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Majority of apps deleted themselves (including Google Play services) on a Samsung device
My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has developed an interesting fault.
It happened one evening, after the phone shut down due to low power. Its symptoms:

It has deleted (or appears to have deleted) most of the applications - including system applications. For example, I had at least 3 browsers installed, I now have none.
The majority of other applications do not work, for example:
 Messages still appears, and I can view a listing, but as soon as I try to access a message it says "Unfortunately, Messages has stopped". Less than a second later, that dialog also disappears, without me having to press OK. The Google Play Store app shows a blank white screen, then crashes - this time, without the dialog. Apps that were received through Amazon Underground (those that still appear) complain that Amazon is not installed and logged in.
I have a notification in the notification area that says "Get Google Play services / Google Play Music won't run without Google Play services, which are missing from your phone" - and again, when I press it, it transitions to a blank white screen which then promptly crashes, dialog-less.
Phone now takes at least 5mins to boot, every single time.

So my question is: what could cause this? I've resisted rooting this phone, so I never (theoretically) had the capability to delete these files.
I intend to try and reflash GApps etc, then probably install a cynogen or something - if my phone is imploding even with a stock rom, I may as well have fun. And I have backups of most of the important stuff. So I can rectify the situation - the question is purely what could cause this.
Would a Google Play service update during the phone shutdown be enough? (I guess no...)
Maybe registry corruption of some sort? (My best guess for the extended boot time)
And has anyone ever succeeded in doing this through some intentional action?

[Edited]: Small update: Firstly, I forgot to mention, a large portion of my contacts seem to have disappeared too. So I can see the phone numbers in my Messages, rather than their names, for probably about 80% of people. I guess this might be because it cannot access Google for some reason?
Secondly, I have now tried reinstalling Google Play Services (installed using adb install) and nothing seems any better. Have looked at the logcat, and I suspect that chromium webview is the real cause of many of the above symptoms. Downloading now.
[Edit 2] Also, forgot to mention, most of my contacts disappeared. They were mostly synced with Google though, so when I installed a new rom, they mostly reappeared - I guess with the exception of recent contacts that hadn't synced.
But yes, crisis averted (more or less). I now have a Samsung Note 3 pretending to be a rooted Samsung Note 5 and am pretty happy, but still curious about what went wrong.

If you're willing to say good-bye to any data possibly still saved on the device, I'd recommend a factory-reset. My guess here would be a corrupted package list, which would be cured by that. No guarantees, though.

@Izzy: I'll be doing a factory reset too, though other posts seem to indicate that if any of the apps truly have been deleted, then this will not fix it as /system is assumed to be incorruptible :) Feel free to put your guess as an answer, also, do you know of any way of forcing Android to rebuild the package list?

Not sure. If your device were rooted, and you'd have a custom recovery, I'd tried clearing the Dalvik/ART cache and renaming the package list (to keep a backup) – in the hope this would force Android to recreate it. I'd also wait for some other answer/suggestion before performing a factory reset, so maybe your data can be saved (if any are needed and you don't have a recent backup). Ping me if there's no better suggestion within a few days, I'll expand my suggestion to an answer then.

The same thing has happened to me.
The fact I also have a Note 3 with exactly the same symptoms makes me believe it is a faulty system update or other service installation/upgrade error.
Google Play Services v7.3 (according to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms but maybe it's 9.0.82 or 83 or something) rolled out from May 16, I reckon this is the culprit.
I woke up to my phone complaining the same error: "Get Google Play services / Google Play Music won't run without Google Play services, which are missing from your phone".
I managed to install Samsung Internet for Android via Samsung Galaxy Apps.
I then downloaded a Google Play Services apk after searching Google for one and installed it.
That kinda got Google stuff working again, but I had to reinstall a lot of my apps. Authenticator still works thank god.
Boot still takes ages, and every time Google Play Services is gone again.

I failed to look at the comments for that update, I'm guessing this is the problem.  Lots of people seem to be complaining in the comments about this package update breaking their phone, though it sounds like this happens with every update, and lots of Google-hater noise. I rooted my phone and installed a phronesis rom, as I didn't want to continue with a crippled phone - but thank you, my worst fear was that my flash had developed a fault, and that seems more unlikely now


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How can I change my name on Google Play Games?
I opened up Google Play Games and clicked my way through it and it has changed my name to 'HighLemon4719'. Previously it was 'crazymaster' with my icon for Google+.
Every time I start a game on my phone it comes up as the name 'HighLemon4719'. How can I change it as I not like this name?

Open up Play Games and click on your avatar in the header.
Click the Pencil icon in the top right hand corner of the app.
You should then be able to enter a new 'Gamer ID' to replace 'HighLemon4719'. You can also change the avatar image that is displayed too.
Click Save

No pencil there. Anything to change the name.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Android permissions confusion
I'm choosing a new phone, been using my Lumia for ages, so I'm a bit off about the whole thing. What I've discovered so far is that android devices are mostly much superior to their iOS counterparts in terms of hardware and extensibility, however the system of permissions seems to be insane.
Permissions are grouped by the android itself in a way that mixes read access with write access and combines different scopes. At the same it it does not provide a way to select/deselect individual permissions in a group - you either go "all-in" or "leave".
E.g. Skype asks for so many permissions, it effectively would be able to read my contact list, content of sd card, call history, get list of other running applications and more. While Microsoft claims that they do not gather this kind of info, I don't have any means to check it.
This seems insane to me, because linux itself provides a granular level configuration of permissions.
As I've read, in the latest Android aka Marshmallow permissions are being asked for during run-time, only when first needed, also they can be revoked by the user at any moment.
But are these permissions still the same badly configured broad groups? If I tap "Allow" will the permission be saved, can allow "only for this time" - until the app is closed? Can I constrain the list of permissions available when the app runs in background?
Probably there are other possibilities/apps to control privacy settings in android?

