text:
Google Voice SMS messages not showing up in Hangouts
I'm using Google Voice to send text messages to someone.  I've chosen to send the messages through Hangouts. The messages are being sent successfully and the recipient gets them but they don't show up in the chat log in hangouts.
However, they are showing up in the stock Messages app. Shouldn't the messages be listed in both apps?

Android allows only one app at the time to have access to private messages (SMS). Change your standard SMS application to Hangsout in Settings->More...->Default SMS app.

It currently is set to hangouts. I do use hangouts as my default sms app and have been for months. If I send messages through Hangouts interface, the sent messages show in the log just fine. Its like Google Now just doesn't honor my hangouts selection and just uses the stock Messages app

Hmm, seems like an issue of Google Now then, maybe search on the issue tracker (if they have one) for that problem.

I was having this problem too. But I went to Settings > Apps > Messaging and disabled the stock messenger app. Then everything goes through hangouts. But I ended up just going back to the old Google Voice app bc I couldn't get my phone calls to work right with Hangouts. It wasn't forwarding right, so I missed calls, and it wouldn't use my Google Voice voicemail system (it kept using my stock VM system). If you have any help with these, please let me know.


text:
Samsung S4 GPE - "GPS Signal Lost" Dilemma. Considering Factory Reset. Need Backup advice
I've just found this web site and I'm hoping that I can get some advice/assistance.
I have a Samsung S4 Google Play Edition phone. The GPS worked fine for close to a year. (Location setting on High Accuracy.)  However in June of last year (I think it was around the time I got the Kit Kat update), I started having a severe GPS problem. Within 90 seconds of initiating a navigation route with Google Maps, I'd get a "GPS signal lost." voice response. As I'd continue on with my trip, I'd notice the minutes to destination would click down at the appropriate rate. I'd also notice that the blue nav triangle would update every couple minutes or so and be somewhat in the vicinity of where I actually was - but the triangle would be turned in odd directions (not in the direction of traffic flow) and be several hundred yards off. And, of course, no voice commands at all. I'm guessing it had no fix on a satellite and was just determining my approximate location from cell towers. This happens every time I initate a navigation route, and for all practical purposes, the GPS is useless. However, one odd thing is that if I was on a trip more than 40-45 minutes, the GPS would get a satellite fix and it would all of a sudden start working correctly for the rest of the trip - a pinpoint-accurate blue triangle moving with traffic and the female voice commands would start. This happens everytime around the 40-45 minute mark of a trip (if the trip lasts that long). Bizarre. I have installed a GPS Status and Fix app and it confirms the unstable GPS signal (it occasionally will fix on a satellite, but then lose it). I have uninstalled Google Maps and reinstalled. Obviously a simple phone reboot doesn't fix the problem (this has been going on since June). My phone has now been upgraded to Lollipop, still same behavior. My network provider is AT&T - which concerns me as other people seem to be reporting on the net that they have GPS problem with AT&T. So, I'm out of things to try except a factory reset- unless someone here has any other suggestions. (I hope you do.)
That being said, I dread a factory reset (I've never done one before), but maybe it won't be so bad. I don't mind re-downloading apps and setting up my screens again. And my emails and contacts are all synced on the Google cloud. However, I really don't want to lose my SMS Hangouts trail or my call history which goes back over a year. I see that there are a few apps that claim to backup these data. But does anyone want to suggest/recommend apps and a procedure to make sure I retain as much of this as possible post factory reset? It will be much appreciated to reduce my anxiety about the process (not that the world's going to end if I lose these data).
Thanks in advance for any help. I appreciate it.

Had same problem but was able to solve by:

open back cover
take a very small phillips-head screwdriver
remove the battery, SIM Card, and Data card
tighten all screws, especially the one on the top left hand when the back is open. Reason:  Behind that screw is the GPS contact point touching the GPS antenna, and this gets loose very often.

For me this solved the problem.
Download GPS Status and Tools from Playstore and test.
Works fine now.
Even Samsung couldn't solve this over phone, but asked me to leave the phone with their service centre which will take a week to fix.

Updating the Google maps fixed for me. Did test with status app. Took few minutes but picked up. Compass was working perfectly.
Note: I tested functionality of GPS by going on highway for 8 miles. Didn't lose the signal once.

Incredibly, after not working for close to 10 months, my Samsung S4 GPE GPS started working correctly - just a few days before the above response to my original post. I do not know why it's now working properly all of a sudden, I'm guessing some update fixed it. Or some hardware issue corrected itself (as unlikely as that seems). I did read a few months ago about tightening the screws and I did that, but that did not fix it (immediately). Maybe it eventually had something to do with it, I don't know. All very bizarre and unexplainable.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Why does Orbot need root for transparent proxying but OpenVPN doesn't?
Orbot requires a rooted device for transparently providing proxying to all applications, but if I understand correctly, the application OpenVPN doesn't.
I understand those two applications do different thing, but it seems to me that if OpenVPN can route all your traffic through a VPN without root, then Orbot should also be able to dispense with it.

AFAIK Orbot allows transparent proxying (specifically VPN) without root, but app-specific settings (inclusion and exclusion lists) are only possible with root permission because of the need to alter ip-tables.

No it doesn't. Transparent proxying with Orbot requires root

Well, I never used Orbot without root because of the specific lists where I can enable Orbot for some apps only and not for all. Transparent proxying hides the fact, that you are using a VPN/proxy, maybe that needs root.

This probably just boils down to the fact that Tor is not a VPN. Android has an API for apps to set up VPNs, but Orbot presumably can't leverage them. I'd guess it's working more akin to something like Wireshark, in that it intercepts packets system-wide and modifies them. Android does not have an API for that (AFAIK). I don't know the underpinnings of Orbot well enough to know if that's actually the case, though.

That API would have to be basically implementing the VPN layer. As long as an app gets to act as a network bridge, it should be able to route through Tor.

In fact, apparently this exists
https://github.com/guardianproject/OrbotVPN

Note my phrasing a bit more closely: the API allows an app to set up a VPN, not act as a VPN. As in, it allows applications to add new VPN entries to the system settings, just as a user could by hand, then enable and disable the connection and send/receive data though the system's tunnel. The app itself is not acting as a network bridge or anything of the sort in that scenario, it's just creating a configuration entry and flipping it on so it can talk to it. The OS is still doing all of the network routing. I don't know if Orbot needs deeper access to packets, but it sounds like it might.

@eldarerathis That looks like an answer to me – especially outlining the differences between "setting up" and "acting as". At least it makes a better "answer candidate" than the one answer currently existing here :)

Definitely, will gladly accept it as such

The problem here is that Orbot is built as a network proxy, rather than a VPN service, and Android does not expose any APIs for raw proxying of network packets.
Per the Orbot description on F-Droid:

Orbot allows access to Tor by accessing a local SOCKS or HTTP proxy. On a rooted device, the proxying can be completely transparent i.e. the app that accesses the network need not be aware of the proxy's existence.

The important distinction here is that Orbot is acting as a proxy, not a VPN. Therefore, it has two options for routing application traffic:

Work on an app-by-app basis, with the user setting up proxy settings on each app they want to run through Orbot. No root needed for that, since each app will appropriately route its own traffic to Orbot.
Work system-wide by re-routing all network traffic.

Android doesn't provide any APIs for accessing or re-routing arbitrary network traffic because this would of course be insecure. Therefore, Orbot must resort to using iptables firewall rules instead, which requires root access. A VPN app, on the other hand, is able to leverage the VpnService API to construct a VPN connection.
The main difference here is that the system is deeply involved in the creation and management of a VPN connection, even when it is initialized by a third-party application. The user must still approve the connection and the system provides a notification and information dialogs that (in theory, anyway) cannot be hidden or tampered with. The system is also responsible for setting up the virtual network interface that's used for the tunnel.
I am not entirely privy to the Tor protocol, so it could be that acting as a proxy is the only feasible solution at this time. If that is the case, then they simply cannot avoid the root requirement for system-wide routing.

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


text:
Failed to load Recovery mode
One of my friend had a Huawei Y210, it locked because of so many wrong pattern attempt. Unfortunately he hasn't google account to login with it.
I want to hard reset it but it fails to load Recovery mode by pressing Volume Up + Power for more than 10 seconds or less!, I tested any key combination but only it normally boots and shows locked screen.
I tried fastboot -i 0x12d1 flash recovery recovery.img and without vendor id, it only waits for device.
Also I added 51-android.rules to udev and restart udev but nothing happend and only wait for device.
and adb only waits for device.
I have no idea what I should do. If I setup a bootable sdcard, Can it boots from it?
or like NoteII that can goes to recovery mode by soldering some resistors to a male usb connector and plug it, there is something like this?

possible duplicate of Enter recovery mode from command line

No duplicate, if you read them correctly you can distinguish them

Duplicate or not, it is related. The only difference is that your device is locked because of wrong password attempts. You are looking to get into Recovery without hardware buttons, as you state they didn't work. That question covers that. You also state that adb wasn't working as it was 'waiting for device'.

Finally I found the way:
Turned it off and then connect it to computer, adb found it as recovery then i ran adb reboot recovery and then it reboots to recovery.
I found that volume up and down keys are semi broken and for this reason it could not to load recovery mode.

To enter fastboot mode hold
vol+ vol- AND power for about 5 seconds; then check with fastboot devices
this assumes you've already installed the adb drivers from hi suite or some universal set.
once you're here you can flash a custom recovery or extract the factory recovery from the firmware zip.
http://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/downloads/detail/index.htm?id=14221


text:
What is the Android Permission "WRITE_GSERVICES" doing?
There is a mysterious and undocumented Android Permission called: WRITE_GSERVICES. As usual Googles own documentation is even more mysterious than any bad fairytale, writing:
android.permission.WRITE_GSERVICES      Allows an application to modify the Google service map.

However Googling (!) for Google Service Map yields nothing useful.
What is it controlling and what is it used for?

@Ryan: If you've actually bothered to look at the link you say are duplicated, you'd see that is not the case. And where do you see it has to do with the map data? Sources seem to tell another story.

Well it simply isn't and I don't see you even trying to back up your statement with any code, proof or relevant links, not your own. Please, show me the code that show it is even remotely connected to Google Maps. As I said, my own investigation show something else.

