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SSH server on Android Emulator
Is it possible to start SSH server on Android emulator? What is the app name? I've tried a few apps but neither of them could run on Emulator.

Have you checked how to run a specific app's action via terminal?

What do you think is special about the emulator with respect to an SSH server? When you used a search engine to search for android ssh server, and found various open source ones, and tried them in the emulator, what did you learn?

They all want to have WiFi on device. All of them fail on emulator. I've tried to disable WiFi check but then they kind of run but do not work.

Depending on how you have networking set up for your emulator, you might need to forward your SSH port from the emulator to a port on the host. Your emulator might be set up on a NAT/host-only network, so your SSH client can't actually reach the server.
To test this, try pinging the emulator's IP address from the system with your SSH client.


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How can I set a custom per-person ringtones, but for texts and not calls?
I know how to set a custom ringtone for a given caller on my phone: pull up the person's entry under People, open the menu and select "Set ringtone." However, this only applies to regular voice phone calls.
Is there a way to do a similar thing for the sound that plays when a "text" — by which I mean either SMS or MMS — is received? If so, what is it? The Messaging app's settings only seem to let me choose a single notification sound, but I'm hoping there's something I'm overlooking.

Dang, I guess I should have tried more search terms. Thanks, @AlEverett.

I don't believe that there's a way to do this using the settings in the built in Messaging app, but there are 3rd party apps that can enhance the built-in app's notifications capability.
I use SMS Popup which lets you carry on using the built-in Messaging app to send and receive text messages, but replaces the notifications. Amongst the extra options it gives you are individual, per-contact customization of every aspect of the notification.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Turn off the voice notification for emails on GALAXY S4?
So I tried to figure this issue out for my boss and ended up stumped, decided to call Verizon for some assistance however, due to lack of "official literature" (?) the tech was unable to assist me in solving the problem. Turns out if I go into the settings for the actual email account that my boss has connected to his phone and shut off the notifications completely that eliminates the voice from say... "You have one new email... You have five new email... You have eleven new email" but.... if we do that he can't receive any notifications at all. No beep, no vibrate, no standard email dings... there has got to be a way. Someone please help, the voice is driving everyone in the office crazy.

is talk back enabled in your device

If this is happening to you, you might be in Driving Mode.  You might have not actually switched to Driving Mode physically, but if you've paired (Bluetooth) with you're vehicle, it may automatically switch to Driving mode when you enter the car.
Pull down the notification bar from the top of the screen. If Driving Mode isn't one of the five icons at the top of the screen hit the icon that looks like three little boxes and one set of arrows.
That should open a big list of toggle switches. Look for driving mode and see if it is turned on/lit up. If it is turn it off and the voice notifications should stop.

Well, I had the SAME problem and it turned out to be that my ringtone for incoming calls was set to "Hangouts Video Call".  When I changed that to "VZW Airwaves" the voice announcement for notifications went away.  Perhaps it is coincidence, but every other option I tried failed and tested after each, resetting to how things were before.

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


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Sony Xperia Z stuck in a bootloop
My Xperia Z is stuck int a bootloop. It goes up to the colorful waves and then it restarts. It was connected with USB in charging mode. Suddenly, it starts restarting. I thought it might be carrying out some of its processes, but even after an hour of restarts, it failed to start normally. Now my battery is completely drained.
I want to recover/restore it to factory settings, but I can't because of bootloops.
The phone is only two months old, and I do not want to format and restore flash files
via flashtools as suggested on the XDA forums. Getting into recovery mode and restoring from there will be preferred, instead of flashing. My last resort will be a Sony Service Center.

You might want to check Booting to recovery, which is about a Xperia mini pro (being a Sony Xperia device lets me hope it fits). If you can boot into recovery, you should be able to do a factory reset from there.

I fixed the boot loop for Sony XZ1 by following this tutorial using Xperia Companion

You have to download a rom for your mobile.
Download it from
https://xperiastockrom.com/category/firmware
Download a flashtool from
https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/flash-tool/

open the  flashtool
Connect a USB cable to your computer.
Turn off your phone.
Connect your phone to the USB cable while holding the Volume down key.
Select the software you want to flash in the Service list. The tool automatically detects the phone model and lists available software versions.
Click on Apply Service. The phone will now be flashed.
When you have flashed your device, you can disconnect your phone from the computer. The first time the boot-up might take a little longer than normal.

Hope it will solve your problem...

Download the flash tool and search for "FTF stock images". Find your phone's model number and download at least 4 different versions of the stock Firmware from beginning to newest. Flash following instructions. This will fix this!

It would be better if you could explain more in detail, though...

You can install a fresh and latest rom by these steps:

Download and install latest Flashtool.
Then check your phone exact model (For xperia z: C6602,C6603,c6606,...).
You should download the latest firmware for your model from valid sources like XDA. In any topic you find, there should be a "How to" that you can easily follow.
Wiping data folder will delete all your settings, apps, phone numbers, ... (Don't forget to backup!)

Useful note: Flash FTF using flashtool

Since google favors this thread, I will follow up with what worked for me: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/need-help-flashing-xz2-ftf-flash-fails.3873024/post-78287147
That post states:

(Newflasher thread is here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/cr...gress-newflasher-xperia-command-line-t3619426
and the version I used was the latest (v13))
Simple steps for using newflasher instead of FlashTool:

Use Xperifirm to download appropriate firmware for your device    Firmware auto-unpacks to
C:\users\yourusername.flashtool\firmwares\downloads\xxx
Remove any    .ta files you may not want to flash (The only one I know to remove is    simlock.ta , as I don't want to risk
re-sim-locking my device)
Copy    the newflasher.exe to the folder that contains the unpacked firmware    (example would be folder xxx above)
Don't run newflasher.exe yet
Get    your phone into Flashmode (for this XZ2 it is to have the phone    powered off, then hold the VOLDOWN button while plugging the
USB    cable in)

The resources mentioned in the other answers makes it difficult to find images for newer xperias. Apparently the newflash tool's distribution goes through the xda-developers forum. Same goes for the firmware development tool.

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


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Cannot find downloaded files
My phone is a Galaxy S3 i9300 and is rooted. I do most of the time download files via the Internet. So the files I downloaded are in the documents folder. The weird part is after I check it in my file manager, the downloaded file is nowhere to be found. I am 100% sure that I finished the download. Have anyone experience this scenario?

Depending on the app you use, it may be in a different folder. I know when I am looking for a file (photo or download), I have to check my internal partition "Download" folder, my external (SD Card) "Download" folder, or sometimes even on the root of either partition.
If you used a standard browser (Stock browser, Opera, Firefox, Chrome, etc), they all should have their own in-app download manager that lists the files you have downloaded. You should be able to open the file within the browser app; if you can't, then you know the file isn't downloaded.


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com.phone.android keeps crashing immediatelly after factory reset
I am having the very-well known problem where com.android.phone keeps crashing all the time. I have done a factory reset and the problem had immediate effect just after the 1st reboot. So, we can exclude cases like crappy applications.
I know that this is a common problem, but as far as I couldn't find any working solution I decided to ask your help.
My phone is Samsung Galaxy S, Gingerbread, rooted, no custom ROM installed.
Any help appreciated.


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HTC One Main Email doesn't show HTML
My new HTC One is great, but I do have one weird question.  If there are pictures in a document it gives me an option to see the pictures, but it doesn't appear to show HTML on some e-mails.  Instead it shows the subject in a link, but if I go in my desktop it shows the html look and feel.  Any suggestions.


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Scan a single channel to measure RSSI of a specific AP when not associated
I would like to (repeatedly) measure the RSSI of a given Wi-Fi access point while I am (physically) approaching it. It is important to mention that at the beginning, my phone is not associated with the AP, hence reading RSSI via wpa_cli signal_poll does not work.
The best I have found so far is to repeatedly issue a wpa_cli scan and read the results using wpa_cli bss <BSSID>. However, this gives me new results with much too low frequency, as the scans take too much time. I target to get a new RSSI every second. (even if I limit scanning to the 5GHz band only, it is too slow).
Is there any way to scan for a single channel only (as I know the channel the access point is transmitting on)?

Install iw and then issue:
iw dev wlan0 scan freq 2417

It synchronously scans only the frequency(ies) you specify. This can give you multiple results per second!

You don't necessarily have to use shell for this. Try out inSSIDer it provides RSSI data, but I am not sure how realtime this data is.
For me this app is used to verify the consistency of the AP's (Enterprise network) in a certain location and their typical radio switch zone.

This is indeed a nice app, but unfortunately I need to log RSSI over time which this app seems to be unable to do.

If using the shell isn't a problem, you can compile iwlist command for ARM, and transfer it to device. iwlist scan as root may give you better results.

Thanks for your answer. iwlist scan does indeed give sufficiently verbose results. However, it still suffers from the fact that it issues a scan and exactly that scan takes too much time. I need another way to monitor RSSI than scanning repeatedly.


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Why is Kivy Launcher giving "your device isn't compatible" with Nook HD+?
When I bought my Nook HD+ a week after Google Play was enabled for it, one of the first apps I installed was the Kivy Launcher. It worked great for a few times, then stopped working mysteriously - wouldn't even generate a log file. I finally decided to uninstall it and reinstall again.
Now when I go back to the Play Store, it shows a message under the app icon:

Your device isn't compatible with this version.

I have no idea why it wouldn't be compatible, since it worked the first time I tried it. Is it possible that B&N black-listed it? What other conditions would generate this message?

The generic Q&A is likely relevant: Why are some apps on the market incompatible with my device?

@eldarerathis, that's very relevant, thanks. Unfortunately it doesn't really answer the question.


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Unable to resolve host "get.cm"
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (GT-P3113). When connecting to a particular Wi-Fi network, I get a message that states: unable to resolve host "get.cm".
I am able to connect to the network and can see other devices on the net, but I cannot connect to websites. All my other PCs on the network function just fine, but this Android tablet cannot get internet access. It works fine on every other network I've accessed.
I have modified the network to use no authentication, WEP, and WPA, but still nothing.
Ideas?

