text:
What kind of data is stored in website settings?
While looking at my Android browser settings, I notice there is this advanced setting for individual websites.

So far I have only Twitter using this special setting on my browser. But I do not know what is inside. I can clear history, clear cache, clear forms, clear passwords for all websites at the click of a button. But I need to clear this website data individually.
Does anyone has any idea what is stored inside this website settings? And how do I read the data in it?

It varies from website to website. HTML 5 has a feature called local storage, which lets websites store a modest amount of data in the browser for future visits. They're a bit like cookies, but can be used to store more data. Like cookies, different sites use it for different things.
Some sites (most commonly web games) use local storage to save the Javascript and other files the site uses, so that you can keep using/playing it even when you don't have an internet connection. Or they might use it as a cache for icons on the site, so it loads faster next time you visit.
Some sites use it to save your preferences on the site (e.g. search options, or what posts you've read) to give you the same view or content on multiple visits without you having to login and save preferences on the server. They might even use it for your content: for example, a forum site might save draft posts/comments in local storage before you post them, so your work isn't lost even if you lose connection to the site while writing.
Because the data aren't meaningful outside of the site, and only the Javascript on the site knows how to interpret them, Chrome doesn't offer a way to view or edit the data for each site.
CSS Tricks has a brief description of local storage, along with some examples of what sites do or might use it for.

I don't think it is HTML5 local storage. Because if you fire up Chrome developer toolbar and examine this site under the Resources tab, you can see that local storage is used to set a value for se:fkey. But there is no website preference for this site.

Perhaps I've misunderstood your question. Could you add a screenshot of the thing you're asking about?

Sorry, it should be website settings. I have uploaded a screenshot. On my another phone it is labelled as website data.

Yeah, that's local storage. The confusing name "settings" is because the list also includes sites with permission to access your location, record video and sound, &c. Each site is listed once, with a row of icons listing the permissions/features it's using, and the box icon is for local storage: it fills up according to how much storage the site is using.

But if that is the case, then why isn't Android SE or any other sites that use local storage listed here?

Open the website from a windows pc with firefox and this addon to view exactly what is saved into localstorage...


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I have 29GB free on the sd card and only 101mb on storage,before I had 800mb and installed batman arkam,the download stopped at 91%
Because I hadn't sufficient memory,but the files remains on mine phone but i can't find them and delete theM. On google play it says that the game isn't installed and in the phone either.How to free my phone? And other question how to use the space on sd card..? I have samsung galaxy s4 with 4.4.2 android NO ROOT

You can use an utility such as Disk Usage & Storage or ES File Explorer which will show you graphical information of your storage usage. Once analyzed, you can sort folders by size and try to locate the particular folder. Using a file manager, I would definitely check /Android/data and /Android/obb folders. The orphaned files and folders are highly likely to be located in one of those. The external SD card storage can be used in any way you please. You can use it as the default storage for photos/videos, you can copy files on it etc.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What is in "Other" when looking at Storage
My HTC Desire 500 is constantly telling me that I have no space for updates. I've cleaned out all cache; am using SD card for storage; yet when I check the storage it shows 2.89GB in "Other".
I can't get in to find out what this is.
Can anyone help?

It just simply means that the memory i.e 2.89GB is available over your external storage, and yes the reason why your device is showing you that you have no space available because its looking at the device internal storage. I would say to fix this error try moving all the music, videos, apps(if its available for you) to the SD card this error will fix up.

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


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Possible to disable LG Cliptray?
My LG G2 (and I assume other LG phones) have a "Cliptray" which replaces the clipboard with one where you can access the history. I'd like to remove this function as 1Password cannot remove copied passwords after a set time.
Phone is rooted, if that helps.

I can't find an answer anywhere. The only suggestions I can give are to either call LG themselves and ask (it is a horrible security hole in their system IMHO) or go into your system apps and see if there is something with a name like Clip Tray or such. Be wary of deleting it rather than freezing it, and of course disabling this could have unforseen consequences. Alternatively a custom ROM could be used without this feature in the first place.

The LG G3 also has this. Before I flashed CM12, I looked to see how to disable this. I could not find any settings to turn it off, and the "app" itself could not be found either. It seems that LG put this in as part of their Core OS, so there isn't a specific app to disable. It is part of the Core OS because it shows up everywhere, and in conjunction with the "copy/paste" system menus.

Since the device is rooted, here's a way of disabling Clip Tray:

Go into Clip Tray and delete all entries.
In the file /system/etc/permissions/com.lge.software.cliptray.xml, change this line
<feature name="com.lge.software.cliptray"/>

to
<!-- <feature name="com.lge.software.cliptray"/> -->

This will put the feature in comment, and will not grant permission for this feature.
Reboot the device.

Note: You might still see the option Paste, Cliptray in your stock LG keyboard, which will not work after this modification but cannot be hidden or removed. A way to work around that is to use an alternate keyboard, like Google Keyboard.

Please update to the latest version of the o/s now they have added this functionality...
To enable automatic clipboard clearing, go to Settings > Security > Automatically clear clipboard and tap on the the time interval that you would like. Like for example 30 sec and after 30 sec your clipboard will be emptied.
I hope that this helps!

It doesn't remove the entries stored in the Clip Tray history, only what's in the clipboard at this moment.

With that permission edit, it affects how the screenshots are saved.
You get a warning toast about the file not saving, and then the "saving screenshot" notification, never goes away, until you reset your phone.
The screenshot does actually save though.
Edit:
You can avoid this side effect by instead running this command (source):
rm /data/data/com.lge.systemservice/databases/clipdata.db && ln -s /dev/null /data/data/com.lge.systemservice/databases/clipdata.db

Or
Select option B from this app, which enters the command for you: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jfsoftware.disablecliptray


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Micromax A60 releated quetion
I am using a Micromax A60 phone which just hangs. I tried to use stock recovery which showed the following options:
Android System Recovery
-reboot system now
-apply sdcard : update.zip
-wipe data/factory reset
-wipe cache partition
-finding packege
-opennig packege
-verification failed
-installation abord

I am not clear what to do further here.  I had downloaded and placed 2.1 Éclair ROM in my SD card and it is not working and it is not install directly phone.
What else I can do to bring my phone back to usable state?

I can see you're in a bit of a panic about that, but you need to calm down and describe the problem clearly so we can understand. What exactly happened, and what are you trying to achieve?

I  modified the question completely as it was in an highly inappropriate state. Rohit, in case if my wording deviates from your intention, just leave a comment and I'll update it.

The last option (wipe cache) is the only one always being safe, and never hurts in case of instability/hangs. So regardless what your issue is, you can for sure give that a try. Apart from that, as the previous comments already suggested, you need to provide more details for us to be able to help you. E.g. when did the problem start, what did you do last, anything installed lately, or maybe even fiddling with the system using root-powers?

Before 20 days....Strat this problem....and I am last install 2.1 Eclair version...!
Please help me yaar....I mean body....!

Here is MIUI rom for Micromax a60
Please read Install instructions carefully in this thread.
If you want to stock rom then its here

Thanks for You will be given me MIUI version link for A60 I hope it will be work....?


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How can I determine USB host controller type
I'm trying to determine wheter my tablets have:

Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI)
Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI)
Ehanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI)

Is there any tool that could help me to determine it?
My tablets are:

Samsung GT P3110
GoClever R76.2

I can't find an answer myself, I guess my Googlefu isn't strong enough. Might it be easier to contact the OEMs directly and ask them? Don't forget to post an answer here if you get one!

on terminal emulator or adb: "pm list features | grep usb" should give you android.hardware.usb.host if that feature is available. I don't know about the other details.

I was told i would not have permissions to comment here?!? Therefore here my comment.
Perhaps you could have a look on what additional cables are available for your device. If you want it to be usb master there's a universal cable that works well. But if you want hdmi connection, make sure you take a samsung adapter for your samsung device, the standardized version won't work, samsung has it's own protocol there.


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Nexus5 identified as Media Player (Device), instead of Storage Drive, Windows 7
I've had the Nexus 5 for a few months, and exchange files between my PC and the phone using the USB cable frequently. I also charge the phone using the USB connected to my PC. Usually, the window pops up asking what I want to do with the device, which I ignore if I'm charging, or select Explore if I'm file-transferring. About a week or so ago, I noticed that instead of options, there were NO options on the pop-up, and just a "Do Selected every time" or whatever. But no options below. Until last night, I haven't had the need to transfer files, so I ignored it.
So last night, I closed the popup and looked in My Computer, and the normal Nexus 5 was nonexistent as a Drive. There was a Safely remove Hardware icon, so I selected it and chose Open Devices and Printers. There was my Nexus 5, under Devices, identified as Media Player under Properties. My only other options on right-click are Eject, Create Shortcut, and Troubleshoot.
I can no longer access my files. I rebooted both, checked the settings on the phone, called T-Mobile, then Google, then Iolo, my antivirus and whatever-else-it-does doer, to no avail. The kicker is, I plugged it into a buddy's computer hours earlier to retrieve a file, and it connected as storage immediately. I tried on my wife's laptop, and it does the same. So something had to have changed inadvertently on my PC, and I'm sure it's something simple, but it's beyond me.