While this (And this) is for READ_GSERVICES, which makes sense, since normal applications cannot request access to WRITE_GSERVICES, the asker points out that Google Maps requires the READ_GSERVICES permission to work correctly. - Also want to add, of the 17 edits to the duplicate that you call 'mine', 14 of them were by other users than myself, contributing to over 5000 characters added.

Yes, and thanks. That first link seem very relevant and confirm that it has something to do with any or all of the close to hundred different Services that Google can provide to AOS. Everything from Billing and Ads to Play and Cloud services. The problem here (that I was hoping to resolve) was to get a more specific example of where and how this one permission is used by Google, since it is very intrusive, and could easily pose a security threat.

See: http://android.izzysoft.de/applists/perms#WRITE_GSERVICES :) "Allows an application to modify the Google service map." So @RyanConrad It's the service map, not "Google Maps Service". What exactly is meant by this is another thing, as to my knowledge no real documentation exists.

I vote to re-open this question. For the reasoning, please see (and join the discussion on) Meta: Shall we really close questions on permission meanings as duplicates to the “general list”?

Just want to add this picture of some of the services, packages offered by Google. (This was taken from a ROM GAPPS plugin list.)

Note this permission is almost completely undocumented, hence we need to feel our way to its real meaning. So this is in no way an "authoritative answer" – but more or less something between a "good guess" and a "deduction from other pointers".
The official description for this permission (as said, there's no further documentation) is:

Allows an application to modify the Google service map.

So now we can guess what that's supposed to mean. Let's do some "reverse engineering" for that to feel our way into it. Ryan already gave some pointers in his comment, linking to two SO questions:

Android Google Maps API v2 - Requires permission that it already has (in our context: Maps API requires READ_GSERVICES)
When to use READ_GSERVICES permission?

Reading between the lines: Whenever an app wants to use (parts of) the Google Services Framework, it must declare the READ_GSERVICES permission required – which is pretty much similar to requiring GET_ACCOUNTS if you want to USE_CREDENTIALS: the app first needs to ensure the required service is available at all, before accessing it.
This gives us an idea of what the Google Service Map must be: some kind of index for available (installed) Google Services.
Now that we discovered that, we can make a good guess what the WRITE_GSERVICES permission might be intended for – and why it is protected by the system protection level (meaning, it's only granted to "system apps" – i.e. those integrated into the ROM, which is being installed on the /system partition): If READ_GSERVICES is intended to figure out which Google services are available, WRITE_GSERVICES must be its counter-part to update that service map. Which is e.g., whenever a new service was installed (or removed), to update the "index of Google Services available on the device" – the "Google Service Map".
Just one thing I wonder in this context is, why this permission belongs to the ACCOUNTS group …

See also:

Google Play Services Requirements (especially the chapter "Specifying additional permissions")
Maps API v2 and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission describes the READ_GSERVICES permission as "Allows the
API to access Google web-based services" (quoting a message from the android-developers@googlegroups.com mailing list)
Google Service Map: Karte des Google-Netzwerks (a German article preceding Android) describes the "Google Service Map" as "listing of all available Google services". Note that, though similar in terms, this might be something different – but it makes much sense. See the complete list here. And it might explain why this permission belongs to the ACCOUNTS group, as it includes e.g. Google Account Authentication ;)
SO: What is Android Permission WRITE_GSERVICES exactly for? (again points out this refers to Google Web Services)

Another point why this permission might be in the ACCOUNTS group: many Google services require a login to be usable, so there might be some cross-checking (e.g. transmitting your account name to check if you've got an "active user" for a given service, even without logging you in/transmitting a password/AUTH-token).


text:
Set the background image of the main menu in Lollipop
Since Lollipop it seems like the background of the menu you reach when pressing the "menu" bottom at the middle of the bottom of the phone is not the desktop background anymore but rather is just white. Can I somehow set it to be again the desktop background?
This is Android 5.0.2 on a Moto G (2nd gen)

From what I'm reading, this must be something they took off for Android 5.0 Lollipop, as it sounds as if you need a custom ROM, or a special launcher to make this happen again.  It no longer supports having the background image on the menu.

In Android 5.0 Lollipop, Google introduced a white background to the app drawer screens. This follows their material design philosophy, but may be too bright for some of us.
There is no setting to switch app drawer themes or get KitKat's dark semi-transparent background back, but you can change this by installing a different launcher app.

Source 1
Source 2

I use apex launcher..


text:
Heimdall error libusb error: -12
I have installed the C++ redistributables, but everytime I try flashing ClockworkMod Recovery, it fails with an libusb error: -12
C:\Users\new1\Desktop>heimdall detect
Device detected

C:\Users\new1\Desktop>heimdall flash --recovery cwm5_recovery.bin
Heimdall v1.4.0

Copyright (c) 2010-2013, Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/

This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
encouraged.

If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
development please consider donating: [donate link]

Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
ERROR: Failed to access device. libusb error: -12

C:\Users\new1\Desktop>heimdall detect
Device detected

I have tried on all of my USB ports, even tried 3 different USB cords
Any ideas?

Inside Heimdall zip there is a driver folder.

Run the zadig.exe
click options - List All Devices
Choose your phone from the drop down list (on my pc it was "MSM8960"

I could not get it to work correctly on my PC, onece plugged into laptop "SAMSUNG Mobile USB CDC Composite Device")

Go through the drivers (WinUSB, Libusb0, Libusbk) and clikc Place drive for each of them.
Then run Heimdall

This worked for me but I had to do it on my laptop to be able to flash the files correctly.
I still get problem installing with my phone having an issue with the downloading bar going all across the screen and then stopping the flash.
to get around this I did one file at a time and allowed it to auto reboot. Each time putting it straight into download mode.
Source: http://redialflash.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/how-to-install-and-succesful-start.html

thanks for the reminder, thats exactly what i was trying to remember.

Replace driver for each of them?  Meaning click it repeatedly for all of them?  Mine shows up as Gadget Serial twice, one of which is using the Modem driver and one of which is using the dg_ssudbus driver

https://github.com/pbatard/libwdi/wiki/Zadig says just one

For me installing the libusb0 driver was enough for me to use Heimdall. I don't think installing each of them in turn is useful, since the last one just overwrites whatever you had installed previously, i.e. only one of them can be installed at any given time.

For me with S22 Ultra it was called just "SAMSUNG USB", and i had 2 of them, the correct one had the driver "dg_ssudbus", the wrong one had "modem-something-driver" and I replaced the correct one with WinUSB 6.1-something driver :)

authors: ทวีศักดิ์ กลั่นบัวหอม


text:
Incorrect caller ID details
One of the contacts in my galaxy s3 shows a small "hd" next to her name for incoming phone calls.  When this person, who also has a galaxy s3 (not linked or connected to my phone that I know of), calls or texts someone, the caller id on the receiver's phone looks like the call is coming from my phone, not hers.  It's not clear whether this is happening with everyone she calls or just some people. This is so wierd I don't even know if the question makes sense.  Can anyone help?

Just be careful asking questions like this in future as you have really asked two questions in one. I understand you may have thought the two are linked but i think in this case it's just a coincidence.

HD is for sound quality and says that the contact person's phone supports HD sound, whereas the caller ID issue can be because of the error of contacts app or truecaller if it is installed.

The HD means that both parties, You and the one you are calling have HD voice enabled service. Just means you should have better voice quality while talking to that person.

This seems to be a known fault with Samsung devices. See the link below on the Android issue tracker (initial report dates back to January 2015). It seems to be a Samsung issue, not necessarily just your device, and not an Android issue.
Link


text:
How to delete Group Contact that is greyed out without an access to menu or drop down box?
I deleted my What's App Group Contact in error before deleting members first, however, several Admin members were automatically assigned by What's App to my created Group (now deleted by me).  Two of my members had full access to exiting group/deleting members and then deleting group. One member is still seeing Group Contact in What's App Contact List, has access to open Group Contact, under my group name created saw this "you're no longer a participant in this group", just below this, message sent by me and members numbers, but they have no access to anything to delete as its all greyed out.
Q1: What can be done to delete this Group Contact?
Q2: If they delete Group Contact from What's App Contact List, would this mean What's App would assign  three other Admin? As this was the original step done by me, hence why it got assigned to the three other members above.
I anxiously await your response.

I was the sole admin on a group that I created in WhatsApp. I had to delete the group for some reasons. I removed the members one by one. At last I exited from the group. After that I deleted the group by clicking the options button by the side of menu button. It took sometime and disappeared.


text:
How to display only contacts with phone numbers Nexus 5
I just want contacts with phone numbers to show up when I am looking them up in People. All the people I have emailed somehow ended up in My Contacts, too, but that's another issue.N\
I want to open contacts and not see Joe Schmoe from Schmoe Company on there, that I only emailed once. Any way?
Thanks :)

Click on menu//filter contacts//only show contacts with numbers. That's it.

Nope. Where do you see that?


text:
No clockwork mod phone brick
I installed app called nobloat and must have deleted something I wasn't supposed to because now my phone won't boot up past the 4g logo...The phone does go into download mode as well as system recovery.
As of yet I have tried flashing clockworkmod with odin and heimdall to no avail...when using odin I get this.
 Enter CS for MD5..
 Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
 Please wait..
 MD5 hash value is invalid
 StratCWMRecovery.tar.md5 is invalid.
 End...
heimdall trying to push from command prompt gives me this
C:\Users\new1\Desktop>heimdall detect
Device detected
C:\Users\new1\Desktop>heimdall flash --recovery cwm5_recovery.bin
Heimdall v1.4.0
Copyright (c) 2010-2013, Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
encouraged.
Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
ERROR: Failed to access device. libusb error: -12
C:\Users\new1\Desktop>heimdall detect
Device detected
I have installed c++ redistributable and have tried 4 different usb cords on all of the different usb ports with no success.
Wondering if there is a way I can fix with an update.zip or something?
Am I just screwed?

