text:
Why do I see adverts after closing WhatsApp?
Every time I close WhatsApp I get some sort of an advertisement.
According to their site they don't advertise, but I see adverts like this after closing the app:

Click image for larger version
I  have contacted the WhatsApp support team and their reply was:

WhatsApp does not advertise. If you are seeing advertisement on your
  device, it is from your device and not WhatsApp.

How can the device advertise on it's own??

You could check with e.g. Appbrain Ad Detector what apps have ad modules built-in. It's most likely safe to ignore "Admob" here, but things like "Leadbot" and the likes might do such. To further narrow down possible candidates, think which you might have installed about the time te described phenomenon started.

@Izzy I have installed the TrustGo Ad Detector which displayed 10 apps with ad plugins.Shockingly what's app is not among those.

That's surprising indeed, but I didn't expect WhatsApp being behind the ad (if it were, we'd already heard about). I rather wonder it happens only on closing WhatsApp (and not other apps). Not sure how to tell the culprit, but I guess it would need a special permission to detect that event; maybe GET_TASKS and/or GET_TOP_ACTIVITY_INFO. A dev could answer this better.

PS: My answer here might be relevant to this topic as well.

Like KeshavaGN, I suspect a 3rd party app behind this. But neither your Nova Launcher, nor WhatsApp itself. To isolate the culprit, I suggest the following steps:

Check with e.g. Appbrain Ad Detector (or TrustGO, which you chose) for apps carrying ad modules. These might include your culprit – but on a second look, that's not a typical "ad network message". Anyhow, note them down.
See my answer here for how to check for apps having certain permissions. As described there, it's a "full-screen ad" here as well, so the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission might be involved. As it happens always on closing WhatsApp, also check for GET_TASKS (allows an app to check which apps are running) and GET_TOP_ACTIVITY_INFO (details on the app running in foreground). Again, make a note on matches.
Keep an eye on what apps are advertized. Try finding them at Play (better not by clicking on the ad, but separately – though the URL behind the ad might reveal more). If it's always the same dev behind it, check whether you have an app from him running on your device. If that's already on one of your lists from above, you most likely have found your culprit.
Hard to realize, but possible while on some WiFi you control the router as well: If that popup is open, cut the Internet connection behind your router (i.e. your device is still using WiFi, but cannot reach the "open Internet"). Now it shouldn't be too risky tapping the ad (hopefully). I'd expect it opening your browser, which now cannot resolve the page – but you should see the URL in the browser's address bar. This might help to further narrow down suspects, if it is related to any of the apps you're using.

Finally, check your lists created during these four steps, and watch out for matches. If there's an app on list 2+3 (and optionally more), that's a pretty certain candidate. It gets even more likely if it's also on at least one of the other lists. Continue as described in the answer I've linked with item #2.
If you found out the responsible app, additionally to the steps described in the other answer, it would be a good idea to report your finding here as well ;)

the problem solved only after removing the Antivirus Free by creative apps.

Thanks for the feedback! As I always use to say: AV apps cause more problems than they solve ;) Did you report the app to Google?

I flagged the app at the bottom section and wrote that it violates the tos of the Play Store related to the Advertisement policy. If that is called reporting then I have done that if not please tell more what do I need to do?

That's what I meant and what's needed to point Google to it, thanks! I'm not sure whether you can leave a comment on the app itself on Play once you've uninstalled it (to warn other users directly). I personally would avoid apps from the same dev in the future, btw.

the adverts have returned again and this time it shows ads by Google in the bottom left corner of the screen

"Repeat until done", "same procedure as every year". But "in the bottom left corner sounds rather decent. Maybe you could update your question with a screenshot? Makes it easier to tell. Thanks!

I doubt the culprit is App lock because under the free mode it locks only app but under the advert free mode it will lock the pictures as well as the videos also. Need to try this and confirm it.

I think applock is the culprit(and they openly mention that).
Try opening applock and inside left sidebar menu, tap first item(or menu header) called 'Account center' or 'Upgrade to Premium' and there you can see that it either shows banner ads or full screen ads.

I also had the same problem or still have the same problem.  I tried all these adware scanners like adware but they couldn't  the app that was causing the ads . So after thinking about it, I realised that this pop up is just an activity and an activity has a title.  So I have this application that shows the name of each activity that I am interacting with.  So when the ad popped was I able to trace it back to ilauncher,  this seemingly harmless  ios 8 launcher that I like so much. So check all your launchers.

that's actually pretty clever, could you post the application name ?

It's tinted status bar an xposed framework module ,  its main purpose is to dynamically change the color of the status bar but it has this option of letting you know which activity is running so that you change the color manually, that's what I utilized.

This may be produced by some other application such as third party launcher.
Check any other 3rd party apps, mainly, 3rd party launcher that you are using. Uninstal/stop those launchers/apps and check.

Had installed Nova launcher later un-installed the launcher to check this but it's the same. No change observed

I would really wonder if Nova did such. It's that widespread, we'd heard about. I rather expect some other 3rd party app behind it.

I have the same issue on my phone and not only when I close whatsapp, some other apps do the same. The problem is APPLOCK. It's part of the free version and to stop those ads from popping the only way is to pay their annual fee.
  While I understand that devs need ads in order to maintain their apps and generate income, I also think that this type of advertising is abusive. It doesn't make me want to download what's being advertised, it does the opposite!
  Annoying!

Are you saying that the problem the questioner had is definitely being caused by something called Applock, or are you merely mentioning what turned out to be the cause of YOUR separate, but similar, issue?

So basically these are Google ads. I am not sure why these are shown but I think there is way to opt out.
Go to your Google settings in your phone - select ads and from there opt out of interest - based ads. After this you will see the option of Ads by Google, select that. There you will find the instructions to stop these ads. It will redirect to a link, my link is not working.
Can you please try it and if you get through, please let me know as well.

Opting out of 'interest-based' ads simply means the ads you see will be less targeted. It does not opt out of ads entirely.

It is 360 security app. This app has almost all the permission. It is also able to track your activities such as browsing data. It shows app based on the things you browsed.
I also having the same problem and upon remiving 360 security app it seems that issue resolved.


text:
Installing cyanogenmod 11
I have gionee gpad g3 whose specifications are 512 mb ram, 1.2 ghz quadcore processor and 4 gb internal memory. my device is not listed on CM supportable device list. so should i install it?

What do you mean 'should I install it?' What are you going to flash on your phone?
BTW since your tablet lacks official support, try looking on xda-dev if there's any unofficial support for your device. There's little to no hope so I wouldn't count on it much. Even if you can find an unofficial support, its likely to be very buggy and unstable. Better stick to your OEM firmware.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Initial lock screen before the pattern screen not moving
I have a new MI 3 phone with MIUI, and I tried the theme Angry paper on this, and there seems to be a problem with the initial lock screen of this theme and it won't unlock to display the pattern, and so I am unable to unlock my android mobile. Can anybody help me with this theme or any other way to unlock the initial lock screen of MIUI.

Hold Volume UP and Back key. Have you tried this?

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


text:
i have some files encrypted in gallery vault application
I have some files encrypted in gallery vault but my phone's software crashed and had to be reinstalled.
how can I restore my data from that app?
I do have my SD card but it is not showing my encrypted data.

Looking at the developers website it should be as simple as copying the Gallery Vault backup data folder .thinkyeah/ to your new device's SD card. You should then be able to install the app on your new device and open the vault with the same password you previously used.

thanx a lot for your quick and positive response :)

You're welcome. Since you're new here, please don't forget to mark the answer accepted which helped most in solving the problem. See also How does accepting an answer work?


text:
Is there a way to "Turn Off" My Magazine on Samsung Note 3?
I just got a new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and it has the annoying feature of "My Magazine". I was able to unbind "My Magazine" from using Home button, however, is there a way to turn it off (like with some other apps: Settings -> Applications -> All -> {app name} -> "Turn Off")?
I have searched around the net and seems like that option is available for Galaxy S5 users, however, could not find anything for Note 3.

Unlock the bootloader root and flash cyanogenmod

This method is a little complicated but will work..
(FYI I haven't used Samsung in years..) You'll have to find the name of the package.. and then follow THESE steps..

I know this is an old thread, but in case you're still annoyed by My Magazine, the Android 5.0 Lollipop update allows you to completely disable the app (not uninstall it, but it's still a huge improvement.)

The "My Magazine" feature is integrated into the Touchwiz launcher, so there's really no way to completely turn it off under Jelly Bean.  If you freeze/disable the app you'll see frequent crashes.
If you're still under Jelly Bean, you unfortunately cannot do what Robert suggests because it only applies to Lollipop.  However, the simple way to get rid of this piece of crap is to simply install say the NOVA launcher, or any other available in Google Play.


text:
Not receiving notification for a particular contact on whatsapp
I'm not quite sure if this problem exists with someone else, I couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet.
There is a particular contact whose notifications I never receive. By notifications, I mean the ones that come on the top. I need to specifically open Whatsapp to check his messages.
I'm able to see notification of other contacts, and he is able to see mines. Also he has checked by sending message to some other contact, and they do get a notification.
I don't know if there is a secret option to turn off notification for a particular contact, is there any way to fix it? I've already tried reinstalling Whatsapp.

You may have muted notifications for this contact. Press the menu button on your device (or touch the menu button in the top bar (action bar) if your phone has no menu button) And go down to "MUTE" then from there you should see an option to hide notifications. All you have to do is turn that off, and that contact's/group's notifications should start appearing again.

You can only mute groups I guess, because there is no option to mute a specific contact

How can you mute a single contact ?

In case this helps someone:
I had the same issue. Apparently I had a custom notification for a specific contact and then at some point I deleted or moved the mp3 file for that sound, so whatsapp couldn't find it to reproduce the sound. Going into Whatsapps' custom notifications for that contact and changing it did the trick.

