text:
Android error - No SIM card/Emergency calls only
The problem: phone doesn't want to register in network.

Android device shows No SIM card.
After playing with menu *#*#4636#*#* it starts showing Emergency calls only.
Phone displays available networks, but don't want register in it - says Your SIM card doesn't allow a connection to this network (this means gsm module works well, but complains on sim card).
This SIM card works well in another phone (this means there is no issue with SIM).
Any other SIM doesn't work in this phone (in both slots: micro and nano).
On inserting SIM-card phone asks sim's pin code and accepts it. (this means that phone is communicating with sim well)
In radio logs the following (collected lines from long output, don't know how relevant is this):

> E/SubscriptionController( 7326): getSubState: invalid subId = 2147483644 D/SubscriptionManager( 6723): [getPhoneId]- fail
> D/RilRequest( 7326): [4032] SET_NETWORK_SELECTION_MANUAL error: com.android.internal.telephony.CommandException: ILLEGAL_SIM_OR_ME ret=
> D/RilRequest( 7326): [4173] E/GSM     ( 7326): Unrecognized RIL errno 7
> D/TelephonyManager(  495): No /proc/cmdline  exception=java.io.FileNotFoundException: /proc/cmdline: open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)
> E/TelephonyManager( 1078): hasMatchedTetherApnSetting NPE
> E/TelephonyManager( 1078): java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke interface method 'int com.android.internal.telephony.ITelephony.getTetherApnRequired()' on a null object reference

Full radio log (after ejecting/inserting SIM) http://paste.evervolv.com/view/d00213a4

More details I've posted on http://en.miui.com/thread-264222-1-1.html
(in two words: phone Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, never locked, worked before 6 month).

I think this is wide spreaded Android bug - exists many complains on this issue.
Any suggestions?
UPD1: The SIM is factory micro-sim, not hand cutted one.
UPD2: I am not sure that logs are represents root cause of the bug.
UPD3: The root cause of failure was found in logs:

E/RILQ    (  964): (1/964): RIL[1][main] qcril_qmi_init_core_client_handles: qcril_qmi_presence_init returned failure(-3)
E/RILQ    (  964): (1/964): RIL[1][main] qcril_qmi_client_send_msg_sync: Failed to send sync qmi msg 0x03 w/(-2) QMI_SERVICE_ERR

This is error of QMI protocol communicating with GSM module. So this is chipset (Snapdragon 810 in this case) hardware error...
It was very loud to say 'android bug'... Android mistake was in hiding so much kind of errors behind common message 'No SIM card'.
Closed.

What kind of phone is it? Is it locked to a particular carrier?

Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, not locked. I guess this is common android issue. See i.e. http://thewichitacomputerguy.com/blog/how-i-fixed-your-sim-card-does-not-allow-connection-network-g1

That guy thinks the problem he was seeing was caused by the network, and it was seven years ago, so I don't think it's actually the same problem. Your problem looks specific to Xiaomi phones.

1 - http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/138613/lenovo-a3300-gv-tab-andorid-4-4-2-no-sim-card-emergency-call-only, 2 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2698621, 3 - https://www.wiknix.com/how-to-fix-insert-sim-card-and-not-registered-on-network-error/, and more ...

None of those posts mention the logs you're seeing, and the two with "fixes" are both fixed by a reboot. If yours wasn't fixed by a reboot, it's not the same problem.

FWIW, I used to see the same error message a lot, but in my case it was because the SIM card was slightly too small and came away from the contacts. Not everyone with the same error message as you has the same problem.

I'm note sure this logs is related to this bug... It's just errors found in logs during registration.. May be root cause of this bug fails silenlty..

SIM card is not cutted, this is factory micro-sim. I've inserted this sim only one time, six moth ago.

On ''Your problem looks specific to Xiaomi phones' - I don't think that Xiaomi modifed root android code (SubscriptionController, TelephonyManager). It's very stable code and changed rarely.


text:
What are the different ways to initiate an android phone erase
This morning I woke up without my alarm.
My alarm hadn't gone off because my phone wasn't working.
On the screen I had a message "Erasing...".

The screen looked similar to this (source: AndroidPIT)
After a while my phone booted up, without any user data.
I've had a restless night with a baby that needed frequent changing, and spent a lot of time checking the time on my phone.
It is wholly possible that I did something / held some buttons down.
My question is, what could I have done?
How did I possibly start the erasing procedure?

Google phone_name_and_model factory reset,
"Galaxy S6 factory reset" to get a few sites explaining all the possible ways to reset the phone, yes button combo is one of the options.

@ИвоНедев I did, but I got a lot of different examples, some of which didn't apply, or were outdated. So I figured it would make for a nice question here. Especially considering some of the examples did not result in an "erasing"  screen. If you think this question isn't a good fit here, let me know.

@Reaces "Erasing" is usually shown when you triggered the factory-reset via Settings. If you did it via the recovery menu, it usually shows "Deleting" or "Wiping". To decide which place it was it would help if you could tell us whether it was a graphical or rather a text-mode screen shown.

@Izzy It was a graphical screen, similar to this.

That looks like a factory-reset initialized via the recovery menu. But it might well be the same thing is triggered by Settings › Backup & Reset.

@Izzy That seems pretty elaborate for something I did while literally asleep... Is there something else that could trigger this?

Not that I'm aware of. The most likely scenario I can imagine is you've opened settings, got into Backup & Reset, and triggered a factory-reset from there. Being half-asleep, I can hardly imagine you've managed booting into recovery, scrolled to "factory reset" using the volume rockers, hit the power-button to confirm, managed to pick the one "Yes" entry among the 9 "No", and hit the power button again :)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Unexpected battery drain when idle (Samasung Galaxy Note 5)
I am having issues with battery drain and not sure what to do, my note will lose about 30% battery overnight(about 7-8 hours) and last night it lost about 50%.
At first it said that google app used a lot of battery so I disabled the recommended things online (it's location and such), now it isn't draining as much.
Also my location doesn't use GPS, at night I always have maximum reception and yet I lose a lot of battery to cell reception, also the other 2 you can see in the picture.
Hope someone can help, and thank you!

Arguing by the screenshot: Please tap the graph for additional details. "Cell Standby" having the top position suggests you had very bad reception, so the device might have used that power to find a better signal. See: What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?

Thing is I have full reception all the time, sounds strange that it would be the issue :\

Have you checked the graph I indicated? Cell bar always dark green, no exception?

does your device getting hot beside this battery drain ?

Izzy I am note sure where I can see that, didn't really understand and no, that device is quite cool when idle

Check your data usage. In my case, I found the Cloud service had used about 0.8GB of data over night (1.32GB over 2 days), the phone could not recharge fast enough, and it was hot. The amount of data in cloud storage is only 138MB, so I have no idea what that all of that data usage consists. If you have this issue, disable the Cloud app. Other things to check are location services settings, WiFi scanning, notifications. After the Marshmallow 6.0 update, all notifications get turned on by default.

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

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


text:
how to select wipe data/factory reset in iball andi 4p class x V-8 in recovery mode
i also have this problem in my android phone iBall Andi 4P class-X my android version is 4.4.2 kitkat. I successfully get into recovery made there i can move the highlight with the help of volume keys but i cant select the 'wipe data /factory reset' option. i have forgotten my pattern for one week and my phone is laying down, please help me to solve my problem that how can i select the factory reset option with which key? for further information:- in the recovery mode there is written the full name of my phone like this- "iBall.Andi.4P.Class-X_V8.0,2015-7-31" please solve my problem as soon as possible . THANK YOU

Have you tried the power button to select the menu? That's how it usually works.

yeah i hve tried it but the phone doesn't give any response

Hey go to recovery mode again and to proceed further u need to click home button and the button which is on ur lefthand side that is the option button next to  home button .. Press those button all at once


text:
Unable to mount /system as read-write
I want to modify a file under /system. The problem is that is read-only, and even with root I cannot set it as read-write.
I've tried the following:

Root Explorer (the automatic button)
A one click app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blogspot.superthomaslab.mountsystemrorw)
The following commands, on Terminal Emulator: su and after that mount -o rw,remount /system. Along with that some variants (specifiying -t, using -rw, mount -o rw,remount /system /system)

Some useful informations:

The device is a Redmi 3
Using android 5.1.1, on MIUI 6.4.7 (china developer version)
I have root access, and enabled it for the apps mentioned above
Bootloader is unlocked
No SD card
Output of mount | grep system: /dev/block/dm-0 /system ext4 ro,seclabel,relatime,discard,data=ordered 0 0

I would like to manage the /system folder directly from the phone. I'm pretty hopeless, I've tried googling 2 hours for a working solution. Thanks in advance.

Most likely a security thing with the device (mount namespace separation?). Also see: Can't mount /system as read/write, even though I'm rooted / /system cannot be remounted as RW, even when rooted (Sony Xperia E3)

The first one is for Android 4, I would like to have a confirmation before executing those commands. I've already tried the other solution.

Understood. As I've never been in that situation, I must pass on that part to someone else (and cannot help further). Good luck!

I've found the source of the problem asking in the MIUI forums, the boot image will not accept a modified /system.
You have to use the adb interface: adb devices then adb disable-verity.
Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any damage caused by these operations.

Unfortunately this only works on USERDEBUG builds. Still looking for what works for stock builds.

As suggested by user aalaap here, disabling Mount Namespace Separation setting in SuperSU solved this issue for me on ZP999 and SuperSU 2.82 SR5.

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


text:
i have a samsung alpha. where the memory is full and storage space running out.. but it gets complicated
I have a Samsung Alpha.35gb – and I'm not the most mobile savvy person.
Recently I keep getting 2 messages, one saying 'device memory full' (unable to receive sms/mms messages) and the other tells me storage space running out. When I check where most of the full memory is coming from, it points to the APP INFO.contact storage version 4.4.4 says I have over 12GB!!? When I open contact space I have over 400 contacts that have no name?
What is this and how can I get rid of these? I try deleting and they don't delete! As a result my phone is not reacting.