Which phone brand and model? Search in the internet for the firmware. If it is a samsung you can use software ODIN and reinstall stock-firmware. Press and hold Volume Down, Home and Power buttons, all at the same time, this will give you download mode. If everything is back to normal, as a precaution then flash clockworkmode or TWRP recovery (this is more user friendly).


text:
How to skip welcome page after factory restore? I don't have access to Google
I'm from China and I can't access google without setting up a vpn/vps.
I recently got an update to 5.0.2 for my Nexus 7 2013 (WIFI) tablet.
I got stuck at the Welcome page. I think I'm supposed to enter my Google account, but I don't have access to Google. There was a "skip" option in previous versions.
I'm now able to restore the tablet to previous versions of Android. Does anyone know which version doesn't require account at Welcome page? Is there any walk-around for this issue if I want to update to 5.0.2? I tried proxy for WIFI, it didn't work, though I think it's a promising way.

I solved the problem by using a HTTPS (not HTTP) proxy located in the US. :)


text:
Uninstall official lollipop Samsung Galaxy s5
Yesterday, I installed android Lollipop on my Samsung Galaxy s5. It was an offical update, since I dont like to flash my device, because it is a work mobile.
However, this offical lollipop release from Samsung keeps crashing. It crashes while the screen is off and I want the turn it on again. The indicator LED flashes and the device reboots. This doesn´t happen every time, but it does happen extremely often. So my phone is unworkable.
I cleaned the cache partition of the device but this did not help. So to remedy this problem, I want to uninstall lollipop and revert back to Kitkat. However, when I do a factory reset, it will only whipe my personal data, not the update.
What should I do?

You can't revert to an older version of Android I'm afraid. Normally I'd say you can, using a custom ROM, but I wouldn't recommend that for a work device at all. To be honest, returning it to the retailer may be the only option. Since you have factor reset, wiped cache etc, there's not much else that I can think of.

Thank you for the answer. Will talk to my boss about sending it back.

Yes, you can, with Odin! Done it couple of times, but unfortunately it will start to download the Lollipop update again and will continue to keep asking you to install it. :(

Could you expand your answer by explaining how to do that on Odin?

Odin is a tool to flash your ROM, you can't downgrade the OS with it, like you are asking.

Odin can be used to install official Samsung ROMs. I used it multiple times, on the S2 and de S4. If you have the right official ROM (download from Sammobile.com or other sites that have it) and you should be able to upgrade or downgrade to any version! There are more than enough tutorials online that show how to do it. In short: Boot phone to download mode, connect to PC, open Odin and check if the device is recognized, press the PDA button, select your ROM, press OK/Install (not sure what the Install button is called from the top of my head)

Without flashing your device to a new ROM completely, there is no way to "downgrade" a device to a previous version.
You can completely re-flash your phone, or  you will have to wait for updates to fix your existing OS.
Bottom line, there is NO downgrade path possible without performing a complete reflash of your device.


text:
Does android encryption encrypt free space?
The situation is that I used wipe without encrypting first so that people can still recover data. If I now encrypt and then wipe, will the free space also get encrypted so that no one can recover anything?

What version of Android do you have?

According to Slashdot comments, the encryption is done on the entire partition (including free space), but if you are not confident in this, there are apps like Secure Erase with iShredder 3, which does a secure wipe on the free space.

Lollipop doesn't encrypt free space.  But yes, zeroing the free space is the best idea.


text:
How to create folder in app drawer of galaxy A3?
When using galaxy S4, I could create a folder in the app drawer. But after I changed my phone to galaxy A3, I couldn't find any menu to create a folder in the app drawer. How can I do that in galaxy A3? Thanks before in advance.

The creation of folders depends on the launcher.
If you can't simply drop one icon on top of another (a folder would be created with two icons inside), try changing launcher.
Go launcher gives you the option of adding folders on the app drawer, so give it a go. The downside is that go launcher on the last years has been supported by ads. Give it a go and see if it's too much or if it's bearable.
Nova launcher is a good option (low on resources and plenty of customization) (you can add drawer folders and tabs with prime, I don't know how much but not a free solution)
Both are two good and stable launchers that have been evolving for a couple of years now. See which one suits you best.

I changed my question. I'm sorry what I mean is app drawer. I already installed the Nova Launcher, I can create folder in home screen. But I still cannot create folder in the app drawer. Please help. Thanks

No problem :-) I also edited my answer.

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


text:
Android Lollipop in MOTO G 2
The auto-rotate option is getting enabled by itself once I get back to home screen from settings menu even after disabling it.
How to disable the auto-rotate option other than in accessibility?

Did you try with the quick settings panel ?

Use tasker in that case.

Create an application based profile and choose your launcher app in it.
Create a task followed by the  action Display → Display AutoRotate  → and Set → Off.

Now whenever you would come back to home screen or app drawer auto-rotation would turn off automatically.
If the approach noted above doesn't work, then either:

there is a specific setting overriding auto-rotate which you may need to search. I bet it doesn't exist.
your "Settings Storage" app's data has gotten corrupted. In that case do factory reset.


text:
Sony Xperia SP (C5303) + Cyanogen
I tried to follow article on http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_huashan#Unlock_your_Xperia_SP
to flash Cyanogen on my Xperia SP.
I used flashtool to get into fastboot. I got unlock key from Sony page, I unlocked bootloader.
Then I followed step:

Extract boot.img from the zip to your computer, you will need this file for fastboot.
Put the phone into fastboot mode:
With the device powered down, hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue to indicate you are in fastboot mode.
Open a terminal on the PC and enter the following:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot reboot

After reboot I got black screen, no Led, but Device gets connected in Win as: Sony sa0108 ADB Interface Driver
However I cannot get adb running.
There is also one more device with question mark in list as C5303
Any suggestions ?

The boot.img contains the new kernel and the ramdisk, but not the Android system, which can be in system.img and may need to be flashed separately (though the recovery should usually do both if you use a .zip) -- that said, it looks from those instructions like you're supposed to mess with the volume rockers to boot into recovery mode, then do a factory reset.  Also, there was an announcement today for Sony devices that you might want to look at as well.  Good luck!

Thx, but problem is that while phone is in ADB mode, I cannot reboot it via adb because device is not authorized, and cannot authorize because I see only black with lcd backlight. I cannot even reboot it via buttons combination. I have to wait until battery dies :(

Great I just managed to connect phone over Sony Emma, and just recovering it to stock.

Great.  Glad it's working now...

I used EMMA tool, but it stuck while sending image to phone. Phone looks now worse than before, only red led light, and if i connect to PC, pc does not recognize driver for device :(


text:
Removing Gmail account from Gmail app, but keeping it in Google Inbox app
On my Android I run the Google Inbox app as my personal email client. I run the Gmail app for my company mail. Problem for me is that since I have my personal Gmail account synced with my phone it will automatically show up in Gmail, causing double notifications to show up for each new email I receive, one from Gmail and one from Inbox.
How do I remove my Google account from Gmail, and only keep it in Inbox?

AFAIK you can't configure an account only for inbox, or only for gmail.
But you can disable gmail notifications for your personnal account.
In gmail, top-left menu, settings, "your-personnal-account", uncheck "notifications".

Hi Egoz, thanks for your answer! I just tried it out, and removing the notification for my personal email on the Gmail app does practically what I needed. Now the multiple notifications won't bug me any more. Thanks for the tip!

You can also go into settings - > accounts -> google, then disable sync for inbox and gmail on the respective accounts, for one step further.


text:
Swap to Increase RAM but kernel issue
I have Micromax Canvas Doodle A111 phone with Android v4.1.2.
My phone has 512 MB RAM by default.
So whenever I try installing some new apps my phone becomes really slow so I decided to increase RAM by rooting.
However when I used swapper app to increase RAM, it shows kernel support required.
I don't know how to enable swapping feature for my device.
Please give me some advice.

Is there a custom kernel for your device that supports a swap? If not, you can't do it (unless you can build a kernel, which is a very non-trivial task).

actually i could see only 3 or 4 custom roms for my device in xda forum. when that is the case, chance to find custom kernel is less. my results are " 0 found ".

Swap does not actually increase the RAM. All about linux Swap - if you are thinking about using swap, I figured you should know what it is and what it does. The custom ROMs you mentioned may have a custom kernel with support, you should check the threads for them and/or ask the developers of the ROM.


text:
Play store uninstalled, Reinstalled not working
I rooted my phone I accidentally deleted something that made my playstore shut down immediately. I tried everything I have found on the internet. Clear data / clear cache. Factory reset. Uninstalled and reinstalled. Im still getting unfortunately google has stopped. Looking for help. I did several back up nandriod titanium but I dont know how to install back ups. Please any help will be appreciated.

Depending on your device and ROM you can either reinstall your operating system (ROM) or you can reinstall the gApps (Google apps).
Normally the apps come in a flashable zip file that you can install (flash) via recovery (a secondary minimal operating system).
Depending on your device the ROM can come in a flashable zip file or a variety of other files (tar.gz, md5, etc...) so you will have to figure that one out.
You can download gapps for Android 4.4.4 here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2397942
When downloading gApps you will want to match the version up with your device so that they are compatible with it. E.G. You are running 4.1.2 so you will download the 4.1.x compatible gApps.
Hope this helps!


text:
How to uninstall AVG which isn't listed under My Apps?
That's pretty much it, my Sony Xperia Z3 Compact came with AVG antivirus preinstalled and I can't see how to uninstall it, since it does not show up in Play Store under My Apps / Installed (or anywhere else).
My Android version is 4.4.4 .
Note that my problem is not the one mentioned in this question. In my case under Settings > Security > Device administrators the checkbox next to AVG was already unchecked.
Instead my problem is simply that I don't know where to start the uninstallation process (and I don't understand why all my installed apps do show up as expected under My Apps but AVG does not).

On your device AVG is installed as a system application.  To delete this kind of application you have to root your device, then use an app such as Titanium Backup to backup and delete it.

If you don't want to root your device, you should be able to see AVG under the 'All' tab in your list of apps.
If this is the case, open it and there will be one or both of these options available:

'Uninstall Updates' which will reduce the app size and save you space.
'Disable' which will prevent the app from running and will hide it from the app drawer. This will not save you any space as the app will remain on your system.

If you choose to disable it, clearing the data and cache will also save you some extra space.

