text:
Can I screen cast / screen mirror and use the phone at the same time?
I have a Samsung Galaxy 6 and Google Play Movies app running. I can screen mirror to the TV but as soon as I try to use my phone for other things like check my email the video stops playing.
Is there a way I can start the video (screen cast/screen mirror) and then use my phone for other things at the same time?
Here is what my screen looks like:

I select it and then I see this screen:

FYI I couldn't create the tag "Screen Mirroring". Here is a description if someone wants to create it, http://www.samsung.com/ie/support/skp/faq/1057791.

Are you using a Chromecast to do the mirroring, or something else like software built in to the TV?

It's a Samsung Smart TV. When you select inputs it says Screen Mirroring. I added more information.


text:
How to replace KingrootSU with Superuser Elite?
Just rooted my new Chinese tablet - an adventure for me. I used Kingroot apk. It uses KingrootSU app as GUI manager for superuser permission. I want to use my Superuser Elite instead though. How can I do so?

"My attempts were near disaster" -- please elaborate in detail.

Just use this tool and this guide. I used it myself on LG G3, because Kingroot was my last resort for rooting.
It definitely worked, but there was one Kingroot app left over, called Purify, which I guess was added to Kingroot after the script was made, so I would suggest adding the following lines to the script:
am kill com.kingroot.purify
pm uninstall com.kingroot.purify
rm /system/app/purify.apk >/dev/null
rm -r /system/app/purify>/dev/null

Or, what I did was once I had supersu installed, to be totally sure that Kingroot was gone, I installed TWRP, then completely erased the normal partition and installed Cyanogenmod 13.0.
good luck!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
My phone's power button has gone bad. Can I use my computer to send a USB command to start the phone up?
I got an old phone: an HTC WildFire S. Everything works fine, except that the power button has gone bad. Can I start the phone from my computer over a USB connection somehow?

Related: Automatically power on Android when the charger is connected

Probably not
Many PCs can be woken from sleep mode via a keypress. Some, if configured to allow "wake on LAN", can even be woken via a specially-composed Ethernet packet.
I'm unaware of any way to force an Android device to power on using a special USB command.
What to try

You can try removing and reinstalling the battery.
Or you can try connecting the phone to a charger; there might be a slim chance that this will force it to power on.
If that doesn't work, you can try a Google search for [ how to power up Android phone without power button ]. You'll find lots of results, including an article on the AddictiveTips website and many others. These articles have additional suggestions which I haven't mentioned. Maybe one of the articles has a tip which can help you.

What next
If none of the aforementioned ideas help, you can then either:

Attempt to repair the phone yourself.
Pay a technician to repair it.
Or try to sell it (at a discount) to a local shop, which can then try to fix it.

most of flash tools have a "reboot after flash" option. here is example for Mediatek devices

install fastboot
install VCOM preloader drivers
open scatter file with SP Flash Tool
add new entry for EMMC_USER (with start address and size of boot partition) at Read back option
click readback (start)
connect phone (readback will start as soon as preloader is detected)
insert battery
hold Volume button (down = fastboot, up = recovery)
disconnect phone (after readback finished)
connect phone (phone reboots)
still hold Volume button until phone booted into fastboot or recovery
boot into bootloader (from recovery)
while in fastboot mode type in cmd.exe
fastboot oem off-mode-charge 0

this works similar for flashing stock rom (tools without readback option). for samsung devices (no fastboot) a JIG dongle may help

When your phone is not turned on it can't have a adb service running (Disregarding the possible technical difficulties it would also be a security issue.)
Try the following instead:

Take out your battery and connect the phone to a charger
Your phone should now turn on.
Insert your battery.
Hold power button (+).

Your device should boot now. I'm not sure if this will work for you but i booted my old ZTE Blade using these steps.

If the power button doesn't work , I highly doubt he will be able to complete step 4.

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

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


text:
Mobile data on but not working
I have a Galaxy SIII (Android 4.3) phone on the Vodafone network (UK). I was using WiFi when available and mobile data occasionally. It all worked fine. When on mobile data, I would see an icon on the top bar showing a little letter H with two arrows underneath.
But now the mobile data has sort-of stopped working. I say sort of because it appears that I can still turn mobile data on, and I still get the little H with two arrows, but none of my apps that use data appear to actually be able to communicate with the internet. I don't actually get any "no connection" messages, instead, I just get rotating wheels and other indicators that they're trying to get something that's not arriving.
If I switch back to wifi then everything starts working again.
Any ideas?
EDIT: I have not installed any custom ROM. The phone is not rooted.
EDIT: I just called vodafone, who suggested a variety of things that made no difference. Now they've said it may be a fault in my SIM card and are sending me a new one.
EDIT: New sim card arrived. No difference. More calls to vodafone, multiple suggestions... nothing has worked.
EDIT: Tried sim in Galaxy SII... all symptoms identical. Saw little H icon (sometimes flipping to "H+" or "3G"), but no mobile data getting through.
SOLVED! it suddenly started working again. I suspect it was a fault at vodafone's end and my last call to tech support induced someone there to correct the fault.

Have you installed a custom ROM?

If APNs is changed then this kind of prblm will come. Make sure you enabled your carieer(vodafone) related APNs. If you added new or wrong APNs and enable that it will show an "H" but you cannot access internet.

Just checked my settings. It says my APN is "Vodaphone Contract Internet" which sounds correct to me (I indeed have a contract).

@Mick did you tried to contact vodafone customer care regarding this issue. They can easily tell about APNs changes.

See edit to OP.

Can you download any app that measures data speed.  trying to understand if data itself is not being received /sent or apps not able to connect. Of course if the case is second then this app also will not read but try please

When mobile data is on and wifi is off, can you give us the result of PING? You can either use Fing app to ping 8.8.8.8 or download a terminal app and execute ping -c 9 8.8.8.8. You can also try dialing *#*#4636#*#* in default dialer -> Phone Information -> Run Ping Test.

@Firelord: Fing said "Not connected to a WiFi network". Terminal reported "operation not permitted". Typing that sequence into dialler then pressing the green phone icon did nothing. :-(

did you tryed putting the same sim card in a different phone ,and a different sim card in your phone ? like  use one of a friend just to test and limit the list of stuff that might be causing this problem

Did Vodaphone recently update the cell towers? It's possible (although not likely) that they updated their towers to radio bands that your phone can't use.

remove dive link cache and reboot and see. Its works

@Abdulla: I have never heard of "dive link cache" and so would have no idea how to "remove" it.

Home+vol dwn +  power. visit boot menu. And then go advanced and there is option call Dive link cache. Once you remove it it will clear all apps cache as well. Try with this. its may helps

Just did a "wipe cache partition"... made no difference.

Have you found a solution, Mick?

@Tamas: no solution yet... I rang vodafone again and they said they'd escalate the issue to the next level of support... which could take up to four working days to get back to me!

How can they be this slow... What about using a different number until that? I understand if you stick to your own number, I do too. But if you don't, then a different number will help, I'm almost 100% sure.

TLDR: use a SIM with a different number (no matter if Vodafone or a different service).
We see a symptom (no net), but we have to find out the cause first, to solve the problem. So let's think step by step, what the problem could be.

Faulty phone?
No, your other phone (the SII) doesn't work either (using the same SIM).*
Faulty SIM?
No, you have already tried a new SIM.
Faulty cellular tower?
No, you have already tried an other tower (by changing location).
Faulty Vodafone?
Likely, because I'm sure they have net, and you're sure that they have to give you net (data limit hadn't been reached), plus we've found out in the previous questions that it isn't about the net is stuck between you and them. The only problem here is that you have already asked them, so they should have investigated the issue. But I'm sure they will take a next - more in-depth - look, since all the other possibilites are crossed out now.

I advise you to call Vodafone again, tell them that your phone is ok, your SIM is ok, the local tower is ok, your data subscription is ok, and then there is nothing left to do: they have to accept the fact that there is something wrong with their service. Until that, use a SIM with a different number, I'm sure it'll work in your current phone.
* To be 100% that your phone is ok, try a different SIM with a different number. I think the new number can still be Vodafone, because only your current account is affected (your current number), not the whole infrastructure. However, if you don't want to experiment (and your phone is unlocked), you can immediately get a SIM from an other company, as Firelord suggested in a comment below. (So that you are safe, even if the whole Vodafone system is damaged.)

Plan is not over. Tried in multiple areas. Tried "WCDMA only". No difference.

WCDMA is 3G. Choose 2G instead (GSM only).

If I set "GSM only" then I have all the same problems... except I see a "G" instead of an "H" in the notifications bar.

I suppose your phone is okay, since the SII produced the same problem using the same SIM. But the SIM can't be the problem either, because you have already changed it. So my next guess would be the tower, but you have already tried in different locations. So it must be a service problem, like Vodafone has accidentaly disabled your data access etc. Prove them your phone is ok, your SIM is ok, the local tower is ok, your data subscription is ok, and then there is nothing left to do: they have to accept the fact that there is something wrong with their service. Until that, use a different number.

May I suggest, at the bottom, you change "try a different SIM with a different number" to "try a different SIM with a different network". I believe this is what you actually meant because you've already mentioned that OP tried a new SIM of same number so suggesting a different SIM wouldn't help. Suggesting another number may not help either if it is not mentioned explicitly whether to be of same network or other. It's just to remove confusion. Just a suggestion. Nothing more. :)

@Firelord The network doesn't matter. As far as I know, Vodafone doesn't give you a new number in cases like this, they only replace the old SIM to a new SIM having the same number. Usually this works perfectly, since the old SIM is physically damaged, so it's enough to replace. In this case though, it wasn't enough. I agree with you that changing network would also help (if the phone is unlocked) but I think it isn't required, because I suppose only this account (number) is involved, not the whole network. Getting an other Vodafone SIM with a different number should be enough. See the update.

If you've not considered, put a new SIM card into your phone and if it works, then the network is messing up. It might sound impossible but your network is likely messing up.
Try a different network. If it works, then  Vodafone's network is the culprit.