When you connect the USB, and you swipe down the notification bar is there 2 options? Also try th eusual stuff: try a different USB port on your PC. Did you install anything recently that could conflict with the phone, USB drivers or such?

http://www.android.gs/download-and-install-google-nexus-5-usb-drivers-adb-fastboot/


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How can I determine which block device corresponds to internal memory?
Premable: My MP707 phone gave me an "overheated battery" panic message earlier in the summer, adn told me to take out the battery immediately. (It had been sitting in the sun, and was probably just confused about the source of the heat, but I didn't think of this at the time, alas.) So I opened it up and took out the battery...without a shutdown first.
The next time I started it up, I got a warning about internal storage being damaged, and did I want to reformat it. Note: internal storage, not the SD card! I found that images and recordings I'd made were no longer accessible, and the voice recorder didn't want to function because it couldn't find a place to store the recordings.
Not long after, the phone started shutting down at random, and then wouldn't start up at all. I ordered a new battery, and went back to using my old phone.
A few days ago, I picked up the MP707 and it turned on just fine! (Still gave me the damaged memory warning) And as far as I can tell -- I'm a newbie in this phone stuff -- the internal storage seems to have gone missing.
The meat of the question: Following the advice here How can I recover a deleted file on android I managed to root the phone, install a terminal program, and start poking around. I'd like to do a raw copy of that internal memory, in hopes of recovering one or two things. But the first instruction is "Find out on which block device the file was on. Via mount". Well, mount tells me this:

(I can't figure out how to copy/paste from VNCLite...sorry).
Can anyone, looking at this, guess which mount point corresponds to internal memory, or tell me how I might determine this?

As Izzy said INTERNAL STORAGE usually refers to /data, it's the partition where apps are installed and where they keep their private data.
Also /storage/sdcard0 could be part of internal phone memory, called PHONE STORAGE it's an emulated sdcard (I can't tell if in your case that's emulated sdcard or real)
To make a raw backup of your data you need to know which block contains that partition, you can check it with this command:
cat /proc/emmc

Result should contain lines like this:
emmc_p7: 001a4c00 00300000 "usrdata"
emmc_p8: 004a4c00 0358dd00 "fat"

This gives you partition number p7 , now you can use this command to list blocks:
 cat /proc/partitions

Result should contain:
  179        7    1572864 mmcblk0p7
  179        8   28077696 mmcblk0p8

In this case to backup /data aka emmc@usrdata contained in mmcblk0p7 block you can use this command:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 of=/storage/sdcard0/usrdata.img

Supposing sdcard0 is working properly and there is enough space.
After that usrdata.img can be mounted in a linux box with:
sudo mount -t ext4 -o loop usrdata.img ./folder

P.S.
You might check how to use adb so you can open a console on your computer and issue commands to your phone connected with usb.

Talking about Linux: adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p7'" > usrdata.img would bring it directly to your computer (yes, I'm just playing with those things again).

"Internal storage" usually refers to the /data partition. Unfortunately, your output is a little "cropped" and thus not easy to read (might be helpful to copy/paste it as text). It should correspond to the line reading
emmc@usrdata /data ext4 rw,relatime,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0

which unfortunately doesn't show the block device (unless emmc@usrdata can be addressed as such; guess the missing character in front is a /?). Interesting fact to see is your /system partition is mounted read-write as well – usually it's mounted read-only, so it shouldn't be affected by such trouble. /cache can be ignored (or simply wiped/formatted without losing any data, as it only holds "temporary stuff").
The */vold/* devices usually refer to your external SDCard, just for completeness, and entries using a file system like tmpfs or devpts are also safe to ignore (they are created on-the-fly on boot), similarly for rootfs, proc, sysfs, and AFAIK also cgroup. Using this rule, there's not much left to "backup and copy" ;)

Thanks. Sorry I failed to grab the leading "/", but it's there. Thanks for the hints on how to interpret the other device names...it's a long way from the Unix I messed with in 1976. :(

For sure! Sorry that I couldn't give you a direct answer on how to capture the partition – but without direct access I cannot verify. An option might still be installing a custom recovery (if possible), and create a Nandroid backup (basically, a blockwise copy AFAIK). That would ship the correct images to your SDCard, and you could mount them as loop-device to investigate, forensics-like with multiple copies for multiple tries ;)


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Is it possible to add more search providers to the Google Search?
In the Google Now/Search application, when you view the settings, you get a list of all the applications that can be searched.
Is it possible to develop apps that can add more search providers to this? I'd like to be able to search my calendar and contacts too but I can't seem to.
Earlier Android versions had an application called QuickSearch but this seems to have been removed as per the AOSP commits. Does Android now support in-device search or is this idea dead?
Here's a screenshot of my settings page.

Click image for larger version

Must be somehow possible. When researching for Android without Google 4: App Replacements I've found some corresponding search apps. Amongst others, your Quick Search, which is still available at Google Play.

Whilst it is possible for apps to make themselves available to be searched, each applications needs to be updated to implement app indexing in order for them to show up in this list.
I don't think it is possible to add additional providers without the apps themselves being updated to support this.

I was just writing the same thing. AFAIK Google Now is expanding to "in app" searching but the app dev needs to enable this, like Multi Window on Samsung I guess.


text:
How do I send a YouTube video from my desktop to my Android tablet?
Apps such as YouTube and Netflix use the X protcol to conect to smart TVs so you can send (a link to) the video you're watching to the TV, and it starts playing on the TV right away. I'm looking for something like the reverse of this: if I've started watching a video on the YouTube website on my Ubuntu PC, I'd like to have that start playing on my tablet (e.g. so I can take it with me to the kitchen as I cook). Ideally, it should start playing on the tablet at the same point I was at on the website.
The simplest workaround I can think of would be to use the "Watch later" playlist to save the video, and then open it on the tablet. That's quite long-winded, and I'm hoping there's something easier.

There is an app to send tabs to the pc from a phone (and many other features, see below), but unfortunately I too have yet to figure out a way that is not also the "watch later" workaround. Of course, if YouTube cared about designing a decent user experience simple things like this would already have been part of the platform for a decade. But they believe providing a barely functional UI will inspire users to buy into their various branch subscription packages... If I have to install some extension for the simple task of inverting a playlist there is something wrong with that sites UI....

Hi after googling today in 2022, I find this useful project:
https://github.com/pdf/kdeconnect-chrome-extension

It's an extension for chrome/firefox and a binary, It let you push links to phone/tablet and opens browser if no handler defined, or app, e.g.: youtube.
I tested in Vivaldi/Brave and a Amazon Fire 10, works flawlessly.

NOTE: You must have installed "KDE Connect" in both sides, PC (Windows and Linux) and Android,It might work on Apple devices, I didn't test on those. This KDE connect browser extension is like a plugin for KDE Connect and is not part of the original project.

Can confirm at least the utilitarian effectiveness of KDEconnect. I use it on all my devices and my linux rig. I use it regularly to send files (datasheet pdfs, or images usually) to and from the desktop, and to send webpages on my phones chrome browser to my pcs chrome browser (hit the three buttons, share, "send to device" icon with KDE logo. Easy peasy). Also has a virtual keyboard/mouse plugin to control your pc from not at the desk, as well as a host of other features. Can be a bit of a bear to find and set all the options, and YMMV, but I am a happy user, and recommend giving it a try

This page suggests that, if you run Firefox on both desktop and mobile, you can sync tabs between the two.  I should note that I haven't done it myself, but I use Chrome on both my devices and the feature works great for me.

I had a go of that, but about:sync-tabs only works on desktop Firefox, and gives "The address isn't valid" on Android.

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


text:
Remove password from Galaxy Tab4
My wife set password to her tablet and asks me to remove it. I opened settings -> security -> device encryption entering password but option none (i.e. no password) is disabled (with message turned off by administrator, policy...). As I understand if I am able to set password to none then password should disappears. But I cannot do it, so I suspecting that she is encrypted device somehow.
Is there way to ensure that device encrypted or not? If it is encrypted there is only one way, as I know, hard reset it to remove encryption. But if it is not encrypted, how to remove password?

In Settings→Security→Device Administrators, check whether some app is listed there. The error message suggests such. If there's e.g. an MS Exchange account configured, things like that are enforced (and your company's IT admin could factory-reset your device if he feels like =:-0).

@Izzy it is her private device, not related to any company. anyway, it was solved by reset to factory defaults.

MS Exchange was only one example – there might be other things doing the same. And sure: if you drop atomics on a fly, it will die :) Factory-reset is the "last resort" solution for many things.

Finally, after couple of days spent on lurking for the solution was decided to backup photos and other sensitive information and reset device to factory defaults.

1.From any home screen, tap Apps.
2.Tap Settings
3.Tap the Device tab.
4.Under 'PERSONALIZATION,' tap Lock screen.
5.Tap Screen lock.
6.Confirm your PIN / password, then tap Continue.
7.Tap None.

Option is disabled and cannot be selected.

Go to the settings.
Tap the device icon on the top.
Select lock screen in personalization.
Select screen lock. Confirm password and make in none or whatever  else.


text:
Accidentally remote-locked my device, now I get a black screen only
I just purchased an Android mobile device, and was exploring its great features! I mistakenly activated the Google Android Device Manager found on my phone just to feel how it works.
Meanwhile, I realised I've done wrong enabling the remote lock when I later got my device rebooted! Phone was on, but all I get is a black screen. I cannot unlock or perform any operation as there are no optional suggestions provided to get it unlocked or deactivated  by the user.
What can I do to access my device again?

Please consider explaining your issue better.

I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but I assume that you have accidentally locked your phone using the Android Device Manager.
I suggest you try these steps:

Open Android Device Manager website.
Login to the same Google Account set up on your Locked Device.
Select your locked device on the website.
Explore the 'Device Lock' options and unlock from there.

If Sheharyars answer doesn't work out:

Boot to recovery-menu. How to do it depends on your device, which you didn't specify; usually it's done by powering it off, then holding the Vol down and Power buttons at the same time for a couple of seconds, until the recovery menu appears.
In the recovery menu, select factory-reset (sometimes labeled "Reset to factory defaults" or similar). This will wipe all user data (including settings and the apps you've installed) from the device, and thus also your preferences for the lock.

