text:
Cannot Create/Modify Access Point Names in Mobile Network Settings - Huawei G700 - Android 4.2.1
I am trying to edit settings of APN (Access Point Names) according to provided guidelines by cellular company to be able to use 3G internet on my Huawei Ascend G700 running on Android 4.2.1.
Whenever I select any item from the default list of APN in Mobile Network Settings and then try to update and save any field, the whole item gets disappeared from the APN list.
Similarly while trying to create new APN, I provide all the fields and then hit the Save button, the new item doesn't get added to the APN list. No error is shown in this process.
Note: The SIM is inserted and working fine i.e., I can send/receive text messages, make/receive calls using the SIM. I've also asked the provider to send me a message for auto-configuration: when I receive and execute that, it says "internet settings already configured" – but the APN settings are not same like the cellular company 3G internet settings (so it seems auto-configuration has the very same issue of changes not being applied).
EDIT:
I navigate to Settings > About Phone > Status and observed that there is no info about Mobile Network i.e., Network, Signal Strength, Mobile Network Type, Service State, Roaming and Mobile Network State.

I've integrated that with your question as well – and unfortunately am out of ideas now. It might be an error in your ROM (e.g. the corresponding configuration file was accidentally made read-only, so changes cannot be written). Have you contacted Huawei support yet with that? Maybe an update could solve the issue.

Thanks for your help.. I try to contact Huawei support and see what they say.

Good luck – and please don't forget to keep us posted (or to answer your own question if solved ;)

Sure, I will post answer if I find any..


text:
Battery percentages per app nowhere near total
when I look at my Nexus 5 with android 5.1. battery screen, I can see something like this:

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)
Sum of all per-app percentages in list is 10. However as you can see, there is 60% battery consumed (40% remaining). So, what is the deal here? Who consumed 50% battery? Or what do the percentages next to apps mean?
As you can see, screen was on just for few short times, the same for awake, and yet battery life about 18 hours? I dont get it.
Also, I found this issue reported on AOSP, but noone from google seems to care:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=80131

Find a raw answer below. Some more clues might turn up when you tap the graph on the top of your screenshot – so if you can make a screenshot of that screen as well, we might be able to tell more (and I might update my answer then ;)

Thanks for the second screenshot! I've updated my answer accordingly, as promised :)

I was frustrated by this, so I installed GSam (best non-root app I could find), and the battery usage stats that it reports are radically different than what the built-in app says. One or the other (or both) is just plain wrong, and since GSam's stats are at least self-consistent, unlike the Battery settings page, I'm guessing that the built-in app is broken.

There's usually a wrong conception on how these "numbers" should be interpreted. For example, your screenshot shows "Screen: 3%". So what does that mean?

a. the screen ate 3% of your battery, thus reducing it e.g. from 100% to 97%
b. the screen was responsible for the overall discharging by 3% – in this case, it "ate 1.8% juice"

Hint: it's not a) – so your numbers just account for 6% drain (10% of 60% drain).
Second, not all participants of the party were named – there's a threshold. I'm not sure where exactly that threshold lies, but it's safe to assume that somewhere below 1% of participation, they simply get "uninteresting".
Which still leaves the question open: what was responsible for the remaining 90% of the 60% "battery loss"? To find out about that, you will need a helper to sum up everything. I recommend you taking a look at my list of apps to Identify Battery Consumers. Personally, I'm using BetterBatteryStats – which at least in the "tech scene" (especially on XDA) is "the reference product". Less technical oriented users often hold to GSam Battery Monitor.

Now lets go for your second screenshot. Focus on the bars below the graph:

Cellular Network Signal: You had pretty strong cell signal – except for several minutes before ~10 am (where you've been out of coverage – red) and after ~10 am (weak signal – yellow). This bar looks fine.
GPS On: Not a big deal here, just two tiny stripes. If you see big colored areas in this bar, there might be apps flooding your GPS modul with requests, which quickly drains the battery.
Wi-Fi: Your WiFi was turned on all the time. Unless you've used it all that time – and especially when you could not use it as there were no network/AP you wanted to use), you might consider turning it off when not used. There are WiFi automatics which can take care for that, see e.g. Auto disconnect wifi when out of wifi zone? – otherwise it uses power to permanently check for available hotspots. Not a big issue in your case it seems – as according to the first screenshot, WiFi accounts for only 1% of overall consumption.
Charging: In all the time, you've never connected a charger. Good to know :)

Ah – you've noticed I've skipped two bars? Yes, and two important ones at that. These two must be seen together: Your device was "awake" more often than your screen was turned on – so some apps get active while you're not actively using your device. That might be OK (and doesn't really look excessive here) – think of background-syncs to check for new mail, updates for your wheather widgets, Spotify streaming music to your ears (no screen-on needed for that), and the like. Though, "big blocks" in the awake-bar with no corresponding part in the screen-on-bar should draw your attention. Using the Spotify-example, you might be able to easily account for them (did you stream music at the time? Oh, OK: then that's it, probably).
Again, you cannot always correlate those with the first screen. For a really thorough analysis, you would need a specific app. And the really good ones when you want to "dig deep" are not coming for free. My first look would go to the paid version of SystemPanel and comparable candidates, which can to good background monitoring (check out the screenshots; you will also notice this app doesn't forget about stuff having participated with 0.2% only). You can give the free version a look if you're curious, it can do most of the stuff as well.

How can be build in tool so inaccurate? not accounting for 90%? As for BetterBatteryStats: "Due to major changes by Google in Kitkat root access is required from 4.4 and upward" - well, I am not gonna root my phone for this...

You had to scroll until your fingers are wound if you wanted to see through them. If, as I wrote, the "other processes" consume less than 1% each, and you want make up 90% of usage – simple math explains why :) But I agree with you: that built-in tool is far from being perfect. Still it is sufficient in most "normal cases". // BBS: forgot about that root issue indeed (newest Android version in use here is 4.3 – and all my devices are rooted). Pick another one from the list then: how about GSam?

Thanks for update... as for wifi, I am not considering turning it off and on again 4 times a day (home wifi, work wifi).. and I certainly didnt buy Nexus5 smartphone to be offline whole day to save battery :) And I am not sure about that saving - if I turn off wifi, 3G/LTE will turn on and that can be more consuming that strong local wifi

That's often depending on your device (my LG O4X e.g. uses much more power when on WiFi) and availability (if there is no WiFi your device can log into, it will fall back to 2G/3G/LTE anyway – but in addition to that keep up its permanent scanning for some WiFi becoming available). So if you're sure there's no "usable" WiFi in reach, it definitely costs you extra power when turned on – without any benefit.

SystemPanel (I have the paid version) has its own weird quirks... for instance, on my phone it shows average CPU use running close to 10% all of the time and yet battery use frequently dips below 3%/hour; furthermore, if I (mentally) add all the CPU time reported by every app, it doesn't add up to 10% either!

@Michael that summing-up might have a similar issue as Android's battery stats (ignoring everything below a certain threshold).

Wait, so you're saying that the percentage is the percentage of the drain? That makes the "don't add up" problem even worse because that means that the vast majority of the drain isn't even captured - in OP's example the captured percentage totals would only account for 6% of total battery, not even the 10% shown.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Shred an internal or system partition
There are quite a few apps that lets a user delete the media or data partitions so it won't be recoverable - by re-writing "junk" data over and over again on the free storage space.
Still, is there any way (app, ROM, tool, etc.) that does the same process for the system partitions? (assuming that root or custom ROM/recovery image is required for such process)

The entire partition, or just free space?

Just the free space would be enough.
Perhaps I can use the root access to run commands like these? http://superuser.com/a/223312/176339

You can use @ followed by the name to whom you're trying to notify. Here, your notification probably didn't reach Matthew Read. http://android.stackexchange.com/editing-help#comment-formatting

@MatthewRead FYI

Eventually I solved it by connecting the device to my pc, running adb shell and then running su in order to grant root privileges.
After that, to list all the partitions, I used the df command - and in each partition I generated a file big enough to fill all of the free space with random data (generated using the command dd if=/dev/urandom of=junkfile.txt bs=1048576 count=AmountOfMBs, as explained here).
Note that this method still doesn't shred the space that's currently in use on the device, so before going through this whole process I did a factory reset and then signed-in with a dummy account.

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


text:
Nexus 5 Suddenly starts playing music
I have a google nexus 5 which is a year old. I had no issues with it until recently, from around 3 days ago.
Music started playing suddenly from nowhere. It's not from the music player, and it doesn't show any notification, either. I can't even stop the music as I couldn't find out from where it is started playing. I had to turn off my phone to get it to stop.
What can I do to stop this from happening?

I have the same issue with Cyanogen mod OnePlus

@Slartibartfast with Cyanogen mod its probably a Gesture... Go to Settings >> Gestures >> uncheck Music.