First-aid on the "insufficient storage" issue can be found in our insufficient-memory tag-wiki. As you've already identified the culprit (and hoping you've got a backup of your "good contacts"), to clear that up you could go to Settings › Apps, find the mentioned app, force-stop it (if that button is enabled), and clear its cache and data. Right after that, reboot. Note that will not only clear those "over 400 contacts without name", but all of them.


text:
How to make the smartphone work as a PC monitor?
I am have a pc and recently my dell monitor stopped working so i had called up the customer careband they said that they will get it replaced within a week. So till that time i can't use the pc so is there any way to use my rooted android phone (running 4.3, jelly bean) as a temporary monitor as my pc is working perfect but i have no display. Note that i can't install any softwares on the pc as i don't have a display. I only have a phone, wifi network and usb option. Is there any way that i can achieve this without installing any software on the pc just using the phone and installing some app on the phone? I hope for a good response

I don't think there's a way to do this without installing any software on the PC.

Does your PC feature an HDMI port?

@Izzy no it doesn't have an hdmi port

Afraid then I'll have to stick with Dan, sorry.

@Izzy Is there any hacking method to force the pc mirror the display

This has become a PC related question, so I'm flagging to close this as off-topic. Maybe you should have better luck on Super User

I agree with @TamoghnaChowdhury on the PC part: check that on SU, as suggested. If you then need help on the Android side, be welcome back here ([edit] your question then accordingly). When asking at SU, make sure to include the OS used on the PC.


text:
What happens if I remove a file from /etc/permissions?
So I rooted my phone recently and want to thoroughly clean up my phone. I specifically want to remove a file in /etc/permissions (or /system/etc/permissions) called android.hardware.location.gps.xml, which I assume is for location and GPS services.
What consequences (negative or otherwise) will there be if I remove this file from its original directory?
I should add, my phone is an Acer V370 (Liquid E2) with Android 4.2.2

Looking at the file content, I guess that it defines the permissions that an app which requires your location, must request. Theoretically, removing or altering the file may either render an app that meets the above criteria useless, or make it unable to perform position triangulation.

If cleanup is the purpose of your action, those 942 byte will certainly free a lot of space – good choice! Arguing by content, the files in that directory seem to define the hardware features required for a given permission. While I've got no idea what would happen if you remove one (note that not all permissions have a file here, so removing that might just mean "no requirements, just grant it"), with "cleanup" being the only purpose I'd focus on other things.

Your GPS and location based services will have problems. It's an .xml file. Try googling it and find the file then paste it in it's location(if you have deleted it)

What if I don't use any GPS and location-based services? What happens to apps that request permission to access GPS? Will they crash completely on launch, or will they just refuse to use GPS if made to do so?
I have not deleted the file yet.

This answer does not attempt to solve the question, since OP is perfectly able to Google a filename. Therefore, I vote to remove it.

You can get play services crashing notification frequently or Google play store crash which will be annoying. You can need GPS service anytime. I recommend not to delete it @SLester

@AashishKumarShaw can you back your statement somehow? Why should location services have problems with the file removed? On my device, I see no file for "internet" there – but my network connections don't seem to have issues :)


text:
Excessive data and battery usage with Samsung S7 on Android 6.0.1
Recently I bought a Samsung Galaxy S7. I had an S6 Edge, and no problems with Android OS data usage/battery drain.
The big problem is, I don't know why, but Android OS is eating my mobile data and wi-fi data, and my battery too!!!
I have the same apps of my S6 edge on the S7, I'm reading all topics on the internet, but no success. Please see the screenshots! Thanks!
I restricted almost everything from backgroung, installed Doze, installed Greenify, I'm trying everything, but this ANDROID OS keeps eating everything!
Sorry about my english, I'm from another country.

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)
Please ignore the Google Play Store usage in the second screenshot (it is already set to auto-update on WiFi only; that usage was done on purpose one day that my Wi-Fi was offline, and I wanted to test my 4G). The big problem is my battery drain about android OS and data usage. Play Store is fine, no more usage.

Thanks Lucas, I've integrated that with your question. Next step: Wakelocks. One of the usual suspects here are the Location Services which (e.g. when some app excessively uses them) may hide behind "Android OS". For a guide, please check How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? Especially look at the section "What if it is the Android System itself" in my answer there.

Hello Izzy, I'll take a look. Thanks!! Will answer to you later.

Hi Izzy, I read everything, and it's very interesting and easy to understand!! Thanks for that. But the problem is, both apps needs "root", I can't figure out WakeLocks, because both apps needs "root" :( . I'll just keep trying other options! I even paid for BetterBatteryStats, but no use, hehehe.... Thanks for your help!

Oh. Maybe take a look at Wakelock detection without root at AndroidCentral then? Not tested it myself, but surely worth a try. Let me know the results, I might need to update that other post then :)

Hello Izzy, I downloaded the 2 files to try using the PC, but no success, I'm not an expert with that, but I tried, and I couldn't find a place that explains how to do that step by step on the PC. So, I think it has no solution for me. One thing that I did and got a little better, was to exit SnapChat, and turn location services just to WiFi and MobileData, and GPS OFF. It improved a little, but I still have the problem.

OK, another suggestion to "work on the symptoms" then – as your comment suggests we're on the right track with location stuff. Try turning location off altogether to see if we really are (one day you might live without for the big goal, right? ;) If that gives a Whoa! switch it back on, but forbid all apps accessing it. Then allow it app-by-app until the culprit is identified. Might be a shot into the blue, but nothing to lose here :)

Izzy, well, I think I'm getting there. I disabled only the GPS and let WiFi and data usage ON for location. Also I didn't log in to SnapChat. I fully charged my S7 yesterday, and didn't leave my home, my battery is on 72% and I've been on battery for 17h!!!! That's a big improvement. I'm using instagram, whatsapp, google, internet, emails, and I have 12 hours left! So I think it's something related to snapchat or GPS location. Maybe not? I disabled right now Google Now, and I'll check if my battery goes down fast if I move from my home to another place. Maybe it's google now? Well.. lets see.

Also I forgot to say, I'm using Doze App, and it was not helping these days. It's still ON, but only got better after I turned off GPS location and exited SnapChat. BUT the Android OS is still consuming a little power and a little data usage.

"a little" is OK (network location needs that, sending SSIDs/CellIDs to the servers to get back coordinates). The context suggests a bug in Snapchat, which might "constantly request location data". But as you've switched two variables (Snapchat and GPS), it also might be something else. You might already have narrowed it down; next maybe try leaving Snapchat off and re-enable GPS – and then the other way around?

Okay, enabled full GPS now. Snapchat OFF, Google Now OFF. Let's see.

Well, and again you've introduced an additional variable. Only change one thing a time, makes evaluating results much easier. As you've done now, if things "look good", that just means either Snapchat or Google Now make too much use of GPS. Hadd you left GN as it was, you'd have a much clearer result and could tell "Snapchat using too much GPS" in the same case (or that that's not the case otherwise). Happy playing ;)

Hi Izzy, I fully charged my cellphone at night. I let gps ON and snapchat ON, but I didn't touch the S7, and it stayed for 6 hours with the screen off. Battery went from 100% to 96% in these 6 hours, thats good I think. I've been paying attention to one thing. After these 6 hours, I went to battery status, and it didn't show the Android OS battery usage. Android OS battery usage only started to consume my battery when my screen is ON and when I'm using my S7. When I turn off screen, it stops to consume power. I'm monitoring by power usage in mAh.

I'm a little lost. I didn't left my home, so I didn't "change location". I think the big problem is Google Now that everytime requests my position. Argh. Because Snapchat was ON all night and GPS ON all night, and just 4% of battery drain in 6 hours. Screen OFF. I think I'll get a better result tomorrow.

You can try wakelock detector version which doesn't require root.  See answer here also greenify latest stable version has aggressive doze which kicks in much faster than regular doze. Further, beta version allows you to let the doze continue when when in motion!  I am using this combo effectively


text:
Storage running out, can't get it back
I'm looking for a solution to getting storage back on my phone because, as of yesterday, I seemed to lose almost 10GB of space.  I have a Galaxy s6 and I frequently connect it to my computer via the charger and transfer video files to and from both. After I'm done with the files, I delete them, getting my space back. But, yesterday a problem arose when I transferred video files TO my computer and deleted them from my phone. The space never cleared up and now I have (after much cleaning up with many apps) only a little over 1GB of space left. I need to get my 7-9 GB of space back and have done much research.
The *#9900# trick doesn't bring me to any options of deleting possible SysDump files and I'm not looking to root my phone. If there are any other ideas, please let me know. Thank you in advance!

Are you rooted? Custom ROM? Custom recovery (TWRP, CWM, Philz)?

If the files are really gone from the phone, your storage should reflect that. Try restarting the phone, Download a different file explorer and check the place where your files were. GO to settings/General/Storage/Internal Storage (i assume) and see how the looks look from there.

Maybe there is much cache or thumbnail cache. Try installing the app named 'CCleaner' by Piriform. It saves a lot of space for me.


text:
Are all micro SD cards created equal?
I'm looking to get a 64gb micro SD card for my phone (Samsung Note 3 running Lollipop). The prices online run anywhere from $6 to $120. I read on a photography blog that there are speed classes and they recommended high speed for high res video. I'm looking to put my music files on it.
Is there any difference between a cheap card and a name brand? Do I need to worry about speed class for my smartphone? What about 128gb cards?

Note: I'm not looking for a brand recommendation, just what differences there might be between micro SD cards.

Generally a good rule is - "You get what you pay for.", to loosely quote Goldie Hawn in Protocol "If you paid 10 cents for a diamond, chances are, you have a diamond not worth a dime."

@wbogacz Nah, not always true. Sometimes it can be but a lot of times you're just paying for a name. Do you have any reason to think this applies here? Half the time things are made in the same factory with the same materials, the only difference being the screen printing on the front. A lot of things have to meet pretty stringent specs before they can use the trademarked standard. Some standards are looser than others.

A quick search on Google will provide links that help eliminate many of the cheapest SD Cards. Stick to the brand names for quality. Some brands are better than others, but non-brands just don't make the lists.

