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How to disable duplicate calendar notifications?
My stock Nexus 4 (4.2.2) is giving me multiple calendar notifications every day.  It gives me one notification which is a reminder for a specific upcoming event, and it gives me a second notification which is sort of a general roll-up of upcoming events.
Here's an example of the two notifications:

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)
I rely heavily on the reminder notifications, but I find the rollup to be useless for me.  I've verified that both are coming from the Calendars app by long-pressing on the notifications and clicking on App Info.
How do I disable the second "roll-up" calendar notification?

When you click on the "roll-up" calendar notification what app opens?

Do you really have "Feed dog" as a calendar event!? :)

@ZnewmaN When I click on the roll-up, I get a dialog filling most of the screen called "Calendar notifications" with a scrollable list of upcoming events.  When I click on the reminder, I go directly to the specific event in the calendar app.

@w3d My dog has no opposable thumbs so he has trouble entering these reminders into his own phone.

@emmby can you post a screenshot of the screen that you get when you click on the rollup notification?

The roll-up dialog looks like this: http://cl.ly/image/0N021u0Z0Z3r

I can confirm that this is normal behaviour for the default (blue) Google Calendar on the Nexus 4 - just the 1 app. Having tried a few tests of my own...

The multiple "roll-up" events appear to be events for which you have already received a notification, but have not explicitly acknowledged or "dismissed" it - in which case the notification remains in the notification area and forms this group when the next notification occurs.
In the screenshot above, a notification has just occurred for "Test3", while notifications have already occurred for "Test1" and "Test2", but I did not acknowledge/dismiss them. I could, for instance, tap on the "roll-up" and dismiss "Test2" - it will then be removed from the notification area.
The only way to stop this roll-up of events is to either:

Dismiss the notification as it occurs.
Don't set a notification for these events.

Instead of turning off notifications for events just disable pop-up notifications in the Calendar app (which are what's being queued in the roll-up mentioned by @emmby) here: Settings > General > Notifications and Reminders > Pop-up notification.

I already have Pop-up notification disabled (which I believe is the default option) and I get the same roll-up of notifications. However, the Pop-up notification is different... you get an obtrusive pop-up when the notification occurs and you seem to get no option but to acknowledge/dismiss it, at which point it is removed automatically from the notification area. So, in fact, enabling pop-up notifications would prevent the roll-up, since you are forced to acknowledge them.

There are likely two calendar apps on your system. Stock Android includes an app and Google provides one as well, which might be preinstalled on your device, or you may have downloaded it without realizing it. They both look very similar (which is probably why you thought they were the same when you held on them for the App Info screen). Check in your app drawer. The stock Android calendar is a green calendar icon, and the Google one is blue. Then disable notifications for one of them.
You can always click on the roll-up notifications and when that app opens, go into the settings and disable notifications. Then go to your app drawer and check both icons (both are labeled calendar) see which app has notifications disabled. Once you determine what app it is, if it is the Google Calendar, you could just uninstall it, or if it is the built-in one, you can disable it via Settings -> Apps -> All -> Calendar -> Disable.

An easy check for your theory would be: follow one of the notifications, and disable notifications for the app turning up as source. Wait for the next event and see if both notifications are gone, or one remained :)

I also have a stock Nexus 4 (4.2.2) and I only have a blue Google Calendar - there is no (stock) green calendar. The same for my ICS tablet (both the same version). AFAIK the blue Google Calendar in the Play Store is (or at least is now) the stock Android Calendar. If I ever had the green stock calendar on my tablet it has been automatically replaced with the blue one (via the Play Store).

Long-pressing on the notification should give you a link to "App Info", which will at least tell you which app is raising which notification.

Apparently Google replaced the stock Android calendar app (the green icon), with their proprietary calendar app (the blue icon). They did the same with the browser and put on Chrome. The Google calendar app and Chrome are not part of AOSP, but apparently, Google replaces the stock ones with their versions on newer builds.

i verified using App Info that both notifications are coming from the same app.  Calendar version 201212060

I was experiencing similar behaviour on my Galaxy S3. Been bugging me for months and I finally overcame inertia, found this question, and confirmed there were indeed two apps showing notifications. Google Calendar, which I want, and S Planner, which I don't. Turned it's notifications off and no I just get one. Much better!

If you use the calendar app that I do (which I believe is the stock Android calendar app that has a pink icon),

Click the icon to open the app,
Click settings
Then mine has a "Set Alerts & Notifications" where I can select from 3 options: (1) Alert, (2) Status Bar Notification, or (3) Off.

I use the stock calendar which uses my Google calendar and I also use Nudnik reminders app. So all three of those apps have settings for notifications that I have to consider.
Hope this helps!

So to complete your answer: You obviously have turned off notifications and alerts in all calendar apps, and have Nudnik Calendar Reminders deal with them, correct? That would match what I did, just that I've used Calendar Event Reminder (CER).

If you are using the BLUE Google calendar and want to stop getting 2 notifications do as I do:
I went into the Stock Android Calendar (Pink) & in Settings checked the Play Notification Sound Box, picked my Notification Sound & then UNCHECKED every other box for these settings.
Then I went to the BLUE Google Calendar & General Settings. In Notifications & Reminders I checked the Notifications Box, picked my sound so that it is the Same one as the Stock Calendar one I chose earlier & decided to check the box to vibrate & I checked Pop-up Box.
Then I UNCHECKED the the MAIN Notifications Box leaving the other boxes checked but greyed out.
If you leave the MAIN Notification Box checked as well you will get 2 pop-ups!

I also had duplicate reminders on my phone (and watch) and tried out a few suggestions here. I indeed had 2 calendars in my app drawer - Google Calendar (blue) and the other (blue-green) was actually part of Boxer, which I use for multiple mail accounts. I turned off everything I could find in Boxer and now back to only one notification per event.  Why would Boxer add this to their app with notifications turned ON is anyone's guess.  If this even provides help to one person, I'm happy to have helped.


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WiFi Tether Causes a BSOD in Laptop Using Intel WiFi Hardware
On a rooted Nexus 4 using stock 4.2.2, if I enable Wifi tether then connect my laptop (a Lenovo T520 using Centrino Advanced-N 6205 hardware with driver v15.3.1.2) I get a BSOD within seconds. I am using the stock tether app.
I read elsewhere that I am not the only one with this problem, but Intel refuses to acknowledge it. I even waited for an updated Wifi driver to come out, which I installed today, but the problem persists. According a thread on XDA-Dev, the workaround is to set the Local IP to 192.168.1.100 instead of 192.168.1.1 and the DHCP starting IP to 192.168.1.101 instead of 192.168.1.10. But since I am using the stock tethering app these settings are not available. Is there a tweak app that would allow me to do this? Or are there other workarounds to this issue?
TIA

This is a documented bug related to tethering between INTEL wireless and QUALCOMM S4 based mobile phones, leading to disconnection or BSOD. It has been documented here and discussed here.

Its happening to me as well since yesterday. Never happens with dell but first time in HP. Read somewhere that enabling FIPS in wifi setting in laptop will solve this problem will check and revert.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Stop Applications Loading
How can I stop so many applications loading, and slowing down the system. When I clear the Ram I usually see that at least 16 applications have been running. What for?

There are many apps out there which will help you know which apps are running in background and hogging resources with extra features from stock task manager. Few of good apps are
Elixir 2-Application Monitoring Manager.
Wake Lock Detector-Tells you which apps are keeping your phone in partial awake or in full awake state.
Advanced Task Manager-Will help you manage running processes.
Stay away from task killer apps they are no good and  drain out battery.

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


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Double Security for Gmail
My phone has a pattern lock and I want friends to be able to unlock it with the pattern, however, I do not want them to have access to my gmail. Is there a way that I can force gmail to ask for the password every time I/someone try to open it?
I've read that the password tokens are an intrinsic part of the Android OS, is there any way I could do such a thing without losing the notifications of new e-mail?
Thanks!

See also: Is there an application / ROM that allows me to set the phone to “Guest” mode which I can configure?

Aren't you at 4.2 already? Then you could let him access as a different user.

You could use an app locker like Smart App Protector. This will protect your installed applications using a password or pattern.

I haven't tried it yet but I'm pretty sure this would solve my issue.. Thanks!


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Use nvflash to install recovery compatible with CM10.1
I have a Dell Streak 7 that had some sort of weird "read only" glitch from the factory.  I recently was able to successfully get CM10.1 on it using the files and instructions (nvflash bat file) found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2130081
However, when trying to flash gapps I discovered I cannot enter recovery mode in any way.  I've tried volume up + power, and the orange battery light flashes 4 or 5 times then nothing.  Using ROM Manager Premium and the android power menu to "Reboot to recovery" just boots straight back into CM10.1.  I've also tried reinstalling CWM via ROM Manager and experimented a couple times with nvflash without luck.  Depending on the commands I've tried it just says "NVFlash Started" or "[Resume Mode]" and just sits there forever.
I cannot use fastboot because I can't get the ADB drivers working on my windows 8 machine (I've tried Dell and Google drivers, I have disabled signing, it just doesn't recognize the device correctly).
So what I'd like is a link to an appropriate recovery image (I don't care if it's CWM or TWRP or whatever) and the appropriate command to flash it using nvflash.

As for the drivers: have you tried Koush's unversal Windows drivers?

I managed to get the Google drivers working and got gapps installed.  I'd still like to be able to get to recovery mode though.

Have you ever been able to boot into recovery, i.e. did it just break recently or was it never working? Any error messages when you installed CWM via ROM Manager? Sorry, but I never used nvflash, so I can't help you in regard to that.

