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Droid 2/R2-D2 Can't Load Beyond Bootloader
I picked up a DROID R2-D2 from a coworker who has given up on the device. Knowing I like to tinker with these things, she offered me the phone in whatever condition I can muster from it.
A few weeks ago, she dropped it into some water and from that point on, the android OS will no longer boot. The bootloader screen comes up when powered on (without forcing this mode using the hardware volume buttons), but that's as far as it goes. I don't believe this is a boot-loop, as the phone does not automatically reset itself, but I'm somewhat new to the terminology. I don't believe this question is quite a duplicate of this one, as the screens I am able to access are different.
I also have a DROID X (similar question for this model), but for those unfamiliar, the bootloader presented using the volume-button-on-boot method does not produce the same screen. on the X, there are actual options, such as loading fastboot, etc. With the 2/R2-D2, there are no options, just "OK to program". I am not sure if the bootloader is unlocked or not. The working D2 is in stock condition, and the bootloader menu is minimal as compared to that of the X, and the non-working bootloader is identical. If the stock condition is locked, then I assume that this is the case.
I can force recovery mode (holding the keyboard 'x' while booting), but the options there do not help.
From the bootloader screen, this is what I see:

Always this header:

Bootloader
D2.37

if battery is charged:

Battery OK
OK to Program

if battery is depleted (I think, the batt's full at the moment and my memory may be off):

Battery low
Unable to program

if no USB connected:

Connect USB
Data Cable

if USB connected (to PC or straight power):

Transfer Mode:
USB

From the recovery screen (after loading the ! image and getting to the actual menu by pressing both the volume up and down buttons at the same time), this is what I see:
Android system recovery <3e>

Android system recovery utility

reboot system now
apply update from sdcard
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition

Of the above options, I have tried all, but I know the sdcard option was done incorrectly, as I am not sure which files are required for this update. The other options, which 'worked' resulted in no change in the boot behavior.
The phone is detected by my Windows 7 machine. i.e. When I plug the device into the PC, Windows detects the hardware and recognizes the R2-D2 as being the same (no new drivers required) as the Droid 2, and I can see it in my list of devices in My Computer.
However, I can't run any debug functions on it. i.e. The D2 (essentially the same phone, same hardware, drivers, etc.) that I regularly connect to my PC to test my own programmed apps, and ADB works flawlessly. Any attempt to debug the device results in the device not being found by adb. While in either the bootloader or in Recovery Mode, the R2-D2 cannot be detected by adb devices. If I plug in the functional D2, adb immediately is able to display the device ID.
Also tried to see if fastboot would detect the device, but it did neither at the bootloader, nor in recovery mode.
I downloaded a series of .sbf files from various sources (this being the only one I can find at the moment), and reflashed using RSDLite. I am new to this and so I used numerous walkthroughs from the web to get me this far. I am somewhat confident that I've learned how to flash properly, since some of the attempts failed and caused the bootloader to fail, but a few of them at least got me back to the same 'working' condition the phone was in when I picked it up.
At this point, I don't care if the phone is rooted or not; I don't care if I have a custom or stock ROM loaded; I don't care if the OS is buggy once running. I would just like to be able to get the phone to boot at all. The original owner has since picked up a replacement from Verizon, so worst-case scenario (the phone is a brick) is not the end of the world.
Especially given the fact that I have a nearly identical phone to work with, is there some way I can rip the .imgs from the working model and load it onto the broken one? Is there a step in the .sbf reload that I could be doing incorrectly? Are there any other tips or sources to help me get this phone up and running again?

Can you clarify your question a bit more, it seems contradicting - the phone is detected by Win7 (how? What ROM?), yet in bootloader or recovery adb devices does not "see it"? Is the bootloader unlocked i.e. S-OFF?

@t0mm13b I've added some clarification to the question, but to summarize: The device is detected by the Win OS, but not by adb. I do not know if the bootloader is locked or not, nor how to tell.

Ok, when in bootloader - the binary app on Windows/Linux etc, fastboot should detect it fastboot devices, but in recovery, presumably that is a stock recovery for said devices, i.e. not CWM, TWRP etc.
So no adb running in the stock recovery, which is further implying, that boot loader is locked! Had it being unlocked, it would make things easier!
However, as am not familiar with the device, it might be worth your while to read this thread, (but do not act on it either as by the sound of it, you are not fully certain yet). Other than that, will leave it at that and wait until someone who is in the know with said device will respond. My answer is more generic.

Ok, thanks. I'll have a go at fastboot to see how far I can get there and post an update.

Also, with regard to that link, it applies to Droid 2 Global (D2G) with a SIM card. I don't know how much it matters, but the D2/R2D2 does not use SIM cards, so at least the first few steps won't work, and I fear that trying the latter steps will be more problematic.

Updating question, but fastboot also detected nothing.

Hmmm... In short, I think, said device is hosed, nothing with fastboot/adb would do, however, the alternative option is to approach someone who has JTAG equipment that will restore it back to factory state.

Had a suspicion... Thanks for the help, though!


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Operating system in a phone having no OS
I have sony xperia P and i was trying to install custom ROM in my phone.I copied the boot.img in the boot partition.Now my phone doesn't starts.
There is no external SD card slot in my phone.
How can i install a android OS now.
My phone starts in fastboot and flashmode.
Any help would be appreciated.
And yes i don't have a backup :(

Is your Xperia's boot loader unlocked? How did you copied the boot.img in the boot partition?

If you can start your phone in fastboot, then use the fastboot utility to load your system.img and boot.img
You have a nice guide here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2277112 but the main thing you need to execute is:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot erase system -w
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot reboot

You will need a valid system.img and boot.img for your phone model.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Where is the 'sleep' low power option in cyanogenmod 10.1?
I used to have the Android that came installed on my Verizon Motorola Razr Maxx. When I wanted the phone to be doing nothing (in a movie theater, or at night) I would hold the power button, and then select "Sleep" from the options, which also included "Power Off", "Airplane Mode", and icons to select ringing or vibrating.
Now, I've installed Cyanogenmod 10.1, and when I hold that button I get similar options but no "Sleep" option. There are "Profiles", but none of them seem to be as low power as sleep was. Is there no sleep function, or is it hiding somewhere? If there is none, maybe I can replace it with a profile that turns on "airplane mode", which seems like the only way to turn off the cellular antenna?

You are right. Sleep mode is something from Motorola, not from Android. So, CyanogenMod (based on the stock rom) does not have this option. It has several other options, and you just need to find something close to it. You could try airplane mode, which turns off all connections (wifi, bluetooth, cellular, NFC, etc..)

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


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How do I install apps to Internal/External SD instead of Phone Storage
I have a dual SIM mt6589 based Android 4.2.1 phone, and I have no idea where the apps are getting installed.
My phone has an Internal SD card(built in), An External SD card and something called Phone Storage(/data ??)
Anyway the apps are supposed to be saved to my External SD but they get saved to Phone Storage.

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)
Also the option move to External SD card is greyed out(It was available before!!).
My vold.fstab file
dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard0 emmc@fat /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount sdcard2 /storage/sdcard1 auto /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.1 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.1/mmc_host

@Izzy question rephrased

Did you take a look at the tag wiki I mentioned with my previous comment? It has all the answers you need.

Ah @Izzy It answers my question, hmm looks like I can't move half the apps from my Internal Storage -_-. Also What do I do with the question ?

usually apps get installed to Internal SD(with android 4.1.2) but after updating to 4.2.1, I can install to only Phone Storage

As your question might provide a place-holder to already existing details, I composed a short answer you might want to accept/upvote, so other "searchers" can find their way and follow up. The issue from your previous comment you'll need to address to your manufacturer/ROM baker: They have disabled that functionality, Android itself still supports it (you're in good company with that, seems a few manufacturer decided to do the same).

The answer to your re-phrased question can be found in the app2sd tag-wiki. In short:

App2SD cannot move the entire app to SDCard, there are always things remaining in phone storage (e.g. data, Dalvik cache, and some more)
There are alternative methods moving more stuff, such as e.g. link2sd or Data2SD

For details, please see the linked tag-wiki.

Also there seems to be a way to extend the Phone Storage http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2296230

Not really -- it can't take stuff from nothing. That tool simply changes partitioning, taking space away from the internal SDCard and adding it to "phone storage".


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Transfering mp3 file from a pc and play it on Android 4.1.1?
I recently bought a smartphone with the intent of not having to bow to iPhone and its iTunes etc.  I am a PC only user and so I don't really want to change my religion from Win-to-IOS!
However, what I thought would be simple is proving to be difficult.  I am sure there will be many like me.  And that is why I am posting here.
My pc runs Win-XP.  The ALDI phone is Medion E4002 (MD 98388) and runs Android 4.1.1.
I want to copy some mp3 files that I have to the Android phone so I can listen.  Not too much ask, is it?
But I am unable to.  Tried the Help Line of ALDI.  The bottom line from support person is that under Windows it should work without any additional software.  Because in my case it does not work, the problem must be with my pc!
In Android under System Settings, I tried connection as a USB Storage.  Yes, two new "removable drives" are recognized, but properties shows as 0 bytes and all blue disk.
And if I try the connection as a Media Device (MTP) the phone is not recognized by the pc.
Any help?
Update from original psoter (july 25, 2013)
As was suggested by the Aldi / Medion Help Centre guy, I tried copying files from a Win 8 laptop. There too, the USB mode did not work, but MTP did. Thanks for the answers.

+1 for the intent of not having to bow to iPhone and its iTunes etc

Dan, it would be interesting how you've got that working. Did any of the answers do the trick, or was it something different altogether?

