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How to remove apps from "all downloaded" in Play Store
In the new Android Market/Play Store (3.5.15) they have now got a list of "all downloaded" apps.
I have had an android phone for a good 2/3 years now and the list is huge, plus sightly more questionable apps which should have been lost in the ether of the internet have now been dredged back up to haunt me.
Can I remove apps from here?
Thanks

lol! absolutely! :p glad to know I'm not the only one!

Just to clarify: This is about the Android app, not the Play Store website, correct?

No, it's not possible. The android market is plagued with issues like this one.

As of version 3.9.16 you can finally now remove applications from the "all" tab in the my apps list. You can even select several apps at once by long pressing one, then selecting the others.
These apps are removed from the Website too.

Source: Android Police

At least on my Tablet (running Android 4.1.1, Play Store 3.10.10) it works going to "My Apps", select "All Apps", and hit the delete-symbol next to the unwanted. It pops up a confirmation, and if I approve it disappears from both, the Playstore app and the website. Only annoying thing is: No multi-select, and after each delete it jumps back right to the top of the list...

Have to correct myself to the better: Of course Richard is right with the "Long Press"! This way one can even live with the jump-to-start. Big thumbs-up for this, just did a huge clean-up :)

@Izzy looks like they changed the behavior since I wrote this. Thanks for the heads-up!

I am on kitkat (Nexus 5), when I long hold an app under "All" tab, and release it, it opens uninstall page corresponding app. I do not see any option to multiselect

@TechJerk If it opens the uninstall screen, that means the app is still installed. The question is about removing apps that are no longer installed on your phone.

@RichardBorcsik  On Android 4.4.4 I was able to select multiple apps but there is no remove button (X) to remove all the apps at once

This was left as an edit to another post by an anonymous user, but should be its own answer.

Go to the Google Play app on your mobile phone and go to Menu -> My Apps, then swipe across to All Apps. Delete the app from there using the symbol button on the right, and the app will also delete from the online Play Store list.
In order to delete several applications at a time, long-press an application until a blue top bar appears; then short-press some other applications, and you will be able to delete all selected applications by pressing the deletion symbol in the upper-right corner, in the blue bar. This is especially practical because you jump to the top of the list after deleting an application, and the list is only sorted by date of first installation—at least at this moment.

THAT'S new to me!  Extremely unobvious though... it took me a bit before I saw the little outline of a circle with a line next to the app name on the right. I would have thought a trash can (like on https://play.google.com/apps) would be more intuitive - quite aside from making it nearly invisible!  Light grey on white... sheesh!

The question is, how do I delete it? Holding down the item doesn't seem to yield any context menu of sorts.

@ShedoSurashu Please see Logos' comment and the screenshot I added.  (This is on the 3.9.16 Play Store.)  I'm not quite sure why I can't do it with SuperSU however.

I'm using 3.5.19, how do I update it?

@ShedoSurashu See http://android.stackexchange.com/a/20386/1465

It is possible to remove multiple entries from the All list of apps with the new version of Google Play.
Long press on the first app to remove and a header bar will appear with a check mark and a delete symbol. Tap all the apps you want to remove and then tap the delete symbol.

I wasn't able to get this working on mine. (Droid 3, Android 2.3.4, Play Store App version 3.9.16) Perhaps this is ICS+?

Works a treat on my Galaxy Nexus.

@DylanYaga What do you get when you long press an entry in the list?

@RichardBorcsik It sits there, doing nothing, mocking me... :(

Fair Warning: I think it only let's you do this with FREE apps. Once you add an app that is paid the delete symbols goes away in the header.

Here is a bit more up to date description from Google Play Help:

If you want to remove an app from showing on My Apps, touch the "X" to
  remove apps that you don't want displayed on the All category.

As of 2019-12-07 on Android 9 with playstore 17.8.14, one has to go to "play store -> my apps & games -> library -> click on the X symbol next to the application you wish to remove.


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Can anyone recognize this app (toggles WiFi, GPS, Sync, BT, etc.) in the notification bar?
I found this screenshot in one of the market apps (Galaxy Nexus Flashlight), in the red rectangle there is an app do you know this app? it seem very interesting.

CyanogenMod 7.1's Power Control can be made to look like that. Might be the same software as described in the answers.

CyberShadow: I will look into that, thanks for sharing

Thanks a lot everyone, I found it, it's a custom ROM called AOKP http://www.forum.aokp.co

If you're thinking about installing it, I'd recommend you to use Widgetsoid. It can sit on homescreen and as notification (like in image). And, it provides a lot of toggles which -- I bet -- no other app provides.

the correct answer: this is an app called TogglePanel that appears in the notification pull down.  It costs $1.

This is the built-in Power Widget of the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
In other ROMs it's called something like Power Control or Toggle Buttons.
But as an APP there is a very good Application called Power Control which has a free and paid version.

this is not a built-in Power Widget of the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Restoring messages from ClockworkMod backup
Here's the story. Today my phone (modded with Cyanogen mod) started bootlooping. So, I did a ClockworkMod backup and went about installing the latest version of Cyanogen mod. When that was done, I restored the backup, but it started bootlooping yet again. So now, I have a fresh install of Cyanogen mod but none of my texts or call logs etc, all my contacts were sync'd from my Facebook anyway so I can get them back easily.
Does anyone know how I can extract my text messages from the ClockworkMod backup without sending my device back into a bootloop?
Cheers!

This won't help you currently, but something to consider for the future: if you find yourself switching ROMs frequently, you can try an SMS backup application like SMS Backup & Restore which backs up your messages to an XML on your SD card, or SMS Backup+ which syncs your messages and call logs to your Google account (essentially as GMail messages).

Use Titanium Backup pro (Paid). It can restore individual apps+data from CWM backups!
It clearly colors data containers with Green. And, names of container which keep contacts etc. vary as per Android version & manufacturer, but they are generally human readable. Keep Green color in mind. If you find Contacts which is not colored with green, its app.. not data container.

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


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Adding tags to photos in the Gallery
The Gallery has an option to group photos by "People" and "Tags".  Does anyone know how to set these tags?  There doesn't appear to be a feature to tag photos taken with the phone's camera, and I've tried copying an existing tagged photo onto the phone (both via MTP and email) and the tags were ignored.

You need to have a Picasa account (which is auto-created if you have a Google+ account) and also have Sync Google Photos turned on (which is automatically on if you have Google Sync turned on.)
Share your photo with Picasa.
Go to Picasa Web Albums at https://picasaweb.google.com/home and find your photo.
In the right-hand margin, you'll see Tags  and a "+" button with a Tag icon.
Click that button, which is the Add Tags button.
Enter your tags, which are space separated.
On your Android device, go into Gallery and go up to the top level using the Up caret in the upper left, which is the left-most side of the action bar.
It should refresh automatically.  If not, you can manually choose "Refresh" in the menu in the upper right.  This is what syncs the tags that you created on the web to your Android device.  (Sync Google Photos is what really does it under the covers.)
Now you can choose the album that has the photo that you tagged above.
Then choose the menu item Group by > Tags.
Voila!  You can now see your photos grouped by tag.
Happy tagging!
Picasa Web tagging is documented at:
http://support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?answer=55851
Sync Google Photos is documented at: http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=2395276

I suspect this is probably going to be the best answer, but as far as I can see there are a couple of minor snags with this approach:
You end up with two copies of each photo: one in the "Camera" album and another in the Picasa-synced album.  The tags are only applied to the latter.
Adding People tags in Picasa causes the whole album to be shared with those people, and that might not be what you want.

@mavit: I'd say there are actually also some major drawbacks here. The solution to go via Picasa is useless if you are offline or in a location where Picasa is not reachable for some reason.

use quick pick or f-stop or any other gallery manager apps

concerning the people tags,you can manually tag unrecognised faces by tapping and holding on said face,at least in the Samsung galaxy's gallery (which possibly isn't stock android)

Touch in the date area. That show tags and permits to add and edit them


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Run a Titanium Backup schedule from ADW Launcher's drawer
Is it possible to place a shortcut to Titanium Backup schedule in ADW Launcher's drawer?
I guess that one way would be to make a small app whose only job would be to launch TB's schedule by some kind of intent, but I couldn't find any information on intents provided by TB, and also making an app for such a simple task seems an overkill.
I am using CyanogenMod 7 (so it's rooted and so on...) and TB Pro.

What's the problem with TB's widget...

@SachinShekhar: You cannot put widgets into drawers AFAIK. And I don't want it on homescreen because it's not something I actually do frequently, so why should it take space there?

ADW launcher does support only apps in drawer, so you'll have to create app, as you said.

@SachinShekhar: Are there then other launchers similar to ADW which can do that?

No. I have checked it in all popular launchers. Drawers were never been designed for this. For custom shortcuts, you can always use Homescreen.

Are your 5 screens completely full?  I put less used apps/shortcuts far away from center screen.

@Chance: I use only one homescreen. I dislike the way multiple screens work--when I unlock the phone, I don't want to be in a situation where I need to look for a often used thing over 5 screens. But I like that when go to a drawer, it's just for one touch, so it automatically goes back to my only homescreen.

Hmm, interesting idea. Best I can thing of is if you use a folder to contain this shortcut, as well as other things.  It would take up one spot on your homescreen, but it could be a spot devoted to multiple tasks.

Its not possible. App Drawer is designed to keep default shortcut of apps.. not custom shortcuts!
You can always use Homescreen to place custom shortcuts. I recommend you to use TB's widget. As ADW Launcher provides option to add multiple homescreens, space shouldn't be a problem.


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How to re-activate android device (with another email address)
I have an android device (registered to my gmail account), which I want to give to someone else.
What steps do I have to take, so that the device is no longer activated/registered/linked with my email address, and can be re-activated with the other person's gmail account?
What happens with any apps installed on that device (bought using my account)? Should I remove them manually?

