text:
[re]mount the internal sdcard on the Huawei U8836D (G500 Pro) please?
Good day
re: Huawei U8836D (G500 Pro)   ICS
It is an old phone now I realise, however until I [ignorantly] ruined it yesterday mine was going strong.
As I understand, it has ~1GB of RAM and a ~4GB in-built SD card....I think. There is the external SD card slot, where I have had an 8GB card in.
The internal card ,as I call it, used to show up in the storage details screen until I stupidly repartitioned it following link2sd article(s), in the hope I could 'expand' the available space.
The internal card does not now show up in the storage details and appears not to be mounted (is that the correct term).
I am not confident on android, but can get around ADB, linux etc reasonably ok. Rather than start to dump extra info right now, please let me know what I need to provide as I/we go along.
Therefore, I would really appreciate if some knowledgeable kind soul will spare some time and guide me through getting each storage area back and working as it should please ?  - if that all makes sense.
Thank you.

continue after the reply post (my apologies if this is not the correct way to add more details):
Thank you for the reply. I am a bit puzzled.
I have removed the external card - as for one i was getting a 'low space' message which has ceased now it is out and for another reason, to remove its affects on the output to the system tools just leaving the phone and its internal storage however that is.
Now, when I connect phone  with USB to linux, I was able to fdisk the device listed in /dev, but the print showed its size at a little over 2Gb.  I was then able to format the one primary partition to vfat and reboot successfully.
Yet when using adb shell and running mount and df, there is no info reported on the existence of that 2Gb vfat partition. Under /dev/block on the phone, there is only the mmcblk0 entry and its associated parts 1 to 6 (im not familiar with this structure so sorry for being vague). If I fdisk that mmcblk0 the print displays a size of just under 4GB. I'm not sure what that all means yet (need to try find some articles on how android uses storage).
My question now, is with the phone connected in adb shell, can I safely repartition that mmcblk0 (removing the I presume the boot time setup partitions of type id's 5 and 83) into 2 partitions of types 83 and 0b, reboot and the machine will sort itself out accordingly using those?
If not, how do I get the 2Gb of that 4Gb showing up to use, as 'storage menu option' from the android ics menu doesn't show it, file manager app doesnt show it etc (even link2sd cant see it)  ?
I am making progress even if I seem to be wafting about in the air :-)

On Linux, GParted can allow you to view the partitions. You probably formatted it to some ext, which is not supported by the file manager, but is supported by Link2SD. That is normal, the internal storage isn't supposed to show up if it has been repartitioned for Link2SD. In case you want to revert, use GParted or whatever to reformat the internal SD to fat32 and you're good to go.

If this is an okay answer, please let me know, I'll make it one.

I am not very familiar with Linux, but you should try going through the block device codes to get a clue as to the correct partition, and then manually mount it as I suggested.

Since you are okay with Linux and ADB, let me first clarify 2 things:

Repartitioning the internal SD for Link2SD specifically as per the guide will partition it with a filesystem like ext2/ext3/ext4, which will cause partition to be recognized as system and not show up in most file managers. Some file managers, like ES File Explorer, may allow you to access it through the /mnt namespace, if it was mounted, or as some block device in /dev if not. Link2SD on first startup detects this partition by running some variant of the mount command and adding a mount-at-boot for this partition to init.rc and/or vold.fstab, and makes its permissions so that it isn't easily accessible even by the system.
This not showing up is intended behaviour, but you will find the partition under Link2SD's partition options as "SD card Partition 2" or some such.

Now, if you want to go back to using that internal storage for something, you would have to repartition the internal SD again, using GParted or some such software or Linux which recognizes an ext filesystem.
You will have to:

Find the correct partition for Link2SD.
Format it to FAT32, and set it as active and primary.
On device, mount the partition's block device (mmcblk0p6 in your case) as /mnt/sdcard0 and add this in init.rcand/or vold.fstab (Follow this and this answer).

For you the command to enter in vold.fstab will be
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto SDCARD=/dev/mmcblk0p6
And reboot. It should work. Format this position to FAT32, not VFAT, to avoid useless errors about "read only filesystem".
I'm not providing the commands here as you are familiar with Linux, and in this case on Android it's similar (a root shell through ADB).

thank you, i have added to my original question following your reply. Sorry if this is not the correct way - i am not familiar with the format of this question/answer setup.

It's all right, you are allowed to edit your question as it does not invalidate any existing answer.

well...I'm glad I did not do a repartition on the mmcblk0; that looks like it could be fatal  :-).  Any way, I think the vfat partition is /dev/block/mmcblk0p6  (using fdisk on that device).  I need to create a mount point under /mnt (e.g. /mnt/sdextra), but I keep getting 'read only file system' and I cannot find a way to resolve this. Please will you advise how to best edit the init.rc to insert the dev_mount line ?

You'll actually have to edit vold.fstab . also, I said to format to fat32, not vfat

fat32, yes you did!  My view was vfat formating (as in mkfs.vfat) on linux was F32 sized. I will check it again. I realise it will have to go in vold.fstab, but I wanted to ensure a mount point was available - at the moment there appears to be sdcard and sdcard2 set up by the init process.  I'll have a go for one of those to see if it works first. Thank you.

just before I continue....  the internal card appears to be  /dev/block/mmcblk0. In /dev/block there are  mmcblk0, mmcblk0boot0,mmcblk0boot1 and mmcblk0p1..p6.  If I fdisk and 'p' on mmcblk0p6 it shows mmcblk0p6p1 as the fat32 partition. Is it this mmcblk0p6p1 that needs mounting?   Incidentally, there is a dir /dev/block/vold and in it are the 179:0..6   and then a 179:96 and 179:97...this 97 one is shown in the output from mount when the external sdcard in....how do these relate ?  (i'll go read too). Thanks.

Don't you have something left over for the internal SD card? You repartitioned 2gb of 4gb, could you like extend the remaining internal SD partition over the repartitioned volume after deleting it?

I know that my problem is that i am just not familiar enough with the structure that this rom sets up when it boots.   I will have to take some time to get a bit more knowledgeable and try understand a bit more what's going on.  You have been so kind to help and what you have provided has been useful.  I will perhaps return once I have got a better understanding of how each bit is setup etc.

yes i will accept it.   by the way, i have sorted the problem....and it seems you maybe right about the format....i tried using mkdosfs -F 32 on the device itself and that brought the partition to life  (mkfs.vfat -F 32 via linux did not). Also, I applied it to the /dev/block/vold/179:6 and seems like its all back in order.  If nothing else, I have learnt something from all this :-).  Thank you.


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How to open Play Market via a voice command?
How to open Play Market application on Android via a voice command?
Command "open play market" in Google Now just searches the Web. I suspect this is a problem for any application of composite name.

I have never experienced any problem with composite names, it opens the app right away. With 'Play Market' you mean 'Play Store'? Because that's how it's called now.

It turns out, "open Play Store" command works fine. In my locale the application is still called Play Market, that has misguided me. Please create an answer.

Google Now has no problem opening apps with composite names. The problem is probably your voice command: the app is no more called Market. The right command is "open Play Store", which is the actual name.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Read Song Info Using Tasker
I'm looking for a way to have Tasker read the currently playing song title and artist out loud or flash it on the screen. I have the output part down (using 'Say' and/or 'Flash') but I'm having trouble getting the song info. I typically use Pandora (so I'd accept if the task only worked on Pandora), but also using Spotify.
I have tried both %MTRACK and %NTITLE, (neither of which ever seem to be set), and Media Utilities. Doing this entirely with Tasker and Secure Setting would be preferable (I'd rather not download a whole bunch of other apps/plugins). Also, the device is not rooted, and I'd rather not have to root it just for this.
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 running the stock Android Lollipop OS.

Is the device rooted? You can grep string from the output of dumpsys media_session. The description there would give you the song name, song's artist and other meta info. Alternatively, on a Tasker subreddit I learned that AutoNotification app can receive current notifications, so that may help too.

Another way is to find the opened music files using the command dumpsys  media.player and find them in the output of content query --uri content://media/external/audio/media. You would get all the information you need. The cost is, you need root access and media.player doesn't work for all the music players. An alternative for that can be lsof.

@Firelord, The device is not rooted, and I'd rather not root it, especially for something that might not work.

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


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How do I remove the OneNote Badge from the Android home screen?
I don't mind OneNote itself, but the badge icon stuck on the edge of the screen gets in the way of some controls in other apps. I know it can be moved, but how do I remove it?

This microsoft help page describes it quite well.
You might want to remove the notification from the notification tray first, as it's designed to keep the icon there for you.
Simply press and hold the badge, an "X" icon will appear at the bottom of the screen. Drag and drop the badge and you're done.


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voice navigation doesn't work in offline mode
I have save the offline map for my city including surrounding areas. When I tried offline street navigation (my prepaid SIM has no data anymore), there's no voice navigation. Is this normal? Thanks alot

Is voice navigation enabled? Is your volume turned up? Sorry if this sounds dumb, but we need to know. Also, offline navigation works for me with voice.

yes to all and GPS is enabled too. I can get directions but voice navigation is not working. thanks

It works for me. Check out my devices from my profile if clarification is required


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How to scroll horizontally in Terminal Emulator for Android
When I'm using Terminal Emulator for Android (also available here), long commands frequently scroll horizontally off the window.
I feel quite dense, but I can't find a way to quickly scroll left and right to see what I typed.  I also can't find a way to enable wrapping to just wrap content within the window.
How do you do these things?
I've read the FAQ, and don't see anything mentioned.

Do you have bash or ash shell? If yes, consider a switch to them. Both of them would have a configuration to auto wrap the content so you need not to worry about scrolling. http://i.stack.imgur.com/8EQYK.png

You could use a different terminal emulator app, there are dozens out there

@TamoghnaChowdhury That's certainly an option.  See http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/26818/terminal-emulator-for-android-with-specific-features


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Disappearing call logs later automatically it can be viewed....!
Am using Samsung note 3 neo from few day I am facing a problem in call logs whenever this is a missed call, dialed call or rejected call that will not show in call log for certain period later it will listed and show.. I have cleared all the cached files then also issue is presuming same. Please help !!