All SD cards are created equal – but some are more equal than others.1 There's quality for one (as wbogacz stated: "You get what you pay for" – you cannot expect a high-quality long-life product for free). Another criterion are the "classes" – and not only for speed, but also for energy consumption. As higher classes are faster, your battery will last longer for they eat less juice.
With cheap no-name cards you might draw a lucky one, but no guarantees for that. With brand names you get warranty: less risk of short live, and replacements when broken.
My recommendations for use with Android devices:

do not go below class 6 (too slow and too battery-hungry)
use a known brand with good reputation
better pay a buck more than to be sorry later
if money is an issue, better stick with a smaller good card than a cheap big one

1: freely adapted after Orwell's Animal Farm

Thanks. Was going to put $20 on a Samsung, but found one for 3 bucks more from a brand I'd never heard of with twice the read time specs. I'm thinking write times won't be as important for my uses

Samsung should be a good choice usually (SanDisk as well). And "thanks" should be an upvote on SE sites :)


text:
Can´t update apps through mobile data.
Just restored to factory defaults and I can´t seem to update any app through mobile data, it needs wifi. Im on a Samsung Galaxy S5 android version 5.0

Open Play Store, go to settings, Auto Update APPS, Untick OVER WIFI ONLY, select Auto Update apps at any time.

I set it at Do-not auto update apps because I hate auto updates. Then I found out there was a problem with my service provider.
Thanks though.


text:
Unbricking a phone without being able to access recovery
I have rooted my Zenfone 2 ZE551ML using a method which permanently replaces recovery (I didn't realize it back then). Can I unbrick it using only fastboot? I can't use adb, as I can't open recovery. I basically need a fastboot adb sideload alternative for flashing the entire firmware/ROM. I tried to flash every single part (except for the system.img, which I couldn't flash) of the firmware using fastboot separately, but it didn't work.

Why don't you search for an appropriate recovery, and flash it with fastboot first?

You mean, to flash a recovery using fastboot? Didn't work.

I see. I think that it'll be better to summon @Firelord. He's the fastboot expert, after all.

Thanks. I don't really know the experts here, yet.

Oh @firelord ! We have some presents! In the form of fastboot based problems!

@DanB Firelord was summoned already, yet he still hasn't come to see his presents.

@Samuel Shifterovich I know, but I had to say it. There was too much temptation

Quick reminder that you can't @mention someone who didn't participate in the question yet (it will have no effect).

@Xan Right. So you can't summon someone, you can only wait if/when they will see the question?

Yes, StackExchange is engineered on purpose that there's no way to contact a user.

Bad purpose. :P

You can flash a new recovery image with fastboot.
The command is:

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

where 'recovery.img' is the name of the image.
If you enter fasboot on the command line with no options or parameters you will see the usage, which is:

fastboot flash [partition] [filename]

Flashing a new recovery didn't help. Neither stock nor twrp worked.

Could you please elaborate? Did you receive an error? Was there any output at all?

Stock: Couldn't get over that button combination protection thing
TWRP: When I opened recovery, it rebooted.


text:
Album art doesn't change
So I've been successfully using programs to change album arts for my cellphone for the past 3 years and something bothers me about the way that the actual app on the Samsung reverts this changes under the following circumstances:
If I've put a music from a specific album, for example, Abbey Road, with a specific album art, onto the memory card of my cell phone, and then I decide that I want to change the art, and so I delete this album from the memory card and just put the same one or a different one, it doesn't matter with a different art but with the same album name, Abbey Road, the app will automatically show the album art that was the first time Abbey Road was in the cellphone.
Are there any ways to fix it?

I guess that it's due to the previous album cover being still saved in the cache of the app you use to view the albums. See if wiping the app's cache helps.

Yeah, album art caching sucks.. I know exactly what you're going through. But I'm pretty sure I have a working solution for turning off auto-relation.
You may or may not need root, depending on if your album cache is stored on /sdcard/Android (which usually is the case) or in /data/data.
Go into /sdcard/Android/data/com.android.providers.media/albumthumbs -- where all the album arts are stored, and delete all of them.
But that isn't going to fix the problem for future offenders. To do that, we'll have to disable caching. I got the idea from a guy on an XDA thread.
To effectively disabling caching, thus turning off auto-relation, change the permissions on the albumthumbs folder to read-only on all groups. If the folder is part of the app data under /data/data it may be difficult to do so, even with root. On Samsung and ZenFone, you won't run into this issue.
Hope this helps!


text:
If someone is online in WhatsApp chat
If someone is shown to be On-line in WhatsApp inside the actual Chat we  previously had, does that mean they've opened that particular chat OR that they're simply "Online"??

From WhatsApp FAQ - What does last seen and online mean exactly?

Online and last seen tell you if your contacts are online, or the last time they were using WhatsApp.

Online means that the contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the internet. However, it does not necessarily mean the contact has read your chat.
Last seen refers to the last time the contact used WhatsApp.


text:
Can I DISABLE the lock screen bypass for incoming calls?
I use a pattern lock on my phone to prevent bumdialing. Recently I got a call when the phone was in my pocket, which I was only aware of when I later on took out my phone to look at it. I had accidentally rejected the call while it was in my pocket, before even the first ring.
When receiving a call, I get no lock screen first - it bypasses straight to the phone app. I don't want this. I want to have to enter the pattern and THEN answer the phone. That way, I'm not going to accidentally answer or reject calls with the phone in my pocket.
I can find lots and lots of questions on how to bypass the lock screen on incoming call, but nothing trying to disable bypassing that's already there. Any ideas?
I'm using Cyanogenmod 12.1-20151117 (Android 5.1.1).

It is a Window Manager flag responsible for this. Perhaps some xposed magic could help here.

If that's the standard phone code then what I want is impossible, and the behaviour is hardcoded. I'll need to look for an alternative phone call app.


text:
SD card not showing files when connected to pc in Moto G3
I convert the sd card (32GB) from portable storage to internal storage but now when I connect to computer, it only show internal storage (8GB). How can I copy thing to my "sd card" from computer?

Possible duplicate of How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+?

You can't (at least not without root). You have no "SD card" anymore, as it was adopted as internal storage. See the question Aaron linked, and also take a look at our adoptable-storage tag-wiki.

This is a known bug in the Moto G3 when adopting storage as internal or when using external storage after an update (or other random times)... When you connect your Moto G3 to your computer and enable MTP mode, you should see two "drives", one that is internal (your SD card) and one external (your old internal storage). Without consistency, some users report the old internal storage never shows up, but the SD card acting as internal storage should regardless.
Start by rebooting and clearing cache partition. Motorola says this will take 5-10 minutes, I assume they tested this on a bare device with no apps or other information just fresh out of the box, because it takes significantly longer. Also, the device will appear frozen, this is normal, be patient and wait. It will take a significant amount of time in recovery, and in the first boot, this is normal.
If that doesn't work, then the storage and media databases need to be wiped and rebuilt.

Disconnect USB cable
Go to Settings - Apps
Tap 3-Dot overflow menu and select Show system
Scroll down and select the app called External Storage
Inside External Storage select Storage
Inside Storage tap Clear cache and Clear data
Go back to the app list and scroll down to Media Storage
Repeat steps 5&6 with Media Storage app
Reboot the device
After it is fully booted and appears functional, wait a minimum of 5 minutes (media and storage cache's are rebuilding automatically)
Connect USB cable and using the notification drop-down menu, select USB Charging - Touch for more options and select Transfer Files (MTP)

This should give you access to both storage media via your PC, it has always worked for me and I have had to do it a few times, but I use Linux. Not that some users have not been able to make this work in Windows, it seems that in some instances Windows get's, for lack of a better word, dumb with MTP devices sometimes.
If all this fails, then the action of last resort is a full factory default, skip setup, adopt storage, and verify operation, then set up the device again. If this fails, the problem isn't likely the device, but the computer.


text:
Android 6.0 Marshmallow SD Card Not mounting
I was having problems with my 32gb sdcard from day 1 . It use to unmount suddenly and I had to re boot to mount it.
Also, the sdcard all folders where not showing when I connected the phone to PC.To fix this problem I followed the answer here and cleared data of External Storage App and I can no longer mount the sd card.
Moto g2 no longer detects the sd card. I have tried re booting many times.
EDIT
Sdcard getting read in other android phone but not in my moto g2

I had to do factory reset , after this the sdcard was mounted


text:
How can I find my MAC address?
I'm using a Samsung Young Duos GT-S6102.  My phone that shows nothing in Settings → About Phone so my question is how to find my MAC address?

Enable Wi-Fi and then check.

Have you checked Settings => About => Status?

You can run ip address from a terminal or adb shell to get the MAC address.  Specifically, ip address show wlan0 will give you the MAC for the Wi-Fi chip on most devices.  The address is shown after link/ether on the second line:
22: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
link/ether a0:b1:c2:d3:e4:f5 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.12/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global wlan0
inet6 ab01::c23d:45ef:ab67:89c0/64 scope link
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Thanks to Firelord for this suggestion.

Another alternative:
If you have BusyBox installed, you can run busybox ifconfig.  That will give output similar to the following (note the HWaddr on the first line):
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr A0:B1:C2:D3:E4:F5
          inet addr:192.168.0.12  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: ab01::c23d:45ef:ab67:89c0/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:993 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:747 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:904409 (883.2 KiB)  TX bytes:125749 (122.8 KiB)

If you don't have busybox you could try running ifconfig alone, but the version on my device has no output (and ifconfig wlan0 just shows the IP address).

In addition to the solutions from Matthew and Vivek, using a terminal emulator app or using adb shell, do
getprop ro.boot.wifimacaddr

It would give you the MAC address for your wireless chip.
Alternatively, check the contents of the file /sys/class/net/wlan0/address:
cat /sys/class/net/wlan0/address

That should give you the MAC address. Make sure you have your Wi-Fi turned on before you see the contents of that file. For some reason, I got a different MAC address when Wi-Fi was turned off in my stock Android 6.0.1
If you've BusyBox installed, you can also do:
busybox iplink show wlan0

Output:

5: wlan0:  mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 3c:42:66:c4:d5:14 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Again, keep Wi-Fi enabled.