He has already tried a new SIM, it didn't help. I guess it was a Vodafone SIM with the same number that he had before. So I see two options: either the whole Vodafone network is wrong, or only the account (number) of Mick. In case one, I suppose Vodafone has already received a lot of reports, so case two is more likely. If so, changing the SIM to a different Vodafone SIM (having a different number, independent from Mick's account) should be enough.


text:
Send WhatsApp message to all WhatsApp contacts and text message to the rest of the contacts
I want to send a message to all my contacts, but I want to send a WhatsApp message to those who use WhatsApp and a regular text message to the others. How do I do it?
(I have 1,140 contacts, out of which 662 also use WhatsApp, doing it manually will take a lot of time)

I don't think a premade kit to do it exists.

You could do this using hike(Best way to do this),whereas hike supports sms by the hike number....
Any how you need it in the whatsapp...
 so all you need is to create a broadcast list with all your contacts in it (broadcast messages will be sent to only the contacts who have saved your number in their contact list).
But to send the messages to those who dont have whatsapp you will need some contact app with specific filter...(search in play store)

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


text:
How to check if a particular user has downloaded my android app?
We have users using both website and android app. I want to know if a user on my website has downloaded the app also(even if he has not started using it). I have user's email address and phone number.

You can call him or write him an email and ask.

This is not for a single user. Will be repeating for all the users.

You haven't specified where you put the app (Play Store? Your website?), but it's impossible to know. Why not permit the download if user has logged-in to your website?

If you used email address in your application, then you can use any 3rd party analytics tools such as https://parse.com/ and http://www.localytics.com/ by sending email Id of user in property to find which user has downloaded your app

@mohammedazarudeen I can send URL with email address signature. But how can i know if the user has actually downloaded the app?

you can not do any such user specific metric collection as for as i understand.
You may need to refer this Campaign


text:
Moto G device storage randomly gets full
I never had this issue prior to installing CM 12.1 on my Moto G 8GB. But now, every often (like after 5 days of clean install from reset) the storage gets full. After that the device becomes useless, can't install app, can't remove apps, can't view storage options, and etc.
When connecting the phone to a computer I see this :

and folders inside it :

majority of the folders such as Pictures, DCIM, and Downloads are empty.
android folder is : 1.05MB
com.facebook.orca is: 1KB
tbslog is:75KB
tencent is: 43MB

It says 3.85 GB is used, the phone is 8GB and only shows 5.52 GB. I assume Android OS is installed on the missing storage, since I dont have anything why this device gets full so fast?
I only have 5 or 6 other apps (like Gmail, Maps, Chrome and Facebook).
I keep resetting the phone to get the storage back but not sure why is this keep happening. Any suggestions?

Could you check with Settings › Storage (and integrate a screenshot with your question)? Also see our internal-storage tag-wiki for some hints.

@izzy the settings > storage is unresponsive. I have checked and it shows calculating but it never finishes

Analysing the storage with DiskUsage might give us a better idea :) you can try it out if you're able to install it - but the app is very small

@benjaminS exactly -- one of the hints linked from above mentioned tag-wiki AFAIR :)


text:
how to edit this updateer_script?
I have a custom Rom For Samsung GT-S7582.
When I try to install it through CWM recovery it gives status 7 error.
So I followed this thread To remove status 7 error on XDA
But still it won't install. Can someone help me how to edit this this file.
My file is as follows
assert(getprop("ro.product.device") == "kyleprods" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "kyleprods" || getprop("ro.product.device") == "S7582" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "S7582" || getprop("ro.product.device") == "GT-S7582" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "GT-S7582" || getprop("ro.product.device") == "hawaii" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "hawaii" || getprop("ro.product.device") == "kylexx" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "kylexx" || abort("This package is for device: kyleprods,S7582,GT-S7582,hawaii,kylexx; this device is "   getprop("ro.product.device")   "."););
ifelse(is_mounted("/system"), unmount("/system"));
package_extract_dir("install", "/tmp/install");
set_metadata_recursive("/tmp/install", "uid", 0, "gid", 0, "dmode", 0755, "fmode", 0644);
set_metadata_recursive("/tmp/install/bin", "uid", 0, "gid", 0, "dmode", 0755, "fmode", 0755);
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci.1/by-name/system", "/system", "");
run_program("/tmp/install/bin/backuptool.sh", "backup");
unmount("/system");
if is_mounted("/data") then
package_extract_file("META-INF/org/cyanogenmod/releasekey", "/tmp/releasekey");
run_program("/tmp/install/bin/otasigcheck.sh") != "31744" || abort("Can't install this package on top of incompatible data. Please try another package or run a factory reset");
else
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci.1/by-name/userdata", "/data", "");
package_extract_file("META-INF/org/cyanogenmod/releasekey", "/tmp/releasekey");
run_program("/tmp/install/bin/otasigcheck.sh") != "31744" || abort("Can't install this package on top of incompatible data. Please try another package or run a factory reset");
unmount("/data");
endif;
show_progress(0.750000, 0);
ui_print("Patching system image unconditionally...");
block_image_update("/dev/block/platform/sdhci.1/by-name/system", package_extract_file("system.transfer.list"), "system.new.dat", "system.patch.dat");
show_progress(0.020000, 10);
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci.1/by-name/system", "/system", "");
run_program("/tmp/install/bin/backuptool.sh", "restore");
unmount("/system");
show_progress(0.050000, 5);
package_extract_file("boot.img", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci.1/by-name/KERNEL");
show_progress(0.200000, 10);

So you have deleted the assert prop line? "But still it won't install. " - Still the status 7 error? "ifelse(is_mounted("/system"), unmount" should be the start of the file

It doesn't give status 7 error.
But won't install

any error message during the installation process? Which editor did you use to edit the file? Did you build the custom rom yourself or where did you get it from? A little more information would be good :)

Got Rom from this site
http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/116672-romunofficialstablecm121galaxy-trend-plus-s-duos-2-gt-s7580-gt-s7582/
I was trying to install with cwm it wasn't working so I flashed TWRP but still both zips won't flash

Ok let's sum this up. You are using a Samsung GT-S7582? You flashed the rom through CWM and received a Status 7 error - then flashed TWRP and it didn't change anything? Again: Which editor are you using to edit the updater-script? You have deleted the first line, saved and replaced the updater-script in the zip file? Which error are you getting when flashing now? "wasn't working" is not precise enough - please edit your question and include the information and say which steps you have followed successfully and which were not successfull

thanks for replying..
It worked with latest TWRP.
using new ROM now


text:
android bluetooth details of tethering
what is MAC address. Kindly tell explictly. I mean is it unique for a device or is it different for different communication interfaces....for example is there a MAC address specifically for bluetooth in android

MAC addresses are used as a network address for most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet. Logically, MAC addresses are used in the media access control protocol sublayer of the OSI reference model.
MAC addresses are most often assigned by the manufacturer of a network interface controller (NIC) and are stored in its hardware, such as the card's read-only memory or some other firmware mechanism. If assigned by the manufacturer, a MAC address usually encodes the manufacturer's registered identification number and may be referred to as the burned-in address. It may also be known as an Ethernet hardware address (EHA), hardware address or physical address. This can be contrasted to a programmed address, where the host device issues commands to the NIC to use an arbitrary address. An example is a SOHO router, for which the ISP grants access to only one MAC address (used previously to inserting the router) so the router must use that MAC address on its Internet-facing NIC. Therefore the router administrator configures a MAC address to override the burned-in one.
A network node may have multiple NICs and each must have one unique MAC address per NIC.
MAC addresses are formed according to the rules of one of three numbering name spaces managed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): MAC-48, EUI-48, and EUI-64. The IEEE claims trademarks on the names EUI-48 and EUI-64, in which EUI is an abbreviation for Extended Unique Identifier.
Source: https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/mac-address/info


text:
Pros and cons of rooting using apps ("Soft Root") compared to other methods ("Hard Root")
There are quite a few app based rooting methods. A recent review 9 free software apps to root Android devices, points to some of them and there may be more apps, paid or otherwise.
From what I understand,
Plus Points

Ease of rooting
Don't need a laptop or computer

Minuses

Based on exploits, so may not work if exploits are denied by OS updates
Difficulty in unrooting (as I see on some forums for my device Huawei Honor 6)

Questions:

What are the pros and cons apart from above?
If a device has both options - app based rooting and rooting by methods by developers, which one should I opt for?

Note: I am not seeking app suggestion or recommendation.

My personal take has always been to stay away from app based rooting as long as a working custom recovery is available and can be flashed from bootloader. The very existence of 1-click root apps and successful implementation  of them for a device  implies that the device has a severe vulnerability (which may be exploited by an app, should it need to) which has not been patched by its user or by its  developer (OEM). That said, my first rooting was done using a 1-click root app (Framaroot). :)

Thanks to AndrewT who posted a link on chat, having this research paper  as a refernce in one of the answers. This answer is entirely based on the this paper (May 2015) and highlights common user understandable aspects ( it has a lot of security related material for those interested)

What are the pros and cons apart from above?
If a device has both options - app based rooting and rooting by methods by developers, which one should I opt for?

Answer:  It's all about malware vulnerability. Using Root exploits is a HUGE security risk and that over-weighs any other advantages
What is Soft Root and Hard Root?

Soft Root :  Root is obtained directly by
running a piece of software (i.e., root exploits)- either by directly installing on the device or  requiring adb shell through a PC connection
Hard Root :  Root is obtained by flashing su binary externally via an update package or ROM

Malware Threat - in general

Even though legitimate, many convenient one-click root methods operate by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Android system. If not carefully controlled, such exploits can be abused by malware author to gain unauthorized root privilege.
As described in the Android Malware Genome Project  ,  36.7% ( of 1260 ) malware samples had embedded at least one root exploit.
These well-engineered exploits are not well protected, it is extremely dangerous if they fall in the wrong hands.

Who are major root providers  and broadly, how does it work?