You need to do a factory reset via Menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Factory Data Reset (this may be under a different menu on newer versions of Android.)  Factory reset formats your device, erasing all 3rd-party installed apps and their settings.  It also dis-associates your accounts (Google, or any others you may have added) from the device, removing any synced contacts.
You may also wish to format your SD Card if you are giving it along with the phone.
Apps, books, music and videos that you purchased via Google Play Store are tied to your Google account.  You will be able to re-download them to your new Android device after signing in with your Google account.

Thanks! I updated/clarified the question regarding installed apps.

Edited my answer for clarity.


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I've rooted my tablet, now how do I get rid of this bloatware?

Possible Duplicate:
Rooted Phone but still can't uninstall Apps

I just went through the process of rotting my Galaxy Tablet 10.1. I used these instructions, and the process went smoothly so I think it was a success.
However, everything looks pretty much the same as before, so I can't really tell if anything has actually happened.
In any case, part of the reason I did this was so that I could remove some pre-installed bloatware off the tablet. My understanding was that if the tablet was rooted, I would have the ability to do this.
If this is the case, though, I can't tell how. There is still no uninstall option in Settings->Applications->Manage Applications for the unwanted apps.
Do I have to do something else?
Is my tablet not actually rooted as I thought?
Was I wrong that a rooted tablet would be able to remove bloatware?

Yes, you can remove bloatware from rooted tablet, but not using stock uninstall utility. Use Titanium Backup to remove those bloatware. Its the simplest way.
The meaning of being rooted means you can access device as root user of Linux (Android is Linux). A root user can do everything on system. Stock settings utilities aren't designed to use this capability. So, you need to use a third-party app. Titanium Backup take over system as root user, so it can do everything including bloatware removal from ROM.


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ICS: Use site's bookmark icon
The bookmarks on the home screens of my Galaxy Nexus have the same red bookmark icon.
Is it possible to automatically display the site's default icon (i.e., the one which appears in the URL bar) as the bookmark's icon?

On my vanilla ICS (4.0.3) tablet, this appears to be default behaviour - the sites favicon appears as the bookmark icon on the home screen.

Why not use the widget?

This other question shows some of the options for displaying bookmark icons in ICS: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/28815/

The icon that is displayed on the action bar is called a favicon. It's a low resolution (usually 16x16) icon made to be displayed next to the name in a bookmark bar.
Android understandably doesn't use this as it would look hideous on your homescreen. For a website's icon to show up they need to add another icon: the apple-touch-icon. This one was meant to be used as an icon on the homescreen. Originally for iDevices, but android adapted it. Unfortunately I'm not aware of a way to add an icon yourself if the site doesn't supply it.


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Clear Application Cache on ICS
I want to clear a specific system application's cache — Calendar & Calendar Storage. How do I do it in ICS?
I've stopped the running app:

but cannot find the Clear data / Clear cache like before:

I'm on a Nexus S and I prefer a way to do it natively, without needing to install an app just for that.

I see Calendar and Calendar Storage in my "All apps" list in Settings.

If I open either of them, I also see the old, familiar Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons.

So bottom line, I couldn't see those buttons because I was accessing the apps via the Running Apps section, instead of the All Apps one...


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Google Maps shows wrong location on Android 2.2
For the last two weeks, Google Maps (Latitude) reports that I'm still at my old house. I'm not - I moved 6 months ago, but my "location" says that I'm still there. I tried clearing the maps cache, manually setting my location to somewhere else, and then activating auto-detection.
Still nothing.
What could go wrong?

Sign out from Google Latitude and Sign In again.

possible duplicate of Google Latitude History is telling me that Im living on the next block

Tried signing out & in, nothing changed...

Try Settings > Applications > Manage Applications.
All > Network Location > Clear data.

Tried that, worked for about a minute, location changed back to the fake one...


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How do I get a ROM onto my ICS (Android 4.0) tablet?
I have a Galaxy Tablet 10.1. I decided to root it, that went fine. Then I decided to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. That also went fine.
It was only after upgrading that I discovered the camera does not work (yes, the warnings were there, but they weren't made very obvious). That sucks, so I wanted to go back down to an earlier version. I seem to have lost the ROM for my earlier version on the tablet, so I went to copy it back to my tablet, thinking that would be simple...
But ICS doesn't let me connect to my computer via USB.
After looking around the web, this is apparently because of a change in the way ICS is going to handle USB connectivity, which is an issue I don't want to embed myself into. All I know is I want to get out of ICS and back to Honeycomb.
How can I get the ROM onto my tablet so that I can install it?

There's probably tons of ways to do this, but here's what I can think of offhand:

If you have adb set up on your computer then use it to push the ROM file over: adb push /path/to/ROM /sdcard
Upload it to Dropbox, Box, or any other cloud file storage service and then download it via the associated Android app
Upload it to a file sharing service like Mediafire and then download it in your browser
If you downloaded the ROM from somewhere, visit that site in the browser on your tablet and download it directly
Install a file manager or other app that supports FTP and send it over via a wifi LAN connection (one example)
Try Kies Air - I think it supports wireless file transfer


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How to get android device model number connected to a PC via USB?
How do I get the android phone model number from a Windows PC connected via USB, provided all the USB device drivers are installed properly? Is there anyway to get it via Android SDK?

I don't know how to get it by the adb command.
But you can get it programmably with the SDK. There is a class Build which have many information of the current running phone, such as you wanted model number can be got by the Build.MODEL.

hey, thanks for the pointer, found out the adb command:
adb shell cat /system/build.prop | grep "ro.product.model"

For anyone else stumbling across this old question, the above comment requires root.  On a non-rooted phone: adb shell getprop ro.product.model. Also of potential use is adb shell getprop ro.product.manufacturer. For a full list of properties, just adb shell getprop


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How to sync old Google Calendar events on Sony Ericsson XPeria X10 Mini?
I have got a replacement phone for my HTC Desire while the latter is in repairs. It's Sony Ericsson XPeria X10 Mini. Since it's also an Android-based device I hoped I could sync my contacts and calendar events. However, as it seems it only syncs one of my calendar in full (namely Ukrainian Holidays, which is not as important) and new events for other calendars. I wasn't able to find option for selecting which calendars to sync as in HTC Desire. How can I sync my old events (including ones that are recurring in future)? It would be sufficient to just have my primary calendar on the phone.
P.S. I tried cleaning Calendar Storage data and synching manually again (from Settings -> Data Synchronization -> Auto Sync and then select Calendar). It took substantial time (~5 minutes), so I hoped it have synched old events, but they are still not in my calendar. It has even removed events that I have added today. New events get synched as previously.

The settings for the Calendar app should have a place for you to indicate which calendars to sync.

This sounds like the X10's calendar app (and possibly its settings). A quick 'Google resulted in this quote from a Groups discussion that relates to your problem:

I have found that in at least one scenario, the X10 mini calendar app
  itself is to blame. When I installed the app "business calendar free"
  on my X10 mini pro, I could see everything and sync flawlessly, while
  the built-in calendar still showed nothing.

Have you tried a 3rd-party calendar app like the aforementioned Business Calendar? If a 3rd-party app works you'll at least know where to start digging. It also happens to be an app I use and recommend as a replacement for stock calendar apps, problems or not.

Go to Settings -> Accounts $ sync -> Add account
Add your existing Google account here
Check the Sync Calender checkbox to synchronise your calender
with your Google calender.

There is no Accounts and synchronization in Settings. But I have added Google account and enabled Calendar sync when setting up the phone. Also I wouldn't get new events if it was disabled.


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Is there a alarm clock app that uses UTC time?
Is there a alarm clock app that uses UTC instead of local timezone?
The reason I ask is that I am tired of this daylight savings time idea, so my plan is to set 1 time in a non DST timezone like UTC and then use that time as wakeup in the morning time all year.

Alernative/related: How do I disable Daylight Saving Time (DST)?

That app does not exist, all the alarm clocks use the local timezone.

It's only left that all clocks run Android. Then you won't be able to do this at all :D

In Russia there is no DST anymore as of 8.02.2011. Therefore you could set your timezone to MSK and set your alarm depending on the time difference to your location.

Lucky you, no more DST :)

But you know that if you change the timezone the phone uses, then all the apps will be using the "wrong time". I would like things like calendar and logs to use the local time. It is only the alarm clock that should use UTC.

I am not in Russia, so not so lucky me :).


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Will the 'wipe data/factory reset' option in clockworkdmod also wipe the internal sd card?

Possible Duplicate:
Does ClockworkMod Recovery's “Wipe Data” command also wipe the SD card?

I've been using non wipe roms and I'm planning to do a full wipe, my backups etc are on the internal sd card.
Does the above option in cwm also wipe the internal sd card?
Cheers

No.
This would make no sense, because the main use of wiping from ClockworkMod is to install a new ROM from SD card. As certain devices (e.g., Nexus S) do not have an external SD card, wiping the internal storage marked as "SD card" would wipe the ROM you are about to install.


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Cant go to last week of month in calendar
I can't seem to find a way to navigate to the last week of a month, meaning 24 is the last day i see this month March 2012 (in month view), when navigating to next month, first day is 1 whilst week 13 is completely skipped.
Any idea what that can be?
Here is what it looks like:

Can you please post a screenshot (or photo of the screen)?

How do I take a screenshot of my Droid?

@Shimmy there are many apps for that. Some needs rooted device, some doesn't. If you are unable to take screenshot using any app, shoot a photo of it using external cam..

@SachinShekhar ok u got it.

I've found the problem.
I changed the density to a higher resolution. After resetting to system resolution, problem was solved.
I would still be glad to know if there is a solution that will allow me using the calendar at a high res. as well.


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Can't install previously installed apps from Google Play
My Samsung Galaxy S2(I-9100) was upgraded to 2.3.6 by the technician at a Samsung Service Station. This resulted in a wiped-off of all the apps that I had installed along with some other data(like contacts,sms etc).
I had to go through the entire procedure of registering your phone with my gmail account.
I cannot install some of the apps that I had previously installed (from the web store) because I cannot choose the device and I get the message "Your device already has this app installed".
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Did you try installing from your device directly instead from the web interface of Play Store? I vaguely remember having a similar issue previously on my phone (HTC Desire).