I don't think it ever worked.  As I mentioned, this device is bugged.  It's been sitting with 3.x on it for months, so this is the first time I've tried in a long time... since I painstakingly upgraded it from 2.2

OK, as I don't know, let's ask Google for 'nvflash clockworkmod "dell streak"' and let it tell us about [1] Install Clockwork Mod (CWM) via NVflash and [2] Restoring the Streak 7 using NVFlash. First two hits, looking promising. I cannot check, but you might give it a try :)

I'm pretty sure I tried that one, but since it's been a few days I'll try again :)

404 File not found on the download


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Syncing Google Calendar on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread
I've got an Android Gingerbread device. When I go to Settings -> Accounts & Sync -> Manage Accounts (and click on my email address) -> Sync Calendar, I see an exclamation mark besides the sync icon (the one with the two arrows forming a circle), and a message below the entry saying "! Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly."
Why do I get this message? Can I get things to work by say, installing CyanogenMod? (I am using an LG P690 Optimus Net.) I've heard LG phones tend to have more bugs than other brands such as Samsung, is this true?

Optimus 4X (P880) here. I had the very same problem initially, and was asked to enter my password each time when I tried to sync manually (or install/update an app via playstore). According to "googling", it looks like a server error (but just for one of my devices? unlikely). It solved itself after a few network switches: Experienced this problem with WiFi at home, 3 days long. On day 3 I went outside, using mobile data. Returned home that evening (back in my Wifi), problem was gone. Never found out the real reason -- but you might try "switching networks" and see.

Seems like I might want to get a mobile 3G connection hooked up to my device so that I can try this out. I will follow your advice and see if that works.

Actually, I think there was a server error on that particular day or something. Now my Contacts have the same sync error but not the calendar.

Yeah, but the funny thing is: when I had the trouble with my Optimus, none of my other devices had any problems. All of them connected via the same WiFi router. So either LG has some "special server" configured (then all LG users should have the problem at the same time, but I luckily don't have any now), or it is device-specific trouble based on something else. I'm curious if the problem disappears for you as soon as you've switched to mobile data for a while (which is what I suspect).


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HTC Explorer wallpaper display problem
I have HTC Explorer, when I download a wallpaper from net and try to set it as wallpaper, the phone first asks me to crop it, so I crop it, but some portion from all the four sides of the cropped image is not displayed.
And now the main problem, the phone has 320x480 screen resolution, I have a wallpaper from net with the same resolution, but the phone still asks me to crop it, while cropping most of the times I have to let go the image from top and bottom, the horizontal part of the image is available but vertical part needs to be cropped.
More interestingly, I created a jpg file on ms paint on computer with 320x480 pix and transferred it to the phone, even then it asked me to crop it and after cropping when I saw the wallpaper to my surprise it was not what or how the original image was cropped.
can you guys help me, thanx in advance.

some portion from all the four sides of the cropped image is not displayed.

At least it seems so -- but that's perfectly normal ("works as designed"). Android does not think of it as a background image solely for the "recent homescreen", but rather for your "collection of homescreen pages". If you swipe through your homescreens left-to-right (or in the opposite direction), and watch the background image while doing so, you will notice it slightly sliding along. So the "left side" of your background image aligns with the left-most "page", while the "right side" does the same with the right-most page.

the phone has 320x480 screen resolution, I have a wallpaper from net with the same resolution, but the phone still asks me to crop it

The reason for this hopefully became clear with above explanation. So generally spoken, you will need a picture with the actual height of your screen, but being wider than the actual screen width.


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How to install cyanogenmod on LG P690 optimus net: how to know which ROM?
I would like to install an android 4.x ROM on my Optimus Net (P690) Android 2.3.4.
When I go to the CyanogenMod downloads page at http://get.cm I see various phones but not mine. However this youtube video shows that such an installation is possible. Alas this page does not show where to get the ROM image from.
Could anyone suggest where to get it from?

A good source starting your ROM search is: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. The answer (community wiki) of this question mentions a lot of good ressources.

The YouTube video refers to an XDA page as shown below:

That XDA page gives further details about the CM9 ROM, GApps and instructions.
Your LG P690's hardware seems to be a close match to my LG P500. So, if you are not satisfied with the ROM mentioned, you can give a shot with LGP500's ROM - the chances of getting it working in your P690 is good. Please search this site for details on knowing from where to download ROM for P500.


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Jelly Bean Update cause SD card unexpectedly removed issue
I have recently updated my Samsung Galaxy Note from ICS to official JellyBean Update. I am getting SD card unexpectedly removed issue after regular interval.
SD card unexpectedly removed issue is not there if phone is in charging mode or If I am listening music or playing games.
SD card unexpectedly removed issue appears only when I use phone after some time. This is very annoying please help me to fix this issue.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note
SD: SanDisk 32 gb.

We already have a similar question here: SD card unexpectedly removed (and here: Samsung Galaxy S having internal sd card problems -- though this one is not with JB, but it at least has some answers).

No this not the case my brother have s2 with ICS same card work fine with s2. Same card was working fine before updating my phone. But problem arise after upgrade. I googled and most of the people saying its known big Issue with Jelly Bean you should wait till next firmware upgrade.


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Cannot access all my folders from my SDCard via USB
I plug in the USB cable to my computer. I click on Open Device to view files, I get to the root of my SDCard. The problem is that there is a directory missing.
I can see it with my file manager on android but not on the computer.
Any ideas why? I created this folder with an app I am developing.

Is the directory hidden, one that starts with a dot? If it is, you would need to tell Explorer to show hidden files/folders.

If t0mm13b's suggestion does not fit, you can also use a terminal app (e.g. Android Terminal Emulator) and do a ls -al /, and copy/paste the line of that directory to your above question, so we can have a closer look.

You could try installing the Rescan SD Card! app and running it. You don't mention what phone you have sometimes you need to tell Android to scan the sd card to pick up changes.
This answer over at StackOverflow appears to suggest that sometimes the MTP cache gets out of date until a reboot of the phone or an app such as Rescan SD Card! is used. This no longer works as of Android 5.0.2, and a reboot of the device is the only fix.

SDCard rescanners just rebuild/update the media database used by e.g. music and video players or the gallery app. They have nothing to do with what files are shown via the USB connection :)

Do they not affect the files/folders that are visible when using a MTP connection? If it's using mass storage then you're correct but I'm pretty sure I've seen issues where using an app such as this has made files/folders show up.

As they affect the media scanner I doubt they affect any non-media files. What those do is refreshing the media database (photos, music, videos). Never heard that e.g. ZIP files or documents are indexed that way. So they might affect PTP, but despite of the "M" in MTP I'd be surprised that "lost directories" are part of it. I might be wrong, though I don't think so ;)

This answer appears to suggest that the MTP cache gets out of date and apps such as the one in my answer can refresh it. I've not seen this issue for several years now so it's likely that the issue has been fixed in an Android update.

Strange as it sounds to me, but I stand corrected then! Maybe you could [edit] your answer and include a little background – especially the hint from the linked answer that it seems to no longer work with Lollipop?

What OS do you have? If using Windows, then go to "folder option" >> "view". Then change these two settings:

Tick to "show hidden files".
Untick "hide protected os files"

Click apply.


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Why is there no network in my new Samsung Galaxy S2 when I insert my Prepaid Sim Card?
I bought a new Samsung Galaxy S2 and insert my Prepaid Singtel Sim card. When i turn it on, it doesn't have any network and states 'no service'

Is your SGS2 network unlocked? Did you buy it unlocked to any network?

I'm not  sure if its unlocked or not. What do you mean? Mind explaining in details?

See this

I don't understand how its locked or unlocked..

Simple and brief explanation: Network carriers lock their handsets to the network, so it could be used only on that carrier. If it was unlocked, it could be used on any carrier.

Oh okay. So how do I unlock it back?

If you are on a contract with the carrier - you may have to fork out money to get it unlocked or possibly breach of their contract, or, go to some shady phone unlock shop or online, either way you will be charged.

oh so I need to get the help of a phone shop instead of myself doing it?

Yes, preferably they do that for you, rather than risking making a mess of the handset. :)

Summing up from the comments:
Your device is most likely sim-locked by your provider (even more likely if you bought it there for a discount, or got it free with your contract). So it will only work with SIM cards from that specific provider. If you want to use it with a different (pre-paid) card, you need to have your device unlocked first.
While it is generally possible to do that yourself, it will not only cost you time to figure out how, but you might also risk "making a mess" of it (as t0mm13b put it). So best is to go to some shop offering this service, and pay a little fee having them doing the job. Saves you at least some headaches.
See also:

“SIM card doesn't allow a connection to this network” ERROR
Questions tagged "sim-unlocking"

Did you add the APN settings?   They are not always automatically generated.   Your carrier should provide instructions on how to add /check your APN settings.

Bearing in mind that the questioner probably doesn't know what APN settings are, would you like to explain this further?


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How to suppress repeated alert/notification sounds
Is there a way to suppress repeated alert sounds within a certain period of time - i.e after an event triggers a sound, do not play any further sounds for any more of the same event type that arrives in the following 30/60/90 seconds.
e.g
I'm chatting to someone on Google Talk on my PC, every time they send a me message my phone chirps at me. I don't want to silence it completely (maybe they go afk for 5 mins and I'd like the sound to inform me of when they come back), I just don't want the repeated noises. The result being that during a conversation my phone only makes a sound once a minute, rather than going off every few seconds.
Google Talk is just one example, but a method of suppressing all repeated alert sounds would be ideal.
I'm using Jelly Bean on a Motorola RAZR i, but answers for any version of android would be welcome

Good example, I always end up killing Google Talk's notification sounds because of that

We're now in 2024 and most phones don't have this feature. Repetitive notifications are extremely infuriating, especially if that one person sends 5-6 messages in a row, which happens frequently. That's the reason my phone is on mute all the time.

Muting notifications from the same app within a set period is not yet available in stock Android.
However, some custom ROMs have already implemented this option. If your ROM has this functionality, the option would be under Settings > Sounds > Less frequent notification sounds. Note that the name of this option may differ from ROM to ROM.

If you use Xposed the Module Less frequent notifications will do what you want.

I know you mentioned Google Talk (now Hangouts), but my answer would not really relate to that, but to the question itself, specifically when dealing with SMS.
You could use Tasker to mute the notification audio volume which is triggered by receiving an SMS for a certain period of time from a certain sender.
Note though, that this would modify the notification volume for all apps, not just SMS.