Actually having to root my device is a little bit annoying, but my reason for uninstalling AVG is that I want to install another antivirus (Comodo) (yes Sony, I like to decide myself which antivirus I want, thanks). I guess disabling AVG could be enough but I would prefer to actually remove it before installing Comodo.


text:
Change aspect ratio of pictures
How can I simply change the aspect ratio of pictures on Android 4.2.2? Say from 1920x1080 to 1920x1280.
Background: On my Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, I can take pictures using the native camera app and this gives normal results. I have a remote that needs its special camera app ("Snap remote"), and the output of this app comes in the wrong aspect ratio.
I wrote the developers but they haven't replied or fixed it.

Converting a 1080p image to 1920x1080 would involve cropping to 1620x1080 and then scaling it up to maintain the aspect ratio.  Changing or fixing the aspect ratio would mean just vertical scaling.  Which are you trying to do?

I don't want to crop the picture. I want something like in Photoshop, "Image > Image Size" and then you change from 1920x1080 to 1920x1280. I am not sure if Photoshop is interpolating something there...

Yeah, Photoshop has several interpolation options.  Photoshop Express does not seem to have an option to scale up.  I tried a few other photo editors, and only one seemed to have an option to scale up but it didn't work :/

This guy works great for me on a Samsung 8.4" pro tab:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.valsior.resizer
Has a long list of pre-set sizes and a select-your-own-size option, which like photoshop allows you to choose whether you want to maintain the aspect ratio or not.  You can choose file type and quality as well when saving.

Very nice, worked for me as well.

Works fine for me. Does anybody know how to set the language for this app to avoid the horrible translation?


text:
What does this reoccuring allert mean "NEW MMS message to download: size is 1KB, expires on ___, _:__PM."
I get this all the time from contacts who insist they never sent me anything. Any clue?
I have a suspicion that somehow it is an error relating to others using imessage trying to contact me? or not?


text:
What does "Restricted" (aka. "Do not") system icon on Lollipop mean?
I'm using Nexus tablet on stock Lollipop. For the life of me, I can't find what the "restricted" sign in the top right corner means. I've checked the user manual as well but still not worked out what it means.
What is the meaning of that icon?

It seems like this icon is used when there is no cellular connection possible at all (meaning you don't have an antenna or modem installed). But I'm not quite sure.

I thought that at first but this is a tablet it only has WiFi and that works

Could you add more info, like what device model and Android version? I'd assume Nexus tablet running Lollipop from your screenshot, but just to make sure, since system icons may be customized per vendor.

It means that you (might be accidentally) set the "Interruption Mode" to "None". It means that no calls & notifications will be shown, and not even alarm will ring.
This is part of Interruption Mode, a new feature in Android 5.0 Lollipop. You can access this setting from Settings - Sound & notification - Interruptions - When calls and notifications arrive.
Alternatively, you can use volume keys as a shortcut to access this feature ("None", "Priority", or "Always").

Well, that symbol signifies that you are not getting mobile network from the operator or sometime it also light up when you have switched the blocking mode on, but in your case its defiantly the mobile network, I think you should try removing or reinserting the SIM card also make sure that the SIM card is activated.

This answer is not correct; see this one for accurate information.


text:
How to fix a software bricked android smartphone?
Two days ago i began to look after advantages and disadvantages of rooting a device, and i thought that rooting my phone would be helpfull. I rooted my phone succefully using vroot
and i had not any issue after rooting.
     After installing Chainfire 3d which is only for android 2.3(according to my actual knowledge), when i installed the driver asked by this program the phone rebooted and get stucked at the vendor logo and nothing happens after the logo appears on the screen.
My phone model is ALLview A5 Smiley.
     I do not have any backup at my disposition but i can access Recovery mode(vol up + power on).
Please tell me how to fix this.

If you know/can find out how to flash the stock ROM, you can simply flash that and revert your system (not your data) back to stock (unrooted, unmodified, no ChainFire3D). I predict fastboot but I don't know your device.

It is an Allview A5 Smiley.

My brother has the same type of smartphone as me. There is a way to copy his firmware or to make backup of his system and copy into my sd card?Does this helps?

You'll likely be able to download the firmware online.

Seems to be a kind of hobby to install Chainfire 3D in order to get the device stuck: See the other questions.

This is probably too late, but yes, you should be able to get the disk images from your brother's phone and install them on yours.
Short steps:

Install TWRP recovery on both phones
Do a complete nandroid backup of your bother's phone
Restore it to your phone
...
profit.

If more details are required for each step, leave a short comment.


text:
Google Voice question
I'm traveling internationally soon and will have unlimited internet usage but regular calling/texting will be restricted or I'll have high roaming charges. So I'm wondering how Google Voice works... is it like a relay where someone calls my Google Voice number and and then Google calls my regular number to complete the call? Or is it pure voip and will work through internet service alone? And will call quality suffer/improve depending on internet quality/speed? Thanks in advance

A Google Voice number forwards any calls it gets (and I believe texts) to numbers you set up. There is an option where all calls to that number can also ring in Google Hangouts.
If you are travelling, you could download Hangouts on your phone and make a temporary Google Voice number forwarding calls to your home phone. When the number gets a call it will ring your home phone and in your Hangouts app if your phone has access to internet.
If you choose to answer it in Hangouts, it's the same as having an internet call with the person who called you. Call quality will suffer/improve depending on internet quality/speed.
If you are going out of US/Canada, I don't know if you will be charged for calls. Most questions can be answered here

Just saw you posted this question a while ago. Sorry if my answer is late


text:
About Android Device Manager
My phone is lost and I have locked the phone with the app Android device manager.
Is it locked even if the device is without internet connection?

Question is not clear. Please edit.

No its not. It requires internet connection for ur command to reach to your phone.


text:
Removing Alarm From Lock Screen - Galaxy SIII
I just got an updated replacement phone - a Galaxy S III. I can't figure out how to remove the alarm icon and wake-up time from my lock screen.
I need the alarm set but hate being reminded I have an alarm to go off at 5:30 am every time I look at my phone. And I need the time to show on my lock screen. Just not the dreaded alarm.
Any ideas?

AFAIK all the android mobiles have this problem. You can not customize it. You should look for Lock Screen replacement in Play Store which is customizable.


text:
Whatsapp & factory reset
I have recently factory/hard reset my Samsung Galaxy Advance. Apparently the Whatsapp application doesn't exist in my phone anymore. Does this mean, my account is deleted or I still need to delete it cause the my contact for whatsapp is still seen on my friend's phone.

Account is not deleted. Download app again and manually delete the account.

Your account will not have been deleted, so you will still show up as a contact for other people. On your phone you will need to first re-install WhatsApp. Then if you want to delete your account go to "Settings" -> "Account" -> "Delete my account".

unistalling the whatsapp will not delete your account .. you need to do it manually.
install whatsapp again then do it following step:
step 1: go to Settings.
step 2: click on Account
step 3: click on "Delete my account".


text:
Can my phone act as WiFi Access Point while Disabling Celluar Radio?
Can Android act as a WiFi Access Point while the cellular radio is turned off?
I tried to accomplish that using flight mode, but that won't work. While flight mode is enabled, Androids portable Wi-Fi hotspot option cannot be enabled. Quite logical, because one cannot tether while cellular networks are disabled.
To my knowledge, there is no obvious dedicated option to only disable cellular networks. There is an Cell Radio ShutOff, but that app just crashes when pressing the disable cellular network button on my phone.
Are there any apps for setting up a cellular less, non-tethering WiFi Access Point or other ways to do this?
What's that good for? What is it, what I am really accomplishing to do? See background below.

Background:
For recording interviews, I want to use a newer Android device [Galaxy S3] as a video camera (MirrorOp Sender app), while using an older device [iphone 4] as an external display (MirrorOp Receiver app). In some sense as a  "wireless live preview" display.
The MirrorOp app has to my knowledge no WiFi Direct mode. Therefore I am using Androids portable Wi-Fi hotspot option, so the receiver can log into the WiFi AndroidAP (WiFi access point). Took me a while to figure out, but it works so far.
During recording, be not disturbed my cellar calls, voip calls, messenger or update notifications, I would like to disable the cellular network radio. That also seems useful to save battery.
Another reason for not providing internet access is to prevent the receiver phone from using use the WiFi as hotspot (which would in reality, be just a 3G network) to download bigger files, updates, etc.
I don't like blocking mode, because then caller think I pressed the "rejection" button, and because it also does not save battery.

FWIW I discussed a few ways to disable just the mobile connection here for a different reason but with the same result... depending on your Android version (you didn't mention which you were using), it's as easy as selecting the mobile icon in the notification settings to switch it off, or just selecting an invalid APN under Wifi->Mobile networks->Access Point Names or Network Operators.  But the absolutely easiest and most certain way as I suggested is to pull the SIM card while you're not using it.  As long as your device uses a SIM card for mobile (GSM networks do, Verizon may not), you should be good to go-- though I believe 911 calls will still work.  If you want to get really down-and-dirty, you can also root the phone, rename the binary blobs that work with your cell service, reboot, then do the reverse when you're done.  But I think the SIMcard trick should do it :)

I would prefer not physically pulling the sim card. Makes it more likely for the sim card, the cover or in most expensive case, the sim card slot to break.

Invalid APN... Good idea... However, I am having difficulties setting one up. related  question: How to setup an invalid APN that prevents mobile data access?

1.Dial *#*#4636#*#* on your phone If it does not work try this apk from XDA post
2.Goto phone information
3.Scroll down and you will see TurnOffRadio
4.Now enable mobile hotspot

Doesn't work on my phone. (Galaxy S3)

What doesn't work ? turning radio off or mobile hotspot?

Because *#*#4636#*#* doesn't work on Galaxy. When you type it and call, it calls that number. No special menu. Doesn't go for all phones and I haven't found a Galaxy equivalent.

Can Android act as a WiFi Access Point while the cellular radio is
  turned off?