Need more details. What android version? When did it start happening (did it start happening after you did something specific)? Are you on stock rom?

Andriod Version : 4.4.2
Started from last 10-15 days back nothing specific i did
No idea about stock rom

Go to settings, then apps, scroll to show all apps, go down until you see a phone icon that says call and message log, force stop it and switch phone off, leave about 2 minutes and restart phone, should all be back in place, hope it helps


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Smart Phone Flash Tool Remain 0 percent
I have a Lenovo A3000 tablet and I want to flash it (Reinstalling firmware?). So I download my tablet driver and MT65XX Preloader drivers for Windows. After installing all of them, when I click on Download button on in Smart Phone Flash Tool it successfully detect the COM port number, but it doesn't start to send data. Why?
P.S: I tried above steps with Win 7 32&64 bit, Win 8.1 64bit and Win XP!

Does the SPFT version you use support the device? Please check and report.

@TamoghnaChowdhury Based on this link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdPT6QBtEqw and the page that I downloaded it, yes. It support. Where is the report?

I meant check out and report back, not "report".

@TamoghnaChowdhury The problem was with the version of SPFT and the firmware! The firmware wasn't for my tablet and that version of SPFT  doesn't notify me that it is not for this device! When I installed the latest version of SPFT and retied the steps, in the last step, when I click on Download, it alert me that Scattler file version is not consistent with your Tablet. And I understood that my Tablet is A3300-GV (Not A3000)!!! Now, I am downloading the appropriate firmware. Thank you very much.

Please check out the answer, I compiled one from the comments

Answer compiled from comments
The SPFT version you are using is probably incompatible with your device or firmware, and it is failing silently. Try downloading the latest version of SPFT and the correct firmware, and it should probably work.


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Use a disk image for Link2SD's 2nd partition
Well, this question is targeted for those few devices without support for an external SD card as well as merged storage, for example my Micromax Canvas Knight A350.
I thought this up today:
If we take a QEMU disk image file (.img), set it to static with a size for, say, 4GB and format it to ext2 and copy it over to the Android device's internal SD card, can we mount it as /mnt/sdcard2 or something similar as a loop device (it appears that loop device mounting is possible on stock Android 4.0.4 and up, at least for some Samsung devices)?
Secondly, will this work with Link2SD?
Context: My device, as mentioned above, has a 2GB /data partition which is fast running out. I thought this up as a last-ditch effort to extend its lifespan (because it has 25GB /sdcard0 partition`, and I don't use more than 12GB of it), and would like to get the theory of this validated or refuted before I go about trying this on my device.
NOTE:
Any alternative suggestions, such as FolderMount (kindly suggested by @Izzy in chat), are also welcome if these are accompanied with proper usage instructions for this specific case, that is, link folders from /data to internal SD.
Side Note: Not currently considering FolderMount as it's advertised for internal SD to external SD linking, not /data to internal SD linking.


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Phone stuck at boot logo, cannot wipe data/factory reset
I will explain what happened:
I opened up terminal emulator then typed cd /system/xbinls fsc* then /dev/block/vold/179:17 then mount then my tab got stuck and then it switched off automatically.
Then I turned on my tab and again repeated the process the same thing happened but one change now it does not turn on, its stuck at boot logo. When I open recovery mode and check the system partition it says system mount failed. Trying to wipe /data it says "mount /data error",  for force format /data it says "Formatting user data fail."
Please help someone

Which Phone/Tab?
Which Android?
Root? (I assume you had root? since you were Messing in System&Dev) Regards


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Amazon Kindle app and Personal Documents on Android emulator
How can I make the Kindle app in an emulator work just like on a physical device?
Background: I tend to buy ebooks directly from publishers and then send them to Amazon Cloud Drive to be converted into what Amazon calls "Personal Documents." Doing this allows me to synchronize annotations and bookmarks between my phone and tablet, just like with ebooks purchased from Amazon.
However, I'd like to get those annotations and bookmarks on my computer screen -- it's more convenient for me to type code while the ebook is up on the same screen, rather than having to keep shifting between computer and tablet. As others have noticed, the Kindle Cloud Reader and PC/Mac-based readers don't support Personal Documents fully (I believe the Cloud Reader doesn't support them at all; the native apps, last I knew, allowed you to sideload documents but don't synchronize them, but it's been a while since I tried); so I thought that since I have some Android virtual machines (using Genymotion) I might as well install the Android Kindle app there.
I was able to do that, and when I go to Amazon's Manage My Content and Devices page I can see the new device, but I can't seem to find a way to assign that device an Amazon email like my other, physical, devices. I also never see the Personal Documents in its list of books the way I do on my phone and tablet.
It used to be the case (around October 2014) that when I ran the Kindle app in the emulator, it displayed a progress spinner and "Checking for new items & syncing…" for an indefinite amount of time (I remember leaving it spinning for over an hour); now that doesn't happen, but still my Personal Documents didn't show up. In addition, if I reboot the virtual machine, the app asks me for my login information as if I had never run it on the device before.
So my main question is: how can I make the Kindle app in an emulator work just like on a physical device? Secondarily, I'm wondering whether the Kindle app somehow detect it's running in an emulator, and refuses to allow full access for that reason -- and if so, how; or is this some sort of subtle bug in the interaction between emulation and app?
I originally asked this on Ebooks beta StackExchange.

Are you fixated on that "closed environment" – or would you be open to more open alternatives (i.e. replacing Kindle/Amazon by an alternative app with similar features, including syncing your annotations etc.)?

I'm open to alternatives, although I don't look forward to re-annotating the things I've already done (especially if I can't have my annotations up on a big screen). But about 50% of the reason for posting this question is extreme curiosity on my part as to why Kindle behaves this way.

As for your curiosity: closed source and closed environment, they want to keep control – and something "in a VM" prevents that. I'm using Moon+ Reader Pro, which can do that sync part via Dropbox (I don't use the sync stuff, though). Annotations in PDF files even stay in the files themselves, so you can see them in any PDF reader (other formats such as EPUB are managed in an internal database only). Moon+ understands quite many formats, is well maintained and supported – but I doubt it can deal with the kindle's specific AZW files directly, so it indeed might mean to re-annotate.

Thanks for the recommendation. I tried Moon+ years ago and I recall that I didn't appreciate the way it rendered the mobi or epub books I threw at it; but things may have improved, so I will check it out. But I'm still dying to know what about a VM is detectable, if indeed the problem is intentional behavior; but since the app never remembers my login info either, I'm thinking it might be a bug.

Ah, the rendering. Tell you a secret: if you don't like that (Moony strips quite a lot of CSS and other formattings by default), check the settings for "publisher's preview". That gives you back the "original formatting". Moonies special formatting is good for very small screens; on a 10" tabbi (or PC full screen) that's not really needed ;) // I never liked the Kindle app. Tried it once, it asked me for an Amazon login (and didn't want to do anything without me giving it), so I removed it straight away. I want to read my books. Other people's books are in my physical shelves :)

I don't see that Moon+ is available on Windows, OS X, or Linux, so a big part of my use case isn't covered. Meanwhile I've discovered BlueStacks, which runs Kindle the same as on my tablet. That's great, but Bluestacks seems to use a strange business model they don't reveal to you at first -- you get "sponsored" Android apps automatically installed sometimes. I'm not able to find the price of the premium version, but it appears it's a yearly subscription.

Another one I might be trying out: Andy

You could also use Android-x86 in a VirtualBox VM, works quite well. Other alternatives are in my Emulators list (at the end of that page).


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Apps break after they are moved to SD card
I am running a custom ROM (so it might be that). I have write permissions. But when I move apps to SD card after a reboot they are gone. Going to the app manager a toast appears  "App isn't anvalible" (I know I spelled that wrong). What is my problem here exactly , and if you know can you help me out?

Which custom ROM and specific build of it are you running?

@Firelord Sorry for late reply . I am running CM 12.1 (made by Thinkers Dev BD) for the Walton Primo H3. It's still in beta though. (Beta 4)

The ROM had issues, so there's another way around it.
Root the device, make a second logical partition on your SD card,and install Link2SD.
Also don't forget to backup.


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Why is a suspicious program draining my battery with GPS usage?

Phone : nexus 5 version 2013
Android version : 6.0
Kernel version : 3.4.0-g2aa165e
Build number : MRA58N

For the last few days, 10118 has been draining my phone's battery. It drains battery by using GPS. I typed 'ps' in a terminal emulator, and there was no application with PID 10118. I don't know what exactly 10118 is. My guess is that it's one of recently installed weather apps.
How can I fix this?

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

That appears to be UID to me. See if you can find the associated package name using that as UID. This may help: How to know app name by UID Also, use a paste service (such as pastebin) to give us the output of adb shell dumpsys batterystats. You would need [tag:adb] setup in PC and USB debugging enabled in the device.

Confirmed @Firelord: it is the UID. And alternatively to installing ADB as recommended by Firelord, you can also try dumpsys batterystats from within a terminal app.

@Izzy, I thought about that recommendation too but the bare minimum privilege required to access a system service is ADB and the final one is root. That's what my attempt in terminal emulator told me.

@Firelord I was thinking about that. But while there's a permission to collect BATTERY_STATS, I found none to access them. I've not tried it either. So you have and it didn't work ("permission denied" or any other error)?

Interesting info. I think you're right about that. The proper denial message I receive is that user (user in terminal app) doesn't have the permission android.permissions.DUMP. So I guess two permissions would be required for successful execution of the command: permission to dump and permission to gather batterystats, or at least the first one to access dumpsys tool.

Ouch. You're absolutely correct, @Firelord: That requires the permission DUMP, protection-level "development", and (quote) "Not for use by third-party applications." So a terminal app wanting to access dumpsys would need to be at least pre-installed. And yes, I was blind here: "The information accessible with this permission is most likely comparable of that retrieved by the dumpsys command-line tool." (quoted my own permission description here ;)

The intriguing fact is that you can execute dumpsys alone without any problem. You won't get the error about that specific dump permission. All that would happen is you would see permission denial error for every  available service there. I used com.android.terminal app to access batterystats service and I got the permission error alike to terminal emulator. @Izzy

@Firelord The output of 'adb shell dumpsys batterystats' is on https://gist.github.com/crocket/1ac5999ef4679cbf542e The gist will be deleted after weeks.