I found this as had the same issue. It looks like I inadvertently changed the custom notification tone to none from default. Changed it back and now getting notifications.
Hope that helps!

restart your device, it worked for me

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


text:
Searching for installed App by name
I used to have a HTC Hero with had it's own search button. When being in the application selection menu I could press the button and then search for an app by typing it's name.
Is there similar way to access apps in Android 4.x without a specific search button?

The Google Search app is able to search the applications on your phone. On 4.1+ this can be done through a Google Now search. On many devices, this is accessible by swiping upwards from the home button in the navigation bar.
When you search for the app on your phone, you can use the bar along the bottom to scroll to "Phone" to search your phone rather than the web.
You can also search "start " so for example if I had an app called (in your case) "Battery", if I typed into the search bar "start battery" it would give me a card showing the app name and icon with a button below saying "Open App"

If I search "Battery" in 4.4.4 it doesn't show me the App that I installed that named "Battery" but suggests a websearch.

When you start a search along the bottom of the screen you should see "Web Images Maps..." etc, if you scroll through that list, one of them should be "Phone" usually the last one. then you will get a section called "Apps" that shows all the apps with your search term in the title of the app.

Also if you type "start " it will give you a card with the option to open the app. So in your case search "start battery" and the top card should say the app name "battery", with the icon on the right, and a button below saying "Open App"

Try  google gesturesearch using this you can  not only search for  an application but also contacts,music and bookmarks.
This has a cool feature that you can use natural hand writing to type the app name and keypad is not needed.

There is an option in Google Search / Now settings to allow you to search through apps as well as web (Go to Google Now settings, there you'll see phone search, open it and tick Apps)


text:
Set Arrows 301F to automatically accept RSA keys?
Every time I unplug and replug my phone, it asks me to accept the RSA key for my PC.  It says "always allow from this computer", and I toggle that to on.  Regardless, I'm prompted every time.
Is there any way I can just enable my 301F to always accept any RSA key, or to at least always accept the RSA key from this pc?

Likely you started the ADB the first time as ROOT, and now the device doesn't have the permission to write on $HOME/.android/adbkey
now you have to change the owner of that file (and everything else in that directory)
$ sudo chown <your_username> .android/*
 and eventually:
$ chmod 777 .android/*

Yeah, now I'm just wondering if trying to brute force my sim lock will make the phone brick.


text:
How to install games directly to SD card without going through phone or internal memory
I have a Micromax Canvas A177 Android device which has 4GB of storage and 1GB of RAM.  Currently, I only have 700 MB of storage available and I cannot install any more applications.
I have a SD card installed in the device, but to move an application to the SD card, I first have to install it in the phone storage, which I cannot due because of limited space.
How can I install an app directly to external storage without first having to install it in phone storage?

Go through the one time steps mentioned on this link.


text:
Chrome save as PDF doesn't work
For some reason whenever I try to save a webpage as a PDF Chrome generates a 0-byte size document. And when I try to open the PDF in my Downloads folder QuickPDF tells me "Error while opening file. It appears to be damamged."
My phone is a Moto G if it helps.

Alternatively visit http://www.web2pdfconvert.com/ and paste the url which you want as a PDF.
Or
If you want to download pdf via app, try free app named "UrlToPdf" from play store.


text:
push app from root adb terminal
So i have a rooted ms690, but su keeps crashing, the recovery is just a hard reset, I have no sd card, and metroweb is gone. The problem I want to solve is metroweb. I have the apk, and the only way I can get to root anything is this:
adb shell
$ su
#

What do i do from here?

And what to do before that, also important. OK, short guide – assuming your .apk has the name metro.apk, and you're in the very same directory on your computer where that file resides:
PC> adb push metro.apk /data/local/metro.apk
PC> adb shell
$ su
# pm install /data/local/metro.apk

What I'm just wondering: What makes you think you need to be root for that? Taking the shorter road:
PC> adb install metro.apk

Saves a few steps :)
OTOH, if you're talking about a system app, things might look different:
PC> adb push metro.apk /data/local/metro.apk
PC> adb shell
$ su
# mount -ro remount,rw /system
# cp /data/local/metro.apk /system/app
# exit
PC> adb reboot

I don't have an sd card, so /data/ is empty when I try this

Nevermind, it's there. I can't remount system as rw.

I used '# mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system' to remount system, but cp gives me 'cp: not found' so I used mv and I got 'failed on 'Browser.apk' - Cross-device link'

Ok, used dd to get browser apk where i wanted it, but it's not showing up in my apps.

Used es file esplorer to set permissions and now it shows p, but crashes on launch'

/data is the internal storage, and /data/local is a kind of "temp directory" especially for things like this; I specifically chose a place available on all devices. No idea why cp failed. As for the crashes, it might help to investigate the logs (e.g. via adb logcat). I suspect dependencies (it might need another app/service to work).


text:
How to prevent S3 from turning on when charging
I'm trying to charge a new battery with my phone turned off.
As soon as I plug the phone in to the wall charger, the screen turns on and the phone tries to immediately boot instead of staying on the 'battery' screen pre-boot. I've tried an XPosed module to disable the dock settings to see if that was the problem but it's still attempting to boot when plugged into the wall.
I just want to charge my battery! The SuperAmoLED screens are battery hogs and having it on with a dead battery is really going to affect the charging speed. :(


text:
Hacked and left with messed up internal file system
My Samsung Galaxy S3 Sprint was hacked a couple of weeks ago.  This happened after all of our laptops were hacked as well.  I have strong evidence to support all are now hosting botnets.  I THINK I could fix my phone if I could get it wiped.  However, wiping via Clockwork Mod, factory reset, etc. leaves me with files and folders that should be wiped.
I recall seeing some config file which stated "allow factory reset" = false.  I was able to make some progress by installing CyanogenMod until updates ran which put me back to square one.  I can't download GApps but managed to get the Amazon Appstore.  Other than that, I have fake system processes running. Such as "System UI" but when you open it up it says it's actually android.keylogger.  You can kill all processes and it still runs, so I'm assuming the real ones are hidden.
I've found the complete root file system in three places and it appears I might be mounted to their network or system. My firewall shows constant connections between three different "companies".  Same with the computers. If you block the app they are coming in through, they then say they are another app. Such as Akamai Technologies via the Amazon app. I block it and then that name and IP range starts coming through as Sprint or CyanogenMod.  I've looked up all IPs and most come back linked to a backdoor trojan/spy network.
My question is, is there somewhere I can view the internal file tree so that I can compare? If I could see what doesn't belong, I should be able to get this under control via the terminal or Linux.  Before anyone asks, every virus program has been run. The actual virus is gone. I'm left with the bots and a screwed-up filesystem. Once I find a way to actually wipe the device, the little nightmare bots should go too. This is 100℅ driving me nuts!  I'd appreciate any help!

Burn the hardware. If it's dug itself in deeply enough to survive a factory reset and installing a new OS from scratch, then there's no way you can trust this hardware again.

Take the S3's battery out for 30 minutes.

Then, reinsert the battery and use Samsung Odin to wipe the S3 and install a new Android firmware by doing:

If you haven't installed the USB drivers for your S3, then install Samsung Mobile Phones USB Drivers 1.5.33.exe. Otherwise, skip this step. For Windows OS, you can download the Samsung USB drivers for mobile devices here (Straight download).

Shut down your phone.

Boot your phone into Download mode i.e. Hold Volume Down + Home + Power buttons down simultaneously. Then, press the Volume Up button to initiate Download mode.

Plug in the phone's USB cable: one end into your phone's connector and the other to your PC's USB port or Hub.

Open Odin3 (This version runs in Windows only) and check only the "Auto Reboot" and "F. Reset Time" options. Note: Download Odin from here.

Click the "PDA" button and select <S3_firmware>.tar. Then hit the "Start" button and wait.

Once Odin3 signaled "PASS!", unplug the phone's USB cable. Your S3 now has the new Android firmware.

Once the firmware is installed, do a Factory Reset.

Wipe the internal SD card, too, in case of rogue software lying around.

If you have an external microSD card installed in your S3, wipe this card as well. Note: Back up any personal files (photos, music, etc.) before the wipe.

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


text:
Temporarily adjust message alert and call volume
I can't be the only person with the problem that you temporarily turn down the volume of your calls and texts (in a quiet place), and then three days later it's still quiet and you miss alerts.
Is there any way to adjust the volume only temporarily? Or, to put it a different way, is there a way to automatically reset the ringer volume to a predefined level each day?

There are several ways to get your volume levels back. Personally I like to use the IFTTT app to set my ringer volume to maximum when I connect to my home WiFi. (recipe)
If you want to fix your volume at a specific time, say, you can create a new recipe using the Date & Time Channel.

Perfect, I never would have thought of that.

IFTTT is awesome.

An option for you might be the Silent Mode Widget.
It puts a widget on your homescreen to silence / restore your volume settings with a single tap.
(I have not tried this app. There also appear to be several other similar apps that you might try instead.)


text:
What is "Easy mode" (during initial phone setup) and are there any problems with it?
I just got a new Samsung Galaxy Core Duos running Android 4.1.2, and put a new SIM card in it. The phone has taken me through some initial setup screens for a Samsung account, Gmail account, and name, and is now asking whether I want to enable "Easy mode", for which it says "Easy mode helps you to use your device more easily with the easy widgets feature and the ability to customise the font size."
Does anyone know more detail about the difference it makes?

