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Rebooting Problems in Smartphone
my phone got dead and know even after charging it up properly its not starting and Samsung logo is appearing again and again even pressing "volume up+home button+power button "isn't helping ..
Please help I have very important data in may phone and don't want to loss it all.  my Phone Model is GT-S5282.

Can you boot into recovery? Power and Volume down? AFAIK Power and Volume Up is the Download mode.

You said that you have some important data on phone. Using "volume up+home button+power button" combination in some phones hard resets the phone. So taking your phone to a service center is a good solution.

thanks for your opinion. but is this a sign of system crash ??

Might be or might not be. We can't tell anything until without actually seeing it. If you think its dead just take it to any authorized service center.


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Does battery drain faster if I don't use 'Lock Screen' feature?
Questions explains it all. I don't use any kind of lock screen on my phone. A home screen appears directly if I wake up the screen. So what's better? Using lock screen or not using it.
Note - Security is not my concern.

If the lock screen uses widgets, like weather, news aggregators, notifications, etc, then it's likely to use more battery.
Personally, I just use the plain swipe lock screen without additional widgets.

Yeah thanks for replying. My lock screen uses only two widgets by default namely - Camera, Digital clock and I have an option of including more widgets like Gmail, Whatsapp etc... but I don't use'em. I can disable Camera widget also. But I don't want to use lock screen anymore. My home screen also has no widgets at all because I like my wallpaper to be fully visible. So using Home Screen instead of lock screen is okay right?

@MANI Yeah, it's OK. But you take the risk of having your data compromised if you lose your phone (e.g. somebody steals it).

Nobody can separate me from my phone ;)
Thanks for dropping by...

It makes no difference. Even if you have home screen or lock screen widgets that cause battery-draining activity, such as an email widget that checks for email very frequently, this background activity will happen regardless of whether the widget is on screen.
The only difference it'll make is that if you often wake up your phone for short periods on the day (say, just to check Facebook quickly), the screen on the phone will be on for a few seconds longer while you unlock it. That won't add up to much over the course of a year.
Really, the biggest difference is that if you have the lock screen turned off and you manage to pocket-dial someone, or start a game in your pocket, that'll be using a lot of battery that could have been avoided if you have a lock screen. If there's any risk of you doing this, then on average having the lock screen turned off will drain your battery faster.

I've no widgets on home screen (only one home screen). It's clean. Lock screen has a digital clock, a shortcut for camera, and an option of adding more widgets. So now it makes any difference?

Was my answer not clear? It doesn't matter whether you have widgets or not.

It's clear man. I'll mark the answer in a moment. Thank you.

Are you sure? Widgets drain battery if it's on the home screen or lock screen. Remove the widgets, and it drains lesser battery. So, it matters.

@geffchang The question's not whether they drain battery at all: it depends on the particular widget. The question's whether turning the lock screen on or off affects the power consumption. Having widgets isn't a factor in that: the widgets will cost the same amount of battery either way.

As you have no widgets on either lockscreen or homescreen the difference would be marginal, purely caused by the fact the screen is on for a shorter amount of time and therefore using less battery

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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My phone got factory reset and all data wiped, can I find out how?
Today morning after a long taxi ride (I am travelling this week, personal vacation), I took my phone from my pocket and it seemed to be turned off. I switched it on and the phone started up as it was the first time.
All my settings, config, apps, widgets were gone. I think the phone was factory reset. Not sure if it was locally (accidental click in settings?) or may be remotely. (The phone was fine earlier in the morning).
I tried to get the data from my Google account backup (which I remember setting up when I got this phone) but I could not (no 'Restore' option was enabled in settings. But that would be a different question).
I had to manually (painfully) set up things again. All my photos are backed up to google and I think I can get them back. Same for apps, most of the should have data on the cloud somewhere.
Is there a way to know what happened?
I have a HTC one (M7), and use Google for most services including backups.

Well, I don't think you could get to know what has made your device getting factory reset on its own. As far as I know I think somehow the volume up and power keys may have been pressed which results in factory reset. I have also heard the if you put the patter lock wrong over the HTC M8 for more that 10 times, the device gets automatically factory reset. I am sure Accidently you may have !!

The 10 times is a possibility. I was hoping there would be some log of why this happened, but I understand the log would also have been deleted. May be there are beat practices around how to backup a device....

Several options:

You had an exchange email account (probably corporate) which had device admin permissions, and it got activated by the email provider.
You had android device manager installed and somebody activated the factory reset
Or you reset it by unluckily booting the device into boot loader, opening recovery and factory resetting (as suggested by @peter carlos)

All of this could have happened. Thanks for the feedback. Now off to investigate why backup recovery did not work.

Which backup recovery, because the default google one just backs up links to play store apps and any data stored in play games.

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


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Can ROM APKs self-update without violating Google Play policies?
Last year Facebook's hands were slapped by Google for updating their APK outside of the Google Play update process. Google then introduced language in their Developer Program Policies.

An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify,
  replace or update its own APK binary code using any
  method other than Google Play’s update mechanism.

How is this to be interpreted across two cases?...

Is making the APK available for download for those that do not want to enable a Google account on the device a violation of this policy?
If an APK ships with the ROM, is it considered an "app downloaded from Google Play"? Can such an app be eligible for updating through other means? Can such an app update itself? In other words, are APKs originating from a ROM exempt?

If the app isn't on Google play (comes with a ROM, downloaded from an alternative market, is made by your friend etc) then it has nothing to do with Google, as the quote says "An app downloaded from Google Play" Since the apps aren't from there in the first place there is no policy in the first place to violate. For example, apps from the Amazon App Store need to conform to Amazon's guidelines. If you install an apk I send you then you simply have to trust me, Google Play doesn't enter the equation.

No and no. In the first case, the app isn't downloaded from Google Play, it's downloaded from another source. In the second case, it's shipped with the ROM, and has no ties to Google Play. However, if you supply the APK via other means than Google Play, you can't use Google Play's update features.

The APK both comes on the ROM and is available on the Play Store. An example might be Motorola Alert. I am not talking about custom ROMs but legit, blessed ROMs that have APKs in /system/priv-app/ but are also on the Play Store for upgrade purposes.


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Sound too low when making calls on Moto G smartphone
Everything is perfect, except that the call volume is way too low. I can barely hear it when it is completely silent, and if I'm at a coffee shop or something, no chance.
Now, this would seem to be a hardware issue except that plenty of people seem to have the problem and it has only occurred since the latest Kit-Kat update.  Solutions seem to vary, from hitting both volume buttons at once, to resetting the device to factory settings.
Suffice to say, none of these have worked for me and has really put a damper on my otherwise awesome Android.
So my question is, does anyone have a solid solution to the problem, or should I just wait around to see if Google deigns to fix it at some point.

To clarify, the voice that comes out of the earpiece when talking is too low

If your call quality volume is too low and the device is at its maximum volume, you may want to try a Volume Booster. Speaker Booster by Omega Centauri Software does the trick for me, even with phone calls.
There are better "Volume Boosters", though, but the one by the developer I mentioned works best for my device. There are deducted volume boosters for phone calls on the Play Store, though I haven't tested the one other than the one I linked, so I won't link those.

If the volume while a call is full and you still think it's low then, try use any voice boaster app from playstore  it will help you to hear voice more louder but distorted

While you are calling you should press the " + " button. If you are at the home screen and then press the " + " button, the ringtone volume will be louder.

I think the question is revering to ringer volume when in a call not ringtone volume

@Sjharrison That's what the first sentence is for. The second sentence just explains why it doesn't work on the home screen.

Sorry my misunderstanding, however in the question the user stated that the problem has arose since the KitKat update, the feature that @tom mentioned is available in JB therefore it seems unlikely that this is the solution

Anti noise feature can cause that . you try can deactivat it .
Make a call then click menu button it should be deactivated frol there .


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SIM lock question
I intend to buy a new sim-unlocked at&t LG G2. So I want to know is there a possibility that an update will ever relock it again? Am I free to root it and install custom roms without relock concerns?
And could someone please explain to me the whole "Baseband processor" thing? Doesn't an official system update always install a new baseband version (firmware ) automatically ? And can this relock the phone ?

It depends. Is it factory SIM-unlocked, has it been unlocked through official channels, or has it been hack-unlocked?
If it's either of the first two, you should be fine through any software updates. If it's been hacked unlocked though, I'd be careful of updates until someone confirms it working.

Thanks bro but how can I know the used unlock method ?and can you explain to me what's the partition where the "simlock " issue is placed (since we can't hack some  partitions such as radio or efs )?

The only way you can really know, feasibly, is by asking the person you're getting it from. It's usually a radio partition related change.

Once a device is unlocked from its carrier no update will re-lock your device. It is permanently unlocked.


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Android /d folder
On all of my devices there's a folder called /d on two of my devices it's full of folders, on the other it's empty. What is the /d folder? What is it for? And why is it empty on one device?

I have the same, and it has a 'shortcut' link over the icon. It's filled with > 2000 items and has a value of 0.0 bytes of memory taken up. I'm absolutely lost what this does.

@RossC I know I've searched the web high and low and there's just nothing, being a stock android folder one would think there'd be some info

if you type on a terminal console:
ls -l /d
lrwxrwxrwx root root    2013-01-01 01:00 d -> /sys/kernel/debug/

meaning /d is a symlink to that other folder, probably there for compatibility with old versions.
So now the question is: what is /sys/kernel/debug/?
That folder is used to mount debugfs filesystem and it's used, as the name suggests, to debug kernel.
Kernel must be compiled with CONFIG_DEBUG_FS option set to yes, so that's maybe the reason why some phones have files in it and some don't.
One important thing to note is that debugfs is a RAM based filesystem, so AFAIK it's using RAM space not disk space.
More info http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugfs

Thanks a million, this was driving me mad. Knew it says was a symlink but nothing beyond that!