'adb shell dumpsys package | grep -A1 "userId=10118"' returns no output.

Interesting output. There is clearly an app or at least a user ID 10118. See it in the output by searching u0a118. Tell me, do you have root access? When you tell me that, please provide the output of adb shell dumpsys procstats  and adb shell dumpsys location.

@Firelord adb shell dumpsys procstats : http://dpaste.com/2DVBP98 adb shell dumpsys location : http://dpaste.com/2GJ500A

Hmm, I was expecting procstats to show something useful. Guess I'll have to go with what location service is showing. I know the clarification I sought hasn't lead you anywhere, but if possible, could your provide the separate output for adb shell dumpsys package kr.co.kweather , adb shell dumpsys package com.google.android.dialer , adb shell dumpsys package com.aws.android,  adb shell dumpsys package com.wisemobile.openweather?

Only dialer had output. dialer : http://dpaste.com/1C2R76P I think kweather and openweather were deleted in the past.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

It's the UID of a removed app.
For such a number like 10118, it is the Unix UID for a user app (u0_a118).
There must have been a power-intensive app like a big game and you uninstalled it. Then there's nothing but its UID left, which is used in system logging.
Android does not log by app (for user apps), but its UID instead. So when you view battery usage, Android tells you the list by process UIDs, which contains one that has no app associated to it. Android cannot determine what app that UID is for, so it chooses to give you the UID directly, and that's the number you see.

If it's a removed app, a device restart should make the process go away.


text:
How to set Google Maps Home address accurately?
My home is in a remote location and as Google Maps doesn't have street-specific database for my location, I can't write my address like (House No, Street, Society, etc). I can only set my home to my society and the home on Google maps is around 200 metres away from my actual home (center of the housing society).
Is there a way I can set my home address accurately (e.g. through coordinates)?

Yes, is possible to set the home and work locations using coordinates. In Google Maps app go to menu -> settings -> edit home or work -> edit home address. Now enter the coordinates in the search box and it will be saved.
I am inclined to think that this will work, because I tried with random coordinates corresponding to a spot in the sea and Maps let me use them. If it doesn't, consider sending a request to Add a missing place, which you can do from inside the app as follows:

Search for an address.
At the bottom, touch the address.
Touch Add a missing place.

Note, though that:

Adding places using Google Maps isn't available everywhere, but you might be able to use Google Map Maker to add places that matter to you.


text:
Lenovo A850 bricked while flashing stock ROM
My phone Lenovo A850 (MT6582) bricked just now. I accidentally pulled out the USB cable when it was flashing stock ROM by using Smart Phone Flash Tool. Now it's not charging and won't turn on, like a dead phone. I can get into MTK Meta Mode by pressing Volume Up & Volume Down then connect the USB, with and without battery. But when I try to flash anything, it gives error 4032. Please help me this is not my phone and I broke it! It does nothing when I press power button.

Does it vibrate or display shows anything at least when you attempt to power it on?

Nothing happen when i press the power button ,

Are you sure that is the correct ROM for that variant of the phone you are trying to flash?, try changing varants if you are not sure because this problem mostly arises if the ROM isn't compatible with your phone, if you are sure of the model then I think the problem might be incompatible variants

Is your PC showing preloader devices connected in devices and printer menu
when you put the USB cable in your device without battery (press volume key 3 or 4 time)?
If it is showing, then you can flash your stock ROM again.

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


text:
Connectify and Galaxy Grand duos android 4.2.2 hotspot connectivity issue
When using connectify for the first or after a long time, the mobile connects just fine to the hotspot untill 2-3 days pass by and it disconnects and stops displaying the name of the network in the wifi networks list. I tried switching off and then on the network and my mobile's wifi but no good. The mobile does display other networks but not the one it was using for the past 2-3 days.

I got the solution finally. It so happens that there are 2 modes i.e the 2GHz and the 5GHz in a wifi adapter and the my mobile works in just one of them i.e. the 2 GHz mode.
All we need to do is change the mode of operation of our system or hotspot host.
For that:

Go to Device Manager.
Go to Network Adapter.
Acc. to my system I right clicked on the adapter by the name of
Intel Centrino Advanced N-6235 and went to properties
Go to Advanced. For those who want to know how the adapter
properties look like by hit and trial here is a snapshot of the
advanced tab of properties.

Choose "Preferred Band" and change it to 5.2GHz.
Click Okay and restart your hotspot the job is done !


text:
Google Play Services uninstalled on my phone
I'm using a Blu Energy X Plus phone and somehow managed to uninstall Google Play Services. It can still be found in Apps, under 'All' although I can't access it. It needs updating but the last 3 digits after the dash of the older version i.e. Version 7.5.71 (1955121-...) are not visible so I'm not sure of the exact version to download.
The only options available now are 'Disable' & 'Force Stop'. Play Store is still on, but behaving erratically.Should I delete what's left? And how?
I don't want to compound the issue but I have no idea what to do. Any ideas?

Google play services cannot be openedby the user.and if your system does show it in all apps i doubt that its uninstalled! all you can do is update it which is automatically done overtime by the playstore


text:
Back-up Contact before Factory Reset didn't go into vCard format but .txt, how to import it
My phone is Lenovo A859.
I did factory reset. Before doing that, they told me to backup my contact and SMS, so I did. After, when I wanted to import my contact, I saw that they saved both as .zip (separated, so I have 2 zips, one for SMS, another for Contact). Meanwhile, later I learnt the Import option on Contact Setting only accepts vCard.
Then I tried to saw the .zip on my desktop. Inside there's a .txt and .mt file. I opened the .txt file. Inside .txt I found a json (AFAIK it's json, CMIIW) formatted like this: (I changed all number to 0)
{
  "local_time": 0000000000000,
  "local_number": 000,
  "local_catogary": "contact",
  "ct": [
    {
      "fs": [
        {
          "f": "-1",
          "v": {
            "familyName": "somedude",
            "givenName": "adude"
          },
          "t": "NAME"
        },
        {
          "f": "MOBILE",
          "v": "00000000000",   ---> their phone number
          "t": "PHONE"
        }
      ],
      "op": "add",
      "st": false
    },
    {
      "fs": [
        {
          "f": "-1",
          "v": {
            "middleName": "randude",
            "familyName": "dude",
            "givenName": "dudette"
          },
          "t": "NAME"
        },
        {
          "f": "MOBILE",
          "v": "00000000000",
          "t": "PHONE"
        },
        {
          "f": "HOME",
          "v": "shalalala@dummy.com",
          "t": "EMAIL"
        },
        {
          "f": "YAHOO",
          "v": "yahooId",
          "t": "IM"
        }
      ],
      "op": "add",
      "st": false
    }
  ]
}

yah, an array member of ct seems to represent a contact: its phone number, email, even yahoo ID is possible. Then inside the info.mt file was only this:
local_catogary:contact;local_time:0000000000000;local_number:000

How do I import these files to my contact? I've tried and my dear phone rejected, saying "Couldn't import vCard", something about "wrong format". Then I tried seeing Wikipedia's entry of vCard. Seeing vCard format, no wonder it's rejected...
Some things I tried:

Changing .txt to .vcf (and later understood why it won't work with this file)
Using apps from store (app went weird, won't work)

What file is this? Is there any way to import this file to my Android phone as Contact? Or should I program something to convert this to vCard format manually...

How did you back up your contacts? There may be a way to import them again, using the same tool

@1990clb YE GOD SHAME ON ME... THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH! From your saying of the same tool,  I then went to Setting > Backup & reset, and found that there's an option of Restore from storage! And it did restore my contacts and SMS. Ye God because I wanted to restore contact, I was SO SURE it had to be done from Contact setting, and because I never did factory reset, never crossed my mind there would be that option... Thank you very much!  :')

@1990clb Now what should I do with my question if it's answered here? You write your comment as answered and I accept it, or just remove this question completely?

Usually if there is a way to export or backup contacts, there is a way to import them again through the same tool or application.
Check in the application settings or options to see if there is a way to import the contacts.


text:
My Galaxy Tab S is stuck in boot with no OS
My tablet was not working correctly so i decided to do a factory reset when it booted up it was freezing so I powered it off and entered recovery mode but then I accidentally deleted the OS. This was a huge mistake TWRP was giving me options of booting it into download mode, power off or restarting it. After trying to restart it and powering it offit kept going back to TWRP so I decided to go into download mode it entered without giving me the option off restarting or continuing i had no idea what to do so I opened Odin on my PC and applied a 'cf auto root' because i had done that the last time I seen the download mode. It worked and then it rebooted and now its stuck in the 'Samsung Galaxy Tab S SM-T700 powered by android screen'. The tablet is 11 months old and I still have a warranty I don't know if it is void or not. someone please help me.

Download the stock rom from Samsung or any custom rom from XDA that you like.
Go to recovery.
Wipe /system, /data and cache.
Install the zip file from within the recovery.
Wipe cache and Dalvik.
Reboot.

If you still have warranty use it, that's the easiest way.
If not:

Go to SamMobile Firmwares. Enter T700 in the search box. Click the search icon (the magnifying glass). Choose the country. Download the file. (You'll have to create a free account to download it.)
  Open Odin as Administrator, http://www.androidofficer.com/2015/01/t700xxu1anl2-android-442-xxu1anl2.html, but add all the files. The APxxx file goes into the AP slot, the BLxxx file goes into the BL slot, etc. (If the PIT button shows a file, there will be only one, so choose it. If not, leave it blank).
  THEN Start Odin, and it should give you back your tab. (It'll take a while.) The instructions on that site are for updating an existing system, you have to flash the entire system. You're in a bootloop because the file the bootloader runs isn't there any more, and updating doesn't put that file on the phone because it's not one that gets updated.

Credit: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-tab-s-8-4/494657-i-deleted-my-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-os-how-can-i-get-back.html


text:
How to fix a boot loop caused by editing build.prop. and formatting /system)?
I by mistake edited my build.prop file
it boot looped,  I then in recovery mode formatted every thing
even /system.
I downloaded stock ROM of INTEX AQUA POWER HD and tried to install it using sp flash tools but was unsuccessful. Then I used adb to pull build.prop to edit and pulled it
It was like a folder build.prop in which there was another folder xbin in which there was su file which wasn't the build.prop
How can I resolve this bootloop issue?
note: I have a mediatek device.