If I tap "Allow" will the permission be saved, can allow "only for this time" - until the app is closed? Can I constrain the list of permissions available when the app runs in background?

If you choose to grant the permission during runtime the app would be able to access the underlying resource as many times as it wants until you do clear data or reinstall the app. There is no constraint available in stock Android's Settings app which can restrict the permissions when an app is running in background.

[Are there] other possibilities/apps to control privacy settings in [Android]?

Yes, and as Matthew Read noted XPrivacy is a flexible and powerful app to manage information sharing with installed apps. It is excellent but not perfect so you should not be surprised with crashes of the restricted apps.

Permissions are grouped by the android itself in a way that mixes read access with write access and combines different scopes.

I would like to address that with this quote:

If an app requests a dangerous permission listed in its manifest, and the app already has another dangerous permission in the same permission group, the system immediately grants the permission without any interaction with the user. For example, if an app had previously requested and been granted the READ_CONTACTS permission, and it then requests WRITE_CONTACTS, the system immediately grants that permission.

In plain words it appears to me that Android assumes that if the user is comfortable with granting an app a dangerous permission belonging to a certain group then they would not be having any problem if the system automatically grants rest of the permissions (dangerous or not) of the same group to that app, when requested.
Since normal permissions are always granted and considered safe I recommend you consider directing your attention to permissions groups holding dangerous permissions. Those permissions groups are self-describing and are not as much complicated as they seem to be at first sight.
Related:

Is it possible to install an app and exclude some of its requested permissions?
Are there any tools to sandbox a malware application even more than the granted permissions on Android?
Preventing installed apps from making calls or sending SMS
Is there a way to block permissions for other applications on Jelly Bean?

I believe that's just how the Play Store is grouping them for display.  Many read and write permissions are separate — see the list here.  I am not familiar with the new feature to manage them, though.
However, yes there are indeed other ways to control app permissions.  I used Xposed (requires root) in conjunction with XPrivacy which gives control over individual permissions and even specific API calls.  In that app you can easily filter by app or by permission and just check/uncheck what you want.

What you describe as separate permissions come from a more "internal" point of view. For example, there are indeed separate permissions to READ_CONTACTS and WRITE_CONTACTS, however a user is unable to select them individually, there is only an option to grant access to "Contacts", see https://whatitallboilsdownto.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/screenshot_20160129-213807.png

@xaxa That screenshot doesn't show any kind of selection/deselection at all?  If you're familiar with that process I'd suggest posting a separate answer.

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


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How to remove "Recent apps" when pressing Home?
When pressing "Home" button on my Samsung Galaxy Core Plus (Android 4.2.2, not rooted), I always get this "Recent apps" view, which I don't want.
How to have the real home instead (i.e. desktop with icons) ?

Your Android version?

Android 4.2.2 @Firelord

On TouchWiz, the Samsung Launcher, this view comes up if you hard-press Home (i.e. press-and-hold). It goes to the home page if you click the button. I couldn't find a setting where this is reversed or configurable. I have proven this on my three (3) Samsung devices, and it works identically. Investigate your click duration when doing this action.

@wbogacz can I disable TouchWiz on my non-rooted Samsung device? and get standard Android behaviour?

You can certainly install a different launcher, leading to your being able to disable TouchWiz. I think this is a dramatic move to evade the short practice involved in learning short vs. long clicking to satisfaction. Adding a different launcher, of course, leads to different techniques to be learned, anyway.

Ok @wbogacz I'll check if this comes from my button click duration to see if I can solve it easily :)


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How can I disable the startup/boot sound on a rooted Samsung Galaxy S5?
I do not want any sound to play while the phone boots. A sound is being played while "Samsung" is displayed with an animation.
There is an app called "Silent Boot" in the Play store that mutes the phone during shutdown, which will supposedly mute the boot sound.
However, I'm looking for a solution that does not require an extra app, and that would work even with a lockup/battery-pull. The phone is rooted.

With root access, simply rename, move, or delete the file: /system/media/audio/ui/PowerOn.ogg
This solution may work for other Samsung Galaxy models, and perhaps other makes as well, provided the sound file can be located.


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Do I need to keep an icon pack installed after using the icon in Nova Launcher?

I installed an icon pack
Used on icon from the pack as folder icon in Nova Launcher
All other icons in 20MB pack are useless

Do I need to keep the icon pack installed on my phone in order to keep using that icon in Nova Launcher? Or did Nova copy the icon to its data, and I can safely uninstall the pack?
The question's scope excludes workarounds, such as extracting individual icons from a pack. It's a good idea but for a different question.

Was using Nova a year ago and uninstalled icon packs after choosing what I wanted. Icons remained as desired but can't say where they are stored in Nova


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Nexus 7 (2012) won't charge or start after a series of problems
A year or so ago, I bought an old Nexus 7 that was very slightly used (I took it off my girlfriend's hands). Everything worked fine, but I barely ever used it.
Two days ago I broke it back out. I charged the battery to full but never ran anything. The next day, I opened it up again and noticed that there was an update - 5.1.1. Not researching beforehand, I went ahead and tapped the notification, and then the problems started flooding in.
First, the tablet became locked in the loading animation after the Google logo. I let it do this overnight just in case, and it was still stuck in the morning. So I held the power button and volume button until it turned off and tried to reboot it.
At this point, it booted to a 'No command' screen. I did a factory reset from here, and rebooted. Now the tablet became stuck in a reboot loop of the Google logo.
After some research, I flashed it back to version 4.4. Everything worked fine with the fastboot and everything was working great. I ran a few updates from the tablet and got to version 4.4.4. Again, it loaded fine.
I tapped the envelope icon in the top-left corner to view my e-mails. As I was reading the first one, the screen froze. I let it sit for a few minutes and it was still frozen. So again, I powered off by using the power and volume button. My battery was around 30% at this point.
Now the tablet shows absolutely no signs of life. I have tried holding the buttons with all of the combinations that are online, I have tried doing combinations of buttons while plugging/unplugging the charger. I have tried using a regular micro-usb charger as well as a 2A charger. I have tried reseating the battery. NOTHING has worked. The tablet shows NO signs of life - no flashing, blanks, anything at all.
What else can I possibly do?

