations on a map, Google maps have to do an online search to get the coordinates. How can I use this feature offline ?

Short answer is: you can't.
The feature relies on a service called geocoding, which is done on Google's servers. The only possibility for this to be done locally would be to download the entire map data to the device and use that data to calculate the coordinates from an address. This is a resource and space consuming task (for example, OpenStreetMap has a dataset of 370GB), and not suitable for mobiles.
A workaround would be to save the coordinates themselves as a street address in the form latitude,longitude, e.g. 62.244858,25.758712 in addition to the regular address and use this "address" to show the map. The catch is, you'd still have to use a geocoder to resolve the address to coordinates.
All address fields are sent to Google to be resolved, that's why the workaround I suggested is invalid.

I don't understand why Google maps don't give me the option to cache this result. A simple GPS coordinate would be enough, even though Google maps don't work offline (for navigation)

@Antoine see the update for a workaround, that's the best I can come up with.

In which field do you put this string? So far it stills require an internet connection to display it on a map.

Ok, so it appears that the Contacts app sends all address queries to Google to be resolved. So it can't be done this way either. Just so you know, the Contacts app creates a formattedAddress query from the address, and the location you'll have to put the coordinates differs between Contacts apps, for me the Street address field worked.


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How to make Gmail in Android ask for user name and password as in laptop?
In my Samsung Galaxy Grand whenever I select the Gmail icon, it automatically takes me into the inbox, it doesn't ask me to give credentials like we do in laptop/desktop.
So the problem is when somebody else wants to use my mobile, they are able to see my all inbox mails etc etc as soon as they choose the Gmail icon.
So I want it set so that when I access the Gmail icon in Android, it should ask me to give username and password everytime .

The solution to your problem is using an "App Locker", which lets you protect selected apps with a password (or pattern). Each time you want to open a protected app, you then have to first "unlock" it. There might also be solutions permitting you to keep the "unlock" cached, e.g. for a confugured time span or place (e.g. when home) -- but as I don't need any app-locker I never remember which app offered that.
Examples for such app-lockers are Smart App Protector(App Lock), supporting password, pattern, and even gesture unlock, and Smart AppLock (App Protector):

Smart App Protector and Smart AppLock (Source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)

The reason for this is that the Gmail app doesn't have a login function, instead it uses the Google account that you have added to the phone. You either have to add the other person's Google account to your phone and remove it after they've used it (which is time-consuming) or tell them to use the browser to access their Gmail, which can be set to either remember or forget the user, like the desktop site.


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Is there any way to send SMS to another device using internet?
Is there any way to send SMS to another device using internet? I don't want to use phone native. I want to use internet to send messages.
I'm not talking about android applications like Viber, WhatsApp Messenger, etc. If we are using those services, other devices we need to send SMS must have installed the same application. But I don't want to do that. If at all, I want to install an app only on my Android device and send SMS to other devices using internet. (other devices means all other devices which can receive SMS -- not only smart phones but also devices like nokia 1100)

Please note that Is there an app for X type questions are off topic here (see our [FAQ]). I took the freedom to re-phrase it to your real issue; guess you'd also accept solutions not involving any 3rd-party-apps :)

I don't see how this is an Android question.

off topic. "I'm not talking about android applications..." then how can it be an Android question?

@William please read whole sentence. "I'm not talking about android applications like Viber, WhatsApp Messenger, etc." i'm talking about android apps, but they are not like Viber, WhatsApp Messenger.

Use gateway like way2sms.

The only way to accomplish this is to use an online SMS gateway, which means you send the message to the service provider via the internet, and they forward it to the recipient over SMS. There are several service providers for this, but mostly they require a subscription, i.e. they're not free. Just google for "sms gateway" to find them.
Some service providers have Android app support, but this depends on your region and the selected service provider.
Note that most service providers don't allow you to use your own number as the sender, therefore the recipient may have a hard time replying to you.

yes. agree with you. There are several service providers for this, but mostly they require a subscription. SMSGlobal is a example. benefit of this app is we can use any number as sender. but have to pay for their service. but i'm looking for some thing we can send SMS using internet, without paying for the SMS service.

Ok, that aspect of the question is definitely off topic here, as it has nothing to do with Android.

Why this question is off topic ? I'm asking for a android app which can send SMS using internet, without paying money for SMS service(except applications like Viber and WhatsApp Messenger which need to installed same app on both device to send and receive SMS). This is not a programming related question.

Like Izzy commented on your question and mentioned in the FAQ, questions like "Can you suggest an app that does X" are off topic. The core of your problem is finding a free SMS gateway, which is not related to Android in any way. When you find a suitable gateway, you can search the Play Store for an app that supports the gateway.

Try way2sms.com. You have to subscribe or create an account with them, but then you can send unlimited messages through their gateway.

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


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Amazon Appstore reports "payment issue" when I try to update an app I bought a while ago
I remember having this issue months, possibly years ago. The error message is poorly worded and I forget what I did to resolve it last time...
http://note.io/1818dqP
Clicking the link takes me to a page (in the browser) that says that the digital orders page has moved, with a link to the new location. Following that link just shows me my order history and the "pending orders" that the app alludes to don't seem to be available anywhere.
My only thought for a resolution was that maybe it was looking at one of the expired credit cards I lazily hadn't removed from my account yet. I removed all expired cards, and I still have the issue.
What's most frustrating is that this is an app update. It should be completely free.
Anyone got any ideas?