Go to recovery and wipe everything
Install the zip file of the stock rom that you downloaded from within the recovery.
Wipe Dalvik and cache.
Reboot.
Make a backup next time before modifying anything.


text:
Mount NFS Share in Kodi on Android TV
I have a Sony Bravia Android TV. Has anyone managed to mount an NFS share in the Kodi media center app? Any help is greatly appreciated.

I did, but not directly through NFS, but through Samba / SMB instead. But, since you have already figure this thing out then there is no point to follow this discussion.

Figured it out. One needs to add the insecure option on the server side,
/mnt/MOUNTPOINT IP (ro,no_subtree_check,insecure)
works on my system.


text:
Can we connect to a Wi-Fi automatically?
Suppose I have wifi password for a particular connection,so can I connect to it automatically?
Let's say I save the password on my server(Let's just say I have access to that),so can we connect to it automatically without doing anything? (For the first time user also)
Sample scenario: I have an app, and when I come in the range of the wifi, i automatically get connected to it.
Thanks.

Can't we do that? First time you've got to connect manually. Once the connection is stored, your device will always connect to that WiFi automatically whenever it's in reach.

I mean what if we don't enter it manually, can we do it otherwise? With some code? I want a functionality through which the user automatically get connected without doing anything. (we will know the password).

I think it is not possible if not very hard and complicated without root

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wefi.wefi, like this app. This doesn't require the device to be rooted. Right?

No. But neither does it add passwords (for the WiFi AP) to your device. I've also never heard it connects you automatically. If that were possible, it would be the first thing I'd disable – for security reasons. You never know where that would get you in.


text:
Will a magnetic case affect my phone?
sorry if the question is a bit off-topic but any help would be much appreciated.
I have a Samsung S4 [I9505] and I was looking for a good protective case for it. initially I was going for a Slim TPU Gel case but it didn't feel like it would give much protection from bumps etc.
I was thinking of buying a leather case with a magnetic closure but after reading a bit online, people are saying the magnetic flap which closes the case can damage the AMOLED screen, also the magnet that sits on the screen side. So do you think it could be risky to use this case? Would it damage my phone or screen in any way?

There are two things to consider:

Temporary interference with the device operation. Magnets can and do affect the device in various ways. This includes messing with the digitizer, creating dead spots and distortion, and potentially affecting sensors such as the magnetometer. These effects are temporary, but in severe cases could make the device hard to use, or result in misinformation from apps dependent on affected sensor(s).
Permanent damage. There seems to be a lot of controversy around this, but I would still recommend caution unless you know for sure that the specific components in your phone when combined with specific magnet strength and location with respect to the screen, are known to be OK together. As I understand it, there are certain AMOLED screens in older devices that are susceptible, but others that are not. In a large production run device like yours, the OEM may have used different suppliers over time, so it might be difficult to find out before hand if your particular device is susceptible. The specific case you get also matters. If you get a cheapo one from eBay and it damages your screen, you'll have little recourse with the case supplier or Samsung.

If you really need/want a magnetic closure, I would see if you can find one from a reputable manufacturer that has made the case specifically for your device.

I bought a magnetic flip case for my phone, and two major things happened:
1) after a brief period of working beautifully, the phone became more electronegative in some way, and I had to brush off any metallic objects such as pen caps or cetain keys whenever removing it from my backpack; and
2)  at this juncture, the GPS ceased to be able to tell where the phone was.  For a while,  it still functioned (but only if the magnetic case was on the phone.)  At this point, the phone was magnetic enough to cling quite firmly to the outside of my car, so I got rid of the case, and that's where we are with it.  Recommended for anyone longing for a way to undermine any remote snooping on the cheap.  Otherwise, no.

One experience-based data point: my boss has an S4 Mini in a magnetic closure case (with the small data window that depends on the phone detecting when the case is open or closed to display a compact clock when closed), and has had it for at least a couple years.  He uses the phone a lot, so I'm pretty sure I'd have heard if there was a problem.
No way to be certain that goes for all S4 family phones, but at least some are okay.

I have a Samsung galaxy android phone that was originally housed in a mechanically latched case. The latch broke and I bought a magnetic latched case. The phone did not work correctly, as if there was random noise generator turning on and off the APS and slowing down/delaying APS.
I tried to get rid of what I thought were corrupted APS, but achieved no change. Then after awhile and reading articles pro and con about the effects of a magnetic latched case I left the phone out of the magnetically latched cases.
Walla, the phone went back to working correctly after restarting. So if you are having these problems dispose of the magnetic latched case and see what happens?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 with a Shieldon leather case (an excellent case in all other ways) that has a magnetic closure.  From the phone sensors readings, when the phone is removed from the case the magnetic field drops from 250 µT to 40 µT. The compass is constantly wrong, as it indicates the North always towards the left side of the phone, although compass calibration is reported as "very good". Recalibrating the compass or removing the phone from the case doesn't have any effect.
EDIT: I manage to fix the problem by removing the phone from the case and recalibrating it. Related question: Is it possible to reset the compass calibration to factory settings?
Also, I remember that the magnetic case of the i-mate K-Jam (a PocketPC phone sold during the 2000s) caused the screen orientation to "stick" for a few seconds.
Apart from this, I've never experienced or heard about any ill-effect of the magnets to the screen.  However, it causes the issues above reported, so for what concerns me my next case isn't going to have any magnets.

There are flip covers without magnets (mechanically latched - also you can remove that if you don't need something to keep it closed).
I have a magnetic one, I had another problem, if I tried to pay with NFC it sometimes gave me errors.
I removed the two magnets by making an incision with a cutter, in the back and front cover, so that I can still use it for some time.
Samsung A8 2018 user.

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


text:
adb backup finishes without saving data
I'm using a rooted Google Nexus 4 (mako) with CyanogenMod 11 and adb 1.0.32 on OS X.
I also use disk encryption.
adbd is running as root.
I'm trying to create a full backup using:
adb backup -apk -obb -shared -all -nosystem

However, regardless of the options passed to adb backup, it asks me to enter my backup password on the phone and then exists, showing Backup finished on the phone.
It only leaves a 549 bytes backup.ab file.
Using the wrong or no backup password does the same but leaves a 0 bytes file.

I found out the question has been answered at ADB backup creates 0-byte file; prompts for current backup password even though I never set one; "Failed to set password" for Desktop backup password
The solution is to revert to android-platform-tools 19.0.1 which bring adb 1.0.31, backups are working with that version.


text:
Stay connected to specific Wifi which has no internet
I have a Nexus 5 with Marshmallow and another device with a built-in 5.8Ghz WiFi which is used for transfering videos from it. When I connect to this WiFi it keeps telling me, that it has no internet connection and thus obviously disconnecting automatically to find a better one. How do I keep the connection?
Some things I already tried:

set the freq to 5Ghz only
delete all the other known Wifis
manually add the wifi

Unless the connection is stable, I cannot connect to the device with its corresponding app. Are there any apps which could achieve that?
EDIT:
Logcat prints the following when the device disconnects:
12-23 20:29:09.368: D/IpReachabilityMonitor(777): clear: iface{wlan0/21}, v{4}, ntable=[]
12-23 20:29:09.377: I/wpa_supplicant(4270): wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=00:e0:5d:91:1b:ec reason=3 locally_generated=1
12-23 20:29:09.381: D/WifiStateMachine(777): WifiStateMachine: Leaving Connected state

What I found out so far, is that this might be a kernel problem. However, I have not found any references to android in this case.

Related: How can I stop Lollipop ignoring my wifi network? / Disable Internet access detection of WiFi networks? / Phone uses 3G even when connected to WiFi

Thanks for the hints. The adb shell removed the exclamation mark and I do not get any notifications about the missing internet connection anymore. However, the connection is still being dropped after a short period. It stays connected approx. 10 to 30 seconds and then disconnects. It reconnects, however the video transfer is interrupted. Any ideas?

Hey Denis, this is annoying as hell. When I tell my device to stay on one connection, I expect it to respect my wishes, not play the "Me thinks me smarter than U dumb user" card.

I now also checked the wifi with a Samsung Galaxy S5 device and it is working like charme there. I have no idea whats wrong with the stock android.

I found a possible solution for my problem.
I simply set the DHCP settings to static, give the devices an appropriate IP and Gateway, and left the DNS preset as it is (8.8.8.8) by following these instructions: Is it possible to assign a static IP address without a DNS?
Afterwards it still complains about the missing internet connection, but this time it keeps the connection.
I tested it on both my Nexus 5 and Nexus 9, and it seems to work.

finally found this, I was about to put internet in the router, then only allow ICMP ping requests and block all other internet requests so that the client devices keep connected, I assumed if the clients have access to ICMP ping they won't show internet missing

Android is preset in SU global settings to drop a WIFI that has no internet connection. Even if you select to 'stay connected', it is fickle and may still drop the connection; and each time the cycle repeats, the connection will be lost. But the command to drop Wifi with no internet can be changed in the SU global settings (a bit like Bios on a computer).
Why is this set to disconnect now there are so many WIFI devices that are not internet connected, cameras, drones, alarms, clean networks etc., and the phone owner has no control of the connection because of a background command in the android OS.
If you are competent to use ADB and fast boot this shell command works on marshmallow:
type su to enter super user mode (likely needs a rooted device). Then type the following command:
settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0

It disables the "drop wifi if no internet connection" function.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 speaker connection flickering, loose contact
Issue
The issue happens on my samsung Galaxy S3 model SGH-I747M.
The loud speaker doesn't work anymore unless I "hit" the back of my phone until it work again. But then I need to be VERY careful, because any touch to it can cause the speaker to stop working again. For instance, just putting the phone on a table can make it stop again.
Example :
I put some music to play without headphone. The music is playing in the app but there is no sound coming out. I hit my phone once and the sound start coming out then I put my phone on a desk and the sound stop coming out again even if the music is still playing in the app. I hit the phone on the desk a few times for the sound to come back. Since hitting the phone temporary fix the issue, I suspect the speaker connection is loose.
Issue solving
Playing music here was the easiest example, but alarm clock, phone ringning and every others apps that use the lound speaker does the same. Therefore, I suspect a physical problem. However, I don't know where the loose is.
Here they show how to change the speaker on the phone.
Changing the speaker would solve the issue only if the loose is within the speaker part. If it's before that, then it's won't solve anything I guess.
Question
Is the loose within the speaker part or within the rest of my phone?
If you can't tell for sure, then what are the probability for the issue to be within the speaker part?
Any other advice are welcome.