Looking at your issue related to battery and charging (which may not be the sole cause- I am not familiar with Nexus devices)

Since you barely used it for an year, it would not have been charged either and the battery could have discharged to very low levels. Li Ion batteries have a protection circuit that kicks in when the discharge falls below a certain level. It requires certain current to be applied to it before charging can happen. This is called "Boosting". How to awaken sleeping Li-ion explains it. Fix: Nexus 7 Refusing to Charge, Try This Trick mentions steps getting into the bootloader to revive it

Plug-in your dead N7 to a wall charger. (Jump immediately to step 2.)
Immediately after plugging it in, press Volume Down and Power at the same time.
Once in the bootloader menu, use Volume Down until you see “Power Off Device.”
Choose that option with the Power button.
Once your device is off, unplug the charger and then plug it back into the device.
You should now see the battery meter  with your device returning to life.

You could also try to change the charging cables- I would suggest is to use a 20/22 AWG cable for charging (if you don't want to buy, look for a short thick charging cable-it may help). See answer here for my details. Nexus 7 is more choosy: It will stop charging if voltage levels drop and resistance comes into play again. Google Nexus 7 Charging goes into details and says

Nexus 7 will stop charging if the input voltage is less than the internal battery voltage plus 0.2 volts.

There are other drastic methods, which you could try if you are comfortable, involving jump starting

I purchased a new battery and charger. The battery did not work right out of the box, so my last option is charging the battery in the tablet and trying again. Otherwise I have tried everything I have found online.

That's a pity. All the best. Suggest you also go in for good quality USB cables, once you get it running, it would certainly help. You can see the difference as in my case as mentioned in the linked answer.

First of all, relax. You didn't break it. Absolute worst case scenario is that your battery is completely dead.
If you want to do this the easy way, you can always unclip the back of the Nexus 7(just slide a guitar pick in between the screen-half and the rear-half), unplug the battery (carefully) and either find a way to charge it (put it in another Nexus 7, etc.), or replace with a battery that works.
PS. This is literally as bad as it gets in terms of how much damage you can actually do by carelessly flashing ROMs on an Android: A situation where the device really appears to be broken. Don't ask non-technical friends what they think, and resist any temptation to break it all the way. Charge the battery to 100% before flashing and you'll never have this problem again.

I purchased a new battery and charger. The battery did not work right out of the box, so my last option is charging the battery in the tablet and trying again. Otherwise I have tried everything I have found online.

Make 100% certain that you are using a good USB cable. USB cables can go from good to bad and still appear in perfect shape visually. Try a bunch of different cables, and also try with  different USB ports/charging bases.

I have a Nexus 7 which has not been charging over 20%. Today I put it in the oven at 50C for 30 mins then took it out and knocked it sharply on the bench  a few times. After 3 hours on charged now have 100% charge

I discussed this with some colleagues and we all think you're pretty brave. The most likely explanation is that some hydrogen was building up inside the battery, and the heat of the oven has put it under enough pressure to burst the battery casing, releasing the hydrogen. Your recommended fix is as likely to start a fire as it is to fix anything!

Entirely second above comment- don't ever, ever do such a thing. I am no expert but do like to read up on batteries and never heard of such a thing- not down voting because he claims it worked for him

Downvoted on second thoughts , being a very unhealthy and potentially extremely dangerous thing to do


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Why doesn't my computer list Android devices in Device Manager, or detect my Sony Xperia Play (R800)?
I have an ancient Sony Xperia Play that I am trying to root. However, I can't even get it to show up on my computer.
It's possible that I accidentally deleted my drivers by running an unroot script. However, since then I've tried the following:

enabling mass storage mode, debug mode and unknown sources on my phone;
installing Android SDK, the usb drivers, and multiple versions of abd;
removing superfluous drivers (but I can still run "Minimal ABD & Flashboot"...?) & installing Koush's adb driver.

Absolutely no option for "Android Device Bridge" (or its various aliases), nor the phone itself, shows up in the device manager when I connect the phone via USB. When I run abd devices, no devices show up. I don't really know what I'm doing, any advice as to what could be the problem?


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Replace CM13 recovery with CWM6
I am using Sony Xperia SP codename Huashan with Android 6.0.1 running cyanogenmod 13. When I flashed the custom ROM for CM13 it replaced the CWM recovery with its own CM13 recovery. How do I regain CWM recovery on my device. Will installing the CWM Recovery in fastboot mode break my CM13.
I followed the below link
http://techbeasts.com/install-cwm-6-recovery-on-xperia-sp-running-12-1-a-0-266-firmware-how-to-guide/
for installing CWM but the author says that it is only for stock ROM and now I am on custom ROM CM13. Will this procedure still work?

Will installing the CWM Recovery in fastboot mode break my CM13?

No, why would it? But before flashing your custom recovery make sure to disable the setting Update Cyanogen recovery or Update CM recovery or a similar setting under developer-options. Afterwards, flash your custom recovery the way you want. If that doesn't work, flash a custom kernel followed by your custom recovery.
A custom recovery is not limited to a particular ROM so it doesn't matter whether you're using stock ROM or not.

As a side note: several places even recommend replacing CM recovery by TWRP (e.g. for the Wileyfox Swift which ships with CyanogenOS, many of the tutorials for switching to CyanogenMod do so).

