text:
Install a new OS after wiping out the OS on Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G
I have wiped the OS off of my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G (T679). Now all I get is the flash screen.
How can I install a new OS at this point?

All credit goes to stubbakatt over HERE for the files and original instructions. I simply walked through it myself and re-wrote out the instructions in a way that caters to my brain.
Disclaimer: This has been tested on two machines - one running Windows 7 32 bit, and one running Windows 7 64 bit. This has not been tested on an XP machine (though it should work the same) or on a Mac. And of course, I'm not responsible if you brick your device, proceed with caution, etc. etc.
FILES NEEDED:

Drivers: click here (Google Docs automatically pulls up the content of the .zip - simply go to the top left and choose File then
Download to download the .zip) - if you're rooted/rommed, you
probably already have these, but just in case these are the drivers I
used
"Back to Stock" - Odin, ops, factory image, etc: click here (Google Docs automatically pulls up the content of the .zip - simply
go to the top left and choose File then Download to download the
.zip) - this is the main stuff that Odin will use to flash your phone
back to it's factory state

STEPS:

Make sure the computer recognizes your phone with the drivers above (again, this is probably already the case if you're having to do this!)
Unzip the "back to stock" .zip file to wherever you want - preferably somewhere easy to get to (desktop?).
Power down your phone. Once it's off, hold down the volume-down button and press power. Hold both down until you see the "Warning!!" message with the yellow triangle at the bottom. Once you see that, hit the volume-up button. This puts you into Odin/download mode.
Plug your phone into your computer.
Among the files you unzipped from the "back to stock" .zip file, open "Odin Multi Downloader v4.43.exe". Once it opens, the Message window at the bottom left should read "Added!!!" and "Detected!!!".
Make sure all four of the Options are checked (One Package, Auto Reboot, Protect OPS, Reset Time [mine's set to 300 seconds]). I don't know if this is all necessary, but at the very least One Package and Auto Reboot appear to be.
On the right side, click the "OPS" button, and select/open the Ancora.ops file.
At the bottom, click the "One Package" button, and select/open the "T679UVKJ1_T679TMBKJ1_T679UVKJ1_HOME.tar.md5" file.
The Message window should do an md5 check and end with "Check MD5... ok". If it doesn't, try redownloading again - don't want to flash a corrupt file!
If all of that is good to go, then select the "Start" button.
Your mileage will vary, but for me it took about 5 minutes, then the phone reboots itself into recovery mode (the little white box with the progress bar), then about 30 seconds after that and the phone fully reboots. Don't unplug it yet. After a few minutes (actually, the 300 seconds set in the "reset time" in Odin), it will say Pass!!! and you're good to go and unplug the phone.
However, we're not quite done yet. Our goal is to get back to a factory state. You'll notice a lot of your stuff is still in place - apps, etc. That's because this process doesn't touch the /data partition of the phone. In addition, it's possible you COULD still be seeing the Superuser app. If that's the case, simply go into your application settings (settings > applications > manage applications), find Superuser, uninstall it. It will say uninstall not successful, but it should disappear.
The last thing to do is simply a factory reset - this will wipe out the /data partition, back to stock, and you'll be done. This could also take care of Superuser, but I've never tested it to see since it's easy enough to do it before the factory reset.

So there you go - hopefully you're now sitting on an "out of the box" Exhibit II 4G to do with whatever you please.
Original post

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


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Facebook setting change
When I share something on Facebook, the app automatically opens lots of related stuff. For example, if I share a photo by Zio Ematitos, "More photos by Zio Ematitos", "These friends also like Zio Ematitos" and "More posts from Zio Ematitos" appear over the News feed (or whatever I was sharing from, together with "(circled checkmark) Posted        DONE". I don't want that to happen. Is there a setting to turn this off?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How much RAM does a Huawei H868c Glory have?
I want to run "Terraria" on my Huawei H868c Glory, which is running Android 4.0.4.
How much RAM does it have?

The amount of RAM for the Huawei Glory (H868C) is 512MB (390MB available to apps). According to Terraria via the Play Store:

Optimized for Android OS 3+ and requires 512MB RAM.

So, you should be able to run it. If you are able to install it from the Play Store, then you will most likely be able to run it. It doesn't hurt to try.

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


text:
Merged two DCIM folders by mistake
So I have a moto G, 2nd gen, I was transferring stuff from my internal memory to the SD card and my DCIM folder was also transferred by mistake and when the "Merge" option popped up, I clicked on "yes to all by mistake. I can't find most of my pictures now. Any way I can fix this now?

What steps did you take to move the files, and where are you looking for them now?

So I cut a few folders from my internal storage such as DCIM, video, etc. The SD card already had a folder by the name of DCIM which I didnt see. Then it asked me if I wanted to merge the folders and I said yes to all by mistake.
I'm practically looking everywhere for them now. :/
@DanHulme

If they had the names like IMAG0001.jpg then the file from the first directory would have overwritten the second.
I have had files even on the same device have the same numbers, probably caused by me moving files around and screwing up its count.

Expecting such "auto-merge" options being user-friendly: shouldn't they warn on such occasions (a la "file with the same name exists..."), as any file explorer does? Are you sure they would overwrite files without asking?

Can you check if the file naming scheme for the two folders was the same? You might be able to determine the original folder from how the files are named.


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Would an android device pass the boot screen/enter recovery without build.prop?
Is it possible to start up an android device without build.prop? Is it even possible to use stock recovery without build.prop?

Yes, you can boot into recovery without build.prop. You can, in fact, boot into recovery without anything in /system (actually, recovery and bootloader are the only things you can boot into without anything in your /system.); build.prop and /system are only used when the ROM is loaded.


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Uninstall app for all profiles
On my tablet I have created restricted profiles for the kids. These restricted profiles have "app protection" enabled to prevent accidental uninstallation of apps.
Uninstalling an app that is enabled in the restricted profiles is quite cumbersome: I uninstall it in the owner profile. After this, it is still present in the restricted profiles. So I disable the app protection for all restricted profiles, then login into all the restricted profiles one after another, uninstall the app there, and finally I return to the owner profile and re-enable the app protection of the restricted profiles.
Is there a way to uninstall the app for all profiles in a single step?
I do not have root access on the device.

Note: Depending on your device and ROM, you may have to disable app protection before trying this (thanks to Andrew T.'s comment).
Try this:

Open the App Info screen for that app. You can access this from Settings > Apps. Note: Depending on your launcher, you may also be able to access it from your home screen. In the stock android Launcher and Cyanogenmod's Trebuchet (along with apps building on one or the other), you can press and hold the app icon in the drawer, as if you were going to place it on your home screen, but at the top,  there are two options: uninstall and app info. You would want to drop the app on app info.
There should be a button in the top right corner of the App Info screen, "More." After pressing that button, an option should be revealed to "Uninstall for all users." See below for picture.

You can read more about the UserManager at the UserManager API page.

This is pretty much good answer although I don't know if it will work with "App protection enabled". But honestly I didn't find the link to API useful for end-user in this case.

@Lyric just add to the beginning to disable app protection.

@Andrew the link was provided for info, because it does have use. That link explained things I didn't understand. I don't want to be just an end-user, so this was helpful. I'm sure others will find it so as well.

@AndrewT. Isn't app protection only on CM-based ROMs/other custom ROMs? OP mentioned there is no root access on device.


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How to login only to Google Music and not the other Google services?
I have Google Music All Access and I have an old unused Huawei Honor floating around. I want to set it up as a Google Music playing device for the kitchen.
I am wondering now: How do I login only for Google Music?
I want to allow guests access to the device in a sort of kiosk mode, but I would not like them having access to my mails and other private data.

As someone who tried to keep a select few Google apps from opening a bevy of other Google apps, just to preserve battery life, and that failed so spectacularly that I opted to use non-Google apps, I have a suspicion you really can't do it unless GMusic runs in kiosk mode (possible; I use iPods for kiosk music so I'm not sure about GMusic).
If GMusic doesn't have a kiosk mode, maybe you can run GMusic in a kiosk browser like SureFox? (I think you can, but it's been a while since I've tried GMusic). There are several of those to try.
But I imagine your best bet is seeing if one of the paid kiosk apps works well with your phone. Note that some of those apps reportedly "mess up" certain phones/tablets, so check the reviews on Playstore for your particular device before trying/buying one.


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How to switch screen unlock from Pattern to Slide
On my Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi with Android 5.0.1 Lollipop I used the Slide setting for the lock screen. To experiment with a VPN, I switched to pattern lock.
After deleting the VPN entry I had created, I tried to switch back to Slide. However, the Slide and None options are grayed out and unusable under Settings -> Security -> Screen lock. Only the Pattern, PIN, and Password options are available.
How can I switch from Pattern to Slide?

Try this:

Open your Settings.
Scroll down and select Security.
Clear Credentials.
Check the Screen Lock setting to see if the low-security options are now enabled.

If that doesn't work, you can revert your lockscreen security to Slide.

Set your lockscreen security to Pattern from Settings>Security>Screen Lock.
Click the power button on your phone to lock it.
Click the power button again, but don't unlock your phone. There should be a button labelled Forgot Password. Note: On some devices, you may need to incorrectly enter the password/pattern several times until that option appears.
Enter your Google account credentials.
Your lock settings should now be Slide. Note: With this method, the option for Slide security will still by disabled, but you should still have it as the lockscreen security on your phone.

In my case (Sony Z3 Compact, stock Lollipop) it was sufficient to just remove VNP record to make swype unlock method available again.


