text:
Whatsapp showing "Failed out of memory. Please try again later"?
I don't know why but my whats app has started showing "Failed Out of Memory" option when I try to send any media file over to whatsapp account. What am I going to do ?? Is there any fix available?

Thank you all for your answers I guess this question can be marked as solved as whatsapp developers have already fixed this issue and responded to my email.

As states whatsapp faq:
This is a complicated process, if you need further explanation, please read the details below.
Make sure your phone is connected to the internet.
Make sure your date and time are correct.
Your SD card could be causing problems:
Ensure there is plenty of free space on the SD card.
Backup the contents of your "WhatsApp" folder on the SD card, delete it, create a new "WhatsApp" folder and put the contents back.
Check if you can copy files to the SD card.
If you could not copy files to your SD card but you have free space on the card, you may need to reformat (erase) the card:
Backup all SD card data onto your computer.
If you are sure you want to erase all data on your SD card, reformat it.
Still not working? Check out our detailed explanation below.
Details
Before we begin, we ask you to double check (and even triple check) that your phone has an active internet connection with a strong signal. Try loading a webpage to make sure. If you are certain that your phone is connected (try connecting to different Wi-Fi hotspots and/or 3G), keep reading.
Please also check that your date and time are set correctly. If your date is incorrect, you will not be able to connect to our servers to download your media. See how to correctly set your date here.
Sometimes WhatsApp may have difficulty saving files to your SD card. Follow these steps to help:
Make sure there is enough space on your SD card. If your SD card is full, WhatsApp cannot save anything to it, so you may want to delete a few files to make room.
Ensure your SD card is not set to read only. Try saving a file to your SD card that is not from WhatsApp. If the file saves, your card is not read-only and you should be able to save files downloaded from WhatsApp to it. If you cannot save anything, your card is set to read only. You will need to change this; please check your phone’s manual for instructions.
If there is enough free space and you can save files to your SD card, but you still cannot download any files to it from WhatsApp, you may need to delete WhatsApp data from your SD card:
WARNING: This will erase ALL WhatsApp chat history backups and downloaded files.
This would be a good time to back up your WhatsApp data. To back up your WhatsApp data, copy the "WhatsApp" folder on your SD card to your computer.
Open the SD card folder on your phone and delete the "WhatsApp" folder. All of your WhatsApp media is now erased. WhatsApp will still open - and your chats will still be there - but your media (photos, videos, audio) will be gone.
Restart your phone.
WhatsApp should be able to save your downloaded files now.
Still reading? Remember step 2, when you checked to see if your SD card was read only? If you could not save any files to it, your SD card may be corrupted. In this case, you may need to reformat your SD card. This means erasing the entire SD card and resetting it:
EXTRA WARNING: This will erase ALL data on your SD card.
Once you format the SD card you will not be able to get back your data.
If possible, backup anything on the SD card. One way to do this is to plug the SD card into a computer with an SD card reader, and copy the files over.
On your Android phone, go to Settings > Storage.
If it exists, tap Unmount storage card.
Tap Format SD card or Erase SD card.
Reboot your phone.
If all of these steps did not work, it may be that there is an issue with your microSD card. You may need to purchase a new microSD card in order to save/send files.

Wwll, that was way more long post but anyway I have managed to read it out aloud for a while and I think I am having enough memory available over my SD card as well as my device internal storage, my internal storage is having more than 8GB of free memory left and over my SD card can take more that 40GB of data and I guess that's a lot of space but anyway I think I am going to give it a try. Well, did try it out but nope still the same, but what I have noticed that some pictures can be sent but some pictures can't I wonder where I am really going wrong ?

Hi,
According to this post: http://www.netmediablog.com/solve-whatsapp-failed-memory-please-try-later-error
The problem could be in the too high resolution of the pictures you're trying to send. This could also explain why you can upload anyway some images

Does this means this problem can only be fixed by developers because previously high resolution pics are easily ongoing previously but after the last WhatsApp update I have started encountering this problem.

If the problem shows only with the last version, I'd suggest you to report the bug to whatsapp developers team: http://www.whatsapp.com/contact/
In the meanwhile, you should manage to send your media anyway by opening them in gallery (for images) or on the archive (for music and videos) and click on "share"

Well, yes I have did that the time I have started getting this error but still didn't seem to have heard back from them with any confirmed solution. Which makes me thought that I should be asking the same question over the stack overflown.

Maybe if there are more users with the same problem they're going to fix it in the next version

I solved it by these steps:

uninstaling
clearing cache
restarting the phone
re-installing whatsapp

also you can use the whatsapp version available on the official website : http://www.whatsapp.com/android/

Well, I couldn't think that's working out with me ! I have already tried that one out. I have emailed the developers about the issue in attaching the pictures.

I found a simple solution, just crop the photo, to downsize it, then resend it!!

Well, I don't know why some user has down voted your answer but I would say yes, your trick to crop the photo to downsize it works exactly perfect. Anyway I guess you are little late with your answer because Whatsapp developers have already fixed this issue and they do have responded my mail.


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Is the old app uninstalled when it is upgraded?
i want to know when an upgrade is available for an app
obviously a new apk is there. So is it that the old apk is uninstalled and new apk is installed ?

Not quite, no. When you uninstall a package, it also removes other data to do with that package: for example, the app's own private data, its data on the SD card, your default preferences for that app. It also tells any other interested apps that you've removed the app, via an intent broadcast. Other apps receiving that broadcast might take further action based on that: for example, a launcher (home screen app) would remove desktop shortcuts and widgets from that app, since they won't work any more.
When a package is upgraded (that is, replaced with a new APK file with the same package name and a later version code), the old version is stopped, so that nothing from the app is running any more. The old APK file is removed and the new one replaces it, but the other uninstall actions aren't performed: the private app data and default preferences are kept, and the uninstall broadcast isn't sent. Instead, a different intent is broadcast to tell any interested apps that the package has been updated.
So while the old APK file is removed, the effect of an upgrade is quite different to uninstalling the old package and then installing the new one.
In Google Play the situation can be a bit different if the developer has enabled delta updates (called Smart updates by Google).
In a delta update only the changes between the two versions are downloaded and applied to the existing APK. For example, if you have an app that is 15MB in size, and the developer decides to change the background image, you don't need to download the entire application again, you can just download the delta (difference), which includes the new image. The old APK is then duplicated, the new content is injected to the copy of the old APK, and if successful the old APK is removed. The end result is the updated APK.

That's a clear answer! Can you please tell how to remove old app data on install of the new update?

@lifeLongLearner Just use the "clear data" button in the Settings, the same way you would any other time.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Can't install system update on Samsung Gear
I've just gotten a Samsung Gear Live and I get a card for a System Update (I currently have KKV81). It says "Touch to install", however nothing happens when I touch it. I swipe left and select "Open" and I get asked "Download complete. Ready to install?" Again, nothing happens if I press the tickmark to install it.
There are a bunch of other minor issues, but I'm hoping the software update will fix them.
I've unpaired, re-paired, restarted, factory reset and just about anything else, but nothing seems to make a difference.
Any ideas what might be wrong?

I had the exact same problem. This is how I solved it:

Hold the button on the right hand side of the watch down until the screen goes off (about 10 seconds).
Release the button.
The watch "rebooted" and came up with system update message that said swipe left to install
Follow instructions on screen

I had tried that already with no effect. The 10 second button press is just a restart of the watch. I did the same from the menu but it didn't help.

So today it worked for me all of a sudden. I think it was because I was no longer on my home wi-fi. I was on 3G data connection. I went through all the same steps and this time when I touched the tick mark, it installed and rebooted.
For anyone else suffering from this, try taking your phone off wi-fi, waiting a few minutes to make sure it's fully connected to 3G and then try again.

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


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Decrypt Samsung S2 files?
My Samsung S2 just went dead with the encrypted SD Card in it and I found out that KIES didn't backup that memory. The phone was repaired but now I cant read the files on the SD.
Anyone out there who managed to recover encrypted files?

If you could do that, there wouldn't be much point encrypting it, would there?

There's no recovering encrypted files.  Sorry.

To answer Dan, I don't agree: An encryption scheme/algorithm should be public, and let you decrypt it, given you have necessary key(s), even on a different OS.


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remove locked by android device manager message
I have played with Android device manager and I have blocked my phone. I have deblocked but everytime my phone enters into standyby it apears me the message "locked by android device manager" and I have to enter the password again.
Do you know how to remove this message?

Remove "locked by android device manager" without factory reset.
Here are the steps:

Ask the owner in order to get the passcode or password
(Once you have the passcode or password) Go to settings > Lock screen
Enter passcode or password
Select none or whatever you choose to use
In order to see it, swipe down from the area at the top (Notification panel)
You will see a new (android device manager icon) at the top of your screen. The icon looks like a raindrop (green in color) with a bullseye (white in color) icon inside the circle
Tap and hold the ADM (Android Device Manager) icon
Tap app info
Tap Manage Space
Tap clear all data

Now the icon has been removed.

You can remove the password from Settings -> Security -> Screen lock, enter the specified password and choose your desired new lock type. If you previously didn't have a PIN, Pattern or Password lock, use the Slide option.

I've done that but it keept apearing me the same message. I had to restore all the settings to make it work again.

Yes. I had to perform a factory reset, because I think I've tried everything. Changed the password on android device manager and blocked again. It appeared the new password, I have deblocked again, went to Settings -> Security -> Screen lock entered the new password and I choose None. I restarted the phone but it keept appearing me the text "locked by android device manager". After the phone ringed on phone that I set on androide device manager I could enter the phone without entering the pasword.
So I performed a factory reset and erased everything from the phone and got rid of all the problems.
I use an zte blade q maxi phone.