What are the types of root expolits ?
The paper covers 78 exploits studied. In general , the order of impact ( from the highest to lowest) :

Kernel Exploits: Due to its privileged position, targeting Linux Kernel is natural to achieve full control over an Android device- example ,TowelRoot
Library Exploits: the exploits targeting libraries that are used by Android system processes, or external libraries used for supporting different applications, example ZergRush exploit , libsysutils used by Volume Manager daemon
Application and Application Framework Application layer root exploits : exploits targeting system applications or services, mostly include vulnerable logics introduced by setuid utilities, system applications, or services. example is a vulnerable setuid utility that is only present on XoomFE devices
that has a command injection vulnerability
Vendor-Specific Kernel or Drivers: Vendors either customize the kernel (e.g., Qualcomm’s custom Linux kernel branch) or provide vendor-specific device drivers for various peripherals (e.g., camera, sound). Such code runs inside the kernel space and the compromise of which can also lead to full control over the device.

Number wise , exploits are as in figure below

How difficult is it to lay your hands on Exploit (Source or Binary) ?
Very easy. Easily available from Google search, making it a cake walk  for malware authors to leverage such exploits. Googling for 73 exploits lead to 68 of them being available - 46 with source code and 22 with binaries
How do these exploits work?
Major requirements for exploits to work (ordered from most difficult  to least) ( malware tag has a lot of these instances)

Requiring user interactions: (6 out of 78 studied)

Asking the user to download an app and manually interrupt the installation
Asking the user to boot into recovery at least once .
Asking the user to manually put the device into “battery
saving” mode .
Asking  the user to open a vendor specific app and hit a button

Requiring adb shell through a PC connection: (17 out of 78 studied). For some exploits, adb shell connection is required because of the following most common reasons:

The exploit can successfully modify a setting in local.prop which enables root for adb shell only.
The exploit needs to write to a file owned by group shell and group-writable (not world-writable)
The exploit targets the adb daemon process that requires the attack process to run with shell user. For instance, the Rage Against the Cage exploit targets the vulnerability of adb daemon’s missing check on return value of setuid()

Reboot: (6 out of 78 studied)  Generally, many root exploits require at least one reboot. For instance, a symbolic link attack would allow an attacker to delete a file owned by system with weak permission, to setup a link at the same location to a protected file. After a reboot, the corresponding init scripts would attempt to change the permission of the original file  to world-writable, which in reality changes the permission of the linked file
None or permission:  (44 out of 78 studied) The exploits in this category have no hard requirements, however, some of them may require certain Android permissions like READ LOGS in order for the process owner to be placed in certain user group.

Can these exploits be detected by Anti-Virus ?
Since the root exploits are highly sensitive and may be leveraged by various Android malware, it is expected that anti-virus software on Android platform can identify most of them, including the ones implemented by root providers. Overall, the result shows that the state-of-the-art security products on Android platform still cannot address root exploits effectively
4 representative Android anti-virus products  were used to test the largest provider (name not revealed) having 167 exploits. Because originally downloaded exploits from the providers  database have packed the actual exploit code and employed a tamper-detection mechanism, study crafted 3 different versions for every exploit:

Original exploit fetched directly from providers servers, with
packing and tamper-detection on.
Unpacked exploit, which will expose all actual exploit logic to
    anti-virus products.
Re-packed exploit with tamper-detection disabled.

Exploit binaries engineered by large root providers are surprisingly “clean” as all major anti-virus software have difficulty detecting them as table below shows

Conclusion
Simple. Stay away from Soft Root methods unless you are capable of dealing with the consequences

I feel like you're missing the point about exploits here. If your phone has a vulnerability which a "soft root" can use, malware can exploit that vulnerability regardless of whether you use it or not. Rooting your phone by exploiting a vulnerability doesn't make it more vulnerable.

@DanHulme: Agreed that it doesn't increase vulnerability.  I asked the question initially to understand , why and which (soft / hard root) is better - to that extent,  there is an answer (not withstanding existence of vulnerability). However, if you feel the answer can be improved incorporating your view, please feel free to do so

I just don't think that what you're saying about the danger of these vulnerabilities has any bearing at all on the question of which method to choose.

By choosing soft root, it looks like one is inviting exploitation of vulnerabilities but yes I think I get what you are saying

It's like the following question and answer. "I have a front door with a key, and a back door which I never lock. Which should I use to get into my house?" "You shouldn't use the unlocked back door because a burglar might get in that way." The door is unlocked whether you use it or not.

Nice analogy. Apt. More one tries to understand security, more one realizes  how less protected

There are a few advantages to rooting using the official process.

It's officially supported on many phones. This means you can use a process that's documented by the manufacturer, and tools from an official source, or a trustworthy third party (CWM or TWRP), instead of having to run a tool that you got from some dodgy website.
Because it's officially supported, most of the time, a system update won't change the process, so you don't need to go looking around for "the latest" rooting method. In contrast, software updates tend to patch vulnerabilities, so exploit methods will often stop working after an update.
Because of the above, after you "soft root" you might be tempted to not install a system update, because that update patches the vulnerability and stops your rooting method working. With the official process, there's no reason to stay on an old, vulnerable version.

As well as the convenience of a one-click method (mentioned in the question), there are some other advantages of doing it that way instead.

Unlocking the bootloader to "hard root" wipes the phone, so you have to set things up again and restore data from backup. Typically "soft rooting" via a vulnerability doesn't need to wipe the phone, and that can be a lot more convenient.
Because rooting modifies the system partition, typically you can't do an OTA update afterwards: the updater recognises the system is modified, and bails out. But some "soft root" methods on some phones avoid this problem, so you can do an OTA update without having to unroot or flash a new system image. This is also a bit easier. Either way, you'll still have to root again after an update.
Since you don't have to unlock the bootloader, there's no temptation to leave it unlocked. This has the security benefit that people can't flash new ROMs to your phone (e.g. if it is stolen and they want to circumvent the screen lock or factory reset protection).

What Beeshyams says about security is important, but to my mind it's irrelevant to the question. It's good to point out or remind people that every "soft rooting" method is exploiting a security vulnerability, and malware could use just the same vulnerability to install rootkits on your phone. However, the vulnerability is there whether you use it or not. The security risk comes from the possibility of the rooting method. Rooting your phone by exploiting the vulnerability doesn't make it more exploitable, or worse.
If your phone can be rooted by a rooting app/exploit, then it is vulnerable to malware. This is true just the same regardless of whether you root it or what method you use. Not using the exploit (by doing a "hard root" instead, or just by not rooting) will not protect you from malware, nor will it reduce your exposure.

On request by OP, some details from chat:
Good question, but hard to answer: there are a few more things to consider.

it's not just "app based versus USB" – and even your "Difficulty in unrooting" is not necessarily the fault of "app based" in general, but rather that of a specific app causing that difficulty.
From a security point of view: if there's an app that can root my device – who says another app doesn't just do that without my consent? We all know there's malware out there doing exactly that (in order to integrate itself as system app, to be protected against factory-reset).
However, if there's no such app (and in the hope that's because it cannot be done by an app on this device/ROM), it's much harder for such malware. If then there's an easy method via USB, I feel a little safer :) It's rather unlikely some other app manages to attach an USB cable, download something to my computer, and runs that combo to do harm.

So above might count as "contra app-based" – but if such an app already exists for the device in question, there's not much we can do about. Even if we say "it's safer the other way round", that doesn't protect us against #2. Sure, we can check that before buying a device – but who says such an app doesn't pop up the day after?


text:
Android 5.0 “updating contact list” error
After updating my android 5.0 (lollipop) phone (Samsung Note 3 N9005) my contact list couldn't open. When I want to open my contacts there was always a process like "updating contact list" and I couldn't open my contacts. Also my Whatsapp contacts were always refreshing when I open whatsapp and click my contacts and it takes long time.

I resolved the problem like below:

Go Settings->General->Cloud->Sync Settings
Tap to "Sync Contacts"
Then go back Settings->General->Application Manager->ALL section
Select "Contacts" then Clear Data and Clear Cache.
Select "Contacts Storage" then Clear Data and Clear Cache (All contacts removed).
Go Settings->General->Cloud->Sync Settings
Tap to "Sync Contacts" to bring your contacts again.


text:
Bootloop after modification of "/system/bin/playlpm" file
Modification of playlpm file sets my Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini I9192 into boot-loop.
Instead of normal booting, it goes back to battery charging screen without animation, reboots again and keeps repeating this cycle. It happens only at the attempt to auto-start the phone by connecting a charger. Otherwise phone is fully operational.
Is there any option of "reboot" or similar command that forces S4 Mini to come out of the bootloop?
Note: /system is write-protected in Galaxy S4 Mini and needs to be remount to save something on it.  Used command: mount -o remount,rw /system

You'll need to get it in recovery mode and re-flash it. There's a tutorial here if you need it.
If that doesn't help, I'm afraid the only option will be to carry it to service for repair.


text:
Factory reset for every Cyanogenmod Update?
I plan to install Cyanogenmod on my new Android phone. For this first install, I've to do a factory reset - what's no problem on a factory new phone.
But do I have to perform this factory reset on every minor and major update of the mod in the next month and years - and loosing all my app settings, logins, game highscores etc. again and again?
Or does the Cyanogenmod update behave like a normal Android update (just a little bit downloading, rebooting and continue with all apps and settings as before)?

Generally speaking you don't have to perform a factory reset when downloading a newer build. The flashable zip should perform all wipes by itself if it is necessary (only certain partitions are affected - your data should be safe). Many developers include an OTA(Over-The-Air)Update Application so you can comfortably download and install the new build with 1-3 clicks. It depends on which device and which custom rom you are using.
In most cases you only have to perform a factory reset

when you're performing a fresh installation of CM
the android version changes(factory reset may not be needed but it is adviced most of the times)
when something goes wrong :)

The best thing to do is to make regular backups and save them on your computer - this way you won't loose much.

the factory reset for case 2 would be ok, if there are tools/services to restore really all apps+settings if the phone is rooted. Don't know those tools from my former Nexus 4

@Konrad Titanium Backup is probably the most used app for app-backups. You can select which apps you want to backup, if you want to backup the app+all of its data and more options. Very reliable and easy to use.