I did flash a custom recovery CWM on my CM 13 but that led to my phone not booting in so I flashed Doomlord's kernel


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Is there an internal algorithm for calculating UUIDs of a flash filesystem?
I've been doing some experimenting with a MicroSD card formatted as ExFAT and have come across something that perplexes me.
It seems that my new Android phone mounts the MicroSD card as /storage/[UUID], so for example rather than /mnt/sdcard-ext as I'm used to, it's currently /storage/0CCE-1C48.
Because that's fairly arbitrary, I thought I'd change it to something easier to remember, like 1234-DFDF (my initials in the second half).  I used tune2fs to specify a new UUID, and was able to confirm the change by opening the raw disk in a hex editor.
I actually discovered the UUID is stored at hex offset 0x100064, at least for my particular disk. And because of the Endian-ness, it's stored backwards (so 481CCE0C is parsed by the device as 0CCE-1C48).
Anyway, I was able to verify that it changed to 0xDFDF3412, as it should. I put it in my phone, turned the phone on... voila! It was now /storage/1234-DFDF.
BUT... as soon as I unmounted and remounted the card (or rebooted the phone, etc.) it changed right back to 0CCE-1C48! How can this be? I changed the UUID, replacing the original one with a new one!
This makes me wonder if there's some algorithm built into ExFAT that generates a UUID based on... anything... the partition size, the label, whatever.  The phone is obviously trying to "validate" the serial number and keeps overwriting my custom one with the arbitrary one I was given when I first formatted the disk.

And no, the volume serial ("UUID") is nothing like a checksum but merely a (pseudo)random number: https://github.com/relan/exfat/blob/0514eff761006d4b6695e67f6f3a6ebb514766f3/mkfs/main.c#L142

I have no idea how you managed to use tune2fs to change the UUID since it should only be able to manipulate ext2/3/4.
In any case, apparently exFAT have backup boot sector just like FAT(32). So my guess is you only managed to change the UUID in the primary boot sector but not the backup one. So when you unmount it the filesystem driver reverts the change according to the backup boot sector automatically.


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Gmail not working with the background data restriction
My device is YU YUREKA with android 4.4.4 and Cyanogenmod 11.0
Restriction of background data in android devices is very much in now-a-days and I always use it. But recently I am facing problem with the Gmail app. Sometimes it is not working with the data restriction even when it is not a background process.
Therefore to get my mails I have to un-check the data restriction option every time, for which other apps are consuming unwanted data.
Is there any way to make Gmail working again with the restriction?

Gmail app is used to show only the mails that is received by another core app called Google play services using synchronization that needs background data connection,When we open Gmail app then the play services app get restricted by DATA restriction.
I want to say that some app like Play Store and Gmail will not work If you have restriction on background data.
I think it will help


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Can't install apk from Package Installer
I have downloaded an apk from a site, but now I cannot install it; when I'm trying to install, it just returns me an alert / toast message with: Sorry, no application available
The Package Installer.apk is located in its default location (i.e., /system/app/Package Installer.apk)
I have tried this one time, that I installed Package Installer through Package Installer ...
I have found a solution on the web (from XDA):

Go to Settings > Application Manager > All > Package Installer.
Clear its cache, its data, force it to stop, then reboot.

But, it doesn't work (for me) ...
I have a custom recovery installed: TWRP, and of course, my phone is rooted.  Does this affect the Package Installer?
I had also tried using Third Party "App / Package Installer", but that doesn't work either (it just lets me pick apks from phone's storage,then install it through Package Installer).
PLEASE HELP!!! ☺

Are you sure that the downloaded apk really has the ".apk" file extension? Can you install other downloaded .apk files?

Yes, it has that ".apk" extension. However, I cannot install other apps / apk; but, I can, using the Play Store.  When I install an apk, it just returns me that toast message: "Sorry, no application available".

Which file manager app are you using? Have you tried a different file manager?

Sorry for the late replies.  Anyways, I think it doesn't matter about the File Manager you are using; I've used ES File Explorer, navigated to the folder where the apk is, then I installed it, but no luck; same thing happened with my stock File Manager.  I think the problem is on my stock Package Installer; if you would look at yours (Rooted phone and third-party file manager only): /system/app/Package Installer.apk is where that apk installer located.

I can't believe it actually worked for me; I just tried it and it worked. Here's the solution:

Move / Copy Package Installer.apk as well as the .odex file of Package Installer from /system/app to /sdcard or whatever folder you may want to copy the file to.
Delete the Package Installer (apk and odex) from /system/app if you've copied it.
Reverse the first step. That would be, copying the copied file and pasting it to /system/app or moving it on to /system/app.
Reboot.

Incredible! ! It worked. In my case I have to set the files permissions to 644 after copying back.

TWRP is a recovery not a ROM*
My problem was when im still on 4.4 kk and all I do was to restart. if the install button doesnt work except for cancel. But not this kind of problem that shows "No app. available"
I didnt experience the installer allows you to tap install button but fails. It means probably your storage is full or something on the system is bothering the installer. Please detail your question. IF this will bother your storage try backing up:
1-Reset Device (Factory reset)
2-Reboot
3-Clear cache
4-Clear dalvik and cache
5-Reflash ROM
If none of these work please comment it, itll research this further on XDA forums.

Oops!  My fault!  I still don't know (before) that TWRP is actually a recovery, and not a ROM.  Anywags, editing the question ...  And, that "No App Available" occured when I accidentally installed the Package Installer.apk through Package Installer itself.  That's why, it caused errors, and it showed that "No app available".

Its fine, people does mistakes. Its somehow like a Package Installer-ception, but if im gonna analyze it the package installer is probably terrorizing the original package installer (corrupts it). Ill recommend you to factory reset because it will create the original package installer and goes back to normal state.

I already solved, and found out a solution to my problem.  The Package Installer is now working fine.  See my answer!


