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How to recover discarded contacts?
I was trying to save a number using the basic android dialer first I dialed in the number then I gave a name but then I ended up discarding the saving process, now I am unable to recover the number which I was trying to save.
I tried opening up the contacts database which is saved under /data/data/com.android.providers but I am unable to retrieve anything from there. Can anyone please suggest on how to find the lost contact?

If you dialed this number you can find it in your call log.

I dialed but did not call... Directly selected add to contacts

Then it wasn't saved anywhere: you didn't call, so no call-log – and you didn't save, so no contact created. Nothing stored, nothing to recover. Bad luck, sorry.

What about caching? Does it exist?

You can't.  Anything you entered without saving it was never committed to long-term storage, whether as cache or otherwise; it was only in RAM.  There is no way to retrieve this data.


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How to fix a sudden increase in battery drain?
My Moto G phone (3rd gen; Android 6.0) used to charge rapidly and last over a day. I upgraded it from Lollipop to Marshmallow in mid-February and it still performed well. However, for the past 3 weeks or so, its battery life has suddenly pretty much halved. It also gets warm to the touch even when left alone!
I'm familiar with general tips for increasing battery life, such as those provided by Motorola or on this site. From looking in GSAM Battery Monitor and Settings → Battery the most likely culprits seem to be Google Play Services and/or Google Calendar. But battery drain is still high even after denying all but the Calendar permission to Google Calendar; and it's not obvious how to configure Google Play Services.
If anyone knows of a solution that doesn't involve rooting the device I'd be very grateful. Or do I just have to wait for Google to release a bug fix?

Android 6 auto backs up app+ app data or is supposed to. Try disabling that to see if it helps. I don't have that OS to tell you how exactly, but that linked article should help

Also, use the Battery monitor to check if any app is using 50%+ of the battery. Disable anything that is not system core, and that uses triple to quintuple times the charge everything else uses.

I've since discovered then when I boot the phone in Safe mode the battery consumption is much lower, suggesting that at least one third-party app is to blame. This is despite Settings > Battery saying Google Calendar is the worst offender. It looks like the third-party app is using Google Play Services. I'm gradually uninstalling blocks of apps and observing the effect on battery life. I'll post a full answer once I've isolated the culprit(s). I use App Detective to list my apps in the order I installed them.

Struggling to get to the bottom of this. Each time I think I've arrived at a set of apps with low battery consumption, rapid battery drain suddenly sets in some time later! I've reported Google Calendar's apparently high battery consumption to Google. (This happens even when I don't open the app!) I might have to cull most of my apps or even do a factory reset soon...

I tried lots of things but in the end only a factory data reset of the phone worked.
Before I did the reset the battery drain looked like this in Settings > Battery:

The shallow gradient was when I booted the phone in safe mode. This at least suggested the issue was likely to to with one or more apps rather than something inherently wrong with the phone.
GSam Battery Monitor wasn't much use. All it told me was that Google Services or Google Play Services was draining the battery but it didn't tell me which app(s) were causing that.
So I opted for a factory reset of the phone data and installed apps manually, just one or two at a time, watching the battery drain in Settings > Battery to make sure the newly installed app wasn't suddenly increasing battery drain. I'd wait at least 12 hours before installing another one or two apps. So this approach takes a lot of patience and isn't very practical if you use your phone for many things in the mean time. But now my battery life has increased from just half a day to 4 to 5 days...

I don't know whether this could've been fixed without a factory reset, or what app or setting caused the battery drain to increase suddenly in the first place. Ideally there would be some way of getting a breakdown of battery drain within Google (Play) Services due to different apps invoking it.

I have the exact same problem (Google Calendar seemingly draining a lot of battery), and I yet haven't found a solution. Does anyone else have another suggestion? I would like to avoid the factory reset.

Try disabling the Google Calendar app. That worked for me when battery drain increased suddenly again for me the other day. Obviously that means you won't be able to use the Calendar app but that's not a problem for me.

How do I disable it? And since I do use it, I guess I just can temporarily use another calendar app (and see if that one drains the battery too)

Settings > Apps > Calendar > Disable. That's on my Android 6.0 Moto G 3rd gen phone. Unfortunately you can't uninstall it because it's one of the pre-installed Google apps.

Sounds like similar problem that I had, battery drain started happening for my huawei p9 a few days ago all of a sudden, no apparent cause. Google Play Services top battery user but also a variety of other apps. In the end a suggestion to turn off automatic app updates solved the problem for me (after I had done general cleanup and os upgrade which had not solved problem).

Are you rooted or okay with rooting? Do you have Xposed Installer installed or okay with installing Xposed Installer?
If so, you can get Amplify from http://amplifyandroid.com/. The app basically lists all of the wakelocks and alarms (not alarms that humans use) that cause wakelocks and tells you how many times it woke the system and for how long. From there you can start delaying the alarms/wakelocks to increase battery life. Amplify dramatically increased my idle battery life.

Thanks for the tip; but I wanted a solution that didn't involve rooting the phone. Good to know Amplify is an option though...

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Does uninstall all google-related android apps help to stop google from sucking too much cellular data bandwidth?
Many friends and I notice that google loves to suck cellular data bandwidth even though the following actions was taken:

Restrict Background data from data usage menu
Do not use live wallpaper
Disable backup in settings > backup & restore
Go airplane mode when not in use.

Also, doing some research, it was mention that one may need to use AFWall+ but you need to root the phone, which means you need to void your warranty.
So, does uninstall all google-related android apps help to stop google-related apps (e.g. Android OS) from sucking too much cellular data bandwidth?
If there is no ways to stop it, my friends and I will abandon android since it is wasting our money and time finding ways to stop it from sucking too much cellular data bandwidth.

Well, uninstalling Google's apps will surely reduce data usage, but you might not be able to uninstall all Google apps unless you're rooted, or use custom ROM clean from Google apps. Either way, you need to unlock the bootloader to do that, which will void the warranty.

It seems that what you want to do does not really concern Google Apps but system apps in general. These apps that are installed with the system but are of no use (other than sucking bandwidth and memory) are called Bloatware. It is not possible to remove system apps in most of the devices unless they are rooted.
(Click image to enlarge)

Just long press on the app or choose App Info for this option. Disabled Apps do not use Bandwidth or clog device memory.
For rooted users, others options are available with Titanium Backup being best of the options right now.

There are also many custom ROMs available which do not rely on Google services or install their bloatware. XDA Developers might be a good place to start looking. Rooting voids warranty.

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


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How do I turn off Stories to Read in Google Now?
I do not want to see the Stories To Read cards in Google now. Is there any way to turn this feature off? I can only see an option to turn it off for particular websites.

Since Google's redesigned Feed as a replacement of Google Now on July 19, 2017, there's no easy way to remove Stories to read but to block every single source/topic.
James Wald commented:

I was able to defeat the "Stories to read" section by blocking every single source using "Not interested in stories from ..." on each card. The stories section is now gone from my Google Now feed. There are hundreds of sources, so it took a while.

However they also mentioned,

The only addition worth mentioning is that Google matches additional story sources over time, so the Stories section tends to reappear, requiring more manual blocking. It may not be such a great solution after all.

(Note: not tested personally)

I already had, "Interested in getting recommendations from around the web" turned off. I also don't see "Never show stories to read" in my version of Google Now (shows no updates available either)

I was able to defeat the "Stories to read" section by blocking every single source using "Not interested in stories from ..." on each card. The stories section is now gone from my Google Now feed. There are hundreds of sources, so it took a while.

@JamesWald Could you add that as a new answer? Good suggestions should be visible as answers, not buried in the comments of an old answer that's no longer valid.

I don't have enough reputation points on this network to post an answer to a protected question, but feel free to copy my comment and post a new answer if you're able to. The only addition worth mentioning is that Google matches additional story sources over time, so the Stories section tends to reappear, requiring more manual blocking. It may not be such a great solution after all.

It appears as though you can't turn off stories to read without turning on Web & App Activity, which saves (and presumably allows google to see) all of your searches and browsing history.
So you can either (a) not use Google Now (b) be annoyed with trashy clickbait "stories" (c) allow Google to see, save, and track all of your searches and browsing history or (d) start a class-action lawsuit.

See google reply here.
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2824784?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en
Steps
1. Open Google app.
2. Goto "Settings"
3. Select "Your feed"
4. Either turn off notifications by diaabling "Feed" option or first "Delete Card preferences" and then disabling "Feed" toggle.

This turns off the whole feed, not just the stories to read section

Long press on Desktop, press "Settings", press "Your feed", Turn on the feed "Yes/No".


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How can I hide the night time hours in Samsung's "S planner" calendar?
I am using the "S planner" calendar on Samsung galaxy note 2 (Android 4.4.2).
I never make appointments between 12am and 6am and I want to hide these hours from the view. i.e.

Apparently the same thing can be done in gmail
Today I achieved this by accident - then it restored itself to the default view, now I'm wondering - how can I do it again?

Note that S Planner is the default calendar app on Samsung devices, not on all Android. Anyway, I'm not sure, but I think you're searching for "List" (or "Agenda" on other calendar apps) on the right tab?

@AndrewT. thanks for pointing that out! Ive updated question. List view collapses every item to one line. What I'm trying to do is retain the same view - just without those hours

I worked it out - you just double tap in the area where the unused hours are and the view automatically adjusts!
(Click an image to enlarge it)
 →


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SDcard in lollipop still readonly using EZPDF
I finally got my lollipop upgrade. Seemed fine but I have still issues with EZPDF. Let me explain.
I just upgraded from kitkat and therefore, I cannot write to the SD card as we all know. After the upgrade, two of my apps "File Expert" and "MX Player Pro" asked me to grant access to the SD card. I did and both work fine.
The issue is with EZPDF. I cannot find any way to grant the same permission in order to be allowed to write an annotated PDF into the SD card. The file list still marks the SD files as "Read only".
Any hint?
I really appreciate any advise with this.