Any log (logcat) that might give a clue? Hard to say otherwise.

Where do you see that message? Is it in the Wi-Fi settings page, a dialog, a notification, or something else? Also, if you're using Cyanogenmod or another custom ROM, please include that information in the question.

I am using cyanogenmod 10.1. It's a little notification box that pops up towards the bottom of my homescreen. I also managed to get my hands on a couple android phones, LG spectrum 2 and droid razr m, both right out of the box. Both of these cannot connect to the network either... I'll work on finding a log. But basically it seems to be a problem with android devices not being able to connect, but windows can.

I figured it out. My network was configured to use the network address as the router address. Windows is able to handle this just fine, I guess, but Android systems can not. So I changed the Addressing settings to set the router to end in .161 instead of .160 (the network address) and it's all good :D


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How to get the information of users connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot?
How can I get the IP address, MAC address, etc. of a user connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot? ( Using Karbonn A21 Phone running Android 4.0.4 with minor changes to the skin)


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speaker option enabled by default when answering the calls
Can any of the applications change the call settings? All of a sudden have observed that when an incoming call is answered, Speaker is enabled by default.
After uninstalling some of the applications related to calls, it became normal.
But I would like to know what/which caused the change in settings.
Apps I deleted are TrueCaller, Call Recorder.
Any information related to this is helpful. Thanks in advance.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running 4.1.2 JellyBean.

I have this exact same issue on my HTC One, but I never had either TrueCaller or Call Recorder installed. It still persists now. Very annoying.

I know for certain that some apps do have the option of changing the setting (e.g. InDrive allows you to switch to speakerphone when driving)
As for the second question, I believe that CallRecorder is the culprit, because:
a) I have tried TrueCaller once, and did not experience anything like you are mentioning,
b) Call recorder apps generally can't work on unrooted Android (as far as I know) unless you are using the speakerphone, so that they can record your voice, and the voice coming from the speakerphone.

That might be the case. But it all worked well before. Is there any setting that can be changed in the stock android, for default speaker phone? Didn't find any such thing in 'Call Settings'

Can you check in the settings of SVoice for a "Drive Mode"? If so disable it. That may be the issue. I'll keep looking for other possibilities.

Wear Speaker is another culprit.


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How do I keep given apps always running? Looking for how to relaunch them periodically
Throughout the day, my phone's kernel kills my memory-resident apps at random, probably because the phone had run out of memory.  The apps are Backitude, Dropsync, Llama, MightyText, and Screebl.  (All five apps run as background services, yet my phone's kernel still kills them.)
The workaround I did is to have a Llama event that relaunches the other four apps every 3 hours.  The fourth app is tricky because Screebl doesn't turn on when launched.  So far so good. The problem is .. if the kernel kills Llama.
I'm looking for a timed launcher, I think.  It needs to launch Llama every 3 hours, so that llama can launch the other four apps, and this timed launcher, every 3 hours.  The set-up is sort of like those old Windows viruses that come in two executables; each exe makes sure the other is always running.  I cross my fingers the kernel doesn't kill them both.
I'm looking for suggestions.  How do I keep given apps always running?
P.S. Heh, I see that this is the opposite of this community wikied question.

Android's ActivityManager usually kills and restarts services after some time (usually a few mins) that were killed because of low-memory. I suspect that if this mechanism failes your device is in a situation where it has very low resources and a different workaround wouldn't help either.

So your device already kills background service due to low memory -- and you want to solve that by adding another background service? Not very likely to work, wouldn't you agree? But you might want to check Keeping an app in memory and A: How to lower OOM value of an app permanently?


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PDF Presentation (Beamer LaTeX / Adobe Acrobat Reader) on Android tablet
I have just received my Nexus 10 - my first Android tablet!
I bought the tablet partly for giving presentations. My presentations are created by using the LaTeX package "beamer", which produces PDF files. Acrobat Reader (on PC) has a presentation mode that works perfectly well for all purposes, but I have trouble finding this functionality in the Android version.
There is a full-page display functionality in Adobe's app, but it has some animation for the page transitions. This means that "revealing" of new content (which is implemented by having successive slides that are identical except for the parts that are being revealed) will not work. This is one of the main functionalities that I want in my PDF presentations, and I seem to be unable to find any setting that would turn off the animation.
I have tried searching and the results I got were either about general PDF viewers or PowerPoint (etc) presentation apps. Rather than trying all the different PDF/presentation apps there are, I was hoping that someone might already be using their tablet in this manner, and would be able to help me out.
I have also tried ezPDF reader, but I did not find any presentation-style display at all. So my question is this:
Is there any way to do Beamer PDF presentation on Android tablets conveniently?
(3rd-party app is accepted, and ideally it should work with standard bluetooth presentation devices)

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Please note that recommendations like Is there an app for X are off-topic here (see the FAQ for details). For where your question might fit better, you might want to look into Where can I ask questions that aren't Android Enthusiast questions?

I think this question is fine for this site. There is a well-defined problem to be solved. However, @mathstribble, you should probably [edit] out your request for "best app". "Best" is subjective, of course, and such requests tend to simply attract little more than links to responders' favorite apps.

Thanks - I have edited the question, and also added a tag for Adobe Reader (in case there is a functionality in the app that I missed).

I've looked for such functionality for over a year, w/o success;
I've emailed Adobe about the reduced functionality of their PDF
reader under Android and emailed the developers of the main office
suites for Android (Officesuite, Kingsoft, Polaris, etc.) suggesting
such a feature, all to no avail so far. More such requests might
have some effect.
Otherwise, within 1-2 years we'll be able to dual boot our tablets under
Linux and use a Linux-based PDF presenter (acroread, evince, okular, etc.)

I could not find a "pure" presentation mode in Aldiko, Acroread 11.7.1,
APV, MuPDF, PDFViewer and several others I tried.
I finally settled with Perfect Viewer and its Perfect Viewer PDF plugin.
Extensive (excessive?!) customisation options, and you can:

Disable transitions
Drastically simplify what touch actions are allowed (simple tap on left/right part of screen, disable menu in the center, enable pinch zoom, add long-tap to reset zoom, ...).

Thanks - this is fantastic, indeed, "perfect". You can turn off the menu button at the top as well. It took me a while to figure out how to use the Kensington "PresentAir" presenter that I have with the app: When the presenter is connected, Android seems to regard it as a keyboard, and disables the on-screen keyboard. The app, however, requires the presenter to be connected to autodetect the key in question, but also requires a "description" in order to save the hardware button. But switching keyboards turns off the app!

... However, it turns out that pressing the "stop" button on the remote registers as a "b". So I was able to enter a description of "b", save the command, turn off the remote, and then edit the description using the on-screen keyboard. A bit awkward, but that is more the remote's / Android's problem (and it may be that I was being silly in not finding anywhere to turn on both the on-screen keyboard and remote). Now that this is configured, the app seems to do absolutely everything that I want from it. Wonderful solution!

I had the same problem and had to try out a bunch of apps. In addition to what  you were looking for, I was also interested in the possibility to add comments during the presentation using the s-pen of my galaxy note. All the apps listed below support full page view, so there are in principle an options for presentations.
Moon Reader Pro
This is an excellent ebook reader. You have to pay for the full version, since the free version wont support pdf display. You can select full-page mode. By default there is no transition effect. You can also annotate while viewing. The pdf quality is very good and I have not seen any lags. Tons of options.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreaderp
Aldiko Book Reader
Also a very good ebook reader that supports pdfs. Very much the same as the Moon reader, but it wont allow annotations. Also Moon reader has more options. The main advantage is that this reader is free. So try this one out first.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aldiko.android
Acrobat Reader FoxIt and FoxIT Mobile PDF lit
Both viewers are fast and allow annotations, but you cannot turn off the page transitions. Very annoying for presentations. Both apps are free.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.reader
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foxit.mobile.pdf.lite
PDF Viewer
This viewer was first slow, but one can change the options such that it performs okay. It has no page transitions, but it wont allow you to annotate. Free.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=the.pdfviewer3

Thanks - I actually tried Aldiko before, but either missed the option of turning off page transitions, or this has been added since then. In any case, it's very helpful - perfect!

Thanks again for the suggestions - I think sneumann's new answer (Perfect Viewer) now provides a perfect answer to my query, hence I have changed this to be the accepted answer, so as to make it easier for others to find. Thanks for understanding!

Try XODO.
I found this question because I was looking for exactly this.  Since the question was asked, some new apps are available, so I thought I'd share one that definitely works (it has an option to disable animations).  It also seems to have nice annotation tools.  Good enough to use in a classroom I'm thinking.

Since there haven't been any responses, I'll record the solution that I have come up with so far, in case anyone else is interested. It is not quite perfect yet, so further answers / comments are certainly appreciated.

APV PDF Viewer has options that allow you to disable the visible zoom buttons, lock the horizontal scroll, increase the distance between pages, and bind the Up/Down and Left/Right keys to page up/down.

Setting these options, position the page in the middle of the screen. Touching the screen right or left will forward a page, but if you are not careful, it will still lead to moving the page around. However, if you use a bluetooth remote (as I do) to forward the page, this isn't a problem and it works pretty well.

ezPDF Reader does not seem to work for what I had in mind, as it does not seem to have an option that shows a 4x3 slide in full (with black borders on the sides). On the other hand, it should be possible to compose the beamer slides in 16x9-mode, and then I think there are enough options to make this feasible. I haven't tested this yet, as I haven't yet spent any time on thinking what the best layout is for 16x9 slides. In the long run, this seems likely to be the best option.