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Process com.android.systemui has stopped
So my phone (Samsung Galaxy Avant) was working just fine until last night where I keep getting this error. I can use my phone just fine for maybe,2 minutes,but after that,it crashes. I already tried looking around for a solution,and have tried clearing the cache partition,but no luck there. A factory reset of everything is my last resort option,so want to try as much as I can first.
I can use my phone in Ultra Power Saving Mode with no issues, so it has to be a third party app during that's causing the issue. Only thing I installed yesterday was just a battery monitoring app (Go Power or something to those likes). I already tried uninstalling that and my 3rd party launcher (Nova). Still no luck.
My phone was rooted (Or at least should of been or be) using the Kingo Root program. I did also uninstall that as well, so am not 100% certain if that is also the cause. Cant seem to reinstall it as the installation hangs and then the UI crashes. Also,did uninstall some stock apps I had no need for,but that was a long tome ago.I feel that it should continue to install,even without the UI,and have given it a few minutes,but when I restarted my phone to check,nothing. Maybe I didnt give it enough time or it just didnt install. Cant get into safe mode either (The method using Power Button and Volume Up),as all I get is a prompt for a custom OS installation with Odin,nor does it show up when I long press the power button.
EDIT: Also have tried resetting all App Preferences and also Uninstalling Malewarebytes which I just remembered I reinstalled yesterday too. I did last month also get the charger port replaced,or rather,the entire motherboard,but doubt that is the issue.
EDIT2: Found out I was getting to safe mode wrong. Still crashed.

Power+VolUp isn't safe-mode (follow the link for details) but bootloader. Though I never used it, I've read several times that people who uninstalled Kongoroot experienced instabilities. To me it looks like even a factory-reset might not fully solve your issue; depending on what chaos kingo left, you might need to flash a clean ROM, e.g. via odin.

I think I figured it out. It was that Kingo Superuser app that was causing  it. Was trying to think what else could it be and noticed it was still around. Disabled it and now everything is normal so far.


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Nexus 4 stuck in boot loop
Yesterday some guy has changed my 3.5 mm jack in nexus 4. Old one was broken. After that I could not turned on my phone. I saw infinite boot. I had android 5 in that time.
Today I install android 4.2.2 (JDQ39) with help fastboot. Nexus 4 has booted now. But there is one problem. If I am updating nexus to android 4.4 or android 5, I see infinite boot again.
Also I tried to install CyanogenMod 13. The problem is same.
How to update my phone to android 5 or cm 13?

It seems, that the problem is bad position of rubber gasket in proximity sensor.
https://youtu.be/AZDAIgwbXk4?t=8m22s


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Missing 2G only on my Galaxy s4 I9505 on lollipop
I have a problem with receiving calls and text messages due to a weak 3G signal, now I want to make my phone and force it to work on the 2G mode only, but since I am on lollipop 5.0.1 I don't have this as a choice. I tried using this code: #*#*4636#*#* but it doesn't work with me. I also tried a few apps from the play store (e.g. Toggle Network Type 5.0 which was specifically made for Lollipop) but nothing works.
My phone is rooted.

On my 5.1.1 device I have it in Settings › Network › Mobile networks › Preferred network type, on my 4.4 device as well. There I can select between "LTE/3G/2G". I'd wonder why 5.0 shouldn't have that setting. Guess it's rather some Sammy-specific issue.

This widget has nothing to do with my problem, I tried it yesterday. Even though thanks a lot for your effort

Some Samsung devices require root access to launch the hidden testing menu. The normal code will not work in the dialer; even with ADB, you don't have access to the menu.
Since you have root access, just type the following in a terminal on your phone and the hidden testing menu should appear:
su -c "am start -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.TestingSettings"

It may be easier through my app Root Essentials that can do this and more. You can find that test menu under "Device Info".

That exactly what I needed, the application does the job, thanks a lot

The right code is *#*#4636#*#*. If this doesn't work then try to use an app from play store. It is called Phone Info Samsung. Another possible solution to your problem is described in this link, but it depends on the file structure of your OS.

@Mohdows did you pay attention to the order the asterisks and hashes appear? If so (and your input started with an * and not a #), what happens when you dial this code?

@Izzy yes I did pay attention to the order; and I did even try other combinations to make sure that I am using the correct code, and for you information nothing happened when I dial the code.

@Mohdows OK – this time your details where clear as glass :)

@andreas I've tried the application you mentioned above, but it doesn't give me anything useful.

Try it with the App called Radio Switcher. This works on my Blackberry Keyone

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


text:
Is it possible to "share" google photo shared albums without making it public for everyone?
Shared Albums in Google Photos seem like a good idea. For example, if me and my friends all go to the same party, I can create a shared album with them and suddenly, they can see my photos of the event too.
However, it seems the only security for who can view a shared album is in knowing the URL. Is it possible to specify exactly who can view my shared albums? Something similar to google docs, where you can grant access to certain users only.

Unfortunately, this does not seem possible with the current version of Google Photos.
I recommend you suggest a feature by:

Opening the google Photos app or going to photos.google.com
At the top left, touch or click the menu icon > Help & Feedback (or Send Feedback)
Touch or click Feedback.

Source: How to get feature requests/feedback to the Google Photos team


text:
How can I disable (only) the rear facing camera?
I have a Droid Maxx running Android 4.4, but the rear facing camera has a problem. I tried replacing it once, and it worked for a few minutes, but went bad again. The front facing camera works fine.
Because all the apps tend to default to the rear facing camera, I end up not being able to use the camera at all. (The rear camera just freezes the app when it is activated.) It would be really nice to be able to use the front camera, since that one still works fine. (If I can find a way to activate it before the rear camera locks up the app.)
I found several apps on Google Play that will disable all the cameras, but I didn't see any that let you disable just the rear camera while keeping the front active. Is there an app or a setting that would allow me to do this?
The phone is using the stock Verizon bootloader and is not rooted. Thanks in advance for any tips in this regard!! I love the phone, I just miss the camera.