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Personal data (contacts, sms, phone logs, settings, etc) gone after moving apps to a new microSD
I've just bought a 16gb Sandisk microSD and I moved some apps to that by using the functionality available under Settings > Applications > Manage Applications. I went through the list and I moved some apps to the microSD when the button was available. I also moved the Music folder to the new microSD.
Then I left my phone for a while and when I came back it was asking me for the PIN code as it had restarted. Then the Android configuration wizard popped up, like when you first boot the device (so asking me to choose the language and set other configuration things). After this I found out that my previous data was gone including contacts, text messages, settings, etc. Similar to when you do a hard reset. Some things remained like pictures and music files.
Unfortunately there's no sync with Google or similar. I should have done that or at least made a backup before moving things to the new storage.
I believe my data is still there somehow. I'd like to know if my things are completely gone or maybe they are just not loaded for some weird reason. Can you help me?
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S Plus (GT-I9001) / Android version: 2.3.5
EDIT: After completely reformatting the microSD as also suggested by official SanDisk tecnical support for general problems, I didn't experienced another hard reset so far after moving files.

As you correctly tagged, your description fits a factory-reset -- which includes a wipe of user apps and data. So from your "internal storage", there's no easy way to restore anything, as its gone. However, the data you moved to your SDCard should still be there, as a wipe usually doesn't touch it. I just wonder what should have triggered such an "automatic factory reset" -- never heard such a thing before!

y indeed was really strange. do you know if there are some logs I can take a look at, hidden somewhere? (supposing they're not gone with the other stuff)

You suppose correctly: the logs will be gone for good with all the other stuff on internal storage. To my knowledge, there's nothing logging to SDCard by default.

As the factory-reset already correctly suggests, the description makes quite clear that such happened. A factory-reset "deletes" everything from your internal-storage -- that is, all the apps you've installed, all data, caches, etc. So nothing is left but what you've moved to SDCard/external storage.
While there are possibilities to even recover deleted data (usually via a nandroid backup or any other 1:1 copy of the entire file system and doing file carving), this is nothing easy and you must start the copy as soon as possible, before you do any other initialization (which you already did). With every data change, chances to recover something get smaller. We have some questions/answers behind the data-recovery tag explaining this in more detail, see e.g.

How can I recover a deleted file on Android?
Recover deleted content from userdata partition?

Btw: With all other data on internal-storage, also the logs are gone for good -- which is a pity, as it would be very interesting to know what triggered an automatic factory-reset. The only thing coming to my mind is a remote-wipe, which might have been triggered either via your company (if you're accessing their exchange server via active-sync, and thus accepted the corresponding device-administrator) -- or the previous owner (if any) having set up some anti-theft app, and now pulled the trigger on you...

Thanks for your replies. I wouldn't say it was a remote-wipe as I exclude the two possibilities listed (especially the latter, as there's no previous owner). A friend suggested it might have been a sort of short-circuit when playing with the new microSD, which might have sent a reset signal somehow.

Never heard of a microSD sending a signal which caused a factory-reset. The remote-wipe was just a guess, I'm missing your full background to place a "hit" here :) // If my post answered your question, it would be nice to "accept" it (click the checkmark next to it), so it's recognizable as such. Thanx :)

which kind of background might be needed? :)

All account data (social networks, bank, whatever) including passwords and keys plus full authority :) What I meant to say is: While all details of what might have happened (and what is installed, how configured, how you've got the device, first/second hand, etc.) might be present to you, they are not present to me. Even writing a full story would not be the same as experiencing the thing yourself. Which leaves some guess-work.

Ok it happened again. I think it's something with the new microSD card. This time I was uploading some videos on that memory (using Airdroid). Suddenly I saw that the progress bar got stuck and when I looked at my phone I notice he had reset itself. And then, again, configuration wizard and what it's supposed to be another hard reset..

I'd suggest to try another SDCard (other brand) to figure out. It's nothing new that some combinations (SDCard/device) cause problems, though it's the first time I've heard of this special one. Checking Google for "samsung galaxy s plus" sandisk if others share your problem with this combination (I've picked two with trouble on the first result page), and how they solved it (which other brand) might prove helpful.

y.. I'll try to borrow another microSD from friends. Meanwhile, I tried to completely format the one I have and see what would happen (I'm not particularly concerned about my stuff now, as all is gone and I'm syncing on google only few important contacts).
thank you very much for your useful support, so far :)

You're welcome -- and good luck! Don't forget to update us once you've found out something. Who knows who's next...


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Installing to SDCard by default
I would like to know whether there is a way to tell Android to install applications on the micro SD card by default instead of having to download applications to internal memory first and then having to move them to the SD card manually.
Thanks

possible duplicate of Is moving apps to SD only available to rooted devices?

specifically because of @Yeradis answer http://android.stackexchange.com/a/4976/156

@GAThrawn No, that's not a dupe of that. The question you linked is rather "can one move apps to SD". This one is "how to specify the default install location". Same street, different house.

This article at HowtoGeek describes a possible way utilizing the adb:

enable USB debugging
connect your device to your computer
execute the command adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2
(or, new syntax, adb shell pm set-install-location 2)
disconnect, done.

This command will set the devices default installation target to your SDCard. That doesn't necessarily mean everything gets installed there: only apps supporting this will go there, and devs can "overrule" this in their apps manifest if they think it's needed. From the linked API reference:

Changes the default install location. Location values:

0: Auto—Let system decide the best location.
1: Internal—install on internal device storage.
2: External—install on external media.

Note: This is only intended for debugging; using this can cause applications to break and other undesireable behavior.

For more details on ADB, and how you can e.g. get a minimal version of it to your computer (without the overkill of installing the entire SDK), you can take a look at the adb tag-wiki.

Update: To avoid confusion with t0mm13b's answer, some clearance on the installation process:

you find some app on google-play-store and decide to install it
after you've clicked "install" and agreed on terms/permissions, the apk is downloaded to /data/local, i.e. to your internal-storage. You can't change that.
when the download is completed, the .apk will be installed automatically. Where to, depends on multiple things:

if the dev did not specify the android:installLocation property in his apps Manifest, the app will be installed to internal story. Full stop, no other choice (see: API reference).
if this android:installLocation is set to preferExternal, and external storage is available, it will go there.
if it's set to auto, it again depends:

does the app contain widgets, services, wants to start at boot, and several other things, it goes to internal storage. Full stop, no other choice.
it goes where the devices "default install location" points to

might help to include a warning - its not guaranteed to work, especially if an app has their own widgets... :)

As I wrote: only apps supporting this will go there :) Widgets, services, etc are telling it does not support it :)

after executing the command adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2
error: device not found

That sounds like you either skipped the first two steps (enabling USB debugging and connecting the device after that) – or you're on Windows and didn't install the corresponding drivers. Please follow the corresponding link and go on from there, @moudrick.

That cannot be changed! That is how Android works.
All downloads from Google Play goes to the internal filesystem, then from:

Settings > Manage applications
Tap on said app, check if button Move to SDCard is enabled, then you can do so.

If the button Move to SDCard is disabled or greyed out, its probably to prevent the app from functioning - such as their own widgets on home screen.
Also, see this answer in the related side-bar to the right of this page. :)

Are you sure, t0mm13b? Wasn't there some ADB command to adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2 (i.e. SDCard), as described here?

A developer can specify that in the Manifest to give the app the capability to be moved to the SDCard. android:installLocation="auto" Have not seen adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2, presumably you specify the package name in that case...

Nope, t0mm13b -- see my answer and the linked article. This sets the device's default install location. So if the Manifest says "auto", that's where it goes. If the Manifest says other than "auto", it goes where the Manifest says. See also: API ref, also here for the pm set-install-location (new syntax) command.

Izzy - what I specified about AndroidManifest's android:installLocation - actually enables the Move to SDCard from the manage app settings...some devs do not specify it and renders the button being disabled but I concede - never seen the adb command to do that either

Ah, now I get it -- different focus: You were saying "if an app is not intended to be installed on SD, you cannot do so" -- while I was focusing on where it goes to by default unless specified otherwise. But please check your answer's first 4 lines, they say something different. You are however correct: The download first goes to /data/local, and from there the app is installed. But depending on settings and manifest, it is installed either to internal or directly to external from there. // If you like to discuss this in detail: you remember our pub, ahem, chat? :)

Install "Terminal Emulator for Android" in your mobile and open
$ su
# pm get-install-location
0[auto]
# pm set-install-location 2
# pm get-install-location
2[external]

interesting, but you have to have root for this to work

Go to "Manage apps" and then select the "All" tab and find "Google Play Store". Tap on it and then press the "Uninstall updates" button. After that, go to the Play Store all the apps will be installed on  your SD Card. This is what I did on my QMobile A110 (Android 4.2).

I think you are missing the middle step somewhere where you set the default install location to be the SD card and even then, it doesn't always work this way for every application.

The thing is u can change the default install directory if your phone is rooted.
Download lucky patcher and tap on tools there you can find option to change default install directort.
**Do not do this for android 4 or above or it may cause irreversible change.
**

According to Android Version Market Share 2016 97.7% of all Android users are using Android 4.0 or later at the date when this answer was posted and therefore Lucky Patcher may cause irreversible changes to almost all current Android users.

What "irreversible changes" would that be? I didn't notice them on my Kitkat devices :) But as @karel pointed out: If you think it shouldn't be used, why do you recommend it?


text:
What is the differrences between Talk and Google+ Messenger?
Both are the chatting tools of Google.
I use Talk since I use Gmail to chat with my friend and when I see Google+ Messenger, I just thought it is Talk but the two are NOT the same at all - i.e. chatting with one person on Talk  and he/she will NOT receive it Google+ Messenger.
This is so confusing. What is the differences then? Why there are two chat tools like this?
Update
The funny thing is that Google+ Messenger is used for chatting with Google+ users from Android phone. But when I log in my Google+ page, I can ONLY talk with Talk friends !?!? I want to continue my last chat with a friend on Google+ from my PC, but now I cannot. So funny!

