text:
Intel HAXM and Host GPU on Mac OS 10.8.2 (NVIDIA)
I installed HAXM 1.0.4 and I cannot run Android emulator with option 'use host gpu' checked, it shows cyclic GL_* errors. I am using Mac OS X (mbp with NVIDIA GeForce 320M). Without gpu emulation everything works fine (well if word fine can describe that slow piece of software).
I have 8GB RAM, HAXM set up to use 1024MB. My virtual devices set up to use 512 MB (I have tried different values, but less then 1024Mb, according to HAXM doc).
Here are the error messages which are output periodically (emulator shows black screen)
(complete log)
MediaProfiles(1113): could not find media config xml file
Zygote(1113): Class not found for preloading: android.widget.TextView$SelectionModifierCursorController$1

Zygote(1132): setreuid() failed. errno: 30
Zygote(1132): setreuid() failed. errno: 30
BatteryService(1139): usbOnlinePath not found
BatteryService(1139): batteryVoltagePath not found
BatteryService(1139): batteryTemperaturePath not found

I/sysproc(923): Entered system_init()
I/sysproc(923): ServiceManager: 0x8c01b18
I/SurfaceFlinger(923): SurfaceFlinger is starting
I/SurfaceFlinger(923): SurfaceFlinger's main thread ready to run. Initializing graphics H/W...

EGL_emulation(1139): rcMakeCurrent returned EGL_FALSE
EGL_emulation(1139): tid 1148: eglMakeCurrent(984): error 0x3006 (EGL_BAD_CONTEXT)
libEGL(1139): call to OpenGL ES API with no current context (logged once per thread)
libEGL(1139): call to OpenGL ES API with no current context (logged once per thread)
libEGL(1139): call to OpenGL ES API with no current context (logged once per thread)
libEGL(1139): call to OpenGL ES API with no current context (logged once per thread)
Zygote(1152): setreuid() failed. errno: 30

Also I tried to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to <sdk install location>/tools/lib and that doesn't help me either.
They say "Make sure that your environment variables for the GL libraries are set correctly". How can I check this? Other programs are working well. Without HAXM GPU acceleration is working well.
Screenshot from emulator:

I should also add that errors occur only with Intel 2.3 x86 system image. With the newest 4.1 everything works fine.

When is the error shown exactly?  How much RAM do you have?

@MatthewRead Error is shown a few moments after I press "Start" button in AVD manager. Please take a look at updated answer, I added error log. I've also seen similar error messages on the web, however people got this error when emulator was already loaded and then were trying to launch some apps which requires ogl.

Hmm, assuming those are from the emulator (rather than Android) you might want to try running it as root or seeing if everything under the emulator directory can be granted more permissions....

@MatthewRead still no effect (tried to run it this way: sudo ./emulator -avd Nexus_Intel_23) - emulator shows gibberish on the screen (inserted pic in question body)

Wow, other than graphics driver problems I'm out of ideas but I don't know how those work on Mac (and it seems like there's more going on anyways).

@MatthewRead I made fresh install of system today, so at least I am not guilty :) I'd be glad if someone could add tag haxm so that other mac users would tell me if they have same problems (seen same in comments on intel's page). Also in docs they say to set up LD_LIBRARY_PATH to <sdk install location>/tools/lib and that doesn't help me too. They say Make sure that your environment variables for the GL libraries are set correctly. How can I check this, what do you think they could mean by "correct" set up of GL? :)

I have no idea on that unfortunately.  You don't have anything else like VMware or VirtualBox installed, do you?

I had VirtualBox installed, but I removed it completely and rebooted system. Still no changes.

Why don't you try running it on a different OS? Dual-boot linux (probably Ubuntu) you'd be able to find much more info in the community forums and/or their official documentation.  I doubt that this has to do with your device, more likely some missing dependencies on your host system. (sry, I wasn't "allowed" to add this as a comment :-(  )

Additionally, in your last line of the question you mention that in the 4.1 image everything works fine, whereas in the intel 2.3 x86 image it does not.  According to the documentation, graphics acceleration is supported in SDK Platform API 15 revision 3 (4.0.3) and higher.  Assuming that your remark about intel 2.3 x86 and 4.1 refer to Android version 2.3 and 4.1, respectively, this would be in line with the android documentation.
Furthermore, take a look at the Android Project Issue Tracker for similar bugs and updates.  There's also a pertinent question on StackOverflow with some useful suggestions and user activity.


text:
Invalid IMEI on motorola A853 milestone
I was changing the OS of my Motorola A853 milestone, and the IMEI turned invalid; it just shows "00000000".
I found this answer here about something similar
How to fix "Invalid IMEI " after Factory reset? but the link with the files is invalid.

That's a different phone so it won't work.  However a similar process might work if you find the correct modem for your device -- have you looked on XDA?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Firefox for Android: Download a video file
I've got Firefox running on the Nexus 10, and I'm trying to download a video from a URL. When I tap on the video link, it starts trying to play in the browser, instead of downloading the file. How can I download the file?
Long-pressing on the URL does not provide a download or "save" option.

I'd definitely say the browser is just detecting that the video is supported and playing it.  Potentially you could create an HTML form that would let you enter a URL and then explicitly launch it as a download.  You should be able to bookmark it and have it on your device to keep things simple.  I agree though that the browser should really support saving it.

Yeah, it should provide the option at least. I know some other people want it to play in the browser, but I'm trying to download it for offline playback in the future. Thanks for the comment.

As of December 2012, I don't see any way to get something like "Save link as" option in Firefox for Android. However, in some cases clicking on a video link automatically starts downloading the video, but in most cases it starts playing them. Best you can do is to request Firefox to add this feature. Meanwhile, you can try an alternative browser that has this feature for your video downloads.

As of 2020, the other answers to this question are outdated. When Firefox opens the video you can long press the video (the video itself, not the link to it!), you can press the "Save media" button. It will then save the video to your downloads. This will work for all videos that support saving in the first place, like by right click in desktop Firefox.

The strategy that DCking suggested of going into the config worked perfectly for me. I pressed reset for browser.download.preferred.video/mp4 and I was able to set videos to download.

As stated on https://support.mozilla.org/fr/questions/792670 this by design you can’t download videos without the required server‑side ʜᴛᴛᴘ headers.
The reason is dumb users get confused when they are too much options in the menus (I agree that I don’t understand the difference with desktop).
So the rule is always keep the user interface minimal.
Of course, extensions can’t triggers the android file dialog box.
Just use opera mobile classic or vivaldi…
Or learn the hard way that android is always less featured than a Windows® ᴘᴄ.

I opened https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1296931.

I'm not sure if it worked this way back when you asked the question, but this can be done without an addon.
Change Firefox settings to tap-to-play plugins if not already set.
Then click the video link to open the file. Firefox will not play the video if tap-to-play is set to on.
Instead of tapping to play, long-tap the video placeholder until you are presented with a menu which will include an entry to download the file.

I had to google a lot before finding this solution.
In firefox everything can be configured to the finest details using the
about:config link.
Just type in about:config in the address bar.
The resulting page will have a search bar on top.
Search for browser.download
and you'll see a lot of browser downloading window configurations.
The specific configuration might change for different versions of firefox.
But what worked for me was this browser.download.preferred.audio/mpeg configuration.
Set it to false or if you see the "Reset" button click that.
And thats it.
Hope this helps someone

browser.download.preferred.audio/mpegdoesn’t exist on Firefox for android.

Did you try chrome browser. It has the save link option in long press menu.

Good point, but the question clearly mentions Firefox for Android. There may be many other browsers which do that, but this question is about Firefox.

This should have been a comment, not an answer.

@SurajBajaj : but ultimately, this is the correct answer since Firefox chose to not implement this to keep the interface minimal.

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

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


text:
How to make use of the entire screen area on Android 4.1 in full-screen mode?
The system bar (aka notification bar) on my new tablet (ASUS Transformer Pad) is always visible, even when watching YouTube "full-screen".
The amount of space wasted is not insignificant, especially when watching a 4:3 video. Is there any way to reclaim it and watch videos/play games in real full-screen?

You are probably talking about the so-called "notification bar". Some apps offer a full-screen mode (which makes that bar disappear). Have you checked the options of the affected apps?

@Izzy that's the one. I checked the settings of the YouTube app and didn't find such an option.

OK, so at least the terms are clear. Not having any 4.x device around, I unfortunately cannot offer additional help.

I don't have an answer, but I do know it's possible. I have a couple of apps that I with didn't hide the notification bar. I'm afraid it's something the developer is going to need to add in.

It is not intended to hide the system bar (combined soft button/notification bar) on tablets. Imagine the bar is hidden and the app you are currently using does not offer an option to exit. -> Your are stuck within this app.
Some custom ROMs offer the option to hide the bar.
General option would be to use some third-party-apps like Hide Bottom Bar or full!screen which can disable the bar somehow. Unfortunately these apps require root.

Uh...I have a couple of apps that hide the notification bar. (Games, mostly.) So it is possible.

well "notification bar" might be misunderstood. Romkyns was talking about the system bar on tablets which combines notification area and soft buttons. There is no API-function to hide it since ICS(or HC?). The separate top notification bar which phones have indeed kann be hidden.

Good to know. I haven't gotten my own Android tablet (yet).

I guess most people prefer an always-on-screen button to a hardware return button, though I will probably never understand why...

i might not Right at this time but you may use another home screen called "Launcher Pro" Free version.
In the setting there is an option to hide the system bar(Notification bar). you can try it out if you like the home screen. though i like it better than stock home screen.
Hope it will some how help you.


text:
Android applications need WiFi but I have only ethernet connection
I have the Imito MX1 device that is working on Android 4.1. I have problem with WiFi quality (speed and reconnecting) so I use the Ethernet on the RJ45 to USB device. Unfortunately some of the applications that need Internet are not working. They are displaying communicate about lack of Internet. Is there any solution to redirect the ethernet to the WiFi device?