German Wikipedia notes that Windows XP supports MTP only with Media Player 10 installed, so this is one thing your could try.
A second pointer is provided by How do I install the MTP drivers for Windows XP ? in the MS help center, which points you to download and install the Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit from their website.
Number 3 advice: You wrote you tried connection as a USB Storage. That should do without any specific drivers even on Windows, as the device then poses as "USB disk". It should present you at least the SD Card this way. You wrote it shows with a "0 byte size": if that should mean how much data is in there, that could be normal (card still empty).
Last one: If all other fails, take a look at apps like e.g. AirDroid, which lets you remotely administrate and manage your Android device, and also includes a file browser with drag-and-drop support. You start this app on your Android device, and it will show you an URL to type into your browser on the PC. Then you can handle everything else from within your web browser.

I could not get USB transfer to work either (Windows 8, Nexus 4 and Nexus 7). As a workaround I am using AirDroid (Google Play).

If you do not mind transferring files wireless-ly, you can always go for an option like WiFi file transfer as explained in this answer. You can try updating the MTP drivers of your PC and installing device drivers if any.

I've been tearing my hair out with this one as well. The one thing I wanted most, and it didn't work. I found the missing info at whirlpool forums. You actually have to turn USB storage on, not merely enable it in the settings. Also, what you really want is for the phone to autoplay. Here's the process I went through; don't know which step actually fixed the issue:
Go into settings and check usb debugging and usb tethering.
When you connect the phone by USB and the two dive icons appear, right click on them, go to properties and select autoplay, change the drop down menu from music to mixed content and check the prompt me each time to choose an action. This is for Win XP, mind you.
When you next connect the phone to USB, tap the top of the screen where the battery and USB icon is. Slide down to reveal your options, and a message saying connect as usb storage will appear with the Android robot icon holding his arm up as a USB connector. Press turn on USB storage when it connects. Autoplay will automatically open a removable disk drive box asking you what you want to do. Click open folder to explore files and voila - cut and paste what you want.
I only got this far after I put in the micro SD card. Before that, I never saw the Android robot appear with turn USB storage on/off after sliding the screen down, only the connect as USB storage setting. The checkbox would be there, but it wouldn't connect and merely charge even though there is another selection for that.
Hope it works for you. Good luck.

An easy low brow way to do this that I find the best for investment/reward ratio is ..... drum roll, flourish of hands, magical passes over sequined leotard clad assistant's body,   ..... copy the MP3s onto a microSD card that is plugged into a USB port on the PC. And then disconnect the microSD card from the PC and insert it into the microSD slot next to the SIM slots of the phone.

Not all Android devices have a removable SD storage.

I was able to copy MP3 files to my 4.1.1 Android phone by:

Connecting the USB cable to the phone.
Select "Media Device (MTP)" from the menu which pops up.
In Windows 7, I just used Windows Explorer and copied files from my PC to the SD card (E: Drive for me, could be different for you). Finding the right place to drop the files on the SD card is sometimes a challenge, but for me, I just dropped it at the root of the "E:/SD card".

MTP devices doesn't show with drive letters in Windows. They are shown under "Portable Media Players".


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Availability of the Menu Key
As seen on backwards compatibility for the Android phones, do some phones always have traditional physical keys like the Menu Key, ususally on Gingerbread and older only? I was wondering if most modern phones running on Jellybean and Ice Cream Sandwich will always have virtual Action Overflow button in replace of the Menu Key.

There is no real standard here — every manufacturer does whatever it likes. E.g., many Samsung devices (including Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note II) use the traditional layout — Menu, Home, Back (with Menu and Back as touch keys, and Home as a physical key; and the Back key is really on the right side, while many other manufacturers place it on the left side). Given the Samsung market share, there is a significant number of phones shipped with recent Android versions and still having the Menu key.

Is that mean that the availability of the Menu Key may depend according the version of the phone brand? For example, some phones always have the physical Menu Key while other phones don't have the Menu Key but it appears as an Action Overflow regardless of the app?

The Action OVerflow can be programmed to be visible regardless if menu key is present or not.

If the older devices have a menu key, the overflow action indicator will not show, this is by behaviour! See my answer on StackOverflow.

For switching app window, does it uses a hard Menu Button by default if this phone is available to have one?


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How can I monitor and log the connections to my phone's wireless hotspot?
I'm sure the phone will be logging all connections and connection attempts when it is used to set up a wireless hotspot - my question is how can I view these logs?
If the default setting is not to log connections - is there a way I can turn it on or an app I can download?

On a rooted phone with super user terminal client like ROM Toolbox Lite(from play store) you can check connected clients using netstat
netstat -ntu | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr

Checks on ESTABLISHED connections instead of all connections, and displays the connections count for each IP.


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Targetting SDCard vs Phone Storage
I bought a new phone. It runs JellyBean 4.1.1. It has got 2.5GB Phone storage and Internal Storage of 512 MB. Thats what I find when I go to Manage Apps section of the settings. I can move apps installed in Internal Storage to the Phone Storage. Thats the option I get when I open detail section of any app in Manage Apps.
My previous phone had no phone storage but just the internal storage. In it, when I open up Manage Apps section I use to get the option to "Move app to SD card". However now am not able to get option to move the app to SD card but just to the Phone Storage (from Internal Storage). How can I move apps to SD Card instead of to Phone Storage from Internal storage.
When I used ES file explorer I realized the phone storage is recognized as sdcard and my SD card is recognized as sdcard1.
Also there are some apps that look for the supporting files in their corresponding folder inside sdcard, i.e. at sdcard\appfolder. Now since they currently look at **sdcard0**\appfolder (i.e. phone storage), I have limitations of not putting bigger files which quickly fills up the phone storage. In my previous phone I created appfolder in my sdcard and pasted those supporting files in those folders and the corresponding apps automatically detected those files. This was convenient since I have 32 GB SDcard. However now I have to create appfolders in phone storage.
Also now many apps by default limits browsing files in phone storage detecting it as a sdcard. For example when I open any folder in dropbox and tap Upload Here it directly browse sdcard.
Please help.

You might also wish to take a look into the app2sd tag-wiki on our site :)

Hey thanks but I have tried app2sd also. And as far as I understand when it comes to moving apps, app2sd also opens the same Manage Apps windows with Move app to phone storage option

Again: You might want to take a look at that tag-wiki (not just guess by its name :). If you do, you will see why I recommend that: It also mentions (and shortly introduces) alternatives.

Read this: AndroidForums. The directory structure has been restructured in Jelly Bean. The internal memory resides at /data/media/0, hence the sdcard0 name. SD cards are now known as external SD cards and get the name sdcard1 since Android 4.1. If you want to move apps to your external SD card, I'm afraid you'll have to root. If you do decide to root however, FolderMount and Link2SD work really well.

No other way to move apps to external sdcard without rooting at all? You sure?

Yeah, AFAIK, yes. I'm sure of it.


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SIM 1 Card Full notification on HTC Desire SV
On my HTC Desire SV, a notification says

SIM card is full Delete some messages to make more space.

I've deleted all my messages and it still won't go away. I've clicked on it and it leads me to a page that says

no messages on the SIM card:

under the title that says

SMS messages on SIM card.

so, I guess my real question is how do I get rid of this? how do I access the SIM card to where I can delete photos and/or messages off of it?

This is a problem with your phone, that it only shows the SMS on your phone, not with the SIM card. If you go into your SMS application and check  settings, you should have an option which says something like: "Manage SIM SMS". From there, you should be able to delete the SMS from your SIM card.
Another option is to insert your SIM card in an another phone (probably an older phone will have access to your SIM's SMS) and try it from there.
Yet another option is to try some SMS management application like GoSMS which may enable you to erase SMS from the SIM card, though I haven't tried such applications, as it's been a long time since I used SMS.

I tried your first option and there is not a single SMS in SIM memory. I checked this SIM card in other mobile phone. I think the problem is some thing else.

You got me lost here then. Usually the message is because there are some SMS in the SIM, not on the phone. I recall reading some time ago that the message could also be for having the agenda full. Do you store your contacts on the SIM or on the phone, linked with Google account?

When you checked the SIM in another mobile, does it gives you the same warning message? If no, then this is a problem of your phone/ROM. What Android version do you have? I was googling a bit, and found some russian forum, where you could check (it's risky, be aware) to update your firmware: forum

I am storing all my contacts into SIM card and the phone is also linked with google account.
I was inserted the SIM card in low end Nokia mobile phone and nothing is there in "Inbox", "Sent items" and in "Draft".

@ AitorTheRed ...the link which you provided here ...is not readable by me...because in russian language...

@VinitVikash I don't speak russian. I used some translation tool, like translate.google.com. Yiou can trywith this link. Also, maybe the problem is for storing the contacts in the SIM card. You should move the contacts to the phone (and link the contacts to the google account).

Go into Messaging, SMS Messages, Settings and change SMS storage location to Phone. This is on a Doogee phone, running Android 5.0-R25-2015_10_20.

Switch off your mobile
Remove your mobile battery and SIM card
Press your power button for 10 seconds
Replace your battery and SIM card
Switch on your mobile
Issue cleared
It worked for me :)

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


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Moving apps to folders within the app drawer using the stock launcher of Samsung Galaxy S4
So on my Galaxy S4 I can open the Apps Overflow Menu (4x4 square-ish dots) and press the menu button (left of the Home) and choose edit. From there I can long press icons and put them into a folder on a particular page.
What I can't do is drag apps from page to page and place them in folders on different pages.
I would really like to have all my Verizon/Samsung apps in their own folders.
I feel the answer will be a resounding "you can't", but how can I put icons from different pages of the apps overflow menu into folders on a different page in this menu list?