I am interested in doing exactly the same thing (show Beamer slides on my tablet). The closest solution I've found is Radaee PDF...BEFORE the latest update (that is, version 4.2.2 works fairly well; the new update, not at all).  I'd be interested to know of any other solutions you've found.  What you suggest what APV PDF doesn't work for me (the pages get misaligned, no matter how I position it).

hi i was reading for the solution of this problem, and i found about adobe reader X for android, in this version of adobe exist an option that allows user view the pdf in presentation mode, here i leave an extract of the information i found from this link
Fit-to-Screen viewing mode
For those users who like to look at PDF documents one page at a time, Reader X introduces a new “Fit-to-Screen” viewing mode in addition to the earlier Continuous Scroll mode.  This mode is especially useful if you’re reading presentations.  Use the “View Mode” menu option to switch to this mode.
While in Fit to Screen mode, you can navigate across pages in two ways:
1 Tap on the ‘hot zones’ near the left and right of the screen to take you to the previous or next page respectively,
2 Swipe the screen horizontally towards the left or right to navigate to the next or previous page respectively."

Is this different from the functionality that I mention in my original question? In that functionality, unfortunately there is an animation for the page transition, which makes it unsuitable for beamer presentations with 'reveals'. I have not found an option to turn this off.

Write on PDF by Samsung meets all the requirements very well.

Interesting. I haven't tried presenting from a phone / tablet for a while, but out of interest - does this only run on Samsung devices?


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Micromax A116 ask for 5,13 and 15 digit wi-fi passsword
I recently buy Micromax A116(canvas HD) Running on Android 4.1.2(Jelly-bean), I have problem in wi-fi that when I want to connect my compony wi-fi which is secured with WEP and having password 11 digit but when I'm going to enter password the "connect" button is not enable, It Enable only at digit 5, 13 and 15 but my compony wi-fi of 11 digit. Suggest me the solution for enable "connect" button for all digit password.

+1 I have the same issue. Couldn't able to connect if small password is kept.


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What is Fast boot in HTC One X?
I have HTC One X running Android 4.1.1 and Sense 4+. Under Settings > Power I have an option of Fast Boot. The text under it says "Start up and shut down quickly". How will my device be affected if I turn on/off this option?

"Fast Boot" is basically analogous to the hibernate or possibly S3 (STR) sleep functionality on regular PCs (HTC isn't very clear on what precisely it does, but analysis of its claims and action suggests it's one of these).  Rather than fully shutting down and restarting, the OS resumes where it was after a shutdown, allowing the system to get from "off" to "ready to use" much faster.
As mentioned, some apps don't play nice with this, such as the case is in this SO question.
Unless you're regularly needing to shut off your phone for some reason and want it to start back up faster, I'd personally just leave it off to avoid the potential for weird issues.

"Fastboot is a protocol that can be used to re-flash partitions on your device (update the flash file system in Android devices). It is this small tool that comes with the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit), which is an alternative to the Recovery Mode for doing installations and updates." - Kingroot.com
It is a combination of adb and odin, or at least thats how i look at it


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Will an alternative launcher stop Galaxy S4 additions from working?
I want to customise my Galaxy S4 home screen and it seems Touchwiz will not allow me to change many options (like the quick launch icons etc). I was thinking of GO Launcher, but wish to know if the 'special' extras Samsung has included (such as eye scrolling, air gestures, smart stay etc) will still work or are they Touchwiz only?

In general, anything that works regardless of which app you have in the foreground will work regardless of which launcher you have installed. That includes eye scrolling, air gestures, smart stay, smart orientation change (I forget the marketing name for it), and so on.
Changing to a different launcher will only replace the home screen and the "all apps" menu. Note that the old launcher is still installed: the first time you go to the home screen, you get a chooser to pick which one to use, the same way as if you have more than one web browser and click on a link.


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can't find setting static IP or Enable android reverse tethering
I have a nexus S and Android 4.1.2, I want to share a wifi connection from my laptop (ubuntu 13.04) and connect to it from my Nexus S, But.. I can't find where can I set a static IP address on my device.
I've also tried the reverse tethering, and I don't find where can I enable it on my device.
Thank you :)

May want to look at How to set up reverse tethering over USB? if you can't get WiFi to work.

It must be done on the ubuntu laptop, as that is supposed to be the AP. Try searching for ubuntu share wifi.

thank you @ott-- I have configured my laptop, it's now the turn of my android device.. it doesn't recongnize the wifi

Can you make a screenshot where it shows the available WLANs?


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Switch spell-checker of Chrome to a different language?
On my smartphone I normally use German as default language.
Sometimes (like when posting here) I would like to use a different language for its spell-checker.
How do I accomplish this?
Note that I do already switch the keyboard from German to English spell-checking (so I get English completion), but Chrome will still underline every English word as "wrong".


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How do Android tablets use magnet to auto-lock the device?
Can someone explain how tablets like Nexus 7 detects a magnetic cover closing? I have tried putting magnets over the spots where the magnets in the cover are, but it will not lock. How does the tablet know if it is a cover?

It's widely believed that the Nexus 7's magnetic sensor works in an almost-identical fashion to iPads' smart cover; I couldn't find direct information about the N7, but iFixit has a great teardown of the iPad smart cover that goes into detail of how it works.
The Nexus 7 has a magnetic sensor that can tell when a magnet of sufficient pull force is nearby. The sensor is located under the screen near the pogo plug on the bottom-lefthand corner, estimated to be 45mm up from the bottom left corner and 15mm in from the left side.

Your magnets are probably in the wrong place. The Nexus 7's magnetic cover sensor is not along the right-hand edge, where the magnets that hold the cover closed are. It's in the bottom-left corner of the screen, about 2 cm from the left-hand rim of the device, and 4 cm from the bottom rim. Put another way: with the device in the "camera-uppermost" orientation, with the stock home screen displayed, the icon at the left-hand end of the tray is in the right place.
You also need a pretty strong magnet. Most fridge magnets aren't strong enough to trip the reed switch, but a Buckyball will do it (if you can still buy those where you are).


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Can the PIN-input be modified to not display the last character?
Since today I have a new Nexus 4, with android 4.2.2. But when I type in my PIN, it always displays the last typed character in the input field. I think that is quite the security risk.  On my old android phone (gingerbread) I was able to turn this behavior off. However, I cannot find this option on my new device. So, is there such an option, and if so, where can I find it?

Start the Settings app. Choose Security from the Personal section. The option you want is called Make passwords visible.


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CM10.1 now cannot record any inbound audio on phone calls
CM10.1 now cannot record any inbound audio on phone calls

I was running Jellybean stock on my i9300 and used Total Recall to record telephone calls, recording both inbound and outbound audio correctly. I have now flashed CM10.1 and tried Total Recall to record telephone calls and I can no longer call inbound conversation.
I have also tried Sanity, Call Recorder Demo and Digital Call Record. Whenever I change the source for each of these respective programs to MIC everything works - except of course I cannot clearly record the inbound audio (the voice of the person on the other end).
When testing this I was sure to uninstall the other recording applications as I understand that 2 or more recording applications may cause conflict.
Any ideas about what I should do?

The issue is related to, as far as I know, Cyanogenmod policies.. In some countries call recording is illegal and therefore CM team hasn't implemented this feature. It's really annoying because the issue applies to certain (but not all) regions of the world.
I do hope that CM developers will come up with some sort of hack in the future. For now I am using Auto Call Recorder (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appstar.callrecorder) and using Mic as a source. The volume of inbound audio is very low unless the mic is turned on during the call.
Call recording is the only feature I lack in CM...

Thanks for the response Juozas. At least I know it's a policy rather than a config error on my end.

Can you give link where CyanogenMod said they have reason for removing? Thats not a reason and that reason is false. Even if it would be illeagal to record, just adding code doesnt make CyanogenMod makers doing it. BTW originally Android can record so Samsung also isnt doing anything illeagal.

I have sort of successfully enabled call recording of both inbound and out bound using Callrecorder and ALSA. The problem I have is callrecorder crashes multiple times during the phone call and restarts another session.

I faced also same problem after update with CM 10 but as I updated with CM 12 so total recall call recorder is working again or should I say it's working amazingly. And it can record a phone call continuously.
Also one thing i must say that It can be possible because of total recall app updates too.
I got the latest version from here : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.killermobile.totalrecall

Your wording seems to be promotional. Are you affiliated to this product? I recall a user named "Sonal Chouhan" who also posted SPAM a month ago or so.


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How to auto unlock SIM/UICC on trusted devices?
I don't like manually entering PIN1 of SIM/UICC everytime I reboot my Android smartphone or switch SIM/UICC between multiple trusted devices. How to auto unlock SIM/UICC on my trusted devices? The case is similar to auto-decryption of external hard disks on trusted devices.
Update:
I don't want to remove security so that one needs to enter PIN on untrusted device.

Turn it off in your device settings? The state seems to be stored on the SIM card, so once disabled it stays so even when putting the card into another device. Where to find the corresponding setting depends on Android version. On my Optimus 4X with 4.0.3 it's in Settings->Security, first item (SIM locking).

@Izzy I am asking about auto-unlock on trusted device, not removing the security.

In that case, it is most likely a duplicate of deactivate PIN-request after airplane mode. But it's a little confusing: what makes a device trusted (and not the condition)?

@Izzy Its not a duplicate. In that question, you're okay to enter PIN after power-on. But, I don't want to enter PIN anytime at all on trusted device.

@Izzy Trusted device means on which you deployed the authority technique of auto unlock. The case is similar to auto-decryption of hard disks on trusted devices.

While this makes a difference in the question, the answer will be the same: it's possible on some devices (see there: Samsung devices seem to support that from the software-side, which is what you would need as well), while on most other devices there seems to be no way (you either disable SIM-PIN altogether, or not at all; but you cannot use an app to disable it on a condition, be it airplane-mode return or "authority technique"). I'd be glad to learn otherwise, as if you find a solution to your question, it most likely could be applied to mine as well.


