text:
Get rid of the "wireless charging" announcement
Is there any way to get rid of the useless little toast announcement informing me that I have put the device in range of the charger?
I would prefer a solution that works with the stock ROM (JB 4.1).  I do have root.

This answer works for the Galaxy S4, but it will likely work for your S3 as well.
Install the xposed framework, which is a soft-mod framework that lets you modify your current rom (including the original/stock rom) without permanently changing it (you can enable and disable modules at your discretion). The framework and modules, of course, require root.
After you install the framework, install the Nottach Xposed module. This is designed for the S4, but most of the features work on the S3 as well.
After installing the module, enable the module within the xposed app. Open the Nottach Xposed app (acknowledge the warning that it isn't made for your device), enable the checkbox for Framework->Hide wireless charging dialog. Finally, reboot the phone.
Your phone should now be able to charge wirelessly without having the dialog pop up every time. Many of the other options in Nottach Xposed will likely work, though obviously tweaks for things that only exist on the S4 won't work for the S3.

Attempting to install any version of the Nottach module just gives me "There is a problem parsing the package".

Looks like it may require Android 4.2. After looking further, people got it to work just fine on the S3, but only after they had updated to 4.2 (with a custom rom).

In a month (October 2013), your S3 should receive an update straight to 4.3. Then this solution will work for you. Update announcement: http://www.ibtimes.com/android-43-jelly-bean-update-samsung-galaxy-s4-galaxy-s3-confirmed-update-galaxy-note-2-likely


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I'm interested in using a laptop battery as an external battery pack for phone
As title said I'd like to use a laptop battery for my phone as an extender.  One usage would be on a plane where my laptop is too bulky to really use but I could pull the battery out of it and use it to keep my phone battery charged while watching movies and what not.  It seems like I should just need a 7805 voltage regulator either linear or switching.  Has anybody done this or thought to do it, it seems like it should be fairly straightforward?

Do you have a specific question?

The question is has anyone done this and am I correct that it is as simple as I think it is?

Many laptop nowadays supports charging over USB while sleeping/suspended. So you only need a long USB cable, and put your laptop under the seat in front of you in sleep mode. A 1.5m cable is best but 1m would work as well.

Some airlines don't allow you to keep your laptop in a sleep state, they require you to turn it completely off. That being said, some laptops provide power to at least some USB ports even while the power is off. For example, my old Asus EEEpc 1215N had this feature on it's right side USB ports.

@onik: Good point. Though frankly, if the airline  prohibited laptops in sleep mode, I doubted that they'd not also prohibit turning on a phone.

I can't see the point of doing this when then are commercially available solutions. Search using the keywords "mobile power bank". Sure this is an interesting project and you can probably save a couple of bucks, but remember you're traveling in a plane, where you might need to explain to the security officers how your homebrew or "hackish" solution isn't an improvised terror weapon.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Tasker "Night" profile won't exit
I have a profile set-up to activate when the phone is connected to power AND the time is between 10:30pm and 7:30am.  This shuts off autobrightness, dims the screen, shuts off vibrate, and lowers the ringer (except certain contacts).
This run an exit task to reverse all of this after 7:30am because both conditions are no longer met ... but it doesn't.  If I unplug the phone before 7:30am, it will exit the profile.  If the time passes, it won't exit even if the phone is unplugged.
Any suggestions?

I have a similar profile for nighttime and I don't use an exit task.  Since the task only runs during the time span you specify, it should shut off by itself once it's 7:30am.

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


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Android Crashed
I Rooted my Alcatel One touch Glory 2S and accidently deleted JrdLauncher.apk (Android's Default Launcher). Then I made a factory reset and i thought it would help to restore it ... What i ended up was when i boot my phone, all the apps crashed with a message "Unfortunately, ... has crashed" and the homescreen went black with only a status bar on top. Tried reformattng but still no use.. now im stuck help pls ...its running android 4.1.1 jellybean...

A "factory reset" only wipes the user data from the device: it doesn't touch the system apps or operating system at all. You need to either find the APK file you're missing (perhaps from a friend with the same phone) and install it as a system app via adb (since you can't use the phone normally), or find the stock ROM and reflash it onto your phone using the usual ROM-flashing process for your phone.

I tried searching the missing app in another same phone but cant copy it because it is a system app. I even tried searching up for custom ROM and found nothing for my Alcatel OneTouch Glory 2S. Please help me . Thanks In advance.


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USB storage alert whenever camera used
I use Samsung GT P1000. It displays "turn off USB storage before using camera" each time I try to use the camera. It also doesn't see the memory card. I have a done factory reset several times. What I can do to correct these problems?


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Android data usage shows significant usage even without SIM card
I just purchased a Nexus 4 to replace an old Android phone.  After learning my lesson last time, I've decided to start the phone without a SIM card and sync all my apps etcetera over Wi-Fi so it doesn't chew through massive amounts of cellular data.  At this point, the phone is brand new, has never had a SIM card inserted, and I go into Settings > Data Usage.  My phone is reporting ~751MB of data usage.  I assumed there would be 0 MB data usage, given that I haven't even inserted a SIM.  I don't believe the data usage count is syncing from my old phone, as I typically only use a few MB a month, which viewing the data usage on my old handset confirms.
Is there an explanation for why a Nexus 4 that has never had a SIM card in it would report substantial data usage, or is this a bug?

The Data Usage screen can show both Mobile Data and Wi-Fi usage (but only shows one by default).

You're almost certainly seeing your Wi-fi usage, 750MB doesn't sound unlikely for a new device that will have downloaded settings, apps, contacts, and probably OS updates.
If you have a SIM card in your phone then the Data Usage app defaults to only showing Mobile Data usage, but there is a menu option to allow you to set it to show Wi-Fi data usage too.

I assume that if the device has never had a SIM card inserted, then it will default to showing Wi-Fi usage, as that's the only data usage it's used.
(screenshots from a Galaxy Nexus, so it should work the same way)

I haven't put a SIM in yet, and the only options that appear are Auto-sync data,Mobile hotspots and Help.  I'm going to assume that once a SIM is in the options you depicted will show up, so I'm marking this as the accepted answer.


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What exactly is in AOSP?
With recent news about Google shifting more and more of the Android experience out of core Android and into Google Play Services, I got curious.
If I were to download Android's source code from the AOSP page today and compile it, what will I end up with? Besides the binary drivers for individual hardware devices and the various Google services, will I end up with a working version of Android?
My motivation for asking this is to find out how much of the experience people  associate with Android is actually part of the AOSP.

Related: What is the difference between AOSP and AOKP?

possible duplicate: What's the difference between an AOSP ROM and a stock ROM?

You don't need to compile the source code to get an idea of what AOSP looks like; if you download the Android emulator, it includes a default device image that is just AOSP plus a few developer tools, without any of the Google services. This sums up to:

The linux kernel, dalvik VM, Java libraries, and Android framework
Stock Launcher (including the various lock screens)
Stock Keyboard
Stock Browser (NOT Chrome)
Calculator
Calendar (syncs to Exchange)
Camera
Clock
Download manager
Email (syncs to IMAP and POP)
Gallery (which also include a Media Player)
Messaging
Music (NOT Play Music)
People
Phone
Search (local apps, people, and the web via Google, NOT Google Now)
Settings
Various app widgets

Almost all of the essential Android framework are part of AOSP (e.g. Intent system, Permission system, Activity/Service system, Content Provider system, App Widget system, Daydream system, standard UI Elements, Notification Bar, Dalvik VM, JIT Compiler, Java standard libraries (Apache Harmony), OpenGL and Renderscript, Multimedia framework, Connectivity framework, GPS, Sensors, etc). The only significant part of the framework that aren't AOSP is Google Cloud Messaging, which handles Push service, and Play Store services, which provides application updates, in-app billing, and game services. Since these services are highly dependant on Google servers, they cannot really be a part of AOSP. All of the Android Development tools are also part of AOSP.
Some important Google Apps that aren't part of AOSP includes Gmail, Google Maps, Youtube, Google Now, Google+, Chrome, Hangout, and Play Store.
Here are some screenshots taken from Android 4.3 emulator:
The launcher, with some stock widgets, enough said:

All the apps in AOSP pretty much fits into one page, this has been the case since early Android:

All the widgets:


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"Open link in new tab" missing in Google Search bar
On a Galaxy S4 I9505 with Android 4.2.2, typing something in the Google search bar widget on the home screen opens a browser page with search results. The problem is that you can't open multiple tabs from this page, as no menu opens on long-tapping a link.
As the Google bar on the home page is the fastest way to start a search, is there a way to set it so that it opens results in a different browser, or to enable the "Open in new tab" functionality in search results?

No, I don't think there is.

What you describe is different than what I see - when I search from the Google Search bar/widget it displays results in the Google Search app. Once I tap on a result my browser opens and a new tab is created to view the link. (GNex & N7, Stock 4.3)


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Calls and texts in tablet with mini-USB SIM adaptor
I was hoping to find out if I can use my 10.1 inch Android tablet running Android 4.1 for calls and texts using a SIM card attached through a mini-USB (or if not, how?). Surely there must be a way.

I think what you're looking for is a full-blown 3G USB dongle, not just a SIM card adapter. See, for example: Can I receive/send SMS of cell phone number with a tablet using dongle?
A SIM card adapter would simply be a device that can read the contents of the SIM card and possibly edit it. So it's pretty much like an SD card reader. To send and receive text messages and voice calls, you still need a transmitter, which is what a USB 3G dongle will provide (if your tablet doesn't have built-in 3G support). However, I'm not sure if you can use a 3G dongle to make voice calls, although SMS is pretty much a standard feature for such devices.