Maybe it is a matter of permissions which are necessary for Ethernet but not for Wifi. Applications which do not work anymore might not have those permissions. Check them!

I am not sure about this but android applications have only permissions to access internet (there is no specification that internet should be accessed using wi-fi or ethernet)


text:
Remove Facebook events but keep birthdays from calendar
All these events I haven't responded to / don't want to attend are driving me crazy! I do like having my friend's birthdays in my calendar though. I would like to know if it is possible to remove Facebook events and only show birthdays either on my S Planner or my Google Calendar. I am on a Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/calendar

Click the Gears icon next to Today on the top left, then click Export

Right click export your friend's birthdays and select Copy Link Address

Go to https://www.google.com/calendar/
Click the arrow next to Other calendars
Select Add by URL

Paste the URL Address you copied from Facebook in step (3)
Click Add calendar

Your Friend's birthdays now show up on your Google Calendar on the web. You can repeat the same process if you wish to add the upcoming events, just select upcoming events in step 3.
Wait a bit for the changes to sync to your phone (you should have calendar sync enabled on the same Google account on your phone).
Now on your Android phone/tablet, open the Calendar then select Menu -> Settings -> {Your Google Account}. Look for Friends' Birthdays and select it.
PRIVACY WARNING: Make sure to leave the Make the calendar publicly accessible? checkbox unselected.
NOTE: The terminology in step 3 differs between browsers. Chrome shows it as Copy URL Address, Firefox shows it as Copy Link Location, other browsers may differ a bit, but they all have the same meaning.
NOTE: On your Android Phone I'm assuming you are using the Google Calendar app. S-planner, or other calendar apps may handle this differently.

All these events I haven't responded to / don't want to attend are
  driving me crazy!

If you only want to see events you have answered "Attending" or "Maybe attending" then you could try "Freedom", a service that I developed.


text:
How can I import / export contacts as VCF in Sony Xperia Tipo Dual
I'm using a Sony Xperia Tipo Dual with ICS. I need to backup my contacts with or without linked contacts.
Does anyone know the exact procedure to export contacts in VCF format; either directly to PC using PC companion or to SD Card using any third party free application?
In addition to that, I want to know if it would be possible to add / update contacts on the mobile through the Sony PC companion?

You can use rocketdial or go contact  ex from play store and they can backup it in vcf format. BTW your default stock app also backup it in vcf format .

I am guessing that you are running Sony's TimeScape Interface. (As you not mentioned anything explicitly) So here are steps:
To back up contacts using a memory card:

From the Home screen, tap the Application screens icon.
Find and tap Contacts.
Press the Menu key, then tap Back up contacts > Memory card > OK.

Tested on Xperia Neo, Xperia Neo V, Xperia Ray running 2.3.4 Gingerbread to 4.0.4 ICS with Sony's TimeScape UI. Should work on Tipo as well.
Here's a page from Sony's site for further help.

i cant do that...
while backup it shows error as cant read memory.... :(

i have connected using the software from
http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/tools/pc-companion/

@prabhuprabhakaran In that case I think there's some problem while contacts app is trying to read / write data. Do you have an SD card inserted? Have you tried rebooting your phone after this issue? If no, please do so, if yes please show me the screenshot so I can have a look at it.

On Sony Tipo, go to Contacts. At the bottom there will be three buttons, press the last one that looks like four lines, then go for backup contacts, then back up to SIM, memory card, or internal storage.


text:
How to take a picture and uploading it with a comment to Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter?
I am coming from the iPhone, and there was using an app called Camera+, which worked well for my workflow. On Android, I am now looking for a way to:

On the go, take pictures, and store them somewhere. (I don't care where they are stored, they could very well be in a private store specific to the app.)
Allow me to go through the picture I took, delete the one I don't like, and for the others, enter a description, and upload them to a combination of Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter. I want to just enter the description once, click on checkboxes for Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter to select where the picture will go.

I could do this with the standard Camera/Gallery, with the Flickr and Facebook apps installed, but it requires way to many steps. I'm looking for something simple, that allows for a fast workflow, not for an editing workhouse. Is there any solution out there that would allow me to do this?

As questions like "Is there an app for X" are off topic (by our [FAQ]), I took the freedom to re-phrase it to prevent it from being removed. Hope you don't mind :) What you want is not necessarily an app -- you want a solution, right?

I don't know what you exactly meant by the 'description'. Did you mean some sort of metadata (EXIF?) or renaming the file? Or just a body text for social sharing?

@Izzy I was unaware of that rule, and will keep it mind for the future. Thank you for rephrasing my question; your version indeed better reflects the question I really have :).

@Power-Inside Maybe I should have said "title" instead of "description", i.e. the main text that Flickr or  shows under or next the pictures. It may also be stored in the EXIF metadata, but this is not really the part I care about.

@avernet I thought so, so I happily adjusted it. Though my answer turned out to be an app: We prefer the question to be open to "home-made" solutions as well, if possible. Sometimes you'd be surprised what's possible without including an app :) (Well, basically apps are always included, if you count those belonging to the pre-installed system ;)

This solution doesn't require any app:

Upload pictures by email to Flickr. As a one-time setup, find your private Flickr email address and I recommend you add it as a contact in Gmail. Then, from the Gallery, share by email, and send it to your Flickr email, optionally typing a description in the email subject.
Setup an IFTTT rule to upload to Facebook pictures you send to Flickr. To make it simpler, you can reuse this recipe.

Benefits:

You're not relying on any third-party app, and can use the standard Android tools.
You can queue images for upload (sorting, entering descriptions, deleting locally), even if you are offline, say abroad with no WiFi or data connectivity. The pictures will be queued in your email outbox and will be sent when you're back on the grid.

One solution would in fact be using a specialized photo app: Fotor for Android. Next to a bunch of features for taking and editing photos, the app description mentions:

Using Fotor you can easily share your amazing photos with friends and family! Share photos via email, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, with just one touch.

Which is exactly what you asked for. This app even supports HDR, and much more... So this would be your all-in-one solution. Seems hard to beat...

I don't know if it works for Flickr but you can use applications like Molome or Instagram to quickly share photos on both Facebook and Twitter.


text:
How to get the camera's auto white balance to work on a Nexus 4
I've been taking pictures with a Nexus 4 for a few days now, and noticed that the colors are off on many pictures. Finally today, I decided to do a Nexus 4 vs. iPhone comparison, with the same scenes, and it seems to me that:

The auto white balance on the Nexus 4 / Android 4.2 isn't always working; in particular, with incandescent lights, in Auto mode, at times whites are greenish. Forcing the incandescent light mode fixes this.
In all cases (incandescent or fluorescent, Auto mode or correct mode specified), the image lacks contrasts: whites are grayish and dark areas lack details.

Just walking around with a Nexus 4 and an iPhone while pointing are things around makes this very clear. Is there a way to improve this, or should I just resign myself to the iPhone camera (lens, sensor, DSP, software?) being overall better than the of the Nexus 4? (And my apologies if this sounds a bit provocative, as I seriously hope this is not the case!)

I've read on here recently that the app used affects the image, perhaps try using a different camera app and comparing the results?

Are you comparing the images on the phone's screen or on a proper monitor? The black levels are not as deep on the Nexus 4 as on the iPhone and the contrast ratio is lower as well, so the display might affect the results at least partially.

@onik Great suggestion. That might be part of the story indeed. I only compared the pictured as displayed on the iPhone and Nexus. I will try to the same picture with both phones and upload the pictures somewhere so we can compare.

@onik I added side-by-side comparisons to my initial question. I have the feeling that, unfortunately, the Nexus 4 doesn't compare favorably to the iPhone 5. On the Nexus 4, pictures tend to lack details (particularly visible in the second shot), colors are washed out, and images lack contrast with both white and black leaning towards the grey.

@avernet: did you change the camera's default settings? IIRC, for some reason, the default camera setting on my Galaxy Nexus was set to moderate size and quality when I just got it, which had to be changed to get the best image the camera could take.

@LieRyan I just checked, and the default is the highest resolution on Nexus 4 (8 MP). And I don't see other "quality-related" settings, other than the "picture size".

This isn't a miracle solution, but:

When taking pictures indoor, keep in mind that Android's auto white-balance might make the wrong choice. Look at the image on the screen, and if it feels unnatural, try manually selecting the incandescent or fluorescent settings.
Be aware that, at least currently, the Nexus 4 camera doesn't compare favorably to the iPhone 5 camera: on the Nexus 4, pictures tend to lack details, colors are washed out, and images lack contrast with both white and black leaning towards the grey.
If you own a Nexus 4 and find this disappointing, let me try to reassure you: first, it isn't as bad as it sounds; second, there is still a chance this can be improved with software; third, don't forget your unlocked Nexus 4 costs almost half the price of an unlocked iPhone 5.

Below are some pictures of the same scene I took with an iPhone 5 and Nexus 4, so we can compare them side-by-side. This first shot was done indoor, in a low light, without a flash. Left: iPhone 5 (original), right: Nexus 4 (original).

This second shot was done outdoor. Top: iPhone 5 (original), bottom: Nexus 4 (original).

I see a lot more noise on the Nexus images. What is the ISO set to? There is a possibility that it is set too high or that the cameras are making different decisions if it is set to auto.

@ChinmayKanchi True: the indoor shot was done as ISO 800 on the iPhone and 1700 on the Nexus; the outdoor shot was done at ISO 320 on the iPhone, ISO 600 on the Nexus (you can see this for yourself by looking at the EXIF data on the linked originals). Now however, I don't see a way to manually set what the ISO is set to with the Camera app on the Nexus.