Although the new Lollipop update allows apps to write to SD Card, it requires the user to grant the apps access, like you've stated above.
For apps to gain access they have to call the new API introduce in the   lollipop which allows user to grant app permissions.For the apps to call this API, the devloper of the apps have to write code into their app to do this.
As I was saying above, the devloper needs to write some code to do this, for which the particular app you want to grant the access SD Card does not have.
I am sure that their are ways to forceable do this, of which I don't know of, that would probably require root, phone modification and technical know how to do.

Hi Matt. As I said and you agree, the issue is with the provider of tha app. I had been wating fot their answer for over a week and nothing yet. Maybe is time to get another app. Looks like xodo has the same features.

@notuo, Sorry I wasnt any more help, but this is a problem only the devloper of the app can fix so you will either need to use a different app or just put up with the missing functionality


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How to unlock my phone from pattern lock
I am using an Android-based phone, a Moto G. By mistake it was locked with a pattern. I need to remove this pattern lock. How can I unlock it without losing the data on my phone?

Your question is unclear - do you want to delete the pattern lock or just unlock the phone? Unlock it with your pattern and you won't lose any data. Delete the pattern in lock settings and you won't lose any data either.

If you have a Google account you can reset the password and you will not lose the data. For more details please check FAQ on Motorola site https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/97840/p/30,6720,9102


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Whatsapp Backup
I am using whatsapp in HTC Desire VC (CDMA-GSM Dual Sim Phone). It has internal space of 100MB only and unfortunately my phone no longer supporting external SD card. I want to take backup of my chat history but every time click on backup chats it shows that "please insert an SD Card". I also tried to back up my data via Google Drive but it shows same message. I also tried to email chat but same problem.
I don't know what to do backup my chat history.
Is it possible to take backup of chat history online which no requires SD card or any other external drives.
Please tell me what to do.
Thanking you in advance.

WhatsApp app automatically takes a back up of your chat history, locally. So your phone does not HAVE TO have an external SD-card.
Below is the quote from official WhatsApp FAQ regarding the back up.

Local backups will run automatically every day at 2am and save your
  database in a file on the phone itself.

You can use any File manager to check/verify this local back up.
Just go to your Internal Storage->WhatsApp->Databases
At this location you should see file such as msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt8
This is the back up of your chat history. Your phone will store up to the last 7 days worth of local backup files
If you want to restore this back up (in case you switched phone or uninstalled WhatsApp), you may refer to the restore section of FAQ of WhatsApp and follow the instructions there to restore your chat history.


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Set Battery Saver Always On
On Android 6, the battery saver automatically turns on when the battery is low and off after charging. I would like it remain on all constantly without having to manually turn it back on. How can I do this?

If you're using an unrooted Android, you can consider using BatterySaver Lollipop Shortcut with Tasker (userguide), AutoShortcut and Nova Launcher.
Fire up Tasker and follow these instructions:

Profile: Event → System → Intent Received:

Action: android.os.action.POWER_SAVE_MODE_CHANGING
Priority: Highest

Task: (Actions):

Task → If → Condition: %mode eq false
Task → Wait → Seconds: 1
Optional: Alert → Flash → Enabling Battery Saver
Plugin → AutoShortcut:

Configuration: Activities (next to Nova launcher's icon) → tap Battery Saver entry and select the entry listing the activity com.fd.batterysaver.ToggleActivity

Profile: State → Power → Power:

Source: Any
tick Invert

Task: (Actions):

Optional: Alert → Flash → Enabling Battery Saver
Plugin → AutoShortcut →

Configuration: Activities (next to Nova launcher's icon) → tap Battery Saver entry and select the entry listing the activity com.fd.batterysaver.ToggleActivity

You can use QuickShortcutMaker in place of Nova Launcher. However, I noticed that when Nova Launcher was not set as default launcher in my stock Android 6.0.1, although Settings app reported Battery Saver mode being enabled, I didn't get to see red shade in status bar and navigation bar. You may have to do some experiments here.
If you've root access, instead of using a shortcut to that battery saver app, you can setup the action Code → Run Shell and enter the following in the command field:
settings put global low_power 1

Make sure to tick Use Root in that action. (I came to know about this trick from this answer of Paweł Zmarzły.)
Whether the Android is rooted or not, the pro version of Battery Saver Lollipop claims to provide support for automation. It might be helpful considering that the free version causes few glitches during toggle. I cannot confirm though.

Information about said Tasker profiles
Alright, so the first profile would make sure that as long as the device is not plugged in to any power source, whenever you would disable Batter Saver mode, whether accidentally or deliberately, the mode would automatically be turned on!
The second profile would make sure that Battery Saver mode gets turned on whenever the device is unplugged from  a power source.

The tasks are flexible. Use them as you wish.


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Samsung mobile not getting charge when switch on
I am using SAMSUNG DUOS2. Its not getting charge when its switched on. But there is no problem in charging when switched off.
Not charging in both I tried USB as well as wall charger.
Android ver : 4.2.2
I suspect it could be virus problem so with the help of antivirus I cleared some thread. Even after the problem still persist.
Pls suggest what could be the problem?

Enter safe mode and check . If the behaviour is same, I can't think of anything other than flash stock as next step and even after that it continues then service center is the answer. If it charges fine on safe mode, then flash stock. In any case flashing stock is the only way to rule out OS issues- make sure you take a back up

@beeshyams You might want to post that as an answer so that it can be accepted if it works.

Android doesn't need anti virus - see Is an antivirus really needed for Android?
Malware is more of a threat- factory reset may not help as the malware may have lodged itself in the /system partition, which is untouched during factory reset. See Can a Factory Reset fix Malware Problem?

That out of the way, your problem may be due to:

User installed applications misbehaving
Malware (though I haven't read of any malware doing this yet)
OS corruption (of drivers pertaining to charging)

To rule out 1, put your device in safe mode. If the charging behaviour is fine, then you would need to uninstall all installed apps and re-install one by one checking that problem doesn't surface. Painful, yes, to avoid that  jump to steps in  next para
If the problem persists, you have no other option but to flash stock ROM. Instructions for flashing here. Stock ROM mentioned there is Indian, which should work fine for you or you can download latest stock ROM from sammobile. Make sure you take a backup though- if your device is not rooted Full Backup of non-rooted devices would help else use apps from play store
That should fix your problem, unless it is hardware related (very unlikely)

Can you explain how  a user installed app and more specifically, a malware would cause charging to be disabled? I'm expecting real world examples/reports, neither speculations, nor opinions. Given that system partition and kernel always loads in read only mode, how would any driver be corrupted at all?

@Firelord; 1. No real world examples of malware causing this behaviour AFAIK but it isn't impossible- will edit my answer to reflect that. 2. OS driver corruption is not linked to malware issue but is an independent possible cause

As I said, system partition doesn't mount in read-write mode and the original kernel image remains intact of changes (my earlier comment stating that kernel loads in read only mode is incorrect) so where is the scope of corruption here?

@Firelord- if you are saying OS is incorruptible then I am confused and would like you to link me to a source that it is . I was /am under the impression that it can be corrupted

Don't be confused. Just provide technical sources or verifiable methods behind your claims. That's all I'm expecting. As it is written, it seems opinion written as a technical fact. :)

@Firelord- it is my understanding that drivers / OS can go bad. Have no source to prove. If you have either way, please do share


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Make android phone as USB Webcam
I have an Android tablet based on Android Lollipop (5.1.1) and I want to use this device as a webcam via USB.
I know some apps could work (e.g. DroidCam or WO WebCam) but they require extra clients installed on a Windows / Linux computer.
Is there any way that I can add an extra option to the USB connection settings that will allow the tablet to be used as a webcam instead of a media device?
Please note I am not asking for apps that can read videos from OTG USB webcams. It's the reverse, making Android output a video feed to a separate computer via USB.

Does your tablet support HDMI/MHL over USB?  Otherwise this could require kernel hacks. You're trying to do something with a device which was never meant to do it, so...

No Device does not support HDMI/MHL over USB.

@TamoghnaChowdhury can suggest me where to change in kernel?

I can't, and neither can anyone else on this site. This is because kernel hacks relate to development, and development-related questions are considered off-topic on this site. You may have more luck over at the XDA forums for your device.

Driodcam works fine for mine Lenovo tablet- skype and all video programs now recognize it as camera, therwise, i havent found anything that works, tried vysor, but that didnt work....


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Random file downloaded but can't locate
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini running Android 4.4.2.
I was browsing the internet (yahoo site) using the most recent update of Dolphin browser (which, was not able to load the webpage). During this process I noticed in my push bar something was downloading. I pulled down my notification bar to see that some file that appeared to read "offline english translator." However as soon as I opened then drop-down notification menu, the download finished and removed itself (not the norm) from the notification bar. I have not been able to locate the file using a search in my OI folder manager. (Is there a place to view all phone downloads?)
I uninstalled dolphin in case it was infected with something.
I've downloaded malwarebytes but it hasn't found anything...
Thoughts/suggestions about my situation?

I'll just add that prior to yesterday, my phone was having issues for 3-4 days in which dozens of apps constantly crashed. The weather app (wunderground) seemed to crash most often, followed by badgeprovider (and also Picase uploader, Google app, Drive, Samsung Push, Google PArtner, Favorite apps, and others). The apps were just crashing in the background apparently, as I was never using any of those apps directly. I cleared cache data from all the apps I listed, installed all of the most recent updates for all of my apps, and the problem has not occurred since. Not sure if this is related.

Your description very much sounds like you've got some rogue malware app on your device. The download sounds like an app, so check the app drawer for "uninvited news". Also make yourself a note which apps you've recently installed. One of those is the most likely candidate responsible for the download.