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Contacts app: What does the small colored green or orange circle above the account icons mean?
On my Samsung Galaxy SIII when I view my contacts list in the Contacts application each contact entry has a list of small icons on the lower-right hand side corresponding to accounts where that contact is listed such as Skype, Google, WhatsApp, etc... as
shown on the following screenshot (contact pictures and names have been scribbled
out for privacy reasons, click to enlarge):

Above the list of account icons, for some contacts either a green circle with a white circumference or an orange circle with two white clock hands and a white circumference appears in the upper-right hand corner of the contact entry in the list. Obviously green means available, and orange means away, but I am unable to figure out which of the three applications Google, Skype, WhatsApp, other, or whichever this dot corresponds to. First I thought that if the green dot was above the skype icon, then the contact was available on skype, but the last time I checked one of my contacts was associated with only one account,
namely skype, but when I logged into skype the contact was offline.
Can someone please help me figure out what the green or orange dots in the upper-right hand corner of contact entries in the Contact application mean?
Thanks.


text:
VoIP on wifi not working in sleep mode
My calls don't come in, with voip on wifi, when my nexus 5 is in sleep mode. I went into settings to put "always keep wifi on" but no result.
When screen shuts down, my voip app seems to disconnect and even after reopening the phone i have to reactivate the voip app.
Android lollipop was installed the day i got my new phone so i can't tell if it's the new android version. Thinking about returning the phone to google.
I verified all the options in my app and on the phone itself. Does anyone have a solution to this, thanks for your help.

Try this:

Open your Settings.
Select Wifi (not the toggle option, but in the blank space). Note: The following option may be under Networks>More Settings, depending on your phone.
Open the Advanced Settings after pressing your menu key.
Activate Best WiFi Performance mode.


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Gmail consuming GB of data
My Gmail app has a huge problem: only in this month it has consumed around 1 GB of mobile data, and 22GB of wifi data.
Today even though I haven't used mail at all, I have consumed 400MB of wifi data just by keeping the app installed.
I have already tried to:

upgrade my Android to the last version
remove all update of Gmail, and reinstall it from scratch.
stop background data (which is a workaround and not a solution)

What else can I do?

As a temporary solution first disable it to save the data. Try other email solutions.

already done. but i'm looking for the real cause! :(

are you sure the app is not in sync to other stuff. sometimes you have photo sync and so so every photo on the device is backed up on your account.

Having the same problem now (all of the sudden). The sheer amount of data involved here is just implausible: 22GB? This must be due to a bug.

Actually I removed all my email prior to 1/1/2014 from my inbox, hard reset of the phone, and in 1 hour i still have used 500 mb for no reason at all (synced gmail a couple of seconds before running the test, it costed 10 MB). So yes, it must be a bug.

This seems the same problem these guys had solved in this 2 different 3Ds.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/310931-gmail-data-usage.html
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/gF3b9Wi-XfU
The advice given there was to reduce the number of days of messages to sync (via Gmail app settings), and avoid building up a large number of messages in Gmail inbox (archive them instead).
Although this solutions sounds good, they never worked.
Instead, I have solved the problem using k-9 mail.


text:
How to flash cyanogenmod to my HUAWEI P6 t00
I have a Chinese phone, Huawei p6-t00. I don't like the stock rom on the phone that much and i want to switch to cyanogenmod. The problem is there is only a version of cyanogenmod for Huawei p6-u06 on the Internet. And when i tried to flash that to my phone, it gave me some kind of error like this rom only supports Huawei p6-u06. So i am wondering is there any way that i can flash cyanogenmod to my phone without damaging it? Thanks in advance.

I didn't find a CM ROM for the p6t00 but i did find MIUI V5 JB 4.2.2 for your device. Download link is at the end of the first post.

Due to the device-specific nature of Android (it needs specific drivers for it to run on any one given device), it is generally impossible (or illogical, as it seems) to run a build of Android for a specific device on another device.
This also applies to custom ROMs. Unless you can find a CyanogenMod build specifically for your device or for an extremely similar device, there's no way for you to install CM.

Thanks for the answer. I am kinda upset for not having a CM for my phone.


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Restore Google Authenticator on New phone without Root
I have ~8 logins that use Google Authenticator (Google, FB, Bitcoin stuff, etc). I made a backup of my Authenticator app/sqlite database before moving to my new phone. How do I restore the database/settings on my new phone without root?

There's a walkthrough on exactly this topic here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/130755/how-to-move-your-google-authenticator-credentials-to-a-new-android-phone-or-tablet/
Essentially, it amounts to disabling two factor authentication and re-enabling it, or for services like Google, using their "replace old 2 factor with new 2 factor" service. It is also possible to extract an sqlite database of your credentials, if you have adb and can access the phone that way, which I believe is possible without root.

I ended up doing the manual method where I ran "sqlite3 databases .dump > output.txt" and just manually added my keys.

@Bijan your question was about doing it without root. Running sqlite3 does require root, right?

@bers I'm not sure. The database file is located in /data. If you have access to it then you can copy the file to your new phone.


text:
Answer without unlocking in android 5.0
I recently upgraded my nexus 4 to android 5.0 (Via OTA update).  Now, for some reason, when I get a phone call the screen is black and I have to

press the power button
ress/swipe the lock icon on the screen
enter my password
swipe right to answer my call.

Before (android 4.4) all I had to do was slide to answer.  How can I get the old functionality back?

Lots of people experiencing problems with Lollipop on Nexus have found that a factory reset fixes them. You might try this too.

oddly my phone crashed, then rebooted, and now it works.  Here's hoping 5.0.1 comes soon and fixes this weird bug.

Try resetting the screen lock on your phone. Worked for me. I have a nexus 4 too.

Have you tried this? This might've suited better as a comment


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Username is replaced with a number when login on Facebook app. Is it a bug?
I logged into Facebook on an Android tablet (on Norwegian language) using Facebook app. And do as usual:

Wrote the username and password.
Then I click "Log in"

As you can see on the image below, I couldn't login. Instead, a number replaced the username (Probably my UID?). Is this a bug? Where can I report about bugs happens in Facebook app?

(Removed the last 3 digits)

When you voter down I expect you also manage to write a comment. Not only show that you are completely n00b!
Bug rapotering one of the most important things in the development of applications.

Are you sure that is the facebook app? Why does the "Log In" button say "Logg inn"? Spelling mistakes like that make me think you are not logging in to the actual facebook app.

Yes :) "Login" = "Logg inn" in Norwegian

I am sure if you have tried heading over to the Facebook app over the Google PlayStore and have read their description over their you would have got your answer anyway,you can report to the bugs over the Facebook Help Centre.
Note: You need to log yourself over the Facebook account in order to do so.


text:
Automatically power on Nexus 7 when plugged in
Is there any way to power on Nexus 7 2012 automatically when charging started? I want to use Nexus 7 as a car PC, so I need this feature for energy economy.
PS - my Nexus 7 is rooted and uses CM 10.1

possible duplicate of Automatically power on Android when the charger is connected

This thread covers Samsung only. Is there any option for other devices?

Install Tasker to be able to:

Power off tablet when car is off
Use command
fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0

To reset to normal, change the 0 to 1
Event for Tasker profile : Power

How exactly did you do that?

@Tardo What part don't you understand? First, is what you want the tablet to do. Second, is the command used to accomplish that task. Third, is how to change it back for normal operation. You should read the Tasker website and the forums related to the app, for in-depth info.

I've got it. The command is the task, execute a shell command. But what is the event you're setting as a Profile to identify when the charger is connected?

POWER http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/help/sh_index.html

fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0 doesn't work on my chinese tablet..

@Tardo contact the manufacturer, your tablet might not support fastboot.

My guess is that fastboot is a file inside /system/bin ? Is it right?

@Tardo No it isn't located in your android device. It would located in your computer, wherever you installed android SDK (\sdk\platform-tools\fastboot.exe -for windows, Linux would be system/core/fastboot). Fastboot is a tool used to manipulate the flash partitions of an android device. I still recommend contacting your manufacturer and possibly searching out a forum dealing specifically with  your device (same hardware and etc.)

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


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No OK button in recovery mode on MyPhone Agua Rio Fun
I bought a new smartphone, MyPhone Agua Rio Fun (a local brand in Philippines). It's actually a pretty good phone in my book, but the storage in this thing is terrible! I found a way to solve it, but it says I have to root my phone.
I used to have Samsung Galaxy Pocket and I had no trouble rooting it. However, on Rio Fun, the only solid keys are volume up/down and the power buttons. When I try to go to recovery mode, it doesn't let me select anything! It doesn't have a solid home button, only the soft Home, Menu and Back keys (which can't be used when in recovery mode!). The power button just shows the triangle Android (!) sign then the recovery menu again! (any other root methods don't work on it!)
How can I navigate in recovery mode with this phone, and how can I root this phone?

Usually the Volume buttons are used to navigate up and down, and Power is used to select. Are you saying this does not work for your recovery? Do you have the Stock recovery? What version of Android is on the device?

No, the volumeupdown ad power button are the only physical buttons. the rest are soft keys

I also have the same kind of phone (MP Rio Fun) and I am trying to partition my SD. In the Recovery mode, you have to use the volume keys/button to highlight the option that you want then you have to press the Option key (the key on the left side of the Home key) to enter the highlighted option.
Hope this help.

Finally, my prayers Have been answered! Thanks for the help, Mate!

Recovery menus usually don't have any touch elements, you only control them using hardware keys (otherwise you'd be lost with a broken digitizer when trying to backup your data). Use the volume keys (up/down) to navigate, and the power button to select an item.

Yeah,but the problem is the Power Button only shows the recovery menu and when pressed again its shows the !android Screen.i have no other Hard Buttons but the volumes :(

Umm, then I'm at a loss. I know on some HTC devices, you can use the trackball instead – but if your device has no such, that's out again. Only thing I can think of then (apart from calling the manufacturer's service to ask) is installing a custom recovery (if there's one available for the device).

I've tried using these MediaTek devices and usually their select button is Volume Down and their scrolling button is Volume Up (only one direction). Try that to see if it works.

@aureljared;the volume buttons are directional,volume up is up and volume down is down:(

Just guessing now (try-and-err), but we've got no other chance: What if you keep the volume button pressed? Does it continue to scroll, or maybe select the next item? // For a definite answer, I'd strongly suggest to ask their service staff. They should know.


