text:
Where is the battery animation called?
I have a tablet from China, it's a Q8H Allwinner.
It is rooted, and I've browsed the internal storage for hours to find the battery animation, I found them at framework-res.apk...
Now I want to find the file who's calling the animation, so I can add a line with the code "/system/bin/reboot", so the tablet boot up on charging.
Does anyone have a clue on where can I find it?

The battery charging animation is usually a series of images, displayed in the status bar. Assuming that you are talking about them (the images in the status bar), they are animated when an event is broadcast.
Giving some more detail, whenever a charger is connected, an intent is broadcast, which is received by the SystemUI to animate the status bar's battery indicator image. When a charger is disconnected, another intent is broadcast so as to stop the SystemUI from animating the battery indicator images.
All of this is handled by the file BatteryService.java in frameworks/base of the android source.
The other charging animation that you are talking about, is when an image is displayed on the screen when the screen is turned off, but the charger is connected. This is usually known as off-mode charging, which takes over the framebuffer, and draws an image over it, according to two conditions:
1. charger is connected
2. display is turned off
Answering the second part of your question, the former method, BatteryService.java is in userspace, and you can not do much about it; as booting up the phone with only one service, and it showing the charging images. The latter, if exists on your device, would be when your phone is turned off, and connected to a charger, it usually boots up into the recovery, where it is 'checked' at boot time init whether the charger is present/not, and usually, shows the charging images.

The OP's intention is contradictory to your answer: he's looking for a way to boot up on charging.


text:
Search apps list using keyboard
When looking through the list of installed applications I am able to search for an app by name quickly using PC keyboard on Genymotion emulator or when I plug in an USB keyboard to my Galaxy S2 through USB-on-the-go.
But I want to do the search on Galaxy S2 using soft keyboard. How to do this? I am pretty sure that I could do this with soft keyboard because the software "Wi-Fi keyboard" is able to do this. The question is only how to make a soft keyboard appear on the screen.
I have latest official firmware (Android 4.1.2, rooted) available for it.

If your device has the corresponding buttons, long-pressing the menu button should bring up the soft keyboard. Works on my devices, but I'm not sure if that's a general rule.

@Izzy: no, it doesn't call the soft keyboard.

Sorry to read that. It should be able to call up the keyboard via an intent, so you could use some automation app capable of invoking intents (such as Tasker) and define a suiting trigger (e.g. shaking the devices 2 times up/down). That's pretty much all I can think of – unless there's a tool integrating with the notification area, or allow you to customize soft buttons (mostly requiring root for that).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
how do i manually copy my cellphone numbers from my cellphone to my computer
i am having no luck with syncing my phone numbers to my google account.
so i would like to copy the numbers from my cellphone and save them on my computer.
if i connect my computer to my phone.
where do i find all my contact numbers on my phone. it is an LG E975K. i assume the tele numbers are somewhere in 'internal storage'.
i assume i can somehow download the telephone numbers as i do the photographs.
anyone can help?

There are multiple ways to achieve that, some are depending on the OS your computer runs.
Simple VCard exchange
Open your contacts app, open its menu. You should find an item to export your contacts to your device's SDCard (usually in a sub-menu called "Import/Export"). Hitting that will write a file named 0001.vcf or similar to the SDCard toot directory.
Copy that file to your computer. Most contact applications are able to open/import the file, which is using standard VCard format.
Specific application
There are specific applications available for that task, often having an Android app for the device and a specific computer counterpart. The probably most famous of them is MyPhoneExplorer, which not only deals with your contacts, but also calendars and much more. This software requires MS Windows on your computer.
Other Synchronization Services
There are plenty of different "servers" available to synchronize Contacts (and Calendars, and more) between devices. I e.g. use ownCloud with my devices, which gives me complete control over my data. As with the previous item, this requires a local app and a remote component.
Others
You can find a list of possibilities for synchronization in my app listings, specifically: Synchronization of Calendars, Contacts, etc.. My list for Backup apps also has a dedicated section on contacts. Those backups you can copy to your computer then as well, but rarely import to any computer program. If you want to directly access your Android's contact lists from your computer, you might also wish to take a look into Manage your Android Device from your Computer.

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


text:
Why does my cell phone keep getting an error message about my password being wrong or account being changed?
I do not have Google+, I do not have 2 step verification, and I have no data to show in my data tools tab online.  So, why do I keep getting an error message that my password is incorrect or my account has changed?  I didn't change anything, in fact, I never use it.  Have I been hacked?  If so, how can I resolve this so it doesn't keep happening?

That might well be one of the many hickups Google's servers experience every now and then. You can either wait a little, or try a reboot to see whether that helps (did so a couple of times in the past).

First try what Izzy suggested in his comment. If that doesnt help then..
Log out of all Google apps, then...

sign in through appropriate app or..
try to sign in through your browser

If neither will work then remove your Google account from your device and re-add your account. Remember to back up your device prior to doing this, otherwise your contacts, messages, and few other things will be deleted. PlayStore and everything else will be fine.
You might have a connection error after adding your account while validating your info, if so go into your YouTube app and login that way.
That is how I fixed the problem on my device. I was able to sign right in.


text:
Trying to replace a modem but encountering errors
I've been having connectivity problems on my i9505 LTE on every ROM I've tried since August. Searching around reveals that the outdated modem is the source of the troubles, and that by using the latest firmware the problem should cease.
I've downloaded my latest firmware (XXUGNF6) and tried flashing with Mobile Odin Pro. I get the error "Memory lock in place - TriangleAway may fix this. Skipping flash."
To use TriangleAway I have to be on a stock kernel and recovery (I think). However if Mobile Odin can't flash a new modem, it's going to struggle flashing a kernel and recovery right?
First question: by stock, does it mean stock Android (i.e. AOSP?) or stock as in original for my phone (Galaxy S4 i9505 LTE (H3G)?)
Here's the plan of action, do you agree that this should work?

Full wipe and install a stock ROM. This should contain a stock kernel.
TriangleAway reset.
Mobile Odin the latest firmware modem.
Reflash my current ROM

NB: I can't use Odin on PC as I'm at work with no admin rights. Failing this I could try at home. Does anyone think just flashing the modem straight away via PC would work?

Okay solved myself. Solution:
1) Flash stock ROM through Odin on PC. Lost all SD content but retained external SD content.
2) This resulted in a weird encryption thing, so I flashed PhilZ recovery and then flashed a third-party ROM from my external SD.
3) Bootable, and modem is updated because I flashed the newer stock.


text:
How can i access a bricked android tablet system folder from pc?
I have a chinese allwinner a13 tablet. The firmware it had was really slow and couldn't use Google Apps so I decided to install a custom rom for it. I tried several roms, but only some were close to 100% working. Some had no working wifi, and the ones that did have a working wifi had other problems.
The best one I found was one that didn't have a working wifi, but everything else was super smooth. So I decided to try to fix it's wifi.
I am not good with android. I found a wifi fixer for allwinner a13 tablets, but for Cyanogenmod, and I replaced the files in the installed firmware with the ones from the fixer. Now when I try to open the tablet, it is stuck in the Android screen from the beginning of booting.
The tablet is rooted. Is there any way to access the system folder where I replaced the files from my pc, even if the tablet can't boot?

Updates:

the device can still be booted into recovery
the ROM I installed is an .img file and was flashed with LiveSuite. LiveSuite doesn't recognize the tablet anymore when it goes in recovery.
ADB detects the device when booted into recovery (adb reboot-bootloader worked fine as well)
adb shell does not work; obviously shell is part of what got borked by the "broken flash" (adb shell results in a /system/bin/sh' failed: No such file or directory (2))

OK, so it's recognized. Check our adb tag-wiki for some starter first. Try adb shell to access the device local system, explore it using cd and ls. You can adb pull stuff from the device, or adb push stuff to it. Most likely you want to adb push file.ext /system/file.ext (replace file.ext with the real file names, and make sure /system is mounted read-write). If that works out, I'll set up a more verbose answer.

Ouch. That means no shell access – that got borked by your broken install. I hope you know some "explicit file names" which should exist, so you could try an adb pull (not sure whether that depends on shell)? Or you could try placing a dummy file, e.g. adb push dummy.txt /data/local/dummy.txt to see whether that works?

should i get some type of response from adb push? created a dummy.txt in the same windows folder where i extracted the adb, then ran the command, didn't give any error or response. is that good?

and if this means it works and i use push, will the existing files on the device be replaced?

If you've got no error, that should be a good sign. And yes, the files either get replaced – or you will get an error if that's not possible. // Btw: I've just started integrating facts from the comments directly into your question. Let's cleanup comments a little to make it easier to read (you could delete your first 3 comments, as they've become obsolete now ;)

I eventually fixed the tablet. I flashed it using PheonixCard Tool. Though i am back to the original problem: i have a good rom with a non-working wifi and i found another that has a working wifi. how to make the best of these 2 is a little beyond me. Should i make a new post or just continue here with my problem? I appreciate the responses i got here and i hope i will find a solution to my problem.

As that's a completely different topic, it's a separate question. Remember this is not a "forum", but a "Q&A" site ;)

If your device at least boots until the adb daemon starts, you have a change. Try connecting it to your computer and check if it is recognized via: adb devices. If yes you can open a shell by typing: adb shell.
If you flashed a recent Android, I think >=4.3, you will run into authorization problems.
Another way can be to boot this device into recovery, if you recovery still works. You can also use adb, but probably running also into authorization problems.
If adb is not working you are probably running into a kernel panic. Without adb it is kind of impossible to access your system partition.
Edit :
So, as you can boot into recovery you should install ADB(take the link provided in Izzy's comment).
As you are willing to change things on the system partition you should keep in mind that the system partition is usually mounted read-only. In order to remount the system partition read-write you can try adb remount. If this does not succeed you can also try: adb shell; mount -o remount,rw /system. After remounting the system partition read-write you are able to "push" files there via adb push and you can open a shell/console/terminal via adb shell .
If you have knowledge about some basic linux shell tools like dd (try man dd on linux or use google) and you know how your partition layout looks like and you also have the old boot.img, system.img etc files you can "dd/flash" them back to your nand flash, which will restore the old ROM. Also there is proprietary flashing software out there for allwinner devices (I think it is called phoenix suite) which is also able to restore ROMs (keep in mind that you need a proprietary flashing file format here).
The above mentioned dd restore should only be done if you know what you are doing as it may destroy more than it repairs.

tablet can be booted in recovery. if i just turn it on, it goes to a green screen with the android logo and stays there forever. If i can acces the system partition, i will replace the "replaced" files in system with the original ones from the custom rom. I made a backup of them.