Go to settings >display >security >credential storage> clear credential..
It will do it for you :)

Not sure how that should be related. The settings you refer to are security certificates for SSL you've added yourself (e.g. for websites using self-signed certificates). Even if there were any related certificates, that would just affect the ability to access a site/server, but certainly not a device-manager lock. Can you give a reference?

The key to unlocking and removing this is hard for the galaxy note 3. I had to reset the password multiple times because with the note 3 if you put a passcode it wont let you,but if you put a password it will always be wrong...So the only solution is putting in the orignal password instead of the device manager.
I tried to put a new password on my phone because my mom changed my password and wouldn't tell me because I got a C+ on my report card. She acts like she pays the bill for it.
The ultimate thing to do is not to put a password on it from device manager!

Get into the phone change the password to a pin like 1234. Go back to find my phone and set the lock phone on the find my phone to the same pin you already have your phone set to. Used LGL21G

Ok so here's how I fixed mine on Moto X.
Go to Settings>Security>ScreenLock>ClearCredentials
Go back to Screen lock, the option to choose "None" as the screen lock is now available.
Thanks for the help Sumit Sharma :)


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Install default Mail App on my Nexus 5
I do not see default mail App on my Nexus 5. I do have gmail though working fine. Probably I removed it earlier. How do I install it again ! I want to use that to configure Exchange Server on it to configure my official emails and calendars.
Currently when I try to do "Add Account" it does NOT show "Corporate" !

Have you by any chance updated the Email app from the Google Play Store?

After installing the Email app from Play Store; it does show corporate under "Add account" .. But still types shown are IMAP and POP only.. It does not show "Exchange" Account ! Please help.

Please see my answer below. You'll need to install Exchange2Google.apk as well.

Try to install the Email app directly from Google Play Store.  If this app is shown as incompatible on your device, side-load it by downloading it from here, enabling the Unknown sources in Settings -> Security, and installing the apk (either by tapping the apk in the download manager, or via ADB from your PC: adb install -r <path-to-apk>).
Keep in mind though that this version sometimes breaks the Exchange functionality on some mostly non-Nexus devices. In order to resolve this, you need to also install a copy of latest Exchange2Google.apk app that is available for download from here or here. You don't have to install it as a system app, just side-load it in the same manner as described above.


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How to select specific folders to sync with Dropbox or OneDrive?
I've just bough a phone with Android, a Galaxy Note 3, and I have no experience with it, but I would like to have all my photo albums syncing to a cloud storage service.
I've tried OneDrive and Dropbox, however they just sync files that are located in the main camera album, if I take a picture with an App who has a folder of its own, this picture it is not synchronized. In both OneDrive and Dropbox don't see an option to select these additional folders to sync.
How can I accomplish this?


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Unable to install Google Play Services to save Clash of Clans village
I play Clash of Clans and I have a village which I do not want to lose.
I am attempting to save the village to Google Play Services but I am not able to install Play Services as it says that it is not compatible with other apps. How can I save my village without services, or how can I install Google Play Services?
My device is Maxx AX5 with Android 4.0.4 and kernel version 3.0.13.

possible duplicate of "Incompatible with other applications(s) using the same shared user ID" when installing Google Play service?

Well, @bmdixon no this is not duplicate of the thread you have mentioned over here. Here the user is concerned about saving his progress of the game i.e. IGG ID and over the thread you have mentioned the user is seeking help over Google Plays and Google Plus.

"it is not compatible with other apps" Anything more specific?

Part 1 of your question can be answered in the bottom half of the following link. Requires Google+
https://gamesupport.supercell.net/hc/en-us/articles/421682-Can-I-transfer-my-village-to-a-new-device-
Part 2 of your question can be accomplished by flash the proper GApps package to your device. Goto XDA forum and do a search for your device and GApps package for version of Android that you are using


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Note 3 - Apps Killed
I have a rooted Note 3:

Samsung-SM-N900A (AT&T)
Android 4.3
Baseband N900AUCUBNB4

The issue I'm having is that there is something that's killing applications that should be running in the background.
For example, the Alarm Clock. Daily, 7:00 am alarm is set. The alarm never goes off because the application has been killed.
The "battery saver" mode is disabled.
What else is there that I can do to remove Samsung's propensity to kill apps on my Note 3? My phone is rooted, are there Samsung Apps that I can kill/freeze? Is there any options that force an app to keep running?

are you using greenify or any app hibernation  ??

I am aware of an option in developers settings which limit the amount of background processes. Is this option set to anything besides standard limit? Aside from an app killer application I can think of nothing else except crazy OOM settings.

"Standard Limit" is what that is set to. Options are 0-4 processes at most

Poking around at OOM settings. Rom Toolbox Pro has a memory manager, and apparently it allows me to lower the OOM setting on it. It went from something to -17, which should hopefully keep it alive. I'll update if I notice anything.

Sounds good. If that doesn't do anything then perhaps check some of your other root apps if you haven't already. They may be imposing some of their "performance" enhancements.

authors: w̢in̡͢g͘̕ed̨p̢͟a͞nt̡͜͝he̸r̴


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SIM Card not detected after failed recovery flash
I recently tried to install CWM on my rooted archos 40 titanium. Unlocking the bootloader using fastboot oem unlock doesn't work, I only got ellipses for a while. So I installed Mobiluncle tools and selected my recovery.img on my sdcard. However after it flashed, it rebooted in recovery, but the recovery doesn't work, it only restart again and again and again.
Fortunately, the device can still start normally, but now my SD Card isn't detected nor is my SIM card. I expected it would come from the bad recovery, so I tried to make a fastboot erase recovery but the bootloader is locked! I tried a simple Factory Reset in the setting it did nothing, it restarted android without wiping it :(
How to solve that? Is the fact that I can't read my SD and SIM due to the fact that the recovery doesn't work?
EDIT:
It seems it's Mobiluncle tools fault since when I closed its process in android settings the SD Card "appears" (but not the SIM card unfortunately)
EDIT 2:
I managed to wipe data partition using a shell, but after reboot the system is very unstable (a lot of apps crashes unfortunately), so I believe it is because I didn't wipe cache. But now I tried to install Framaroot and root but whatever I try any application that requires root says that my phone isn't rooted. How to root please
EDIT3:
using adb shell then su:
shell@android:/ $ su
su
DIE: file credentials different than expected
1|shell@android:/ $

EDIT:
Root now works
EDIT:
I tried, in factory mode, going in individual tests part and then SIM, nothing showed and in Memory Card test it says (*means x chinese characters)
eMMC FAT ***:
******:  (null)
******: **
******: 1266 MB
******: 0 x 4581

SD* 2 :
******: ****
******: 15185 MB
******:  5629 MB
******: 0 x 12675

check is your imei number is there or not, and also check your baseband whether it is showing some figurs or unknown ? if it is unknown then it can be resolved,

Can you access recovery at all?  If so, put this file on your SD card, and install it using stock recovery.

Thank you very much but when i reboot to recovery, it just reboot again to android

Try flashing the Archos provided recovery file in that zip I provided using Mobiluncle

What if I brick it? I'd like to be able to send it back to Archos after that.

Well, you're kinda screwed as-is...they'll be able to tell that you modified system files, and therefore, the warranty is void... Your best bet is to do whatever you can on your own to recover it.

I could lie :) It worked before. I could tell that m smartphone froze sundenly while using StackExchange app for instance and that when I removed the battery everything is buggy. And send it unrooted.

Or another possiblity is to leave it as is and sell it on ebay at a lower price as a "small tablet". Because it's like a tabet withour the size

But anyway, is it (the problem that SIM and SD card) because of a bad recovery?

@Vinz243 I doubt the recovery partition is at fault... But anything is possible.

Thanks, but what then? I have tow SIM card slot, both don't work and my SIM card works in other phones. :/ A data wipe didn't made anything

using Mobiluncle to flash using nthe zip it tells me that it will reboot to recovery :(

@Vinz243 - Honestly, I'm not quite sure where to go from here.  Recovery is pretty much the only hope, other than if your phone has a download mode.  Try holding down VolDwn + Power from an off state, and if that doesn't work, try VolUp + Power.

Using VolDown + power, I get the factory mode in chinese :(

That's where you need to be to flash it.

But unfortunately I can't read chinese. I tried (successfully) 清除e MMC, which made a factory reset - although the SIM Card and the recovery don't work still.

That 'Chinese mode' should be where you can flash with that flashing tool on your PC that you're using.

But how please? There is no such option I think

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
Print via ad-hoc network to wireless printer?
Is there a way to print from an android device to a wireless printer connected to the ad-hoc network being broadcast by the android device?

Android devices don't support ad hoc networks very commonly, are you referring to the personal hotspot feature? AFAIK it creates an infrastructure network, not an ad hoc one.

Yeah, the personal hotspot mode. The printer successfully connects to the hotspot however when I try to add the printer via PrinterShare from there it doesn't find it. It seems like all the devices on the network are isolated from one another and the printer clients can't locally access the phone and vis-a-versa.


text:
How come I get "This is a 'espresso10wifi'" when I try to flash recovery?
I'm trying to adb-sideload a new recovery (Philz Touch Recovery n5110) I get,
This package is for a 'konowifi.5110.GT-N5110.konawifixx' devices: this is a 'espresso10wifi'.
E: Error in /tmp/update.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted.

The Samsung N5110 is the Galaxy Note 8.  The "espresso10wifi" is a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (your device).
It's not flashing because you're flashing the wrong file for your device.


text:
Can I use USB gamepad without any setup?
I connected USB gamepad to my tablet.
I noticed that software like Tincore KeyMapper requires root access to connect to this gamepad.
This type of software recognizes all buttons, but asks me to map these buttons to screen areas.

Can I use a gamepad without mapping buttons to screen?
Do games support this mode?
Do I need to download some piece of software that will ask root access for these games?