If you haven't used android Device Manager and A third party app like AVG then boot in through safe mode. With this mode all third party apps will stop functioning and only system apps will be running. The. Go to app manager in setting as open the app info which has blocked you out and press Clear Data Button.


text:
What is the easiest-to-explain way to read a QR Code?
What is the easiest way to teach/enable someone else to read a QR Code?
Please notice, I'm not asking how to read a QR Code. I know there's a lot of apps to do it.
I'm asking what is the easiest way to enable someone else, perhaps someone without much technical knowledge, to scan a QR Code?
For example, this would be great if it actually worked:
http://www.labnol.org/software/scan-qr-code-with-google/27955/
It does not require downloading an app, therefore it's easier to show someone how to do it.
Unfortunately, for the 2 android phones I tried that on, it did not work. (there was no image search option as described in the post)
Is the easiest way really to have someone download an app and run it?

First off you need to use a QR Code Reader. There is no way around that. You can't teach some to read QR's, but you can show them the proper way of using such an app. Most of the readers have built in dummy instructions - such as center the code in the picture,  how far away to get a good reading and other useful tidbits. Besides if they can take a picture with the device,  they can read a QR Code.
So to finish off,  yes the easiest way is to have an app installed,  unless your (their)  device has one natively installed

Yes, of course a QR Code Reader is necessary. I was hoping for some built-in by default app that I simply was unaware of. I hope my question didn't imply that I want to teach them how to visually decode a QR code with their eyes... this is the android SE after all. :)

I understood what you meant. There are a few camera apps,  I don't know the names, that when a QR code is front of the lens it will switch to reader mode.

Yes, just download an app and run it.  You can't visually look at a QR code and decode it with your brain.

Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.

This is the answer and +1. Google Goggles is free and scans QR codes. If a person can't be taught to download and open one single app they probably have no need for QR codes.  Otherwise you'd need some weird brain powers to interpret QR codes without a device.


text:
Unlock encrypted Android from ADB
I have the following problem: Somehow, this evening the touchscreen of my Sony Xperia Z broke. I have two thin cracks in the display and everything on the right side of the crack does not react.
I have backup phones but I wanted to get back at least my photos. My device is encrypted with a passphrase, but I cannot type. My idea was, to unlock it from adb, so I can backup my data.
I run SlimKat (SlimRom) with TeamWin Recovery.
When I enter recovery mode, I can see my phone:
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
CB5A1PN2WU  recovery

But no commands work:
$ adb shell
- exec '/system/bin/sh' failed: No such file or directory (2) -

How can I get my data? Can I remotely control my keyboard? Sadly, everything is saved on the internal flash memory.

Welcome to the site, strix.   Variations of this question have been asked before, you might try a search on "unlock with adb", although I didn't see an obvious solution for you. This post also has a detailed answer that may be useful to you.

I have read this before. The problem is: for all these solutions I need a working touch screen or a running phone. My phone is encrypted and turned off. I don't have either touch nor adb shell working...

The Xperia Z supports USB-on-the-go, so with a USB-OTG adaptor and a USB keyboard you should be able to enter the encryption passphrase to boot the device.

Thanks, this is great! Worked like a charm, and getting all my data for 6$ was more than worth it!

Although buying an OTG cable should work fine, there is in fact a way to unlock your device through ADB alone. Found this out the hard way when I included a character in my password that was not typable on the virtual keyboard and an OTG cable did not work for reasons I won't get into.
There are two ADB commands with which you can trigger keyboard events. I have tested these and they both work on the disk decryption key input screen. These commands are:

adb shell input text 'mytext' emulates typing mytext onto the keyboard. Note that it does not accept arbitrary text: you can mostly use this to send ASCII vowels, consonants and digits to the keyboard in this way. Special characters (e.g. ', #, ;) including the space bar using this command either require special syntax or are not accepted.
adb shell inputevent <event_number> emulates the event of a specific key press. This can be used to type certain special characters. The full list of key events can be seen in the Android developer documentation. Although the key events supported differ per Android version, all key events you would use for typing in a password have been supported since Android 3.0 (API level 11).

See this Stack Overflow answer for more information.


text:
Does Samsung KIES backup hidden photos in galery?
I made a hard reset on a friend's SAMSUNG I9082 GRAN DUOS and he forgot to tell me about his hidden items.
On the KIES I selected all the possible options to keep, like a full backup (including configs, all pics and stuff).
I wanna know if KIES keeps these hidden items on backup. Because right after I've had restored the backup there were no more hidden items.
Is that possible that the item have missed his "hidden" property and it's still there or It really wasn't included on KIES backup?
Thanks in advance.

DON'T use the phone until you try this
You can retrieve the files you deleted. Those files are still in the memory of your phone just not visible, the data is waiting to be written over by new data. So from now on don't use the phone to take any more pics, to save anymore data, music, or installing any apps until recover has been done. The extensions of the hidden files will be different than normal.  When recovering look for the ext that the files were hidden under.
Then the best way to retrieve your deleted files, is to use a recovery program.

Download and install the recovery program on your computer.
With the phone plugged into USB, goto "My Computer", note the drive letter assigned to your phone.
Start the program and select the drive letter that was assigned to the phone, click "START".
Now the scanning process will automatically start to look for the deleted files.
The returning results are all recoverable items.
Select a location to save your files at.
Select the files you want recovered,  click "RECOVER"

No, Kies doesn't backup hidden items over the gallery, the hidden pictures are now lost.


text:
Editing files with Linux Deploy
I have a 2013 Nexus 7 that I'm trying to use to replace my laptop. I recently installed Linux Deploy and am running the testing distribution of Debian on the device. I've installed all my productivity suite, and things are so close to perfect. I have one small problem I'm hoping you can help with.
I have a few files, such as emacs org-mode agenda files, that I sync with Dropbox. I recently installed DropSync to download those files and keep them up to date on my device. DropSync allows 2-way synchronization, so editing them on my device should update them in Dropbox. I've set up a symlink to my DropSync'd folders to make it easier to access those files. Currently they are all stored in /storage/emulated/0/Dropbox, with the symlink in my home directory created with ln -s /mnt/0/Dropbox, because /mnt/0 is the mount point for /storage/emulated/0 from my Android fs.
The problem comes when I try to edit the files. Unless I use the sudo command in my Debian install, I only have read access to the files. When I run ls -l on a directory, I get the following:
-rw-rw----. 1 root aid_sdcard_r   0 Sep  3 12:46 filename.example
-rw-rw----. 1 root aid_sdcard_r 242 Sep  3 12:46 filename2.example

I've tried running chmod, but none of the permissions seem to change. is there a way I can permanently change the file permissions in directories I am syncing, so that I don't have to use sudo to edit the files?
The results of mount for the mount point of /storage/emulated/0 are:
/dev/loop15 on / type ext4 (rw,seclabel,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,seclabel,relatime)
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux (ro,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,seclabel,nosuid,relatime,mod=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,seclabel,relatime,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,seclabel,relatime)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/0 type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)

Results of mount in Android Terminal Emulator are extremely long. The one referring to /storage/emulated/0 is
/dev/fuse  /storage/emulated/0  fuse  rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

My username for the Debian instance is ryan.

Emulated sdcard is usually mounted as fat so you can't manage permissions inside. You might have to check how is that partition mounted.

@Crayon Sorry if it's a dumb question, but how do I do that?

np ;) Open a terminal and run: "mount" it should give you a list of all partitions mounted and their options.

@Crayon I've added the results of the mount command. Seems to be using the "fuse" filesystem, if I'm interpreting correctly.

I think situation might be more complicated than I expected, I am not familiar with chroot environment.
I am not sure I can help you but I can try.
Can you:

Post the full result of "mount" excuted from a terminal emulator on android (not inside debian).
Check if the same command issued inside debia gives you the same result, if not post that one too.
What's username in debian shell? ([username@host ~]$)
Where are originally files you want to edit and what did you symlink (files/directory)?

@Crayon I've added more information to the post. Thank you for your willingness to work with me on this.

ok, so I think the problem is that sdcard is mounted under /mnt/0 but you are trying to access it under /storage/emulator/0. You can see that directory because root can see everything but it shouldn't be the correct way to access it. Try using /mnt/0 or post ls -l /mnt/0/

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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Spotify app closes randomly
I have a Moto G that is running Android 4.4.4.
While using the Spotify app to listen to music, it suddenly closes without any error message. It simply vanishes and has to be restarted.
It looks like I am running out of memory, as it tends to happen when I am using other apps while Spotify plays in the background.
What can be causing this problem?

Is it the stock ROM? I'd normally never suggest a RAM manager, but apparently some of them can be used in the opposite way than normal: keeping an app alive. Do you have any auto tuners on, any schedulers or any RAM managers that may be killing the process? Have you reached out to Spotify about this?

@RossC it's the stock ROM, I have no RAM managers/schedulers/etc... installed. I will reach to them.

It's very odd, usually Android is OK at managing processes and a streaming music player is obviously very 'active' all the time. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why the device is doing this unless the app you load in front of it is very heavy, like a game. If a game is loaded it's possible you simply don't have enough RAM and the device prioritises the activities / services in the foreground killing others in the background. OR the app is using some media service required and is taking it away from Spotify.

@RossC I'm not playing games or using other heavy apps; usually it happens when I'm browsing the internet in Chrome with Spotify in the background: if I load a heavier tab, Spotify is closed.

Same problem. Happens with Spotify and also Soundcloud. Seems to be plenty of RAM free. Also using Chrome in foreground but often happens when just browsing, not necessarily loading a page.