Similar issue overhere. I may have resolve my issue. Will update later to say what I did.


text:
4Gb Storage: Why can it only use 1.6GB?
Why do Android phones say they have 4GB storage but then cazn only use 1.6GB of it? Why is this? Is it possible to access all that other space?
If you see below it confirms how much space this phone has and how little (except for Apps) it really is using. Any advice how I can make the phone use all the available space?
Edit Its a Huawei Ascend

Let me guess: you have a Huawei?

As you don't tell us where those 4 GB are, I try a good guess: the device was advertized with 4 GB "internal storage". If you buy a computer with e.g. Windows pre-installed, which was advertized with a 250 GB disk drive, would you expect having 250 GB free there? Hint: The OS needs some storage space, too :)

Yes its a Huawei Ascend. So..?

@Izzy But the Android OS doesn't need 2.4GB right?

Android OS itself probably not. But your manufacturers "special UI" and pre-installed apps need space as well. Some manufacturers are pretty generous in "reserving" even more for possible updates. All that's on a separate partition (yes, your device's storage is partitioned) – see my answer here. 2 GB+ are pretty normal for /system – and then there's also /cache, /boot and /recovery on separate partitions, all "eating" from those 4 GB.

Give us the output (screenshots) of Diskinfo

You are only able to use 1.6 gig because 2.4 are required by the android system. This includes all 'the code' and default apps, ringtones/sounds, backgrounds etc. You can free some of this by rooting your phone and using tools but to expand beyond this you will need to add a micros SD card.
I sympathise with you, this is a very annoying niggle all android providers do. can confuse many people. (with a 16gb s5 you get about 10 gig of space)

Ok, I understand your problem. And there is the answer:

Storage (click to enlarge)
Now you will see here that the system memory acquired is 3.35 GB. Yes its true. And also my os is android 6.0
So you can get that the storage is of android system which includes OS and G-Apps.


text:
su fails: "wget: bad address 'static.zhiqupk.com'" and unable to unlock bootloader
A friend of mine bought a used Samsung Galaxy S6 or at least we thought so, but it looks that it might be a chinese phone. After wiping all data/cache, the phone still had a lot porn/advertisement apps, so we decided to burn original ROM. The only problem is that, we can't get to unlock bootloader.
When I try with adb oem unlock, it just hangs by ..., i.e.
$ sudo fastboot devices
mt6572v1_phone  fastboot
$ sudo fastboot oem lock
...

So I tried adb shell and try to get root access, to see if can do anything from inside:
$ sudo adb shell
shell@rtech72_we_72_kk:/ $ su
wget: bad address 'static.zhiqupk.com'
Unable to chmod /data/.n.b: No such file or directory
        pkg: /data/.n.b
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.android.commands.pm.Pm.runInstall(Pm.java:982)
        at com.android.commands.pm.Pm.run(Pm.java:120)
        at com.android.commands.pm.Pm.main(Pm.java:83)
        at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.nativeFinishInit(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.main(RuntimeInit.java:243)
        at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Killed

So this looks for me like a custom ROM with full of spyware/adware/viruses. Any idea how to remove this stuff and get original firmware on it?

Reading this article, I'm afraid you're right your friend bought a fake one. The mt6572_phone seems to give a hint of MediaTek 6572 processor, which the original doesn't use... in this case, you might want to refer rooting MTK-based on Linux PC, but I doubt you can flash S6 ROM, because it's not S6 in the first place. You could try finding a better custom ROM on MTK Roms or XDA forum (be sure to use correct ROM).

And spyware/malware it definitely is: zhiqupk.com belongs to a Chinese tech company, "Hichina Zhicheng Technology Ltd" (just google that, including the quote marks – results raise suspicion; but they also own e.g. www.mobogenie.com). Why else would a simple su command (w/o params) do a wget from there. // So as Andrew already suggested, getting a clean ROM on it is the best (and only) solution.

@Izzy, I didn't do wget, I did su and su calls wget. But, since this address does exist anymore, wget fails and so su also fails with NullPointerException

@Sasa Fully understood – saw that in your commands, and that's what I've meant: su means "switch user", not "download stuff". If a simple "su" (without any command added to it) does some wget, I call that "malware" – not only it's not the intended behaviour, but a fully unrelated one. That "wget" is a "backpack command", making the "su" binary a Trojan.

I think I'm taking a neutral side... Googling "zhiqupk" returned com.zhiqupk.root as the first result for me, which I believe (but feel suspicious) is to root the device on-the-air (probably using exploit). So I kind of under impression that it's "somehow" help user to root the device easily, but with unknown threat. Anyway, better use a safer method to root.

If you have got a fake "s6", at this point, I'd be more concerned about the hardware actually present. This phone probably only resembles the S6 in looks, so any ROM or firmware written for the S6 won't work on this phone. If you are able to properly identify the phone (someone mentioned that its MTK based), you may be able to root it, and if you are lucky, you might find a custom rom for it on XDA. But honestly, I wouldn't keep my hopes up.


text:
S4 CM 12.1 Problem with GApps
I've just installed cm-12.1-20151129-NIGHTLY-jfltexx on my S4 (i9505) and Open GApps 5.1 Arm nano 20151129. The setup wizard had few errors (Google play services stopped working) and after setting it up the gapps instead of showing icon and name are showing package name and default icon, when trying to run it, it says "this app is not installed on your phone" or something like this. Every now and then message pops up saying "Google play services has been stopped". Also NFC is not working (idk but it's probably something to do with the ROM)
What am I doing wrong? Wrong GApps / ROM combo?

Have you cleared cache/ dalvik cache?

maybe there is bug in the NIGHTLY edition so you have two options -
1> download the Latest release  2015-11-17 and install it.
http://download.cyanogenmod.org/get/jfltexx-snapshot.zip
2> an alternative is to install GApps tk_gapps-modular-pico-5.1.1-20150920 (which I am using now on my device)
using this link https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24052804347819443
download zip and install.
this may help! good luck..!

which method you applied?

I installed both GApps and CM you linked me to.. is it bad? It seems to work flawlessly.


text:
How to paste a text on non-pasteable (tap & hold pasting) text field?
My problem is that I have no way to paste a text in an app because the app doesn't allow tap & hold pasting. The keyboard I use (Google Keyboard) also does not have a clipboard button anywhere. The personal dictionary shortcut entry length is too short for what I'm trying to do and even if it were long enough, it doesn't work (doesn't even replace a simple "brb" with "be right back").

Can anyone suggest a way for me to keep using my Google Keyboard while being able to paste in a text field that doesn't allow for tap & hold pasting?
Is there a way to somehow add a clipboard button to my current (Google Keyboard) keyboard?

I ask these two questions as if there are simple answers to them because every single tool for a rooted phone boasts unlimited access to the user over your device, yet not a single tool that I've used has been able to provide me with a simple workaround to this simple issue of being able to paste in a text field that doesn't allow tap & hold paste.
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S4 on a CM11 ROM running Android 4.4.4 KitKat. I also badly want to keep my Google Keyboard, so if possible, I don't want to download another keyboard.

I'm thinking the question is still too broad. 1&2 is closely related, but 3 is not (copy-paste vs macro/automation). 4 is off-topic since it's development related. Consider removing 4 since it's off-topic, and post 3 as a new question.

Thanks I'll do that. Where should I post 4 though?

Currently, it's nowhere because it's very broad. However, for programming Q&A, it's [so]. Probably this question on SO can help you: How to develop a soft keyboard for Android?

I thought I could find a floating widget to paste a text, but surprisingly there's none... so the only workaround is (unfortunately) use another keyboard (e.g. Hacker's Keyboard) only for copy-paste shortcut. (not sure to put that as an answer, since it's not convenient)

I stumbled upon Hacker's Keyboard but it wasn't working out for me. Instead, I installed an app named "Clipboard Keyboard" that is very clean and allows me to easily paste large clippings of text in an efficient manner that isn't a nuisance.

Why was that post closed for "being too broad"? Where was it moved to?  I don't see how shutting it down without indication to where it's been moved is helpful... @Andrew T.


text:
IMAP forwarding show IP address to Google servers?
I use K-9 Mail app on my phone, and sync my gmail via IMAP.
My question is: Do google servers see my IP address when checking/sending mail?
I am pretty sure that if I used the gmail app they would see all my IP address at each sync request. Using a 3rd party app like this, do I avoid that?

No, if you tell K9 to fetch your mail from Google's imap servers, then whenever K9 goes to fetch your mail, it has to contact Google at which point Google will know at which IP they can reach you (to reply to the fetch request).  They may not get to know your "internal IP", tho (e.g. if you're behind a NAT router, they'll see the external IP address of the router, rather than the specific intenral IP address of your Android device).


text:
How to root LAVA Iris Atom2 which runs Android 5.1
Can anyone help me to root my Lava Iris atom2 which runs android 5.1 OS,
I had tried almost available softwares like kingoroot , iroot , masterroot, towelroot. But Nothing works.

http://d.kingoapp.com/default/KingoRoot.apk
Take easy root lava atom 2 5.1

Instead of just giving a link, could you please [edit] your answer and include at least a short summary of how it works? I assume it is a one-click solution and should hence be clear, but I'm not sure (Wikipedia e.g. speaks of "Free Windows utility", and our rooting index also says "Windows PC required"). Also, are there any risks using this? Side-Effects?


text:
Rooting HTC Desire 826W
I tried to root my HTC desire 826W but it's not working . I couldn't get the token. When I boot my phone into bootloader it loads to hboot but when I try to enter fastboot or recovery it enters into a white screen and returns to hboot. When I press the power button again, it reboots. When i press Volume up, I can only navigate using Volume down. This is really frustrating, I would appreciate if anyone could help. The security is on i.e S-ON

To Root Your HTC Desire 826 :

Downloads the following files

Here’s link to download  [TWRP Recovery] and SuperSu from Below Link.