@MartinTapankov I hardly use the Play Store on my device because I have a 2g connection and it takes a hell lot of time to load. I tried installing from my device and it works. But I prefer using the web store instead.

I see your point, I also frequently install apps from the web interface. My point was to try and install the same app from there to see whether it works at all, it might be a synchronization issue with your Google account after factory reset.

If you don't mind spending, I'd recommend WidgetLocker Lockscreen over MiLocker. I can bet.. its the best in Play Store..

The issue is I cant install some apps and MILocker is one of them. I did try WidgetLocker and i prefer MILocker over that

The issue here is that the uninstall process wasn't registered at Google Play Store.
Without the uninstall process registered, Google Play Store still reports the app as installed on the device that's associated with your Google account.
To overcome this, you need to manually trigger the uninstall from the Google Play Store, within the "MY ANDROID APPS" list:

Step by Step
I have a couple of apps that I've uninstalled from my device and the uninstall process wasn't registered at Google Play Store. I'll use one as a guide:

Access "MY ANDROID APPS" list, search for the desired app and click the recycle bin icon to trigger the uninstall:

After confirming, the app will get marked as "removed":

Now you can access the application at Google Play Store, and install it like you mentioned that you prefer to do:

Is that MY ANDROID APPS section new? It does exactly what I was looking for about a month ago and never found!

@GAThrawn I would guess 2 months :)

@GAThrawn Did a search just now and bloggers started talking about this at the end of June.

I don't have the recycle bin icon.

The uninstall option has been removed from Play Store... This is no longer relevant. Apparently giving up privacy for Google to see your apps is pointless. Cannot install anything because: "It's already installed"... Hopefully Google will fix this.. don't hold your breath

Error message still appearing
If you've signed in to your device's Google Play Store app, downloaded an item, and your device doesn't appear on the Google Play website, you can try clearing your app's data by following these steps:

Open your device's main Settings menu.
Select Apps or Application manager (this may be different depending on your device).
Select Google Play Store from your list of apps.
Touch Clear data.

Google Play seems to have changed in the last few years and I wasn't able to find an uninstall feature on the web. It seems like the best workaround here is to just install from Google Play on the device itself.


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Is there any FREE android mail client with Exchange Support?
I am searching for a free Exchange mail client for Android 2.3+. Can anybody please suggest me one?

What's wrong with the stock client?  Without specifics this is a shopping rec at best (off-topic, see the [FAQ]).

Stock client is not working for my exchange mail id. It fails to connect to exchange server. My build is Android 2.3.6

K-9 Mail supports Exchange 2003/2007 via WebDAV. No support for Exchange 2010, unfortunately, since Microsoft removed WebDAV support in the newest version.
See the official wiki page for configuration instructions.


text:
Ice Cream Sandwich OTA on Nexus S?

Possible Duplicate:
When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?

So the OTA Ice Cream Sandwich deployment for Samsung Nexus S was stopped because the deployed version caused too much problems. Does somebody knows if another corrected version is another debugged version is to be deployed OTA anytime soon?

So for those who are interested: http://www.androidcentral.com/nexus-s-ics-update-reportedly-restarting-few-weeks

I just realized the refered question "When will my device get the Android 4.0 update (Ice Cream Sandwich)?" didn't contained the answer to my question when I asked it. Somebody changed it to add the answer I needed, so actually it was NOT a duplicate at the time. Thank you anyway...


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Is it possible to activate an android device using a 'google apps' account
I'm using Google Apps for my personal domain and email.
Is it possible to use such an account (e.g. "name@mydomain.com") to activate an android device?

Yes.
Few years ago, Google Apps services were separate from normal Google services. Even cookies were different & compatible to each other. From last year, all Google Apps accounts are normal Google account (You'll have to sign out from normal Google account if you want to sign in with Google Apps account in a web browser).
And, it supports Android too. I've tested it.

My wife has only ever activated via a google apps account. I have multiple google apps accounts tied to my phone, so I concur, you can activate with a google apps account.

You've been able to activate with an Apps account since at least Cupcake and quite possibly since the very start (my first Android was an HTC Magic with Android 1.5 and that activated fine with my myname@mydomain.com Apps account).

Since last year Google Apps accounts are full class citizens. Starting with Eclair android supports more than one Google accounts and since the Market 3.0 update of market all android apps treat all Google accounts on your phone the same way.
Take note however that it is not possible to transfer your Google wallet history and purchases. So if a year from now you want to change your domain name for your email address you will need to keep the old account on your phone or rebuy all your apps again.
It is for this reason that I recommend you to create a Gmail account an purchase apps with that not with your apps account.


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number in the top right corner of the camera app?

Possible Duplicate:
What does the blue 0 mean in the top right hand corner of my camera?

What is the number shown in the top right corner of the camera app that comes installed with Android 2.3.5? It shows 905 right now but I don't know what it means. Does it have anything to do with the zoom or the light level or the space in the SD card for more pictures to be taken?

This number represents the approximate amount of pictures left you'll be able to take, according to the free space on the media portion of the phone (e.g. SD Card) and the currently chosen settings, such as resolution.

An artifact from the days when you had to worry about the amount of film you had left in your camera.

You'd be surprised how much this artifact helps on SD Card-less devices like Galaxy Nexus.


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Android market questions
On google store, do you actually have control over the purchases you make like access to the pc? For example you decide to buy a movie then can you transfer it to the pc? or if you decide to buy book could you hypothetically add the eBook to kindle?.
So over all the biggest question is "Do you have control over the file purchased and downloaded from google market?".

Yes, the files you purchase you have some limited control over; ones you rent you do not.
Music - You purchased (or uploaded your own) music to Google's Servers. You have a license to these media files. They can be downloaded off the Web version of Google Play Music, or with Google Play Music Manager.
Books - You purchased the book, you have a license to these media files as well, some of these files allow you to obtain copies outside of the Google Play Books app, via the web store.Web Play Store > My Books > A Book I Owned > How To Read should present alternative methods to download.
Movies - You rented the movie. Google Play Movies does not (yet) support purchasing of movie media files, as such it is not yours to do with what you wish. You are limited on time to watch it and availability to move it. You are able to watch it on the Web, Tablet or Phone.


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Finding data created by a certain application?
I'm looking for the data-store of a certain application so I can take backups of some files that are important to me. Connecting the phone to my computer and browsing the file-system I get revealed a surprisingly empty file-system.
Is the a generic way of locating data created by a certain application on the phone? Since Android tracks the storage use on a per-application basis, I assume there is a register somewhere, but I don't know where to look.

Do you mean that you're connecting your device in "mass storage" mode (or MTP if applicable)? Android sets aside separate partitions for internal application storage and external. The storage typically used by apps is the former, and it won't be mounted on your PC when your device is plugged in (and you must be root to access application specific data). The partition mounted on your PC would be the external storage data.

@eldarerathis: I didn't have any external storage on my Android phone until about a week ago but many files on the internal storage always were accessible via MTP when I plugged my phone into my PC. I do not know if they were all available but certainly not only external storage. My phone may be "rooted" or not require rooting. I'm not sure. It's from one of the major Chinese brands and I bought it in China and did not re-burn the ROM to the non-Chinese version.

Android can't/doesn't keep track of arbitrary data created on the SD card.  If you're looking for regular app data such as settings, it's located at /data/data/qualified-app-name where the name is something like com.rovio.angrybirds for Angry Birds, for example.
As eldarerathis notes you'll need to be root to view the data partition; it's protected to prevent malicious apps from stealing your data (etc.).

While it's true that Android doesn't track data written by apps to SD Card, you can usually make an educated guess as to the data's owner from file/folder names.  Also, while browsing contents of media area/SD Card via a PC, make sure to enable showing of hidden files and folders, since some apps make use of that flag in order to avoid cluttering up the "normal" display.

@Chahk True enough. I haven't noticed any hidden files myself, but there are certainly files and folders named with a leading period that aren't shown by default on Mac/Linux.

@MatthewRead There are two data folders in my Samsung: /data (inacessible) and /storage/sdacard0/Android/data/. The former is not SDcard, despite the name. It contains com.android... but I can't find specific application there. Could you clarify on this? Which path is the correct?

just go to sd card and find the file android and keywords that you have in your app then connect your android device to your system and back up that file thats all [NOTE: Some deivces does support this function.]

Clarify? The answer is very vague and no instructions to explain exactly... care to add more information?


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How can I use one Android device as mouse and keyboard input for another Android device via bluetooth?
I've already seen lots of ways to do this for Windows PCs, but is there a way I can do the same thing but for another Android device?

How do you think about mouse control when there's no mouse pointer in Android device you want to control?

@SachinShekhar: Android from v3.1 and up (at least) supports mouse input and a pointer (one reference).

@eldarerathis I once encountered mouse pointer in Android on Asus netbook (Android was as in-built micro-OS instance for quick surfing etc). I assumed that it was a tweak applied by Asus.
But, no.. its officially supported. Thanks!

Serverless Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse for PC/Phone should be what you're looking for. I hope this helps. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.appground.blek

As of Dec 2022, I can confirm this works flawlessly.

In my experience, it works - but the Bluetooth connection between my devices appears kind of flaky (an experience I didn't have with a dedicated BT keyboard and mice) and the result is a very poor typing or mousing experience. I was using the app on a Pixel device to connect to a Lenovo device, so it's not about poor hardware.

Android Mouse and Keyboard might be able to do what you want. Install it on one device, use it in bluetooth mode, and then sync that device's virtual bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the other device just as you would a real bluetooth keyboard or mouse.

That is a great app, but requires a desktop server to be running :-(

This app isn't compatible with Android 13.