I have a 10.1 in tablet with a SIM card. Tablets lack the hardware to make cellular calls - Those with cellular SIM cards can only use it to access the internet.  You might use a service like Skype but I am not that familiar with those types of services.

I have a Freelander 9.3" tablet with sim slot.  I have used it to call as long as I have a bluetooth headset.  Got it from China, but the vendor doesn't carry it any more see item # CVAGW-104152.  It works great if you need to use your computer AND make a call too.  It is quite handy, but not pocket worthy...  Wished I could get a newer version for my wife.

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


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How to set Wifi channel for tethering?
I'd like to pick one of less used channels in a relatively Wifi-saturated area, when using tethering (built-in option, mobile hotspot). I never found an option for changing the default channel and only frustrated questions abound over the net bumping around on various fora.
Does anyone here know maybe, how to change the wifi channel for Android phone acting as mobile hotspot?
Rooted Xperia Mini Pro, Android 4.04


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Does using an unofficial charger negatively affect overall battery lifetime of a GS4?
According to two employees at the Sprint store, using an unofficial charger for the Galaxy S4 will negatively impact the overall life of the phone's battery (edit: in other words, the battery will need to be replaced much sooner than if one always uses the official charger).
I've never heard this before. Does anyone else know what they are talking about?  What is special about the S4 charger?  I saw someone online mention that a "special code" is transmitted over the USB connector, which the phone will use to judge if it is an official charger; again, new to me, but I'm not a hardware expert.
Update: I still haven't figured out an answer to this. Regarding the "special code", the post I saw may have been referring to the IC chip, but I don't know.  So if we look at the distinguishing characteristics of a Micro USB Charger, there's 1) whether it has the IC Chip; 2) whether it is 2 amp vs. 1 amp; anything else?

A li-ion battery is charged in stages. C refers to a measure of Charge which to my understanding is not a scientific calibrated measurement, but moreso a general approximation of how much energy the battery can provided in an hour.

If the battery is deeply depleted, we must slowly trickle charge the depleted cells at a rate of < 0.2C to avoid overheating issues. Once the battery cells are at 2.8-3.3V, we can charge rapidly.
The rapid charge stage is referred to as the Constant Current stage. The battery can be charged at a maximum rate of 0.5-0.8C. Going above 1.0C does not make the battery charge faster, it just generates more heat which is a killer for batteries.
Once the cells reach 4.2V, charging transitions to Constant Voltage charging at a rate of 0.1C or less. Essentially, it is not charging at this point. If the battery is depleted a few percentage points because the charger is smart enough to switch itself off, it will begin Constant Voltage charging to restore the small depletion.

Cheap chargers often don't do any of the slower phases by actively monitoring the voltage, they just deliver 1C or more. When your phone is charged up, this generates a lot of heat. An increase in temperature of 8 degrees Celsius can half battery life. Lithium ion batteries are basically hand grenades, which is why they have so many safety systems built in to vent pressure and avoid overcharging. Cheap chargers also are probably not UL certified and have terrible quality control, so they present a fire hazard.
The phone can probably detect if an appropriate current/voltage is being supplied for the battery's current charge level. The other possibility is that the charger has a data wire(chargers have no need to send data to the phone) and upon connection, a magic number is transmitted that identifies the device as a Samsung charger.
Source: Former Electrical Engineer

I shouldn't think so. Samsung is a signatory to the EU Common External Power Supply standard, which includes specs for a USB charger. As long as the charger you're using supplies something close enough to what the Samsung one supplies, you're good to go. You can even charge it from a Computer USB port, although it will be quite a bit slower (except some PCs which can supply a higher amperage via a micro-usb cable, making it almost as quick as a mains adaptor charger.)
But in any case, you should be fine as long as the charger is of decent quality and isn't going to catch alight or something. I've been mixing and matching HTC, Samsung, and Blackberry chargers for years now.

Same experience here. The GS4 will give you a warning on a low-power charger, just saying that charging could be slow. But I've never experienced any trouble. Side note: Sometimes on low-powered chargers, it's not enough juice to boost the battery if you are using it at the same time! But the 2Amp chargers usually do very well, and charge it quickly.

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


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Whatsapp update not getting deleted
I noticed my contacts list have been jumbled up meaning,
many contacts name are displayed with a common name.
So I erased all the phone data and factory reset.
Still the WhatsApp update icon is present and I am not able to delete it.
Why is this happening?

What do you mean, the "update icon"? Do you mean a notification, or something else?

Whatsapp is installed on the /system partition on your device. Which means, your device manufacturer decided to include the app in the device firmware. A factory reset can only remove the apps which you installed yourself which are present on the /data partition. To remove system apps you need to need to root your device and delete the app from the /system/app/ directory.

Any app not removed/removable from the device will report a notification for a version update. It will even automatically update if that setting remains enabled in Google Play Store.

He was trying to factory reset to uninstall the app.


text:
Android keeps asking "Sign-in to WiFi network" even if WPA/WPA2 is already authenticated
I'm trying to connect to a DLink Router protected with WPA/WPA2. It's our home router and I can connect perfectly to it from laptops and desktops, Linux and Windows alike. But when I connect to it using my Android phone (XPeria Z), I am always notified to "Sign-in to WiFi Network" after I've entered the WPA/WPA2 password. Tapping into the notification loads a 404 page from my router. Then, from my browser, trying to load any website just keeps looping to this 404 page. Other apps that connect to the internet do report connection problems.
Being that I'm not on a data plan and always connect via WiFi, I can't install any diagnostic tools unfortunately. FWIW, I've ensured that the connection to my router does not use WiFi Protected Set-up. I've also tried connecting to the router through an old Samsung Galaxy Y, with Android 2.x to same results.
I wonder if this is a problem with my phones or with my router?

It's a problem with your router. After Android successfully connects to a Wi-Fi network, it tests to see if it can use this network to access the Internet. This is because it's commonplace for Wi-Fi networks to redirect all requests to some kind of login page, until you've logged in. The "Sign-in to Wi-Fi network" notification is nothing to do with authenticating to the network itself: it appears when Android detects that the network is redirecting requests.
Given that you've said any page brings up this 404 error page from your router, that fits perfectly with the fact you're getting the notification. The fact that the router won't give you pages from the Internet is the root problem: it's nothing to do with WPA or anything like that. Does the 404 page tell you anything helpful?
Perhaps the router is set up with a list of devices (by MAC address), and the new device isn't on the list so the router won't give it Internet access.

Nope. Other devices don't have an issue. And nope, setting static IP's doesn't help. And nope it's not configured to discriminate on known MAC's. It redirects to connectivitycheck.gstatic.com (Google CDN like page for static content) and then fails, and requests a sign in again.
In this case running 6.0.1 on a Motorolla XT910 using a custom Mowkee? Rom which never had the issue until recently.

@Mullazman If you have a different problem, ask a new question. Don't forget to give all the details and symptoms in your question. It's no use complaining that the answer to someone else's question doesn't solve your problem!


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Android JellyBean stock keyboard capitalizes first letter of word before question mark
On my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 running Android JellyBean 4.1.2, when I add a question mark after a word, the first letter of that word gets capitalized. Do you know why this happens and how it can be Solved? See the last Sentence? It's happened there too.

It happens because that common English syntax... a question mark signals the end of a sentence so the net work will have a capital letter

Sorry, I meant before the question mark...

hmmm does it do it after you have entered the question mark then, i.e its lower case to start with?

Yes. It's lower case. Add the question mark and it's upper case. See the words solved and sentence in my question.

All I can see are lower case letters. It might be a bug with  your Samsung keyboard software. You could try updating your os if it is the case or you could try other apps for writing like SwiftKey for example.

See the words solved and sentence before the question marks...

Oh, I see, I was looking at the last letter not the first. If it is a bug on your Samsung Keys software then it should work fine with SwiftKey. Try installing the app just for the sake of testing this. It's free and small so it shouldn't take more than a minute or two.


text:
How can I disable/disconnect wi-fi when connected but no data connectivity is detected?
Here's a common problem I'm facing in Android: sometimes it automatically connects to a network when the signal is very low or there is a problem with the network itself and there is no Internet connectivity available at that moment.
I would like to find an solution which would automatically disconnect from the wi-fi network if it detects a problem with the Internet connection.
Anybody have any advice?


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Nexus 4 screenshot not viewable on PC
I made some screenshots with my Nexus 4. On the phone, I can open them, and they are all viewable. I edited some of them on the phone. When I copy them to a Windows 7 PC, they are all 0 bytes big and not viewable. Is this a bug?

It sounds as if the files haven't transferred properly? How have you transferred the files? Have you copied the correct files?

It seems to be a bug. I noticed if i take a screen shoot and don't edit it i can copy them to the PC without problems. But as soon as i edit them on the smartphone Win7 says they are 0 bytes big (they are still on the phone and are stil viewable on the phone)


text:
Battery meter went crazy and now stays at 0%
I have a Samsung Galaxy Discover that worked fairly well until the last week or so. I ran the device down down to 0% - at which point the device shut off. I performed a full recharge and then occasionally recharged it for brief amounts of time (usually getting to 30-40%).
My battery graph ended up looking something like this:

Then earlier today, I performed a full charge to 100%. The device shut off after a few moments and insisted that the battery was at 0%. I plugged it in and the meter now stays at 0%.
I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I discovered that the voltage is being reported as 4195 mV (the so-called 0%). However, a few days earlier, I remember that the phone seemed to think that about 3800 mV was 0%.
Is there a way to "reset" the battery meter? In other words, I need to tell the phone that it actually has a full charge even though it seems to think otherwise.