If the download was done through native Download manager, then you may be able to find out where the file was downloaded and what initiated that download. Related: Export list of Downloads (no root). The next time you happen to be in same situation, install busybox and run a find query, such as adb shell find /sdcard/ -mmin -X. It will list all the files modified/created under the last X minutes. You can still try it but the output could be too large for you to handle.


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nexus 5x fills up storage with system crap
My Nexus 5x is filling up its system storage space with data (location is upper /sdcard).
In the screenshot you can see the 3.25GB of data in other section.
Has anyone had this issue before? How do we clean it up and what is this data?

Click image for larger version

Possible duplicate of Something is secretly eating up my Acer Iconia A500 internal memory and I need help finding it

If you click on the 'Other' section (or the 'Explore' option at the bottom of the screen) it will allow you to browse the files/folders and delete any that you do not need.
The 'other' data is actually just files on your device which it does not know how to categorise e.g. downloaded files, files that are used by apps (which are stored outside of the /Android/data folder).
Note: If you randomly delete files/folders then some apps may need to re-downloade/re-create them in order to function correctly. If you're not sure what a file is it's probably best to leave it, just in case.


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Is the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime S82OL capable of wifi tethering, if so, how?
I want to make a wifi hotspot because there is no internet access where I live. I rooted the phone using kingroot.
I started searching for a good app to use and figured I'd start with FoxFi which seemed to have a decent reputation. Got it installed, tryed to start it up and it tells me within 30 seconds to "turn on my mobile hotspot function" on my phone.
Since my particular model doesn't have that standard, after searching I came across a workaround by downloading a hotspot toggle widget. Tryed again, FoxFi seemed to be satisfied with that widget being used in place of an OEM toggle.
Attempted to connect to the new wifi hotspot using my pc and it would not identify the network, thus resulting in no internet connection. So I figured there was a problem with FoxFi and my phone and must've tried at least 10 other wifi hotspot apps both with root and without with good reviews. Still, to no avail has any one worked, most just crashed, another had the same issue as foxfi.
I'd greatly appreciate any help, I have been trying to figure this out for the last 10 hours and am at a loss. If it matters, it's a straight talk phone running off of a verizon network, but I do believe that is the only option for this particular model of the samsung galaxy core prime, being the S82OL version.

Ouch, a wall of text. Please consider an [edit] applying some formatting, inserting some line breaks at least at the proper places. That will dramatically increase chances anybody will even bother to read your question (not to speak of answers).

is your device 'career locked'? Because Wifi tether is available in almost 99% of android phones.http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_core_prime-6716.php

This might Help http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/86677/getting-confused-by-rooting-and-enabling-wifi-tethering?rq=1

As @Avinash had commented, WiFi Tethering is available on all phones, including mine, which is also a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (but has a different Model Number).
Were you able to at least connect to your hotspot, by your PC, even without a Network Connection (Internet Access)?
If so, then you would have to enable your "Mobile Data" or "Data Connection" to be able to connect to the internet.

It appears to me, a non-cellphone enthusiast, that Straight Talk (Walmart) requires a Hot Spot plan purchase in order to use my phone as a hot spot.
My phone is a Samsung Core Prime, version 4.4.4.
Thanks, Walmart.


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Text bubble randomly changing color on Galaxy S6's stock Messaging app on Android 6.0
I have a Galaxy S6 through Sprint and just upgraded to Android 6.0. Since the OS upgrade, my text messages have been seemingly randomly changing color. The text is always the same color, but the background of the bubble will change (yellow background on my messages, white background on incoming messages).
I thought initially the color change was caused by message status - sending, sent, received, etc. This does not seem to be the case, as once one turns yellow or white, it stays yellow or white.
I also thought that the colors corresponded to messages that I or my texting partner had not responded to (I sent 2 in row to her 1 incoming or vice versa).  This also does not seem to be the case, as I have been able to send multiple in a row without the color changing.
Do you know what the different background colors signify and how to turn them off?

"Light-blue text bubble" anomaly compared to normal text bubble (dark green and blue)

@AndrewT. I've added a screenshot.  This is not 1 message that was broken into 2 because of it's length.  There are also examples of multiple replies from one party with none of them changing color.  The bubbles are yellow on my side when it happens

Enhanced messaging setting, and if the message is SMS or MMS will affect how messages are sent and received. Do you have enhanced messaging on or off? Was the blue message MMS, SMS, part of a group message?

enhanced messaging is turned off, and has been

The different background colors might signify nothing, and just a mere way of playing colorful in the app. Since the situation you describe is related to a specific app, and doesn't seem to affect other Messaging apps like Google Messenger, then what you're experiencing is probably a feature added to the stock sms app. Check your settings, there likely might be something to turn that off. @rogerdeuce

@rogerdeuce It may be for undelivered messages...

@Rexford I have gone through the setting and I am not seeing anything about crazy colors.  I was able to locate the "enhanced messaging" setting to confirm it was off.  Is there another menu I should be checking?

@RahulBasu It's not for undelivered, the messages that turn white are incoming.  But I have confirmed that the outgoing messages that turn yellow have been received.

is this really a stock rom from the galaxy s6? Or are you using a custom rom? The design looks really unusual for a samsung device in my opinion

@benjaminS There is a stock theme on the phone that has black background.  I've been using the same theme for 6 + months.  Text bubbles started changing colors with marshmallow 6.  No rooting or roming or anything like that going on, on this phone.

@benjaminS I did switch it back to the default theme and the colors still change

@rogerdeuce thanks for the info. I don't have a solution sadly - my best guess is that this might be the new behaviour - but that is just an assumption. I'd contact Samsung and ask if they consider this a feature and if it was intended. Contact Samsung. You can link them to this question so things will be clear :)

After a lot of research I haven't (and from the comments, it looks like neither have other users) been able to find any resources on the internet regarding this curious phenomenon.
I am, therefore, forced to accept this as some sort of Easter egg from the Samsung developers' side (although, in my opinion, Easter eggs should at least look nice.).
This also means that you don't really get an option to 'opt-out'. If it really bothers you, you can Contact Samsung (although their 'Live Chat' feature seems badly designed since I couldn't get a representative to talk to me even after 30 minutes) or use another messaging app.

comment by an anonymous user: if you check your theme it most likely has an update that is needed. After I updated the os I had the same problem resolved by updating the theme in the theme selection (it was noted on red that update was available)


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App update process
Its not yet clear to me what happens when an app gets updated.
Is the new updated app simply being "installed over" the old one maintaining data and cache from the old one? What actually happens when an app is updated?
In searching internet1, and SE, i found no useful information (I am not asking about how to update using googleplay.
PS: In the comments AndrewT and Firelord actually gave me useful pointers and I feel the informations I was looking for center around the workings of PackageManager and PackageInstaller.

1: See e.g. "how does android update apps", how does android app-update work, android app-update process explained

I don't think that last statement is well-adhered. Many apps distributed through Google Play have other avenues of distribution. Just think 'Monument Valley', which their own developers say is highly pirated to the tune of 90%. If you just Google it, you'll find dozens of distribution points. Google query

It was just an example but I do not want that mentioning it would bog down the answers, so I edited that part out. My question is not about google or other avenues of distribution, it's limited to the update process proper. Wbogacz comment refers to me mentioning that "apps distributed using GooglePlay cannot be updated in any other way than through GooglePlay according to the Developer Policies" in the question before i edited it

pm install -r FILE. Whatever that command would do is what technically happens in the background during an app update.

Can you provide link to the Developer Policies? I think it's the case for developer to not update their apps outside from Play Store (e.g. push/forced update from other sites.. probably for security reason), because AFAIK, I could update any apps using their APK (as long as it's using the same certificate)

@AndrewT. , it is for security reasons, I dont have a direct link to it but it refers to this line in the 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". Again, that came out because of an hypothetical scenario and I edited it out because it attracts comments that are not related to my question.

I found the article when searching that statement, but never mind if it's unrelated. I'm not sure how to limit the scope on answer this question: yes, an update will overwrite the "binary" of the app (APK file) while retaining the data/cache. However, there are requirements before it can be updated, such as "app version must be higher/same than current installed", "must use the same certificate", etc. More than that, I can't explain the detail.

@Izzy, unfortunately, not knowing how it worked, i had no idea how long an answer telling me what i needed would have been. Now that I'm finally homing on the right information Im realizing it will take me quite a bit to learn it. At this point Im considering deleting the question and if i were to ask in programming the answers would be way beyond what i can understand at the moment.

Actually, I think provided a good answer is given, this "page" would be quite a very useful one. If I weren't so busy currently I'd started an answer, but at the moment it would be a very incomplete one – and I needed to do some research to give my wording some backing (e.g. link to authoritative resources confirming what I write). I don't think you should delete it. Some "rephrasing" might be a good idea (your addition sounds a bit accusing ;) – but per se it is a good question.

I think the core is in the lines between 10260 to 10350. There are also preliminary preparations done in the beginning but the linked one is the core I believe.

Incidentally, sideloading an app already existent in one of my devices I got a message asking if I wanted to apply it as upgrade, I never seen that message before or found this behavior described in any article describing how to sideload an app

@Firelord, thanks, I think I will need some time to digest that one.

It's important to note that Android apps don't get installed in the same way as on Windows or on GNU/Linux systems. The app runs entirely from the APK file. Installing an app for the first time includes the following steps:

Download the APK to the storage. All apps' APK files get downloaded to the same location.
Create a user ID for the new app. Each app in Android runs in its own Linux user ID. This is for security, and is how the permissions system works.
Create a data dir for the new app. This is initially empty.
Add the app to the phone's database of installed apps. This database includes the name (package ID) of the app, the path to the APK file, the user ID, amongst other things.