Yes, you can use a USB game controller without root and without needing any prior setup. Just plug it in and Android will recognise it. By default, the D-pad on the controller will work like a D-pad or trackball on the device itself (if you remember when Android phones used to have little trackballs built in), and it will allow you to move focus between controls in most apps.
Stock apps are completely accessible using the controller without the touch screen, but not all third-party apps are. Many games (especially emulators for games consoles) support using a Bluetooth or USB game controller, but not all games do. The idea of apps like the one you mention is to make button presses on the game controller trigger touch screen events, so if you play a game that has on-screen controls but doesn't support controllers, the controller will trigger the game's on-screen controls. Generally you'll get a better playing experience, as well as easy setup, by choosing a game that supports game controllers.
If you just plug the controller in, it'll work in any supported apps and games right away. Games with controller support usually advertise it in the description on the store, but if you're not sure you can ask the developer through their support email address.

Actually my gemepad is not recognized and don't work. It's standard XInput device that works in windows without drivers.

I have a miniPC CS968 (RK3188) with Android 4.2.2.
My gamepads (PLayStation 1 and SNES style) work out of the box.
I updated it to Android 4.4.2 and the gamepads no longer work fine. They get recognized partially. Some buttons don't work. I downgraded it to 4.2.2 again and I, luckly, get them working out of the box.
My PlayStation 2 style gamepad works fine with Android 4.4.2. I hope my others gamepads worked too.

This sounds more like a new question than an answer to this question.

This is up to the individual app developers to provide support across Android versions

More like a comment than a new question.  It adds details about models and versions.  Me too have several controllers and just some of them are recognized.

Hyperkin NES style controllers with USB work with my andoid. I use the USB female to Micro Male adapter and Boom! EarthBound ROMs all day baby. Super easy and so many controllers corded work flawlessly. So much less hastle than bluetooth.


text:
External SD card not being recognised; data intact on card
I have a HTC One M8 running Android KitKat 4.4.2, and I recently got a Sandisk 64GB MicroSD. Today a few of my apps have greyed out icons and when I click them, it says app isn't installed.
When I go to Settings > Storage, External SD shows as Unavailable. Mount SD card shows, but clicking it just shows a message saying Preparing SD card and it does nothing else.
It also keeps popping up with Preparing SD card at random.
Putting the memory card in my PC, the data is intact. I've tried restarting my phone a couple of times; no joy. Is there anything I can do to make this work again?
Failing that, am I safe to backup the data to my PC, format the SD card, and restore the files; and everything will work as it did?

It looks like it's possibly a counterfeit SanDisk card - Glad I backed my data up, it's totally dead now.

SanDisk have confirmed it as a counterfeit.

The card was confirmed as a counterfeit by the manufacturer over the phone.


text:
What is it about Android that allows an application to "hard-crash" a device?
I have a never-rooted Nexus 4 running latest stock (android 4.4.4). It has been "hard-crashing" lately. By "hard-crash" I mean the screen goes black and either the device restarts itself (I see the same splash screen that is displayed during boot), or I have to hold the power button for a long time to get it to start (longer than for a normal boot).
After evidence pointing to it being caused by Google's own "Google Now Launcher" app (even after a factory reset), I began to wonder what it is about an apk file installed from the Play store on a non-rooted device that could ever cause the phone to "hard-crash". I would think that the sandbox in which apps run would prevent any app from being able to hard-crash a device.

I would suspect some faulty part such as memory.

I stopped seeing this issue after a factory reset.

Well good, but I was assuming you had the problem after doing a factory reset, since that's what you actually said in your post.

Oops, you're right. Turns out I had a different problem, (which at first seemed to be the same problem) after factory reset.

Like on any OS, although the app code itself is isolated in its own process container, it's possible for the app to trigger problems in the OS itself or in the hardware. For example, if the crash you're seeing is caused by a hardware problem such as a damaged heatsink, then any heavy workload will make the hardware fail, and there's not much the OS can do to stop that. The least reliable part of most operating systems is the drivers, so if there's a bug in (say) the GPU driver, that could make the kernel hang regardless of which process caused the situation that triggered the bug.

In other words, it sums up to either a bug or faulty hardware.


text:
Where can I find the Smat Tab 4 Clock and Weather Widget?
The Vodafone Smart Tab 4 has a clock and weather widget that looks like this:

I accidentally deleted the widget, and I cannot find it in the widget list.
What's the name of this app? Where can I find it?

Do you mean you swiped left to right on your lock screen, clicked the plus(+) and didn't see the widget in the list that appears? Or you mean you couldn't find it in the list that appears in the home screen?

@AwadMaharoof both.

Do this (at your own risk) if that's a default widget came along with OS because those widgets are unrecoverable once deleted.
1 Perform a backup of your important data (remember 'not the settings') in the Tab to a PC or Cloud.
2 Then do a "Hard Reset" of Tab. (Every handset has a unique way to do a hard reset. So Google it.)
3 Tab will be reset to its initial state of course.
4 Restore backup again.
-This is bad idea if you have large amounts of important/sensitive data on your Tab and also ignore this answer if that is not a default widget-

This looks like a lock screen widget, rather than a home screen one.  It won't appear in the widget selector - instead, you'll need to re-add it to your lock screen.  I'm not sure what the process is on the Smart Tab series, but it's probably in your Settings menu, somewhere having to do with Lock Screen.


text:
Revoke GPS permission for a system app on 4.0.4
I have a Sony Xperia Miro running Android 4.0.4 - Not Rooted, Stock Firmware. It contains Facebook as system app. Now, i don't want them to track me so i usually have GPS disabled. My question is now: is there a way i can enable GPS but make Facebook think its actually disabled without rooting the device?

No you cannot. To do that, you need access to app ops from where you can disable certain operations on a per-app basis. There is no way to do this right now without rooting your device.

too bad, means i cannot use GPS :/


text:
Galaxy s3 backup contacts google play
How can I get my contacts backs from my galaxy s3 when the LCD doesn't work and the screen is pitch black ?

What has Google Play got to do with it?

Well, I would say there may not be any reason to backup your contacts because I guess its backing up automatically over your gmail account. So for verifying it why don't you try logging yourself up over the Gmail account over PC/Laptop once logged in tap over the Gmail icon and click over the contacts. I am sure all your contacts are available over there !


text:
Using a wifi dongle to monitor network
I have an android smart box with a built-in wifi and I want to add a dongle to the box so that I can monitor the network. I have found a similar question with somewhat vague answer(at least to me);
Android as WiFi bridge with AP
I have 3 wifi dongles at the moment. The device can detect 2 of them(with dmesg run from shell and also a small android application which gets vendorId and productId of the connected usb devices) but I don't know if the required drivers are installed or modules are loaded.
My question is if the devices are detected, can i make use of them in an android app? or do I have to download android source code and compile it with new drivers/modules?
Basically I'm a little bit stuck and any pointers would be appreciated.
Thank you

What do you mean, "so that I can monitor the network"? I don't see what a second Wi-Fi network would help you do.

I mean I want to get info about the surrounding wifi devices like signal strength mac address etc.(with a dongle) and still be able to communicate with other devices over wifi(with the built-in wifi). I could give an example if it is still not clear.

OK, you should [edit] your question to add that information. Also, you should say what device you have, and what Wi-Fi dongles you're trying to use. Some Android devices support some Wi-Fi dongles; if you name the particular devices, you might get a more specific answer from someone who has the same.

Specific devices have nothing to do with my question. But if it led you to believe to i think the question may be a bit vague so i edited it a bit.

Why not use the built-in Wi-Fi, and use a network monitor tool like Fing?

Built-in wifi will be used for communicating with other devices on the network while the dongle will look for other devices without being connected to a network so it can monitor every device in range.


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will I get android updates on Moto G after Cyanogenmod 11
I'm about to flash Cynogenmod 11 on my Moto G XT1033. I was wondering that, will I still get android OTA updates even after installing CM11?
If anyone have an answer then please tell me.

CyanogenMod has its own OTA Updater. You will not get the official Android updates, but the CM updates.

Will i get the OTA update quicker than the official update?

@Sarthak Most likely, yes... especially if you use nightlies, instead of the stable version. But take note that Android source code usually comes out first. Then, the CM guys just look at that and see which ones they'll add to CM.


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How to prevent tracking or hacking of a used phone
The used phone's IMEI is clean, so it's not stolen.
Looks like its seller did a factory-reset before selling it.
But how do I make sure that it doesn't have any malware or backdoors, and that its seller can't later mess with it, hack it, track it, or falsely report it stolen?
I know that if the phone is rooted, some anti-theft apps and malware can survive a factory-reset.
To make sure the phone is truly clean, should I flash the ROM, or is there a way to tell if the phone was ever rooted?
I suppose these questions could be asked by a thief, but a lot more people buy used phones than steal them.

You can't make sure the seller can't falsely report it stolen, but making such a false claim is a crime itself in some countries, so just make sure you have a record of the purchase and can prove it.

You can check if your phone is currently unlocked/rooted in bootloader (volume down+power for a few seconds when phone is off should do it. Otherwise Google for your phone.) I guess there's no way to check if your device was ever rooted.
Indeed, the safest* is to root the phone yourself and flash a ROM. Another advantage of this is that you are up-to-date.
*Of course, there's always the potential risk that rooting fails and your device explodes :)

Rooting seems to go with trojan very often.

For most phones, there is a way to flash the factory image (not to be confused with just wiping data) supplied by the manufacturer / ODM. Once flashed, compute checksums of all partitions (except cache, userdata and internal sd if on separate partition). To compare them, find the checksums for this phone and factory image somewhere or ask any owner of this phone to compute them for you.
Computing checksums may require root though, so your /system partition will be modified anyways. But since flashing the factory image usually wipes it, you should be safe regarding this.


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Can i upgrade my firmware with another phone model's official rom (using odin)?
Is it possible to upgrade my phone's firmware using another phone model's official rom using odin ?