Hopefully this shouldn't be a problem/confusion for too much longer, it looks like Google will soon be merging all of their instant messaging and presence apps into one, Google Babble: http://techwhack.co/google-babble-merge-google-talk-messenger-hangouts-43398/  http://www.geek.com/android/google-expected-to-unify-chat-under-the-name-babble-1543151/

Google Talk syncs to your Gmail account. This offers free instant messaging to all your Google contacts that you have invited to “talk” with. You can use the services within the Gmail web page, or download Google Talk and install it on your computer or smart phone.
Google+ Messenger, originally called “Huddle”, is a sub service to Google+.
The big difference between the two is that Google+ Messenger is the instant messaging service that is synced to your Google+ account, not your Gmail account. People who are added to your “circles” are the ones that are able to be messaged with. Another difference is that Google+ Messenger allows people to have group chats.
Source: difference-between-google-talk-google-messenger-and-google-hangouts

Yeah you're right. Group chatting is what not available in Talk.

Well, I cannot find way to use this sub service "Huddle" on Goolge+ site...

No, you can't. The two services are totally incompatible with each other (not to mention the other messaging services that Google offers). There are rumors (and some evidence) about a forthcoming unifying chat service called Babel.

As @GAThrawn shared above, the "rumor" is Babble http://www.geek.com/android/google-expected-to-unify-chat-under-the-name-babble-1543151/

And on Google+ website, we chat by Talk instead of "Huddle", so funny :(

Google have now integrated all of their chat and messaging services into one app on Android, Google Hangouts (not Babble as was previously rumoured).
From the app's description:

Use Hangouts on computers, Android and Apple devices.
Hangouts stay in sync across devices so
  you can start or continue them anywhere.

In particular Google Talk, GMail Talk, Google+ Messenger and Google+ Hangouts (group video chat) are all integrated in this.
Google Voice isn't fully integrated yet (in particular SMS integration may be "coming soon"), and you can opt out from receiving incoming calls through Hangouts but as Voice is still only available in the US it shouldn't affect too many people.
You may need to upgrade your Gmail Chat to the new Hangouts experience by:

Hangouts works right inside Gmail, where Chat did before. You can upgrade Chat to Hangouts by clicking on your photo icon in Gmail's chat list.

You may need to set up your Google+ circles to allow members to message you.
More info on the main Hangouts page and in the Hangouts help.

Thanks GAThrawn. This is the right result we need in chatting by Google tool


text:
Are images in HTML emails blocked by default on Samsung S3?
I have a client complaining that images in his email signature are not showing on his Samsung S3. So I wanted to know if they are either blocked by default or the email client is set to display plaintext emails by default?

It may be setup to not load images by default. Many mail clients are setup like that, for good reasons :)

Thanks Izzy. I don't suppose you happen to know if the native email app on Samsung S3 does this?

Is he using the email app or the gmail one? I think almost every email app will hide images by default, and usually at the top there will be a button that will enable showing of the images (with gmail, you press a Show Pictures button), and most likely, after pressing that, the client will give you an option to "Always show pictures from this sender" or something similar.

Thanks bassmadrigal. I believe he's using the email app so yes it would make sense if images don't show by default. So there's nothing I can do about it!


text:
My phone seems like it is sending MMS messages, but they never actually arrive - what's going on?
There are several MMS problem threads on here, but none seem to get at the issue I'm having. I can receive MMS messages just fine, however I cannot send them. What is bizarre is that, from all indications, the phone thinks they are being sent. I get no error message and it even attaches a timestamp to the message. How can I find out what's going wrong and correct it?
Potentially necessary details:

Phone: Samsung Galaxy SII
OS version: 4.0.4
Network: Credo (via Sprint)
MMS app: Default Android app; I did briefly switch to using Facebook Messenger but recently switched back

Are you charged for them? You might wish to contact your provider with that, maybe they're stuck with them.

I don't think so, I've got one of those unlimited all-in-one packages.

OK, so you probably don't see them on your bill. Still, I'd contact the carrier with this issue, they can surely check their logs, or even do a "live check". Meanwhile, you could check with a logcat tool (e.g. aLogCat) what's going on: Start aLogCat, clear log, hit "play" to have it recording. Send a MMS, wait for its "OK". REturn to aLogCat, press pause, export the recorded log to your sdcard (to have it save). Now check the recording for everything that might be related to your MMS.

I find aLogCat impossible to use; you almost have to have insider information into what the developers decided to call things in order to have any luck finding things, especially given the number of stuff it collects. It'd take a whole day of tinkering to solve it that way and I simply don't have that kind of time to spend on the problem.

So rather do some try-and-err, and see where it leads? :) You still could post the saved log to e.g. pastebin and link it from here, so we could take a look and point things out. But without hard facts, it's difficult to assist you.

That's an excellent point. I might do that!


text:
Bypass memory manager; keep app alive
At my work we all have Android devices which are used to dispatch jobs to us. It uses a web-app accessible through any web browser. When a new job arrives we are notified with an audible alert. However, because of the way Android handles the memory, it often "sleeps" (don't know the proper terminology) the web browser so if we get a new job through, we aren't notified unless we manually re-open the web browser to "wake" it.
Is there any workarounds for this issue?
Cheers

The device should also have app 2. Isn't it better to just send an email, maybe from the *webapp it self 3. don't let the screen sleep and you will get the notification.

@roxan - why the comment 2 hours later after comment below the answer I posted said it all?

@t0mm13b Sorry, didn't see your answer from review window.

Presumably, the device is using wifi to access the internet - it might be worth a shot to try this:

Settings > Wifi
Hit on Menu to bring up Advanced
Tap on that menu option
Keep Wifi on during sleep, check that, make sure its set to Never

In that way when the device goes to sleep, wifi is still active and running and the web app should still work and

When a new job arrives we are notified with an audible alert

Edit
The above answer is not the correct answer, rather from the comments below,  this is definitely the one, in which I quote,.

Maybe, the approach to managing the jobs is done the wrong way,
especially in context of Android - a custom app that has a service
using a partial wake-lock to "ping" checking on jobs, send an event to
the app and the app wakes up. IMHO, a browser is not the right tool
for the requirements in your case.

In short, there is nothing that can be done to keep the web-browser "alive" while the device is sleeping, as Android, behind the scenes, when the kernel is not in sleep state, is tracking what apps are running, and depending on power and memory constraints, especially in the case of a web-browser page, (if it has a lot of styles, the more elaborate the page, the more resources hogged up as a result, especially if it has a lot of Javascript behind the page) this could be the job for the kernel to shoot it down and eject it from memory hence not reliable route to take.
TL;DR: A proper application instead of just web-browser will resolve the OP's problem.
Off-topic: There was a piece covered by the technology section under the BBC news in respect to mobile web browsing and how it can affect the battery due to the way web pages are designed, rather, they were designed incorrectly for the mobile platform, too much styles, too much scripting, not to mention Flash as well, they all had adverse affect on how Android displays/renders the page which in turn meant a lot of CPU cycles consumed to do just that.

This is likely not an issue with wifi, but rather Android itself suspending the Browser app after a long period of inactivity to free up that memory for something else. But I don't know any way to prevent it from happening.

Maybe, the approach to managing the jobs is done the wrong way, especially in context of Android - a custom app that has a service using a partial wakelock to "ping" checking on jobs, send an event to the app and the app wakes up. IMHO, a browser is not the right tool for the requirements in your case... :)

I agree with this. The browser on a mobile device certainly is not the best way to accomplish this. I think the best option would be creating an app that supports Android's Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM). This would allow server to notify the app without needing the app to be open or even running.

We have just migrated from Win Mo which was an app but now its gone web based. Yes, the real issue is the memory management in Android sleeping the browser to free up memory, nothing to do with the WiFi (plus we are on mobile data 95% of the time), and no email would not be better, data needs to be input which is much easier and quicker through an app. I agree, a webapp is not the right way, it should have been an app but unfortunately this is not the case. Anyone else know how to keep the browser "alive" in memory?

The best option would be to tweak the low memory killer's minfree parameters.
Some background:
The Low Memory Killer is the mainstay of Android memory management.  It's a more elegant approach than the Linux oomkiller and it works proactively to maintain the free pool rather than only kicking in when you're completely out of free memory.  It separates apps into several categories for killing if the free memory pool gets below certain points.  They're generally in the following order, from first-to-die to last:
EMPTY_APP - These are apps that are not doing anything, nor waiting to do anything.  They're just sitting around in memory.
CONTENT_PROVIDER - These are background apps that content to active apps (e.g. The play store uses one to check for updates periodically.  HTC Facebook sync is another common example).
HIDDEN_APP - These are sitting in the background, not doing anything, but are still alive and possibly waiting for something.
SECONDARY_SERVER - A server running in the background to provide services for a currently running app.
VISIBLE_APP - This is an application that is in the background, but it is presently doing something.
FOREGROUND_APP - This is what is presently running and on-screen.
If the free memory pool drops below a certain amount (e.g. 80MB is the default on my GS3), the system will first start killing off anything listed as an empty app until the pool is back above that line.  If after it kills off all the empty apps the memory is still below the next line (e.g. 64MB), it'll start on the content providers, and so on, until eventually if only the foreground app is taking up all the memory (On my GS3, if everything except the foreground app has been killed and there's still less than 32MB of memory free) and threatening the system, it'll get killed off eventually.
Coming back to your actual question, what we want to do is adjust these values down, so the killer will kick in later and hopefully not kill the browser when you're still wanting it open.
The app MinFreeManager will allow you to adjust these values.  Alternatively, they can be edited directly in /sys/module/lowmemorykiller/parameters/minfree where the parameters are in pages (4 kilobytes, so a value of 8192 means 32MB as ((8192*4)/1024=32MB), and listed in reverse order from what I listed above.  Both of these will require root.  If you don't have root, there's basically nothing we can do to help.
In your case, the HIDDEN_APP parameter (4th item in the minfree file) is probably what we need to change.  For example, this parameter is by default 56MB on my GS3.  Cutting this in half to 28M or using the mild preset in MinFreeManager would be a good starting point for tweaking.