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


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Android Password Recovery + 2 Step Auth. What happens?
I recently enabled two-step auth for my Google account, and I'm happy to say it works fine. However:

Application specific passwords, like for Android are temporary, and the guide makes it obvious that you aren't supposed to write them down or save them anywhere.
When someone fails to unlock a password protected Android phone too many times, it allows the user to connect to a WiFi network and login with his/her Google account.
How does this apply to an account with two-step auth? Has anyone had this sort of an issue before? Is generating a new app-specific password enough?

As far as I know, a pattern lock/password should get wiped upon flashing a new ROM. For certain reasons, I can't test this atm. If anyone else has a spare phone around, could they try?

Yes. I had my LG P500 running stock 2.3.3 with pattern lock. I flashed unofficial CM10 4.1 in it and the pattern lock is gone. Now I have a different pattern in 4.1.  My understanding is that the pattern lock is not tied to your Google account, while the Google account's authentication is just used for resetting it.

@Narayanan to my humble knowledge, you are absolutely correct. You can change the pattern anytime without having to change the Google account password, which is another indicator here.

What's your Android version?

Yes @Izzy, my device is rooted. I also confirmed with an unrooted phone (sk17i, stock 2.3.4), which only shows /data as blank.

You can use your normal Google Account password to unlock the phone (as long as you are connected to the internet), even if you have 2-step authentication turned on.
I have tested it on a Galaxy Nexus running ICS and another running Jelly Bean, and on a Nexus 7 running Jelly Bean. There might be a possibility that this was different on Android 2.3 but I don't think so.

This is not wrong! On ICS and above you can use your regular password even when adding your account, it will just ask for a OTP.

@RichardBorcsik And, how do you suppose to enter OTP when Authenticator app isn't available considering OP has only one Android device (not talking about SMS based OTP)?

@SachinShekhar that's the thing, you do NOT need to enter the 2nd code. The password of the Google account will unlock the device, even if it is on 2-step verification.

Alright. I haven't tested it. Maybe its right, but it looks weird because of the way 2-step authentication works. That's why someone has downvoted (my guess).

Its possible that OP doesn't have ICS or above. So, you must mention that in your answer.

@Sachin I wrote that the OTP is only used when you add your account. Besides if you don't have printed backup codes you deserve bad things to happen to you!

I have tested it on a Galaxy Nexus running ICS and another running Jelly Bean, and on a Nexus 7 running Jelly Bean. There might be a possibility that this was different on Android 2.3 but I don't think so.

@Sachin might work below ICS I have no way to test.

@rnh16 they changed a lot of account stuff with ICS. Thanks was the first time it was 2-fact aware.

I am unable to understand why you've problem. As you've said in your second point, it asks users to login with Google Account. When it comes to authentication of Google Account, why is password matter to you?
You can do this in those situations:

Create a new application-specific password and use that (you can delete old one).
Use one time emergency passcode generated at the time of enabling 2-step authentication.
Turn off 2-step authentication and use original Google Account password.

I've used first one once when my jeans pocket screwed things up.

Some phones do not allow unlocking with the google password even if you are connected to the internet.  The password is cached on the device and must be the same.  This means that you must use the temporary password that you setup your account with.  This is device dependent and I understand that it is a bigger problem for older devices, like those running gingerbread.
My advice is to use a password safe like keepass and keep that temporary password saved in case you need to unlock your phone.  My kids locked my phone by playing around with it and my normal password would not unlock it.  Had to reset to factory settings to get it off.

The password is not cached. An oauth token is.


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Need to give away Milestone that's rooted, what happens if I do Factory Data Reset?
In Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset?
I don't mind giving it away rooted, but if it wipes out the Superuser application (hence allowing any app to enter root mode unchecked) would be very very bad.
If it erases that app while leaving it rooted, can I just re-download the .apk and reinstall it afterwards? Or does that procedure unroot the phone? That would be OK too.
It's a Milestone 1 with Motorola's official 2.2 update. I just rooted it so I could use the ClockSync and Screenshot apps.

Depending on the device (and root method), the su binary (which gives your device root) is usually located in /system/xbin/ or /system/bin/ directory, while the Superuser.apk (which acts as a gate keeper, presenting you with a dialog when apps request root permissions) is always in /system/app/.  The /system partition does not get cleared by the Factory Reset process, so it's safe to perform while still retaining root.

Good to know, but what about the Superuser apk that asks the user to allow access by apps? Does that stay in place too?

Edited my answer with clarification about Superuser.apk.


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What is S-OFF? Why would I want to do it?
I always root my android devices, but there's something called obtaining S-OFF for certain devices, and I have no idea what that means.  What exactly does the term S-OFF relate to?  Why would I want to obtain S-OFF for my device?

As of note S-OFF/S-ON (S stands for Security) only officially applies to HTC devices, but many use it to describe any sort of locked/unlocked bootloader.

If you have a locked bootloader, it's S-ON.  If you fully unlock the bootloader it's S-OFF.  As eldarerathis notes below there's an intermediate state, where it's unlocked but still S-ON, where you can flash recoveries and ROMs but not radio firmware and so on.
If you don't unlock the bootloader, you can't flash unsigned firmware and most often can't alter your ROM (i.e., no permanent rooting).  The locked bootloader generally restores a known good system image on boot if it sees that changes have been made.
For some devices there's no known method of unlocking the bootloader; most of the time you need something official like HTC's unlocker tool.

Minor niggle: On HTC devices (I guess maybe others) your bootloader can be unlocked and still S-ON. In such a case, I believe you can flash system images and boot images, but you cannot flash radios or bootloaders (I'm not completely positive on the details, though, as my EVO has been S-OFF for a long time). Best example is that the HTCdev unlock leaves you S-ON (source for that). Their unlocker tool actually does not give you S-OFF status on any device I know of, unfortunately.

@eldarerathis I had no idea about that, thanks. HTC does weird things with their phones.

Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate, really. I was planning to upgrade to a newer HTC phone with an unlockable bootloader but decided against it when I dug around XDA and found that it would still be S-ON, so that's the only reason I thought to add that comment. It's not very well publicized, IMHO.

What's unfortunate is the confusion about S-ON and S-OFF. Believe me you want to leave security on (S-ON). Yes you can upgrade to newer HTC phones and use the official unlocker to install custom roms. Even with S-ON it's still unlocked for that purpose. Meaning yes you can install custom system, kernel (boot) and recovery partitions. What you can't do is mess with the radio which you really shouldn't be for the sake of everyone on your carrier. Any other argument is for specific unnecessary tools for installing roms.


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How can I slow down my phone?
I know it seems like a silly question, but here is the situation: I'm debugging an app and my users have reported a bug on slow devices that I can't see on my fast device.  Is there anything I can do to slow my device down so that I can see the bug for myself?

Have you tried using the emulator to create an AVD with similar specs?

One option - if you have root and a proper custom kernel you can use something like SetCPU to underclock your processor. CyanogenMod also has this functionality built in since at least CM7, don't remember if it's in CM6. That can be found in Settings->CyanogenMod Settings->Performance IIRC. Without root access, I suppose you could try to run some kind of "expensive" process in an attempt to occupy CPU cycles, but its probably not the best of ideas or an accurate portrayal of a slower device.


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Any way to dial international calling codes automatically based on my location?
I do a fair amount of international traveling (currently mostly between the U.S. and Mexico, but will be visiting Europe, Africa, and South America soon, too), and am looking for a dialing app that lets me set international dialing rules, so to speak, for each of my contacts.
This post describes pretty well what I'm looking for, and an app for PalmOS that apparently did it pretty well.
In short, I should be able to:

Specify a country for each contact phone number
Specify the country where I am located (either automatically by GPS location, or I can select my location, or a dialing profile, or whatever)
Then when I dial, it will automatically dial the appropriate country code before the number.

Example scenario:

I have a contact entry for Bob, who's phone number is 123-555-1234, and he is in the U.S.
When I am in the U.S., Bob is automatically dialed as 123-555-1234
When I am in Mexico, Bob is automatically dialed as 00-1-123-555-1234

or

I have a contact entry for Alice, who's phone number is 33-33-12-34-56, and she is in Mexico.
When I am in the U.S., Alice is automatically dialed as 011-52-33-33-12-34-56
When I am in Mexico, Alice is automatically dialed as 33-33-12-34-56

Please note this question is not about how to select the cheapest calling plan for each number, or making international calls with Skype or another VoIP service.  It's simply about dialing the proper international exit codes when doing standard "direct-dial" with whichever mobile provider I'm using.

Generally speaking, we do "How can I do X?" but not "Is there an app that does X?" questions.  In this case I think it's pretty much one and the same (I don't see any non-app way to solve this problem).  That said, if you phrased it the former way it would be helpful in discouraging the bad "shopping" style app-rec questions and might get you a better response :)

@MatthewRead: Thanks for the suggestions.  I've updated the question to hopefully be more inline with your suggestions.  I've also added some examples, and removed a reference to VoIP to hopefully make it more clear what specific functionality I'm looking for.

Can't you just save the numbers in international form? For example, Bob's would be +1-123-555-1234 and Alice's +52-33-33-12-34-56.

@onik: I may be showing my ignorance here, but I don't think +52-33-33-12-34-56 will work when I'm dialing from within Mexico... but maybe I'm wrong about that? It's certainly worth a try next time I'm in Mexico (next week)

@Flimzy Not sure about Mexico, but it works in all the countries I've been to in Europe.

@onik: I will definitely try it then, next week.

You can just save the numbers in international form. For example, Bob's would be +1-123-555-1234 and Alice's +52-33-33-12-34-56.

Thanks! This is working quite well for me, except when receiving texts... So I have asked a followup question.