No, Official or custom firmware are only to be used with the device specified in its name
Using a different phone model may result in your hard bricking your phone
Is there a reason why you want to use a different phone model firmware over your own?

My phone has android 4.1 os. I want to upgrade to 4.2. It is already rooted. But I can't find any custom rom for my mob . I am using samsung galaxy core.

From digging around a bit its unlikely that a 4.2 release will be made available, with regards to custom rom's there are many of XDA website under your phone, however getting 4.2 specifically may be hard as there are 4.4 released available

Ok.. can you suggest me a trustworthy website for downloading custom rom for my phone ? without any bugs ..

As mentioned above XDA Website would be your best bet, link
With regards to the suggesting what custom rom its all down to personal preference. With regards to bugs look at what people have been commenting about the custom roms on the page. And as always doing this is at your own risk, no one can be held responsible and its always advised to create a full Nandroid backup before attempting to flash a rom

Even if some apks would eventually work; device drivers, kernel, HAL would be for different peripherals. So, it would be useless and unsuccessful.


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Wifi disconnects during sleep
I noticed recently that, when I would use my phone after it had been sleeping, wifi wouldn't be connected and it would have to connect.  I went into advanced wifi settings and ensured that "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" was set to "Always", but the problem remains.  Any ideas?
I have an HTC One and AT&T.
Update #1: Went through troubleshooting with three different HTC techs. The last effort was to clear the boot partition cache and factory reset the phone. After doing both, however, the issue remained.  I learned that the AT&T software is out of date and actually has never been updated since I've had the phone for 16 months.  I'm waiting for a level 2 HTC tech to send me the latest version.

Do you have a 3rd party battery saving app installed? They usually turn all connections off when your phone is in deep sleep, only refreshing it for a minute every hour or 45 minutes depending on the default settings.

I do not have a battery saving app.

What a nightmare. I've spent the last 2-3 weeks trying to have HTC work with me to resolve the issue. Their customer service had been frustrating.
After factory reseting my phone to no avail, it was concluded the only possible cause of the issue is that my software was outdated. It turns out, my phone had never updated its software. Ever. This is something I would expect to be done automatically, but HTC wouldn't accept blame nor would they blame AT&T or me for not manually checking for updates constantly. They also somehow don't have access to any of the updates I missed (that they own). An escalated tech support person said to have the software updated, I'd have to send my phone in for repair or he'd have to contact "corporate" to gain access to the updates. What?
In the meantime, he suggested a couple troubleshooting steps which, after reviewing my ticket, he saw had not been tried. One of them worked and that was to go to:
Settings > Power > Power Saver. Turn Power Saver off and uncheck Data Connection. I'm not exactly sure what this does - most likely results in my power draining faster - but it works and I don't feel like dealing with HTC anymore.
To be clear, I don't think this is a perfect solution, more of an acceptable stop-gap.  I assume that having the phone software completely up to date would resolve the problem, but since HTC is unable to provide me with their updates, this is what I have to go with.  Hopefully this helps someone else.

Just as an addition: I stumpled across the same (plus another problem) while upgrading my nexus 5 from Lollipop to Marshmallow. Every time when the phone was at sleep mode (for example: while driving my car and phone rested in the pocket) and I walked into a know wifi it did not auto connect.
Usually when I arrived at work, as soon as I exited at the parking lot I got notified for incoming mails or messages, but not anymore on Android 6. As soon as I unlocked the phone wifi automatically connected and everything was fine. But I always forget to do this and It sometimes took hours before I realized I haven't done this step and messages won't get sent to me since I was not connected to the wifi until I picked up the phone from the pocket and unlocked it once.
I looked through all the settings and policy stuff, and finally I found something that worked:
Under Settings -> Power -> ... -> Power Optimimization you can switch the list from "unoptimized apps" to "all apps". Then search for "Google Connectivity Services" and disable the power optimisation for this system app.
After I've done it finally autoconnects to known wifis while my phone is in my pocket.
UPDATE
I just wanted to leave a note, that there was a small update a couple of days/weeks ago that brought back the not autoconnect issue to me, Power Optimization did not work for me anymore. Still have this issue, I will do a clean Android 6 install in the next weeks and look if the issue still exists. If yes I will stick with Android 5.x
UPDATE2
There was another update a while ago that almost "fixed" this problem.

I don't see "Power" under "Settings" in Android 6.0...

I found it under Settings -> Battery -> (pull down menu in upper right) -> Battery Optimization.

I am glad you found it but I am afraid they changed something. The last small update brought back this issue to me, so the optimization does not work anymore for my nexus 5 at least :/ I can conclude 3rd party app since I don't have much installed besides the default Google apps,  Telegram, Netflix and 2048 :)

Yeah, I tried it and it seems to help but it still doesn't retain Wifi 100% of the time... which is unfortunate when I am in an area where I have Wifi coverage but no cell coverage (Google Fi...)

It's happening while on AC power with the battery fully charged.

On Marshmallow, go to settings, battery, pull down battery optimization, All apps, select Google Connectivity Services, select not optimized. This solve the problem for me. WiFi always stays on, even during sleep.

I had same problem and after mouths I tryed to switch from Settings->Smart battery saver (5.1) to ON from OFF and i saw it work, my Wi-Fi keep connected in sleep mode. I think on is off and off is on and nobody know it (+ google) or this is only at my phone... I don't know but this worked for me xD

I've tried everything this discussion proposes but it didn't fix my problem.
What fixed it, was enabling "Performance" Battery Mode instead of "Balanced".
Please note that I have CM13 on a LG G2 (d802) but I guess this problem excisted across many devices (I've read about SGS7 too).
I hope I helped ! That was my first ever response to stackexchange! :)

I had this same problem and had done just as the author: "went into advanced wifi settings and ensured that 'Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep' was set to 'Always'"
However, to solve it I just toggled the setting: I switched from Always to Never, backed out to ensure the setting took effect and then set it again to Always and backed out.
This solved my problem.

I solved this problem by changing the modem setting. The latest versions of Android has problems with the Wi-Fi channels 1 and 13, so a better way is to set the transmission channel number of the modem or router from automatic to a middle channel, e.g. channels like 5, 7, etc... Because I've done this change the connection is working great and never disconnects even when my phone is sleeping or screen is off.

Don't use ALL CAPS because that looks like you're shouting and it's hurting my eyes and ears.

Im 100% sure it is all about IPv6 type of connections. I was having IPv4 and it was all OK. Switched to ipv6 and this problem accrued.

On which Android device and Android OS did you try this successfully? Are you absolutely certain you had the same problem as mentioned in the question?

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


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Icon remains in drawer after removing stock app
I removed Google Drive from system/app using Root Explorer. However, when I check the app drawer, the icon is still there. (When I removed other system apps like samsung's ChatOn, the icon disappeared).
I wish to remove other google apps I don't need/use, but I dont want to leave a bunch of nonfunctional icons in the drawer. What am I doing wrong?

Have you rebooted your device after removing the apk from /system/app?

Have you restarted your device since removing the app? If you've simply deleted the .apk using Root Explorer then then it won't have performed the 'cleanup' that normally happens when uninstalling an application. Restarting your device should cause the app drawer to re-detect the installed apps and the icon should disappear.
This answer (relevant part quoted below) explains a bit about what happens when uninstalling an app 'properly', this won't have happened if you've simply removed the apk file.

When you uninstall a package, it also removes other data to do with
  that package: for example, the app's own private data, its data on the
  SD card, your default preferences for that app. It also tells any
  other interested apps that you've removed the app, via an intent
  broadcast. Other apps receiving that broadcast might take further
  action based on that: for example, a launcher (home screen app) would
  remove desktop shortcuts and widgets from that app, since they won't
  work any more.

Also, make sure you have checked /data/app as there may be another apk for Google Drive there if you have updated the app via the Play Store. If you remove the apk from here too (if it exists) then the icon should disappear. A reboot may still be required.

Hmm, here's the twist: google drive has two apks, one in /system/app which I had already moved. Then I found one in /data/app, so I moved that to my back up folder too. After restarting the phone, the icon finally disappeared :-)

Added this to my answer for the benefit of others seeing this question. I forgot that the apk sometimes exists in both locations.

I had uninstalled system apps using 'Titanium Backup' and 'System App Remover(Root)', only to find that empty shell icons are left behind.
Deleting Home/App Launcher's data and cache did help in removing the icon from the app drawer.


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My Google Glass does not start up
When I try to turn on my Glass using the Power button, the power LED turns on for a second, but then turns off. I can tell that my LCD is working because when I try plugging the charging cable in, I see the battery icon displayed on the screen. However, once I try to turn it on, it doesn't start up, even with the charging cable plugged in.
Is there a battery issue or is it something wrong with my firmware?
Note that this is different from Google Glass Stuck at the “Glass” screen, as that question manages to make it to the Glass splash screen, but in my question, it does not even make it there.

Offhand, it sounds like your battery is still too low a charge to actually turn on. Make sure you leave it plugged in and the LED is on or pulsing. Do not turn it off while charging.
If you're still having problems, your best bet is to contact the support team.


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Impact of android version on phone performance
I pondering whether I should upgrade my Android system, or stick to my current one. Is there any reference website that would list Android devices and see how different Android versions compare in terms of performances (which means some benchmark should be defined)?
I have seen some benchmark websites that compare different Android devices, but my goal is to compare different Android versions for a given device.

It depends from which version you are going to upgrade. For example, if you are going to update to 4.4.x then yes, you should do it.
Version 4.4.x is a big leap on any Device.
See Kitkat 4.4.x release notes.
Other versions don't always have a positive impact on performance, for example, the performance of Samsung's version of 4.3 was worse than their version of 4.2.2.
Hope it Helps.