The primary purpose of Easy Mode is to make the customization and use of a smart phone simpler and easier (usually for a first-time smartphone user or non-techy user). Easy Mode Vs Normal Mode for Android is quite similar to Apple vs Android --> Apple is often simpler, but less customizable.
If you just want to use your phone, Easy Mode will be easier for you. You won't have all of the same home screen customization options (but then again, you might not need them). Easy mode gives you 3 default home screens, a simpler settings menu, and a simpler camera interface.
If you love customizing the crap out of your phone, don't use easy mode. You'll then enjoy a full settings menu, fully customizable home screens, the full camera interface, and more.
Here are some resources I found for you on google ;)
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/howtoguide/N0000003/10091/120408
http://www.digit.in/mobile-phones/understanding-easy-mode-on-the-samsung-galaxy-s4-14698.html


text:
HTC One - keeps shutting down when rooting
Im rooting my phone (HTC One Alps) via Kingo Android Root. When i connect my phone to the computer and start rooting then phone shutdown itself.
Is there any partition or disk problem?

"start rooting": what's the exact step when the phone turns itself off? Is it as soon as you plug it in? Or is it triggered by some step in the procedure you're following?

shutdown himself when rooting by kingo.

If reboot:
This is just part of the process of rooting on some devices and some devices it won't do this.
If shut down:
It means the root is installed on your phone and the rooting process is finished.
Hope this helps


text:
Can GSM operator affect battery life?
I am using samsumg galaxy s3 mini. Couple of days ago, I changed the GSM operator I am using which has more signal strength and internet speed than old one. But I realized my phone's battery life decreased. With old GSM it was about 1.5-2 day. Now It takes about 1 day. When I look battery usage, It seems 'android OS' is most battery consumer.
Is this about GSM operator, or it is just a coincidence that my battery life decrease after I change GSM operator?

Yes, it can. GSM and later phone protocols automatically adjust the phone's transmit power according to the strength of the signal it gets from the cell tower. It's just like how, if you're talking to someone and you can't hear them very well (because they're a long way away, or in a noisy environment), you'll tend to talk louder or shout, but if you can hear them clearly (they're right next to you), you'll talk more quietly. The phone works the same way.
Of course, for the phone, "talking more loudly" means putting more power into its transmitter, so the battery will be drained faster. If you switch to a network that has cell towers further away from where you spend most of your time, your phone will be using more transmit power more often, so it will use energy more quickly. Note that it's the received strength that matters (i.e. how much attenuation there is), not the quality of the signal, so you may find this happens even if you get a better signal overall.
Cell handover, when you move from one cell to the next one, also takes more power, and your new network's better internet speed might be a result of having denser cells in your area, leading to more handovers.
Finally, the worst thing for a phone is being completely out of range, because it has to periodically transmit on the maximum power to try to get a response from a cell tower. (This is why it's especially important to turn your phone off for a flight: once the plane gets out of cell range, all the phones will start blaring out as loudly as they can.) It's possible that your new network's coverage is much better at your home and your office, but during your commute, you haven't noticed that you leave the service area completely, and so your phone starts draining the battery then.
In summary, there are lots of factors, so it's hard to predict the effect of changing network operator, but it can have an effect. Of course, that doesn't stop it being a coincidence in your case.

In my experience I found that a GSM internet connection consumed less energy than a WCDMA. (Can't tell about LTE, since the signal strength is insufficient in my area).
So by having "faster" internet, this might be the reason for higher battery consumption.
Another possibility is signal strength. The stronger the signal you are receiving, the less battery is used. But since you spoke about having a stronger signal, this seems not to be the case. Maybe you double-check if signal quality is also improved on WCDMA, in contrary to GSM.

I was using WCDMA with old operator too. I didn't make any change except operator

Many other users experienced the same things however the suggested thing :-
You may be satisfied by the provided solution.

it is deep sleep related. Please download CPU Spy from the market, and
  take a look at % at a single frequency. Reset the timers and
  immediatelly press on/off button to put the phone in sleep. After lets
  say one minute being in "deep sleep", refresh the timers so you get
  the actual usage, and checked the deep sleep time. In GSM only mode,
  it won't almost one minute, as it should, maybe 30 secs. In WCDMA you
  will get almost 1 minute of deep sleep. And this is the reason why the
  phone is draining the battery quickly.- says a user.

Check the thread below:
http://www.modaco.com/topic/346890-gsm-only-mode-drains-battery-abnormally/


text:
How do I add a widget to my lock screen?
I am running a fully stock Android 4.4.4 Nexus 5, with Nova (Premium) Launcher. Since I first bought this device, I have heard, read, and been told that adding widgets to the lock screen is possible, as long as it is enabled in settings. Well, it is, but I can't figure out for the life of me how to actually add them.
Sorry if this is a Super Newb question, I've Googled, Binged, etc...  With no luck whatsoever. The only thing I seem to ever come across are instructions on how to enable them, which as I stated, I have done.

You have to enable the lock screen widgets from Settings > Security > Check "Enable Widgets". Once done, go to lock screen, swipe from towards right hand and now you will be able add widgets there.

Right, like I said, it is enabled in my settings. When I swipe from right to left on my lock screen, the camera is activated. (Just out of curiosity and frustration, I tried swiping from left to right, and NOTHING happens.)

Yeah, once enabled, you have to swipe towards right i.e. from left to right. Not sure why are't you getting the screen to add widgets.


text:
How do I edit the urls of the speed dial buttons in Opera Mobile?
How do I edit the urls of the speed dial buttons in Opera Mobile?
For example, I have a url  www.economist.com/printedition which redirects to a different url on different occasions. If I use the standard speed dial functionality, I will end up saving the redirected url instead of the printedition url.
Is there some file where these urls can be edited?

Touch and hold the icon. A "Remove" and "Edit" should pop up. Drag and Drop the icon on the "Edit".  Now do your editing.


text:
Google Authenticator and Switching or Resetting your Phone
My phone isn't working so well, so I'd like to factory reset it. However, I use Google Authenticator for a number of different websites. How can I resume using it after I rest my phone?
Can I wipe my phone even if I use it for 2-step verification? Discusses editing 2-factor settings for Google, but I don't want to change the settings for all my different accounts on different sites.
How To Geek has a post on using Titanium backup, but is there a simpler way?

When you initially set up two-factor authentication you should have been given a set of 10 single-use passwords and told to store them somewhere safely for use if the authenticator on your phone was unavailable. Alternatively if you don't want to use one of them, log into your Google account before the reset and turn on SMS message authentication for two-factor.
You can then use one of those methods to log back into your Google account the first time after you reset your phone.
Once you're into your Google account go through the normal method to reset up the Google Authenticator for 2-factor and when you get to the point that it shows you the QR code that you can scan from your phone to set up your account, print out or save the picture of that QR code (obviously make sure you store this securely). If you ever reset your phone again, or want to set up the Authenticator app on another device, you can just re-scan that same QR code again, it seems to work every time, years apart.

Thanks for the hint to the printed backups codes. Had them in my wallet and totally forgot about them. And a useful note here: You can't use these backup codes in the prompt you're facing when resetting your phone, because the backup codes are of 8-digit length instead of 6. You have to click "Problems with your code?" below (not sure about the correct wording, German version here) and follow the instructions. Took some time until I figured that out. -.-

I use titanium backup a lot for when i switch roms (which is almost every week at the moment), and it works flawlessly with restoring the Google Authenticator. Never really looked into any other options though.

Same here, I've used Titanium backup to transfer my authenticator settings across 3 devices for multiple accounts and it has worked flawlessly.
I only backed up the app's data though - usually install the authenticator app from the play store then restore the data using TiBu.
So you could possibly explore the app's data path and backup those files.

If you use Google Authenticator for different websites the only solution is to disable and re-enable 2FA for each service. You can also use backup codes but take into account that not all services offer them. You can use Google backup codes only to restore an access to your Google Account.
When you use 2FA you make your account more protected and secure. Be careful with Titanium backup as root permission will make your device less protected since different viruses could get an access to protected memory areas. 2FA apps store seed keys and if the phone is rooted it makes easier for the hacker to gain access to it.

It's possible to "export" a qr code from within the Authenticator App. You can take a photo of it with another phone or your desktop webcam and then use the "import" feature within the Authenticator app once you've reinstalled it. You probably want to disable TFA on the Google (Gmail) account associated with the phone and Google Play before doing this, in case the picture is too blurry for importing after the reset.


text:
Micro Usb to HDMI without MHL
I've got a cable without MHL adapter. I just want to know How can I connect it with TV.
Of course I've tried much but it was incompatible. Is there any way to make it compatible.
I've Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Bravia, Samsung LED on other side!
IF there has to be some signal conversions, can an android app do that ?

To connect your Samsung Galaxy S4 to a TV, you need to use an 11-pin MHL cable. 11-pin MHL cables are usually Y-shaped, and state specifically that they're for Samsung phones.
That's the only way. You can't use a 5-pin MHL cable with this phone. You can't use an app or custom ROM, or any other kind of software on the phone, to get around the need for the right cable.
See How does MHL work? for more information.


text:
HTC One X+ is getting hot. Is it Normal?
The other day my daughter was playing with wife's phone (HTC one x+) and asked me for help. When I grabbed the phone I realised that was so HOT that I think I could fry an egg on it. Is this normal?
Is there any tip you can give me to avoid this?

It is normal. It could have been because your daughter was playing a game on the phone, or just taking up a lot of processing power. Also, having one's hands on the back of the phone also does not help. I've had this issue with multiple devices when playing games specifically.

Nothing wrong with the phone. Getting hot, just not a problem with hardware.
I can solve the overheating problem just like that.
Disable all the apps that have Google in their name including Google service framework, Play and market feed back and just don't forget the boss Chrome browser. (Even if you don't use them) . Use built in Android browser.
You will be cool, I ment your HTC


text:
all my headphones work on one side on htc desire but they used to work fine
i have a HTC desire and i had 5 pairs of earphones that used to work fine...basically each time i bought new earphones for my htc they would work fine and then after about 4 months one side would stop working and it works a little if i move the cable at the input jack. i only used my earphones on my HTC.....is something wrong with my phone jack?? im tired of buying new earphones...i also take really good care of them because at first i thought i was breaking them..please help me!

