text:
Root in Android is connecting to SoftLayer Technologies!
I was reviewing what programs are connecting to the internet on my Android Nexus 5, and I saw that Root had already disconnected from the connection to SoftLayer Technologies, inc (IP 108.168.176.245 Port 5222 insecurely over http - status: TCP_Close_Wait).
Why does Root connect to SoftLayer? Is this normal?

No this isn't normal. How and what steps did you use to get root? You have "BAD" software on your device. Have you tried to unroot the device? Does it still request access for that IP address?

I've rooted my Nexus 5 using "OEM unlock" method long ago when I first got it. I don't think it had anything to do with this recent change. I just checked and SockStat (open source app) showed that it just sent TCP_SYN just now. When ever I open the app it seem to disappear.

I've just launched the app, saw it's now established a connection for a split second with 180.76.3.151 (I've immediately captured a screenshot to look up the IP, and it disconnected and disappeared immediately). This second IP is in China and belongs to Baidu company. I have AFwall+ which doesn't show Root logs, only app logs. How can I know what app is using Root to establish a connection?

So for anyone who sees suspicious internet activity on his phone, here's how I figured it out:
I monitor my phone on random occasions (several times a day) using this amazing app called: SockStat (no conflict of interest).
When I just found this IP yesterday 108.168.176.245, I blocked everything on AFWall+ (Android open source firewall), this way, any app that tries to connect remotely will be logged (turn logging on if it's off).
In my case, I saw that WhatsApp+ tried to connect to the same IP that I'm investigating. Looked up the WhatsApp+ IP and yes, it's on SoftLayer network. Waited a bit, and finally captured what caused Root to connect! Same IP but this time, "(Kernel) - Linux kernel" is trying to connect to that IP.
From here, I'll email the developer* and ask how he got Root without requesting Root from Superuser app.
I still haven't figured out what is trying to connect to Baidu (180.76.3.151), but you get the idea from the first suspicious IP.
Hope this helps.
*WhatsApp+ is a third-party WhatsApp client. Not sure how it works under the hood though.


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Tar.gz not working (Segmentation fault) on ext4 partition
I have a strange problem with tar gz compression.
I used to have SD card mounted as a fat32 partition. However, now I changed it so that external sdcard is being mounted under /data/media/0 and is formatted to ext4 (or f2fs - makes no difference, because this error happens on either).
In the old setup, I could run
tar cvzf

on a folder in this partition without any issue.
However, in this new setup if I run it, I get
tar cvzf
Segmentation fault.

I discovered, that if I remove the z parameter, it proceeds just fine. But he resulting tar file is not gz-compressed and hence unfit to my applications.
I confirmed this behaviour on two different ROMs so far: CarbonRom JB 4.3.1 and CarbonRom KK 4.4.4.
Does anyone have any idea what could be amiss here? Is android unable to tar.gz files on non-fat32 partitions, or is it cause by some other problem?

Where is your tar binary from? Likely the zlib library wasn't compiled in properly or is missing.

From the rom itself. As I said, the command TAR works just fine when used on a folder on a fat32 partition mounted under /storage/sdcard1. The very same TAR binary and system exhibits this issue when trying to do the exact same operation on the ext4 partition mounted at /data/media/0.

I still have no idea what is causing the problem, but I did find a solution / workaround, which does the same thing.
Instead of directly calling gzip from tar like so:
tar cvzf

I pipe tar's output to gzip like so:
tar -cv directory/ | gzip > archive.tar.gz

and the segmentation fault is no more.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Blocking all external traffic and allowing only internal traffic through
we are trying to use Android tablets in a production environment however we only want the users to be able to connect to internal ip addresses and block all external to lock them out of doing things they should not, we cant achieve this via the network or routers it needs to be be on the tablet that's blocking the external traffic, how can we achieve this ?

Anything you do on the tablet itself could be removed by the users. You really need to do this in the network infrastructure.

What Dan Hulme said is possibly the best advise for a solution IMO. Anyhow, if you can afford to root the device, then go ahead and do it, and install SuperSU, Busybox and AFwall+. AFwall+ is a firewall which requires some binaries available via former app.

Launch SuperSU and create a PIN/password in the Settings. This might require Pro version. -- this is a superuser application. It must be protected from any unauthorized access because it grants root access to apps.
Launch Busybox and follow the instructions there to install the binaries.
Launch AFwall+, and:

Tap three vertical dots next to lens icon and choose Enable Firewall.
In the same section go to Set password and select a password for your firewall.
In the same section go to Preferences and check Device Admin to make AFwall+ your device's administrator -- this will prevent a user from disabling or force-stopping the app. Fiddle with other settings which would meet your disabling external network access requirement.
Install Applock and disable Install/Uninstall, Settings, Play Store, etc. that you think users shouldn't access.
Use a launcher like Smart Launcher which allows hiding app icon.
You can use Helium to make and restore app backups along all other devices.

The instructions should be enough to keep normal users at bay. There are workaround for every step here if the user is bit clever so I suggest to install a tracking program to keep an eye on suspects. :)

authors: สมัย อรุณศิริ

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


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WIFI Receive Data in Sleep Mode?
How can wifi receive data when it is in sleep mode? Will it wake up regularly, or do something else?
I tried to make a ping test to a full power management (sleep just after transmission) phone, and it wouldn't miss any packets. So I'm curious about the receipt progress.

It does not turn off by default, but you can change that option in Settings>WiFi>Advanced


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Does the IR Blaster on an Android phone receive as well as send?
Is the IR Blaster communication two-way or only one-way? I have seen many remote control apps for my Android phone but none that learn from an existing remote.

Well there is a tripod that supposedly uses infrared to control the samsung GS5 camera, so I guess that would not work, right?

For transmitting, a single Infrared LED and resistor are needed. For receiving, an IR receiver module with internal bandpass filter is needed.
There are remotes that will send and receive. Universal remotes will sometimes have a "learning mode" to mimic another remote.  An example of this at the bottom of my answer.
But a receiving IR isn't a standard feature on Android devices, as of this answer I haven't heard of or have found any online of that can. But with a PC program and Android app you can mimic remotes. The link below is one such program.
Unified Remote. There is a free version and a paid version with more features.
The link is just for the feature list of the app. There is a server (PC) side as well as Android side.The amount of remotes that you can map over to your device is staggering, I think you can even design your own remotes. By using one of the remote templates, your device is effectively "learning/receiving" the other remotes codes (you don't even have to have another remote physically there). You would still be accomplishing your goal.

example
I had a Yamaha Natural Sound home theater receiver and the remote had a "Learn Mode". So you switch it to learn, place the "other" remote in front of it. Press the button on "other" remote, then press a button on the Yamaha remote that you want that command mapped to. You now have control of the other devices functions. You can also clear mapped button commands and enter new ones as needed.

But the IR Blaster on a phone is send only? I like the idea of a remote control on my phone but none of them seem very good so far. If it could learn it would be a better way to completely replace the remote.

Read the features on the link that I posted in my answer.

Please answer "yes" or "no" and only use links to confirm what you wrote here. What happens if your link goes dead? Does the IR Blaster on an Android phone receive? I had a look but I couldn't find anything about the Android version learning, only the PC version.

As a standard feature NO you can't receive a signal from the IR . What happens when the link I posted goes dead, well that's just life. I don't control the actions of others. The link was just for feature list of the app. There is a server (PC) side as well. The amount of remotes that you can map over to your device is staggering, I think you can even design your own remotes. By using one of the remote templates, your device is effectively "learning/receiving" the other remotes codes (you don't even have to have another remote physically there). You would still be accomplishing your goal.

The point I was trying to make is that if your answer relies on information from a link (i.e. the reader has to click on the link to fully understand the answer) and the link goes dead, the answer is no longer helpful. Someone may read this question in five years time and all the relevant information should be on this page. I'm on several SE sites and people always ask that answers that rely heavily on links be edited to contain the information in the page. If you put the information from your comment into an answer I will accept it. Currently, your answer does not answer my question.

My Honor 8 pro both sends and receives infrared signals. Its remote control app has learn feature and a special app(I don't remember the name) allows me to connect to old Nokia devices via infrared to transfer files.

LG Phones also come with a quick remote app to learn.


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Apps continue to use battery despite closing them
I have noticed that certain apps continue to show up in the Settings-->Battery menu (which shows the % of battery used by each app) long after closing them.
Here are the list of things I have tried but nothing has removed the apps from the Settings-->Battery menu
- cleared the RAM using Active Applications widget
- Force stopped the app
- Restarted the phone
Some of the apps stay longer and some are gone automatically after a certain period.
My question is
1. why do the apps continue to show up in the Settings-->Battery menu when they are closed properly?
2. Is this something the apps can control like for how long they can stay awake despite closing?
Its a Samsung phone running on Android 4.1.2.

The Settings > Battery menu is a cumulative history that gets reset only when you re-charge the battery to 100%. That means all of the usage history is retained through the charge cycle (which includes any partial re-charges). The closed apps' prior battery usage (as a percentage of the total charge used since a full re-charge) should gradually decline as the total charge used increases.

I never realized what reset that chart.  Thank you for explaining it!

The Settings-->Battery menu doesn't show how much battery is being used at that moment, rather how much has been used (usually since the device was fully charged or turned on). The reason the apps show up is because before they were closed they used some battery.