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OEM USB Drivers Lenovo
What's the URL for Lenovo drivers?
I tried to run my first Android app on my Lenovo tablet (Android 4.2).
http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html
My OS is Windows 7. I tried to download the Lenovo driver here, but the URL is corrupted:
http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html#Drivers

have you downloaded the SDK already?

It's not asking for a recommendation, the question needs help finding the official driver.  Shouldn't have been closed.

Try these:

Download the Android SDK, and try the driver inside the SDK.
Check out this link: Android Lenovo ADB Interface Driver

i find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/fn1ozc9174b71db/IdeaPadA3000_extended_Driver.rar

Where abouts in the Android SDK folder (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Android\sdk) is the required driver?

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver


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Allow login with multiple passwords
Is it possible to setup multiple accepted passwords for the login to Android? Or perhaps an alternative secure login. (Note: facial recognition and fingerprint does not count as secure, but an RSA/NFC key would count.)
Like if I enter MySecretPassword1 it logs in, but it also accepts MyOtherPassword2.
I am looking for a phone (Note 2) solution, not a tablet. I am not looking for a multiple user account solution. My general use case is: I have a relatively simple password that I use day-to-day, but have a more complex password if I think someone is looking over my shoulder.

Why would you want to do this? There is no real use of having multiple passwords unless you have multiple user accounts (can only be done on tablets).

@damryfbfnetsi - because I want to have an easy-to-remember and type password that I can use, but also a complex password that I can use if someone is watching over my shoulder/etc. and have it be hard if not impossible to remember (for them ofc)

This is off-topic, but on Windows Phone, AFAIK, you can have both a password and a PIN at the same time.

But on Android, I think you need a third-party solution.

I've incorporated the important information from your comments into the question text.

If you run xposed framework, NFC LockScreenOff Enabler  is your method of choice.


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Which app sent the unauthorized texts?
Today I got an automated text from my wireless provider saying I'd gone over my text limit. This is odd because I send maybe 50 texts a month. When I logged into their customer site I found over 3000 photo texts had been sent in the last two days!
Some background: ever since the Kit Kat upgrade I'd had trouble with the stock messaging app so I test drove a couple of SMS apps before deciding on TextSecure. I've had it for the last few weeks and it seemed to be working fine. However after finding out about this problem I uninstalled that and went back to the stock app.
So the questions are: is there some way I can tell which app sent the rogue texts? The wireless provider's site lets me know the number that it sent to (a bogus number @icmms1.sun5.lightsurf.net) but not which app actually did the sending. I'm wondering if Android logs that somewhere. Also, is there a way to block outgoing texts?

Take a look in Settings -> Security under the "App Security" heading. There should be an "SMS message limit" option which will let you limit messages per app per 30 minutes. Not what you're looking for, but perhaps a start.

If you go through your apps list you can see all the apps that have permission to send texts (or you could use appops to save having to click on every app), you can then narrow it down based on how reputable the app is, and/or doing web searches, once you thing you have narrowed down the app you can either, uninstall the app or block the permission using app ops, however if it was text secure that was the offending app, then you wont be able to tell as it has already been uninstalled.

This sounded promising. Unfortunately when I went to read about it the appops developer said Google has made it so this app will not work on 4.4.2. Are you able to make it work?

I have root, so it does work, however you can always go through settings manually looking at each apps permissions

It sounds like there is no way to do exactly what I want, so giving you the credit for suggesting the best alternative strategy.


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Bootloop after CWM Restore
I have a Good Backup from CWM, after installing chainfire 3d, It went to boot loop, I restore the device through CWM, but the device is still in boot loop,.
dmesg.log http://pastebin.com/1u4PGhsr
recoovery.log http://pastebin.com/GKKsiN7N
How come my device is in bootloop if I have a good backup? :(

pefrom Factory Reset \ Clear Cache after the CWM Restore ,  the old Rom must save data you must delete in order for the CWM to work.

Don't you mean before CWM restore?


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How to use MMS with disabled data roaming?
Can I disable all data except for MMS in roaming on Android 4.4 KitKat (Xperia Z1 Compact)?
Disabling Data Roaming disables also MMS. I want to use MMS, but not any data (because of high expenses).
I realized that in phone there are two APNs: one for internet and MMS. Active is Internet APN, which has settings for MMS empty. Can't this be leveraged somehow?
Or any other ways to use MMS with data disabled?

Usually MMS are sent/received via GPRS connection.Get the GPRS and MMS settings one again from your carrier.Try to  Set your default carrier to MMS. Now if you turn on mobile data it will not connect to internet.


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Delete a homescreen on Motorola Moto G
I wondered how I could remove an empty homescreen on a Motorola Moto G with Android 4.4 (Kitkat)..
I tried to de-zoom, like I used to do with my older android phone (galaxy S3), but it doesn't work. ;(
Cheers

Are you using the Google Experience Launcher?

You cannot remove home screen in Moto G as it contains Stock version of android. You can do that with third party launchers like Go Launcher, Nova Launcher

Sorry, there's nothing you can do since it's a stock launcher.
Try downloading a different launcher from the Play Store.

You can actually. You just have to keep on removing widgets and shortcut icons untill there are none left on the screen, and it will automatically remove itself – unless its the last screen left. :-)


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How to do math operations in android shell?
To do math operations in Linux shell, bc language can be used. For example,
echo `echo "scale=4;sqrt(400)"|bc -l`

This will give output of 20.0000
Unfortunately bc is not available on android. My question is,
1) How do I do math operations in android shell?
2) If bc has to be used, then, how to install it in android?
It is good enough for me if I can do integer calculations, I don't really need floating point or arbitrary precision results.

One way to do the very basic arithmetic operations is the following: echo $((2+2)), here + can be replaced by *,-,\ and all of these work fine. But I don't know how to perform square root.

BusyBox doesn't include bc, but it does include the Reverse Polish Notation calculator dc.  Since Busybox can be installed from several installers on Google Play, this is probably the easiest way to get a command-line-based calculator on Android.
Alternatively, I've heard that bc can be compiled for Android quite easily using the Android NDK, so if you're comfortable with compiling software you could do this.


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Is it possible to make a call without having access to the contacts list?
Is it possible to make a call without giving access to the phone's contacts? I.E. say I let a friend use my phone, and lock my contacts such that it requires a pin for access - is there any way to allow a call to an arbitrary number that is not necessarily in the contacts?

In Android 5, a feature called screen pinning was introduced. The idea is to actually pin an active app screen so that it cannot be quit, no notifications are shown, and so on. Think of this feature as restricting yourself to a single app screen until it is unpinned again. More information can be found here.
To come back to your specific problem: start the call app, pin its screen and hand it  out to someone. This person is now able to use the pinned app screen, but cannot switch to another app. If you enable the corresponding setting, this person will also not be able to unpin without knowing your password/pin/pattern.
It should be noted that you need at least Android 5 Lollipop for this.

Link seems broken, and I don't have Android 5 yet, but what "dialer" app can actually call with  the phone but not have contacts access?

Fixed the link. Actually I am not sure if pinning restricts you to the current screen (activity) or the current app, so if it is possible to reach the contacts from the pinned dialer. I don't have a device supporting this at hand, but if you say that you are running an android version below Lollipop, then this is not the solution you are looking for anyway, sorry.

Well I will eventually upgrade to android 5, but even with android 4 and others, there are security apps that can "pin-lock" specific apps, so I could just do that to the normal dialer - the question is what app would allow the making of a call without viewing the contacts or requiring the "standard" dialer


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Note 3 on OSX. Stuck in "Connected as a media device"
I'm studying tutorials on Android development. After struggling to get an AVD running on my system, I'm using my personal cell (A Note 3 on Verizon) to test the small programs I'm writing.
I enabled developer options and USB Debugging on my phone. When I connect it to my computer (an iMac running OSX), it behaves as most people want it to: It notifies "Connected as an installer" for ~30 seconds, then displays "Connected as media device." The Android File Transfer application starts up.
My problem: I need it to stay in "Connected as an installer" mode. So long as it's "Connected As Media Device" Eclipse and the Android SDK can't copy programs to it.
For the last few days, simply closing Android File Transfer on the computer caused the phone to revert back to "Connected as an installer". Lately, though, that doesn't do the trick. I open and close Android File Transfer, but the phone is stuck in "Connected as a Media Device" mode.
If it helps: Eclipse can see the device. When I plug it into the USB port, Eclipse's log show all the messages coming off the device. But Eclipse won't run programs on it so long as it's in Media Device mode.

Weird. Have you checked that USB debugging is enabled?

"won't run programs" What actually happens?

aureljared. It's a bit random. Enabling and disabling USB debugging sometimes fixes it, sometimes not.

Dan Hulme. Eclipse doesn't see the phone as a target when I attempt to run the program.

I wrote this post last night when I was badly rushed for time. I used only Eclipse's tools and my Note 3. Tonight I'll work directly with the abd program, and I'll see if can borrow my wife's Nexus 7 for troubleshooting. Then I can determine if the problem is with the phone, the SDK, or Eclipse.

I am a professional Mobile Application Developer, and often use my own personal Galaxy Note 3 for test at the office, and I've never come across this issue.
When I plug my Note 3 into my Mac Pro, it appears connected as a media device, and it appears in the Eclipse "device chooser" window.
What you probably need, is the Android File Transfer software, which can be downloaded here.
If that doesn't work, try looking for Samsung drivers for OSX, although I don't believe I ever installed any.


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Which BusyBox is legitimate on Play Store?
BusyBox is a collection of *nix utilities. I am attempting to install it via the Play Store (I've had a lot of trouble in the past trying to cross-compile BusyBox).
The problem I am having: there are six or eight apps using that name, and I cannot tell which (if any) is legitimate. The desktop search is search?q=busybox, but it only lists about half compared to what's listed on the device using the Play Store app.
I spent some time searching on XDA and Android Enthusiasts, but I could not determine the app.
Would anyone know which (if any) BusyBox is legitimate?

search?q=busybox&c=apps brings back a ton of results for me.