The OP makes no mention of whether they are rooted or not, but considering the OP's question, it is a device designated for work (possibly not the OP's but owned by their company) so your answer is not exactly on the ball! And MinFreeManager app requires root and also, the OP is not intending to mess with the device in question also! :)


text:
How to adjust ringer volume while listening to music?
When listening to music on my phone (running Android 4.0.4 ICS), I am unable to adjust the ringer volume with the hardware volume controls. Pushing either of them adjusts the music volume and not the ringer volume.
If I hold down the power button, a menu appears that provides me with the choice of turning off the ringer completely, enabling vibrate-only mode, and restoring the ringer volume to its previous level. However, there appears to be no way to actually adjust the ringer volume level.
Am I missing something?

Just curious as to why you would need to do this? On my phone, the music goes quiet when the phone rings. And if I can hear the music; I can hear the phone.

Ok, I guess you could have the music on mega-loud and it could be undesirable to have your ringtone mega-loud?

Here's an example: I'm listening to music with headphones on in a library and suddenly remember that I left the riger set to a high volume. As it stands now, I have to pause the music, exit the music app, turn off the ringer, and then return to the music. Very annoying.

Possible duplicate of How can I change media volume when no media is being played?

When an app is playing sound, Android will only adjust the volume for what is actively playing the sound (in this case the media volume). You can manually adjust your sound volume under Settings -> Sound -> Volume
If your ROM supports it, you may be able to enable expanded mode for volume under Settings -> Sound -> Volume Panel Style -> Expandable. This will give you a button to the right of the onscreen volume indicator (when you press the volume buttons). Press that and it will show all the adjustable volume levels and you can change it through there.

If it cannot be done with native support (as described by bassmadrigal), there are several 3rd-party solutions available. Take a look at e.g. Slider Widget - Volumes, which seems a solution you might love:

Slider widget, second screenshot with open slider (source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)
As the screenshots show, it gives you a widget bar with "buttons" for all the different volumes your device supports. Tap the corresponding item once to bring up the slider. Or double-tap to toggle ("That's my favorite song -- no phone calls or notifications now, please! :)").
The playstore offers a lot of similar things, just check it for volume widget if this approach seems useful to you.

I use an app called Mini Info which, among other things, allows changing the value of different volume settings all on the same screen. But there are a whole host of apps out there that can help with this issue.

Yepp, I used that as well. Offers some nice system info widgets, and tapping them opens a "floating window" with a lot of toggles. Good support as well.


text:
Samsung Note 2 does not assign received IP
I am trying to connect a Samsung Note II ( OS: Android 4.0, Ice cream Sandwich) through Wi-Fi to a DHCP Server. The DHCP server(192.168.3.29) is running on a Virtual Machine with OS as Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit. A D-link Wi-Fi access point is connected to this DHCP server. The DHCP server sends the IP(192.168.3.100) to the Samsung Note II but the device fails to assign the IP address. The samsung device never had any problem connecting with other DHCP servers. Please let me know if you need any other details.
I've checked it with Wireshark, which shows that the DHCP server accepts the request from the device:

Wireshark screenshot -- click it to see it in full resolution
Question was closed as off-topic on SO, and I was redirected here -- see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15962600/samsung-note-2-does-not-assign-received-ip

Not a solution, but a work-around until there is one: Long-tap the AP in your WiFi settings, check "Advanced". Then you can manually assign the device an IP address etc. (e.g. the same the DHCP server assigned either). This even allows you to specify your own name server, which can be quite useful (I have no idea why Android does not take that from the DHCP offer, but always uses its pre-configured servers).

I have solved this problem. It was because of huge network traffic on the DHCP server, due to which the ACK was not able to reach through Wi-Fi to the Samsung Galaxy Android.

I had this same problem after an upgrade. After a LOT of digging I found the problem. Before starting, note that your device must be rooted to fix it.
Believe or not, the problem is with the "ls" command in /system/bin. It looks like a lot of the commands are symbolic links to a file called "toolbox", which is also located in the "/system/bin" directory. The "ls" command however links to what I think was the previous location "/data/local/toolbox".
Fix is: Using a suitable file manager (I used Root Explorer), copy toolbox from /system/bin to /data/local.
I guess you could also try update the ls symbolic link to point to /system/bin/toolbox, but I'm not sure how to do this AND there may be other link with the same problem.
Device : Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P7510
New Android Version : ICS 4.0.4
Old Android Version : HC 3.2


text:
Why do my browser's contents disappear each time I leave the page
So for example, I am looking at a web page on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and the phone rings.  After I am done with the call, I go back to the browser app.  I even go through the menu view where you see a mini version of the rendered web page.
But when I click on it all I get is an empty page...
Do any of yall have ideas?  Thanks in advance for the help.

On my GNex this only happened when the phone ran out of memory and closed the inactive browser window. But the page would automatically reload after starting it again. Does it reload on your phone?


text:
What's the purpose of "Emergency Call" button on SIM unlock screen?
When SIM is locked with PIN1 or PIN2 and I boot my Android phone, SIM unlock screen appears which contains num key pad and "Emergency Call" button. I have seen this in all Android phones including non-dual SIM phones and those without native VoIP stack (I know VoIP isn't meant for emergency calling, but it can be option if user is in Wi-Fi & VoIP is configured).
What's the purpose of this "Emergency Call" button when you can't really call?

It is required for phones (at least in Europe and US) to allow emergency calls without requiring the user to unlock the phone or the SIM card. You can always make an emergency call when you're in a cell coverage area and the phone has power. It's a safety feature, which guarantees you can use any phone in an emergency to get assistance, regardless of the state the phone is in.
Take this scenario: you're in a car crash and your own phone breaks. An unconscious friend's cell phone is working, but it has a pattern/PIN/password lock on it, or it lost power but boots to the SIM PIN screen. The feature guarantees that you can make the call without knowledge of the correct pattern/PIN/password.
The numbers you can call with this feature are restricted to the most common or regional emergency numbers, and are translated by the carrier to the local emergency numbers if you're roaming.
The exception to this are WiFi-only tablets, which can't make calls at all.
Edit:
If the device's SIM is locked, it detects the networks available and identifies it's own network, but doesn't register the device to the network. In the case of emergency calls, the phone doesn't need to be registered to the network, all calls to emergency numbers are allowed, regardless of the state of the SIM or carrier subscription. Even with no SIM at all, the networks are detected and the carrier with the strongest signal is used.

I am specifically talking about locked SIM. AFAIK, when SIM is locked with PIN1, it can't even detect a network.

Moved to the answer itself.

With Emergency calls you can dial only  Emergency numbers like 911 , 112 etc , they differ from country to country. And AFAIK in absence of a network/signal the emergency call is made using the available network of any network provider in region. So the main purpose of "Emergency Call" button is that when in emergency you can dial emergency numbers without unlocking your device .

The SIM is locked, not the device.


text:
Share Computer internet connection with my Google Nexus One
I want to Share Computer internet connection with my Google Nexus One using usb cable. how can i do this ?

Click on the 'reverse-tether' tag I just added, and take a look at the list of questions displayed. That should give you an idea -- e.g. that it requires you to have your device rooted...


text:
Android GTalk, Chromium Gtalk, Gmail Gtalk - how can i send files such as image, music, video clips like whatsApp?
I am using on my Android Gtalk where i can only do chat text send and receive. But how can i do all the features of WhatsAPP from Gtalk?
Features like:

file transfer (image pictures, music, video clips)
Audio replay from the chat by history
Video reply from the chat by history

Is there any way to make Gtalk by default to do file transfer features?? So that pictures in mobile can be sent, musics in mobile can be sent etc can be sent from mobile directly ??

The rumored Google Babel may be the solution you are looking for. Hopefully it will be announced/released before or at Google I/O.

That would be a great because Google Babel to have. All Google products are the cool. WhatsAPP is very evil mind, its not allow Unix/Linux users to run friendly from desktop there apps, we have to always use emulator for there craps. But having Google on this will help us to relax by sitting our old OS and use the same simple crap what whatsAPP was trying to make complicated.

Google Talk doesn't have any of those features. It's meant as a complement to Gmail, and it's intended that if you want to send files or persistent things to your chat partner, you'd email them.
If you want a chat system that has all the features of WhatsApp, why not just use WhatsApp?

WhatsAPP is only for mobile with 3G, Wifi. But i use Unix or Linux or sometimes my Android only. And everything i do with Google. Just for file transfer feature i have to day and night use whatsAPP which is abnormal choice. So i do not use whatsAPP, but looking forward to have file transfer feature in Gtalk, which makes the life easier.

Gtalk is open source, why not a single person willing to add this feature in Gtalk for Linux and Android version? Is this impossible for Google to add this feature?

@YumYumYum: Google Talk is not open source. Part of the core, libjingle, is open source, but the Talk app built around that core is not. Someone would probably have to extend libjingle and write a separate set of applications around it (or get Google to accept the core changes and hope they implement the necessary UI).


text:
Message Memory Full in Samsung Galaxy Young Duos & Screenshot transferring
I have a Samsung Galaxy Young Duos. I got it for Christmas in 2012 and recently it has begun to tell me i have insufficient storage etc. Today it told me " Cannot receive message, Device to full..."
It's really annoying, what can I do?
I've been deleting messages but it's not helping D:
Thanks !

wbogacz just added the 'insufficient-memory' tag to your question. I strongly suggest you take a lokk at its tag-wiki, which gives you not only "first aid" but also links to further information sources. Btw: our tag-wikis often do things like that :)

@psb please don't use edits to add a comment or answer to a question

[by psb] The phone memory can be corrupt or there are errors in the software. So to reset remove the battery and the memory card from the phone. Using your PC , scan the memory card for any corrupt files or media files with virus- it is possible when they are downloaded from unsafe sites. If so remove or format the card. Now replace the card and battery and switch on the phone. If the phone hangs up then it is confirmed that the software is corrupt and will need a reinstallation. Seeking help from the authorized service /support centre is most ideal. Take estimate and decide. (fixya.com)


text:
Can't update Nexus S. Stuck at "waiting for download"
I want to upgrade my Operating system (Nexus S I9250) which currently is Android 4.1 . My cell is not rooted and I have never tampered with the android system shipped, always upgraded it though. Right now, it says "Waiting for Download" but the progress bar never goes ahead.