Unlock your BootLoader from this tutorial
Transfer the downloaded SuperSU.zip to root of device memory after downloading and the proceed to next step.
If device is on press Volume Down and Power Key together for about 10-seconds and device will turn off. At this point leave power key but keep holding volume down and you will enter to fastboot mode.
Connect Phone to PC using data cable. Extract files from Recovery.rar in one location and simply click on recovery.bat.  Press Enter and It will start pushing TWRP to your device and within few seconds it will show as finished.

Note: In case auto flashing script doesn’t work on your PC, open TWRP folder extracted from Recovery.zip file.

Hold Shift Key and Right Click on Mouse… Then click on Open Command window here….
Type this command -> fastboot flash recovery TWRP_Recovery.img and hit Enter.
Disconnect phone and using volume keys select recovery option and reboot to recovery and install SuperSu.zip by selecting Install zip > and selecting supersu.zip transferred in third step to obtain root privilege.
After successfully flashing the SuperSU reboot to system and congratulation now you have proper root access on your HTC Desire 826.

Taken Source : Guide on How To Root HTC Desire 826 Quick and Easy

i have tried that method but always  im stock at fastboot with no token generated


text:
Galaxy S4 dropped screen is black
Situation is this: I took my phone out of my pocket and dropped it from about pocket height on a sort of tiled floor. The screen then became green and had lines. Then the screen just turned off. When I looked for physical damage, all I can see are tiny cracks at the top right of the screen. Everything else works fine (home button, back button, vibration, led, etc.) How would I fix this or do I need to go to a repair shop. Thanks in advance.
Also I have the T-mobile version. I don't know if that matters.

Look for similar posts by users with issues caused by broken screen under brokenscreen tag

To fix this problem you will need to either purchase and follow instructions on installing a new screen or take your phone to a local repair shop.


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How can an organization control when or when not an update for an app is installed in their Android smartphones?
Imagine an organization that have a legitimate fear to automatic updates. That organization thinks that an automatic update may break a business use case. For example, when the VPN client is update the users are no longer able to connect to the VPN. By automatic I mean installing the app without the organization participation and without the organization being able to test the update in advance.
How can an organization control when and when not an app update in installed in an Android smartphone or device?
As long as I know, if you install an app using the Play Store, the organization cannot control the updates if the user enables "automatic updates".
If the organization install the app using the APK, the application is not updated automatically but in the future the organization has to update manually the app and also if you install the app using the APK the app is not installed as "device manager" and the app can be uninstalled by the user (think in a security app like a MDM agent).
The organization uses an MDM (Airwatch) but it does not allow to control the update of Play Store installed apps.

What is device manager here? Are you talking about device administrator or device owner here?

I'm talking about a device administrator that needs to control in a centralized way what updates should be installed and when. The device propietary is the organization.

But an app (whether installed from market or sideloaded) can be made a device administrator or even a device owner. I have several of sideloaded APKs which are device administrators. Furthermore, no app from Play Store would end up installing as device administrator. Just like a sideloaded one, user's discretion is always required, so the difference between the two installation for this part seems none.

@FireLord Are you saying that you can install an app as device administrator (and avoid that the user is able to uninstall it) using the APK and not using the Play Store?

No, I attempted to address "if you install the app using the APK the app is not installed as "device manager" and the app can be uninstalled by the user" - all I'm saying is a user always  has to decide whether to make the app a device administrator or not and an app can be made a device administrator regardless of its source of installation, be it a sideload or from Play Store.

Have  a look at this Android for work


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Where should I install Toybox?
I own a rooted Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G running stock Android 4.1.2.
If you have Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" or better, then you have Toybox.  This is a package of command-line tools, handy for advanced users who sometimes use a terminal emulator.  Unfortunately, Android 4.1.2 does not include Toybox. Instead, it includes some other tools which aren't as nice to use.
Sometimes I use the terminal emulator written by Jack Palevich; other times I use adb shell from a laptop.

Would it make more sense to install Toybox to my system partition, or to my data partition?  Both partitions have far more than enough free space.
When a command is provided both by Android and by Toybox, I want the Toybox version to win.  On Linux, I might install Toybox to /home/unforgettableid/bin or /usr/local or /opt.  Could you please suggest a sensible place for me to install Toybox (and its large collection of symlinks) on my phone?

[Edit:  I wonder what the various BusyBox installers do.  Also, I wonder how Android sets the PATH environment variable.  As well, I also wonder whether or not there's a way for me to change that variable and to make my change persist across reboots.  Finally, I wonder whether or not putting the Toybox tools first in my PATH would be likely to break things in non-obvious ways.]

Possibly related:  "Android Folder Hierarchy".

If your Android version ships with Toybox and some Toybox symlinks, you can leave those in /system/bin.  But, if you're installing Toybox yourself, it might be wisest to put the freshly-installed Toybox, and all its symlinks, in /system/xbin.
Let me explain why.
As Firelord points out in his answer:  adb shell starts an interactive shell.  But commands such as adb shell ls start a non-interactive shell.  For performance reasons, non-interactive shells never read any config files.  Because they don't read any config files, their search path is hardcoded.
It's nice to have Toybox available even to non-interactive shells; in fact, if it's unavailable to such shells, it can be confusing.  So you definitely want to install Toybox to a location which is on the search path.
But you might not want to put the Toybox symlinks any earlier in the search path than Android's cp, ls, and other basic utilities.  I've never checked, but I theorize that your version of Android might include apps which depend on quirks of the stock Android command-line utilities.  To learn more, see this post, in which the Android command-line tools maintainer explains why Android had to stick with its non-Toybox ls for some months.
Most of the stock Android command-line utilities are in /system/bin.  The only directory which falls later in the stock Android shell's search path is /system/xbin.
That is why you may want to put Toybox and all its symlinks in /system/xbin.

Tip:  If you want, you can create a shell script which simply passes all of its parameters to Toybox.  You can give this shell script an ultra-short name such as t.  This makes it easier to request that your device should run a Toybox toy instead of a stock Android command.  For example, to run Toybox ls, simply enter t ls.

Tip: you don't need a script actually. A symlink to toybox or renaming the toybox to t would be enough.

@Firelord: Neither of those ideas work. If you try them, the Toybox multiplexer simply complains that there is no toy named t.

Hmm, that's weird. I'll have to search a reason for the issue. Anyhow, an alias works. I created an alias named t inside mkshrc and it works. alias t="/system/xbin/toybox". You will have to re-read the source file mkshrc using source /system/etc/mkshrc or exit the shell and open a new shell session after making changes.

Where should I install Toybox?

Would it make more sense to install Toybox to my system partition, or to my data partition?

Depends. If you don't plan to factory reset the phone ever again, you can choose data partition, else, choose system partition.

When a command is provided both by Android and by Toybox, I want the Toybox version to win.

The PATH variable contains the location of the directories containing executable binaries. Should you decide to keep a separate directory for your symlinks, configure $PATH to search for a command into your directory first. If it finds one, it will execute it.

On Linux, I might install Toybox to /home/unforgettableid/bin or /usr/local or /opt. Could you please suggest a sensible place for me to install Toybox (and its large collection of symlinks) on my phone?

All those locations don't exist for Android. Since you're using Android 4.1.2, I suppose you would be having your external SD card formatted with a  FAT filesystem. Symlinks don't work on FAT filesystems (not on FAT32 or vfat at least) so your best bet is to install under /data or /system.
Alternatively, you can make an image under your external SD card, format that image with a filesystem supported by your Android's kernel (often EXT2 | EXT3 | EXT4), then mount it in the device anywhere in loopback mode. I've not tried this method though.

I wonder what the various BusyBox installers do

Busybox (by Stericson) places the busybox binary into /system/xbin and creates  symlink for its applets to its binary under the same directory.

Also, I wonder how Android sets the PATH environment variable. As well, I also wonder whether or not there's a way for me to change that variable and to make my change persist across reboots

I do not know when Android sets up $PATH. However, the shell you're using  would most likely be having a configuration file.

mksh (MirBSD Korn Shell; the default shell on Android) has a configuration file mkshrc in /system/etc. You can set $PATH there and the change would be persistent across reboots.
For bash shell, the configuration file is bashrc located under /system/etc/bash.

It appears that both files are meant for interactive sessions only, so if you attempt to use adb for accessing a Toybox or its symlink which is not placed under /sbin, /vendor/bin, /system/sbin, /system/bin or /system/xbin (the default locations in $PATH), you would receive a "COMMAND: not found" error. This is because the default $PATH would be used instead.
I've not found a solution for this problem yet, but see the comments below this answer.
Anyhow, let's install Toybox for now.

How do I install Toybox on an Android device?
Note: the solution assumes that your Android is rooted, that adb is setup in PC, and that your device is connected to a PC with USB debugging enabled.
Installation into system partition
No change in $PATH is required if you choose a standard location. Busybox prefers /system/xbin.

Remount the system partition in rw mode. If required, see Can't remount /system in rw
Copy the toybox binary to /system/xbin/ and give executable permission to it. (The default permissions set for other binaries is rwxr-xr-x.)
You can do so using chmod
adb shell su -c "chmod 755  /system/xbin/toybox"

Create symlinks for various tools accessible by toybox binary. It is up to you how you create them.
I used a very simple method, but it requires a *nix system
adb shell toybox | sed 's/\ /\n/g' | head -n -1 | tr -d '\r' | while read line; do adb shell su -c 'ln -sf /system/xbin/toybox "/system/xbin/$line"'; done

All I'm doing here is executing the toybox binary, replacing the white-spaces with a new line so that each tool shows up in a new line. Later on I'm removing the last line (it was blank in output), removing carriage return conveniently put by adb, and then for each line of output I'm creating a symlink to toybox binary with the name of the tool, in the same directory.
You can use this method if you don't have a *nix OS in PC:
adb shell
su
toybox | toybox sed 's/\ /\n/g'| toybox sed '$d'| while read line; do  toybox ln -sf /system/xbin/toybox /system/xbin/$line; done

Done! Your Toybox and its applets are ready to be executed.
Installation into data partition

Create a directory under /data (/data/my_bin henceforth)
Copy the toybox binary to /data/my_bin and give executable permission to it. (The default permissions set for other binaries is rwxr-xr-x.)
adb shell su -c "chmod 755  /system/xbin/toybox"

Create symlinks for various tools accessible by toybox binary. It is up to you how you create them.
I used a very simple method, but it requires a *nix system
adb shell su -c "/data/my_bin/toybox" | sed 's/\ /\n/g' | head -n -1| tr -d '\r'| while read line; do adb shell su -c "ln -sf /data/my_bin/toybox '/data/my_bin/$line'"; done

Only the location has changed, the rest of the procedure is alike to one followed for installation in system partition
Edit your default shell's configuration file and add
PATH=/data/my_bin:$PATH

This would cause the shell to look into /data/my_bin first and execute the binary, if available.