Did that, the particular song it plays (Smells like teen spirit by Nirvana -lol!) doesnot exist ANYWHERE in my system. I've scanned the entire device for the song and uninstalled all external music apps. I have to open google play music app and play something else for it to stop.


text:
How to compile OBB data associated with an APK, into one OBB file?
I downloaded a game from some website, not Play Store. The download consists of two files, namely an APK (StarFront: Collision HD) and data/cache files (OBB), but the OBB is a bunch of loose files that still needs to be compiled into one.
How can I compile it into one OBB file? (Alternatively, how can I install an APK manually which needs OBB file?)
Here's the link: http://pdalife.ru/starfront-collision-hd-android-a2738.html
It's in Russian though, use google translate. I'm not quite positive about what kinda answer it'd be that's why I came to you

It'd be better if you could provide the link to the download page, so we can experiment with it.

@MatthewRead I'd say this is a borderline question, but it's not addressed clearly; the problem is related to manual installation of APK which needs OBB, which is relevant to end-user. If the answer is related to programming, then I agree it should be closed as off-topic. Perhaps, it's unclear at the moment, so I hope for the clarification from the OP.


text:
Android not remembering which music app was in use last when pressing headset play/pause button
My phone has developed an odd and hard to reproduce problem lately.  I have been listening to a lot of audiobooks using BeyondPod.  Throughout the day, I often pause and resume the tracks using the play/pause button on the headset.  Usually this works without a hitch, but at random times it will launch the basic Android music player and start playing music, rather than resuming my audiobook where it was last paused.
When I listen to music, I use Rocket Player.  I have never intentionally launched the basic player.  I used to have random conflicts between BeyondPod and Rocket Player, but after being told by the Rocket devs that they couldn't control which player got control if I had headset controls enabled in both players, I just started switching off the headset controls in Rocket Player when I wasn't using it.  This worked for a while until recently when the basic player started launching instead.
I have noticed that it seems to forget that I was using BeyondPod primarily if it has been paused for a while and other (non-music) apps have been launched.  This leads me to believe that it is caused when BeyondPod gets deprioritized out of active memory.  However, I have been unable to force it to make this switch on purpose.
Is there any way to be able to select a system-wide default music player so it will stop launching the basic one?  I couldn't find a setting for this in my phone.  Alternatively, is there a way to mark an app as "higher priority" so it is less likely to be kicked out by other apps?  Any other thoughts on solving this?

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 (Sprint)
Android: 4.4.2
Rooted, but on stock Samsung image.

Clear Defaults, if any, in your installed music players whether System/User installed. You can do so  by going into Settings -> Apps , choose your app and clear Defaults. Now, open your preferred File Manager,  tap any music file, system will now show you options to open the file with shown music players, select the one you want for highest priority and choose Always. You're good to go. Post it as an answer it if works.

My current nexus 6p automatically opens google play music when pressing headset play button, instead of the previously used Smart Audiobook Player. Very annoying. My previous nexus 5 with android 7.0 did not show this behaviour. This is not about a default app for certain filetypes as the comment above suggests, it is about the default interpretation of a play button press. All I could do is disable google play music, but now the play button doesnt do anything unless I manually start an app. Did you ever solve this?


text:
what is com.sec.android.providers.downloads?
I happened to notice this app(?) had access to virtually everything on my Galaxy S3.
Seemed a little strange so I googled it trying to find out exactly what it was for.
I never did find what I was looking for but I did find several pages of complaints about its effect on battery life.
I would guess it has to do with the download-manager but that's just a WAG.
Can someone tell me what it's for?
Roy

That's just the download manager for all apps that use it like Play Store, your Web browser and others. Samsung modified it and IIRC they tend to go all-out with permissions, asking for everything "just in case".

Out of curiosity, what does WAG mean?

Sorry, commonly used for "Wild Ass Guess", thanks for the answer BTW - roy

all providers.downloads does is act as one of many content provider aps included in the android stock system to act as a security feature so that apps cant directly access other apps but have to use content provider apps to exchange data between eachother.
 we all know apps by default cant access other applictions data.
      Thats where Content Providers come in to play, acting as a buffer between your internal apps and data and all the other 3rd party apps which have potential to be rouge/malicious.
      Without this bouncer there would be no telling how many insecure transactions would occur between our devices and attackers in the free world global enviroment we exist in today.
The app EZ Disabler pro version states this discription about
com.sec.android.
providers.security
"this package is a core sytem service that handles secure reads/writes to/from the database in your device. It keeps rouge apps for accessing data in your device."
The android developers site has this info posted about content providers and their functions.
android.provider
Provides convenience classes to access the content providers supplied by Android.
Android ships with a number of content providers that store common data such as contact informations, calendar information, and media files. These classes provide simplified methods of adding or retrieving data from these content providers.
For information about how to use a content provider, see the Content Providers developer guide. link to guide below..
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/content-providers.html
By the way..ehem..
     infosec is the bomb!
         Check it out my geeks!
a technique for exploiting applictions involving decompiling apk files and checking out the contents of its AndroidManifest.xml file for any registered content providers as well as the smali files for all uris used in the app.
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/android-hacking-security-part-2-content-provider-leakage/
        and below is a link to the sample apk they made for the training example on infosecs site.

link to the sample apk file infosec made for the example exploit they posted  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Hhtp8rYK8YczdGcVBtLU1xRHM/view?usp=drivesdk


text:
Volume Rocker only controls Bluetooth In-call Volume; cannot control all other volumes
I am a bit baffled as to why the volume rocker is currently controlling "Bluetooth In-call Volume" I have not nor have  I ever paired a BT device with this phone. In fact I just always leave the BT signal off.
What else could be causing this and how do it change it so that my dedicated Volume button can control my music and not some Bluetooth thing that doesn't exist.
The phone is an LG Esteem, Android Ver 2.3.4


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 shows up in Device Manager but not in Explorer
I'm trying to connect my Galaxy S3 to my computer so I could transfer some files, but my computer doesn't seem to be recognizing it.
I've already followed instructions found here about putting the phone in download mode and then re-plugging it in.
Strangely, when I look in Device Manager, my computer does notice my device.

Why does Device Manager notice it but Explorer not? Is there any way without Explore to access my files on my phone?

Try changing how it is connecting to all the different options (Media Storage, Camera, etc.)

@TristanWiley where do I see that?

@Imray A notification will be there in the Notification drawer of your phone. It has the options. Otherwise, try this answer http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/35023/galaxy-nexus-wont-connect-via-usb/54261?s=1|0.4393#54261 Go to Storage wherever it shows up in your phone Settings.

Have you tried using the Samsung Kies pc application?  Aside from that, make sure you have up to date drivers.


text:
Copying SD card to disk
My trusty old 16GB micro SD card that has been with me through 4 phones is finally full. So I figured no biggie; I'll just buy a new (64GB) card, copy all the files down to my PC (which has no card reader, just USB ports), then up to the new card.
The issue I'm having is that copy step. I have the card in a Note4, connected to a Windows 8 PC via USB. I can see the card, but if I just try to drag-and-drop copy folders to my PC, it invariably ends with a dialog saying:
"A device attached to the system is not functioning".
I'm guessing its on largeish files, as I've noticed .mp4's in particular will just cause Windows explorer to go out to lunch and never come back when I try to copy them individually.
It seems like this ought to be the simplest thing in the world to do. What am I missing?

There is this article here which mentioned the cause (faulty HW / filesystem issue) and the resolution (running CHKDSK coupled with some diagnostic/repair tools). It also mentioned additional possible causes which could be an Anti-Virus (Norton there) ,  IPS, Firewall, etc and suggested disabling them until you're done with your external storage.

On a side note, should this question not be on [su] because the issue is from Windows? Though it is not clear yet that Android is completely fine. I guess it suits both sites?

@Firelord - I posted here because I've never seen this error before on this Windows system (so it almost certianly has to do with the Android device), and an internet search of the issue showed it appears to be a common problem since Android switched to MTP. However, the usual solution suggested seems to be to force the device into UMS mode, but none of the instructions for doing so work on my Note 4.

You might wish to see: How do I switch my Android device's SD card without causing problems? and How do I migrate from one SD card to another one? I specifically recommend: use an sdcard reader (otherwise you will lose some content, especially apps moved to SDCard) – and make sure you catch all "hidden files" (those starting with a .) along.

@Izzy - I don't have a laptop with a reader, so the accepted answer on the suggested dup doesn't help me. I was hoping to do this with just the equipment I have without having to go out and buy anything (but I may have to break down and borrow one). But it seems like, when cabled through USB, files visible on my PC ought to be copyable to the PC, no?

Not all of them. For example, the .android_secure directory will be inaccessible and usually not exposed, so you couldn't copy it (which would make you lose apps moved to SD). I'm not 100% sure if there are other places where the same applies (though I'm not aware of any). If you've not moved any App2SD, you could of course try: if it doesn't work out, you can always (temporarily) switch back to your old card.

@Izzy - That would be fine. I don't have any irreplaceable apps. But I'm having trouble simply copying media files (eg: my own videos) off the phone.  That doesn't seem right at all.