@avernet there are 3rd party camera apps that provide more control including ISO and other settings

@KenLiu Good point. Doing a quick search, I see there are. It would be worth testing some of those, and see if one can get better results than with the standard camera app.


text:
How to remove unused folders created by apps?
When I started with a fresh SD card, there were only very few folders in it. As time passed by when I tried many apps, I could see the folder list in my SD card seems to grow.
It is understandable that while an app is being uninstalled, it leaves behind its folder where it would have kept few files, which may be the settings file or game scores etc.
Is there any way I can remove all those orphaned folders in a batch or short operations? I have seen the question "How do one know which folder is created by which android apps" and can manually do it, but I am interested in kind of automatic solution.
My phone info: LG Optimus One (P500) running stock 2.3.3 V20D (rooted).

Currently there are too many apps out there and every developer has their own naming for the folder that their apps create. It would be practically impossible to automate removal of such folders.. I've always been doing it manually. DCIM is one folder I never remove unless I don't need my images.

Agreed. User created folders are to be differentiated as well. I wonder why the uninstaller does not provide a way for an user to remove an app completely (which will also remove folders created by the app).

Agree to all above -- I doubt there's any complete solution. But as you are rooted, you might want to take a look at SD Maid - System cleaning tool, which at least finds a lot of the orphans.

Can somehow Tasker be used to trigger removal of folder (with confirmation) when an app is uninstalled? Just a thought...

Unfortunately, as the comments state, there is currently no way to automate this - and I for one wish there was, as I find myself deleting loads of folders as well.
You should do it manually - but methodically, and it starts to seem to take a lot less time, as you start to think about it.
One thing to look out for is folders for game apps that you installed, as they may contain the downloaded game data - which can be quite large, which you may wish to keep incase you want to install and play the game again.
Like Izzy mentioned, SD Maid finds some of the orphan files for you - but not all.


text:
What SIM card size does the Nexus 7 use?
The iPad uses silly little SIM cards that pretty much need to be purchased ad-hoc. This means that in a pinch situation you can't e.g. swap SIM cards between your tablet and your phone (e.g., if either's ran out of credit).
What size does the Nexus 7 use?

The Nexus 7 (with mobile data) takes a micro SIM card.
See this page from Google support on how you can Insert & activate a SIM card.

@badp Most devices, including Android phones, are coming with a micro SIM these days (except some Apple products are using an even smaller nano-SIM). So you shouldn't be too much worried about it.

Also there are cheap Adapters to place a micro SIM card in a normal SIM card device. And you can easily cut a normal SIM card into the micro SIM format with a scissor. So it isn't really a problem after all.

@badp MicroSIM-to-MiniSIM adapters are readily available and cheap (example for $1 http://www.amazon.com/Micro-card-adapter-Mini-German-Made/dp/B003OG8G6W).  All sizes of SIM are functionally identical, given that all the actual circuitry is directly under the contacts.  All the extra size is simply empty plastic to make handling easier.

@Flow do u know of a good tutorial to show the cutting, or is it just generally cutting plastic as per Compro01 comments above ? ie the difference between a Sim and Micro Sim is simply additional plastic.


text:
Keyboard in alphabetical sequence (ABC layout keyboard)
I am considering buying a Samsung Galaxy phone. Is there an option (either basic phone function or a third party app) which provides a keyboard in alpha sequence, that is ABC layout instead of QWERTY?

The stock Android keyboard doesn't have ABC layout. However, there are some keyboard apps which have ABC layout. SlideIT English - ABC pack is an example. You can find some more if you  search for "ABC keyboard" on Google Play.

The stock Android keyboard doesn't have ABC layout. is wrong as my SE Xperia mini supports it.

Or I'm misunderstanding the question?

Probably isn't the stock android keyboard then ;)

@avirk: Your manufacturer likely added their own keyboard which does support ABC layout.  The stock Android keyboard (as of 4.2) supports QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and "PC" layout, but not ABC.

@avirk: The keyboard you have mentioned is not stock Android keyboard. I reckon that is "Xperia™ keyboard" However, the latest version of Xperia Keyboard (found on newer phones like Xperia S) doesn't have ABC layout either. I have an Xperia Neo V and I have flashed Xperia Keyboard from Xperia S system apps, so I have confirmed this on my device.

There is a keyboard available that is on the app store, it is designed for dyslexics who have difficulty in recognizing the letters, the problem with the QWERTY layout is that dyslexics cannot "see" the letters and looking all over the keyboard for it, have a mate who suffers from it, and this was born out of the idea when I watched him struggle with the touch keyboard.
This keyboard is actually from stock AOSP Gingerbread source, with letters re-arranged into ABC layout.
It is available here on Play store.
Edit: Disclosure, I am the person responsible for the aforementioned app.

You should disclose any affiliation you have with this app per the [FAQ#promotion].

@Al Everett -Sorry I put in the disclosure in place, to hopefully clarify my affiliation with the app.

That's fine. That's all we ask.

The stock, AOSP Android keyboard does not have the ABC 'old fashioned' keyboard layout, however some manufacturers package their own IME (keyboard), that comes with this feature.
Some manufactures are LG, and Sony Ericsson that do this (Sony Ericsson Xperia devices do).
AFAIK the stock Samsung IME doesn't come with this option - however, you can download 3rd-party IME's that have this layout format.

I published an alphabetical keyboard that's now available on Google Play and Androidfreeware.net.


text:
Unable to access Google account in Android Market on HTC Desire HD
After resetting factory settings, I am not able to access my Google account in Gmail / Market / Talk. Whenever I try to "sign-in" to Android Market using Google account, it shows error with title as "Can't establish a reliable data connection to the server" and the message as "This could be a temporary problem or your phone may not be provisioned for data services. If it continues, call Customer Care."
What can I do to access "Android Market" from my HTC Desire HD? I'm using Bangladeshi net gp.

Backup your data and then do a reset. Hope it help you.

How are you accessing the market? 3G/Wifi?

have you tried to access the playstore site via the browser (to prove the server is reachable)? If that fails as well, there might be a routing problem -- or your provider blocks something.

Which Android version you have?

Community bump prevention: this question was closed because the question seems to have been abandoned (OP hasn't visited the site anymore after posting their questions, and no answers have been upvoted). If anyone can evaluate the existing answers, feel free to vote accordingly and reopen the question (or mod-flag the question requesting for reopening). For anyone else having the same issue, please post a new question and refer to this question as additional context.

This would indicate that you are not connected to the Internet.
When you did the factory reset, the APN data for your network/carrier might have been erased.
You will have to check with your network/carrier for the correct APN settings.
You can also connect to a wifi network to connect your Google Account.
You can enter the APN settings by going to System Settings->Wireless and Networks->Mobile Networks->Access Point Names->Menu Button->Add New.

no my internet setting is perfect. i can browse other sits. but cant access google account in market

Try reinstalling Google play services.


text:
I can FastBoot my device. How can I reinstall an Android image to it?
I accidentally deleted a file from my phone (Sky iVega IM-A800s, Gingerbread) and phone cannot boot now. I'm seeing an "System operating error" and device restarts repeatedly.
I could get into FastBoot mode and I installed Android USB driver and ADB drivers, although I don't know what they are exactly.
I couldn't find OEM Android images for the device (it's a Korean web site and they have an ActiveX based installer that doesn't work).
I know StackExchange is a Q&A site and I really love this site. I would like to know if you know any software that let's me install a custom ROM (I could download a custom ROM for a similar model) using the PC.
Device does not have USB debug mode enabled and the current installation is no longer functional. Can I install a ROM (or Flash ?) using a PC (Windows/Linux) to a FastBoot enabled device?
I would be so grateful if you could shed a light for me.
Thanks in advance.

If you can find a ROM on a forum or website, you can easily flash it using fastboot - as long as it supports fastboot flashing.
Most ROM makers provide both types of ROM flashing mode.
To flash, you should have a .img file (most likely called system.img). You can flash this  by connecting your device in fastboot mode to your pc and using this command:
fastboot flash system C:\path\to\system.img
This will then flash the image to your phone. Once that is done, erase your user data using the fastboot -w command.
You should then be able to use your phone with the new ROM, and it should boot correctly.

And ROM sources can be found at the following question on our site: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?. With some luck, you should find one for your device at one of the sources.


text:
How to prevent the OTA Jellybean update on Droid RAZR Maxx
I have a Motorola Razr Maxx with ICS (4.0.2) on it.  It went and downloaded the JellyBean upgrade, which I do not want to happen.  Each hour the phone prompts me to upgrade.  How can I keep this from happening?  Can I delete the new files for JB and stop the hourly message?  Thanks in advance.

Are you rooted?

(1) If you have root, you can use Titianium Backup, and uninstall "Device Management 3.0" (or some other version).
(2) OR, [also needs root], remove dmclient.apk, dmclient.odex, cmclient.apk, cmclient.odex from /system/app. Back-up these files first, in case you want to update in the future; you will need these.


text:
Can SwiftKey be moved to the system partition?
I want to move the SwiftKey app from my standard user partition to the system partition (I have root). I am able to use Titanium Backup or Link2SD to turn an app into a system app, but anytime I try that with SwiftKey, it continuously force-closes. With most apps, if they start acting up right after changing them to system apps, you simply reboot and it works. However, rebooting doesn't solve the problem with SwiftKey.
I have also tried clearing cache and dalvik cache, but it seems like this particular app hates being a system app.
According to this forum thread, I need to move a library over to the system lib folder, but I don't see any library needing to be copied.
Reinstalling the app looks like it works, but it doesn't really. Because updates to system apps are not stored in the system partition, 'updating' the Swiftkey app makes the app work again because the main binary that is running is running from userland, not systemland. If I then use Titanium Backup or Link2SD to Integrate the update into the system partition, it starts crashing again.
Has anyone been able to successfully move the SwiftKey app into the system partition?
Edit: I have tried clearing the cache, clearing the data, uninstalling completely and reinstalling (then moving to system), and I even tried the same steps on another phone of the same model (Optimus V).
I have also tried manually copying the .apk file over instead of simply using Titanium Backup's or Link2SD's built-in mover. SwiftKey simply refuses to run properly if installed as a system app, but works just fine as a user app.