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Folder turned into file?
Normally "DCIM" is a folder in which all photos that were taken with camera are stored. When I tried to take a photo with Google Camera, the app instructed me to insert a sd card before taking photos (Nexus 5 doesn't support sd cards). I know that Google Camera also works without sd card, because it had been working before something messed up my Nexus's rom. I was looking with X-plore and ZArchiver and in both of them the folder "DCIM" appears as a file with a size of 0 bytes. I cannot delete this file, open it with an editor (Jota+) or create a folder with the same name and it is the only folder/file that is affected.
I'm using a Nexus 5 with Android 4.4.4 without any modification (like Cyanogen or root)
Does someone know what could have happened to this folder and possibly how to restore the folder or delete the file without root or factory reset? (If there's a way to delete this file, it wouldn't be a problem , because there wasn't a single photo inside before this happened.)

"something messed up my Nexus's rom" Would you care to be more specific about that?

Yep. Something (I don't know what) caused my Nexus's internal memory to show a folder as a file for which I hadn't any permissions. But this problem has gone, after a simple restart :)

I got it. After doing a simple restart "DCIM" appeares as a normal folder. I still don't know what was causing this problem.

I have the same problem with 3 folders: Android, Telegram and Whatsapp. Unfortunately, the restart didn´t work. As in your case, it just happened. The files also show zero lenght but no disk space was freed, so I asume the files (plenty of them) are still there


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How to show "sent" timestamp in messages app
With both my previous HTC One S phone's default OS and the cyanogenmod I put on it a few months later, it was possible to choose the time stamp that shows under received messages in the default messaging app. Specifically, you could choose between displaying the timestamp of the message when it was sent, or when you received it.
I now own a Samsung Galaxy S4, and the messaging app shows the timestamp that you received messages. I really would like to see the timestamp that the message was sent at here instead. But I can't find an option for it.
Is there a way, and if so, how?

The only way on the Galaxy S4 I know is either: Find a third party SMS app that does this, OR there is an Xposed module for this purpose if you are rooted.

@RossC that's very unfortunate :( I don't like any of the third party SMS apps and I cannot root the phone as it's not strictly mine.

You could try EvolveSMS. It's an awesome SMS app... (Not an endorsement or anything, it's just a great app. You can also get the Cyanogenmod SMS app if you want it)


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Can a carrier-sold Nexus 5 be reimaged to the default Google Nexus experience?
I'm eligible for a phone upgrade with Sprint and the Nexus 5 is one of my top choices at the moment. Normally they bundle their phones with bloatware (like their Connection Optimizer shudder) which I would like to avoid.
Can a Nexus 5, purchased from Sprint, be flashed/reimaged/reset to be identical to one purchased from the Google Play store?
Some caveats:

I imagine rooting the phone might be a necessary step in this process (should one exist) but I'd prefer the phone to be "unrooted" after completion.
Ideally the process should not void the warranty on the device

As a side question: are the differences between a Sprint-offered Nexus 5 and one bought straight from Google Play significant enough (annoying enough?) to warrant all this effort?

You can root and unroot, I'm not sure if there is any flag on the Nexus 5 that would highlight this. With root you can uninstall any system apps you want, then un-root. However, rooting does void the carrier and manufacturer warranty in most cases. I'd get the Google Play one myself, why get the bloatware and all the hassle?

@RossC - also see Experience with OEM Nexus 5 in the US.

Unless the Google Play version is designed to work with Sprint's network, I don't think there is a process to do so.
However, there is good news.
First, Nexus devices (even from the carrier) tend to be mostly to entirely bloat free. For example, the Verizon Nexus 7 2013 is completely stock. Verizon loves to put bloat on their devices too...
Second, even if there is bloat on it, it should be very simple to root and remove the bloat. In the process, you'll have to wipe your data, so if you want to use that option, you'll want to do it right when you get the phone...

The Google Play version does work with Sprint, actually, even including their recent tri-band LTE deployment (with some tweaking of default settings).

Good to know. Then the OP's idea should work fine


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Bulk editing privacy guard permissions
Started playing with the Privacy Guard feature in Cyanogenmod 10.2.1/Android 4.3.1. However, all the applications that were already installed are not retroactively enabled. Ideally I would like to try setting all the permissions to "ask" and see how it goes.
Is there a way to set app permissions in bulk?


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How to customise the menu on a LG G Watch
I recently received an LG G Watch. I've been playing around with it and find it a very difficult to understand device. E.g. I want to customize the menu that you bring up by tapping the screen and then sliding up. A lot of the options in there simply don't apply to me and I want them removed.
How to I customize the LG G Watch menu?

From my  reading of the LG G Watch User manual pdf  there are 2 sets of data that can be brought up from a 'Swipe Up' action.
1) Google Now. This can be customised through the 'Wand' Icon in Google now, and swiping away cards will often give the prompt "Do you wish to continue to receive updates about < whatever >? I doubt this is what you are referring to.
2) The actual settings/options. There is no mention here or anywhere else as to customising these options. I can't imagine you'd be allowed (or want to) remove something like "Pairing" or "Display" options for obvious reasons, they seem to apply the same rationale to all options, as is standard on all Android devices.
If, on the off chance, you are referring to the app drawer, then you would have to uninstall the app from your phone first as the Android Wear app synchs all compatible apps.
Finally the only other thing I can think of is Notifications you don't want. In this case:

On your phone open the Android Wear app.
Touch the Settings Icon
Touch Mute Notifications
Click the + Icon
Choose what app(s) you want to mute.

Thanks for that. Not really sure if this helps me though, I simply do not comprehend the UI of this thing at all. I think the G Watch goes onto eBay soon..

Well, I mistakenly linked to the PDF on my C: drive, which I haven't done since the 90s. I've updated it now, maybe read it and see if it helps. These watches are new technology, and they may get Firmware updates that make things easier going forward.

Also I'd just add, why not watch some videos about the device on YouTube? Look at people use it, and see if it helps. I found this great when I first got into smart phones etc. It's not the most thrilling viewing, but it helps!

I've tried. I can only find unboxing and very very basic videos, nothing that goes indepth. If you know any good videos, please let me know.


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Can't get rid of icons with green locks on them
I would like to know how to get rid of these icons with the lock, every other app just goes but not these three. I used the small broom icon but these remained there and it didn't happen before. I'm using Android 4.2.2 in a Lenovo vibe x s960 smartphone.

Click for larger version

Since the screen and icons you're interested in are specific to Lenovo phones, I've added the Lenovo tag to your answer, to help other Lenovo owners find it.

Flick them up one by one...

@DeerHunter what does that do? I've been trying to find an answer for the OP and I'm totally stumped. Nobody here has an LG sadly either. It's driving me a little (more) mad!

@RossC - the apps are removed from the memory.

@DeerHunter thanks! It's a weird function to have an Icon for an app that doesn't exist. Might be worth adding as an answer.

This is the task bar showing applications currently in main memory. The broom cleans up main memory except "locked" apps. To clean them up, you can flick them up one by one.
Yet, with Android it is not necessary to do this in the vast majority of cases. Android OS does a pretty good job of managing memory and swapping apps to storage.

Swipe the icons down to get rid of the lock, then swipe the icon up to get rid of the icon.

Well, I can't say correctly but I think it's showing green lock because the application is locked by some other application, do you remember installing any application which may be responsible for locking those application off ! I would say you need to go through the application installed again. I think this must be some cleaner application which you may have installed recently.


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Casting Nexus5 Screen to a smart TV without extra hardware
I was wondering if there is any way to cast my Nexus 5 screen on to my Samsung Smart TV without any additional hardware such as chromecast.

If your smart TV supports the Miracast protocol for wireless displays, then you can cast to it just the same way you would a Chromecast.

how to check if it supports it or not, btw here is the TV http://www.samsung.com/ie/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UE32F5500AKXXU

If the spec doesn't say it supports it, it probably doesn't.

i used to play movies on it through the "throw screen" feature of Movies app of my Xperia phone, also through my laptop wirelessly using AllShare.. well i guess i'll have to dig it up more to find out what can be done.

In that case the answer would be you can try casting the nexus screen with the help of the Wi-Fi direct which I am sure is supported with the Samsung Smart TV.


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how to 'cancel' automatic standby while reading?
I look for an app/a setting that allows me to cancel/revert (automatic) standby more easily than by pressing the power button.
I think of something like turning off the screen for a few seconds before standby, so i can cancel it by tapping the screen.
Similar like the lock screen kicks in only a few secs after standby.
WHY?
When reading eg. webpages, automatic standby can be annoying. I need  to press power, thats annoying. I don't want to change the standby timeout either.
I don't want an app that permanently allows wake by tap/shake/proximity, as this potentially eats battery and unwanted wakeups.
Also, an app to disable the auto standby is not good, i want the standby to still kick in, eg. If i fall asleep.

The only phone(s) with that are Samsung, they detect if your eye is looking at the screen and don't lock if you are looking at it. Outside of just changing the timeout to 10 minutes or similar I can't see what you can do without getting an app, but even then the timeout is probably easier.

If what you want is to keep the screen on while a certain app is running in foreground, there are several apps around which can help you out. I personally use tasker for this (ever since I bought the app years ago) successfully with a recipe that rawly reads:

Condition: App (select the apps concerned)
Task: Display timeout (set higher, or disable it completely)

Done. While my default timeout is something like 1 minute, whenever e.g. I read my RSS feeds it kicks in only after 5 minutes – which is perfectly fine, as if I didn't touch the screen within that time I'm not really reading ;)
If you don't feel like buying Tasker for 5 bucks (it's definitely worth the price: just follow the tag link to see what other uses it might have. Sometimes it feels like every second question here can be answered with "Tasker!"), there are plenty of apps specialized on this, usually having "Keep Screen" in their names.

Note to Sjharrison: No exit task needed. Tasker automatically reverts to the "before state" whenever the condition is no longer met – unless the trigger was an "event". App in foreground is a "state" AFAIK.

Thanks @Izzy for your reply, I wasn't aware of this as always implemented a exit task, saves a lot of reverse tasks!