Check out my answer then :)

@T.E.D. Would an alternative help with no need for HW and all directories visible to you including .android_secure, then as Izzy suggested in his answer, you may refer to some file server. IMO, the easiest amongst all is MTP-Alternative app, though Izzy already covered, in short,  almost everything. :) I found FTP-server (Method #3) to be the most suitable method for Windows though.

Sometimes you can not move files like this using USB. I have faced this issue there are two solutions for this:
1.You can use external card reader and then make copy.

Instead of Drag and Drop open your sd-card window and location where you want to put the files. Then Select folders->copy them and without closing the window paste on the destination.

#2 is essentially what I'm doing, so I guess that one's out. I had seen #1 suggested, but I'm not real excited about having to buy yet another special piece of hardware just for this one task. However, it looks like they aren't all that expensive, so perhaps that's the way to go. Still, it seems like this ought to work from Windows directly.

is it working or not ?

Not. Selecting all the folders in "SD Card", hitting Ctrl-C, then Ctrl-V in a C:\ drive directory is exactly what I was doing initially that gave me this error.

I don't have any idea about Note4..is their any setting by which you can change the mode of connection..in my phone i have two option mTP mode and Media sharing..try changing this one

As pointed out in my comment on the question: Copying the SD card while it's mounted in your device might cause you some "data loss". So e.g. the .android_secure directory is "locked down" and won't be exposed to your computer; if you have apps installed on your card, they would "break".
I understand a card reader is not the preferred option for you. So before pointing out possible alternatives, let's take precautions:

if you have apps installed on your card, first move them back to internal storage

There might be other places dealt with similarly – but I am not aware of them. If there seem to be "strange problems" after having finally switched your cards, you can always revert back to your "old card" while figuring out what might have gone wrong.

Now the approaches:
Using ADB via USB
adb can be quite a universal tool (please check our adb tag-wiki for some details and hints, if you don't know it). Might require a little installation (the tag-wiki has hints on keeping that minimal), but it's worth it – not only for this case!

turn on usb-debugging on your device
connect it to your PC with the USB cable
assuming your device runs Android >= 4.3: at first connect, on your device confirm the "authorization" of your computer
on your PC, open a command prompt – and change to the directory you have the ADB executable placed (unless it's in your PATH)
adb pull /sdcard \path\to\target now would pull all files from your device's SD card

Using something "wireless"
Multiple choices here:

some file managers have built-in support to access your Windows machine (SMB/CIFS); you could use such one to "push" the files over
there are some tools to synchronize files and directories by different means
you could install some FTP-Server, which would make your device show up in Windows explorer's network to "pull from"
similarly, there are other file servers
there are also several tools to manage your Android device from your PC in easy ways

All in all, to much to elaborate in a single answer here :)

You can also use some apps in Wireless section with USB cable via USB Tethering which  enhances the speed (stability too ) since my device seems to have trouble with wireless data transfer. :)

Oh... I forgot the conclusion with the disclaimer: "This answer is far from being complete" :) Thanks, @Firelord – good point!

That first option I had come across in my research, but I was unable to figure out how to enable that with a Note 4. I just searched again, and came across this video, which might do the job for me. I'll try it when I get a chance.


text:
Will changing of SD card result in the loss of YouTube offline videos?
I presently own an 8GB memory card. I wish to switch to a 16GB card now, but I do not wish to lose my offline videos. If I copy the .exo files, will it still be playable in the YouTube app? Or should I download it again?

Logically, if you put the files on the same location, it should be working (I don't know, because I can't test it: no offline video support in my country, and I don't have devices with SD card slot).  Anyway, why don't you try switching to 16GB card and and see if it loads the offline video? If it doesn't, then you can use the 8GB card back and have answered your questions.

No, Your videos are safe.You can easily switch your cards.
See this link

To the best of my knowledge, and based on the Android device that I own (Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 ), the location of offline YouTube videos is as below:

Internal storage->Android->
  data->com.google.android.youtube->files->Offline->(system generated
  folder name)->streams

Hence, switching to another SD-card (which is external storage) should not remove/delete your offline YouTube videos.
Just to be absolutely sure, you can first check the location of offline videos on your device (which should be something similar to the path mentioned above) and then you can proceed with switching SD-card.
But one thing you may note is, if you uninstall YouTube App's update, all the offline YouTube videos will be deleted.
You may want to check more details HERE and HERE.


text:
Google Photos Add a Location on Multiple Files
I am using Google Photos for my archieved photos. I have lots of photos from past(When the Photo Location not involved)
Now i want to add the location for my Photos to organize them.
It is possible for 1 image. But there thousands of them. Is there possible way to do it Folder by Folder or Multiple Photos Selection and Add Location to them?

You could download them, use something like exiftool to change the metadata (like location), then reupload.

This can only be done through desktop on Picasa web albums as far as I know, but Picasa shares photos with Google Photos, so it should work.

Put all your photos with the same location in an album (you can do this with Google Photos)
Go to Picasa Web Albums and find the album.
Under "Actions", click "Album map"

This will bring you to the album map. Once there, click "Edit map"

Click the first picture in the album to select it, then while holding shift click the last picture in the album.

Drag the pictures out onto the map. You may want to find your location first.

If you have the photos on you android you can use the android app https://github.com/k3b/APhotoManager/ . it has multi-selection support and you can use a map to select the geo-location you want to assign.
Unfortunately the app only works with photos that are stored on the android device.
The free app is not available on google play store but you can get it via f-droid or download it via https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=de.k3b.android.androFotoFinder
Howto geotag the photos

Start the app in gallery view
use the "filter" menu/icon to find photos you want to tag:

filter by folder and/or date range
additionaly select "[X] With no geo info"

==> the gallery is populated with all photos that do not have a geo-tag yet
via multiselection mark all photos that should recive the same geo location.

long tap on the first image ==> it is marked with "[V]"
short tap on additional images from the same location

use the "set geo" menu to start tagging

select "pick from map" if you want to pick the geo-location from a map
select "pick from photo" if you want to pick the geo-location from a photo that has geo-location

authors: ميلاد ابو كارن


text:
Cell Broadcast Function Disappeared on Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.1
Cell Broadcast messages function which is usually here : messages -> setting -> cb messages seems to have disappeared on new Samsung phones.
I have Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.1.
Maybe this function is hidden in some other place?

Try here : Press the Menu key -> Press Settings -> Cell Broadcast Activation.

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (OP hasn't joined the site after the question has been migrated, and no answers have score above 0). If anyone can evaluate the existing answers, feel free to vote accordingly and reopen the question (or mod-flag the question requesting for reopening). For anyone else having the same issue, please post a new question and refer to this question as additional context.

Lollipop 5.1. There's an app called "Emergency Alerts"
Launch it.
Click upper right pop up menu and select "settings" to customize.


text:
Is Rooting possible for Xperia t3?
Please help me in rooting my phone xperia t3. The ram is very less and there are so many unwanted apps. How to remove them?

Have you tried the answer below, and if yes, how did it go? If it worked, perhaps you might like to "Accept" the answer and/or share your experience for the benefit of other users???

i was not sure about the ways to root. so I did not risked .

Yes it is possible, I found this method among many others.
Warnings:
Below are some warning statements that you should be aware of, before proceeding with the rooting tutorial:
Rooting your Sony Xperia T3 Android Smartphone will void its warranty.
Hence, to get back warranty after rooting your Sony Xperia T3, you will
have to flash the stock ROM back again.

Take a complete backup of all the data stored on your Sony Xperia T3,
as the rooting process will wipe away all the data stored on your Smartphone.
There are risks of your Sony Xperia T3 getting damaged, if the rooting guide below
is not followed properly. Hence, proceed at your own risk only and we are
not to be blamed in any such case scenarios.

Prerequisites:
Here are a few prerequisite procedures to complete prior to rooting Sony Xperia T3 Android Smartphone:
Download and install the latest USB Drivers for Sony Xperia T3 on your PC.
Charge your Sony Xperia T3 until it has a minimum battery backup of 80%.
Download the root tool from here.
Enable USB Debugging on your Smartphone.

Root Sony Xperia T3 Easily Using One-Click Method:
Below is the detailed guide on how to root Sony Xperia T3 Android Smartphone easily using the one-click root method:
Connect your Sony Xperia T3 to the PC.
Copy/Paste the root tool that you downloaded earlier to your Smartphone.
Disconnect your Smartphone from the PC.
Now, navigate to the copied file using file explorer, and click on the copied file once.
This will begin the process to install the root tool on your Sony Xperia T3.
After installation, launch the app from your Smartphone.
Follow the on screen instructions and when prompted to choose
an EXPLOIT, choose the “GANDALF” exploit.
Wait for the rooting process to complete.
Reboot your Sony Xperia T3.