@Chahk - right, that's the problem. Which one (if any) is the legitimate app?

@jww:  What do you mean by "legitimate"?  See also my answer, below.

Use either of these:

BusyBox
BusyBox Pro (paid)

Note this comment in the description:

Please note I did not write BusyBox! I wrote this installer and cross
  compiled BusyBox for Android. Please see the about menu option for
  more details or here: www.BusyBox.net

If you're installing a custom ROM, it might have BusyBox already (but usually not Pro).

Another vote for Stericson's apps.  He is quite active on XDA, with a reputation that speaks for itself.

@geffchang - so I'm clear... BusyBox does not provide a port? If so, then I will try switching up to a BusyBox prebuilt binary.

@jww What port are you looking for? Are you looking for a Windows program, or an Android app?

@geffchang - I was looking for BusyBox's Android app. Here, I'm talking about the the app that the folks at BusyBox produce, not developers with knock-offs that reuse the name. I'm no longer looking, though. I downloaded the ARMv7 build from the BusyBox website. It works fine on my Evo 4G and Transformer tablet.

I recently updated my BusyBox installer for Android: http://busybox.jrummyapps.com/ The app can be found on GitHub. You can download static binaries there and run a script to compile BusyBox yourself: https://github.com/jrummyapps/BusyBox It would be great if you edited your answer to include this

The upstream BusyBox maintainer has probably not uploaded anything official to the Google Play store.  You may choose one of Stericson's (unofficial) BusyBox installers from the Google Play store, or you may grab an official prebuilt binary from upstream.  It's your choice.
Note that if you choose a prebuilt binary from upstream, you won't get automatic BusyBox updates in the future.  You'll have to do the updating yourself.


text:
How to change Android's default key press sound?
The phone is rooted, I tried changing the file/s;
/system/media/audio/ui/*.ogg

and their permissions;
-rw-r--r--

but still plays the default. Restarting the phone doesn't work also.  Am I missing something?

Do you mean the sound the keyboard app makes, or the sound made when you have audio feedback for screen touches turned on? If the former, what keyboard app are you using?

@DanHulme I'm referring to the latter.


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BSPlayer stops playing after some time
I have the BSPlayer Free for Android. When I have a playlist playing and switch to another app, or lock the phone, the music keeps playing for about a minutes and then stops.
How do I change that so it keeps playing?

Since the VM decides when to stop the Application in order to Save\clear memory for other applications you cant decide which application you can keep in the forground.
Hope it helps.

I don't think this is true. There are many applications that keep playing after switching to another app or locking the screen. For example I use runkeeper a lot which does just that.


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How can I transfer my injustice from android to iPad
I have an account on android with all of stuff - regime superman arkham origins batman and death stroke. I recently got an iPad mini for my birthday, and I would like to put my data from android to my iPad.

If Injustice on iPad doesn't have a menu item to do this, and it doesn't sync game saves via the internet (very few games do this in a cross-platform way), then you can't do it. It's possible to extract the save games from Injustice on Android if your phone is rooted, but iOS doesn't have this feature, so there'd be no way to put the save file into your iPad.


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FastBoot recovery failed: partition 'recovery' not support flash
My mobile is Lenovo S920 running official Android OS 4.4.2.
I am trying to install cwm recovery through fastboot.  I tried executing the command
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

But I am getting the error as partition 'recovery' not support flash. Please any one help me to fix this. Whether I need to change anything on the recovery partition?

You need to [edit] your question to tell us what phone you have and exactly what commands you ran, before anyone can help you.

have you rooted your phone?

No, trying to root it. Tried all the methods, Framaroot, Vroot, one click... nothing is working. So planned to change the recovery first and then install super user from there using Install Zip option.

Looks like this phone does not support flashing partitions via the fastboot utility.  According to this guide you will first need to root the phone by following the instructions from here:

Download the latest version of Framaroot and side-load the APK.
Open Framaroot select the action to perform. Select “Install SuperSU”.
In the rooting menu, Select an exploit in list above to potentially root your device as Barahir or BOROMIR and proceed
  further. The rooting has now started and you will be getting an
  awesome success message.
After the end of the installation process, reboot your device and you can now enjoy the Rooted Lenovo s920.

After the phone is rooted, you will need to do the following:

Download CWM For Lenovo S920 and extract it to the root of your SD Card.
Install Mobile Uncle App from Google Play Store.
Once installed, launch it from your app drawer.
Select “Recovery Update” from the menu. The tool will search your SDcard automatically and find your “recovery.img” file. Select the
  recovery under “Recovery file in SDCard”. Click “OK”
It will ask you if you want to reboot into recovery. Click Ok to confirm that your phone boots in CWM recovery.
If installing Recovery.img doesn’t work on First Time, no problem, after reboot install it again through same procedure.

This installs the recovery temporarily.  If you wish to install it permanently, also do the following:

Install Root Explorer and run it.
Mount the system partition to Read/Write.
Navigate to /system/ and delete the file named "recovery-from-boot.p".
Re-install CWM as described above.

Framaroot is no more working. It was working well when I have 4.2.. Now the mobile is updated to 4.4.2. I received this update OTA from Lenovo 2 days before this post.

Mobile Uncle doesn't exist.

Try using SP Flash tools. It's for MediaTek devices like yours. You will need the correct drivers. Look this up on XDA, there is a fair amount of risk involved. You MAY BRICK THE PHONE. I have a Canvas Knight, and the same problem occurred with me too. This ASE post (Thanks to @Gulam Mohammed for his detailed answer) has further guides (although it is not excatly for your device, but it is relevant).


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 Wi-Fi connection problems
When I try to connect to Wi-Fi on my Samsung Galaxy S4, a message comes up, "Checking the quality of your internet connection..." and then "Network disabled because Internet connection is slow". This happens at home and when out and about when other devices connect straight away. This has only been happening in the past 4 to 6 weeks.
How to fix this issue?

Do you have switch to mobile data activated in your wifi settings? try disabling it.

I think it can be disabled in the WiFi menu. Press the hardware "Menu" button, then go to settings.

Sorry, but as of current writing, this answer lacks enough detail: which specific settings should be disabled?

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


text:
Cannot write files to sd card
A few days ago, my sd card became unusable. I tried to copy a few mp3's from my laptop (win 7) to my phone (Samsung S2 plus, running android 4.2.2) and the load bar didn't even move an inch. Eventually I got an error saying "This file cannot be copied. 1) Try again 2) Abort".
The most annoying part is that I backed up and deleted all files (to clean the sd card) an hour earlier, and now nothing works. I tried writing files using usb cable over both MTP and camera mode, without any results. I tried apps on the phone, and still the same error. The sd card is inserted correctly and does not appear to be damaged.
I have heard about the kitkat not being able to write files to sd card (like this forum post) but I think that is only for android 4.4. I have been running 4.2 for a while now, and have never faced this issue before. Phone works perfectly except sdcard.
EDIT: My phone actually tried to launch a software update, but since I wasn't connected to a WIFI nothing happened, no loading bar and no update was started.

I'd first check if the Android logs give some clue. If you never read them, please take a look at How can I view and examine the Android log? and our logging tag-wiki to get started.

@Izzy Thanks for the tip! I checked, and there seemed to be a few corrupt files on the sdcard. Putting it in another phone and deleting those files made the trick. As you mentioned in the comment on the answer below android mounted the card as readonly.

Glad to read you were able to solve the issue! I've summed up things in a separate answer, so it might help others in similar situations (and you next time, where the culprit might be a different one). Be welcome to accept it (tick the check-mark next to it), which makes it easier for others to identify questions solved :)

@Izzy Wow! Great answer!

Thanks! Just figured I had put that into a nice graph before, see our external-sd tag-wiki :)

How to find out what's going on
As this problem can have many causes, it's important to first figure out the real culprit. Without knowing that, attempted solutions are nothing but guesswork, and the process nothing but try-and-err. So here are a few steps:

Is it a hardware error on the card?
Put the card in a different device. It the same problems occur there, we can rule out your problem is with the device, and it's rather the card.
Is the card corrupted?
You can put the card in a card reader, attach it to your computer, and have it checked there. With a terminal app, you could try the same from within your device, using the /sbin/fsck.vfat tool – but on your computer, graphical tools might assist you.
Check the Android logs for related errors:
Our logging tag-wiki gives you some hints on how to do this. Especially useful might be our question on How can I view and examine the Android log?

The third step lead directly to the cultprit(s) in your case: corrupted files. Deleting those made the card usable again. So next, let's check a few possible causes:
What could be possible culprits?

the card could be physically corrupted.
In this case, the same errors should occur on other devices, and as well on your computer when using a card reader. Only solution for this is to replace the card with a new one, as a "physical repair" is not possible.
there might be problems with the contacts.
Here a few things could be tried, like cleaning the contacts of the card. If the same problem occurs with any card you put in your device, it's rather the device itself – in which case you'd have to send it in for service.
logical corruption of the cards file-system:
The file system can get corrupted. This e.g. happens when you disconnect the card without cleanly unmounting it first. While in such a case the same problems should show up in any device using the card, some might be "more tolerant" on errors than others. So it doesn't hurt to check the file-system for errors – see step 2 in "How to find out" for checking. If there are errors found, the same tools usually can solve them. Re-Formatting the card would be a last resort for this as well.
corrupted files on the card:
The card might be physically perfect, and have no issues in the file-system. But in some cases, corrupted files might led to problems as well – especially if occuring on "central files" Android is always looking for on the card when it's mounted (in the /Android subdirectory, or while scanning for media). If you can read the card using a card-reader on your PC, you can make a backup there and then format the card – copying the files back one-by-one until the error occurs again, and then skip those corrupted files. Easier approach is the one you've taken on my recommendation in the comments: check Androids logs (see step 3 on "How to find out"), and simply delete the culprits (again, via a card reader – as you cannot do so on the device itself, which doesn't correctly mount the card anymore).