That's all it takes. So after that, it's pretty easy to see how to upgrade it:

Download the new APK file. This is a new file in the same location as all the other APK files.
Check that the old APK can be upgraded to the new APK. It checks that they were both signed by the same key, to avoid data theft, and that the new APK is not an older version, and a few other settings from the app's manifsest. If any of the checks fail so the old APK can't be upgraded to the new APK, the upgrade stops with an error at this point.
Stop the old version of the app cleanly.
Check for changes to the app (such as new permissions) and update the app's user ID accordingly. Update the database of installed apps to point to the new APK file (and with other data about the new app).
Delete the old APK file.

The upgrade process doesn't even have to look at the data directory. It's up to the app to change its data if the new version uses a different format or whatever. (This also means that it's up to the app what old versions can be updated cleanly without losing data.)
The process works the same way whether you're upgrading the app through Google Play, or some other app store, or by clicking on the APK file, or using adb install. Whichever front-end you use, it goes through the same package manager. The only difference is that if you use an app store, it probably also keeps its own record of what versions are installed, both to help the app developer understand their user base, and so it can check for future updates.

"It's up to the app to change its data if the new version uses a different format or whatever" Does that mean that if I have, lets say, version 1 and intend to upgrade directly to version 7 the upgrade might fail if the data of version1 are retained but there has been a change in format in version3 and the newest version has no instructions to change the data format? Or any version after the change will likely be able to upgrade directly from a very old one?

@ErikvanDoren It's up to the app author. It's possible that if you skip a lot of versions, you might hit a case the author hasn't tested, and the app then won't work properly unless you clear its data (or it might clear the data itself, if it's especially badly written). I'd expect most app authors to handle it properly, though.

Important detail missing: signature check :) On update, this would be the step before stopping the old version. If signatures don't match, the update process would be cancelled at this point.


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Nexus 5 failed recovery due to /data partition
I got a nexus 5 off of eBay, the seller said he had tried to root it and failed so I thought I would have a crack at it.
I thought it would be an easy restore but I ran into a few problems:
Phone originally came with 6.0.1 installed.
On android 5+ I could not access the standard recovery screen, and when I pressed power+volUp it just said formatting /data and would not move from that.
Rolled back to 4.4 and I got into the ususal recovery screen.
Tried to do a factory reset, but it again stuck at formatting /data.
I left it the entire night while I slept and it was still saying formatting /data. in the morning, nothing had changed.
Trying to boot the phone normally just left it on the 4 circles startup screen.
I've tried doing a full flash of stock android with each seperate part manually.
Also /data is unable to be mounted in any custom recovery, like it is corrupted or locked somehow.
With the stock recovery, it cannot be detected by adb, but in cwm it can. However, it still doesn't allow access to /data.
Checking the /data folder in adb shell shows it's completely empty, and the same with system even after flashing and flashing again.
Can anyone advise me as to what might be the problem here?

"I've tried doing a full flash of stock android with each seperate part manually." -- you mean through fastboot, correct? Did you also upgrade the bootloader and radio meanwhile? When you flashed userdata image, what did the console output? Can you do a complete flash from fastboot one more time, then flash custom recovery, straightly boot into it and flash a compatible version of this kernel? That kernel would not cause full disk encryption at first boot of Android. Which custom recovery are you using?

Yes through fastboot, and yes I also upgraded bootloader and radio at the same time. When flashing userdata, it would sometimes hang on the erasing 'userdata' command and I would have to reboot back into fast mode, where it would usually work fine the second time. I'll give this custom kernel a try right now!

I was using clockworkmod 6.0.4.5 by the way, installing the kernel went smoothly, but upon restart it got to the google screen, then rebooted, and then booted itself into recovery again. It's now at least showing up in adb with the recovery tag, which it wasn't doing before

Please use TWRP for the time being until you're done with troubleshooting. CWM is archaic now.

I should mention that I originally tried twrp but when it booted into it, it attempted to access the /data partition and tried to mount it automatically on load, couldn't, and then restarted the phone. I was only using CWM because it didn't do that.

I used this link to repair my /data directory:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/howto-repairing-corrupted-data-partition-t2577447
Fortunately I was able to boot into fastboot mode the usual way ( Volume down and power at the same time ) unfortunately TWRP kept looping after erring on the corrupted /data folder. I ended up replacing TWRP with "Philz Recovery Nexus 5" because it booted up normally. I then formatted the /data, /system, /cache directories. That fixed the /data directory error and corruption problem. I was able to load CM13 successfully after that. I had to use a OTG external USB drive to load Philz Recovery Nexus 5, CM13 and GApps. I hope this helps. I'm sticking with Philz Recovery Nexus 5. It fixed the problem!

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, I forgot my account details. it fails to format the /data partition because it's unable to mount it, for whatever reason.

I've just had another look at it, when trying to do a fastboot format it says it has filesystem type ' ' and is unable to do this. going to adb shell and trying to run mke2fs, results in a blinking cursor like it is trying to do something, but ultimately gets nowhere.


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Can you use cell tower triangulation without a SIM card?
Since cell phones can call 911 without a SIM card present, it is clear that they can connect to a cellular network to which they are not subscribed.
Is it possible to use this knowledge to do cell tower location triangulation on Android without having a SIM card present? The use case is location detection when the phone is unable to obtain a GPS lock e.g. while inside a building.

SIM cards are not required for cellular connection. They are just some sort of ID method.
For example: If a phone has AT&T SIMCard, the configuration in the SIMCard will let it connect to AT&T as an identified (with phone number) user and so the SIMCard can be billed for the usage of service.
However, even without a SIM, a phone will always try and connect to cellular networks. But it will be a, let's say, guest user who can't use any of the services since they can't be billed because they can't be ID'd.
911 however is an exception. All services allow 911 calls regardless if the client is identified or not.
I told all these so you can understand the conception better. Now for the actual question: It probably can be traced without a SIM as well. Why probably? Because I don't know for sure nor have I ever heard/seen such a case. But conceptually they should be able to do it since they can also access your phone's IMEI and therefore identify the device and triangulate its signal. It is not something you can do on your own though, it is FBI-class action.
It is completely unrelated to GPS because GPS uses satellite, triangulation uses cell.

This doesn't really answer my question. If I have an Android device with a cell radio, but no SIM card installed, how can I get its location without using GPS?

@Ben It does answer your question. You question doesn't ask "How can I do it?" it asks "Can it be done?". You should ask the question you want answer to. As for your new question's answer: No. The triangulation method requires some variables for location tracking which are not accessible to general public.

Yes! The cellular radio is fully active with no SIM card.  You can even use a cell tower triangulation mapping app like CellMapper ( https://www.cellmapper.net/ ) with no SIM card or even an inactive SIM card.
The phone's location service uses multiple methods.  Inside a building it will often rely on the signature from a nearby WiFi signal.


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How do we run *#06# using ADB to get IMEI number?
I want to run *#06# and display the activity/fragment which shows the IMEI numbers using adb. Kindly help. Details of the fragment and activity as show below:
#1: DialpadFragment{27576dd7 #1 id=0x7f0e00b6 dialpad}
    mFragmentId=#7f0e00b6 mContainerId=#7f0e00b6 mTag=dialpad
    mState=5 mIndex=1 mWho=android:fragment:1 mBackStackNesting=0
    mAdded=true mRemoving=false mResumed=true mFromLayout=false mInLayout=false
    mHidden=false mDetached=false mMenuVisible=true mHasMenu=false
    mRetainInstance=false mRetaining=false mUserVisibleHint=true
    mFragmentManager=FragmentManager{c30ada in DialtactsActivity{104052fa}}
    mActivity=com.android.dialer.DialtactsActivity@104052fa
    mContainer=android.widget.FrameLayout{22c29bbe V.E..... ........ 0,0-720,1230 #7f0e00b6 app:id/dialtacts_container}
    mView=com.android.dialer.dialpad.DialpadFragment$DialpadSlidingRelativeLayout{2c1bbdce V.E..... ........ 0,0-720,1230}
    Child FragmentManager{2efb76c4 in DialpadFragment{27576dd7}}:
      FragmentManager misc state:
        mActivity=com.android.dialer.DialtactsActivity@104052fa
        mContainer=android.app.Fragment$1@3ed979ad
        mParent=DialpadFragment{27576dd7 #1 id=0x7f0e00b6 dialpad}
        mCurState=5 mStateSaved=false mDestroyed=false

I'm not sure if I can show the IMEI on the given Activity/Fragment (I don't know if they are responsible for this), but I'm assuming you want to use ADB to display IMEI in user-friendly format, just like you put *#06# on the dialpad (compared to this answer on SO)?

Thanks Andrew. I had seen that answer but it doesn't work for me. dumpsys iphonesubinfo doesn't give any output.

I think you're interested in this as a developer. If that's the case, then why not fetch IMEI from other means and then show the IMEI in a new dialog? This appears to be what native dialer does: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Dialer/+/android-5.1.1_r36/src/com/android/dialer/SpecialCharSequenceMgr.java#301

Slight change - Interested as a QA. Thanks Firelord.

This doesn't work on all devices/dialers, but it does on mine so it's worth giving it a shot.  From adb shell:
am start -a android.intent.action.DIAL -d "tel:*%2306%23"

See this chat conversation for more discussion and possibilities.

For just getting the number in the shell, you could also try this:
$ getprop | grep -i IMEI
[persist.sys.oppo.device.imei]: [<IMEI here>]

That's a custom property on my particular device, but yours might have something similar.
Another option if you have root (and possibly needing busybox as well):
$ su
# service call iphonesubinfo 1 | awk '{ print $NF }' | sed 's/[^0-9]*//g' | tr -d '[:space:]' | sed 's/$/\n/'
<IMEI here>

One more that is probably device-specific:
$ content query --uri content://settings/system --where "name='bd_setting_i'" | sed 's/[^=0-9]*//g' | sed 's/[0-9]*=//g'
<IMEI here>

Thanks Mathew. But I had tried this. Interestingly, it dials the entire *#06# and I don't get the IMEI.