YES.
OPTION #1: Use your Android phone without SIM cards(s) inserted
OPTION #2: Disable mobile data & Enable call forwarding
You can use a WiFi Hotspot while your mobile data is disabled, to avoid disturbances you can set call-forwarding and adjust notifications volume.
TURN OFF MOBILE DATA

Bring down the quick settings panel with a double swipe-down gesture (or a two-finger drag) of the notification bar.
Turn on Hotspot and adjust your hotspot settings as needed
Tap on your mobile network indicator in quick settings panel this opens Mobile data
Toggle mobile data off
In your notification bar your can now see the WiFi hotspot indicator on the left side and on the right side a cellular network strength icon with an exclamation mark.
Connect to your Hotspot from your other WiFi enabled device

REDIRECT INCOMING CALLS TO YOUR VOICEMAIL / ANOTHER PHONE:

Launch Phone app
Access settings by pressing ... and then Settings
Select Call settings
Select Call forwarding
Setup a Always forward rule to your voice mail or another phone number or voice mail

Note: Since GSM services are still on, like text-messages, adjust notifications volume.
OPTION #3: Learn how to find good apps in Google Play. Make sure you read descriptions ;-)
As in regards your question about apps, please use Search in Google Play.
Customer reviews and ratings usually provide fair guidance about app quality.
If you find an app not working (like supposed in your case "Cell Radio ShutOff") you might want to give a fair constructive comment with suggestion about app/widget improvement.
Most developers use customer's feedback for improvements and development.
In this case the developer was clear about tested devices and even posted the code to shut off the Cell-radio by dialing a code:

If this doesn't work with your phone you can access a builtin interface which has the same option. If you dial *#*#4636#*#* in Phone it will pull up a menu that will allow you to shut off the cell radio.

If above was missed or is unclear, please follow steps below.
OPTION #4: DISABLE / ENABLE CELL RADIO USING TESTING APP

Launch Phone app
Dial *#*#4636#*#* to launch Testing app
NOTE: In case *#*#4636#*#* (Testing App) is not available on your Phone read: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2073543&page=2
Select Phone information
Scroll down to find button TURN OFF RADIO and press it
Cell strength indicator will appear empty.

Repeat and press TURN RADIO ON to to enable cell radio again.
Note: Before turning off cell radio you might want to set appropriate call-forwarding setting a when unreachable rule. This must be set before you turn off cell-radio.
Important notes:

Depends on the Android Device and WiFi hotspot application on that
device.
With dual SIM phones additional steps might be required.
Details above are based on: Nexus 5; Android version: 5.0.1
(Lollipop)

Hope this helps.

I've noticed MirrorOp requires a rooted Android phone link, for any concerns or issues with this software I would advice using support on their site.
As for your concern about battery usage. I presume the display on your phone still stays on while you do the recording. Displays are good at draining battery. Make sure to adjust brightness to the lowest setting. And in any case would be wise having a charger/powerbank at hand.

The easiest way to turn on wifi hotspot during flight mode is to use a 3rd party app that enable wifi hotspot in one click like air droid( tools -> tether ), super beam, etc..  Works fine on my ICS

PdaNet+ can be used to create a hotspot while your cell radio is off.

A simpler method than @fattire's, I think.
Just download Do Not Disturb
It seems to work quite well.

Care to explain how the "Do not disturb" app answers "Can Android act as a WiFi Access Point while the cellular radio is turned off" because I don't get how it does.

Indeed. Mobile data connection would still be online when using that app. Which is the main point of this question. Having the mobile data connection disabled while acting as a WiFi access point.

ya. you wont get disturbed by phone calls or text messages but will be able to create a hotspot...


text:
encrypt wifi on Android?
CM Security app on my galaxy 5 has an alert telling me my phone is RISKY, the wifi is not encrypted. How do I encrypt the wifi on my phone? I haven't tried anything because I do not know what to do.

Is this your phone connecting to a WiFi source, or you using your phone as a WiFi hotspot?

It's my home wifi and I'm sick to my stomach now. I must research how to encrypt my router. Thank you so much.

What CM Security app are you using that is telling you your phone is "RISKY"? Wifi itself is not encrypted. Your connections to things like websites (SSL) are encrypted. Now your router should have a password to prevent anyone from being able to access your network.

It's telling you that the wifi network you are connected to is not encrypted, not your phone.  Most open hotspots are not encrypted, it's just warning you of that fact.  If you are on your home personal wifi, research how to enable WPA2 on your router.

It's my home personal wifi so I do need to research how to encrypt my home wifi. Thank you!!


text:
SD card supported by Android 4.2.2
I bought a HTC 310 Desire running Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) and would like to format my SD card (SDHC 32GB) so to be able to contain files larger than 4GB.
I tried formatting the card exFAT, NTFS, ext2, ext4 (using the utility of my Windows PC, of a MAC and using MiniTool PartitionWizard) but when i place back the card into the phone, the phone keep saying that the card is damaged and propose to reformat it. If I accept the card will be formatted as FAT32 (i.e. no file larger than 4GB possible).
Do you know what can be done? Possibly without rooting the phone?
Is there somewhere a list of the file system supported by my phone?
Or is there something special to pay attention to in the card formatting?

I have looked into this issue before, and as it stands at the moment, native android does not support exFAT or NTFS.
Support for additional formatting types are included in some ROMs because they have been specifically coded to do so such as AFAIK which I believe supports NTFS.
I think you are stuck with FAT32 unless you wish to root and flash a ROM that supports alternative formats.

I fear you are right. No support for anything else than FAT32. Nevertheless I recently managed to format a SD card as exFAT and make it recognized on a sony xperia z3 android 4.4.4. In that case formatting with the Windows tool and MiniTool PartitionWizard did not work while formatting with MAC did work. So I hoped that finding the magic formatting parameters I can still make it working. Or maybe is my phone and it's android version the cause of the problem?

@luca The main problem with exFAT is that it is patent encumbered, so many manufacturers choose not to support it in order to avoid paying licensing fees. Samsung often supports it, and Sony apparently did (for your Xperia Z3, at least), but HTC may not.


text:
Widgets and Notifications on Android 5 (w/ HTC Sense and Nova Launcher)
On my HTC One (M8) I used HTC Sense UI and Nova Launcher. Until recently I was able to customize my lock screen, like adding widgets, and I could see all notification icons.
Now Android has been updated to Lollipop on the HTC One. Unfortunately I cannot add widgets to the lock screen any more, nor are there any icons shown in the notification bar (i.e. there is no notification bar at all on the lock screen).
Is this a Lollipop "feature", or is there any way for me to get back to the old Android 4 lock screen behaviour?

Google have taken control of your lockscreen,  you can't add widgets sadly and the 3rd party lock screens are blocked. When it comes to the notification bar, it should be there on Lollipop, it is on all my devices. There may be a setting in security or somewhere for this. I'll have a look around for an M8

@RossC Thanks for your comment. There is no way at all to add widgets to the lock screen under Lollipop? That would be very sad, it was a super useful feature!

There is no way to add widgets to the lollipop lockscreen. Google's 'new' notification system is the replacement... It's not actually replacing it in any useful way, obviously, but this is what they have decided. It's a typical Google thing: Lollipop (stock) doesn't even have a reboot option, ONLY Power off. They're big on making things 'minimal' but doing so by removing useful functionality.

That's sad, I really liked my Yatse lock-screen widget :(

I think it shoud be in your lockscreen settings and there should be an option to disable or enable status bar on lockscreen.
My phone has it I think yours should have too.
Its a privacy keeping feature.

Thanks, I have found the setting for the notifications. But I would also be really interested in widgets :-(


text:
Identifying toolchain and version on-device
Is there a way to tell, on-device, which toolchain and version was used to compile the kernel and/or ROM?
I want to verify the toolchain used.


text:
Chrome on Intel Atom x86 image on AVD
Is there any way I can install Chrome on my Lollipop x86 image. I tried installing it via ADB, but I get an INSTALL FAILED NO ABIS error. I was able to get ES File Explorer to load and I pushed chrome.apk to /sdcard. When I tried installing from ES, it gives me App Not Installed.
I also tried installing Amazon AppStore but got the same error so it is not related to Google APIs.
So is there any way I can get apps to work on my x86 Intel image?
ARM is really slow and choppy.

Get a x86 build of that app. Most apps are only compiled for ARM because of the native libraries they use. Play Store for instance takes care of determining which apps are compatible with your device.

Could you please point me to it (link to .apk file)? Also, is there any place where I can get x86 .apk files?

Well, you have to take a look inside the apps yourself. Some come bundled with both (/lib/x86 exists together with some arm* folders) or without any at all (no /lib folder); those can be installed without further issues. If there is only a /lib/arm* folder, then you are out of luck and have to search for one that has a /lib/x86 folder inside of it.

Also many free or open source apps have their x86 builds available on their websites (VLC for instance)


text:
Lost/Stolen Samsung S4 Mini blocked be tracked?
recently lost samsung s4 mini, which had sim and phone blocked. Tried to remote lock it using Androis manager, but said device was offline. Does this mean that they can get at my data even though I put that lock on?

Can you give a few more details on what "that lock" is? Unless the device was encrypted, there are always ways to get to the data once one has obtained physical access to the device.

If this is installed then you can locate it .Go to google.com/android/devicemanager and see if your phone is picked up. Outside of that, reporting it stolen to the carrier and police is your next bet if you didn't install any software with remote capabilities. For more derails you can also refer Samsung India site.


text:
Where's my mounted stuff?
I have a luks encrypted file in stock Android 4.4.4 that I want to mount to work with. It is located in the internal sd partition (/sdcard). I am able to mount it as root via su without problems.
However, other apps an users see the folder as empty. They can even write and remove files of the folder, so no permission problem. But they cannot see what root sees, nor root sees what the normal users do in the folder.
I tried mounting the encrypted file inside /storage, inside /storage/extSdCard and inside the /sdcard itself, always with the same result.
I'm not sure which data to provide, please ask.
Thanks!

How did the encrypted file/container get created?

It was created with cryptsetup. BTW, the file works fine in CyanogenMod, but not in Stock Samsung Android 4.4.4. It smells to me like a bug.


text:
My OS update keeps failing, why?
If I go to System Updates in the Settings menu it will start downloading the latest software update. However it invariably fails, and when it does it just says it was unable to download the update but doesn't say why. I've got over 2gb of free space on my phone but I wonder if maybe that's not enough?!
How can I find out why the update won't download? I don't want to just start deleting stuff and making room if storage isn't the issue.