Update: the battery was eventually replaced with a brand new one and the issue continues to persist - even with the new battery. Interestingly, the battery seems to charge and operate correctly when the battery temperature is above 30° C.

I've found a way to artificially discharge the battery - recovery mode. The phone ignores the battery state and keeps the screen on - which works perfectly. We'll see if that helps.

have you tried calibrating the battery?

Wife had a somewhat similar issue. I went into recovery mode and formatted the cache and it solved her problem. To get into recovery mode it is usually Hold volume up + power, let go of power once the phone vibrates but keep holding volume up.

I don't know if you're rooted or if you have custom recovery or not, but in some of the later versions of ClockworkMod recovery there is an option to "delete battery stats".
Without root, there seems to be no way to reset the battery statistics.

Whether the phone thinks the battery is full or not has nothing to do with battery stats:  https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/FV3LVtdVxPT

Thanks a lot for that information, I didn't know that. But he was asking for a possibility to reset, wasn't he? Or did I not understand him correctly?

You can reset stats, sure, but my understanding is that those stats tell the device which apps used the battery; sounds like his problem is that the device has no idea how much power the battery currently holds, and that doesn't appear to be held in the stats.

You can recalibrate the battery. What happened is you battery status file is corrupted. Use a battery calibration app from playstore and recalibrate battery.If it is rooted go to recovery and wipe battery status and do calibration

I had the same issue with my phone, it is nothing to do with OS. It is an issue with the battery, I strongly recommend to buy a new battery and replace the old one. Hope this works for you.
Ok guys, lets share what we have down yet,

I have changed the battery and it was a good idea but does not solve the problem completely
I used another USB charger and did not work
I have wiped batterystats.bin and it did not work
I have use some apps and they made a mess and nothing happend
I let the battery drain(completely) and recharged that. It was useful but did not solved the problem
I know that battery configuration is under /sys/platform/. There are some files inside (for me the folder is mt-battery) that I guess they show the voltage and ... maybe some experts can modify them for us to solve the problem.

I guess 1 and 5 have more or less solved the problem for me.
finally  I found the solution:
For me the problem was nothing to do with the battery. It seems a problem in the kernel of OS cases all the problems. As far as I discovered, if cpu is under heavy load then the kernel might crash and lost the control over hardware especially the screen and battery.
I also have found the permanent solution
I downloaded a CPU control app (you need a rooted device) and set the cpu clock to a lower frequency and set the governor to Ondemand (that I found the most reliable one). Then you need to wipe battery stats and cache(it is up to you) and enjoy your smartphone.
No My mobile phone works fine, no lag, no battery drop.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. Please see my update.

As far as I know, when I charge my mobile phone the charging percentage changes suddenly in some points. For example it is 10% and suddenly it increases to 20%. When I use that, the reverse happens. I mean when I touches 20%, it suddenly goes down to 10%. Previously I had 3 or 4 gaps like that I described. I am not sure if my solusion works or not (or even it is correct to do that). I removed the battery and put that on a flat surface and rolled my pencil on that slightly (with some pressure). Now I just have one gap between 41 and 57 and nothing more.


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How to find the pathname of the swap partition on SD card?
As this warns, you should not enable swap on the wrong partition or you can destroy your phone:

OK before we go any further! previous phones had a partition layout where mmcblck0 was the SDcard (external) our phone uses mmcblck1 for the external sd. This is important because if you use an app it may be preset to use mmcblck0 as swap partition.using this setting will cause you to use your sbl2 or sbl3 as swap partition.this will brick your phone and unbrick guide will be useles.

So the swap partition might be /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 if I have 3 partitions (fat32, sdext, swap) on my SD card, or /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 if I have 2 partitions (fat43 and swap) or /dev/block/mmcblk1p? if you have a different phone, etc. and the wrong choice can brick your phone.
How do you find out which partition is which?  It should be the only partition on any drive of the phone with the swap filesystem.

fdisk -l does this on Ubuntu, but outputs nothing in Android
blkid does not show the swap partition
cat /proc/partitions lists a lot of partitions, but doesn't indicate which is the swap
cat /proc/swaps only lists swaps that are already being used
cat /proc/mtd only says dev: size erasesize name and nothing else
ls /dev/block/vold lists some partitions as 179:64 179:65 179:66, but doesn't indicate what they are?
4ext recovery will show it in the table of partitions (swap swap 129 MiB), but doesn't say the dev name
...

Even if there's no command line tool to print it directly, surely there's a way to deduce it from some other information??

Is there something in your /proc/swaps?

@ott--: cat /proc/swaps just shows the swapfile created by swapper 2, not the partition on the SD card

As you already know the device (SDCard), have you tried to use mount (without parameters) to find the corresponding block device (/dev/block/*), and check that against the list of /proc/partitions (or /proc/mtd)? If you have no further partition on your card, your swap partition should be "the other one ending with a digit", unless mount pointed to vold only. In that case, comparing sizes (or temporarily removing the card for a "diff") might help.

I installed the Disk Info app and in the options, I enabled Expert mode and Unmounted partitions.  It doesn't say "swap", but it shows clearly that it's the only other partition on the SD card and it's the right size, so /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 must be the one:

Swapper 2 is configured to use /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 by default, so I'm glad I didn't go with the default.

fdisk -l works if you pass the whole disk device name explicitly (e.g., fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk1); what does not work is automatic discovery of block devices (apparently because Android places block device files under the /dev/block directory, but fdisk expects to see those files directly in /dev). Therefore one option is to collect the list of whole disk devices (/dev/block/mmcblk0, /dev/block/mmcblk1, …) and look at their partition tables using fdisk -l <device>. These whole disk devices are listed in /proc/partitions before the corresponding partitions.
The blkid utility does not look at the partition table at all — it opens all block devices known by the system and detects the filesystem type from the actual data on those devices; therefore blkid will not show correct information for the swap partition until that partition is initialized by mkswap. This means that blkid is useless for your current task (finding which partition should be passed to mkswap).
mount usually shows devices under /dev/block/vold, which are named according to their major and minor numbers. To get the usual device name, you can look in /proc/partitions to find a row containing the same numbers in the first two columns. Then you can remove the p<number> part from the end of the device name, add /dev/block/ at the start and pass the resulting name to fdisk -l to see the partition table of the corresponding device.
Beware that if you look at the fdisk -l output for the internal eMMC flash, you may find lots of partitions with strange types, especially on Qualcomm-based devices. E.g., see the partition table for Samsung Galaxy W (GT-I8150):
# fdisk -lu /dev/block/mmcblk0

Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 3959 MB, 3959422976 bytes
1 heads, 16 sectors/track, 483328 cylinders, total 7733248 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

              Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1               1      212991      106495+  c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2   *      212992      213991         500  4d Unknown
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3          213992      221183        3596  46 Unknown
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/block/mmcblk0p4          221184     7733247     3756032   5 Extended
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/block/mmcblk0p5          229376      239615        5120  47 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6          245760      285759       20000  49 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7          286720      292863        3072  58 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8          294912      306175        5632  48 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9          311296      324271        6488  50 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p10         327680      333823        3072  4a Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11         335872      342015        3072  4b Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12         344064      360447        8192  90 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p13         360448      375807        7680  91 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p14         376832      387071        5120  92 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p15         393216     1488895      547840  93 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p16        1490944     1613823       61440  94 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p17        1613824     3887103     1136640  95 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p18        3891200     3993599       51200  96 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p19        3997696     3998695         500  97 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p20        4005888     4013079        3596  98 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p21        4014080     4024319        5120  99 Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p22        4030464     4070463       20000  9a Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p23        4071424     4081663        5120  9b Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p24        4087808     4101807        7000  9c Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p25        4104192     4114431        5120  9d Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p26        4120576     4130815        5120  9e Unknown
/dev/block/mmcblk0p27        4136960     4147199        5120  9f BSD/OS
/dev/block/mmcblk0p28        4153344     7733247     1789952  a0 Thinkpad hibernation

Partition type codes there are even dangerously wrong, because /dev/block/mmcblk0p1, which is declared Win95 FAT32 (LBA), actually contains some system data (including locations and MD5 hashes of various ROM parts); however, /dev/block/mmcblk0p28, which is the FAT16-formatted “internal data storage”, has a type which looks completely bogus. In this case the manufacturer did not reuse the 0x82 (Linux swap) type code for their own purposes, but I'm not sure that such collisions never occur, so you should not blindly try to use any partition which looks like swap — first check that the device size and partition layout are what you expect to see on your SD card.
/proc/mtd is never useful for finding a swap partition on SD card (MTD drivers are used to access directly attached raw flash chips, they cannot work with external SD cards).

Aha!  fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk1 says /dev/block/mmcblk1p2           30637       31152      132096  82 Linux swap


text:
Apps randomly crashing on my ZTE Blade 3. How can I fix this?
Applications on my Zte Blade 3 (ICS) crash frequently. They just close without an error message. How can I know if it it's a bug in the app, or a bug in the Android or a flawed device?
Edit: Apps that are crashing most frequently are ones which I use the most: Friendly fire game and stock web browser. Per suggestion from comment I've tried clearing data/cache but it did not make a difference.

What kind of memory does this device have? Is it possible that Android is just killing apps as needed to free memory?

It has 512 MB RAM. Apps that are crashing are in the foreground which sorta defeats the purpose of releasing the memory?