Hope this helps.
Source : Rootandroid

FYI, Root Tool download link is missing, and Rootandroid link is broken.


text:
Can an Android device's security be circumvented when its screen is being changed?
I had shattered the screen on my device (both touch and display) and it was locked with a password.
I took it to a nearby repair shop, and they took a long while to do touch-testing out of my sight after the screen was changed. The duration (about 20 to 30 minutes) made me quite anxious since I could see them touching it but not what they were doing on the screen.
Was it possible for them to have accessed the data in the phone (which was behind a pattern lock) by somehow circumventing it?
I also saw them plug the phone into a device which they said was related to testing, but it did not look like a computer. Is it possible to brute force "crack" pattern locks (or even passwords) within a few minutes with that kind of device?

This is no different from letting someone use a phone whose screen isn't broken.

Given the right tools, many things are possible. A pattern lock can be broken by a smudge attack, and there are methods to disable it via adb. Question is how likely that is here, or whether there are other explanations: like a device for screen calibration (repair shops might have something like that to be used on "locked devices"). Somehow they have to check whether everything's fine (or if there're "blind spots"), right? A "shiny new screen" is useless if not working :)

Excellent comment, please do post as an answer so that I mark this resolved. I also realised that it might be possible to perhaps build a device that can quickly "mirror" or "snapshot" the storage and memory of a device that the attacker can later break in leisure. Best not be in the position described in my question, I suppose.


text:
Closing internet access for some apps
Is there a way to prevent some apps from accessing to internet when wi-fi or mobile data is on?


text:
What does an android Launcher actually do?
Lets consider this scenario. I have a Samsung Galaxy smartphone which comes with Touchwiz as a default launcher. If I use a different launcher does it run on top of the touchwiz interface or does it disable touchwiz temporarily and run instead of it? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using 3rd party launchers?

Short: the TouchEiz launcher gets temporarily disabled but all other features persist as they are not part of the launcher. For advantages or disadvantages there is too much to write.

That's a very good question, Surya – thanks for bringing it up! As you're surely not the only one wondering, I've setup our launcher tag-wiki immediately to cover all basic information, plus links to further resources. Please check it out :)

@GiantTree I recommend you reading the new tag-wiki as well: "all other features persist" might not be fully true. The "alternate launcher" won't be capable of using TouchWiz widgets, for example (at least that never worked with HTC Sense widgets when replacing the HTC launcher, or LG widgets on LG devices) – as that launcher is unlikely to provide the corresponding API interface those widgets plug in to.

A launcher, in simple terms, is an interface for your home screen; it determines the appearance of it, if you like.
If you were to install a 3rd party launcher (Nova is quite common), it would not run on TouchWiz, nor would it uninstall it.
If you do install a new launcher and want to go back to using TouchWiz, it's just a simple matter of tweaking a few settings in the Settings app.

The launcher usually is considered to be the homescreens and app drawer, and they come in all sorts of flavors and designs. When you hear people talk about "stock" Android, this usually is what they're referring to -- homescreens and app drawer unchanged from what Google includes in the open-sourced code.


text:
All the info of Google "My Maps" in offline mode
Using Android 5.1, I would like to use all the information of "My Maps" in offline mode, but I do not find the way to do it.
I mean, I've downloaded the map of a city to be used offline and it works ok. If I am online, I can insert one of "My Maps" and browse over that map the points I inserted (click over them and see the associated information). However, if I am offline, I can not see that information. Does anybody know how to store it?
Thank you very much.

Simply put, you can't do pretty much anything other than viewing the map. Check out the support page of the Google maps.

I was looking for the same thing and came across this: http://travelingchic.com/how-to-create-a-custom-google-maps-itinerary-use-it-offline/


text:
How do you make the music volume louder than the highest volume on the Sony Xperia M2
I recently got a new phone and the music volume continues to decrease so I was wondering if there is a way to make the volume higher than the max volume on the Sony Xperia M2, also I have already put the sound enhancements on so I need a different way.

Have you checked these questions? This question has already been asked multiple times here :) See e.g. How can I increase the number of volume levels?

Has it been about music and for the Sony Xperia M2

What makes you thing adjusting volume has to be device- and sound- specific? Though we cannot generally rule-out device (or ROM) specific stuff, we can "rule it in" only using the Sherlock-Holmes-Algorithm: When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. So may I ask: Have you "excluded" – i.e. tried the other recommended solutions? :)

Yes, hence the question

Ah. In that case: could you please [edit] your question and point out what you've tried and how it failed (e.g. error messages / installation issues / no-effect-at-all / …) – so we might be able to narrow down things?

Ok. Do you have any suggestions on improvement

Yes. See my previous comment. I cannot do that for you – you must provide those details. And before we have them, I don't see how we can further assist you, sorry.

We? Or the general SE we

We. All. Everywhere. Except for those having your device in their own hands, literally. Our crystal balls are all out for maintenance currently – and we haven't been told when they will be returned.

I asked a question which could have been a straight answer yet you decide to use the extended, criticism filled method

Sorry, Joshua: I wrote multiple times we need more details to give a "straight answer". You never provided those details, so we cannot give that answer. Tell me: how far is it from my aunt Grace to the next bus stop? Can you answer that without me providing you with information on where she lives? // Count me out now, please. I tried to help as good as I could – but that was as far as I could go. Good luck!

Alright, fine. I'll edit or make a new post this is no democracy

You can try Volume Booster app which increases maximum volume by 30-40%.
Alternatively, have a look at the Play Store search query here. There are many other applications in Play Store which would meet your needs.

Root your phone.
Install ViPER4Android Audio Effects app.
Click 'Yes' to install drivers.
Select 'Super Audio Quality' in Preferences.
Click 'Accept'.
Now reboot the phone and open the app.
Click the 3-dot option at top right to open options.
Select UI Settings and enable 'Expert' mode.
Now in "Phone Speaker" tab, click 'Enable' under 'Master Power'.
Under 'Extra Loud'
i. Enable it.
ii.Select 'Effect Strength' as 'Extreme'
iii. Select the 'Max Gain' as required (recommended: 8x)


text:
can a phone detect 3D posture of a person with the camera?
Does an Android phone have everything it needs to reconstruct someone's posture, by using the camera sensors?
If yes, are nowadays' phones fast enough for this?
Here's a video of what I mean on the XBox Kinnect
Thanks in advance

AFAIK, no. Kinect has depth sensor that allows to measure distance between camera and objects, while normal camera on Android doesn't have that.

@AndrewT. wasn't there one Android device introducing something similar, using a second camera lens? I remember having read about this, but don't remember which device or manufacturer that was. Ah, here: Dell to put depth-sensing 3D cameras in more Android, plus HTC announces the new One with depth-sensing camera

@Izzy I also heard about that news, but as currently written, I assume the questions asks for all recent phones, which is not correct.

Definitely true, @AndrewT. Different interpretation of the question's "an Android phone" versus its "nowadays' phones": I focussed on the former, you on the latter #D


text:
Running ident on Android/HTC
Our Business intranet uses ident to get user credentials for the different programs/modules. Our programmers say they cant/wont change this. I'm wanting to use one of the programs on my HTC Android phone, but it wont let me use the web page as it picks up my ident as "unknown" rather than "helen". I've tried various IRC apps which say they run ident, but none of them seem to work, unless I've got them set up wrong. e.g. Sock server ultimate.
Any ideas how I can get ident running on my phone?

BusyBox (requires root) includes fakeidentd, which is an extremely simple Ident service that just replies to everything with the same username.
127|root@X9076:/storage/sdcard0 # fakeidentd --help
BusyBox v1.23.1-Stericson (2015-02-06 13:50:32 EST) multi-call binary.

Usage: fakeidentd [-fiw] [-b ADDR] [STRING]

Provide fake ident (auth) service

    -f      Run in foreground
    -i      Inetd mode
    -w      Inetd 'wait' mode
    -b ADDR Bind to specified address
    STRING  Ident answer string (default: nobody)

So in your case, you would simply run fakeidentd helen from a shell on your device (such as with Terminal Emulator).


text:
Manage Phone Audio Player through Car Stereo over Bluetooth
I spent yesterday evening looking through Q&A and I see this question asked in different ways, but not answered. I will try to make the question very clear.
I have a bluetooth-enabled car stero (Kenwood). I have a bluetooth-enabled Android phone (Samsung). I can pair the two without trouble. They automatically pair every time I get in the car. On the phone, I can enable bluetooth call control and  bluetooth audio control.
What I want to do is get in my car, turn on the stereo, and press the play button to start playing music from my phone. I cannot do that. What I have to do is get in my car, turn on the stereo, get my phone, open a music player app on the phone, press play on the music player app, and put my phone away again.
I downloaded a variety of Kenwood apps, but they are all USB apps, not bluetooth apps. Is there some way to make a phone start playing music by pressing play on the stereo?
In response to the comment below...
At lunch today, I went out to a coworker's car. She had her phone in her purse. She started her car and turned on the radio. She pressed "source" to change it from FM to BT. The radio showed playlists on her phone. She scrolled through the list and selected one. It started playing. She never took her phone out of her purse. She did everything from the radio. So, how can I expect the phone to respond to pressing a button on the radio? Simple. It does that for other people. I want mine to do it for me. I want to know how such a dismissive comment gets a +1.