Exactly! Rule of thumb: First try without, add later only when needed :) Sometimes it makes sense nevertheless, especially when you have "overlapping" tasks dealing with the same settings. Example: "0am to 6am: turn WiFi off" and "at home: turn WiFi on" – works as expected when you're always home before 0am. But one day you come home at 1am, and WiFi might not turn on again at 6am as it was off to begin with (or rather stay on from the moment you come home). But no such overlapping to expect in our case here, as long as you don't have another task tampering with "screen timeout".

Your demands are too much for one app or phone to fulfill, but there is this feature in almost every android phone (which i've used) they turn their brightness to minimum before going to sleep. So if your screen timeout is set to 1min, they will go to minimum brightness(dim display) for a few seconds before and then turn off the screen. I think this is exactly what you're asking for, very dim display saves the battery and you can tap the display to bring it back to the set brightness. So it should be already there in your phone, if not then you're going to have a hard time finding a solution for that. [I use Nexus 5 and it has this feature, and before that Xperia S, that too had this dim the display before going to sleep feature]. Hope this helped.

Well, I would say there isn't any app available over the market which can help you in keeping the device display on while your are reading the book. But I would say you can find this feature over the samsung smartphone particularly in S4, it has the feature named smart stay. I would say if that is too much important for you and as you stated above you don't what to change settings, then why don't you try purchasing a S3,S4,S5.

No? 19303 results for "keep screen on" – also see my answer. And while you have to pay several hundred bucks for those Sammy-devices, Tasker is available for just 5 bucks – much cheaper :)

Well, I would say that is just a good thing ! I am sure your post can help user out as well as for me too, as this time I have came to know something new. But I was wondering that it do results in higher battery consumption. And what if I fall sleep while reading the book which I usually ran onto most of the time.

See my approach. I don't turn the timeout off completely, but just set it reasonably high when a corresponding app is running in foreground. So in case I "fall asleep", the screen turns off as usual – just a bit later. Keeping it on permanently might be useful though for e.g. navigation apps – but those usually take care for that themselves with wakelocks.


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Cyanogenmod for Galaxy Y
I have a Samsung galaxy Y device. It's running Gingerbread stock rom, and I want to upgrade this to Jellybean. Is there any custom rom for Galaxy Y?

Yup, there are plenty of ROMS out there for Samsung Galaxy Y, as per your requirement, the most recent cyangogen mod is CM11 (kitkat, better than jellybean) for it. The complete installation instructions and step by step tutorial can be found here.

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. EDIT: The question is a duplicate anyway, no point in this case!

is it bug free....?

i haven't tried it but most custom ROMS have some bugs in them


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Smaller internal memory, than expected
I have buyed an Alcatel One Touch POP 8 tablet and found, that it has only 2 GB internal storage instead of announced 4 GB(I have seen this on Android Settings page). What causes this problem? Can you offer me an app or something like this, that can show precisely the memory size?

It's expected behavior. Your tablet has multiple partitions, just as computers do. Total storage is 4 GB, but internal storage partition is ~2 GB. Remaining space is dedicated for system partition, recovery and cache.

Yes, I see, but Terminal Emulator and df command also cannot show the 4 GB space, only 2 GB...

It's partitioned into lots of separate partitions. Many are hidden from the user on a non-rooted device. You lose about 1.5 Gb to the operation system and /system folders, there's the cache partition and often more on various devices. A 16gb Galaxy S4 shows 9gb out of the box. It's a pet hate of mine

Also: why is this tagged [tag:ram] ? Internal storage and RAM are completely different things.

Sorry, but these are not my original tags, when it was migrated, these have been changed. I have used more tags.

As said in the comments the device is partitioned and you can't see all parts of the device on a non rooted device.
As an example a Galaxy S4 is advertised as a 16Gb device, and out of the box shows 9.1 Gb available. This is a common practice in Android OEMs it would seem. (Desire X from HTC 4Gb, shows 1Gb)

(source: techblogon.com)
Just to give you a scale of what you are dealing with from addictive tips:
Let’s start with a list of standard internal memory partitions on Android phones and tablets. These are:

Note: It says "Standard" partitions. Different companies come out with their own partitions. A good example is the Galaxy S4, and the Galaxy S4 Google Edition. They are absolutely identical hardware in every way. Until recently (with so called 'merged ROMS') no ROM from one could be installed on the other due, mostly, to the partitioning of the two devices being totally different.

/boot
/system
/recovery
/data
/cache
/misc
In addition, there are the SD card partitions.
/sdcard
/sd-ext
Note that only /sdcard is found in all Android devices and the rest are present only in select devices. Let’s now take a look at the purpose and contents of each of these partitions.
/boot
This is the partition that enables the phone to boot, as the name suggests. It includes the kernel and the ramdisk. Without this partition, the device will simply not be able to boot. Wiping this partition from recovery should only be done if absolutely required and once done, the device must NOT be rebooted before installing a new one, which can be done by installing a ROM that includes a /boot partition.
/system
This partition basically contains the entire operating system, other than the kernel and the ramdisk. This includes the Android user interface as well as all the system applications that come pre-installed on the device. Wiping this partition will remove Android from the device without rendering it unbootable, and you will still be able to put the phone into recovery or bootloader mode to install a new ROM.
/recovery
The recovery partition can be considered as an alternative boot partition that lets you boot the device into a recovery console for performing advanced recovery and maintenance operations on it. To learn more about this partition and its contents, see the ‘About Android Recovery’ section of our guide to ClockworkMod recovery.
/data
Also called userdata, the data partition contains the user’s data – this is where your contacts, messages, settings and apps that you have installed go. Wiping this partition essentially performs a factory reset on your device, restoring it to the way it was when you first booted it, or the way it was after the last official or custom ROM installation. When you perform a wipe data/factory reset from recovery, it is this partition that you are wiping.
/cache
This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and app components. Wiping the cache doesn’t effect your personal data but simply gets rid of the existing data there, which gets automatically rebuilt as you continue using the device.
/misc
This partition contains miscellaneous system settings in form of on/off switches. These settings may include CID (Carrier or Region ID), USB configuration and certain hardware settings etc. This is an important partition and if it is corrupt or missing, several of the device’s features will will not function normally.
/sdcard
This is not a partition on the internal memory of the device but rather the SD card. In terms of usage, this is your storage space to use as you see fit, to store your media, documents, ROMs etc. on it. Wiping it is perfectly safe as long as you backup all the data you require from it, to your computer first. Though several user-installed apps save their data and settings on the SD card and wiping this partition will make you lose all that data.
On devices with both an internal and an external SD card – devices like the Samsung Galaxy S and several tablets – the /sdcard partition is always used to refer to the internal SD card. For the external SD card – if present – an alternative partition is used, which differs from device to device. In case of Samsung Galaxy S series devices, it is /sdcard/sd while in many other devices, it is /sdcard2. Unlike /sdcard, no system or app data whatsoever is stored automatically on this external SD card and everything present on it has been added there by the user. You can safely wipe it after backing up any data from it that you need to save.
/sd-ext
This is not a standard Android partition, but has become popular in the custom ROM scene. It is basically an additional partition on your SD card that acts as the /data partition when used with certain ROMs that have special features called APP2SD+ or data2ext enabled. It is especially useful on devices with little internal memory allotted to the /data partition. Thus, users who want to install more programs than the internal memory allows can make this partition and use it with a custom ROM that supports this feature, to get additional storage for installing their apps. Wiping this partition is essentially the same as wiping the /data partition – you lose your contacts, SMS, market apps and settings.

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


text:
Upgrade RAM memory in Galaxy Y
I am using Samsung Galaxy Y Device . The device has only 512 MB RAM
available. I want to upgrade the RAM memory to 1 GB. I have a SannDisk 8 Gb class 10
memory card. Is there any way to boost the RAM?

authors: ابراهيم البارقي


text:
Ascend p6 stuck after flashing twrp recovery
I've rooted my Ascend P6 and installed a CWM recovery. I then wanted to flash a TWRP recovery. When I rebooted the phone was stuck on the boot logo. I tried to push boot and recovery Images extracted from the stock firmware but ADB says that remote partition don't exist. I think I've destroyed phone file system.
It is stuck at boot logo, and no boot/recovery partitions are recognised by adb.
How can fix my phone so that it boots and is usable again?

If we're to help you we will need to know a lot more details. What exactly did you do, what have you tried (if anything)? You should probably also rephrase so that you actually ask a question, although I assume that it's regarding getting your device booting again.

@bmdixon thank you sir, sorry, first time in here. I've rooted a P6 then I've installed a cwm recovery, then I wanted to flash a twrp recovery. When I've rebooted I had phone stucked on boot logo, I tried to push boot and recovery Images extracted from stock firmware but ADB says that remote partition don't exist. I think I've destroyed phone file system.

Can you boot into Recovery (ignoring ADB altogether)?

No recovery, no fastboot. If I push power/vol+ or power/vol- is the same. Bootlogo and no more.

Without recovery or fastboot or an equivalent of 'download mode' you may need to go to a repair shop or someone with a JTag or similar hardware.


text:
Photos app - can't I copy some photos to a new album?
I have a Nexus 5. I am in the Photos app, looking at the camera roll. I want to move/copy some photos to a new album,  so I enter bulk-selection mode.  When I select certain photos, the 'Copy to album' link disappears. Why does this copy icon disappear for some photos?

This is really annoying but it only lets you copy photos after they have been uploaded to the Google server. Some of the photos you are trying to copy to an album maybe in a directory on your phone that is not set to upload. In the newer versions of the Photos app, it allows you to backup folders outside of the camera folder. If you share the picture it will automatically upload it and then will allow you to copy it to an album. Otherwise, you need to set the local folder to auto backup.