Done! Enjoy your Toybox and its applets.

I've now posted my own answer, which builds upon yours.  If you like it, please upvote it.  :)

Nope, I don't like it because it doesn't solve my problem and doesn't tell me anything new. I want toybox inside /data or /sdcard but wants non-interactive shells to know about those locations. There should be a hack somewhere. Anyhow, could you cleanup your comments?

I've cleaned up my comments. Next time, you can simply flag them as obsolete instead. 2. If you need a hack, perhaps you could recompile mksh and hardcode more paths into it. But anyway, what's wrong with keeping Toybox in /system?


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Alcatel Onetouch Idol S malfunctioning battery
My battery on my Alcatel Onetouch Idol S (running Android 4.2.2) is behaving oddly. It will discharge normally, then all of a sudden go from 55% to flat (0%) in seconds. I would put it down to finally rooting it, but I have no cold evidence to prove it. Does anybody know how it can be fixed, or how to figure out why it is happening?
Additional info:

I believe the CPU governor should be set to ondemand
It was rooted via KingRoot v4.6.0 132, and the KingRoot kernel version is 4.6.0 47
The SU version is 3.54

How old is your battery?  You can try the steps in accepted answer here and then my solution, http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/128091/android-dies-at-20-battery/128108#128108

@beeshyams The battery is about a month old. Literally a month. Oh, i will try the second method on that link, but it is the only one i can do at home. There is a irremovable back (though the manufacturers can take it off)

Curious as to what happened when you tried steps in earlier suggestion

@beeshyams It worked, kinda. My phone did not turn on. Charged it to find it was drained,  and it had a normal discharge when booted. I done that about a day ago.

Good. Hope it gets to be normal


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Multi-user option not available after modifying build.prop in Lollipop
I edited the build.prop file in /system/ as per
Multi-user option not avilable in Android one after Lollipop update
namely, adding two lines of code to the end of the file:

fw.show_multiuserui=1
fw.max_users=5

I have rebooted and nothing seems to have changed (i.e., there is no user icon in the swipe-down screen)
I checked and the lines of code are indeed in the build.prop file.
I'm running 5.1.1 on a Lenovo Yoga TAB 3
Any ideas..? Thanks in advance!

What does adb shell pm get-max-users give after making changes in build.prop and rebooting the device? Do you see an option named Users under Settings app?

Have you created a new user and enabled a lock screen? I'm guessing without those you won't see any place to change user until you do.

I had a similar issue and searched for "users" while in the Settings app and it took me to a usable dialog box just as if I had got there from the icon. I added a user and it all worked.  So you just have to search from the magnifying glass in the Settings screen then click on the user you wish to switch to.

I did a search for users and it came up blank, I'm afraid. As far as I can see, there is no "users" field anywhere in my settings.


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Digit space issue
I have my OPPO phone and I have used android device manager and locked my phone through it and had set 8 digit password and I want to delete password.
I have used the settings->privacy->lock screen
But it is asking for present password and it is only 4 digit's space so how can I use my 8 digit password as it does not have space?
Please suggest?

I suggest you simply boot into recovery and reset it. Make sure it has no Google account connected/set up, because it may require you to log in to the exact same account after a reset.

it's most likely asking for the phone's security password, which is different from the screen lock code (it would exist even if you had never set a screen lock PIN or password).  If you bought the phone from a cellular provider, it'll be the last 4 digits of your phone number, unless you've changed it;  that's likely to be the case even if you bought the phone from an independent seller (if the phone was used, it's likely to be the last 4 of the previous owner's phone).

Where I live, all carriers set default SIM card security code to 1234


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Transmit at the 300 MHZ - 400 MHZ range
Is there any piece of hardware in a modern Android phone (Galaxy S5+) that can transmit at the 300-400 MHZ range?
If so does this require cracking the radio ROM or is there a simple way to do this?

A typical device (such as the S5) lacks the hardware support for your frequencies of interest.  However, there are some specialty devices such as the Runbo X6 (http://www.runboeurope.com/runbo-x6/) which support UHF communications now, with VHF planned.
If you were to add the appropriate hardware to an S5 as an accessory, the easiest way to interact with it would be from userspace (e.g., via an app or service), not by messing with the radio ROM.


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Cannot uninstall an app from adb
I am trying to uninstall an app which came to me with the phone ( an app for senior users - sort of launcher).
My device is : LG L70
Android version : 4.4.2
However I cannot uninstall it from the phone by dragging it from app screen. I've tried to uninstall it from the adb:
adb uninstall "package name"

but I get:
Failure

as a response.
When I list all my aps from the adb:
adb shell 'pm list packages -f'

I cannot find the app on the list.
The only way that helped me to discover the package name(in order to uninstall it) is by using "System Info for Android" app...
What can be done in order to remove this annoying app?
I've rooted the device and did a factory reset...
Any help will be appreciated.

It is a system app hence ADB or Package manager won't give you any option to remove it.

Possible duplicate of Uninstall system app failed using 'adb shell pm uninstall'

Do you have to uninstall it from adb? If you have a rooted phone you can remove it from the device itself. There are a lot of apps that you can do this that are in the playstore. I personally use " system app remover (ROOT)". Just search for the app name and uninstall it.
PS: Did you try ading "su" at the begining of the command to use root?

Adding su won't help ADB to remove a system app. Being a system app grants it protection from removal.

I've finally succeeded to uninstall the app with kingoroot... Thanks

do adb shell uninstall, that should work.

uninstall: inaccessible or not found


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What is rootfs? Can I make persistent changes to my device's root filesystem?
When I open up a terminal emulator and run the mount command, it indicates that my Android device's root filesystem (/) is of filesystem type rootfs. What is rootfs? Can I write to it? Will my changes persist even after I shut the device down?

Note: If you're an Android ROM developer who wants to add files to your ROM's rootfs, please see the relevant Unix.SE question instead.

Related: How to unpack and edit boot.img for ROM porting?: answers there explain how to fetch and edit the boot.img file, allowing to persistently change device's root directory content.

Does this answer your question? Any changes to files in root directory (/) are gone after reboot

What is rootfs?
It's an initramfs. Basically, it's a prepopulated RAM drive. It's prepopulated with some content at boot time, usually from a cpio archive which has been compiled into the kernel.
Can I write to it?

One way to make changes to your rootfs is to unpack the cpio archive, make your changes, and repack the archive.  Your device will almost surely have to be rooted before you can do this.  As well, you'll need the necessary tools.
Alternatively, you can make changes to the rootfs copy which is loaded into RAM; but, if you do so, there are four gotchas.

You must root your device first.
Then, you must remount the filesystem as read-write.
Don't write too much to the rootfs; if you do, you'll take up too much RAM and your device will slow down.
The biggest gotcha is that the files you create will disappear when you shut down or reboot. Please keep on reading.

Will my changes persist even after I shut the device down?
No. If you create or modify files in rootfs, your changes will be undone when you shut down or reboot.
What should I do instead of writing to the root filesystem?
Store your files somewhere under /storage or /data or /system instead. You can choose any of the three. Somewhere under /storage is probably best, since that's the most common choice.
Why doesn't my device act like a normal Linux device and mount a normal disk-backed filesystem to /?
I don't know.
I suspect that the answer is as follows:  Android isn't a full Linux distribution.  It doesn't include a full glibc, it's probably not fully LSB-compliant, and it doesn't feel obligated to provide the niceties that most Linux distributions provide (e.g. a disk-backed root filesystem).
Elsewhere, Gilles writes:

Most desktop Linux systems have a small initramfs which contains just enough programs and configuration files to mount the real root filesystem, which is then mounted on /, replacing the initramfs. Android, like some embedded Linux systems, keeps the initramfs mounted forever. Android's initramfs contains only /init, adbd and a few configuration files.

References:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1004478
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt by Rob Landley
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/122787/how-to-add-folders-and-file-before-compiling-kernel#122840
And others.

Does only shutdown clears the content? Does reboot clear it too?

Rebooting clears it too.  I've now edited the answer to say so.

Can I modify or create symlink for /data folder itself ? Symlink will point to /storage/sdcard2 where sdcard2 is the 2nd f2fs partition of the external ad card ?


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Cyanogenmod 12: How to display calendar events on lock screen?
Seems fairly basic, and this has been working well with CM11, but however,
with CM12 I have not managed to configure the lock screen to show the next couple of events, without having to unlock.
I have

A Samsung Galaxy S II (Yeah, still my preferred device)
Cyanogenmod cm-12.1-20151116
The pico OpenGapps package
a PIN to unlock

I really loved the highly customizable lock screen of CM11 and it seems to be gone... Do I really need to install a lock screen app, like chronus (Is it no more packaged by default?)
Note: my question regards a different OS version than this one.

The app you are looking for is cLock. Its a widget and its still present in CyanogenMod.
Unfortunatelly, from Lollipop onwards, you can't put any widgets on your lock screen, and by that you are unable to use the described widget as you used it before.
Hovever, you can still place it on your home screen.

Did they really remove that feature entirely – or is that only when you've defined a pin/pattern/password lock? cLock ships with CM, so it's a system app I'd think capable (and authorized) to do this. If not, that's an argument against upgrading to me: I've just loved this feature! I thought cLock was CM's lock screen app?