According to the Nexus Factory Image Site the Nexus S was only updated to 4.1.1 there shouldn't be anything else newer available.

yeah.. but why is it showing an  update in the android system update ? plus it could be an updated build of 4.1.1, although the update is of 95.8 MB.

Have you tried restarting your phone?

@ZnewmaN earlier I restarted but it didn't work. Now it works. Thanks for the answer.

Restarting your phone should resolve the issue.


text:
Not able to see who is calling in HTC Desire C when connected to computer
When HTC desire C is connected to the laptop, the screen gets locked and if a call comes, the phone is not showing the caller details. Also there is no option to unlock the phone when it is connected to the computer.
Only options I left with are

To answer the call unknowingly who is calling
To wait till it becomes a missed call.

Any ideas to see the who is calling when It is connected to the laptop.
I tried the Stay Awake while charging option and set it to On; but no use.


text:
External_sd storage showing in my usb storage
My total USB storage on my Galaxy Note is 10.55GB, but I have 14.55GB of external_sd storage showing up inside of my USB storage.
I am showing a separate external SDCard with the proper amount of storage.
Just wondering why it would be showing up under my USB storage

Is windows telling you that you have 14.55GB of storage instead of 10.55GB? Clarify? :)

Also, could you link a screenshot? Would help to understand the issue :)


text:
Nexus 4: Lost superuser rights after an update to 4.2.1 - how can I get them back?
A couple of weeks ago, my rooted Nexus 4 was updated from 4.2 to 4.2.1. Now it still seems to be unlocked (open lock symbol while booting), but I've lost my Superuser privileges.

Is there any way I can get the SU privileges back without wiping my phone?
If not, what's the best way to backup all or most of the data before going through the SU process again?
Finally, how can I prevent this from happening again with the next update?

Thanks for your help!

Re-root? That seems like the most obvious answer and should not require you to wipe your phone. There are a number of OTA root keeper apps out there that can help you in the future.

Just re-root. Your bootloader is still unlocked, so nothing is preventing you from doing so. The Nexus Root Toolkit should do the heavy lifting for you if you want (just press "Root"). Manual steps would be:

Download a custom recovery, like ClockworkMod, and save it to your computer
Download the Superuser/su package for ARM and copy it to your phone
Reboot into your bootloader, either by holding Volume Down while turning on your device or by issuing adb reboot bootloader from a PC (plugged in via USB with debugging enabled on the phone)
Use the fastboot utility to install the recovery image from your PC via:
fastboot flash recovery /path/to/recovery.img

Reboot into recovery (boot into your bootloader, then press either of the volume buttons to cycle to "Recovery" and press power).
Install the the Superuser zip file from your recovery menu
Reboot. You now have root.

In general, if you don't want to lose root, don't install OTA updates. You can try apps like OTA Rootkeeper or Superuser's in-built functionality, but there's no guarantee that it will work since it depends on exactly how the OTA is applied. Some devices (the Kindle Fire is one example) will actually wipe the entire /system partition when performing an update, making OTA Rootkeeper apps useless. The only guaranteed method of updating and keeping root would be to wait for a repackaged (rooted) version of the OTA to appear on somewhere like XDA and then flash that from your recovery, or repackage it yourself.

Thank you, the Root Toolkit worked beautifully (I didn't know this existed!).


text:
How does the Nexus 4 rotating circular camera control work?
Tapping the viewfinder or the blue shutter button of the Nexus 4 Android 4.2 camera app brings up the  rotating circular control shown in the screenshot. What is it used for? How does it work?

Pretty sure it's just a focus/centering indicator (green == focused, red == out of focus).

This is a new feature as of Android 4.2. It serves two purposes:

To focus your camera on what you click on
Long press it and you get a radial menu of different camera settings to change (flash on/off, etc). This is the exact same behavior as if you clicked the icon in the top right corner of your screenshot.

Just an FYI, you should be able to long press anywhere on the preview pane to bring up the radial menu. You don't have to do it within the focus ring.


text:
Using a separate account for Play Store purchases
My family own a number of Android devices. We each have our own google account but ther is no credit-card linked to any of them. I'd like to keep it that way. But occasionally, I'd like to buy an app, but I can't as there is no way to pay without registering a credit card. At least with iPhones, I can use a gift card, but they don't seem to be available for android.
Is there a way that I can create a new account and link it to a credit card and whenever one of the family wants to purchase an app, sign on to the app-store with this account, buy the app, and sign out again.  Will the app still work on the phone if the current user is not account that bought the app?
Edit: Here's the Play-Store "Accounts" dialog showing no "Add" option.

You can buy Google Play gift cards at various retailers as can be seen here. They come in $10, $25 and $50 increments.

Also see: How to change the account for Android Market?, which deals with the "multiple accounts on a single device" issue.

You should be able to add another account in Google Play on the devices that can be used for purchasing and downloading apps. You can even set a pin for it. With the Google Play Store open:

Tap the settings button in the upper right-hand corner

Tap Accounts

Tap Add account and then OK

Go through the account setup and now you should be able to select that account to purchase and download apps.

This seems to require a recent Android version. Most of our phones are 2.x (with no option to upgrade)

It may look a little different, but it should be available as long as you have a recent version of the Google play store (3.0 or newer). Most likely you have a menu button on your device. When you press the menu button when in the Google Play Store do you get an Account option?

My wife's Samsung Galaxy is running Google Play Store build 3.10.14 and Google Play services 3.0.27 on firmware version 2.3.3.  Play Store -> Menu -> Accounts pops up a dialog named "Choose Google Account" with only one account and no option to add another one. Menu -> Settings doesn't have any obvious option to add a new account.

If you can't add an account directly to the Play Store, you may need to add it to the system, and then it will show up in the Play Store. Try to add that account through the system settings and it will likely show up in the Play Store.

@ZnewMaN: I've just uploaded a screenshot of Play Store

@AdrianPronk As bassmadrigal stated, try adding the account to the system itself and then seeing if you can use it in the Play Store. From the home screen if you tap the menu button, go to settings and then accounts and sync. You should be able to add another account there.


text:
Setting up an IMAP e-mail, need help
I am  trying to link my college e-mail to my android phone.  I have all the info for the IMAP server and Port but when it says "Checking incoming server setting" it comes back with a box that says "Username or password incorrect".... The problem is I know I am putting in the right password.
I have a Motorola Electrify 2 that runs Android 4.0.4. (ice cream sandwich). I am using the stock e-mail setup.
Here's the info from my school for setting up the email:
Incoming settings
IMAP server: imap.gmail.com
Port:993
Security: SSL (always)
Outgoing settings
SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 463 or 587
Security: SSL (always)
THANKS!

Try to change your Security to "SSL If Possible", change the port of your outgoing settings to "465" and my servers aren't "...gmail.com" but "...googlemail.com". If this does not work I'm out.

Are you using your full email address as your username? Do you have an alternate email address at your college? If so, have you tried using that as your username?


text:
Why are android devices equipped with only (relatively) little RAM?
Currently, I can only find devices (phone, tablets or sticks) that are equipped with a maximum of 2GB RAM.  While this might be sufficient for current applications, I do wonder why there are no devices offering more RAM.
I think that having more RAM would not have a significant impact on prices, while being beneficial to multitasking several apps.
So why are there no devices with more RAM?  Limitations by chipsets?  Just the cost competition?  Making people buy new devices with 4GB next year and with 6 in the year after?
My intiuition behind this question: From CPU-power and storage speeds the android devices are more powerful than my ULV-notebook which suffices for all my work and stuff.  I do see potential in replacing my "home server" with a cheap android device.  But I do not understand why they have so little RAM, which could be useful in this context.
PS: I am aware that it is possible to create swap space on the disk and increase swappiness, but the access times are far worse than RAM speed.

This doesn't really seem like something we can answer aside from speculating; you'd probably have to ask the manufacturers.

Not much nspace in a phone for lots of ram chips...

@Martin, as of this comment, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has 3G of RAM, and I see it as one which pushes the industry limits. Only ~2.4G is available to applications, however, with the rest probably allocated to the kernel and/or the GPU. From personal experience, given the apps available today, I could probably benefit from a device with >= 6G to give numerous processes all that they want, while not violating any addressing limitations.