Check settings > WiFi . From there click three dot or option key and navigate to advance settings. There you will find Mac address of your device.


text:
How to kill dhcpcd?
The following command works perfectly to start DHCP:
# dhcpcd -p eth0

DHCP cannot be stopped once it is started. The following command does not work:
# dhcpcd -k eth0

It returns the following:
dhcpcd[4700]: sending signal 1 to pid 4086
dhcpcd[4700]: dhcpcd not running
dhcpcd[4700]: kill: Bad file number

Could anyone offer a tip on how to kill DHCP?

Is the pid 4086 a constant, or does it change?

@DeathMaskSalesman No.  I have just rebooted the device and run the command again.  The PID is 4043 this time.

If you have to include this in a script, this snippet may help you (it has to be ran as root): var=$(ps | grep dhcp). Then, in a new line, do kill $(echo -n $var | cut -d " " -f 0), and it should kill the process altogether.

@DeathMaskSalesman Thanks a lot. It will do though it would be ideal to have one command to to this.  I can use PS to get the PID, then kill it. I have tested it, and it works.  Could you turn your comment into an answer that I can accept?

Doesn't su -c 'killall dhcpcd' work?

@Firelord I got "killall: not found"

A way to dynamically get the PID of the dhcp process, and kill it altogether, would be to run:
su
var=$(ps | grep dhcp)
kill $(echo -n $var | cut -d " " -f 0)

Specifically:

line 1 asks for root permissions;
line 2 assigns the output of ps (which lists the active processes), filtered by grep with the keyword dhcp, to the variable var;
line 3 calls kill to terminate the value contained in the first field (-f 0) of the variable var, by telling cut to separate the fields with a whitespace (-d " "). Not coincidentally, the mentioned value corresponds to the PID of the process dhcpcd.

That would kill any process with "dhcp" in its name. Even killall dhcpcd would be a better choice.

@SimonRichter You are in error: since I make use of cut, only the first PID is a candidate for killing. You are encouraged to experiment with it yourself, if you don't believe the correctness of the answer.

"any" means "any of them", not "all of them". Specifically, it kills the one with the smallest PID, so e.g. if I have two Ethernet ports, and run dhcpd on one, and dhcpcd on the other, then the dhcpd is likely to be started first because it has higher priority during boot, and your command would kill that instead. Also, if dhcpcd has a high PID, the chance is high that you match the grep dhcp command itself, which has terminated by the time kill is called, so it would do nothing in this case.

This could be done with awk as well. The commands would be;
su
kill -9 $(ps -e | grep dhcp | awk '{ print $1 }')
Details
su to jump to root shell, kill -9 to force kill ps -e lists all the processes in details, we pipe it through grep dhcp which only outputs anything from ps -e output to dhcp, then we pipe it through awk, the print $1 only prints the contents of the first field, which is the process id of dhcp. And kill will kill the process matching that process id.


text:
How to unlock Samsung Galaxy Note 4 from Verizon?
I bought Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on eBay. It's a Verizon phone. The description said clean IMEI and not blacklisted per Swappa.
I was trying to get it on my Cricket account which is a GSM carrier, but my wireless company said it was locked.
How do I unlock it?

I bet the eBay description didn't say "oem carrier unlocked"... which is what you need.

When you insert your Cricket SIM card, check whether it prompts for an unlock code or not. If it does, you can use a third party website like UnlockRadar.com. But if it doesn't, there's not much that you can do.

You might need to double-check if it's really a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 from Verizon because it should be automatically unlocked to use with Cricket.
If your model number is anything other than Verizon, then you need to unlock the phone. Not all phones will ask for unlock code, only for those AT&T and Cricket. But if the phone is T-Mobile or Sprint, the best way to unlock it is by far via USB remote cable.
You can use third-party websites like miliunlocks.com to unlock it, they unlocked the phone for me in under 10 minutes.

You can get unlock code. You need to give imei number and sim company name Verizon. You can contact Verizon. Verizon give you code. They check mobile details. You have contract with Verizon.
Pay due money to company. They can give you code.


text:
How to connect a USB Device to Bluestack
I have drone( DJI Phantom 3), and in order to fly it correctly DJI provides an App for IOS and Android("DJI Go"). The thing is that I have a Kolina k100 android phone(a cheap chineese one), and I can install the app perfectly, and it runs quite well with an only exception. When I put the Drone on video-recording mode, I loose the live-video and I can not see what my drone sees. Obviously DJI has told me that he doesn't support my chinese phone so they do nothing. So I was thinking that maybe is a problem of how powerful my phone is.
So I wanted to check if the App works well in my laptop so I downloaded the app in Bluestacks, but I realised that to make the app work I have to connect the drone's RC controller by USB (as I do with my phone). But when I connect the controller to the  laptop, Windows recognizes it. But Bluestack doesn't care so the app doesnt work. How can I make Bluestack recognize the USB connection of the controller?
Thanks in advance, any help will be appreciated.


text:
Lanix S130, MTK6572 - Internal partitions messed up
So, I got a "little" problem, it started a few days ago, I woke up and my device was overheated and stuck in the bootlogo, I went to the Philz Recovery but it started with an startup error about the Cache and that it couldn't load the files there, I try to flash another ROM to solve the problem but it say it couldn't mount Data, Cache, System and neither internal storage (emmc), I tried to mount them manually but it was worthless, then I flashed the stock ROM to the device with SP Flash Tools and didn't help, piranha didn't work either, I can start the recovery and fastboot but nothing else, I flashed TWRP recovery but it can't mount any of the internal storage partitions and here is some log I get from it:
mounting /dev/blck/mmcblk0p4 on /system failed: invalid argument
mounting /emmc on vfat failed: no such file or directory
mounting /data on ext4 failed: no such file or directory
mounting /cache on ext4 failed: no such file or directory
can't find /storage in /etc/fstab
This is the log when I try to do anything
E:No valid storage partitions found for mtp

E:Unable to mount "/system"
E:Unable to mount "/cache"
E:Unable to mount "/data"
E:Unable to mount "/emmc"
E:Unable to mount storage
E:Unable to recreate and-sec folder

I don't know what to do now, and I don't know about ADB, I don't have internet connection so I can't research too much, the only thing I found is dead forums of old android versions or samsung devices with ODIN solutions
Also, in TWRP it say this about cache and data:
Mount Point: /data (/cache)
Currently file system: ext4
Present:No
Removable: No
Size: 0MB
Used: 0MB
Free: 0MB
Backup Size: 0MB

The phone storage only changes on: Current file system: vfat
And the System it's ext4 and it's supossed to be present but is the same as the other partitions
I have tried a few things as repairing partitions from TWRP recovery but it doesn't work, even formating mmcblk0 give me an error of permission denied and it don't get fixed with fix permissions option in the recovery
That's all the log I can give to you, I know it can comeback to life and that it's not too late, anything I can do I'll do it to save my device as is the first I had and the one who teach me "all I know" about android

Reflash Your rom and check if working.

Reflash didn't help, I've tried several times and the partitions remains blocked. Also it's a Lanix S130, it's MTK6572 and don't know what else to say about it.

You can try to format your data and system partitions using TWRP. First, boot to TWRP and enter the wipe menu.

Then go to Advanced Wipe.
Select the partitions you want to repair say data.
Select the Repair or change file system tab.
Select change file system.

Note your file system. Mine is ext4

Select F2FS and swipe to change.
Again select ext4 (original) and swipe to change.

Repeat this process for other partitions.

This did not work for me (maybe also not for the OP?). I guess the issue is that the mount points are reported as "Present:No".


text:
Need superuser permission for TMS
for some cloud syncing purposes I want to give TMS (Titanium Media Sync) superuser privilege over my rooted device even if it doesn't asks for it.
I use SuperSU.

Have you tried seeing if TMC is dotted in the SuperSU logs?

Umm... TMS is not a root app, it will not ask for root access because it doesn't use it. You can't give an app "superuser privilege", it has to request it.

DanB: I've only checked the list of apps SuperSu manages, and TMS isn't listed.         acejavelin: Oh! that's a shame! I thought there would be an option like in linux to run an app with superuser privilege. similar to "sudo"...


text:
Can anybody identify this device?
I am trying to fix an Android tablet. As far as I know, it's stock, but that's about it. There is no inclination of the manufacturer.
Here are the pics:

Back and front (click images for larger variants)
I cannot simply go to check in Settings › About device as the device is trapped in a bootloop, and the stock recovery asks foe non-existant buttons (it wants a home button. There is none. The power button has no effect in recovery for some reason. The device has a power button, volume and mysterious silver button-like dot, but it doesnt do anything.
-EDIT-
Got it into recovery mode, though I cannot select ANY items, just navigate:

Navigating via Vol+/Vol- works, but I cannot confirm any entry: the power button yields no action. And though the second line in the screenshot reads "vol up/vol down, home, enter", there are no home or enter keys available. Pressing both volume rockers simultaneously only switches the screen off (can be turned on again by pressing the Vol- button).
-EDIT 2-
A blue light appears when I try to turn it on via LED
-EDIT 3-
Since its in a boot loop, I tried every button combo:

Power on its own - normal boot loop
Power +  up - recovery.
All buttons (not counting silver dot, I cant press it in.) - Recovery mode.
Power + down - normal boot loop

No combination brought me to safe-mode, so I cannot check Settings › About device there either.

@Izzy Nah, they arent shown. Unless this crack in the thing is where they...... nope, not that either.

OK, now I'm really out of ideas. I've again integrated our latest insights with your post (and cleaned up comments) – afraid that's all I can do here. With some luck, someone figures something by the details we've collected so far. Fingers crossed!

@Izzy Aye, though I am about as hopeful as a Pokemon nuzlocke player stuck with nothing but a magikarp

@Izzy Hey man, I might be able to unscrew the back, see if there are any hints


text:
How to set FV-5 as my default camera on XtreStoLite 3.1.1
I just installed XtreStoLite 3.1.1 on my G-920T (Galaxy S6 with T-Mobile) and then installed Camera FV-5. How do I make that my default camera? In other words, when I double-press the home button, how do I make FV-5 the camera that opens instead of the default camera?