I get some mixed emotions with this post, @divided. Thanks for helping out, the post has useful hints – but this is not a forum; on SE sites, answers are for answers, and we use comments to ask for clarifications (which you currently lack the rep for). So with the new facts provided by the OP, please [edit] your post and keep it updated, so it at least ends up as an answer ;) Thanks!

Thanks for your update, @divided! Unfortunately, dd and the likes won't be an option, as sorin has no shell access on the device. Same for the other commands relying on that. Mounting still should be possible via recovery menu, though.


text:
How do I retrieve my contacts from my google account to my phone!
So I saved all my contacts by selecting the google account instead of saving on the phone.
But I removed the accounts from the phone, and when i added back the accounts to the phone, i could not find most of the new numbers..
Please help!

So you Saved contacts to your google account. Then Deleted them from the phone... Then synched to google (deleting them from Google)... then tried to restore them? Is that the flow that happened?

@RossC OP wrote he removed the accounts from the phone, not the contacts. // Paul: Please [edit] your question and add some more details: What device are you using? What Android version is it running? Did anything else change on the device between removing and re-adding the account? May sound stupid, but just to be sure: Have you checked you've added the correct account – just in case you're having multiple accounts?

Also, the contact sync is not instantaneous. The synchronization (especially phone-to-cloud) happens once every 10-15 minutes. If you happen to remove the account before the next scheduled sync occurs, the newly added contacts may be lost.  You could force a manual sync via Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> <your account> -> Menu -> Sync now.

As MemCtrl mentioned, go to http://contacts.google.com and see if your contacts (with the new numbers) are there. If not, you can restore them using "Restore contacts..." option (hit the "More..." button to see it), provided they weren't deleted more than 30 days ago.

Go to contacts.google.com - see if you can find them there. If not, then I'm afraid you're out of luck.


text:
My headphone output suddenly and strangely weakened by half
I was playing yesterday geometry dash with my headphones (because the music is so good!) on my Samsung galaxy s3 mini value edition (i8200) and suddenly, without any interaction, the music weakened by half - but the output, so when I press vol+, hasn't changed.
Therefore when my volume is maximum, I can scarcely hear the music. That's the first time. What I tried:

rebooting. Didn't change anything
removing almost all xposed module.
changing volume steps from 15 to 30 in gravitybox

I have rooted the device and my superuser app are Kinguser and SuperUser. Help me please :)

Is the volume with the headphones unplugged also affected?

@DanHulme nope it's fine this one.

Can you try with some different headphones, to make sure the trouble isn't there?

I tried with Samsung stock headphones but it is no better

Possibly the headphone port has been damaged, the plug getting accidently bent in port


text:
sharing 1 blutooth and 2 devices
I have an automotive OBD2 computer reader connected to a bluetooth elm 327 reader. I can see info on my galaxy 5S or my galaxy tab 2 10.1 tablet.
Is it possible to read on both devices at same time? I have the tablet paired to the OBD2 device and the 5S paired to the tablet.

Bluetooth can only connect two devices at once (please correct if wrong). So in my opinion you can't read on both devices at the same time.


text:
SDCard permission issue
I have a Samsung S3 which I have installed Cyanogenmod on with a view to carry out some procedures with root permissions.
At the minute I am trying to create a .img file of the userdata memory block using the DD command in the adb shell. I have a 32GB SD card which initially was formatted as FAT32 and therefore failed once the .img file reached 4GB. I expected as much but I wanted to check things were going ok before I reformatted the card.
I then formatted the SDCard as ext4 using gparted. I noticed on my ubuntu machine that the card had root ownership so I changed that to user and I can read and write files in nautilus fine.
Switching back to the adb shell, I carried out the same command as below (which is what I previously used when it was formatted as FAT32) and I get a permission error. Its driving me insane, I've tried chown'ing and chmod'ing till the cows come home and still nothing working.
Commands I'm using
$ ./adb shell
shell@mo:/ $ cd dev/block/platform/dw_mmc/by-name
shell@mo:/ $ su
root@m0:/ # dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 of=/storage/sdcard1/userdata.img

#error message is
/storage/sdcard1/userdata.img: cannot open for write: Permission denied

I've tried
chmod 777 /storage/sdcard1

and various other chowning, but still get the same issue. Am I doing something stupid (probably!) but any tips appreciated.
Edit
Relevant output of mount:
/dev/block/vold/179:17 /mnt/media_rw/sdcard1 ext4 rw,dirsync,context=u:object_r:sdcard_external:s0,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_xattr,barrier=1 0 0
/dev/fuse /storage/sdcard1 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

Output of ls -l in storage/
dr-xr-xr-x root     root              2014-10-01 08:15 emulated
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-10-01 08:15 sdcard0 -> /storage/emulated/legacy
drwxrwxr-x root     sdcard_rw          2014-10-01 08:13 sdcard1
drwxrwxr-x system   system            2014-10-01 08:15 usbdisk0

Edit
Output of echo'ing foo to a text file
root@m0:/ # echo foo > /storage/sdcard1/foobar.txt
sh: can't create /storage/sdcard1/foobar.txt: Permission denied

Have you checked the SD card's mount options? Could be flagged as read-only, but you may be able to remount it to fix it. I think external cards get mounted read-only by default on newer versions of Android (not sure about that, though, my device has no SD card slot).

i thought that to be honest, i tried mount -o rw,remount /storage/sdcard1 but again no difference

@eldarerathis I would wonder if they get mounted r/o even with that stupid KK change, as that would render even the systems camera app void – plus the ability of apps to write to their own directories there, which still exists with KK. // m0atz: please check the output of mount, and do a ls -l on the directory where the card is mounted to, plus on the card's root directory. Any notable things that "jump into your face" there?

@Izzy: It must have just been specific to certain devices, then. It was a problem with the Motorola Xoom, and I feel like there were at least a couple other devices that behaved similarly, but I switched to Nexus devices (lacking SD card slots) quite some time ago.

@eldarerathis thanks for the comments, updated question with outputs of mount and ls -l. There's nothing on the sdcard so ls -l in the root directory of the /storage/sdcard1 is empty. Nothing stands out at me to be honest.

@m0atz I've truncated that a little to leave only the relevant stuff in (easier to read/follow). But that looks fine: card is mounted r/w, and the sdcard_rw group (plus root) are granted full access to it. Btw: Your original post doesn't indicate whether your su succeeded (what prompt belongs before the dd call: is it a $ or a #?) – could you please fill that gap? Also: Does a simple echo foo > /storage/sdcard1/foobar.txt, run as root, succeed? Is your system's camera app able to store pictures on the SDCard?

Thanks Izzy - much easier to read as you've suggested. I get a "#" at the prompt following the su but get permission denied when echo'ing foo (question updated). cheers

Also Izzy, tried to set the storage of the camera to default to the SD card and now the camera app crashes. crazy.

@m0atz can you try to echo foo /mnt/media_rw/sdcard1/foobar.txt as root? I think sdcard is mounted two times, second time with fuse that makes permissions harder to understand.

hey Crayon - that worked! I've used that path on my dd command and its running also. Many thanks for the input!

Glad that worked, coming from linux sometimes I find android a bit confusing about permissions.


text:
Link2SD fails for application updates
I have rooted my Xperia M and installed Cyanogenmod 11 (Android 4.4.4). Since the internal memory of my device is limited, I am using Link2SD (3.5.2 free) to link apps on my SD card.
The problem I am facing is when linked apps are updated they just disappear from the installed apps list. Shortcuts on my app drawer say "App not installed". However, the data for the updated apps is still on the SD card (Link2SD -> Cleanup 2nd Partition -> Details).
I have enabled Auto Link on Link2SD, yet whenever Android tries to updates any linked app, it ends up deleting it. How can I fix it? If the problem is with Link2SD then what alternative apps are available?


text:
Permanently disabling Galaxy S3's calling and SMS
I've procured myself a Galaxy S3 and I intend to mess with it.
I'd like to have a phone that runs one app and one app only (mine).
I want to disable calling, texting, app installs. Come to think of it, I still want to be able to receive texts, but not send them.
Removing the base apps isn't necessary as long as they're made non-functional in some other way like crashing on startup or something. Outgoing calls or picking up incoming calls is a no-no.
What's the best way to go about disabling these features?
Here's an "artist's" rendition of what I want to see ideally:

What you're asking for is called kiosk-mode – and your question is almost identical to this one you might wish to check: Is there an empty/clean version of Android for tablets? Quoting: All I want is a tablet that only runs one application (developed by me) Sounds familiar? ;)

Yessir, that answers the question.

Thanks for the update! So we will mark this one a duplicate to it, making it a "reference" to find the other one.


text:
Google account login error
my google account and password is correct but it keeps saying you entered the wrong password or your account has changed. it still has me logged in on the email but this error sign will not go away.