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A stock rom for Samsung Captivate?
I need to flash a stock ROM to my Samsung Captivate i897 as a part of unbricking process, but I can't find one. Odin one click roms don't work for me as Odin one click doesn't see my phone (regular ODIN does see the phone so I assume the drivers are ok). I need a rom that I can either install in recovery or using regular ODIN

It's not a duplicate of the other question. I went to all the sites mentioned and haven't found any up-to-date links to stock ROMs for captivate (i897)

For samsung stock ROM download log on to http://samsung-updates.com/latest-firmware/

Choose your Device
Choose ROM
Download and then Flash it

Done

+1. Also http://www.sammobile.com has all the stock firmwares. I would just add for the OP: always ensure you have EVERYTHING downloaded in advance of installing anything. Have a nandroid backup made and on your PC, the ROM you will be flashing, any other tools you need.

Unfotunately neither sammobile.com nor samsung-updates.com have any ROMs for Captivate (i897).


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AFwall+: Why does the Kernel need an internet connection all the time?
Since I started using AFWall+ (a firewall based on iptables) on Android, I was wondering why the Linux kernel tries to connect to the internet all the time?
Allthough blocking the kernel I didn't recognize any disadvantages or issues.
A short answer is given here on the FAQs page of AFWall+.
It says that the kernel does not communicate directly, it only pass packet information from some applications and something about policy routing based on fwmark.
What does it mean? What is fwmark? Can somebody translate it into simple language for noobs? Is it better to allow the kernel to connect over TCP?

fwmark stands for Firewall Mark, which can be better described as a "netfilter mark", according to a quote in this article (also my reference).
Simplifying stuff a lot:
fwmark is a "stamp" on TCP/IP packets put there by the kernel. mark refers to the command line entity (whatever that is, refer the linked article for details). These are used by Linux Virtual Servers to coordinate routing from different IP addresses used by the virtual servers to the same real server (the actual server machine).
I have next to no idea why an Android device would need that. It is probably a holdover from the mainstream Linux kernel features integrated by the developer into the Android kernel.


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How Google Wear install app from Google Play
I got to know that when you try to install any Android mobile app which also have Android Wear app, then Google Play automatically push the build to Android Wear device.
I am not sure whether is it right or wrong. Please help how this flow works.
Do we have Gmail app in Android Wear like in Android phone?

It'd be easier to give a useful answer if you add a little background to your question. "How does it work?" covers a lot of ground, so what in particular are you trying to understand? What's the problem you want to solve?

Please note the below is generic details. OEMs have their own Android Wear apps, just as an example Smart Connect from Sony
According to this article:

When you install an Android app that also has an Android Wear app, the app is automatically installed on your watch.

The watch connects and starts downloading apps using the phone’s internet connection. You need to have the Android Wear App installed on the phone to enable this.

As for Gmail, yes you can use it on a Smart Watch.
See here for details. You can do the following with Gmail in Android Wear:
Read email
Your new email will show up in a Gmail card. Touch the card to expand the message. If the message is long, you might have to tap to expand it multiple times.
If you have multiple messages, you’ll see a bar at the bottom of the card that shows how many messages you have. Touch the bar to see the rest of your messages.
You’ll get Gmail cards if you get Gmail notifications on your phone. Learn more about how notifications work on Android Wear.
Reply to an email
When you get a new email, you can read and reply by going to the Gmail card. Swipe ← to the left until you see the “reply” action. You will have to touch to reply. You can’t use a voice command like “reply.”

If your watch’s screen is dimmed, touch it to wake up your screen first.
Your Gmail message will show up in a card. Touch the message you want to reply to.
Swipe ← to the left until you see Reply.
Touch Reply.
Say your message. Your message will send automatically.

Keep in mind, you can’t edit what you said after this point. If you want to change or cancel your message, you’ll have one second to press Cancel.

Send an email
You can speak to your watch to send an email to a contact, or say the email address.

If your watch’s screen is dimmed, touch it to wake up your screen first.
Say “Ok Google.” You’ll see a white screen with a red “g.”
Say the following: “Send email to Alex Jones that I’m looking forward to dinner tomorrow.”

Archive an email
You can archive an email right from your watch.

If your watch's screen is dimmed, touch it to wake up your screen
first.
Your Gmail message will show up in a card. Touch the
message you want to archive.
Swipe ← to left until you see
Archive.
Touch Archive.
Your message will be archived.

Not all apps sync. only specific ones for the android wear.
for email i use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appfour.wearmail but you can also tell your watch to send an email via voice commands. "messenger for wear" also does SMS text messages. its got its own built in keyboard as well as letting you give voice commands.
simple answer is to make sure the app you install supports wear first.
and to answer the first question you can go into the google wear app and tap the sync button somewhere in the menu to manually sync. though should do automatcally


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Change MCC and MNC in the APN settings
I'm currently on a vacation with a new phone who worked perfectly on the country I bought it at (SMS, calls, data...) but now, when im abroad, the data wont work although I can make calls alright. But if I try to change the APN's MCC and MNC codes which currently is set to Belgium for some reason (I'm currently in Germany) to something other than the default ones, it just removes the APN entry from the APNs list.
What can I do to change the APN's MCC and MNC codes? Are there any reason that they would be locked or something similar?
I have a Nexus 5 Android KitKat 4.4.4

MCC (country code) and MNC (network carrier) are bound to that APN (and maybe to your SIM as well), so changing wouldn't help you much as there wouldn't be a match. What you need is the APN definition of the carrier you're currently using in Germany. Beware roaming costs.


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Questions about rooting a tablet device for making kiosks
My company's looking at the option of using Android tablet for making kiosks. The thing is, the majority of the native settings must be blocked from the user, and very limited apps and utility will be exposed to the customer. From the looks of it, a custom ROM would be the perfect solution, but that requires some arbitrary device be rooted. But then rooting voids warrantee, and this is meant to be a commercial product, so some kind of warrantee is needed. Is there an alternative method? Or what's the legality of commercial rooting?

I've added the [tag:kiosk-mode] tag to your question. You might like to start by looking at the existing top questions in that tag.

For a solution like a kiosk you would use dev hardware where you have full access to the hardware (JTAG for example) and then you would push your own Android build with root access enabled and then push the ROM to the dev board.
That said, for a kiosk type deployment you would NOT want root access available. Therefore when you push your ROM root would not be enabled.
I think your confusing root access and an unlocked bootloader.
By a dev board and learn how to build your own ROMs. :)

Thanks! I'll be learning Android dev in the process of this project, so this world is still very new to me. Would you kindly elaborate what you said? Is it then not practical to convert existing tablets like the Samsung Tab for this purpose?

Did you have a look at applications such as KioWare and SureLock Kiosk Lockdown? These seem to be able to put your device to a kiosk environment. Im certain there are more alternatives for this purpose out there.
Another option would be to implement your own home screen application. This answer from stackoverflow might help with that.
cheers!

You could use SuperLockLite Secure Kiosk if you have Samsung device. Have a look at this free app, it does not require rooting of phone.


text:
Could I use my phone to scan or image myself?
Could I use my phone or tablet to create an image rendering of my body that I could use to quantify body metrics like waist size, inseam, etc?

Sure, you can "image" yourself by taking a photo. If that's not what you're trying to achieve, your question needs to be more specific.

Got it sorry about that. Could I use my phone or tablet to create an image rendering of my body that I could use to quantify body metrics like waist size, inseam, etc?

You would have to have relational masking with quantative markings. A big PIA!!

No. Even humans, who are much better at vision and understanding pictures than computers are, can't determine accurate dimensions just by looking at a photo.
The closest you can get is apps like in Is there any app that measures the distance using the camera?, but they can only answer simple questions using trigonometry: if you know how far an object is from the camera, it can measure how big it is, or if you know how big it is, it can work out how far away from the camera. Even then, they can only give very approximate answers. An app like that wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a 30" or 34" waist, for instance.
The only way to use your phone to "create an image rendering" with this data would be to use a drawing or 3d modelling app to make the picture and then add labels for measurements you took with a tape measure.


text:
Which Samsung smartphone models support LTE and are not susceptible to "sudden death syndrome"?
Does anyone know which Samsung smartphone models support LTE and are not susceptible to "sudden death syndrome"? Thank you.

Pretty much any Samsung is going to be susceptible to "SDS" (Sudden death syndrome)
Because Samsung is just "high quality stuffs".

For a point of reference, I am a smartphone data recovery/Mod/Repair technician, and I see SDS and Memory errors almost exclusively in samsung devices.

The only exceptions were Damaged by Water.


text:
I uninstalled updates for Google play services
I uninstalled updates for Google play service and now I can't even use my Google play store, help me please
I'm using a Samsung galaxy grand quattro

Have you tried the usual remedies for an app that is misbehaving?

Try this link - Google Play Apk. Try upgrading it later if an update is available.
Edit:
Open any browser and go to PlayStore and try to install any application so that website may prompt to install Play Store before continuing.
(or)
1 - There is a chance that you've unknowingly disabled Play Store permanently in App Manager. To re-enable it again just follow Menu>Settings>Apps/App Manager>Disabled apps and enable it.
2 - You can also use apps like CleanMaster to perform above job.

https://mega.co.nz/#!Z9IWmRaR!HQ-5istE6Vsw5-pWMg8rPE6iOONfYirxaMgfxfMqxhQ  _isn't a link to the playstore

@HasH_BrowN - Oh I know it man! You don't find Google Play app in Google Play so I gave that link to give it a try. You've downvoted my answer and discovered a great truth that it's not a link to Play Store.

Then you need to include details that are relevant to the question. Anybody reading that unedited answer you had originally wrote would think that was a link to an actual apk. Now the updated answer addresses the question,  thank you for clarifying. Down vote removed!!