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Impact of removing the launcher from Android device
I have two Samsung rooted devices and I'm thinking of removing the TouchWiz. What would be the implications of leaving the device without a Launcher? If I install a new app that acts as Home/Launcher aplication will it be set automatically as the default Launcher?
Thanks for the answers and comments,

Touchwiz is not just the launcher, it is an entire framework they have built into Android. It controls the notifications, the settings, the whole OS is basically Touchwiz throughout.
Samsung do not provide the stock launcher with the device (Like old HTC devices used to) so if you remove it you will just have no launcher, no way to open apps etc. You could just install Apex, Nova, Google Now or whatever launcher before doing this, and freeze the launcher rather than completely delete it to ensure there is no unexpected outcome(s). Generally it will either default to whatever launcher is installed, or it will give you the 'Choose your launcher' screen where you can accept whatever one you want and click "Once only" or "Always" as you do with other apps.
As Touchwiz is the framework, you would need to remove the whole ROM from the device and install a Non-Touchwiz ROM like AOSP, CyaongenMod, Google Play Edition (if your device has one) and so on.

Note: any changing of frameworks in Android can completely brick your device, so proceed with caution and make nandroid backups! You can never have too many backups!
Note 2: you could remove all of Touchwiz and rebuild the ROM, but that would be way outside the remit of this site. It would probably be reinventing the wheel anyway and there are plenty of AOSP ROMs about.


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Inability to call or text with Samsung Galaxy S3
My Samsung Galaxy S3 has this annoying habit that, whenever I try to do something like connect to a network, or open Candy Crush, after 20 seconds my phone will turn off, and on, and then keep turning off and on, the timing at which it turns off after turning on is variable: sometimes I have the option to enter my PIN, most of the time not.
Up until this point I solved it by plugging it in, and stop attempting to do anything  with this phone that I cannot do on my old Nokia. The problem this time, is that my phone has entered a state of isolation: I cannot text, or receive texts, cannot call and the symbol which normally shows how good my connection is to my network has been replaced by a stop sign. How do I get rid of this?
Also, my battery occasionally drains: from full to 0 in under 2 minutes.
Placing my SIM into a different phone allowed me to text and call, so its nothing to do with that.

You could try booting into safe-mode and see if the problem persists (you won't have your user-apps available there, but should be able to do some testing). If it works fine there, it's most likely a software issue – if not, it's a case for service. Option 2: backup everything and do a factory-reset. Same stuff: either the problem is gone, or you've got to send the device for service.

Take a backup of your phone and do a hard reset.
Steps for a hard Reset

Turn the phone off.
Press and hold VOLUME UP and Home(center) button Press Power until
the phone vibrate Wait until you see the Android   logo then release
all the buttons
Select Wipe data/Factory reset with VOLUME DOWN, press Power (right
    hand-side) Select YES -- delete all user data with VOLUME DOWN and
    then press Power After format,    press Power again to reboot phone.
    (select reboot system now)

Source


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Where can I find my Android backup?
Where can I find my Android backup in my Google account?
What is the name of my android backup in my android device?

Do you mean the backup of your contacts etc? That is saved on Google's servers, not on the device. It is preformed through your Google account, I can't remember the name of the services that do it. (Contacts Backup is one afaik)

Is there a specific problem you are trying to solve? Do you need to extract something from a backup? More context will allow us to help you better.

What do you mean by Android backup?
Your contacts ? Your emails? Apps you've downloaded from Playstore? Or your photos/videos?

Google does not backup your whole Android device.
Only your apps, and, if you have a nexus device (< not sure), the app's data will be backed up. And if you turned on automatic camera backup in the Google Photos app, your photos are backed up, too
You can't download these backup from your PC or another device.
To restore it you have to login on a new/factory reset device. Then it will ask you to restore your apps.


text:
Is GPS replaced by A-GPS in Android latest version (4.4, 5.0)?
I have created an application that uses GPS for getting current location. I have checked my app in latest version of Android (4.4), and it is not working as it works on previous version. I saw the configuration of 4.4 devices that every device has A-GPS with GLONASS.
I just want to confirm that do we have to get current location using WiFi/Network? Is GPS outdated now?

GPS isn't outdated, no. Android doesn't have a GPS API, there is only Location API, and it is up to the device capability, available infrastructure, and user setting to decide how best to provide Location information for the accuracy that the application has requested. The more accurate location methods generally uses more battery and raises more privacy issues, so you generally want to use the least amount of accuracy that your application can do with. Devices usually maps coarse location to Wifi/Network location and fine location to GPS, but those are largely implementation details.

As this is about Android app development, it would be better asked on Stack Overflow.  See What topics can I ask about here for details.

Okay Sorry to all.

If you go to the location settings on your device you have the options of:

Off
High Accuracy
Power Saving
GPS Only

Where Off and GPS only are obvious, Power Saving uses Wi-Fi & Mobile networks only and High Accuracy uses both GPS and WiFi/Network information. (I am running 4.4.2 on my Galaxy Note 3).
The reasons for the multiplicity of choices are the balance between accuracy and battery life,

GPS can give good accuracy anywhere so will work even if you are out of range for all calls or on holiday with roaming turned off,
Network information depends on the availability of towers &/or WiFi with the geographic information set up but will be either be connecting to towers or querying WiFi both of which have some impact on battery life but not much more than being able to receive calls,
Both uses the most power but will produce faster, more accurate, more reliable, results than any single method.

So now the user of the device has the choice and if your application relies on one specific method it should query the available information and if it is not enabled prompt the user.


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Problems with starting the emulator in Windows
I started a project of developing a rather simple app, and it was working with the emulator, although it was taking time to start the first time. But now, for some reason, I cannot have the emulator starting properly anymore. The window opens up, with the title 5554:AVD_for_Nexus_5..... but the display remains blank forever. Nothing ever happens. The only change I was trying to do was to enable navigation keys such a back, home, etc.

Try recreating the AVD.

I tried and had the same problem. However, when I re-created the same vm (Nexus 7 2012) as I used when first developing my app (as opposed as a different model (Nexus 5) ). I am going to retry ona different system for the Nexus 5. Maybe the problem is with the binary image of the Nexus 5 itself.


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Not able to acces other hard disk and partitions on android 4.4.2 X86
I have installed android 4.4.2 X86 android on my PC that has 2 hard disk with 2-2 partitions each. I have installed android 4.4.2 X86 on one of them and i have data on other 3. The problem is that i am not able to access any of my other three partitions. Please hoew can i access my other partitions

You probably need to mount them, which will usually require root privileges. However, as android is installed on a hard drive, you could probably edit the required files on another computer by plugging the hard drive in.


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How to prevent apps from using my SD for its data?
So, as you all know, even though they are they're installed in internal app memory, some apps tend to store some of its data in internal SD and some in external SD card. (To be more precise, in "/sdcard/Android/data/" and "/extSdCard/Android/data/" folder, respectively.)
Now, I was wondering if there was any way to prevent this, so that they store their data only in the app's private folder (in "/data/data/app-package/")? Or at least prevent writing data into the external SD card and just use internal SD for the purpose?
Info:
- Model: Samsung s3
- OS: Android 4.4 stock ROM (rooted)

You could revoke their write access to the SD card using pm, but that will most likely make them crash every time they tried to write the card.

You also could mount --bind their SD card folders to internal memory folders. This has to be done on every boot, though, and Android's mount system is messy enough as it is.

Since the device is rooted you can install XPrivacy from Play Store. For this app to work you need to install Xposed Framework. Once this framework is installed, you'll have to enable XPrivacy's  module in Xposed framework which will require a reboot.

Once XPrivacy is installed and device rebooted, launch the app and tap any app icon amongst the list of apps icons(say Facebook app icon).
Scroll down to Storage and tap it to list permissions inside it.
Two entries there requires our attention:

getExternalStorageState -- Returns the current state of the primary "external" storage device.
sdcard (aka [(READ/WRITE/ACCESS_ALL)_EXTERNAL_STORAGE]) -- Allows an application to read/write from and into external storage.

Now that it is obvious from the context I mentioned around these two entries, you can go ahead restricting them for the apps you desire.
Note that there could be repercussions for restricting them, and the obvious would be the app failing to launch or crashing intermittently. It is advised to take a nandroid backup as well as an app backup.
XPrivacy allows et al.:

Creating a template of permissions which can be applied on apps individually rather than selecting the permissions by going into every app individually. The pro version allows applying this template on multiple apps simultaneously.
Restrict on Demand feature which will seek user's discretion every time a selected app is launched.
Automatic default template implementation on any new user installed app.

About XPrivacy

Privacy can prevent applications from leaking privacy sensitive data by restricting the categories of data an application can access. XPrivacy feeds applications fake data or no data at all. It can restrict several data categories, such as contacts or location. For example, if you restrict an application's access to contacts, that application will receive an empty contacts list. Similarly, restricting an application's access to your location will send a fake location to that application.
XPrivacy doesn't revoke or block permissions from an application, so most applications will continue to work as before and won't force close (crash).

About Xposed Framework

Xposed is a framework for modules that can change the behavior of the system and apps without touching any APKs. That's great because it means that modules can work for different versions and even ROMs without any changes (as long as the original code was not changed too much). It's also easy to undo. As all changes are done in the memory, you just need to deactivate the module and reboot to get your original system back. There are many other advantages, but here is just one more: Multiple modules can do changes to the same part of the system or app. With modified APKs, you to decide for one. No way to combine them, unless the author builds multiple APKs with different combinations.


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Cannot play video, android 4.4.4
Well hello,
I have a really troublesome and strange problem. Point is, I cannot play any video. Litterally NONE. Any type of video presented in ANY app cannot play, including advertisements.
Running Android 4.4.4 omnirom, but as it doesn't appear in the omnirom bugs my guess is I did something wrong in my system: Have developer rights, so anything could have gone wrong.
Any thoughts on this?
Preferably not directly call 'factory reset' ^^
UPDATE: Well, ok, I was wrong, it was a bug in Omnirom: On an older version of Omnirom it worked 'fine' (with it's own bugs, but still). Probably going to try another ROM in the near future, maybe something more stable.
At least thanks for your time everybody who gave ideas! :)

What does it say when you were trying to play a video?

What phone do you have? It sounds like you already realised a bug in the custom ROM is the most likely explanation.