@ThejusKrishna One last thing to try would be to run the fragment using a similar command to the one here, unfortunately I am not exactly sure what it should be since my device has a custom engineering mode that does not match what you posted.


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Nexus 6P charges slowly on stock 6P charger, but 5X charges rapidly
TL;DR: My wife's LG Nexus 5X has no issue charging with her LG charger or my Huawei charger. My Huawei Nexus 6P charges slowly with the Huawei charger but at full speed with the LG charger. Is there an explanation for this, and am I likely to run into more incompatibility (i.e. is it my phone or the charger)?

I have a Huawei Nexus 6P, and my wife has the LG Nexus 5X. When we first received them, we could use both either charger/cord combination and we would get the full 3A/5V ("charging rapidly" message appeared).
After a month or so, I noticed that my phone wasn't charging as quickly as I was used to, so I looked and saw it said "charging" but not "charging rapidly," which is what I get when I use a regular 2.1A charger. I looked and this was on the stock Huawei charger (that went with my 6P). I tested this setup with my wife's phone, and her phone said "charging rapidly."
At this point, I used her LG charger, and I once again got the "charging rapidly" message. I then tried both cables in both chargers, and it was only the original cable with the original charger that gave me a slow charge (charger and cable from Huawei). I did the experiment back-and-forth several times to make sure it wasn't just a fluke.
That was fine, I just switched the cables and was able to use either charger and get the "charging rapidly" message.
Eventually, though, I noticed the issue again, but this time with the cable from LG and the charger from Huawei. I tried switching the cables, but it didn't work.
So now my Huawei phone can't charge at full speed with the Huawei charger, but my wife's LG Nexus 5X can without issue. My 6P can charge at full speed with either cable using the 5X charger, but won't charge at full speed on the 6P charger with either cable. The 5X can charge at full speed using either charger with either cable.
I realize that I could just pitch the charger and maybe never have to think about it again, but that doesn't make any sense out the problem. I'm curious about the very specific progressive incompatibility, and I also don't want to deal with the same problem with another charger or set of chargers down the road.
So, is there any explanation for this hardware incompatibility? Also, is there a good chance this is a software issue? I noticed it after flashing either PureNexus or Chroma, but I'm sure it carried over after going back to PureNexus from Chroma, so I'm assuming it wouldn't be fixed by going back to the stock ROM.

Background Information

From Nexus

The Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P use USB Type-C for charging, so not all cables and chargers will work with these phones. We recommend using the charger that came with your Nexus.

Also corroborated here for LG Nexus 5X
Decent comparison of  Type C Charging. Point to note is that current supplied can go upto 3A unlike conventional charging or Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0
When your device gets 3A it displays "charging rapidly" and when it gets 2.1A (conventional charging),  it displays "charging". This can be verifed by using an app like  Ampere

Analysis of symptoms described by you

To start with Nexus 6P/ Nexus 5x in any charger/cord combination
gave "charging rapidly"
6P Charger + 6P Cable on 6P → "charging"
6P Charger + 6p Cable on 5X → "charging rapidly"
5X Charger + 6P/5X Cable on 6P → "charging rapidly"

Conclusion from above → 6P Charger suspect

Later, 6P Charger + 5X/6P cable on 6P  → "charging".
By this statement , I guess you mean 5X/6P Charger and 5x cable on 5X   → "rapidly charging"

So now my Huawei phone can't charge at full speed with the Huawei charger, but my wife's LG Nexus 5X can without issue

Conclusion from above → 6P Cable suspect
You could purchase a 6P Cable from here, being Google recommended and it should be fine IMO and verify current using Amplify app. If that doesn't fully fix the issue, then you may need to purchase 6P charger also as indicated from 6 to 8
I don't think it is OS issue since switching to stock didn't help (your question doesn't make it clear if custom OS was flashed only on 6P or both)- only way to rule this out entirely is by switching to stock on both
Let us know the result
EDIT:  Based on the clarification by OP , I strongly believe that replacing 6P  charger should fix the issue (since cable issue is ruled out) and nothing points to device problem All the best

Points 5-9 are what I meant to convey, but I left some details out at the end: 5X charger + 5X/6P cable on 6P→"charging rapidly" and 5X/6P charger + 5X/6P cable →"charging rapidly." It is only the 6P charger on the 6P that is causing a "charging" message. I've updated my question to communicate this.

Thank you, I will purchase the same OEM charger and see if the same behavior occurs, and when I do, I'll relay the results. The reason I was skeptical was because one phone worked using the 6P charger and the other didn't, so I thought there may be more to it. I know the charger is the most likely issue, but I was curious as to others' thoughts. I'll report back when I've tested it.

Success. The replacement works fine.

Great to hear that. Thanks for updating. All the best

I have the opposite situation: my 5X charges slowly with "Charging" message while my friends 6P "Charging rapidly" from my LG charger.

@SergeySergeyev you will have to systematically isolate the likely culprit. There isn't an easy way out but doing this


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My Sony Xperia C4 can not Authenticate after a reset
I reset my sony Xperia C4. After that the theft protection appears and asks me to authenticate. When I try to authenticate it says "Sorry Xperia Helper Has Stopped. And I can't authenticate.

Click on 'emergency call'. Type in this number ##7378423#*#. It will fail, but after a while, your google account will ask you to log in. Log in. The installation will go on. At some point, you will again be asked to authenticate. Only that this time the authentication does not crash.
// Probably typing the number does nothing, but I think its best you just exactly reproduce what I did.


text:
Stop the Auto replacement
Hi I have an HTC One a9 I want too keep the word prediction but I don't want the auto replacement I used to do that with Samsung but with HTC I can't find the solution for this problem . Please advice..

For me, you go Settings > Language & Input > [Button below "Current keyboard" that has your keyboard name] > Text correction > Set "Auto-correction" to off.


text:
Determine Android N preview stage build
I have Nexus 6P and I'm on Android Beta Program for Android N Developer Preview. From its program overview, it's stated that there will be 6 stages:

Preview 1 (initial release, alpha)
Preview 2 (incremental update, beta)
Preview 3 (incremental update, beta)
Preview 4 (final APIs and official SDK, Play publishing)
Preview 5 (near-final system images for final testing)
Final release to AOSP and ecosystem

How do I know which Android N preview stage I have?

Android provides release notes for Android N Developer Preview on here (as of current writing):

Developer Preview 1
Date: March 2016
Builds: NPC56P, NPC56R, updated: NPC56W, NPC56X
Developer Preview 2
Date: April 2016
Builds: NPC91K, NPC91O
Developer Preview 3
Date: May 2016
Builds: NPD35K
Developer Preview 4
Date: June 2016
Builds: NPD56N
Developer Preview 5
Date: July 2016
Builds: NPD90G

You can compare your build number with the available release notes by going to Settings - About phone - Build number.

I thought I got Developer Preview 2 this morning and wanted to verify. But the build number is NPC56W, so that means I have Developer Preview 1 but updated. Thanks.


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Can't modify build.prop
I have a nexus 6 with version 6.0.1 of android flashed and rooted using Nexus Root toolkit 2.1.4.
I am trying to modify build.prop and doing adb pull/push and even trying to move it to /data/local/tmp and then mv command won't work.
Mounting /system/ rw results in a boot loop and I have to reflash.
I am unsure on how to enable modification of this file.  How can I turn off this "production build" protection on android?
adb shell
shell@shamu:/ $ su
root@shamu:/ # mv /data/local/tmp/build.prop /system/
mv: /system//build.prop: Read-only file system
1|root@shamu:/ # mount -o rw,remount /system
127|root@shamu:/ # mv /data/local/tmp/build.prop /system/
mv: xwrite: No space left on device
1|root@shamu:/ # exit
1|shell@shamu:/ $ exit

adb push build.prop /system/build.prop
failed to copy 'build.prop' to '/system/build.prop': Permission denied

adb shell
shell@shamu:/ $ su
root@shamu:/ # mv /data/build.prop /sy
sys/    system/
root@shamu:/ # mv /data/build.prop /system/build.prop
mv: /system/build.prop: Read-only file system

I'm trying to add this config option to build.prop
net.tethering.noprovisioning=true

The device has plenty of space as it was just freshly rooted and flashed with a brand new stock image.

First, tell us exactly what you're trying to change in build.prop. You don't have to take so much turns just to edit that file. Simply use Kernel Adiutor, ES File Explorer or a Buildprop Editor type app. They can do the job smoothly. Second, your mount command actually returned an error code 127. Search it. Third, how much space is left in the device? By my estimate, less than 15MB out of 2GB. And, try with SELinux in permissive mode. It wouldn't hurt. Fourth, why would adb push not fail? See http://android.stackexchange.com/a/5888/96277. Too many issues here. :)

I just tried BuildProp Editor and it fails to save.  I have SuperSu installed and working and grant the application root privileges.