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How can I access multiple user spaces from adb?
I am running KitKat on a tablet with two users: primary (owner) and secondary. I need to access a file generated by an app of the secondary user.
When I plug the tablet into my (Ubuntu) desktop via USB, it mounts as a media device (MTP), and shows me the base folder for the currently active user. [1] But the file I want is elsewhere on the system, so I connected from the command line via adb shell instead.
Connecting via ADB gives me access to deeper folders (/mnt /proc etc) but I couldn't find the file where I expected it [2], so I looked in /sdcard anyway. To my surprise I recognised the contents as the base folder of the owner account, even though the currently active user is the secondary user.
This also tells me that, if I ever need to, I won't be able to access the base folder for the secondary user via adb shell.
How can I access the tablet from adb shell as the secondary user, rather than the primary (owner) user? (Being able to access the secondary user's files is good enough.)
[1] I'm not sure what the proper term here is. I mean the folder with Android, Download and Pictures, specific to a particular user.
[2] FWIW I am exporting an OPML file from Flym. Flym reports that the OPML export is generated at /storage/emulated/10/Flym_123456789.opml but I can only get as far as /storage/emulated - there is no subfolder called 10, only legacy which is the same as /sdcard (the primary/owner's base folder, not the secondary user's base folder).

For those who ends up at this post with same or similar issue, see How can I access the emulated sdcard for another user on a rooted nexus 10

The legacy/ locations are always pointing to the data of the currently active user. Let me first point to a few related questions/answers explicitly dealing with those multi-user storage issues for some background:

Why did /sdcard/ turn into /sdcard/0/ with 4.2?
Confusing internal memory folder structure

So to find the files of the secondary user:

list the sub-directories of /data/media and /storage/emulated
restrict your search to sub-directories whose names are simply "numbers"
the 0 candidates belong to the owner, higher numbers are of secondary users
external storage is something different: /sdcard/0 points to the internal sdcard, while /sdcard/1 should be the external (if available). Similarly for storage attached via OTG

Remember you might need to be root to access data of a user other than the one currently active on the device.
Also see:

Android Folder Hierarchy
our tag-wikis for file-system and files

this helps me understand what I should see, but what I actually see is just /storage/emulated/legacy (no numeric folders) and I don't have access to /data/media (permission denied) - I'm going to try restarting and never logging in as owner

As I wrote: "you might need to be root" (which explains the "permission denied"). Is your device rooted?

it isn't (a bit scared to, seems like there is no reliable process?)

but I can confirm this: reboot device, don't log in as owner, log in as secondary, hook up usb, access via MTP: can see secondary user folder, access via adb shell: can see /storage/emulated/legacy as owner user (not secondary user) - no other folders appear under /storage/emulated

When logged in with the secondary user, emulated/ should point to the secondary user's data. No way to access all without root. And correct, there's no official process to root your device; you might want to check our rooting tag-wiki and rooting index to check for generals and for your device. If not listed, be welcome to ask a new question for this.

thanks re rooting :) just to check I'm not being dumb: when I adb shell I am not picking a user (like when you ssh user@host) - I did try running am pick-user 10 once on the shell, but that had no noticeable effect - but it sounds like rooting solves all problems :)

When you adb shell, you're the user shell. Almost all users on Android correspond to some app, root being an exception – so you can think of it as being in the realms of the "shell" app. Switching to a different user might be restricted to root again (I have to admit I never tried, so I cannot be sure about that). But yes, having root makes many things a lot easier :)

In Android 13 I finally found the folder at
/data/media/USERID


text:
Will debugging damage my battery?
I work as a Android developer and I use my own phone for debugging as well as some other devices. Keeping the phone connected with USB will automatically charge my phone but will my battery be damaged by being connected 8~ hours at night and 8~ hours at work every day?

Well, I don't think so because if I talk about modern smartphones they have IC in place which cuts down the power intelligently and over USB I would say it's pretty much less voltage when compared with charger. So, nope I don't think it would damage your battery !

There are provisions to stop overcharging etc etc, but it will keep the temperature of the battery up, and temperature is the single worst enemy of a battery (outside of something unusual like a fire, explosion, water etc), so I would imagine it will degrade the life of the battery. They have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles, so the fact it is charging to full, depleting a few % and charging again all day won't help. How much effect it actually has; I don't know.

I have used my Nexus 4 for developing and personal usage for about a year and no problem so far.

Try http://stackoverflow.com/a/3623727/5778786 to debug wirelessly.


text:
Phone can't detect hotspot made by laptop (no, not the other way around)
Trying to ssh to my laptop on my android phone with a network created by my laptop, but my android phone can't even see the wireless network I made. Will be carrying laptop around in a backpack. I don't need Internet access, tried refreshing phone, waiting, refreshing. Kali linux, android phone. I tried manually changing the channel. Is it maybe a frequency or channel issue?

How did you set up the access point? Can other computers connect to it?

other computers can see it, I just went to wireless connections and clicked make hotspot

In other words, via gui

Is this an ad-hoc network? Android cannot connect to ad-hoc networks.

Oh, yeah. I think it is. Why can't it?


text:
Where do I store my files such that they can be found?
I'm trying to install an app from an apk file, and I've moved it to my phone via USB; however, I cannot locate it.  What would be an easy location to which I could move the apk file such that it would be simple to find via a file browser?
This is what I'm looking at in USB on my PC.

I search for the directories shown in my file browsers, like acct, cache, config, d, data, dev, etc, mnt, proc, ...  None of these can be found on my PC.  I search for the PC directories on the phone, and I can't find them.  So, where can I find an overlapping directory?
I'm on 4.2.1 HM2013002 (China Unicom).  China Mobile MIMU, model 2013022.
Alternatively, as a workaround, might somebody be able to post an Android Enthusiast-local tutorial describing how to remotely install an app?

Usually, I copy all to downloads.
When you say that you "moved it to your phone via usb" does it mean that you installed it via adb? Otherwise you should know where you copied it.

Yeah, we need to know how you moved the file via USB. Did you use ADB? 3rd-party app? Windows Explorer? I usually copy a file to the one shown on your picture, SD Card root.

I usually use adb install *.apk, so I don't have to look for it on the device :) But no: none of the directories you've named will be shown to your PC normally. What you see there usually is located on your SD card(s).

@AndrewT. I moved it over via Win Explorer.

@Izzy  The "sdcard0" and "sdcard1" directories aren't accessible on my file browser.

See: Is there a minimal installation of ADB?. Minimal install archives are available at my server for Linux, Mac, and Windows. No need to install the entire (30 MB+) SDK, as most places tell you, unless you plan developing :)

@Izzy Actually, I have adb on my system, somehow.  So, what's the full command?  adb -install packagename.apk ...?

To install myapp.apk: adb install myapp.apk. // If you count that a solution: Shall I make it an answer?

Error: waiting for device.

I guess this is effectively a dupe of How can I install an app given only its APK file? then.

@AndrewT. Yepp, you're right. Wolfpack: Please meet me in chat, that would be too extensive here. Unfortunately, I cannot find the "invite" link here currently – but our general Android chat room is not too overcrowded at the moment :)

First a description. The path that contains acct, cache, config, d, data, dev, mnt, proc, etc is the device's root directory. The root directory is the root of all filesystem hierarchy in an Android device.
When you connect an Android device via USB to a computer, usually via MTP in newer devices or USB Mass Storage in older devices, the root directory of Android is never exposed to the computer. But rather only a small number of directories are exposed to the computer. The directories that are exposed to computer connected to USB is the external storage.
The path to the external storage, unfortunately, varies by device. The external storage of many Android devices points to the SD Card storage; this is not necessarily always the case, such as with devices that doesn't have SD Card, the external storage actually points to a regular folder. These are some of the locations that external storage may be in:
/mnt/extSdCard/
/mnt/external_sd
/mnt/sdcard/
/storage/emulated/0/

Many Android file browser application generally have at least two specially programmed location to open, one showing the device root and the other the external storage. Look if your file browser application shows the external storage. If your file manager don't show you your external storage by default, try downloading OI File Manager, this file manager shows your external storage by default.
Once you saved your apk there, you should be able to just tap on the APK to install it in most file manager worth its salt.

If all else fails, perhaps just Dropbox it.

Download FX File Explorer from Google Play. It shows all the memory locations mounted on device on it's home screen. There is a search button above. Tap on it and search with file name. It searches both internal and external memory.

Save your files in Download folder of external memory for easy access. For example - SDcard/Download/ApkFiles


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Storage space and memory: mobile phone architecture versus PC architecture
On a PC, there are hard disks acting as storage space where the operating system and application files are stored, and there is RAM which is memory which gets used up by the operating system executable code and applications executable code while everything is running.
On my Samsung Galaxy SIII, when I go to Settings -> More -> Storage, there are various sections which talk about storage space and memory as though these were the same thing?
So here come my questions:

Apart from storage space provided by the optional SD card which must be inserted into the back of the phone next to the SIM card, is there a single memory chip acting as both a storage medium for files when the device is turned off as well as random access memory for the running operating system executables and apps in execution? As the following screenshot reports there seem to be 16.00GB on my device used both as a hard disk and as RAM. Is this how this storage medium works, a single chip for both?
Where can I see the amount of space available on my SIM card? According to Wikipedia such space can only be used to store specific kinds of data such as network-specific information, a maximum of 250 contacts (except for newer models) where each contact can only consist of a name and single phone number pair, and SMS messages. SIM card capacities are also limited to 32KB to 128KB or more, but in any case it's a very small amount of space. It could be that because of these limitations the Samsung Galaxy SIII and other modern Android phones do not make use of this space for user data, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you for your replies.

Thank you for your suggestion. The reason I touched upon the topics of internal storage, external SD card storage, SIM card storage, and temporary RAM memory storage in one post is that I was simply looking for one thing: the big picture concerning how memory and storage is broken down on Android phones and where on the system these parameters can be accessed, hence a single post. I have received answers on this topic. If after this explanation you still think I can reword my post better, then please let me know and I will act accordingly. Thanks.