You can either update manually or using installer instructions
Quoting from Cyanogenmod official site updating related to manual
Updates

If you are doing a major update (such as from CM 7 to CM 10) or wish to clear the device's data partion, select Clear data partition or Factory Reset (depending on the recovery menu you are using)

Again from release versioning

CyanogenMod 9 - 10.2 build tags-
  CyanogenMod 9 through 10.2 were qualified with tags: Experimental, Nightly, Release Candidate, and Stable. The Snapshot tag was added with the introduction of M builds in CyanogenMod 10.2. These tags were meant to indicate a build's suitability for general use.
Nightly: usually generated every 24 hours, experimental, newest features, unstable
  Experimental: testing version requested by device maintainers to evaluate specific changes
  M Snapshot: milestone snapshot, more stable than a nightly but potentially some issues
  Release Candidate: last builds before stable release, few minor issues, mostly stable, and safe for daily use
  Stable: most stable version available, all or nearly all issues resolved

Nightlies are not recommended unless you can handle issues arising out of it

These ROMs are largely untested, and as advised by CyanogenMod, not meant for use for an average user.

To answer your question now, avoid nightly/ experimental/ snapshot  builds, install only stable builds and update as recommended by CM installer or manually as highlighted.
Generally minor updates and nightly builds do not need factory reset
This is about official builds. If you are sourcing your build from other developer forums follow their instructions


text:
HTC Sensation won't boot but vibrates regularly
Recently my nice old HTC Sensation broke. Only 1-2 few weeks later, when I had a new one already, I managed to resurrect it by just using a different back cover. Since I didn't find the particular symptoms anywhere else on the internet, I decided to post the problem here and to answer it myself so that it might help anybody to recover his data when seeing similar symptoms.

History of my HTC Sensation:
16 months ago, it got wet in the rain and stopped working for at least some days. I guess this is relevant because the contacts probably started corroding then. I bought another broken phone of the same model, hoping I could replace some parts, but two weeks later, when I came around to do that, it worked again.
This year, the phone more and more often suddenly rebooted, and about two weeks ago, it was stuck in a frozen state where the system buttons below the display were lit but the power button wouldn't work, so I had to remove the battery in order to reboot it.
This happened once more and this time, after connecting the charging cable, reinserting the battery, and powering on it did nothing but vibrating in regular intervals: it vibrated every 18.4 seconds but the display stayed black. Again, this could only be stopped by removing the battery. I brushed the contacts a little and the next time it booted fine.
One day later this happened again and this time no brushing helped. At that time I haven't tried recovery mode since I didn't know about it yet.
So I was sure this is a hardware problem and the phone is predestined to die finally soon, but what can I do now to make it boot at least once more so that I can backup or transfer my data to another phone? Brush the contacts even harder?

1-2 weeks later, I wanted to rescue my data, but again it went into the vibration loop. I replaced the back cover with the one from the other broken device I mentioned above and this helped. Once it booted with the replacement back cover, I tried to reproduce the problem with the original back cover but now it boots ok with that, too.
Anyway, the conclusion is that the phone isn't completely lost when this vibration loop occurs.


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How to change the boot logo, Not the bootanimation 4.2.2
Im trying to find out if I can change the boot logo, the one that shows up right before the bootanimation. Currently it show's me a linux logo.
I am looking to either completely remove it or change it to something else, but I can not find any information related to this, all that comes up is the animation, which I honestly couldn't care less about.
So to summarize it, Can I change/remove the boot logo? If so, how?

Search web about flashing LOGO partition and/or flash/create/modify logo.bin for Android. Also use the term "boot logo" instead of boot animation when querying.

@Rose If your phone is powered by a Mediatek chipset, then use this tool to edit your boot logo: Boot logo.bin Builder


text:
Issue with flashing gapps in CM13 for OnePlusOne (bacon)
I am having issues with flashing gapps using cyanogenmod recovery. I installed cyanogenmod nightly (with recovery) from http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=bacon dated 14/12/2015.
It installed perfectly. I installed few apks. Works fine. The problem is that when i try to flash the open_gapps-arm-6.0-nano-20151216 from here from  dated 20151216 , it fails.
I get the following stacktrace in /tmp/recovery.log -
[   11.520607] Now send the package you want to apply
[   11.520618] to the device with "adb sideload <filename>"...
[   12.521723] unknown fuse request opcode 22
[   12.531326] Finding update package...
[   12.539084] I:Update location: /sideload/package.zip
[   12.539130] Opening update package...
[   12.539486] I:read key e=3 hash=20
[   12.539674] I:read key e=65537 hash=20
[   12.539862] I:read key e=65537 hash=20
[   12.540054] I:read key e=65537 hash=20
[   12.540095] I:4 key(s) loaded from /res/keys
[   12.540130] Verifying update package...
[   12.557402] I:comment is 1357 bytes; signature 1339 bytes from end
[   23.136467] I:whole-file signature verified against RSA key 0
[   23.136519] I:verify_file returned 0
[   23.136588] Installing update...
[   23.137612] E:Can't run /tmp/update_binary (No such file or directory)
[   23.138304] E:Installation error in /sideload/package.zip
[   23.138317] (Status 255)
[   23.138355]
[   25.195878] sideload-host file size 67337561 block size 65536
[   25.195904] sideload_host finished
[   25.196913] I:sideload thread finished
[   25.197182] Restarting adbd...
[   25.197603] Installation aborted.

But I can verify that /tmp/update_binary exists.
executing ls -la /tmp/update_binary returns -
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for localtime!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for GMT!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for posixrules!
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 60190 1970-04-26 13:02 /tmp/update_binary

du -hs /tmp/update_binary  returns --
60K /tmp/update_binary

I have no clue on how to proceed next. Does anybody here have a fix? I want gapps installed on my device.

You could try replacing the CM recovery with TRWP and flash open_gapps with that. My OnePlusOne has TWRP and flashing open_gapps worked fine.
The disadvantage is that you have to reboot into recovery to flash the CM updates.

I've been able to update with TWRP without booting into recovery. I couldn't with CM12, but it works again with CM13.

You're right. It works for me again too.

I was able to to keep the CM recovery and load Open GApps as long as I side-loaded both of them at the same time using adb. In other words, load both the CM .zip and the Open GApps .zip before you reboot.


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WhatsApp won't install via playstore or as an APK... [insufficient space]
My partner just received a new android phone.  It looks nice, but Whatsapp won't install.  It gives an "insufficient memory" error.  I've tried to clear the cache, install it from an APK, all with the same result.
The internal memory reports that there is 1.5GB free.
I've already reset this phone several times. It is running android version 4.4.2 and the software is up-to-date according to the manufacturer.
Any other suggestions or tips on how to get it working?
Many applications install without a problem, there just seems to be a problem with YouTube updating and Whatsapp installing.

it's always helpful to mention the smartphone model and android version

its a turkish make, model "Dark Evo P55"... can't find much of anything about it online

Give us the output (screenshots) of Diskinfo. You may have to delete an app or an app's data  to get some space for the said app's installation.

Installed a 32GB microsd card into the phone and set it as the default install location for apps.  All programs updated and downloaded successfully.


text:
"Unfortunately xxx has stopped"
My Symphony Xplorer W85 running JellyBean v.4.2.2 suddenly began showing the following errors, making the phone unusable:

"unfortunately ikeyboard has stopped"
"unfortunately systeminfo has stopped"
"unfortunately adobe air has stopped"
"unfortunately measure has stopped"

I first tried factory resetting the phone, then rooted and uninstalled Adobe Air, systeminfo, and ikeyboard using Kingroot but the phone still displays the errors. What might be causing this and what can I do to fix it?

Reflash your stock ROM.

You might be dealing with an issue similar to this: Attempted multiple solutions for malwares like androidSystem, timeService and monkeyTest, but to no avail

Download the stock Rom and re-flash
Here is the link:
http://firmwarefile.com/symphony-w25

Probably this happens if you try to flash files which are not supported.
Did you try to flash something?
This could fix it-
Download the stock firmware for your device and then flash it.

For your first line, I recommend you read this again: "I first tried factory resetting the phone, then rooted and uninstalled Adobe Air, systeminfo, and ikeyboard using Kingroot but the phone still displays the errors."

Okay,so the possible solution here is to flash the stock rom again to get the device back to its normal state.

Yes, but we already know that info.

Cool then,just tried to help.


text:
Unable to bluetooth pair Galaxy S5 with BG-BluBox
I paired a BG-BluBox external sound cube to a Samsumg Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition successfully.
At a later time, I initiated a pairing of the BG-BluBox with a Samsung Galaxy S5 (Android 5.0). The pairing was not successful*. I am now unable to pair this device with the S5.
I have located the Bluetooth app under Device Manager and have deleted data and cache and restarted the device.
I have also wiped the cache partition.
In both of the above cases, the outcome is the same. The Bluetooth app on the S5 still shows other paired devices as before, shows the BG-BluBox, but the S5 reports that the PIN/password is incorrect when I try to pair.
How can I pair this device with the S5?
*I may have had to enter a PIN, which I may have entered incorrectly. This was a while ago and I don't recall the details now.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I connected the S5 to the sound box via the supplied headphone connector jack.

Based on our chat discussion, consolidating

By entering PIN correctly on the sound box, you are able to pair with S4 or any other device
This doesn't repeat with S5, even after clearing the cache and data of S5 (The first way is to to clear cache and data of Bluetooth app from Settings > Applications Menu > Application Manager.