A look into the Android log may reveal the underlying problem. Edit your findings into your question.

Heavy games may crash due to memory or CPU capacity. The Blade 3 has only 512 MB of RAM, and the CPU has one core, which may cause Android to automatically close heavy apps to free memory. The stock browser crash is a common issue on the Blade 3, I recommend using Google Chrome instead.

Am interested in this question too. Stock web browser crashes so I installed Maxthon.


text:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 can't pair with Bluetooth keyboard after update to 4.2.2
Updated last night. Tablet can't find the keyboard when Bluetooth is turned on and tablet is visible.
This is the keyboard that came with the tablet in the student edition. I can't find anyone with this problem yet except in version 4.3. But this is 4.2.2.

I got it to work by going to the Bluetooth settings screen, then holding down the Bluetooth button on the back of my keyboard for about 5-10 seconds.
After that, the keyboard showed up on the available devices and it allowed me to pair it with my Tab 2.

To clarify what this process does - holding down the button clears device pairings from the keyboard, and puts the keyboard back into discovery mode for the tablet to detect.


text:
Voice of turn by turn navigation alternating between male and female
Sometimes the voice will be the female voice of Google text-to-speech and sometimes it will be the one from SVOX TTS, which is a different one. What should be causing them to alternate and how can I make it stop?


text:
How do I mount my Samsung galaxy s4 on ubuntu?
I'm running ubuntu 12.04 and have a rooted samsung galaxy s4.  The s4 is still 2 software versions back since I need to unroot to update and just havent had the time or energy to do all of the work to get back to where I'm setup.  I think it is 4.2.something.
So when I plug my S4 into ubuntu via usb I get an error message
"Unable to mount SAMSUNG_Android
Error initializing camera:-60: could not lock the device"
With my rooted kindle I run gMTP and that gets me access so I tried it with the S4 and it says nothing is available to connect.
With my old evo I had no trouble.  Even when it wasn't rooted I had access to the sd card just like any other drive being mounted.  What's the deal with this s4?
I do have usb debugging enabled.

Galaxy S4 uses MTP so you will need to turn debugging off and it should work with gMTP

I believe I have debugging on on the kindle and gMTP still works.  I'll have to confirm this later.  I might be wrong.

Open a terminal in ubuntu(ctrl+alt+t) and type this commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp
sudo apt-get update

Then, launch Software Updater (previously known as Update Manager) and install the available updates.
Afther you pdate everything restart pc.
if you want to revert back before making any changes:
sudo ppa-purge ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp

Next time, I think you should ask this is askubuntu.com since it is more of a linux specific problem then android.

Thank you but what exactly does this do? Is this just updating gMTP? The reason I ask it here is b/c my ubuntu box has no problem recognizing my old HTC evo.  In fact it just opens like any mounted drive automatically as long as I unlock the home screen.  While access is the first step I'm trying to achieve I ultimately want to be able to skip jumping through hoops and just unlock my S4 plug it in to the USB and be in business.

Can anyone tell me what rat2000 code will do?  I don't like to enter code without having a basic explanation.  Maybe I should ask this at the ubuntu forums...

This worked and got me directly to the desired result. I recieved an explanation for what the code does here   http://askubuntu.com/questions/345735/what-does-this-code-do-if-entered-in-a-terminal

I had the same problem a while back. Make sure USB Debugging is disabled in the Developer Options menu.

@geffchang I have USB Debugging enabled and I'm having no trouble mounting the rooted device or the sd card.  I followed the directions posted above by rat 2000 and never had to disable usb debugging.  It just works now.  Check it out.

@hortstu Thanks, but I was just editing AbandonedGoat's post.

So far I found issues like if you have your USB Debugging enable or connect it through USB 3.0 then get this error. So either you disable that option or connect through USB 2.0 would work fine. Or best you can do is what @Rat200 suggested here I had exact same problem. Hope the answers the question.
Btw It's more of Linux specific problem not android.

Worked well. Confirmed it was not a USB cable problem by checking Samsung device appeared after launching lsusb, but an USB 3.0 port issue.

Have you tried connecting the phone using the usb mass storage option on the device? I usually do that with my S2 to work.

Where would I find that option?  I've explored settings pretty extensively and didn't see anything along those lines?

Have you tried the method here? link.

The method suggested by rat2000 worked for me.  Thanks for your help.

I'm glad it did.

I had the same problem when I connected via a USB 3.0 port, but USB 2.0 on the same notebook worked fine.

Trying a different USB port and restarting the ADB server worked for me.


text:
Why does a SyncMe shortcut run only "once"?
I'm trying to run SyncMe only when computer is pingable. Since the app currently is not able to work this way, I'm using Tasker and its AutoShortcut plugin. SyncMe exposes an intent/shortcut which allows to run all sync jobs for a given computer. Tasker was then configured to run such shortcut under certain conditions and every two minutes.
The problem is that the shortcut will only run "once", any subsequent calls to the shortcut will not run the sync. This happens not only from within Tasker but also when adding the shortcut to home screen. When tapping the icon for the first time, UI shows up and the sync runs correctly. But if I press home button and tap it again, it will only return focus to the UI without any action being taken.
The only way I could figure out to make the shortcut run again was somehow "closing" the app, for example going to home screen with the back button or removing SyncMe from recent apps, none of which seems possible from within Tasker, I think it requires rooting.

Home screen shortcut
We believe it's an Android bug. In fact, as I could confirm on a custom build, adding FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP fixed the problem for home screen shortcuts, despite its documentation indicating pretty the opposite, as below. We find those docs very poorly written, at least. According to the developer, this fix is going to work as long as main app activity stays on top (that is, editing a sync job then pressing home button for tapping icon again is not going to work).

If set, the activity will not be launched if it is already running at the top of the history stack.

Tasker and AutoShortcut
For some reason, the above fix does not work in AutoShortcut. I don't know how different the intent sent by this plugin is from that of the home screen shortcuts. Either way, I have reported the problem to the developer. Regardless, I also just have set up a direct intent configuration in Tasker, instead of using AutoShortcut, as follows:

Action: com.bv.wifisync.run
Extra: itemId:<id>
Package: com.bv.wifisync
Class: com.bv.wifisync.Hosts
Target: Activity

Android gives activities a setting called launchMode, which allows them to control how and when they're launched. With some values of launchMode, starting the same activity again with an intent won't start a new activity: instead, it'll deliver the new intent to the existing activity. This might happen only if the activity is the foreground activity, or if it is anywhere in the current task (that is, if you can get to that activity just by pressing back repeatedly).
It's quite common for app authors to set launchMode to solve some kinds of programming or user interface problem, such as concurrency issues that arise from having two instances of the same activity running at once, one in the foreground and one in the background. When they do this, they don't always remember to write the code to handle the new intent the activity is sent by Android: the activity receives the intent a different way to when it's first launched.
It's hard to tell without knowing more about this app, but from the behaviour you describe, it sounds like SyncMe has fallen into this trap. You should tell the developer what you're trying to achieve, and ask them to fix it.

@RenatoSilva I wouldn't suggest any flag. It's up to the app developer to fix this bug, either by resetting launchMode to normal, or by implementing onNewIntent.

Dan, did you check it yourself? Try running shortcut, home button and then run shortcut again and you see that no intent is delivered no matter what launchMode is used. Looks like Android bug to me.


text:
Does GooglePlay search show different results for different cities?
I have a few different Android apps and for some reason, one is very heavily downloaded in India and Nigeria.
And the others have at least 35% US downloads.
Would anyone know whether the GooglePlay search is different in different countries? Or is it the same everywhere?
Thanks!

maan, a persone is saying that i gave you the answer and you mark him as the correct answer?

Yes, it is different. Just like Google search Google play search  uses different settings for every person, just like rat2000 said.

thank you. Would you know how to check an app's ranking for different countries?

I'm not sure if you can check your ranking for different countries but if you have this option it should be in the Google play developer console.

you cannot check app's ranking for diferent countries

It is not the same. for countries. Google search is not the same for you and a friend or your neighbor.
Google keeps data for every person that uses that services and determines what he might like or might not like. At a country level based on all the search that you made and the citizens it decides what you or another citizen might like. Basically it is all very connected and there are very powerful algorithms that determine what a user might need based on the location he is, the nationalyti, the previous searches, his friend searches, everything matters more or less.

I didn't mean Google search. I meant GooglePlay search. Do you know if GooglePlay search is different across different countries?

It is the same. all services are interconnected. if you make a search in google play for a specific game, next time you use google search it will know that you like that type of games, and it goes the other way around.


text:
How to search within the app that I bought in Google Play?
I bought an app (.99 cents) a few years ago. I try to use a keyword to find the app in my Google Play, but it is not easy. In the last couple years I downloaded/installed 200+ free and paid. If I go to that 200+ app list to find search one by one, it is very time consuming. If I search the keyword within Google play directly, Google Play will give me ALL apps with the keywords no matter I downloaded or not. How to search within the app that I bought in Google Play? Thaks

This might help:

Login to your Google account from your PC
Go to https://play.google.com/apps
Hit Ctrl+f (or command + f on Mac) and type the name of your app, and look for it.
Click the app name when you find it.

Now, you can either note down the exact name of the app and the publisher and install manually from the Play Store on phone, or, just click the Install button (make sure your phone is on and has a data plan/wifi), select your device, click Install.

Is there any solution that works on phones too?

Using "show desktop version" in Chrome/Firefox on Android, maybe? (I haven't tried this.)

Yes, that works, but: One has to click "Show More" then scroll down until new items stop appearing (this is similar on PC too).