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Set different languages for different users
I'd like to set different languages per user in my nexus 7 (Android 4.2), but the only option I've found for changing the language is system-wide, and applies to all the users. Is there any way I can do that?

Perhaps a Tasker script might work... Hope a Tasker guru responds.

This is not possible from Android directly. A Google code issue has been opened to ask for this, but the issue has been tagged obsolete. Google code ticket.
If you have Tasker installed, the Secure Settings plugin lets you trigger a system language change.
Ps: Marking as wiki because I don't have enough karma to comment the question.


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How to add timezone to world clock when you don't know the city?
Using the stock clock in Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) on my Nexus 4, I can add world clocks for other cities around the world by scrolling through the long list of available cities (in alphabetical order).
However, what if I can't find any cities, that I am familiar with, in the respective timezone? The list of cities included in the clock app does not seem to be comprehensive; all the cities covered by the IANA timezone database are not included. I do not see any way of adding an additional city, or searching the current list by timezone or even just specifying a timezone?
Am I missing something?
Reference: List of tz database time zones

Example:
My initial problem came about when trying to set a clock for "Central Indonesian Time" (Abbreviated CIT or WITA officially). I know this is UTC+08:00. I also know the tz identifier is "Asia/Makassar". Makassar is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. This time zone also includes the popular tourist island of Bali, of which the capital is Denpasar (international airport).
But neither of these cities are included on Android and further more, none of the cities mentioned on the Wikipedia page for CIT are included either. In fact, having trawled through the entire list, there are no Indonesian cities listed in this (Indonesian) time zone!
In the end I used Kuala Lumpur (Malaysian Capital) and assumed it will always be the same (although that is no guarantee, since it is officially a different timezone (MYT) - different government).

A workaround might be to find out what the current time is in the city of your choice via Google. Then scroll thru the list of cities (the current time is shown in light grey below each city) and choose the city with a matching time.

@Sparx - That is certainly a (time consuming) workaround, however, another problem is knowing that a city adopts the same DST settings as the target city - which requires further research.

I think this would be more of a one-time issue. Have you seen any of the other Timezone converter apps in the store to see if their functionality meets your needs?

@Sparx: Yes, I have since used World Clock from timeanddate.com and this includes both "Makassar" and "Denpasar" from my example above.

It's incredibly annoying that Google doesn't care about those things. If your phone is rooted, fire up a terminal or "adb shell" from a computer. Get a root shell by typing "su" and then:
setprop persist.sys.timezone "Asia/Makassar"

After restarting the phone, you get "Central Indonesia Time" under "Select time zone", despite the fact that it's not in the list.

So, simply stating "Asia/Makassar" is enough for Android to look up the required information from some database?

It does not seem to be comprehensive? You don't expect this list to consist every backwoods from all over the world, do you? (BTW this is the android time zone list we are talking about LIST.)
Android provide NITZ feature - your time zone is taken from cellular network you're registered to.
If Nitz fails to work (your cellular network does not send time zone), then you have to find out what time zone you are in and set it manually.
BTW provide a link to "IANA timezone", if you please.

Nope, not expecting every "backwoods". In fact the list in the stock clock is far more comprehensive than the LIST you link to. I'm not in the country I wish to set a world clock for. I've updated my question with links and an example.


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Manually Linking Facebook Contacts to Android
Until recently I was able to manually link a Facebook contact to my android contacts by going into the Facebook contact, holding down the contact under the friends list then selecting 'link to phone contact' (or something very similar). I no longer seem to be able to do this. Is this due to a new Facebook update or am I now doing something wrong?
Most of my contacts are synced with Facebook (or LinkedIn), it is just everytime I add a new contact it won't sync automatically (even when going into Facebook and selecting sync with existing contacts). I do not want to use a third party app, is anybody able to help?
Many Thanks.


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How to recover deleted contacts
I lost all my contacts while syncing  email.Is there a way to recover these contacts.
I checked on Google contacts in Gmail but its not there as I never synced my contacts.
Not rooted and Android version is Gingerbread 2.3

What about restoring your backup you hopefully made? Apart from that, they are most likely gone for good (except you want to hire an expensive recovery expert, in which case you shouldn't touch your device until he's done his job). Is your device rooted? Then you might want to take a look at e.g. Recover deleted content from userdata partition?

There seem to be a number of similar questions in the "Related" section (on the right). Did you look into any of them? I expect this is a duplicate. I lost all my contacts on Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000 How to recover lost contacts from samsung galaxy s3 How do I restore a contact I deleted on my Android phone, but not in GMail contacts?

@AlEverett I have gone through all the questions before posting this question.
The problem is I never created a backup ,Is there any feature in Gingerbread that automatically creates backup?


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Help samsung home pin
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini. Sometimes when I go to enter my PIN, if I touch anywhere on the screen i.e. on my screen saver, any of the numbers, or go, it just inputs "0" in the entry box. How can I stop this? All I've got to do is turn the screen off and back on and it refreshes.