I'd check for "selfie cameras". Being specialized on selfies, those should start with the front camera enabled – at least I'd expect that. Not tested though :)

@Izzy - Good thought... I will have to check into that.  :-)

Good luck – and don't forget to let us know the outcome then :) Oh: and careful to not pick a "spy cam" that reports back somewhere else before you're ready #D


text:
Storage problem?
I'm having a weird issue. I'm using a Sony Xperia Z1s running lollipop. I noticed a few days ago that Spotify was giving me a notification that says "No Storage Area Found. Check the device storage settings." This error of sorts prevents Spotify from being used at all. I cleared the cache, data, and even Uninstalled spotify. I thought nothing of it, until I also noticed I can't take pictures. Technically, I can take photos, but they don't save. And, yes, I still have plenty of space on my SD card and internal space.

The screen shots are of the spotify notification and the storage space on my phone (click images for larger variants)
I ran mount in Terminal Emulator for Android and got this:
u0_a307@C6916:/ $ mount
rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,seclabel,nosuid,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=600 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,seclabel,relatime 0 0
selinuxfs /sys/fs/selinux selinuxfs rw,relatime 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=750,gid=1000 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,seclabel,nosuid,relatime,mode=755 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,seclabel,relatime,discard,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,relatime,discard,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,relatime,discard,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/apps_log /mnt/idd ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,discard,nobarrier,data=ordered 0 0
tmpfs /storage/remote tmpfs rw,seclabel,relatime,size=1024k,nr_inodes=256,mode=750,gid=1028 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/LTALabel /lta-label ext4 ro,context=u:object_r:lta_label:s0,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/shell/emulated fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other,allow_utime_grp 0 0
tmpfs /storage/emulated tmpfs rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=751,gid=1028 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:65 /mnt/media_rw/sdcard1 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,fmask=0007,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:65 /mnt/secure/asec vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,fmask=0007,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/fuse /storage/sdcard1 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other,allow_utime_grp 0 0
/dev/fuse /storage/emulated/0 fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other,allow_utime_grp 0 0
/dev/fuse /storage/emulated/legacy fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other,allow_utime_grp 0 0
u0_a307@C6916:/ $

Couldn't know that – but the screenshots seem clear enough. The 3rd irritates with that warning indeed. The icon next to "No Storage Area Found" belongs to Spotify? As I don't use that app: can you configure a "storage area" in there? But that wouldn't explain why you can't take pictures. What error messages are you getting if you try that? Or if you try to write a file with any other app?

I didn't need to set a partition within the app, or anything like that. Yesterday, when I took a picture, it took 2 mins to load and then gave me a couldn't save pop-up. Now, nothing happens at all aside from the shutter effect. The weird part is that it will let me take screenshots.

OK, that rules out a read-only storage which I thought might be the cause. Can you still install apps from Playstore? Try e.g. Terminal Emulator. Start it, type mount and hit enter. Add the output to your post. That will show us how your storage is attached to the system, and if maybe parts are read-only that shouldn't be.

Looks like all my phone needed was a restart. I did just that, and the problem seems to be fixed. Which is strange, considering I have restarted my phone before and the problem didn't get fixed.

Explanation in my answer below. Glad it solved for you as easy as that!

As I guessed (and was proven by the output of the mount command), parts of the file system were mounted read-only – specifically the internal and external SD cards. Take a look at the lines with vold/179:65 entries ("vold" is used for the SD cards only), I'm picking one for example:
/dev/block/vold/179:65 /mnt/media_rw/sdcard1 vfat ro,[…],errors=remount-ro[…]

The syntax here (simplified) is: <device> <mount-point> <file-system> <options>. So we see we have a "vold block device" (an SD card that is) mounted as sdcard1 (the external one; the internal usually is sdcard0) using VFAT as file system. Now come the options, and the first we see is ro which stands for "read-only". Same applies to the internal card. Being read-only, nothing can be written here – hence your problems.
How can that happen? you might ask – so let me point to the option at the end: errors=remount-ro. Initially, both cards were mounted in read-write mode. Something caused trouble, and the system had "too many errors" when reading/writing to the cards – so this condition was triggered: to protect the cards against damage, Android remounted them read-only. Which also explains why a reboot solved the issue: at boot time, after a check of the file systems, they again are mounted read-write – until some issues/errors trigger the read-only remount again.
So what should you do? For now, the reboot seems to have solved the issue. If it doesn't reappear, I'd say there's nothing else here you should be worried about. Same if it pops up once or twice a year: shut down the device, leave it down for a few minutes to be on the safe side ("cool down" of the system :), boot up again, relax. But if it happens frequently, there might be some issues with the controller1 – something you cannot fix yourself. I'd contact service then with a detailed description (e.g. include a link to your question here).

1: Why do I suspect a problem with the controller – and not with the card? Because IMHO it's pretty much unlikely that two independent storages have the same issue at the same time. As pointed out, both SD cards were suddenly remounted read-only: one is the physical external card in the slot, the other located on the built-in storage. OTOH, it could also be some bug in vold, as only the SD cards are affected – and the very same controller dealing with the internal SD card must deal with the other parts of your internal storage as well, which was not affected. But then again, that's hardly anything you can solve; the manufacturer must provide a bugfix (system update) then.
And PS: don't let the line /dev/fuse /storage/sdcard1 fuse rw,[…] confuse you – which suggests the "partition located at /storage/sdcard1" is mounted read-write. That's only the "FUSE overlay" on top of it. So this file system is declared read-write – but the underlying one still is read-only. Which would mean the "on-top FUSE file system" would accept write commands – but couldn't commit them to the card then as the underlying system is read-only.


text:
How to force apps to use default notification sound or vibration?
Every other app has its own notification sound or vibration. Some apps have unpleasant notifications sounds or vibrations so long I think I'm receiving a call.
I like my life simple: I want all apps to use the default notification sound and vibration I selected in my system settings.
If apps all are made to use the same notification bar for visual notifications, there is very probably a way to make them all user the same sound too.
How can I do that?
Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Android 4.4.2
Tried MacroDroid to no avail:

Tried xnotification also, but nada

I also tried Purify (which comes with King Root which is needed to install xnotification Purify Notification captures all notifications but I can't have it produce a notification sound for itself. Even with a macro.

Tried and macro app doesn't override app native notification sound.