The "Copy to Album" icon disappears when you select a video as part of photos. So apparently you cannot copy videos to a new album on the phone.
This makes sense because copying creates a new file which takes up as much space as the original file. Videos can take up anywhere from 100Mbs to 1000Mbs. Since both the space on the phones and the free space offered by Google on Google+ is limited, this may easily use up your available space. Whether this is the reason or not, the fact stays true: the Google+ Photos app does not support copying videos to new albums.
If you want to copy photos just skip the videos (with the "play" overlay) when selecting multiple files.
If you still want to copy the videos, you can do so on the web at https://plus.google.com/photos.
Also, instead of copying videos and photos you could move them to new albums, that way you don't have multiple copies and leave more free space for other videos. Both Copy and Move options are available on the Web interface on top of the photo when you view individual photos/videos or select multiple ones on the grid.

Thanks very much for your response.  I am not selecting videos at all - they are definitely photos.  Regarding copying vs moving, what I really want to do is tag so that I can have photos appearing in multiple albums, which I can then share.

@sennett, in that case it's hard to say why that's happening - is there a logic behind that (e.g. file size) in the app or is that just a bug? Regardless of that - have you tried the same actions on the Google+ web interface at https://plus.google.com/photos?

Same here. It is just not supported. Only the web interface allows it. On Android only single photos work.
Btw, a little info text says copying won't count against your quota. So then it really is like a tag.

I want to expand on the answers here. having a Nexus 6 with 5.0.1 and not being a big photos guy, suddenly found myself on vacation and not really wanting a puzzle to solve.  Having the pictures already backed up was indeed part of the formula... But even with the photo backed up (cloud decorator visible on thumbnail), the album icon still did not show on the action bar.
The trick to the puzzle was selecting refresh from the overflow menu (the ... on the upper right, or menu button probably if your lucky enough to have one still).
The other trick is if you select any photo that is already in the album, the album icon disappears.  IOW if selecting multiple photos, none of the are already in an album.
So in summary:

Photo(s) are all backed up already (cloud icon)
Photos app is re-synced with server (click refresh from menu)
No selected photos are already shared

I love where Google is going with their UIs on android, but they still have a lot to work on with the experience

Your trick doesn't seem to work here with MotoE2 (L 5.02). However when I go to a album and select any photo, it shows album icon in the actionbar!. But no album icon is visible, when I browse photos from the main screen of the app. Any idea why?

authors: วรางคณา ใจงาม


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How to change android system language if morelocale2 does not work
I recently bought a chinese smartphone (SM-G3858) and there are only 3 languages available. English, Chinese and Korean. I tried to add another language (e.g. german) with the apps morelocale2, any locale, raygional, localeswitch, language picker widget... as already suggested in:
Is it posible to change the locale of my device?
but the system language remains in the language I initially set up the phone with (English). Only the apps itself (e.g. the manually installed googleplay- so not system apps) are changed to german. The settings menu and the whole framework is still in English. No custom rom exists for that phone so thats out of the question. I tried via adb the command:
pm grant jp.co.c_lis.ccl.morelocale android.permission.CHANGE_CONFIGURATION
But that didnt work. I have root and run on 4.2.2 JB. Also tried to contact the dev of morelocale 2 but no answer. Also asked on xda, no answer. So I´m stuck. Im not interested in changing the keyboard language, cuz that works fine. I want to change the system language. I guess there is some kind of language lock on that phone. Now how can I override that lock? What do I need to change in order to have the whole system in the new locale language? And by the way. That phone works worldwide, so I guess that means that there is no region lock?
I could not find a thread with the exact same specifications mentioned. If one exists I would appreciate a link. Thank you

It's not that the locale is locked, it's just that it's only useful to change it to a language that's already on your phone. If the phone doesn't have a translation and other needed files for German, changing the locale to German won't have any effect. It's just like if you have a German phone and you install an app that's not translated into German: you'll get the app's default language.
You can only add a new system language by installing a custom ROM that supports that language, and as you've noticed, it's hard to find custom ROMs for Chinese phones.

Thank your for your reply. So basically what I would need is a translated file/s to have a German language framework. And that implemented into a custom rom. Do you know where the translated English files (the English system translations) are generally located? I guess somewhere in /system?

It wouldn't help even if you knew. The IDs for each string are generated during the build process, so they have to be built from the same source tree as the rest of the ROM. You can't just drop in a file from a different ROM and expect it to work.

I appreciate your answer Dan. I found a program now that can add languages into a current running os via adb. Its pretty unknown and very specific, but it seems my problem will be solved with that. For the records the program is called Android language project. See the developers website here www.androidlangproject.com and his yt video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0BeQUNJ67M


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Colored output in adb, e.g. for ls command
Is it possible to have colored output in adb shell, e.g. for the ls command?
I've tried ls --color=auto . etc, but that doesn't seem to work.
Colored output, however, works in adb shell, e.g. with
echo -e '\033[01;35m test \033[m'

Or does the ls command in adb not provide a "full feature" ls and it depends on the command?

Required Information:

Device: HTC Desire S S510e
Android: Gingerbread 2.3.5

As you can see from the screenshot, you can definitely get colored output in ls on android.
(side note - I've got some bashrc magic running so the default ls output is ls --color=auto)
Probably you're either running ls in a sh shell and not bash, you've got a watered-down OEM version of ls, or there's some strange magic happening between ADB on Windows and the linux terminal.
What device/android version/ROM are you running? What output does ls --version give?

ls --version does give me --version: No such file or directory. I have a non-rooted phone with Gingerbread 2.3.5 :). The device is a HTC Desire S S510e. I don't currently know how to find out the ROM - I guess I am using a stock ROM.

Fascinating. So if I had to guess, HTC probably has a watered down version of ls in their stock firmware. If you want one with colored output and the like, you'll need to install Busybox. I believe you need root for it, but you might be able to get on without root...

I guess that's a proper guess. Will try the busybox suggestion. Thanks.

I just had to type shell after open the adb shell. I'm using LMDE Mate Desktop. Using the mate-terminal.


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Google voice search crashing
The Google voice search crashes after detecting the keyword ok google.
If, I tap on the mike button in the search app and do voice search, it works.
What could be the reason behind this app-crash?
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note II (GT-N7100)
OS: 4.4.2 KitKat. (Rooted)

At last, I found a solution.
The problem was with the entry in sports section in Google Now. It can also happen with entry in stocks according to this article.
Resetting the Google Now data fixed the issue.
Steps I did:

Open Google Now and click the magic wand on the bottom right which opens a Customize Google Now screen.
Click the sports section and remove all.
Do the same for stocks.
Open settings >> Application >> Google search, and tap clear data.
Open Google Now, go to settings and disable Google Now.
Restart the device.
Open Google Now, Follow the instructions.

I also turned off audio history from the voice menu of google now settings.
This link helped me to fix this issue.
After the reset all my cards started to appear again except the sports. Data was there in  for all sub menus except sports and stocks in the Customize Google Now screen.

I believe you are using the Google launcher which has the Voice command operations as well as the Cards which you have mentioned  (I can't assure you that this answer will work because the root of the phone may hamper the application working but still you can try as these steps are common for all).
And yes you will lose the cards as you are deleting the data but you will not loose if you clearing cache.Clearing cache memory is no where related to any file getting deleted .
Cache memory is just a temporary storage which is used to speed up the loading of any application.If you clear the cache memory then your app may load slow only the first time later it loads fast.
Coming to the voice search crashing after "OK Google" could be related with your mic problem or just a small software bug.Follow these steps to pin-point the main reason of the issue
First enable the speech output from settings>Voice>Speech output to make sure it is really detecting OK Google and not something else.If it's detecting correctly then your microphone is correct.
Second after enabling the speech output you need to 1)force stop then 2)clear the cache.
Third make sure the area around the mic is clean and is free of any obstruction (the mic could contain small and minute dust particles which need to be cleaned only by trained professionals, covered by some accessory).
After that you shall be able to perform voice search directly without manually touching the microphone.
If you still have the problem then you need to get in touch with the Support team which is there in the play store bottom of the app page.

I am using the google search application, which is there in play-store as well. Clearing the cache didn't work. Voice search works unless invoked by the "Okay Google" command.

To be precise, the application hangs up at the recognition stage.

Did u try a force stop + clearing cache? Seems the root is causing the prob

Yes, I did a force stop + clear cache.

then it's the root which is causing the interference with the application

It was working until last week. I rooted my phone around 6 months back.

The only way I fix it was to uninstall the updates. After resetting it back up the voice searches started working again.


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Where is my TWRP backups on encrypted Android?
I encrypted my Android tablet which is a nexus 7. After that I did couple backups. Today I wanted to see the size of the total backups  so I open the TWRP folder on my sdcard. There is nothing there. I do not see them anywhere else either.
I made backups before encrypting my device. and TWRP backups always resided in the TWRP on the sdcard.
So where are the TWRP backups  after I encryted my device (via standard android enc).
I am using TWRP Cyanogenmod11 Android 4.4.4 , using a recent build from this month.
thanks

Older versions of TWRP do not have the ability to mount encrypted file systems, so therefore, it cannot make backups.  In addition, TWRP only supports decrypting certain devices.  According to the TWRP2 Project Page, the only devices that they explicitly define as having decryption support are Galaxy Nexus and TouchWiz devices.

Well, I think it does recognize the enc filesystems. Because when I run recovery it asks me the password first. And then it does not complain about anything during the backup/

Right, it does do that. But the backups are known to just be an empty process when encrypted - literally nothing happens. Give me a minute and I'll update my answer with documentation.

Also this says that it does. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?s=92f28f7245a7929328b02707803084a0&p=52348025&postcount=3

See my edit.  Also, if you read that entire thread, the people that are asking are not able to make backups either...

so what do you think my options are then for backing up the whole system that has encfs ?

AFAIK, backups simply don't work with encrypted partitions.  I hope I'm wrong and someone can help!

Ok I understand your point. The other thing is that I was able to upgrade my system while it was encrypted with with TWRP. Would not that mean that my version of TWRP works already with encfs?