Seems to be an epidemie again, best guess is trouble with some Google servers (not on your end, on theres), as you're not the first one asking this today, or the second …

Log out of email app, then...

sign in through appropriate app or..
try to sign in through your browser

If neither will work then remove your Google account from your device and re-add your account. Remember to back up your device prior to doing this, otherwise your contacts, messages, and few other things will be deleted.
You might have a connection error after adding your account while validating your info, if so go into your YouTube app and login that way.


text:
I have over 2GB of internal memory and can't install or update some apps
I tried to search for some answer but couldn't find anything.
I'm using cyanogenmod-11 on a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini.
I am pretty sure I have enough space on the internal memory, but I still receive the insufficient space message when trying to update and/or install some apps, but not all of them.
What could be the problem?

Probably the /cache partition was full.

Try the fix permissions entry in your custom recovery menu. In most cases this fixes the problem.

I ended up reinstalling the entire opperating system and that solved the problem.

If it happens again, then try this: open the stock dialer (stock phone app); enter *#9900#; from the menu that appears (usually instantaneously, but sometimes it takes a few seconds) choose “Delete dumpstate/logcat" and then try to install or update your apps.


text:
Phone won't turn on - Samsung Galaxy S II
My Galaxy S2 won't turn on. It just keeps flashing the Samsung Galaxy S2 screen.
I turned it off, then held the power button and the down volume button and a screen popped up with the green android. It says "downloading do not turn off target". How long does this take to download?

Ha ha..it just a download mode..it wont download anything(Ofcourse..yes it shows downloading but progressing bar will work when you flash the firware/Os using ODIN). Just press and hold power button or remove the battery and try restarting it. I hope you are using the stock Rom provided by samsung. If you dont want any data press Up + Home + Power and do a wipe and try.

Check out this solution: http://www.widefide.com/mobile/samsung-galaxy-sii-not-booting-heres-the-solution
It was written by me years ago and helped a few who had their S2 bricked.
Follow in order: First soft reset, then hard reset and if it doesn't reboot even afterwards, move on to the third (advanced) step.

As mentioned in comments, you are booting the phone into download mode. So technically your phone is turning on just fine but you are not doing it in the way that boots android.
Instead just press and hold only the power button until you see some flashing or the boot logo appears.
Download mode is like samsungs sort of equivalent to fastboot. It will simply sit there indefinitely until you send it something manually.
If you want to enter recovery, it's power + volume up instead.
If you can't actually boot android using the normal power button only boot, then you'll need to fix your install. You're in the best position if you already have a custom recovery flashed. If not, you'll have to do a more complete restore of the stock OS.

SoftBricked!!!!! You need to re-install everything. Checkout How to restore Samsung Galaxy S2 . Go for XDA one


text:
What is the advantage of making f-droid a system app?
F-droid (0.7) has two options:
One to grant it "root" powers, and another to give it "system-app" powers.
Just using it as a "root" app will let it install apps without going through the whole "Are you sure you want to install this app" page.
What does System-app give it?
I can't test it as it crashes on my phone

I believe this was/is a planned feature for F-Droid, which would essentially give it features similar to the play store where it can auto-update apps, install them and remove them all by itself, without needing user interaction. See this as an explanation - it's the extension which was meant to give F_Droid these priviledges, but as it says in the description:

Note: This is still in a testing phase. Current F-Droid versions do not yet interact with this extension.

Information from the F-Droid Site:
This is for an app called System App Mover, but it's description is correct.

System apps can get more privileges, so some apps get more
  functionality when installed as a system app.
On the other hand, system apps can not be uninstalled. So this app can
  also be used to convert system apps to normal user apps by moving them
  from the /system/app directory to /data/app directory.
WARNING: Uninstalling important system apps might result in a unusable
  device! Use this function at your own risk and only if you know what
  you're doing!

See What do android application permissions mean. There are some permissions that have a "level" of "system". Those can only be used by applications that are "system" applications. I do not know why f-droid would need them. Maybe the INSTALL_PACKAGES permission. This would allow f-driod to install an application, like Google Play does, instead of sending the Install request off to the Package Manager application.

System apps can get more privileges, so some apps get more functionality when installed as a system app. What extra privileges does f-droid need that root doesn't give it?

I have updated my answer to include a little more information pertaining to your comment.


text:
Copying the youtube url
Is there a way I could simply copy the url of a youtube video to the clipboard in android 4?
I discovered that it is possible if you install the Google drive app (13.5MB) which adds the option "Copy to clipboard" under the sharing options, but this seems a waste of space for what should be a simple functionality.

Assuming that it's impossible to do this natively (no "Copy to clipboard" function), is it okay to install similar app that's much smaller than Google Drive app?

I agree with Andrew, we have to use 3rd party app. Clipper - Clipboard Manager is less than 3 MB. You can also try Pocket/Google Keep.

@Andrew T.:Thanks for the suggestion. I thought there would be an xposed module or something for such a thing, but I was wrong.

Are you talking about copying the video url from within the YouTube app itself?  If so, there's a workaround.

You tag 4.4-kitkat, and I'm with the Nexus 4 on 4.4.4 kitkat and I have "Copy to clipboard" in the "Share" button. In Chrome when i share the page and in the YouTube app when I share the video. I share it with Google Keep and from the Chrome it's save (only) the url, and within the YouTube app it's save the title and the url.

Yes, I suppose the Gapps package includes the Google Drive app, which has that option. Forgot to mention I'm on root and minimal Gapps.

There are several options out there, but nothing native.  Share to Clipboard by Alexey Lyubeznov is a much smaller app than Google Drive - only 11 kb - and doesn't require any special permissions. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sharetoclipboard

Perfect! By the looks of it (icon), this app is also used in the Google Drive app?

It's slightly different, but close. I doubt it's the same code, but it has the same result.


text:
HOW TO REMOVE INBUILT CALL RECORDER
I have I ball andi 3.5 kke winner, andriod 4.2.2. I want to remove inbuilt call recorder permanently. There is a logo "REC" on calling screen, showing recording time.
I have rooted my phone and tried Titanium Backup , Rom Toolbox Lite , Simple Root Uninstaller , SD Maid ,there is no apps having word "Call apps" etc.
Any idea to remove/uninstall inbuilt call recorder permanently ?
Thanks !


text:
What is "Android Night Mode", what triggers it, and what are the consequences?
I've just been reading in the tasker UserGuide on variables:

Night Mode
  %NIGHT
  The current Android Night Mode.
  One of on, off or auto.
  If auto, Android will decide whether it should be in Night Mode itself.

Which raised the question: What is "Android Night Mode"? Obviously it is something Android itself implements and decides on whether it is active or not (mode: auto), and that decision can be overruled (mode: on/off). But what exactly does that mean to the user? What triggers it (time? light conditions?), and what are the consequences (mute? dim?)?
I've done a Google search on the terms – but all that came up with were either apps to toggle "night mode", or apps having a "night theme".
I've checked our site for questions on "night mode", but found no complete answer to my question there. Some indicators, though:

How does Google Maps Navigation know you are in a tunnel when it switches to night mode? indicates light conditions might be part of the equation, and the consequences involve adjustments to screen brightness – but I'm not sure whether that's all to it.
Is there an easy way to switch render effects? suggests there's a specific setting for it at least with cyanogenmod: Options › Cyanogen › Interface offers "night mode" and "blue" for "rendering mode" (uh?) at least. But seeing the path, this one is obviously a CM specific thing.
all other questions just had the words "night" and "mode", but were not referencing "night mode" (e.g.: "I have airplane mode enabled at night").

Is there any complete answer to my question?

"Night Mode" is actually pretty intuitive as far as the name goes.
The OS basically attempts to estimate both sunrise and sunset, based on the current date and your latitude relative to the equator. It then determines that it is "night" if the current time falls either before sunrise or after sunset.
You can find the code for this in the base frameworks, specifically in the TwilightCalculator. There is an associated service that attempts to refresh this sunrise/sunset data in the background if you move around, called TwilightService.
In the latter file, you can also see what Android does in the event that it does not have an accurate location (I would assume this occurs if you turn off location access and such):
// In the case there is no location available (e.g. GPS fix or network location
// is not available yet), the longitude of the location is estimated using the timezone,
// latitude and accuracy are set to get a good average.

It later sets the latitude value to 0 for the calculation, which would be the equator.
It also tries to schedule updates so that they only run at day/night boundaries if you're not moving around much. For example, if it's the middle of the day and it's already calculated sunset,  it won't run again until after sunset has passed (and if it's nighttime, it will run after tomorrow's calculated sunrise).
The affects of entering "Night Mode" are entirely app dependent. There is an API that lets apps query this information if they so choose, as well as APIs to instruct the system as to which UI modes they will support. It has no real immediate impact on the system itself, though.

Thanks, eldarerathis! That was about what I already expected, but didn't find any proof for so far. As I never noticed any related "behavior": do you know of anything to "test" this? Is there e.g. a specific part of Android itself where it should be reflected, or did you notice any apps making use of this? What are possible/expected reactions (what should it be good for)? I mean, first thing coming to mind is display related stuff, but I'd guess that rather uses the ambient light sensor or the like to "kick in" (makes more sense to me at least).

I can't list definitively any apps that use this, aside from Tasker's ability to expose this to you (as you already have seen). One simple test would be to create a task that's based on the %NIGHT variable and try it in a dark room during the middle of the day. Throwing together an app to test it wouldn't be too hard, as well, because it's just a resource specifier (search this page for "notnight").

Also, Google Maps does appear to use this, at least outwardly. Whether or not it uses some other data/calculations on top of night mode is not entirely clear, but if you're using the navigation at nighttime it uses a dark theme (black background and such instead of white).

And that theming stuff is what I've wondered about. To me, it makes no sense binding that to "time", but rather to light conditions. So I was wondering what that night-mode stuff could be useful for. Currently it rather looks to me like "some fancy thing without real use" – so why would that be built into Android's core? For the Google Maps example I already mentioned the "tunnel"; passing such is not depending on daytime or night, so I take that rather as a theming thing using the same term, but not the same "feature".


text:
All app icons not showing up in my home screen
I have a Spice Mi-429 which I bought a few days ago. Since I was not an android user before buying this phone, I am unable to understand some features of the phone.
This phone is Android Kitkat 4.4, 1Ghz Processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM.
Currently I am unable to set the icon shortcut of apps in home screen. Apps like Hangouts, YouTube, GMail are not showing up on the Home screen since they are already installed. I have to go to App Manager > All Apps > YouTube > Launch them.
Can anyone help me with it???
Here are the screenshots of my phone..