Seconding that. All I can think of is auto-pairing to cause your car stereo swtiching to the "new input", and then controling it like a BT headset with buttons would do. But I've got no experience in that field.

Highly depends on the bluetooth profile and capabilities of your stereo. Some only implement call button profiles, some implement audio only and some support audio and buttons. Some have advance support for Playlist and file system. A FM Bluetooth adapter I had could play and stop my music but couldn't see play lists or anything.
If you press the play button twice does it work? Or long press? If you play your music, do the buttons play at that point? But in any case, there is no way to really change it, without replacing the stereo.


text:
Getting VirtualBox ready with Android X86 and ARM without emulator
How is it possible to get VirtualBox ready with an Android-x86 ISO image which supports ARM v7 (armeabi-v7a)?
Genymotion seems to do that, but as soon as I start the VirtualBoxfrom VirtualBox, it does only display the terminal. Same with all the other Emulators like AndyRoid.
I've tried installing several x86 ISO images. Installed the ARM translator (libhoudini) and so on. I've tried to install the Buildroid image, same results.
Some games work, but Clash of Clans doesn't. This is what I'm pointing at. Clash of Clans needs ARM v7. v5 does not work in this case.
Has anyone ever handled installing Android X86 with ARM v7 or a way accessing the VirtualBox from Genymotion without GenyMotion?

Sounds like a contradiction in terms: X86 is an architecture, ARM is a different one. So you either use X86 or ARM – I've never heard of a (wide-spread) device having both architectures available natively. So IMHO, that cannot be done "without Emulator".

If this wouldnt be possible (even with translators) how does Genymotion, AndyRoid and all the other emulators do that job? :-)

You just answered the question yourself: "all the other emulators do". But you asked for "without Emulator".

Most of the "working" emulator uses VirtualBox for creating a Android X86 Image. Which means that they must break the magic and translate the VirtualBox using ARM instead of X86

@EmanuelSeibold CoC doesn't require an ARM chip, it works fine on my MM x86 build. x86 doesn't support ARM instructions without an emulator, and as of right now, ARM doesn't support native x86 instructions without an emulator that doesn't currently exist.

@EmanuelS Maybe you should clarify in better words what you are trying or edit your wording. At first it sounded like you were trying to install Adroid x86 onto a VM through an ARM translation or virtualizer which made NO sense whatsoever. Then I reread your OP and thought that maybe you were trying to say that you installed Adroid x86 onto an x86 platform and are trying to use a VM to run ARM based software. Is this correct? But then your last comment sounds like you were trying to install Adroid x86 onto an ARM v7 emulator, also making no sense. So your question/intent is not very clear.

@EmanuelS I am not aware of the ability of any emulators through the use of VirtualBox of creating a port or image of an ARM based OS's or software. VM's create a virtual platform environment to install particular platform dependent software onto that virtualized environment. They do not do any porting or creating of ISO images or magical breaking of translations as you called it.

@EmanuelS As said before, try to clarifying what you are trying to do. Many would simply skip over this post if they did not fully understand it and move on instead of asking clarification questions. Try explaining how you installed what. In other words, you installed Android x86 directly onto a x86 machine or you installed Android x86 onto a VM or VirtualBox on a machine running another OS. Also take the time to refine what you installed in a VM to run what software with which results. If you don't take the needed time to explain details, most won't take the time to write a detailed response.

The Acorn RISC PC ran ARM and x86 processors natively. That may be what Izzy was referring to; anyway you do need an ARM emulator or translator if running Android x86 and wanting to run ARM-only software. ARM and x86 are totally different processors!

There is a closed source in-Android ARM translation library by Intel called libhoudini. If your x86 Android installation has that enabled, it can run some ARM code.

Sounds like libhoudini is something that you would not install in a VM ..... which is where it seams he has installed it.

Basically, Android x86 has a reworked kernel and HALs to enable it to run on an x86 platform. While the latest version of Android x86 based on Oreo may be considered stable, there are still documented issues with some software components not working as well or not at all on this port as you would see and expect them to work on an OS originally designed from the ground up to run on x86 platform.
You seemed to mention some software code translators but did not explain if they run in VM or not. Also, seems like you are wanting to run ARM software from an x86 platform and skip the VM environment altogether which may be impossible. ARM instruction code is completely different from x86 and how the two separate CPUs process it. I am unaware of any software that will translate or run complex ARM software code like a 3D game, on an x86 platform outside of a VM at this current time as this type of software would imply running some kind of live, real-time porting which does not exist. The only way to do this would be to create an ARM CPU VM environment. Currently, Apple and Microsoft have a project to port their systems over to the ARM platform as ARM is the future. However, they announced this last year but maybe a couple more years till they have a working port. Also, running an ARM VM inside an x86 platform that was originally designed for ARM may pose its own set of issues in terms of trying to install an ARM v7 virtual environment through a VM onto an x86 platform of an OS that was originally written for ARM, but then ported to x86.
While Android x86 should run directly installed onto an x86 (Intel or AMD) platform or installed in a VM set up with an x86 virtual platform, what it sounds like is that you are going back and forth. In other words, taking an Android OS based on and designed for ARM, that was ported to x86 and then want to go backward and run an ARM VM to run ARM software. In my experience, when trying to do anything that translates software back and forth, it almost always produces unwanted results. It's almost like translating a book from English to German, then to Russian, and back to English again. You will not get the same book in English that reads the exact same way as the original. So, this software may not run as perfectly as intended.
Furthermore, in looking at the VirtualBox documentation, it does not appear that it currently supports setting up an ARM environment. I did however notice some other ARM virtual environments but did not look to see what platform they run on or how well they perform.

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


text:
Problems with "gapps" stoped, factory reset doesn't work
Huawei Ascend G300 - Android 4.0.3:
The phone has a problem with the "gapps" says the applications all the time that the Google play, Whatsapp, twitter, facebook stops working stop.
try to make a factory reset to see if this error and solved but nothing still continues to errors
try other options;
1) Hard reset did not work out.
2) Update firmware did not work out.
3) Downgrade did not work out.
apparently I can not retrieve the phone do not know how to restart the factory.
Here's what I did:

original text in spanish:
El teléfono presenta un problema con el "gapps" dice que las aplicaciones se detienen a cada rato que el Google play, Whatsapp, twitter, facebook deja de funcionar.
trate de hacer un factory reset para ver si con esto solucionaba el error y pero nada aun sigue dando errores
intente con otras opciones;
1) Hard reset no funciono.
2) Update firmware no funciono.
3) Downgrade no funciono.
al parecer no puedo recuperar el telefono no se como hacer para reiniciarlo de fabrica.

What do you mean by "formatting but do not take changes"? Formatting does change the file system. In the context of your question: are you talking about a factory-reset – or about formatting file systems? In the latter case: which ones are you formatting, and how? What kind of update are you trying to apply? There seems to be a language barrier here – but it's hard to understand what you are asking.

If I just tried to restore factory and can not be, either with the "Hard reset" nothing works ...
I reboot and the phone continues as it seems like this is a problem gapps
I can not even change the recovery.img

Not blaming you for the language barrier, Diego! To find some clues, the system logs might be helpful (see: How can I view and examine the Android log?). Apart from that: Is your device running an "official ROM" provided by Huawei – or did you do any modifications to it (root it, install a custom ROM)?

If course has an official rom
"Ascend G300 Software (U8815-1, Android 4.0.3, V100R001C407B958, Venezuela-Channel, 05011LGK)"

i tying this too http://prntscr.com/6zix6b

I can see why the last command might fail (bootloader locked) – but fastboot -w (wipe/factory-reset) and fastboot erase cache should even work on locked & unrooted devices. Guess I have to leave that to someone familiar with that specific device (hint: please [edit] your question and include: device name, Android version). If you still can boot the device and reach into settings, you can try a factory-reset from there.

factory-reset doesn't work mate :(

Sorry, I'm out of ideas then. Please add the missing information to your question; that might give others a clue where to look. You could of course also contact your dealer/manufacturer for help – it might well be something else went nuts (some "hardware error", for example).

Have You rooted Your phone?
Seems like accidently you have removed any one app which is required for gapps.
The solution is to download gapps package for you android version and flash via recovery.

¡Houston we have a problem!
I'm just getting started with android try to do many things:
-Unlock the S-OFF and could not.
-try to install an update by dload and fails when in step 2.
-Try to depress operating system version.
and not to do anything really.
just try to search in forums someone can explain to me how to do this because I try several times to change the "recovery.img"
with "G300-superrecovery"
  and simply fails because and I could unlock the bootloader fails tells me I can not access is denied;
and whatever you do restart the phone again be as it as it was before shutdown.

http://prntscr.com/6zix6b


text:
Windows 7 Driver for Bluetooth on LG G3
I tried today to connect my LG G3 phone to my PC running Windows 7 64 bits, via bluetooth. I could not find any fitting bluetooth driver anywhere: neither on windows update or LG.com, nor on any other reasonably reliable website. Therefore, it is impossible to explore the content of my phone from my PC without cable, and for example send an MP3 file quickly to it, which is the feature I was looking for.
What is even more alarming, is that almost no one reported this problem on the web. Am I the only one who likes to update his music list on his phone this way?
Does anyone know why it is so, or whether there actually is a driver I was unaware of? Did LG give up on Bluetooth pairing with a computer, leaving only wireless headphones as an application for Bluetooth? I find it really weird...
Thank you for your help!