Thanks. The reason I didn't accept yet is just one thing. I was just waiting to see if the term device memory refers consistently to internal memory which is not system memory, or whether in some contexts the term device memory can also be used to refer to all device memory. If you know the answer please post a comment and I will accept the answer given below. Thanks.

No 100% proof or able to cite a source, but I've never seen "device memory" referring to RAM. And with one thing I am 100% sure: It never refers to /system (where the OS stuff resides). Keep in mind we have no control how "laymen" might use the terms in forums etc :)

In this respect, there is no difference between regular PC and Android.
The terminologies, however, is slightly confusing.
System memory refers to the storage space that is used by system files, and Device memory refers to all storage space. Device memory does not refer to RAM. Your device's RAM can be seen in Settings -> More -> Application Manager.

is there a single memory chip acting as both a storage medium for files when the device is turned off as well as random access memory for the running operating system executables and apps in execution?

Sort of. Most Android device uses a System-on-chip (SOC). What is included in a SOC varies depending on the particular chip and device, but a typical SOC may have CPU, RAM, GPU, wireless, and possibly storage manufactured in a single chip. In regular PC, these are usually separate components, SOC is used in mobile devices to save space wasted due to separate component packaging, but internally there is still a delineation between the components.

Where can I see the amount of space available on my SIM card?

AFAIK, you can't. Android have very limited support for SIM card facility. It uses the SIM card only for Telephony functions and importing existing contacts there into the device's address book.

It's worth adding that usually in the Android GUI, "memory" means non-volatile storage, and "RAM" means RAM. It's a bit confusing because that's not usually what people call the two things, but that's how it is.

I've downloaded several applications under the names of SIM, SIM Card, SIM Card Info, SIM Card Information, SIM Card Manager, and so on, but almost all of them seemed to report almost no information stored in the SIM card, no contacts, just a SIM card device ID (IMEI/MEID/ESN) and a little bit of other garbage, but no data pertaining to amount of space available on the SIM card. Thanks.

@LieRyan, would you be able to clarify your answer as far as the "device memory" bit is concerned? When I go to "Settings -> More -> Application manager" as you say, it reports roughly 8GB used and roughly 3GB free, out of a total of 16GB of internal storage memory. When I go to "Settings -> More -> Storage" the "System memory" storage reports roughly 5GB. Since 8GB + 3GB + 5B = 16GB, this seems to indicate that the term "device memory" refers to all memory which is not system memory. That is: total internal memory = system memory + device memory. Can you please confirm? Thanks.

On the "Settings -> More -> Storage" screen a similar breakup is also present, since on that screen "Used space" is userland internal storage memory space which excludes "System memory" internal storage memory space. Thanks.

@JohnSonderson: Sorry for not being too clear, to see the RAM, go to Settings -> More -> Application Manager and go to the Running tab. That is the one that shows your RAM.

Now I realize that as to the first part of the question, as pointed out, the Storage
screen is displaying information on internal storage (excluding SIM card storage space, external SD card storage space, and RAM memory which is just a temporary storage location which is on a separate chip and does not serve as a persistent storage location).
The reason I was getting confused is that the terms storage and memory are mixed interchangeably on this screen. Even more confusing, on the Samsung Galaxy SIII site the amount of this internal storage is listed under the heading Memory with subheading Total Internal Memory: 32 GB / 16 GB Internal Memory, whereas in the world of desktop computers the term memory usually refers to RAM. This is what was confusing me.
I later realized that to view the amount of RAM (including the percentage of unavailable RAM on the system) there is another window which can be accessed by long-pressing the Home hardware key and then clicking on the pie-chart icon in the lower-left hand corner, as in the following screenshots:

I've added a picture of what a SOC (System-on-a-Chip) looks like. As posted, many systems now come as SOCs with CPU, internal memory, RAM, and other component all integrated into one chip but at the same time still separate from one another.

As an alternative place where to find information on RAM used as opposed to long-pressing the Home key and clicking on the pie-chart icon, one can also go to Settings -> More -> Application manager and swipe twice to the right to see the RUNNING tab which displays the same information at the bottom as in the following screenshot (click to enlarge):

The above screen displays all running processes. By contrast, long-pressing the Home hardware key only displays those running processes which have a GUI in the foreground, excluding background tasks.
Thanks.


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Remove Google Search Bar on Nexus devices running on stock Lollipop
I have been reading for days about how to remove the Google Search Bar from the top of my Nexus 6 since I never use it. I have gotten mixed answers on exactly what file to delete and where it is.
I have heard quicksearchbar.apk but it's not in /system/app like in previous versions. Does anybody know where the file/files are I need to delete in order to get rid of the search bar, or else, how to remove it? Preferably not downloading another launcher, since I don't want to bloat my phone when I could reduce the size.

My apologies, I answered but Xposed won't work in ART and that's the only runtime in Lollipop. Really then Nova may well be the way to go. It's a third of the size of the Google Now launcher, so I'd install Nova and get rid of Google Now Launcher and you'll actually gain space.

@RossC I know it's old, but AFAIK Xposed is somewhat supported on Lollipop again. Probably your answer could work now?

You need to use a third-party launcher app like Nova Launcher. In Nova Launcher, you can hide the persistent search bar by navigating to : Go to Nova Settings > Desktop > Persistent Search Bar > Select "None".

I heard you can go to  Settings >> Apps >> select all apps tab -> find and click "Google Search" and disable it, then reboot. However this will disable all Google search functions.
Otherwise you may be stuck with the alternate launcher option.

In 5.0 Lollipop the "Disable" button is grayed out when going to Settings > Apps > All...I can force stop but that obviously does nothing. I KNOW there is an .apk file I can delete with the terminal, posibbly Velvet.apk and Velvet.odek but I'm just not positive which file/files to delete, and don't want to brick my phone without being positive.

@WillHughes I have the disable option in Lollipop 5.0.1 here, however, removing all that functionality may be a bad option.

I got my phone about a week ago and rooted it, is there already an update to lollipop 5.0? If so how do I go about updating my rooted phone without undoing the changes. I heard with custom recovery and bootloader etc its dangerous to update things

@RossC - Did you do anything special to get that diable option? I have a rooted device with 5.0.1 and it's greyed out.

I tried using Nova Prime launcher. It totally changed my home page but did remove the bar and the google cards page too.

I finally found how to remove it in this case:

No Nova installation nor any other issues with launcher installation
No "three dots method" as they don't appear on my screen
No apparently root needed
No apk removal

I found the way (in my Spanish interface):

Ajustes -> Aplicaciones -> Todas -> Aplicacion Google -> Borrar Caché / Borrar Valores por defecto
Ajustes -> Aplicaciones -> Todas -> Launcher3 -> Borrar Datos / Borrar Caché / Borrar Valores por defecto

Sorry if I make a mistake in direct translation but I really don't know how it appears in English interface:

Settings -> Apps -> all -> Google App -> Remove cache / Remove defaults
Settings -> Apps -> all -> Launcher3 -> Remove data / Remove cache / Remove defaults

I use katkiss ROM - Lollipop 5.1 on an Asus Transformer TF101. Hope this works as it worked for me!

The problem is... you're using custom ROM and different device (but at least you mention it). Also, there's no Launcher3 on Nexus devices.

I know how irritating it is to see this Google bar. You don't need anything to remove it. Just tap on your home screen in the middle of the screen. The bottom options open up showing wallpaper, widgets etc. Just above those options is the tiny dots. Click on those dots and you'll see that the first option is to remove the search bar.
Hope you enjoy your clean home screen with this :)
Gaurav

I followed your instructions and I do not have anything that lets me remove it like you are talking about. Are you using the Stock Google Now Launcher? That is what is used by default on a Nexus 6.

On Android 5.1.1 (CM 12.1)  this method works. Long press on home screen, in the bottom there are wallpapers, widgets, settings. Above them there are  3 dots in a sort of triangular shape. You can disable the search bar from there.

for turning Google search bar OFF, hold finger in screen, swipe up the 3dots up the widgets button, in the top of page you can turn search bar off.
was it as easy as it looked?

Probably you need to provide more info on this (e.g. device model? custom ROM?). On my device (Nexus 4, stock Lollipop 5.0.1), long-pressing the home screen will show "select wallpaper" on stock launcher, or "wallpapers, widgets, and settings" on Google Now Launcher. No 3-dot on the widget button, etc.

@AndrewT. Maybe he meant tap-and-hold inside the search bar – i.e. the element you want to "modify" (read: kick)? Could you verify that? I've got no Lolli, so I can't. I usually removed it that way: tap-and-hold, then move it to trash :)

@Izzy just tried that, but the search bar is not a standard widget you can remove and add. I think it's the same for stock Android ROM since.. I dunno, but at least JB, when I got Nexus 4.

authors: Ильгар Джаббаров


text:
SMS sent contains text from other SMS
I sent an SMS and my contact received only part of the message I sent, to which some text I sent to another contact, a few months ago, was appended. I have proof it happened twice, but here is what it looks like:
September : I send ContactA a message: "AAA AAA"

On my phone : "AAA AAA"
On ContactA phone: "AAA AAA"
On ContactB phone: [Nothing] (As you would expect)

December : I send ContactB a message: "BBB BBB"

On my phone : "BBB BBB"
On ContactA phone: [Nothing] (As you would expect)
On ContactB phone: "BBB AAA AAA"

I checked with my carrier, and he told me that he saw that the text I sent ContactB was 11 characters long (it was actually way longer than that, but I ajusted the number to fit the example.)
The first time I got a proof it happened, I was using GO SMS, so I uninstalled it, and it happened again a day after using the default (Hangout) application.
I think this is a really serious problem since it violates my privacy with ContactA by revealing some conversation to ContactB.
Devise / OS Version : Nexus 5 / 5.0

It's... really an interesting case, as I never heard about this case. I actually doubt it's caused by either GO SMS or Hangouts, or even related to Nexus 5 and Lollipop. I guess it is similar to this question, but it's unanswered too. It might be a problem with your carrier instead.