Any notification > vibrate. That doesn't override the sound of notifications and it randomly vibrates such as when I send a char message on line or switch apps.

Trigger: Notification → Notification Received → From Any Application →Text content (any) Action Notification Sound → Select Sound Long press on above action and select Add Constraints → Notification Volume → Volume on Constraints: None. Please try this

Tried but nothing.

Is the Android rooted? If yes, XNotifications can help you out.

Okay. Not rooted.

Please go to the main app panel > settings> system log and see if the macro name appears in the log. It should appear at the time notification arrived. If it doesn't show up, it means macro is not invoked , which calls for a double check on app settings

@firelord I rooted, installed xposed, installed xnotification and set up a notification filter but still I get the same stuff: all apps have their own notification sounds or vibrations.

Please check MacroDroid is not "greenified" and Enable MacroDroid in accessibility settings and also allow it as device administrator in security settings.

@Benjamin Did you enable the Xposed module of Xnotifications after installing it and rebooted the device?  Can you please share screenshots of the notification filter you've setup?

Yes. Enabled. Rebooted.

I have the same problem. In South East Asia we use LINE messenger, which uses a very annoying notification bell sound, which you can only change to 3 other in-app sounds. I am rooted and I even tried to modify the sound file inside the APK and reinstall the offending app. Modifying APKs will make their signature not match, which is a problem if they have server side checks. I found no solution so far.


text:
Use mobile internet though connected to WLAN
On  an Linux based system I created a WLAN Hotspot. I want to provide a single webpage via a webserver on this system. When I connect my Android devices to it they expect to get internet over this connection. But since the Linux host is offline the Android devices are able to see only the webpage and can't reach the internet any longer. I don't want the connected Smartphones to lose their normal connectivity.
Is it technically possible (for example by using any special WLAN settings or Hotspot configuration) to tell Android devices anyhow to use the WLAN connection only for accessing the single hosted webpage and to use their own mobile Internet (cell net) for any other internet access?
This question implies the question if it is possible to use mobile internet via cell network while beeing  connected to a WLAN network on Android devices.
The Linux system currently is a Ubuntu Desktop machine and will be a Raspbian (Debian) on a Pi later on.

AFAIK, mobile data and WLAN cannot be simultaneously connected - except for a few (Samsung?) devices with what they call Download Booster or some such. It pools active connections into one connection? I suppose it's a hardware limitation in other devices and requires special modem/radio tech. It's not at the level of hotspot settings :P

The solution was to let the Android device create a tethering Hotspot and make the PC/Pi connect to it instead. Then the Android device is able to connected to the Webserver on the PC/Pi while still beeing able to talk to the internet. Additionally the PC/Pi is able, too.


text:
Dial between two emulators does not work
Today, I had installed the latest Android SDK and created two emulators (Nexus 6), I then tried to dial from one emulator to another.
Based on Make incoming call in Android emulator without command code,
I just dial 5556 from the emulator of 5554.
But there is no receiving call in emulator-5554.
The name of the second emulator is emulator-5556 so I guess that it is correct to just dial 5556, right?
I tried to reinstall SDK, but it still the same.
Is there any idea what's wrong ?


text:
Storing things on the SD card
I have successfully moved the Facebook app like 10 times from device storage to SD card (and the same is true for some other apps), but a few days later I try to install something and I get "insufficient storage".  When I look, Facebook is back in the device storage not the SD card (same with some other apps).  Any idea what is happening?  Most apps I moved stayed there, but some mysteriously move back.

This is common when you have automatic updated turned on, or the app set to auto update... When the update installs it places it in the default installation location, typically internal storage, and deletes it from the SD card.

And I reckon we can't change that?

@Tony I reckon you can change the update settings, both globally and per app. On some devices you can change the default installation location and not on others, it is usually in storage or app settings, but you never said what device.

I think I have to type a lot of words before I can answer so I apologize for the long sentence.  It is a Galaxy S4


text:
Restoring SMS database in Marshmallow
My SMS database has gotten very large (45k+ messages) and as such, backing up and restoring it with SMS Backup & Restore literally takes hours. Years ago, I used to just copy/restore the mmssms.db file whenever I changed ROMs.
I just tried it on my Nexus 6P on Marshmellow, but Textra/Messaging refuses to read the messages in the database file. I tried changing the permissions to 660 and the owner/group to radio/radio, but Google Play Services stops responding when I open Messaging. None of the messages appear.
Is there something I'm missing here?


text:
Input field text is white on white in some apps on OnePlus One
After upgrading to Android 6 on an unrooted OnePlus One, some apps (eg. Aqua Mail, aCalendar) have their input fields nearly white text on white background.
How can I change the color?

Changing to another theme in settings -> themes did the trick

Please expand this answer by including some more details, like what steps do we need to change the theme, or whether it's on a single app, or whole system, etc.

I have an un-rooted android oneplus one and I recently upgraded to 6.0.1
I did not see any such problem in my phone. You can try following and see if it works:

Try restarting the phone
Try selecting a dark theme
Make sure that your Cyanogen OS version is updated too (mine is 13.0)

Let me know if it works :)


text:
How to download a file directly from a cloud service to an attached USB drive?
I need to download a video file (700MB) from the cloud service Bitcasa to a USB flash drive but right now when I click "Download" in Bitcasa my only options are to download to the my S6 phone & then copy it to my USB key. Is there a shorter way? I can't seem to find a way to download directly on to the flash drive...is there a way?

An OTG cable would be a way to do it.

What is the difference? My USB is plugged in to the micro phone port already! Why does using a cable instead help?

It wasn't clear you wanted that. I take it you've been able to transfer files in that way in the past?

First time using a micro drive!

I just don't get why I can't choose the USB to download to instead of some random internal storage folder. Why is the cloud service restricting that? Any way to override this?

What file structure has it been formatted with? NTFS? FAT32?

The USB? How do I find out? Bought a 64GB Kingston one.