I have an S4 (Build number I9505XXUBMGA) using the Nova launcher.
However, I've changed to the stock launcher, and testing your scenario. My apps are sorted alpabetically (View type > Alphabetical grid). So, I created 4 different folders that would be strategically placed in different pages.
In edit mode, I dragged 1 app to the every edge of the screen, and it moved to the next page. I looked for the folder and dropped it there. Success! :)
The key here is to drag it to the very edge of the screen. You will see a blue vertical line show up once you get to the very edge. Again, do not just move it within the page. Move it to the very edge.

Wow... when you say edge you mean edge lol. I thought I had held far enough over and it didn't seem to work but I just tried it again and realized it wasn't enough before. Thanks!

@TronicZomB You're welcome. Glad to be of help. :)

I have my S4 in a lifeproof case so it is almost impossible ( or at least a real pain in the butt ) to slide all the way to the edge due to the case overlap :)
nother option is to go to the apps drawer ( the little grid ).. press the menu button (left of the Home) and choose edit, then click on the folder you want to put apps into ( or create one first, then choose edit, then click on it) and then in the little window that pops up, click on the "plus" icon... ( you only get this with folders ) then simply put a check-mark on all the apps you want in that folder ... you can slide from page to page, checking apps, and click save at the top when you are done.  Repeat for each folder you want to put apps into.

To move apps within the app drawer to a folder within the app drawer, click the menu button and enter edit mode.

authors: ابو باسم المهدلى


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Use Google Maps maps in Maverick
How can I save Google Maps tiles so I can use them in Maverick offline?
I tried Mobile Atlas Creator, but it seems it does not have Google Map as a map source.

What's "Maverick"?

@AlEverett Probably this one: http://codesector.com/maverick

MOBile Atlas Creator (MOBAC) has support for Google Maps till 1.9Beta (the last stable version is 1.8).
It can be downloaded from here.
Using MOBAC instead of MapsOn has the following significant advantages.

Since the download happens in the computer rather in phone, large area downloads are quite possible.
Multiple zoom levels can be downloaded and even multiple maps (like Google Terrain in one and regular Google Maps in other) can be stored in layers. See this answer for more info.

Install MapsOn by coderminus.
Go to Menu > More > Preferences > Configure Maps and set /sdcard/maverick/tiles/Google/ or /storage/sdcard0/maverick/tiles/Google/ as the path for the tiles of Google Maps. Now you can use the "Cache area" feature of MapsOn to download the tiles of selected areas.
Since they are stored in the Maverick folder, they are used by Maverick if you select "Google" as the map source. This also works for other map sources if you adapt the corresponding paths in MapsOn.

@Naranyanan: MapsOn allows to download multiple zoom levels (that's exactly what "Cache area" is for). It has (in my opinion) the huge advantage that you do not need a PC, from which the tiles still have to be transferred to the phone. Rather the tiles are readily available and one can also download missing tiles on the go. Finally, download is usually surprisingly fast and reliable, even for large areas. I, at least, had many more problems with MOBAC, which I also found inconvenient to handle - partially because of the transfer to the phone. Therefore I stopped using it.


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Why do people recommend to flash a ROM or an Odin component (PDA, Phone, CSC) at least two times?
In XDA, I often see people complain that they flashed something, and it doesn't work. Then, somebody tells them to try flashing it again, and it works! What's the reason behind this?
I imagine this to be something related to dependencies, like in SQL. Ideally, a child table should be deleted first before the parent table. If you had a batch SQL statements in this sequence, you'd have to run the script twice. The first run would not delete the parent table (because the dependent child table still exists), but would delete the child table. Then, the second run would eventually delete the parent table. Is this the same analogy that's happening when flashing ROMs twice (or more)?

Partly, I guess. It might also be related to incomplete wipes (where parts of the old system remain; I've read that a couple of times in install instructions, to wipe twice because the first wipe usually doesn't catch all), or some step failed unnoticed.


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When will my device get the Android 4.3 update (Jelly Bean)?
Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) was officially announced on July 24, 2013.
(You can review the high level changes in Jelly Bean at the official Android Developer's site or the announcement on the official Android blog.)
Of course, not all devices will get this update right away and others won't get it at all. Each manufacturer and carrier often choose to add their custom modifications which tend to delay the official release.
When will each device get Android 4.3, either officially or unofficially, if ever?
See also:

When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.4 update (KitKat)?
When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)?

Steve Kondik of CyanogenMod announced a while ago on Google+, CM-10.2 will be in the pipeline, just don't ask for ETA 's :)

And for those unfamiliar, CM-10.2 will be based on Jelly Bean 4.3 source code. I eagerly anticipate its arrival!

I guess this question tells us when Unicorns were photographed in the SE headquarters... ;-)

(@AlE, I noticed you changed your display name on many, or all, sites. If you want me to remove my above comment, then just shout!)

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates for devices. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep phones in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

Phones
HTC

EVO 4G LTE: end of 2013 (confirmed)
One

Google Play Edition: 2013-08-01 (confirmed)
With HTC Sense: 2013-09-27 (confirmed)

One (Developer Edition): 2013-09-27 (source)
One X and One X+: Never (source)

LG

Nexus 4: 2013-07-24 (announced)

Samsung

Galaxy Nexus:

GSM/HSPA+: 2013-07-24 (announced)
Sprint: unknown
Verizon:

Official: unknown
Unofficial: 2013-07-24: (RootzWiki)

Galaxy Note II: December 2013 (rumor)

Galaxy S 3: October 2013 (source)

Galaxy S 4

Google Play Edition: 2013-08-02 (confirmed)
With Touchwiz: 2013-10-17 (confirmed)

Nexus S

Unofficial: 2013-07-27: (confirmed - XDA thread)

Sony

Xperia SP: beginning 2014-Jan (confirmed)
Xperia T: beginning 2013-Dec (confirmed)
Xperia TX: beginning 2013-Dec (confirmed)
Xperia V: beginning 2013-Dec (confirmed)
Xperia Z: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)
Xperia Z Ultra: 2013-12-16 (confirmed)
Xperia Z1: 2013-12-16 (confirmed)
Xperia ZL: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)
Xperia ZR: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)

Tablets
Asus

Nexus 7 (2012): 2013-07-24 (announced)

Samsung

Nexus 10: 2013-07-24 (announced)

Sony

Xperia Tablet Z: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)

Other
GoogleTV

All models - Unknown

Nvidia Shield

2013-10-28 - (confirmed)

A note on dates: Dates listed are generally when the update is announced to be available. However, due to phased rollouts you may not see the actual update for some time.


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K9-Mail does not detect PGP encrypted mail automatically
I have a bit of a problem with PGP and K9-Mail on my Galaxy S3.
I'm using the GPG Mail plugin on my computer (Mac OS X 10.8) and can read and write mails just perfectly.
Today I decided to setup PGP on my phone. It's rooted and runs the ParandoidAndroid 3.55 custom mod. I did the setup as shown in this guide: http://cariadus.com/blog/2010/07/how-to-set-up-your-android-phone-to-enable-sending-pgp-signed-emails-to-nominets-automaton/
and everything went fine.
I can encrypt and decrypt mails sent from my phone (to myself). BUT, here is the problem. As soon as I send myself (or got a mail from a friend) that wasn't sent via K9-Mail and Android it doesn't recognize the signature. FOllowing screenshot will explain:

It shows me the attachments but the usual "Decrypt" button that I get from mails sent from my phone itself doesn't show up. I update my public key + the public key from the friend that sent me a mail from the keyserver and have both of them stored in APG.
Well, I hope you understand my problem now and have advice on what I can do to fix this :P Thanks!

I have the same problem when sending encrypted mails from my Apple Mail client with GPGMail2 plug-in.
Apparently K9-Mail supports only PGP/Inline and not PGP/MIME which seems to be the standard formatting PGP-Emails today.
If you like to test it on your own, configure GPGMail to use inline mode through your Terminal:
defaults write org.gpgtools.gpgmail UseOpenPGPInlineToSend -bool YES

Reference.
There is an open feature request to address this issue. Hopefully, the K9 developers will fix this soon. So, consider starring this issue.

I have created a small bounty for the same issue: https://www.bountysource.com/issues/815255-pgp-mime

Here is a newer feature request for PGP/MIME: https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/issues/576

As linnedude mentions, this is a problem of K-9 mail. There is a pgp/mime milestone on github with the issues to be fixed.


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Android to Android Bluetooth Tether
My android does a pretty good job doing a bluetooth tether for my PC (in which PC shares my Android's internet), but I was wondering how to get another Android device to connect/tether to it (my first android device)?

You can do this easily by pairing the devices and enabling data on the first device. Steps are listed below.

Enable bluetooth on both the devices. (Obvious!)

Then, pair them up by clicking “Search for devices” on one of the devices and clicking on the name of other device. You’ll be asked to verify a PIN number. It doesn’t matter what the PIN number is, as long as it’s the same PIN number on both devices.

Go to Settings, choose More then choose Tethering & Portable Hotspot. In there, you have tick Bluetooth tethering. If you don’t, the tether will not work!

On the second device, go to Settings, then click on the word Bluetooth (not the toggle – the word). Finally, click on the name of your second device you paired earlier. To get it all working, choose Internet Access.

Now you should be able to use the data connection of your first device.

I did try that. What version Android is this? On my devices (4.1 & ~2.x) it just shows "File Transfer" (step#4) (on either devices, doesn't matter which phone's connection I share to whom)

@laggingreflex This should be available the devices running at GB or above. Screenshots aee from a Galaxy Nexus phone.