Click images for larger versions

the apps on the homescreens in Android are to all intents and purposes shortcuts, and not the apps themselves.
You should but don't have an icon in your dock (the lowermost part of the homescreen) that opens this app drawer.
The icon usually looks a bit like this:
http://cs3-1.4pda.to/4714358.png
This image shows: Google Now, then your homescreen, note the middle icon on the bottom, and then the App Drawer opened (very right of image). This is the list of all your applications.
You could try (I don't have a similar device) long pressing on a free part of a homescreen and see if you can add an action, or shortcut to the app drawer.
Alternatively a launcher like Nova Launcher or indeed Google's own "Google Now Launcher" are free and have this option.
Here is an example of adding an action in Nova Launcher which might help point you in the right direction (note app drawer):

Hi their, thanks for the reply, yes your answer is right in that sense but in my phone it shows no icon like that, in fact all app shortcuts are embedded in homescreen only and i am using a default android launcher...

@SaurabhLP it's not a default android launcher it's spices version of one and is recommend replacing it. Nova launcher and others are far superior, try a few they're mostly free!

yes you were right, its a launcher issue, i have downloaded GoogleNow Launcher, its shown that icon, thanks for the answer...

@SaurabhLP Great, glad to hear it's working! I like the Google Now launcher, then dislike it, then like it again! I've always been a fan of Nova but I do like the Now integration in Google's launcher. Great thing is they are mostly free!

I do not like the App-drwaer that came with my phone,so started using Google Now Launcher.After installing you may have to set up your apps/widgets on homescreen again, but it's quite simple using the round center button.
Note: After installing, I had to clear cache on my current browser before launching this.


text:
Phone on, No Display
So my aunt told me to fix her android phone and here's the problem. After the android logo and text splash screen during the boot up, the screen is all black but I can still open applications ( just by randomly tapping the screen ) and I know they work.
Is it a hardware related problem?

I don't think it's a hardware problem at all, if you can see the splash screen. Maybe there's something wrong with the firmware. Maybe you could do a Factory Reset, or re-flash the custom ROM.

Dont rule out a corruption on the proximity sensor value.

At what point does the screen go black? There should be a bootloader screen, then your boot animation, then a screen that states Android files are getting ready with a rotating circle, then your home screen should load. If after boot animation, you'll be able to get in and be able to see recovery to do a factory reset. Clean cache and dalvik cache first and reboot, see if that fixes it before reset---- first try to put a bright light over the proximity sensor and see if the screen becomes visible.

I think you need to flash stock rom in your device , the working of applications ensures that your device is not bricked.You might not be able to boot your phone in recovery mode which will not allow you to Factory Reset(you woun't see any content displayed due to splash screen) so you need to flash stock rom by third party applications from PC such as SP Flashtools,Odin,etc according to your device.

Perhaps some application turned down your screen brightness for everything.  If you have a widget to change the screen brightness you may know where that button on the home screen panels is located and can turn brightness way up until you remember what was done.  I notice a long press on an unfilled up panel on home screen will bring up a menu where the white background is really white, so if you can read that you might be able to get further help somehow from that knowledge.  I had a browser app that blackened just  itself and had to clear out all data just for that app.

@dmcritchie the long press on home screen will only show a white background if your theme allows it, otherwise like my theme its black.


text:
Validate a OTA.zip
Can i validate a ota.zip for my phone?
I want to check, if a downloaded OTA from somewhere origins to the manufacurer.
I thought about signatures.

Signatures will be checked in the recovery, stock recovery will not install anything not signed by the OEM. What about the MD5 of the file with the manufacturer?

Ok i found that inside of OTA is file updater-script which checks the apk´s. But for me i want to check the whole .zip file. I found PEM certificate inside the OTA named otacert. My Android has the same stored in /security/etc/otacerts.zip
But i dont no how i could manually validate the ota.zip with a checksum and or the certificate.

Found a solution. It is all explained on http://nelenkov.blogspot.de/2013/04/android-code-signing.html
I compared the PEM certificate within the ota.zip (META-INF/com/android/otacert) with the one stored on my phone in /security/etc/otacerts.zip.
To verify the whole ota.zip wit openssl:
openssl smime -verify -in /META-INF/CERT.RSA -inform DER -content ota_seperated.zip otacert.pem

Since the OTA is signed with jarsigner (or at least it's in the same format), you can also just do jarsigner -verify update.zip -certs -verbose, where update.zip is the OTA update.


text:
How can Android keep a TCP connection alive when changing network provider?
I'm curious about how Android can keep a TCP connection alive while I'm switching from 3G (mobile data) to WiFi and vice versa.
I'm asking this after I seen that I had an uninterrupted radio stream thought TuneIn radio.
Is that valid only for TuneIn (via some code workaround) or is it a cool feature in the Android API calls?

A TCP connection cannot be kept alive during a network change, since you get a new IP address, causing all connections being terminated.
TCP builds upon IP to get the data delivered. If you change networks you also change your public IP address which is used by the TCP connection to let TuneIn deliver data to you.
This invalidates the current connection and forces you to establish a new one.
But there is still a chance of getting an uninterrupted audio stream. The TuneIn app most likely buffers the stream for two or three seconds to compensate for connection hiccups or even a reconnection.

TuneIn Radio can buffer up to 30 seconds in settings, so switching from WiFi to 3G and vice versa will not interupt the playability. Only if you had a weak 3G connection would you notice any pauses or other issues with play.

Also they may use UDP for delivering streams.

One of the newest solutions to this problem is MPTCP (Multi-Path TCP) . But this one is also not yet widely supported (Apple's iOS7 supports Multipath TCP for its traffic generated by Siri).
MPTCP can stablish multiple sub TCP connections and if supported by devices on a connection, then The connection can be kept even if your IP changes (Wifi to 3G/4G and vice versa).
If you want to know more about MPTCP, read the following article:
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2591369

While the answers given so far are true in current practice and certainly when switching between your mobile internet provider and home internet provider, both IPv4 and IPv6 do have mobility solutions, IPv4 by extension and IPv6 natively. They enable a mobile user to have a static home IP address and a dynamic mobile IP address which allows TCP connections to be maintained while moving from network to network.  The details can be found in the RFCs below:
Wikipedia
Mobile IP for IPv4 RFC
IPv6 RFC
As far as the current deployment of these mobility solutions go, I am not aware of any, and I am not able to find anymore information.  I would assume IPv4 mobility's solution is too cumbersome to deploy (it was an afterthought after all) and there aren't enough IPv4 addresses to go around as it is, let alone for mobile hence the heavy NAT utilization, so it won't ever be used.  As for IPv6 and the reasons for its lack of widespread deployment is more difficult to speculate on, I would guess that with much of the web still on IPv4 and thus heavy use of IPv4 to IPv6 translation, the mobile solution could be tough to deploy in this environment.  Regardless, even if a mobile provider did support the above, both your home and mobile provider would need some level of support, and home ISPs don't have any monetary incentive in this regard.
TL;DR TCP connections do break on your phone when changing networks (and thus network providers); however, there are mobility solutions that address this issue, but they haven't been deployed (at least not widely).
PS A better test of TCP connection breaking is a voice or video call (over data obviously).  Music and movies can be buffered and the IP address transition is not noticed; however, calls cannot.

There's no way to keep a TCP connection alive if your IP address changes (and it will change when going from 3G to WiFi). You don't need uninterrupted connection for uninterrupted playback though - most "radio" apps prebuffer some data to keep the music playing even when you lose connection for a while.

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


text:
How can I check whether my phone is network locked (Samsung GALAXY S3)?
I have a Samsung GALAXY S3 with a rooted Android 4.1.2. My network provider is AT&T.
I tried dialing *#7465625# but it doesn't work:

At the end of most unlock procedures is a way to verify that the procedure worked. So find a procedure that matches to your phone, OS, baseband, etc., and see if they tell you at the end.

You could try an app to do this, Samsung have removed/changed some of the Dialer codes on the Galaxy range.
GalaxSim Unlock seems to do what you want, it checks if SIM locked, and offers an in-app purchase to SIM unlock. Please note I have not tested this app.
You could also pop in a SIM from a friend's device that is on another network and that should tell you pretty quick!

Thanks, it does look good but ironically it's not compatible with my device "This app is incompatible with all of your devices." :/

That... Makes no sense!! D'oh! Let me look for alternative methods!

It is also not compatible with my Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900A :/

You can check easier just asking a friend to lend you their sim from another carrier for a minute, insert it and if it is locked the phone will ask you for a code.

To use this method you need to update your S3 to 4.1.1 Jelly Bean which was released on December 3, 2013 by Samsung:

dial the following keys *#197328640#
Main Menu > 1 UMTS > 1 Debug Screen > [8] Phone Control > [6] Network Lock > Options [3]Perso SHA256 OFF
After choosing this option, wait about 30 seconds, then go back one step by pressing the Menu button then select Back, now you are in [6] Network Lock then choose [4] NW Lock NV Data INITIALLIZ: wait for a minute then reboot your phone.

(I personally don't have the [4] NW Lock NV Data INITIALLIZ, but I guess it might help others)


text:
No way to acess menu buttons on recovery mode - SM-T530NU
my SM-T530NU running on Android™ KitKat 4.4 has a "Device memory damaged" problem. I tried to factory reset via recovery mode but when I enter the recovery mode (by pressing power, volume up and home buttons) I only see the Android guy laying down with the exclamation point but without the menu options.
How do I get the menu buttons?! That way I could reset to factory mode and it would be okay again!
Thanks

It sounds like it's failing to boot into recovery, which means the problem is too big to fix with a factory reset. You might need to re-flash the stock ROM.