@beeshyams The OS is named in the question's subject. I was actually able to set FV-5 as the default camera app using the normal method. However, double pressing the home button still launches the out-of-the-box camera app, for some reason. Also, App Picker Classic seems to want to become my new launcher, so I don't think that will work.

@beeshyams Hey! How did you know I have Titanium Backup? :) Okay. I tried that. What happened is that double pressing the home button merely does the same thing as single pressing it—it takes you to the home screen. I verified that the double-press feature is still enabled. I also turned it off and then back on. Same thing. Good idea, though!

@beeshyams Actually, I just flashed XtreStoLite 3.2 since posting this question and last night I re-flashed Aroma, so it doesn't seem like that will make any difference, unfortunately. I also posted the question on XDA, but no one replied. I'll go back and harass them some more. :) I sure appreciate your time!


text:
Can't set default app?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and I was trying to open a Tumblr link from Facebook messenger. When the popup to choose a default app showed up, I accidentally chose Chrome.
I tried resetting the default settings on Chrome, but when the popup to choose a default app shows up again, Tumblr is no longer on the list. It just lists Chrome and another browser that I have.
I tried everything I could think of. I've reinstalled both Chrome and Tumblr, I cleaned out caches, and I've restarted my phone. I also tried to manually set Tumblr as default but selecting "via this app" on the "go to supported URLs" setting. When I disabled Chrome and uninstalled other browsers, a "can't open link popup shows up when I try to open a Tumblr link. This is driving me nuts!

Go to Settings > Apps in your phone. Find Chrome. You will find an "Open by Default" option for anything you have asked it to open earlier. Clear it.


text:
How to disable the charge indicator on the GS7 lock screen
I'm getting a charge indicator on my Galaxy S7 lock lock screen.  When the screen blanks I have to go through and extra step to get to the home screen.  It has a new step with white fonts on a blue screen.
The writings are:

Full Charged Left
  Speed Continue Trickle

At the bottom of the screen it says:

Slide to unlock

Does anyone know what app is causing this screen to come up and how to disable it?

@beeshyams The purpose of the factory reset is for diagnosis of the issue.  It's  away to ensure third party program are not the culprit, and as you mentioned, identify that the OS is the culprit.  I'm in analysis mode to identify the culprit while I continue to figure out how to deal with it.  Flashing the ROM on questions isn't the first thing a novice should consider.  Flashing the ROM could cause a personal to loose support form the Manufacturer as well as their carrier for other the immediate problems as well as others that might arise.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

The culprit is a feature of the GO Launcher.  It has the appearance if being a default function of the phone's OS.  The screen has one option in the menu:  turn off fast charging.  That will disable that screen, but it won't disable the Samsung GS(x)'s fast charging.  You can enable or disable the GS7's fast charging in the Settings menu of the device (not the Go program)
Turning that switch on the screen disabled the extra step (having to slide) before you get to your actual unlock screen where you put in your code.
This screen will manifest itself on any Android phone or tablet running the Go Launcher menu app.

great! Finally I got rid of all advertisements and the extra action to unlock my phone. Thanks


text:
Mounting encrypted partition from PC - is there anything I can do?
Okay, so basically I have the same problem identified here, except instead of a broken screen, I accidentally broke the UI with this bug.
And all I want to do is mount the encrypted partition so I can get some photos from it before I factory reset.
Unfortunately, I never enabled usb debugging, I don't have a custom recovery, I don't have an unlocked bootloader, and I don't have a backup app installed either! (lesson learned)
My device is a Motorola XT1254 and I have Ubuntu on my PC (although I also have other PCs with OSX and windows if that helps at all).
What I've tried so far is fastboot to twrp (found a version for my device here), like so:
sudo fastboot boot twrp-3.0.2.0-quark.img

That didn't work, and displayed this in the terminal:
OKAY [ 0.390s]
booting...
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.392s

So yeah I presume that's because of the locked bootloader. And according to the motorola site, you must erase the internal storage to unlock the bootloader. Is my device rejecting the fastboot because of the locked bootloader, or should I just try a different version of twrp or something else?
Any other ideas? The default recovery for my device has an option to sideload updates from adb which is my only other idea. It sounds like sideload from adb can run a script in the zip file to automatically update specific files on reboot... maybe there's a way to revert the "force RTL" developer setting with it? Is it even possible to do adb sideload if my device is encrypted? Could I use it in some other way to access my encrypted partition?
Also forgive any ignorance on my part, note that this is literally the first time I've done anything technical with android! But I have a pretty decent understand of linux in general.
P.S. my device has no external SD card slot (which seems idiotic but whatever) so anything involving that is out of the question.

You're in a mess. 1) You presumed correctly. Device didn't load TWRP because bootloader in not unlocked so there is no point in finding out some other version of TWRP. 2) Stock recovery only loads a ZIP signed from vendor.

@Firelord So basically I'm screwed unless the vendor releases a zip update that fixes the RTL bug? Thanks for the comment btw

So I have another question: Let's say I load the vendor zip for my current android version, is it possible that this would revert the UI to default settings without erasing my data?

Addressing your second comment: it depends upon instructions in the zip.  If you're loading current Android version, then the problem you're having won't be resolved unless you format data partition which is akin to factory reset. While the code for that UI setting resides in system partition, the setting indicating your enabled developer option is stored inside data partition and that's from where the system reads the status and applies it.


text:
.zip folder not showing up on TWRP
I have a boot animation .zip file under \system\media on my phone, but the media folder isn't showing up under system when in TWRP. Why can't I see the .zip file in TWRP when it's visible in Root Explorer?

I figured out what the problem was - "System" under "Mount" in TWRP was unchecked. After checking that, the folders under system appeared.


text:
How to use phone calls without code?
My friends and family need to use my cellphone regulary, it doesnt bother me, because some of them cant have a cell but still need one just in case...the problem is that i dont want them to have access to my apps, notes, texts private infos etc... is there a way for them to use my cellphone (just for making calls) without having access to everything in my phone? Thank you

Depending on the phone/manufacturer/ROM you are able to use the multi-user feature to access the guest account that does not have access to your main user.

You can also use "kiosk mode" after opening the Phone app if you're running 5.0+.

As a third option, you could download an app lock application, which allows you to block any app with a pin/pattern. This way, you could seal anything but the dialer.

Yes. Go the Google Play and download this app. If it isn't exactly what you are needing, get back to me and I'll find something more appropriate for your needs. Is your phone rooted? That helps a lot when you are wanting to customize your device. You can find plenty of info at XDA-Developers.com  Here is your link to the app. If you need any thing else, just ask. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.privacylock.guest&hl=enk.


text:
How to take a screen shot in Android 2.3.5 ZTE tablet?
Please tell me how to take a screen shot in reliance ZTE 2.3.5 android tablet?

Is the device rooted? I'm afraid with Android versions before 4.x this is a requirement for a screenshot app to work.

Have you tried simultaneously pressing the power button & volume down an holding? If that doesn't work try with home + volume down combination. If zte has not provided a shortcut, just use a digital camera or another phone camera to take a snapshot of the screen.
Advanced: If your phone is rooted some apps will help you take screenshot. A cumbersome way would be to turn on the developer mode in your tablet and use adb.exe that is part of the android sdk after connecting your phone to the usb port in your PC.


text:
How to enable pip, QPython to write to Android filesystem?
I have been following this guide to install youtube-dl on my Android phone.
http://www.arulraj.net/2015/11/download-any-videos-in-android-using-youtube-dl.html
However, when downloading the videos, I get the following error.
ERROR: unable to open for writing: [Errno 30] Read-only file system:
How would I be able to give write permissions to the pip console of QPython so I can write to a folder on /sdcard?
Running Android Marshmallow 6.0 with root access.

You can create conf file in /etc/youtube-dl.conf . There you can specify the output folder by default.
Please specify an output folder where you have write permissions and it will work.


text:
How to block all android application installation?
Is there a way to block (by a password/PIN code or what else) all kinds of software installation on an Android tablet/smart phone by third-application or codes? I want to customize a android OS for my parents, but many apps may install other apps in background. So I try to install all apps for their need and disable all kinds of further installation.
Is there any way to do this? I can write code by myself, so if there is some code can do this, it will also be good for me.

No app can install any other app on its own in the background unless it is a system app or has root access.

Yes, but some app will download apk file and notify the user to install them, which is very popular for China android market. However it may be hard for parents to jugy whether this app should be install. My goal is to block all those installation. Thank for your reminder.

In that case, this may help: Stop Android from displaying "Install blocked" prompt

To Implement this feature you need to set the device management policies
Also you have to install the Google app for it from the link : Google Apps Device Policy
Set device management policies
All Google Apps domains have settings for mobile devices that you can apply to groups of users. There is a full list of settings in the Google Apps Administrator Help Center. Here we recommend settings for general device management and settings that are specific to Android tablets for education. To set up separate organizational units for teachers and students and place different restrictions for each group, see Manage tablets in the Google Admin console.
Device lockdown
When you configure a tablet for student use, the device is locked down. Google Play is permanently disabled on that device, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® settings require the administrator PIN for any changes. Additionally, the Device Policy app is automatically installed and activated on student tablets, which enforces all the device management policies that you set (except for the Password policy), regardless of whether the Enforce policies on Android devices setting is set for the student's organization. You can disable apps from the Admin console, and the following system apps are disabled, by default, on student devices:
Play Games
Play Movies & TV
Play Music
Play Newsstand
Google Currents
Wallet
YouTube
Important: Due to these restrictions, we recommend that any tablets you give to teachers are NOT configured with the Android Device Enrollment app, but instead are clean tablets, out of the box.
General device management settings
In the Admin console, at Device management > Mobile > Device management settings, you'll find the following settings which apply to any device with an account on your domain, including students' or teachers' personal devices if they add their domain accounts to their personal devices. See the individual settings for our recommendations for schools with managed student tablets.
For more information on this refer the first link in this answer.