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Prevent Notifcations stopping Music Playback
On a Note 2, if I am listening to music or a video, whenever a notification comes in, the audio from the music or video is stopped to play the notification sound.  This happens in any app I have tried, though I don't use the stock samsung apps much.  MX Player for video, Pandora for music, as examples.
If watching a video, this means skipping back to rewatch the portion that had no audio.
Is it possible to have sounds from different sources mixed, rather than have the notifications take over the whole channel?

What apps are you using to listen to music? to video? Stock apps?

@geffchang I have added examples, I can test further if it helps.  Your question suggests this behavior isn't standard?  The same thing happened on my S2 prior to this phone, same apps.

Can't check your situation yet. But hopefully your additional details can help others fix your issue.

You can turn off notifications or if you have access to an app like SmartActions, you can create a rule that does that.  But if you are using WiFi or mobile data, your best bet is to turn off notifications....annoying yes, but it is but necessary

Thanks for the answer, however I don't want notification disabled.  I am not sure why you are suggesting they should be disabled when using data.

I am on my third Android device and each of them would momentarily stop music or media playback when a notification comes in.  These could be email or network or social media notifications.....it didn't matter.  While this is annoying when you are playing media, if there are a large number of notifications....for example, if you are very active on Facebook and are constantly receiving notifications, it makes media playback useless, especially if you are using your android device to play music for a party.  I download the playlist I am using to my device and disable WiFi and mobile data.


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Apps uninstalling on battery death
I have an HTC Incredible smartphone. Every time the battery dies during normal usage, my applications uninstall. Why does this happen, and how can I prevent it from happening in the future?

Most of these portable computers will automatic shut down, when the battery drops to a certian voltage, usually that leaves enough power in the system for days of maintaining the volitile memory. If someone change the way it worked (some firmware) , if the battery was really really bad, or much time had passed I could see it.  but It isnt normal. Or I hope it isnt.  How old is your battery, how much did you change the original firmware or software?

It gives warning, but you can decide to totally run the battery out on some of them. A sort of 911 emergency power last phone call and you don't care if it wipes type function I guess. Did it with a Samsung ONCE which was annoying enough to not do it again.

The battery backed memory that holds installed apps is clearing when the battery goes dead. Don't let the battery go totally dead like that. It kills off your battery life, unless you've already damaged it.


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Locked Nexus 7 - no forgotten password option
My girlfriend forgot her password on her Nexus 7 and can't remember it. It's written everywhere on the web that you can use the gmail login after 5 wrong passwords but it doesn't seem to work anymore! It doesn't ask for the gmail account and never shows the forgotten password option.
I have tried to repeat the process on my Galaxy Nexus and there is no forgotten option either....
After 5 attempts it blocks for 30 seconds and I actually tried 30 times to see if after a while the gmail option appears but it's not the case...
How to use the gmail account to unlock the latest android devices (4.2.2)?
P.S. my phone isn't locked! I just try to redo her steps

Please check with Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection? if one of the solutions works (all known methods are handled there). Then let us know if your issue solved.

My problem is that is not even asking for the Google account... And the WiFi is on.

Are you using a pattern lock, or a password? In the first case, the option to "disable pattern lock via ADB" does not mention any Google account related things, for one example. In the latter I must apologize, as the linked question refers to pattern lock =:-0

We are both using the password lock.

Well, I just tried it on my own device (Nexus 4, Android 4.4.2) and indeed you are right: There is no restoring option when using a password or PIN. It only shows up for me when using a pattern.
There is still a method I just figured out.

Log in to your Google Account.
Go to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager
Accept the device manager pop up and click on your device on "Lock".
Enter a new password.

I just tried it and it works very well here :)
Best regards!
visi0nary
Edit: I just figured out that you need to have "Remote Wipe and Lock" enabled in Android Device Manager on your device. I hope your GF has enabled that option.
Edit: This only works for the original (admin) account on a Nexus 7. Device Manager is not available for other accounts.

The problem may be that the Android device in question has no Google account registered to it.  Can you install apps to it from the Google Play web store?

We both have a Google account linked on the device.


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How did can I find important partions of any android devices?
Please Help Me !!!
How did can I find important partions of any android device . Using adb or fastboot . Such as, boot, recovery, etc...
I mean to backup any androdi device rom . I have tried with "ls /dev/block/" . Then I see many things.

        I've tried another with "cat /proc/mounts" . This one give me more pressures .
Take a look at this .

Sorry for my English :'(

You might want to take a look at this answer or, even better, at Android Folder Hierarchy, which most likely gives you the necessary details.
Using that information, your best approach to backup via ADB might be:
# find the device for the partition
mount | grep system
# from the output of the above (data from your screenshot), now back it up
# using "dd":
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 of=/mnt/sdcard2/system.img bs=1M

if is the device to back up, of the target (I just placed the image file in the root of your sdcard, you might wish to adjust that). Take care not to mix up the two, or you might destroy your system! (this is why dd sometimes is backronymed "data destroyer"). bs defines how much data to read/write in a single operation, my example uses 1 MB; you might play with this and e.g. use "8M" to speed things up, but do not set this too high.
Above example just handles the /system partition. Repeat it similarly for any of the other ones listed in the linked question which you want to have backed up.

This error occurs. Why ?
Please !
C:\Windows\System32>adb shell
shell@android:/ $ su
su
shell@android:/ # mount | grep system
mount | grep system
sh: grep: not found
127|shell@android:/ #

Maybe because there's no grep found in $PATH? You could try busybox grep instead (if busybox is found). Or simply skip the grep part and check the output manually: this part is only needed once to find out where the devices are. Once you got them, they won't change, so you can save your dd statements for subsequent use.


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How can I open a `.rar` file if Solid Explorer fails?
I have the app Solid Explorer installed but the .rar file doesn't seem to be opening properly.  Which tool can I use to extract .rar files properly?
OS:  4.1.1
Device: S3

Try B1 Free Archiver, or AndroZip™ File Manager. If the file still doesn't open properly, it might be possible that the archive is corrupt. Try opening the same archive on PC as well, just to be sure.

I don't have PC access but I'll try the other methods.

Solid Explorer should be able to open RAR files. Try opening the file on a PC, as it may be corrupted.


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Google Play Store force closing
I have a Karbonn S5 Titanium. Whenever I try to open the Google Play Store, it gets closed within a second. A notification saying 'your google store has stopped unfortunately' keeps coming every 2 minutes. I can't download any apps or access a few of them. What can be done to set it right ?

Have you tried to clear cache (and, if that did not help, data) from the playstore app?

App X isn't working correctly. How can I fix it?

Try to uninstall any Play Store updates, and then rerun the app; if all goes well, it will re-update the app, and the force closing should stop. If it still force closes, and you don't have much data on your device, you can try to factory reset the phone. That usually makes my Play Store work fine (although I don't have S5).

You could try updating to the latest play store. See AndroidPolice. Doing this fixed the same issue for me when I updated my Nexus 7 to android 4.3. It was crashing like yours, I updated (and cleared the cache and data) and the Play Store started working again. You don't need to be rooted, you can simply install it. It's perfectly safe as it is signed by Google.

If you are rooted and have ClockworkMod recovery, you can try these steps:

Uninstall Google play services.
Boot into recovery and select "wipe data".
Then select "clear cache".
Then select "advanced" and in the sub-menu select "wipe dalivk cache".
Then go back and select reboot.

Now the Play Store will start working.

And all your apps and data are gone. What you describe here is a manual factory reset.

In Settings -> Apps -> All, Try clearing cache for Google Play Services, Google Play Store, and Google Services Framework, and restart.
If that doesn't do the trick, try clearing cache and data for all three services. Restart, and start google play. It should ask you to accept the terms and conditions and there you go.

To fix this issue follow this solutions.
Solution 1. Clear Cache from Google Play Store
Solution 2. Uninstall Updates of Google Play store and then try restarting your android device
Solution 3. Install Latest Google Play Store.
Solution 4. Still if you are unable to solve try doing factory reset.
In my article, I have listed all these solutions in a step by step process with screenshots so if you are unable to understand check out my article on How to Solve Google Play Store Keeps Crashing Issue on Android
Disclosure: I'm the author of the linked article.


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How can I view the contents of an .srt file on my Android?
OS: 4.1.1
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3
I have a French .srt file that I want to view and edit the contents. How can I achieve this?

.srt looks more like a subtitles file for subtitling films, a plain text file, with time frame where spoken language is used.

Possible duplicate of How do I open a text file of any extension in Android?

.srt is just text. So, I'm sure you can edit it using any text editor like Jota+.
Give it a try, and let me know if it works.

Sorry, haven't tried it yet! Wanted to look into the price.  :-)

@verve The free version is good enough. :)

Is there a word counter on it?

@verve Doesn't look like it has one

With Subtitle Editor Free you can edit your subtitles in your mobile
  phone. Application support several different encodings and you can
  edit time, text, re-sync subtitles and app has a lot of other
  functions. Try this app!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mixedapps.subtitlescreator

Change the extension from .srt to .txt, then any word editor will work.
I use ES file explorer's editor.
When finished, change the extension back to filename.srt. It works fine for me.


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view .htm file on sdcard and search words in it
When I click a .htm file in file manager, it opens the html viewer which has no search feature. How to open the file with the bundled browser? I could type the path (file:///mnt/sdcard/...), but it's too long.

You can try opening it in an HTML editor like WebMaster's HTML Editor Lite. It has syntax highlighting, and a search function. It also as a Pro version with additional features.
If you don't like that, there are several other HTML editors in Google Play.

I don't want to install extra packages. "HTML editor" sounds huge. Maybe there's a way to copy the full file path to clipboard and paste it in the browser?