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APN settings in A500 with dongle
I own an A500 without 3G and a ZTE LF627 USB dongle. I donwloaded the thor_3g_patch_v14.2 and flawlessly installed it. I also had to unlock my dongle (tested from computer, works...).
Now I connected it to my Iconia. It shows the blue roaming light, and seems to be ready for connection.
How do I set up APNs in Honeycomb 3.2? I found that a new settings menu "Tethering/portable hotspot" appeared after ROM patching, but I see no more menus for setting up APNs. From ConnectBot I can also see /dev/ppp
Can you help me with that? I can't even install those applications from the market that enable setting APNs because Google forbids me.
[Add]Interesting ADB output
~ # rild
rild
insmod: can't open '/system/lib/modules/usb_wwan.ko'
insmod: can't open '/system/lib/modules/option.ko'
chmod: /dev/ttyUSB0: No such file or directory
chmod: /dev/ttyUSB1: No such file or directory
chmod: /dev/ttyUSB2: No such file or directory
dlopen failed: Cannot load library: load_library[1108]: Library '/system/lib/libhuawei-ril.so' not found

maybe I'm missing some kernel modules.


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How to turn off flashing notification LED on HTC Sensation XE?
Two problems:

The LED flashes green every now and then. I disabled all options in Setting-Display-Notification flash, but it just keeps on flashing now and then. How can I completely turn it off?
The LED flashes red when the battery is low. How can I disable this, too?

Thanks in advance! I ask this because I often read ebook on my phone, it's annoying to have the light flash.

did u ever find out a solution?

@Jorge I gave up.


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Is it ok to delete the Amazon .apk files?
I have backed up all of my .apk files to my laptop. Can I delete the .apks in the Amazon venezia cache folder without detriment and be able to put them back on the sd card and reinstall from there at a later date, if I want to?

They're huge because games require a lot of resources.

You can redownload them any time you want or just install them using a file manager, no need to put them back there.
If you backup them to your PC it's a good idea to use something like this to keep track of the various apks.

This is going to sound really dumb but, how can I tell which apps they are, since there's nothing in the file name to indicate this?

Not a dumb question at all. I edited the answer with a link.

Once the apps have been installed the APKs in the cache folder are completely worthless.  Even more so if you've backed them up.


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What to do after:" No sd-ext found. Skipping backup of sd-ext"?
I want to update to cyanogenMod 9. But before doing this, I've done a nandroid backup.
After the backup was created I saw this output:
ClockwordMod Recovery v2.5.1.8
SD Card space free: 1296MB
Backing up system...
Backing up data...
Backing up .android_secure
Backing up cache
No sd-ext found. Skipping backup of sd-ext.
Generating md5 sum...

Backup complete!

I'm not sure, but I believe this means that the external sd-card partition wasn't backuped.
Will this be a real problem, if I want to backup my phone? And how shall I solve it, if it's a problem?

This means you do not have an ext3/4 partition on your sdcard. This really ins't a big deal, this is like a legacy part of the nandroid backup process. CM doesn't "officially" support the sd-ext partition any more anyhow.

OK, but what shall I do now?

@theWorm You can proceed as normal, CM won't touch your external card.  Any ROM that does is messed up.

Am I able to read and write my files on this sd-card, with cyanogenmod???

yes, it will have access to read/write to the sdcard.  The normal functionality of the sdcard still exists in CM. The sd-ext partition was to give more space on older devices that only had like 500mb of total storage on the device. This allowed the device to be able to support installing more/larger apps. Even if you had the sd-ext partition, there would still be space left over for the "normal" sdcard partition.

I have same problem with my rooted LG P500 running stock 2.3.3 with 2nd partition formatted as FAT32.  Will ROM manager (NAndroid backup) work with FAT32?

Your SD card did not get backed up.  If you have a system failure that does not affect your SD card, then your restore will be OK provided that your SD card has not changed substantially since you backed up.  Otherwise, you'll be lacking the part of your apps that is installed to the SD card (which could be almost everything other than the data).
My own approach to this is to make a backup of my entire SD card to my PC immediately after backing up with CWM.  Then I will be able to restore whatever might be changed or missing if and when I need to restore from backup.
"irish Pancake" in this thread seems to have figured it out:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1582248

Remove your SIM card(s), not SD card.
Do a factory reset,wipe cache and format your android system.
Now restore your Nandroid backup.

How does this help? Please elaborate.


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Is there a way to move installed apps from one device to another?
I have Galaxy Tab 7 inch which has some installed apps and I don't have the APK files. I would like to move the apps to a new Galaxy Tab Plus 7 inch.
Is there a way to move my installed apps from one device to another without reinstalling every app from Android Market?

One way to do this would be to use an app like ApkBackup to get the apks of your installed apps than install them on your new device.
Note that the data will be lost and depending on the market version it may not notify you about updates.

Thanks Richard. Someone suggested backing up my apps to my Market account and installing it into the new Galaxy Tab. Is this possible?

If you downloaded them from there than they're linked to your account so in the newest version (now called play store) it lists all the apps you ever downloaded. But you'd have to download them one by one. Or if you enabled it there's an option in system settings to backup your list of apps and reinstall them when you set up your new device, but not all of them support this.

Interesting! I tried this out, but some apps are "protected" and an apk cannot be created. What to do then?


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Why does Play Store update twice in a row the same app to the same version?
Why does Play Store (formerly Android Market) mark for update twice in a row the same app to the same version?
Here is a typical example of what happens. Yesterday I checked the My Apps section from Play Store, saw that version 3.5.1.1 of the Kindle app was available for update, and updated it. Today I checked the My Apps section again. Play Store showed as available for update the same 3.5.1.1 version of Kindle with the same release notes. I updated the app again.
The same often happens with other apps, both on Android Market in the past and Play Store now. The second update is available the day after the first (I check daily for updates). In all cases the apps are correctly donwloaded and updated, and run fine. All my apps are set to manual update.
I have an unrooted Nexus S running Android 2.3.6 and my phone carrier is Vodafone Italy. I have Play Store 3.4.7. The issue happens with both 3G and Wi-Fi.

Its probably a Google bug. I am facing the same problem. After all atempts to fix it, I contacted Google finally. You should also do this.

Update: It is probably a "hot fix" of application developers, which they've spotted few moments after the update release. As solution it is easier to release an immediate second update with the same version number (ver. numbering is solely on app developer). So it ends up twice (or even several times) after the first update. Also, IMHO, the same version number ensures that users, who did not updated with the first "buggy" wave, will receive the last "hot fixed" update of that number. This was confirmed in some case here.
Original post:
Maybe this issue is connected with multiple google accounts? It could be intersting to check next time this happens if both update proposals are for the same account.
Second thought: did the update go well in the first attempt?

I have a single Google account. The updates always go well in the first attempt.

Thx for info, I've updated what I believe it the case.


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Contact groups in 2.3.4 - xperia?
Is there a way to have contact groups in this phone?
I know it is possible on other phones, but this one does not give you the ability to make them.

Android 4.x supports contact groups. This is the only way I've found till now.


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Reinstall TouchWiz Calendar
I've been trying to reinstall the TouchWiz calendar on my Sidekick 4G with no luck.
I got the calendar apk here, and put it on my sd card then moved it to system/app using RootExplorer, and once I clicked install I got the normal install prompts then a message that said "Application not installed".
How can I fix this? Do I need to reinstall a stock ROM?

You don't install system apps, they're automatically detected.  After you move it to /system/app/ just remount system as read-only and reboot.  If your ROM's not deodexed that may not work but that's a whole other can of worms.

Thanks, Matt! I set the system/app directory to r/o and made sure that the app had the same permissions as other apps and then reboot. There's no Calendar app showing up in my app drawer, so I'm guessing my ROM might not be deodexed?

Are there any files in the same directory with .odex file extension?
Make sure that the apk you're using is directly from the rom you're using.


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Where are the hidden videos and pictures from Camfiler's VS and/or PS apps?
In Camfiler's PS and VS programs where are my hidden videos and pictures on my SD card for when I back up my card to my computer?

What do you mean by "hidden"?  What hides them?

VS and PS are video and photo encrypter apps that make password protected areas on your phone to "hide" sensitive material. The only problem is that you can't back up those pictures and videos while they're hidden and there's no way to batch unlock everything you hid. Even if you did they would all go back to the date they were added, which when you have a lot of media makes them very difficult to find.


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Why Advent Vega keeps losing Wi-Fi?
I recently bought a Advent Vega Android tablet and everything is working completely fine, however there is one slight problem with Wi-Fi.
Even though I have full Wi-Fi signal (it is as high as it can be), and it has been happily working for a while, after some time the Wi-Fi disconnects and when I go into the Wi-Fi settings it states that the network is out off range. If I turn off the Wi-Fi and re-enable it, it works fine.
I've tried a couple of different ROMs but they all have the same problem. Does anyone have any clues as to how this can be fixed?

One thing to look out for is wifi sleep state (In your settings, under Wifi, select Advanced from the overflow menu. Keep Wifi On During Sleep should be set to Always).  If this is the case, the best you can do is try to get more info on the problem...

Besides ensuring that there are no obstacles between your Wifi router and your phone (walls, wireless phones, microwaves, other routers), you should also confirm that you see the same behaviour with various levels of Wifi security.  This is a common problem with certain hardeare and is something to confirm.

Check here Modaco Looking through the threads, its seems a firmware problem, have you tried updating it?

It could possibly be that you have a wifi time out enabled? Check the wifi settings carefully. Also, make sure the wifi sleep setting is diabled.
It could of course be a hardware issue (and probably is if it happens on multiple roms). It could be that the wifi card in the tablet 'Shuts Off' after a certain time, check online as this would happen to all owners of the tablet if this was the case.

Most of the Android Tablet rejects the wifi connection once they recieve any corrupt packet.
To fix this issue we need to handle the exception at the network layer.
Install Wifi-Fixer App from Playstore. Then:

Run wifi from this app only.
You will be able to see the logs of the packets.
Issue will be solved automatically, if not revert back.


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How long should the first boot take with CyanogenMod 9?
On XDA Developers they say "Frst boot will take some time...", but I've waited 25 minutes and my phone has not finished booting. About how long does the first boot usually take?

If you've waited 25 minutes it's probably not booting properly. I generally wouldn't wait longer than 5 minutes or so, though I doubt there's any definite timeframe to cite.