Possible solutions
have already be mentioned along the lines, together with the related causes:

cleaning the contacts of the card
checking the card for file-system errors and, if there are any, have them repaired
formatting the card1
checking the Android logs for other hints (e.g. corrupted files, which then should be removed)

1: remark: switching to an alternative file-system type does not affect whether formatting helps, but rather might lead to additional issues – as not all file-system types are supported by Android. Which are, differs from device to device, and depends on the rom used: VFAT is the default shipping with most cards, and hence always supported. EXTFS is mostly supported as Android uses it internally (but might not be automatically detected, as it's not expected here). Other types such as NTFS or HFS are very unlikely to be supported

If partition is formatted as ext2 and mounted as ext4, then you can only read partition. Check your mounting script!

There is not enough evidence to assume that OP's external SD card uses an EXT filesystem. Often, external SD card is formatted with FAT filesystem in Android.

Try your SDcard with other mobile or a card reader. Make sure its properly working.

I tried the sd card in an old nokia 5130, worked perfectly. Tried again in my android, did not work.

Have you tried formatting the SDCard?

Yes, formatting is the only thing I am able to do at the moment. However, problem is still there.

Try formatting by changing the file system may work.

How do you mean? Like change from/to NTFS/FAT?

Bad idea without knowing which fs types are supported by the device (NTFS certainly not). I rather think Android sees some problems (which ever) and thus mounts the card read-only. See my comment on the question on how to figure what's going on; without knowing the cause, it's hard to fix.


text:
I am having Xolo Play smartphone. I want to support it Gujarati Font. How can I do that?
I am using smartphone xolo play.
I tried to download the gujarati font library to support Gujarati Font. But not able to achieve it.
So please guide me how can I support Gujarati font in my xolo play smart phone.
Thanks in advance.
Bskania.

Same as with most other fonts I'd say. Have you checked the corresponding questions? There are even some posts specifically to Gujarati.

Root the mobile first. Then install the app "Font  Installer" from Play Store. Download some Gujarathi font, keep it in SDCard and install through Font Installer app.

In order to get a font of the regional language you will first need to Root your device.
Follow this  in order to understand what does rooting a device mean and this question on how to root.There is one more site which is providing rooting specific to your device

After you have rooted the device then you need a file manager
application like ES file Explorer
Now download the  font
file
Open Es file explorer (give root access open the file
explorer>Config > Give root access)
Copy your font file and paste it to (Root)/System/Fonts
Set permissions as 644 or RW.
Reebot/Restart your device.
Now if you want to give gujrati as the input font download the keyboard app from the play store.

Rooting your device will void your warranty and you will be doing on your own risk. Please understand the risk's or data loss involved and go ahead only when you have the complete knowledge of it.

You can use the Gujarati fonts package addon to view Gujarati webpages without any other installation on Firefox for Android.

That wouldn't provide system-wide support for the font, would it?


text:
Why does my Android phone think it was in Japan?
According to Google location history, I was in Tokyo in February. It could be that I had so much saké I'm forgetting something important, but as far as I know I've never been to Japan.
Other questions on inaccurate location history seem mostly related to minor inaccuracies because of phone connecting to nearby WiFi points.
But what technical issue could cause the location to be off by ~6000 miles?

try running the GPS for few mintues so it will pinpoint your real location.

Not really a rare question: Maps location out by 12,742km - the other side of the world / Google location history wildly inaccurate / Google Maps Location History is showing an incorrect location / Gps mistaken my location and get me to trouble / ...

@Izzy the answer on that question concerns errors of several orders of magnitude less.  the other questions concerning international size mistakes do not have answers

wim, check all of them (best before asking anew, as too many duplicates make it hard to gather the facts). Easy example: Two weeks ago I lived in Japan. Now I live next door to you. I didn't change the SSID of my router, and Google didn't yet update its database. So whenever your device sees my SSID, you're in Japan – according to Google... as onik also pointed out below. We've got this question at least 10 or more times, so all the facts are probably "spread around them".

One reason could be that that location was determined from a WiFi access point, which had been previously moved from Japan to somewhere near you.
Google registers the location of each WiFi access point Android devices are connected to (if allowed in settings) and uses these to obtain a location when GPS is slow or unavailable. Unfortunately it takes some time to update the location if the access point is moved, so this kind of error can happen.


text:
How some android phone supports 4k video capture and playback while some pc doesn't.?
I just heard of the Snapdragon 805 specs and i was astonished to see that it supports 4K Video capture and playback, then came to know that some Sony Smartphones already supports 4K Video capture and playback and it has it the market already.
My PC, an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 6GB DDR3 RAM and an NVIDIA 9500GT 1GB DDR2  doesn't support 4K Video playback (captured in RED).
Does it mean that those Smartphones that does support 4K Video playback is actually faster and more efficient than my PC if not, how do they do that.?

Most smartphones have dedicated video encode and decode hardware. It's specifically designed for that task, and it has a fast connection to the memory, and often the decoded video frames can be accessed directly by the compositor hardware so they don't have to be copied (or blitted) into the framebuffer. You wouldn't be surprised that a handheld digital video camera can do 4k video capture: it's specifically designed for that purpose. Your smartphone works the same way.
Most PCs don't have this special hardware, so they have to do video encode and decode with software, on the CPU, or with a special compute shader on the GPU. Either way, that's always going to be slower and less power-efficient than having special-purpose hardware.

Update on PC requirements: Intel's Haswell CPUs with integrated graphics should be fine for 4k playback. Here are some links:

GoPro min. system requirements
Ars Technica user tests

To add to @Dan_Hulme 's answer, think about it in terms of use cases.
Video/still capture on a mobile device has become a huge feature for many users, and a huge selling point for manufacturers.
Considering the (relative to 1080p) lack of 4K content out there, the chance that a PC user will want to play a 4k video on their PC is fairly low.
Due to the camera-hardware arms race on the mobile market (see link in comments, since apparently you can't post more than 2 links w/o 10+ rep), it very likely that a user will want to capture a 4k video on a mobile device, and if a user is capturing 4k video on a device, they will certainly want to view the video in 4k, right on their device.
Let's also look at your machine. Your machine is what I would consider low-to-mid-range. It has a budget quad-core processor with a dedicated Nvidia video card and a decent amount of RAM. High-end video fidelity was clearly not on the manufacturer's priority list.
All of this above explains why your PC might not support 4K while your phone might, and @Dan_Hulme above explains how they are able to support 4K, but is your smartphone more powerful than your PC? No. Probably not.
As the benchmarks in a reply on this thread shows (link in comment, you don't have to scroll down very far). Even a Core 2 Duo Dual-Core beats an iPhone 5s. Not to mention a top-of-the-line consumer CPU like the i7 Quad-Core.
And as this article shows (Link in comments), chances are, your phone can't actually compete with today's video card, although it might be able to give an 05-07 card a run for its money.
TL;DR: No, your phone isn't faster than your PC.

Camera hardware (first missing link): http://videos.venturebeat.com/samsung-eyes-20-megapixels-as-camera-arms-race-heats-up-518033588

CPU benchmarks (second missing link): http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1858266/apple-desktop-cpu.html

GPU benchmarks (last missing link): http://www.anandtech.com/show/6877/the-great-equalizer-part-3/2


text:
Samsung Galaxy S III i9300 Boot Loop, No Recovery, after Cyanogenmod Installer
Some threads with similar issues are already around, but I didn't find one with the same problem as me.
What I was doing when the issue happened:
I was trying to install cyanogenmod from the isntaller method (apk isntalled on the phone, application running on windows that installs it automatically). At certain point, it rebooted the device and the cyanogenmod logo was on the screen. After a while, the program gave an error "'We couldn't talk to your phone' - Samsung devices ONLY", which is described in their wiki. So the pc lost connection to the phone.
What I did:
1 - Since I had installed the clockwork recovery and tested it before, I thought "hey, no problem. I'll hust recover this S*it". So I disconnected the SIII from the PC and tried to enter recovery mode pressing "volume ip + home + power". While I have these pressed, the phone in in an infinite loop on the initial screen showing the brand and model. When I release them, it goes straight to the cyanogenmod blue creepy robot just there staring.
2 - Since that didn't work out since I now don't have a recovery mode and I don't have any functioning rom either, I found several tutorials for using Odin and reflashing and or repartitioning. PROBLEM: Odin seems to recognize the phone (com port), I click on the option and... FAIL!
2.1 - What I have tried: Different Odin versions (1.83 and 3.09), stock drivers from Kies, Zadig drivers.
So. There you go. I pretty much exhausted everything I could get from my head and interpret from google. So, No recovery, no ROM, fail at odin.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

have you repartition?

@ItzikSamara as I mentioned on the description, yes. Odin just Fails to perform.

I tried the exact same procedure, with Odin 1.84 BUT on W7 x86 instead of W7 x64 and it went just fine. At the first attempt,  I successfully flashed my device with a stock rom. Your answers are all right, and black magic or not, for my particular issue I think the answer is use Odin1.84 with a 32 bit system.

it seems he tick check box for re-partition and destroy

If you have access to the Download mode, then nothing is lost.
I suggest you not to repartition the device first, just try to get a standard ROM flashing done. Based on my experience Odin usually fails because of driver issues (I had plenty of problems using Win 8.1 x64, while just doing the exact same procedure on Win7 worked well)
Also if you had USB debugging enabled, you might catch what's the problem during the startup/bootloop using logcat. With some luck you might push the missing files to your device as well.

download Stock Rom from
Samsung Firmwares
Link for Drivers and Odin
Drivers and Odin if needed
enter download mode.
when getting to Odin choose the firmware file (not zip) and insert it to PDA.
dont do repartition.
start the flashing this should return your phone to normal stock..
however if you repartition you need to find the reparition file for the Rom version (4.3)
if you have problems check here i will help you
about Drivers : Delete Kies and all drivers installed Via Samsung download only Drivers and installed them Odin and Kies not play well toghter

Did you actually read the question?

i had the same problem. and my solution worked. that's why i wrote it

Sure, but when you suggest things that I already wrote in the description I tried and didn't work...... What youa re suggesting is opretty much the basic straight forward every tutorial have. If you read closelly, you'll see my problem is more specific.

when is the Error that odin writes down?