First, go to to Root folder then go to "/data/data/.com.android.swiftkey" then copy the "lib" files to "//system/lib" and after that,
go to root then "//data/app" and copy the "swiftkey" apps file to //system/app and restart your phone.
After rebooting open titanium backup, find swiftkey and wipe data.
Done. It wont force close again :)

If you have root, then its a simple matter of remounting the system partition as read-write and try copying the swiftkey's apk into /system/app, then remount the system partition again, it will then appear as a system application.
Then on first run, it will re-create the libs etc in the respective /data partition.

I have been able to move other apps just fine. I have system mounted as read/write. I'm having trouble specifically with SwiftKey.

@dymutaos Did you try Titanium Backup's functionality to "integrate" a system app? Not sure if that helps, it's just an idea.

I couldn't remember the terminology until you mentioned it. Yes, I tried that. I'll update my question to use the proper term.

I had the same trouble too. Do this:

Cut libswiftkeysdk-java-internal.so lib file inside /data/data/com.touchtype.swiftkey/lib and paste it in system/lib.
Then move the apk from /data/app to /system/app and change permissions to -rw-r--r--.
Restart and wipe data of Swiftkey app. All done.

It works flawlessly for me.


text:
How much battery savings to expect from SetCPU?
Has anybody done any serious measurements as to effects of SetCPU (or a similar power-saving app)?
I mean, are Google and Linux developers really that stupid not to properly implement power management in-system? Especially so considering the Android's paramount problem of battery life.
The SetCPU promo video only shows how the MHz numbers jump up and down, but is it noticeably better for the battery than processor idling done by the OS itself?

If you take a look at the Waklock implementation (the system not taking care for abandoned Wakelocks even when the corresponding app closed), you don't ask about this one XD But we are not a discussion-forum, where your question better fits -- not being well-suited for our Q&A style, it's very likely to get closed soon (see our [FAQ] for details).

Understandably, this is a controversial topic, but I'm asking about hard numbers from real observations - the hours of battery life gained or the percentage of power saved.

Your question rather looks like a "survey". To prevent it from being closed, I'd strongly suggest a rephrasing then, or at least include your last comment with the question itself to make that clear :)

Using SetCPU to manually idle a device that would already idle itself properly probably isn't the right way to do it.  In fact I understand than capping the maximum CPU frequency can sometimes increase battery usage during syncing operations, since the radio has to be used for a longer period while the data is processed more slowly.  That doesn't mean devices that don't idle very well don't exist.  TL;DR You seem to already know the answer -- "it depends".

In general, the slower your clock speed, the less power consumption will be used on your device. But if you're lowering your clock speed... then things will run sluggish, especially if you drop below the 500mhz range.
SetCPU has different "profiles" that controls the behavior of your CPU. You can make it run at full maximum performance (for best response times and worst battery usage), but typically you use the default one where it only "speeds up" the processor when it is actually used and needed.
You could, for example, have SetCPU lower your clock speed to something much lower than normal when the screen is off.
Kernels also matter. Some people have made "low voltage" kernels that can help with your battery life. But your mileage will vary with using kernels other than the stock one because they usually go outside the bounds of your CPU's specifications (so a "low voltage" kernel may work well on one device but not another device).
Device manufacturers want you to have a good experience with your device at stock settings. By changing the clock speed (to a lower speed), you should be expecting a degradation in performance at the cost of better battery life.

Yes, I know I should be expecting better battery life from using SetCPU. But does it really work?
For example, I suspect that when the screen is off the processor is put into idle state by the OS anyway, regardless of the frequency, and it wakes up periodically to do routine tasks.

@AlexanderShcheblikin As I don't write kernels or ROMs, I can't give you a very good answer to that. The real question is: can you manually changing the clock speed more smartly than the OS's algorithm? Maybe, maybe not. But if you force the clock speed, for instance, to always run at the slowest clock speed, then yes, that should be better as the OS's algorithm would ideally at some point speed up the clock speed for when you need performance. However, I would really not recommend running at such a low clock speed.


text:
Where can I see synced contacts
I enabled contacts sync because I will have to factory reset my phone.
After cleaning up the mess joining accounts made, I would like to check if my phone contacts are indeed saved on Google servers so as to proceed to the wiping of memory.
Is there anyway to do this? contacts.google.com only shows Gmail contacts.
Thank you.

What do you mean by "enabled contacts sync"? Is this an app that came with your phone? Can you please elaborate?

Ideally: you would input all of your contacts into Gmail/Google contacts, they will definitely be synced then

From the sync options for the Google account in Settings->Accounts. I had it off for Contacts. Having to manually input all my phonebook in Gmail won't do. I have a local file back does with Samsung Kies, but I'd rather keep them in the cloud.

That means they are going to be synced with your google account -- so you will see it with your Gmail contacts. That's where it syncs to/with, if you're talking about your address book / contacts app.

So, I'm syncing with my Google Account and I can't see them in GMail contacts or contacts.google.com which are the same page. Does that mean they aren't synced?

If they were synced, then you should be seeing them inside of Gmail

Maybe try some sort of backup app to csv and then import them in Google contacts on the web? For example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.uia.android.backupcontacts&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm5vLnVpYS5hbmRyb2lkLmJhY2t1cGNvbnRhY3RzIl0. (I haven't tried this app, just a suggestion)

Yeah, but I was hoping it would just work, it's easy enough.


text:
Hard Wired Aux In not working
I just recently purchased a Galaxy Three with 4.0.4. Before the new phone, I had an Apple iPhone 4S. When I plugged the iPhone's headset jack directly to my car receiver's Aux In it worked just fine. When I do the same with the Galaxy, it does not work. I plug one end of the standard 3.5mm male to male adapter cable into the phone it reacts as if a headset was connected - headset icon appears. The Galaxy reacts as if the cable is not present the moment I connect it to the receiver. The headset icon disappears and sound comes from the phone's speakers.
I do not have a bluetooth enabled car so that is not an option.
Any ideas?

Are you referring to this - plugging in the iPhone's headset into the Galaxy III? Please clarify - that's the impression I am getting.

@t0mm13b I believe he's referring to plugging a male-to-male aux cable from his GS3 into the car's speaker system but the S3 is still playing the music out of the phones speakers. The iPhone bit is just to say that it worked for that, why not the S3.

I understand now, hmmm... male-to-male aux cable not the right kind for GS3? From what I do know, iPhone's headset connectors have it in the reverse unlike ordinary - by ordinary I mean, non-apple headsets... just saying...


text:
How can I get my Galaxy S3 to behave at night? (turn off LED and notifications, etc.)

Possible Duplicate:
Any way to schedule a passive profile-change? (connectivity, volume etc.)

I've got a Galaxy S3, and I love it, but it drives me crazy at night sometimes. GMail will get a new message and it'll ring. The LED sometimes flashes all night long, etc. I've seen a couple of apps that purport to solve these problems, but they've got some bad reviews. Can anyone recommend a good way to solve my problem?
Thanks!

People might expect me to recomment Tasker including a profile -- so I will do this first. But I will include another, free solution as well this time.
First, how to solve this with Tasker? Quite easy:
Condition: Time (10pm to 7 am, for example)
Task:

Airplane On (optionally, so no incoming calls)
WiFi On (so weather-updates and streaming music for my alarm clock still make it)
Silent Mode On (that's the important one: everything off except for media volume)

This is just an example of what can be done. Many more options are available, but Tasker costs you about 5 Euro (it's really worth it, as other answers here tell you as well -- you can let hell freeze with it!). If that's too much for you, you have two options: First check with the free 7 day trial from the Tasker homepage -- or look for an alternative. Well, to be honest: nothing can get near Tasker, but for your case there are some options left:

Timeriffic is a very good scheduler (can deal well with time based events, like the above described)
Llama - Location Profiles can do with location based, time based (don't be fooled by the name of the app), and more
I know I repeat myself: Tasker can do all this and much, much more. And if you feel there's something missing: there are so many addons available (all Locale addons fit). And so many apps interface with it...

I'm checking out the free trial of Tasker now. I suspect this will be the solution I go with. Thanks!

You're welcome! Glad I could be at service :)

I'll be using Tasker to take care of most of what I want to do. Unfortunately, it looks like setting the LED status is the one thing it's not very good at. I've just disabled the LED for notifications and for charging (which I usually do at night).

A GS3 running Jellybean has this built-in in the form of "blocking mode".
In the settings, there's a menu called "blocking mode".  You can set it to disable notifications and the LED indicator and specify between what times you want it like that.
Also lets you block incoming calls except for numbers you specifically allow and disable the alarm/timer.
GSMarena's review of the update mentions it.  It's at the bottom of the 4th page including screenshots of the menu.

Two Options I can think of:

Root and install CM10 (you won't miss touchwiz)
Using this method, you could use the built in Quiet Hours setting under
Menu > Settings > Sound > Quiet Hours
Use an app like Tasker / Locale
These are really cool apps, they give you a load of control based on lots of conditions.  Of course, other people suggested other options similar to this.

Stock has no such option, alas.

Stock Jellybean has the "blocking mode", which is like quiet hours (disable notifications and LED), but also lets you block unwanted callers.

You can use Go power master for this purpose and then configure the time to change the mode at specific time.

I'd recommend Tasker.  It's got a steep learning curve, but it's worth it.
I use it just for two or three very simple things, and your use case is one of them.

Oh, gotta love Android for this! Another paid app I would like to tell you about is Juice Defender. There is a night mode which you can use. As an added benefit, it also saves you battery, by turning on data in frequencies that you can set. The free version can only choose between 15m and 30m. With the paid version can also set location specific power settings.
If you just want to turn it off during the night, you can just set the phone to Airplane Mode during the night.
But you might forget to unset it in the morning. Another app, which is primarily a funky power widget, also has a night mode. Its called Battery Widget? Reborn! Yeah, the  exclamations are part of the name.
Tasker and others might be a tad overkill for what you are looking for, but yeah, once you realize the possibilities, you wont use anything else.
Welcome to the symbiotic Android ecosystem :)

Perhaps you can take the battery out and put it back in when you need it. Or can you just power it off to save battery life. This'll work if you don't need it on at all during the night as in you don't have an alarm/important notifications.