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nroot/unbrick Galaxy S2 SGH-T989
I am having problems trying to go to this screen

but the process ends me up on this screen

My process:

Turn off device
Hold power volume up and down until a vibration
Event: shows the end screen but not the warning screen

Can someone guide to get to the warning screen so I can connect directly of computer and access it by odin?
Url of what I am trying to do

When starting your phone in step 2 of your example, hold the volume down only. Once the warning screen appears, then press volume up.


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no adb devices detected after failed revert to Android
Just a few days ago I tried to revert my Asus Nexus 7 wifi back to Android from Ubuntu Touch Preview and made a mistake somewhere. To sum up, now my device has no OS on it so it will only show the bootloader, and it does not show up as an adb device but still shows on fastboot. Here's a summary

Downloaded Android 4.2.2 nakasi via https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#nakasi
followed instructions from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation#Returning_your_Nexus_7_to_Stock_Android
failed on step "writing 'radio'". Also got: archive does not contain 'boot.sig', archive does not contain 'recovery.sig', archive does not contain 'system.sig'
tried multiple times with the same errors.
got frustrated and restarted to try again
now I have a blank list of adb devices

Anyone have advice on where I can learn to fix this or want to help with some suggestions? Thanks for your help!

Don't worry. Adb requires an installed Android or an Android recovery. You just need to flash a recovery manually and then boot this to have adb again...

Just did all the necessary steps on my N7:

Download the factory image from Google
Unpack the downloaded file (e.g. by tar -xvzf nakasi-jdq39-factory-c317339e.tgz)
Boot your N7 into the bootloader (hold the power and both volume buttons)
Have fastboot installed (comes with the SDK or for Ubuntu, just install android-tools-fastboot)
connect it to your machine
Flash it using flash-all.bat or flash-all.sh (needs installed fastboot)

Here's the transcript (using Ubuntu):
me@localhost:/tmp/nakasi-jdq39$ ls
bootloader-grouper-4.18.img  flash-all.sh   image-nakasi-jdq39.zip
flash-all.bat                flash-base.sh
me@localhost:/tmp/nakasi-jdq39$ bash flash-all.sh
...
(bootloader) Bootloader is already unlocked
OKAY [  0.020s]
finished. total time: 0.020s
erasing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.104s]
finished. total time: 0.104s
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.147s]
finished. total time: 0.147s
erasing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.106s]
finished. total time: 0.106s
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.175s]
finished. total time: 0.175s
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  1.401s]
finished. total time: 1.401s
sending 'bootloader' (2096 KB)...
OKAY [  0.286s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  1.165s]
finished. total time: 1.452s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.020s]
finished. total time: 0.020s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: 4.18
Baseband Version.....: N/A
Serial Number........: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
OKAY [  0.040s]
checking version-bootloader...
OKAY [  0.023s]
sending 'boot' (4944 KB)...
OKAY [  0.654s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.172s]
sending 'recovery' (5446 KB)...
OKAY [  0.712s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.193s]
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.055s]
sending 'system' (471804 KB)...
OKAY [ 60.282s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [ 23.357s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  1.023s]
formatting 'userdata' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 14442037248
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 8176
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 32768
    Label:
    Blocks: 3525888
    Block groups: 108
    Reserved block group size: 863
Created filesystem with 11/883008 inodes and 96825/3525888 blocks
sending 'userdata' (137526 KB)...
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 27.078s]
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.050s]
formatting 'cache' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 464519168
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 7088
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 1772
    Label:
    Blocks: 113408
    Block groups: 4
    Reserved block group size: 31
Created filesystem with 11/28352 inodes and 3654/113408 blocks
sending 'cache' (9052 KB)...
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [  1.751s]
rebooting...

finished. total time: 115.545s

I attempted what you suggested and simply get '...' indefinitely. There was a comment I saw on my original post yesterday that a link that looked promising, but I didn't have time to look at it then and now it seems to have been removed.

After several attempts and many errors this finally worked! Thanks all!

FYI: Good that you chose a Nexus. The Nexus line is almost unbrickable by fiddling with custom firmware such as CyanogenMod, Ubuntu Touch or Firefox OS,... PS: Would you mind to 'upvote' my answer?


text:
Location of App's "USB Storage app" and "SD card"?
From the below screenshot, can anyone please tell the location(or rather path) of the "USB storage app" and "SD card" that an android application points to?

Screenshot
I write a text file in the /mnt/sdcard folder but I don't see any changes in the SD card parameter.

Sdcard is at /sdcard/ or the path you've given. So you wrote a text file with this application you've taken the screenshot with?

@Peanut I'm just copying a .txt file into sdcard by setting the directory as Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(). I want the text file size shown in the "SD card" field.

Odd, I would have thought that would change it. I think although your questions "What are the paths" isn't developer orientated your actual query of "Why isn't the value reported changing" is a dev question and should be on StackOverflow.

@Peanut I had posted there initially but was lead to post here instead.

it would have helped to name the device. I guess 2) it either has an internal and an external SDCard, or/and the "SD card" entry there does not refer to /sdcard but to another place (e.g. /sdcard/external_sd). 3) this rather looks like a development question, as Peanut pointed out: end-users don't access things like Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(). Oh, besides: If my above guess about an internal SDcard was correct, despite the functions name, that's what it returns.