It detects the device, I try to repartition, is starts and the red FAIL appears. When I try to flash, it's the same. I can post the exact output of the error later, I'm not with the device right now.

repartition needs a special file  (which one do you use?) .. plus the error output will be very helpful.. plus what happens when u run without repartition.

Applies to:
Samsung Galaxy S III (i9300), original Samsung firmware, no root, no other modifications, first time CM installation,
Symptoms:

CyanogenMod installer failed to succeed
"We couldn' talk to your device" prompt
CyanogenMod Blue robot on the screen
volume up + home + power not working

Solution to go back to state before installation:
Unplug the phone from computer and leave it switched on for some time - be patient and take a long walk. In my first case it was around half an hour, the other time I simply went to sleep and left the phone as above.
After that time android robot appeared on CM robot with red triangle and exclamation mark. Restart the phone by long pressing the power button or removing the battery. The phone will then start normally (as it was before the installation).
Hope it helps.
MT


text:
Ringtones ring only once for alarms and calls in Cyanogenmod 11
I have the latest monthly Cyanogenmod 11 installed on my Samsung Galaxy SII phone. This past week, I noticed that the alarms I set (with both the built in alarm app and the I Can't Wake Up app from the Play Store) only ring once then goes silent (the alarm is still on the screen and the phone still vibrates). This is also true for incoming calls, the ringtone rings only once. I tried changing ringtones to no effect.
Looks like this is an issue that's not limited to a specific ringtone or app. How can I troubleshoot this? Thanks!

Are you using built-in ringtones, or your own audio files like MP3s?

I am using ringtones installed via the Zedge app. I checked, the builtin ringtones ring fine and repeat, but not the ones from Zedge.

In recent Android versions in order for a ringtone to repeat on a loop, MP3 and OGG files must include a label in their metadata called android_loop with a value set to "true".  If you are not using built-in ringtones (that already have this label,) your files most likely do not have this label in their metadata.
You can use a number of freeware utilities (such as WinAmp, for example) to edit the metadata of OGG files and set this flag, or MP3Tag for MP3 files.

Thanks for your answer!! I installed those ringtones via the Zedge app, and after checking they are indeed missing the android_loop tag set to "true". However, after adding the tag those ringtones still don't repeat! Is there anything else I can try? Thanks!


text:
deleting photos from device
I see this when I go to delete from the Photos app

"Deleting will remove the photos and videos on your device and also
  any backups in your account"
  "Cancel"/"Delete everywhere"

is there a way to delete from my device without deleting the backup on my Google+ account
Nexus 4 Android 4.4.4

When using the Photos app it will do that for you.
If you use the Gallery app it will only manipulate the local images, therefore deleting the local ones. The Gallery app comes with Nexus 4.

"Photos" does allow deleting only local pics, but you have to navigate to the right place first, and that's not obvious. See linked duplicate question for more. Because of this ambiguity Gallery might be the less error prone route.

You can download an app like Quickpic that is a local gallery viewer and delete only local copies that way. It's probably the easiest way. I have no idea why Google photos has no options to delete only the local copy, forgetting such an essential feature is such a google thing to do.

I tried that and it still manages to delete from google+

You tried it specifically with Quickpic? Or from photos? As slybloty said in his answer it shouldn't do that if you use the gallery app or another local picture app. Try this, download a file explorer like ES File Explorer and go to your DICM/camera folder and manually delete a photo from there. If it still gets removed from your online backup then there must be sync going on on your phone where it keeps the two offline and online the same, although I have no idea what could do that.


text:
Can't log into my email using Nexus 7 email client
I want to use the email app on my Nexus 7 to access my university email. These email accounts are provided by Microsoft.
After I enter my account name, on the second screen, it asks me about Account Type. POP3, IMAP or Exchange.
I tried

with POP3 > enter password > Incoming server settings(used defaults) > When trying to sign in "Couldn't finish : Couldn't open connection to server."
with IMAP, it asks for "sign in with password" or "sign in with google". In both cases, I get the error "Couldn't finish : Couldn't open connection to server"
with Exchange I get the same error. But in this case the email server asks for a "client certificate", I haven't selected anything for that option.

What are the options (POP3, IMAP, Exchange) and how to setup this email client for my university account?

You need to get this information from your university. Ask the IT department to walk you through it or just give you the necessary information.
From what you've said:

email accounts are provided by Microsoft.

seems to me they're using Exchange in a Windows domain (I could be wrong). Therefore, you'll need a server link, domain name, username, and password.
Also, on a separate note, you should do some research on how email works and email protocols (POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Exchange, Gmail, and so on). Here's a helpful link: Email protocols: POP, IMAP and MAPI

Yes, what I needed was server link, security type and port number for IMAP and SMTP and I unchecked "signin" requirement.


text:
Clear profile data on Firefox for Android
I am using Firefox for android on Android 4.1.2, and I created a master password for passwords etc on Firefox, and promptly forgot it.
I think a way to solve this and start again is to remove the profile's directory (according to this, it is located at data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/), but as I have not rooted this device, that is difficult.
I have also tried removing /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/org.mozilla.firefox, which did not work

You should be able to go into Settings>Application Manager and clear data and cache for the Firefox application.

Thanks for the quick answer (so quick I can't mark it as answered :)

/data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/ contains the profiles directories.
You would need root access and won't have to compensate with all of the data just to remove the master password. You would need an app with root explorer feature.

Force-stop Firefox from Settings → Apps → Firefox.
Go to your profile's .default  directory and remove key*.db and signons.sqlite. * could be 3 or 4.

Start Firefox and the master password option would be found back to default state i.e. no password.
(Source)


text:
Missing Google BackupTransportService in Cyanogenmod 11
Google backup seems not to be working on my Nexus 4 with CM11 (snapshot M9).
I've the Google Apps installed (gapps-jb-20130301-signed.zip), but when I try to list the transports, here's what I get:
$ adb shell bmgr list transports
  * android/com.android.internal.backup.LocalTransport

Is this expected?
Under Settings -> Backup & reset I find this screen

I have never, ever installed cyanogenmod over the last few years without something weird happening, bugs and missing features.

You installed a gapps package that's intended for Jelly Bean. Of course it won't work (correctly). Anyway, I recommend using PA-GApps if you ever do a clean install in the future. It works with pretty much any custom ROM, it's up to date, and very customizable.

Just to let you know that my issue seems resolved installing the latest gapps package suggested by Cyanogenmod wiki: gapps-kk-20140606-signed.zip.
I followed these steps:

download zip
copy to /sdcard/
reboot in recovery
install zip
reboot device

During the first boot the device asked me for a backup account, but in the Settings I had still Backing up to debug-only private cache.
Then I set the new backup transport with
$ adb shell bmgr transport com.google.android.backup/.BackupTransportService

Without problems.

I think this issue is ROM related, the .BackupTransportService should be there.
I've checked the list on a similar setup (LG Optimus G, CM11 20140813 nightly)
bmgr list transports
  * com.google.android.backup/.BackupTransportService
    android/com.android.internal.backup.LocalTransport

Have you tried newer CM versions?
(Also see this thread at XDA from Nov. 2013)


text:
What missing libraries would cause ADW and Launcher 3 to fail to start?
I'm trying to install ADW or Launcher3(or really any other launcher) on a device
Whenever I start ADW or Laucncher3 from am it just keeps looping back to 'Complete action using' regardless if you say just this once or to save the default.
The only way anything happens is if you select the OEM launcher again.
It seems like maybe I'm missing some core libraries.
What missing .so or apk or jar etc might cause this? How can I get an alternate launcher to work? I have tried adding Velvet.apk and a gcore.apk but it seems maybe it is more low level
Logcat shows a null pointer error and then the launchers force closing and also:

E/AndroidRuntime(  928): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.android.launcher3/com.android.launcher3.Launcher}: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Can't convert to dimension: type=0x12
I/dalvikvm(  928): Could not find method android.appwidget.AppWidgetManager.bindAppWidgetIdIfAllowed, referenced from method com.android.launcher3.Launcher.a

What device are you using?

it is a rockchip 3066 based device and it runs arbitrary Apks(provided the dependencies are met) such as open intents file manager

On xda someone has a set of tools/instructions to determine the dependencies:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1476797

The manufacturer of this device doesn't claim that it's an Android device, and the error you're seeing indicates that standard parts of the API framework have been omitted. It looks like they're using a heavily cut-down version of AOSP. Unless you can find or port a full Android ROM to this device, you won't be able to get these apps working. You might have better luck with apps written for older Android versions which don't use so much of the framework: in particular, the missing function in this case was added in Android 4.1, so a launcher older than that might work.

I guess I'm looking at this as a step towards the rom process, I was really hoping for the direction as to WHICH api I might need to implement or find--more than what I already know that it's missing something

That really changes the nature of your question. If you want help along those lines, you should [edit] your question to give the full details of what you're trying to achieve. Saying it "has a fairly customized launcher" really isn't enough information to start.

I don't think it really matters what the existing launcher is as much as what dependencies that ADW and or Launcher3 has right? I do indicate that I think I'm missing core libraries in the question, but maybe I should clarify

Exactly. The launcher is a red herring: your question is really, "I have a device running a cut-down hacked Android, is there a way I can get real Android on it."