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Changing install location to 2 with `adb shell pm set-install-location 2' results in 'insufficient memory' errors when installing apps
I am using Galaxy Grand GT-19082. I used latest android sdk and unpartitioned new 32 GB SDHC Card. I used adb shell pm set-install-location 2 and it shows that It selected 'External 2'.
After unplugging/rebooting, I tried to install some icici apps from Google Play. Once it downloaded to internal storage, it throws a 'Insufficient memory' error while trying to install. After setting 'install location' to 0, I was able to install apps at internal storage.
Even if configured as secondary storage, application was unable to install/location the secondary storage SD-card. Could you help me finding the cause?

Try to partition and format the SD-Card


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Can I play music from my UPnP NAS with VLC on Android?
Can I play music from my UPnP NAS with VLC on Android? And if so, how do I find my UPnP device from within VLC?
I'm on the latest beta VLC for Android on a Nexus 4.

See the Android column on the table at https://wiki.videolan.org/Mobile_Features/

@HidekiAI according to the page you linked, VLC has implemented support for UPnP/DLNA in the meantime.

No I don't think you can do that directly with VLC.
But you could use another app like BubbleUPnP or UPnPlay, they are made for the purpose.

UPnPlay has the strangest interface of all Android apps ever. I'd go with BubbleUPnP.

I personally like Slick UPnP app.

From version 2.0 on, VLC for Android seems to support UPnP.

Well you can play music with VLC but only through another app. I did it like this:

Downloaded ES File Explorer on your Android device of course :)
When you open the Es File Explorer you will see 3 icons top center (Local, PC and Cloud): Click on the middle one (PC icon)

A new page just opened. Bottom left corner click on new:

After that just fill in the necessary fields and save. Now you can brows through you NAS and listen to all the music and even watch movies if you have any:


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Can I recover app data after the phone has been Factory Reset?
Without remembering application data, I reset my Galaxy S3 to factory state. Now, I lost data for one expense manager app. Is there any way to recover the data?

NO. Unless you perform a backup before, you lose all app data during a Factory Reset.

Factory reset
A factory reset or master reset is a full restore of an electronic device to its factory settings. Such electronic devices include handheld computers such as PDAs and mobile phones. It entails deleting all information stored in the device. This is essentially the same as reformatting a hard drive. A factory reset may become necessary from time to time on a device which is no longer working. It should be used with caution, as it destroys all data stored in the unit. Many problems with a hand held electronic device such as freezing can be resolved by performing a factory reset or hard reset.

Wikipedia Article

No problem, just keep it in mind to prevent the answer being flagged as "low quality", and here's the forgotten +1 ;)

So does this mean this basically overwrites the internal storage removing all traces of data? Also does this mean that all "recovery applications" found internet are all scams?


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Printing data from Android phones to the printer via computer
I can transfer data (images, string) from android to computer via bluetooth.
This computer is connected to the printer (Brother MFC- 7360) by USB port.
How do I do for the printer to print received image automatically when the computer receives the image?
I heard that when we install driver of the printer into the computer. There are the windows servers running in the background to listen printing event from computer. But I have no knowledge about that.
Can anyone helps me? Thanks in advance.
P/S: Are there any solution for generic printer?

I don't know why this was migrated here. This would seem to be a computer hardware question rather than one about Android. That said, have you looked at Google Cloud Print?

The method your are describing doesn't seem possible, you are trying to have your photos printed as they arrive to your computer!
What you can do is to print data directly from your android device to a printer:

Print directly from an Android device with the right Wi-Fi or Bluetooth printer that are available to the device.
Print to a printer connected to a computer, by using the Google's free Cloud Print technology:

Google Cloud Print
Google Cloud Print is a new technology that connects your printers to the web. Using Google Cloud Print, you can make your home and work printers available to you and anyone you choose, from the applications you use every day. Google Cloud Print works on your phone, tablet, Chromebook, PC, and any other web-connected device you want to print from.

Requirements:
You will need to have a computer where the printer is connected to, with Google Chrome installed and connected to the Google Cloud Print service, in order to have it receiving files from your devices.

Printer Connected and installed on your OS;
Google Chrome Installed;
Cloud Print set up on Google Chrome;
Logged on with the same user as your device.

Setup the computer:

Launch Google Chrome;
Access the menu (icon in the upper-right corner);
select "Settings";
On the Settings page, scroll down until your see "Show advanced settings..." and click it;
Keep scrolling down until you find the "Google Cloud Print" section:
The available options may vary, but usually you will see a "Add printers" or a "Manage print settings" button.
The first will add your installed printers to the list. The second will allow you to see what printers are there.

Start Printing from your Android device:
To start printing what you want you'll need to install the following app:
Cloud Print

Description
  With Cloud Print for Android you can:

Print from any compatible Android device to any Google Cloud Print connected printer
Share a picture or a document from apps like Gallery directly to Cloud Print
Track the status of your print jobs

Printing from Android has never been easier.

You open the document, photo, etc on your device and access the "Share" options, where you will find the "Cloud Print" option.

Links:

Cloud Print - Google Play Store
Google Cloud Print Homepage
PCWorld - Answer Line: How to print from Android
TabletPC Review - How to Print from a Tabet: Google Cloud Print & Android Solutions
LifeHacker - Add Wireless Printing to Your Android Phone with Cloud Print

Google Cloud Pint is what you need. It easily connects your normal printers to the cloud and saves them in your cloud printers list. You can the print any document from anywhere in the world by just logging in to your Google account and giving the print command from Google Drive or Google Chrome.
For Android there is an official app by Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.cloudprint


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How to remotely disable MobiUCare from sending "SIM card change" SMSes?
My mother just changed her SIM card. I forgot to disable MobiUCare and I'm about a thousand of kilometers away from the phone.
I keep receiving an SMS:

SIM card changed. Plz check phone if lost or stolen" with SIM ID and Gmail ID.

I found that MobiUCare supports lots of SMS commands to remotely track/wipe phone. Doesn't it have any to defuse the anti-theft system? I mean, I expected the change of SIM card, the new one is legitimate.
Actually one SMS can be considered enough instead of an half-hourly report that drains credit

Answer: No
Based on the currently available information at their support FAQ page, no, you cannot disable the "SIM card change notification" feature with remove SMS control:

How can I control device via SMS
Configuration
  1) Set a password and enable SMS command option using "Preference" menu of the app
  2) Send SMS commands
Locate phone : ## locate password
  Siren : ## siren password
  Lock screen : ## lock password screenlockpassword
  Factory reset : ## wipe password
  Reset and format SD : ## wipeall password
  Toggle GPS : ## gps password
  Toggle WIFI : ## wifi password
  Toggle Bluetooth : ## bluetooth password

What can you do:
You can let the phone owner know how to access the app and from there, pressing "preferences", it can access the "Allow Notify via SMS" enable/disable checkbox:


text:
My Smartphone should automatically tweet that I got up when I use it in morning. How can I achieve that?
My Smartphone should automatically tweet that I got up when I use it in morning.
How can I setup my phone so that when I get up early in morning and first thing I do in morning is to swipe the screen, a tweet like

I got up at 6 AM

is send?

OP: What you are asking for is bordering on something broad and similar to @bmdixon's answer below! There are plenty of tasker code out there, and anyway, why would you want your followers to know you got up at 6AM anyway?

You could probably use On {x} for this. You should be able to configure it so that it sends a tweet the first time you unlock your phone each day. I've not used it much myself though so can't tell you exactly how.
Another possible option would be using Tasker.

That sounds unwieldy, there are twitter apps out there that can facilitate scheduled tweets such as the one I've mentioned in my answer.

I interpreted the question as tweeting when he wakes up, not sending a tweet at a specific time. If he doesn't wake up till 7AM I presume he doesn't want to tweet till then.

Think the OP is asking a very broad and specific recommendation... at first I misinterpreted as silencing tweets, but no, have not heard of such a app, sure it can be done with likes of illama, tasker etc, but my feeling is the OP is looking for specific twitter app...

As a user of Tweetcaster Pro, which can do this for you!
There's a facility, to schedule tweets, at a designated user's time of their choice, as well into the future:
See screenshots below, notably Post Later:

But having said that, I normally do not answer to questions asking for recommendations as they are off-topic, please read the [FAQ].

How does that answer the question?

@t0mm13b: The OP was asking for an app that would send a tweet when they woke up, not supress incoming tweets until then.

See my edit! Sorry guys, I misinterpreted the OP's question


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Booting into recovery mode shows blue Recovery Booting text, then gets stuck with a black screen
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4
Android: 4.2.2 / XXUBMGA
I am on djembey's pre-rooted slim XXUBMGA.
Recovery Mode does not work for me. From OFF mode, I press Vol Up+Home+Power. Then, I see a small blue "Recovery Booting..." text in the top left corner of the screen, but nothing happens. It stays black. If I stop pressing the three buttons, the phone boots normally.
Download mode works for me (VolUp+Home+Power), and I am able to flash using Odin.
How do I fix the recovery mode? Do I need to flash stock recovery again? Would I lose my data if I do so?
Similar question:
Blank screen when trying to boot into recovery mode on Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

When small blue writing appears, let go of just the power button. It should then boot into recovery. Source.
Disclaimer: I am DLAddict on XDA.

i already try download many stock firmware and flash with many version odin but still stuck on samsung logo with blue recovery booting..
My problem solved with kies.i used Tool-Firmware Upgrade and Initialisation..u need to enter your smsung model then enter your S/N.(need stable internet connection).just wait until complete 100%,it ask u to restart..all my software and my data in my internal storage still there..Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 GT-I9205.


text:
How does one get top and bottom bar on Adobe Reader app with recent documents button etc.?
Adobe Reader has top and bottom bars which shows home/recent, navigation document buttons, navigation bar other "widgets". It looks like this:

The problem is that I do not know how to open it: menu buttons shows useless settings and info button bar. I tried various gestures - it showed only menu or selected the text. However after random swiping, clicking bar popped out. What is the gesture that should open bar?
I am using ICS - Android 4.0.3 on LG phone without hardware search button. Any ideas?