3.There is no option of resetting memory of sound box and it remembers the last known good connection, which in this case is S4
Available information points to a problem with S5 persisting to remembering the wrong PIN entry and attempting to pair
To fix this,(Considering your device is NOT rooted), would suggest to factory reset your device after taking back up of data and attempt to pair
EDIT:  You had mentioned that clearing Bluetooth app data/ cache did not clear the saved settings for S4. Which makes me suspect that cache of app is not being cleared. Suggest try this to clear cache of your device -turn your Samsung Galaxy S5 off and press at the same time Power + Home + Volume Down buttons to enter in Recovery Mode. Inside Recovery Mode press “Wipe Cache Partition”  and reboot your phone.  This option I understand had not been tried. You will not lose data. If this also doesn't help, factory reset would be the last resort
Meanwhile, you can mail OEM of sound box to get instructions on resetting or clearing it of stored device information and do that as well to have a clean slate

My question includes the line, "I have also wiped the cache partition."

I had seen that but was wanting to make sure that you had done it from recovery.please ignore in that case

Had the issue been resolved?

No, it has not.


text:
what is the best way to securely send SMS?
what is the best way to securely send details like bank account, credit card etc through SMS ?
is there any apps available for free ?

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Please note that recommendations like Is there an app for X are off-topic here (see What topics can I ask about here? for details). For where your question might fit better, you might want to look into Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions?. With the correct phrasing and details provided, you might try your luck at SR.

Signal by OpenWhisper Systems seems to be good, secure and free. Using it myself.
Edit: my bad, they don't do secure sms anymore.
Well, there's still SMSSecure app, which might be of use.

https://whispersystems.org/blog/goodbye-encrypted-sms/

@mattm Now that's some bad news. Thanks for pointing out.

I don't think it's necessarily bad news. The main point is that secure messaging will not be over SMS, but over the IP network.


text:
Find out over the network if Android device is active
I have an nVidia Shield TV device, which is running Android TV.
In order to integrate this into my home theater setup, I need to be able to determine if the device is active or sleeping.
For my other devices I just use ping to determine this. However, since Android devices are basically always on, this doesn't work in this case.
One way, of course, would be to write a simple app, which opens a TCP port when the device is active and closes it when it's sleeping.
My question is if there's a simpler way, maybe an existing app or some other way to do this without developing my own app to do this.

Is your Android device always connected to the Wi-Fi?

I'm getting the feeling that you are mixing "device is active or sleeping" with "being on". Please make you question more precise.

@HiI'mFrogatto The device is not using WiFi, it's connected via Ethernet, so it's always connected to the network.

@MarianPaździoch Android TV has a mode called "sleep mode", which is a low-power mode, similar to when the screen of a phone or tablet is off. I want to distinguish between this sleep mode, and the active mode, where the device is displaying stuff on the TV. Does that clarify the problem?

@MikaFischer So, you can deploy a light-weight Android app in your TV acting like a server which receives sleep signals from the Android phones. Therefore, you'd need install a client in Android phones that send such a signal to the server.

@MikaFischer That's a Pushing technique, however your solution is a pulling technique.

A possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23084389/how-to-detect-device-status-offline-online-in-android

@HiI'mFrogatto There are no phones involved, just the Android TV box. And the question is how to do this without writing my own app, but with an existing one, like Tasker. I'm also open for a push-solution.

@MikaFischer "... without writing my own app, ..." Stack Overflow is for those who code :)

@naXa That question is similar, but concerned with network connectivity. This question is concerned with sleep mode vs. device is active. However I think a similar technique can be applied to my problem, so if this can really not be done without writing my own app, the info will be useful.

@MikaFischer It's not obvious. I've asked a question on Meta. Let's see  what we can do.

It appears that nVidia Shield Android TV comes with Android 5.1.1 and a Marshmallow update is available since December only. I'm assuming that Android 5.1.1 is the version installed in your device.
Query system services
Enable adb in wireless mode on device. Follow the official guide or this answer of Izzy for instructions, if needed.
You can find the status of Android - sleep or awake - from the dump of various system services.

Service: Power
adb shell dumpsys power

Search the strings mWakefulness and/or Display Power: state. Both of them would give you the status you need.
Example:
adb shell 'dumpsys power | grep -e "mWakefulness=" -e "Display Power"'

gives me
mWakefulness=Asleep
Display Power: state=OFF

Service: Window
adb shell dumpsys window

Search the strings mAwake=true and/or mScreenOnEarly=true and/or mScreenOnFully=true
Example:
adb shell 'dumpsys window | grep -e "mAwake=" -e "mScreenOnEarly" -e "mScreenOnFully"'

gives me
mAwake=true
mScreenOnEarly=true mScreenOnFully=true

Service: Display
adb shell dumpsys display

Search the strings mState=OFF and/or mScreenState=OFF.
Example:
adb shell 'dumpsys display | grep -e "mState=" -e "mScreenState"'

gives me
mState=OFF
mScreenState=OFF

Use Automation
If none of the system services mentioned in previous method worked for you, setup an automation app, such as Tasker or MacroDroid or Automate.
We would now use automation to write the status of Android into a file, such as Sleeping for sleep mode and Awake when it is awake.
Tasker,

Profile: Event → Display → Display Off
Task: (Actions) : File → Write File → select a text file to write into, type Sleeping and uncheck Add Newline
Profile: Event → Display → Display On
Task: (Actions) : File → Write File → select a text file to write into, type Awake and uncheck Add Newline

MacroDroid
Android sadly doesn't come with echo or printf utility, If the device is rooted then you can install busybox and be at peace. If not, download busybox binary, set executable permissions and push it into /data/local/tmp using adb push. Another way for a non-rooted device is to keep three files, one for state, one with the text Sleeping and and the last one  with the text Awake. Whenever the screen turns off/on, copy the second/third file into first one.
MacriDroid also requires a plugin, such as Secure Settings to execute commands.

Trigger: Screen On/Off → Screen Off
Action: Secure Settings → Actions → Run Command:

Command: echo Sleeping > FILE_PATH
Command Name: Screen off

Trigger: Screen On/Off → Screen On
Action: Secure Settings → Actions → Run Command:

Command: echo Awake > FILE_PATH
Command Name: Screen off

For a non-rooted Android, echo should be replaced with ./data/local/tmp/busybox echo. Otherwise, do a copy operation using the command cp SOURCE DESTINATION.
Automate
Your flow should more or less look like this image
(Click image to enlarge)

Your need to create two flows, one for sleep and other for awake. The second block in the flow is named Broadcast receive and can be found under Apps. The third block is named File write text and can be found under File & Storage.
You can now check the content of that file using adb in wireless mode or using SSH (requires an SSH server on Android; run the server on all interfaces and do not bind it to a single interface.)

There is another possibility, such as making your automation app upload the file to a local or remote server so that you can query that server instead of Android to know status.

Something tells me this won't be a smooth ride on Android TV. Let me know if my answer fails to work at all. I'll take it down. I do not intend to keep an unhelpful answer lurking around.

Wow, thanks for the detailed response! Using Tasker like this worked like a charm! The only caveat is that you need to connect a mouse to set it up. I didn't write to a file. Instead I wrote a simple HTTP server in Python and send GET requests to it from the shield.

Yeah, yours is a nice technique as well. It's like telling the server that you're alive. And thanks for the bounty! Would you mind telling me whether my method 1 (that system service method) failed or did you not try it yet?

I didn't try it because I'm not rooted and as far as I can see, it's necessary to connect a computer to the device enable the adb network mode (after reboots for instance), which is too inconvenient for me...

This is not actually a solution but in device settings there's probably an option which disables Wi-Fi when device goes to idle mode. Even if there's no such option I'm sure there must be an application for this. So if Wi-Fi is disabled in IDLE state then "ping" approach will work but you have to deal with unworking background updates and so on when device goes to IDLE state.
I don't think that there's a default application for this solution but maybe further point will help you. You can create your own Android application which listens to PowerManager.ACTION_DEVICE_IDLE_MODE_CHANGED Intent and upon receiving receiving some kind of request from your server it can send back if device is awake or not. However notice that when your device receives server request it will probably come awake.

Good idea, however this is a set-top-box and connected via Ethernet. And as I wrote, I know that I can write an app. The questions is if there's a way around doing that :)

AFAIK there's no big difference in types of connection on Android from dev's POV. So there's probably a 3d party app which can disable any type of connection including wired when device enters idle state.

You can setup a  shell script to know whether the device is in idle mode..if device is idle..then you can
Send signal to the device ..
For example u can use adb shell command like below:
adb shell dumpsys deviceidle

Interesting, I'll have to see whether I cen get adb working over the network or whether an SSH server can be used instead.

However, dumpsys deviceidle doesn not really work on my phone at least (gives Can't find service: deviceidle).


text:
Restore "loud volume, long periods" notification in Lollipop
I am running Lollipop 5.0/CloudyG3 2.5 and G3 Tweaksbox. Is it possible to restore the "loud volume, long periods" notifications?
I would like to have the volume limiter that this notification provides.
I've tried rebooting my device and restoring the setting via Tweaksbox, but neither action helped.

Try to reboot your device, I think that I am getting that notification every time I reboot my phone.

No, that hasn't worked. First thing I tried.

@Chapz, since you also know something about this problem, could you provide a screenshot? I can't find anything on google by searching "loud volume, long periods".

@Firelord He/she is speaking of the volume warning that appeared with android k that displayed a warning before letting the volume exceed 10. It was removed with lollipop.

Is this what you meant? @EthanZ

@EthanZ But that is actually the same thing I posted, with the difference that mine is on Lollipop and yours is for Android 4.x.

@Firelord the dreaded scrolling down. I see it now. From my mobile perspective it looked like just the volume bar. Yes, that's what I was speaking of, it disappeared from my device on lollipop just as it did on MauF's device. Deleting now irrelevant comments.

@Firelord That's exactly what I meant. But it does exist in Lollipop, since I know that, by mistake, I pressed on the accept button. I was wondering if there is a way to edit some system file to restore the notification.

In my CyanogenMod 12, setting the value of key unsafe_volume_music_active_ms to 0 followed by a reboot restored it. If you're certain your ROM does have that safe sound setting, then there must be a key in a table of  /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db. In my ROM, the table is named secure and I did adb shell su -c content update --uri content://settings/secure --bind value:s:0 --where "name='unsafe_volume_music_active_ms'". Change the table and key name  with the ones appropriate with the ones in your ROM.