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Nexus 4 on cm 13 nightly - application cannot download files
I have recently downloaded cm 13 and flashed it on Nexus 4. Since then none of my applications can download any files. Google apps can do that though.
I have tried to capture the relevant debug info from adb:
03-23 14:39:57.576 717-717/system_process W/PackageManager: Permission android.permission.DOWNLOAD_WITHOUT_NOTIFICATION from package com.android.providers.downloads in an unknown group android.permission-group.NETWORK
03-23 14:40:12.658 717-717/system_process W/PackageManager: Not granting permission android.permission.ACCESS_DOWNLOAD_MANAGER to package com.android.browser (protectionLevel=18 flags=0x3849be45)
03-23 14:40:12.658 717-717/system_process W/PackageManager: Not granting permission android.permission.SEND_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETED_INTENTS to package com.android.browser (protectionLevel=2 flags=0x3849be45)
03-23 14:40:13.419 717-1141/system_process W/PackageManager: Not granting permission android.permission.ACCESS_DOWNLOAD_MANAGER to package com.android.browser (protectionLevel=18 flags=0x38c9be45)
03-23 14:40:13.419 717-1141/system_process W/PackageManager: Not granting permission android.permission.SEND_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETED_INTENTS to package com.android.browser (protectionLevel=2 flags=0x38c9be45)
03-23 14:42:03.712 2170-2232/com.android.nfc D/NfcService: checking on firmware download
03-23 14:42:06.057 659-659/? E/kickstart: Successfully downloaded files from target
03-23 14:42:06.743 717-2057/system_process I/ActivityManager: Start proc 2727:android.process.media/u0a9 for broadcast com.android.providers.downloads/.DownloadReceiver
03-23 14:42:16.443 3255-3274/? I/MessagingAppDataModel: Fixup: Send failed - 0 Download failed - 0
03-23 14:43:36.458 659-659/? E/kickstart: Successfully downloaded files from target
03-23 14:44:25.562 2727-2752/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: Path appears to be invalid: /storage/emulated/0/Download/com.coolapk.market-6.4.0-1603173.apk
03-23 14:44:25.707 2727-4566/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Starting
03-23 14:44:26.198 2727-4566/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [1] Stop requested with status FILE_ERROR: Failed to generate filename: java.io.IOException: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
03-23 14:44:26.199 2727-4566/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Finished with status WAITING_TO_RETRY
03-23 14:45:09.370 2727-4758/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Starting
03-23 14:45:12.006 2727-4758/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [1] Stop requested with status FILE_ERROR: Failed to generate filename: java.io.IOException: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
03-23 14:45:12.007 2727-4758/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Finished with status WAITING_TO_RETRY
03-23 14:45:37.961 2059-2059/com.android.systemui D/StatusBar: Clicked on content of 0|com.android.providers.downloads|0|1:com.android.browser|10009
03-23 14:45:38.055 717-2014/system_process I/ActivityManager: START u0 {act=android.intent.action.VIEW_DOWNLOADS flg=0x10000000 cmp=com.android.providers.downloads.ui/.DownloadList} from uid 10025 on display 0
03-23 14:45:38.115 2727-2727/android.process.media W/System: ClassLoader referenced unknown path: /system/app/DownloadProviderUi/lib/arm
03-23 14:45:38.146 717-2014/system_process I/ActivityManager: START u0 {act=android.provider.action.MANAGE_ROOT dat=content://com.android.providers.downloads.documents/root/downloads cmp=com.android.documentsui/.DocumentsActivity} from uid 10009 on display 0
03-23 14:45:55.276 2727-2868/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: Path appears to be invalid: /storage/emulated/0/Download/com.coolapk.market-6.4.0-1603173.apk
03-23 14:45:55.383 2727-5648/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Starting
03-23 14:45:55.773 2727-5648/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [2] Stop requested with status FILE_ERROR: Failed to generate filename: java.io.IOException: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
03-23 14:45:55.776 2727-5648/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Finished with status WAITING_TO_RETRY
03-23 14:47:08.190 2727-6824/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Starting
03-23 14:47:08.192 2727-6825/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Starting
03-23 14:47:08.420 2727-6825/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [2] Stop requested with status FILE_ERROR: Failed to generate filename: java.io.IOException: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
03-23 14:47:08.420 2727-6825/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Finished with status WAITING_TO_RETRY
03-23 14:47:08.601 2727-6824/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [1] Stop requested with status FILE_ERROR: Failed to generate filename: java.io.IOException: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
03-23 14:47:08.615 2727-6824/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Finished with status WAITING_TO_RETRY
03-23 14:48:21.289 2727-7951/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Starting
03-23 14:48:24.624 2727-7951/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [2] Stop requested with status FILE_ERROR: Failed to generate filename: java.io.IOException: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
03-23 14:48:24.629 2727-7951/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Finished with status WAITING_TO_RETRY
03-23 14:50:30.886 2727-9818/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Starting
03-23 14:50:35.682 2727-9818/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [1] Stop requested with status 403: Unhandled HTTP response: 403 Forbidden
03-23 14:50:35.683 2727-9818/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [1] Finished with status 403
03-23 14:52:10.358 2727-11049/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Starting
03-23 14:52:10.911 2727-11049/android.process.media W/DownloadManager: [2] Stop requested with status 403: Unhandled HTTP response: 403 Forbidden
03-23 14:52:10.911 2727-11049/android.process.media D/DownloadManager: [2] Finished with status 403
03-23 14:57:23.790 659-659/? E/kickstart: Successfully downloaded files from target
03-23 14:57:24.879 659-659/? E/kickstart: Successfully downloaded files from target

Any possible fix?
Edit: Similar problems(practically the same errors) exist on CM 12.1 latest snapshot and Slimkat (4.4 builds). As for the slimkat build, it has been used for over a year with no problem. Now it happens out of the blue.

Yes - contact the developer or get on a stable build :) Not much to do here for us - check Recommendation for questions pertaining to a problem specific to a nightly build of a ROM

I have actually tried installing other aosp roms and they seems to have the same problem on my nexus. What confusing is though, downloading worked on the same build previously and now it breaks down all of a sudden. I have completely no idea how to even trace what caused this permission problem.

That's the risk of nightly build; you won't know what will break/be fixed. However, you said that it also happened on other AOSP ROMs, could you [edit] and put some details? IMHO, this post is considerably better than what we usually received related to nightly build. However, there's no guarantee that we can help solving this issue as end-user.

Edited as to the request of @AndrewT.

Reading from the LogCat, I found AOSP Issue Tracker #195153 that says "Apps that use the DownloadManager, targetSdkVersion <23, and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE will experience this problem.". Can you try to download using Chrome, or FireFox? Or else, may I know what apps are you using to download?

Oh. Turned out that I used root to recover my storage files and locked the files from not-root users. Problem fixed by chown-ing. Sorry for troubling you guys : )

It turns out that I used root to copy files onto the SD card directory (/storage/emulated/0), locking out non-root users.
chown -R media_rw:media_rw /sdcard/* in recovery fixed the problem. (Note that sdcard mount point can be different in different recoveries. I use TWRP)
Silly me :P

If this is the final answer, make sure to mark it as the accepted one and therefore close the thread :)

chown -R 1023:1023 /sdcard is even shorter
I would also give chmod -R 770 /sdcard for completeness


text:
How to prevent Facebook's Messenger apps from auto starting in background?
Messenger app starts automatically many times when I don't want to start it. And there is also no exit button in this app.So it always try to run in background. How to prevent Facebook's Messenger apps from auto starting in background?

If you are a rooted user, use any firewall app (plenty of them are available at Play Store).
Some of them I know of are Droidwall, AFWall+, etc.
Also, you can use Greenify to hibernate apps which are not in use.
I hope combination of any Firewall and Greenify will definitely solve your problem.


text:
Is there a way to extend or stop the expiration limit of Offline Maps provided in Google Maps?
I was wondering if there's a way to either completely turn off or extend the time frame of expiration for Google Maps - Offline feature.
I tried to search about it, but almost all blogs suggests that these offline stored maps expire in 30 days. The notification for their expiration reads "Offline maps expiring  You won't be able to use them after they expire."
Now, this a little too frequent and I'm unable to access the Stored Maps (without internet) post this time frame without an update.

One just isn't allowed to live off-line for longer than...
Google needs to know about your footsteps. That's their business model. :-)

Download Here We go maps! It is Awesome created by Nokia. It  can be used Completly Offline for Navigation.

Unfortunately it's not possible.
Straight from the horse's mouth:

Offline areas that you downloaded on your phone or tablet need to be
  updated at least every 30 days.
If your offline area expires in 15 days or less, Google Maps will try
  to update your area when you're connected to the Internet and plugged
  into a charger.

(from Google Maps Help - Download areas and navigate offline)
There's a bit of conjecture online about what the reason for this may be, and whether it's potentially related to Google being worried that maps will be out of date. On the same link above, I would say this gives a clue:

Note: Downloading offline areas isn't available in some regions
  because of contractual limitations, language support, address formats,
  or other reasons.

Although there's no official word from Google on it, I'd say it's highly likely that this time limit is related to contractual limitations at least in some areas. Kindof like how iTunes rentals expire, or Spotify Premium offline playlists expire: if there was no expiry date at all, then there's no difference between 'accessing' and effectively 'permanently buying for free/cheap'.
If offline maps are very important to you, you may want to consider apps that support OpenStreetMap (or see this answer).

I've deleted comments debating this policy. That kind of heated discussion doesn't belong here. Remember we're all here to help each other, so be nice.


text:
Sync to dropbox and delete from android device
I'm using many apps that store their files locally, and they're taking too much space, I can sync their files to dropbox and delete them manually from my phone but I'm asking if I could do it automatically, two exemples :
A voice recorder that store records in /sdcard/records
A call recorder doing the same thing in /sdcards/calls
The question is how can I automatically upload a folder's content to dropbox and delete this content from my android device on certain times ?

For uploading a file to dropbox, there seems to be many examples available on web (this one is for tasker). Same goes for automatic deletion of a file. I also have an answer for the latter. Try few things, then let us know the result.

There are apps like FolderSync, which do exactly what you want for multiple cloud storage providers.
Basically, you configure a folderpair to upload to Dropbox and delete the source files after syncing (see image).