Ok, this is bizarre! The search bar says "0 of 0" results, yet the page has jumped to the first app that actually matches the exact text I typed.  Unfortunately, I'm not able to find the "next" app this way...

@Michael Hmm, seems this is happening because it is dynamically loading entries... if I keep scrolling to the bottom until there is nothing else to load, then the search works properly.


text:
text message notifications on my lock screen of my galaxy s 3
I have just gotten a galaxy s 3 and am trying to get the notifications of a new message to show up at a push notification on my lock screen. I have looked for setting to change to do so but can't find anything other than the message showing up in my lock screen. Can someone help me? ?

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Melanie. Please clarify your question: you say that messages are showing on your lock screen but then you say push notifications aren't? Please describe exactly what you are seeking to achieve.

As far as I know, there is no setting for this unfortunately.
Samsung will occasionally update the S3 with OS updates such as recently to 4.3 which changed the way text messages are displayed on the lock screen.  So it not only depends on which version of Android you are running but which Samsung update you have got.
Perhaps you can try download a lock screen replacement app from the Play Store?

Please rephrase your answer listing what versions do not have this. Perhaps a snipped from a Samsung blog for the changes? Is the latest version 4.4, which had this feature/bug?

my point was that you can't control how the built in lock screen functions and there are no settings provided, and further, its features may change every update they do. Its not a feature I keep track of specifically, but noticed that it happened in general with samsung

That's weird.  I have an S2 and when I get a message I can swipe the message notifications action and it gets me right to the message.  If you didn't find anything  maybe you can add messaging as an unlock shortcut to get you right to your messages.


text:
How can i move my installed apps in SD card on Sony Xperia Ray
I can't install new apps, it says that my phone memory is running low. And I can't move my apps on SD card.
I also want to uninstall unnecessary apps on my phone but its says that "this can't be uninstalled". How to uninstall it?

I've just added two more tags to your question. Their tag-wikis (app2sd and insufficient-memory) provide some first aid hints you could try. Note that to be moved via App2SD the app itself must support that. As for the not uninstallable apps: those are most likely pre-installed apps which are marked such. Without root there's nothing you can do to uninstall them.

You may want to try this blog post.
There's a bit of coding/tweaking involved, but you don't need root for it.
To summarize, you need to run this inside plat_form-tools folders, command prompt

$ adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2

Here's a video, if you prefer that.

btw, I just did this a few mins ago with my Samsung ACE :)

I'm not sure why you can't move those files to the SD card.  Maybe the sd card is full?  But to uninstall apps you can't the normal way I use HiUninstaller. It requires root but it let's you uninstall any app and back it up in case you want it back.  Just be careful what you uninstall with it. You can find it on the market.

Please provide a link to the app.

Yup, sure, here it is. Don't worry about the description being in Chinese. You have English in the app.

I added the link to your answer to facilitate easier reference for the users. Please do so yourself in your future answers. :)


text:
Is it possible to mount .iso files (virtual optical drive) on Android?
First of all, I am not sure if my question should be here as I couldn't find a place to shoot it. So please direct me to the right site, if I am barking at the wrong tree..
Question : In our normal PCs/laptops we have the ability to install 3rd party softwares to create a virtual CD/DVD drive and mount .iso files to it.
For the sake of mobility, (as I am on the go 90% of the time) I want to buy a tablet. So I am wondering if I could do the same in either Asus or Samsung tablet 8.0?
If above tablets can't perform this function, can someone point out why and which tablets would do it?

Why exactly do you want to mount ISO images? That's a rather unusual request; perhaps we can suggest something else just as good if we knew why. Generally it's more efficient to rip the content to another kind of file than mount an entire disc.

I am on the go always. And my current laptop is rather heavy. Plus DVD rom is external. So I want to get a tab that can play DVDs from .iso's being mounted on virtual DVD rom. Most of my part time study materials come in CD/DVD format. Anything that goes better than this, would be appreciated too.

@Logos I have the .iso. ill mount them in my laptop to a virtual rom n rip them as .mp4...last resort though

@Logos, to answer your question why you would want to mount ISO images; suppose you go on a vacation, take 10000 digital pictures, copy them to your computer; on linux you can use genisoimage to put a set of files/dirs in a single iso file;on windows you can use infrarecorder(free) to do that;so you have for example,a trip contained in a single iso file,and keep track of 1 file instead of 10000 and it is easier to move around etc;so if you can mount it, you can view the images without having to extract them,as you'd have to from a zip file;so ISOs are great to organize files you don't modify

@jmarina I guess what you mentioned is much better. I will try it out

Underneath Android is Linux kernel. So if you install a custom rom with a custom kernel on any of tablets you can do that. The kernel should have loop device support + CONFIG_ISO9660_FS module or built-in. Then you will need root+busybox. Install some terminal emulator and type this commands:

su
cd /sdcard
mkdir mountpoint
mount -t iso9660 image.iso mountpoint -o ro,loop

Also if your iso contaions UDF file system you will need kernel UDF support.

Appreciate your answer. But I can't try this until I buy a tablet can I?. :) I just want to make sure I buy the right device, so the experiments I do won't explode the entire device, coz I am not good with Linux scripting. Just the basics. I guess I also have to give the correct path to .iso file. It would be great if Samsung/Azuz or any tablet giant can really clarify these features of the device. Because tablet doesn't anyway have a DVD ROM. So how can we play DVDs from a tablet?

@aspiring I don't know any tablet manufacturer who makes tablets with ISO mounting support out of the box. Even the Cyanogenmod(one of the best custom ROMS) doesn't have CONFIG_ISO9660_FS in the default kernel. But as long you understand the commands and have the right kernel built for your device you should be able to do it. After that you can just open .vob files with MX Player in the VIDEO_TS directory inside your mount point.

Now assuming I am all set for your suggestion, yet when I went to the above mentioned product centres they said you shouldn't mess with kernal. If anything goes wrong we won't repair. That was not well... how can I make sure the tablet has the ability before buying? Or else ill have to convert the .iso to a .mp4..

@aspiring Any tablet you buy won't have ability to mount ISO files out of stock. You will have to use custom kernel. That usually means that you will use your warranty. However you can make a backup of original kernel and install it back if you would want to repair it. But it is possible that they will notice that kernel was changed and they would refuse to repair it.

Now that I was forced to get to know Android sdk, ADB commands, I will surely try these one of these days, given my phone comes back live :$


text:
Verizon GSM SIM card for unlocked Samsung Galaxy S2
I have an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S2. I bought it from Bangladesh. It has been working well with any Bangladeshi GSM SIM card. I just arrived in USA. Is it possible to get a Verizon GSM SIM card for my phone?

Verizon is not a GSM carrier, they use CDMA. The only SIM cards they provide are strictly for 4G LTE service, so this phone isn't going to work on their network.

what about AT&T? or any other carrier that use GSM?

AT&T and T-Mobile are the two big carriers in the U.S. that use GSM.

@AlEverett thanks so, I can buy a AT&T or T-Mobile sim card for my unlocked samsung galaxy s2?


text:
Galaxy S3 is stuck at Samsung logo splash screen and won’t charge
A little bit of help would be highly appreciated.
A few days ago, my Samsung Galaxy S3 started freezing randomly. I had to remove the battery in order to restart it. Yesterday the problem got worse: whenever I try to turn the phone on, it freezes in the first splash screen (the “Samsung Galaxy SIII GT-I9300” screen). When I push the power button for a few seconds in order to turn it off, it goes off but then turns on by itself immediately after and freezes again in the first screen. I have to remove the battery in order to turn it off.
When I try to charge the phone with the mains charger or with the USB cable connected to my PC, a gray battery icon with a static circle inside appears and the screen doesn’t change. After several minutes, the phone gets warm, but there’s no evidence that the battery is charging (the icon of the gray battery with a static circle inside is still there).
I took my wife’s S3 battery (50% charged), put into my S3, pushed the power button and the phone froze at the same point (“Galaxy SIII” screen). I’ve also tested my battery on my wife’s S3: it charged normally and her phone worked flawlessly. I guess this means it’s not a battery issue.
I’ve already tried to clear the cache partition or even factory reset my phone (removed the battery for a few seconds, put it back, then pushed Volume Up + Home + Power for a while), but it didn’t work either (the Android System Recovery screen never appeared).
The phone is rooted, but I’ve never installed any custom ROM.
I’ve read many android forums and tried a few workarounds, but nothing seemed to work.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I don't know Samsung devices well enough, but AFAIR they also offer a "download mode". As you obvioulsy cannot even reach "recovery mode", maybe there's a chance to get there and see whether the device becomes visible to adb devices. If so, there might be a chance to "wipe" it from there, or using some of the Samsung-specific tools like Odin or Heimdall.

Thanks for your help, but I have given up trying to soft unbrick my phone.
I’ve tried to enter recovery mode, to no avail. However, I can get into download mode and I've already tried many unbricking procedures using ODIN, but none of them have worked.
I'm deciding whether I'll replace the main motherboard or not.
I'll keep up posting.

Giving it to service might also be a variant, at least if it's still under warranty. I know it's rooted, which voids that in most countries; but at least here in EU they make a difference (EU law says rooting doesn't void "implied warranty", which any manufacturer must ensure).

If you ever enabled "USB Debugging" in the Developer options, you can look at the ADB logs and see what's going on with your phone using a USB cable and the adb logcat. My hunch is that of Alex's i.e. "sudden death". It happened to my phone some years ago.