I faced the same problem on my LG G2(purchased a few months ago) with the google play store. Earlier I used Playstore to download as many free apps as needed. But then to save the battery backup time, I disabled all the apps that used to restart automatically, each time I closed them. But after disabling them from task manager, play store stopped working and even after re-enabling it, it did not start. Even the apps downloaded through play store did not function and used to give info that for running this app I need to update play store and after opening play store to update, it used to straightway say no connection. I called google support, and did a bit of troubleshooting on it remotely, but it did not help, they asked me to take the device to the service centre. But as I barely find any time in any week, I decided to do it myself and used the factory mode reset option and now it is functioning again wonderfully.


text:
How to stop an app from draining the battery without uninstalling that app?
I know how to identify which apps are using the battery, but I'm not sure what to do about it. There are some apps that I occasionally use but I don't want them draining the battery while I'm out and about. Is there any easy way to disable those apps without uninstalling them?

What kind of apps? The answer might be as simple as changing the settings in the app.

The most draining of the apps is Alipay (a payment service). I use it to buy things online, pay for taxis, and split the bill in restaurants. But some days I don't need it all and it drains 25% of my battery. Other than that, there are a few apps that each take up around 5% even when I don't use them.

Please [edit] your question to include this information. Comments are impermanent.

You can try Greenify it freezes the app when you are not explicitly using it. There is an experimental feature to make it work without root but I didn't try it since my phone is rooted.
There is also Disable Service that can disable single services. It requires root access.

Thanks for the answer. I think you meant this for the second link.

yes exactly, I posted originally with my phone and when I edit with pc to fix link formatting I used [1] for the second link too.


text:
Send file via NFC from Galaxy S2 Plus and Sony vaio with Ubuntu OS
I have a problem with sharing files between my Galaxy S2 phone and a Sony Vaio model SVF1521DCXW with NFC support1. I am using Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop version and I don't have any idea how can I use NFC to send a single photo to my PC. When I enable NFC on my phone and put it on the NFC sign on my laptop nothing happens.
I also enabled NFC on my Ubuntu machine, and I see my NFC is ON in Ubuntu. As it is usually done between Android devices, I've held my S2 back-to-back on the Vaio while running Ubuntu and Win8. I hear a sound on my Win8 and it opens a url on chrome browser – but I get nothing to transfer.

1: To be clear: both devices have NFC support, see the specs at GSMArena for the S2 and at Sony for the Vaio.

Can you elaborate a little more on the Ubuntu part? I guess "put on NFC sign on my laptop" refers to some NFC tag, but I'm not sure. I've not heard NFC supported directly by some PC/laptop, so how should the actual transfer be accomplished? Are both devices connected to the same network (WiFi), so NFC should just trigger the transfer? Maybe you can [edit] your question and explain your intended workflow? E.g. "select a photo in the gallery app, hold my phone to the NFC tag, and the photo gets copied to the /home/peter/Photos folder"?

@Izzy Hi, Yes I mean when I turned on my NFC on my phone with android 4.2 gelibean in it and then I don't know what do I have to do that I can able transfer the photo to my pc. When I select share icon (a shape like "<:") I don't see any NFC share capability, And without doing any thing (just turning on NFC on phone) I putted it on NFC tag on my laptop and nothing transfer or I don't hear any sound. I also enabled NFC on my Ubuntu by rfkill unblock all and I see my NFC is ON in Ubuntu. But sir Izzy I don't know about same network. Does that need in NFC transfer.

... Here it is my laptop spec Please add my @KasiyA link before your comments because I don't receive any flag for your response on this question thank you for helping in advance.

@KasiyA NFC is normally used for the "handshake" only, while the file exchange itself is done with other means (either Bluetooth, or WiFi Direct). That's how it's done between two Android devices: hold them back-to-back, tap the "object" to-be-transferred, and the other device receives it. You'll probably need nfctool or libnfc on the Ubuntu-End; as I've not played with that, I cannot give any advice, sorry.

@Izzy I also did that(back to back) on Ubuntu and I did also on windows 8. I hear a sound on my Win8 and it opens a url on chrome browser but I get nothing to transfer. Thank you for suggest tools I will try with them.

@KasiyA If the question was posted by you, you should ask a mod to "merge users", so you can easily edit it yourself (did the edit for you meanwhile). // nfctool should at least show whether Ubuntu sees your S2. Maybe the Ubuntu part is better asked at our sister site ("How to receive via/use NFC with Ubuntu?") – but the [NFC topic is not really wide-spread there either].(http://askubuntu.com/search?q=nfc).

@Izzy Yes it was for me but I deleted my user from here because I get no answer or even no comment(low reputation ;() until I came back here and Opened a bounty. I also asked on ASK U but as the same response there I deleted my question from there too. ;(

You can try Airdroid as it available even for Ubuntu OS. It is one of the easiest way to transfer from PC to mobile or vice versa.
Go to Google Store and look for Airdroid and have it in your mobile.
On browser type - http://web.airdroid.com
Put in your user name and pass -> Boom you will have complete control of your mobile from your system.
If you like to know Airdroid's feature then you can check this out - Airdroid Features

Full disclosure is required when promoting an app or post in which you are involved. Self promotion is fine as long as it is relevant and you disclose your involvement with the linked content.

In general I agree, with the stipulation that it has to actually answer the question. The question here wasn't "how can I transfer files between my S2 and my Vaio?", it's specifically about using NFC. If someone asks how to get a specific feature to work, then I think an answer that says "never mind that feature, try my app that accomplishes what you're trying to do in a different way" is just spam.

Perhaps the OP is only interested in accomplishing the ultimate goal, but that can't just be assumed. If he asked about NFC, it may be that he's specifically interested in figuring out this particular feature, no just asking how to transfer files in general. Personally, if I asked a question about getting NFC to work, I'd be annoyed if someone answered "Forget about NFC, here's another way to transfer files..." Especially if the person were promoting his own app, as an answer to a bountied question, no less!


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Samsung S5 emails not loading
Up until about a week ago my emails were loading fine.  Now it seems like they stopped and only load a few at a time.  Supposed to refresh every 15 minutes but sometimes goes all day before any come in.

Did you get anywhere with this?


text:
Samsung Galaxy S4 USB Screen Lock Error
I have no idea what happened, but the last few times I have connected my Galaxy S4 to my Mac OSX to try and transfer music files (or any files for that matter) I get the message "can't access device storage If your device's screen is locked, disconnect its USB cable, unlock your screen, and then reconnect the USB cable."
Only problem is my screen is Not locked when I connected it in the first place. I have tried disconnecting, locking my screen, unlocking my screen, and then reconnecting but that doesn't work either…
Is there a way to fix this? All and any answers would be greatly appreciated.


text:
Closing/killing "Android Terminal Emulator" app
I have a Sprint LG G3 running Android 4.4.2. I'm using Android Terminal Emulator by Jackpal. It respawns after I close the app. I see the terminal process and the child shell but killing that way seems too manual.
When I closed the only window from the dropdown list at the top, it closes temporarily, then reappears in the "Recent apps" list. There is an un-swipeable notification that says "Terminal session is running". When I tap on either the thumbnail or notification, the "Window 1" comes back.
The only workaround I've found is rebooting.
Any better ideas to really close this app?

Did you try am force-stop jackpal.androidterm or OS Monitor to kill it?

Open settings > apps > Terminal Emulator > Force Stop .. After you have force stopped the app, wipe the data and cache then close app info settings, Try to open the app again and see if it closes normally

I saw another answer today and here's my update. I never did need a terminal again. I leave this to the next person who encounters my problem to try Firelord's suggestion and report. I have since moved to an LG G6 tethered to a Chromebook.

There are this ways :
1 - CTRL + D ( Volume Down + D )
2 - Tapping The "X" Button
3 - Typing The "exit" Command

Simply tap on 3 dots and first close all Windows. When you close the last 1 window, you will be out of simulator.

Close all windows of the terminal emulator and it'll automatically quit the app and close the notifications.

There should be an "X" at the top of your screen. Just tap it.

It just re opens.

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


text:
ADB not working, but Fastboot is
I recently bought a used Nexus 5. It came with the L preview on it, and I decided to flash CM 11 instead. My last phone was a Nexus S, and I've flashed various ROMs to that thing in the past.
Using the same machine that just re-flashed that Nexus S a couple weeks ago, I booted the Nexus 5 into fastboot mode, flashed ClockworkMod onto it and re-unlocked the bootloader. However, when I tried using ADB to push the CyanogenMod image over, I got error: device not found. Sure enough, adb devices fails to detect the device, even though USB debugging is enabled.
I decided this was just an issue with L, so I used Google's flash-all.sh script to give me a stock KitKat install. This worked fine, since it's pushing the image via fastboot. However, I still can't get the device to show up to ADB. When I enable USB debugging with the phone plugged into my computer, I don't get a fingerprint confirmation dialog, and no icon notification appears to indicate that it's connected to a computer. I've tried 2 different OSes (Windows 7 and Linux Mint 14) on 3 different computers with 4 different USB cables.
I've tried installing Google's USB drivers, and I have this problem with both fresh installs of the Android SDK and time-tested ones. I've already got 0x18d1 in my adb_usb.ini. On my Linux system, the output of the lsusb command gives identical output whether the phone is connected (with USB debugging enabled) or not. When it's in fastboot, it shows up as Bus 001 Device 069: ID 18d1:4ee0 Google Inc.
The phone seems to work perfectly fine in every other respect. I'm pretty happy with vanilla KitKat, but I'd be happier at least knowing I had the option to use something else. I also like having access to adb shell now and then.
I've seen plenty of people having issues with ADB before, but never without also having fastboot problems. Any ideas what might be going on? I'd prefer a Linux solution, but I can also work with Windows if needed.