Try holding the Volume Down button. Keep holding the button, and then also press the power key for 3-4 seconds. Release both buttons.

so hold menu button and volume up and power on once you see the sasmung logo release the power button and hold the home key and volume up button unless you see the rest option worked for me on the SM T530NU


text:
Power button not working on Asus Zenfone 5
I bought an Asus Zenfone a few days ago and it was working well for 2 daysT the system asked to install an update and I agreed and installed it. Now the power button is not working at all.
Could it be a hardware or software issue? What should I do?
Device information:
Model Number : ASUS_T00J
Android Version : 4.3
Software Build Number : ASUS_T00J_WW_user_1.18.40.9_20140827_0215

As it's still new, your best bet is to take it back to the shop

I had the same problem. Was working fine until the update.
To fix it I had to reset the phone: Settings/Backup & reset. Make sure all of your data is backed up before you do it. After the reset it is working fine.
I considered running it flat & see if it would work on restart but if it didn't then it would be a lot harder to reset - manually through pc.
Hope this helps.
Update
I changed my case during this process & have just changed it back. Same symptoms started happening - it seems that the power button on the case is placing too much pressure on the switch & by picking up or moving the phone it is sometimes enough to activate the button. Changing the case back & everything works fine again.
My original case was fine. The problem one was the asus flip cover case. Looking inside at the buttons I noticed that the materials were slightly different.
I would suggest trying your phone without any case & see if you still get problems.


text:
Where is the Widget menu in Kit Kat?
I've got a Nexus 5 running Android 4.4.4 and I've downloaded a few Widgets, but if I open up the main app menu, I have no Widgets tab at the top and cannot find them.
I've tried rebooting, as recommended in the description on the play store but that didn't fix it.
Google seems to only offer app-specific advice and I can't find anything for the one I'm most interested in.
Here's a screenshot:

This is off-topic for SU, so I've voted to migrate it to the Android SE site. Having said that - go to your home screen and hit the menu button on your device, it'll pop up a Wallpapers, Widgets and Themes menu.

@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 thanks! I had no idea there was an Android specific SE, but I guess I'm not surprised.

I figured it out; I forgot you can hold down on a blank spot on the 'desktop' and it'll pull up a new screen for Widgets, Wallpapers, or Settings. I was able to access it there.

Also IIRC pressing or long pressing the menu/recent apps button will also bring up this menu and allow you to add widgets. I don't have nexus to hand at the moment but it works on the HTC / Samsung Google Edition devices.


text:
How do I get my Android tablet on my network without getting stuck in a reboot loop?
I recently acquired an Android tablet PC (this thing: http://yourfirstsmartphone.com/android-tablet-pc/). I have not altered it at all from the factory fresh settings (in fact in attempt to solve the problem I'm having I did a factory reset) and yet whenever I attempt to connect to a wifi network the tablet will reboot, the os will load and work for about 30 seconds, then it will reboot again and the same thing just goes on endlessly. It's running on android version 4.4.2, firmware is version 4.4v2.0, kernel version 3.4.39 Ipp@Android #252. What do I do?

The website you've linked to is just a photo. It doesn't tell us anything about the device.

what else is there to tell about the device other than the model, the version of the android os it runs on, the firmware version, and the kernel version? What else do you need?

The model would be a good start, but the photo looks like an unbranded one, so you might not be able to get help anyway.

The model is literally called "Android Tablet PC"... It's a Chinese thing I think... the user instructional book is very badly translated. Here is a video review on the device, however the device reviewed is using a different os. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os2RBn2h0k8

What do I do?

Send it back. You've bought a computer that doesn't work, and fixing the problem is the responsibility of the vendor.

I didn't say I bought it. I said I acquired it, I won it in a contest. Can't return it. Besides my pride as a nerd is at stake, if I can't fix my own device than what kind of nerd am I? (not a very good one that's for sure)

@WorryRick nerd pride +1, good one. You'll have to find out what the chipset is. From there you can Google the chipset and hopefully find a forum relating to you device. It sounds like firmware is borked. Good luck.


text:
How to turn off or disable text font anti aliasing or smoothing globally or just for one app?
How do I turn off font smoothing globally or just for one app like firefox?
Can it be done with a mod like cyanogenmod or xposed framework?


text:
Is there a way to map/translate a pattern-lock to a numeric PIN?
I just encrypted my Moto X (Gen 1) (KitKat 4.4.4) using the default encryption option from the Settings > Security menu. After the encryption process finished, it asks me, "Type password to decrypt storage". Only there's one problem: it never asked me for a password.
It seems I'm not the only one who experienced this. I've tried my Google password like 3 times, and, like that other poor soul, I haven't been able to find a way to map my pattern-lock to a PIN, which might be what Android used for the encryption.
For the mappings, I have tried a standard phone dial pad:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

and a standard keyboard numpad:
7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3

and a wild guess based on how a developer might do it:
0 1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8

Presumably, though not necessarily, Android stores that pattern as a string or number somehow. Given a certain unlock pattern, how do I find the string or number that represents that pattern?

To the moderators: I'm fine deleting this question if it's not on-topic. I think the question would have been on-topic if the answer fixed my problem. I'm not sure how you guys see that.

I downloaded the Android source and found the answer. The wild guess turns out to be right. This is the mapping:
0 1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8

If your pattern is from top-left to top-right (0->1->2) then down to bottom-right (2->5->8), the string version of the password is "01258".
The source for this comes from LockPatternUtils in package com.android.internal.widget:
/**
 * Serialize a pattern.
 * @param pattern The pattern.
 * @return The pattern in string form.
 */
public static String patternToString(List<LockPatternView.Cell> pattern) {
    if (pattern == null) {
        return "";
    }
    final int patternSize = pattern.size();

    byte[] res = new byte[patternSize];
    for (int i = 0; i < patternSize; i++) {
        LockPatternView.Cell cell = pattern.get(i);
        res[i] = (byte) (cell.getRow() * 3 + cell.getColumn());
    }
    return new String(res);
}

where the rows and columns are both {0,1,2}.
However, as I said in my question, I tried this mapping with my pattern, and it doesn't work to unlock my encryption. This turned out to be a dead end, but I hope this answer is helpful to others with a similar problem. (Note again that the other person who had this problem also tried to find the pattern-lock to PIN mapping, but the answer wasn't out there.)

Good info, thanx +1, if you get the right answer please edit your answer for the rest of us struggling with this issue.

I realize this thread is really old, but I actually used this info to much success! This is the correct grid to translate 3x3 pattern locks into a pin:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

This work on my Oneplus 3 running Resurrection Remix 6.0.1. Long story short, I enabled decrypt password on boot, but upon restarting it gave me the password option. This grid worked like a charm!


text:
Mp3 not showing in library
I spent an hour trying to get this to work so I could get some sleep in my noisy hospital bed last night.
I wanted to listen to some noise on loop. I downloaded some waves lapping type music.
It's on my internal SD and is an mp3.
Clicking the file in Astro browser doesn't open the file in a player fully but only a popup preview window. It's in the foreground, doesn't offer many controls and stops playing when the focus is removed.
Searching for the file in all 3 of my players doesn't result in anything, even after a restart. I have also tried a SD card rescan utility from the play store.
Music apps I tried were Fusion, Bubble UPNP and the Samsung Music App. All of which seem to rely on some internal media index. Frustratingly I can't simply browse to the file from inside the apps, I have to search the library.
It should not take an hour and a post to here to figure out how to manually play a simple file, added to my phone in such a way.
It would be great if it were like Windows or osx and allow the user to "Open with... ",  and then select the app.
 I know you can dig in and change this, but it's a more permanent solution for a temporary requirement.
Anyway I must be loosing my mind:)
How can I add this file to my library from within Android or otherwise open this file in a full player to make use of controls like loop etc?

Update from a comment on an answer:
It's mp3, and plays in the popup player just fine. Perhaps the tags are corrupted and somehow blocking it from appearing in the library. I tried an mp3 tag utility and it can't see the file in the folder. So perhaps it is corrupt in some way.

How did you download it? Usually the downloading app should cause the new file to be added to what you call the "internal media index" without any action on your part.

Firefox, then I moved it to its own folder,  then tried the music folder.

As already suggested your files are most likely wrong tagged or not tagged at all.
In order to be recognized by apps relying on meda scanning, mp3 files need to contain at least a valid "title" id(3) tag.
On linux you can check your file with the tool "eyeD3" which can be installed on debian based distris from the package: eyed3
A simple:

eyeD3 /path/to/mp3/file

should give you all id information.
If there is no title tag you can tag by:

eyeD3 -t yourtitle /path/to/mp3/file

If you push this file now to your device and perform a reboot it should be recognized by the media scanner.

Does anyone know why players insist on not showing mp3's that aren't tagged? Why do they care?? What speaks against just doing the obvious thing and picking up ALL mp3 files?

If it doesn't turn up in the library even after a reboot (which should definitely have triggered the media scanner to add it to the library), the only reason I can think of is some .nomedia file being in the path. You can try to analyze that (finding whether there is one), or...
There are media players not using the library, mainly for FolderPlay & AudioBooks. Using one of those, you can navigate to that folder from within the app, and play the files. If that doesn't work either, the files might be corrupted or using an unsupported format.

It's mp3, and plays in the popup player just fine. Perhaps the tags are corrupted and somehow blocking it from appearing in the library. I tried an mp3 tag utility and it can't see the file in the folder. So perhaps it is corrupt in some way.

Especially that tagging problem is an important detail, so I've copied that information into your original question. I'd try copying the file to your computer to check with some other MP3 software. There are tools recognizing errors in MP3 files and giving detailed information on those – but that's no longer an Android issue then: if you need closer details on this issue, maybe SuperUser is a good place to ask (make sure to check their /help/on-topic first to confirm).