Sounds like it might be the "sudden death syndrome" problem. If so, Samsung should fix/replace your phone for you (even if you've rooted it):
http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-suffering-from-sudden-death-syndrome-20121221/

It could be a problem with a launcher such as Nova or Apex or it could be a problem with a 3rd party application. Try starting in safe mode and see if it is that :)

My S3 was stuck at the splash screen and couldn't go into recovery mode, and rebooted constantly when I plugged in the USB. So not quite like yours but similar enough that people might see my answer here.
My battery charge was at 8% when the phone quit (I tried to delete some corrupted movie files). I fixed it by turning it on till it was at the splash screen, then plugging it in and leaving it for about ten minutes. Eventually I heard the sweet sound of it continuing to boot up.

Dont worry, your phone is not officialy dead. It's in bootloop because of some corrupted partition or filesystem. Only one way out. You need to get into Download mode and flash some custom or stock rom using ODIN tool with full wipe. make sure you have 100% charged your battery , before doing such things.
You can easily find ODIN and ROMs for your model. If you dont know how to proceed, contact some friends or colleagues of your who had done such things earlier. You can also do this, just you need to follow the steps.
Your best resource will be XDA forums.


text:
How can I see what the search results in GooglePlay are in different countries for the same search term?
I have an app and I am wondering where it ranks for a certain GooglePlay search in different countries.
Is there a way to determine that?
Thank you!

No, you cannot see that. There is no such thing, all you can do is just track the activity of your app and see where it is most used. that is all.


text:
How to limit bandwidth usage
Can anyone suggest a suitable way to limit internet bandwidth? I am using 3G mobile data.
I know how to limit the maximum data usage but I need to control the bandwidth so that my mobile data allotment doesn't get consumed too quickly.
What I'd like is a way to control the following situations:

Sometimes we don't need the whole body of an webpage, hence it is desired that we can stop loading the page further when we wish. But on a high speed  connection you cannot stop loading the page before it gets fully loaded.
Some websites with embedded do not have an option to stop loading the video, hence sometimes leave me no option but to close the tab to limit data-consumption.

What browser are you using? I think you can disable media; that would help reduce data consumption.

See the answer to a similar question: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/79556/20840

It's not possible to limit the download bandwidth via code running on the device. It's up to the sender how fast to send data. All that such an app could do is to throw away packets once they arrive at the device, which is after they've been counted by your carrier. Those packets would then have to be resent, being counted again. The effect would be that websites &c. would take longer to load and use more data to do so.

Options could include telling the browser to not load images/videos by default (but on demand). AFAIK some browsers support that. If those files are not requested, no packets would be sent for them. A side-effect of this would be the pages being displayed faster, as loading would be limited to plain (HTML) text, maby some Javascript, and stylesheets.

If OS throws away the packets before it gets to TCP layer, it's noticed by TCP as loss and rate-limiting will come into effect, instructing the sender to lower their transmission rate. So yes, some packets are lost, but the overall download speed can significantly be limited.

@Mansour That's true, each packet drop will cause the data rate to decrease, but it will then keep increasing until more packets are dropped. That's useful for traffic shaping in general, but as I said, the overall effect is to increase the total data use as seen by the carrier.

If you mean that the data received after viewing a single page would be more than the actual page data, then yes that's right. But it's the slower speed of the connection that will save the user data over long periods of time. Speed of the connection has a large influence on usage. This is exactly what the OP asked about: how to slow down the connection to give user a chsnce to stop a bulky website from loading all its resources.

Instead of dropping the packet why can't the system send a delayed ACK at TCP level?

Opera Mini has options to enable loading images and also to specify the quality of images, if they are loaded.

If you are rooted:
Installing a firewall(like DroidWall) helps to prevent unwanted apps to access the network.
Installing an adblocker(like AdAway) will prevent ads from loading, and in turn reduce network usage.

To limit the bandwidth, switch from 3G to 2G. You will still have internet connectivity but It will be slower, hence taking a longer time to use up your monthly internet traffic. The bonus is that using 2G will probably also increase battery duration as it consumes less power than 3G.
On the other side, you can install a browser that has an option to load media only when you click on their placeholders.
I know that Chrome lets you enable data saver in settings which saves you around 15% of data while surfing (my usual percentage).

If you have root access for your android device, you can use "BradyBound" app. Which is available on playstore for free. You can simply limit the bandwidth using this app.
If you doesn't have root access, try "Bandwidth ruler free" (BWR). This free version of the app doesn't have access to all features.

Link to the app?


text:
Suspicious GPS behaviour
Sometimes, when I wake my Acer Iconia Tab A500 up, I see blinking searching for GPS icon near the clock, which disappears quickly. I already noticed something like this on other devices. The questions is: what is it?

Something accessing GPS I'd say. Hard to tell more without more information. Would be one of the apps you've installed. Maybe you've setup something location-based to be displayed on your homescreen? So this would have to be updated when you switch on your screen.

@Izzy It's hard to determine what app does this without deleting them all one-by-one and waiting for results. I hope someone noticed something like this. The matter is that the app tries to hide the fact that it uses GPS.

Sorry, but do you know how many apps had to be checked there? I could even name some who do behave like that (with good intention). But the answer would result in a long list (which is not how this site works). If your device is rooted, I could give you some starter to catch that app. Let me see, some basic stuff I've got in mind could help you out even if not rooted. I'll try to sum up an answer.

It's impossible to pin-point such app without closer information. But there are several helpers available to narrow down the list of candidates. Easiest way is if
Your device is rooted
and running Android < 4.1 (i.e. up to 4.0.x). In this case take a look at LBE Privacy Guard: Set GPS to "always ask" for all apps and see which one is touching it. LBE would then pop-up a dialog box and ask you to confirm/deny, optionally also to remember this decision. For all legitimate candidates, simply confirm and let it remember; for unwanted candidates reject and remember. If unsure, just don't let it remember. Along these lines, your candidate should reveal its presence.

With Android 4.1+, don't even try to install that app (your device would be locked into a boot-loop). Instead, head to XDA, where they have localized versions of its companion (e.g in this thread). It's quite bloated, but might help in your case.
Your device is not rooted
This makes it a little more tricky. No fancy popups helping you out here (to my knowledge). But you could use a permission scanner to narrow down the list of candidates. One possible candidate would be AppBrain Ad Detector – with the side-effect to also detect apps with dangerous ad modules in installed apps (SpyWare and the like):

In the first example screenshot (just click the image for a larger variant) you can see "May share your location" listed in "concerns". Which means the app displayed uses location and network. To not have to open each app separately: the second screenshot shows you can list apps by permission.
Alternative helpful candidates include Guardian Droid and Permission Explorer:

With some luck, your investigation leaves you with only a few candiates (with great luck it's just one, and you've found the culprit). Now you can see if you can (temporarily) disable those, and whether the problem is gone this way. If so, enable them one-by-one until the problem re-appears – which is after you've re-enabled the app you're looking for.
PostScriptum
Above described steps can similarly be applied to other permissions as well :)


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Cannot open Gallery to delete files, due to running out of space
I have a rather funny though annoying problem. I've filled the memory of my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 up with photos, videos, apps and offline maps, and now I have a "Not enough storage space" warning. I would like to delete the photos and videos I do not need, but when trying to open the Gallery, I get a message "Not enough space. Delete unnecessary items such as ... pictures, videos..." So I need more space to run Gallery to free some space. Any workaround?

Have you checked with the insufficient-memory tag-wiki? There you'll find some first aid. Quick hints: Use a file manager if you've installed one, otherwise (temporarily) remove one or more "less important" apps.

@Izzy, thanks but all that it mentioned in the wiki I already know. I have 70 MB free (i.e. >25 MB stated in the wiki). Plus the question is basically about the Gallery problem, I think I did not make it clear enough. I am not sure why it cannot even start (if each photo is on the order of a few megs). Anyway, the hint about the file manager is worthy. Maybe you could post it as an answer. Please indicate the path where photos/videos are stored by the Camera.

The camera files are generally stored at /sdcard/DCIM/Camera on a phone whose camera option for storage has not been changed. Otherwise, the camera settings will still lead you to the storage location.

While several hints can be found in the insufficient-memory tag-wiki, you case seems a little special – as you report to still have ~75 MB free (3 times the limit this error should be triggered).
This should even enable you to install a file manager (if you have not already done so, or a useful file manager was pre-installed). So in order to remove some photos/videos, you could start the file manager and look into the "usual locations". I've put that terminus in quotes, as different apps seem to place them into different locations.
Most photo apps save their images below /sdcard/DCIM, many use their own folders here. But as that is not related to your "phone storage" (SDCard, whether internal or external, should never trigger that issue), there might be a similar folder on phone storage. Irritates me a little, but I've read that before a few times. So make sure to use a file manager supporting this (alternatives below). Next to the DCIM folder, also check Pictures, Photos, Video, media, Music, and Documents, if they exist.
A good alternative to "local" file managers (apps that is), there's always the option of using ADB (if you've not yet installed it, check out Is there a minimal installation of ADB?). In case you're not used to the Unix/Linux command line, tools like QtADB might come in handy, offering a graphical file manager (amongst other things). On a rooted device, and with the help of adbd Insecure, you could even access the entire file system this way (careful!).

I was running out of space, not even to be able to run Gallery to delete contents.
Try the "My Files" app to manage all files (images, videos, music, and documents.) Go to My Files > clear your cache and clear your data > then go to Gallery and delete photos and videos.

Could you mention the link of this app?