@eldarerathis I'm trienging to reboot now

It's generally below 5 minutes, anything over 10 minutes is probably considered a wrong flash. Read the instructions given by the developer and than try again.
If It still doesn't work as for help in the roms thread ask they will be better suited to help with specific questions about your rom than us.


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Is there a way to spoof the phone model that shows up on app ratings/comments on Google Play?
When a user enters a review comment for an application their phone model/version listed below it. Is there a way to spoof or otherwise change that information?

I believe you'd do this the same way you download apps available for other devices, by editing the build.prop file on your device (requires root).  See my answer here for more info on that.


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How to add StackExchange podcast to Google Listen (on Android)?
I'm trying to add the StackExchange Podcast to Google Listen.
I've tried searching for it within Google Listen. No luck.

I think: if you can find an RSS feed for it, you can add it to Google Reader, and put it in the "Listen Podcasts" folder.  That should make it magically sync on your phone.  I think.

Thanks! I tried the RSS feed before in Google Reader and it just subscribed me to the blog. So I tried it in Google Listen (on Android) and that worked!!

For anyone looking for it, the RSS feed for the podcasts is: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/category/podcasts/feed/

I haven't had any luck with that either.  What I ended up doing was downloading the MP3, putting that in Dropbox, then loading it up in Dropbox as a favorite (click the star icon).  Favoriting it makes sure it is in the offline cache.  Then I listen to it from there.  The downside is that Dropbox has to be open as it doesn't seem to support background audio playing.  The upside is that I can listen to the StackExchange Podcast in my car. :)


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How to check if an available update will take up more storage or less than the one currently installed version?
How can I check if an available update of a given app that I already have installed will take up more or less storage space than the one currently installed from the information in the play.google.com page? Is there a URL I can use to check the size of my current version and the one of the available update? Can I mount the device and list the size of the installed apps and compare it to the advertised size in play.google.com?
For example, I updated Gmail in the last few months, and originally took up 2.07MB Application size, and the last two updates went from 3.08MB Application size to 3.26MB version 2.3.6 (20110305). How can I know this in advance?

Can't you look on your device?

Current App's Usage:

If you mean storage, there's a handy program on market called Disk Usage. It will display the current size of all installed applications, as well as how much space each's data takes up.
I have a feeling you may mean RAM usage, which is a different animal indeed. To get the amount of RAM a program is currently using, see the Apps section of the Settings.  The Running tab shows the relevant details.

New Update's or Non-Installed App Usage:

Most of these details cannot really be determined before installing an app or an update, unless the developer is kind enough to include these details in the applications's description or the What's New section.  The closest you can get is the actual size of the application, which does show up in the application description.  I guess you could use a combination of what you can learn from Disk Usage on the current version's size and correlate that to what shows up in Google Play for the current version.

Details like RAM usage are difficult to determine as they depend on a lot of factors:

Which resources are loaded on your particular device configuration (e.g. high or low res images and icons).
How you use the app (e.g. if you have a browser and load 100 tabs, the program will use more RAM).
The quality of the app.  The program may inadvertently waste memory due to a bug only you experience.  It would be difficult to predict things like this.

As for app storage, this really depends on whether the app developer chooses to change the way it stores data.
Hopefully this answers your question.

A word of advice. Don't add signatures to your posts as they're not allowed. You should change your display name instead.

I'll keep this in mind in the future. I had a look at the FAQ and think I have a better grasp on the rules.


text:
open a list of bookmarks in one go?
How can I open a list of bookmarks into different windows of Android's 2.3.5 browser in one go? For example, how can I set up a bookmark list that opens 3 windows in one go with the pages: www.nytimes.com, www.usatoday.com, www.washingtonpost.com all three of them from just one bookmark that will open the three pages in 3 different browser windows?

You might beable to set something up in Tasker (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en) to do this


text:
replace the HTC unlock system for a keyboard combination in Android 2.3.5?
How can I replace the HTC-sense ringy swipy unlock mechanism for an unlock mechanism that only requires to enter a keyboard combination in Android 2.3.5? I find myself not able to do it easily on one hand and since I have a physical keyboard, I would like to be able to unlock the screen with a keyboard combination.

Let me know if this helps,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jraf.android.nolock&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm9yZy5qcmFmLmFuZHJvaWQubm9sb2NrIl0.

No Lock as suggested in a comment does very much what I wanted and even more, and it's a lightweight application which always helps. Please reply as answer for the points!

done :) you can now mark it as answer

Let me know if this helps,
No Lock


text:
How to remove downloaded videos of TED app from device?
I like official TED app which allows me to download videos for later offline viewing. I've downloaded many videos & watched all of them. Now, I want to remove them from my device to regain my storage space. But, I am unable to find option in app for this. I've looked in file system, but unable to find downloaded videos. Please, help.

On the My Talks tab, tap/press options button (you can tap the overflow menu in the top right corner if you are on tablet).
There is a Remove Items in menu. That should do the trick. It puts an x on all the videos and I'm assuming a tap on that will delete them.  I haven't done this, because I haven't gotten around  to watching them yet.

There's no overflow menu in the top right corner. Instead, there's a listen button. Anyway, thanks.. the later objectives are same.

Sorry, I was on a tablet.  Tapping the menu button does the exact same thing.

Merge my answer in your own, so that I could delete my answer & accept yours..

I've done this.. waiting until its peer reviewed..

@SachinShekhar Done.

I have found the solution.
While on My Talks tab, press/tap options button to bring menu. From this menu, tap Remove Items which would allow you to selectively remove downloaded videos.

There are two ways you can remove the TED videos in bulk:

Go to the path /sdcard/Android/data/com.ted.android/files/ using your file manager in Android. Delete all the videos directly from there.
In your TED app, go to My Talks menu and then tap the vertical dotted icon at the right-top corner which will popup a dropdown menu. You should tap the Remove Items option which will show x at the left of each of the downloaded videos that you want to remove.

Hope it helps.


text:
Android ICS ROMs for MID Tablet
I have a MID (Chinese) tablet and I found 2 Android 4.0 firmwares, but with the first one wireless doesn't work and with the second camera doesn't work, the other components and functions of my tablet work perfectly with both firmwares.
Is there a way to extract the "wireless driver" from the second firmware and use it on the first one?

based on my experience with Chinese-made MID, we can extract it ONLY if we have the access to it's kernel (which usually the manufacturer doesn't release it). Maybe you can start looking for the solution at tabletrepublic.com forum.
Find the specific device model and chipset used, and I am sure there will be a lot devs out there willing to help.


text:
How can I sync my Outlook calendar with my Android phone calendar?
I have Galaxy Europa GT-I5500 Android phone with me.  The problem I am facing is I am able to Sync my Contacts and Notes with my Outlook 2007, but I am not able to sync my my phone calendar with Outlook 2007.
I'd appreciate if anyone can help me with the problem I am facing.

You will probably find MyPhoneExplorer quite useful. It does not only sync your contacts etc. with outlook, but provides a lot of additional useful features, such as managing your SMS, Calllists, Apps, Files, handling Calls, create backups...
You might want to visit the products page for more detailled information.

No love for us Linux+Thunderbird users - Windows only :(

Logos, are you kidding? You don't want to tell me you use Outlook on Linux, do you? That's what the OP asked for (Outlook), hence this answer. Not that I use any MS software (MS-free zone here :) Ask a question about Linux, and I tell you that Thunderbird, Evolution, KOffice etc. can directly access the Google calendar -- hence no need for additional "helpers" on this ground, unless you don't sync with Google. And even then, plenty of possibilities ;)

No, I don't use OL on Linux - hence adding the "+TB" to my comment.  It was just a comment, not an answer.  Hence the comment :)  It looks like a spiffy app though, hence my sadness that it's Windows only.

ack. Reminds me of the Palm Desktop, from the screenshots. Yeah, bad luck for us with things like that. Those folks still didn't check they could get new customers here... I wouldn't even mind paying a reasonable 1-time-fee for good stuff ;)

Is this a local Outlook calendar?  If so, you might want to migrate your appointments to your Google account's calendar, then add your Google calendar to Outlook (pretty simple to do).  That way it will sync automatically, as well as being available on the web.


text:
Measures distance using the camera
I have found tools like Smart Ruler that helps us measure length using the screen. But for objects bigger than the screen, I imagine there are apps that use the camera and focal length to show distances and widths. If there's no such app, is it possible to use a camera or any other common phone hardware to measure spatial dimensions?

I just found an app from the same developer that does what I wanted for buildings: Smart Measure.

This rangefinder (telemeter) measures the distance and height of a target using trigonometry.

They also have an app called smart distance.

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


text:
Battery - do they last longer if recharged when empty?
I'm about to buy a Samsung Galaxy Ace (it's not much expensive and I think it's a pretty good phone), however everyone has been complaining with the battery life but admitting that isn't bad compared to all the other smartphones.
I read about how to save battery with tips/tricks, and I'll certainly do it; but I'd like to know whether a battery life would increase recharging it only when completely empty (some old phones used to gain life expectancy from that, I don't know if things are changed now)

This isn't quite what you asked, but: I've heard that if you charge the battery fully before you use it for the first time, that'll improve the battery's life.  (The manual for my phone, for example, says "Before you use the phone, insert the battery and charge it fully".)

Related: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5102/does-recharging-a-battery-when-it-is-only-half-way-dead-decrease-its-life-span

Modern phones use Li-ion and Li-poly batteries. So the battery life is  not affected by whether you charge them at 0% or 90%.
It only has a long term effect. Batteries degrade with every charge cycle. A cycle is usually a recharge from below 50%. So charging while the battery capacity is still relatively high has a long term effect of less degradation.
The other frequent pseudoscientific habit that has no roots is a technique many call "formatting", where you leave your battery plugged in for 16 hours or 3 * 8 hours with discharge in between or any other baseless claim by anyone on any forum or phone shop. If they don't have scientific evidence don't believe them.

In fact, purposely draining and recharging 'uses up' charge cycles that could have been put to good use (i.e. discharging by actually using the phone for useful stuff).