Yeah, I saw that question, but I asked mine still because in his questionS, he also goes toward asking stuff about subscription to Twitter. It might has something to do with my carrier, but I won't know until it rehappens. I deleted all my SMS history, so if my contact tells me it happens again, I'll tell my provider to investigate on his end.


text:
Disabling Email app
I set up the Android Email app on my Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo because I thought I would move from Internet mail on Outlook.com to using Email. The app did not download all my mail but only downloads new mail, which I don't like. Besides, I am too used to using INternet for mail to think about using the Email app. However, the app is giving me annoying notifications all the time, and I definitely don't want to know every time a new email arrives. I prefer to see it on Internet. So how do I eliminate my account from Email? Or how do I turn off the notifications? Or how do I get to see all the mails I have on my Outlook account on the app instead of just the unread mail?

To "get rid of it", try the following steps:

From the home-screen, open Settings
Navigate to Apps, tap the "All" tab
Scroll until you find the Email app. Tap it.
Tap the buttons to "Clear cache", "Delete data", "Force stop", and "Disable" (in this order)1

Now that app should no longer bother you. If you wish to use another Email app instead, there are plenty; you might e.g. wish to take a look at my list of Email Apps for a selection.

1: Depending on the ROM builder, you might not be able to disable the Email app. That would only leave rooted solutions for that final step.

As you foresaw, the Disable button was grayed out :). However the problem should be solved now @Izzy.

Glad to read! Mind to tell us how you've solved the "grayed-out button"?

I didn't :). As long as it doesn't annoy me, it can stay there, since I have enough memory to not care about it :). I won't take the trouble of rooting just for that.

Yepp, that explains :) Still, it's not only RAM. See my comment on Trish's answer: at least the "Exchange component" polls all 60s even with no account configured (noticed that on a freshly flashed device). That might wake-up your Droid and eat some juice, even if little. But again, if you've got no trouble with your "battery uptime", that won't bother you either ;)

And yet another grayed-out button for "Exchange Services" :). It is really astonishing how much stuff I can't do :).

Going a little OT now (but it's related to the "gray buttons", so it should be fine): Many more good reasons to root. A device without root is a half device to me. See our rooting tag-wiki and check the linked information as well. Again, I'm no missionary – if you're happy without, stay happy ;) For more, better move to our chat room :)

Turn off notifications: (this is the same for all apps) Settings >> Apps. Slide to the "All" section and scroll down until you find "Email". Uncheck the box for "Show notifications". You should probably do the same for Exchange Services, which has the same icon.
Remove account from Email app: Settings > Scroll down to the Accounts and tap on Email. Tap the account you want to remove. Tap on the menu button on the upper right (three vertical square) and pick "Remove Account".

Good points, Trush! (+1 from me) To fully get rid of that crazy app, see my answer – and optionally apply the same steps to the "Exchange" app (which polls all 60s in the background even with no account configured and the Email app disabled).

@TrishLing the box is grayed out, and I see no "Email" under "Accounts".


text:
No IMEI on Samsung Galaxy Ace
A week ago, my sister gave me her Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830I. She said that she could not call or text anyone and could not receive anything. I looked around on her phone and on the Internet to find the root of the problem. I found that the phone had no IMEI number. I typed *#06# in the keypad of the phone and a box appeared. It had the words "IMEI" but there was no number under it. When I go to Settings > About phone > Status, this is what it says:
Network: T-mobile UK
Signal strength: -83 dBm 14 asu
Mobile Network type: UMTS
Service state: Out of service
Roaming: Not roaming
IMEI: Unknown
IMEI SV: 01

I hardly know anything about Android, so could you please explain everything simply?

Most phones will have the IMEI number written on the back of the phone, remove the cover and the battery to see the number.

That is a bit tangential to the issue. While it's correct that most phones have IMEI number written somewhere, the issue here is the phone itself doesn't recognize it as it's lost/removed/deleted (it's possible, there are many cases similar like this)

Is the phone rooted or has a custom ROM been installed?  A factory reset + flashing the stock ROM might correct this.


text:
Galaxy S4 - Viber answers my phone.
Viber answers my phone since yesterday(Dec 3, 2014) after an application update. I would like to know what setting to change so I can answer my calls using my regular phone?
Thank you

Go to Settings>Apps>Viber>Clear defaults. That's it. You're good to go.

In Viber go to menu -> Settings -> Calls and messages, and make sure that "Viber-In Calls" option is disabled.


text:
Better Russian dictionary for Android's autocorrect?
The built-in Russian dictionary is extremely small and I keep adding new words to it every day. Is there a better one anywhere on the web?

Have you tried alternative keyboard replacement apps?

I like the Google keyboard, so I think it would be easier to import a dictionary.

Install User Dictionary Manager
-(With this you can import/export/delete/edit dictionaries)
*Now after installing User Dictionary Manager Download Russian Dictionary (Ru.zip 2012) From Here
*Unzip Russian Dictionary File
*Import .txt file with User DictionaryManager.

DONE

Dictionary Source

Thanks a lot! Though I couldn't find the 2013 version for Russian in the folder you've linked.

Sorry mate! It was typo. I just updated it.

Importing all 400k+ words turned out a huge mistake, so I simply limited the dictionary to 10,000 of the most common words.

You can also copy paste 1000 most used russian words from http://masterrussian.com/vocabulary/most_common_words_2.htm and import it by making .txt file of it.

Android's built-in dictionary does have most words, but it's lacking the endings variations. As in, it knows about "dog", but doesn't know that "dogs" is also correct.


text:
Nexus 6 defaults to Call screen upon unlock
Is the Nexus 6 supposed to default to the Call screen every time I unlock my phone? I get tired of unlocking my phone, and hitting the Home button every time. I want to unlock my phone and get the Home screen....anybody got any ideas?

If you swipe from left to right (a common mistake in users new to Lollipop) the phone opens the dialer, much like if you swipe from right to left, you open the camera. If you swipe from bottom to top, this unlocks the phone without taking you to either.

That is exactly what I was doing, really appreciate it...feel like an idiot. I have my phone rooted with custom bootloader and ROM and i can't figure this out lol


text:
AdBlock makes TuneIn Radio crash
Device: galaxy S3
Rom:liquidsmooth 4.4.4
I recently upgraded to liquidsmooth kit kat and as usuall i reinstalled my fav apps.For some reason the app Adfree that i use seems to block tunein from loading the stations.
The app works until you select a station then crashes.If i revert the hosts it plays fine.
I also used different adblockers like the build in liquidsmooth one and the crash happens again.
Is there a way to white list tunein?

Try another software called ad away that has the option to white list apps. Ad block doesn't seem to have the white listing option.
https://f-droid.org/repo/org.adaway_51.apk

Add a link for the app you suggested. Its really not an accurate answer, the way it is now.


text:
The camera LED on my OnePlus One is continuously on
I recently got a OnePlus One phone (64GB model). I noticed that the LED for the front camera is continuously on. Is there any option to turn it off?

Have you tried using flashlight apps from the Play Store and using their inbuilt LED switches? Or have you tried investigating which app is causing this resource leak?

You probably triggered the gesture to activate the "flashlight" http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/112885/accidentally-triggering-the-sound-player-or-the-torch

When you say LED for the front camera, do you mean the notification LED? That can be easily disabled in Settings - Display and Lights - Notification and Battery light.
If you're referring to the flash LED of the back camera, you can try taking some pictures with the flash turned off and see whether it works.
If not, try hard reset via recovery.

Go to setting > gesture > toggle flashlight > disable it "Unchecked"
I think this caused by a feature in OnePlus can turn the flashlight on by drawing V on the screen, for me it used to work by itself sometime or in my pocket.


text:
Application manager: no SD card present but applications still listed under "SD CARD" and what is USB storage?
The back of my Samsung Galaxy SIII has a slot for inserting an external memory SD card (MicroSD up to 32 GB) next to the SIM card slot, but I never purchased nor inserted any, just double checked just in case. However when I go to Settings -> More -> Application manager and swipe once to the right the following screen shows up (click to enlarge):

As you can see, it looks as though I've downloaded these applications to an SD Card despite the fact that such SD Card on my system does not exist. Can someone be so kind as to explain what this screen is displaying? Perhaps internal storage and internal memory are both synonymous with internal SD, but I'm not sure and would like clarification. And if this were true, then is this screen displaying applications stored on both the internal as well as the optional external SD card, or just the internal SD card?
Thanks.
Also, what is the gray rectangular area just below USB storage at the bottom of the screen for? My device doesn't have any USB sockets despite the one at the bottom of the device used to recharge the device or transfer files. What is this USB storage? Does the SD card appear as a USB device? Perhaps the external SD card when present appears to the Android OS as a USB device. If not, then what does USB have to do with this screen?
Thanks.

EDIT:
I just checked this information on the Samsung Galaxy S Plus. Here is a screenshot of
the breakdown of storage which is broken down among internal phone storage (and personal data which seems to me at least like it's the same thing), internal SD card, and external SD card. So, my guess is that not all phones are the same. This screen was accessed by long-pressing the Home hardware button, clicking on the Task Manager button, and then clicking on Storage.

As the following screenshots demonstrate, on the Samsung Galaxy SIII the only internal storage present is an internal SD card (which is 16GB as advertised).