Update: I was able to get the appropriate files into /sdcard/ by simply downloading them with a web browser, then flashing them with ClockworkMod. I'm now running CM 11, and the ADB problem hasn't gone away. Whatever is causing this, it persists through complete ROM replacements. I'm now curious as ever to know what could be causing this.

Update 2: Upon further communication with the ebay seller, it turns out this phone had been the subject of water damage prior to being listed for sale. The device booted and appeared to work fine, but in addition to this strange ADB issue, it also couldn't recognize a SIM card. It seems like this was some one-of-a-kind hardware damage, so I doubt there's even a solution.
I ended up returning the device, so there's no way for me to test anything else on it, but if anyone's able to come up with an explanation for why Fastboot can communicate with the device but ADB can't (again, probably due to a hardware fault), I'll accept that as an answer.

I'm facing a similar issue: Fastboot USB works (Linux and Windows), ADB doesn't. In dmesg I see the ADB device connects and almost instantly disconnects. When fully booted, then connecting, the device will never leave charging mode (thunder bolt icon remains). When booting with the PC connected, it will never enter charging mode. Even when connected to a wall charger afterwards. A reboot is required to fix this. A few weeks back it sometimes worked, and sometimes didn't. Now it just sticks with this issue. :-(

My Nexus 4 developed the exact same problem.  It can work with fastboot, but not adb.  It simply does not get recognized as a valid usb device of any kind unless in fastboot/bootloader mode.  I'm going to try to replace the USB connector, but I'm not confident it will work.

Flash ROM with Fastboot
Before starting ensure bootloader is unlocked. Obtain a ROM of your choice, and note the location on your computer.

Reboot your device into fastboot mode via one of the following options.

adb reboot bootloader (requires USB debugging to be turned on). - for working adb; OR
power off the device then back on with 'vol up' + power button. - for nonworking adb

Wipe your device. fastboot -w
Update your ROM. fastboot update /path/to/your/RomFile.zip
Your phone will update and automatically reboot into the new ROM

Edit:
Try the Universal Naked Drivers by 1wayjohnny over at xda forums.
This has been included because my researching has also found corrupted drivers can be the culprit
Try http://code.google.com/p/boot-unlocker-gnex/ to reset tamper flags.

The only other information I could find for the error: device not found is not helpful in this forum. It does lead towards development and programming though.

I tried installing 1wayjohnny's driver, but I'm getting the same results.
A little clarification: In Windows, when the phone is booted (not in fastboot), it doesn't show up as an unknown device. It doesn't show up at all. If I reboot into fastboot, it then appears.

I tried installing using fastboot update and got error "update package has no android-info.txt or android-product.txt"

The device has to be in MTP enabled state, regardless if in recovery or booted into the UI. Stock recovery defaults to enable MTP for the ADB bridge in case you didn't have a custom recovery.
In TWRP, and CWM you have to enable that option before adb will be detected by your Linux machine's adb.

What does Media Transfer Protocol have to do with ADB?  Fastboot mode also general presents a specific interface that has nothing to do with any configuration on the phone -- most devices present as a generic Google/Android device while in Recovery or Fastboot mode.


text:
Facebook app uses a lot of data storage while not logged in
I occasionally check my mom's Android phone to see if everything's still running smoothly, just regular maintenance. Today I noticed that the Facebook app on her phone uses 33.46MB of data storage besides the application's size of 27.62MB. Plot twist: she doesn't have a Facebook account and the app on her phone has never been used. Needless to say, the amount of data the app supposedly stores here even though it's not logged in is quite alarming. Does anyone here have any idea what Facebook might be storing and/or tracking here?

I've heard from various sources that Facebook (and other companies, frankly) do track geo-locations for various purposes, the first and foremost being that they want to serve you ads that you usually see around the web. I've also seen that they really do snoop around a lot (on all of your devices, and yes, even without an account), so geo-locations are probably just the tip of the iceberg.
You might want to check your privacy settings for Facebook just to see what data is being collected. If you're tired of Facebook eating up the storage on your mom's phone, uninstalling should take care of that. Of course, if you want your mom to be out of Facebook's peering eyes, good luck, because you really can never escape Facebook trackers unless you suspend yourself from technology.
Hope this helped.

To clarify: the "snooping around" happens even without the app being logged into an account? It's to be expected that Facebook will track all kinds of things about you when you're logged in, but doing it on a device where the app is just sitting without an active account is something else altogether. Of course uninstalling would solve the problem, but as is the case with many phones the app came pre-loaded and can't be removed. I think I'll just disable the app through Android's settings. Still, this is pretty sketchy behavior.

You'd be surprised at what stuff they can capture through a smartphone app. Disabling the app should do the trick, however.

Alright then, pretty disappointing that this is how far they're willing to go. I guess the mere fact that the app is on your phone means that you've accepted their mobile app's terms, but the fact that it's preinstalled on pretty much every Android phone kinda negates that. I could see this ending up being investigated by the EU if the story got traction, but I guess disabling the app will do for now. Thanks guys!

Yet another reason to stay away from Facebook, other than it being a time-waster. :D


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How to Pinch Zoom on device with no touchscreen, like an Android Stick?
I have some Android TV "sticks", such as the RK3188, which is basically a tablet minus the screen. You control them using keyboard and a mouse.
The problem is, I have no way to zoom in or out in the browser. There's no way for me to do a "pinch" gesture, and Ctrl +/- etc. don't seem to work in any browser, like Chrome, FireFox, and Dolphin.
I'm using the box as a display screen in a public area and not being able to scale the content to fit the whole TV is a serious limitation.
EDIT: Double tap only offers 2 zoom levels "close" and "far".

Have you tried doubleclicking the webpage? Doubletap in Android is usually interpreted as a zooming gesture.

some computers allow you to left and right click at the same time and drag to zoom

I just found this info with a quick google http://www.pcworld.com/article/184656/android_keyboard_shortcuts.html
I hope it helps.
Android Keyboard Shortcuts: Browsing
• Menu + I: Zoom in
• Menu + O: Zoom out
• Menu + J: Go back a page
• Menu + K: Go forward a page
• Menu + R: Refresh current page
• Menu + F: Find on page
• Menu + B: Open bookmarks
• Menu + S: Open social network sharing menu
• Menu + H: View browsing history
• Menu + S: Open browser settings

As aureljared points out, apps offer alternative zoom mechanisms. Google officially recommends that apps use either double-click or double-click-and-drag to zoom. (That is, click once, then hold the mouse button down and drag vertically to zoom in and out.)
Android's "manifest" system for apps requires apps to state explicitly if they work with non-touchscreen pointing interfaces like a mouse, joystick, or trackpad. If the manufacturer of your TV stick set it up correctly, it will only show you apps which can be used fully with a mouse and keyboard, including zooming.

This way works for me - double klick with left mouse button and hold it down at second klick, then drag up or down to zoom in or out.


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phone whilstles or bell rings: sounds on Samsung Galaxy S3
I have two very basic questions about my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. In its
default configuration:

Every now and then the phone whistles. (a) What does this mean?
(b) How do I change this or turn it off permanently?
A few months ago the operating system did an OTA (over-the-air) update.
Now every now and then, besides this whistling, I also hear a bicycle bell
ringing. (a) What does this mean and how does this differ from the whistling,
that is, how is the information conveyed by the whistling different by the
information conveyed by the bicycle bell ringing? (b) How do I change this
sound or turn it off altogether permanently?

Thanks.

These are both notifications. To change them or even just find out what they are notifying you about go to Settings > My Device > Sound
You can change the "Default Notification Sound" (even choosing silent, but then you won't get any notification sounds) and a little bit lower on the menu you can set distinct defaults for specific samsung apps. There are many apps that allow you to choose different notifications sounds (other than the default that you chose above), but those have to be changed in the apps themselves.
Do you notice any new information in the notification area (by swiping down from the top of the screen) when you hear these alerts?

Thanks. I can see the Whistle sound under Settings -> My Device -> Default Notification Sound but cannot find the bicycle bell sound there. If I set this to silent will the bicycle bell sound go away as well? Thanks.

@JohnSonderson Every app can control its own notifications. When the bell rings what exactly happens on the device when this rings? It was emails for me, but it does depend on the app.

I think the bicycle sound is called "Postman" on an sgs3. Did you look in all of the apps listed under "samsung applications" (Call, Message, Email, Splanner)?

Thank you for your comment. I found the sound under Settings -> My device -> Sound -> Default notification sound (open with Media Storage) -> Postman (the default here is set to Whistle). That is exactly the sound I was looking for (the reason I was not finding it is that I was probably looking under Ringtones). However I cannot find an application called "samsung applications", although I have an application called "GALAXY Apps". Is this the one I should be looking at? Some app keeps on making that "Postmap" notification sound ring, and I'm not sure where to look. Thanks.

I think the "Samsung Applications" section of the Sounds menu  is found in android version 4.4, you probably have version 4.3. Galaxy Apps is not what you want, that is another app store like Google Play.


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How can I auto refresh my web browser in android? (Any web browser)
I want to refresh (reload) a webpage every x minutes. How can i do this? Firefox addon's don't work, dolphin addon's don't work either...

Why don't the work? I've tried dolphin add on here on an S4, a nexus 4, 5 and 7 (2013 edition), a Galaxy Tab, a HTC One M7 and M8.... Can you give more detail?

it seems that the addon only works if the browser is open, when you open another app or wait 30 min without opening the browser again it stops realoading the webpage.