Your screenshot is information regarding a specific app on an Android device and how much space that app uses. Saving a text file in /mnt/sdcard will not have an effect on the numbers you see here. Depending on your phone and what version you have, you can usually go to Settings > Storage to see you memory usage.

See his comment, he's written the application himself and written the .txt file using that.

This was moved from Super User. Check out Stack Overflow for a simular issue.


text:
Speed of WiFi file transfer from PC to phone
I have WiFi router set up. Both my phone and Windows PC connects to the same WiFi. So I tried ES File Explorer to copy shared folders from my Windows PC to my mobile.
However transfer speed goes as high as 570 KB/s but not more than that. Since I configured my WiFi router to allow speed as high as 300 Mbps I am guessing why it cant hit the Mbps speeds. What can I do improve on my speed since I move movies worth in GBs and it takes almost an hour or more. Is it limited by the speed of the mobile and its internals?

Have you checked the connection speed of both in your router? Maybe one of the two is not connected at "full speed". Also consider that CIFS overhead eats some of the theoretical possible throughput.

what about FTP or HTTP transfers?

Your phone seems to be a bit older as it runs Android 2.3 - therefore I assume it does not support any faster WLAN connection than 54MBit.
Hence the theoretical maximum would be 54MBit = 6.75 MByte/sec but only if you have just a router and a phone. With your PC in the network each device gets less than that.
Depending on the network protocol used you also lose a lot of speed. SMB/CIFS as used by Windows shares is very ineffective. Better use FTP protocol and suitable client for the best speed.
If that does not improve the performance I would suggest using an sd-card in and sd-card reader directly attached via USB 2.0 to your PC.

Well about the phone, its not from a big vendor but quite a local one. Its Karboon A5+. It has 1GHz processor and somewhat ~430MB RAM. I did bought it 5 months ago and it was new model then though cheaper one.
About using SD card reader, am afraid it will damage my expensive microSD, I bought class 10, 32 GB SanDisk.
Exactly which parameters I can look for to determine max Wifi transfer speed supported by my phone.

Sorry but you are totally wrong. A SD-card reader does not damage anything as long as you handle the SD-card carefully.

I have the same issue on Google Nexus 10. And I've recently find out that this happens only in ES File Explorer. I've downloaded movie using Google Chrome and the speed was 7 000 kbps, but the same file from the same site through ES Exp - < 500 kbps...


text:
Nexus 4 wont charge or turn on; LED is blinking red
I've been charging my Nexus with the original charger for 2 hours. It still shows red LED light when I hold the power button. I've tried everything:

Different USB chargers
Holding the volume button with the power button

It just wont work. I'm not the original owner so I can't get another one.

Try to long press power in for about 30s.
Then short press.
This is how I recover after a Nexus4 crash.

It sounds like your Nexus may not be getting enough power. Check out this related article (for Nexus 7) that sounds like your problem:
Since you are not the original owner, and not under any warranty, perhaps you'd like to try some DIY work. In this case, check out this article.
Good luck! I hope this can help you.

Ive been charging it from more than 12 hours. Still the red light blinks and then goes off. Im worried. And i cant open up my phone.

And also if i use the iphone charger theres a steady red light and if i use the original charger then the light turns on then starts to blink. Whats this issue?

Possibility 1 (worst case scenario) -  since you're not the original owner, you don't know what the previous owner did. In that case it can happen that he/she might have had experimented a bit and formatted the nand or the phone malfunctioned and somehow the nand got formatted i.e full clean no bios(download mode as in android). In this case, your phone is bricked. You can possibly bring it back if you have experience with rooting, custom rom flashing all that stuff.  Plus you will need the restore bootloader file for the nexus. I had experimented this: nand formatting on my galaxy s3 showed the same behaviour. Go to the XDA-Forums and search. If you don't have any experience and don't know what I am talking about, I'd suggest taking the phone to a service center.
Possibility 2 (good scenario compared to the previous one) - battery is dead since the nexus's battery is inaccessible: the same solution here, also take it to a service centre.


text:
Can I get an update that isn't for my phone yet?
I'm on 4.1.2 right now and want to update to the latest version (I believe it's 4.2.3). When I hit 'Check for updates' in settings > about phone > software update it says there's no update avaliable.

Just because Google released a new version of Android doesn't mean that Samsung (or any other manufacturer) has implemented it for any or all of their devices or that your carrier has made it available OTA.
Samsung does not appear to have made any announcement regarding if or when the Stellar may receive an update to JB 4.2.
You may also wish to keep an eye on When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?

Will it break my phone if I upgrade? I mean, is there any reason samsung is denying me the upgrade?

@chipperyman573 There's nothing for you to upgrade to.  The code hasn't been ported to your device.  It's not that they're denying you it per se, but that they haven't got any update made for it.  Someone may have done their own porting work (see Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? for places to look for those) that you might try, but Samsung hasn't made any 4.2 update for you yet.


text:
Trouble importing photos to windows
Hi I am trying to import photos from samsung galaxy s2 using windows photo gallery. When I do this it imports all of my music album art and mixes it all together with my photos.
When I simply try to copy with explorer however, it doesn't auto rotate my pictures.
Does anyone have a solution for this?