Interesting! I will definitely look into it. I currently am on Cloudy, but will certainly search for that table in settings.db. Thanks!

The volume warning was removed with Android Lollipop. It
  appears that this is in lollipop, but it is either very buggy
  or extremely passive.

Read the comments. Many users found it to be more of an annoyance than a useful feature. If you still want this feature, there are plenty of apps you can download that will limit the max volume of your device as KitKat did.

Is this absolutely true? It's been removed? I can almost swear that I pressed on the "accept" button while in Lollipop.

Found and downloaded an app from Play store. Thanks.

@MauF I never saw it and I use a Moto x. Motorola is usually VERY careful to deviate as little as possible from vanilla android. If anyone can prove this wrong, I'll happily admit I'm incorrect on that.

@MauF So I have a story. I rescind what I said. This menu is in android L. However, it appears to be very buggy. My device's volume randomly lowered itself today in my car. It was this exact menu. Then the kicker- I can't get it to come back, even though I had selected cancel. This is the first and only time I have seen the warning in Lollipop and I don't think I will ever see it again. Bug or just more passive? I don't know.

The plot thickens and gets weird.


text:
Viewing the content of Android cache
Where in the system is cached application data stored? Is there any way to view it programmatically? I know there are several applications available in the market to view and clear the memory. But I want to know how exactly it is done.

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! This site is for users of Android, which means that questions about development/programming are off-topic here (see the What topics can I ask about here?). Development questions are on-topic on our sister site Stack Overflow. You might also wish to consult Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions? for a fitting place to your question.

Related: How do I view Android application specific cache

First off, your device needs to be rooted. Then you'll be able to access it with (almost) any file manager. For list of where to look for things check this post right here at Android.SE

Without Root Method:
You can view individual Application Cache, Data, and ads caches and files by doing this:
from app drawer aka app windows, **Touch and hold the app icon until a window pops up like this
 **
You see the popup window that says app info, NOW touch the small circle with the (i) inside.
This takes you to the file system that All the Caches (for this Individual app) are.
Its Tedious but you can go through all your apps this way and delete ALOT of Crap that so far no app cleaner apps have ever done.


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Cannot screen mirror youtube to TV
I am using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 with Android 4.4.2 and a Samsung UE48H6270SS.
I can screen mirror my Music and also Media using the Samsung Smart View App but I can't do it with YouTube. There is an option in the YouTube-settings to "pair" a device with a TV, but that requires the TV to install the YouTube-App on the TV which I don't want to install. (Or anything else related to SmartTV). Is there any alternative to the YouTube app or another solution?

AFAIK, there is no alternative to the YouTube app. However do you expect your TV to decode the video by YouTube. Also: Isn't the YouTube app preinstalled on Samsung Smart TVs? I have one and it came with some preinstalled apps, that are working like a charm.


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wired mic -> bluetooth adapter -> android smartphone for recording possible?
I want to record some of my public speaking using a lapel mic while walking away from my android smartphone.  I've done this using a standard bluetooth headset.  However, the audio is pretty poor.  So, I'd like to purchase a better quality microphone (probably a mic that attaches to my shirt).  The reviews on amazon for bluetooth mics are pretty bad.  The best reviews for this type of mic are mics that have 3.5mm output.  I'm wondering if there is a way to convert that into a bluetooth signal that is sent to my phone for recording.  I've seen that bluetooth adapters exist, but those seem to be all about hooking up to bluetooth headphones.  I've been googling trying to figure out how bluetooth works (receivers, transmitters, etc), but I can't find out if this will work... and I can't seem to find if anyone else is doing it successfully.  Any help is much appreciated.

Broadcasting audio FROM the phone can be done with either the "A2DP" bluetooth profile (which has good quality, used for music and such) or the phone call profile (which sounds, at best, like a phone call). To RECEIVE audio with the phone, I believe you can only use the phone call profile, meaning poor quality. If you MUST be away from your phone, perhaps you could use a wireless microphone that uses a 3.5mm jack or similar. Or, just keep you phone in your pocket and plug in a 3.5mm microphone, clipped to your shirt (I recommend this option if possible.)

OK, so I have an ANSWER.  I know for sure that the Pryme BTH-300 can accept a microphone plugged in via 3.5mm and sent the external mic's audio to a device via bluetooth (I have one myself).  The only bummer of the Pryme BTH-300 is that the audio output, if you're listening to music, for example, is poor.
I'm going to try
Sony RM-X7BT
which has a microphone input as well as an output that it can send via bluetooth to your phone.  I'll try to post on here my findings, but on Amazon for sure.

I believe a number of the products from JK Audio may be helpful with this specific use case. Specifically, their BlueDriver-F3 which is a female XLR-adapted device that can plug into a mic and send the mic signal to a phone (or speaker) via Bluetooth. There are other "Bluetooth Wireless Audio Interfaces" (useful search term) that may work as well.
There are plenty of converters to go from a 3.5 mm output to an XLR male output so that you could use the BlueDriver-F3 with a lav mic with a 3.5 mm output. For example, the Rode VXLR Adapter.


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How do I set a device password longer than seventeen characters?
The stock-Android device security settings restrict the length of passwords (and PINs) to seventeen characters. When I first got my device, I worked around this by using Android Device Manager to lock it. Now, I'd like to change the password, but the device itself still refuses to set anything exceeding that limit, and ADM just uses the existing password (despite prompting me for a new one). What's another way to bypass this limit, without disabling disk encryption as a side effect?

Possible duplicate of PIN longer than 16 digits

@Firelord Not really. That asker seems to have accepted an answer that basically says not to treat a PIN|password as any kind of substantial security mechanism, which is exactly what I'm trying to do.


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Lock location services (off) on android 5.1.1
Is there a way to lock location services (keep it off) on android 5.1.1? Like with restrictions on iphone for example. I'm looking for a simple way to do this. A way to disable it permanently is also fine. Thanks


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Android Versions Size Vs Features
This occurred to me while updating Windows laptop. Each version of Windows gets bigger, much bigger in size compared to the extra benefits to "average Joe (or Jane)".
Question: What is the size of pure Android version starting from 1.0 to current 6.0 (less the skin added by OEM) and key benefits or improvements (for the average user) added in each Android version ?

Since JB, you can see the changelog here: http://developer.android.com/about/versions/jelly-bean.html

For versions above 2.3.6, you could check the Google Developers page for the stock images for the nexus phones. They could provide a context for the sizes of pure Android.
There is another site i had seen comparing all the features of all the versions of Android. I can't seem to remember the name though
Edit: Found the site here.

Thank you . I should have specified in my question that problem is getting inputs on earlier versions


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Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 not powering on and unable to do factory reset
What happened is my tablet froze. I tried to restart the tablet by holding the power button, however it stayed on the Samsung screen and did not proceed to the home screen. Eventually I was able to turn off the device.
I want to factory reset the device now. However the options to factory reset are not showing. I press and hold volume up together with the power button, nothing happened. What else can I do to hard reset the device?

Hold the Volume Down and Power Button to get into the stock recovery - you should be able to do a factory reset from there.

I tried doing that. Nothing happened.

Reflashing your stock firmware might help - go into the download mode by pressing Vol Up + Power Button, Select and download the firmware. This is for the Galaxy Tab2 GT-P3100, if this does not match your device then search for an other firmware. Follow the instructions on the bottom of the download-page to reflash a stock rom.


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Android Connected to Multiple WiFi
I recently got a new smart tv and a samsung s6. I have an ambitious project I would like to pursue. I want to do some screen mirroring, this works fine but with my wifi being fairly slow any real streaming lags.
I would like to set up a private home network which would connect my phone and tv, this network would be free from any other traffic. I would then require my phone connect to my incoming wifi network.
I want my phone to get media from an outside network and stream it to my tv over my private network. Is this possible? Where can I even start looking?

Have you tried Chromecast? Look at https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6059461?hl=en-IN and http://www.cnet.com/how-to/mirror-an-android-device-to-your-tv-using-chromecast/

The solution you want is not possible because of both hardware and software limitations. On the hardware side you need a device with 2 WiFi antennas which neither phone has, and on the software side, I never heard that Android supports multiple WiFi connections or antennas.
Another thing is that Screen mirroring is using WiFi Direct, meaning it connects the TV with your phone directly, not over a router or access point, so your home WiFi shouldn't have any impact on the mirroring itself.

thanks! This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for

I don't think intrinsically you need two hardware devices to connect to two networks, below link shows a Linux setup creating two interfaces on one hardware wifi device. Android supports wifi-direct which is two simultaneous wifi connections on one device
https://superuser.com/questions/592714/is-it-possible-to-add-2-interfaces-to-my-wireless-nic-to-run-as-a-wireless-mesh


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how to set two different passwords for screen lock and factory reset
I want to set up my android phone such that it should not have any screen lock but it should ask for a password when i try to factory reset it.
I have tried so many websites for this trick but could not find any solution yet.

Please specify phone model and software version.

You can't achieve the objective  without rooting. If you've a rooted device, you can use Tasker in combination with ProtectedApps to have separate but still a native lock screen. Problem is, the latter acts on every part of app, while we want to lockdown only a specific part of UI (an activity here). Perhaps, you can kindly ask its developer to implement lockdown at Activity level.


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Accessing messages from android device with broken screen
I have an AG Chrome android phone. The screen is broken, I called the company, they cant help me as they do not make spares for the phone. I have important messages on the phone I need. The phone still comes on but I just cant use it because its a touch screen which is now unresponsive. Can anyone please help?
I tried most if not all suggestions on these pages without success. Im on windows xp?  Please.

is it rooted? have you tried accessing using ADB ?

Not rooted and adb did not work


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File auditing with Tasker
Sometimes I find in sdcard files and directories for which I can't guess the app that created them (and I know they are not the default files created by the system). And even if they take up only little space, I would like to delete useless files to keep my phone clean and browse the sdcard more easily. So I want to set up Tasker to do the following:

constantly perform file auditing,
when a package is removed ask if I want to remove the files created by that application (this part I know how to achieve).