I have never heard of using a charge cycle to improve the actual capacity. Completely discharging the battery and then recharging it again to calibrate the battery gauge sounds quite plausible to me, though.

@Erik this calibration required got a few devices to function properly, but I've never seen an android phone needing it. Most cases of low battery life is rooted in the owner's usage.

Full discharges put a strain on the battery.
This topic might be of some help to you (the first answer specifically).

If I could split "correct answer" points between you and Richard I would do it, but right now seems that I can't :(

When you say old phones, I think you meant devices which had Ni-Cad batteries.  That practice of recharging only when the battery was run down is known as the Memory Effect
Like Richard said, most phones don't use Ni-Cad anymore but Li-Ion or Li-Poly, which don't exhibit that behavior.
I keep my devices plugged in as often as possible.


text:
How can I set up different notification tones for each of my email accounts?
I have a Bionic running Android 2.3.4. I receive mail on a few accounts via the stock Email app and would like a different notification tone for each e-mail account. Can that be done?

This feature is already provided by many email apps including official Gmail app. Gmail app even allows to set different notification tone of different labels.
In Gmail, go to Settings ~> [Email-id of attached Account] (under Account Settings section) ~> Labels to Notify ~> [Label Name] ~> Ringtone (from pop-up). If your Gmail app doesn't have these settings, time to update it.
If you don't use Gmail app, specify your email app for further help. If your app doesn't provide this feature, you can't add it by your own in most of cases (unless app allows plugins). So, switch to another email client app.

I have found what you mentioned, thanks, but most of my accounts are not gmail and when my android sets these up it uses the "e-mail" client, not the "g-mail" client. How can I specify an alternate client?

If you're using stock email client, simply switch to another client.

Do you have a suggestion, there are an exceptional number of clients on android market.


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Why won't 'usb debugging' mode stay on?
I'm trying to put my phone into usb debugging mode, but it won't work. I'll turn it on, and it will turn off right away.. Has anyone else gone through this?
I'm running 2.3.4 on a zte score.

Is the phone plugged in at the time?  That could be the problem.

I've tried it plugged in, and not plugged in.

Have you tried a different USB cable?  I think I've had issues with a certain one that was flaky. Also try a different USB port on your computer.

I'll have to look around.. I'm not sure if I have another cable. And yes, I've tried both ports. But really, I think it is due to my phone.

my samsung galaxy fit (android 2.2.1) has the opposite problem: Every time i plugin usb usb-debugging is reenabled again. I need to switch it off because my laptop has problems with the usb-board and sometimes crashes when there is too much usb-activity. So i always switch usb debugging off on my phone so my laptop crashes once a week instead twice a day :-(

That's odd.. I'm not sure how a laptop could crash from that...

I had a similar issue with Huawei P Smart (today on Android Oreo).  Revoking USB debug permissions enabling USB debugging and then re-attaching it with 'transfer files' option, followed by accepting the PC certificate fingerprint appeared to work - at least for the time being.

I had the same issue with my Mate 20x. Someone suggested that enabling Allow ADB debugging in charge only mode would keep the debugging switch on and it did the trick.


text:
Disabling safe mode or removing apps from safe mode
I use a Droid 3 which has not yet been rooted. I need to remove access to the Browser or the Play Store. I already have an app called "program encrypting" which disables access to selected apps unless the user has a password. However, when the user enters safe mode, all downloaded apps are disabled, allowing the user to use the Browser and the Play Store.
I am curious if it is possible to disable safe mode in some way, or changing the button combination to enable it. I would also be fine with removing those applications from appearing in safe mode. I am new to rooting and such, and I would appreciate being able to remove access to these apps in the safest, quickest way possible.

That's something I'd say is impossible without rooting. Safe mode is for the case an app goes havoc, so it must disable all user apps (for the havoc-app to not be started, so one can uninstall it or clear its cache/data). Which means, in order to exclude an app from being excluded (oops), this app must be "converted" to be a system app (i.e. it must be installed on the /system partition) -- which only is possible with root-permissions (or if the app ships within the ROM).

It happens to be that there is a way to block safe mode without rooting, however I am not sure if there's any free way. There's a filter software called MMGuardian, which blocks safe mode by setting the device's password to a master password (which the user doesn't know) and when the device boots up, the password sets itself to the users password. However, since MMGaurdian isn't activated in Safe Mode, in safe mode the password remains the master password, restricting access. Here's a link to their website: https://www.mmguardian.com/ Hope I helped!


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How to tune a frequency like 89.0 on Jusada ICS CM7 stock radio?
I am using Jusada Ice Cream Sunday ROM. I have problem with its stock radio app.
I can not tune to even numbers after decimal like 89.0 or 106.2. After the decimal it only let me tune to odd numbers.
How can I fix this? The above mentioned frequencies are popular radio stations in my region.

In the app's settings try changing the default locale.  Different ones (even "China") will change the interval by which the tuner seeks.


text:
Can I increase the in-call volume of my microphone?
I have a Sony Xperia Active which is barely 2 months old and its in-call mic volume is really low. Is there any way I can increase the volume?

I think that is either a hardware or  a firmware issue. Have you tried recording with the mic? Is it loud and clear?
If it is a firmware issue, report it to Sony. And if Hardware related problem, use a headset, or change your device.

Sorry, this is a really old question. I don't even have that phone anymore :-|

Oops.. i didn't see that coming.


text:
Are there any risks to flashing a ROM?
Are there any risks to manually flashing a stock or custom ROM?

Does it have the potential to brick the device?
Will it void my warranty?
Will I stop getting updates?
Anything else I should be aware of?

(See also: Are there any risks to rooting a device?)

Depends on how you define "safe". The guide seems all right and provides step-by-step instructions. As it says in the disclaimer, you have to be careful and follow the steps exactly unless you know what you are doing. From experience, it's only scary the first time, and unless something goes terribly wrong, your device won't be bricked irreversibly.

but what if i got stuck in between and mobiles hangs or something...  is their any restore options so that i can go back to 2.1 eclair

Depends when exactly troubles happened. If you make a backup of your stock ROM during recovery (which is suggested in the HOW-TO you linked to, and is strongly recommended anyway), then you can revert back to it if you are not happy for some reason with CyanogenMod.

I've made this more general, similar to Are there any risks to rooting a device?.  The answer is largely the same but I think it warrants its own question.

Adapted from Are there any risks to rooting a device?
Does it have the potential to brick the device?
Yes.  Flashing bad software is the easiest way to brick your device.  A failed flash or one that gets interrupted may also brick your device.  Sometimes things just go wrong even if you do everything right; flashing software manually is not something for the faint of heart.
Some devices are easy to "soft brick" but difficult to "hard brick".  A soft brick is when the device fails to boot and you need to resort to flashing firmware, often through a manufacturer tool like Samsung's Odin, to fix it.  A hard brick is when it's totally broken; this usually only occurs if you overwrite the device's bootloader.
Will it void my warranty?
If you flash a custom ROM, you void your warranty.  If you flash a stock ROM over top of an "unaltered" (e.g., never rooted) stock ROM through the manufacturer-approved process, then you should be safe, but flashing stock under other circumstances is no different from flashing a custom ROM.
Will I stop getting updates?
For stock ROMs, no, not in general.  You won't get stock updates for a custom ROM, but the custom ROM might have its own updates.
Can I go back to the stock ROM if I'm unhappy with the custom one?
Generally, yes. Most guides you'll find strongly recommend backing up your stock ROM when your phone is in recovery mode before you actually flash the new ROM. From recovery, you should be able to restore your stock ROM in all its glory should something go wrong during the flashing (but you can still boot in recovery mode) or if you are dissatisfied with your current ROM. Finding the right stock ROM for your device online is going to be much harder after the fact (and it might be hard to be sure it hasn't been tampered with), so be sure to do this before doing anything else.
Anything else?
Custom ROMs will frequently provide features that the original software did not.  However, it is also often the case that not all hardware may be supported on your specific device.  Modified versions of the original ROMs are more likely to be fully compatible than something like CyanogenMod.  (Although, of course, there are cases where CM has fixed issues that the original manufacturer did not!)


text:
How to run commands as root in Connectbot?
My phone is rooted CM7 and Superuser.apk has Connectbot in the allowed list.  Titanium backup reports that it has root access, to prove that I actually have root working.  I seem to remember being able to run commands in Connectbot as root in the past.
But now, I go into Connectbot → Local, and try to run a command using sudo, and it just says "permission denied".  No pop-up or anything.   Same for the Terminal Emulator app.  How do I run commands as root?

The su binary works just like it does on Linux; it runs all commands that follow as root until you type exit (or terminate the process, etc.). sudo <command> essentially does:
su
<command>
exit

Android doesn't normally include sudo, so If you wish to launch commands like you would with sudo, the syntax is as follows:
su -c "[command_1;command_2;...;command_N]"

For example, to get a list of installed packages in "root" mode, you can either do
$ su
# pm list packages
# ........ <listing of packages scrolls down> ......
# exit

or
$ su -c "pm list packages;exit"

Oh. If I use su by itself, it works. Connectbot is granted superuser permissions and then I can do stuff as root. Does sudo ever work, then?

Linux also have su binary.. so, don't say su as android equivalent of sudo.

sudo isn't installed on Android by default; sudo was written to give people the ability to access certain commands (via configuration) instead of using su to log in as root all the time. su is the more important command when you don't have uid 0 at all on your device.

@SachinShekhar Feel free to correct my answer with proper verbiage.

For some reason, this is not working for me in CYM11 (inside an app). For su -c "pm..." I get Permission denied, and the app appears with a Deny in the logs. I have another apps with Allow, though. No Toast appeared asking for permissions... Any idea?

wow! I didn't know -c was the tricky option to use. I  just kept trying, say, "su logcat" and it never worked.


text:
Calculate which app use more internal space among my link2sd moved apps
That's my problem:
I use, happily, link2sd and after installing a lot of apps I got my internal memory full again.
Now I'd like to delete apps but I have no clues on how internal space they use since I've moved them with link2sd...
Any apps/hints?