You can download Picassa, for example, which only imports photos. I find it very convenient for importing, browsing and minor adjustments to photos.


text:
Google Maps unthaws "itself"?
I have a relatively specific question - I'm on a SonyEricsson xPeria Mini Pro (sk17i), using Android 4.0.4 with a rooted Stock Rom.
To conserve battery, I'm regularly freezing some apps I only use occasionaly (like FB, Skype, and also Google Maps), using Titanium Backup. They would otherwise run in the background permanently, which I don't want them to do.
The thing I experienced is, that Google Maps somehow seems capable of unthawing itself - once in a while it returns to running in background.
Anyone else noticed this? Is there a way to prevent Google Maps from doing so (Or more likely prevent the Android OS from unthawing Maps)?
Thanks for the answers

Have you checked if the app is really unthawed? I rather guess something was calling one of its intents explicitly. Explanation: When an app is frozen, it becomes unavailable/invisible in the drawer etc. and is excluded from autostart (it no longer listens to broadcasts, it seems). But it is still possible to directly start its intents, as they are obviously not removed from system configuration by most "freezers".

Unthawing seems an odd choice of work. Thawing means to no longer be frozen, so unthawing surely is a way of saying it's returning to freezing, so why use it to refer to something which has started running again?

Running in background does not mean the app did "unthaw" itself. To understand this, some background information might be helpful:
"Freezing" actually doesn't change the app or uninstall it. It just marks it as "unavailable", so it no longer shows up in the app drawer etc. It should also no longer receive broadcasts. But it's still there. So if another app knows its "intents", it could explicitly call them – and they would respond. This is what most likely happens here: Something is placing an explicit call to it.

Before freezing Maps, I've disabled some of its "listeners" (I do no longer remember which ones), which can be done with several apps, e.g. Autorun Manager Pro or ROM Toolbox Pro. For me, Maps no longer wakes up.
I'd recommend you taking a look at Autorun Manager (you might check its free version first). As it offers both, freezing and receiver-blocking, it would be the first choice concerning this. Oh, same applies for ROM Manager, by the way, which also offers a free version. So you've got the choice to check them both, comparing, and then deciding which one to buy – as full functionality in both cases only comes with the payed versions.
PS: AFAIR the dev of Autorun Manager wanted to implement a freezing method which automatically un-registers receivers. So you might want to check that one first.


text:
Samsung Galaxy 3 Apollo I58001 | Limited Internal memory problem
How do I solve the Limited Internal memory problem in my Samsung Galaxy 3 apollo I5801 device?
It has android 2.2 froyo and a 8gb micro SD card. I want to move the apps which are not by default movable to the SD card (not system apps).

Your selected tag seems not to match your question, or I am simply confused: could you please make clear what your question is? Am I correct it could be understood as "How do I move apps to SD (external?) which are by default not movable"? Would maybe the tags external-sd and app2sd match better then?

Your best bet might be to get an app to sd app off of the playstore.
Here's an app you can use.  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd&hl=en
If you don't have enough memory to install it in the first place, check here


text:
Smart TV Stick (Android) connects to 3g dongle for Internet
I am trying to explore the options of connecting a 3g dongle to the car charger. And then connecting a Smart TV Android stick into the 3g dongle to get Internet. It will be great if I can get internet from the USB connection and not have to waste Wifi (how ever little) battery between the 2 devices.
Questions

Is it possible to get internet via USB on the android stick ?
Can it get power from the USB too ?
Will starting the car have bad effects on these devices ?

You may get what you want, if you find a model that includes this functionality already (like e.g. the older Archos G9 tablets did) but it will not work out of the box for most models.
There's the autopatcher project (thread on XDA) that enables 3G dongles for modem-less tablets (but it is limited to certain custom ROMs like CyanogenMod, AOSP, rooted Google stock Android and others).
Regarding the power question: That's up to the exact model and you will need to find out by trial and error or get that info from searching Google/specs/etc. The same applies to your last question (but in general, those TV sticks are built to be plugged in and out and need to survive sudden power losses just as phones need to because they tend to run out of battery juice).


text:
Running own executable on Android shell
I need a specific command line tool and I have made a C program in my Linux shell. I have compiled the program with an ARM cross-compiler. I have then moved the program into the Android file system and tried to run it.
The output is permission denied.
What do I have to do, in order to run my own compiled programs in Android file system?

Tried chmod +x pgm and then ./pgm also?

Possibly you placed it on your sdcard -- which is mounted with the noexec flag. You either need to move it into the phone's internal storage, or run it via a shell (e.g. sh /path/to/myexecutable).

How to compile C into an executable binary file and run it in Android from Android Shell?