Can you please [edit] your post and give some background? A link is nice as reference, but the basic information should be included here (or your answer becomes useless when the link dies). Why does one need to do this, and what are those policies?

@lzzy : I hope its clear now

Looks like "wrong department" now: What you've quoted doesn't apply to consumer devices I'm afraid. That's for enterprises with specific Google Domains used. Read the first line of the description of the app you've linked: FOR GOOGLE APPS FOR WORK, EDUCATION, AND GOVERNMENT USERS ONLY I don't think OP is using that for the parents (at least the question doesn't state so).


text:
CSipSimple: Making calls through OpenVPN
I have an Asterisk server configured at home. It works well, and I am able to make calls to other devices internally over LAN or Wi-Fi - as well as outbound to a VoIP provider. I use CSipSimple as the client on Android (and Jitsi on my Ubuntu laptop).
I have also configured an OpenVPN server, which is also working as expected for both Ubuntu and Android devices. I can ping, ssh, etc across it.
I want to be able to make a call to a LAN or Wi-Fi client at home, over the OpenVPN connection from my Android phone using CSipSimple (I haven't allowed Asterisk clients to register from the Internet, only from the LAN subnet).
CSipSimple is able to register and make calls - but I cannot hear any incoming audio on my phone. The call info shows no packets coming in. Calls over OpenVPN using Jitsi on Ubuntu work properly, but CSipSimple on Android does not work.

The audio cannot be heard because CSipSimple by default advertises the Internet-facing IP address of the phone, not the OpenVPN address. This means the control messages get through (hence one can make calls), but the audio stream is routed out through the Internet and not over the VPN.

Change to Expert mode
To change this, the CSipSimple account "wizard" needs to be changed to "Expert". Assuming you already have the account registered, long-press on the account in the CSipSimple account manager view, and press "Choose Wizard". Then select "Expert" from the "Generic wizards" option.
Change NAT settings
Long-press again on the account name, and select "Modify Account" - there will be many more options than with the basic wizard.
Under the "NAT Traversal" section of the settings, enable "Allow SDP NAT rewrite" - this will tell CSipSimple to use the same address it uses for the control messages and for the audio stream.

Note: this assumes that you are able to place calls, but cannot hear the audio. If you cannot register to Asterisk at all (or whichever SIP server you are using), then it is likely that the VPN is not correctly configured.


text:
Android x86 official
I'm wondering if there's a distinct, official version of x86 android that's different from the ones made through the Android-x86 Open Source Project (http://www.android-x86.org/). I'm asking since that project was started some time ago and predates versions of android that officially support x86. Also, I'm now seeing phones that use intel atoms running android like the Asus ZenFone 2, so do those phones use the same iso images provided by android-x86.org? If not, what's different about the x86 android os those phones are running compared to what you get from android-x86.org?

First of all, what do you mean by official? You mean released by Google?
And no,  the firmware on Asus's x86 Android devices are certainly not the same builds released by Android x86.
All Android releases are based in one way or the other on the code released by the Android Open Source Project, a Google initiative.
Anyone could take that source code, customize it, and make their own Android release.
Android x86 also uses this source code, but they have put in heavy work compiling it for x86 and constructing a kernel that's compatible with normal PCs. Android x86 is explicitly unofficial, and is not affiliated with Google.
Remix OS is a derivative of Android x86. While it is built by former Google employees, it is also unofficial and not backed (nor opposed) by Google.
Asus distributes their own Android builds for their x86 devices, but it's not Android x86 as in the PC project I referred to above. Asus Intel phones are (unfortunately) not normal PCs where you can just install any OS you want. (Although that would be super cool if they were.) They are just like any other Android phone (except they have x86 processors), in the sense that they require a ROM that is specifically tailored to their hardware. (Unfortunately, Android devices don't follow a convention the way PCs do.) Asus develops such tailored ROMs, in the form of their stock firmware.
Is this firmware an official x86 version of Android? It depends what you mean by official. It is officially developed by a large corportation, Asus. It ships with official Google software, apparently approved by Google. I don't know if you could call that official. Depends on your viewpoint. However, these ROMs are strictly for the device they were built for. It's not like PCs where you can just swap OS installers around and use any OS on almost any device. (Again, I really wish it was, but what I personally wish for is not really relevant here, so forgive my blabbering.)
I'm not aware of any Google product (like a Nexus) with Android and an x86 processor.
Interestingly, Google is bringing official Android compatability to Chrome OS, a somewhat popular PC operating system that runs on both ARM and x86 and is also (mostly) released under the open source Chromium OS project. Both Android and Chrome OS run on the Linux kernel. So what differentiates them? The userland and other components (which is a huge difference.) It looks like, however, that Google are porting all or most of the Android userland to Chrome OS. So would Chrome OS then qualify as an "Android release"? Well, it depends on how you define an Android release. It runs on a similar Linux kernel and has most of the same userland integrated. If you're willing to stretch yourself, I guess you could call that an "official Google Android release for x86." Of course, it also has the Chrome OS userland. But Maru OS similarly has the whole GNU userland, and Maru OS is still and Android release.
Confusing? Yeah, I guess it can be. Thankfully there are some pretty smart engineers working on all of this. After all, Android is one of the most popular and user friendly operating systems on the planet.


text:
External sd card is not recognized in my pc
When my phone MOTOROLA G3(2015) is updated to Marshmallow, it's not showing files when connected to PC. While connecting, it shows options as charging only, PTP, MTP, MIDI. When I select MTP, it shows the external card, but not showing the contents, where as internal memory is detected and all files are shown.

You could take a look at MTP selected but PC doesn't show contents of external SD card. While it's a G2 there, it sounds like the very same issue.

Goto

Settings -> Apps -> Show system (three vertical dots) -> External Storage -> Storage -> Clear data and Clear Cache
Settings -> Apps -> Show system (three vertical dots) -> Media Storage -> Storage -> Clear data and Clear Cache
Reboot your device and connect device as MTP and now you can access files in Internal as well as External SD card from your PC.

Verified in Moto G2(2014) with Android Marshmallow and should work in Moto G3 too. If you are still unable to access the files, you can clear cache partition and reboot your device and check it.

"Clear data and cache"? Sounds suspicious. ..


text:
How do I add a "skip backward/forward" button to my Kodi on-screen display?
When watching DVDs with Kodi on my Android device, the on-screen display offers the following buttons (tried both pre-packaged skins):

|<: Skip backward one chapter
<<: Rewind
>/II: Play/Pause
>>: Fast forward
>|: Skip forward one chapter

I'd like the << and >> buttons to "skip +/-10 seconds" instead of doing an analog-style rewind/fast-forward.
How can I modify that behavior? My Kodi version seems to support that feature in general, since I can modify the skip steps in Settings/Videos/Playback.
(I'll be extra thankful if you suggest a solution where I don't have to fiddle around with a text editor on my phone, but I'm willing to accept that, if there is no other solution.)

So with the current version of KODI on android, I was able to swipe left or right with one finger to jump +/-10 seconds. If you swipe multiple times in the same direction it'll jump 30 secs, a min etc based on your settings in the video section (System>Video>Playback>Skip steps...)
Make sure to click Settings Level in the lower left hand corner to advanced or Expert to see these options.
Other touch screen settings can be found here:
http://kodi.wiki/view/Touch_controls
Or search "touch controls KODI" in google.
That site speaks of the text editing options for keymaps etc if you want to go that route for further customization of your Kodi settings.
I hope this helps!

I just realized you were probably referring to a device that is not your Android phone since you mentioned DVDs. Since that is the case, are you able to connect a Bluetooth or USB keyboard and change the keymap file to something you can set to use the skip steps?

Great, works perfectly, thanks a lot! (And yes, I do watch DVDs on my Android phone.)


text:
HTC One M7 Volume fail
Like others, the microphone on my HTC One M7 is patchy. I can hear people fine, but they say I'm echoey, far away, quiet. It seems to have become worse too. I believe it might be to do with the noise cancelling mic as mentioned here although I don't know why it would be deteriorating if that's the case.
I don't have root access or I could try this fix.
Apart from the root fix or the old toothbrush fix, is there anything else I can try?
Keen to keep my nice old HTC. Currently running 5.0.2.


text:
Strange sound from an unknown application
From yesterday my Samsung Galaxy S3 (Android 4.4.2) is playing strange music (midi) from time to time and very often. Sometimes it goes as it comes, with no obvious reason. It looks like an alarm. There is no notification. I checked everything a have remember can cause this. The only way to stop music intentionally is to open task manager and clear RAM.
I also have tried to stop services and running applications from Settings -> Application manager, but that didn't seem to make change.
Can I detect somehow which process started this music? Because I can use Android Eclipse, is there any log that can help me to trace origin. In logcat I can see that the music player is running.


text:
Using SD card as internal storage and migrate date
I read this question, but I want to update the question.
Now with Android 6.0 we have the option to format the SD card as internal storage, and that's what I did. I also clicked that "Migrate data" option that moves pictures, music and such to the SD card storage.

However, I downloaded more music and now the internal storage is full. And the "Migrate data" option now tries to move data from the SD to the internal memory. So apparently you can only use it once #fail
The apps that consume the most space are precisely apps containing media that could go into the SD card (red arrows). Others are games that even allow the user to move the app to the SD card (blue arrow). For some weird reason, it always fails with a snack bar saying "internal error occurred".

Should I format the SD card as external? I'll never remove it, so this "format as internal memory" option seemed perfect.
How can I migrate all this media/data back to the SD card?

Am I doing something wrong here? I have a Moto G 2nd gen.

Im pretty sure you can go into google play music, head to settings, and set your sd as storage. It should move your music over.

OK, I think I found out the best setup.

Format your SD card as internal memory.
Go to Settings > Storage > Internal and open each app. Some apps have a "change" button. Press it to move the app into the SD card.
Finally go to Settings > Storage > Internal and on the right corner press Migrate data.

At this point, you did all you could.

For some reason, not at apps offer this option. Any idea why?

@DiAlex, I am doing one app where data need to move the datas from internal storage to external storage while transfer the app. But it is unable to move the data. I have followed your suggestions. But I am unable to see the third point for migration of data. Any idea to solve this issue?