Just tap the document you're reading. (Note, not a long-tap; that opens a different menu.)
From page 5 of "Getting Started with Adobe Reader.pdf" (which downloads with the app):

My PDF documents are in Adobe Reader. Now what do I do?
Tap the middle of the screen once to reveal the toolbars. After a few moments, they disappear until you tap again.

And, yeah, not exactly intuitive. Why not use the overflow menu like every other Android app?


text:
The application google services framework (process com.google.process.gapps) has stopped unexpectedly
I am using  nikai tablet NMD8000b which is on Android 2.2 . Currently device showing The application google services framework (process com.google.process.gapps) has stopped unexpectedly
I didn't get any support from the nikai site. How can i rectify and overcome the problem

See also: Getting GApps error message and com.google.process.gapps crashing

See also: How do I stop com.google.process.gaps force closing randomly?


text:
Can't use Foursquare because it needs Google Play Services, which "is not supported by your device"
I've installed Foursquare, but it does not start, instead I get the following error:

Google Play Services, which some of your applications rely on, is not supported by your device.

I don't know what does this mean and how can I solve this issue to use the application.
I'm using Chinese phone AMOI N 821 android 4.1.1. I live in Russia.
What should I do?

Does your phone have GPS capability? Foursquare uses and requires GPS to run.

Google Play Services provides a "backbone" of sorts not just for Google apps but other apps as well. This is part of the way that Google is letting users and apps get to more "modern" Android features without having to wait for carriers to update their version of the OS.
I'm guessing that the phone you're using didn't come with Google apps installed.
See if you can install Google Play Services directly.
If so, you should be good to go.
If not, you're probably out of luck.

So my phone has this app (google play services)..

And? Did you just install it, or was it already there? Have you tried re-starting your phone? Clearing the cache on either app? Re-installing?

oh(it is incompatible with other apps using the same shared user ID(

Unfortunately Chinese Products does not support the Google Services as Google is not allowed in the China.
So the Only Option i see is the VPN. Try using the free VPN services.

I had the same problem with a Nexus 7. It's coproduced by Google, so it was obvious it wasn't caused by a lack of Google Apps.
In my case it was an error in the synchronization of the Google account (settings → personal → account). Tapping on my account, I forced the sync.
Then I closed the problematic app, restarting it. And the problem was gone.


text:
Bluetooth Tethering on Galaxy S4
I have a galaxy s4 and a tethering data plan and I can tether via wifi (Settings| Connections tab| More Networks| Tethering and portable hotspot| Mobile hotspot). I don't see any options for bluetooth tethering. Do I need a special app for bluetooth tethering?

Before and after turning on Mobile Hotspot (click images for larger variant)

Bluetooth tethering is a native function supported by Android. You do not need third party apps.

To tether your internet via bluetooth on your Galaxy S4:
Go to home Settings ► Connections ► More networks ► Tethering and portable hotspot ► and check Bluetooth tethering.

As explained in this answer, you can tether two mobile devices easily by pairing the devices and enabling data on the first device.

I don't see the bluetooth tethering in the menu

@MohammadMoghimi Not even after the Zuul's edit? See the screenshot.

Nope. That page doesn't have Bluetooth tethering option.

@MohammadMoghimi can you give us a screen shot please?

I added screenshots.


text:
Do I root to my model, or my version number?
When I rooted my last phone, I was able to find a detailed tutorial made specifically for the model I had. It was great, because I knew I had fully compatible tools and ROMs, which limited my amount of fumbling around.
I don't see anything out there for my new (to me) phone. I've seen generic guides for my Android version, but since it's specific to my carrier, I am wondering if I can just jump right in and start trying it out.

Can you specify what is the make and model of your "new" phone?

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy Attain, but if possible, I was hoping to find out if there was an answer that isn't phone-specific, or if it's case-by-case.

Does SuperOneClick not work?

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/q/49925/16265

In order to root an Android phone, you have to take into account the Manufacturer of the phone and the Model, and also you need to take into account the Android Version installed. The process to root a phone is based on some exploit in the system, and each Android version with each model has a different method, which takes advantage of different exploits.
There are common exploits across some models, but in general, you need to look for a rooting method for your phone model and the Android Version it has.
I have used this page on some occasions to look for tutorials, but you can also look in xda developers


text:
How to root the Galaxy Attain 4G (SCH-R920) on MetroPCS?
I have an Galaxy Attain 4G (SCH-R920) on MetroPCS running the Android™ 2.3 (Gingerbread).
How can I root this phone?

Rooting the Galaxy Attain 4G (SCH-R920) on MetroPCS
A step by step tutorial accredit to Zhelezaka from http://forum.x-drivers.com/.

Requirements:
Necessary Files: all files hosted on my DropBox account!

Odin3 v1.85;
Attain Rooted Update;
Attain 4G PIT File;

Setup:

A PC running the Windows Operating System; I've used Windows 7
The cable to connect your Android device to the PC.

Tutorial:

Download all files from the "Necessary Files List" to a folder on your desktop;
Extract odin3_v1.85.zip to a folder on your desktop;
Locate and open the Odin 1.85.exe to open up Odin3;
If the User Account Control (UAC) pops up, accept the execution of the file.

Click on the PDA button.
Navigate to the location where you downloaded the Attain-Rooted-Update.tar file and select it.

Click on the PIT button.
Navigate to the location where you downloaded the Attain-4G.pit file and select it.
Do not forget to extract the file first, since the application only works with the Attain-4G.pit file inside the ZIP you've downloaded.

Make sure that repartition is unchecked.
This is important as checking this will most definitely brick your device!
Note that when you select the PIT file, it gets checked, you need to uncheck  it yourself.

Power down your device;
With your device switched off, press and hold the Volume Down + Home + Power buttons.
Then press the Volume Up key to enter the Download Mode.
Connect your device to the Windows PC.
You should see the ID:COM field light up yellow when you do this;

If this does not happen, it means that you don’t have the necessary drivers installed.
You can download Samsung Kies and install it to rectify this problem.

Android SDK
Samsung USB Driver

Your Odin3 screen should now look like the picture posted below. Again, make sure that the Re-Partition tickbox is unchecked before you click Start!

Click on Start.
Note: Once Odin3 says "PASS" and your device reboots, your Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G should be rooted!!
If you are in doubt though, the usual way to confirm is to download Root Checker from the Google Play Store or look for the Superuser app in the app drawer.

Useful links:

Samsung Product Page
GSMArena Device Specifications

I can confirm that this works with Heimdall as well, however you have to unzip the .tar file and manually add the FACTORYFS partition file (factoryfs.rfs).


text:
Is it possible to install already installed apps with one click?
In the Apple App Store, if you have downloaded an item in the past, you can click the INSTALL button to download it in one click. However, in the Google Play Store, you have to go into the app, press the install button, accept the permissions, and then it's downloaded. It's a bit tedious if you're batch re-installing after you did a factory reset. Is there a function similar to that button in the App Store, but for the Google Play Store?

For batch restores of this kind one could use AppMonster Pro (only the payed version supports this) without root, or Titanium Backup with root (including app data then). Third option might be Helium Backup. Of course, all three variants require you to have created your backup before.

@Izzy while that's nice, I want it after I've nuked my device :)

I understood that -- which is why I didn't place it as answer but rather as comment. The variant you are looking for I don't know, unfortunately. I'm afraid it doesn't exist -- but will be happily proven wrong with that :)

This doesn't specifically exist, however there is the Android Backup System, which allows you to reinstall all the apps from the Google server's on the inital setup of the device.
This will queue all the apps for install from Google Play. It comes on all Android 2.2+ devices, however it is very temperamental.
Other than that, you could use a dedicated backup app such as Titanium Backup Pro to regularly backup your apps, allowing you to restore them in one click should you need to.
Google Play doesn't offer what you stated. iOS offer's this because they don't have permissions to show you ;)


text:
Corrupt Internal Storage File System
I am using an original RAZR that is partitioned using Safestrap running stock 4.1 on one partition and CM10.1 on the other.
My problem is the internal storage (internal SD card I believe) partition running CM10.1 has a corrupt file system and I am having trouble running a check and repair. The internal storage always shows 0.0b available and no files can be saved to that disk space. The OS restores to default on every reboot, I'm guessing the config files are failing to save when I get through the setup.
Troubleshooting steps/questions so far...

Using Safestrap I have tried to wipe the system and all caches, then reinstall CM10.1 but no luck. The version I have of SS does not provide a file system check.
I can connect using shell and ADB, just not sure exactly what commands to run from there. Specifically how do I find out what file system to mount and how do I type that out as an argument?

Do I use the fsck_msdos program that I have available in the /system/xbin folder?
If so how do I find the file system information to complete the syntax for running the fsck?
If fsck is the correct method to repair where do I run it from? Stock or CM installation? ADB shell or terminal from a running droid OS?

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (OP hasn't visited the network for more than 5 years, 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.

I once tried to Format my microsd card in my razr with a safestrapped rom. My phone rebooted and I ended up having to reinstall my rom. buy a microsd card reader and format with your pc. If you have a friend that has a digital camera, you could ask them to format it for you. You would need a microsd to sdcard converter tho.


text:
How do I change my photo in my message threads?
I have an LG Optimus Elite and I am running the stock ROM.
In my text message threads, under "Me" where my messages are, it shows one of my contacts, rather than my Facebook or Google photo. How do I change this?