Why pull out the battery vs turn off? I'm a little confused by that?

Probably too hasty of a response on my part. I guess it would be a worse case scenario if other options didn't work.

Airplane Mode :)

@theTuxRacer Airplane Mode only turns the radios off, it doesn't stop notifications. Many apps have scheduled notifications of many kinds that don't need to communicate with a server continuously, for example think of things like Calendar reminders.

Silent Mode would do (turns off all sound except for media and alarms -- so no more ringing and no notification sounds). But one easily forgets to turn it on in the evening -- or to turn it off in the morning, so it'd better be used together with some automation tool. Ah, no way to use some automation to take the battery out/in I'm afraid :)


text:
why "ls -al" does not show file size info in /dev/socket directory?
In /dev/socket directory, if runs "ls -al" in adb, there is no file size information.  I would like to know why there is no such information, in the condition that in other directories can show file size information?
Thanks.

Sockets and pipes represent Unix' way of inter process communication, and a communication channel has no point in having a size. Sockets are thus not seekable as in go to position x in the file.
Linux (which Android makes use of) has 7 file types:

Regular Files
Directories
Character  Device Files
Block Device Files
Local Domain Sockets
Named Pipes
Symbolic Links

See more here


text:
Unable to turn on screen during calls
Both of my Galaxy S3s have a problem with their proximity sensors. I make a call, put the phone to my ear, but then if I want to hang up the screen is dead and won't wake up. I cannot disconnect the call until their answering machine hangs up. If they don't have an answering machine, the call just rings and rings until I remove my battery. This is my second S3. Is there a fix for this?

Do you use some kind of screen protector or smartphone case?

It could be that a screen protector is possibly interfering with the proximity sensor. Same thing happened on my old phone.

I had exactly the same problem, then set the power button to end calls. But actually if you go to Dialer(keypad), go to Call Settings and untick "Turn off screen during calls".
It works, as I had this problem since I bought the phone so I think it was set to that as default, because I never even knew how to get in to Call Settings before this problem.

There is a diagnostics mode on the Samsung Galaxy S3 - There is a sensor test you can run to make sure nothing is wrong with the proximity sensor. Follow the link Diagnostics mode

+1 - nice find. Would you mind pulling some of the essential information from the linked article into your answer for posterity?

You can activate an option in Accessibility Settings that allows you to end the ongoing call by pressing the lock/power button on the side of the phone.
You can test the functionality of your proximity sensor by entering *#*#0588#*#*

That is dependent on the ROM and may not work across all ROMs...

This was happening to me. I found if I put my headset in, the screen would come on then I could hang up the call. I recently changed my screen protector so this may be the culprit. I changed the setting "turn screen off during calls". Hopefully, this all helps since digging for my earpiece is not very convenient.

A little late but I have solved the problem by downloading an app called Intelliscreen. Works for almost any device, just follow prompts to activate. When it asks for the apps that you want the screen to stay awake for make sure you choose the phone app. You can set the app to start automatically when you boot up your phone.

This is not a fix but it works. While you are on the phone plug it in to a power source and it will wake up and put you back at the unlock screen.

Clean you screen. I had that problem because of the dirty screen protecting cover. It was blocking the motion sensors, so the phone thought it was at my ear. Once I removed the cover, the phone works just fine.

I had this issue and found that it was being caused by dust buildup under the glass in the proximity sensor and front camera area.  The dust was also affecting the front camera picture quality, you could plainly see the dust covering the inside of the camera lens area.
I completely fixed both problems just with a can of compressed air.  I just pulled the back of the phone off and and shot compressed air (using the small straw attachment on the air can) all around the area of the phone.  I think the spot that actually got air in there was the tiny noise rejection hole on the top edge.  I could visibly see the dust clear away from the camera lens.
Immediately after that the proximity sensor started working perfectly again.

The compressed air trick completely fixed my problem. I was actually on a phone call (on hold) and having the "black screen" problem while I was reading this post. I removed the back cover and blew all around but the problem continued. I then blew air into the row of small holes at the top on the front of S4 and like magic, it woke up. Thank you Automaticman!
PS... I'm still on hold (but at least I can hang up now if I want to :-))

Amazing, but true - use canned air to blow into the ear piece.   Dust might have gotten inside the case and be blocking the proximity sensor, causing this behavior.  You might even be able to see it with a magnifying glass.   I saw this suggestion here - http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/310276-galaxy-s4-proximity-sensors-activates-but-doesnt-turn-off-2.html and wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tried it myself and IT WORKED!!

My proximity sensor is broken. I spent 10 hours looking for app, which would prevent screen from going black during calls. After 10 hours I found this app, which finally solved my issue:
Proximity AutoLock
I just wanted to share and hope others will find this usefull and won't spend that much time searching as I did.


text:
Samsung Galaxy S3 not booting up, just shows ”Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-19300” black screen
This morning I woke up to my Samsung Galaxy S3 which just “hung” during the start-up screen with the white text “Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-19300” on a black background. It never comes to the “Enter Pincode” screen.
It worked without a problem when I went to sleep last night. As far as I know it should not update the software on its own, similarly the apps shouldn't update themselves without my confirmation.
I have tried to restart it and to take the battery out and put it in again but the result is the same.
Any suggestion or advice on how to fix this would be so much appreciated.

Have you seen this thread?

I too am experiencing the same problem. All attempts to reset/hard reset, enter download mode/recovery mode have been unsuccessful. Any attempt just results in the phone turning off/on and remaining stuck on the back screen with white samsung text. The problem occured while I was actually using the phone browser, phone just suddenly reset and now I am having this issue. All help will be appreciated.

Are you using a custom ROM? What you're describing is typical when a modified kernel you are using is not suited for the ROM you've flashed.

Same problem. Hard reset doesn't work (can't get into that screen via the volume up/home/power button route). Did you by any chance just install AppBrain Ad detector? I did, so it's just a thought. (sorry I can't add this as a comment, so I've added it as an answer which it probably isn't...)

Hi everyone and thanks for your comments. My phone was not rooted or using a custom ROM, everything was the same as when it left the factory. I eventually went down to the store and they take a look at it. Sadly it ended with the phone being repair because there had been some malfunction in the memory-reading hardware it only was the ROM which was booted, no the operating system itself (or something very like that, can't remember the exact words from the tech guy). Thanks for all your comments.

Have a look at this question.

Your system might have become corrupted or hampered by some misuse/mishap.
The method below will install Latest factory Firmware for your Samsung device, i.e., Unbrick the phone.
Steps to Install latest firmware
Note: Write your phone's model number like "GT-I9812" and IMEI number on paper beforehand.

Put your device in Download Mode.

Don't connect your device to USB port

Now, on PC, download and install Samsung KIES.

Now, after installation, reboot PC. All required drivers will be installed for the PC and android device.

Connect your device to the PC

Open Samsung KIES, Go to Tools > Firmware Upgrade and Installation.

Dialog will popup asking for Model Number. Put Phone's Model Number which you have written on the paper and Press Next.

Now, it will ask for the IMEI number of the mobile phone. Just put that in and Press Next.

There will be some dialog boxes about the system reset and warnings. Just Click Ok/Next.

Now,Samsung KIES will download system software for the device and Install it on the device itself.

This will take lot of time, so be patient.(Time depends on the Your Network Speed.)

Voila! Your Phone is New Again. (atleast on the inside. :-P)

Sounds like a corrupted operating system preventing a full system boot. I would flash a stock system image. I have provided links below to a few helpful resources that will hopefully get you back up and running!
Take a look at this website:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III/GT-I9300
Navigate to the enter download mode section.
Then follow this instruction to reflash your phone back to stock:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/general/tut-unroot-galaxy-siii-stock-updates-t1710613
This should help!

You should put the instructions in your answer. In case the link dies, your answer will become useless.


text:
Import data from ColorNote app?
I have lost my Android phone but I have backup of my SD-card on which I have backup of my ColorNote app. How can I get all my notes from that backup?
NOTE: I am using iPhone now so don't have a Android device for now.

What backup you have? Backed up from Titanium or backed up using ColorNote's backups to SD card functionality?

backup from ColorNote's backups to SD.

but if you know how to retrive it from Titanium backup please also let me know that.

Restoring with Titanium is only possible if you have a backup from Titanium.

ya but what if i dont have any anroid devise ..as i said i am using Iphone. so can it be done on my PC

Yes you can, but it will be a bit convoluted: ColorNote's notes can only be exported from the SQLite colornote.db file, but it's not available from the sd card backups. So we will have to do it in two steps: first reimport the sd card backup into the ColorNote app, then extract the generated colornote.db SQLite file (note that you must have rooted your phone to access the SQLite file, but you can do it on the BlueStacks emulator). Here's the walkthrough, inspired greatly by this post by Danyil Bohdan and this one:

Install ColorNote on an Android device. Since you don't have an Android phone, you can use BlueStacks to emulate an Android phone on your computer.
Open ColorNote and import your sd card backup file. Remember that you have to disable cloud syncing in order to show the Restore option as per the ColorNote's FAQ.
Check that your notes are correctly restored inside ColorNote by opening them. If they seem ok, continue to next step.
Install Total Commander for Android on your phone or BlueStacks emulator.
Open Total Commander and browse the root/filesystem partition and then browse to /data/data/com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note/databases/.  You need root rights to access /data/data, but in the BlueStacks emulator it should be easy to do. Inside this folder, copy the file colornote.db to your SD card slot (I don't know how it works inside BlueStacks but you should have the possibility to setup a virtual SD card or send directly to your computer).
Transfer the colornote.db file to your computer (either via USB if you're using an Android phone, or by copying the file from the BlueStacks emulator).
Open colornote.db with a SQLite browser of your choice. A good open source and portable app for that is sqlitebrowser. You should now see something similar to this screen:

Click on the Execute SQL tab (highlighted in red above) and execute the following sql statement:
SELECT date(created_date / 1000,'unixepoch'),date(modified_date / 1000,'unixepoch'),note FROM notes ORDER BY _id
You should now see a list of records below the sql statement, and you can click on the little floppy disk icon on the right to export into CSV, as shown here:

Open the .csv file into a UNIX friendly editor such as Notepad++ (else there won't be any line returns) and check if the content of your notes was correctly exported. They should be stored in chronologically ascending order (from oldest to newest at the bottom).
You can then import your .csv file in most programs or keep it as a readable backup of your notes.