Sorry, I don't know how to solve it. I'm using Android 6.0 on a Moto G (2nd gen) and it works.

You will need to format the SD as removable storage for it to work as you describe. The option as described by Dan is not available with your SD formatted for internal use.
I did read a post somewhere that suggests Google Play Music will have a fix this week but hard to say for sure.
In my opinion this feature either doesn't work as intended or the Google Play apps haven't been updated for this feature despite marshmallow being out for 6? months already.
Note: I have just installed the new update 22/4/2016 and you can now select the SD storage, so this is now fixed!

Thanks. But before I can format the SD card I need to move all of its contents back to internal storage, otherwise I'll lose data. However, I don't have enough space, and we're back at the OP :(


text:
How do you recover a hard-bricked Nexus 7 2012?
I had a lollipop rom Nexus 7(2012), and I wanted to change it to Android Kitkat, as a personal like for it. I did as told in Google Developers page for Android Firmware for Nexus devices. When the process was halfway through, suddenly my computer shut down due to power failure(UPS Problem). And I cannot get it to go into fastboot, bootloader, recovery, download mode or whatever mode it is. Even charging symbol does not appear when I plug it in.
But it gets detected by the PC when I connect it. See the below picture:

Does this have any way to un-brick it? If not by software, should we change the hardware like motherboard so that it could be fixed?

Does it turn on at all?  If not it sounds like the main board might be fried which is pointless to swap, you'd be better off with a new one.

It does not turn on. It does not even show a sign of its life

Yeah, you wont be getting that back to life soon. Better start shopping, you just killed the supposedly unkillable

If it is unkillable why isn't mine working... PS: But it is getting detected on my computer when I connect my usb to the computer!

Try if adb is working. Only then there may be a hope.


text:
Delete contact list on samsung nexus cellphone
I want to delete my entire contact list from my samsung nexus, is there an easy way to accomplish this?

You should be able to disable Contact Sync from Settings → Accounts, and then go into Applications and find Contacts and Contacts Storage and hit Clear Data under both of them.


text:
Suspicious Text Message Received
I received an html text message from a Leah_Condello where I could not click MORE except to delete it, but I don't know anyone with that name and the code made me wonder if this is a new virus attempt, especially since I can't see the details of where's it's from (like an email address, phone, or any other information).  Plus, how is it possible that the person was able to send a text message with their name when this name isn't in my contacts at all?
This person was able to send information without details and have their name added to my contacts.  How is this possible, or is this something dangerous, and what should I do?

Are you using Hangouts for everything? I used to get these once in a while, they actually were not text messages, but Hangouts messages. Also, "text" messages are SMS and would be plain text only, not HTML, for it to be HTML it would have to be an MMS message, which has a some extra stuff allowed. Personally, if it is a one time thing, I would just delete it and go about my normal life, I get junk messages from time to time.

I just got this too. Mms, didn't open it though. Don't know any body by that name. Got it about 20 minutes ago, same name.

OP, please register your account and follow http://android.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts to regain control of this post, so that you can leave comments and edit freely.

They are saying that stagefright is back.....


text:
Cannot connect to google account tablet
I have a tablet and an older smartphone that I wish to use as a mini-tablet.  while the tablet does have Play functioning I cannot log in to google account for other purposes. It just says cannot connect to server.  WiFi is fine. Can surf web etc. no problem.
On the smart phone I cannot even log in to my Play account with the app. Same error but nothing seems wrong, just won't let me log in to install apps. Cannot connect to google account either.  This is a Chinese smart phone not being used for data/phone, just as a tablet.

What is the model?  What version of Android?

There is an issue with google account signin and signup all over the world today
check this for more info : http://mashable.com/2016/04/19/google-oauth-down/#I8jZi7QGiuqN
You can check now it's live.


text:
Remove old device added by DroidExplorer from Windows
I had my old Kindle connected to my PC, and it showed a device in the "This PC" screen along with all my Hard Drives. Double-clicking it opens DroidExplorer and my device if connected. However, it doesn't open my new device (obviously) and sits there doing nothing and never goes away.
How can I remove that from the list? Is it listed as an "Android Adapter USB Device" under Device Manager?
For others who see this, I just want to remove the icon that DroidExplorer has added. This is what it looks like:

I believe you can right click on it and remove. Then after that re-plugin your device and it should work.

I tried that, Right Clicking the item has two options, Create Shortcut and Open.

It looks like this might be the same issue as in this question, try the answer suggested there.

@MatthewRead I appreciate the help, but I am unsure if that would help. I don't even have the device to browse anymore, that's not what I am trying to do. I want to remove the Icon it has placed in my "My PC" / "This PC" section of my computer. It's in the screenshot I provided.

Disclaimer: I am the developer of Droid Explorer

From the Droid Explorer FAQ:
Q. I have a "phantom" device in Windows Explorer that shows as connected, but it isn't.
A. We are not yet sure what causes the rare instance of a "phantom" device. But here is how you can manually remove it.

Open Registry Editor:

WIN+R
Type regedit, hit enter

Search HKEYCLASSESROOT\CLSID for the value of the "phantom" device ID. This is the name under the icon in explorer
The parent key to the device ID will be a GUID like {4aadfc55-0657-4b44-9f58-a0fca98fcb31}, for example. Remember this, write it down or paste it in to notepad.
Delete the key "HKEYCLASSESROOT\CLSID{4aadfc55-0657-4b44-9f58-a0fca98fcb31} - replace the GUID with the GUID assigned to your "phantom" device
Navigate to HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\
You will see another key named the GUID to your "phantom" device, delete this key as well.

Also, as an added bonus, I found an easy way to find all the keys. So when I clicked the device, on the right I have File Details on, and saw what looked like the GUID you shown, so I searched that key in the Registry and found them easily. So I just hit Ctrl + F in the Registry and searched the key that it shown me. https://i.imgur.com/nE2Y29R.png
Feel free to use that image if you want. Also, I searched the second key, not the first one.


text:
How to avoid superbrick by flashing / modding / rooting?
How is a superbrick accomplished? I am looking for advice of things to avoid and list of causes.
Such as, what if I accidentally flashed the wrong recovery? Could this result in a superbrick?
Or if I accidentally flashed the recovery into the wrong mount point / block device.
Or if power is lost during flashing?
Superbrick for the sake of this question is defined as resulting the phone getting into a state that can no longer be repaired by usual flashing. When the manufacturer service would be required to physically swap components, soldering etc.

Best way to absolutely avoid a "superbrick"? Don't unlock the bootloader or flash anything... if it is that important to you that you can't possibly risk a total brick condition, don't try anything. The second best way, get a Nexus device, it is virtually impossible to superbrick a Nexus device, you can flash just about (anything except the wrong bootloader, which it shouldn't accept anyway), mess up the kernel, wipe the entire system partition, or even flash a ROM for a different device, and a Nexus device can recover

A phone can have e.g. 20 partitions. Only about 5 of those are used by Android proper, the rest are from your device OEM. Messing with any of those other partitions can hardbrick you, depending on the manufacturer. The best tool for flashing is fastboot because it doesn't allow for any of those non-standard partitions to be flashed. That is the real reason people think Nexus is more robust.

1) Flashing the wrong recovery will not result in a hard brick.
2) Flashing a recovery to the wrong mount point might result in a hard brick, depending on which point you flash it to. If you flashed it to the bootloader mount point, well, then, the MB is toast.
3) If power is lost during flashing, it's probably still okay unless you were flashing the bootloader.
The things to avoid are:
A) fastboot erase bootloader <-- Why does this command even exist???

B) Flashing the wrong bootloader (most of the time the device will reject it if it's not made for it anyway)

C) Flashing the wrong radio

D) Doing stupid things with root

technically point 2 counters point 1. If you get the wrong recovery and it is too large you can overwrite other partitions. Also flashing partition tables (e.g. wrong PIT file on Samsung) can hardbrick you.


text:
Audio Skipping while Playing Music
I just recently encountered a problem with my Nexus 6p where my music (and audio but haven't tested that yet) started Skipping beats and stuttering while I was playing it. This is something new and wasn't happening before. I restarted my phone but it still stuttered. My internet is fine too and this problem is true with all apps including Google play music, Pandora, and Spotify. Are there any fixes for this?
System: Android 6.0.1
Carrier: Google Project Fi
(Phone is not rooted)
(Front facing speakers)

I would suggest trying to play a local file (push some mp3 file to the phone via Android File Transfer and play it using Play Music) to rule out network problems. In case the problem persists, you can enable Developer Options menu (http://www.greenbot.com/article/2457986/how-to-enable-developer-options-on-your-android-phone-or-tablet.html) and take a bug report while your music is playing to get some insight into what is happening.

Could it be related to this issue? (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=219725#makechanges)

It might. After updating my device to the newest security patch it was resolved however.

I had an ongoing and frustrating experience with audio skipping and the "sdcard unexpectedly removed" fault.  I disabled programs, kept my screen open, got a faster card etc.  I should say here that my audio was not on the sdcard, it is in the phone memory.  I hunted through my settings time and again, and finally I came across something in the developer options.  The option to force apps to ask for access to the sdcard was checked.  I unchecked that option and presto!, both my problems went away.  Also, I should say that no app ever asked for permission to access the sdcard.


text:
Monitoring data transmission in my Wifi hotspot
If I switched on my mobile wifi hotspot secured with a password and then if some intruder tried many passwords to connect to my hotspot.Is there any way I could know the list of incorrect passwords he tried to connect to my hotspot.I would prefer much if some android app is used in getting this.Hope I get an answer.

"I would prefer much if some android app is used in getting this." Why? What are you trying to achieve?


text:
How do I find out which App changes the Alarm Volume?
For some reason my alarm volumne sometimes goes to zero. I don't know which app is causing the behavior. Is there an app that can tell me the answer? An app that tells me when my volumne changes and which app is causing volumne changes?

Related: Can I know who is changing Android's media volume?