Android might be killing the browser after a long time of inactivity... I don't know how to work around that to refresh a website with any of those tools.

Install Tasker https://play.google.com/store/search?c=apps&q=tasker+apk
Read about Tasker and how to use http://tasker.dinglisch.net/

Tasker is an application for Android which performs tasks (sets of actions) based on contexts (application, time, date, location, event, gesture) in user-defined profiles or in clickable or timer home screen widgets.

Download a script or write one to start and continue refreshing the browser at needed intervals.

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/tasker

Always do a backup!!!!


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Phone will no longer connect via USB after bad ROM
I have a phone that was flashed with a bad ROM. It no longer has a system, so actually getting into the phone is a no-go. It can, however, boot into recovery and download mode. I planned on flashing to a stock ROM, but I can no longer connect via USB: Windows simply cannot recognize the device.
I've gone through various driver installations, but to no avail. I figured I'd give up on the USB and just put a stock ROM on an SDcard and install it through recovery. Would this work, or do I need to do it through USB?

You can flash a ROM through recovery from the SD card, but you can't (usually, depends on the device) go back to full stock as the full stock image (usually) includes recovery etc. Should be no issue to flash a ROM at least, then worry about going back to stock from there.

@RossC Awesome, that's what I wanted to hear. So I'd flash the stock ROM, get USB working again, and then flash again to ensure that the phone as both a stock ROM and stock recovery.

@Izzy done now, Liffer nope, flash a custom ROM to get it booting, then worry about getting back to stock.

With these things there are always exceptions and a few clever work-arounds, the below is general advice.
Only flash a ROM for your exact device model
You can't flash something not 'stock' through the stock recovery, attempting to do so will cause signature errors. The opposite; flashing stock ROM through a custom recovery will also error. So you will not be able to restore to stock first (more than likely anyway.)
However, since you don't immediately need the phone on stock, then you can copy any ROM compatible with your device onto the SD card and flash that through recovery. At least then you will be have a booting device, and can deal with the USB drivers issue.
Installing in recovery would usually involve the 2 main steps below:
Wipe the device
Install from zip
And then install any other zips you may need (e.g. google-apps).
You could attempt to mount the SD card in your recovery but I'd guess you've tried all those options.
Also as Izzy has pointed out you may need a new radio-firmware flashed on the device to allow "low level interface" connection, so the kernel has nothing to connect to.
Once again ONLY flash something for your EXACT device or you will have a shiny paper weight!

I was able to install this custom ROM, but I still cannot connect via USB. Here is a screenshot of the device info. I think this issue is at the kernel level, as the phone simply cannot supply information to the computer. Perhaps you can point me to some compatible kernel?

You could try this one (at your own risk of course): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2217686 Have you tried a different cable, USB port, computer etc first? Worth a try.

I gave it a try, but no go. I've tried a couple of different ROMS, but nothing is getting the computer to recognize the phone. I've tried Kies and various other drivers, as well as different USB port and cables. At this point, I don't think it's worth the frustration. I may consider selling it for parts, which would be a shame since it's in like-new condition. I'll take this as a lesson.

"flashed with a bad ROM" (from your question) might have included a bad radio-firmware – which would explain why it doesn't work with "any ROM tried": if the (wrong) radio doesn't supply the "low-level interface", there's nothing kernel or driver can plug in to. In this case, it might help finding a working (and up-to-date) radio image for your device, and flash that.

@Izzy great point, I've added a note to the and of the answer (crediting you).

Good idea, @RossC! You might wish to include the [tag:radio-firmware] (or the direct link to its tag-wiki, which might be preferable) for details on what that is and what to take care for. With the radio it's even more important to not flash any incompatible image: if that's broken, it might not be as easily re-flashed as a "normal ROM".


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Cannot connect Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 SM-T705 to computer vis usb
I'm trying to connect my Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 SM-T705 with Android 4.4.2 to computer via usb - but there's no effect. Fun thing is that I was able to do it a week ago.
Connection of flash card to usb port also fails - device doesn't appear in Settings->Device list.
What can I do to detect problem?

Does it charge when you plug a usb charger in?

Or, another question might be, does it charge when you plug it into the computer port?  Make sure the hardware (cable and the port) is working before installing software.

I got the same problem, currently fixed it by downloading
"All Drivers for Android" application by hexamob from the Play Store.
Open up the application and then plug in your usb.
This will either download drivers or you will see
the usb connection on notification bar.
hopefully this helps.

My PC could not recognise my USB port from my SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 8.4 TM-705
My external SD CARD inserted in the tablet could not be recognized by the tablet drive system, so, I came here to read about and later
I found "USB OTG HELPER" on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.shajul.usbotg
and it worked instantly showing off my tablet name on MY DESKTOP list of drives on my pc.
PORT USB CARTE EXTERNE PAS DE CONNEXION PC ORDINATEUR PAS RECONNU GALAXY TAB S 8.4 TM-705 KITKAT

Follow these instructions:

Connect your Galaxy Tab using a USB cable to your PC.
If you now click on "Computer" the various drives will show but at this stage your Galaxy Tab will not appear.
Right-click on "Computer" and click on "Properties", then select "Device Manager".
Now you will see "Galaxy Tab" under Portable Devices, but it will have a small yellow exclamation mark in the icon to indicate that the device is not functioning. Don't worry.
Right-click on the icon and select "Update Driver Software".
Now click on "Search Automatically for Updated Driver Software" and you are done. You need to be connected to the internet during the process.
Now open "Computer" on your PC and you will see Galaxy Tab as one of the Portable Drives. If you have already installed a SD Card in your Galaxy Tab, this will show up and you can perform all the usual operations to transfer, delete, add, and more, from PC to Tablet.

Make sure that the SD card has been correctly formatted after you insert it into your Galaxy device.

GUIDE TO ENABLE DEVICE RUNNING OF APPLICATION
Note: I tried this on my phone.
Note: Follow Google's Android instructions to better follow the steps below.

After downloading Android Studio, update it.
Install Google USB driver: Go to SDK Manager -> SDK Tools -> tick Google USB driver -> click Apply.
Plug in your device.
Go to Computer, right-click -> select Manage.
Choose your device, right-click -> select Update Driver -> choose manually.
Select browse. It is found at your SDK path\extras\google\usb_driver.
If you don't know your SDK path, go to SDK Manager to find it written. Look for Android SDK location.
Click Next.
Go to your device, go to settings. Click Developer Options. Click Enable USB debugging.
Return, click Run.
Choose your device.
Enable adb integration if requested.
To enable it, go to Tools -> Android -> click the checkbox beside Enable adb integration.


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Use Easily.Do offline?
I installed Easily.Do on my android device, which is offline. But says I have to sign in. Is there a way to use EasilyDO without internet on my phone?

If you have to sign in then you'll need the Internet. You could ask the developer?

You have to at least sign in once in the app, it cannot be used without connecting an account to it.
Now how much the app rely on online data to work, it's hard to tell without actually using it. So far, I've tried it and some informations like appointment and the weather are accessible (cached), but the app warns you that no data connection is available. Obviously, you won't receive any update while offline.


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Connect physical Android Wear watch to emulated phone
I have found many tutorials that explain how to pair an emulated Android Wear watch to a physical phone. However, I would like to do the opposite. Is it possible to create a Bluetooth connection from the pc to the watch and then tell ADB to make the phone emulator use this connection?

It seems this is possible by putting the Android OS on a generic emulator like VirtualBox and using a computer Bluetooth LE dongle. For more infos, see here:
Bluetooth Low Energy on Android Emulator

You can't is the short answer. The emulator does not support bluetooth testing at all.
See the Google Developers post on Using the Emulaor
The important line is near the end:
Emulator Limitations
The functional limitations of the emulator include:

No support for placing or receiving actual phone calls. You can
simulate phone calls (placed and received) through the emulator
console, however.
No support for USB connections
No support for device-attached headphones
No support for determining network connected state
No support for determining battery charge level and AC charging state
No support for determining SD card insert/eject
No support for Bluetooth

Thanks, but I'm not entirely sure whether that answers my question. I didn't expect the emulator to support bluetooth, i.e. the emulator using the pc's bluetooth module as its own. My idea was that the emulator only has to know that it can reach the wear device through ADB. If I can connect the wear device to my pc over bluetooth, just like I would do with a physical phone, the only thing left to do is tell ADB to set up a connection between these two devices. Does my reasoning make any sense or am I missing something here?

It can't apparently, but I'm on mobile now so can't cite it.

As far as I know, the Android Wear service on the handset integrates many services to make connecting a watch to the Android handset easy. If you want to connect the watch to your computer, you'll have to replicate this code on the PC. As far as I know, Android Wear is not completely open source, so making that work might be impossible.


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Bad blocks and Link2SD
I have a rooted Android 2.3.6 phone (Samsung Galaxy Y Duos, S6102B) and use Link2SD to acquire more storage for apps on it using a 8GB micro SD card (partitioned in partition #1 for my files and partition #2 for linked app data from Link2SD).
Well, it is the 2nd micro SD card I bought to my phone and the same issue appears: bad blocks. I don't know if it is because of the charger I use on my car... But the real issue is that with bad blocks on partition used by Link2SD to store files from apps, the SO become slow, I cannot launch apps or it reboots a lot.
Did anyone here encounter that issue? How to solve it without the need to throw current micro SD away? Partitions with EXT2/3? NTFS?