Note that this technic works for most applications, since most Android apps use SQLite to store their databases (exception being some apps like WhatsApp which uses SQLite but encrypted to, of course, avoid leaking your private data to anyone).

Wanted to add my recent experience with this. I used BlueStacks on MacOS and was unable to find/access colornote.db, I assume due to root issues? I tried finding how to root BlueStacks but couldn't find any convenient solutions. So I ended up writing a python script to automate my mouse clicking through each note and copy/pasting to a file...very brute force, but it worked. If anyone has any info on how to root BlueStacks, that would be helpful to add here for others

Sorry @Ian I have no idea how to root MacOS (or if that's the culprit). Glad you could find a workaround, please consider posting your own answer along with the code as it can certainly help others? Also I have stopped using ColorNotes, and switched to Writer Plus, a Markdown writer which also stores directly .md files in the filesystem so it's super easy to backup. Since then I had no issues at all for years.

You could do the same with oneliner in terminal (install sqlite beforehand)
sqlite3 colornote.db "SELECT date(created_date / 1000,'unixepoch'),date(modified_date / 1000,'unixepoch'),note FROM notes ORDER BY _id;" > colornote.txt

You need another Android phone.
You can either:

Restore your ColorNote's TiBackup on another phone
Install ColorNote on another Android phone and view one of your backups  (Go to settings->sdcard backup, then choose one and 'view' it)
ColorNote's backup is in /sdcard/data/colornote/ (if you need to copy it to your new phone)

I dont have an anroid phone I want to do it on my pC

You forgot to mention this in your question. Seems like this isn't possible.

@Champ, The only way this will be possible is to have an android phone. If you don't have an android phone there is no way for you to get the data, unless you know how to extract TiBackups on your PC. There is not currently an app that does this, AFAIK.

The files created by TiBackup are just tgz archives, you can unpack them easily. In case of an encrypted Backup: https://github.com/bhafer/TitaniumBackupDecrypt/blob/master/README.md

To restore your notes from SD card which were backed up using ColorNote's Backup to SD card functionality you can try this.
Install ColorNote app and then go to Backup select SD Card Backup. See if your earlier backups from SD card are listed there. If they are, select the one and your notes will be restored.
I have tried this using the same SD card, in your case you have a backup of it so I am not sure but I guess it should work. Let me know how it helps.

I dont have an anroid phone I want to do it on my pC

I doubt if you can do this as ColorNote doesn't have a desktop counterpart, and the backups it created are not human-readable. So if possible you can try using a friend's phone to restore you notes.

@Champ This is one of the reasons why I recently switched to Evernote. It syncs your data and you can access if from anywhere using a browser. I liked ColorNote for its simplicity but there's no way to access it from PC. :(

It is easy to restore ColorNote backup files from PC:

Connect you Android phone (or tablet) in MTP mode
Open connected Android phone folder on your PC
Locate "data/colornote/backup" folder on the Android device and copy your backup files to that folder
Open Colornote on your Android device and go to Backup, select SD Card Backup, touch the saved backup data and restore it.

If your Android has a SD card, you could just plug the card into PC and copy the files. On my Colornote versions, the backup restore deletes previous files.

In my case the program had problem finding my backup after upgrading from Android 2.3 to 4.2.
The backups were in sdcard1/data/colornote/backup and I needed to copy them to external_sd/data/colornote/backup for the program to find them.

There is also another solution. If you download the app "Evernote" on your phone. You will then have two note apps; color note and evernote.
Then click on a note you want to keep. On my phone, HTC wildfire, you can press a "menu" button once you've accessed the particular note; And then you can choose "Share" or in my language "Send". You will then be able to send the particular note from "colornote" to "Evernote". "Evernote" is accessible for an iphone and an android phone, and the app enables you to transfer notes from different devices.
Good Luck!

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts. While this would be a good answer, the original question states that they do not have an Android phone. In which case, this would not work for them, but hopefully it will help others that still do have an android phone. Thanks for contributing.

Even if they don't have an Android device, this can be used on an emulator such as BlueStacks, the main problem being to recover the notes in a readable format for a computer, so this is a good entry I think.

Hi I found the answer to lot's of peoples problems on restoring colornote files. Transfering from one mobile to another, I Tried everything but like most people I could see them on the phone's sd card but I could not read the files, this is how I managed.
If you have files backed up to an external HDD copy the colornote data folder to the phone's sd card, open colornote go to settings & sign out of online sync (this is the secret), while in settings go to sd card back up and select the first one of your file's when you select the file it gives the option to restore. Hit restore and all your files will then show in colornote. If any files are locked it will require that you enter the password I just used the same as used on my old phone and I could then open and read the files.

You can install Android emulator (such as www.bluestacks.com/) Install there ColorNote and send notes to email or save them to a file.

I created a tool for decrypting backups when I wanted to export my old notes: https://github.com/olejorgenb/ColorNote-backup-decryptor
Not sure if it works on files created by newer versions of ColorNote. The files I successfully decrypted was 3-4 years old.

authors: Алексей Нагорных


text:
Use fixed keyboard for a given app
I would like to tell my Android that when I'm in a given app it should switch to a given keyboard. My use case is that I want to use Hacker keyboard with Connectbot.

You could use Tasker for this. In case you don't know it: Tasker is the most complete automation tool for Android, combining "conditions" with "tasks" to so-called "profiles". For your case, the Profile could look like this:
Condition: App (select Connectbot)
Task: Input Method Select
From the Tasker manual:

Show the Android Input Method picker dialog.
If some methods you have installed are not shown, make sure they are enabled in Android settings.
Note: unfortunately Android does not allow changing of the input method without user iteraction.

So from the last sentence you see, your final goal cannot be achieved. All you can get is the picker popping up, but you still have to pick your desired IME yourself. If you first want to try out whether that works for you, there's a 7-day trial version of Tasker available at their homepage.

AFAIK there is no any such option. I fear you will have to manually go and change the input settings every time. In case you are using Android 4.0 or above, whenever you have your keyboard on you will get an ongoing notification in the notification panel, you can tap on it to quickly switch between keyboards. If you cannot see your keyboard listed there, make sure you have it selected in Input settings. That's the best you can do.

Thanks, do you think an app or a tweak in system could allow this? Something a bit like tasker: chaging current keyboard according to environment, here according to frontscreen app.

@gb. None that I am aware of... And I don't think there is any.


text:
How to check if an APK contains native code?
Is there a way to check if an APK file hosts native code?
There are many reverse engineering tools (e.g. apktool, androguard) from which you can reproduce the
source files of an Android app but I'm not sure if there is a de facto solution
which you can use to assure that an APK contains native code. Maybe someone can
search for ARM binary files in the source files of an app. But how to know which
directories to check?
Is there a more standard way to do this?

I think this StackOverflow answer should point you in the right direction:

All of the native code for an app is stored in the libs/ directory in the root of the apk. It's compiled ARM or x86 code, or both. You can find it in libs/architecture_type/lib_name.so. You can dissemble the code with objdump or gdb. Decompiling is a much harder task, but you can find some software that might work for you.

Thank you for your answer! I will try to make a script that searches for executables in /libs directory.

An APK is also an archive so unarchive it on a computer (with tools like 7-Zip) and look at its content.


text:
Nexus 7 wont boot after complete discharge
I accidentally let the battery on my Nexus 7 run completely empty, and now it won't start up anymore even after charging overnight. How can I make it work again?
This is what happened in detail: My battery ran low, and I had no time to recharge it. I forgot about it, and found my tablet powered off. I attached it to a charger (the official wall-plug adaptor), waited a few minutes, and then turned it on. I expected it to be able to run from the cable like my phone, but it reported 0% battery and shut itself down immediately. I retried it after a slightly longer time. This time I didn't get to the home screen, but was shown a black and white animated battery icon. I pressed the power button, and the animation froze, and only disappeard after a long time (I put it away and discovered it was gone after a few hours). Since then I've been loading it for > 12 hours, but I haven't been able to get any response. The charger gets warm, but the tablet doesn't.
I've heard that once the battery is competely discharged, it only charges in "trickle mode" (that is normally used to top off a 98% loaded battery safely), and can take a very long time to become operative again. This would explain why the adapter gets warm but not the tablet. If this is true, is there any way to speed up charging?

Are you charging via an AC adapter or USB cable? If you're using USB, use an AC/power adapter. Does pressing the power button for 30 seconds do anything?

Both :-) the stock AC adapter uses a USB cable to connect with the tablet. I'll try the 30 seconds trick next.

Opps, I guess I should have said: USB to a computer or USB to AC adapter. Try the 30 second trick and let me know if it works

@BryanDenny Holding it for > 30 seconds worked! Thanks!

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/34829/cannot-turn-nexus-7-on-after-locking-the-screen/34830#34830

Try pressing the power button for > 30 seconds.
If it does not work, try to alternate power sources (PC/laptop USB port, and AC adapter) while repeating step #1.
Still no go? You may have to remove back cover and reconnect battery.
Warranty case.

(source)

Wow, it worked, thanks! 30 seconds is a rediculously long time, I would have never thought of that by myself. Every other device I have that has long-press functions needs 5 seconds, 10 seconds max.

Fantastic! Glad it worked for you!