From experience with my  zte zmax2 with Android, it is the built in music player labeled " music player ". Which is a bug needing a patch yet to my knowledge. When on external speakers in the headphones Jack and a song on loop, it has the alarm look all the way up, yet went off at the music volume level despite saying otherwise. Hope this helps.


text:
Connecting Android phone to OSX mac computer
I've had trouble connecting my android (The Nextbit Robin) to my computer. I am pretty sure it's an Android 6.0 issue. I have been able to get it to work by enabling USB debugging and selecting MTP on USB configuration. However when I tried to do that again it just selected 'Charging only', even when selecting any other setting. I clueless as to what to do. Does anyone know how to fix this? By the way, I should mention that I am using android file transfer.
Thanks.

Let me see what I can find out.  I have a S7 Edge on 6.0.1 and noticed similar behavior on my iMac. I haven't approached it again.
Rick

I found the problem. The issue was with my computer.

However, I still can't connect it to my computer. Any ideas?

I should note that I have no idea why this worked, but it did.
I made a partition in my computer's memory. Then I installed a separate version of OSX. When I booted to that partition the Robin connected flawlessly. I thought that it would only work in the partition I created, however, when I booted back to the default partition, the Robin connected.
For perspective, here is a list of the things I tried before I got it to work:

Fast booting the Robin.
Rebooting the Robin.
Wiping the cache of the Robin.
Restarting my computer.
Clearing the SMC and NVRAM of the computer.
Turning on usb debugging.
Switching between usb modes in developer options.
Probing the usb ports in my computer (software).
Disconnecting and connecting the usb several times out of pure frustration.
Connecting the Robin to another computer (it connected).
Uninstalling Android file transfer and reinstalling it.

Hopefully one of these things will work, if someone has this problem in the future.


text:
What does "mount namespace separation" in the app SuperSU do?
The title pretty much says it all. What does  "mount namespace separation" in the app SuperSU do and how does it affect other apps?

From the man page for mount:

A mount namespace is the set of filesystem mounts that are visible to a process.

It makes it so that the superuser has separate mount points visible to it from the rest of the system/apps.  I believe the intention is to prevent any issues when remounting partitions, such as remounting /system as read-write.  With this option enabled it should remain read-only to unprivileged apps.
It can, however, just break things more.  It made my SD card unusable in root apps: Internal and external SD storage inaccessible as root

+1. Using Systemless root, in my case, unchecking it works fine and resolved TiBu issues too


text:
Custom ring tone for callers who block their caller ID?
How can I set a custom ringtone for callers who block their caller ID? I don't want the same ringtone for callers who don't block caller ID but are also not one of my contacts (otherwise, I could set a custom ringtone for all of my contacts and change the default ringtone).
Device: Moto X (2nd Generation) with Android 5.1, security patch level 2016-03-01

Automation is the preferred option. Many apps are available. I prefer using MacroDroid , since it is free (upto 5 macros) and easy to learn. To understand how MacroDroid works and required settings,  my answer here

Edit:   I overlooked a correct set of actions, my fault.  The earlier option of set ringtone  reacts at the point where the phone rings, at which point the phone has already started ringing - deleted that option. Sorry for that
What you could do is reduce the ringer volume to zero, increase the music volume and use the play sound action on the music stream for unknown callers with the incoming call trigger.
And add a corresponding macro to reverse the ringer volume for any caller other than unknown
Your macros would look like this

Unknown caller macro (name of macro )

Trigger: Call incoming → Select contact →Unknown Caller
Actions:

Volume Change →

Select Ringer (check the box) and set Volume to zero using the sliding scale
Select Music (check the box) and set Volume to say 80 using the sliding scale ( can be adjusted to comfortable level later )
Click OK

Play Stop/Sound →

Choose Sound - The problem with choosing a sound option from the app choices is that it plays only for a short time and you may miss it (optionally you could repeat this action multiple times, having a wait X seconds between these actions-without wait, they would all play nearly at same time)
(OR)
Choose File - You can save a  sound clipping of your choice  and length on your phone, say in your internal memory and navigate to it by /storage /sdcard0 /soundfile_saved location.
Click OK

Constraints: None

Reverse for other callers macro ( for reverting to existing setup for other callers, meaning those who haven't blocked caller ID)

Trigger: Call incoming → Select contact →Any number ( By specifying this, it is applicable to contacts and non-contacts who haven't barred their caller ID )
Only one action in this macro is that of Volume Change as above but with opposite settings of muting music and reverting ringer to original
Constraints: None
Note

For reverting the changes made in the first macro, we have two options:
a)  Reverting after a time period of choice
b)  Reverting based on caller identity

Second option is chosen and implemented since time based option can produce unwanted results like successive caller ID barred calls, with the second  one ( if ) outside the time limit would be wrongly treated

Since I cannot verify with blocked ID calls (not being allowed in my country ), I set the first macro for known mobile contact (and predefined sound instead of saved clip ) and second macro for known landline and it worked. Do let me know if any clarifications or problems arise
Edit: I am running KitKat and you are on Lollipop. There is a difference in how  sounds are treated (example below)

Google Voice Recognition functionality that creates the "ding" sound when activated was streamed as notification stream  in KitKat. In Lollipop this is switched to music  stream.
Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21701432/continues-speech-recognition-beep-sound-after-google-search-update
I am not aware if Ringer sounds also changed, though unlikely. If the macros don't work because of such a change, you may need to change system sounds option similar to music in both macro actions


text:
Untouchable state
When I connect my device with USB to Windows PC it shows as

Marshall London HS-USB Diagnostics 9006

at device manager. Windows finds multiple device partitions and asks if I want to format them.
Device cannot boot properly. I cannot enter download mode or do factory reset with button combinations. Screen shows LG logo for a while and then goes dark (backlights still on). While logo is still up, it shows

Boot certification verify

message.
I have tried to connect to device with multiple tools, including ADB/Fastboot with no luck.
I got there by doing factory reset on rooted device. I got that message before I was doing factory reset and device booted just fine.
How do I connect to my device in order to flash its firmware? Or might be just restore to previous state? What does that boot certification message mean?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2432476 Follow these steps. Be careful to download the correct kdz for your phone (eg 802 is pure open market G2)

I cannot execute that method because step 4 asks to enter in download mode which I cannot do. That tool will not be able to connect to my device. Thank you for your response.

This post can be used as reference http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g2/general/lg-g2-unbrickable-fix-real-hard-brick-t2904404
Shorting capacitor c5004 switched device to QDLoader 9008. From there I was able to use BoardDiag v2.99a to fix this issue. Other versions of this tool gave me some errors.


text:
USB-OTG vs portable Sdcard
I have been in the market for an Android tablet. I have found a few within most of my desired specs. Specifically the Nexus 7. This device lacks expandable storage, as do other similarly priced devices  My intent is to root the device and upgrade to 6.0.1. I prefer external storage for various ROMs and backups where they are safe from accidental wipe. My question would be is a USB-OTG system a comparable alternative?

First thing is to verify if the device you propose to buy has USB OTG support. Apart from verifying from OEM specs, do see this How can I determine if my device has USB Host Mode (OTG) support? and also the listing  of supported devices by Chainfire. Saw your edit about Nexus 7. This post confirms OTG support on Marshmallow
For your stated purpose of storing ROMs and backups it should work well. If you are using TWRP recovery , this thread may help, TWRP Using USB OTG to backup?

I have seen my friends  use it thus but haven't used it personally- all my devices had external SD to store

This is great news. The Nexus 7 is highly-rated, and the past and ongoing development is impressive. Thank you for your thorough answer.

Also, in the future I will be more thorough with my posting information.


text:
my device shows briefly under adb devices then disappears
I got a (rooted) nexus 5 (with twrp custom recovery), and I develop on it using android studio 2.0. Recently when I type in adb devices, it shows my device for a couple of seconds then it vanishes! ie
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
03a3d66d0a4e64bd    device

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
03a3d66d0a4e64bd    device

$ adb devices
List of devices attached

$ adb devices
List of devices attached

i tried everything:

changing usb port
adb kill-server then adb start-server
restarting phone
installing android 6.0.1 update..

any ideas?
this is my adb version:
$adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.32
Revision 09a0d98bebce-android

Can you try with a different USB cable or altogether in a different PC with both same and different USB cable?

@Firelord it's inexplicable.. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.. i'm ok with that but i would like to know a way to debug and understand why

I had this exact problem recently. I plugged the phone directly into the laptop instead of via a USB Docking station. Solved the problem. I have no idea why it does it.


text:
how to transfer a file from within system partition on android to desktop
background
I'm developing an app that downloads files to the device.. some of these files are acting out and to trouble shoot I want to actually transfer these files to my (mac) desktop and go through them.
So this is what I did:

i rooted my device
i know exactly where my file is:
$adb shell
$su
cd /data/user/0/com.app.name.dev/files/34234/
ls

here i get the file name.. let's say it's called
file_name.txt
the problem is when i go to my desktop and do something like

adb -s $device_id pull /data/user/0/com.app.name.dev/files/34234/file_name.txt

i get the error message

remote object '/data/user/0/com.app.name.dev/files/34234/file_name.txt' does not exist

when i know it does!

I also tried using scp from within the android shell command.. but scp doesn't exist there
i tried running adb root and got

adbd cannot run as root in production builds

any help?

it turns out that i simply should use the cp command from within my root android shell.. and copy it to /mnt/sdcard.. the rest is obvious after that


text:
Play music app doesn't find transferred mp3 file in library
I transferred an mp3 file from my PC using SHAREit app to my Android phone. It stored the received file it's own directory (SD1\Android\data\com.google...\files\SHAREit\audio\ on SD card. However I copied that file to another but already existing directory on SD card. Later I removed the file from the SHAREit path.
Now I can play this mp3 by directly going to the current directory and tapping on the file name. But this mp3 can not be seen or played by "Play Music" app.
Can you help me?
Thanking you
Shashidhar

Is there a .no media file in that directory-if yes, try deleting that

Thank you for your reply. However immediately after posting question, I just tried rebooting the android phone. After re-booting, the mp3 file in question was seen and played by the "Play Music" app. So this worked for me. But I didn't understand what .no media file is.
Thank you anyway.
May God bless you
Shashidhar