If those headphones work properly everywhere else, then your phone's headphone jack is faulty.

Your phone's headphone jack is failing.  When you buy new phones, the plug is a nominal dimension (3.5 mm is the standard, but the specification is surely much more precise than that).  After inserting and removing the plug a few hundred times, the tip and rings wear, reducing their size a tiny bit.  The same wear occurs on the spring-loaded contacts inside the jack.  After some number of cycles, it reaches the point where one of the contacts doesn't connect when the plug is fully inserted, but something connects on that conductor during insertion and removal.
In a new jack, there's plenty of overtravel in the contacts to cover this amount of wear, but if one of the spring tabs has gotten bent a bit (possibly by off-axis insertion of the plug at some point, or the headphone wire getting jerked out of the socket at an angle) it may make contact but have lost the overtravel that serves to take up wear.  The only real solution is to replace the jack -- which probably requires major work on the phone.  It might be possible, depending how the jack is made, to rebend the contact springs -- but that would require full disassembly of the phone and might not work, so it likely isn't worth paying someone to do.  Replacing the phone's motherboard may be the only solution, unless the phone jack is on a daughterboard.

Interesting. I always wondered why my earphones stops working in one side after being used for few months. Is this practical knowledge or have you read about this somewhere? Would you care to mention it in the latter case?

I've personally repaired this problem in devices much less compact than a cell phone.  It's only practical with "open" jacks, not in the ones that have a full enclosure (which is most of them, these days).

It's a pretty safe bet that something is going on with your headphone jack.  It could simply be defective or damaged but there is a strong possibility that it may simply need to be cleaned.  Pocket lint or other materials accumulating in your headphone jack could be the issue. This was a common issue I encountered when working with customers phones at Verizon and many times we would use compressed air to clean out debris from the jack, although occasionally we would have to actually insert a tool into the jack to clean it.  Debris shifting around inside the jack could also explain the intermittent nature of the issue.  Just be careful cleaning if you do find any debris and make sure you don't damage the jack or void your warranty.

Your Problem solution is :the wire is disconnected from the chip where mic and volume control buttons are given..open that portion on the backside of chip there are four wires you can find the disconnected wire simply solder them. or go to any shop to solder them.


text:
Re-enable Disabled App (Enable option greyed out)
I disabled my default Messaging app some time ago, but now I need to Re-enable it, but when I go to the Disabled tab under Apps, the option to Enable it is greyed out.

Do you have root? If so,  you can do it via this app : App Manager - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lb.app_manager.  If not,  you can use adb commands via a pc.  Btw google has a messenger app on the play store : Messenger - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging

Navigate to Settings > Application Manager > All  Then select Reset App Preferences from the menu. Try if this works, it worked for me for some other apps.

That would reset all my Disabled Apps and Default Application settings. This is more of a workaround than a solution. But Thanks for you suggestion. I will use it if a proper solution is not available.

Lets say if your play store is also showing the same disabled beside the app( for the default app of yours) then you have to reset the application preferences of the other messaging app. In order you understand this first let us understand the concept of Android Preferences
Android preferences come into picture as your device is having more then one application that does the same task and the operating system has to decide which application must be used as a default
Ex:-Let's say you have the default music player and for some issues you have downloaded another music player application from the play store. Due to this there is a conflict arising for what should be the default task to be done.
This is shown by the OS when you click on an .mp3 file. If you choose to open the downloaded mp3 player as default. It will show how to reset your preferences in the future.(application>preferences>De-select the default app for the task )
I suggest you can simply reset your other messaging app preferences for you to enable the default app. As doing the complete reset is troublesome for you to set your preferences again
Else if your Default app is not showing disabled for both the messaging apps then there's a problem with your Android Operating System for which you need to do a Simple Factory Reset.

I ran into an similar issue in 4.4.4, moved some app to the system with apps2rom app then deleted it and reinstalled, app became totally invisible, thanks to Xposed module Xprivacy I got a hint that it is 'disabled'  and I did re-enabled it with help of Lucky Patcher and all went back to normal.

Your problem is very easy mine is very difficulty to solve idid the same thing as u do idesable all messaging apps include google messages app hangouts to trying to send file safe via blue tooth and turn off data connection for 2min myphone was off and unable to work anymore now ihave to buy a new other device that not have google playstore when iturn it on is said keyguardtestactive have stopped Launch3 have stopped hangout out has stopped hangout is desable u your problem is easy just go to setting and reset your phone or downloded avg security or norton security app and wipe of your device it will resette every thing in your phone

you need to format your post and remove spelling errors to make it readable!


text:
SMS problem on moto g after updating android 4.4.4
I have updated my Moto G yesterday to Android KitKat (4.4.4.) Before that I have disabled the stock Messaging app and I used Textra SMS app instead. Everything was working fine until the update. Then I was not able to send SMS from Textra or Hangouts because they were crashing. After resetting the app preferences and re-enabling the stock Messaging app, I am able to send SMS again from both the stock app and Textra. But I want to disable stock messaging app again, because it shows the incoming message preview in notification bar, and I don't want that. I want privacy with my SMS. This feature why I use Textra. How can I disable the stock SMS app?

Have you disabled the stock messaging app after re-installing Textra? You can disable it from Settings > Apps select Messaging and select Disable

I am not able to disable it. this is the problem i am talking about. i want to disable stock message but i cant. the disable tab in the app info of stock messaging app is not activated.we have only force close option activated but it doesnt solve my problem..

Try if this works: Navigate to Settings > Application Manager > All Then select Reset App Preferences from the menu. (However, this will reset all your app preferences apart from the Messaging app). And now try to disable the app.

I am using textra for 6months in my moto g default messaging app..i dont have any problems n it even works after updating to lollipop..goto settings->wifi and networks ->more -> default messaging app -> textra..

On Moto G the stock Messaging app is an integral part of the system, and should not be disabled even if you install other SMS apps.  If you manage to disable it, other 3rd-party SMS apps (like Textra SMS in your case) will start crashing again.
Instead, you can disable the notifications inside the Messaging app by going to menu -> Settings, and un-checking the "Notifications" option:


text:
Can I install a Micromax Canvas Juice ROM on a Micromax Bolt?
actually I want to install a Samsung galaxy s5 ROM on my micromax bolt a068 but I was not able to find such ROM for my device on the internet but now I found a s5 ROM for micromax canvas juice ant this device is almost similar to my device,only one the processor is not same I have a 1 GHz processor and it has a 1.3 GHz processor.
so my question is that can I use that ROM for my device. is it safe to do so.
 thankyou

No, you can't use a ROM for a different device. The ROM needs to be for the same device. In most cases, the flashing tool will detect that you're using the wrong ROM and stop you, but in some cases, or if you disable the warning, it will simply brick the device.


text:
Only 2GB of Device Memory is shown on Samsung Galaxy S2
I have Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100. As it has 16GB internal memory but it only shows that it has 1.97GB of device memory. I am not talking about the memory that is free after using some of the space. This is the max memory that it is showing.
I have tried resetting to factory settings and erasing everything. Also, I cleared cache and dump logs. Nothing have helped me yet.
When I connect it to my laptop, it shows that phone has 8.56GB used out of 11.4GB. But that is USB storage, isn't it?
Under settings > storage > device memory [Total space = 1.97 GB].
The problem arises when I install few of the applications and it starts showing that you are running out of storage.
I don't understand what it is showing only that much space.

The reason why you are having issues with memory is because even though the phone has 16g internal memory only 1g. Is available to the user the rest is being used by the os and preloaded apps. If you go to settings and then phone storage it will show you the available internal memory.

Yes I have checked all that and I understood that it was the issue. What I wanted to know is how could I increase the device memory size and this link has helped me.
http://techotv.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-internal-storage-apps-space-tutorial/

Ok Please answer your question here so that if any body else have same problem they then know how can they achieve it.

@talzal Your question is not clear about you looking to re-partition internal space.  You may want to update your question.


text:
Dual active doesn't work in Samsung Galaxy s duos phone
In the Samsung S duos device it has an option for the Dual SIM active. When I check it and try the feature by calling on SIM 2 it doesn't work I instead got a number busy .Is this feature country specific or is it network operator dependant ,does using this feature require any charges on monthly basis.
Is there any site where we can know that which operator/area supports Dual Sim Active.
Update:-On keeping the dual SIM active to "ON" and when i rang up the second SIM i got the number busy from the operator.It did not seem any difference as with the dual active being "OFF" or "ON" calling the second SIM get's a busy tone by default.

The Galaxy S Duos allows for both SIM cards to be active simultaneously, meaning that you can receive a call on one SIM even while you are on a call with the other. What happens is that calls from your other SIM are forwarded to your currently active SIM's network, which you can put on hold to answer (this might incur additional network charges). You can put the two calls on and off hold as you please.
You can toggle the Dual SIM Always On option on or off for either SIM card. Effectively, this enables call waiting and call forwarding so you can switch each SIM card on and off individually (which can help save battery). During a call, the active SIM gets displayed at the top of the call interface.
You can also pick which SIM is to be used for mobile data - only one can be used at a time. Another option is whether or not the phone should be able to receive calls on the other SIM while using mobile data on one SIM.

I have tried keeping both SIM's to ON mode and called but still number busy. Could there be an issue with the network Provider

Did you switched off/on your phone?

yes I switched off the device waited for 2 mins and then booted it.Is this service limited to a particular geography

check the update


text:
Autodesk sketchbook won't export
I'm using the mobile pro edition, (cheaper than the tablet pro edition), and when I open the inbuilt gallery, I can tap on the drawings to edit them, but not select them to export, delete or duplicate them. If I long-press on a drawing it will do nothing until I let go, then it will open for editing g as if I had tapped it.