My Files app is the standard file management app with most Samsung Galaxy devices. Its simplistic, with low overhead, because of its rudimentary features. If you can't find it in your app drawer, you may have disabled it in favor of something stronger? Look for it in Application Mangement, possibly in the disabled tab/section.

If you go into your files, you will see a photos and videos sign. Click on that and it should say delete. If it does, click it and choose which ones you would like to delete.

An alternative way is to uninstall some applications that are huge in size.
In this way the internal storage can be freed enough to open the gallery app without insufficient memory error.

The only solution to "NO space to draw images" while opening the Gallery is to connect it to a computer via USB then delete all unwanted photos from the Gallery and/or all WhatsApp images. Even delete other videos and audio files in the WhatsApp folder (if applicable).
I tried this and it works every time.

I had a similar problem. The solution is very easy. Try these three alternatives.

Stop running apps that you aren't using. You have to stop them from the Settings - App manager. Now try to open your gallery.
If it doesn't work, simply reboot your phone and open your gallery to delete files.
If these two don't work, take a backup of your phone (better to PC) and restore the phone to the factory setting.

Try this, I hope this will work for all of you.
Go to Settings, Storage and then format the USB storage as this may be the reason why Gallery could not be opened as it is eating up the internal storage capacity of your phone .
I have tried hard reset but still this USB storage was seemed not wipe out.

Go to Settings/Storage/Pictures & videos and start to delete items. After you delete a few, you can then go to the camera and now access it normally.

Open Gallery, tap settings, select content to display, deselect Picasa and they will magically disappear.  Where they go, I don't know.  But they're no longer in my Gallery!!!!

I'm not so sure this will work since OP already said he couldn't open Gallery in the first place.  That said, this looks like hiding the photos from displaying, not deleting them, thus not sure how it will fix the "out of space" issue.


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How to revoke the authorization to view my Google account for an app (e.g. Feedly)?
I recently installed Feedly on my phone. It asked me the authorization to access my Google account. Now I want to revoke this authorization, but I don't know how to do this.
I searched on my Google account (via web) under the Security part, but Feedly is not listed there.
I have an Android 4.3 stock ROM and, if important, my Google account is not a Google+ account.

You need to go to the 'Connected sites and applications' section on the security page and click 'Review Permissions'. From here you should see Feedly listed like this:

Click the "Revoke Access" button and Feedly will no longer be able to access your account.

This was the part that I was talking about in my question. I don't have feedly listed there, I just give it my permission via the android app. I think you have this part because you logged via web to feedly too, I didn't do it.


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App held for ransom by Android. Can not uninstall: Privilege denied
I have downloaded "Root Swapper Extended Memory" from the Google Play Store, and now I am denied the privilege to uninstall this app. More detail about denied privilege:
• Cannot Uninstall
• Cannot move to card
• Cannot Force Stop
• Cannot Clear Cache

Could you post a screenshot which shows what you describe as "denied privilege"?

Are you speaking of this app? AppBrain lists it as possible spam/malware (searching for the app name there, you'll see it's "masked" in the result set). Though the permissions shown don't indicate it: Have you checked whether the app might have registered with the "device manager"? If so, you'd need to first unlist it there.

If you go to Settings > Security > Device Administrators do you see the app listed there?
If so uncheck the checkbox and you should be able to un-install the app (using the play store app or from the application manager)


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How can I use internal sd for ClockworkMod on a Motorola Defy?
I've got a Motorola Defy I want to install CyanogenMod on. I have been following these instructions: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_jordan?setlang=en
I have got as far as running ClockworkMod but when I select "choose zip from sdcard" I get the following errors.
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0)
(no such file or directory)
Can't mount /sdcard

A bit of Googling suggests that I won't be able to access my SD Card using ClockworkMod on the Motorola Defy and need to use the internal SD instead.
So what I'd like to do is put my ROM .zip files in the internal storage and have ClockworkMod access them there.
There seems to be a reference to this on the CyanogenMod wiki instructions:

"If you boot directly to recovery and have an internal sdcard, you may
  need to run adb shell mount /data or mount data through the recovery
  menu before transferring."

But I don't understand what I need to do for this to happen.
Any help would be much appreciated.

It means that the recovery does not mount the internal memory by default, and you need to do so manually.
On your PC download and install Android SDK tools which gets you the ADB utility.  Reboot your phone in Recovery mode and connect it to your PC via USB cable.  Install the drivers if prompted (use drivers that ship with SDK tools under the \sdk\extras\google\usb_driver\ subfolder.)  Now run Command Prompt, navigate to where you installed the tools (e.g. cd C:\Android SDK\sdk\platform-tools\ ) and issue the following command:

adb shell mount /data

You now should be able to use the "adb push" command in Windows Command Prompt to copy files from your PC to the phone using the following syntax:

adb push [path-to-file-on-your-pc] /data/

After the copy completes, you should be able to find the copied file in the Recovery's file browser.


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How can I auto-end the media process on Android?
Media is consistently topping the list for battery usage at 80%+. I can go and force stop it, but it restarts by itself, when I use things such as camera or download things etc.
Task manager does allow you to auto end applications, but as media is not an application it is not on the list. Is there and app or any other way to auto-kill media on a NON rooted phone?

Seems like it would be far more useful to find out why the media scanner is using so much of your phone's battery.
I had a similar situation once, and it turned out to be caused by some filesystem corruption on the SD card. I took out the SD card and used fsck on my PC to check the filesystem for errors, and repair it. I then put the SD card back in my phone: media scanner ran once and finished normally. It no longer ran all the time, running down my battery.
You might like to try something similar before you attempt something that might stop apps on your phone (such as Gallery) working properly.

The "media process" gets triggered by different applications. Some of them you already encountered: Camera and Download. Basically apps which add new media (or manipulate existing ones). They are signaling the media scanner that there are changes to process (so the media database gets updated). As the media scanner is, simply spoken, just a "system process", you don't see a related app.
Auto-Killing would not be very helpful in this case (for the described reasons, media scanner must do its job or e.g. the gallery wouldn't find your fresh shot pics). It rather might be that some app requests its services much to frequently (that was the issue in another case I encountered recently, but I don't remember the app causing it). So you would need to find the culprit causing that (not killing the obedient servant): Go through all the apps you've installed and check which one might deal with media (if the problem just started recently, it's even easier as you can concentrate on those recently installed/updated). See if you can temporarily disable/remove them, and if the problem is gone with that. If so, re-enable them slowly one-by-one until the problem re-appears – which is when you just re-enabled the culprit which thus is identified. That's the app you either need to find a replacement for, or have the dev fixing the issue.

Done a factory reset, used super backup and transferred some files to PC before the wipe. My battery life is back to normal now... 18 hours.


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Missing some of the applications while updating existing apps in my galaxy s3
While updating the existing applications like Google maps, Play Music etc from the play store in my Galaxy S3, some applications like Navigation & 2 more disappeared from my phone. why is this happened? What can I do to restore them?

Google maps new version is all rounder application for your navigation and maps, You can find that feature inside your new google map application itself, That's the reason why your applications has been some applications are replaced with brand new application which offer all features of replaced applications.

The "2 more" most likely include Latitude, which was removed from Maps and instead (partly) integrated with Google+ now

What exactly you are trying to say BIT?

As updating some app will lead to temporary removal of apps from the Application Drawer . So you can simply Reset Your Phone by pressing power button for 5 seconds . It will reload all the states of your Phone. Just Try it
IT WORKED FOR ME EVERYTIME


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How do I transfer contacts from a Nokia 3110 to an Android using a Mac?
I have about 700 contacts on a Nokia 3110 handset that I want to transfer to my Android phone.
Transferring contacts via my SIM card is a slow process as I can only 200 do at a time. Moreover, I cannot be sure of which contacts have already been transferred.
Is there a faster way this can be achieved with a Mac?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY15LWHF2mM

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Import-Contacts-to-Android-from-a-Nokia-Phone-146309.shtml

You just need to create a .vcf file on your SD card and copy that to your Android phone
Or
Using your SIM card when you copy contacts select 'move original' to SIM from phone
Or
Connect your handset to your pc via pc suite and sync. Connect your Android phone to your pc and transfer them to it

First try syncing all your nokia's contacts to PhoneCopy. And then install Phonecopy to your android.And you are done.
http://www.phonecopy.com/

how can I upload my nokia 3110c contacts to Phonecopy ?

https://www.phonecopy.com/en/phones/view/nokia_3110_classic?referrer=Nokia

Instructions regarding the software in the link are required. Please note that we expect detailed answers not just drive-by answer-cum-comment. Also see [answer].


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Where is the backup folder of TextSecure and Signal?
In TextSecure, you can choose to backup your SMS to the SDCard.
It says "Success" but there is no evidence where it does store it on the SDCard.
I cannot find it.

Like Chahk said, the folder is /sdcard/TextSecureExport. I've had trouble accessing it (even after moving it) over the camera-centric USB interfaces.
I ended up compressing the file to a Zip archive using ES File Explorer and then using Google Drive to browse and upload the file. This also makes it easy to pull back down to a different device or after wiping memory.

I'd recommend encrypting it first before copying it to Google Drive (with something like APG) unless you're happy with Google seeing all of your "secure" text messages.

The backup is already encrypted by TextSecure, unless you back up with the option to not do that.

The folder is located just in the base dir of your SDcard:
/sdcard/TextSecureExport

Since Textsecure is now called Signal, there is no extra folder. It is located directly in your SDcard home folder:
/sdcard/SignalPlaintextBackup.xml

Note: sometimes the phone doesen't show the folder on your computer, then you could use a filemanager on your phone (like Ghost Commander) to move the backupped files into another folder that is visible on your computer.