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Nexus 4 does not perceive touch in a line
I bought a Nexus 4 (LG E960) yesterday, and from the first moment there was a problem that it did not accept touch in the line of the volume down button. In a horizontal line, half a centimeter (1/5 inch) high, in the full width of the screen. If I tried to click in the line, it happened above or below. If I tried to slide a widget through the barrier, there was a visible jump. If I tried to sroll a list, it was interpeted as scroll-stop-click. So a random list item was selected. Quite disturbing.
I was sure it was a hardware problem, because the line was at the same place when I held the phone horizontally. Then suddenly the problem was gone, scrolling, sliding was smooth again. For 2 hours. This morning the line was misbehaving again. Now it works fine. I have no idea what triggers the bad behavior, and what stops it.
What could I do? If I take it back to the shop, they will sit on it for a week, and they might not even encounter the problem, much less solve it.
Did anyone have similar problems?

My phone just started doing the same thing, only it's the entire top half of the screen that's non-responsive. And this is after working perfectly for 4 months with no problems.

Here is another question very similar to yours: Part of touch screen is not working but because the problem occurs (and, as in your case, also disappears) suddenly, it is very difficult to determine the causes

So I've had this same problem for the past month.
There is a 1cm or so high deadzone that spans the width of my screen just about lower than the midway point from top to bottom.
It is mostly always there, but some (seemingly) random times it goes away and all works well.
My troubleshooting led me to this:
If it's hardware, it's only because the software is telling it something it shouldn't be. I'm sure nothing is broken (i.e., from being dropped, etc.) Something is wrong, for sure, but not broken per se.
I took screen shots of temperature and voltage (using CPU-Z app) trying to figure it out. I paid attention to when it happened and when it did not. I boiled it down to two possibilities: temperature and/or voltage (I can explain how I came to this conclusion if you want... would take a bit more explanation).
I charge my phone with the charger plugged into the wall typically. I live in Asia so the voltage is a lot higher (but within the appropriate range of the phone). Yet, lately when I! go to sleep, I plug my phone into my laptop to charge, rather than the wall... when I wake up the problem isn't there. About 2 hours later or so the problem comes back.
I tried this for a week (charging my phone with my laptop) and the problem is dissipating. As quickly as it escalated (getting gradually worse) it is now getting gradually better.
Try it and see if it works for you. At night when your phone is nearly dead, charge your phone with your USB port attached to your laptop. Maybe it will help. I'm still troubleshooting specifics to see if it is definitive.
UPDATE: today, the day of writing this, I haven't had the problem at all and it's been nearly 7 hours and the 3rd consecutive night of charging with USB on my laptop.
UPDATE 2: happy new year! I've been charging my nexus 4 with my laptop's USB port since my original reply and the problem had disappeared. Let me know if this works for anyone else!
Nexus 4 - 4.4.2

I had this problem for 6months but I accidently fixed my problem using a 500mA Samsung Charger. But the problem came back 3 days later and its there for 2 months now (though I am using the same charger). Can someone with knowledge of electronics make any sense out of this ?

As geohi said, I have this problem for a bit 2 months when I bought this Nexus 4. Last night was the first night I put my phone to charge via USB. Today I was super excited to see That my screen is fully functional. I will continue to charge it like this for few days to see what happens. No problems for about 9 hours so far. ¨
update: 4 days have been passed since my phone started to work well. Screen problem did not reappear not even for 2 minutes since then :) it's great!

I have the same issue, Google support suggested waiting for the 4.4 Android update to fix, else return for repair / replacement.

You could also try installing a different ROM if it's a software issue.

I also got d same prob.It is a hardware issue.I got the front touch panel replaced. It costs Rs 5322 in mumbai.
My phone was in warranty so got it for free.
Now issue is resolved. Nothing changed in d software to solve the issue.


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Why doesn't my screen turn off after 30 seconds?
Two days back I had to do a factory reset on my android (v2.3.6). After that, I noticed that my phone display won't turn off after 30 secs idle time, even though the settings has been done appropriately. After 30 secs, the brightness decreases, but the screen won't turn off. Is there any other setting which needs to be changed here?

Could it be some app prevents the display from being (automatically) turned off? You can check the permissions of installed apps to check for those having the appropriate permission. You could use e.g. AppBrain Ad Detector for this (it also scans the permissions of installed apps).

Try the wakelock detector app.

You can try the wakelock detector app which will tell you the application which is restricting the phone from going to sleep and lock mode.
Unfortunately it did not work for me since my kitkat version required the ROOT permission.
I fixed it by going to "Settings > Apps > Running tab". I closed all suspicious application in "Cached" and "running' mode.
It was one of my recent ip-camera phone app or the Alexa app which was restricting the phone going to auto sleep after 15 seconds and then to lock state.
The phone is working fine now after closing those 2 apps, I can run them when required.
Hope it helps.

Maybe the setting that keeps Screen On while Charging got Switched On. Try switching it off.

I had the same problem and it turned out that one of my apps had permissions to my camera and was accessing it all the time. Turning off that permission resolved it.

I had the same problem, I cleared my apps, by holding the home button and making them all disappear and it worked.  Not sure what exactly the problem was :P


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Revert update of Gmail app
Is it possible to revert the latest update of the Gmail app for Android?

Yes, you can either uninstall the update or maybe even  download older versions

For the future I recommend using an app like AppMonster Pro Backup Restore, which always makes a backup of each package you install/backup (and optionally auto-purges, to keep only a limited number of backups per app) -- so you always have some versions to revert to. As for now, see Andrew's answer below or follow ce4's link. Good luck!

It's not as easy to revert to individual previous versions, but you can revert easily to the stock version that came with your phone.

Find Gmail in "My Apps" in the Google Play Store
Tap Uninstall
Tap OK to uninstall updates and revert to original

Revert to stock version, (as above)
 then go here via the mobe's web browser:
http://www.apk4fun.com/history/901/
 or here
   http://gmail.en.uptodown.com/android/old
Find a previous version you want, download & install.
Make sure the phone settings allow install from non-GooglePlay locations.
 Actually all quite easy.

Go to Apps - Gmail then go down to to the AP settings. It opened up the play store and I had the option to uninstall updates. It went back to a fresh start, just log in and it seems to work fine but a slightly older format.

authors: ajt.ru отзывы


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Keyboard Settings on Emulator revert on restart
My Android 2.3.3 emulator has four different keyboards:
Japenese keyboard
Chinese keyboard
Android keyboard
Sample Soft keyboard
I uncheck all of them so that I can use the hardware keyboard. After a few seconds, it gives an error message saying that the process com.android.inputmethod.latin not responding, with a Force Close button. Moreover, I close and restart my emulator to find all the keyboards checked!
The reason why I want all unchecked is as follows:
When click the cursor to a position where I want to insert some text (at least on Whatsapp, I face this problem), the cursor remains there for 3 to 10 seconds (!!)  and then the keyboard shows up on screen and the cursor goes back to where it was! This is not the case when all the on-screen keyboards are disabled.
How do I make the keyboard disabling setting permanent?
UPDATE: This was beyond my imagination and very annoying. The input methods other than soft keyboard are back and even enabled once I rebooted the emulator! Why does the sdk just refuse to retain the settings??

DONE: I backed up all my contents of my old emulator, created a fresh emulator using
android create avd -t <TargetID> -n <EmulatorName> -a --abi <CPU/ABI-Used>
To aid finding out the correct value of <TargetID> and the admissible values <CPU/ABI-Used> corresponding the same as per your choice of the API level, I used
android list targets
You will then find that the Snapshot option is available, when you edit the same AVD from the Android Virtual Device Manager. So check the snapshot. And when you launch, be sure you have checked "Launch from Snapshot" and "Save to Snapshot" options. Now use the rm commands in the adb shell to remove the IMEs. (I will make it clear soon how one does that) You close and next time you open it through emulator command, it loads from snapshot and the permanence of the IME settings (or for that matter any system settings) is achieved!
(P.S.: Only when you change the hardware configuration will you need to actually reboot, in which case you cannot launch from snapshot as it was saved for a different hardware configuration!)
As the question indicates, all I want is that my hardware keyboard is active and I really don't care about the 4 input methods there. It never occurred to me that I could simply remove all IMEs: Here's how:
Mount the /system folder. Retrieve the apk names of the IMEs by going into /system/app and displaying its contents:
aneesh@nb-14:~$ adb shell mount -rw -o remount /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system
aneesh@nb-14:~$ adb shell
# cd /system/app
# ls
Phone.apk
Development.apk
Email.apk
Calculator.apk
...
..
etc.

Next just do
rm <IMEapkname>.apk

For instance in case of the Japanese IME one executes
rm /system/app/PinyinIME.apk

Since this trick, for me, didn't work thus far for the sample soft keyboard:
I came out of the adb shell and did:
adb uninstall com.example.android.softkeyboard

UPDATE: Once you ensure that the snapshot has saved properly (try launching from snapshot via terminal/AVD manager, it must not produce errors) and don't want to make further changes to the system applications or hardware configurations, do launch the emulator with the -no-snapshot-save option:
emulator -no-snapshot-save -avd Andreud

so that you can launch from snapshot like before and avoid aberrations that occur while saving to snapshot (lest it should produce error saying it was saved for a different hardware configuration). Moreover you can save some valuable seconds it takes to save the snapshot. So this way your overall android emulator experience improves!


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Add proxy exception for local subnet on Android 4.2 (4.* maybe ?)
I'm using  Vanilla Android 4.2.2 on my Nexus4, and I'm using a proxy to access the internet. I wanted to add a proxy exception for addresses on my local subnet 192.168.0.* , is there anyway to do this?
I've tried adding 192.168.0 and this doesn't work, It doesn't accept 192.168.0.*, 192.168.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.255 doesn't work either.
Has anyone attempted this before? Does anyone know how this can be done?

A similar question was already answered here — apparently there is no way to configure proxy exceptions for IP address ranges when using the builtin proxy support.

That's just sad. I was hoping android to be more configurable. Maybe the android market has an application. Could you please put your comment up as answer so that I can select close the question?

Have you tried adding it as 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.100 or whatever other range you want?