My question is: how can I set up Tasker to perform file auditing (if this is possible)?
Note: I tried some cleaning tools (e.g. Clean Master) that do this, but I want to implement it myself with Tasker, as they are mostly bloatware.

I've never used any cleaning tool and since you've mentioned that they work in this case, may I know: do they detect any folder created by an app regardless of the name the folder has? // "when a package is removed ask if I want to remove the files created by that application" -- ES File Explorer does that but only when the label of folder matches the the label of app. What technique are you using for folders with different labels but created by a single app?

There is an event named File Modified. Set it to / (this is not literal *nix / here) to monitor /sdcard. To know what has been changed inside sdcard (create/delete/moved), use the task List files after every modifcation and compare the recent output with the earlier output. The anomalies would account for recent modification. However, I can't precisely pin-point which app is responsible for modification in sdcard.

I'm don't know how cleaning tools do it, it's been a while since I last used them. Probably they rely on the name of the folder and the concurrent creation when a package is installed. Thank you for pointing me to file modified!


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Modification of `playlpm` file causes shutdown instead of rebooting
Modification of playlpm file causes shutdown instead of rebooting my Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini I9192.
Updated  playlpm reboots the phone after typing the terminal command "playlpm" when Android OS is completely loaded.
But the same  playlpm file behaves strange when S4 Mini is off. S4 Mini shows the battery icon without animation when it realizes that a charger is connected. After that it gives control to playlpm as expected, but in this case playlpm shuts the phone down. Seconds later the phone realizes that it's powered up, shows the static battery icon and the cycle repeats. The cycle ends if I disconnect the charger. The phone goes off.
Is there any option of "reboot" or "shutdown" command that forces sleeping S4 Mini to load Android when powered up, not to shutdown?
Note: /system is write-protected in Galaxy S4 Mini and needs to be remount to save something on it.  Used command: mount -o remount,rw /system

Duplicate: Bootloop after modification of "/system/bin/playlpm" file


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Lockdown pro suddenly stopped working. Is there anyway to un/reinstall?
I had Lockdown pro app installed and everything was working fine until the latest update from Samsung which brought some new features such as battery app optimizing.
Now the Lockdown pro no longer works and can never be accessed by the dialing code as well. I also have the option to hide the app icon with disable the uninstalling option for it.
So my question is how can i uninstall this app?

Is it been given sys admin status?

Yes unfortunately.

You can let the developer know of what happened here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2679305

Since the app has been given system administrator permissions, follow the steps:

Go to Settings –> Security –> Device administrators.
Here, you can see the various apps checked for Device Adminstrator access, just uncheck the app that and Deactivate it in the next screen.
Now you can go ahead and uninstall the app normally.


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Samsung Galaxy Note 2 keeps rebooting
I got a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 now for more than 2 years. Since a week my phone reboots without an error. And when it reboots then it will keep rebooting, my phone can´t startup anymore. I need to remove the battery and charge it a little (even though my battery is 50% full) before it can startup normally.
I already tried to factory reset my phone but this didn't help.
Is there a way to determine why my phone keeps doing this or do I need to accept that my phone is broken?

You don't have to get angry with mobile. I also had this same problem because of two reasons

OS is not compatible with the device(i installed DN5 ROM on electron-team.com)
Mobile batter's life time expired.

Why 01??
When your OS is not suit to your Mobile it will hangs. So when its hangs it will automatically restart your device. This will happen when  using FB long time or some high end apps.
Why 02??
When your battery life is end, your battery not keep actual percentage of capacity. When you plug it shows Battery Full. but in 2-3 Minutes it will get down. As well as battery lost dealing with mobile OS. and it will be get reboot as usual.

after fixing those now my device is not reboots  or any other problem.
Find your firmware version on Sammobile Website by searching on search field.

can you elaborate on point 01 :)? When an 'OS' is not compatible with the device it will refuse to boot up. I agree with your second point though - a faulty battery might lead to these problems

@benjaminS exactly first one is the problem for  reboot of my mobile :)

@benjaminS when you use same DN5 of above link you can easily understand. Cz i have hands on experience now.

I don't think its 01 because it started when I used the regular Android. Now I am using cyanogenmod wich got a lower Android version but it still happens. But it could be the battery I might buy a new battery to test it out.

use Samsung based OS. i also tired with installing cyanogenmod and Resurrection Remix. No use. Try with above link

I used a Samsung based OS for the whole time also when it started. So I don't think it is the OS. And I got another question. Why would my phone reboot if the battery is damaged or something. I think it would rather just shutdown and don't startup automatically.

@JellevanEs actually what ever im telling you is some thing like magic for you. i cant force to do. But this is my solution i fixed for my device. Without questioning how about trying


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Recovering files in Android phone, phone stuck in boot loop
My phone is currently stuck in a boot loop. I tried using minimal adb and fastboot but I can't seem to do it. I have also read in some forums that usb debugging should be enable and the phone should be rooted. Is there a way to use adb commands without enabling the usb debugging('coz I can't). I tried all the choices in the recovery mode except the factory reset. Can somebody help me?  I really need to recover the memos that I have saved. I have a Samsung galaxy V duos. Thanks. I'm also new to adb :(

are you using stock recovery or custom?

Is there a way to use adb commands without enabling the [USB] debugging[?]

There is no point pondering about this once you understand the concept. In order to communicate with device using adb you need to have adb daemon running at Android's end. Additionally, for successful communication, you may also be required to authorize debugging at Android's end.
Android starts the adb daemon only when it finds the USB debugging setting under Developer options enabled. If it was enabled but was explicitly disabled by a user, the daemon would be stopped. It would be started again by Android should the setting be toggled.
If you've an another device with a terminal app installed and USB debugging enabled, do
ps | grep "adbd"

You would see an output similar to
shell     161   1     4564   284   ffffffff 00000000 S /sbin/adbd

(shell is the group name with ID 2000. This is the same ID that you would see when you get a successful shell session using adb shell.)
Disable the debugging option and the daemon would be stopped by Android. Use the same ps command with grep and it would give you nothing.

As for recovering the data in this situation, keep any hope as long as you've a custom recovery installed. They often always run adb daemon without any complexity of authorization from user. Then you can use adb pull to  copy whatsoever data you want.

Related reading: Android Debug Bridge


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Why apps are launching slowly?
This issue happens on all of my devices no matter what operating system is on it. Apps launch slowly, however the resources monitor says that CPU and RAM are not busy that much.
For instance, I installed a resources monitor floating widget on my Sony Xperia M2. What I found out that before I tap on a big app like FaceBook, the CPU usage is 3% and there are 370MB free RAM available. Then when I tap on the FaceBook app, the CPU usage started to vary within the range of 50~60% and the free RAM was changing within the range 300~350MB. However the app was still laggy, unlike higher-end Sony phone like Xperia Z2.
Briefly, the question is, why my phone is not functioning as fast as a higher-end phone of the same OS and brand even though it has 40% free CPU and 300MB of free RAM, why isn't it using 80 or 90% of the processor and the same in RAM?

Why is your phone not performing as a higher end phone? You said it yourself, because it's a lower end phone. Xperia M2 has a low-end Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor and only 1 GB of RAM. Xperia Z2 on the other hand has a Snapdragon 801 chipset with a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor with 3 GB of RAM.

You should read this and this blog post by Dianne Hackborn, Android Software Engineer to understand how RAM management and multi-tasking works on Android

You can always root your phone (and void your warranty) and remove bloatware, install a custom ROM or a performance oriented kernel, etc.

The most probable answer is the speed of the NVRAM (or hard drive).
When an application loads, it needs to read the application into memory - Hard drives and sd cards (but not so much SSD cards) are very slow to read and write, and this is most likely the bottleneck.
A typical hard drive has a read speed of 100 Megabytes per second and SD card can vary greatly but would be typically much slower then a hard drive.  I have been unable to find the type of built in storage in the M2, but it looks like a very budget phone (540x960 pixels) so I imagine they have skimped on the speed of the storage on it to keep the price down.   That said, if you are running apps from an SD card, you may benefit (speedwise) from moving them back to the internal storage, or investing in higher speed sd card.  (A class 4 card is a LOT slower then a class 10 SD card)

thanks,

are there more factors that affect the speed other than NVRAM?
how to know what class is my SD card?
for PC (since it happens on PC as well): if i bought black western digital hard disk will it consume the full capabilities of ram and cpu?

Yes, there are lots of factors.   On a lot of sdcards there is a number in a circle.  Normally 4,6 or 10.  That is the class of card.  That said, there is lots of variance within classes, so the best thing to do is to test by timing copies of large files to and from the cards.  Things like memory and CPU will also affect performance.  Your performance will depend on your type of workload - if you are doing a lot of disk reading and writing you need a decent disk, if most of it is number crunching or in-memory editing (eg a static image which fits in ram), then the hard disk is less important.

i always close unused opened apps so when i reopen them they need to go from the HDD to the RAM again so i'm doing a lot of disk reading and writing. does the motherboard have anything to do with speed?

Practically speaking motherboards have minimal influence on speed. Your best speedups generally come from a faster disk, more RAM (up to a point) and a faster CPU.

ceeeewwl thx alot


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How to properly debug websites on the Samsung Browser
The Samsung Browser is not Chrome nor Android stock browser. And our webdev teams have some bugs that only show up on this specific browser.
Is there any way I can remotely debug it as I can do with Chrome or Firefox? Either on an emulator or a real device.

it's the "Internet" app on samsung devices. user agent string is Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.4.2; en-us; GT-P5210 Build/KOT49H) AppleWebkit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/534.30 my best guess is the stock android browser with some samsung bugs added

The new Samsung Internet browser is based on the Chromium browser and thus supports its remote debugging interface.

Enable USB debugging on your device as described here.
Then connect your device via USB (Oh, surprise!).
Visit chrome://inspect on your computers Google Chrome browser and you will be guided to create the connection:

Then you just have to click on the devices inspect link and an developer tools window will pop up.