It says nothing, it just shows the animation that it's loading, and depending on the app, after a while it gives a timeout giving you the option to retry.
My phone is the Note 2 of Samsung, but I was trying to imply a bug would be least likely, as the problem persists for multiple weeks now and there are no such bugs filed for Omnirom... I think me having changed some setting which enables or disables videos is more likely, but I am really unexperienced with this kind of problems.

I'd try another ROM, or restore a backup. I've used stable Omnirom on a few devices and some of them did have big bugs (generally it's great, and I'm not trying to put the devs down). Try restoring your last nandroid see if that works, then you can always restor a nandroid of Omnirom at a later point. Or try another ROM altogether.


text:
How frequently are Android apps in Google Play updated?
I wish to know how frequently apps in Google Play are updated on average? For instance, statistics such as average number of apps updated per day or number of days in-between 2 successive updates of an app (on average) might be useful to deduce this.
An example number that I wish to see is: 0.5% of apps in Google Play are updated every day (or something like this).

I hypothesize that Android apps, given the easy development and
  distribution infrastructure, are updated much frequently than the
  desktop apps.

I wish to have more evidence to support this hypothesis. Please suggest link to any official information (or reliable from tech blogs) that would give insight into such statistics. Thanks.

From my observations of ~10,000 apps listed at my real-life categorized app-listings, the average app...

requests ~7 permissions
costs USD 0.88
was last updated ~1.5 years (~17 month or 492 days) ago

The last item, a little more detailed:
┌───────────────────────────────────────┬────────┐
| last updated more than 2 years ago    | 24.51% |
| last updated 1..2 years ago           | 20.27% |
| last updated 6..12 month ago          | 17.84% |
| updated within the last 6 month       | 34.87% |
└───────────────────────────────────────┴────────┘

As you've correctly pointed out in your comment, that doesn't sum up to 100%. The difference are apps currently not listed in any of the markets I cater for (i.e. Google Play, F-Droid, Aptoide). As unlistings may be (and sometimes have been) temporary, I still keep those for a few month before removing them finally. Plus add a little "rounding blur" ;)
So I'm afraid I just spoiled your theory...
BTW: Though you didn't ask for: Top categories of "max permissions per app on average" is, after "personal assistants" (31.7 perms/app) cheaper calls (22.2 perms/app – shame to him who thinks evil of it ;)). Only then come apps to remote-control your device (where many permissions make much sense, considered you want to control as much as possible), and "Antivirus", with ~19 perms/app each.
(Statistics as per November 5, 2014)

Thanks for a detailed reply, Izzy. I have the following questions:
(1) The sum of all the percentage splits (2.51+20.27+17.84+34.87) is 97.49 and not 100. Hence, I am not able to completely make sense of interval in which apps are updated.
(2) Actually, you helped my hypothesis by suggesting that a large fraction of apps are updated frequently i.e. more than 1/3 of apps are updated within a time frame of 6 months (shortest period in your list). Thanks again and let me if I have misinterpreted any of the figures.

(1) are apps still in my lists but currently not listed on play (might be temporarily removed, which is why I still keep them for a while). (2) there are even some with 1+ weekly updates, but those are rather rare exceptions. And yes, ~1/3 was at least updated once within the last 6 month – but that doesn't say anything about frequency (might have been a) just the initial release of a new app or b) the only update an app ever got :) I don't keep track of frequencies, just the "last release".

Oh, I see. Now, I get a clear idea of what was happening! As you mentioned, there is no information regarding the frequency of updates. I'll look forward more responses to this question and see if they point to any such info on frequency. Thanks.

Good luck! Though I doubt there are such stats available. Please remember to "accept" the answer solving your question then ("tick" the check-mark next to it). As you can always "adjust" that when a better answer pops up, you might consider doing so for this answer now, so you can't forget ;)

Yes Izzy, I could not find any stats so far on this. But, still I would like to look forward to any useful responses here. FYI, I have accepted your answer.

Thanks, Annamalai! If I find something, I will update it here. Would be nice if you do the same in such a case, as we're all a little curious ;)


text:
I encrypted my phone (samsung S4) of which i dont remember the password. Need help to unlock it and save the data
I am using Samsung S4. I can't remember the password i setup while encrypting it. Is there a way to unlock the device ?
If it cant be unlocked how do i factory reset the device or i'll have to go to samsung service  center for that too.

If there were a way to get to the data without the encryption password, there wouldn't be much point, would there?

LOL...if there were a way for you to access your data without the encryption password, then other people would be able to do it too, no? Always choose encryption passwords for which you have a reliable mnemonic, so that if you forget exactly what it was you'll be able to figure it out. Unfortunately, if you can't guess the password, a data wipe/factory reset is your only option. No point going to a service center, because they can't decrypt your data, and you don't need their help in order to wipe it.

I have heard of people flashing the device with custom ROM's to bypass the lock screen and access your data. Not sure if it applies to your situation.

Master reset with hardware keys

Turn Off the Device
Press and Hold the Volume Up, Home, and Power Button
When the phone vibrates release the Power Button, but continue to hold the other two
When you see the system recovery screen release the other two buttons
Using the Volume down, select "Wipe data / Factory reset"
Press Power Button to select it
When the reset is complete, choose Reboot system now and press power button to reboot the phone.

Disclaimer: THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE.  This does not solve the question about how to recover data that is encrypted.  It only answers the question about factory resetting the phone.


text:
Can I turn off all "Notification" of all apps, services in Android phone?
I found tips to improve battery in this link: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/10/30/hurricane-sandy-crisis-map-puts-shelters-storm-info-alerts-power-outages-on-mobile/
In this link - author said we can turn off Notification of android/iOS applications to save battery.
I have an Android phone. If I go to Settings/ Personalization / Manage Notifications (Sony Xperia). I will see all Applications/ Android Services that I can turn off notifications
My questions is CAN I turn off all application notifications (downloaded / built-in apps) / android service notifications (app services/built-in services)? If I turn off all of them - Does this affect operation of the phone? I understand that I will not receive any notifications (news/updates ... ) if I turn off notifications. I can check updates manually.
Thank you!

Depending on the Android version running on the device, that might be possible. Taking a raw (and optimistic) guess, this might gain you 2 minutes more battery endurance (if at all). Do you really think that's worth it? There are much better things you can do to increase battery-life, many of them linked from our battery-life tag-wiki.

Yes, you can turn off all notifications.  Your phone will work fine, but you will not receive any notifications, which will severely limit functionality of applications that depend on notifications to alert you of events and progress.
Furthermore, the amount of battery life saved by doing this will be so close to zero, that I honestly can't recommend it.
Disable notifications for annoying apps.  Leave them on for others.

@LocHa You're welcome!  If you found it helpful, you can click the up arrow to apply an upvote!  :-)


text:
Moving downloaded apps on LGMS500
I have a LGMS500 and have installed link2sd and advanced sd card manager and am still unable to move all downloaded apps to sd card.
Any other solutions?

I had a similar problem in that my device would not recognize my external SD. The phone said the card was there and mounted but the camera would not save photos there "please install SD".. After some tinkering, I formated the SD to NTFS on a PC and put it back in my phone. The phone immediately recognized the incompatible format and prompted to format the SD card. Long story short, my device now recognizes the Card and actually stores data THERE.

Not all apps can be moved to the SD card using the native method.
You need to partition the SD card and set both partitions as primary. The one you want to set for apps storage needs to be ext4 formatted and the other FAT32. Remember that partitioning will wipe all data!
Now Link2SD will be able to "Create link" and move the dalvik cache, internal data (pro version), library and application for to SD card.


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Hard Bricked Verizon SCH-I545 Galaxy S4
I got a Verizon SCH-I545 Galaxy S4 and tried to unlock the bootloader and accidentally hard bricked it. I can't even go in to download mode or recovery mode either. Is there a way I would be able to fix it? I heard that using a USB Jig would fix it. Are there any other way to fix this issue?
I'm not sure if this would help but some additional information:
Baseband Version: I545VRUFNC5
Kernel Version: 3.4.0
Android Version: 4.4.2
New Phone.
I rooted using towelroot. I remember disabling Knox while rooting.

If there is absolutely no way to get into recovery or download or boot the device then you will have to go to a repair centre or if you know someone who owns and can use a JTAG you might be able to do something. To be honest, if it's completely hardbricked you'll need specialist help.

Thanks. I ended up calling Verizon saying that I wasn't able to turn on my phone since it was "actually not turning on." Eventually I was able to change my hard-bricked phone to a new one. Gonna go to the store today or tomorrow. Thanks for the information though!

authors: ศักดิ์ชัย แดนอินทร์


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Xperia Z3v Simultaneous LTE and Voice Service
I'm told by Verizon that the Z3v will be unable to access mobile data while in a call until January. If only they told you this before the sale! In any case, does anyone know of a workaround, or a way to get the software update early? I considered flashing something from Sony's developer world, but as I understand it this will impact camera functionality...
Any known way to get around this without waiting until Sony/Verizon push the update?

"Mobile data not available" (click image for larger variant)

I wonder how that should work without a second "receiver set" – as for calls, the device has to "drop back" to 3G. So if you want to use mobile data while in call, switching to 3G entirely seems to be the only valid option to me.

Spoke with a Verizon Rep today and he said they expect to have this fixed by April.

I have been told that the Z3V will never be capable of simultaneous talk and Data by Verizon. Sony just confirmed that it isn't capable, but didn't say what the future holds. The Z3V was built with only one radio and was not built to support VoLTE. Verizon is posting replies on their Droid Turbo stating it will be getting it in a software update,  but they are not doing that on the Z3V. I am guessing that is because it doesn't support VoLTE and that is how they are rolling this out now (phones coming to market after Aug2014). However, let me know if you get a different response from Sony or Verizon, because I have been told the Z3V will never get it. Thanks.