It doesn't seem to be specific to LG. I've never been able to figure out how to transfer or browse my previous phone's (Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, currently on LG G3) filesystem over bluetooth.
Looks like this is one of those unsolved problem on Android.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7194039/android-how-can-i-browse-remote-device-file-system-via-bluetooth

No, you are not the only one. Following the steps below did the trick for me (taken originally from here):

1 - Download the 'Windows Mobile Device Center' (current version is
  6.1) which you can download it here for 32-bit OS or here for 64-bit OS. This works for both Vista and Windows 7. I've tried it on both.
2 - Install the downloaded software but it may not look like it worked
  on Windows 7 PCs. Vista automatically configured the settings on the
  bluetooth devices but for those who have Windows 7, here are the
  things you should do:
3 - Go to 'Device Manager' from 'Control Panel' -Or- just right-click
  on Computer Icon and choose 'Properties' and then click on 'Device
  Manager'.
4 - You'll see an 'Unknown Device' named 'Bluetooth Peripheral Device'
5 - Right-Click it and click on "Update Driver Software" -Or- anyway
  you find it easy to bring up the Update driver window.

Click "Browse My Computer Image for Driver Software" button.
Click "Let Me Pick from a List of Device Drivers on my computer".
Select 'Bluetooth Radio' from the list if it asked you to select and then in the next window, it will show a list of drivers with Company
  Names in one list and Drivers in another. In the Company List choose
  'Microsoft Corporation', not only Microsoft.
From the drivers list there may be one or more drivers with the name "Windows Mobile-Based Device Support" with different driver versions.
  Select one or the latest.
Ignore any warnings and keep pressing next and then Finish at last. If all goes well, the last screen will show the message that device
  driver is successfully installed.

After doing this and pairing my PC and phone again, I was able to send files between them through bluetooth.
I hope this helps.

I installed the Windows Mobile Device Center, actually removed the phone as a peripheral and reinstalled it, today (Apr 2016) 2 out of 3 drivers were actually found on Windows Update, and I used your method for the 3rd one. I still cannot explore the phone from windows explorer, but I noticed an option by right clicking the system tray bluetooth icon: send and receive files. And it works. So I can send and receive files; but is there a way to mount the phone in the windows explorer, without weird 3rd party apps?

I don't have that win 7 pc anymore, so I can't check that for you. But as far as I remember, that was the only way that worked for me.

authors: مشاكل الالعاب


text:
Can't access external SD Card in TWRP after Link2SD
Ever since I partitioned my SD card for Link2SD, TWRP has been unable to read it. CyanogenMod 12.1 views it fine, but TWRP just shows the card as being 0MB, and freezes when you try to select it.
Is this a format problem, or a problem with TWRP? Am I able to fix this? The card is a 32 GB Class 10 card. The first partition is FAT32 and the second is ext4.

Is your TWRP latest version? Did you look for whether TWRP supports SD-cards with multiple partitions? If CM 12.1 can easily see and you can use it, this shouldn't be a format problem on TWRP too since it supports both.

@Firelord TWRP is version 2.7.1.0


text:
High Battery Drain with CM11 Stable on HTC One due to MediaServer
What's the best way to fix a high battery drain?
I had been using an old nightly build on my HTC One (since no stable had yet been released for it), and I had no battery issues. Just sitting in my pocket all day, the battery would still be at 75% by day's end.
Then I upgraded a week ago to the most recent stable (CM 11-20141112-SNAPSHOT-M12-m7), and now my battery's completely dead in about 3 hours even if I don't use my phone.
The battery statistics app says that the "Mediaserver" is consuming 45% and "Google Services" is consuming another 39%, which seems insane. Historically, "screen" is usually the biggest consumer, but that's now at only 8%.
Googling shows this is a common problem with CM, and there's a ton of different causes and fixes. What's the best solution? I picked a stable release because I thought...well, it would be stable and relatively bug free. It seems counter-intuitive to upgrade to a nightly to fix one bug, while likely introducing more.
A common solution mentioned is to "disable Google Now", but I don't have any such app installed.
Another solution is to disable location reporting for Google Services, but they don't mention how. I think they mean disabling location reporting under "Google Settings", but this effectively disables all apps that use GPS, and I use Google Maps and Navigation quite frequently.

Did you find in your research terms like keep awake, wakelock (partial, kernel, etc) and apps like Wakelock detector , Amplify, Battery Stats Plus, Greenify, DS Battery Saver, etc. What are your results with them?

I don't remember a one-stop solution in an answer on AE, but there are many good answers. You can try this simple search on AE http://android.stackexchange.com/search?page=2&tab=relevance&q=battery%20drain


text:
Possible Virus?

This message keeps appearing on my phone. There are misspelled words, and my coworker who has the same phone has never had this issue.

It seems like spam rather than a virus, although the app it's trying to get you to install might do more nefarious things.  Have to tried to install an antivirus app / spamkiller /etc.?

It is not any virus . Its simply ad. Check which app you installed recently, it might be a third party app. Just ignore that message it doesn't harm your phone.

Just ignore that message it doesn't harm your phone. -- That might be true, but how are you so certain? Security advices doesn't really work on opinions or extremely personal experiences! How about a source or something to corroborate your claim. Matthew Read mentioned something good in comment under the question.


text:
How to permanently stop Samsung Galaxy S5 from keep connecting to Wi-Fi?
I'm using Samsung Galaxy S5. At my place of employment, Wi-Fi is provided (a free version which isn't locked, and a version which is locked). It keeps connecting to the unlocked Wi-Fi network. I don't want to connect to either. I want to control which networks I connect to and when, whether they are free or not (especially if they are free as I imagine that's how hackers get access to your personal info).
I went into Settings -> Connections -> Advanced and turned off almost everything I could think of, but it still scans for networks and connects to the open free network.
How to stop the phone from automatically connecting to a Wi-Fi network and instead only connect to a Wi-Fi network when prompted by me?

Did you "forget" the bad network. Afaik you will be asked by the phone at least once before connecting

In the list of wifi networks, you can select the open network, then "forget this network" -- after doing that, the phone won't connect without asking.  As long as you don't give permission, and have "automatically connect to open networks" disabled, the worst it will do is prompt you to connect to this "new network".

Disable the WiFi from the Notification Menu to stop the device from connecting to the WiFi network.

Drag down from the top of your device screen, the notification menu and a range of quick action buttons will appear.
Assuming your phone is connecting to the WiFi, the 'WiFi' quick button will be a green colour signifying it is enabled. Touch the button once, and wait for it to turn light grey. This means your WiFi is off.
Pull up the notification menu, and look at the status bar. There should be no WiFi symbol visible and your phone isn't connected to a WiFi network.

So that is my problem.  I go through those steps.  But eventually my phone tries to reconnect to WIFI!!!!  I don't want it to even look until I tell it too.

Under WiFi Advanced, do you have a setting 'Scanning always available'?

On my Galaxy Note 2, I have a "Connections Optimizer" setting which looks for wi-fi connections you have previously used. This may be the culprit.

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


text:
How do I change the email address used for Google Play?
My email address I use for the Play Store will be invalid soon, so I need to change it. However I don't want to make a new account because I want to keep all my apps. How can I do that?

You should be able to add an alternate email to your Google account. Afterwards, you can sign in with any of your alternate email addresses, using the same password for your main address.
Once your current email is invalidated, you should also be able to remove that address from your Google account and continue using your alternate email as the primary login.
Since the Google account stays the same, all of your apps will remain on your account.

Unfortunately I can't add an alternate email to my Google account, it says "this setting can't be changed".

Open play store .. slide menu from left side and select email which you wants to use with playstore. But first add that email in gmail setting .

Go to Settings -> Accounts -> Add new email there
Then open Play Store, open side menu and select that account.

I want to keep all my apps -- they won't be kept in the new account under Play Store, but only in the device (OP didn't make sure here). You'll have to manually visit every apps page in Store to add I guess.

@Firelord: I want to save my account, yes.


text:
Forwarded emails with attachments showing as MIME gibberish
Sometimes, when forwarding emails that have attachments, the recipient receives the email as plain-text base64 MIME. For example, the email is received as:
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--_com.android.email_209062387602790"
>
> ----_com.android.email_209062387602790
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
>
> VGhlc2UgZ3V5cyBhcmUg...
> ...(more base64 code)...
> ...wKQmxhbmNhCsKgCgo=

It is maddening because this is happening for multiple email accounts on different servers, and on at least two devices.
Any chance there's help out there?

Have you tried using third-party email clients?