That's the usual behaviour since they changed the export feature some time ago. When you tap an image from the gallery, it opens full-screen but not in editing mode right away. In this view, click the share icon on the action bar (the three circles connected by two lines) and choose "Share as __" for whichever format you want to export as.
After a brief pause, it'll give you a share menu listing apps you can share with, and the top item on this menu is "Save to device", with an icon of an SD card. Instead of launching another app to share with, this will just save/export a file in your chosen format.

Mine doesn't open in the full-screen non-editing view when I tap it, it opens full screen but with the little circle you tap to get the brushes and things. My gallery has the thumbnails of the drawings, and then at the bottom some buttons: a plus which creates a new drawing, 6 circles with a plus which opens up a file manager to import a picture, 6 circles with an arrow going away (export i think) which tells me to "select an image", two pluses (duplicate i think) which gives me the same warning, and a trash can, again tells me to select an image.


text:
Can a user read crash logs on Android?
I have HTC One X running Android 4.2.2 with HTC Sense 5. Lately I have been encountering some wierd issues. And the most irritating of them is that my phone keeps crashing randomly. By uninstalling/installing one app at a time I was able to figure out that Viber was one major cause of that issue. Some other causes that I have been able to figure out are updating apps on my phone while the phone is being charged (yes that sounds stupid but 50% of my crashes happen during that time), playing Candy Crush and receive some notification, and more.
I want to know is there a way I can read the crash logs without rooting the phone? And if I can, how can analyse and find the root cause (app) of problem?

You might wish to investigate our logging tag-wiki. Especially see: How can I view and examine the Android log? & How can I access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?


text:
Need a file explorer that supports root as well as showing the folder size
There seems to be a serious dearth of quality apps on Android. I'm having memory issues in my Xperia L phone and I'm trying to determine the root cause. (No it's not the Album memory leak issue - I've already fixed that). There is a folder that's taking up a horrendous amount of space for some reason and I need to locate which one it is.
So my requirements are:

A file explorer so i can check out different folders
which supports root access so I can check out all folders
which shows the folder size
which allows me to sort folders by their sizes

So far I tried File Commander since it was so highly recommended. Weird that it doesn't support root.
Then i tried a couple of more file explorers each of which had 1-2 of the above features but doesn't have the others.
I also come across one file explorers that did have all these features but almost everything was locked up for "pro access".
Is there any File Explorer that supports all these functions? (IMO these are all basic features but maybe I got spoiled by Windows).

Related: Something is secretly eating up my tablet memory and I need help finding it

The app Disk Usage is not quite a file explorer, but it's ideal for seeing where your device's storage is used. It shows a hierarchical view of directories by how much storage they take up. You can use it without root to show your external storage, or with root to examine the internal filesystem and apps' private data.


text:
No notifications when screen protection is active
Running Galaxy S3 and Kitkat I don't have any notifications (eg. reminders) when the device is locked with any method (pattern, pin etc.).
When the screen is off and the protection not active yet, the notifications work ok.
How do I debug and resolve this problem?

Is this on a custom ROM? According to Sammobile, there's no official 4.4 update for the Galaxy S3 yet.

@DanHulme Yes, It's AOKP based Omega rom.

@DanHulme: Android 4.4 (KitKat) is only available to the S3 LTE/4G edition. All other S3 can only get Android 4.3 and no more.

@Sfisioza Since nobody has any better suggestions, I'd suggest you simply change to a ROM that doesn't have this problem.


text:
Shorcut on desktop that enables packet data and 3G
In order to save battery (it works a lot!), 99% of the time I disable packet data and I use only 2G networks, because I don't want the phone to go on internet / use data.
But sometimes I want to use internet, so I have to do :

1) Enable Settings > Wireless and networks > Mobile networks > Use packet data
2) Disable Settings > Wireless and networks > Mobile networks > Use only 2G networks

... and then to do it in the opposite way when the internet session is over.
This is quite long...

My question is:
How to set a shortcut on desktop that does 1) + 2)  in just one single click ?
(Android 2.3.6)

PS : here is what my notification bar looks like :

You can add widgets to your home screen if your phone supports. You can also try widgets from play store like
2g-3g switch
Data on or off

Thanks ! By the way, is this website safe to download these apps directly as .APK ? : http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ ?

On most devices shipping with ICS and up, you can simply open the notification area, and tap the corresponding quick-setting:

Quick settings in the notification bar (click image for larger variant)
Make your pick. Hint: A2 :)
PS: Not sure how far this is customizable on which Android version. Even items available might depend on the device used. So I'm not sure your device has a 2G/3G toggle in here, but you might check.

Thanks for this idea. Unfortunately my notification bar doesn't look like this. I added a picture of it in my question (see at the end of the question).
Can I add buttons to this bar (for Mobile data), like on your screenshot ?

I don't think there's a general "yes" or "no" to that question. You might wish to include your device and Android version with your question to shed some light, so you get better fitting answers – as that very much depends on that (plus on things like "Custom ROM" or specific UIs like Touchwiz, Sense, etc. being used ;)

I have a Samsung Y (S5230) with factory Android Gingerbread 2.3.6 (including TouchWiz by default?)

I think so, yes (cannot check as I don't have such ;). And please add these details to your question so they don't get lost :)


text:
Send tweet automatically using an Intent?
I'd like to send a DM automatically from Llama. Llama supports Intents, but I can't work out how to send a tweet via an Intent in the background. Is this possible?

It's unlikely that any Twitter app offers a way to do this. In general, intents are used to start an action that requires user interaction to complete, or at the very least ask you for confirmation.
If an app offered a way to send a tweet automatically via an intent, it would also have to require the app sending the intent (Llama in this case) to have a permission created by the app handling the intent (the Twitter app). Otherwise, any app on the phone could send tweets without your knowledge or permission. Llama would have to be written to ask for this permission, and since it isn't, it wouldn't be allowed to send the intent anyway.
Alternatively, it would be possible for the Twitter app to offer such an intent, but ignore the intent unless it was sent by Llama (or better yet, using a configurable list of allowed apps). This is how many apps' Tasker integrations work. Since this is a pretty niche need, I don't know whether you'd be able to find an app that works this way. You might find that there's an app written this way specifically to act as a Llama plugin.


text:
How do I edit/add a birthday in the `people` app Cyanogenmod 11?
I have Cyanogenmod 11 M8.
I keep my contacts on the phone, not sharing them in the cloud, I prefer to run only AOSP software and FOSS applications from F-Droid.
Somehow I can't add/edit birthdays in the people app. Shouldn't this be a basic feature for a people application .
I know they are  somewhere because the birthday adapter  shows the imported birthdays from my VCF file in the calendar.
So how do I add a birthday?

I have the same problem with CM 12.1, so thanks for the question.

On Cyanogenmod People, to see and edit the Events field (birthdays and anniversaries only available in this case), the People contact has to be in an Account, not on the phone only. I also do not use a cloud service for my own privacy reasons so I use MyPhoneExplorer app for PC synchronization and the associated but seperate MyLocalAccount app for Contacts storage, both on Play Store. If you decide to use MyPhoneExplorer/MyLocalAccount be sure to synchronize contacts into MyLocalAccount. When I realized this solution and installed MyLocalAccount (I had already been using MyPhoneExplorer) the older existing contacts did not synchronize with MyLocalAccount and I still had no Events field. I had to mass delete all contacts on the phone (easy with MyPhoneExplorer) and re-synchronize with MyLocalAccount. BTW, I use Outlook on my PC. Problem solved. Yes Android can be quirky but that's why we use it, right?!!

Thx. That is a clear bug then, will try Davdroid.

Davdroid will do the trick. Right you need an account.

The workaround I did was exporting my contacts to a VCF file then importing them on my old phone which has a field for birthdays, then edited/added birthdays and saved/exported the updated contacts and imported it into my newer AOSP phone.
Worked fine. The contacts app on my new phone doesn't display birthdays but they show up in Birthdroid

Once you are in the People app and have chosen a contact:
1) click menu --> edit
2) choose Add Another Field
3) select Special Dates (special dates defaults to birthday, but also included anniversary etc.)
I'm on CM11 M8 as well, works for me.
Also, might be worth flashing the latest gapps http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps

Unfortunately the only fields I can select:Phonetic name,IM,Notes,Nickname,Website,Internet call,Address,Email,Phone.
No Special Dates option available.

@Janghou You don't have "Add Another Field" button in the middle maybe more towards the bottom? Maybe try flashing the latest gapps too? http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps

The "Add Another Field" button only give above options.
gapps? It looks like you can't keep track of birthdays unless you invite Google?

I don't think it's a bug. I thinks it's a Google vanilla Android "feature" that's transferred over to Cyanogenmod. Google is very driven to have you on their cloud and have an account with them.

It's a bug or Google is Evil. And that itself is a major bug and a shame, but one that will never fixed by Google unfortunately. BTW it's a bug in Android AOSP not in CM.


text:
Modifying a Stock ROM
I'm an Android newbie who has a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7" Wifi (SM-T210) and would like to retrieve its stock ROM, modify certain files and add some applications to the system partition, and then flash it into any other SM-T210 device. Is this possible? How can I do it?
Thanks for the help.

The second half is not the big deal. The first half is. To retrieve it, you'd need a custom recovery. So after that, it's most likely not stock anymore...

@Izzy No, he can retrieve it using ADB. Like adb pull /system for the ROM. Custom recoveries take a backup of everything, including data, which I think is not what @Storo wants to get flashed as well.

Apart from the fact that adb pull wouldn't have access to everything without root: how to get that back to the "other device" then? Don't try adb push, won't work without root ("read-only file system"). Storo explicitely wrote flash it into any other SM-T210 device, which means he needs an image, if I'm not getting things wrong here. // However, that's a pretty grey area for this site, very close to "building a custom ROM" (one of our closure-reasons).