Is your phone rooted?

The phone is not rooted.


text:
Wi-Fi Problem in I9001 Galaxy S Plus with CM11 ROM
I have recently installed [GT-I9001][ROM][ION][4.4.4][KTU84Q] CyanogenMod 11.0 by ADC-Team - Release 17 [EOL] on my I9001 Galaxy S Plus. But after a while I found that my WiFi can't find any router around. Flash and reset factory doesn't works. How can i fix that?

Finally found a solution:
Warning: You will lost all saved Wifi passwords!

Install Root Browser app.
After turning off WiFi, Go to /data/misc/wifi/ and open wpa_supplicant.config with an editor and delete network section until end of file:

// delete section:
    network={
        ssid="some wifi ssid"
        ...
    }

save and close file.

Open Settings->Wifi (don't turn it ON!)->Advance (three vertical dots in button right) and open Wi-Fi region code and choose one of them, for example United State.
Now turn On your Wifi, so it should list all available networks around. Enjoy it! :)


text:
How can I find the submodel of an SM-G900?
In About device -> Device name it says:
SM-G900

The model name have does not a final letter. I can´t find a SM-G900 (without final letter) firmware.  How do I find out what submodel I ahve?

I am not sure where you are from, or where you bought the phone, but this list might help:

SM-G9006V_CHN_CHN (China)
SM-G9008V_CHN_ZM (China)
SM-G9009D_CHN_CTC (China)
SM-G900A_NA_ATT (AT&T)
SM-G900D_JPN_DCM (Japan)
SM-G900F_EUR_XX (Open Europe)
SM-G900H_EUR_XX (Open Europe)
SM-G900I_SEA_XSA (Asia)
SM-G900J_JPN_KDI (Japan)
SM-G900K_KOR_KTC (Korea)
SM-G900L_KOR_LGC (Korea)
SM-G900M_LA_VF (Vodafone)
SM-G900P_NA_SPR (Sprint)
SM-G900R4_NA_USC (US Cellular)
SM-G900S_KOR_SKC (Korea)
SM-G900T_NA_TMB (T-Mobile)
SM-G900V_NA_VZW (Verizon)
SM-G900W8_NA_BMC (BMC)

Source

I bought the phone via internet. I found the same list in many websites, but I need the equivalent firmware.

@esdebon Could you give us the actual firmware you are currently using? That way we are able to identify which version fits your current one.

You are right the firmware begin with G900AUC


text:
How do I prevent Android from going to sleep?
I never want my Android tablet to go to sleep, can I prevent sleep mode?

Depending on your tablet, you may have the option to set the screen timeout to "never" under Settings > Display > Sleep.
If you do not have this option, you can enable Settings > Developer options > Stay awake. This will keep your tablet awake while it is charging. This could be useful if your tablet does not support the "never" screen timeout.
Note: If you don't see Developer options in Settings, you may find them and Stay awake in one of these places:

You may first need to unlock developer options, as described here.
Simply search for Stay awake in Settings.
Settings > About > Build number. Developer options should appear after tapping the build number several times.
Settings > System > Advanced > Developer options
Settings > About > Android version > Kernel version

(Rowan) Note: Developer options are not always under Build number; they can be in other places such as Kernel version. The developers apparently try to hide them in various locations and I know this because I myself have found them in different locations on different devices.

Settings > Developer options > Stay awake worked for me

The above options are not available on my Sony Xperia running Android 13

There is a stay awake option while charging. For the older Android Froyo 2.2, it can be found under:
Settings > Applications > Development > Stay awake

"Screen will never sleep while charging."
The same option is still present up to the current 8.1 version, but you first have to unlock developer options.

You can probably prevent you tablet from sleeping using an automation app like Tasker (paid) or Automate (free).
Here’s a automation “flow” for Automate to keep the screen and CPU awake, but you can easily modify it to only keep the CPU awake:
http://llamalab.com/automate/community/flows/374

I use the app Caffeine, and it works very good. It's free, and highly helpful. It's very small also (few kb).


text:
Twitter widget appears to be broken: "Application not installed"
I'm having trouble with the Twitter app on my Samsung Galaxy S4. The widget was misbehaving, so I thought I would remove it from my homescreen and put it back. What has happened instead is that the widget refuses to come back. Whenever I try to place it, it will simply say "Application not installed."
I've tried the following:

Reboot my phone
Reinstall the Twitter app
Clear the app's cache and data
Remove the MicroSD card, reinstall, and attempt to use the widget
Several combinations of the above.

Can someone help me figure out what is going wrong here? I realize this is probably a silly question

I just did a hard reset of my phone. Still the same result. I'm thinking at this point that it is a bug with Twitter's app.

Twitter's latest update is causing some issues for people, afaik a fix is in the pipeline.

I had a similar problem with another app (not Twitter) I went into my app manager and saw that the app was installed on my "External Storage" even if I never moved it there. I moved it back to the Internal Storage and it was fixed. My card was already fine to begin with but for some reason, the widget didn't like it.
Anyway, I never recommend putting apps on the SD card, it slowed my S3 to a crawl. Keep it for media and docs.


text:
"Please select a keyboard layout" notification on wake?
I have an RCA brand tablet that came with its own physical keyboard.  Whenever I connect this keyboard or turn on the screen while the keyboard is connected, I get this notification:

If I click on the notification, I am brought here:

So, the notification doesn't take me anywhere where I can select a keyboard layout.  I've tried to go into the individual settings for each keyboard and found an option to select a layout, but if I click on that option, it sends me right back to Screenshot 2.  Therefore I can't select a keyboard layout and I can't get rid of the notification.  It is incredibly frustrating to have to keep clearing out the same notification over and over.  How can I stop the notification?
Note that it does the same thing if I am using the AOSP keyboard instead of the SwiftKey keyboard.  I am running android 4.4.2.


text:
Flashing N9005 (N9005XXUBMI5)
Firstly the reason why I've opened this thread is because previously over a year ago I wrongly flashed a s2 and I became a little scared of flashing phones. I got a samsung note 3 whose current os is Android 4.3 and since it was already rooted when I bought it (Unlocked French Phone) I can't get OTA updates. so I wanna flash it so that I can get OTA updates.
the existing baseband version is: N9005XXUBMI5
What I have downloaded is N9005ZHUENJ1 to upgrade from older version
I'm scared, would this work if I use this N9005ZHUENJ1 to update it over odin?
do I have to repartition?
and finally how do I have to do it for double checking

No problem to use odin and flash stock firmware, newest you can vind on www.sammobile.com
On XDA I found you a thread to make sure you can succesfully use odin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2704363
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Axel


text:
What is Qualcomm Settings (hidden) menu on Moto E?
I found a hidden setting menu called Qualcomm Settings on Moto E. How to access the menu (from IB Times):

Download and install a third-party launcher like Nova Launcher from the Play Store.

Once installed, users can access Nova's menu by pressing longer on the homescreen. It will show a pop-up menu with options like Nova Actions, Apps, Shortcuts, Widgets and Wallpapers. Hit Shortcuts to access the sub-menu and select Activities from list of options that appear.

On Activities menu, users are required to scroll down until com.qualcomm.qualcommsettings. Tap on it to access the hidden Qualcomm Settings menu.

Android Pit warns the readers to refrain from accessing those settings that they are unaware of.

Below is the image of the hidden setting menu.

Can anyone tell me what these setting mean?

FYI, official statement from Motorola first: "The setup menu processor - quoted by the publication - is a tool built on existing devices for testing. So it was not programmed to be easily accessed by the user.To access it and make any changes in the processor configuration menu, the person must have advanced knowledge or follow some instruction disseminated on the Internet. Motorola always recommends that none of these settings are changed as they may affect the normal operation of the appliance."

But it's an on-topic question, and it seems I also cannot find relevant info on this menu. Perhaps someone who has experimenting with this could answer though. Edit: XDA forum has some hints

You can also launch the hidden menu via Tasker. Just hit "show all" in Tasker's Launch App action. Good find!


text:
What would happen if the kernel was somehow modified to avoid sending the shutdown signal?
I'm assuming a signal is sent when the battery reaches some critical level.
If that signal was programmed to be ignored somehow, what would me most likely to happen when the battery depleted its charge?
Would it be the same as plainly removing it, with the screen going off?
My guess is that the memory spaces wouldn't be properly managed, so what would happen when the device was turn on again?
Sorry if this seems too vague.

If the battery depleted without a phone shutdown call, it would essentially be the same as a battery pull, where the power is suddenly cut off from the device.
One of the major risks is preventing this automatic shutdown is data loss/corruption, but this should only occur if you were in the middle of a data process (eg. saving offline document, camera/screenshot).


text:
how to make my usb storage or sd card the default instal location
My techno g9 device shows internal storage 0.99G Usb storage 12 G and Sd Card 27G. All installed apps go to the .99G which is full. So i cant dowload any new apps. Please how can i change the instal folder to the 12G usb storage or the 27G Sd card.

Settings
Storage
Preferred installed location. Select SD card

In Storage you can also set the SD card to Primary Storage.

Try the steps an see if your device has the function.


text:
Unable to make an outgoing call after calling *31# on Moto G
I have a Moto G (1st generation) mobile bought in India. When I tried to make my Caller ID hidden from this wikiHow article, I called *31# and after that, I couldn't make a call to anyone.
Then I tried and miraculously I could make a call by adding a prefix of *31# to any number.
Please help me out fixing this issue.

I tried solutions from GSM Feature Codes but no help.
Called Motorola Customer Care and they told me to Factory Reset. I did it after backing up my data and now it works.

Just try #31# from your mobile, no need to do a factory reset. Please don't trust that forwarded message and all.

Dial #31# and call. After then it will start working outgoing calls.