There are several factors, which I'll address (pun intended) in no particular order.
RAM is expensive
Sure, memory chips may be cheap, but that's not the only (or even the main) cost. Alongside the RAM itself you need extra buses, power lines, bigger memory controllers, heatsinks, &c. The RAM also takes physical space on-chip. For oomph-per-dollar, at the moment, you're better off increasing cache sizes rather than memory sizes.
Also, don't forget how power-hungry RAM is. Doubling the RAM capacity means doubling its power budget, which means either your battery life gets even worse, or you need bigger batteries. Now, you could say that the extra RAM could be powered down until it's needed, but (a) don't forget that Android currently tries to keep all the RAM full to save CPU cycles, so the software changes to support that would be very expensive, and (b) that's just giving app developers another way to screw up and run your battery down.
So, it's not as cheap as all that, and you don't want to add more RAM until you can really use it, which you can't, because of
32-bit processors
Remember how desktops and servers only started having lots of RAM when 64-bit processors became popular? That's because 32-bit processors can only have 4 GB of address space. That has to include all the RAM you want to access, plus any memory-mapped buffers for accessing other hardware and storage. By the time you count everything, it effectively limits you to accessing about 3GB of RAM.
With LPAE (the ARM equivalent of Intel's PAE) you can make that a per-process limit rather than a whole-system limit. That is, you could have 8 GB of RAM in your device, and each process could use up to 3GB of it. But that's not as useful for a phone as it is for a server, because of
Single-tasking
Unlike iOS, Android lets apps run background services, but realistically, they're not going to be doing memory-intensive operations. You don't need 2 GB of RAM to sync your email and contacts, and for more intensive background operations, the trend has been to put them in "the cloud", letting big servers handle the heavy lifting and just send the results to your screen. If you think of a smartphone and tablet as just a thin client connected to Internet services, there's no way you'd even need 1 GB of RAM. RAM demands have only grown past that because of increasing screen resolutions and the need to supply large textures to games.
You mentioned potential for multitasking, but it's a tiny minority of users would would ever be swapping between two memory-hungry apps on a tablet or phone. Maybe a paint program and a 3D modelling app? This may be something that changes if manufacturers start bringing Android to desktops or more powerful portables, but right now RAM is not the only thing stopping people using their devices that way. Even if you are multitasking, you have
Fast non-volatile memory
Android devices have an extra advantage that means they don't need as much RAM as desktops or servers: fast non-volatile storage. You mentioned swapping to disk in your question, so don't forget that Windows has been doing this with ReadyBoost, which uses a flash drive as virtual memory (the Windows equivalent of swap space). Using flash memory as swap is actually pretty fast, especially when it's internal memory (so the system integrator can tune everything for its latency and bandwidth) rather than an arbitrary SD card.
Android already lets apps pack up their GUI state into special storage before they go away. This lets background processes take up less memory, and provides a path for Android to move that state to non-volatile memory. I'd expect to see this mechanism used a lot more cleverly in software to make the most of the RAM you already have, before manufacturers start pushing the 32-bit limit.
To summarise: there's no reason Android devices can't have more memory, but adding more isn't just a question of going to PC World and buying a stick of DDR. At the same time, most users won't see any benefit from the extra memory; the way Android devices are used and the way Android apps are written would have to change before they would.
If you want to replace your home server with a cheap, power-efficient ARM computer, there's no need to look to Android for that. You can get small ARM servers that run GNU/Linux, and even some mainstream NASes are easy to install a GNU/Linux distro on. You might even be able to repurpose an Android device for this (for example, Ubuntu 13.04 is supposed to run on a Nexus 7).

Thank you very much for your extensive answer.  There were a couple of aspects I have not thought about before and that help me understand the logic of the android hardware development.  But what I did not even imagine that multi-core CPUs would still be caught in the 32bit address space.

64-bit makes processors a lot more power-hungry, and much bigger. There is a 64-bit ARM architecture now, but it'll be years before we see such CPUs in phones.


text:
Why some apps still need a manual update although having been configured to be automatic update?
Today I got Facebook app's update notification.
I thought I forgot to check the automatically update box but I didn't - it is already set for auto already.
So why the app still need our manual update?

The apps's permissions changed (specifically, new ones were added), so you have to approve the update.


text:
External keyboard behaviour: "I replaced by Ï and so on
When trying to write using an external (USB) keyboard, any combination of [(speech marks)(letter)] results in conversion of the character pair to the umlaut version, if it exists (if there is no version, nothing happens). Same issue happens when trying to use a Bluetooth keyboard. Turning off auto-punctuate/correct makes no difference. This issue doe not exist when using the onscreen keyboard.
This appears to be global; anywhere I type that kind of thing I get that behavior.
Device: Samsung Galaxy Note II running 4.1.2, not rooted.
I have done some searching, but have not found this issue mentioned so far anywhere, any ideas?


text:
Applications forget setting in every boot
I have an android tablet with ICS version. The model is not popular. The brand is something like a Greek bestbuy.com shop. But the hardware is enough good. Nvidia tegra 3, good resolution and ram.
My problem is that when I don't use the tablet I shut it down. But then I reopen it some apps don't remember my login credentials or other settings. These apps is facebook, Microsoft OneNote, Tasks for MS exchange, Skydrive or Skype.
What kind of problem is that? I mean is a application bug, android or model bug?

It could be a manufacturing fault in your particular tablet, but it sounds more likely to be an error in that model. Perhaps the system integrator didn't put applications' data on non-volatile storage, or screwed up the shutdown sequence. If this is the case, updating the system may fix the problem. Check with the manufacturer.
If you edit your question to include the make model name of the tablet, you may find someone else who has one and can help.


text:
Uninstalling app from specific device only
Is there a way to remove an app from only one device when using the same account over two devices?
I've just got a tablet - which is currently syncing settings and downloading all the apps that I have obtained from the market on my phone.  I won't need all these apps and would like to remove some from just the tablet (but leave them available for restore on the phone etc).
Is this possible?  Does the phone have an independent "installed app" list to the tablet?
Thanks.

Yes, they have separate lists - you can uninstall from the tablet or phone without affecting the other device.

You can also use your web browser from your computer and go to the My Apps section of Google Play. Here you can select the device you want to remove the app from, and click the trashcan icon next to it. This will uninstall the app from that device only.

Trashcan icon to uninstall an app from the selected device


text:
How to backup original firmware and personal data before firmware change?
Before I try a custom-built firmware, I would like to backup the original one from my 2.1 SE Xperia phone. I know some original firmwares are out there to download but I would trust my own one better. How can the original firmware be backed up?

Is your device rooted?

@ZnewmaN yes it is rooted.

Please check the backup tag wiki, which already gives you some "first-aid" advice. Take a closer look at the Nandroid section, as that is what you will need:
First, you will need to install a custom recovery (see e.g. recovery-mode). The most common choice here is clockworkmod, as it is available for most devices. Depending on your device, there might be other choices available. For your Xperia, there probably is no Amon Ra Recovery (which is very similar to already mentioned ClockworkMod recovery), but there might be e.g. twrp. This custom recovery will replace your stock-recovery, and add some useful functionality -- one of the new features being nandroid backups. Your device-firmware will remain untouched when you flash the custom recovery.
Once you've installed the custom recovery, you can boot into it with a special combination of keys. On most devices, you need to hold the Vol - and Power keys pressed simultaneously on boot, until the recovery menu appears -- but that key combination might differ for your device (and the custom recovery chosen). Check the documentation/readme/hints where you downloaded your recovery.
Bootet into the recovery, there will be a menu item for backup (it may be labeled "Backup" or "Nandroid" or "Nandroid Backup", but you will unmistakenly identify it). Here you can create (or restore) a nandroid backup, which includes an image for each of your device's partitions (i.e. all that would be touched/changed when flashing another device-firmware; it will, however, not backup/restore your device's radio-firmware).

Examples of ClockworkMod (source: XDA, LaptoppMag)
The screenshots show you the ClockworkMod menu of two different versions (I marked the entry you will need to create/restore backups). The first screenshot shows a complete Nandroid backup being made, and you can see in the light-gray test all the "Backing up" lines, indicating each backed-up partition.
Having created such a Nandroid Backup, you can return to this state of your device-firmware anytime. It would also include your apps and data; so if you don't like the custom ROM you've tried, simply boot into your custom recovery, and restore your backup.


text:
Upgrade Galaxy S Advance from 2.3 to 4.1
I have the Samsung Galaxy S Advance which is currently running Android version 2.3, can I upgrade it to Android 4.1?
I googled and found this It is telling that I need a rooted phone. What does this mean?
Is there high possibility of any problem?

That link is telling you how to root a device that is already running ICS, not how to upgrade from GB to ICS.

Have you forced your phone to check for an update? What country are you located? According to this article Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungry, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the UK have rolled out the OTA upgrade.


text:
How to use phone as an USB Wi-Fi adapter?
I would like to use my SE Xperia 8 with 2.1 as an usb wifi adapter to my PC. What I would like to do is set it to access point mode and share my ADSL internet with my laptop through wifi.
I would connect the phone via an usb cable and I would like to be able to route and share my pc's internet through it to and back from my laptop.
I don't mind if the firmware must be changed as I have an other phone. But I prefer if there is easier/more convenient way to do this. On the pcs I'm also flexible about OSes.
How could I use my phone as an wifi adapter?
EDIT To make it more clear, here is what I mean:
I have:

"PC A" with internet over ADSL. no wifi.
my phone, it has an usb cable and a wifi chipset.
"PC B" with wifi

What I would like to do us to use PC A's internet on PC B, with the help of my phone.
Connect Internet to PC A, then connect my phone to PC A, then connect PC B to my phone via Wifi, and use PC A's internet on PC B.
Internet >>> Adsl modem >>> ethernet cable >>> PC A >>> USB cable >>> phone >>> wifi >>> PC B

PDANet+ or Klink would probably work for you. There are a number of apps that have a computer counterpart for sharing phone's connection over USB.

I just added the usb-tethering tag to your question, as that's what it's all about. Take a look at the most frequented questions of this tag, and your question will find an answer :)

@Izzy I edited my question because I think it is not a duplicate. I don' tunderstand how reverse tethering helps me, as I cannot share it with PC B. Or... should I set it up, does all what remain is to make the phone an acces point (how?)? Will it forward all ports? I'd like to use ftp, ssh and https.

"Reverse tethering" is the part "PC A -> USB -> phone", which is what your question described. "phone -> WiFi -> PC B" would be "WiFi Hotspot" (added that tag to your question). Everything else is outside the scope of our site ;) So I'd say check those two first, and see whether they can work together (i.e. if the tethered phone can play hotspot at the same time).

@Izzy I see, very informative, thank you! I'll ask another Q (if must) when I have a result, so this can be closed as a duplicate.

Yepp, I guess that's the best choice. Above should get you started, and when you get stuck, simply ask a specific question on what you've done and where you've got stuck. We'll be glad to help you out then, of course!

Nice Question....


text:
What's the input current draw for the Nexus 4?
I am trying to find the maximum possible current draw of the Nexus 4 when recharging the battery.