As you haven't given your Android version, I shall give the steps I used for my device:

Open the messaging app.
Press your picture, or the standard picture.
An overlay should appear at the top. Click it, and select take picture or choose picture.
Crop picutre.
Restart the SMS app.

This video also shows it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hxULkTKe9E


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how to set up lockscreen and quick acces to apps
Back in the day, I had a phone which I rooted and got a custom rom. (An Xperia X8, with the GingerDX custom rom using android 2.3.7)
When I turned on the phone, I got the sliders for calling, messages, silent mode, and a custom app. But since I ALSO had the pattern lock activated, just after sliding for either optin, I got the pattern lock screen, and after entering my pattern, I went to whatever app (quick access) I chose.
Now, I got a new phone, a Motorola RAZR XT919 with out of the box Jelly Bean (4.1.2), but now I see that if i choose to have the pattern lock screen, I no longer have the quick "slide" screen for quick access to common apps (calls, messages, and camera). Is this how it is always been for native android? Or there is some hidden option to have both functions? Or are there apps to achieve that?
I really never knew if that feature was specific for the custom rom I used with the other phone because it was my first android phone and i never compared it to others, but since it feels so natural, I expected it to just do the same for other newer android versions.
Wrapping up, I'd like to be able to have the shortcuts on the lockscreen, and then (if enabled) to be asked for the unlock pattern, so I can have the best of the two (immediately choosing and app and protect the phone with the pattern)
Any thoughts or ideas?

There is an app available from Google Play Store that does just that, you select the APP you want to load, the lockscreen appears, you unlock the phone and you're on the selected app.
Active lockscreen
by: Celltick last updated on July 24, 2013

Description
Active lockscreen brings together fast access to your favorite apps and full personalization features for your Android phone.
Your favorite apps, your latest contacts, your photo gallery, are available within just one click.
Active comes with hundreds of themes and appetizers available to download that let you flip through your social and news feeds directly on your home screen.
After installing, you can use one swipe on your new lock screen to:

Call your favorite numbers, recent contacts or open the phone’s dialer
View and access your personalized photo gallery
Launch recently used apps or predefined apps
Stream social media updates on your locked screen
Send text messages or communicate through Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Email and Gmail
Launch your camera or any picture related apps such as Instagram, Mobli and more
Read personalized content that are streamed with a preview


text:
Android phone cannot press any buttons after boot
My Samsung Galaxy S 4G seems to be bricked. I must have done something horribly wrong to get it to be in this state. Sometimes, it hangs on the Samsung screen when booting up. Other times, it is unresponsive after the first five seconds. I think it's the media scanning that's causing this, but I am not sure. Samsung Kies and ADB both do not detect the device. I did a factory reset when this was happening, and it seems to have made it worse. Is my phone un-savingly bricked? How can I fix it?
When the phone was still working, I think I deleted some system files accidentally.
This could be why it's not working properly.
Edit: Now it seems like I can't even get pass the Samsung Screen.

As you assume the media scanner being involved: have you tried to boot without the external SDCard inserted? It might well be a corruption there causing that (and the media scanner might trigger this when scanning the card).

Water damage, ugly fall, electricity surge! These are some of the issues that may lead your device to halt on boot! (Assuming that you haven't been doing some root/ROM changes) Can you clarify if any of this situations happened recently?

@Izzy Media scanner still shows up when I remove sdcard.

@Zuul I have been screwing with the ROM and root...

@jeffreylin_ Please include details on your "screwing" with your question: what exactly did you do? This might give details helping us to help you. As for the media scanner: sure it runs without the card as well; but a "broken card" can no longer cause it to freeze if not inserted ;)

Have you tried flashing a new ROM using Odin or Heimdall? Erasing data in the process, obviously.

Using the Heimdall One Click Collection, I was able to restore my device back to the Stock ROM.
In Windows, it requires the Visual Studio C++ Runtime. After putting the phone in Download Mode, all you need to do is to press the flash button.

You most likely have damage some critical files that are preventing your device from booting properly, with this in mind, you can try:
One-Click UnBrick
Credits go to AdamOutler at XDA-Developers Forum.

About One-Click UnBrick

Will work on all Samsung devices which use Odin3
Is a single, portable executable
Is the first one-click anything for our devices on Linux
Works on Mac
Works on Windows
Is open source
Is programmed in Java
Deploys and installs Heimdall for your OS
Is super easy to use.... Only one button!

Instructions

Copy OneClick.jar to your Desktop or any other folder on your computer.
It won't work on a network share.

Double click the file to run it.
As long as you have Java installed on your machine you are up and running.
Linux users:
Mark this file as executable:
chmod +x OneClick.jar

All platforms:
Double Click to run, OR, right click and open with Java, OR from command line:
java -jar OneClick.jar

Windows users:
For some versions of Windows as a work around to UAC (User Access Control, the annoying popups), a executable called "OneClickLoader.exe" has been deployed to the same folder as OneClick.jar. It is important that you do not rename OneClick.jar until after running OneClickLoader.exe

right click OneClickLoader.exe and select "Run as Administrator"
Setup should be run-of-the-mill.

Attention:
Have you tried to go back to Download Mode?

If it's still able to go back into Download Mode, you don't need this software.
Just turn your Captivate into the Download Mode and flash back to STOCK Eclair or Froyo using Odin 1 Click or whatever similar.

Links:

Click Here to Download One-Click UnBrick 10July11 from GoogleCode
You will need Java installed on your computer: Do you have java?

Ok, I can access download mode, but Odin doesn't seem to think I'm in it.

The OneClickUnbricker doesn't work because like Odin, it doesn't recognize my phone.


text:
how to sync phone memory with pc?
Before Jelly Bean forced us to use MTP mode (mass transfer protocol) instead of Mass Storage Device, It was dead simple to backup my phone to my pc, because I only needed to plug it in, and sync the contents of the SD card to my PC.
I used an app called "Free File Sync", which basically just syncs any two folders in windows.
The problem now is, that MTP mode doesn't assign drive letters to the phone's memory (internal and SD), which causes that my syncing program simply doesn't recognize the device.
I have the same problem with other programs that I use to manage my phones SD card, namely "TreeSize free", which analyses any folder or drive and gives you an oversight of the space consumed by folders, etc. Again, since the phone is not assigned a drive letter, the program simply ignores it, as if it wasn't there.
So what are my options? Is there a default way of syncing MTP drives with Windows?
I also have tried to enable Mass Storage in my phone, but it doesn't work (the option is simply no longer there in Jellybean 4.1.2, or at least in my model)
Note, I don't want apps to make backups of my stuff (apps, pictures, etc), I already have them (Titanium Backup, etc), what I want is to be able to SYNC everything in my phone (backups included) to my pc automatically.
I could simply copy ALL files from Windows Explorer every single time, and then manually syncing it to the destination backup folder, but obviously is not convenient and loses the point of SYNCING.
So what can I do? I just want to once in a while sync everything in my phone to my pc as a backup.
Thanks!

For readers: This answer of mine can be extended to OP's case as well.

UPDATE, I've added my own answer, read it below, the solution is the same app I was using Free File Sync, since version 7 enables MTP device synching.

I am posting this as an answer to my own question, instead of just a comment, because I've found a solution.
In fact, the solution is to use the very same tool I was using, because they have recently updated it (version 7) enabling syncing of MTP devices.
Free File Sync
It works just as expected, and it's extremely easy to sync. The only downside is that comparing the folders (your local "backup" folder, vs. the devices memory) is slower than if it was a Mass Storage Device, but it is a more straightforward solution than the others.
As a side note, I’ve also used ES File Explorer successfully as a way to sync files (as suggested by gibfahn), but the advantage of FreeFileSync is that it works with just about any MTP device, being Android or not.
And the best of all, it's free!

And thanks to @Firelord for the comment, be sure to check his answer to another question since he gives a very detailed explanation on how to use FFS

I just downloaded FreeFileSync and tried MTP sync with it: far too slow! It seems it would take the whole night for comparing my 60 GB MP3 database between phone and PC (even if only 100 MB have changed!)

@Basj Yeah it can be really slow. I guess it's one of the shortcomings of the MTP protocol. But take in mind that after the initial compare, subsequent ones will be faster, because FFS makes an index-like file or something.

The easiest way probably is to turn the mechanism around: instead of letting Windows do the sync, let the Android device take care. From there, you should have full access at least to your SDCard (internal as well as external). So all that's needed is a possibility for the Android device to access your Windows PC.

On your Windows PC, create a "share" (i.e. share a directory to the network)
On your Android device, install an app like e.g. FolderSync
in FolderSync, setup at least one account (in your case, an SMB account pointing to your Windows machine) (thanks to arberg for pointing out this missing step!)
In FolderSync, configure your "folder pairs": which directory on your Android device should get synchronized with which directory on the Windows share.

You can sync manually, or in time intervals. You even can restrict it to WiFi, so it wouldn't eat your data plan (I'm not sure wether you can restrict it to a specific WiFi network, so it would e.g. only sync at home -- but that's possible to do as well at least with some similar sync app).