Certainly you cannot enter the beginning and the ending address, so probably you can try entering all the ip address from beginning to end

I'm pretty sure that's not what I want to do. Not when I can have 10+ devices running on my local subnet, each of which changes its IP when the router reboots.


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creating a pseudo sd card by partitioning the main drive of an android phone
It seems like it's possible to mount the SD card of rooted android phone on a PC while the phone is connected to the PC via USB. This would be great for me because I want to keep essential files saved on my phone, edit them from the PC when I need to and bring them with me wherever I go. Unfortunately, the phones I want the most (nexus 4, HTC one, HTC one x with 64gb) don't have SD cards. Is it possible (on a rooted phone with cyanogenmod) to partition the "HD" on a phone without an SD card and then use that partition as described above? (The format of the partition is not very important to me.)
Will the solution suggested here[1] make it possible to mount the .img file on the PC while the phone is connected via USB?
[1] https://android.stackexchange.com/a/27146/29982

In short: no (technically yes, but you need your own kernel). Longer answer: Android 4.x doesn't officially support exporting the sdcard via USB mass storage any more (and with good cause). The underlying Linux kernel doesn't include the necessary driver to export this any more. So you would need to compile your own with that functionality included. Background: USB mass storage opens a can of worms: you need to use a separate partition with the ancient FAT32 file system (for compatibility), access to the card is exclusive (phone or PC at a time), and so on.

So this means (I'm not familiar with the terminology) no access to either the "internal" or sd-card storage on a PC with a phone connected via USB? (I assume you noticed I wrote "rooted phone with cyanogenmod".)

Actually, for me exclusive access is a plus. I'm uncomfortable with syncing because it's hard to be absolutely certain nothing will go wrong, and to notice if it does.

Right. This means only the new MTP mode will work but not USB thumb drive mode. Exclusive is a big minus, because apps need to deal with the then inaccessible sdcard which is connected+mounted on the PC. SwiftKey keyboard doesn't fully work if the prediction data on the sdcard is inaccessible for example.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/26288/how-can-i-use-my-galaxy-nexus-as-an-external-usb-storage-drive and also http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/18/impromptu-qa-session-with-android-engineer-dan-morrill-brings-to-light-reasons-behind-galaxy-nexus-lack-of-usb-mass-storage/


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Issue with the adb shell on a tablet 20080411
Hello i am trying to fastboot my tablet serialno 20080411 my problem is when i try to acces in the shell of the tablet that happens the problem, i try to make a ls the system said /system/bin/sh: ls: not found how i can fixed this problem?

Hidura, your question is a bit unclear: 1) the serialno of your tablet is not helpful -- brand and model would be better. 2) do you try the ls while in fastboot mode when you get that error, or in normal mode, or when?

I was trying the ls on fastboot mode

I thought so. Fastboot mode is very limited concerning available commands -- the only thing it is supposed to do is to receive basic commands from a connected computer (like wipe, unlock, flash, or boot from an image stored on the computer). It's not intended for full-fledged shell operations. Try those in normal mode, or while in recovery, and your ls will be available. // Guess I have to care for the fastboot tag-wiki to carry some more information :)


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Samsung Galaxy S3 keeps losing network connection and need to restart phone to reconnect
I've had my S3 for around 6 months and never had a problem. But in the last couple of days it seems to be randomly losing connection to network (T-Mobile): I have to restart my phone to reconnect. Sometimes this only lasts a few minutes before dropping out again.
Anybody else had this problem? I have no idea whats causing it. I have changed nothing on the phone, and the area I am in has good coverage.
I dont get any error msg and all seems fine -- until I try to use it to access Internet; then it tells me "no internet connection" and the internet data signal disappears. If I try to text the text just fails to send, and I cannot receive or make any calls. People who ring say it goes straight to the mailbox.

What's the symptom of it "losing connection to network"? Is there an error message? Do you just have no 'bars' of signal? The possible causes are different depending on what's going on, so please edit your question to specify it.

same thing keeps happening to me. Same phone and T-mobile. I have the icon saying I have 4g, and 4 bars of service. The only recent change is I upgraded my battery, but I didn't have a problem with that for a week. I just shrugged it off the first day because we've been having some bad weather so I figured the tower was messed up nearby. but it's been going on for a week now. No clue what the problem is. Either T-Mobile or the phone.

Have you installed custom firware? You may need to flash a new modem/basband in that case to the latest version that works in your region and with your carrier.

your sim card needs to be cleaned, also your sim card reader should be cleaned/serviced. Your connection to phone is not completely ok just because of either your sim card is too old and have been used a lot of times in different phones, thus it needs to replaced in this case. if not, then try solution number 1.

What is solution number 1?

I can concur with this: a bad SIM can definitely lead to network drops and it can happen for no apparent reason. I have had this happen to me couple of years back.


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I am looking for a simple way to translate words highlighted in the browser
This is my use case: I'm trying to improve my Spanish so I've started reading Spanish-language newspapers in the browser on my phone. What I'd like to do is this: when I need a word or phrase translated to English, highlight the text, hit the settings button, and have a translate option show up. Or something comparably simple.
Currently the only options that show up under settings when a word is highlighted are: Share, Find, Web Search
I have Google Translate installed and I realize that I could copy the highlighted text and then paste it into that app, but I'd prefer something that didn't require jumping between apps.

Have you checked with the "Share option"? Some nice gimmicks hidden behind it. And some might be added (or rather add themselves). You could check the playstore for some dictionary apps; I don't know which plug themselfs into the Share-menu, but a good choice to start with would be e.g. ColorDict Dictionary Wikipedia. If it works (I use it together with Moon+ Reader on my tab), it should be as simple as mark a word, menu, share, ColorDict -- et voila :)

@Izzy You know what? That's exactly what I was looking for. I even looked for the share option at one point and, despite listing it in my question above, completely spaced over it. If you want to add that as an answer, I'll be happy to select it.

Glad I found an exact match for you! Enjoy learning :) By the way: That's how I try improving my English: Reading English books with Moon+ Reader. If I get stuck at some word unknown to me, I mark it and look it up with ColorDict. Sounds familiar? :D Btw: I guess Google Translate (you mentioned using it) also integrates with the search menu -- at least that would make much sense...

You describe the options displayed with a word highlighted including "Share". Behind this item hides an entire menu, the so-called "Share menu", where many apps plug themselves in as receivers for compatible content. A highlighted word might serve as such content for several things -- e.g. a web search (so Google Search could pick it), send by mail/SMS, or -- the interesting part here -- some dictionary/translator app. While I'd suspect Google Search could cover that as well, I want to give you another interesting idea:
ColorDict Dictionary Wikipedia is an app that can be used for online and offline "word lookup" in dictionaries, be it translation, synonyms, or definitions. The app supports a bunch of dictionaries for offline use, as well as several online dictionaries and, the name suggests it, Wikipedia. If it integrates with the "Share menu" (which I guess it does), this would make the perfect candidate for you:

ColorDict (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

Thanks again. Google Translate is available through the share option and exactly what I was looking for. Very helpful for language learning, especially with its text-to-speech feature.


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Samsung galaxy mini? pls help...about kies?
i installed kies software.But when i try to sync my photos and music into samsung galaxy mini,there is no option called multimedia under sync.what should i do?


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adb backup that operates similar to dd
Do adb backup methods contain those that operate similar to how dd backups data? So I want to know if adb backup method that hard-copies every bit of disk exists.
If it does not exist, is there any way to do things similar to what dd does?

It'd be easier to judge what method is most appropriate if you would add to your question some information about why you want something like dd. What are you trying to achieve?

dd is a block-based copy tool -- it doesn't care what data it covers. adb backup is rather file-based, which is something completely different.
As you've tagged your question backup, you might follow that tag to its tag-wiki, which gives you some insight into available backup methods. You will quickly see the one coming closest to dd being Nandroid, which copies entire partitions. Though you cannot restrict it in the way you can with dd, you could still take its resulting files, copy them to your Linux computer, and use dd to work on them.
One tool not mentioned in this tag-wiki is dd itself. You could check with a terminal editor whether it's present on your device -- chances are good: I just checked with one of my extracted Nandroid backups, and found dd as a symlink in /system/bin, being a symlink to /system/toolbox. If you cannot find it, but your device is rooted (which I assume, as otherwise dd wouldn't make much sense), you could look for a BusyBox which brings it along.


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Send Shift+Enter to Facebook comment field?
What would be the easiest way to allow me to send Shift+Enter to Facebook comment field from my Nexus 10 running Android 4.2 JellyBean, to write multi-paragraph comments?
The built-in keyboard doesn't seem to be able to do this.

Do you mean the Facebook app or website?

@TimoS Website, but I think this issue has been fixed. I'll have to check later.

In the Facebook app you can write multiline-comments. At the wen you can try to tap and hold the submit key on your android-keyboard. There are sometimes some extra options.

Isn't there an option to defer sending messages on pressing Enter? As seen here.

The Google keyboard has a "newline" key (looks like an arrow with a 90 degree angle) that appears only when you enter "shift" mode (eg when you want to key in a capital letter).  In this mode, the emoji smiley face key changes to a newline key.
On some ROMs, you can set an option to change between the emoji key and the newline (aka enter) key, from within the messaging app settings, under "Soft keyboard type".

I would assume Hacker's Keyboard is capable of sending shift-enters.


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"Hangouts (replaces Talk)" -- can I replace Hangouts with Talks if I don't like it?
I'm disappointed that Google Hangouts is going away from XMPP.
If I download the "Hangouts (replaces Talk)" app on my Galaxy Nexus (Google Nexus 3), will I be able to go back to Google Talk, if needed?
Is there a way to keep Google Talk?  Or is there a way to communicate with people who use Google Hangouts through Google Talk or XMPP?