More info like why there is an Samsung Internet Browser at all can be found here.

Type about:debug or about:console in a new tab (one of these will work), then try to send something to the console.log in your JavaScript.
At the top of your page will appear "SHOW JAVASCRIPT CONSOLE", click on it and you will have the console log with the possible error message you are looking for.

This doesn't work on my Galaxy Tab A (2016).

this does not work on s8+


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How to stop Zygote crashing, android tablet caught in boot loop
Using tablet as a front panel kiosk.  Was runnning fine for weeks. Now its stuck on the boot splash screen.  Seems zygote is crashing. This error in logcat repeats.  Any thoughts?
I/AudioFlinger(  471): Loaded primary audio interface from sunxi audio HW HAL (audio)
I/AudioFlinger(  471): Using 'sunxi audio HW HAL' (audio.primary) as the primary audio interface
I/CameraService(  471): CameraService started (pid=471)
E/CCameraConfig(  471): ------------------------device ID
E/CCameraConfig(  471): camera device id 0
E/CCameraConfig(  471): ------------------------device ID
E/CCameraConfig(  471): camera device id 0
I/AudioFlinger(  471): AudioFlinger's thread 0x14b22b8 ready to run
W/AudioFlinger(  471): Thread AudioOut_1 cannot connect to the power manager service
I/AudioPolicyService(  471): Loaded audio policy from LEGACY Audio Policy HAL (audio_policy)
D/AndroidRuntime(  504):
D/AndroidRuntime(  504): >>>>>> AndroidRuntime START com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit <<<<<<
D/AndroidRuntime(  504): CheckJNI is OFF
F/libc    (  504): Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV) at 0x40496765 (code=2)
I/DEBUG   (   82): *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
I/DEBUG   (   82): Build fingerprint: 'softwinners/nuclear_evb/nuclear-evb:4.0.4/IMM76D/20130606:eng/test-keys'
I/DEBUG   (   82): pid: 504, tid: 504  >>> zygote <<<
I/DEBUG   (   82): signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 2 (SEGV_ACCERR), fault addr 40496765
I/DEBUG   (   82):  r0 01381754  r1 4053e220  r2 00000000  r3 44ef4040
I/DEBUG   (   82):  r4 01381754  r5 bef7bf94  r6 ffffffff  r7 404966e9
I/DEBUG   (   82):  r8 00000001  r9 bef7b9f8  10 00000000  fp bef7bfcc
I/DEBUG   (   82):  ip fffffef8  sp bef7b9e8  lr 404996c1  pc 40498eca  cpsr 40000030
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d0  44eb912844eb90b0  d1  44eb919844eb9192
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d2  44eb920844eb91eb  d3  44eb927844eb9244
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d4  44ef78d844ef78a0  d5  44ef794844ef7910
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d6  44ef79b844ef7980  d7  44ef7a2844ef79f0
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d8  0000000000000000  d9  0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d10 0000000000000000  d11 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d12 0000000000000000  d13 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d14 0000000000000000  d15 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d16 0000000000000000  d17 3f50624dd2f1a9fc
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d18 41c83605ea000000  d19 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d20 0000000000000000  d21 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d22 0000000000000000  d23 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d24 0000000000000000  d25 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d26 0000000000000000  d27 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d28 0000000000000000  d29 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  d30 0000000000000000  d31 0000000000000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):  scr 60000010
I/DEBUG   (   82):
I/DEBUG   (   82):          #00  pc 0004ceca  /system/lib/libicuuc.so (_ZN6icu_4610UnicodeSet12applyPatternERNS_21RuleCharacterIteratorEPKNS_11SymbolTableERNS_13UnicodeStringEjR10UErrorCode)
I/DEBUG   (   82):          #01  pc 00075792  /system/lib/libdvm.so (_Z12dvmLinkClassP11ClassObject)
I/DEBUG   (   82):
I/DEBUG   (   82): code around pc:
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40498ea8 767ee5bb ccf4e215 2b3c6a21 57a69de5  ..~v....!j<+...W
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40498eb8 2ebada11 dd7f45f9 7575e71f d4faceca  .....E....uu....
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40498ec8 67fd9b3e b83d3fd5 86609cd0 e8e40229  >..g.?=...`.)...
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40498ed8 91e52e02 4e6fef92 55501d54 2de73e7d  ......oNT.PU}>.-
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40498ee8 f8429d51 38ef6cac 83245f41 4ccc3113  Q.B..l.8A_$..1.L
I/DEBUG   (   82):
I/DEBUG   (   82): code around lr:
I/DEBUG   (   82): 404996a0 9903ffcd 46334652 f7f04638 4620f901  ....RF3F8F.... F
I/DEBUG   (   82): 404996b0 46524639 f8cd464b 95018000 fc02f7ff  9FRFKF..........
I/DEBUG   (   82): 404996c0 28006828 4648dd03 fe22f001 9910e7d8  (h.(..HF..".....
I/DEBUG   (   82): 404996d0 f240b129 f2c00302 602b0301 4620e7f3  ).@.......+`.. F
I/DEBUG   (   82): 404996e0 f7fc4649 e7eeffa9 41f0e92d 4690b086  IF......-..A...F
I/DEBUG   (   82):
I/DEBUG   (   82): memory map around addr 40496765:
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40446000-4044c000 /system/lib/libicui18n.so
I/DEBUG   (   82): 4044c000-40538000 /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82): 40538000-40542000 /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):
I/DEBUG   (   82): stack:
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9a8  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9ac  4088f795  /system/lib/libdvm.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9b0  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9b4  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9b8  40a07018  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-heap (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9bc  000000a0
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9c0  40a172b8  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-heap (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9c4  408ccf90  /system/lib/libdvm.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9c8  0137cb5c  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9cc  40a172b8  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-heap (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9d0  01381090  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9d4  0137c7f0  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9d8  01381754  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9dc  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9e0  df0027ad
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9e4  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82): #00 bef7b9e8  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9ec  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9f0  458996ae  /data/dalvik-cache/system@framework@core.jar@classes.dex
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9f4  bef7bca4  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9f8  4053eb50  /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7b9fc  00000200
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba00  bef7bca4  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba04  400b6474
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba08  458996ae  /data/dalvik-cache/system@framework@core.jar@classes.dex
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba0c  40082a4d  /system/lib/libc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba10  0000004b
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba14  01401578  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba18  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba1c  bef7bca4  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba20  bef7ba58  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba24  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba28  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba2c  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba30  bef7ba58  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba34  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba38  01381754  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba3c  bef7bca4  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba40  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba44  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba48  458996ae  /data/dalvik-cache/system@framework@core.jar@classes.dex
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba4c  4049973b  /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba50  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba54  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba58  4053e220  /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba5c  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba60  ffffffff
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba64  404966e9  /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba68  01381754  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba6c  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba70  bef7bca4  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba74  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba78  bef7bca4  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba7c  4049987d  /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba80  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba84  404b7d2b  /system/lib/libicuuc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba88  01381378  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba8c  01381378  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba90  013813ac  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba94  0138154c  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba98  bef7bf94  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7ba9c  403c6e77  /system/lib/libicui18n.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baa0  01386260  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baa4  00000004
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baa8  013810b8  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baac  013810c8  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bab0  000006e8
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bab4  400b6474
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bab8  013810c0  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7babc  00000014
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bac0  44ef4040  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-LinearAlloc (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bac4  400838b1  /system/lib/libc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bac8  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bacc  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bad0  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bad4  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bad8  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7badc  00000014
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bae0  44ef4040  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-LinearAlloc (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bae4  40083f13  /system/lib/libc.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bae8  00000001
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baec  4088f795  /system/lib/libdvm.so
I/DEBUG   (   82): #01 bef7baf0  40a0f520  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-heap (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baf4  408ae99c  /system/lib/libdvm.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7baf8  40a07018  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-heap (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bafc  0137c7f0  [heap]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb00  408ccf90  /system/lib/libdvm.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb04  bef7bb28  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb08  44ed6c40  /dev/ashmem/dalvik-LinearAlloc (deleted)
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb0c  bef7bb6c  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb10  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb14  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb18  bef7bbf0  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb1c  4084e20c  /system/lib/libdvm.so
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb20  bef7bb2c  [stack]
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb24  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb28  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb2c  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb30  00000000
I/DEBUG   (   82):     bef7bb34  00000000
I/ServiceManager(   79): service 'media.audio_policy' died
I/ServiceManager(   79): service 'media.audio_flinger' died
I/ServiceManager(   79): service 'media.player' died
I/ServiceManager(   79): service 'media.camera' died
I/Netd    (  506): Netd 1.0 starting
I/        (  505): ServiceManager: 0x1b9a958
I/AudioFlinger(  505): Loaded primary audio interface from sunxi audio HW HAL (audio)
I/AudioFlinger(  505): Using 'sunxi audio HW HAL' (audio.primary) as the primary audio interface
I/CameraService(  505): CameraService started (pid=505)
E/CCameraConfig(  505): ------------------------device ID
E/CCameraConfig(  505): camera device id 0
E/CCameraConfig(  505): ------------------------device ID
E/CCameraConfig(  505): camera device id 0

Reinstall the stock ROM and check again.

The Kiosk is setup remotely. I'd have to get the system shipped back here to do that.  This would be the last resort.

Review your modification history of the rom post-establishment to include new kernel builds and OS application upgrades/modifications/replacements. Identify the point in change history when the issue surfaced and "roll-back" to the point preceding that. You have also not posted enough of the correct portions of the logcat to determine the actual problem.

Continued- You can grep your logcat dump with the process id as your term. F/ = fatal error and process id is 504. Post that output as a pastebin on the correct stack as this appears to be a development question at least until you can identify if the problem is correctable through non-developement means.

The answer to this question might give you a clue. In that situation, the problem seemed to be caused by libaudioflinger.so.