And be sure to mark this as the answer

I have done steps 1-3 with no luck, and it's out of warranty. I've been charging it with the original power adapter. When I first plugged it in to charge, it booted and immediately shut down due to low battery at least twice. Since then I've had no activity at all. Is there any hope for me?


text:
Samsung galaxy tab2 P3100 "android.process.media" stopped issue?
I have updated Samsung galaxy tab2 P3100 to jelly bean since then I am getting popup error as "unfortunately the process android.process.media has stopped". Is there any fix available for this?

Could be the media scanner.... check for any corrupt media files on your /sdcard/. This is just a guess

How did you update? Did you flash a Custom ROM?

I have used Samsung official update not custom ROM.

hay it's a simple problem to encounter, go to settings reset the system don't forget to backup your important data before doing so.


text:
Apps missing after sd card unmount
The core issue is in the title: the apps that were installed in the SD card seem to be not installed at all after I unmounted the SD card.
As additional information, these are the steps preceding the moment I have noticed this problem:

installed some apps (so, it's not an app-specific problem)
moved many of them to the SD card using App2SD - apps working properly
unmounted the SD card and detached from the phone (which is turned on)
no data were written on the sd card (only read operations)
put SD back in the phone (the same SD card)

At this point, I was, and currently am, not able to launch the applications previously moved in the SD card. The links are available on my home screen, but after tapping them I get an error message saying "error launching application".
They are not available in the app menu, neither are marked as "installed" in the play store.
Fortunately, the applications' data are still there, and installing some of the apps again they appeared the same as the last time I used them.
So, the question is twofold:

Is there a way to recover the apps, or do I have to manually reinstall them?
Is this a potential bug of App2SD?

Have you tried restarting the phone?

I did it several time (the phone has a strange behavior     since I reported the problem)

This sounds like a case of a vital hidden folder that you're missing - when apps are moved to the SD-Card, a hidden folder called .android_secure is created which is where the apps are stored in!
This is a common mistake to make, when replacing a SD-Card for a bigger one, so the moral is to ensure, when transferring to a bigger SD-Card, do not forget the hidden directories including .android_secure. Upon restart after inserting the bigger SD-Card, Android will re-scan the card and proceed to look in that specific hidden folder, for any apps that are moved to external storage and loads/caches the shortcuts for those respective apps.

That folder is called .android_secure :) Further your answer implies the OP switched cards -- the question doesn't indicate that: put SD back in the phone rather implies it was the same card. Apart from that: Good point!

@Izzy Gosh thanks for the heads up... will edit it accordingly! ;)

NP -- but you're still assuming the OP copied contents to a new card, which is not what the Q says (well, but it also doesn't deny it, so I'll give you a +1 nevertheless :)

Maybe I am in denial too... methinks the OP should clarify if that was the case? :)

@Izzy is right: I didn't change the SD card: it is the same. No data were written or changed while it was off the phone.

@AlessandroCuttin - Thanks for the clarification :) Ok... something is not quite right.. now forgive my ignorance, but when a card is unmounted, it does not mean to actually pull it out - am thinking aloud - ejected safely, unless you uncovered a bug with Apps2SD in that it failed to recognize the unmount and did not eject it.... just a thought...

...which should mean the same problem would occur when mounting the card via USB to a computer, wouldn't it? What would happen then? Is it unmounted locally or, as I read lately, simply gets its permissions reset to 000? Would /sdcard/.android_secure become unavailable in both cases (is it even handed to the computer this way?) But I guess that goes to far here :)

@Izzy, With windows, there's a very good reason for safe eject with regards to cards, the buffers holding the filesystem on card has to be flushed in a safe manner prior to ejecting, maybe the OP pulled it out with-out ejecting safely and that might have scrambled the dot directories (hidden directories)????

As a rule I generally un-mount the sdcard, power off the phone and can then remove it, I would not be 100% confident in pulling it out (despite being unmounted) when the phone is still on....

True about that -- but why should it have damaged only the hidden directories then (even more as the OP was unlikely to touch anythin in there)? Also, quoting: no data were written on the sd card (only read operations) So it shouldn't have mattered (but you're right: Who knows?)

I had the same problem, but we might have different phones. For me, the reason why I never see my apps moved by app2ds is because my sd card is partitioned so that app2sd would be able to see only that part of the card, and my computer cannot see the partitioned part. Whenever I unmount my sd card to switch it out with one I have music on, I just have to restart the whole phone afterwards is all.


text:
Debugging crashes on Jelly Bean
I got an Allwinner-based no-name Android Tablet with 1GB RAM and a 1Ghz A8 CPU. The tablet came with Android 4.0.4, but later an upgrade for 4.1.1 was available. I upgraded my OS and while this newer version of Android feels a lot faster and responsive than 4.0.4, I got some random applications crashes which doesn't appeared on ICS.
The crashes occurs randomly and after an application dissapears from my screen there's no dialog to tell me that "Unfortunately, [application name] has stopped", making me wonder if is not the OS which kills the application. I don't know where to dig for some debugging data but while I was messing with builds.prop I found a line called dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file which pointed to /data/anr/traces.txt. I don't get any clue what is happening by reading that file, so I post it here hoping that someone will understand something from it. The most "crashy" application here is GTA 3 (most reproductible crashes), but crashes also occurs with Browser, Google Play, etc.
Do anybody have a clue about what could be the problem? Are 1GB of RAM insufficient for Jelly Bean? I post here my build.prop and traces.txt file hoping that it will be useful for solving my problem (build.props was sightly modified by me trying to get a solution for this problem). Please let me know if there's any additional information I should provide.
Thank you.

Did you do a factory reset after the upgrade? Sometimes these kinds of crashes happen if there are some remnants of the old system files left over in the upgrade which are incompatible with the new version. I'd suggest this as a first step. Note that this will clear your personal data, settings and apps, but it shouldn't touch your storage (still, use with caution).

I even reflashed the device, but the problem persist (only with 4.1.1, though).

What do you mean by 'crash'? What exactly happens?

The application just quits (disappears from screen), bringing me back to menu.

Did you wipe cache and Dalvik? Having forgotten this is the most likely source for problems like this.

I didn't tried wiping Dalvik cache, but considering that applications crashes even if I reflash the tablet I doubt that this will help. I will try it anyway and I'll let you know if it worked. Thanks


text:
Not able to connect xperia tipo to Ubuntu
I can connect my Xperia Tipo to Windows but not able to connect Ubuntu. Why is it so? Is there any changes that I need to make to my phone ?

What do you want to connect (USB storage, ADB, ...)? What happens when you connect your device to Ubuntu? Anything appearing? Did you check with the lsusb command if the device was recognized? Most likely some UDev rules are missing (your device not being known to the system). Though that should not matter to the USB storage.

Do you have the drivers installed on Ubuntu? For windows most Xperia devices automatically install drivers, it doesn't happen on Ubuntu..

This question seems to come up every few weeks...
Ubuntu 10 (and sometimes above) requires manual editing of your udev config in order to recognize an Android device.
As root create the text file "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules” and add this line for a Sony device:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="054c", MODE="0666"

Save the file and exit the editor, then set the permissions of the file and tell the udev system to reload the rules:
$ sudo chmod a+rx /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Maybe your phone is not in mass-storage-mode. Go to
settings / XPeria / connectivity

and set USB connection mode to mass-storage.
However, with this setting access is limited to the SD card; you won't be able to mount the internal memory.


text:
My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?
Everything was working fine for a long time. But suddenly the device is getting slower than usual (e.g. apps react slowly when starting an action -- like the RSS reader takes "ages" to open an article). Also, several apps start crashing: force-closes as well as unexpected restarts. Sometimes this even involves some automatic reboot of the device.
Is there anything I can do, besides doing a factory-reset? Preferably it should work on un-rooted devices.
Remark: not all described problems may occur together, so on one device e.g. there might be no automatic reboot involved. Question remains the same, nonetheless.

Are there any hints when you look at the output of adb logcat?

That's better explained by a developer. I assume there is, but I doubt I could fully interprete the Java stacks from the crash.

See also: What should I do before I try advanced troubleshooting

A behavour as described above in most cases indicates something's messed up in the system. The most likely candidates here are:

Application Cache
Dalvik Cache

As you might have guessed already, different solutions are available for rooted devices -- but only few for non-rooted devices, which cannot directly access the Dalvik Cache. So read on below examples until you hit something working for you, or continue to the very end for all options.
rooted and non-rooted devices: remove obsolete apps
Cause of a slow-down might be some app, hogging all resources. Those apps usually can be identified via the "battery consumption" page in Settings. But even if you cannot find it there, it cannot hurt to remove apps you once installed but no longer need (see e.g. Alix' answer).
You can also disable some system apps you don't need (keyword: bloatware). To do so, go to Settings → Applications, select the "All" tab, and walk the list to find those apps. Tap their entry, and you should find a "disable" button. It might be grayed out: if so, you first have to "force stop" the app, and maybe to "uninstall updates", before the "disable" button becomes accessible. Note however, that this possibility will not exist for all system apps. For rooted devices, there are several tools available allowing you to "freeze" or even remove system apps (be very careful with the latter); one famous example is Titanium Backup.
rooted and non-rooted devices: Clear the Application Cache
If you're lucky, it's simply that: the Application Cache got filled/messed up. This can be easily resolved, even on non-rooted devices:

With methods available by default on each Android system:

From your homescreen, go to Settings → Apps → Manage Apps. Make sure to view All Apps, not Downloaded only
Walk the list, open each app, and hit the Clear Cache button

Easier method using helper apps: There are several apps available on the Playstore which allow to clean all application's caches at once, so you don't have to walk a long list and do it manually. One example for such an app is 1Tap Cleaner, which also can clean up several other histories like e.g. the browser history

rooted devices: Clear Application Cache and Dalvik Cache
Even more likely for the described case is a messed-up Dalvik Cache -- especially if you tested a lot of apps, permanently installing/uninstalling different ones. So a cleanup of the Dalvik Cache most certainly will solve the situation. As a side effect, it will certainly speed-up things. No negative side-effects are to be expected.