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


text:
Nexus 10 not recognized on Debian Wheezy/mac OS/Windows 8 with adb
I'm trying to connect my tablet nexus 10 + android 4.4 + cyanogen-mod 11 to my desktop computer where I have installed debian wheezy using adb. It worked until some time ago,now it doesn't anymore neither with debian linux nor with windows 8 or Mac OS. Check here :
root@localhost:/home/marietto# lsusb

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501/RT2573 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:2121 Broadcom Corp. BCM2210 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 04d9:1503 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Shortboard Lefty
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse M90

root@localhost:/home/marietto# adb devices
List of devices attached

The devices is attached to the computer with a common usb cable but it seems that it is not recognized. I've already enabled the usb debug on the nexus 10 configuration panel and I have installed the adb tools under debian with the following commands (taken from this site :
http://bernaerts.dyndns.org/linux/75-debian/280-debian-wheezy-android-tools-adb-fastboot-qtadb
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

This is the version of the adb bridge installed on my debian wheezy :
root@localhost:/home/marietto# adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.31

On the nexus 10 I have enabled the root access for adb and applications. I don't know what to do

On the Nexus, go to Settings => Memory, then go the other Settings (top right) and choose USB-Connection. Try the other connection method.

Have you tried changing between MTP and PTP. Tap the USB debugging sybol and it gives you the option.


text:
Installing CWM without android sdk
Any software that'll help installing CWM
Is there any software that will allow me to install CWM other than android sdk.
For some reason I am not able to install android sdk.

You can flash CWM or TWRP directly from your phone using an app called Rashr. You can also choose to download the IMG files if you don't have them. Make sure you flash a compatible and stable version of the recovery.

You have to root your device and need an internet connection (3G or Wifi) to install CWM from your device.
Download Rom Manager.
Your Device must be connected to internet. Open Application.
Select First Option in that app, Recovery Setup.
Then Select ClockworkMod Recovery from install or update recovery coloumn. Confirm your phone model and boot into your recovery.

I have tried it but it doesn't list my device


text:
Enable framebuffer console in Android kernel source
Is it possible to somehow enable the framebuffer console in android kernel sources from samsung, to see kernel messages instead of just the bootlogo?

Use the LiveBoot app by Chainfire to do this. Note: you need to have a rooted device.

I cant use this as android doesnt boot. Its stuck at the boot logo. I would need something more low level.

Well then you are out of luck for external applications. You need some special kernel/bootloader to do that. I don't think there will be one for your device, though.

When you say it's stuck at the boot logo-- do you mean the bootloader's logo?  Or do you mean android has loaded and it's bootlooping?  If the latter, you don't need a framebuffer console, you need logcat.

You didn't really say what you were trying to do exactly-- but if I understand right, and you're any good with soldering, it sounds like you might want to find the UART pins on your device, then tap that and use a serial connection to your computer to read the bootloader output (via minicom or some other terminal emulator) and access the live console that way.  You may also be able to get serial data from the USB during boot.
Of course, if you are just stuck with a non-booting system and trying to recover a device, you might use odin/heimdall to reflash your boot image (including a new kernel) or install a custom recovery image and use that to flash a ROM with a good kernel.
It sounds like you're possibly deliberately messing with your own built kernels- maybe to upgrade to a new kernel base or something?  If that's the case, an alternative to seeing the kernel messages onscreen is to enable PSTORE (the file system-based replacement for /proc/last_kmesg), which will let you view the dmesg/kernel console + any panic messages after a bad boot on the next reboot (so long as the ram doesn't get overwritten).  Take a look at this example from the trlte (Samsung Note 4) kernel for how to implement it in the newer kernels.  (If it's an older kernel you may just need to turn on last_kmesg.)

authors: Brø Thøł Tâkøê


text:
Irritating noise from Galaxy Note s%
How can I find out which program or app is causing the 'bottle opener' sound on my Galaxy Note s5?

I'm assuming there is nothing showing up in the notifications bar to let you know what wants your attention.
I would open up a system monitoring app (like OS monitor) and check to see what has recently accessed services.  If an app doesn't jump out on its own, you can then sleuth backwards with Permissions Explorer and see what is tapping the service to give you the notification.

What I do is check my settings to see what apps I have open, and then I check all of those apps to see what app is doing it. Otherwise, you may have to reboot it.


text:
How to transmit audio wirlessly from a non bluetooth device to a bluetooth phone?
I want to transmit audio from a device having an earphone jack to an android phone wirelessly. How to accomplish it over Bluetooth.
I looked at ED05 Bluetooth board and A2DP, H2DP profiles but could only make out that audio can be transmitted from a phone to these devices.

Google "phone jack bluetooth transmitter" is returning around 1M results.

The hardware for this is easy - probably any of the 1M results which Eugene googled would work. Your problem is getting android to receive audio over bluetooth, so this question would probably be better suited to the android SE.


text:
Why can't the Galaxy Note 4 capture 4K Pictures and only Videos despite having that 4K screen?
Why is it that, despite having a resolution of 2560×1440, the note 4 can't capture 4K pictures?

The screen doesn't take pictures, the camera is separate hardware.

2560x1440 isn't a 4k screen: that would be 3840x2160

According to Samsung's specification, the Note 4 supports UHD 4K video (3840 x 2160 pixels) @30 fps and pictures up to 16 megapixel (a little bit (4MP) more than 4K).
So you can actually record 4K videos and pictures, but note that they have to follow the standards (pictures are usually 4:3 or 3:2 and videos 16:9). That's it.


text:
How to root Samsung Galaxy S4 value edition i9515?
My father brought me this smart phoe and when I search on Internet chat with my friends i9500 and 505 are common but mine i.e.19515 is differnt and I dont have idea  to root it.
I have tried srsroot and motochopper. But no work
Help me out

What errors do you get from SRSRoot or other methods?

I was able to root Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9515L running Android 4.4.2 by following the steps in CF-Auto-Root and using the datafiles in CF-Auto-Root-jflte-jfltexx-gti9505.zip
These are the steps in the link:

Download and unzip the CF-Auto-Root-....zip file (see posts below this one)
If you end up with a recovery.img and cache.img file, you've extracted twice. You need to end up with a .tar.md5 file - don't
  extract that one
(USB) Disconnect your phone from your computer
Start Odin3-vX.X.exe
Click the PDA button, and select CF-Auto-Root-....tar.md5 (Note: PDA was renamed to AP in the current version of Odin3)
Put your phone in download mode (turn off phone, then hold VolDown+Home+Power to boot - if it asks you to press a button to
  continue, press the listed button, or run adb reboot download command)
(USB) Connect the phone to your computer
Make sure Repartition is NOT checked
Click the Start button
Wait for Android to boot
Done (if it took you more than 30 seconds, you need practise!)


text:
Revenant folders on my Nexus 7 (flo) - how to track down the culprit?
This may have been going on for a while, but I have only noticed a few weeks ago.
There are some folders inside the Downloads folder (i.e. subfolders and subsubfolders) which originally contained documents meant for a particular period and thus were named after year and month (e.g. 2014-05).
They contained documents which I have read in apps like Moon+ Reader.
I deleted those (sub)subfolders many times now, but they keep coming back.
My first hunch was: "oh, somehow Moon+ Reader must have registered them in its DB and keeps recreating them". So I decided to use the rudimentary file browser included in that app and removed the folders there. Yet, after every reboot they keep reappearing.
How can I track down the culprit? Is Moon+ Reader perhaps known to behave like that?

Default folders like Downloads, Music, Movies etc. are recreated every time Android checks for them (periodically or after every reboot) and thus are not meant to be deleted. Even you put an empty SD card in your phone, it would always get filled with empty, default folders, for easy file/document sorting.

@GiantTree: yeah, but my question isn't at all about those "system folders". It's about subfolders (actually subsubfolders) of them. And those should be mine to manage.

Well, that's weird. That shouldn't happen except a special app creates them.

@GiantTree: yep, that's my problem. How to track down that culprit :)

I have now been able to confirm without doubt that indeed Moon+ Reader is responsible for the folders reappearing after deletion.
The problem is that I've come up empty-handed when looking for a database or text file related to Moon+ Reader which contains the names of those folders.
Meanwhile I have moved my books into the Books folder instead of leaving it in a subfolder of Download, but now the whole folder hierarchy inside Download which was used by Moon+ Reader keeps reappearing.
Unfortunately even rating the app requires a Google+ account which I will not create and there is no support contact given. So no way to report this issue back. But I am thinking about extracting the app and trying to find the offending code to add more details here.

"The problem is that I've come up empty-handed when looking for a database or text file related to Moon+ Reader which contains the names of those folders." -- for confirmation only, have you looked into the data directory of this app (under /data/data)?

@Firelord: yes, correct. That's the place I looked at.


text:
What is the "Attempting HD" icon when placing calls?
I have an HTC One with Sprint, and I recently updated to Android 5.0.2.  After the update, my calls now say "Attempting HD" in the corner.  I tried googling for "attempting hd android", "attempting hd htc one" and "attempting hd sprint" with poor results. What is this?  Can I disable it if I don't want it?

Basically, AFAIK, it is voice over LTE. It is a higher quality voice transmission. In order for it to be successful, both parties have to support it.

This icon comes from Sprint's HD Voice feature.  The "Attempting HD" icon appears in all calls, but the feature only activates on Sprint-to-Sprint calls where both devices are supported.


text:
Visual impairment support on Android?
Perhaps this is somewhat of a software recommendation but I hope people will realize it is a  very important and relevant one (plus, one shouldn't need to download an app, it should be part of the OS). On PCs there is something called SuperNova software which will allow you to view larger text on PCs. On Android it is possible to pich and spread the fingers apart to view larger web pages (and this works on most pages), but what I need is I need to be able to do the same on things like settings pages and contact lists. I wonder whether there is some way to support this functionality on Android devices (Android comes with good support for people with restricted motion of the limbs, and I was wondering why support for visual impairment that allows to zoom by reverse-pinching is not included).
Thank you for your feedback.

How to help Android users with reduced ability to see, Is there a user accessible font size preference?, Is there a larger interface for older owners?