Just got off the phone with Verizon and they confirmed the z3v will get the update to fix this problem 1st quarter next year


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Google Play Services
My phone keeps telling me... "Google Play Services has stopped working"... I don't know what it means but it pops up SO MUCH and it's VERY annoying. I have tried doing a soft reset, but that did not work. I have also shut it down multiple times.

Have you installed a custom ROM (like CyanogenMod)?

Starting happening to me a few days ago as well. No custom ROM or any other changes of note.

Open app manager. Go to Google Play Services>Uninstall updates(Clear data/cache)>Disable it. Then re-enable again and update. See if it worked.

Does not help in my case, because I cannot access the Play store to update due to the same error.

Go to Settings>Apps or Applications Manager>All. Select Google Play Services.
Go to Storage>Tap on Clear Data> Click OK
Do the same thing for Download manager and Google Play Store
If it still doesn't work, uninstall updates for Google Play Services and Play Store.
If all else fails, do a Factory Data reset


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Installing Plan B on Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
I lost my Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 I have no tracking device installed on it and the WiFi and GPS are off. I can call it and know the imei number. I've tried to install Plan B but it says it is not compatible. Please help.

Possibly a dupe of Tracking Android Phone via IMEI number

Plan B is only available on Android 2.0-2.3.
What you can try is Android Device Manager. It's mostly preinstalled and enabled on more recent versions of android.


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Auto-disable Wi-Fi AP if not connected within a few minutes?
Is there any way for me to make my phone automatically disable its Wi-Fi Access Point and re-enable its Wi-Fi client when no client has connected to the access point after (say) 5 minutes?

I cannot say I could see this occurring without Root permissions. I know there are apps like Tasker and AutoMateIt where you can turn WiFi off when not connected, but WiFi hotspot on AND off depending on usage may be extending it's capabilities. Phone Model, Android Version and Rooted or not?

@MichaelNancarrow: It's a OnePlus One, and yes it is rooted. I don't have the exact version number, but it's a 4.4 KitKat.

I think the best possibility here is Tasker, or some similar tasking function. I've never tried the WiFi hotspot function. I am not too aware of other possibilities.

@MichaelNancarrow: I've tried it, but Tasker doesn't let me check the AP status.

To be honest without even looking into this, I would assume that one would need root permission for this process- if it could even be achieved.

@MichaelNancarrow: Yeah, like I said I have root permissions so that is not a problem.


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Limit on Android version on an Android device
I'm trying to make changes to the Android framework as a part of a project. As ambitious as it sounds, I want to flash a Nexus S with an Android 5 image. Can this be done, or is there a limit to the Android version supported by a device?

Do you mean Samsung Google Nexus S ? I don't think that you can flash Android Lollipop over your device. Anyway I guess better to wait a bit more while and see what other users have to talk about it !

Well you could always wait for someone at xda to port Android lollipop to nexus S(will probably happen) and then clone the device tree from them and try it out.

@HackToHell I am not sure about it but I don't think its going to arrive soon, device is almost outdated. I guess it was released over 2010, I would say there are a very little chance for something like this to happen.

Well it has kitkat http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-s/general/rom-cyanaosp-04-04-2014-t2634728

Strictly Speaking I do not think so.
If you look on the google images for android site (https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images) the highest the Nexus S goes is up to 4.1.2. Also, according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_S) the highest modded version is 4.4.3 KitKat via the CyanogenMod. Hope this helps.


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Use 2G instead of 3G on Samsung Galaxy SL I9003
I have a Samsung Galaxy SL I9003 mobile phone. I prefer to use 2G data connection instead of 3G but I am unable to turn off the 3G service in my phone. How can I turn off the 3G service and use 2G instead?

Head over to the settings> Under Wireless and Networks>Tap More Settings>Mobile Networks>Network Mode>Change it to GSM only. This will keep you over the 2G network, when ever there's a need of 3G network again in future then you can again change it to auto mode.


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Simple exit to "downloading don't turn off target " downloading mode
As a curious newbie I went into downloading mode in my Samsung Galaxy S3 by pressing Vol down+center Home+power button. After that I got options to press Vol up key to continue and Vol down key to cancel. Out of sheer curiosity and thinking I can exit anytime I pressed Vol up key and the very infamous "downloading do not turn off" screen sits with the green Android logo.
All this was done without any cable attached to my computer since I don't want to root or flash my ROM. I just was curious as to what happens next. Now the screen just waited for Odin to connect, however I did not since after connecting I am unsure if there is no direct exit option from Odin without flashing ROM and not doing anything (in other words a simple exit from Odin with no rooting and no flashing and nothing happens).
Next I tried to go into recovery mode and tried all combinations of keys to exit this "downloading" mode but I failed. The power naturally went down as I was reading through many help articles and I put in another battery and now the phone doesn't turn on at all now; there is no reaction and it does not go into recovery mode either. Now I am in a soup as I want my photos and messages to be recovered (no external SD storage used)
I wish to know:

If I do manage to go into recovery mode, then selecting option "reboot system now" will simply reboot my system and phone will work?
If this does not work then does recovery mode option, "wipe cache partition" delete all user photos and messages? (I am absolutely sure factory reset option does delete all user data.)
If my phone waits on "downloading don't turn off target screen", then how do I simply exit this mode? Should I connect to Odin (highly risky) and exit? (I don't know what will happen.) Does connecting to Odin necessarily mean that I have to flash my ROM?

You should continue to hold all three keys until you get yourself over to the recovery menu. If you still don't find yourself over the Download screen, take the battery out, remove your SIM card or SD card and then again try turning it back and try turning the phone on. If the pone boots normally then let it finish and then power it off fully. And now put the sim or sd card back in place and see if it solves your problem. If not then I would say you may have to take your device to the nearest support.

Easy way to get out of downloading mode is by following trick, press and hold : Home button + Power button + Volume UP + Volume down for 5 seconds. It will restart and work !!

I enquired and found some answers to this problem.
1) If you press the exit button in the recovery menu, the phone will reboot and regular app screen should be seen.
2) as answered earlier wipe cache does not delete user data, (only system cache files are deleted)
3) to exit the download mode (when not flashing anything to the device) is to either pull the battery or long press the power button (which simulates a battery pull).
Anyways what I did was take the device to support center and they told that IC power chip needs to be changed and was charged abt 27$ or so. No data was deleted at all.
Thanks to everyone who helped and especially Golfdriver97.

Not in all the Samsung phones you have to press the same buttons to start in safe mode, some combinations of button can take you to other places, depending the phone model (like it happened with me).
Check how to start in safe mode for your specific phone model (just Google it). Once inside you have to:

wipe data / yes
wipe cache
reboot
wait for a couple of minutes

You have two options :- Hold volume up + power or just hold the power button. It depends on your device that which method will get you out.

wipe cache won't delete user data at all.
a factory reset will preserve your photos, but not your messages... though they still might be retrievable.
formatting the drive nukes everything

" but not your messages... though they still might be retrievable " So I understand that maybe messages may still be recovered after deletion/factory reset. Can some good utils be suggested which are freeware ? (i searched most of them are trialware)

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


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view detailed permissions
Recently, Google grouped its permissions making it nearly impossible to tell what an app was asking for.  Is there anyway to tell what fine grain level permissions are being requested from an app before it's installed? What about after?

Well, I would say those permissions are way more simplified now once you tap install button over the app all the permission that an app requires in order to work is shown. I guess before installing the application you can hover through then individually. Looking over your question really shocked me because previously I am finding difficult to have a close look over it ! But now its way more simplified then previously it was, just try going through once more over it and you will get an idea about what I am talking about.

Yes, they are much "simpler" now but what they've done is grouped benign permissions with some pretty dangerous permissions.  So now if you ask for a benign permission it gives the entire category, making the permissions listed meaningless since you can't distinguish from say read-only storage access and the ability to format your phone.

Well, @user1816847 I guess then I don't think we can do much about it ! I haven't users Avast to see permission so can't talk much about it !  Anyway maybe other users have something to help you out with it !

I waved Good-Bye to the Google-Play website right after their last relaunch already, as it became pretty inconvenient: slow to load, and lacking important details. Luckily, there are some good alternatives available:
For my "research", I prefer AppBrain, which is an "alternative front-end" to the playstore one could say offering a "retro design" – as if it were the Playstore-a-while-back. Not only do you find all permissions listed separately again, they also place a "red triangle" on the permission tabs if an app requests permission (combinations) possibly raising concerns. Only draw-back I recently noticed is their dropping of the app-developers website link.
If you want to check directly on your device, for one AppBrain also has their own app. But as I haven't checked that lately I don't know how it lists permissions – so I rather recommend you Galen's StripSearch app. This not only shows you permissions, it also lets you filter your search by them:

StripSearch (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)
The app comes with some pre-set filters to use straight away. You can modify them, or even create your own (as the one in the second screenshot). The app works pretty well, I'm using it myself.
As a quasi-companion I might mention my own site, which offers app listings by real-life categories as well as an app search similar to that of Galen's app – with the difference that my site only covers about 10.000 apps (corresponding to about 1% of the amount GPlay has). But my listings also link to reviews and other related information for its apps, so it might be worth a look still :) And if you click on an app's name there, it also reveals all its requested permissions – additionally linking each permission to detailed explanations of its meaning.

You can just install Avast antivirus to see all the permissions of apps
And for the uninstalled apps you can click read more on the description


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WEP Encryption for WiFI Hotspot in KitKat
Is it possible to enable WEP encryption for the hotspot function in Android 4.4? It only shows WPA and WPA2 for me and I would like to create a WEP hotspot.
Alternatively, are there any hotspot apps that support WEP? All the ones I found just refer to the inbuilt hotspot functionality.

Why would you need a weaker encryption (WEP) over strong one? And I'm sure there is no such app too...