You could try to "repair" the bad blocks and see if that works. Below is the Windows and Linux methods for doing it. Repairing won't fix damaged parts of the card but flag them to ignore.
Windows:

Plug your device into a Windows PC.
Start>Programs>Accessories->Command Prompt
If on Vista or newer, right-click and choose to runs as Administrator. If on XP, just run it.
Find the drive letter for the device. Let's say it's "G:" drive.
Enter chkdsk G: /r

Linux
Open a terminal (Applications-Accessories-Terminal) and give the command
sudo fsck -a /dev/sdd1
(Replace /dev/sdd1 with the actual partition device for the micro sd card) (fsck = File Systen ChecKer.)

Failing that you will probably need a new SD card. If it's the 'usual' FAT32 corrupting (which it does a bit) then you may be ok, but if any of it is damaged then it will need to be replaced.

Correct me if I'm thinking in wrong way: OS does not "repair bad blocks", but "repair the storage media" marking blocks with write/read error as bad, so after the repair procedure the storage media can be used, where the new available space is nominal one minus the space of all bad blocks together.

I performed chdisk yesterday, on that but I did it so much with the same issues using micro SD card, so I'm thinking about FAT format, that is so susceptible to errors, if it is best to change to ext2/ext3 or ntfs, if possible...

I heard that bad blocks are like cancer or virus, that multiply itself with time, so after sometime I have to change the micro SD card...

@kikbira hmm yeah I think 'repair' was maybe a bad word. It doesn't really do that, but in some cases it is corrupt and not physically damaged and can be 'repaired'. Chances are that it's bad blocks that are damaged and will be skipped. FAT32 corrupting on SD cards is like rain falling from the sky, it will happen!

I used a hammer and all those issues disappeared magically XD. As this one is a valid answer, I'm assign it as "the answer".


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How dependent are stylus devices on software?
I am considering acquiring a tablet or phablet with integrated stylus. One of the first things I expect to do with is flashing the latest vanilla Android release. That done, is the stylus expected to work properly? Can I then install alternative note taking programmes (e.g. Quill)? Or is the stylus functionality fully dependent on vendor software?

For a start, you can't install "vanilla Android" on a non-Nexus device. See Flash a smartphone with vanilla Android ROM for more. The closest you can get is a custom ROM that was originally based on AOSP and then ported to your device, such as Cyanogenmod.
The custom ROM's documentation should say whether it has the drivers for the stylus, and if so, it'll work just like a more precise touchscreen. You still won't get any special stylus features (like extra buttons or pressure-sensitivity) in this case, though. There's no standard Android interface for such features, so they rely on the vendor's proprietary library and interfaces for apps to support them. Again, you should check the custom ROM's documentation to find out how much is supported.

I just wanted to add this, for what it is worth as a comment: as Dan says here there isn't vanilla Android for a device, and from my own experience on a lot of devices these ROMs rarely work as well as stock. Unless it is based on something like Touchwiz (Samsung) with S-Pen (Samsung sylus) support it won't work as you think it will. Porting these things can be a nightmare and most ROMs that aren't based on the Stock ROM won't. I have an S4 here with a very close to Stock ROM and a Nexus 5, the Nexus makes the S4 look like a potato it's so much smoother. You always lose out somewhere.


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Photo counter reset
I have Android 4.0.4 on my Sony Xperia Ion (LT28at). It never saves photo counter - everytime I empty DCIM/100ANDRO folder, it begins creating photos from DSC_0001.jpg.
Is there a way to set this counter to specific value, by the way? To change filename mask?
I am not sure if this question is for the Android Enthusiasts, couldn't find any better.

I don't have that device to hand so I can't check the settings. AFAIK if it isn't in the settings (and I really doubt it is) you cannot change it. You could look for an alternative camera app that might have that functionality.

What happens if you leave the one file with the highest count in the name and delete the rest?


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Camera doesn't work on Nexus 5 running Android L
The camera on the Nexus 5 has stopped working. Coming from a reboot, I can open the camera app, see the camera is working, but as soon as I click to take a picture (or video), the app crashes (tried native and Play Store camera apps), which I then have to force close, then when I reopen the camera I get the error "Can't connect to camera". The only way I've found fix that is to do a reboot, then the whole thing starts again.
This is the same if I use the front or back camera.
Does anyone know if there's a fix for this, or if Google are aware of it at least?

Please keep in mind that L is only a developer preview right now, and therefore is riddled with bugs.

Yeah I know that, I was just curious if this was a known issue what maybe had a fix.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/android-l-preview-bug-list-t2796849/page8

A notice: We wish solutions that do not involve serious violations of the Linux philosophy. One of it is rebooting.

Go to Settings » Developer options, and deselect "Use NuPlayer".  Reboot the phone, and your camera should work again.

Perfect! Thank you. Do you know the reason the "Use NuPlayer" setting messes up the camera (just so I know the details)?

@TomHart It is labeled "experimental" for a reason, I guess :)

Haha true. I was just curious if you knew what it actually did that's all :).

Didn't had that selected in first place. Still having this issue.

I've had this issue and tried the solution above to no avail.
I found that this issue is correlated to the flash. This approach fixed the issue for me:

Pull down the accessories drawer from the top of your Nexus and tap the torch to turn on the flashlight. In my case the torch disappeared when doing this.
Restart your phone.
Go to the torch accessory again and turn on the flashlight and then off again. You might have to go into accessories from the lock screen if the torch still is gone.
Now the camera works.

The issue can appear when turning the flashlight on and let it expire by itself, without turning it off. This is how I got to try this approach.
UPDATE
This happened again for me and this time it was Snapchat that crashed taking the camera with it. My solution above didn't work until Snapchat was updated again and that time it was needed.

Conclusion

If you know which app caused the issue you can resolve it by yourself by uninstalling it, do my trick and then re-install it. Although this might be cumbersome most times, it might be the only way out in case the app isn't updating often or at all.

Had this issue for months, very annoying. Rebooted numerous times, kept failing. Its to do with third party apps. I uninstalled Viber which is the only third party app I have that uses my camera. Perfect again now for over a week without a blip. Supposedly google have notified third party app developers of something they must update, some haven't updated their apps. Best of luck.

authors: ผสุรัตน์ คงมีสุข


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"OK Google" too sensitive, reacts on "OK" only
When I want to start an "OK Google" query, I just have to say "OK" and Google Search starts listening.
Unfortunately that makes the features unusable because when on a charger my phone is always active and when anyone in the office says "OK", my phone starts searching away.
Same behaviour when I start the original "Google Search" app and use the hotword.
What to do?
My specs:
 - Device: Samsung Galaxy S4
 - ROM: SlimKat 6.8
 - Launcher: Apex (has OK Google support)
 - Additinal Info: Xprivacy installed.

Did you notice this issue with other ROMs? Does Apex launcher have some "OK Google" functionality of its own like Nova Launcher does? It could be the launcher at fault, the ROM, the device, the Google Search App itself... Hard to narrow down yet. I'm using a Google Edition ROM here with the Google Now launcher and it needs both words. If you can, try that launcher (it's free) and try OK Google command from there to narrow this down a little. You can also retrain the voice model in google search and see if this helps.

Added info: Same behaviour in the official "Google Search"-app.

Cool it seems to be SlimKat but the app itself has a few quirks that people are anecdotally telling me here in the office. Seems more common on AOSP and 'Vanilla' android.

After searching around, this appears to be an issue with SlimKat ROM itself.
Reading this review of SlimKat or alternative link to article as their formatting is awful, the line that jumped out at me was:

....talk to by simply saying "Okay Google" (sometimes even just okay-_-)

suggests this happens on the ROM.
Also there is a theory that the launcher listens to OK G and starts background tasks for the searching.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it listens for "OK G--" and then it starts loading voice search while you're still saying "oogle", instead of it listening for "Google" and then loading up voice search, leaving you waiting for a short while?

It is worth noting that a friend with a Nexus 4 told me that sometimes it pops up on "OK" for him but it is rare. I can't find confirmation online.
Also some launchers try to incorporate the OK Google themselves, sometimes not in the correct manner and this can cause conflicts. For example the image below is from Nova Launcher (which I use myself very often) to show you its OK Google screen which is a separate function to the Google Search app's one:

Finally some OEMs have their own "Hi Galaxy" ala Samsung and this can further muddy the water with this functionality.

(source: futurecdn.net)

I thought I can set a custom word but no I can not.

@MANI I didn't think so to be honest, thought it might be like "Hi Galaxy" above! Apparently "OK Google" is a good expression for voice recognition software to find, and easier than other attempts at it... Who knows. It works for me about 70% of the time, the other 30% I'm left shouting at the phone like a weirdo!!

Yes I am using Apex with hotword integration and even Slimkat but the thing is: I could rule these out due to the fact that the same behavour is in the Google Search app, don't you think? Well I might try CM as a test. About "OK G.." I don't use the word "Google" at all and it still works.

It could be the app, that's why I mentioned that people are telling me it sometimes happens on Stock ROM devices, as well as the theory from Reddit. I'm trying to cover a few of the potential issues. I'd guess it happens anyway, but SlimKat certainly seems to exacerbate the issue.

@RossC Your link to the review seems to be wrong. It links to another review of Slimkat without the quote. Here is the correct link: http://www.droidcent.com/2013/12/kitkat-christmas-present.html?q=christmas and it is for Android 4.4.2.

@sir_brickalot (awesome name btw) I copied the text out of the link I provided, it is there but the AWFUL formatting of that site is obscuring it. I'll post both links to make it easier. It definitely is there, I've just copied it into notepad. But the key line is there anyway.

Accepted your ( @RossC )  answer, because it is well written. not really convinced though that slimkat has anything to do with it... doesn't tamper with the google service I would presume. ;)

@sir_brickalot  thanks, once I'm at a pc I'll edit the wording to mention the slimkat article but move the 'blame' more towards the Google search functionality itself. I can trigger it here by saying ok g- and even Oh god at times!!