Yeah, that's what I don't understand. Other users are reporting that they're able to flash zips. Honestly, I don't have an explanation for that, other than its some sort of bug.


text:
How do I prevent my phone from waking up when I slide out the keyboard?
I have a Motorola Droid 4 which has a slide-out keyboard.  The problem is, the sliding action takes very little force, and if the phone is in my pocket, just simply walking can cause the slider to open just a tiny bit.
This is a Very Bad Thing for two reasons.  First, the battery drains far faster than it should because the screen is frequently turning on.  Second, my leg often activates the Emergency Dialer on the lock screen and starts pressing buttons.  I'm worried I'm going to pocket-dial 911 some day.
So is there a way to disable waking up when the keyboard opens?


text:
Is it possible to have a phone alarm go off if it moves a set distance away from a NFC tag?
I have a bad habit of leaving my phone around. I want my phone to alert me if it gets to far away from me.
If this is possible how can I set this up?

Be aware that NFCs range is 10cm. So, if you always keep your 'phone on your belt, you could tag that & code an app to scan for the tag every fdew seconds. Two or three consecutive misses and you have left your 'phone behind. Of course, it's no so easy to tag every shirt pocket ;-)

That's not how NFC works. The N stands for "near", and it really means that: the tag has to be touching the back of the phone for it to be read. Sometimes even putting a case on the phone stops it reading NFC tags.
If you want something like this, you could buy a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or later. These phones have a special feature using the phone's stylus (S Pen), where if the phone gets more than about a metre from the stylus, it will start to bleep. It's mainly intended to stop you forgetting the stylus, but it works just as well the other way around. Some newer Bluetooth headsets, and some Bluetooth LE watches have this feature too: the headset alerts you if it goes out of range of the phone.

Since writing the above, Bluetooth Low Energy has become a lot more widely available, with a lot more peripherals supporting it as well as handsets and apps. One way to achieve the desired goal on any phone with BLE support is with a consumer BLE beacon such as Stick N Find. You can stick the beacon on a keyring (or something else you carry) and use the included app on your phone to alert you when it moves too far away (range configurable up to tens of metres). There are a few similar products such as Tile and Chipolo, but that was the only one I found with the "alert when you walk away" functionality.

Thanks Dan. Any bluetooth option for the Nexus 5 like you described?

The g-shock watch can alert you if you get out of range  of your phone http://world.g-shock.com/eu/en/ble/function/app/

authors: สุรกฤต พลายศรี


text:
How do I purge the gallery on my Samsung Note 3
All of the pictures I ever took with my old phone were automatically backed up to my google account, thousands of pictures of stupid things, receipts, flight schedules and private pictures.
With my new phone, a Samsung Note 3, all of these images are now in my gallery.
I can find the offending images on picasaweb, no way I could find them on google+
So, what I would like to do, is purge wherever the files from my online pictures are downloaded to, remove the backup pictures from picasaweb and let the phone sync again.
TLDR
Where are the picasaweb/google+ images downloaded to on this phone?

Have you tried unchecking Google+ Photos and/or Picasa web albums from the sync menu in Settings > Google?

With the Note 3 do the following:
Open
-settings
-General
-accounts
-Google
uncheck'Sync Picasa Web Albums'
The "gallery" button is found in General> applications manager
Select All
Scroll down and select Gallery
Tap Clear Data


text:
Google+ sync automatically being enabled
I have setup my phone to to backup all my photos to Google drive. Under the Google sync settings there are three items

Google+
Google+ Photos
Google+ Uploads

I keep only Google+ photos checked so that sync can happen. But if I check the settings after sometime, I find Google+ and Google+ Uploads automatically being checked.
Why does this happen? Is there a way to turn off syncing of Google+ but keep photo backup enabled?

I can't say to be honest, but what caught my eye is: CyanogenMod. I have tried it on about 15 devices over about 3 or 4 years and NEVER have I had an install without bugs and quirks. I can't even guess why this happens, but I'd start with that ROM to be honest. I find usually: Wifi Issues, GPS doesn't work, Stutters, Screen Flickering, Default Settings not retained, random reboots and it goes on and on. Maybe a different ROM first?

@RossC: Actually this is the OnePlus One. Cyanogenmod IS the default OS on this phone. Specifically Cyanogenmod 11s. The phone is great BTW. http://oneplus.net/

Oh yeah of course! Disregard, totally different scenario. I want one myself, cool little device. Could be a quirk but I'll look around.

My guess would be that they are all linked as there is an Auto-Backup function in Google+ settings, connected to the Photos app.

I am seeing similar behaviour with stock Lollipop 5.0.2 on my Moto G. My suggested workaround is to disable auto-update for those apps and see if that helps. But if anyone has a fuller insight of this I would gladly hear it.


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"User 0" message displayed on notification bar of android KitKat
I recently upgraded my Lenovo P780 to kitkat and yesterday applied an update from Lenovo "P780_ROW_8G_S222_140817". After applying this update, I have started seeing text "User 0" in the notification bar (next to the setting icons on right top corner) and additionally, U0 text is displayed in the notification area below the icons.
I am not able to cppture screen for the notification area hence unableto attach the screenshot.
Does anyone have any idea on how to remove this text or is this a bug with the new update?

Do you have a Google account set? It might be that the upgrade included multi-user support but your username isn't set. It should happen automatically if you have a Google account.

Are you the same person who asked this the other day? To add more details to a question, you need to log in as the same user and click "edit". Creating more and more questions for the same issue just causes confusion and makes it harder to find information.

@Dan- I created my account few hours back. It might be some other user.

@ Onik - I do have a google account set. Though can you let me know how do I confirm the same.

This is a "feature" on the update for the Lenovo P780 I'm afraid. Other users are reporting the same issue (amongst others) with the device.
User 0 is the "first" user on the device, i.e. the "administrator" profile. You could then add subsequent profiles (1, 2, 3) etc for other users of the device. This information is not usually displayed.
You can read the  support thread here  on Lenovo's support forum.
Example:
Post from Kannanovo (user on Lenovo forum)

I have "User 0" and "U0" in the notification bar i don't know whether this is an issue,

And there are others there.
The reply from Lenovo, last dated the 22th August 2014 (which is the date I'm writing this) follows (from  page 7 )

Hello there,
Thank you for all your information.
  We are analysising all the issues received, some of you might have received separate email or message for further information. Please do help us to collect the details, that is very important for us to root cause your issues and provide correct fix in further update.
  please drop you issues here or email me. We will work hard and try our best to give our customer best experience.
  Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
Wang

As Dan mentioned  another user posted a similar question  without enough detail so I would imagine this new 'feature' is common enough.


text:
How to automate post install setup
I've noticed recently that i spend quite a bit of time setting up various settings after a clean ROM install. I was wondering how could i automate this post install hassle.
Specificly im talking about CyanogenMod 11-M9 and Android 4.4.4.
I know the settings are stored somewhere when i change system settings but im not sure where exactly. And what are the possible solutions?
If the settings are stored in human-readabale text files then maybe it's possible to create update.zip that i can flash in recovery and that updates the nessesary files with my settings?
Or perhaps there is a way to create a script that i can run post install when i have set up preliminary things?
Or maybe i should just build my own ROM from sources that already includes my customized setting (tho this is problably too complex at first).
To clarify - im talking about system settings starting from setting up google account and ending in custom alarms. 3rd party app settings i can restore easily with Titanium Backup but it doesent seem TB is able to restore system settings (possibly because system is running at the time?).
I would be greateful for any tips on how to accomplish this.

I have yet to find anything like this myself. I can only envision doing something with the computer and something like ADB. But even then if you have incompatible "Settings" apps between ROMs or anything like that it would break. The whole setup could be very brittle as a result. I'll have a look into it, and I'll see if there are scripts about, but as it stands most ROM users are doing the Google Account / Titanium Backup dance each time. Unless, of course, you use a ROM not requiring a full wipe! E.g. Wanam Lite ROM.

'Or maybe i should just build my own ROM from sources that already includes my customized setting' This sounds prohibitively difficult for so little pay off. One thing you might consider if you're serious about this question is learning shell or bash, which isn't too difficult IMHO, and then create a script to automatically backup then propagate your settings. This may or may not work depending if they've changed the settings file between distros. Using a shell or python script is how I quickly propagate settings when setting up duplicate test servers at work.


text:
Pictures are missing in Internal memory in Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
Tab Model - Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 GT-P3100, Android version - 4.1.1
Files in the DCIM folder both Pictures & Videos are missing in the internal memory.
I'm sure that I haven't deleted them. I tried below options, but no positive results:

Tried connected to my Windows 7 PC, but its detected as Portable Media Device (as MTP mode) and not able to trace the files with the file recovery software as they detect only logical drives.
Tried with Wondershare Android data recovery software (Trial Pack), but still I didn't find even a single deleted Picture/Video file in it.
In order to convert to USB mass storage mode (this option is missing in android 4.1.1 by default), as recommended in few sites, I've rooted my tab, downloaded the terminal app and changed the config file but no use. Windows 7 failed to detect the tab as USB mass storage device.

I don't want to lose my pictures & videos. How can I retrieve my files?

The folder is just completely absent?

You haven't deleted them but someone may have deleted them. Files won't disappear by themselves. May I ask you a question? Is the Rooting successful?

Well, I would like to ask you one more thing, I don't think the files images and videos created inside the DICM folder at least I can't see it over my device and yes it's also GT-P3100 but running 4.2.2. I would say if you are trying to recover things then why don't you try recovering your data using "Recuva" I have tried using it a number of times to recover some of my images. So, it does seems okay try giving it a shot if you're luck is good enough then I am sure you can get at least some of your images back.

But "Recuva" looks for a drive.....android 4.1.1 doesn't show/recognize it as a drive. "Recuva" provides any recovery for internal memory of android tablets especially for 4.1.1.