Hmm, you're right. It's possible to get a firmware image from SamMobile and extract it using some ext4 imaging tool. Also, flashing on "any other X device" may either refer to using recovery (which is more likely) or using firmware flash tools, like Odin.


text:
Mount Script cannot be created in Bolt A58
I have a bolt a58. I want increase internal memory by parttion. I followed exactly the same steps what you've in the turorial "How To Increase Internal Memory on any Micromax". After selecting FAT32/FAT16 format in Link2SD it gives error: "Mount Script Error. Mount script cannot be created. mount:No such file or directory". Its an 8GB card. I'll explain all I did before this--

Took backup of SD card and deleted all files (did not format)
I used "MiniTool Partion Wizard" to patition memory, the card being in a card reader
I reserved 1GB of Memory in FAT32(as primary)
Then copied back all files
Opened Link2SD and selected FAT32/FAT16....
and this gave the above error....

Please help me....
Thank you all...


text:
Is there a way to verify the integrity of a TA partition backup of Xperia phones?
I unlocked the bootloader of my Xperia P (LT22i) before I could take a backup of the TA partition (which stores DRM keys, IMEI code, etc.)
Now I've read on several XDA threads and other websites that TA can not be backed up after the bootloader has been unlocked. And that once it's unlocked, everything in there is gone.
However, when I used the latest version of Backup TA on my phone, it could detect the presence of and backup the TA partition.
Now I'm not sure if the backup it created is a valid TA backup so is there a way to check its integrity and/or parse the contents of TA.img to see if it does contain valid DRM keys and other stuff?
P.S. I tried opening TA.img in a hex editor and searching for my phone's IMEI number. I found it in the file. I also found references to "marlin" and quite a few X.509 certificates. The uncompressed size of my phone's TA.img is 512 KB (5,24,288 bytes)
And if it helps, here's the part of the log from Backup TA where it finds and backs up the TA partition:

--- mmcblk0boot0 ---
Searching for Operator Identifier...-
Searching for Operator Name...-
Searching for Rooting Status...-
Searching for S1 Boot...-
Searching for S1 Loader...-
Searching for S1 Hardware Configuration...-

Partition found!

=======================================
 BACKUP TA PARTITION
=======================================
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
524288 bytes (512.0KB) copied, 0.030456 seconds, 16.4MB/s

=======================================
 INTEGRITY CHECK
=======================================
OK

=======================================
 PULL BACKUP FROM SDCARD
=======================================
2437 KB/s (524288 bytes in 0.210s)

=======================================
 INTEGRITY CHECK
=======================================
OK

=======================================
 PACKAGE BACKUP
=======================================

7-Zip (A) 9.20  Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov  2010-11-18
Scanning

Creating archive ..\backup\TA-backup-20140722.010348.zip

Compressing  TA.blk
Compressing  TA.img
Compressing  TA.md5
Compressing  TA.serial
Compressing  TA.timestamp
Compressing  TA.version

Everything is Ok

*** Backup successful. ***

Why is it important to you to make a backup of this partition?

@unforgettableid Because it's my understanding that this partition stores the DRM keys for several Sony proprietary software including Mobile Bravia Engine and without a backup of this partition, Bravia Engine functionality would cease to function.

It should be possible to check via the service menu of the phone.
Go to calls, enter *#*#7378423#*#* and go to service info-configuration (somewhere at the bottom). The lines should end with [Key OK][Active].


text:
Writing to external SD card in KitKat
So is there no way for me to move a file from internal memory to the external SD card in Android KitKat version? I used to use Wifi Transfer style apps to move stuff from my laptop to the internal memory, and then move them to the SD Card using one of the many explorer apps for Android. Is this not possible at all anymore??
Seems like an uncalled for restriction!

Well known issue. Please see: Workaround for Android 4.4 not being able to write to SD cards?

Is there actually a question here, or is this just a rant?

There was a question - "Is this not possible at all anymore?". But yes, I did feel like ranting :-)

Kitkat introduced quite a few security "enhancements" over previous releases. Many of them being local restrictions on what apps can and cannot access. Though it is was with good intentions, there is the issue of convenience.
Luckily though, it isn't a complete lock out. Apps now have to request an "access external media" permission (the list of things most people don't read when installing apps). Sadly, not all app developers have updated their software with this new permission for KitKat compatibility. So that is where you should be aiming your frustrations at.
If you have a rooted device, use a root privileged file manager, or if not, contact the developers of the apps that don't work, and request that they update them to be KitKat compatible.
I hope this helps! :-)

Thanks! You should add your answer to the question others have linked here as duplicate.

Okay, having read that other answer and a bit more about permissions - my understanding is that the new WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE only allows apps restrictive write permissions - they can only write to their own folders on the external SD card, and those will be deleted when the app is uninstalled. So does this mean there will be no more file manager apps that can move files to different dirs on the card?


text:
Im trying to download apps but it says insufficient storage but I have plenty of storage and an sd card
I try to download apps like Vine and other apps but, it continuously says insufficient storage and I have an sd card and enough internal storage to download. It makes me angry. Please help, I need don't want but need some apps and it wont let me download.  I have a Samsung galaxy ace style and I got it June 13th. Thanks.

As you've correctly tagged your question insufficient-memory: have you checked with the corresponding tag-wiki? That will give you some first-aid, and a.o. tell you the error has nothing to do with your SDCard (you could have Terabytes free there, it wouldn't matter). As this also is a somehow frequent question here, there are more answers already existing, see e.g. How can I deal with “Low on Space” messages on my Android?

I had the same problem on my Huawei Ascend P2, I did a factory reset and it seemed to work, though I highly recommend copying over to your computer every file on your phone before even trying to do so, I don't know the cause myself, the theories I have are:
Virus
Damaged internal memory
If it still doesn't work after the factory reset then you need to take it to a specialist (unless you are one) and take it apart and replace the memory.
P.S Don't treat this as a answer as such, I don't have the reputation to comment (which I think they should allow everyone to do instead of risking losing a ton of rep).
P.S.S Have you checked to see if your SD card is being read by your phone?

A simple solution, don't know you have tried or not.
Install any Cache Cleaner apps if possible. Some uncleaned cache may take GBs of data.
If its not possible, delete the files from the cache folders inside the folders in Android\data\< some_folder > \


text:
i8960 performing awkwardly
My Samsung Galaxy Core i8960 has a minor crack in lower right corner and sometimes has trouble detecting taps.
Once I manage to unlock it via pin I get to the lock screen that requires me to enter a password, now the problem is, my password is not accepted, apparently when setting it some keys weren't recorded and now I cannot get past this.
Is there any other way than to perform a reset? I have all my contacts on there and several photos that I'd preffer not to be deleted.
When I try to access files via PC, the phone is shown empty, so I can't just copy anything...

Worth a look, as it mentions a lot of methods: Can not unlock my Android device as have no internet connection?

thanks for this, I've checked it, but my wifi is off, to increase battery life, so the options with google play are not working. entering password wrong 10 times only locks it for 30s, so I can't even get to google play login, the phone is relatively new, so I haven't rooted it and the remaining solutions seem not to work

If you prefer reset, and if it's only about your contacts and photos, you can sync them to your Google account. Go to Settings > Select "Google" under Accounts > Click on your Google Account and now select Contacts and People Details. For backing up photos from your phone, you can upload them to Google Drive using Google Drive App.  After reset is completed, all your contacts will be automatically synchronized from your Google account.

the problem is, I can't get to settings, since my password is not accepted...


text:
Android Nexus 5 knows password of WiFi he was never connected to!
I just bought a new Nexus 5 after using a Nexus 4 for about a year.
After turning it on and using it at work, I go home and as soon as I turn the WiFi on the phone it connects to my home network without having to insert any password.
I have never used it before at home and I did not insert the password on that phone. To verify I went to a friend of mine's place where I had used the old Nexus 4 and tried again and voila' the phone connects to the network again.
Does anybody know if it's an expected behaviour or does it sound strange to you as well?
What could be the reason? The only thing I could think of is that Google is storing details about the WiFi you connect to on your Google account. Can anybody confirm? Is this even legal?

I think you are confused about what "cookies" are. They're data stored on your device by websites you visit.

@DanHulme - I meant the equivalent of cookies applied to this case. Probably not the best use of the word but I think you got the point!

Did you backup/restore your settings to/from Google? If so, that's why you can connect to these wireless networks. One of the things that gets backed up is the wireless network passwords so when you restored them back on your new device it is able to connect.
Android has built in backup functionality. It offers to backup settings (including wifi settings) automatically from each device. When you go through the set-up on a new device it then gives you the option to restore these settings. If you had this configured (I think it's enabled by default) then your wifi settings would have automatically been backed up on your Nexus 4 and restored to your Nexus 5.

I did a backup of the address book and messages with this application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idea.backup.smscontacts&hl=en but I have not done a back up of my settings

Sorry, i didn't make it clear that i meant the built in backup. Google offers to backup settings (including wifi settings) automatically. When you go through the set-up on a new device it then gives you the option to restore these settings. If you had this configured (i think it's enabled by default) then your wifi settings would have automatically been backed up on your Nexus 4 and restored to your Nexus 5.

I believe it might be this. I did use the default options. But this means that google is storing password info of things not related to google on your google account.

@Matteo Google might be a bit invasive, but in this case, android backup is related to Google.  It's a service you can configure on or off as referenced in the answer.  If you don't want the information on the phone backed up to Google (as a service) you'll have to turn it off/disable it.

And you might wish to do this from the beginning. Once the data got out, no way to get it off again. Though there's a "delete" option, that doesn't seem to do a thing (see http://www.heise.de/-1922971 – German, but you can run GoogleTrans on it).