The bad news is there's no obvious/direct way to get a drive letter assigned to an MTP device. The MTP protocol operates at the file level rather than the filesystem/FAT cluster level, which is supposed to protect in some ways users from accidentally doing things that could be really destructive to their phone's filesystem (eg: reformat in a different format, corrupt the filesystem, making your phone appear to not work right when the sd card unmounts to remount on the pc, etc)...so you're not going to have the level of detailed info about the filesystem necessary for a program like treesize to accurately display the usage of the drive.
There are a number of different threads I found online about ways to make windows trick a MTP device into being treated as a mass storage device, but most of them appear to be false leads, or something that might (or might not) work on XP but is unlikely to work on a newer os like windows 7. Nothing I could replicate on my own machine. Most of those hack solutions seem to rely on such things as tricking windows into using the mass storage device driver instead of the MTP driver.
There do appear to be programs that attempt to sync over MTP mode as best they can (ie: the apps can compare the files by size, but it can compare by date/location/filename. Here's one for mac: http://www.sync-mac.com/mtp-sync.html and one for PC: http://mobiletechpundit.blogspot.com/2012/02/syncing-mtp-devices-like-android-based.html (PureSync).
Another option is to look into apps that run on your phone that manages the syncing as Izzy suggested.
Additionally, if your phone is an HTC phone, it may come pre-installed with an application called HTC sync which can sync files between the phone and PC.
Another less automated way to get copies of "everything on your phone" onto your PC would be to just use ADB to backup your entire device filesystem regularly. Not quite as nice as a direct sync app since restore using ADB is all or nothing, however, if you have the right apps installed on your PC you can manually extract a specific file of interest from a specific backup archive (presuming you remember your backup password).

The only way I've found to do this is by using the FTP protocol over a shared WiFi network. Apps like ES File Explorer have the ability to run as an FTP client or server on the phone, and then you can use an app like Filezilla as a server on the computer.
This works for folders, and Filezilla does give you some options ("Overwrite if source file newer", or "Overwrite if size differs", or both), so you can get it to sync selectively.
I found this post detailing a quick way to get ftp working on ES File Explorer, then you just run FileZilla, type in the ftp address, press connect, and drag and drop. It'll ask you about overwriting.
I sync my music with this method, and it works pretty well. It's slower than wired syncing, and occasionally it will decide that it needs to overwrite all the files, but in general it works well.

If MTP transfers are unstable, you can try using FTP over a local network (Your home WiFi router, USB tethering)
Possible example. (For security, use this guide only on home networks)

Install an FTP app on phone - install Amaze File Viewer (free, lightweight, FTP available with a good file viewer)

-- Connect both mobile and the PC into the same network. (E.g.: below 2 or 3 steps)--

Connect the phone to the PC using USB -> Enable the "USB tethering" option in phone settings. (Usually faster)

Connect both phone and PC to the same router using WiFi or cables. (Fast with a good router and a good phone)

Open FTP Server from your FTP app on your phone - Open the Amaze app -> Open the left pane by clicking the menu icon on the top left corner -> Select "FTP Server"->

Configure FTP server settings -> Click the options icon on top right of the FTP server page of Amaze app -> Disable secure connections, Read only access, etc... -> Click logins and disable anonymous login -> fill in some user detail (eg: username="abc", password="bcd")

Click start to start the FPS server. -> It should display an URL address like "URL - ftp://192.168.42.129" and a port (such as port- 21). It should be ftp instead of ftps. Otherwise, disable the "secure connections" option or any other advanced option.

--Use free file sync on PC to sync files. Files can be viewed by Windows Explorer just by typing in the URL in the address bar and pressing enter. Fill out the credentials in the popup that appears next.--

Configure Free File Sync (free, open source) to use FTP -> click the cloud icon placed after the sync address bar and the browse button. -> Select FTP option from the top toolbar -> type in the details given in the FTP server app of the phone (Eg - IP = 192.168.42.129 , port=21, Username = "abc", Password = "bcd" )
Click browse below the "Directory on server:" field.

If everything went fine, a window will pop up and will let you select the folder you want to sync.
Make sure you recheck the details every time you change the connection. After changing any setting on the Amaze app, try stopping and starting the FTP server again. You can also change the "shared path" of your phone in the Amaze FTP server settings.
This is way more stable than MTP. With a good router, you can even do wireless transfers.

Here two years later, Goodsync has added an option to sync through MTP, and it works like a charm. Its a beta feature in v9 and will probably be in Goodsync 10, and it costs money. Be noted though that Goodsync support is bad in my experience. Goodsync can also sync the dir through wifi.
MTP requires a cable so in not automatic. Using wifi it can be automated, but the goodsync android app would use far too much battery, so if you want it fully automated you need to turn it around is suggested earlier, and use eg FolderSync on the android device.


text:
Cannot make calls in Microsoft Lync 2010 app
Device: Sony X10a
Android: 2.3.3
Can the Microsoft Lync 2010 app on the play store make calls?
I can login to my office365 lync account and send messages, but the phone icon is greyed out.
Is voice not avilable on Android, or am I doing something wrong?

Lync 2010 has support for calls:

Lync 2010 for Android extends the power of Lync to your mobile device
  – including rich presence, instant messaging, audio conferencing, and
  calling features from a single, easy-to-use interface.

However, you will need to check with your IT Department if it has been enabled for your account.

Is there anyway to enter the server details? We have a msft live.com account which doesn't get picked up automatically

@Martin Beckett Sure, there is Advanced Options in the log-in screen. You need to talk to IT support (if this is a corporate account) if audio is enabled, and how to configure your Lync.


text:
how to backup contacts if the touchscreen is not working?
My HTC Explorer A310e fell and now its touch screen is not working. I mean display is fine, but it isn't taking any input. Is there any way I could take a backup of the contacts?
To suggest the extent  damage: it rings but I can't receive calls.
I am travelling and can't go to a service centre until next week so if there was a way I could get my contacts out of it.

Could you check if your Google address book (the contacts in Gmail) contain the information you're looking for? It may already contain all your contacts if you're set up to synchronize contacts.

in this link they provide you with some usefull commands to try to get the contacts.
Basically, you need to install the Android SDK, but I think you need to have the USB debugging option on in your phone. Not sure if you need root also.
cd <android-sdk-dir>/platform-tools
[In linux] ./adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db
[In Windows] adb.exe pull /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db

The path to the contacts database might vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

That doesn't require a full SDK install (see: Is there a minimal installation of ADB? And it has another show stopper: Usually adbd doesn't run in root mode, so adb pull has no access to those directories. To work around that, there's the Insecure ADBD app on play (and XDA); but to activate that, one needs to push a button -- which hardly can be done with a broken touch screen (except for, maybe, injecting keyevents via ADB).

The above commands used will not work unless you are rooted IIRC.

from a Forensics background, you could download the ViaExtract virtual machine which you can download here.
ViaExtract is a tool that can help recover almost everything from a connected android device n it has an easy-to-use graphical user interface. just connect your device to the virtual machine and start the extraction procedure. it will recover bookmarks, contacts, messages n a lot of other stuff. the above link also has a video tutorial on how to go through the extraction process too.
the configuration process may seem hectic but considering how often people may need help recovering stuff from their phones, it's kinda worth it.
other mobile forensics tools you can use are OSAF or SANTOKU

SAMSUNG KIES worked for me - not rooted, developer mode off, screen not working

Isn't Samsung Kies only for Samsung phones? It doesn't seem applicable to the HTC device described in the question.

@StephenSchrauger No, it worked also for my Sony Xperia devices


text:
How to upgrade Galaxy Nexus to android 4.3
I am trying to upgrade Galaxy Nexus to 4.3 from factory image.
I reboot my phone using adb reboot-bootloader. It boots to a screen with the android robot.
And then I go to the directory with the build, and I type 'flash-all.bat'
But then the prompt just sits and says 'waiting on device'.
How can I fix this?

The waiting on the device means that your phone is not being located.
Try the following code:
fastboot devices

And check if there are some devices recognized. If not, it probably means that you don't have the correct drivers installed. What O.S. are you using? I guess that Windows. Which version? x86 or x64?
EDIT: Explanation about drivers of Android Phones in Windows. This is a general idea, so some technical mistakes are allowed, but in general, an Android phone, when plugged to the PC, identifies itself as several devices. One is to mount the data (dependeing on the version, it uses MTP, or mount the SDcard), another is the Android Phone to use the adb, and two more are when the phone is connected but in recovery or in bootloader. For each of this "Virtual devices", the O.S. needs a driver, usually a different driver. So you might have the adb drivers installed, but not the fastboot.

Confused question: If the correct driver is missing, how comes the adb reboot bootloader command did work? Does fastboot require a different driver? I'm not the Windoze guy, so I might have missed something here.

@Izzy Just updated my answer to explain a bit this. Fast answer, yes, fastboot usually requires a different driver.


text:
How to periodically send GPS location to a mysql server over HTTP?
I am looking for a way to send every x seconds my gps location to my mysql db.
What I need is the lat/long, speed and direction. I want that my phone send it to a website. So every x seconds it will need to do something like this:
HTTP GET http://www.mydomain.com/gps.php?lat=000&long=000&speed=000&dir=000

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? // A hint, though: You might want to take a look at Tasker, which can do things like HTTP POST (where you can freely adjust the URL to your needs).

Post this question on http://www.stackoverflow.com/


text:
Remove Sensitive Data From Work Phone
I've moved on from a previous job, and as part of the process I need to return my work provided phone.
I have factory reset the phone, as well as electing to erase the SD card. There was some sensitive data on the phone (pictures, documents etc) that I want to make sure are unavailable to whoever uses the phone next.
Can I be certain that this data cannot be recovered via an undelete application? Does the factory reset + erase sd write zeros to the drives or simply mark them as empty space?

One more hint is Nuke My Phone:

Nuke My Phone protects your privacy by secure deleting your personal data, such a photos and videos, and returning your phone to factory settings. Now you can safely repurpose old devices or upgrade your current one without worrying about unauthorized data recovery. Nuke My Phone delivers the peace of mind that comes only from knowing your personal data cannot be compromised.

Works directly on the device.

If the phone can be put into USB Mass Storage mode, then it's possible to recover deleted files (especially on SD cards) using recovery tools like Recuva.
You might also want to look at this question:
Dban on android