OTOH, on the Samsung Galaxy S Plus, as we have seen there are two separate kinds of internal storage, namely internal phone storage which must be a device-specific format, and internal SD card.
On the Samsung Galaxy S Plus, when one goes to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications one can see the difference between All and On SD Card. This phone did not have an external SD card at the time the following screenshots were taken, and we can see that only some applications (all of which are user downloads), have been installed on the internal SD card (as opposed to on the other internal memory):

The Samsung Galaxy SIII also displays different tabs when one goes to Settings -> More -> Application manager and one can swipe left and right to switch from one tab to another, and the available tabs there are named DOWNLOADED, SD CARD, RUNNING, and ALL. The ALL tab, which includes the applications under DOWNLOADED plus preinstalled apps, however, still contains more applications than can be seen under SD CARD (the SD CARD AFAIK lists applications available in the internal SD card, not sure about external SD). This puzzles me, because I thought that on the Samsung Galaxy SIII the internal SD card was the only available internal storage medium. Screenshots follow:

On the Samsung Galaxy S Plus, both applications installed on the internal phone storage location as well as the applications installed on the internal SD storage location when viewed by clicking the application in Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> All / On SD card have a button to move the application to external SD storage labeled Move to SD card and since I don't have an external SD card such button returns the message Failed to move application. Not enough memory:

The same layout is also available on the analogous screen on the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Here are two screenshots shown when I accessed two applications in the analogous manner by clicking on Settings -> More -> Application manager -> click on any application to view its info`:

On the above screenshots I don't get the difference between the fields Data and SD card data, since what I thought I had understood was that there is only one internal memory location, and I do not have an external SD card on this device. Again the Samsung Galaxy SIII where I tried this had no external SD card. On the screenshot on the lef, the Move to SD card is properly grayed out, which I take it to mean that for some technical reasons the application cannot be moved to the external SD card. On the screenshot on the left, the technical details of the application make it possible to move it to the external SD card, but since no such card is present clicking on the button yields the message Your phone does not have a SD card. Insert SD card..
on the Samsung Galaxy SIII, unlike on the Samsung Galaxy S Plus where clicking the button gives an alert error message.
However, what I find strange on this Samsung Galaxy S Plus is that there does not seem a way to transfer an application from internal phone memory to internal SD card memory (at least not via Android OS's GUI, maybe it is possible if the filesystem is mounted and then files are copied with command-line tools such as Unix cp). After all, the internal phone memory is not read-only as I have installed some applications from Google Play Store there as well. Probably, the excutable .apk files which get installed contain preferential information as to where they want or prefer to be installed once downloaded.

EDIT:
Still, I don't get the USB storage bit (seemingly however empty on the Samsung Galaxy SIII), which shows up on both the Samsung Galaxy SIII and the Samsung Galaxy S Plus, as the above screenshots demonstrate.
As we can see from an above screenshot, on the Samsung Galaxy SIII, no information is given on USB storage (the gray rectangle at the bottom of the Application manager -> SD CARD (USB storage) contains no numbers indicating what percentage of USB storage has been used up). Also from the above screenshots, we can see that the Samsung Galaxy S Plus reports roughly 5GB of internal SD card storage, of which Settings -> Applications -> Manage -> On SD Card reports a breakdown of roughly 400MB used and 4.6GB free from which it seems possible to conclude that on the Samsung Galaxy S Plus USB Storage is synonymous with internal SD card storage, however bizarre that may be.

I don't even have an SDCard slot on my device, and the main folder on mine is "sdcard".

I think the internal storage space looks like an SD card to the operating system, whereas for those devices that can accept external storage, this comes as an SD card, but according to my screenshot may look like a USB stick. But I'm really not sure. Would you be so kind as to post some screenshots? Try holding the power button and the home key together to take the screenshot, then upload it. Thanks.

possible duplicate of What's the difference between "sd card" and "usb storage"?

Apps shown in the "on SD card" tab aren't actually on the external SD card, they're just apps you are able to move to the SD card. If they'd been on the SD card, the checkbox next to them would've been checked with a colored check mark.

It's true. Looks like you're right. Applications shown under Manage applications -> On SD card tab (Samsung Galaxy S Plus) or under Application manager -> SD CARD (Samsung Galaxy SIII) are simply those applications which can be moved to the SD card: they all have their Move to SD card button enabled. Other applications listed under ALL which are not listed in this section are for technical reasons incapable of being moved to an external SD card and (thus) do not appear in this list. Thanks!

I still haven't figured out the following: why does the USB storage bar displayed under Manage applications -> On SD card on the Samsung Galaxy S Plus display usage statistics for the internal SD card, while the same section at the bottom of Application manager -> SD card on the Samsung Galaxy SIII tab displays no numeric information? Also, is USB storage on mobile phones always synonymous with internal SD card storage? Thanks.

@JohnSonderson the no numerical information I don't know about, since I don't have a Samsung device. It may be a bug, or Samsung designed it that way. Also, USB storage nearly always refers to internal /sdcard/ partition

OK. Thanks. This information is very useful. What about external SD storage, does it also fall under the category USB storage or is it only the internal SD which shows up as such? Could you please post a screenshot of the Application manager -> SD CARD section on your device. I am curious as to what your device says about the USB storage. You can take a screenshot with Power+Home key or Home+Back or swipe your hand across the screen on several devices. Thank you for your information. I really appreciate it.

Also, what happens if you mount an external USB drive onto the Android phone (I presume this could also be a possibility if the USB drive had a small enough adapter). Thanks.

@JohnSonderson if you mount an USB drive using an USB OTG cable, it will be mounted at /mnt/usbdisk. I don't know what that will be called on the phone though

Thanks, and what about mounting a regular external SD card (by inserting the card, without going through USB cable)? Will that storage also show up as USB storage or not. Where does it get mounted on the filesystem? And would it show up as USB storage in the user interface? Thanks.

@JohnSonderson it will show up as external SD card, and IIRC it'll be mounted at /sdcard/external_sd/. I'm not sure of the behaviour if you mount yet another card, via an USB SD card reader though.

Thanks. As to the filesystem I found out from this link that /sdcard is always a symlink to /mnt/sdcard. Samsung Galaxy SIII device there is also a (likely custom) partition called /storage/emulated/0 which is the Home directory of the File Manager application from Cheetah Mobile on Google Play (probably the same as cd ~ at the shell prompt) and after examining its contents this also seems to be a symlink to /mnt/sdcard. On the Samsung Galaxy S Plus /mnt/sdcard is the Home directory of the File Manager app.

As to the external storage the Samsung Galaxy S Plus has /sdcard/external_sd and doesn't have /mnt/usbdisk. On the other hand /sdcard/external_sd doesn't exist on my Samsung Galaxy SIII, although this device has six USB directories called /mnt/UsbDrive{A,B,C,D,E,F} and it is presumably these which are used for mounting USB drives via OTG cables. So, my guess is that unless a directory appears in the link I posted, these mount points for the external SD card and OTG USB drives are not standardized and relying on these locations in computer programs is thus unreliable.

Also because of these differences, I was not able to conclude whether in the graphical user interface of Android devices, external SD cards and OTG USB drive also fall under USB storage. Please let me know. Thanks.

@JohnSonderson Generally, the naming convention of the UI is as follows: /sdcard is USB storage, internal memory is /system, SD card is the external SD

Could you please elaborate on the following: from the GUI it seemed like on my Samsung Galaxy SIII the internal storage was the SD card (I didn't see a separate ROM/internal space). So on such a system the /system directory would also be classed as USB storage. Am I correct?

@JohnSonderson /system would most definitely not be classified as USB storage. I think this thread should end, maybe someone could create a chat room. Also, I don't have access to a Samsung device, and my knowledge is only finite

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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Switching from Google Japanese Input directly to Google Keyboard?
I have the following input methods enabled:

Google Keyboard, English (US)
Google Japanese Input, Japanese

I use both the Google Keyboard and Google Japanese Input depending on what I'm doing. Going from Google Keyboard to Google Japanese Input is trivial, I simply click the language button and it automatically switches. However I am running into an issue with switching back. Here is a screenshot of the keyboard in use:

There is a button on the bottom-left that switches between Japanese, numeric, and QWERTY. However the QWERTY is awkward to use and I would prefer to switch it to the Google Keyboard instead. I can accomplish this by holding the button down, but the "Input Options" doesn't list the Google Keyboard as an entry. Instead, I must choose "Select Input Method", then I can choose Google Keyboard.

While this is a minor inconvenience, the extra time certainly adds up especially when switching between various contacts in the same application, or when I need to use both Japanese/English when talking to the same person (such as translations, etc...).
Is there a way that I can have it automatically switch to the Google Keyboard when I hold down the button? If not, is there a keyboard that could offer this functionality?

AFAIK, this is impossible to do in KitKat and previous version. There is no globe (input method switch key) icon, and there is no setting related to it.
However, recent update added this feature, BUT it's only for Android 5.0 Lollipop (as of writing). From "What's New",

(Lollipop) Introduced input method switch key.

On Lollipop, there will be a globe icon on each type of keyboard:

12 Keys: On Japanese mode, to the left of 'わ'.
QWERTY: On Japanese mode, to the left of the spacebar
Godan keyboard: On Japanese mode, between 'O' and 'W'


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How to change device name used by Google Chrome?
I use the same Google account with Google Chrome on several devices including my Android phone. So, Google Chrome shows me tabs opened on other devices (ex: chrome://history/). Is there any way to change the name assigned for my Android device there?
See the following screen as example - I would like to change "Galaxy Nexus" to something else.

As of 2019, the Android devices cannot be renamed; both from themselves and from other devices.
The name listed on "Other devices" currently depends on the operating system:

Windows, macOS, and Linux use their hostname
Android possibly uses its marketing name from Google Play's supported devices
Chrome OS use their product name (e.g. Chromebook, Chromebit)

However, renaming the device directly from the Chrome browser has not been implemented.
This was reported as Issue #124964 in Chromium Bugs Tracker since Apr 24, 2012, requesting a feature to allow devices in "Other devices" menu to be renamed. The report was branched into 2 separate issues:

Issue #455925 for mobile UI
Issue #664647 for desktop UI


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My Android phone is completely reset, whats the best way to recover the deleted data?
A person at a phone store reset all the contents of my Motorola Moto G Android phone, and I did not give them permission to do so. I had many important pictures and videos, but the even more important thing were the audio recordings I had created.
Is there ANY WAY to recover this data? I know it was reset, but I'm very stressed and would appreciate a pointer of a way to effectively recover some or all of the data without comprising it in the process. I am not using the phone, and had shut it off entirely. I'm aware that the more you use it, the more it overwrites the data. I NEVER had a backup, dumb, I know.
Thank you folks!
**Edit: I recovered most of my photos and videos just now through Google+, most of it was synced! But how can I recover my voice recordings ? That's what's most important to me. I used this app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrwq.recorder&hl=en
Unfortunately, my phone model never supported SD cards, so there's nothing there.