The adapter that comes with the Nexus, supplies 1.2A
The Qi Charging Station needs 1.8A

But I can't find the actual maximum current that can be drawn by the Nexus. I am using a battery pack that supplies around 2A and it only can keep the Nexus running (when playing Ingress), but doesn't really recharge it. I wonder if this is caused by the batteries 2A maximum output or if it's due to the nexus having an upper limit it can handle.

You might find the current draw in the battery menu, after "dialing" the magic number *#*#4636#*#* (alias *#*#INFO#*#*).

Nice hint, I didn't knew that. But it sadly doesn't show anything related to the phones or batteries max current specification.

Nope -- and that's why I didn't put it as answer. Valuable information, though; and up to Froyo that menu even contained wakelock statistics (quite useful to identify apps eating your battery). There are a lot more of those "magic numbers", check here and, for more, here ;) The max current specification you probably won't find on the device itself, but in its specification papers.

Not the Nexus 4, but the Galaxy Nexus will not draw any more than 900mA (maximum for USB 3.0).  I wouldn't be surprised if Google specified the same strict compliance to the USB spec for the Nexus 4.

Additionally, Current Widget might be of use.  It uses a fairly extensive listing of possible locations where different phones report battery current.  That'll at least tell you how much current your getting, which might tell you where the bottleneck is.  I can't seem to find any info on if it works fully with the Nexus 4 though.

android tuner reads around 840ma

Is this reading reliable, how does android tuner measure the current?

It seems fairly accurate. I just did the same on my Nexus 4 and got the same reading. I did compare this value to the value when unplugged (a negative value), and it seems to indicate that about 1A is all it draws.

I just measured the current when using the LG charging adapter and it only consumpts 433mA. So there is no benefit using an AC adapter instead of a PC.
EDIT: Cable broken, see my last post.

Was that adapter a dedicated one for that device? The cable used belonging to it? For "fast charging", it might be the addional 5th contact is used to signal the power source (i.e. tell the device it's connected with a "fast charging" source). Charging adapter and cable might need to support that. See this answer for "pin details".

Hi, it is the AC charging adapter which was delivered with my nexus 4 (model : MCS-01ET)

How did you measure the current?

Hi, I just measured again and it seems like my USB Cable is broken (or the Data-Lines). I just used an other cable and now the Nexus goes up to 1A with LG Charging Adapter and Nexus 7/Asus charging adapter (which can go up to 2A).
The only way for the Nexus 4 to detect if it is high current or not are the D+ and D- since on the opposite site of the cable is only a standard USB A Connector with 4 Pins (so the ID Pin of the micro B end could not be controlled by the charging adapter). I think there are resistors on D+ and D- which indicates the high current ability of the charging adapter.

@MasterFX - Yes, there is supposed to be a 200 ohm resistance between D+ and D- on a dedicated charger, per the USB Battery Charging spec.  They call it "Dedicated Charging Port resistance across D+/-" and is on page 35 of the spec.

I did measure ~3.3 Ohm between D+ and D- (including resistance of the D+ and D- wires). So it is more or less a short between D+ and D- on the Asus and the LG charging adapter


text:
Hide certain numbers when picking SMS recipients
So many of my contacts have both home and cell numbers in my contact list. But when I am typing in names I  the recipient field go sms pro), I don't really want to see numbers that cannot receive texts, like home phone numbers. Is there a logical way to manage this?


text:
Although I have enough the available storage does not match it
On a Samsung note 10.1 with 32G when I go to settings I can see 25GB available storage. Besides that, when I am trying to copy files from my ubuntu box to the tablet (connected through the USB) I am getting an insufficient storage message. Checking the properties of the mounted volume I only see 200MB free on it.
How can I fix it?

I just answered the first part of your question below. For the remaining part, a few more details are needed: Can you please check which partition is mounted there? You might be able to identify some files/directories, compare them with your device using a file manager or terminal, and then give the full path. I'm suspecting it mounts the wrong partition. Also please specify how you mount your Note (MTP, UMS, PTP).

It is mounted automatically. When I connect the tablet (Sumsung note) to the USB of the computer, a pop is notifying me that I have inserted a digital audion player.  I can see it from nautilous. The directory mounted is the /storage/sdcard0  which has not the same free space as what is shown in the android settings | strorage | free

OK, "digital audio player" suggests it's using PTP or MTP, but certainly not UMS (the latter would be "USB Storage", not "Audio Player" or "Camera"). Do you have the mtp-tools package installed on your Ubuntu PC? My answer here might prove helpful (ignore the Kindle, focus on the Ubuntu part ;)

After installing mtpfs and creating the dir ~/NexusDrive I am executing: mtpfs ~/NexusDrive, it finds the devide but it gets stuck showing the messgae:  Attempting to connect device.  All this is happening while the tablet is connected through the usb. Do I miss something here?

Sorry, John: As I don't use it myself, I cannot further check. I recommend you post a new question with this issue: include the steps you've performed, including the error message. Hopefully somebody using this can help you further. It might also be a good idea to not post this question here, but on our sister-site AskUbuntu, as it's the Ubuntu-part it is about. I hope I at least was able to answer the first part of your question below (so you might accept it), and got you started in the right direction with the other part.

ok, i accepted and will start a new thread

with 32 GB when I go to settings I can see 25 GB available storage

Though the device is declared to have 32GB, part of that is reserved for the firmware. The entire 32GB are partitioned:

/system for the device-firmware
/recovery for the recovery (see: recovery-mode)
/boot for the boot image
/cache for application cache
/data for apps and their data (see: internal-storage)

The 25 GB you see are those from the internal-storage aka /data.
This answer only covers the first part of your question. For the second part, we need some more details.


text:
How to set up an android device to function as a phone only
Is there a way to set up my android device so that when the lock screen unlocked, the phone app always is open by default? In other words: I swipe to unlock the screen and I always automatically see the phone keypad first and the device is ready to make a call.
I am trying to set up a new Samsung Galaxy Note for my grandmother BTW. Someone bought it for her for her birthday. She likes the size for her eyes, but is intimidated by the home screen, and has discarded the phone for that reason. I figure if can make it operate as she expects then she might warm up to it.

Why would you get an android phone instead of a dumb phone?

Maybe because you can't get dumb phones with text and buttons as big as the Note.

Install this Easy Phone App into your grandmother's cell and place its shortcut on the screen or the desktop of that android device.
And tell her to just swipe that circle with lock off the screen (i.e Unlock  screen) whenever she sees one, and touch on that phone icon in the center! (to activate the Phone app)...

Advantages:

Big font User Interface.

Descriptive Graphics.

Statistics:

Average Rating: 4.4 of 5.

Of 153 people 97  have rated it 5 stars.

Alternative-

Install this One tap dailer.

Features:

It gives a speed dail like facility. Meaning that, it creates a dedicated app icon on screen for each and every contact. That would be good if she has some few fixed people to talk or chat to.

Statistics:

Of 17, 7 rated it as 5 stars.

To do exactly what you want, you can install Tasker. You can try tasker from its website rather than from Google Play store and this allows you to test it for free for 7 days in a device.
With Tasker, I created a profile which watches for an event for screen-unlock and launches dial pad once it gets triggered.  You can download the following content as an XML file and import it into your Tasker installation to test.
<TaskerData sr="" dvi="1" tv="1.6u1m">
  <Profile sr="prof10" ve="2">
    <cdate>1366177538819</cdate>
    <edate>1366177654712</edate>
    <id>10</id>
    <mid0>12</mid0>
    <nme>Unlock</nme>
    <Event sr="con0" ve="2">
      1000
      <pri>0</pri>
    </Event>
  </Profile>
  <Task sr="task12">
    <cdate>1366177546567</cdate>
    <edate>1366177572658</edate>
    <id>12</id>
    <Action sr="act0" ve="3">
      90
      <Str sr="arg0" ve="3"/>
      <Int sr="arg1" val="0"/>
    </Action>
  </Task>
</TaskerData>


text:
Why did my phone start ringing when there is no SIM card installed
My old samsung jet phone just started ringing from inside the cupboard, & unknown caller was displayed, although the children use it as a play phone sometimes there is no SIM card installed, how can that happen I thought you had to have a sim in to operate a phone except for emergency calls?

It looks like a fake calling app is doing this. Check the list of installed apps.

Did you pick it up? Was there someone on the other end? I rather guess Sachin is right, but just to make sure ;)

That happened to my Samsung Wi-Fi "not smartphone, just touch".
I live in jordan, and I received a call twice from an unknown number. It rang with no sound on the microphone and no SIM card. It is really weird, but I think the most common factor is the Samsung phone. It might be kind of an emergency call, or the company puts kind of tracking system to see if these devices are still in service.

It might be a call from Google+. See if the Google+ app is installed. If it is, then disable/uninstall it.


text:
Why is my phone vibrating incessantly during calls?
Yesterday, my phone started vibrating once every 15 seconds or so during phone calls. I'm running cyanogenmd 7 on HTC thunderbolt. I looked in settings and there is only option to vibrate every 45 seconds during outgoing calls and it is off. How can I get back the old behavior?

i had a similar problem, for me I had to go into the "profile" i was using "default, silent, work, ect.", and change the phone setting for vibrate to off.


text:
How to store data on internal memory on LG Optimus 4X HD
After first use of LG optimus 4x HD I set storing of photo and video files on a SD card. Now I want this files to be saved back on internal memory.But I can't find where I did this setting. Please help me.

Easy to do:

open the camera app
in the upper left you see a "gear" icon. Tapping it opens a drop-down. Do so.
scroll a little down. The third-to-last item reads "Storage" (has a SDCard icon). Tap it.
in the new overlay, select your wanted storage from "SDcard" or "Internal storage"

Done :)

Goran, sometimes one cannot find the simple things. This doesn't mean one's stupid :) But if my answer helped you, it would be nice of you to "accept" it (click on the checkmark left to it), so it's easily identifyable by others that your issue has a working solution. Thanks!