It is still there, in the same form. The only thing that has changed is the ability to put this (or any other) widget on your lock screen. Having a pin, pattern or something else doesnt make a difference.

Thanks for the feedback, Chapz! May I suggest to integrate those details directly with your answer, so we can remove the comments? Gets more "obvious" that way.

I edited the answer, I think it sums it up now. If you accept it as an answer it will be get the focus of people with similar problems.

Thanks Chapz! I've upvoted it – but accepting can only be done by OP :)


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Nexus 5 lock button behaves awkwardly
i have a nexus 5 with lolipop v6 in it, for the last day, i've been struggling with the power button, as it acts awkwardly causing the entire phone to crash and restart itself.
Sometimes it fulfills its purpose and locks and unlocks the screen, and sometimes it would appear as the lock mechanism has crashed: it would lock, and then immediately return to the main page(a quick transition from black screen to main menu screen), sometimes it would engage the "power off" menu, as if i pressed the power button for couple of seconds.
Steps i've taken to try and fix the issue:

I've removed suspecious programs
Engaged the safe mode
Reset device factory settings

none of those helped, saying that, each power button press does something, so i'd not say it's a "hardware" issue

It is possible that the button itself is damaged.
The button is made of 2 metal foils (one is flat, the other is a bit spherical on top) and if you press it, the sphere bends to the bottom foil and the connection represents a press. On my old Galaxy Nexus, dirt got under and it stopped reacting. Once I opened and cleaned it carefully with a knife it worked as the first day.
Considering you have the opposite problem, it could be the case that the spherical foil is somehow bent to keep sticking to the bottom even when you release the button.
Since this requires you to open up the device, I suggest this as the last resort unless you ran out of other options. (Or send it in for a repair).


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Android Wear sync 'freezes' phone interface
I have an Asus ZenWatch 2 paired with my Nexus 6P. (In the past the same watch was paired with a Moto X (2014) with the same symptom.)
When the watch connects to the phone after having been disconnected (such as by going out of range), it often causes the UI on the phone to freeze for around 15-20 seconds. I.e., the phone doesn't react to touches at all, or at least has a lag of several seconds before reacting. After 20 seconds or so, the phone behaves normally again.
The symptom is similar to how my old Nexus 7 (2012) would behave after the infamous 'slow flash' performance issue reared its ugly head. (Not saying this problem is in any way related; it's just a similar behavior.)
I've tried to see what might be monopolizing the CPU using System Monitor as well as top via adb shell, but I haven't managed to gather much good information.
Has anybody else experienced this? Any tips on isolating the problem?
Versions:

Android Wear 1.3.0.2176821
Android on watch: 5.1.1
Android on Nexus 6P: 6.0
Android on Moto X: 5.1.1

This still happening to you? I'm having an issue where my N6P will freeze and crash, forcing a reboot, and I haven't isolated the cause yet. Could it be that my Moto 360 is crashing my N6P, in your opinion?

The problem pretty much cleared itself up, presumably with some software update or another. I never found a root cause, so I can't say whether your problem is related, but I'd guess probably not.


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Root SGS3 with stock recovery
I'm going to stay on topic and make the long story short. My phone (International Galaxy S3) has its USB port broken and can't replace it because I messed it up when I was on it. Since then I use an external battery charger.
Now I need to root my phone and flash a custom recovery and since the easy way (Odin) is with USB I have to try something else.
I have already tried rooting with different apps (Framaroot, towelroot, KingRoot) with no success.
I have been reading on internet to figure out a way to root it or flash a custom recovery but everything comes into a dead end.
One of the possible solution I have found is rooting phone via Android Stock Recovery (the 3e one), but this would require a signed update.zip. Is this possible or it could hard-brick my phone? If it is possible, how do I make it?
The zip file needs to be signed and have a certain folder organization (META-INF and system). I could sign it with an app I discover in xda forums called Sign'em (can this work out?). But I have no idea about folder organization of the update.zip file. I downloaded a file called "Update-SuperSU" from chainfire's website which comes with META-INF folder but instead of system there are 3 extra folders: common, arm and x86. Is it the same?
If there is another way to root the phone or flash a custom recovery to do so, please tell me. Any help will be appreciated

Have you tried this? It is a CWM_SuperSU.zip file contains both custom recovery and su binaries

Also which Android version are you on? This guide here claims to root the phone with latest firmware.

Hi, thanks for reply. That first guide says I need CWM recovery installed, which I don't (Stock 3e Recovery). Also the zip is a link to chainfire's zip which includes Odin and the .tar. I'm on 4.3 Official (latest OTA update available). And I have already mentioned I tried KingRoot method of that 2nd guide and didn't work for me

If by broken you mean, the usb port was knocked loose from fhe board, then you'll need to get it soldered back in place if possible. Without some kind of existing root you cannot dump or write an *.img [recovery,boot,etc.]

@moonbutt74 When I was replacing the usb port I messed it up with solderer, and I think that place of the PCB is non-fuctional now. So if I sign an update.zip with the rooting requiered files and then flash with Stock 3e Recovery, that won't work?

J, as far as i know you need the manufacturer's private key to sign that zip as "official". While you could get a hold of a copy of your stock recovery and dissasemble it to get the keys file , i'm not sure you can generate a valid signature. You'll need to scour XDA as there are a few projects but most/all involve private keys generated by users for signature verification via custom recovery builds. Otherwise you're dead in the water. The only other option is doing some hardcore hardware hacking/surgery to manage/repair the board.

@moonbutt74 yes, I found some projects on XDA to sign zips. I don't know if that will work on stock recovery. Sign'em claims to work with stock recovery. And here is a signed update.zip I found that claims to work with stock recovery but its for another phone model. Maybe it is possible or am I wrong? If I sign an update.zip, and try to flash it, is there any sort of danger of bricking my phone?


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Does OnePlus 2 "DUAL SIM 4G" support dual 4G?
I've read that most dual-SIM phones can only use the other SIM for 2G voice service.
Is OnePlus 2 DUAL SIM 4G any different?

OnePlus 2 is fully capable of LTE and 4G data on both of its SIM card slots. At least I can attest to this fact for the international model of the phone. I don't know about the American ones.

@ADTC, your comment is very misleading; you appear to claim that either SIM slot can be used for 4G, which is technically true; but in reality, there is only one 4G radio, so, if you have no 2G GSM networks to access, then you can only go online with one slot at a time.  E.g., the marketing is being very misleading by assuming that folks have access to GSM networks, which many operators have never had, and many others are in the process of shutting down.

indeed, what you said appears to be true. Although the phone can connect to 4G network on any of the two available SIM slots (which is what I meant in my comment), it only has one 4G radio, so the other SIM slot seems to connect using the 2G radio. (I have confirmed with an app called "Network Cell Info Lite".) Now my question is, is the 4G radio also used for 3G connections? Or is there a separate 3G radio? In which case, wouldn't it be possible to connect 4G on one slot, and 3G on the other?

No, OnePlus 2 is not any different.
In fact, users on the forum report that the dual SIM functionality apparently requires the presence of a 2G GSM network.
https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/dual-lte.328953/page-2

I have the OnePlus 2 (A2005) and am using it in Canada. SIM 1 on Telus (4G/LTE) and SIM 2 on Wind. When I want to use data on Wind, it switches SIM1 down to 2G. Except neither Telus nor Wind has 2G. So when I choose either one for data, it shuts down the other one completely due to lack of 2G. It doesn't just step it down to 3G. This makes the phone pointless for me. Due to their advertising I was hoping that both would be 4G simultaneously, not 4G on one and 2G on the other.

To summarise:

You can connect to any network from any SIM (e.g., can make either SIM a primary one)
The non-primary SIM can only connect to a 2G GSM network
If your non-primary operator lacks a 2G GSM network (which are being shutdown worldwide, and some GSMA operators never had any to start with), the non-primary SIM cannot connect to UMTS or LTE, and will thus be getting no signal at all

What? I've had OnePlus 2 for a few years now and I can access 4G data without any problem in both SIM cards. Unless your "second SIM is 2G only" is a purely American restriction that doesn't apply to the international version of the phone that I have,  your answer will not match...

@ADTC, please provide the source for your claim.  Pretty much everyone else agrees as to the content of this answer; if you have different experience, and lack any sort of supporting documents, I think it's pretty clear that you must be the one that's confused.  (Note that the claim is that there is physically only one 4G radio that can be active at any given time; sounds like you may be disputing a different claim that wasn't made above.)

as explained above, my comment only meant that any of the two SIM slots can be used for a 4G connection. I didn't mean that both SIM slots access 4G network at the same time. You're right in your answer, that when one slot is on 4G, the other is on 2G. But why can't the other be on 3G? Is the same radio used for both 4G and 3G?

do you have any comment for the questions I had asked?

@ADTC please discuss this in a chat, both of you have the required rep. Your comments are getting into the rude section, which is why they will be removed now. cnst: not that rude, but same procedure, please ;)

Off topic but not by much ... I have a Galaxy S7 Duos. My SIM 1 is T-Mobile set to "Auto" band (LTE/W-CDMA/GSM), and my SIM 2 is a foreign SIM that roams on the AT&T network here in the US - set to (GSM Only).
As OP said, their phone (and most dual-SIM phones that I'm aware of) only allow 3G/4G to run on ONE SIM, and the other SIM has to use GSM.
That's how it was on my S7 Duos for most of 2016. Then after updating the firmware recently (Marshmallow CPK5 if anyone's interested), My SIM 2 was now magically capable of doing "Auto" band (3G/GSM), and my SIM 1 was STILL capable of doing "Auto" band (LTE/W-CDMA/GSM)! Of course, from what I can tell, SIM 2 is just using UMTS bare-bones 3G - nothing fancy. But it's good enough.
I think phone manufacturers are wise to AT&T shutting down their GSM network by 2017. My update came in November 2016. So maybe other phones will get similar updates before 2017? Check around, contact your manufacturers. Good luck!

This would be good news if substantiated with confirmations from major phone manufacturers about updating their phones to do this. If the 2G radio can be repurposed for 3G (even just barebones, for receiving calls and SMS text), dual SIM phones wouldn't become useless after 2G networks are shut down and made obsolete.