Via Custom Recovery
This is the most effective way and sure to really do the job. This example is based on the ClockworkMod Recovery, which is most widely spread. It should be equivalent with AmonRa Recovery.

Boot into recovery mode (how to do this often depends on the device/ROM used. For CyanogenMod users it's most easy: Long-Press the power button, select "Reboot", select "Recovery")
Using the Volume controls, select Wipe Cache and approve it using the power button. On the next screen, approve the action the same way. This way you easily clear the Application Cache as described above, all at once, without the need of an extra app.
Go to the Advanced menu, select to Clear Dalvik Cache the same way with the Volume and Power keys and approve it.
Go back to the main menu, and select Reboot. The next reboot will take longer as usual, so don't worry: Android needs to rebuild the Dalvik Cache, that's completely normal behaviour.

Helper apps:
Several apps offer options to cleanup the Dalvik Cache (e.g. SystemCleanup and Titanium Backup PRO Key ★ root). You can try those; but I'm not sure if one of them really "wipes" the Dalvik Cache. At least for Titanium Backup I know it only removes remains from uninstalled apps (i.e. obsolete Dalvik files).

rooted and non-rooted devices last resort: Factory Reset
If none of the above does solve your problem, there's always the Factory Reset. Basically, this does all the above (wiping Application Cache and Dalvik Cache) -- but it also wipes the /data partition. This means: All your settings and data (except those stored on your sd card) as well as all apps you installed yourself are gone. So be sure to have a good backup before doing this (see e.g. Full Backup of non-rooted devices for how to achieve this).

rooted devices: fstrim
Another reason for slowing things down lies in the storage. A little background for understanding:
On the flash memory used in our devices, each cell can only be written so many times. To prevent capacity loss and wear-out, the flash controller applies an algorithm called "wear leveling" to evenly spread writes across the medium. Of course, to prevent data loss you want to write to "empty places" only (except when explicitly overwriting a file). And here comes the culprit: To speed things up, the file system in most cases only marks files deleted, but doesn't tell the controller about the "freed blocks" -- so it becomes inefficient with time.
Android 4.3 addresses this issue with appropriate fstrim calls, telling the controller once a day which blocks to consider freed. Some ROMs integrated a comparable feature also in earlier versions of Android, mounting file systems with the discard option (so the controller is informed at once on deletes), but this slows down deletes a little. For devices not having addressed this in either of the two ways, it might be worth to take a look at the Lagfix App, which calls fstrim in a user-friendly way for selected partitions. Running that once on a long-used device may speed up writes by a factor of up to 30, and even reads get a little faster.
References:

Speedup values: Android-Hilfe.DE
Greatly improve speed and performance of your smartphone or tablet with LagFix
Nexus Storage Performance Over Time & TRIM 20130727

Wiping the dalvik cache should be unnecessary unless you're on a new kernel/ROM. Clearing it will just remove ALL those files, which will be recreated (except for uninstalled programs, which Titanium is warning you about).

Partly correct. If you often install/uninstall/update apps, the Dalvik cache can get cluttered (as you mention TB, that's why it finds things to cleanup there). There are also reports where some app's Dalvik cache was "broken". Wiping the Dalvik cache forces a clean rebuild, which also "defragments" it. So this can speed up things as well as "fix" some issues.

I usually reboot my device regularly and uses Greenify app

@user3275057 That's like saying "I regularly ventilate my rooms and use power-safe options on my home devices, but still the floor gets dirty and stuff is standing in the way". While both options are helpful, they miss some essential parts – as explained above: Sometimes you've got to mop the floor and tidy the room :)

My HTC One V was getting so slow that I was getting ready to smash it. After trying everything with nothing working, I went through my apps and deleted a few. Apparently the one causing all the trouble was You Don't Know Jack. The second it was off my phone my speed dramatically increased and started functioning normally again. Not sure if this will help anyone else, but on the off-chance it does, I just wanted to let you know.

Good point. Missed that topic in my answer (updated).

How to Speed up Slow Android
Remember the day you bought your android? It wasn't slow. It was so fast. What happened? Did the silicon get slower? Did the bits get clogged? Of course not. You're just running more invisible background services.
First, disable auto updates in

Samsung galaxy store (if applicable),
in settings > software updates,
In secret developer options menu (look it up)
and Google play store

This is important because otherwise they just reinstall / update themselves.

Then look for apps that open automatically after removing them from via device maintenance > clear memory & developer options > running services and uninstall or reset them to factory default to as many as you can (I also remove permissions from them so they cant read from storage secretly in the background etc.). Some system apps you may want to keep, such as Google play services etc. Just uninstall the ones you  are confident you understand are not needed
Remember, clearing the memory does NOT speed up the device, it only shows you what apps autoload background processes so you can uninstall them. A good example of this is Instagram, if you notice it keeps running while it's closed, because it will preload dozens of Instagram videos in your feed before you even open the app. While preloading is generally seen as an optimization, if you have enough apps aggressively preloading at the same time, and security apps monitoring those apps, and RAM filling up which then kicks off garbage collection on the Java runtime, and possibly even memory paging, plus any activity you actually request, plus reporting your location to Google, plus reporting your location to "find your phone" programs, plus checking traffic on your future commute, plus parsing your calendar for AI usage with Google Home,  plus updates checking, plus notification querying, etc etc, then you may find that your device is doing far more activity than it can handle. Simple way to test this is to turn on Max Battery Saving option and see if the battery and responsiveness improves. If so, it's in large part because all the extensive background processing is disallowed.
Also remember that disabling auto updates does not speed up the phone per se, it just allows you prevent future updates from causing unexpected performance degradation. It makes you the gatekeeper so your phone cannot magically slow down overtime, but rather let's you pick and choose what apps you trust to update (and of course, update the apps you love.) It's like Kon Mari method for your phone.

Remember, phones don't get slow over time. Bad programming in  Updates cause phones to get slow. And this will get you back to a smooth android like the day you bought it  (also good for battery)
I've had outstanding success with this. And my frame rate is 2x better as well as app open speed. It's fantastic.
Oh and also enable background ANRs so you can see invisible stalls

AFAIK, disabling auto-updates just disables automatic installation – the system will still check for availability (and notify if any are there; consult screenshot #4 for confirmation). So this won't speed up a thing. I'd rather disable the Galaxy Apps altogether (if applicable), as I don't see what additional benefit it brings if you already use Playstore. The "memory cleanup" is a doubtful thing as well: what you clear out must be loaded again, making things slower. That should be done very selective. So thanks for sharing; it worked fantastically for you but should be applied with care :)

Clearing the memory isn't to make things fast, it's to see what autoloads so you can uninstall it. Too many apps these days run processes in the background, leading to slow phones. The only way to stop this is fully uninstalling those apps.

Disabling auto updates isn't to make things fast, it's to stop it from installing bloat AFTER you've uninstalled it. If it is sending you notifications, you can simply block those as well. A good example of this is Samsung Quick Connect, which the latest version runs excessively slow long bavkground processes. And it auto installed and updated. But the old version is fine.

As for galaxy apps, it has different apps available than Google play store, so it's not redundant.

I've updated my answer to clarify that it's the apps that launch background processes that slow the phone, and clarified that clearing the RAM and disabling auto updates is not the solution in and of itself.

"Too many apps these days run processes…" definitively. I just meant the "atomics" to be avoided and clearing specific things ;) that tool Samsung incorporated comes from CM, I wouldn't trust it. And is installing things you've just uninstalled something specific to Galaxy Apps? I've never seen that on any of my devices. If you mean to avoid updates to apps you use, that can be disabled per-app – and indeed is needed here and there. Plus: agreed, some Sam-specific apps might be available only in GalaxyApps. (PS: +1 :)

Any builtin app will attempt to keep itself installed. Samsung and Google both put builtins on phones. It's a travesty. I can't uninstall Google pay or Samsung pay even though I don't use them. Many more apps too, that even have background processes. And Samsung apps re-enable automatically

You can disable them (in Settings › Apps) – disabled apps don't get updated anymore (in fact, when disabling them you're asked whether you want to remove their existing updates), and won't be started automatically (there are ways to access them via their intents, though, AFAIR). If such disabled apps re-enable themselves, I'd report that as a bug to the manufacturer.

I have had very similar problems with my phone. The response I got to my query on the whirlpool forums seemed to have fixed it. (I had apps closing, the keyboard not appearing or closing, etc).
Go to settings > power
Untick fastboot.
Power off then on your phone.
This saves a hard reset if it works, which it did with me.

I've noticed on mine that when I run the Gallery app, things get very very slow for a long while, then eventually start working fine again.  I suspect that's because I have a huge number of pictures, and almost never use the Gallery app.  I think it may be re-scanning and cataloging in the background or other maintenance-type functions.
I found a similar issue when I was cleaning my call log.  Every now and then, I'll scroll back several months and delete log entries from telemarketers or other undesireables.  When I do this and go back several months, things can get very slow as well.  In this case, I suspect it's because I'm essentially fragmenting a very long log file, and it's trying to clean things up in the background, but while it's doing that, I'm continuing to poke additional holes in it.  Again though, if I just wait it out, it seems to resolve itself.
Today I did both, and things got extremely slow for about an hour after I finished.  But I just left it alone, and now everything smooth as glass once again.
Sometimes we just need to let the machinery do it's job without fiddling with it, thereby making things worse.  :)

In both of your examples, it's not some file you work on but a database. For the Gallery, the MediaScanner should take care for that once it's triggered (scanning for new media files and updating the database; events triggering this include boot_completed and sdcard_mounted). For your call logs, it's again a database which might be automatically "vacuumized" (i.e. de-fragmented), but that should take seconds at max. Not sure what's slowing things down here that much -- but if it resolves itself, all the better :)