I assume that you used adb push for uploading your executable to the sd-card. Unfortunately the sd-card is always mounted with "noexec" which means that you can't execute anything from here.
Therefore you have to copy the executable to the local filesystem, e.g. to /data/local. In case the device is not rooted or you don't have BusyBox installed there will be no "cp" command. You can simply use cat: cat /sdcard/myprog > /data/local/myprog.
Then you have to set the executable permission on the executable. Chmod on android usually does not support the "u+x" syntax. Therefore you have to call chmod 555 /data/local/myprog.
Afterwards you can execute your executable: /data/local/myprog.
Alternatively the directory /data/local/tmp can be used. Via adb shell you have full access in this directory. On modern devices (Android 11+) apps can't list files from this directory, but they are still able to execute executables from there if you provide the full path of the executable.
Update: On Android 10+, apps that has a targetSDK of 29 or higher can no longer execute anything that is located in their app private directory: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/10/behavior-changes-10#execute-permission

Thx for your reply. In fact the problem was on the binary generation. It was not being generated correctely! ;)

I have busybox on my device, but this command: shell@n200C:/ $ busybox cp /storage/external_storage/sda1/ffmpeg /data/  ------ show error= cp: can't create '/data/ffmpeg': Permission denied

tmp-mksh: /data/local/workspace/clang+llvm-5.0.0-aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/clang++: No such file or directory though the file is present

/data/local requires root access on my device. Use /data/local/tmp instead

First, you have to push it into a directory, such as /data/local/tmp. Then, you have to set permission for that using chmod 755 executable. After that, you can run it as ./executable.
Complete steps are as follows:

adb push executable /data/local/tmp
adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod 755 executable
./executable

Alternatively, if you want to run it from your asset folder, you have to copy the file to your data folder /data/data/packagename/. Then using File class, set the setExecutable flag to true for the file and run it by the Process class or third party packages like Root Tools .
UPDATE
if you are targeting sdk 29 or higher you CANNOT use the binary from your asset folder ! you have to copy your binary to jnilib folder then run it from native library directory ! context.getApplicationInfo().nativeLibraryDir


text:
Wifi battery saving tips or automation
A person that is not expert in computers & technology (including smartphones) bought a Galaxy Mini S3 and asked me some help. He is very old of age.
The problem with this phone is that Wifi drains away lots of power. The battery barely survives half a day. Disabling wifi multiplies the battery duration. It is normal that disabling wifi helps battery survive, but the difference with this phone is dramatic (my S3 "large" lasts more).
The basic idea is to disable wifi when not needed, something that I do every time I go out of home playing Ingress. But that user is not an expert and hardly can be taught how and when to enable/disable wifi. He needs Viber, which he learned how to use, when home. When out of home, no wifi is needed.
I would like to ask if there is any application that can be used to turn wifi on and off depending on the location of the device, possibly avoiding draining battery because of the GPS. I was thinking about coarse location based on cell tower.
I was also thinking about the old Microsoft On.X.
Or, can any other trick be used to make battery last a little longer with wifi on?
An important thing I found: I let the user use the phone mainly in standby for an almost full discharge. Battery meter said that Android OS consumed 62% of battery. Wifi was only consuming 6%.
This morning the phone was fully charged. After about 4 hours the battery level, with wifi manually turned off, was of 98%.

Tasker is an app that can be used to automate changing settings on your device, based on various events like when you leave range of a wifi AP, or when you enter a geographic area.
You can have a look through the Tasker tag here for some idea of the jobs it can be used for, and how to configure it.

I second this suggestion. Using "Cell Near" for evaluating the location (instead of GPS or Net location) will help not wasting battery on that, as the current CellID is known at anytime (as long as not in airplane mode) for telephony either (it's the ID of the cell tower used). I use it this way with Tasker for years now, works excellent. Just from time to time it might require a fresh "cell scan", when the carrier updated their hardware :)

Thanking GAThrawn and Izzy for the feedback I also want to post two scripts in On.X's Javascript-like syntax
1st script: enable wifi only when home (inspired by a Microsoft script)
// Initializing variables
var action = "enter" /* arrive */;
var region = { name : "Home",latitude : XXXX,longitude : XXXX,location : XXXXX } ;
var action2 = "exit" /* leave */;
// End of variables initializing
//Create New region is necescary to set the radius
var myLocation = device.regions.createRegion({
   name: region.name,
   latitude: region.latitude,
   longitude: region.longitude,
   radius: 100
});

myLocation.on(action, function(){
    device.network.wifiEnabled = true;
});

myLocation.on(action2, function(){
    device.network.wifiEnabled = false;
});
device.regions.startMonitoring(myLocation);

2nd script, also useful, toggles wifi on charge (supposing the phone is charged at home)
var batteryChargingEvent = "startedCharging";
var batteryChargedEvent = "stoppedCharging";

device.battery.on(batteryChargingEvent, function (signal)
 {
     device.network.wifiEnabled = true;
 });

 device.battery.on(batteryChargedEvent, function (signal)
 {
     device.network.wifiEnabled = false;
 });

Using both shouldn't be a problem unless one uses a portable charger

You could also look into an extended life battery (usually larger with a custom backplate.) Not really solving the problem, but definitely an option, and maybe simpler.


text:
Why do I only have 304 MB of available storage space?
I have AlphaRev Oxygen R2, 4Ext Touch Recovery, AN-Droid 2.2.0 with Android 2.3.3 on my HTC Desire. But I have only 304 MB of available internal storage space after the first boot up. Now I installed Shazam and it shrank down to 296 MB.
Shouldn't this number stay the same when I install an app? I mean I have formatted my SD card in 4Ext and created a 2 GB Ext4 partition for apps. Are the apps being installed on internal memory anyway? How do I check that? And if so, how do I tell it to install to the SD-Ext partition instead?
This ROM is supposed to come with integrated App2SD+. Ain't that right? If not, can you suggest another ROM that has integrated App2SD+ or tell me how to set it up manually?