Well, I actually can't comment over it because haven't test Recuva over the 4.1.1 Jellybean I have tried it over Jellybean 4.2.2 over my tab. :( Couldn't help !


text:
Disable the sd card emulation and use only the external sd card?
My Mother has a Samsung tablet, which is not rooted.
She always gets confused with the different sdcard locations, as some apps store their data on the physical sdcard and others drop data to the emulated one.
I may be able to copy all data from the emulated sdcard to the physical sdcard, but wonder whether there is a possibility to deactivate the emulated card in favor of the external card. There is plenty of space on the external sdcard, so I don't see the point in using up the internal memory by storing to the emulated card.
What I'm looking for is a solution that in a way links the emulated storage to the physical device.


text:
How to backup applications' data from second or subsequent user of a currently non-rooted device?
Primary question: given a non-rooted 4.2.2 device which has second user added and used for awhile, is there any way to backup or otherwise safe the application's data of that second (or third etc.) user? I would like to have backup of application's data only, like what produced by adb backup. Full backup is fine if you also include information on how to eventually extract the application's data. Software procedure that destroy the system is acceptable as long as the application's data of second user's can be saved, so rooting the device is fine if you let me know how to do it with the application's data of second user intact.
I have try backing it up using adb backup but I don't see any data from the second user in it.
Additional question: I also want to restore a backup into second user of another device. It seems rooting the device will be the best way, right? Or there is another way?
More case specific information: I have a non-rooted Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 running 4.2.2 with second user setup and used, but now have cracked screen and other issues. I have replacement device a Dell Venue 7 running 4.4.3, but because of different capability, I want to setup the later device with the 2 accounts swapped, i.e. 1st account of the MeMO Pad HD 7 will become second user in the Venue 7 and vice versa.

I use Helium on a non-rooted Nexus 7 (2013) to backup my app data (but not the apps). I have only one user account but since that app data is user-specific, is contained in my user area, and the backup is placed in my user area, I'd be surprised if Helium would have any trouble backing-up each account separately. I have not had occasion to restore a user's data from a Helium backup, so be I can't vouch for that process.

Unfortunately it does not work. When I ran Helium it said:
"Android's backup mechanism only works with the primary device user. Helium will now exit. Please open Helium with the primary user!"

Well, darn! Sorry to hear it's so limited.

I filed a bug report to google, star it to receive updates: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82543


text:
Accidentally spill iced water on galaxy note 3 neo
I spill water on my galaxy note 3 neo. I then remove the original flip cover and wiped the water. It turns out that the water doesnt go through too far in the battery area.
My main concern that the water go through inside the home button.
What should I do after I wiped all the visible water?

@RossC I don't think this is quite the same as that. The advice to soak the computer is specific to a seawater dunking, for example.

@DanHulme Ignore the flag. I'll remove the comment, some of the more general advice in the link might be useful to others so I'll leave this comment here, and delete the previous one. Thanks for the heads up!

My best advice would be to remove all phone covers and leave in a well aired place to dry.
Also look at this it contains some useful advice

Can also put your phone in a bag of dried rice overnight, rice will absorb any moisture

I'd second the rice, works very well. Whatever you do, DO NOT APPLY ANY POWER TO THE DEVICE FIRST. That will definitely short it out.

@RossC Very true, unless you're 100℅ sure it's dry leave it off!

And don't feel tempted using a dryer, heat, or even a microwave! Neither is direct exposure to sun a good idea (heat factor again). The "rice pot" is the most often recommended method indeed.

Use a vacuum cleaner to remove water. Then pack it in plastic bag and keep in rice for 3 days


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Samsung Galaxy S3 doesn't show SMS notification
I need help with a problem in a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.3.
I can't receive SMS notification when a SMS is sent to my mobile phone.
Every time I have to open the application to check if there are unread messages.
Notification flag is active.
I deleted cache data and I restarted the phone pressing the button "Volume up + home + power" and I selected "wipe cache partition" in "Android system recovery", but the problem persists.

What SMS apps do you have installed? If you've installed another app with permission to receive SMS messages, it's possible that it's intercepting them before the stock app can show a notification.

Have you checked under stock messenger app settings that you haven't unchecked sms notification?

Check what SMS app you are using. Check the notification settings. If all else fails install something like Dash Clock Widget so you'll be able to see messages. Is the device rooted, or have you blocked any permissions? What if you use Hangouts for SMS just to test that?

I use the default SMS app.
I deactivated Hangouts and now it works...

@Sara19: To help future readers who find themselves with the same problem, please expand your comment above into an answer and then "accept" it.

Problem solved.
I deactivated Hangouts and now it works fine.


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Twitter Feed is auto refreshing
This has been happening for a while and I'm finally trying to fix it. Whenever I open my twitter application, it always auto refreshes the timeline feed. If I haven't checked it in a while, it automatically goes to the top of my feed. I've tried clearing the data, uninstalling, even switching phones. Does anyone know whats going on? If not, are there other suggestions for twitter clients?

I believe this is the default behaviour.

This is what twitter is supposed to do, it's not a bug, however if you want to try some other twitter clients here are some (Paid and Free)
Talon for Twitter - Paid
Carbon for Twitter - Free
Plume for Twitter - Free

Correct and +1 but I just want to add that apps like Carbon are only allowed 100,000 tokens for Twitter and tend to fill up quick as people don't know to drop the token if they aren't using the app anymore so you may have that issue with some apps.

@RossC It's pretty annoying, I wish twitter would loosen up a bit, they can still insert sponsored tweets into your feed so I don't know why they aren't more supportive towards 3rd party clients


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Play Store crashes when menu or back button are tapped
Since the Play Store was updated to version 4.9.13 on my LG Optimus L5II (LG-E450f), it crashes every time the menu or back button are tapped.

Click image for larger version.
Everything else appears to work fine.
Clearing the cache, deleting app data and resetting to factory settings don't fix it. Uninstalling the updates of Play Store fixes it, but the after a couple of minutes it's automatically updated and the problem happens again.
My device isn't rooted. It's running Android version 4.1.2
What can I do to stop the Play Store crashing?

I just found a page about that offet to fix the problem by installing a apk file. MOD-XPOSED-4.1.2+ - LG Optimus Jelly Bean Play Store Fix v1.0. I'm not sure if follow this is safe.

Swipe from left edge to right don't fix the problem but make the menu accesible, and don't require to root the phone.
From http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55005591&postcount=2

Swype from left edge to right or use XPosed module "x3 jelly bean play
  store fix" if you've rooted your device

If you root your phone then you can safely install Xposed and this module that should fix the problem.

I need more details, like if there is a toolkit to solve soft brick / boot loops for my device.

I have the same problem on my phone, but luckily I found a way around it. Simply swipe in from the left hand side and it brings you the exact same menu you are after.

Swipe from the left only works if it's started from the edge.


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Is there any way to enable the ringer ONLY for a particular caller/group of callers?
Is there any way or app that will take a phone that is normally on silent/vibrate, and enable the ringer for a selected group of callers?
My wife is notorious for leaving her phone on silent, and there have been several emergencies where I could not reach her because she couldn't hear/feel her phone ringing. I'd like to have a way so that when I or any other family members call her, her phone will ring, even though she has it on silent/vibrate.
I've read that the app "Locale" may work, but they offer no demo for their app, and I'd prefer not to spend 10$ if it doesn't work. Their dev hasn't responded to the email I've sent.
Any ideas or methods would be very much appreciated.

Have you tried WhoIsIt?

Setup different ringtones and vibration patterns for SMS, MMS, Google Talk, Google Voice, and K-9 for each contact


text:
No rings of video calls of whatever messanger
Mobile internet is on. I call to my android phone from some messenger on PC. There are no any reaction on the phone. Some time later I see a notification on the phone, that there was a call. I tried skype, hangouts, Mail agent, tango etc. All the same.
Standard calls works fine.
Sometimes, when application is active on the screen of my phone, I see the call. When screen is blocked - the call has never been see. How can I fix it?

Are you using any kind of "task killer" or "battery saver" apps? What phone is it, and what Android version are you on?

xperia m, android 4.3 official - 15.4.A.1.9, no taskkillers, but the mode of energy save and stamina is turned on.

Now, I turned these modes off and have the same effect.


text:
All apps crash all the time
I have a Sony Xperia U which worked fine. I did not change anything lately.
Today all apps crash on startup. Even Play Store, com.google.process.gapps and android.process.acore. The media gallery seems empty too. Whenever I start something, it crashes, except for opening system settings.
When I connect my phone with my computer the internal storage seems completly empty - so I can't backup anything.
Is there anything I can do to recover my phone and to keep my data like pictures, contacts, ...? *
I tried the save mode, but the erros occur there too.
I tried to boot in Recovery Mode, but all button combinations did not work. I also tried in USB debugging mode using ADB, but that did not work too.
* Since Play Store is not working I can't install any backup tools.

Is the device rooted?

No, sadly it's not.

OK, that leaves no much options. Still: Try booting into recovery and wiping CACHE (only that, not data!). Sometimes things go weird there. Doesn't hurt, no data loss – so you only can win. Or lose some time.

@Izzy: I tried everthing: Power+VolUp Buttons while booting, Power+VolDown, Power+VolUpDown, kept pressing or pressing multiple times. The phone just boots normal

(Google-Fu-Ah!) You might wish to use these instructions: How to Boot Into Sony Xperia U Recovery Mode. Seems to be a question of timing. Basically, wait until the LED changes its color, then start hammering the volume key.

@Izzy: I know that link. There is no LED going on or changing color when I boot my Xperia U. Ahhhhh!

Did you find a solution to this, or do you at least know why is this happening?

No, I resetted the device and get it working again.

Try booting into recovery and backup there if you have an option. If not, then wipe it there or with the key combination: Volume Up+Home+Power
Source: www.phonetipsandtricks.com/tips/sony-xperia-u/hard-reset-factory-reset-14/

I am looking for a way to keep my data and not to reset everything

deviceguides.vodafone.ie/web/sony-xperia-u/customise/software-update/back-up-phone-memory/ maybe this way?