Had the same problem with file downloaded from Torrents. Wondering who put it there.

I found an album that android would refuse to recognise, until I renamed the files. I'm guessing android doesn't like the three dots (elipsis):
Original name:

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - 05 - The Rest Will Follow

New name:

05 - The Rest Will Follow

To be exact, Android (and Unix) doesn't like file that starts with dot. Related: What are dot-files? on our sister site, Ask Ubuntu.


text:
Android Wear Bluetooth Version Issue
I recently bought a Moto 360, and whilst waiting for it to arrive, have been prepping my other development gear. I have an Android device running 4.4 (4.3 is required) and the Android Wear app installed, although my device only has Bluetooth 2.0.
Will Android Wear function with the lower level of Bluetooth? I haven't been able to find any definite answers crawling the web (they all say Bluetooth is backwards compatible), but I am wondering if Android Wear requires it?

You can visit http://g.co/WearCheck on your phone to see if it supports Android Wear.


text:
How to setup a Tasker profile to switch ariplane mode at night UNLESS I actually use the phone?
I'd like to switch all radio communications off for night, that is airplane mode.
However, sometimes I drive during night, sometimes I stay awake for late. So it is difficult to set it up just with specified hours. My clever idea is to use more conditions (contexts) than just time.
PROBLEM - definition
How to setup a Tasker profile to keep all radios off during specified night hours UNLESS I actually use the phone?
In a simplistic example, the "usage of phone" could be defined as "screen is ON". But how about if I'm downloading something, or making a phone/skype call while driving on a motorway during night (and I wish the screen to be off to save battery).
So a more specific definition of "phone in use" would be a combination of:

screen is on OR
pending GSM phone call OR
pending skype call (or I'm logged into skype account) OR
pending download via GooglePlay store (or a downloading manager) OR
at least one active Bluetooth connection.

So the tasker profile should do the following actions

run within, say, 22:00 and 07:00, and
check if one of the above conditions are true.
if false (i'm not using the phone), switch all radio communications
off
if true (I'm using the phone) then do nothing
however as soon as ALL of those conditions switch to false, switch all radio off

Please let me know how you would approach it. I know each phone is different, and I know I need to play around with a Tasker for a while, but as much as I'm good in logical thinking, doing this in a graphical mode instead of text mode seems a bit non-intuitive at the beginning...
MY PHONE SPECIFICATION:

Samsung galaxy s4 GT-i9505
Android 4.4.2
device not rooted (I want to double check one thing with the retailer
before I can root the phone).

I would create a Profile for each of your preconditions, as well as an entrance Task for each one. The task would simply set a variable (separate for each task).
Then, have an exit task for each precondition. It would clear its own specific variable, and then run the "Airplane Mode" Task.
The "Airplane Mode" task would check all precondition variables. If any are set, do nothing. However, if they are all clear, and the current time is between 22:00 and 07:00, it can safely activate airplane mode.
Finally, have another Profile for the time. When 22:00 rolls around, it will simply run the "Airplane Mode" task. Another one for 07:00 will run "Normal Mode" which would simply deactivate airplane mode.

I don't think Tasker can check conditions for all of the specific preconditions you mentioned (such as a pending Google Play download), but the logic should work as long as you find the proper conditions to use.


text:
How do I root my Dell Venue 3830 tablet?
I went here:
http://opensource.dell.com/releases/Venue_8_3830_CloverTrail_plus/developer-edition/
and did all this successfully: http://opensource.dell.com/releases/Venue_8_3830_CloverTrail_plus/developer-edition/Dell%20Tablet%20Install%20Instructions.pdf
Note the last step
"13. Now you are done and the bootloader is unlocked and YOU HAVE ROOT ACCESS. "
Then I adb shell & su at the shell prompt:
shell@yellowtail:/ $ su
and I get this:
CANNOT LINK EXECUTABLE: could not load library "libbinder.so" needed by "/system/bin/su"; caused by "libbinder.so" has u
nexpected e_machine: 3
I repeated all of the above again just to make sure I did it correctly.
My questions:
Do I (as the Dell Doc'n says) or do I not have root access?
If no how do I get it?
If yes, how do I get it?

I rooted my 3730 using MyKitBatch from social-design-concepts on XDADevs. It is just a root, not a ROM so it is model agnostic. It hasn't been updated in a year but it works with the 3730 and 3830.
If it doesn't work the OP/dev of mykit created this which they also claim has 3830 support, I have never tested it.

ok...thanks but I've got questions:
I went here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096/post57543924#post57543924
It says to do this:
"make sure you have download the latest : UPDATE-SuperSU-vX.Xx.zip and place it on your internal or external_sd."
I'm confused. Are they saying to place the entire zip onto the device? or just the "Superuser.apk" w/in the .zip?

I believe that the script wants the entire ZIP but it wouldn't hurt to put both the zip and the apk.


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Truncated text from NFC tag
The NTAG216 can hold 800+ bytes of information.  But when I scan it with my Samsung S4, it will only show 5 lines of text followed by an ellipses (...) which is at most about 270 bytes.  I've tried it with 2 other Samsungs and an LG with the same result, so I think it's an Android issue. Even if you only put one character per line, it will only show five lines of text.  If I use an app it shows the full content of the tag, so I know all the content is on the tag and the hardware is reading it, Android just chooses to only show 5 lines.
I need the phone (any NFC phone) to show the entire contents of the tag, and I need it to work without using an app.  Any suggestions?

Why do you need it to work without an app? Phones that have NFC usually have a built-in NFC reader, but those are also apps.

This is a limitation of the Tags app that is included in Android by default. The Tags app will display at most 5 lines of text for any text-type NDEF record. You can't get around this limit as it is hard-coded into the Tags app. Consequently, you won't get around using a customized app for that purpose.

What a pity that OP did not accept this answer :-(  Take my upvote


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Tasker: How to disable profile while phone is locked
guys, I have started using Tasker,and I absolutely love it.
I figured out I could write a recipe for me to start Google Now bt simply shaking the phone, and it worked.
One problem, though. If the phone is locked and the display is off, shaking the phone won't start the app, obviously, but if the phone is locked but the display is on - in lock screen -  if I shake the device, it won't unlock, fortunately, but I hear the Google Now beep,and as soon as I unlock my phone, Google Now is there, open, and I have to cope with constant beeping while I'm running listening to music,or receiving a whatsapp text (what makes the display on while it's locked sometimes), and I always have to close the Google Now app, cause it will launch as soon as I unlock my phone, even if I accidentally shook the device even when it's locked.
What I want to do is have this profile disabled when the phone is locked, regardless of wether the screen is on our not. I have explored all the apparent solutions, and I have come to a conclusion that it can probably only be solved with a var (which I can't write).
Any ideas?

Here is a fairly simple solution that does not require the use of a variable.
You will need to set up two additional profiles and also ensure that you name the profile you created to trigger on your shake context.  To name your existing profile, if you haven't already, long press on the profile and then touch the A on the top bar to name it - let's use 'Google Shake' for this example.  In order to control the status of a profile through a task action it must have a name.
The first new profile you need will trigger on Display Off.  The associated task should set the Profile Status (find this under Tasker in actions) of your Google Shake profile to Off.
The second new profile you need will trigger on Display Unlocked (rather than Display On).  This will ensure that it only runs when the device is actually unlocked rather than the display turning on and remaining on the lock screen.  The associated task should set the Profile Status of your Google Shake profile to On.
That's it!  Test it out.  Note that it may take a second or two for the Google Shake profile to be turned off and on when the two triggers happen so don't shake too quickly after turning the display off and/or unlocking it.

Thanks. Happy to help. You can indicate that the answer worked and is accepted by checking it.


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Asus Transformer Tab tf300t stuck on asus screen. No ADB, no fastboot, no recovery, no os
I'm very happy with cm11 on my Galaxy s3 so i wanted to try it on my tf300t.
First i unlocked the bootloader which i succeeded in doing.
Then i flashed clockworkmod recovery via adb.
However, when i tried to enter the recovery, it didn't work. So i tried a couple of more times by turning the tablet off and re-trying to enter recovery.
That's when it all got terrible. While is was in fastboot mode (i had the three options of RCK, android and wipe) and i was trying to select "Android" with volume down but i pressed on too many and got "Wipe data" selected. Couldn't go back. And since then my device is stuck on the ASUS logo. Now it looks just like this:
http://srv1.jpg.co.il/7/52e6c1d38d07a.jpg http://srv1.jpg.co.il/7/52e6c1d38d07a.jpg
And everytime i try to restart it just goes to this screen. I even tried manually resetting it with a paperclip. So now i'm kinda hopeless.
Please Help me!


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Note 3, Android 4.4.2, forgets wifi password
since an update 5 months ago my note 3 occasionally forgets my wifi passwords. Sjnce I have it set to jump to 4G cell data, I am accidentally using up my mobile data allowance.
This happens only every 2-3 weeks and I cannot find any logic to it.
Is there a way to see what has occured?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
PS. It is an Australian Telstra branded unrooted phone.

As always, there are several things that could cause this. I'm just trying to guess some:

Prior to Android 4.3 Wifi passwords were stored in a plain text file (no hash) on the device. In the beginning shell access was enough to get the passwords. Later on, they made it read only by system users.
Starting with Android 4.3 Samsung added this file to the Knox secure storage partition. If you have an (access) issue with knox or it's partition, the wifi password was lost. Even if you were never using Knox. It's also the only thing not working if you remove knox.
As fare as I know, google did something about the wifi passwords too in newer Android versions.
Perhaps you were changing a knox setting or password?
chances are high it's just a bug in the wpa_supplicant binary of your firmware, the csc or Samsung binaries.
Try to get latest updates.
do you loose all wifis stored? Or just one? Could it be your router?