Use Disk Usage app. It draws nice graphical diagram with directories proportional to their size. There's a dedicated lookup option for apps too.

Will it help me in my particular task (link2sd, internal and ext2 memory)?

Yes (based on what you've asked in question). It does nothing other than disk usage (by app, directory, file). Its a little app. Install & see by yourself. At the time of opening, choose App Storage.

Link2SD comes with awesome filter settings and sort size.
So in filter settings choose 'Internal memory' and in Sort choose 'By data size'.
This way link2sd will show you all the programs that are in internal memory in descending order of their data size.

Mmmmh maybe I was unclear: all my apps are linked to sd but I imagine a "small part" of the app remains in the internal memory, because I see that it is full anyway. What I'm looking for is something to understand how much of a linked to sd app remains in internal... :)

The small part you're talking about is the 'data'. Link2sd moves everything except data. That's why I told you to sort size by data size.


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Enter recovery mode from command line
Does anyone know if there's a way to get an Android phone to reboot into recovery mode, from the Android command line?
Note:
I do NOT have adb access.
I do NOT know the magic power-on sequence to do it from the boot loader. I've tried the common things and nothing works.
I DO have root. (And can enter commands directly on the device using a terminal emulator.)
I know it's possible, somehow, because applications like ROM Manager do it. But how?

Generally, reboot binary provides a recovery switch. After switching to root, execute this command:
/system/bin/reboot recovery
This may not work if your manufacturer doesn't support it. ROM Manager type apps uses API of Android which you can't access via Terminal Emulator directly.

You shouldn't need the full path for reboot, but this is exactly right.

@MatthewRead Yup, full path is really not needed. :) But, I didn't want to leave a chance in case someone messed up with PATH variable.

@Otech1408 You have to have a rooted device to do this.

on non rooted devices you can achieve this through adb: adb reboot recovery

You might need to type su in terminal to gain root access before running reboot recovery.

Hi. What would those Android APIs be? Do you know? (PS: I have access to the internal APIs, so I can use them in case they're needed.)

I tested the following command on stock Android 5.0 and 6.0.1, CM 14, and Android 8.1.0 with graceful shutdown and reboot to recovery:
su -c 'svc power reboot recovery'

It worked on Android 4.4.2 as well but the shutdown appeared to be low-level. It requires root access though.
Alternatively, if you're running Android KitKat or above* and have root access, you can try this command in a terminal app:
su -c 'setprop sys.powerctl reboot,recovery'

replace su -c with adb shell to run the command using adb
replace reboot,recovery with reboot to reboot the device
replace reboot,recovery with shutdown to shutdown the device

Note that all of those setprop commands would do a low-level (unclean; not graceful) shutdown/reboot.
In Android Lollipop and above*, you can also try:
su -c 'setprop ctl.start pre-recovery'

For Android Jelly Bean and below, SS-3's answer appears to be the only possible solution.

* The last version on which the command is tested upon is stock Android 6.0.1.

CM's su binary I suppose doesn't have  -c argument, so first switch to root user using su and then execute the quoted command

I believe it was running either cupcake or donut. Regardless, it went off to the great phone recyling centre in the sky long ago. But thanks anyway!

@DavidGiven : It may be appearing quite silly that I revived an old question but I did that because you didn't mention a particular Android version so I tried to use it as an opportunity to mention what would work not only for you but for other and successive Android versions as well. It also helped me in avoiding  forking a duplicate question but for other Android versions.

The "su -c 'svc power reboot recovery'" is working on my cm14.1 (android 7.1) based rom. It is shutting down gracefully before rebooting into recovery. This is the best solution i have come across so far.


text:
Will changing the HBOOT affect my ROM?
Device: HTC Desire (Bravo)
ROM: Aurora 4.1 - http://android.elrincondelmovil.com/roms-desire-90/rom-aurora-v4-1-sense-3-0-android-2-3-5-oct22-1639/?langid=1
HBOOT: Stock (Revolutionary)
Radio: 5.11.05.27

I'm looking to upgrade my ROM to Tiny ICS which like many ROMs claims to run smoother on the CM7r2 HBOOT. So my questions are:

Is it really worth changing my HBOOT?
Will changing my HBOOT wreck my current ROM?

Sorry if this is somewhat 'noobish' but I just felt it would be better to be safe than sorry.

This answer to #2 in your question is, unfortunately, "maybe". The CM7r2 HBOOT (along with several others) is maintained by AlphaRev, and they note in their website's FAQ:

Will this touch my currently running ROM?
We try to leave the current ROM and datastructures completely intact.
  It is, however, advised to ALWAYS nandroid backup your phone before
  you run this procedure.  You will then always have a correct/current
  backup to fall back on in case something breaks.

So it's designed to flash without affecting your current ROM install, but it's a bit of a delicate process so there are no guarantees. There is generally always a certain amount of risk involved in these types of things, but especially so when dealing with the bootloader/HBOOT. Make a backup. If you can, copy the backup onto another device (your computer, for instance). Always prepare for the worst and hope for the best when it comes to data that you don't want to lose and you'll generally be fine.
As per your question about whether or not it's worth it - this sort of depends. The reason that some ROMs support certain versions of HBOOT and not others is because the different HBOOTs are designed to create different partition layouts on your device. There is a table on the website which details the layouts, and which I'll summarize here:
Name               /system   /cache    /data
---------------------------------------------------
Bravo Stock         250M       40M      147M
Bravo N1Table       145M       95M      197M
Bravo Data++        180M       5M       252M
Bravo Sense         180M       40M      217M
Bravo Oxygen r2     100M       5M       332M
Bravo CM7 r2        145M       5M       287M

Certain ROMs are designed to take advantage of the differing partition layouts, making them incompatible with others. For example, a ROM with a lot of stock components and additional packages may need more than 145MB of space for its /system partition, so flashing it on the CM7r2 HBOOT would not work. It's generally best to stick with whatever the ROM author recommends, which does mean that switching may be necessary in some cases.

It's a shame I don't have the nesseccary reputation to vote up this answer because it was frankly perfect. I've now decided that since the new ROM suppports both the stock and CM7r2 HBOOTs I'll stick with the stock for now to avoid any hassle. Once again, thank you for this perfect answer :D

I'd say: Of course, flashing a different hboot affects the current installation. It shifts partition start/end boundaries around. Except if a partition's start stays the same and only got extended at the end this will break the every file system of every partition without further actions (pre-shrinking and such).


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What's the "MTC Мобильная Почта" update on my Samsung Galaxy?
What's the wierd looking update that's just turned up on my Samsung Galaxy phone?
"MTC Мобильная Почта" by "OJSC Mobile TeleSystems".
The review section has lots of one-star comments saying its malware etc, but I'd have thought actual malware would look more like something I'd want to install than something wierd in Russian.
Should I be worried? Is this malware or some perfectly normal component buried in the OS that's somehow found its way into public view? Should I install the update?

I did some searching due to the other answer and found someone on XDA claiming that this is a Market/Play bug, and you're seeing it because the Market thinks one of your apps is actually that OJSC Mobile app.
Even better, I found this just-published story on The Verge:

Samsung has several pieces of software that it installs on it devices but that aren't in the Google Play store (for obvious reasons). However, every single Android app has an app name that identifies it on the Android system, in this case the "unique" name is com.seven.Z7, which identifies Samsung's email app. What appears to have happened is that Russian developer OJSC Mobile Telesystems gave that unique identifier to its "МТС Мобильная Почта" app, and so these Samsung devices were tricked into thinking it was an update to Samsung's email client. Since Google Play allows for automatic updating of all apps, it was installed on many devices.

I couldn't find the app in the Play Store anymore, so perhaps Google has taken it down to resolve this.
Below is the original version of this post, which would still be applicable in more normal circumstances.

If it's a system app for supporting Cyrillic text, which is what it sounds like, it could hardly be called malware.  Crapware, perhaps, if you don't need it.
If you don't need it, then no need to update (unless you want to be rid of the notification, though in that case I recommend rooting and removing the app).  No reason not to update either I'd say — you already have it on your device, so unless it's doing something nasty in the new version in particular then you've already been exposed to any dangers it may contain :P.  Of course, updating will require more space on your device unless you are rooted and can entirely replace the original version with the update (normally the system keeps all original versions of system apps).

I've copied the cyrillic name from your answer into my question text and title. Thanks.

"Мобильная Почта" means "Mobile Mail" in Russian.

These identifiers are supposed to be unique simply because the only ones allowed to use com.seven.Z7 would be the ones who could control Z7.seven.com in the DNS system. It's not immediately obvious to me that seven.com has any connection with either Samsung or some Russian “MTC” company, does anyone know which of these used the name correctly, if either? (Assuming this is not actually an update for what Samsung installed, that is.)

This is DEFINITELY an ugly mixup, as shown in the update on Verge. Just a Russian app with the same system ID as Samsung's app... so no need for hysteria, not everything in Russian spells a nuclear threat ;).

From what i've read on XDA-Developers, it seems to be a russian telefoon company who pushed a update wrongfully to all (or a big group of) Samsung S2 users. Since the update isnt made for phones made Cyrillic text, it could cause your phone to crash.
so dont install it unless your absolutely sure you need it.

Can you please link to the relevant information on XDA-Developers?

I found a fix...this is a piggy-back app attached via a file. Go to your phone files, view your files as "List and Details." You should now see the date/times each file was created. Delete ALL files two days before and after when you first noticed the MTC app requesting update. Reboot phone and it will be gone from your Market. I did this four days ago and so far no MTC app. I never choose auto update for any app due to this reason.
Hope this helps and good luck.

Ive read a few things online this morning about the MTC app being malware or a virus, It doesn't show in your apps list however it was said that if it is a virus it might be piggy backing off something else installed on the phone, I had it come up on my phone but not sure how to remove it yet

Source please .