As far as Android is concerned, they're the same app, and Hangouts is just a new update for Talk which happens to change the user-facing name. (Apps also have a package name, which is how Android decides if they're the same app.) It works like any other update: it completely replaces the old version in your phone's internal storage. Like any other update, once you've updated, you can't go back to the version you had before.
But in this case, Talk is an app that's built into your ROM (assuming you're not on a custom ROM: if you don't know, you're not). Like any other app from the ROM, you can uninstall all updates and go back to the original version. To do this, go to the Settings app, go to the Apps page, find Hangouts in the list of apps, and click Uninstall updates. This won't restore the version you had before the update: it'll go back to the original version that was on the phone last time you did a system update. (If you've never done a system update, that's the version that was on the phone when you took it out of the box.) There's no guarantee that such an old version will continue to work.

Thank you, that explains the situation and, I guess, answers the underlying Android-themed question; however, I disagree with your statement "Hangouts is just a new name for Talk.", because it could be misinterpreted out-of-context -- the apps are, effectively, completely different, and Hangouts are, supposedly, no longer based on the interoperable XMPP, e.g. it will no longer work "across everyone's devices", contrary to what Google claims.

Yes, I see now that that was unclear. I've updated my answer and I hope it's clearer now.

BTW, is there a way to have both apps concurrently, by any chance?

No. You can't have two versions of the same app.

just uninstall hangouts.the app will go back to the  old gtalk


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Nexus 7 can't connect to PC
When choosing MTP or PTP, the box is checked, then when I exit the screen and go back to the USB Device Settings screen, my previous choice is not seen, and both boxes are unchecked. It's like the Nexus has forgotten I've made the choice.
Now I can't connect my nexus to PC as the PC won't recognize it!
I recently plugged my Nexus into my LG TV using the USB lead, if that is at all helpful.

And your pc is running what os?

Windows 7 Starter
however i have the same issue when connecting my nexus to other PCs and devices (ps3, tv etc.)

Sometimes you need to lock and unlock the tablet to have it connect. If you are running any sort of task manager, disable it. Can you post some screenshots?

Is it charging? if not check the cables and replace them or check if the usb port is not damaged. Did you try to unlock(Android device) it after you connected it to the pc? It wont be displayed to the pc unless you unlock it.


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What are these numbers in the Data Usage and Battery Usage screen in Jellybean?
I went to my phone manufacturer the other day to get my phone upgraded to Jellybean 4.1.2 from ICS 4.0.4. Here's the thing, I know that upgrading doesn't take long but they said it will take an hour and they made good with that, so I'm at least worried on what they did with my phone for a full hour. Well, I forgot all about it when I noticed I have some numbers instead of app names on the battery usage screen. Worse, it appears they're using my data connection. Then I went to the data usage screen and more numbers showed. Should I be worried? I asked someone with a Jellybean phone and he said all he sees on his phone are app names. I don't want to register my card on the Play Store yet unless I'm sure my phone is safe. Is this happening on anyone else? What are those numbers?

Screenshot of Data Usage

Could you provide some screenshots? I know you lack the rep to integrate them with your question. If you post links to them (best into your question by editing it), one of us will take care for that. I might have some idea what that could be, but I want to make sure I've read your question correctly :)

I added a Flickr link if that is okay. That is the data usage screen. The battery usage screen only shows the numbers "0" and "1013".

As the icons indicate, these are Android services. Strange to have so many of them turning up this way. Before you added the image, I thought somebody had played with some of the test menus (I had a similar thing once when trying a bunch of "service codes") -- but here this rather looks like PIDs (process IDs) or "user IDs" (each app has a user ID, as each runs under its own user on Android). I'd confront the service center (which did the upgrade) with this, asking them what they've done. Not sure if a factory-reset would cure that, but it would also be worth a try.

So is this normal? Or does this mean a lot of apps with no names are working in the background? A factory reset huh, I guess I'll try that. Quick question though, is there an app that will let me see what links these processes access upon using the data? Or just any app that will give me more information about these processes.

I wouldn't say it's normal that there are so many apps/processes without names. Even my case (playing with service codes) turned up just a few. Usually each app should be listed with its name. This is the first time I hear/see of a case with so many. That's why I wrote: if a factory-reset doesn't clear that up, I'd confront the service team with this -- in that case I'd say something might be wrong with the ROM they flashed.

I see, I guess I'll try to factory reset first and if that doesn't help I'll ask them what they did. Thank you very much Izzy.

You're welcome, Brian! Don't forget to keep us updated (you made at least me curious). If it got solved one way or the other, you could even answer your question yourself (I'm looking forward to that! :)

Yeah, my phone is re-branded from China(I'm not implying  anything about that) but the company that brought the phone here has lots of complaints from the customers so I'm really worried if they're doing anything funny with our phones. Again, thanks Izzy! I'll keep you updated if anything changes with this.

if they're doing anything funny with our phones I'd say so, after your question. Never seen anything like that. If you happen to know other customers, exchange what's happening -- and take care where you buy your next device ;) I don't know that device (you never mentioned it), but you might even consider flashing it yourself (if they don't get it fixed). While waiting, you might already want to take a look at Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? (instructions usually go along).

Probably related: How to know app name by UID

Does this answer your question? An unknown app called 10102 shows up in Data Usage graph


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Create Something Like NTFS Junctions in Android 2.2
I'm wondering if you can create junction points on an Android device (v2.2) just like you can on a Windows computer. Basically, I want to move stuff from the /data folder on the internal memory to my sdcard, since my internal memory is almost full (due to Orbot) and I have plenty of space on my sdcard. I've already moved all my apps to the card, but apparently the /data files are still stored on memory.
I'm using a cyanogen rooted PRS-T1 ereader (very little memory). Is there a way to create junction points (or similar) using an app or the command line so that I can move those /data files to the card without creating any issues?

I think you may want a symbolic link.
You can create them in any good Linux system using
ln -s <link_target> <link_name>

eg
ln -s /data/app /mnt/sdcard/data/app

or (while in /mnt/sdcard/data)
ln -s /data/app app

You will want to be careful regarding removing the SDCard - you will need to completely shutdown the device prior to removal, and the same SDCard will likely need to be in the device prior to booting.

I never remove the SDcard, so I guess its fine.
Can I do this with the Terminal Emulator App on my device?

Yes, just use the terminal app. PS: It's a question of the file system that is used. (Practically) all native Linux and Android file systems support symbolic links. Exceptions are FAT32 and Samsungs FAT based RFS. Older Android up to version 2.2 or 2.3 used JFFS2 as default file system for /data, later versions use ext4. Some manufacturers deviated from the default though (e.g. Samsung use(d) RFS instead of JFFS2). The Sony reader very probably uses JFFS2 which allows soft links.

I'm kinda new to this... do you need to copy the files in data/app to the sdcard first before creating the symbolic link, or does the command do it for me? Also, do I need to delete the files in data/app after they are copied?

Yes. When the symbolic link exists, any attempts to read/change into that folder will instead change you into the  folder.


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Only one thumbnail for all photos
I downloaded the million moments app which basically makes a cool album from the photos you choose. The problem is in the import screen when I choose photos, all the photos just have the thumbnail of one of my photos. Now this is a headache because I can't pick the photos I like and I have to resort to picking the whole folder. I just discovered today that even the Flickr app has this problem. Now I think I'm sure my phone is at fault, my question is how do I fix this? Even with the media rescans the thumbnails still aren't correct and just shows 1 of my photos. Quickpic and the stock gallery don't have this problem though. Any ideas what's wrong?

When I had this problem it was caused by a corrupt SD card, so you should check that out soon: the longer you leave it, the more likely it'll corrupt a file you don't have a backup of.
For now, try clearing the cache of any app that shows the problem (from Settings → Apps). If that doesn't help, clear the data of the Media storage app, from the same screen, and then reboot the phone. The Media storage app is responsible for indexing your photos and music and letting apps search them, so clearing its data often helps fix problems with the photo index, such as broken thumbnails.

I think I can rule out the media storage and the corrupt SD card. I tried the first many times because even my mp3s have duplicated names, and it didn't work. For the corrupt SD card I had an SD card before and I tried the app there, it had this thumbnail problem. I gave the SD card to my sibling who has a Samsung phone and the app works perfectly on that phone with my old SD card. Guess the only thing left to do is to clear the cache of the app that shows the problem. I'll come back with the result.


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rooting an ZHTC EVO 4g and samsung epic s 4g
Can I root either device by sharing files between each other rather than using a pc?? Another words rooting phone to phone via file sharing or blue tooth??


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Some Apps not Installing on CM 10.1
I've recently installed CM 10.1 on my Xperia ZL. Everything seems to be working fine except that i can't installed some apps on it. For example Contact+ doesn't install on it and gives the following message after trying to install it from the market:
"App not Installed"
Any help regarding this problem is appreciated.

When you bought your phone, did it have Contact+ on it or did you have to install it from Google Play store?

It didn't have Contact+. However it seems the problem was from Contact+ itself. I was able to install it after 3 or 4 versions.


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Twitter client tends to redirect to web browser
When clicking a Twitter's link on GMail client, Twitter client is included in the list of possible applications to process. So I click Twitter but then the list window pops up again but this time without Twitter in it. I really like to open a link to Twitter with Twitter client. How can I do that? Thank you!
A sample of those Twitter links looks like this:
https://twitter.com/i/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FRescue_moco%3Frefsrc%3Demail&sig=d4724ad41f731911a0eeacd4eb0764b30186d3af&uid=37758565&iid=am-1618412813699712373452051&nid=23+1100&t=1
Nexus 10, Jelly Bean, Twitter client 4.1.0

@Dan Hulme I updated my question to add a sample URL.

The Twitter app registers an intent filter for http and https URLs to twitter.com, to tell Android it can open those URLs itself. That's why you get the first chooser (the list of possible apps).
However, it seems that the Twitter app can't actually understand those "redirect" links, so it asks for a web browser to handle the URL. That's why you get the second chooser, with only web browsers.
Since the page does in fact redirect to a Twitter user (which the app can handle), after you've opened the URL in a browser you should get a third chooser, which does include Twitter, allowing you to open the user in the Twitter app. However, Firefox currently has a bug that means it won't offer a chooser in this case. If you pick Chrome in the second chooser, it should give you the third chooser.
I'd call this a bug in the Twitter app. You should complain to Twitter and ask them to fix it.