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What's the point of disabling USB HOST?
After searching and debuging like an idiot, I found out that my phone has the USB host installed but disabled. Is this the default on Android? If so, is there a security reason behind it – or what is the point here?

I thought there's a security reason. Such reasons are surelly imposed by android, not manufacturers. Manufacturers have a android based reason, don't they?

Reasons of manufacturers are not always "easy to understand". But thanks to your update, the focus of the question gets slightly shifted; I took the freedom to update your post accordingly, and suggest we remove our comments: this way it should be a perfectly fine question ;)

My phone has the USB host installed but disabled, what's the point of disabling USB HOST?
USB Host would be required to allow USB On-The-Go, often abbreviated USB OTG.  It is a specification that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host, allowing other USB devices like a USB flash drive, mouse, or keyboard to be attached to them.
Security - by disabling USB OTG, a device manufacturer may want to limit support calls of third party devices or enhance security by disabling all chances of low-level commands being sent via USB port at the cost of user functionality.
CPU/Memory Performance - when a USB OTG device is plugged in, the device needs to process the new resource.  This can be loading additional kernel modules or cataloging the files for presentation to the user.  On a low-end phone with limited processing power and/or memory, a design decision may have been made that it be better to appear to always be fast rather than risk having more features, but a more laggy user experience; hence disabling the feature altogether.
Battery - a device connected will draw power from the device's battery.  Although this issue can be resolved by using a Y cable to draw the power from a secondary source.
Is this the default on Android?
It is typically common for higher performance Android devices to have USB OTG enabled.
OTG enabled devices
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/landing/otg-compatibility-list
http://www.kingston.com/us/usb/otg
http://usbotghelper.wordpress.com/confirmed-devices/

And why is it a good idea to disable attaching USB peripherals to mobile phone? What harm can this feature do to average user? To answer my question, you'll need because clause.

If the device allows for terminal access via USB OTG you could send arbitrary codes or commands to the device.

I can already remote-control my device over USB when it's connected to PC. Is this what you mean?

No, it is sending low-level system commands utilizing a special protocol that could bypass the Android OS if the device hardware is setup that way.

Adam, there would be other means to disable specifically that by default, but still permitting OTG for e.g. drives to be attached.

Izzy, true, but the device manufacturer could have been lazy and disabled all OTG or paranoid and chose to disable all OTG.

That's what I initially meant by it being "manufacturer dependent" (and why I edited the original question). Thanks for confirmation, especially on the default being "enabled" – I was not 100% sure about that.


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Many problem on Mega 6.3 GT-i9205 after rooting
After rooting my phone, (Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 GT-I9205), I can't turn my WiFi back on but the important part of it is that my device storage is totally empty. It causes some apps/games to force close because all the files are gone, however, my rooting succeed...
Look at this image, it shows that my memory suddenly becoming very low after rooting!

What exactly did you do to root it?

I just follow the instruction here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2355680

From the thread you linked to (highlighting my own):

The root via vcore doesn't work any more. Please get it looked up. Lots of people online are getting this problem as they flash the root. Problems are all of the internal storage are gone, left with 8gb and all apps in storage wont work.

Which seems to be the issue you are having. This appears to be that this root method does not work with the newer, Knox enabled bootloaders.
This method is the new way to root the device.
Right now, your best bet is to go to SamMobile and get the stock ROM for your device, restore back to stock VIA Odin, and try re-rooting, once you confirm your WiFi is working and your internal storage is back to normal.
It's always worth reading into a thread on XDA before attempting anything, to get a feel for what issues people might be having, and if there are any work arounds. I always put a big "READ, READ, READ" in my advice for rooting, as it can (and indeed does) go wrong and is not a nice feeling. Restoring to stock appears to work, and is mentioned in the thread you provided. Good luck fixing it and we'll be here to help if you need it.

I went to SamMobile and found out there is this firmware that suit me but the country is from portugal,but I from Malaysia. ..so should I flash it or...Is there another way?

@Alexander No, go to Firmware, then "Check your firmware" (http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/2/) then select your Country and Carrier from the list and it will give you your EXACT carrier's ROM for the device. Example I9205XXUCNA3 is the latest for XME in Malaysia.

I got it now! you're the best!^_^!

Brilliant! Glad to have helped, let me know if you need anything else.


text:
Customer claims our app trashed her phone
I'm in receipt of a complaint that the android mobile app my company provides has trashed a customer's android phone to the extent that it is now only capable of making phone calls. No sms. No internet. No email. No other apps open.
The phone in question is a Samsung Galaxy S3, android version unknown. Our app is a front end to a web service that posts messages, photos and videos on something like a forum software, used for market research. It shows a question, and the user can respond by typing text, taking a picture or recording a video. It does hence request access to user photos and videos, and it makes use of their location services if turned on (essentially so we can show the researcher where they were when they were commenting on the products in the research study)
The complaint, as I understand it, is that the app was installed, run, it showed the first question and then crashed. Since then, the user has no emails, no sms messages, cannot use the internet or any other app, cannot get into the phone settings, launch anything or communicate in any way other than opening the phone app and make a call.
Our client (the person who introduced the customer) is demanding I call this customer and sort the problem out over the phone but I'm unable to because I cannot even imagine how the phone comes to be in the state it is claimed to be. Essentially I've no idea what the problem might be with the phone, no idea how I'd investigate it and no idea how I'd resolve it. The customer has no technical ability at all and claims not to have any other internet capable device that I could use to even get a video of the phone in operation..
Can anyone out there, from the symptoms described (and sorry it's not a great description; it's literally all I have) suggest anything that might have gone wrong - defective memory chips? - that would manifest as an Android device becoming nearly totally unusable?
If the claimed symptoms are true, I'm certain that the phone has some other problem and it's pure coincidence that it manifest since installing our app, but the customer is adamant it must be our fault because our app was the last thing she installed before it all failed. I know for a fact that our app is installed on thousands of android phones and works well. I also know that it contains no code capable of rummaging through the phone's file system and trashing stuff, if such a thing is even possible on Android? (Are apps sandboxed? Checked by Google to ensure they have no malicious code inside?)
Thanks for any comments or insight you can offer

You can have them uninstall your software, see if problem persists. From there without more information and the customers limited technical ability, there really is only factory reset- which will erase all data on the phone. Your in a sticky spot. You could ask to have the phone sent to you, but customer probably won't go for that. You could explain how to run a logcat, then have them send it to youGood luck.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is not written from a end-user perspective.

@Flow: As an Android user I am also very interested in the answer to this question.

Then you should re-word the question simply asking if a App can cause this in order to prevent it getting closed.

Oh boy, this seems like a sticky situation to be in. It should not be possible for a non-root application to cause a device to end up in that state, unless there is prior problem with the device. Android applications are sandboxed from other applications and from the operating system, but they are not checked for malicious code by Google, although when they come to light, malwares are regularly removed from Play Store for violation of the Developer Program Policies or Distribution Agreement.


text:
Can't see "SD Card" option in Dropbox 2.4.5.10
Version 2.4.5.10 of the Dropbox app adds the ability to export files to SD card.
I have a Galaxy Note 3, and have installed this new version but when I select a file, and choose "Export" and "Save to Device", this is the menu I see:

Click image for larger version
Is there an option I need to enable or something else I need to do so that the "Internal Storage" and "SD Card" options appear?

The new version took away the ability to go up to external storage device.  Arg.  Why anyone would think this is a good idea is mind blowing.  I am guessing they were just thinking about the iphone when they designed this - that won't allow an external SD card.

Just the opposite, the latest version was supposed to add this functionality.

The option 'Save to device' is an enabled option whether you have or do not have an SD card, once you have chosen 'Export' when you press a filename. If you select this option, and have an SD Card, the first step is to select the button 'Up to Internal Storage', followed by 'Up to Storage', followed by your selection of 'SD Card'.
I have 2 devices, one with, and one without an SD Card. With the SD Card device, the above actions work to allow you to gradually ascend through the tree to find the SD Card, and then descend through that file heirarchy to your desired drop location.
The device without the SD Card allows the same 'Save to device' option but leads you only to other internal storage areas.
On the SD Card device, no settings in Dropbox were necessary for it to appear.
UPDATE 2014/10/21: I found that I, too, lost the ability to Export to an External SD Card right after my Galaxy Tab was updated this afternoon. To restore it, I went to a file in Dropbox, selected a file through hard press until its Activity menu shows, selected Export, which brought me, as you said, to select Recent or Downloads. While this menu is live, select Settings and select 'Display Advanced Devices' and close. The External storage option was re-added as a target location for exporting.

I do not see the "Up to Internal Storage" option anywhere. If I select "Save to Device" I only see "Recent" or "Downloads" as options, and there's no navigation available.

...and yes I have an external sdcard that other applications can see.

When you view Storage in the device's Settings menu, is your SD Card presented, indicating it is recognized? On a device where the card is unrecognized, it will show the option to Insert SD card, otherwise it will present details of storage use, and the ability to Unmount, and Format.

Yes, the device sees my SDcard just fine. In Settings it shows "Total space" and "Available space" that match with expectations, and other applications that interact with the SDcard (like File Managers) can navigate the /storage/extSdCard/ directory without trouble. I have also tried a physical reboot of the phone.


text:
Significance of Internal SD Card in Micromax phone
I have brought the Micromax A106 phone that has 8GB ROM. When I see the internals of the phone, the internal memory of the phone is partitioned in two ways - 0.98 GB as Phone Memory while 5.85 GB as Internal SD Card Memory.
All the apps, phone contacts etc are getting stored in Phone Memory (0.98 GB partitioned) due to which the phone memory is getting a low space and whenever I install any app from Play Store, I'm getting "Error: Cannot install due to insufficient space"
However, when I installed the SD Card, I was able to install/move the apps to External SD partition slot since the phone contains Android 4.4 Kitkat operating system.
How can I make use of the Internal SD Card Memory so that my Phone memory is not getting full?