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Phone restores to certain status everytime it (re)boots
I came across an Android phone which has a very strange phenomenon: it restores to certain status every time it boots or reboots.
Installed apps and saved files will disappear, and uninstalled apps and deleted files will come back after (re)booting.
I tried factory reset from settings and recovery, but neither worked.
It seems the phone is still, and no changes can be done to it.
I'm curious about how it became like this, and wonder if there is a way to solve it.

have you tried rooting the phone?

@pyker I tried rooting (succeeded as tool reported) but it return unroot after (re)booting, though I think the phenomenon has nothing to do with rooting.

I would try putting a different firmware on it such as cyanogenmod. If it still reverts, my guess would be a hardware related issue.


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Where does Amazon Music store files?
I have recently installed Amazon Music, I am a Prime customer.  Music from my cloud has downloaded to my device (Galaxy S3) but I want to move it to my SD card.  I cannot find the music files anywhere to move them.
Does anyone know where they are?

I ultimately found the m4a files in /mnt/extSdCard/Android/data/com.amazon.mp3/files/Music
The trick, however, is that they are hidden files.  They do not appear when viewing the folder with either the native file manager or RootExplorer (even when "Show Hidden Files" is checked).  They are found only by using RootExplorer to search the device for "m4a" files.
At least now I know they are on the SD card anyway.

you actually found an .m4a file that you were able to move to your computer and play in a different media player?  everything I'm reading on google is saying that it is stored in a different format that only the amazon player can read.

First check Amazon Music App Menu, Settings (gear wheel icon), tap Storage Location.
If set External, try looking in Card\Android\Media\com.Amazon.mp3
If set Internal, try looking in Phone\Android\Media\com.Amazon.mp3\files\media\Music
Then usually subfolders by Artist.
And yes, finding them each time is highly annoying! On Galaxy S5 with Android Marshmallow/6.x, I used the standard My Files manager to add a shortcut to the My Files start screen for my Card folder.

On my Galaxy S5, this is the path:
Phone\Android\data\com.amazon.mp3\files\Music\
My phone software, including Amazon apps, are current versions for today's date.

On my Galaxy S4 downloaded music goes to /storage/sdcard0/Music
And streamed music goes to /storage/sdcard0/amazonmp3/temp/.streamcache

Nexus 5X Marshmallow,
Amazon player download location.
Just using File Manager, using the directory tab not the category tab (did not have show hidden files selected) and literally go to Music folder. All my Amazon downloads were found in the Music folder.
(SD-card)storage/emulated/0/Music

On my HTC 610 Desire running Android 4.4.2, Amazon music files are stored under two different directories on my SD card.
Files from CDs or songs that I have purchased through Amazon are located under:
This PC\HTC Desire 610\SD card\Android\data\com.amazon.mp3\files\Music\Public
Files that are perks for being an Amazon Prime member (I don't have to buy them, they are available for Prime members to stream as part of a Prime subscription) which I download for offline listening are located at:
This PC\HTC Desire 610\SD card\Android\data\com.amazon.mp3\files\Music\Private

On a Samsung Galaxy s6 Edge, the .m4a files are stored in a the following location:
My Files>Device Storage>Android>Data>com.amazon.mp3>files>Music
You can use "My Files" to launch explorer on the device and drill down to find them.

On a Google Pixel the files are stored in the following location:
Pixel/Android/data/com.amazon.mp3/files/Music

On my Samsung Tab 8.4 inch  SMT 700  the path is:
SD Card/ Android / Data / com.amazon.music / files / music


text:
Unlocking Droid XT912 with a Fully Broken Screen/Digitizer
I am trying to pull data off a Droid Razr XT912 with a broken digitizer and screen from last summer which has been under pattern lock since then. I purchased a Micro-to-HDMI cable, which successfully displays the phone's unlock screen on my TV. I also purchased a Mini-to-USB cord so I could enter the pattern on the screen with a USB mouse. The phone, however, is not recognizing the mouse, regardless of whether it is wired or wireless.
Interestingly, plugging the Mini-to-USB into my XT907 which I got to replace the old phone makes the mouse boot right up, even though that phone has its own pattern lock.
I'm completely lost as to why the newer model cannot recognize the device when the older one can. My only guesses are as follows:

The operating platform has been updated since last year to support the USB mouse connection. The XT907, having been in operation until April 2014, would have received the update while the XT912 was locked with no SIM since August 2013.
The phone does not support a simultaneous connection to the HDMI (via Micro) and the USB Mouse (via Mini).
The phone does not supply adequate power to the mouse.

Any thoughts on how I might solve this riddle? If #3 is the culprit, does anyone know which adapter do I need to supply external power to a USB mouse in "on-the-go" mode? Last, is this a fool's errand and should I just ante up for a new digitizer?
Thank you in advance!

Mini and micro what? Both micro-USB and micro-HDMI plugs exist, so you'll have to describe your connections in more precise terms.

In case any one had similar problem and unable to use the mouse, I saw an article while working to find a solution for my colleague's same type of phone. It indicated that the xt912 won't provide power to the mouse so you need to connect the mouse through a powered USB hub.  You can find it on Amazon easily but make sure it is powered with a power supply. Good Luck!


text:
Install application in sd card by default using Linux
I've seen plenty of tutorials related to installing applications directly to the sd card instead of using internal memory but none relate to using linux as a method to tweak the system and I'm not managing to understand it by myself. I have android studio installed and consequently the sdk and development tools aswell as my device is in developer mode but I'd like to understand what I should do next to directly install into the sd card.

I don't understand what the problem is. You don't need a Linux-specific tutorial: the dev tools work exactly the same way on all three desktop OSes.

It is as simple as running adb install -s someapp.apk. However, the app should be ready to run from external storage.
adb resides in the path to ADT/sdk/platform-tools directory.
Related question: Move to SD Card doesn't move everything


text:
"Low Memory Space" but my space is plenty
As of right now i have 144mb on external, and 44 on internal. But i can't download a 8mb app? I fixed it once but i had to do a lot of stuff to it and I'm only 14 so yeah not a tech wiz. Its getting really annoying. Help?
When i clear the data for Google Play Store Services and Google Play Store (application manager > all) the low memory space notification thing foes away for like 10seconds and then comes back

u download must be on internal by default

I'm pretty sure it is. If not how do i do that?

move some apps to sdard from settings

Cant do that. I have a Samsung Galaxy Exhibit

ok from where r u downloading apps?

Google Play Store

Android leaves some space for system updates, usually 10% (I'm not sure if this number), so if your free space becomes lower than that, it says you are running out of storage space.
There are methods for increasing internal storage by using a second partition on your SD Card and mounting it using Link2Sd. (Note: you need root for this)


text:
HTC One M7 Keeps Restarting Itself
I have recently bought a new HTC One M7.
Since the moment I turned it on it's performing random reboots. At the begining it was every few minutes but now its every time I unlock the screen.
I've performed 3 factory resets - didn't help (I think that even made it worse)
I've entered "safe mode" - still rebooting
I've tried to enter recovery mode but the phone got stuck on the loading screen (exclamation point icon)
Anyone might have an idea what's going on?
Is the phone defective? Might it be a hardware issue?
As I said, the phone is new, so no custom ROMs or strange apps installed
Thanks

This seems to be a hardware issue or ROM corruption. One solution would be to try re-installing the ROM, or even change the ROM.

doesn't a factory reset re-installs the ROM?

I think it only wipes the internal user data

So how do I re-install the ROM? where can I find a tutorial and image for a stable ROM? Thanks a lot!

At the end the problem was with the internal thermostat.
Had to replace the device.
Thanks for all the answers!

I had the same problem, still rebooting in safe mode. I found Amazon's software was using up approx. 55% of the CPU, and was kicking my computer off of the internet. Disabled Amazon, uninstalled all updates, and disabled automatic updates, and now phone is back to normal.

what you have to do is hold the up volume button and press the power button once. once you do that you will see a set of commands and once you do that you will want to select the wipe cache partition and once you do that it will just clean out the battery and it should allow it to work from there.

While "wipe cache" is in fact not a bad suggestion, I've never heard that "will just clean out the battery", Jaime. Are you confusing something here? ;) // You describe booting into recovery. I've just added the link to details on that, as the process might be different on different devices.


text:
Silence notifications but not calls
During my night time, I would like to silence all app notifications, including text messages, emails and news alerts.
On the other hands, I do not want to silence calls. This is because calls after midnight are far less frequent than notifications, and they are probably intentional and urgent.
Is there a way to silence every notification except a phone call?

Yes you can simply turn off/reduce your volume to 0 for the notifications and only keep the ringer volume as required.
You can do this under settings>sounds(As you have not specified any os details or the device make or model I can only give you a common answer)

You can also use a custom "Do Not Disturb" profile now, which allows calls by anyone or just from contacts.


text:
Where are Xposed modules stored?
I've installed an Xposed module that messed up with my com.android.systemui.
So I thought maybe I could find the module via the File Manager in TWRP recovery and delete it.
My question is: Where are these modules stored?

I figured how to solve it, but first you need access to your "inner" Android files (all the system stuff). You just need to navigate to /data/app, find the package of the app (or the module) and delete it.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 not working after FACTORY RESET & HARD RESET
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3. Everything was just fine a week ago, untill it started freezing like 10 times a day. I deleted the apps i recently installed but the phone kept on freezing. yesterday i used the factory reset. Now when i turn i get this window popped up: Android is upgrading. Optimizing app "x" of "Y". It stops upgrading in the last 9 apps.
After this i Hard Reset the phone. Got however the same result. I tried there after flashing roms and using ADB.. but since my debugging is disabled it wont let me use the ADB SHELL command. I have searched now hours and hours for the solution, but i got no closer to the solution. please help me.
Hyun

How long did you wait making sure it "stopped in the last 9 apps"? It sometimes can take a while to generate the DEX files, especially for larger apps on slower devices. If you interrupt the upgrade process, it has to be repeated on the next start (at least for those left-over "last 9 apps").