Settings --> Display --> Font size will adjust the font from "tiny" right through "huge" on the system pages (like Settings) on the two Samsung devices I have.  Tinkering with brightness and mode can also help boost contrast.  If you head over to Settings -- > Accessibility --> Vision, there are additional/duplicate adjustments for magnification gestures, color adjustment, and negative colors.


text:
Why is my Nvidia tablet looking for chinese servers(baidu.com)?
I am not sure if this is the right area for the question, or if it is even a big deal, but here i go.
When using by Nvidia tablet to develop an app I realized that it was attempting to reach a server in china. this doesn't make sense to me because I don't have any apps that I would think would try to do this. What I would like to know is if this is a security concern?
02-12 14:09:32.448  11220-11284/? E/sdkstat﹕ sdkstat send error++++++java.net.UnknownHostException: Unable to resolve host "hmma.baidu.com": No address associated with hostname

This shouldn't be a security concern. Some chinese app developers store their apps or data for them on that servers. Baidu itself is safe as well (neglecting the fact of copyright infringements) so everything is ok. Also your DNS seems to not have an address for that host (probably blacklisting it) so you stay even more secure. (And it comes from your SDK statistics process that tries to send data.)

I am still unsure about this. Do you think nvidia, apps use this domain. I dont really have anything on here but google apps, nvidia apps and the one I am working on.

Depends on how you build your app. What process/app throws this error? If you know this you can easily determine why it is trying to connect to baidu.

That line in the code block is all I know about regarding the attempt to connect to baidu. Do you know how I can find this out using the information provided? Sadly I don't.

If the process is still running (I suppose it does) then you can try to do a ps command in shell (adb shell) and search for that process id. I am not sure but I think the pid should be 11220 and the tid 11284 (pid = process id, tid = thread id)

Cant find it anymore I'll update when its running again.

You might want to read this February 2016 article at citizenlab.org.
Most relevant part of the article:

Leaks sensitive data on startup
Upon application launch, we observed Baidu Browser sending an HTTP POST request to
  https://hmma.baidu.com/app.gif
The body of this HTTP request is a gzipped JSON file. The JSON file contains a list of fields with various details about the phone and the user, some in plain text and others encrypted.
Unencrypted fields in the JSON file include:

o: the user’s operating system (e.g., “Android”)
n: Baidu Browser version number
w, h: width and height, respectively, of the screen in pixels
gl: GPS coordinates and time of last GPS update

Some fields are encrypted using AES+ECB with the hard-coded ASCII-encoded key
  h9YLQoINGWyOBYYk
and then Base64 encoded. These fields include:

dd: IMEI number
ii: a string containing the phone’s IMEI number written backwards and an MD5 hash of Android software version information
wl2: list of all in-range wireless networks and their MAC addresses and signal strengths

With knowledge of the hard-coded key, these fields can easily be decrypted. The source code for a python script for decrypting these fields is available here.

And then there's Baidu's response (PDF file hosted at citizenlab.org). They don't seem to see an issue in collecting this data, they just acknowledge that they need to improve their encryption:

Baidu endeavors to collect data in a way consistent with the highest standards of security and
  user privacy in the industry. We disclose our practices in our terms of service under privacy
  rights as detailed here (Chinese): https://www.baidu.com/duty/yinsiquan.html
We're grateful of Citizen Lab for being mindful of data security in transmission and we have
  already made substantial progress toward ensuring that any such transmission will be secure.

So citizenlab's article is probably no more describing what you can see on the net nowadays.


text:
LG Nexus 5 is not detected despite having installed LG Universal Mobile Drivers
I use Windows 8, and ADB seems to not be able to find my LG Nexus 5 (D821) despite having installed LG Universal Mobile Drivers (LGUnitedMobileDriver_S498MA22_WHQL_ML_Ver_2.2). adb reboot bootloader failed to find the device.
I have set the device in USB debugging mode. It does not seem that LG provides anymore anything else than the manuals on their new website.
Which USB driver should be installed to detect LG Nexus 5, and where can I download it?

I found the issue. I tried installing some other generic LG drivers which were interfering with the other drivers. (LGUnitedMobileDriver_S498MA22_WHQL_ML_Ver_2.2)
To solve this:

I uninstalled the generic LG drivers (LGUnitedMobileDriver_S498MA22_WHQL_ML_Ver_2.2) like a software (Control Panel -> Uninstall or Change a Program)
Turn on the USB Debugging
Unplug and replug the device
In the Windows Device Manager the MTP was shown with an exclamation mark
Open it and ask Windows to find a driver automatically which it did successfully. You will need an Internet connection
Should work now

In case Windows fails to find the driver automatically, download Google USB Driver manually since Nexus (and now Pixel) serieses are considered Google devices.


text:
why does my tablet say insufficient space?
I have a few apps, but this tablet is new and I want more apps. Every time I say download, it says I have insufficient space. Please help!

Go to settings>storage and take a look at what you have for space.  Some devices come with very little to start with (4gb) while others have buckets (64gb).  Downloading a few movies or games (or loading a big music library) can push a 4gb device to its limit fairly quickly.
If you've checked settings and see that you have very little available space, doing some app housecleaning will obviously help.  Some devices will accept an external microsd card, so you have a relatively inexpensive way put a bunch more room on your tablet.
If you've checked setting and there is a lot of available space left, then we need to explore other options.

Glad to hear it!

I would suggest checking what it says in your storage settings to see what you have available for space, and what is taking up the most space. Your media files, downloads, or cached data may be taking up more space than you expect.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts SE.  Unfortunately, this does not consist of an answer, this is something more for the comments section.  I know you don't have the reputation to add comments yet, but try answering questions, or asking them to raise your reputation.


text:
Android Security Automatically lock
I'm using a Moto X (2nd Gen.) with Android 5.0 and I'm trying to utilize Smart Lock by setting the option in Settings → Security → Automatically lock to:

5 seconds after sleep, except when kept unlocked by Smart Lock

No matter what I change it to, Android will still force me to enter my pattern, except when unlocked by Smart Lock (Trusted devices, Trusted places).
What am I doing wrong?

You are doing nothing wrong. It's an intended feature. Why should your device be unlocked when you told it to lock after 5 seconds?

@GiantTree Hmm, Let's say I locked my phone by pressing Power Button and then remembered something (within 5 seconds) and when I turn it back on, Android asks me for my pattern, I thought feature would allow me to bypass entering pattern if phone is turned back on within time period specified (5 seconds) in this case.

Pressing the power button locks the device instantly. As by design/security reasons.


text:
Apps on SD-Card moved back to device storage after being updated?
On my Samsung Galaxy S5 (running Lollipop 5.0), I noticed the following behavior:

I moved some apps to my external SD-Card storage.
Every time, Google Play Store tells me to update one of these apps, they're getting moved back to the device's storage - and I have to push them back again to the SD-Card.

Did anyone encounter the same issue (or is this maybe just my phone)? This behavior does not show up on my old Galaxy (Android 4.1.2 - apps keep their place there, even after being updated).
Since I think, that it's very annoying to check whether apps should be moved to the SD-Card again, can somebody please tell me, how to stop this behavior or automate app2sd for specific apps?
Edit: I did not root my phone

I'm experiencing the same issue, have you found a solution?

@mariosangiorgio Unfortunately, not. I got used to use some apps, that notify me about updated apps and then I have to move them manually :(

The problem is you don't have you SD card selected as the default installation location. Which makes the app install back onto the internal storage.
To fix this got to Settings > Storage > Preferred install location then select SD card. After you update it will install app on the SD card by default.

where can I find these settings? PlayStore or Android settings? I could not find it. Thanks in advance!

They where an android settings try searching the app

Screen shot please! of your android settings. There must be a Storage option, inside which you have Storage Settings. There you can change the default storage to External Storage or SD card.

I can't find this setting anywhere...

This setting simply does not exist on my (stock) LG G5 running Android 7.0. Naturally, Google has no problem defaulting to shoving all my apps back on internal storage despite lack of a setting for that (or space to do so).


text:
When I press and hold volume down button with screen off, the phone beeps twice. How do I disable it?
When I press and hold the volume down button on Huawei Honor 6, it beeps two times, even if the device is in silent mode. Between the beeps I see logcat message like this:
D/VARecorder(13631): RecorderThread XXXXXXXXXRECOGNIZER_LOCAL dataRead1200
...
02-13 03:45:08.630 D/SoundManager(16318): playRecognitionStopSound()

I suppose it looks like some voice command feature. How do I disable this (or at least its beeps)?

Workaround: moving away /system/priv-app/HwVAssistant.* disabled the feature.
Similar feature of pressing double volume-down => taking insta-photo persisted.


text:
Can't install non-Play store apps
On both my nexus 9 and my Oneplus One running android 5.0.1 the apk installer will pop up and show the permissions but it simply won't let me click install. It does it for apks from the internet and from the Amazon app store. The only thing that I have found is that lollipop doesn't let secondary users install apps but I don't even have secondary users on either of my devices. I searched the settings and haven't found anything, and before you assume that I am a complete fool the "unknown sources" box is checked. How can I fix this?

Are you by chance using a screen filter app?

I am using a screen filtering app called twilight. I disabled it and now I can install apps again. Thanks! Can you tell me how that works by any chance?

It's kind of a security precaution, as I understand it. The theory is that an overlay could try to make you install something malicious or unintended by overlaying a fake app information screen on top of the real one, but letting you tap the real "Install" button. I suppose it could also try to hijack your tap on the button, but I'm not sure. In any case, the system just refuses to process the tap event on the button to try to prevent that from being possible.


text:
Is Factory reset can fix my problem?
I installed lucky patcher and and there's an option there says Install Modded Playstore
then I try what is that then after a while it prompts an error it says not enough space in \system and when I go back in menu I noticed that Play store has gone now Im asking is factory reset can help me in getting back of that play store?
Device:Cloudpad 700

Reflash your ROM.

A factory restore will likely not help fix your problem, as the error is within the /system folder, and a factory reset only wipes /data.
In Lucky Patcher, you should have an option to revert non-integrated patches of an app from Lucky Patcher > [App] > Open menu of patches > Remove ODEX with changes.
If that doesn't work:
You are going to have to manually reinstall the Play Store, which can be found here.

It always went into an error it says: not enough space within the System Partition to move the application. Please free up space in /system then try again

When you try to remove the ODEX with changes?

yes I already try that

Have you tried installing the Play Store .apk?


text:
Battery down over night?
I only found a question where the cause of this problem was the exchange service.
But in my case the battery went down from 80 to 9% over night, with 55% consumed by Android OS.
What are the services that run under that name that could cause 3:30h of CPU time?