Click image for larger version
I'm not sure if this is a premium-only feature (I bought the pro version), but I feel like this should be in the free version as well.


text:
Reversed audio channels in Moto G2 on Marshmallow (6.0)
So it appears that all Moto G2 updated to Marshmallow have the audio channels swapped (left plays right and right plays left), which is quite an annoyance.
Do you think there's a way to fix this by editing system files somehow? I'm not really hoping to wait for a patch, since this issue turns out to have been detected a long time ago during soak tests.


text:
How to enable cookies and JavaScript on an android phone?
While trying to login my Hackerearth account it put up a disclaimer that my cookies are disabled.Plus many times,many web pages tell me the same thing,and yeah,also ask me to enable JavaScript on my phone.
I own an HTC desire 620g.Unsure if that was necessary though

I think you should mention the name of the  browser you're using. The whole phone has nothing to with this.

AFAIK, the cookies and JavaScript are the features of Browsers which help it render the HTML web page content.
Assuming you are using Google Chrome Browser on your Android phone, you can actually enable both cookies and JavaScript through Settings of Google Chrome Browser.
Just go to Settings of Google Chrome Browser (Open Google Chrome Browser and click on 3-vertical dotted lines to right most corner). Click on Site Settings.
You should see a List of option which should include Cookies and JavaScript too.
You can toggle these individually by clicking them.

I guess instruction for enabling these should be similar to other browsers too (Although I did not tried it myself)
Caution: It is totally YOUR personal decision if you wanted to Allow cookies or JavaScript  or Not. This post is only meant as a helping guide to locate these settings of your browser. Do it at your own risk.

Why is it a risk?Does it like,allow the sites I visit to cause me serious damage or something?

like anything on internet, you have to be careful with cookies. Here is a link for more info: http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/risk-associated-cookies/

And also I do not use Google chrome.Whenever a site is clicked on Google two options appear: Chrome,Internet.I choose the second

so, that means you have 2 browser installed on your device. you may choose either of them


text:
Android 6.0 -- Bluetooth broken causes audio to not work correctly after connecting to car. How to rollback to previous firmware or fix BT glitches
EDIT:
It looks like Android 6.0 is extremely glitchy. This old problem also came back
Very low to no volume after upgrade to 6.0 marshmellow
Is there a way to rollback to a previous version of Android? 6.0 is very glitchy. If I connect to my car using bluetooth it will work the first time. But once I turn the car off, the phone calls won't work, neither will apps like snapchat.
It is like the sound is trying to route through bluetooth despite not being connected to anything. If I disable BT it will work half the time. OTher half I have to reboot the phone.
If I connect to the car a 2nd time without a reboot, I have to disable and renable the BT connection so that it does not sound choppy. If I take a phone call while in the car on BT, the music will come back choppy as well.
I never used to have this problem till the upgrade.
Ideas for solutions or how can I rollback?
This is a Droid Turbo 2

Depends on the type of phone you have, which wasn't mentioned.

Gave up with debugging this. Fixed by rolling back pre-android 6.x


text:
ASUS Memopad 7 stuck on boot
So, my relative has been using an ASUS Memopad 7 for a while now, and she's been having some trouble with it lately. Namely, many of the apps are now basically unusable and almost always crash with "Unfortunately, [app] has stopped". I've tried checking it before but couldn't find any obvious problems (like lack of disk space, etc). I also tried installing an app to check the system logs (I believe it was named CatLog) but couldn't find anything relevant.
During the past couple of days, the problem became significantly worse. The tablet would always pop an alert "Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped", and after you dismiss it with [OK], the alert pops up again, repeat ad infinitum. The tablet is practically unusable now.
Complicating things is that it's difficult to get the thing to even boot. If I restart it, it loads into a black screen with the Asus logo and a spinning loading icon and stays there forever.

She says she can get it to boot sometimes but only after restarting several times (I don't have the patience for it, I've never gotten it to boot)
I've already managed to back up her relevant data, so I suggested that I do a factory reset. So I hold Power and Volume Up during startup and boot into the following menu:

There's an error message there, IDK if it's relevant.
From the Droidboot Menu, I choose "Recovery" and it reboots again. This time, it boots into a screen with a dead Android mascot and the text "No command".

At this point, I'm not sure how to proceed. The Volume buttons are unresponsive. Tapping Power does nothing. If I leave it in this state for a while, it proceeds to try to boot and gets stuck again at the loading icon I showed in the first image.
Any advice as to how I can get this tablet back into a usable state?

Try Power + Volume Down to get into Recovery.  Is the model ME172?  If so you could try https://www.asus.com/ca-en/support/FAQ/1006239/

Power + Volume Down doesn't work

You might need to replace the system.
Using ADB, type in adb sideload ____.zip (after installing a zip for the device) because ASUS devices are built with Android, just with a different launcher and features.
NOTICE: Before you sideload, make sure to enter recovery mode and choose apply update from ADB. If the launcher is replaced, you should install ZenUI Launcher.
TIP: You can use ADB to reboot into recovery. In ADB, type in ADB reboot recovery.

This answer lacks enough detail, like which zip file needs to be downloaded and how and why ZenUI Launcher needs to be installed.

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


text:
xperia SP cant move apps to sd
currently i have xperia SP c5303 which is i know an outdated device but cannot change to a new phone at the moment... so the problem here is internal memory is too small and i need to move them to sd card... i've installed appMgr III and it says that the device doesn't enable users moving apps to the sd card. do note that i already root my device... the apps also tells that the manufacture had removed the function of moving apps to sd card... can I overcome this problem and change the manufacture settings? help me please because i've searched the available method but had not found one yet...

What version of Android do you have?  Are you rooted?  Have you tried link2sd?

It is not possible to move apps to SD Memory card although the device is rooted. There are workarounds for swapping internal memory and external memory but it seems to be temporary (maybe until the next boot up I think). Flashing a custom rom is recommended from my side. Visit xdadevelopers website and find your device thread for more details.


text:
Android's native process management vs. Greenify
Disclaimer: I'm not in any way connected to the Greenify developers, nor am I trying to promote Greenify or anything. I'm actually interested in the answers to these questions.
I've found that with a lot of Android devices that I have managed, they become slower the more apps one installs on them. This is especially true with apps that perform some sort of tasks in the background. Often, devices can become so slow that they are a real pain to use.
The solution I found to this was an app called Greenify, that I use with root privileges and an Xposed module. I find that I can keep all the apps on the devices, but "Greenify" all of them. (I think this means that inactive apps are consistently "hibernated" or deprived of system resources, leaving the resources available for active apps.) This usually makes the device much snappier, yet I find that the impeding effect on the functionality of the apps is quite minimal. Needless to say, I consider Greenify a must, especially on devices with lots of resource hogging apps and/or limited hardware.

Does Android do something similar to Greenify natively? (Depriving background apps of resources in order to free it up for active apps?)
If yes, how is Greenify different from Android's native resource management?

I find that lots of people have Android devices that tend to slow down over time, and many of them end up just buying a new, more powerful device once every few years. But if they used Greenify (or something similar), they might have been satisfied with the performance of the older device for many, many more years. I for example, have a five year old phone, have tons of apps on it, and am quite happy with its performance when using Greenify. However, without Greenify (and with all my apps), the phone is so slow that it's barely usable.

Is there any native Android way to prevent apps from running in the background and hogging system resources?

For example, in GNU/Linux distros like Debian and Ubuntu, apps don't run or consume any resources at all unless you explicitly launch them (or have them set to launch at startup.) It's the same with OS X and Windows. And when you shut a program completely down, it can no longer consume any resources. I think even iOS automatically kills background apps when it needs the resources for something else.
I've used manual task killers, but after  a while, I find that all the apps are back up running in the background again, even if I haven't launched them at all.

Is it true that Android is somewhat unique in allowing apps to run in the background, consuming resources?

It has already been argued that performance manager apps are more of a damage than an advantage, on Android devices. The fact is, that the kernel of an Android device is a derivation of the Linux kernel, so devices should already know how to manage their resources without the need for external apps. Furthermore, on the topic of killing an app, there's one enormous downside: anytime you start it again, the battery usage amounts to more than the usage you would experience by letting it hanging in background. This is because most Android devices already know how to handle themselves.

The command: am force-stop PACKAGE. That's it.

@Firelord Is it true that Greenify is a bit more advanced than a normal task killer? What does it do with its root privileges and Xposed module?

This is an old post but may still be relevant: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=40475823&postcount=1200

@Firelord Very relevant indeed.

Android actually closes some background apps, but only when system ressources are missing (you open a massive game, for example)
Greenify differ from the Android memory management by the fact that it kills all apps you specified at will or after a certain time, not only when ressources are missing.
Nope. If some system apps that you do not use are running in background, you can disable them or remove them completely with a root app or the adb shell
Here's the list of things that I know can start a background activity and keep it opened:

The apps can start an activity automatically at system startup with a permission.
It can also start one when opened.
A vulnerability in Android 4.3 and before allows app to keep them active, even when the Android task killer tries to kill apps, but Greenify can workaround this (see the experimental settings).

And @DeathMaskSalesman, a HTC Wildfire S running KitKat needs Greenify, or else it'll run incredibely slow and drain a lot of battery, more than what needed to start an app.

From the Android developer site:

If an activity has lost focus but is still visible (that is, a new non-full-sized or transparent activity has focus on top of your activity), it is paused. A paused activity is completely alive (it maintains all state and member information and remains attached to the window manager), but can be killed by the system in extreme low memory situations.
If an activity is completely obscured by another activity, it is stopped. It still retains all state and member information, however, it is no longer visible to the user so its window is hidden and it will often be killed by the system when memory is needed elsewhere.
If an activity is paused or stopped, the system can drop the activity from memory by either asking it to finish, or simply killing its process. When it is displayed again to the user, it must be completely restarted and restored to its previous state.

Also:

So, as the system runs low on memory, it may kill processes [...] beginning with the process least recently used, but also giving some consideration toward which processes are most memory intensive.