You can flash rom using Odin and you can download the stock rom zip from Samsung firmware or you can download any custom rom zip(if rooted) and flash it using Odin.


text:
Does Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 support Otg?
Does Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 support Otg?
I have read various opinions but they are all very confusing...  Please help.

The specs say that it supports OTG 2.0, but it doesn't work.

A link to a spec sheet that indicates this would probably be useful.


text:
Is it normal that most or all rooting apps get so many virus warnings?
For example, here are some results from VirusTotal:

TowelRoot
The variants of Framaroot (1, 2, 3)

Why is that? Can anyone point to a clean rooting app?

Yes, it's normal. Think about what a rooting app does. It exploits a vulnerability in the operating system to get elevated privileges, and drops a new binary so that it will continue to have those privileges, completely subverting the security of the system. In a way, a rooting app is a virus. You certainly wouldn't want to install one by accident, so it's correct that your antivirus should warn about it.
If you want a "clean" method of rooting, the only way is to use the official method, by unlocking your bootloader and using the recovery to root.


text:
Get 850MHz 3G working on Samsung S5 Active
I have Samsung S5 Active. It seems that it never get the 3G signal, only 2G.
After some research I found that 850Mhz is disabled in my phone, I tried to enabled it with the code: *#197328640# but no luck. This code seems to work only with S5 but not with S5 Active. I don't have even DEBUG SCREEN menu if I enter this code.
Any suggestion how can I enable 850 3G in my phone?
I also tried to connect to my phone from terminal:
$ adb shell
shell@android:/ $ am start -n com.android.settings/.BandMode

After entering these commands, I got to the menu in my phone:
Set GSM/UMTS Band:

but there were no options to chose. I believe somehting is blocking me from changing the band.
Please help, I can't use 3G until I fix it, it seems that mine other chinese phone works much better than Samsung S5 Active.

If the underlying baseband does not support 850 mhz it's not going to work.
Also, if you have a very old SIM it probably isn't going to work.
I believe the software can also prevent you to change the preference.
Maybe upgrade your baseband (radio) after rooting your phone. Maybe a factory upgrade will also do the trick, but I'm not sure. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2794087 to root and be able to flash roms.
Personally, I'd try for a refund or return, try to let the store fix this issue. 3G is on the carton after all?

The phone is new (Samsung S5 Active) and it supports this band, the sim is 6 months old, I don't think it is a issue, because it works on my cheap Chinese phone.
Also I found how people fix it on Samsung S5, but my, S5 Active version has some difference comparing to traditional S5

According to other posts, AT&T seems to deactivate in purpose 850 3G as they don't use it.

authors: พันธ์พล ดวงภมร


text:
Should I accept 2,5 year old Samsung Galaxy replacement battery?
I've just bought a "brand new" replacement battery for my Galaxy Nexus phone. When on-line store's package arrived, I was more than surprised (actually, shocked!) to find out, that battery's manufature date is... 2011-12-29 (assuming, that it is manufacture date, what is behind these four Chinese symbols in bottom-left corner of Samsung Galaxy battery)!
Should I even think about accepting this package and using battery with my phone? Or should I return it immediately to the shop?
I found this great Izzy's answer. If I get its meaning right, it seems, that my battery is in the "dangerous level" of deep-discharge for a long, long time. If not dead at all. And should not be used anymore.
Or maybe, I'm wrong, and Li-Ion batteries that are leaving manufacturer for the first time can be storred for over two and a half year without any noticeable influence on their condition of performance?
Or maybe, that four Chinese symbols does not mean battery's manufacture date? But, what else could they mean?
Even if battery condition is fine, do I have any chance, that it will last any longer that six months period, covered by warranty, if it spent over 2,5 year in manufacturer warehouse?

If I were you, I would return it back.

"Or maybe, that four Chinese symbols does not mean battery's manufacture date? But, what else could they mean?" If you had a photo where they were readable, it might be possible to answer.

@DanHulme Sorry, for that. Here you go. Maybe this, this or this one. Basically, I assume, this is a manufacture date. So, the question remains: can 2,5 year battery be of any worth, even if shop sells it as "brand new" and gives 6 months warranty on it?

Comparing confirmed Chinese translation of these four symbols (yes -- it is a manufacture date) with Izzy's answer, which states, that Li+ batteries have a self-discharge rate of approximately 5–10% per month, we end up with conclusion, that even with most optimistic scenario, Li-Ion batteries stored in store or warehouse without cyclic re-charge (which most likely never happened) are completely dead after 20 months at most.
Which is equivalent to less than two years. Which leads us to a conclusion, that 2,5 half year old Li-Ion batteries are completely useless and shouldn't be purchased nor used.

I bought a replacement Li-Ion battery for a PDA once and it was basically dead when I got it. The charge only lasted about 15 mins. It's sad. :(


text:
Can I access the Intenet via WiFi if my phone has no SIM card?
I want to use WhatsApp on Samsung GT S5830 in Japan, but I do not have a SIM card for my phone. Can I use the Internet on my mobile via WiFi?

Yes you can if you still have contacts in your mobile and already registered on Whatsapp with a number.

You can: during the registration process, insert a phone number of your property.
Wait until whatsapp tells you to manually input the code you should have received via SMS at the number you had selected.
Once you have completed these steps, you will be able to use your whatsapp account from your phone using wifi connection.
If you couldn't verify your number, follow the official guide provided by WhatsApp.
If you're told that it can't connect to your wi-fi, click here to see the related article on the WhatsApp FAQ.


text:
Deleted .nomedia file but still photos in that folder not visible in gallery
Created an .nomedia file in a folder and it worked. But now I've deleted that file but still photos are not visible in gallery app.How to recover from this? Any help?

Check if .nomedia file is still there in hidden state.

cehcked many times.its not there.

After photos are added, they need to be scanned by the media-scanner before they'll show up in Gallery and other apps. Normally, the app that creates the photo asks the media scanner directly to add the new photo, but in this case, because you've removed the .nomedia yourself, nothing has yet triggered the file to be scanned.
You can find apps to trigger the rescan on Google Play, but be careful if your phone has KitKat or later: Android changed the way media rescanning works, to save battery, so apps written for earlier Android versions simply won't work on KitKat. Alternatively, if the folder in question is on removable storage, simply remove it and then add it again, and Android will re-scan the whole filesystem.

mine is 4.4.2 .so not working

Simply move the pics to another folder then copy them back. They will appear in the gallery

just rename the folder and change it back again to the original name.
worked for me with whatsapp media folder.


text:
Make "tap to add priority senders" disappear
I have recently updated the OS of my phone, and since then I have the following "Tap to add priority senders." on my SMS app which I don't like, it just uses screen space.
How can I remove it?
Android version: 4.4.2
Galaxy S5

Example Screenshot (click for larger variant)

To remove it, click on the three vertical dots on the top-right of your screen.
Then, go to Settings.
Scroll down to "Priority senders" and unmark the tick box.
Hope it helps.


text:
does flashing a kernel ever wipe anything on the phone? + Doing it without CWM?
does flashing a kernel ever wipe anything on the phone?
and is it ever dependent on android version?
e.g. 4.22 or 4.3
I have CWM and i've seen the option to install from zip within CWM recovery.
but is there a command with adb or fastboot to do flash the kernel? what is it?
Or do you pretty much have to install it via CWM>

No, flashing a kernel only wipes the old kernel. Generally, user-space drivers in the system image will be specific to a particular version of the kernel driver, and each kernel driver version will only work with certain kernel versions, so only flash a different kernel if you know that it was built to work with your user-space version, or vice-versa. Usually stock ROMs will only work with the kernel that came with the ROM, and third-party ROMs will say which kernels they work with.
On devices that support fastboot, you can use fastboot flash boot boot.img to flash the file boot.img to the boot partition. This is the one that stores the kernel.

You write "Usually stock ROMs will only work with the kernel that came with the ROM, and third-party ROMs will say which kernels they work with" <-- so some ROMS include kernels and some don't? are they flashed with the same command? and will they wipe everything?

Also I don't know if you're familiar with CWM, so where the bootloader recovery portion is flashed with CWM Recovery, and then the option is available to install from zip. Is that the same as this command fastboot -w update blah.zip

This site works best when you have a single question. It sounds like you want someone to explain lots of things about custom ROMs.

The above 2 comments contain 2 questions. One is on a sentence you wrote(that's the first comment). The other(the second comment) is what I asked in my question just being more explicit. So it's not like i'm trying to throw lots of new things into my question. But if you think the original question is too big then I could split it.

it will replace your existing kernel. But before that make sure your ROM is compatible with new kernel or you will end up in boot loop.In certain kernel WiFi may not work. You may have to install WiFi modules separately.

Is there a way to find out what ROM I am currently on?


text:
Can you reset a password for a restricted profile?
I have a restricted profile that is asking for a password, and it is not taking it. As the owner, I would like to be able to reset this password.
Long Story: The restricted profile is my son's. Since it was setup we have always used a pattern to unlock. I made the mistake of locking his tablet remotely using Android Device Manger, and setting a password. That password did not work on his profile. I switched to my owner account, and it worked fine. Now, however, his profile is asking for a password to be typed, and nothing works. I assume he set it to something he has forgotten since he has used pattern lock for a long time. ADM seems to have reset the screen lock to password instead of pattern on the profile without resetting the password itself.
So, any way to fix this short of deleting and creating a new restricted profile?

you can login to ur account right? why dont to reset device from there?

There is the nuclear option. Wipe out his profile and start over, but then he loses all his data. I'm trying to do something short of that.

I spent three hours on the phone with Google yesterday for the same issue. They said there is no way to reset the password.  They said I have to delete and add the user back, losing all data, pictures, game progress, etc.  There is also no way to prevent a child from setting a password.  Clearly the people at Google have not thought this through. It is definitely not a "kids mode".

There are answers that suggest you can hack the sqlite database to change the login settings. I'm in the OPs position. If I know I can stash my daughter's "stuff" I'll be heading for the nuclear option by deleting and recreating her profile. It really shouldn't take proficiency with adb to manage an android device in a family environment!