I want memory, man!! This stupid phone comes with only 147 MB of memory available for the user apps and data. I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they designed it.
In response to Izzy
This is the output of the mount command.
sh-3.2# mount
mount
rootfs / rootfs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
/sys/kernel/debug /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /app-cache tmpfs rw,relatime,size=8192k,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock4 /cache yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock5 /system/data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,commit=50,bar
rier=0,nobh,stripe=64,data=writeback,noauto_da_alloc 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,u
id=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset
=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/secure/asec vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relat
ime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,ioch
arset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
/dev/block/dm-0 /mnt/asec/se.fmckl.regnr-1 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,relatime
,uid=1000,fmask=0222,dmask=0222,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mix
ed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/dm-1 /mnt/asec/com.fingersoft.benjibananas-2 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,n
odev,relatime,uid=1000,fmask=0222,dmask=0222,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,
shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
sh-3.2#

Output of the df command.
sh-3.2# df
df
/dev: 207168K total, 64K used, 207104K available (block size 4096)
/mnt/asec: 207168K total, 0K used, 207168K available (block size 4096)
/mnt/obb: 207168K total, 0K used, 207168K available (block size 4096)
/app-cache: 8192K total, 0K used, 8192K available (block size 4096)
/system: 256000K total, 213132K used, 42868K available (block size 4096)
/cache: 40960K total, 1388K used, 39572K available (block size 4096)
/system/data: 151168K total, 113812K used, 37356K available (block size 4096)
/data: 2064144K total, 444856K used, 1619288K available (block size 4096)
/mnt/sdcard: 28544368K total, 9550336K used, 18994032K available (block size 163
84)
/mnt/secure/asec: 28544368K total, 9550336K used, 18994032K available (block siz
e 16384)
/mnt/asec/se.fmckl.regnr-1: 3124K total, 1040K used, 2084K available (block size
 4096)
/mnt/asec/com.fingersoft.benjibananas-2: 33212K total, 30996K used, 2216K availa
ble (block size 4096)
sh-3.2#

Does this make any sense?

Looks like you've bought the wrong device then (and I don't know what you've thought when you bought it ;). Apps get installed into internal storage by default. Even with App2SD (as you've already applied that tag, follow it for closer information) you can only move apps supporting this to your card, which will move parts of them.

May thoughts exactly! Right after I posted that comment. The fact is I had already bought the Samsung Galaxy S. But my friends were all over me about their precious HTC Desire. So I gave in to the pressure and returned the Galaxy S in exchange for the HTC Desire. I don't think I even booted up the Galaxy S, not even once. But little did I know that it came with so little memory. It was not even 512 MB but only 147 MB available for user data. The Galaxy S came with 2048 MB I think. But it's easy to be wise afterwards, you know.

How did you resize the screenshot image? Is there an image resizer tool here at SU that I'm not aware of?... I thought about resizing it but didn't have time. Thanks!

I will try to answer my own question here. The short answer is: get a ROM that just works! (No, not a room, a ROM! Get a ROM!)
Here is the same screenshot image of the SD & phone storage menu, this time with a ROM called SuperNova. You can find an installation guide here.

As you can see from the image I now have 1.86 GB of internal storage space. No additional apps have been installed yet, except for some apps that came with the ROM, and the stock HTC apps that came with the phone.
How-to
You will need root and S-OFF before you continue. It's also possible to install this ROM with S-ON, but it will require some additional steps, for more details see the developers website. You will also need a custom recovery like Clock Work Mod (CWM) or 4Ext Recovery. The latter is recommended. You will also need to flash stock HBOOT, if you don't have that already. You will find the stock HBOOT on AlphaRev website.

Go to the download page of developers website.
Download "SuperNova 2.4.0.1 Extreme ROM". You will see at least three mirror download links. Here's one direct link to Dev-Host.
Power off the phone.
Enter HBOOT on the phone.
Enter recovery (I used 4Ext Touch Recovery).
Format and partition the SD card with one Ext4 partition and one FAT32.
Power off the phone and take out the SD card.
Mount your SD card to the computer.
Copy the Supernova_2.4.0.1_signed.zip file to the SD card.
Put the SD card in the phone.
Enter recovery and choose "update from zip".
Select the file above. This will now flash the new ROM.
Reboot the phone. First boot will take longer time than usual.
When you get to the setup wizard, skip setting up a Google account.
Reboot the phone. You will see a blue LED go and off. This means Data2SD is loaded and working.
Now you can setup your Google account and Wi-Fi, and what not.

Remember, complete installation instructions can be found here. That web page can be overwhelming, especially for newbies, which is why I tried to put it in a more condensed form here.
If you run into the "Download was unsuccessful please try again" message when downloading apps, this means that the app you're trying to download is too big and the Android Market cache is too small. This problem is covered in the FAQ at developers website, it's question 28.
The suggested workaround involves using Scriptmanager app and a script, and this must be done every time you reboot. But I have found that installing the latest version of Play Store (replacement for Android Market) manually solves the problem permanently.
Here's a short how-to on that too.

Download the APK file for Play Store.
Connect the phone to the computer. If prompted, choose to mount as
disk drive.
Copy the APK file to the SD card.
Disconnect the phone.
Go to menu, settings, applications, and enable unknown sources.
Start a file manager app (I used ES File Explorer, but ASTRO is good
too).
Browse to the file (/mnt/sdcard/) and tap it to open. You'll be
prompted if you want to replace a system app. Tap OK to continue.