I need it for a live demonstration on WEP security in university, I am aware of the risks

I don't know whether it is a software limitation or hardware limitation but there are no apps like this. Use a router with WEP for demo instead ;)

WEP is so weak that there's effectively no difference security-wise between using it or not. Providing the option meant users could mistakenly believe they had some level of protection in-place.

Since WEP encryption is very, very insecure it was replaced by WPA/2.
Creating WEP encrypted WiFi networks today is very risky because it can be hacked within seconds.
So the answer is you can't create a WEP encrypted WiFi Hotspot with Android.
BTW:
An app can only use hotspot features the device is supporting. And because the newer Androids don't support WEP there is no way for the apps to create hotspots with WEP.

Are you sure? I did find an app named Barnacle which let me use WEP. However I wasn't able to run it, possibly due to it being written for Android 2.2 or similar. I would think a Hotspot app can implement any security it wants if it does so from scratch.

Yes I am sure. As you said this app is for Android 2.2 which was supporting the insecure WEP encryption.

Alright, thanks. Seems like I'm gonna have to use a dedicated access point.

Why do you need WEP?

See my comment on the question itself.

Okay. You could thy to use a Windows-Laptop and open a hotspot/ad-hoc network. Windows hasn't dropped WEP Hotspot support yet.

Problem is, I need at least one client and one attacker notebook and I have only two. I should be able to use a normal router. though, so it's fine. Thanks for your help :)


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How do I re-enable swipe to unlock?
I recently encrypted my Android 4.4.2 device (S4 Active) and have now unencrypted it. However the only options I still have to unlock my phone are PIN and Password. When I attempt to change it it now states that swipe is turned off by; Administrator Policy, Encryption Policy, or Credential Storage.
How do I go about setting this back to how it was? Is it even possible or am I stuck using PIN or password?

As it turns out, my phone had never fully decrypted. I went through the encryption process again then RE-decrypted it and I was able to switch back to swipe method.I am running a stock ROM so you can go back and forth from encrypted to decrypted.

I wonder if you say you have decrypted your phone because my phone (CyanogenMod 11) says explicitly that the only way to decrypt is a factory reset. https://i.stack.imgur.com/MbsHj.png
So in your case I would look if your phone is really decrypted.


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Is there any way to Tether through wifi?
I have a desktop without a wifi card. Can I tether my computer to the phone but the data should go through wifi rather than the plan?
I want  PC - USB -> Android phone - Wi-Fi -> internet

I asked my neighbor if I can share his internet and he said it's fine.

^ So the problem is solved right?

Can we just clarify this? It sounds like you want PC - USB -> Android phone - Wi-Fi -> internet. If this is correct, please [edit] your question to make it clear for other visitors who might be able to help.

I think he wants to use the Android device in lieu of a wifi card for the PC, operating the phone as something akin to a wifi bridge.

There's an app called Easy Tether (XDA questions about doing it) which can do that. You basically just set up USB tethering and disable the "use LTE" or "use 3G" settings, to force it to fall-back to wifi. Personally it seems a bit silly to do that, when a $10 wifi adapter that plugs into the PC with USB would likely work better.. but yes, you can in theory do it.


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Downloading videos from dnatube.com
How can i download videos on my android mobile from dnatube.com ? After signing in when Ic click on dowload video button it shows "We are sorry, currently we are not allowed to give any permission for download due to copyright issues."
Is there any apps or online site which can capture videos from this site, youtube downloading ideas are not working.
Thanks !

Two popular apps are TubeMate (as zamin suggested) and VidMate. They can download videos from all popular video hosting websites. You won't find them in Play Store due to some copyright issues. Sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, Youku etc are provided as speed dials so you have to manually enter dnatube.com  in address bar. Comment if not working.

You can use Tubemate. it is the great app for youtube download. you can download tubemate from here.


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Samsung Galaxy s3 mini continuously rebooting
I woke up to find My Samsung Galaxy s3 mini asking me to select a language and time and sign into my Samsung account, like it was a brand new phone. As I tried to do this it kept rebooting. eventually I managed to sign in, but it continues to reboot every minute or so and a few of my widgets are missing. After researching I uninstalled the Samsung push app but it keeps going back to the sign in start page, but it reboots before I can sign in and there is no way to skip it.
I have removed my battery, SIM card and SD card, but it is still happening. I also tried a factory reset, but every time I click on it me phone restarts and nothing has changes.
Does anyone know what is going on or what I can do to stop it rebooting?

First method-

Reset the device (press and hold POWER button for 8-10 seconds).

Second method-

Press and hold VOLUME UP and Home(center) button, then press Power until the phone vibrates. Wait until you see the Android logo then release all the buttons.
Select Wipe data/Factory reset with VOLUME DOWN key, press Power (right hand-side).
Select YES -- this deletes all user data.
After format, press Power again to reboot phone (select reboot system now).
If your device is frozen and unresponsive, press and hold Samsung Galaxy S3 hard reset for 8-10 seconds. The device will reboot automatically.

Third method-

Factory format entering sgs3 mini format code. Enter *2767*3855#.

Note - Warning! All your data including contacts, messages etc. will be lost! Copy all your necessary data/Contacts/Messages etc. to SIM or make backup to your PC before full reset! Take out SIM card before full reset. Source: Hard-reset.com.

Thank you. It took me a ,one time to save all my contacts to my sim (as it kept resetting) but eventually the second method worked well!

You mind marking this as answer if your problem is solved ;-)

I had the same issue
Solution: battery replacement.


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Gmail(google) password
I'm logged in on my android tablet, but I don't know my password.
I'm already logged in on my android tablet, but I want to see my emails and other google services on PC...
Is there possible way to find my pass on tablet?
I have already tried with "Password forget?", but I don't have alternative email or mobile nummber (on my account, at all), so I can't pass 2nd step of verification.

You can reset the password using Google password recovery. Go here - Account recovery.
Follow on-screen instructions:

Select I don't know my password. Type your email address.
It asks for any previous password you remember (if there is one). Type password & continue.
Next screen will be like this - Confirm password reset on my Android XXYYZZ phone. Select Send Notification.
Follow on-screen instructions afterwards.

Edit 1:

If you don't have access to your mobile device and do not have an alternate email ID, you can still recover/reset password by answering some questions on recovery page. You need to follow on-screen instructions carefully to reach that page.

My phone doesn't prompt for a new password after accepting the password reset. There's just a brief pop-up saying that the request was accepted.


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Difference between Accelerometer, Orientation sensors used in Android devices
Android phones have sensors. I heard about following sensors but there is need to identify difference (or different use) between following terms:

Accelerometer
Orientation
Auto-Rotation
G-sensor & Gravity sensor

From above which deals with auto-rotation of screen and what are other different specific use of them

The only "real" sensor there is the accelerometer. The other 3 are actually synthetic; the device uses the data from it's accelerometer to find "up" and down" (relative to the ground) and magnetometer to identify which direction is "north". From those pieces of information it is possible for the device to know it's absolute 3-dimensional orientation relative to the Earth. Your best bet is to read the explanation of the sensors provided for Android developers.

In simple terms, Accelerometer is a sensor(Hardware) in your Smartphone which is Highly accurate can detect small changes in the position of your phone.
While Orientation sensor & Gravity sensors (Hardware) refers to a less accurate accelerometor sensor can detect only when major change occurs(Ex.Changing the phone from portrait to landscape or vice versa) . As the  Orientation sensor & Gravity sensors are less accurate,They cost low. So, they are used in low cost android phone.
Auto-rotation is a software in Android which gets the information from Accelerometer(or Orientation sensor/G-sensor) and changes the your screen orientation.
Note:In phones, Accelerometer can be used for screen rotation,gaming purpose & also to measures the force. But Orientation sensor & Gravity sensors can only used for screen rotation.


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How do you fix your tablet if Google Play Services is stopping
How do you keep Google Play Services from stopping or get it to start back up? It has deleted all my apps and is now telling me every time I try to download that I don't have enough space. What do I do?

Errr...I don't think Google Play Services works on versions earlier than Froyo (2.2).

maybe you really out of space!
applications are installed in /data directory which is mostly 2gb try to move some of your apps to SD.
About your stopping go back to your Settings > Apps > Google play services, remove if they is any update and clear data and reboot, let the play update itself

I kept getting the message "Google whatever has quit working" in any of the Google Apps I tried to use.  Here is how I fixed this problem.
I went to Applications in Settings, then went to "all" then scrolled down until I saw the Google applications begin and I stopped them and disabled them and dumped the cache in them all and uninstalled any updates if there was that option available.
Then I turned my tablet off and back on again and it instantly said "Google has stopped" so I reset the tablet by sticking a straight pin in the reset hole on the back of the tablet. I counted to 10 and then turned it back on and immediately went to the play store and started reinstalling everything just like it wasn't in my tablet at all
before or I updated the apps one by one, whichever option was available.  That fixed the problem.
Maybe I went above and beyond but it was easier than trying to figure out exactly which app was causing the issue so that's how I fixed it.


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Micro SD card not usable on phone
I installed a Micro SD card on my Samsung Galaxy 3 phone. I had a few dozen songs on the card and everything was working fine. Then I shut down my phone, removed the SD card, hooked it up to my PC and loaded the card up with a few hundred MP3 files. When I reinstalled the SD card on my Android, things went wacky. I can see the SD card icon but when I go to Settings > Storage, the only option I see is the "Mount SD card" choice. When I click it, I get "SD card safe to remove".
Bottom line is that the card seems unusable on my phone but works fine on my PC. Ideas?

Did you un-mount the card before removing it?  Have you tried another card to verify the first is not damaged?

I've had this problem numerous times and this is how I fix it.....
Take the SDcard and insert in card reader on PC. Use a partitioning program such as GParted, which is open source. Have it scan and fix errors on the card. Using just the PC to scan and fix errors wont work right for your problem. Put it back in your Samsung and enjoy.