Good explanation. However, I just found that Chrome does the same.

In what way? Do you mean that if you pick it in the second chooser, you don't get a third? I'm afraid I don't have the Twitter app installed to test this out.

Yes with Chrome I don't get 3rd chooser, and the 2nd one only suggests web browsers (Chrome, FFox). I've sent a request to Twitter from the link you provided (their ticket No. is #9797760 if there's a way to refer to it online).

That's interesting. I'd have expected it to work like youtu.be shortened URLs, where clicking the shortened URL gives you a chooser of just browsers, and then Youtube redirects you to the full youtube.com/watch URL, and you get a second chooser including the YouTube app. Maybe Twitter's redirects work differently.


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Different ROMs need different GApps?
I am currently using  ParanoidAndroid rom and I am switching to Cyanogen 10 on my Galaxy Nexus.
Do I need to download/install a new Gapps .zip file?

It depends on the actual android version of the ROM you flashed. it the ParanoidROM and Cyanogenmod ROM are both Android 4.2 then you don't need a new set of gapps, if there aren't then if might just be safe to get a new set of gapps

Yes you need to download gapps from here: GApps.
Just choose the correct version of Cyanogen mod that you have.
Note: Cyanogenmod 10 has another gapps then Cyanogenmod 10.1.


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Reinstall ROM from a new SD from scratch
My HTC Desire (Bravo) rebooted by itself in the middle of the night; the result is that I lost all the apps that were installed on the SD card (that is probably corrupted). Now that I have another SD card, i’d like to reinstall the ROM that was on the phone (Rooted - MIUI 2.35a) from scratch and from the new SD.
I installed a new recovery, but when I switch the SD cards, the classic recovery starts and I’m not allowed to install anything. I tried with and without partitioning the SD but nothing. If I let the phone start with the new SD nothing happens and all I get is a twenty-minutes HTC splash screen.
How do I manage to reinstall everything with a brand new SD without touching the old one? I did all the backups, so I can fully wipe all without problems, it’s just that I don’t want to reinstall the ROM on a corrupted SD and make the copy afterwards.
Thanks in advance.

Is the old SDCard still readable using a card reader attached to your computer? Then you could copy everything over to the new SDCard that way. I'm not sure why your recovery "disappears" just when switching to an empty card (as it is usually installed on the device), but this should at least solve a part of your problem.

You can install the ROM from the old sdcard! .zip includes integrity checks via checksums for each file. PS: it's not a given that your sdcard is faulty, it could very well also be the main data partition (it holds the encryption keys and other meta information for the (securely) stored apps on the sdcard

Ok, I solved it by myself. I partitioned the SD (with gparted live) in full FAT32, then I loaded the Clockwork Recovery on it and it ran perfectly.
Then I successfully wiped the phone, partitioned the SD and installed the ROM.
Now my phone has a new Android installation with a brand new SD.


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How to stop all but 1 one app including their services?
My HTC Sensation's battery does not last long.
I'm going for a Marathon race which should last at least 5 hours and I'm going to use 1 app (RunKeeper) for that period.
I would like to preserve as much batter as possible by turning off all other apps including their services e.g. Whatsapp until I'm done with the race.
I've install Task Manager by Toni Dinardo and it seems to have the functionality I need, only not working for me now.
What should I do?
Updates:
I've tried another task manager app and it seems that the apps actually work. The problem is services are automatically spawned again after they are killed by the task manager app.

Task killing is never a solution when it comes to "preserving battery". As you discovered, most things restart themselves automatically. What could help, however, is (temporarily) turn off all services you don't need -- after all, it's just for that one run, and (as you already pointed out) you can resign from some of them:

Do you need a data connection for RunKeeper? If not: switch it off, that would save the most. If it's really needed: disable account synchronization, and do the same for all apps which are periodically syncing (e.g. RSS reader and the like).
While running, you won't pickup phone calls anyway -- switch off the radio (if no data are needed: just switch to airplane mode. While in airplane mode, you still can enable some services separately, such as e.g. Bluetooth and GPS). Big savings again
Minor things include Bluetooth. I don't think you want to listen to music via a BT headset while running -- so switch it off. If you really need audio, use a wired headset.
Display: turn brightness down as much as possible. If it's rarely turned on, this might not have much effect -- but it contributes.
Some apps which you won't need "on the run" might offer to exit them completely. Do so.

This altogether should save a lot of juice -- and should preserve enough power for 5h runkeeper with GPS, I'd say. Good luck, and have a successful double-Marathon (one for you running, and one for power-saving ;)!

If I may add to the above, in case you need GPS, keep WiFi & data enabled till you get a GPS fix (WiFi, even if not connected, helps your phone find GPS satellites faster), after that you may safely disable WiFi. Also, check the battery stats on your phone, that will let you know what is using the most battery, so you can disable it.

Test whatever setup you head for on a long training run or two.


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How to use or uninstall a hidden app in Android?
This question is about a Nexus 4 bought in the United States and used in India.
Backstory: A friend from US gifted the phone to me. When I first switched the phone on, it had the app google earth. After configuring the phone with accounts and installing apps, the google earth application disappeared from the apps shown in the App Drawer. I initially presumed that the app may have been uninstalled after learning that Google Earth app is not available for the country India.
Few days later, I installed AppBrain, a third party app market app on the phone. AppBrain lists all the apps I have on the phone and even shows Google Earth. From the AppBrain app, attempting to open the Google Earth app gives the message "This app is not executable"; attempting to uninstall the app gives the message "Uninstall unsuccessful".
Questions:

How do I use this hidden app (or how do I unhide the app) on my phone now that I know its present and installed?
If I wanted to uninstall it, how would I be able to do it?

You can't uninstall it. On Android, the apps you install yourself are stored in the main internal storage. The apps that come pre-installed are not installed there, but rather in the phone's ROM. They're not taking up space that you could use for other apps, and they can't be changed or deleted.
To remove this one app, you'd have to replace the whole ROM (including the operating system) of your phone with a custom one such as Cyanogenmod. (See the custom-rom tag info for more information on custom ROMs.) This would have other effects too, so it's probably not something you'd want to do just to remove an app that doesn't run and isn't occupying any internal storage.

Actually system apps can be modified and removed on most rooted devices (if you have root permissions, you can remount /system read-write if it was mounted read-only, and then add/remove/change APK files in /system/app — either manually in adb shell, or using apps; e.g., Titanium Backup has such functionality in addition to backup functions). Exceptions are some HTC phones which use hardware write protection for parts of internal flash storage, including the /system partition; such phones require unlocking the bootloader to remove this write protection.

You could try using a file explorer like file expert to reinstall the app.I am also using a nexus 4 bought in India. If you go to internal storage/system/app you will find GoogleEarth.apk listed in there.Just click on it and it will be installed and visible in the app drawer from now on.


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Titanium Backup from Nandroid using pc
I know you can create a Titanium Backup from a Nandroid Backup using the Titanium Backup PRO app.
But is there a possibility to create a Titanium Backup from a Nandroid without having a phone, i.e. using a pc (preferably Linux, Windows is ok too)?

Titanium Backup is able to read from Nandroid backups, so you can use it to restore parts from them -- and then use Titanium Backup again to backup those restored parts. However, as there's no Titanium Backup for PC, this has to be done on an Android device.
If your goal however is to separate some apps from a Nandroid backup, there are other ways to achieve this: Nandroid copies the entire partition (see: nandroid tag-wiki). So you could mount the images (on Linux, this should be no problem with the EXT file systems at least -- see e.g. Restore only part of nandroid image), or unpack them (for YAFFS partitions e.g. using unyaffs -- see my answer here).
For completeness: there are also ADB-style backups (which again Titanium Backup is able to access). For these, you might want to take a look at e.g. Android Backup Extractor and Android Backup Splitter, and also my answer here on how to convert an ADB backup into a tar file to investigate, using the Perl AdbBackupRoutines from this XDA thread.


text:
How can i logout from my gmail account
how can i logout from my gmail account from my mobile phone? my mobile phone is sony erricson XPERIA U.

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts, Erica! Could you please edit your question to include some more details: What do you want to achieve by logging out of GMail? This would help us to find the best solution for you.

Possibly a duplicate of Logout from Gmail on my device, although it's hard to tell if you're talking about a web browser, the Gmail app, etc (seems like you likely are, though).

You can't without deleting your Google Account from your phone as far as I'm aware. You can do this in your phone settings. Why would you want to though?
If you are concerned about people seeing or using your email, set a PIN or pattern lock on your phone.
Alternatively, remove your Google Account completely and use Google's web based versions of Gmail, etc. All of those you can log into and out of at will - obviously a lot less convenient though.


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Beats Audio on HTC phones
Do Beats Audio activate if I use wireless headphones/earbuds? Thank you very much. It will be best if it does work on HTC one X or desire X.

When you plug in the beats audio enhancement self starts, you can see a beats logo on top left on your notification panel. You can swipe down the notification panel and uncheck the tick next to it to disable / re-enable it.
Thats on HTC Desire X

Beats audio automatically enables (if set to enable) if you play media.


text:
Deleted my OS, samsung galaxy s2
i was recently updating my OS for my galaxy S2 yesterday. during the update process. i accidentally switched off the phone and when i restarted my phone, the sscreen showed "SAMSUNG GALAXY SII GT-I9100G". and the screen was just displaying that eversince. i tried to remove the battery and fix it back in but didnt show any other results. my guess is i think my OS got deleted during that process. how can i solve this problem?

You can either reinstall the original firmware by downloading a matching factory firmware image from http://sammobile.com and flash it using Odin (Samsung's flash tool) or install an aftermarket firmware like CyanogenMod (install instructions).