It seems like it is a bug that doesn't have a fix. That's what I understand from the 4/17/17 posted here: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36907768
Also, no idea if this will work but it might be worth a try: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2079469


text:
Restore an Android Backup to an Android Emulator
Is it possible to backup my phone, and restore it to my computer to run under and android emulator? If so, how would I go about doing that?

Do you want to backup only the apps, app data, settings, etc. or complete phone backup (encompassing partitions)?

Theoretically, it should be possible. In order to do it, you need a custom recovery in your phone to perform the backup and a custom recovery, too, to perform the replacement in the emulator.
TWRP has a custom recovery for the Android emulator and it's currently under TWRP's support. If you have the same recovery in your phone, it could be an option to perform the backup (make sure you're backing up only the data and not everything else, system images between your device and the emulator are probably different).
Although seems like an impossible task, by playing with the TWRP settings you could get your phone's backup to work on your emulator. You just need to handle the inconsistencies between the two of them.

My point is OP didn't really make it clear whether requires only Apps+Data backup or full system backup. If we consider only Apps+Data as you did so, why not use Helium or any other apps data backup app? Not that I deny your answer, but if the goal is only to backup Apps+Data, then why take the hard route when easy is at next door.


text:
How to save an image inlined into an email using the stock Email app?
I received an email containing an inline photo (not as attachment, but inside the message body) and I would like to save this image as a file, so that I can for instance open it in my gallery.
I'm using the stock Android Email app (com.android.email, version 4.4.4). I see no menu indicating how to do it, and a long touch on the image opens no menu either.
If there's no way to do it from inside the application, I'd accept indications on how to do it from e.g. a terminal if possible (my phone is rooted, but I don't know if email inline images are separately saved as files).

This isn't a way to save it in a traditonal manner, but it's a good last resort. You could take a screenshot (usually Power+Volume Down) and then crop it in the Photos app (in the Google version there is a pencil icon at the bottom of the picture).

Also, restarting your phone or force-stopping the email app could help.


text:
Removing "yo" from my autocorrect
I'm using Android 4.4.2 on my Galaxy S4 and using keyboard layout Icecream Sandwich.  I want to program my phone that when I incorrectly type yo that it autocorrects "to".  I don't recall when it stopped doing this, but it is very frustrating to be saying yo all of the time because of fat fingers.

Hussain's answer should work out. As an alternative, this app Swiftkey automatically detects the typos and also learns from your typing on its own, no need to program it.

You must have accidentally disabled the auto correct option under your keyboard settings.
Go to Language and input --> select your preferred keyboard and goto its settings --> search for the auto correct checkbox and mark it to true.


text:
Change Android's default focal-length
I have Samsung device( GT-S7562) with 5 mp camera . When I updated it into CyanogenMod , I lost its camera quality . It always force me to take pictures with 3 mp . There is now option to change it . I tried lot of camera apps( including Google cam, HDR cam, Ported xperia,Samsung &HTC cams ...) and all those apps saying I have only 3 mp cam . So i think it is about the OS .
where can i change it ? I am happy if you prefer me to edit system files ;-)
Thank you

Which device specifically, CM version, no device tags? Please add this info as well here [edit] What other camera apps have your tried? What other apps that shows camera specs or system specs have your tried so far, do mention them?


text:
How can I timeout my hotspot?
I use my hotspot on the go, then forget to switch to Wifi when I reach my home or office. Is there an app that times-out the hotspot -- and cellular data in general -- and switches to Wifi? It coudl do this after a certain amount of time or when it detects one of a known list of Wifi SSIDs.
Nexus 4
Android 5.0.1

Device, Android info?. In my devices, both Stock and CM ROMs, my hotspot automatically gets switch-off after some minutes. In older 4.x versions of Android, there was a time-out option. Kitkat and subsequent versions don't have options to tweak and use some default time-out.

You can also achieve your task using Tasker. Though I'm not sure whether this can work out without root. There are some apps available on Play Store and someone actually answered it on AE, I just can't find that answer. I'll ping here if I get to know that answer again.

Nexus 4, Android 5.0.1

Apps are incapable of switching moblie networks on/off as this uses up minutes. To bypass this you require a root. However I believe apps can detect if wifi is in range. So when you get near wifi you can have an app notify you. Although I don't think there is a specific app that will check if wifi is in range. I recommended requesting an app like this somewhere.

Thanks, this looks like an opportunity for someone.
It would have to detect specific Wifi SSIDs, since there are too many Wifi spots, including unsecured ones, that are low-quality or require login.


text:
Get my own Facebook password back
I am logging on Facebook on my Android mobile but I forgot my password, so whenever I log off, I will not be able to login again. Can I see or save my Facebook password?

No there is no way you can view your own password, once the password is entered correctly you get a session with Facebook. Your phones uses this to authenticate with Facebook. In other words, the password is no longer in the device its memory.
You can however reset it here.
For this you need to have registered a phone number or email.

[Can I] save my Facebook password?

If you're using a browser on your Android OS, preferably popular ones like Firefox, Chrome, Opera etc. then you can enable Save Password functionality for websites. Mostly, it is enabled as default setting. On the other hand, if you're using an app like Facebook to log-in into your account, then it is not possible to save your password.
That said, there are some apps on Play Store where you can save your password safely, if you've issues remembering them. I'm aware of some of them, notably KeePassDroid and LastPass Password Mgr. You can look for more alternatives by typing password manager or password in Play Store search field.
Regarding forgot password, you can easily reset it if you've access to your recovery email (email with which you registered at FB). There are solutions available on Facebook itself for recovery. You may look at some of them here.
Note: Alagaros already mentioned about the possibility of seeing the password, so it has been avoided in this answer. :-)

authors: محمد الجويني


text:
Unable to read from '/sys/class/leds/wled:backlight/max_current'
I updated my Sony Z1 Compact to 5.0. And now every 50ms I see message in LogCat
Unable to read from '/sys/class/leds/wled:backlight/max_current'

What's the problem? And how can i resolve it?

Well, logcat does contain a lot of warnings and other verbose messages that are perfectly normal.

But this message every 50 ms. Spaming non-stop. So annoying =/

You can filter log :
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30154331/xperia-z1-compact-android-lollipop-unable-to-read-from-sys-class-leds-wledbac
hope this could help.


text:
Is it safe to disable system google apps
I am looking on to using some of the applications provided from the manufacturer and was wondering if it is safe to disable some google applications.
I am looking to disable:

GMail (this is my biggest concern ATM)
Chrome
G+ (that annoying 'photos' app)
Play News, Music, Newsstand (I believe these are safe)

If you know any applications which are totally not safe (excluding the core ones, like Google Play Services, etc.)
My device is:
stock HTC One (M9)
 Android 5.0.2

Yes You can disable all these... I have also disabled them all...including text to speech, hangouts etc...

Confirmed @Dalvik – very same thing here (on those devices still having GApps installed, that is :)

@Izzy I know what you mean, but usually for a few months I stay stock to make sure the device itself is fine (no factory defects) and we all know what happens then :)

Sure thing – that comment was not meant to critisize! I usually start "custom-romming" once the warranty ran out – but root the device even before unpacking :)

Google Play Services and Play Store may seem to be the core (being part of /system) but they can be safely disabled on Lollipop too. Android OS doesn't depend upon them unless HTC made it compulsory which is unlikely from consumer standpoint.

I think memory(both RAM and app size) they use is the biggest concern of yours like me. I have disabled them all too. It is safe and I have gained some space :)

Short Answer : Yes

These are just apps and you can disable it.But, when the app(any app),
  for example the app need to update and you cannot update the app when it search for Google play(for example) to update and you
  need to new market for update the app.

also, as you said :

GMail (this is my biggest concern ATM)
Chrome
Google + (that annoying 'photos' app)
Play News, Music, Newsstand

these are always safe to disable and if you don't using of them, you can disable it for reasons like,
clear the ram and it means, the phone speed can up.!
good day.


text:
Laptop unable to detect Micromax Yureka after Lollipop upgrade for data transfer
After the Lollipop upgrade on Micromax Yureka, data transfer from mobile to the laptop is not working. The laptop is unable to detect the device.

Looks like that device has trouble running Lollipop. It's not the most widespread device, still we got a lot of reports here: My Yureka phone is restarts automatically while sending any files / Internet & Play Store problem on Micromax Yureka on Lollipop / Yureka issues since updating to Lollipop are some examples, see here for more.

Does you computer detects your device in Device Manager? Do you see a charging light coupled with a USB Connection notification in device? If you do see, does your system detect it in other mode like PTP? Please troubleshoot a bit more and add details here [edit].

Download drivers from the official support site and install on your computer.
Go to phone settings and search for USB connection mode. Set to mass storage.
Connect to your computer via USB.
You could also smuse Yureka PC Suite to transfer data. Google for that, install. It will install drivers automatically and your device will show up.
If it still doesn't show up, try another USB port.
Still no? Try on another computer with the software and drivers installed.
Otherwise, contact support.


text:
After Factory Reset, how do you unlock phone when it is not connected to wifi?
I can't use my Samsung i9000 (Galaxy S1) for a number of years because I tried the screen lock incorrectly too many times. I no longer get that option, it just says "Too many pattern attempts" and asks for your Gmail details. But even after a factory reset, its still asking for these details and the phone is not connected to wifi. I would really appreciate some help.