As far as technical implementation goes, the system calls into apps to let them know that they need to release memory or risk being killed:

Also, when your app process is currently cached, you may receive one of the following levels from onTrimMemory():

TRIM_MEMORY_BACKGROUND
The system is running low on memory and your process is near the beginning of the LRU list. Although your app process is not at a high risk of being killed, the system may already be killing processes in the LRU cache. You should release resources that are easy to recover so your process will remain in the list and resume quickly when the user returns to your app.
TRIM_MEMORY_MODERATE
The system is running low on memory and your process is near the middle of the LRU list. If the system becomes further constrained for memory, there's a chance your process will be killed.
TRIM_MEMORY_COMPLETE
The system is running low on memory and your process is one of the first to be killed if the system does not recover memory now. You should release everything that's not critical to resuming your app state.

So to directly answer your questions:

No, Android does not clean anything up for apps, but it lets them know to do so themselves and kills them if they don't (or if it's not enough).
Greenify appears to do "on-the-fly" disabling of apps, so it is not allowed to run anything when in the background (and can't be started automatically when not running), but can still do anything when in the foreground.  This is completely different from how Android does it as you see above.
Yes — disable them (from Settings → Applications → <App Name>) (though you will have to re-enable when you want to run them manually). Or, for those that don't have automatically restarting services, simply kill them (i.e., long press the Menu button and swipe them away).  The latter will not prevent them from restarting if the system delivers an Intent to them, etc.
No, not at all.  True multitasking has long been available on mobile devices — the original iPhone was an oddity when it launched without that ability.

This system sounds very good ln theory. So how is it that many devices become slower the more apps you install on them? Such as the examples described by me and Charles.milette?  Shouldn't the described system prevent that tendency?

@Fiksdal The fault mainly lies with app developers who don't know how to appropriately suspend tasks / release memory / use low-power listeners.  However, some apps truly require active receivers (like an app for custom gestures that needs to receive your input at any time) or will have notification services, etc.  No matter how lightweight these are, they will add up if you install many of them.  No different than installing a lot of applications with updater services, tray interfaces, etc. on a desktop OS.

If you want to keep such apps for manual use but don't want the automatic stuff draining your battery when you're not actively using them, Greenify is a decent solution (but comes with its own overhead, since it has to run a service in order to manage apps "live").

Alright, that makes sense


text:
How do Moto X and Nexus "wake on pickup" work?
I have seen many apps that give the ability to wake up phone screen simply by picking the phone up off a table (not talking about proximity sensor here). One thing they all have in-common is that this feature places a wakelock on the device, and therefore it drains battery, and therefore it times out after a preset amount (1-10 minutes). From what I understand, it works by monitoring front camera.
My question is: how do Moto X and Nexus phones do that then? They have this feature in-built, but does that also place a wakelock? A 24-hour wakelock? Or do they use something other than front camera? And if such, why isn't there an app that can replicate this behaviour for all phones?

Using the accelerometer would be simple, I have no doubt that there is an app that can do this.

My first guess would be that there's a low-power co-processor monitoring the accelerometer, so it can work without keeping the main processor awake. This isn't something that's exposed in the Android SDK, so any app doing this would be device-specific.

Well, there is an app that monitors the accelerometer to lock/unlock the phone, Gravity Screen. For the devices that have this capability built-in I agree with @Dan Hulme.

@NicolaBastianello Good find. I see that the app's description says, "However [battery use] can be much higher by often using the Turn Screen On by Motion feature. Thus, keep your phone face down if you want to save energy." So maybe that mode uses a wakelock and the others use Google Play Services activity detection?

@NicolaBastianello I have that installed. It uses a wakelock, and sets a configurable timeout, default of 10 minutes. After that time, the device no longer wakes on pickup (the proximity sensor continues to work however)

Devices like Moto X and Nexus 5X/6P use a sensor hub to achieve this feature, which is a:

microcontroller unit/coprocessor/DSP that helps to integrate data from different sensors and process them. This technology can help off-load these jobs from a product's main central processing unit, thus saving battery consumption and providing a performance improvement.

The Android specifications suggest that the manufacturer implement a sensor hub:

The sensor stack of a device can optionally include a sensor hub, useful to perform some low-level computation at low power while the SoC can be in a suspend mode. For example, step counting or sensor fusion can be performed on those chips. It is also a good place to implement sensor batching, adding hardware FIFOs for the sensor events. See Batching for more information.
How the sensor hub is materialized depends on the architecture. It is sometimes a separate chip, and sometimes included on the same chip as the SoC. Important characteristics of the sensor hub is that it should contain sufficient memory for batching and consume very little power to enable implementation of the low power Android sensors. Some sensor hubs contain a microcontroller for generic computation, and hardware accelerators to enable very low power computation for low power sensors.

So the availability of this feature depends on the hardware of the device: if the manufacturer includes a sensors hub, then the power consumption will be optimized because the central processor isn't involved. Otherwise, the only possibility is to install dedicated apps (see for example the one cited in my comment) that will monitor the accelerometer, resulting, though, in a higher battery drain.


text:
How can I restore remembered wifi networks and saved wifi passwords?
I know this question has been asked before and I have searched google for far too long to not have an answer.
So the situation is

I have done a data wipe and a clean install.
During the setup process I did not choose to restore anything.
After the installation I went to Settings > Backup & reset and enabled Automatic restore.
Yet no saved wifi networks or passwords were restored.

I cannot find anything related to Network restore under Settings > Google

Android 6.0.1
Gapps 6.0
Nexus 5

You need to backup your WiFi password before the data wipe.

When you set up a phone and choose not to restore its previous backups, it creates a new "set" of backup data, independent of your old backups. From now on, your phone will only backup to and restore from this new set.
There's no simple way to make it switch back to the old set, to restore your old Wi-Fi settings, but my answer on a question about backing up multiple devices explains how a power user can use the bmgr tool to find old sets of backup data and switch to (i.e. restore from) a different set. I'm afraid you'll have to look at the data and use your judgement: there's no one step-by-step solution that will work for every case.

One could also manually backup the wpa_supplicant.conf.

@DeathMaskSalesman Not when you've already wiped the phone, you can't.

Well, of course one backups first, and wipes second.

@DeathMaskSalesman That's not what this question is about. OP has already wiped the phone and wants to retrieve the settings from Google Backup.


text:
Access Android native settings manager
I got a Lenovo K3 Note with Android Lollipop 5.1, my problem with this phone is the hugely modified Android system. For example, there's no Settings > Applications or Settings > More menu in the Settings app.
How to restore the default Android settings manager so I can unlock these settings features?

I'm afraid you can't, because that's the only Android settings that's available on your device, with current ROM. You might be interested in using custom AOSP ROM (e.g. CyanogenMod) though.

To expand on Andrew's comment, Settings is a core system app that is tightly integrated into the ROM.  There is no way to replace it without flashing a custom ROM, and modifications like enabling or adding features would require building the Android source for your device.
If you are rooted or can use ADB, etc., there are a number of other ways to manage applications and settings — for example, uninstalling apps.  Feel free to search the site and ask another question if you want to do something specific that hasn't already been covered.

I don't think that the settings app I have is from android, I think that lenovo have modified it, because I see that settings app is different from device to device while using the same version of android

@ERROPiX Yes they have modified it, but it is likely still the same package -- com.android.settings.  You should be able to verify this by watching logcat when you launch it.

I have flashed the official rom and the problem is fixed, so I think the DX shop modify the rom to put some ads etc


text:
Location Error aftermoving
So I moved across the country (to Minnesota from Virginia) and now my location is always incorrect on my device, it shows my old home.  I thought the initial problem was with the wifi but my wife's account shows her location correctly.
I can temporarily fix the issue by setting my location settings on the device to 'device only' but the problem reappears when I revert the setting back.  I already tried clearing the Maps data.  This problem occurs on any device with my Google account.
Any ideas how I can fix this issue?
Edit: This apparently isn't limited to Android devices.  Google maps on the web does the same thing.  If I'm logged in as my account, it reads me as in VA, if I log in as my wife (or incognito), it reads the correct location in MN.

If you keep your settings on "Device only" for a few weeks Google should see the new "pattern" and correct it in their records.
If not, then have Google Maps open while you commute to work every day and your account should quickly establish a new pattern. The Google Now algorithm picks up on patterns but for the same reason it is also stuck to your old location.

This did work.  I also noticed that I had two tablets set to 'report location' which were probably the culprits (also probably why my Google Now notifications were all wonky).


text:
Broke screen, how to perform Nandroid/TWRP backup blindly?
I have broken my HTC One (M8)'s display (and probably more) while attempting to replace the battery, and I'm selling it via eBay for parts. How do I attempt a full Nandroid backup with TWRP and then wipe the device securely, blindly? I have no screen whatsoever in the device, as the original one is broken. I had TWRP installed, as I mentioned. Is this possible via adb or fastboot? They seem to be working. I have S-Off and can get to the bootloader via commands.

See Is there a way to do Nandroid backup directly to pc and then restore it directly from pc also? However, if you've space in your phone to make a backup, then you can command TWRP to make backup in phone and then you can pull it through MTP or ADB in PC. For latter, see http://www.pocketables.com/2014/10/using-twrps-new-adb-interface.html

How would I command TWRP to make a backup in the phone without a screen?

Have patience. Follow the links. They will answer everything you need to know. The second link addresses your comment. You just have to boot into the TWRP. That's it. The rest can be done using adb.

Didn't see the 'for latter', thanks, will check it out. The majority of the first link's answers was using a pull of a img file, as I've never dealt with that before, I was a bit cautious if that would perform an entire backup.

It keeps saying that TWRP does not appear to be running, I'll try flashing a different version.

Pointer: Check our broken-screen tag-wiki, which a.o. deals with issues like that (I've just added that tag to your question).