You should reformat the card from within Settings -> Storage, then try copying the files again. Make sure you unmount the card before removal even if you will be turning the device off to remove it. I would highly suggest you transfer the files to the SD via the phone itself -- either by connecting the phone to the PC or using one of those apps that gives you access via wifi. SD cards in phones running Kitkat or later use exFAT, which allows for file/folder permissions. Moving a disk between different operating systems is a good way to mess up file attributes and ownership. The permissions are specific to the OS instance which set them, so a second OS reading the same disk wouldn't be able to make any meaningful sense of them.

First - Your assuming that the OP has KitKat installed.  Second - inserting the SD card in a PC will not mess up the file structure. Now if the OS was on the card and then inserted to run on another device, then file system structure can and most likely will become corrupted.......The main reason why people put the SD card in a PC is for speed

Android like fat32 filesystem and fat32 like <4gb sdcard Windows like ntfs system but also familiar with fat32. My advice, format your SD with fat32 and remove it safely turn of your device mount your SD and power your device wait after boot and let us know

That is a bad idea. SD cards come pre-formatted, and reformatting them with an arbitrary file system will only exacerbate the problem. Most likely the card came pre-formatted with exFAT, and reformatting it to FAT32 will totally brick the card.

Thats not necessarily correct about bricking the card. With the proper PC program, such as HP USB Format Tool, you can reformat to any of the file systems without any hiccups.

I format my SD card almost everyday because i wrote raw image directly to SD, nothing happens so far to SD it works like charm


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WiFi won't turn on after rooting, still won't turn on after factory reset
After rooting my phone, the WiFi wouldn't turn on. When I say it won't turn on, I mean it won't toggle on at all. I cannot flip the switch to put it in the on position.
I decided that I would just reflash the stock OS to remove the root. WiFi still wouldn't turn on. Then I decided to do a factory reset. It still won't turn on.
I don't care about losing anything, I just want to be able to turn the WiFi on.

Have you checked the logcat for error messages? Those might shed some light on the issue. If you don't know how to do that, please take a look at our logging tag-wiki.

We need you to provide more information. Such as phone, what custom ROM and version, what stock ROM and version, did you wipe the cache and dalvik-cache, what way did you flash the ROMs, and anything else helpful. That way we can provide you with a correct answer.

If it's a Samsung you can flash a more up to date modem through odin

There can be two causes:

Hardware failure. Unlikely, but a possibility.

Each device has multiple sub-models, and each sub-model has multiple ROMs. You need to be sure you're installing the ROM meant for your exact device model, even if you are re-installing a stock ROM. If you do install a ROM not meant for your device, you often face issues like these.
The solution for this is to first confirm your exact device model:

Boot into your device's bootloader and look up the device version/model.
Open the download page of the ROM you installed
Download the version specific to your model
Install the ROM the usual way, but be sure to do a full wipe/clean of all partitions first from the recovery.

Did you reflash the stock ROM?
By the way, factory reset only wipes data and cache directories which don't even touch the system directory. Normally, the system directory is read-only, but when you have root privileges, you may change something in the system partition, and that cannot be reversed with a factory reset. The only solution is to use a recovery or something and delete all the partitions, especially the system partition, and flash or install your stock ROM/firmware.
You said you can't toggle at all. That occurs when there isn't any device or any driver is not initialized.

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


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Pin unlock without showing numbers
When you type your pin into the Android lock screen, it does the usual mobile password field thing where it actually shows the last character you've entered.
Is there any way to disable this on vanilla Android 4.4? As in show only dots.

Since I just upgrade to 5.0/Lollipop, I can't confirm for sure if this setting is present in KitKat/4.4, but in 5.0, you can hide the last digit in the PIN unlock screen by turning off the Security setting labeled Make passwords visible, as seen here:

This is found under the general Settings app under the Security section.  Note, however, that this also affects password fields elsewhere in Android, such as in the Chrome browser.

I remember that it's there since I already used this feature in Jelly Bean.

This is also a setting for Android 4.4

I have Android 14. Derek's answer did solve the problem on websites and such, but not on the PIN lock screen. I still see the numbers being typed there. Huge numbers visible from far far away.
For that to be fixed, go to Settings / Security & lock screen / Screen lock (cogwheel) / Enhanced PIN privacy. Turn it on.


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How to use Adblock AND a VPN
I'm using Private Internet Access's VPN via its App and now I'd also like to additionally use Adblock Plus.
The problem however is that I apparently can only use either VPN or Adblock Plus - but not both in combination.
Is it possible to use both by changing some setting in either of the Apps or of my phone ?
It says it couldn't change the proxy settings of my phone so I should do it manually. But as all traffic is routed through the VPN changing the proxy-name to "localhost" and the proxy-port to "2020" didn't help. It keeps on waiting for traffic on Port 2020. I guess it comes down to routing the VPN traffic through the proxy. But maybe there's also another solution to it (like another Adblock App that works differently for example).

My phone:
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, I8160
Firmware 4.1.2
Rooted
The Error Message (roughly translated):
"Seemingly no traffic was routed through adblock plus. Adblock Plus couldn't change the proxy settings of your device. Please configure them manually."

There are good reasons why you cannot use such a combination:

routing your VPN traffic via another proxy might compromise it, thus rendering your VPN useless
doing it the other way around won't work, as the Adblock proxy then would need to be behind the VPN one – which you cannot establish on your device

So what you need is, as you correctly pointed out, an ad-blocker working by different means. Examples include (without giving any recommendation here, just listing possibilities):

something working via the hosts file (i.e. routing all ad-requests "to /dev/null" (or rather to 127.0.0.1, which is your device itself, which doesn't have them → nothing returned to display)
something "nulling" the ad modules themselves (i.e. "disabling" them)

None of those are "to be found" at Google Play for obvious reasons (though there might be some which Google either didn't recognize yet, or which have the corresponding activity hidden from the UI itself by hiding it, or which are simply ignored as "not fit for international use").
I could name some of the latter two categories, e.g. LBE Security Master (which is only available in a Chinese version on Play (see XDA for a localized English version)). There are also several apps working with the hosts solution, which you can find on e.g. F-Droid or Aptoide (see my app-list on Ad-Blockers for examples).

Thanks! I actually was pretty surprised Adblock Plus required proxy-settings as I thought it would work by hosts-file settings and other local set ups only. I'm using AdAway now.

Thanks for your feedback! Yes, that's an app I can approve (though I never used it myself; I use one of those evil "module disablers" ;) But I also usually purchase apps, if possible – so the "evil ones" are just applied to the "freemium apps" not having a "payed companion", basically.

For non-rooted phones see my relevant question here. Currently I'm using a VPN connection for my NetGuard firewall.
If you have a non-rooted phone you can use a VPN and then use the browser Firefox for Android and install an adblock AddOn to it (like UBlock Origin). Or simply use the Firefox Klar browser which blocks ads and tracking by default.
As far as I know there are no adblockers for non-rooted phones that also block ads in apps and don't use VPN. One exception I know of is pi-hole which isn't a solution in my and most cases.


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Find unused contacts
As I've moved from phone to phone over the years I've built up a fairly unmanageable contact list.
I'm trying to delete old contacts that I no longer need, but I hate having text messages with no name associated with them so that's why I haven't bulk-deleted contacts so far.
Is there any way to find out which contacts are unused - as in contacts for which I have not received any text messages from?

Is "having no text messages from" the only criterium to be considered? Is your device rooted?

Maybe this app would help: Contacts Optimizer

Yeah, that's the only criteria, and my phone is not rooted sadly @Izzy

Thanks for confirming. The app Sheharyar mentioned in his comment looks promising; maybe you could check it and let us know if it's a solution for you, so @Sheharyar might make it an answer?


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Connection proplem "Couldn't establish a secure connection"
I get this message while surfing established websites.  I press "OK" and website comes back and I can continue but message keeps reapearing. Very annoying.  Any clue to fix ?

Without more details: probably not. Can you name some example sites? A good guess is they either have no valid certificate, or using a self-signed one.

Major sites i.e. Philadelphia Inquirer,  ESPN, CNN etc. ?.... happens with most sites.


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Force settings button on Chrome for Android on Samsung devices using AOSP rom
Is there any way i can force settings button to appear on Chrome for Android on a Samsung Galaxy S4 after flashing to any AOSP ROM (Current: SlimKat 8.9). I found out that Chrome does not create a Settings button which you can find on other devices that has the navigation bar instead of hard keys. Other apps work fine and has the settings button appear.

i just got a Galaxy Note and I noticed that the button was missing; however, this tablet comes with a physical menu button that you can use for that purpose


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Alarm is working even when the phone is powered off
I just discovered that if I set the alarm clock and then power off the phone (by holding the power button and then selecting "Power Off") the alarm will still go off when the time comes.
Is this expected behavior? It makes me feel like "power off" doesn't actually power off the phone.
I have a Huawei Y530-U051 running android 4.3.

Ugh? That would indeed be something new with Android devices. Old "dumbphones" had such a feature alright; but for Android (and other smartphones) it was always said "off is off". It would be technically possible, but I've never heard it was implemented. When the alarm sounds: had the phone restarted then? Or how can you control the alarm (e.g. snooze it, or put it off) if not?

@Eric you have one feature, what most of other android phones are lacking..this is totally unexpected behaviour in android..but hey i think its only in huawei phones so just enjoy with tht feature..

Related: Does the alarm work when my phone is turned off?

Don't spread misinformation! Not many Android phones do it, not Samsung and especially not Apple and iOS! But you will find the feature in most Chinese phones flooding the market with cheap Android smartphones. I have it in my Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 running Lollipop 5.0.2 and it's an awesome feature!