When I said "without comprising it the process", I meant the data. I could care less about the phone, even if it meant tearing the whole thing apart!

If you asked to have your phone repaired at the official customer service, there is a possibility that the device was replaced by entirely new device, so there wouldn't be any trace of the old data. I assumed the pictures, videos and audio recordings were saved on "external" storage, so it should be there, unless they decided to reset the SD Card too, for whatever reason. However, it'd be hard to recover the data after factory reset

Unfortunately, it never came with an SD card slot, this is the 1st gen moto g. @AndrewT. What about the reset recovery software options?

It's the same phone, btw.

If it's not possible whatsoever, what is this article based on? http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-thieves-recovering-data-factory-reset/ @AndrewT.

I just checked my Google+ online, and all the photos are there from the phone!!! @AndrewT. but the voice recordings... is there any way I could retrieve those?

But how can I recover my voice recordings ? That's what's most important to me. I used this app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrwq.recorder&hl=en

I understand Moto G doesn't have physical SD card, but it emulates the SD card inside the phone, which seems to be cleared due to the reset. Also, I didn't say it's impossible, but it's hard to recover the data as is. You could try to find a recovery tool as mentioned in that site, but there is no guarantee it will restore the data 100%. Fortunately, the pictures and videos are synced (read: "backed-up"), but I doubt the app has synced feature, which I couldn't really help. Maybe other readers here can help you... sorry.

There isn't an easy way, but still, it might be possible. The keyword to it is File carving (find some more links on this topic in our data-recovery tag-wiki).
Make sure to not have any modifications/changes going on on your device, or at least as few as possible! Each change (written file etc.) lowers your chances of a successful recovery.
A crucial pre-condition to this is either a rooted device, or a custom recovery.

With a custom recovery: Take a nandroid backup
With a rooted device: create images from your storage

For manual image creation, you'd first need to figure where the partitions are that you need. Your data is usually stored in two places: the /data partition, and your SD card(s). Let's find where they are:

connect to your device via adb (follow up to the adb tag-wiki for details if you're not familiar with this) using adb shell
execute the mount command
in the output, look for the corresponding entries to /data and your SD cards
take a note of the corresponding device entries (usually starting with /dev/)

At this point it would be helpful to have an empty external SD card:

still connected via adb shell, get root access by executing su
run dd if=<data-dev> of=/sdcard/data.img (replacing <data-dev> with the device of your /data partition), repeat similarly for your internal SD card
exit adb shell (simply type exit and hit the return key)
pull the files to your computer using adb pull /sdcard/data.img data.img, or connect the card using a card-reader to access them directly from your computer

If you don't have an external SD card, but have a Linux computer available (I cannot say whether it works on Windows as well, but it should at least on a Mac), you can instead try the following:
adb shell "stty raw; cat <data-dev>" > data.img
This would create the image files directly on your computer.
Now, once you've got the image files on your computer, you can examine their contents using some forensics software. TestDisk would be a suitable tool, and is available for free, plus runs on most major systems. For details on this, you might wish to check One Way to Use a Linux Computer to Recover Files from an Android Device. The TestDisk Wiki (see previous link) also includes several articles on how to recover deleted files.


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Can I change the date range in the Lollipop "cellular data usage" chart?
In Android 4.x I was able to change the date axis on the "cellular data usage" chart to show (for example) what I used in the past 24 hours. In Lollipop, the date range is locked to a static data range. Is there any way to quickly look at a specific date range as in 4.x? How? Thanks!

AFAIK, Google removed it for unknown reason. The best alternative you can do is use 3rd-party app, but I haven't researched any.

I couldn't either, but after setting a data warning and limit threshold, the option of changing the cycle appeared!
lollipop its a little mess of 'hidden' settings

I don't think this is what the OP wants... on previous version, you could zoom-in the graph using 2-fingers and see (let's say, following OP's example) the usage in past 24 hours. On Lollipop, you're given a static 1-month graph only.

Why oh why is this option not always visible!! Thanks


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Moto G -- recovering files after bootloader unlock (wipe)?
I'm trying to evaluate the options for recovering some important files that were  deleted from a Moto G 1st generation. I have sufficient experience with the data recovery itself once I have an image file, and I know how to extract an image of the /sdcard partition once the phone is rooted.
However, I see the following problems:

The phone isn't rooted, and the bootloader is still locked. Unlocking the bootloader will wipe the phone.
The phone is updated to Android 4.4.4 . Therefore it isn't possible to root it without unlocking the bootloader. (this seemed to work for 4.4.2 , but a downgrade requires an unlocked bootloader)

What I think might be a solution:

Backup to PC with adb
Unlock bootloader (wipes all data!)
Root phone
Extract image of /sdcard partition to PC
Recover files on PC using the usual forensics tools
Maybe lock bootloader again/unroot phone (still tbd)
Restore backuped files with adb

Questions:

Is the wipe during bootloader unlocking just a normal "delete" (quick-format) operation or will the whole partition be overwritten? If the former, will I have chances to recover the files, with the usual caveats (i.e. files not overwritten yet by new files). If the latter, I prefer to avoid this tedious procedure...
Does the procedure make sense or am I missing something important?

Were you able to find the solution for this problem.
I am having the same problem so if i could get help.

I had the same question. Then I used a retired Moto G to test ROOT (as usual) and recovery with this method: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705
Now I have a RAW file with 13 GB and neither Handy Recovery can find files earlier than wipe. It doesn't seem a quick-format.
I'm still looking for a non-wipe method meanwile talking to Motorola to recover a folder lost during an MTP's error. I still hope...


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How do I make my wallpaper scroll on my Android?
To be specific, I have one page on my homescreen. How can I have just the wallpaper scrolling in the background and the icons staying still?

Just for clarification: Are you rather asking for a live-wallpaper (basically, an "animated wallpaper")?

Check out http://novalauncher.com/ for a great Launcher if your device does not natively support wallpaper scrolling; it's possible to force it with Nova Launcher.
I'm not sure it's possible to implement wallpaper scrolling with a single page; you could try duplicating the page and removing the transition animations to achieve a similar effect.

Yeah I've figured out a loophole! I created 5 copies of the same page with the same icon in each location, then I added the "wipe" effect from Nova. Thanks!

Glad I could help. Best of luck!


text:
Power Android phone with portable battery charger and internal battery removed
Is it possible to power an Android phone (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S II) with its internal battery removed, using a portable battery charger?
This question is about phone with internal battery that is removable.

Nope, it's not possible.
You need to put the battery inside in order to switch your device on. The battery completes the circuit, and without the battery the circuit wouldn't complete.

not necessarily. You can power a laptop without a battery. Maybe you can do the same with a phone. Maybe not, but you'd need a source for that.

Well, @samsung I don't think I need a source over here because I own and S-II and as soon as I have seen this question over here I have tired doing that and it doesn't switched on ! Mean if I talk about source then I am the source for the answering this question. And one more thing it's a mobile device not a laptop you don't keep mobile devices like laptop don't you ??


text:
Prevent music player from closing while closing all apps
Is there a way to prevent the music player from closing while performing a clear all recent apps from the recent apps menu? I mean the app is technically in use so ideally it should not be closed along with the other apps. Is there any way to prevent this?
The app is Google Play Music if that is important.
Android ver: 4.4.4
Device: OnePlus One

When you clear the "recent list", all related activities are "kindly asked to terminate" (see: What actually happens when you swipe an app out of the recent apps list?). So what you ask must basically be converted into "how to exclude an app from being removed from the recent list" – which I know no answer for.
In principle, "closing all apps" rarely is a good idea (except when shutting down the device, of course). It does no good to your battery (or anything else), as many of those apps will just "silently restart". If you have "performance issues", you should track them down to their cause (see e.g. How do I identify apps or settings that cause performance problems?) – and then stop the one app hogging those resources. Chuck-Norris-Roundhouse-Kicks in this case are like using atomics to kill a flie.

"It does no good to your battery (or anything else), as many of those apps will just 'silently restart'" and even the ones that don't will likely take more power to start next time you want them.

Thanks @DanHulme, I forgot to mention that part :) True that, because they've got to build up their entire "memory structures" again – which requires reading from storage (and possibly from network as well).

What does this answer have to do with the question?

It explains why it is not possible, Alex. I felt that would be a bit more helpful than a simple "No".


text:
New access permissions for Google Maps v9.1.1
I recently got an notification for the latest Google Maps update 9.1.1. With this update, the app asks for 2 new access rights: Phone and Device ID and call information.
After checking the changelog, I cannot connect the need for those 2 permissions with the new features introduced.

Changelog:

Dynamic Routing Around Closures
Quick Facts cards on Points of Interest with time and weather
Bug fixes

After reading what an app can do with this permissions (read my call log, start phone calls, read the remote number of an active call), it doesn't feel right to simply give permission to use it without knowing what the actual benefit is.
I checked the Google Maps webpage and did a search on Google, but couldn't find any explanation for this new access permissions.
Can anyone tell me what this permissions are used for, or point me to a source where I can verify the use of these rights?