It shouldn't know about that after a factory-reset – it rather should behave as if it came "straight from the shop". Which raises the question whether your factory-reset was successful at all. // I've just added the locked-out tag to your question. Please take a look at its tag-wiki, which contains some background info on that as well as fist-aid and further links on the topic.

Till i understand, factory reset will completely erase all data which includes all settings also. So are you sure you have factory reset your device?
As mentioned here if you have USB debugging ON on your device you can follow this steps to disable lock:-
How to Disable Pattern Lock via ADB

You must have previously enable USB Debugging (Settings ->
Application -> Development -> USB Debugging)
Download and extract the Android SDK (from here)
Plug your phone into your computer
In command line navigate to where you extracted the SDK, then to the Tools folder which should contain adb.exe. Do not simply run adb.exe but instead enter adb –d shell.

Please check this question of forum


text:
WhatsApp and Messenger not working on Auxus BEAST running Lollipop
I just bought iBerry Auxus BEAST smartphone and I'm facing lots of issues with Lollipop. Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook is not working fine & it crashes rapidly. I could install the apps without any issues, but I cannot use them. Is there any solution to fix this issue?

--Support Info--
 Debug info: +919847081948
 Description: 2.12.5
 Version: 2.12.5
 Exp: 2016-04-22 22:26:45.000+0530
 LC: US
 LG: en
 Context: settings/about
 Carrier: IDEA
 Manufacturer: AUXUS
 Model: AUXUS_BEAST
 OS: 5.0
 Socket Conn: UP
 Radio MCC-MNC: 404-19
 SIM MCC-MNC: 404-19
 CCode: 91 9847081948
 Target: release
 Distribution: play
 Product: AUXUS
 Device: c211_jbl_a128_5m_hd_auxus
 Build: c211_jbl_a128_5m_hd_auxus_20150410
 Kernel: 3.10.61 #6 SMP PREEMPT Thu Apr 16 16:10:15 CST 2015
 Connection: M.O.B.I.L.E. (H.S.P.A.)
 Device ISO8601: 2015-04-26 12:08:23.698+0530
 Phone Type: G.S.M.
 Network Type: H.S.P.A.
 Diagnostic Codes: FE-VC

Go to Settings > About AUXUS > Wireless Update and then click "Check for Updates". You will see a new update there, install the update. It will take 5-10 minutes depending on your WiFi speed or network connection. Once you successfully install the update, your issue will be resolved.
In case you are getting an error message while installing the above update like "Your system was damaged. Wireless update is disabled.", then better reinstall the firmware manually and it will fix the complete issue.
To reinstall the firmware manually, download the firmware on your PC from iBerry's website. The instructions are given inside the ZIP file in the Instructions.pdf file. Follow the instructions to manually install the firmware. Once you manually install the firmware, your issue will be fixed.


text:
How can I fix small images on the Facebook website?
Facebook images appear small, and don't take up whole width of the screen:

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)
This problem was reproduced on both Xperia T and Xperia SP (both running CM12, both have HD screen), and also both on Chrome and default CM web browser.
This problem didn't occur on Xperia Mini (HVGA screen), and I don't have any issues with the desktop version either.
Is there any way to solve this?

Try going to Settings > Apps > All > Chrome > Clear Data.
Or try Firefox if it works, or try installing the Facebook app. Or uninstalling Chrome and test the factory version if it works, or updating it to the latest stable version.
Oh! I see.. You are using Cyanogen? Try using other browsers, including Opera Mobile, Mozilla Firefox, and Dolphin Browser.

Changing the browser isn't an option here, I need the features of Chrome. That said, clearing data... actually fixed the issue.

Okay... Hope you like your new photo layouts!

Which Chrome browser version you're using exactly?
So I just went around reading about the issue (of which I also experienced too), and realized it appears to be fixed already, at least for me.
To confirm again, I also quickly pulled my phone and tried viewing images on Facebook via Chrome, and they appeared nicely, not in small size.
Assuming the issue (which is likely a CSS issue) was reported some months ago, I am sure they'll be at it and tried to fix it.
My images appear alright though. Perhaps update to the latest Chrome on phone and it might solve it for you. I didn't even noticed it's been fixed until reading this question and going to explicitly try it out.
As a proof, see image attached. This is how images show on my Chrome when I visit Facebook for mobile, the m.facebook.com
FWIW, my Chrome version is 42.0.23311.bla-bla-bla. I'm on Android 5.1.1, custom build, using CyanogenMod for Xperia Z2

I've got two accounts the problem is only with one of them. The issue is with facebook trying out new stuff on select accounts. Nothing we can do from our phones


text:
Cannot download anything from Google Play store via mobile data
I have an LG G2 with Android 4.4.2. All of a sudden I cannot download apps or updates on the Google Play store: no error messages, it just spins its wheels. On the Google Play Store, it just says "Downloading..." with the loading bar running infinitely, and in my phone drop-down screen, the same thing. No progress bar, completion %, est. time, anything.
In my Settings › Mobile data menu, the "limit mobile data usage" option is NOT checked, and the problem persists on both 3G and 4G/LTE. My data limit has not been reached (I don't even think I have one).
In the Settings › Mobile data › Google Play Store menu, the "restrict background data" option is NOT checked either. In the Google Play app settings menu, the "Auto-update apps" is set to wifi-only, but that's how I want it. The problem is when I manually try to download/update, so that shouldn't be the problem.
My Google Play build version is 5.4.12, if that helps...
Wi-fi downloads are just peachy though.
Just checked my network signal strength and it's -116 dBm and 26 asu, whatever those mean.

I've integrated that with your question directly, thanks for the feedback! One more thing: while "the wheel spins", what color does your mobile-signal-icon show (in 4.4+, this "color change" was IMHO moved into the quick-settings – so you might need to pull down your notification bar and check the "tiles" – before that, it was visible directly in the status bar)?

No colors change anywhere- they remain white/gray like the default. Though by "mobile-signal-icon," do you mean the staircase bars or the icon for 3G/4G/LTE? Nothing in my Quick Settings changed at all.

Tried clearing data for Play Services and Play Store?

@Willman42 Take a look at What does it mean when the connectivity icons in the status bar go white/gray? for what I mean. Color meanings for gray/white stay the same with 4.4+ – so your device has no connection to the Google Servers. Explains the issue, right? While on WiFi, WiFi icon color is different I guess?

@Huey doesn't help. Icons indicate "no connection to Google servers".

Is it possible your internet connection is somehow malfunctioning? Can you visit http://google.com and play.google.com in your web browser?

@Huey - this problem occurs no matter what network I'm on; I can access Play Store from browser, and phone on wifi AND mobile data.

@Izzy - My icons (data,wifi,anything) haven't been anything buy white/grey for a LONG time now (they were green when I bought the phone). I can't remember for certain, but I'm pretty sure they turned white when I got an Android update long ago, perhaps a year or so. I don't remember ever changing my Google Acct settings after initially adding it. I'll check out my acct settings now and see if I can nudge something to get it green again though.

@Izzy - http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/11/18/a-google-engineer-explains-why-kitkat-has-white-status-bar-icons-and-only-shows-connectivity-in-quick-settings/ This page states that "A blue WiFi or mobile data icon meant connected, and gray was no connectivity. But no more. ... In KitKat, the status icons are white all the time."

@Willman42 Yes, that's what I wrote: from Kitkat upwards, the status icons in the statusbar always remain white. I cannot cross-check currently (no device beyond 4.3), but AFAIK now colors are changed in the quick settings. We had that in some answer here, I just couldn't find it yet.

Ok I let an update attempt to download then came back to my phone about 10-15 min later, to see an error code 495, saying the update cannot download. So I Googled that error code and found this page: http://techknowzone.com/how-to-solve-fix-error-code-495-in-google-play-store/. I went down the list and followed each suggestion step by step.
The one that worked was disconnecting and reconnecting my Google acct from my phone. I had to reboot my device because it seems like whenever I clear the cache/data from Google Play Store and Google Framework Service and then open up Google Play store again, it says "unable to connect" no matter how many times I click "retry."
So I don't know exactly what was wrong- it seems like it's just a bug buried deep somewhere. But it works now. Network icons are still white.

Open downloads app or download manager.  Change the setting of the max size of file you can download using mobile data.

Remove your account from Google play store.
Go to Settings > Apps > Clear data and Clear cache on Play store , Play services, Google Service framework and Download manager.
Reset App preferences in Settings > Apps
Switch on your location in GPS of your mobile.
Reboot your mobile.

Now you can download from your play store.

Disable the Restrict background data option Settings → App → Downloads (might have been enabled). Try downloading the App in Play store again.