To add to bmdixon's answer, go into Settings on your old Nexus 4 or current Nexus 5, select "Backup & reset" and have a look at the top option there:

Back up my data
  Back up application data, Wi-Fi passwords and other settings to Google servers

You can connect to your wifi even if it has password with the WPS(Wi-Fi Protected Setup). if WPS is currently pressed or on in your modem other device could connect to the network without using the password..

With a laptop I need to use the password so I don't think it's that. Thanks for the answer though

still you can connect even if it is with a laptop. you're welcome tho.

@user3818605 To connect to a network with WPS you have to press the WPS button on the phone, so it's unlikely to be that in this case.

thanks for that @DanHulme. but i tried it one time and it works. that why maybe it just happened to him also.


text:
Why is the play store displaying same app twice under the My apps section
 4
Under the All apps the true caller is shown twice by the play store / Under the settings there is only one app not two. (click images for larger variants)
Android Version:4.1.2 Jellybean
Device: Samsung Trend Duos.
In the above image the True Caller application is shown twice and both are of the same  no extra app on(or plugin for that particular app). I have force closed the application ,later switched the device waited for some time and restarted the device and still the application duplicate is displayed under My apps.
There are not two apps as you can see in the downloads section.(The applications list is sorted name wise so there's no chance of missing a second true caller app)

Two things to check: 1) have you installed the app on multiple devices (shouldn't be the reason for that, but is the first thing coming to mind) and 2) have you checked in Settings→Apps on your device if you have two apps of the same name (also unlikely, as the playstore only seems to have that once – but sometimes, the "free" and the "paid" version of an app have the same "display name")?

There is  only a single Application with the name and True Caller is free there's no paid version for that

@Izzy there's only 1 single application under the settings>apps

I've just read about a similar case; there uninstalling and re-installing solved the issue.

The publisher of this app may have changed their package name when updating the app. Usually, apps have the same package name for its entire lifetime, which is how the phone knows to update a current app instead of installing a new one. If this is the case, you should uninstall the old app. The quickest (and easiest) fix is to uninstall both and reinstall the latest version. Provided the app's package name doesn't change again during the next update, this should solve your issue.

Just to clarify: You can't change the package name with an Play Store update. But you can release a new version of an App under a new/changed package name.

i encountered the same problem yesterday but then today when i checked google play to check the rankings of my app, the issue was sorted out. As the google is doing massive changes so i reckon it was a fault from google side.
i have read the above conversation and just for record to clear for others in desktop there is no such scenario of free and paid. it only occurs in cellphones :)


text:
Is there a setting to allow folders to be uploaded from a PC/Mac to an Android phone via bluetooth?
Reason I ask is because I get an error message saying that the type is not acceptable/supported when I attempt to drag and drop a folder into the window on my Mac showing the contents of my Android SD card.
Using Astro Bluetooth on Sony Z1 Compact, latest Android. Mac OS Mavericks.
Looked around here on SE but couldn't find an answer that addresses this issue with folders.

I don't think Android's MTP protocol supports creating folders in the root of /sdcard.  I could be COMPLETELY wrong though, and I encourage people to correct me!
Have you tried creating a folder manually (right click>new folder), and then just copying the files to the folder?
All of this is me speaking out of my butt though, because I haven't used my Mac for anything Android related.  I use my PC instead...

I believe the feature I'm using uses OBEX FTP - FTP does support folders so would have thought it ought to work. Thanks for the suggestion of creating a folder - the contents contain subfolders etc so this wouldn't suit my needs. Not sure, in 2014, why support for folders would seem to be problematic, nor can I see why it would present any issues, e.g. security etc.

I use an app called AirDroid which allows me to upload folders/files to my Android phone. It is not done via bluetooth, however. It's done through my 4G connection.


text:
How to fix a consistently freezing app download?
On my new Motorola X, I am downloading an app (Amazon's Kindle app) from the Google Play store and it is consistently getting to 91% downloading and then freezing there.
I can cancel the download and try it again, but it always stops at 91%.
Is there a way to reset the download so it truly starts from scratch? Or is there something else I should try?

I would download the apk from somewhere else and install manually, then try and install from the Play Store when an update is released.

Ok this happens to me all the time I just go to app settings and then go to google play and them force stop and there it works

You don't state whether it freezes up while downloading of other apps. I'm assuming it does.
What I had to do when the PlayStore froze(halted) on every download was as follows:
1) force close PlayStore, Play Services, and Services Framework
2) clear data PlayStore and Play Services
3) reboot into recovery
4) wipe dalvik-cache and cache
5) reboot
6) check the PlayStore again for working download
I've had that happen a couple of times when flashing the wrong GApps package or by not doing a simple wipe before and after flashing.
If the problem persists you will need to access your Google Account through the browser, not on your Android, but on your PC and clear your data. I don't remember the exact steps that way, but I did find info in the help files there.
The only other solution from there is to do a factory reset, just make sure you do a backup of your device before resetting. Only do the factory reset as a last resort.
Edit: one more thing you can do is run a logcat, basically a running list of what is happening at specific times during application operation. I'm not qualified to give you the right means of accomplishing that, just too much info, but I have found a wonderful write up from the XDA forums on this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1726238
This should show at what point the app is freezing and what is going wrong.
Good luck

Apart from these make sure you are having a stable internet connection because an un-stable internet connection (keeps turning off and on) is most likely the cause of incomplete download.

@user285oo6 the question stated that it would get to 91% each time, which would mean that the internet connection is fine. Otherwise he would end up with different completion percentages. Although more often than not, internet connection is the culprit for incomplete or failed downloads. This isn't the case with his problem, sooner or later he would eventually end up being able to complete a download.

k coz I faced a similar issue the app downloaded only 91% to 95% and my issue got resolved just by getting a constant internet connection.

@user285oo6 " I can cancel the download and try it again, but it always stops at 91%."-direct quote. So the internet connection wouldn't be an issue then.

If you use an adblocker like adaway, it could be the cause. stopping/removing mine solved the problem.
If you still want adblocking, some browsers come with an internal ad blockers, and that doesn't seem to interfere with the store.


text:
Cleaning up Samsung S2 memory
When I use the application manager, I see that 1.8GB are occupied out of 2GB available. This of course causes issues when installing apps and brings up a warning notifications that some system services may malfunction. However, if I sum the memory taken by my apps, I come up at 1GB, and many of these apps have been moved to the SD card.
I've tried to use Clean Master to free space, but without much success.
So I want to cleanup files manually. What partitions on the phone's system are the ones in the 2GB space? Is it the root partition?

You might wish to check: Something is secretly eating up my Acer Iconia A500 internal memory and I need help finding it – and, of course, the insufficient-memory tag-wiki :)

/storage/sdcard/android is probably where all the data is.  You can manually delete files out of there, but I would recommend using the application SD Card Maid.  I say that just because it has a lot of functions to clean up data from apps that are no longer installed.

SDCard has nothing to do with the "insufficient memory"/"insufficient storage" error (see the tag-wiki). More likely culprits are tombstones and /data/local. SDMaid is a good pointer, though – as it doesn't only care for the external SDCard. But for pretty much everything else, it needs root…

SD Maid is perfect! Down from 1.8G to 1.2G!

/storage/sdcard normally points to the internal storage partition of Android storage (the 2GB of his 8GB ROM).  That's where apps store external data, such as downloaded content and temp files (for example, com.amazon.venezia [Amazon App Store] stores all of its temporary apk downloads and partial downloads there).  But yes, the root /data folder is another huge culprit.  I didn't mention it explicitly because it needs root to access.

Have you tried to clean your log files? Probably that's the problem.
If your phone is rooted, you can delete all files in the /data/log folder. If not, and you have a stock ROM, just enter *#9900# into your dialer to access SysDump and click on Delete dumpstate/logcat

Yes, I removed log files with SD Maid. Maybe that was indeed the culprit. If so, is there a way to prevent them from accumulating again?


text:
How to access bricked phone /system folder? Fix corrupted file
I have a SK504, brazilian phone. Well, i was trying to change my boot animation, but downloaded and installed a corrupted one.
So, when i rebooted, the phone shows ANDROID like always, but after, a black screen appears and stays forever.
I can acess recovery, and the phone is rooted. No backup. Is there a way to get into the phone trough USB and change the bootanimation.zip file to a valid one? Because i don't want to reset it or install another ROM, unless necessary.
Besides the corrupted bootanimation.zip file, i have two more on the /system/media folder, they are bootanimation.old (the original one) and bootanimation(2).zip, a valid one that worked before, so there is no need to transfer something from pc to phone, just rename the files.
Thanks!!!

On custom recoveries (CWM, TWRP) you normally are able to use adb. With that you can delete the corrupted bootanimation and replace it with your original one.

Mount your /system partition using "Mount->System" on TWRP or "Mounts and Storage->mount /system" on CWM
Plug your phone onto the computer
Remove your corrupt bootanimation: adb shell "rm /system/media/bootanimation.zip"
Restore your old bootanimation: adb shell "mv /system/media/bootanimation.old /system/media/bootanimation.zip"
You may have to set the right permissions: adb shell "chmod 0644 /system/media/bootanimation.zip

Well this is another problem, i have the stock recovery, without "install from zip" or any other options that should help. I tried "install update from an external storage",using an android explorer named Aroma, but always get "Installation Aborted."

@LucasSoares then you should install a custom recovery from fastboot mode and then follow the steps in this answer.

You say that like it's so easy, but if you have a phone with no custom recoveries available online, that's practically impossible.

Following is an extremely simple solution which is sort of cheating but functional nonetheless.

Step 1: Extract the contents of the custom recovery (here CWM) to a folder (eg. SOMENAME.

Step 2: Go to META-INF\com\google\android.

Step 3: Open the file updater-script.