It would help if you could edit your question to include what exactly you did. Just factory-resetting a device does not "delete" the OS from an Android device. Please include as well what happens when you boot your device: do you see the boot animation? Does anything happen at all?


text:
Persistent download icon in One S pull down menu - even with download over days ago. How to remove?
In the pull down menu of my HTC One S, there is this persistent download icon, it's just stuck there even though download completed days ago. It came when I was doing some app downloads and has refused to go away even after downloads are over.
On the top icon row of the phone, the animated download icon also shows, has been showing for days, even with no downloads.
Rebooting does not get rid of the icons. Does anyone know how to get rid of these? Your help is appreciated.
The screenshots below show the icons - icons of concern are circled in black:

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

Try force stopping the Play Store application from the settings menu and see if that removes it. Facebook photo upload often gets stuck in my notification bar and force stopping removes that.

Thanks a lot for your help.
It was eventually fixed by stopping the Downloads app in  Settings - App - All. I did a Force Stop on the Downloads app, and then rebooted and it was fine.

It was eventually fixed by stopping the Downloads app in  Settings - App - All. I did a Force Stop on the Downloads app, and then rebooted and it was fine.

Go to Settings - App - All
go to the 'Downloads' app
click 'Force Stop'
Clear cache if button is highlighted, other wise leave it
Reboot device


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Huawei Ascend G300 (U6615) not using Three network
I bought an ex-Vodaphone Huawei G300, and was happy to find that it was unlocked - I put in my Giffgaff SIM, and immediately had phone and internet access.
However, I really want to use the phone on Three, but although calls and texts can be made and received, I can get no internet.
I tapped 'New APN', and set it up in accordance with 3, but even though I saved it after inputting their settings, the APN screen remained blank, and no connection could be obtained.
The settings entered were:
Name – 3 Internet
APN - three.co.uk
Proxy, Port, Username, Password & Server - blank
MMSC -  http://mms.um.three.co.uk:10021/mmsc
MMS PROXY -  mms.three.co.uk
MMS Port - 8799
MCC - 234
MNC - 15
Authentication type - None
APN type left blank
Is there something I don't know??

According to the MCC/MNC table for UK, your MNC code should be 20, not 15. Also this page suggests that you need to enter default,supl,mms (without spaces after commas) in the “APN Type” field.
If this still won't work, try omitting all MMS-related settings (MMSC, MMS Proxy, MMS Port) and entering default,supl in the “APN Type” field, then, if you get your 3G Internet connection working this way, add another APN just for MMS with all settings and mms in the “APN Type” field.

Sergey,Many thanks - you hit the spot first time: it was the default,supl,mms entry that made the difference. Now getting three internet fine. Thanks again


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My Samsung galaxy s GTI9003 stuck in flight mode
I want to disable the airplane mode in order to return to normal state. After a long press on power button, I do have the "device options", however nothing happens when I press Airplane mode (airplane mode enable). I am stuck in airplane mode
I tried restarting, SIM change, removing battery ....but nothing worked.
Have you experience this? Is it a known bug? How can I disable airplane mode.

It seems you have done everything you could. If possible hard-reset your device.

Before factory-resetting (sorry for splitting hairs, Heidar -- but a hard-reset he already did: plugging the power source (battery) from the device), you might try to wipe all cache: boot into recovery, and see if it offers you such an option. With a custom recovery installed, you could even wipe Dalvik cache additionally. That's 2/3 of what a factory-reset would do -- you'd only skip the purge of /data, and thus hadn't to re-configure everything. Might not really help, but it's worth a try.

I had the exact same problem since yesterday, but my mobile is Galaxy S2,this post was the solution: http://www.inflightmagazine.co/?p=351
I am not sure if it will work on galaxy s, but wouldn't harm to give it a try
The author refers to two steps to solve the problem, I would add the following steps between Step 1 and Step 2

Install BusyBox from the play store
Open BusyBox after rooting, grant it superuser permissions
Click install on the left bottom corner of the screen
You'll be asked to use Smart Install vs Normal Install.. I chose the first option, not sure if it makes any difference if you pick the second one
Proceed to step 2

I just had the same problem today. I went through all the steps you did as well, but eventually, had to resort to the factory reset to get it to stop forcing the airplane mode on me.  Hope someone can figure this out so I dont have to keep factory resetting should it happen again.

did anyone experienced the same problem "phone stuck in flight mode all of a sudden"


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launch/start an App (Activity) by a gesture on the homescreen
is it possible in Android(>= 3.0) to launch/start an App (Activity) by a gesture on the homescreen. For example: if the user swipes from the bottom to the top on his homescreen, then App XY should be started.
Thank you

You can install a third-party homescreen (launcher) app which supports gestures. Some examples: Holo Launcher HD, Apex Launcher, Nova Launcher. Note that such gestures will work only when the launcher is active (i.e., they are not global gestures accessible from any app), and may be eaten by scrollable widgets if they are present at the homescreen, and you start the gesture inside such widget.
Globally accessible gestures are possible too (e.g., there are apps such as SwipePad), however, this will increase resource consumption, because such app must be running all the time and listening for touch events, and also may conflict with other apps.

ty u, helped me a lot


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What precisely is CloudAgent process? Its files eats space like crazy
I have bunch of usual stuff going on in my phone (Samsung Grand, Android 4.1.2) like app auto-updates, Twitter, Dropbox, etc. Most of the time it's clear what the network-related settings for them are (wifi-only all the things) and they are clearly reflected in data stats.
The one exception is "CloudAgent" process, which:

does not really make it obvious what it belongs to (is this part of Android? Samsung custom stuff?)
eats space like crazy (its folder was well over 1GB out of 4GB system space)
eats network, even when not on wifi

While it doesn't really cause any serious issues, it is highly confusing - what it is, what it does and which settings control it?

It's Samsung software, built into the system in certain Samsung phones. Like the Dropbox app, it's a service to automatically upload photos you take on your phone; it connects to your "Samsung account" if you create one. It also integrates with Dropbox to sync photos to the device Gallery; if you have "Camera upload" turned on in Dropbox as well, this probably results in your phone having two copies of each photo: the usual one, and one in CloudAgent's storage.
You can change its settings by going into the main Settings app and choosing Cloud from the Applications manager list (in the Device section). You can clear its data and disable it, or "freeze" the app if your device is rooted, and the only consequence is that photos from Dropbox won't show up in Gallery. If you have the Dropbox app installed as well, Dropbox can still sync (and automatically upload photos) without CloudAgent running.

Gotcha... Figured out that it corresponds to "Cloud" in settings indeed and the reason it was eating space (and probably network) is that there was a setting enabled there to sync all of my Dropbox images to Android's gallery (which I don't really use so paid no attention). Disabling that cleared giant cache out and stopped Dropbox stuff from appearing in gallery (uploads still work as usual).

Thanks for your extra information: I've added that into my answer, to help future visitors.

Sure, that's how we roll on SE. ;) Note that this does not seem to be tied to auto-upload feature (which is of Dropbox and enabled in its app), this seems to be some extra Samsung built to auto-download from Dropbox to integrate in gallery. Phone came with +50GB Dropbox promo, so I guess Samsung felt obliged to ruin it with some extra bells and whistles. :)

An auto-download from Dropbox feature on a phone with a 50GB promo sounds like a really easy way to run the phone out of system space, even if it's limited to images.

Just FYI, if you disable the dropbox sync, it will NOT delete the data from SDCard. I used ES File explorer to remove the files from the folders under cloudagent directory off the [internal]sdcard.

As mentioned Settings - Accounts - Backup options: Cloud - Dropbox: Pictures/Video/Documents can be turned off


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How can I enter an English unlock password when the keyboard is Arabic?
How can I unlock my tablet that my password is in English and the keyboard is in Arabic?

Try plugging in a keyboard via USB.  If you don't already have an adapter for it I would recommend that you go ahead and buy one.  It comes in handy.

What is your OS? Here is a link that might help you:
How to unlock device when I forgot my password?
Now here are some scenarios:

If you are in Jellybean and you only have the stock Jellybean password, then I'm sorry to say you need to take a drastic measure in opening your tablet which is doing a factory reset. However, on the link above it will tell you that you can unlock your device by using your Google account online. I don't really know the details but that might help you.
If you are using another keyboard from the Play Store, chances are you can edit the settings on the keyboard itself. This could appear in the form of a settings button (a circle with a dot on the center) where you can set up the language of the keyboard or you are using Hacker's keyboard you can swipe the spacebar and the keyboard will change the language.

I strongly suggest you add what OS and keyboard configurations you are using(activated keyboards, current keyboard used) to your question so that others might add more helpful answers.


text:
What will I lose when I do a factory reset?
I have Locked myself out of my phone because I entered too many pattern attempts. I can't sign into my Google account because my wi-fi isn't turned on. So I need to factory reset it. I'm just wondering what will I lose. My photos and videos are saved onto my phone, will I lose them?
If there are any other options in getting back into my without factory resetting it, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
By the way I have a Samsung Galaxy Xcover

You might want to see http://android.stackexchange.com/q/35847/12442 for how to get back into your phone without factory-resetting it.

See also: Factory reset to restore performance? What are the disadvantages?

See also: What will I lose if I reset my samsung Galaxy SI (GTi9000)?

See also once more: Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection? -- before you do a factory-reset :)

A factory reset wipes the internal storage of your phone. This includes all apps, their settings, and all the files and data saved onto your internal storage. Any apps or other content you've downloaded from Google Play, you can download again (you don't have to pay again).
If you previously updated the system or flashed a custom ROM, it will still be updated or have the custom ROM (because system updates update the ROM, not the internal storage.) Similarly, if you rooted the device or unlocked the bootloader, it'll still be rooted or unlocked.
It won't erase any data from the SD card. Usually photos and videos are saved onto the SD card but it depends on the software and the device.

I put the sd card into my old phone (samsung 360) and it said there were no files on memory card.

What I'm only worried about is my photos