Sounds like you're asking What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage? (for a starter, there's always our insufficient-memory tag-wiki to guide you)

Apps are supposed to be installed in 5.85 Gb space actually. I don't know why apps are being installed in 0.98 Gb space! Contact Micromax Mobile once.


text:
Load large google docs faster
I am using a gdoc quite often on my android smartphone. It's my basic ToDo-List. I have even put it on Keep on device.
However, the gdocs is still so large, so that it takes up to 5 minutes to load the doc.
Any recommendations how to fasten this process up?
I appreciate your answers!

Apple, Android, Other? It probably belongs on another site as this is not a computer question...

@AthomSfere Oh sorry, I updated my answer! If the question is not related to superuser, pls feel free to suggest another stackoverflow site?

there is an Android site. It should be moved there. Good luck!

Use an dedicated app instead of a browser (if appliable), and remove formatting from document.
Consider upgrading to a cellphone with more memory.


text:
Stop connecting to a particular wifi network based on my location
I'm trying to get my head aroud how to use Tasker to solve a problem I face.
In short, I am exposed to two wifi networks that have the same SSID, 'NETGEAR' . One is in use at my parents, and my phone is setup to connect to this network with the relevant encryption key.
The other is in use near my office, I dont have access to that network ( and dont want it)
The problem is that my phone will try to connect to the NETGEAR network at my office, thinking it is the same network that it already knows about. I'd like my phone to ignore that network while not at my parents house.
Is this something Tasker can accomplish, or is there a better approach? I do not want to delete and re-setup the network all the time.

Easiest way would be to change the SSID at your parents, then go into wifi settings and forget the work SSID. Strange you should be able to connect to both considering different passwords in each network

That's just it, it doesn't connect at work, but sits there trying and trying until it eventually gives up and tries one of the correct office networks ( or I notice and force it to change)

Are the SSID for home and work separate listing? If so just tell phone to forget the work one. There is a way to set connection according to geographic location, which will run GPS all time., but I havent tried.

I've set my phone up to attempt to connect to the SSID 'NETGEAR' So I can use my parents wifi. It also tried to connect to another network that happens to have the same SSID. This is what I want to stop.

Either set it up to GPS location or change the SSID at parents. The second being the easiest.  Just go to home page for the router, enter the passphrase, change SSID, then save/apply setting.

One way to do this would be to add a location context to the profile.
Alternatively, if you are at work or your parents house at consistent times, you could add a time context to the profile.

How would I do this?

Option 1: Long press the trigger in the profile you are using and tap add, then choose State > Location and enter the location where you would want it to trigger.
Option 2: Long press the trigger in the profile you are using and tap add, then choose Time, then choose the time you would like your task to trigger.


text:
how to move application from internal storage to phone storage or sd card
i am using HTC Desire SV and android version is 4.0.4. In it there are three types of storage- 1) internal storage 2) phone storage and 3) storage card. My internal storage is almost full and i am not able to do upgrade the apps or download new apps. I want to move few apps to other storage but not able to as it does not show the option to move to phone storage or sd card. Please help me as soon as possible.

You can't move apps to SD card if the option is not available (as per the new rules of Google). You need to Root (which voids warranty) the device to be able to move apps from device memory to SD card and to remove default apps.


text:
How to setup Microsoft Exchange on Android? [No certificates found error]
I'm using a Nexus 5 running Android 4.4.4, and when I try to setup my company's email through the Email Android app I get the following error.

No certificates found
The app Exchange Services has requested a certificate. Choosing a certificate will let the app use this identity with servers now and in the future.
You can install certificates from a PKCS#12 file with a .pfx or a .p12 extension located in external storage.

And there's an Install button to choose a file from my SD card.
The thing is, I don't know what this file is nor where to get it. And I don't even know why should I provide it, since I've done this same configuration before in older smartphones I had. Did someone experience the same issue? How would I be able to solve it?

If you received that message while you were not connected to wifi try again while you are connected to wifi. I have no idea why, but that's what's solved this for me.

I just ran into the same error after updating Gmail and attempting to add a new Exchange account.


text:
Sorting applications by their trimmed name
Is there anyway to for the app list to be sorted by applications' trimmed names?
E.g. in the screenshot below, the application " Flashlight" appears first because it contains the space at the beginning. I would like to avoid that.

I use a Samsung GALAXY S3 with a rooted Android 4.1.2.

To be honest, I just wouldn't install apps that use stupid tricks like this.

@DanHulme too true +1

@FranckDernincourt you can also rename the app.

@HasH_BrowN How can I rename an installed app?

@Franck - you can rename your file with a renaming app or you can use a file explorer/browser such as Total Commander (open source ), Astro File Manager, or any other. Always backup the original file first, then rename. IMHO - I would find another flashlight/torch app, preferably with minimal permission and already named right.

@Franck - also I forgot to add that Xposed framework has a couple of renaming modules as well. Some are in their own modules, while some are within other modules.


text:
Sync the position / page of sideloaded EPUB books between Android device and Nook Touch?
Is it possible to sync the current position / page of an EPUB book between two devices?

Check out PageTurner on Google Play. It's supposed to do what you want, although there are some mixed reviews. It's worth a try though.

PageTurner is an open-source e-book reader that allows you to sync
  your reading progress across devices, without needing a DropBox or
  Google Drive account... just enter your e-mail address and it works!

I tried it but it's ugly as sin

@Ze'ev There are probably similar apps around.

Well that's what I'm asking!


text:
HTC desire 816 insufficient space error
I have an htc desire 816 that I just recently bought and it was fine at first but it stared giving me the error message that there was "insufficient space on the device" when I tried to download any app. I went and bought myself an SD card but even with the SD card in it, the phone is still giving me this error message. Any ideas why or how to fix it?

It looks like Android 4.4 does not support installing apps to SD Card.
Your best bet is to root your phone, then install an app that will enable you write to the SD Card.
Those steps will get you as far as writing to the SD Card. I don't have a device that I can test this on, but these steps look like they might work for having apps install to the SD card by default. Let me know if you have any luck!


text:
How to downgrade Google Play Services?
I want to test different versions of Google Play Services and I am wondering if it is possible to downgrade the Google Play Services version of a device?

What do you mean by "wanting to test different versions of Google Play Services"?Could you be more specific? Cause if you delete updates you will simply revert to the original factory setting/version of the app.

Go to settings>apps>all and find Google Play Services. Tap it, then tap 'delete from use' or whatever it is. Then tap on the 'delete updates'
After you've installed your version of the services, remember to tap the button 'Take to use'.
Should work :)

Settings->Apps->All : Google Play services : Disable
(although I rather like "delete from use" ;) ) You might also want to clear the checkbox on "Show notifications" just to be on the safe side.

@brit0n Notifications won't show up if the app is disabled.

I tried it, but whenever I go to the device administrator section to remove "find my device" the settings app stops working. Until I remove "find my device" from administrator section, I can not uninstall updates. Any help?

If you are content to try each version at a separate boot and the above doesn't fulfill you're requirement, you'll have to go the full uninstall and install route.
If you truly want to compare, you'll have some problems getting more than one version present at the same time without source code access. I assume you're already in Developer mode. For more guidance, I suggest you look at others who are trying something similar and the links provided. Here's one example: How to keep two versions of an app installed?

Found a solution for those unable to fix google play services in android (e.g. China ROMs) ~ due to bootloader problems etc:

Reboot your phone to recovery mode using power-volume up
Use power button to select factory reset, clear data and cache, confirm.
Reboot to factory reset and without cloud restore reinstall google play services (e.g. in Redmi phones install with china ROM google play store)
Install all google parts such as normal google PlayStore. Then install apps in google as needed
Re backup the phone on cloud and you're set.

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


text:
Buying an album from Google Play of which I already have some songs
I want to buy an album, but I already have some songs from it which I bought from the Play Store. Will there be duplicates of the ones I already have? Also, will some money be deducted from the cost of the remaining album like on iTunes, or will I have to pay the cost of the whole album? Thank you!

In my experience... Yes, you will be charged full price for the album even if you already have some songs on that album.  You will not have duplicate songs in your library if the copy of the songs you previously had were from that exact same album and also purchased from Google Play.
However, if the songs you already had were from a different album than the one you are purchasing (eg. a regular album vs deluxe edition album vs a single or an artist album vs a soundtrack with the same song on it), then you will end up with a duplicate copy of that song in your library even if both were purchased from Google.
You'll also get duplicates in your library if the songs are from the same album but from a different source like iTunes, Amazon or ripped from a personal CD and uploaded to Google Music, but in your case you already said they were purchased from Google Play so this added comment is for others that might have this situation.


text:
install apps on sd card
My BLU Studio 5.5 won't allow me to install anymore apps. I have a 18G SD card installed. When accepting to install it says "Error downloading phone had insufficient space". What do I do to install more apps.?

Beside that: Where did you get an 18 GB card?

You have to create a partition on your SD that you can then mount to your phone storage.
Here is a tutorial about it.
http://www.skyneel.com/2013/10/Increase-internal-memory-in-Android-Mobiles-in-easy-steps.html

Whilst this may theoretically answer some of the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Also in order to do this, they would need to [tag:root] the device. Requirement 4 is: "4. Your android phone must be rooted."


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how to connect to internet on my lenovo a390 mobile using wifi
i can't connect to internet with my lenovo a390 mobile using WiFi connection. i already open my data connection but when i am about to browse youtube, play store and Google chrome it says that my connection is off. how can i fix it?

you said, you want to use WiFi
but you're turning on Data connection.
Switch off Mobile Data connection.
switch on WiFi
Scan for WiFi networks available.
if you get one connect it by clicking and username and password if it asks.
it will connect, obtain IP address.
it must connect.

From my knowledge,It's not possible .According to wifi network connection,'N' number of slaves(which are connected to that hotspoted device) has a one master(which is put on hotspot)