I will try this out and see how well it works. If it's very good I might write a short step by step guide for future visitors.

That looks like a miracle -- where does the extra space come from? 304 MB and 1.86 GB looks a little different :) Is that total space, or remaining space (so with your first screenshot, you had just filled it up)?

The extra space comes from the SD card. That's remaining space... and total space... I mean that's what it said when I just booted up the first time, without any additional apps installed. I created a 2 GB Ext4 partition on the SD card. This is combined with the 147 MB free user space that's normally available on the phone when it's new (the stock HBOOT layout). You would maybe expect 2 GB + 0.147 GB to be 2.147 GB. It's less than that, probably because some of that memory is addressed to things like GPU, and of course some of the apps added by developer.

To me that rather looks like mount points being switched (i.e. /data now resides on your 2 GB SDCard partition). The fact that you have to create the partition before flashing the ROM seems to support that. You could verify it executing the mount and df commands from a terminal or via adb shell. Everything else (including Data2SD) would not explain why the device displays that amount for internal storage (which it assumes is mounted at /data).

When in adb shell, how do I use the mount and df commands? Do you want me to use them together somehow? Do I just type mount to view mounting points, and then df to view total and available space? Give me an example, I'm not very familiar with linux.

You can see the output of both commands above. It says that /system/data has 151168K total. That's 147 MB. And available is 37356K or 36 MB. This is the actual internal memory, right? For /data it says 2064144K or 2015 MB total and 1619288K or 1581 MB available. Does this make any sense?

When I mount the SD card to the computer Windows says that total space is 27.2 GB. It should say 29.8 GB since it is a 32 GB card. So that's 2.6 GB missing, probably residing on the Ext4 partition.

Yupp, as expected: 2 GB on /data, that's your new partition on the SDCard. Then it seems to have re-partitioned the internal NAND (/dev/block/mtdblock*) to make use of what previously was used for /data: /cache now has 40 MB available, /system 250 MB, /system/data 148 MB, summing up to 438 MB (which they definitly did not have before: 512 MB NAND - 438 MB just leaves 74 MB (which is used by partitions not mounted and thus not listed above, such as e.g. /recovery). Careful when switching to another ROM which might not expect this partitioning :)

32 GB is the brutto capacity of the card. Even with ony one partition on it, and a completely empty file system, you would not have 32 GB available. There's always a little "wasted space" ;) My single-partitioned 32 GB card shows up on my tablet as "29,27 GB total" -- so take away the 2 GB of your extra partition, and numbers match perfectly.

let us continue this discussion in chat


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Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 version 4.1.2. stuck and freeze
I have Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 version 4.1.2. Lately it freezes very often and only a restart helps solving that.
I ran Factory data reset, but it does not help.
I don't know how to solve the problem. I bought it less than 1 year ago via E-Bay so I don't know who can help me.

As a recommendation, try installing a custom ROM like CyanogenMod 10.1. You won't lose your apps, and this happened to me on my BN Nook Tablet (rooted) and installing CM fixed it.

This is a known problem with the S3.  It's believed to be related to a fix Samsung put out post 4.1.2 to prevent "Sudden Death Syndrome" - where the phone would die and require a replacement.  Using different roms has not worked in 100% of cases.  Fingers are crossed that the Android 4.2 release which is due out for the S3 later this month will have a fix for this, there's no evidence this is the case.  It's believed that the problem is memory related, and there are apps such as Dummy File Generator (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.nomunomu.dummy&hl=en) which will fill up the system memory with empty files to try and force some sort of self-correction, but this is also not 100% successful.  Perhaps worth a go, though.


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Trying to use Kies to upgrade Galaxy Note firmware
Similar to this question: Kies dies when trying to update Galaxy Note firmware
I go to upgrade the firmware and it just keeps looping, downloading firmware components.  The progress bar keeps moving, but it seems like it starts over and never completes.
I've uninstalled Kies and reinstalled it as an Administrator.  I set it to run in XPSP3 compatibility mode and to run as an administrator and even run it explicitly as an administrator with a right-click.
I'm running on Windows 7 Professional, SP1, 32-bit OS.


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Why my Google Now on my Motorola Razr D3 will not reply with voice?
I just saw this vídeo about Google Now, but I don't have the same behavior on my Motorola Razr D3, with Android 4.1.2. I got the search results, but with no voice reply.
Is it the voice reply exclusive for Samsung phones?

Voice reply isn't exclusive for Samsung phones: I get it with the same "what's the weather" query on a nexus-7. But it's controlled by a setting in Google Now. From the main window, go to the menu and choose Settings. From the settings page, you want Voice, then Speech output. Set it how you like.
But take note that you only get a voice reply for the special queries that Google Now is programmed for, not for web searches. To get a list of these special queries, press the microphone icon and ask, "Help."

I already did that, but it didn't work. But I just realized that if I set all my phone (not only the Google Now) to English it will work fine. Also, I realized that the Pico TTS don't have my language, so this may be an issue.

Actually, installing a TTS language for Portuguese (in my case) is not working. Everything must be in English, the google now, and the phone itself.