Step 4: Where you find the indeterminate.png files being deleted and extracted, paste the following two lines between the above mentioned lines:
delete("system/media/bootanimation.zip");
package_extract_file("system/media/bootanimation.old", "system/media/bootanimation.zip");
Step 5: Save the file and exit.
Step 6: Now zip the contents of SOMENAME to create a new flashable zip file SOMENAME.zip.
Step 7: Save this file in the SD card and flash it in your phone.
Step 8: Normal Clockwork Recovery Mod will open, but the required copying of the bootanimation file has been executed while opening.


text:
Modal every few seconds with CyanogenMod 11 20140708-SNAPSHOT-M8-hammerhead: "Unfortunately, Google Play services has stopped"
Every so often I get this pesky dialog:

I touch "OK" and it pops up again. This repeats until I reboot or don't use the phone for a while, then the problem clears up on its own.
Eventually I start using the phone and the problem occurs after a while again.
I used logcat and I see some stuff about a NullPointerException in some obfuscated WearableService code.
I'm using CyanogenMod 11-20140708-SNAPSHOT-M8-hammerhead. At the time of writing this is the most recent available snapshot.
I've tried upgrading to the snapshot I have now, and this seemed to solve the problem for a while. I've tried wiping the cache partition and wiping the dalvik cache.
I/Timeline(19904): Timeline: Activity_idle id: android.os.BinderProxy@428cc068 time:13198798
I/Timeline(  779): Timeline: Activity_windows_visible id: ActivityRecord{42320068 u0 com.android.settings/.SubSettings t28} time:13199067
V/Zygote  (21184): Switching descriptor 33 to /dev/null
V/Zygote  (21184): Switching descriptor 10 to /dev/null
I/ActivityManager(  779): Start proc com.google.android.gms.wearable for service com.google.android.gms/.wearable.service.WearableService: pid=21184 uid=10022 gids={50022, 3003, 1007, 1028, 1015, 1006, 3002, 3001, 3007, 2001, 3006}
D/ActivityThread(21184): handleBindApplication:com.google.android.gms.wearable
D/ActivityThread(21184): setTargetHeapUtilization:0.75
D/ActivityThread(21184): setTargetHeapMinFree:524288
I/MultiDex(21184): install
I/MultiDex(21184): MultiDexExtractor.load(/data/app/com.google.android.gms-2.apk, false)
I/MultiDex(21184): loading existing secondary dex files
I/MultiDex(21184): load found 1 secondary dex files
I/MultiDex(21184): install done
I/ProviderInstaller(21184): Insert disabled by gate 'gms:security:enable_conscrypt_in_gms_application'
D/GCM     ( 1343): GcmService start Intent { act=com.google.android.gms.INITIALIZE flg=0x10 pkg=com.google.android.gms cmp=com.google.android.gms/.gcm.GcmService } com.google.android.gms.INITIALIZE
D/assets  (21184): performGC: starting
W/dalvikvm(21184): threadid=13: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x41efbce0)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184): FATAL EXCEPTION: WearableService
E/AndroidRuntime(21184): Process: com.google.android.gms.wearable, PID: 21184
E/AndroidRuntime(21184): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at kex.a(SourceFile:370)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at kdq.a(SourceFile:390)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at kef.e(SourceFile:240)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at kef.a(SourceFile:270)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at com.google.android.gms.wearable.service.WearableService.a(SourceFile:64)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at khl.run(SourceFile:144)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
E/AndroidRuntime(21184):    at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:61)
E/qcom_sensors_hal(  779): hal_process_report_ind: Bad item quality: 11
I/Process (21184): Sending signal. PID: 21184 SIG: 9
W/InputMethodManagerService(  779): Window already focused, ignoring focus gain of: com.android.internal.view.IInputMethodClient$Stub$Proxy@428bc5f0 attribute=null, token = android.os.BinderProxy@42e5b158
I/ActivityManager(  779): Process com.google.android.gms.wearable (pid 21184) has died.
W/ActivityManager(  779): Scheduling restart of crashed service com.google.android.gms/.wearable.service.WearableService in 1000ms
V/Zygote  (21225): Switching descriptor 33 to /dev/null
V/Zygote  (21225): Switching descriptor 10 to /dev/null
I/ActivityManager(  779): Start proc com.google.android.gms.wearable for service com.google.android.gms/.wearable.service.WearableService: pid=21225 uid=10022 gids={50022, 3003, 1007, 1028, 1015, 1006, 3002, 3001, 3007, 2001, 3006}
D/ActivityThread(21225): handleBindApplication:com.google.android.gms.wearable
D/ActivityThread(21225): setTargetHeapUtilization:0.75
D/ActivityThread(21225): setTargetHeapMinFree:524288
I/MultiDex(21225): install
I/MultiDex(21225): MultiDexExtractor.load(/data/app/com.google.android.gms-2.apk, false)
I/MultiDex(21225): loading existing secondary dex files
I/MultiDex(21225): load found 1 secondary dex files
I/MultiDex(21225): install done
I/ProviderInstaller(21225): Insert disabled by gate 'gms:security:enable_conscrypt_in_gms_application'
D/GCM     ( 1343): GcmService start Intent { act=com.google.android.gms.INITIALIZE flg=0x10 pkg=com.google.android.gms cmp=com.google.android.gms/.gcm.GcmService } com.google.android.gms.INITIALIZE
D/assets  (21225): performGC: starting
W/dalvikvm(21225): threadid=13: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x41efbce0)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225): FATAL EXCEPTION: WearableService
E/AndroidRuntime(21225): Process: com.google.android.gms.wearable, PID: 21225
E/AndroidRuntime(21225): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at kex.a(SourceFile:370)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at kdq.a(SourceFile:390)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at kef.e(SourceFile:240)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at kef.a(SourceFile:270)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at com.google.android.gms.wearable.service.WearableService.a(SourceFile:64)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at khl.run(SourceFile:144)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
E/AndroidRuntime(21225):    at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:61)
I/Process (21225): Sending signal. PID: 21225 SIG: 9
I/ActivityManager(  779): Process com.google.android.gms.wearable (pid 21225) has died.
W/ActivityManager(  779): Service crashed 2 times, stopping: ServiceRecord{438a0f50 u0 com.google.android.gms/.wearable.service.WearableService}

Has anyone else run into this? Were you able to find any work-arounds? Is this more likely a hardware, gapps, or cyanogenmod problem? Where should I file a bug? Any ideas on how to further debug this?

What's your question? If it's "why is this happening?" the answer is probably, "because you're using an unstable build".

Well, there are no "stable" CyanogenMod builds. I have many questions: sure, "why?", but also, "has anyone else run into this?", "were you able to find any work-arounds?", "is this more likely a hardware, gapps, or cyanogenmod problem?" (e.g., where should I file a bug), "what kinds of things should I try?", "any ideas on how to further debug this?"

I got this issue with M10, disabling location completely solved the issue for me.

This helped for me (OnePlus One)

Go to “Settings”
Select “Apps”
Swipe left until you in the ‘All’ column
Click on the 3 dots in top right
Select “Reset app preferences”
Reboot phone
Reselect preferred launcher

via http://blog.forret.com/2015/06/getting-rid-of-google-play-services-has-stopped-on-oneplus/

I've experienced this when doing a dirty flash from one rom (or stock) to another. A factory reset should clear this problem up. Backup your apps and wipe then restore


text:
Zombie Scramble keeps returning to life!
Scramble, by Zynga (go figure), has apparently figured out how to re-enable notifications for itself without my interaction. I have turned off notifications in the application settings menu for android on my stock unrooted Galaxy S4 numerous times, but it somehow seems to turn itself back on within 24-48 hours.
So my question is in two parts:
1) As a programmer, I'm very curious, what method does Zynga use to continually re-enable notifications for Scramble?
2) How do I disable their re-enabling notifications?

Have there been any updates to the app?

If there's updates they're ones that don't require my approval. I've been watching for that because it would be so simple of a way around people disabling app notifications.

Have you by any chance moved this app to SD Card? I believe there is a bug that the "Show notifications" setting gets reset on reboot for apps that are moved to SD Card.

Ok, I disabled notifications while the app was on the SD storage, and rebooted which caused notifications to re-enable. I moved the app to the device storage, disabled the notifications, and rebooted which did not cause notifications to re-enable.
It looks like that SD card bug is the culprit. Thanks for the help and please put your suggestion in an answer so I can accept it. =)

This is happening because of an issue (or a feature?) on stock Samsung firmware.  Whenever you reboot the phone, the "Show notifications" setting of apps that were moved to SD Card will revert to its original state, which is to allow notifications.
The work-around is to move the app back to the phone, and the setting will persist across reboots.

This bug affects vanilla Android 5.0.2 too, not just Samsung ROMs. If you have any more info, web links or better workarounds please comment back. I can imagine an app to plug this gap, which maintains a list of notification prefs, and "ensures" them upon system startup.


text:
GPS battery usage as a function of how often it is pinged for data
Consider an app that uses GPS to get location details.  Those types of apps often use a lot of battery power.  Here is what I am wondering; let say one app get the details every 5 seconds, and another gets that info every 10 seconds.  Would the second app use half the battery power or would it be about the same since the GPS is ready to be used whether it is asked more or less often?  Thank you.

It won't make a noticeable difference. The GPS receiver has to be powered up continuously either way, but the receiver itself isn't a huge part of the battery use of most location-based apps. In general, this kind of app can be a battery drain because it's running, computing data, and saving data continuously. For example, if it's saving a log of your route, it has to get the GPS locations, filter and process those locations, and save them to the storage, continuously. All the time it's doing this, the phone's CPU is still running at high power, when normally it would be asleep (in a low-power state) in your bag or pocket.
The difference between how much other work the two apps are doing, and how efficient they are at that, is going to dwarf any difference caused by location sampling rates. In fact the difference between the apps themselves might even be more than the total power consumption of the GPS receiver.