That is expected behavior. It allows you to turn the phone off if you need to ensure the battery doesn't drain (or whatever other use-case you can think up) and still have a usable alarm clock. It's not new, many Android devices do something similar, and every iPhone since the first-generation models also had that feature. I can also recall an old Nokia 3310 I had back in the early 2000's which did the exact same thing.
Turning the phone off does shut down the OS, so don't worry about that. Android supports the setting of "hardware alarms", which let the phone boot automatically at a predetermined time. Not every manufacturer included support for them, but yours obviously did.
Edit: The hardware alarm feature has been deprecated by Apple and isn't useable any longer.

most of us expect manufacturers or Android OS to set this option for making the device ring alarm even if its is turned off..this is badly missing in most smartphones unlike the good old Nokia phones..

:( seems the Oneplus Two phone doesn't come with this feature. My old Nexus 4 phone did, it saved me once when the battery died and it came back to life just long enough to sound the alarm.

@lucky it isn't up to Android alone; Android supports hardware alarms, but they must be included in the HW design and implemented.

On my Redmi 7, my Clock app Settings -> Additional alarm settings, has a feature Shutdown alarm, which I can disable so that the alarm does not go off after the device is powered off. It's a very useful feature, but I wish I had discovered it before my alarm woke me unnecessarily at 5:25AM, and not after. :-)

When the phone is turned off, it doesn’t mean that it is completely off. It is like in a sleep mode and the processor is still running a lower level system which does tasks like running the clock to keep the time correct, continuously monitoring the power button to know when to turn the phone on. As the clock is running and it is the alarm time , so the processor sends a signal to turn the phone on. Then the phone is turned on and the alarm rings.

I dropped my Android Galaxy S22 plus, and the screen broke. It's just a black screen, and unusable now. However, even though I never charged it again, the alarm still goes off 3 times every morning. I have to hit the off button to turn it off or it will go on forever. I have tried to get into my AT&T account from another phone to disable this phone, but even after I verify who I am via my email, it again asks me to verify who I am via a code sent to my phone, and guess what? I can't see the code on the broken, black screen of that phone. I can't wait until my new phone arrives from the refurbishing company and I can send the broken one to them. Unfortunately,the neverending alarm will be the mail carrier's dilemma, then.so although I don't have a solution, I can confirm that even after the battery should be long dead, the alarm will go on. Apparently forever.

I wonder how this is possible.  I'm guessing the battery still has some charge, but not enough to boot the device.

Remember when you turned on your old mobile phone and you didn't have to set up the time every day again because the phone remembered what time it is?
It's not something of new, it's just that the phone starts a minute before the timer hits the alarm and it's build in because the phone requires at least 4 hours of recharge to last 10 hours of sleep in order to wake you up and not all customers have the possibility of having the wall charger or having the phone charged in their own room with a laptop in their own room.
However you can turn it off by clicking the small check button on the bottom of the screen when you turn the mobile off, so to say it, all phones hibernate on some level in case you don't happen to pull the battery off every time you want the phone closed completely.


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How to get Google Play Games achievements on games purchased from Amazon AppStore?
I recently purchased Monument Valley from Amazon Appstore, there was a discount. Well, now I want to get achievements in the game, but Play Games achievements are not there because it was not a purchase from Play Store. Is there a way to integrate Play Games achievements to this game ?

Also interested. The same goes for games from Humble Bundle.

@Greg, it has been 2 months since the question has been posted, no answers or clues. I guess there is not any workaround for this.

I asked on XDA, they say that apk file are different on different stores, and only GP ones have Play Games support baked in.

That's sad :( Can you post the link to XDA discussion ?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2997851


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Nexus 4 Screen Replacement - Would missing shielding tape or double-sided tape cause issues?
I recently swapped the screen assembly (LCD + Glass + Digitiser + Metal Frame) for my Nexus 4. It was done similarly to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzbfeY_xTQ
I swapped one phone out, and it appears to be fine. However, on a second phone, I noticed some issues:
 - Sometimes, when it boots up, the LCD seems fine, but it doesn't register touch inputs. At first, I thought this was a dodgy USB charger I had - when plugged in to that, it would seem to register random touch inputs all over the screen. However, I've also seen it simply not register any touch inputs when it's not plugged in.
 - Wifi reception seems a bit off - it will see WiFi networks, but it didn't connect successfully. I still need to verify this (it may be related to congestion/interference, but I'm not sure yet).
 - Battery seems to drain a bit fast - I also need to verify this, and quantify it.
During this second repair, a few things went funny (I was tired and rushing it...not a good combination)
Firstly, the battery was very hard to get out, due to the adhesive bonding it to the case. I really had to pry it, and the battery flexed a bit during the removal. I did attempt to get it into reasonable shape afterwards, but not sure if this caused any issues?
Secondly, there is some metallic shielding tape over one component, that also wraps around underneath:

I was able to scrape some of it off the top of that connector, and transfer it across, but the tape also wraps around underneath the connector as well, sitting in between the connector, and the metallic part underneath. I didn't replace this tape with anything.
I don't know if this would cause any issues.
Thirdly, there is some silver mesh double-sided tape that sits underneath this component, sticking it to the case:

I wasn't able to transfer all of this across, and so I guess I'm sort of relying on everything fitting together to keep this flex cable in place.
My question is - could any of the issues I've seen be caused by the missing tape (metallic shielding tape and the mesh double-sided stuff)?
If so, does anybody have any specific recommendations for where I can buy tape to replace them?
If I do have to replace the battery, I suppose I'll need to buy some clear double-sided tape as well to stick it back to the case. The replacement screen assembly I bought had some, but that'll be gone now if I remove the battery in there now.
Any other thoughts on the symptoms?

The chip that's missing the shielding is part of the digitizer; it is responsible for interpreting changes in the electric field of the screen and figuring out where your finger currently is, and what location of the display you've touched. Without shielding it won't work properly, or as you've seen.. at all. Get some here.. any decent RF shielding tape ought to work.
The conductive foam stuff is called an EMI gasket, and is used to isolate RF noise sources by "trapping" noise sources in specific regions. It more or less works the same as a traditional gasket, physically blocking the path. Measure the old piece if you can, or just guesstimate the size required.

Yes, you are very correct, +1. They put that stuff in there for a very specific reason.


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How to hide ongoing persistent notifications on Lollipop lockscreen
It's driving me nuts seeing those notices each time I open my phone, leaving no room for the transient notifications and messages I've received.

Unfortunately, it seems that blocking the notifications by app will also hide the icon in the notification bar when the screen is unlocked. For example, I have a battery app which displays how much juce I have left in percent in the notification bar. When I blocked the notification, it hid it from the lock screen (which is what I wnted), but it also disappeared from the notification bar after I unlocked my phone. I had to restart the app to get the icon back.

Not possible, it seems. There is a thread on XDA about this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/hide-ongoing-notifications-lockscreen-t2938422

An app called Notific does the job beautifully. It has a pro version which allows you to select which apps you want to show notifications for. It has many more useful customisations too.
Here's a link to the app

I've discovered one way to temporary remove it. Go to app manager in your phone settings menu and disable the notification and then enable it back. This will remove the icon from the notification bar and from lock screen, but you will get the notification for new emails/events

In Android Lollipop 5.0.2,  under Notifications I could suppress notifications on lock screen, while still being able to see persistent status message in status bar (for example, Skype's status). This is what I wanted, so that owner information would still be visible on lock screen.

In Android Marshmallow at least, you can block all notifications per-app. Go to Settings -> Sound & Notifications -> App Notifications, choose the app, and then select "Block All". This works great for apps like Adguard which seem to require a persistent notification.

Go to accessibiliry. Turn OFF PERSIATANT NOTIFICATIONS. that will work.

Under sound and notification settings/app notifications you can block notifications on an app by app basis


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Storage space running out
I got my Moto G (2nd gen) just one month ago and ever since I got it its been this annoying notification that won't go away saying that my "Storage Space is running Out" and that "Some systems functions may not work" ... I don't know what to do
I ALREADY
-took half my photos of my phone & put them on my computer
-deleted half my apps
-and cleared data on the remaining apps I have
And it won't let me download any other apps, if .... Keeps stating I don't have enough room. Some one please please help!!!!

It's hard to provide a definitive answer when we don't know what's causing the increased use of your storage space. For starters I would recommend installing an app like Disk Usage that can help you analyze which files and folders occupy your file system.

can you share your screenshots of storage and application installed...this problem can be solved by removing cache

Go to settings --> Application manager, now you see which apps which holding more space (which is specified under every application) if it's some google services app which can't be uninstalled click unistall updates and then
Go to play store settings --> Auto-update apps --> Do not auto-update apps to avoid facing these problems in future.
This may help you in losing storage space for nothing. Hope this helps.. :)


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Folder inaccessible, labeled as "file", tried rescanning sd card
I downloaded MAME4droid and I wanted to put a Galaga ROM on it, but when I tried to find the MAME4all folder it didn't show up in windows. As prescribed, I rescanned the sd card, but all that did was this:
If it matters, my device is a Droid MAXX (not the Razr).

I've found that the best way to fix the problem was to use a file manager app (because there isn't one on the device by default) to move the ROM into the right folder.

Your question ( apples ) said you couldn't see it on windows. Then your answer( oranges ) states to use a file manager on your device to move it to the correct location...... Your problem then is unclear. Re-edit your question for clarification please, otherwise it might get flagged for being unclear. Also you can comment on your own question.


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Way to access Samsung Galaxy S4 as USB device without Rooting the phone
How I can connect my Samsung Galaxy S4 to my PC as a USB device.
I tried the Build Number shortcut and it did not work. Enabling USB debugging does not fix the problem. The reason behind this is to recover some deleted videos and all the apps require the phone to be connect as a USB device.

Do you mean specifically a USB mass storage device, not just a USB device?

As Dan suggests: the context of "recover some deleted X" makes it very likely you're specifically looking for UMS, as that would give the recovery software "full access to the drive". Can you confirm that?