My Android Signal app version 4.10.12 (date 2017/10/01) saves media of conversations in Device storage > Pictures.


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How do I actualize the visible files in File Explorer on Windows browsing SDCard of Sony Xperia Ray?
If I browse my SDcard on Windows 7 I can see only the folders that where there the first time I connected the phone via USB.
When I create a new folder on the device later, It is not visible in the Windows Explorer.
these are the steps to reproduce:

connect the phone via usb to Windows
open the sdcard in windows explorer
use ES File Explorer to create a new folder on the sdcard

now the new folder is not visible in Windows. Even a refresh with F5 doesent make it visible in Windows.
How can I solve this problem?

How does the topic match your post? What are you trying to delete/modify? Can you give an example path? You won't be able to touch the /cache this way, as it's not exposed to the computer. And maybe you are dealing with different locations (internal versus external SD card)?

"Connected via USB" is still a bit unspecific. Does it use USB Mass Storage? In that case, it's no longer accessible on your Android device. Done via MTP, it might require a refresh (F5) in Windows Explorer to tell it something has changed. If Explorer caches the remote directory, it might be stupid enough to stick to that cache even after a re-connect; a refresh should do the job in that case as well. Otherwise remember the message: "You moved your mouse pointer. Please reboot for the change to take effect."

You are just wrong. See my answer, the only solution i found was to reboot Windows. It would be interesting though if there was another solution. I desconnected and reconnected a few times, still the new folder wasn't visible in Windows.

Just disconnecting and reconnecting the phone is not enough.
You have to restart Windows. Then the freshly created folders will appear in your filebrowser n Windows too.


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How to show screen touches on Android 2.3
I have to show my Android 2.3 phone on a projector and I like audience to see what control I touch. There is a developer setting in Android 4 to show touches.
How can I do it in Android 2.3? Is there an app for it?

It depends on your device. What phone are you using? Have you tried going to Settings > Device and clicking "Build Number" several times? That should enable developer settings. I had it on my old HTC desire on 2.3... without that build number thing but I know from my S4 that samsung hide it intitially.

Related: How to display touch points on screen

It is a Sony Xperia X8. I tried to push the Build number sign several times but nothing showed up. Any idea?

@Nestor I'm not too familiar with Sony I'm afriad,  usually that works. Can you not see it through SETTINGS > Applications > Development?? If you have gone through all the options, try the XPeria X8 section on XDA developers, they will have an answer for sure. Sorry can't be of more help.

I couldn't find any setting for it. I try XDA, thanks for the tip.

At XDA, they don't consider the X8 as a "living" phone, it is deprecated, so nobody cares about my question :S


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Possible to estimate the number of users for an Android app?
Are there any statistics that indicate how many users an Android app has based on the number of reviews for it? Are there other ways to tell how many users are using an app?

You mean beyond the the range of installs displayed with each app?

@AlEverett: Oh where can I find the range of installs?

Scroll down a bit on the app's web page. It'll be between "What's New" and "Similar" under the heading "Additional information".

On AppBrain, you can find the number of installs right at the beginning of the page for the app:

On Google Play, you will have to scroll a little further down, as with the relaunch the summary has moved to a less ideal position:

It's just a raw number of installs done via Google Play, and does not include other sources (such as AndroidPIT, Pdassi, or Amazon). I don't know how is dealt with users who installed an app and later uninstalled it, but that number should at least give you a raw idea.

The number you see on Play is total installs rather than current active installs.

Mark did imply that total installs is also acceptable.

I use many services for tracking the data related to my apps, for example: How many current active users and much more.
For checking the performance of a specific app:
If you want to track from your android phone you can use apps like this:
App Stats for Android (beta) (Phandroid review).
And a very great performance online monitoring tool is New Relic. It can help you track down the realtime data just by including their small SDK in your app (if you are a developer).

Hi, you said "I use many services", which ? Thx


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How are apps ranked differently between GooglePlay search and Category listings
When I do any search like "games" or "business" in GooglePlay, I get a certain way in which the apps are ranked.
But for some reason, in the category listings, the app are listed in an entirely different order.
Would you know why there is such high discrepancy? And what factors the category listing takes into consideration?
EDIT:
Here is an example:
@Izzy Sure, when I type "business" into GooglePlay search, this app comes up as #5 for me. But when I go through Categories --> business --> free, I have to scroll all the way to #140 to see that app. Why does difference happen?
Thanks,
Alex

Maybe you could give an example, so we can understand better? Thanks!

@Izzy thanks, I just added the example in my original question.

So you are not talking about ranking in the sense of rating, but rather about the position of the app in the list displayed? That's comparing a category listing versus keyword search. It could simply be the keyword is present more often in that app's description than in others.

@Izzy Yeah, I am talking about the position in the app store where the app is displayed.

OK, now that's perfectly clear :) Unfortunately, I don't know the algorithms used by Google. Let's see if someone else does. Good luck!


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how to change the default download folder on android pad
From time to time, you need to download files into your android device, but the downloaded files always end up in the default folder. Is there any way I can change that default folder or make the device prompt me every time I need to download files?

What exactly is an "android pad"?

@AlEverett Something like an iTablet running Android :) Downloads always end up in /sdcard/Downloads with most apps (to be honest, I know of no exception yet). Daniel wants to customize that.

I think this is a very valid question.  It's pretty obvious he means tablet.

Related: How do you change the download location for Chrome Browser?

Related: Change Default Save To Directory For Content Downloaded From Apps

Related: Where are saved pages stored?

You should use the dolphin browser. While downloading file from the internet a popup appears and allows you to change the destination to save the file wherever you want. Hope you are looking for that. (Still figuring out android pad?)

I don't think this is possible.  However, here is a very good file manager you could use to move the files after downloading: ES File Explorer

on Samsung, swipe down, go to settings (gear icon upper right)
search for sites and downloads
WAIT  - scroll down and DISABLE SAMSUNG Internet! TURN IT OFF!
then scroll up to "Sites and downloads"
"Save downloaded files to" NOTE: ONLY when Samsung internet is OFF will the option to save to SD Card will become available.  I then simply pointed to the Download directory on the SD Card
This process worked on my Samsung 5G FE (Fan Edition) phone.


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Why does my Nexus 7 (1st gen) never let me copy my files to my PC?
I have a 1st gen Nexus 7 and I've been having trouble copying files to and from my Nexus 7.
The first problem is that when I plug my N7 into my Windows 7 PC, using the factory cable, the device shows up in My Computer, then immediately disconnects, then reconnects then disconnects and finally connects. This is so infuriating as for about 15 seconds it's just showing then disappearing constantly.
Once its' finally connected, I'll navigate to a file and drag it to my PC, to copy. As soon as that happens, an error box saying "A device attached to the system is not functioning". Then the explorer window disappears and my device has to reconnect.
It's driving me mad, it's not worked for about 6 months and I'm at the point of smashing it with a hammer. I've completely re-installed Android from Google's stock ROM. I've re-installed the drivers on my PC, got rid of the ADB drivers.
Any ideas?

This doesn't seem to be a software issue. Everytime I had an issue like that, it was because of the cable, try getting another cable and see if it works.

I've been able to use ADB successfully to push stock roms, so I'm really not sure if it is. Though I'll be sure to try another cable.

I was having a similar problem.  What I did was install ES Explorer on my Android and use the LAN option.  On the PC I setup a share folder(s). In ES Explorer I went to the folder with the file(s) I wanted to transfer, I copied them. From there I went to LAN page and tapped on search, takes a few seconds, then tapped on icon for my PC (192.168.x.x.x). Then choose where I want to put the file. Real easy work around
You can also use ES Explorer to transfer between other devices (wifi hotspot, Bluetooth, FTP...)
Good luck!!!

First off I wholeheartedly agree this isn't a cable issue. There are all sorts of bugs I'm finding with android kitkat. I also got this error. I was copying about 5 folders of music and a single song. Two folders copied fine before i got the error. Brute force re-attempt and the second time it started but timed out, at which point it lost connection to computer.
I had to reenter the password to unlock the device and it showed in windows again. This time, instead of letting the screen timeout, I purposely pressed the power button to put the screen to sleep. This time the connection stayed and the transfer completed successfully.
Try turning the screen off after it is connected to the computer.

In addition to FTP server for file transfer, you can also try an app like Airdroid or ES File Explorer which will allow you to transfer files using wifi. MTP protocol is cumbersome and not very stable. There might be an issue with Nexus drivers on your PC. Have you tried copying from another PC?

This problem is related to drivers installed by windows for the usb to nexus, there are  solutions for the nexus 4 and 5 which require you to remove this in hardware settings, and replace with someone other than microsofts driver, wifi is probably an easier solution if you have a router

This certainly isn't a cable issue, as Raghd Hamzeh suggets. I have (had) exactly the same problem with 2nd generation of Nexus 7 tablet. In my opinion, it is a very poor, weak and unstable MTP protocol, that you have to use on any Android 4.x, which is responsible for your problems.
The only fix or work-around to this problem (to not to break my tablet with a hammer), I found out, was as stupid as setting up local FTP server (Baby FTP Server was ideal for this kind, one-time solution) and installing FTP client to my Nexus and then copying files that way, through FTP protocol.
I know, that MTP protocol is very, very unstable and forcing users to use it (i.e. removing native USB support in Android 4.x) is a Google very not funny joke. And it thrills me, that I have to use such stupid solutions, to solve such obvious things, like copying files to my own mobile device.

Try a different USB port.. I worked beautifully for me!!!