I agree, I see no obvious reason for these permissions to be added based on the change log.
Yes I can invent some reasons that maybe it "needs" them for one feature or another (clicking restaurant near you and calling from the app directly).
But the point here is that there is no explanation. It is dead wrong for Google to behave this way, as it causes behaviour of "default acceptance" in all future cases. Including non Google ones.
Just like the windows pop-ups...  this application is asking for "internet"...  you have no choice but to say yes, and frankly no way to find out why.
Now, today, you are basically as secure as if there were no permissions at all. Every app needs everything, and everyone just clicks yes.
Well done to everyone.


text:
Why do applications enforce read-write and read-only permissions for other apps to use it?
While reading a book, Android Wireless Application Development, it tells that

Applications might also enforce their own permissions by declaring them for other applications to use. The applications can declare any number of different permission types, such as read-only or read-write permissions, for finer control over the application.

I couldn't get why do applications need to set read-write or read-only permissions for allowing another application to use its applications.
For example, as illustrated in Android Developer, it shows how an application uses another Map application to show its address. But why do the app needs to set read-only or read-write permissions for allowing another app to use it?

Because if the app is storing your data, it's responsible for keeping it secret. To take an example, let's say there's an app to store something you'd rather keep quiet, such as your collection of Jason Donovan albums. This app would have a database with the relevant information inside, and this database is private to the app. No other app can read it (without root), and thus your embarrassing music taste is kept secret.
Now let's say the app author wants to allow other apps to use the same data. It could be another app by the same author, or he could widen it to allow other authors to access the data. That way, other apps would be able to add a home screen widget with a Jason Donovan album of the day, or create calendar entries for the anniversary of each album's release, or import  anything else. He does this by creating a content provider, adding it to the manifest, and publishing instructions for developers on the format of the data and how to access them. The content provider is like a server: it provides a way for other apps to query the app's data and get results back, without accessing the database directly.
If that's all he does, then any installed app can access the data. You install an innocuous-looking flashlight app that only has "INTERNET" permission, and suddenly it's able to find out all your embarrassing music and email it to scammers for blackmail purposes. Obviously this is undesirable: an app developer who would let this happen should not be trusted with your data.
The app developer can prevent this by creating a new permission, and giving it a human-readable description, such as "Read your favourite Jason Donovan albums". Creating the permission doesn't do anything itself: he also needs to change the content provider so that when an app queries it, it checks that that app has the permission before responding to the request. If the app has the permission, it gives it the data it asked for; if the app doesn't, it might choose to give it an exception (an error that tells the program what the problem is), or simply to return no or partial results. For example, it might tell the app about the Rolling Stones albums you're not ashamed about, but not the embarrassing Jason Donovan albums.
This way, the innocuous-looking flashlight app can't access your data. Before you install an app that wants access to the data, you can see "Read your favourite Jason Donovan albums" in the list of permissions, and you can abort installing if you don't trust the app author with that information.
How many permissions the app creates depends on what kind of access it offers other apps, and how fine-grained the controls should be. In our example, the app doesn't have a way for other apps to add albums, so there's no need for a read-write permission. Even if it did, it may be that the app only has a read-write permission, which other apps need to have to either see the list of albums or edit the list. This might be enough for a simple app like this. But for something like a social media app, it's more important to limit how many apps can send messages (or write content) on your behalf, so two separate permissions might be used in that case. It's up to the app author to decide how many permissions are appropriate for the app, giving users control over their privacy without creating confusing combinations that are hard to understand.

That's a good descriptive answer.But could you tell me why did you say about blackmail.I think for your secret songs no one would blackmail you or did you just meant to give an example.Is there any app that uses both read and write permission for giving data to another app.Also who really grants the permission(to another app):is it the author or the author acts on behalf of the user?Could you help me.

Blackmailing you about Jason Donovan songs is just an example. I'm sure you have other data on your phone that you wouldn't want in the hands of bad guys. The built-in Contacts app is an example that uses separate read and write permissions. Granting the permissions is no different to built-in ones: the user grants the permission when he installs the app that needs that permission.

:okay.But is there any need of write permission.I'm asking this because in a Contacts app even if one(another app) would add contacts to the Contacts app(if he has write permission) is there any security breach taking place?I think adding contacts would merely have no security issues isnt't it?

Write permissions aren't just about adding new data. One common practice of malware on PCs is to send all your data to the attacker and then delete it from your computer, or encrypt it, and then extort money for the return of the data.

:How could the example(malware on PC) deal with write permission?I think it just involves sending the data to the attacker.Do you mean that even sending the data from an app to someone is included in the write permissions?

No, the write permission prevents an app deleting all your data. That's a key part of the extortion. If you're still confused, I suggest you drop into our [chat] room, as comments are not for extended discussions.


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Camera isn't available - Trusted Face ( Android Lollipop - Nexus 5)
Sometimes I've noticed that the Smart Lock - Trusted Face feature doesn't work, no matter what the lighting or the position of my face relative to the phone.
I thought that an "Improve face matching" should do the trick, but when I go to do that, I get this:

Click for full size
Usually a restart fixes things, but this isn't a really good solution. The camera app works normally even when this happens. Has someone found a way to fix this somehow, or should I just wait for the next update from Google?

There is a possibility that there is an app that is still running and using the camera, and hasn't released the resource (resource leak). You probably need to check 3rd-party apps that use camera and make sure they are closed properly.

I thought of that, but since the Google camera app, Instagram etc. work normally, I don't think that's the case.

How did you upgrade to 5.0, through OTA? If yes, did you do it after a factory reset?

@VishnuPrasadKallummel Yes, through OTA. No, no factory reset just prior to updating, neither after.

Ok, I think a factory reset would do the trick, as I have 5.0.1 and the face unlock is working fine. By the way, how are you getting the battery percentage on the battery icon?

Thanks, I'll try a factory reset if there's no other answer by someone else. As per the battery percentage, I used http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/themes-apps/app-enable-battery-percentage-android-4-t2516913

I'm also sometimes affected by this issue. When it starts, the camera app works normally until I switch it to the front-facing camera. After that it crashes and I cannot use it any more. only workaround is to restart.
Did you try the factory reset? I'd prefer not do that…
Nexus 5 with Android 5.0.1 installed through OTA.

I believe that this is an issue with the Smart Lock app itself. When I enabled the face unlock I started getting this error. The camera ceases to work after some time, when I notice that the smart lock icon just blinks on the lock screen (which shows a failed attempt to access camera). Then neither the camera app works nor can I access the camera via Smart Lock settings. I started having this issue whenever I enabled face recognition and I stopped having this issue altogether when I disabled the said feature.
It's a shame that despite being an extremely efficient and fast feature, this causes such a problem that it needs to be disabled.


text:
App registered to wrong account; how to fix this?
I have three Google accounts registered to my Android: my main, personal account (let's call it account A), and two volunteer community accounts whose emails I manage (call them accounts B and C).
When I first got the phone, I registered with my account A and later added accounts B and C, so that my primary account is account A.
The problem is that since the upgrade from Android 4.4.4 to Android 5.0, one of my apps has lost its license.
When I try to restore the license, I realise that the app is now registered to account B instead of account A (it shows the email address for account B instead of account A).
Why is it registered to the wrong account? More importantly, how can I fix this?
If possible, I'd prefer not to uninstall and reinstall the app, because I will lose all of my data for that app. But, I'll do it if I have to.
I am using an unrooted Nexus 5, fully updated, Android 5.0.

This sounds like something you'll have to talk to Google Play support about.

As you've not mentioned the app name and some details it is wise to clear data of the app in Settings>Apps>App_Name>Clear data and start fresh.

I tried various actions, including clearing all data, and uninstalling and reinstalling the app. None of them worked.
Eventually, I removed accounts B and C, uninstalled the app again, restarted the phone, and reinstalled the app.
This worked. The licence was automatically restored.
What's more, Google restored the app's data — admittedly, from a couple of weeks back before the upgrade to 5.0, but still it meant that I lost little.
I'm going to leave accounts B and C off the phone for a while to see what happens.
I think that I should report this fault to Google.


text:
Where can I find my App Folder when connected to Computer?
I need to put a .bak file inside my Application Folder.
I connected my Android Device to my computer via USB, but I cannot locate my App inside any of those folders!
I have unistalled the app and re-installed it again, but still, no folder about it in Nexus7/Android/Data
It is probably a silly question, but I really can't find it. And I need to put those .bak files inside, since they are holding a profile, that needs to be loaded inside my App.
CAREFUL: I am not asking where can I find Files that are stored with the OutputStream - but where the FOLDER of Application is located on the Computer, when the Device is connected to it as Media Storage.

Apps' private data directories aren't visible over the USB connection to your PC. It would complicate error handling in apps a lot if you had to worry about users making unexpected changes to your data files, so Android doesn't let you do this, to make it harder for you to screw up your phone.
You can access them from the phone directly, but only if the phone is rooted. If your phone is rooted, you can access any files, but you have to accept the risk of breaking things (this is why it voids the warranty), and it'll make it a lot harder to get support from app vendors. All the same, this is probably using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and there's probably an easier way to achieve the thing you're trying to, using the facilities built into the app.

I am open for any suggestion here. I created the App quite some time ago, and its quite a big one, so some root modifications to it wouldn't be nice. But now customers want to have their own "Profile" they created to use with App (their background, button colours, etc.).. it is a bak`file..and I need to include it somehow to my App.

I'm afraid I can't suggest how to add a "profile" feature to your app. For a start, programming questions are off-topic here; and even if they weren't, you haven't given nearly enough information about the app and what you're trying to do.

I think I'll go with rooting of the Device then. Thanks for the answer

I know you can access the app folders (SD/Android/Data) through the Airdroid app - and your browser) but while you can upload files to the folders you can't actually see the files already inside.

@TrishLing They're only the ones on the SD card, which the OP can see through USB only. In this case I think he's trying to access the internal data directory, which you can't access with any app (without root).

@Dan Hulme I don't have an SD card slot in either device I use with Airdroid. But yes, it is in the folder labelled SDCard. But after all that is where /Android/Data is.