You need to install Samsung Kies on the computer. That will install the appropriate driver; at that point your phone when connected should appear in My Computer (assuming we're talking about Windows 7/8/8.1). If you're running OS X you'll need to install the Android Transfer utility from Samsung. Most Android phones use a generic Google-provided MTP driver, but Samsung rolled their own and the generic one doesn't work.
It's a hassle to install Kies, but Samsung does not provide a stand-alone installer for their MTP driver. Once installed, you can ignore it. The phone will appear in My Computer and be browsable from Windows Explorer.


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How to send event appointment via SMS with ability to add it to user calendar?
I want to send event's appointment (date and time) via SMS messages, I want the user to be able to click on it then Android will open the Calendar for them to add this event to their calendar.
For example, if I send the following address:
123 Main Street, New York, NY 10001

Android will display it as a link. If the user touched it, Android will take them to Google Maps.
I want to send a Title, Date and Time to the user, I want Android to display it as a link, if user touches it, Android show take them to Calendar app to add it to their calendar.

That should be possible from within the calendar app, where you can "invite" people to partitipate in an appointment. Have you tried that? Or is that approach for some reason not an option?

@Izzy That approach is not an option.


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Which format does Android calendar uses?
I have a calendar entry on the format of (iCalendar with extension: ics) I have downloaded this file but android does not understands this kind of file.
Is there alternative to iCalendar files that Android uses?

Due to how file extensions handling works in Android, it depends on the calendar apps themselves.
For example, AOSP Calendar does not handle any file extensions. The manifest file only mentions filters to the content provider and Google Calendar websites.
<intent-filter>
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
  <data android:mimeType="time/epoch" />
  <data android:host="com.android.calendar" />
  <data android:scheme="content"/>
</intent-filter>

...

<intent-filter android:priority="50">
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
  <data android:scheme="http"  android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPrefix="/calendar/event" />
  <data android:scheme="https" android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPrefix="/calendar/event" />
  <data android:scheme="http"  android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPattern="/calendar/hosted/.*/event" />
  <data android:scheme="https" android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPattern="/calendar/hosted/.*/event" />
</intent-filter>

Some vendor and 3rd-party apps may handle some file formats, but without knowing their manifest file, one has to manually test with each file format.
The calendar data itself is usually stored in the Calendar Storage (or similar name) app, in the format of SQLite database that can be accessed with the Calendar Provider. Thus, 3rd-party apps can also import the data from files to the calendar storage, which then can be read by the calendar apps.

As always, you can do this just fine with an app. Search for ics calendar import on Google Play and there are many apps that can add .ics files to your calendar. There's even a couple of open-source apps on F-Droid if you prefer that.

Yes I knew that, but I want to know which format or files Android is using.

@MIH1406 SQL (an SQLite database, with tables and all that). So how does that help you? ;)


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Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 default email attachment location
How can I change the default location on my Samsung Galaxy tab 4 for email attachments? When I download, say, a picture attachment it automatically sends it to internal device storage. I want to send my downloaded email attachments to my microSD card.

Which email client are you using?

Well the tab4 runs on android kitkat. Google has added restrictions to apps on editing data on sd card. Only the default file manager has permission to edit sdcard. So you cannot send attachments directly to sdcard. You have to move them using default file manager.


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How much usable storage space does the 16Gb Nexus 9 have?
How much usable storage space is available on a 16Gb Nexus 9 once the space occupied by the OS, preinstalled software, etc. is subtracted?
Please do not answer with speculation; I am interested in answers with authoritative sources, or from people who have a Nexus 9 and can report directly.
To clarify: I am interested in the space available on a brand new Nexus 9, complete with everything that Google include on it. I remove it from the box, turn it on, and check the available storage. What do I see? :-)

There isn't a nexus-9 tag yet. Would anybody with rep like to create one? :-)

I've created nexus-9 tag. It will be active only after review of the moderators.

Are you talking about a stock Rom with all the bloatware or just a custom Rom that has been stripped down? They will have different sizes.

I'm interested in how much space is available if I take a new Nexus 9 out of the box, turn it on, and check. Thanks for pointing out ambiguity, I'll update the question.

For the 16GB version: 11.05GB Source

Click image for larger version
For the 32GB version: 25.61GB

Click image for larger version


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packages.xml is restored after reboot
This is my first question here. I hope developers will help me out.
I have XOLO A500 device on which Google Play services is not being installed because of "Using the same shared id" problem. To resolve the problem, I had rooted my phone and taken access of system through ADB. Following procedure I had made.
1) Rooted the phone and installed ADB to access the android system.
2) chmod 666 to packages.xml inside /data/system.
3) Pulled the packages.xml using command adb pull /data/system/packages.xml
4) Edited the packages.xml and removed the sharedUserId attribute for the particular app.
5) Pushed back packages.xml
6) Removed the dalvik cache.
7) Reboot.
All I am doing as su.
The problem here is after reboot, the packages.xml file is again restored as the original one. Please help me regarding this.
Edit 1: I am using ICS
Edit 2: Here is how I have done everything.

Started USB debugging.
Connected the phone and started ADB.
adb pull /data/system/packages.xml
Edited packages.xml and saved the file
adb shell
su
chmod 666 /data/system/packages.xml
exit
exit
adb push packages.xml /data/system
adb shell
su
chmod 664 /data/system/packages.xml
rm /data/dalvik-cache/*
exit
exit
adb reboot

Thanks and Regards

Did you re-appply permissions when pushing it back into the system?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have tried that as well but nothing worked. I have edited the question so that you can see how I have done everything and if possible, please help me.

chmod 666 means that all users can read and write but cannot execute

should i try that with chmod 777

You can, but check out this understanding chmod. This might shed some better light on the situation.

Tried that as well but the file is again restored.

Have you changed permissions for the directory as well?

no. I have not tried for that. Let me check that as well by providing 777 to both directory and file.

You'll need to change permission to chmod 644 before restarting. That will keep it from restoring itself. Sorry for the delay, rebuilding a transmission as I remembered the right chmod.

Let me know and I'll  post as answer

Thanks for your support. I have tried that also but it seems to be not working.

As a surprise, permissions also restored.

Then there's something else wrong with your system. 644 should have fixed it.

Thanks for your help mate. I will post again if I find anything working.

10 - 4 , I  would like to know what the problem is too

sharedUserId is simply a copy of the parameter of the same name from the Android Manifest file. When you clear the dalvik cache and reboot, the sharedUserId attribute is read from the original apk files and packages.xml is rewritten. You'll probably need to disassemble the apk, edit the manifest, and reassemble the apk using a tool like apktool. Note that the new apk you create will not be signed, so it will not be automatically updated though the Play Store.

Who reads the sharedUserId attribute from the original apk? PackageManager? packages.xml is rewritten - who updates or rewrites it?  Also who creates package.xml file and when?


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Prevent notifications from coming back after being dismissed
I'm using a Galaxy Nexus which runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Lately, I have been very annoyed with notifications from apps I have installed (like WhatsApp, Viber, or even missed calls) which keep coming back every ten minutes even after I dismiss them.
Can resetting my phone solve this issue, or are there any workarounds?

You can disable notifications on a per-app basis by going to Settings > Apps > APP_NAME and unchecking 'Show notifications'


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How do I clear keyboard/autocorrect history on the Galaxy s4?
I let my younger cousins play on my S4 from time to time, but now I have found that all the words they have used are the first to come up when I use my phone to text. It has gotten quite irritating. Samsung seems to have very hard to find settings compared to my old Sony Ericsson so I cannot find where to get rid of the word history typed onto my phone's keyboard.

You have this tagged as google-keyboard, but based on how you phrased the question I'm going to infer that you're using Samsung Keyboard, the default on Galaxy devices.
In stock Android, there's a User Dictionary selection available in Settings→Language and Input, which allows you to edit the user dictionary. For most keyboards, you can access the user dictionary from the keyboard's own settings. For example, for Swype Keyboard, you go to Settings→Languaguage and input, select the gear icon next to Swype in the Keyboards and input methods list, select My Words, then select Edit my dictionary. For some reason I don't understand, the dictionary for Samsung Keyboard can't be accessed through settings.
Instead, you can edit the dictionary directly from the keyboard.

To add a new word simply use the word. Once you've typed a word that's not recognized and accepted it (by hitting the space bar or enter, selecting it from the list of word suggestions, or exiting the application or screen where you're typing it), the word will be remembered. Yes, this can be annoying, because it will automatically add mistakes and partial words from interrupted typing, including if your screen locks out due to inactivity. In that case...
To remove an existing word start typing the word until it appears in the suggestions list. Long-press the word, and you will receive a prompt asking whether you want to remove the word:

In Samsung keyboard they have tried to make it easier and less 'configuration file' or 'programmer/advanced hacker' centric by integrating it into the keyboard itself.
Bring up a screen that requires keyboard input, select the input box/field to reveal the Samsung keyboard:

Note:  The highlighted area with the ">".  The Samsung predictive text automatically remembers based on the contents of the text field all the possible learned matches and displays them automatically.  Clicking the right arrow head will take you to all the possibilities for that input text.  Clear the input text for the empty field options, type a few letters to get to what you want to delete.
Click the right arrow head as indicated and you will reveal more options for that combination of input text:

Note:  As indicated with the highlights, you can swipe up and down through the list if it exceeds the default height specified by the developers, so you should try to scroll if you don't see the word or words you would like to delete.
To select one for deletion, just press and hold a moment and a dialog will appear asking if you would like to remove the entry:

Just press ok, and the item will be removed from the learned text.  If you would like to remove all learned data and not just some words, or control the preferences of what is captured and used, please see this post:
How to clear my autocorrect's word history on S4 mini?
I am on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, running Android 4.4.4 in this example.