A movie I loaded on the USB plays fine from the USB to on my MX Player on my phone...so does it have to be formatted? What is the purpose of formatting?

FAT32 is the size that fits all and generally advised for best compatibility.
"Your USB drive should ideally be formatted with the FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. Some Android devices may also support the exFAT file system. No Android devices will support Microsoft’s NTFS file system, unfortunately."

But how do I know what formatting my drive has?  I'm doing all this on my phone. Not using a computer.

Hopefully this should answer some questions.


text:
How can I batch update specific apps?
I'm using a rooted Galaxy S5 with Lollipop. I want to update several apps over the Play store at once, but not all of them. Even if I have to use another app to do so, that's okay.

That can be done using AppBrain App Market, an alternative frontend to the Google Play Store. This app a.o. lets you …

exclude apps from updates permanently
skip specific updates (and only be notified when the next update comes)

This way you can exclude stuff from the "batch update" and just have it performed for everything else. You still can update single apps manually. Hint: When using this app, you should disable update notifications from the Google Play Store app, or you'll get notified twice :)
If you like this approach and continue using Appbrain, a suggested additional install would be AppBrain Ad Detector, which integrates here – so you know what to expect before you install an app :)


text:
Camera partial crash in CM13
I am running CM13 Android 6.0 on Xperia SP(codename huashan). After upgrading to CM13, I am unable to capture images using the camera. When I open up the camera app and click an image it gets stuck and no further operations are not possible. Also the captured image never gets saved even if the save location is SD card or device memory. Is there any way to fix this or is this a known bug with CM13 for my device.
I have tried other camera apps as well but that did not solve the issue

We can't really help fixing nightly/alpha build ROM (and it's off-topic as per nightly build ROM policy), report it to the developer, or wait until it's been fixed.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's related to alpha build of custom ROM, which is never be intended for daily purpose.

Link to the xda page for this version
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-sp/orig-development/6-0-cyanogenmod-13-0-t3238355


text:
Warning!! A custom OS can cause critical problems
I was trying to reboot my Samsung galaxy tab 2 gt p 3100, screen showing massage Warning!! A custom OS can cause critical problems. asking whether you want to download OS or not. so i try to download pushing sound up button then after tab screen showing logo of android downloading. do not turn off target!! for about 15 minutes more. what should i do.  Please help.

Start the counterpart on your PC to download the ROM you wanted to install? It doesn't fall out of the skies :) // Seriously: You're porblably unaware of what you did, and entered "download mode" instead of starting your device normally. For some background on what that's for, see e.g. our odin tag-wiki.

Just reboot it, this time without holding a volume button.  Download Mode does nothing unless the device is hooked up to a PC running Odin.


text:
Where are the battery capacity files located?
Background
My current device Huawei Honor 6 comes with a 3100 mAh battery. I was therefore surprised to see 3C Toolbox Pro report the capacity as 4000 mAh.
I mailed the developer of the app and his reply was on these lines

In Android, one can get the stock hard-coded battery capacity from battery profiles, an hidden API in Android. That’s the one of the 2 sources the app uses.
The other source is in the kernel, usually under /sys/devices/power_supply/battery/charge_full_design

( To know the path on your device, from 3C Toolbox, tap request support from Help and support menu. An email will be generated to the developer having information about your device, including battery_info.txt. This file amongst other things specifies the path of second source )
So, the battery capacity and state of battery as reported in percentage depends on from which of these two sources it is being read and the two sources could hold different values (In my case, it was the stock ROM shipped with wrong capacity in the battery profiles)
This explanation fits in well with battery capacity being  reported differently by apps as also mismatched battery readings using an extended battery (Note: These two questions are of '14 vintage and based on the location of battery files as mentioned, I have answered)
Question
I have been scouring the net, various forums, Android Developers etc to get an authoritative source for this rather than a mail communication. This would help me understand better and also answer such questions with a good reference
Can someone point to an authoritative source that supports or offers an alternative explanation ?
Edit: I am looking for generic information , not specific to my device

I think the answer in the email is legit, here's why:
All of the following information is based on the Google Nexus 5, but the general procedure should apply for all Android phones.
The mail describes two possible sources for an app developer to get the information on how high the battery charge is on full capcity:

Reading from the sysfs file in the Android file system (/sys/devices/power_supply/battery/charge_full_design).
Using the Android private API. Private in this case means that only system apps (from Google) have access to this information. But an app developer can use a few tricks (described here) to get access to this information too.

Both of these methods have their own source for the "charge at full capacity" value.
1.: In the Nexus 5 this file is created by the driver responsible for handling the chip (Maxim MAX17048) which measures the remaining capcity on the battery. The source code of this driver can be found here. The driver uses additional files to get device specific information. This information is fixed and usually provided by the smartphone manufacturer. The file used for the driver in the Nexus 5 also contains a value called fcc-mah. You will get the content of this value if you read from the /sys/devices/power_supply/battery/charge_full_design file in the Nexus 5.
2.: Another way is provided by the private Android API. This API uses power profiles to know how much energy every component approximately consumes. The Google documentation says:

Device manufacturers must provide a component power profile that defines the current consumption value for the component and the approximate battery drain caused by the component over time. This profile is defined in platform/frameworks/base/core/res/res/xml/power_profile.xml. For guidance on these settings, see Power Values.

The power_profile.xml also holds a value called battery.capacity which can be read via the API. This value also holds the maximum capacity of the battery.
To get the power_profile.xml for your device, do the following:

Use ADB to get the the framework-res.apk: adb pull /system/framework/framework-res.apk
Follow these instructions to get a readable version of power_profile.xml
Path to the extracted file is: framework-res/res/xml/power_profile.xml

So depending on how a developer chooses to get the "charge at full capacity" value, he may get different results. Especially when I look at the driver file for the Huawei Honor 6, one can see that there are different values depending on the used battery type.
One could assume that a lazy manufacturer does not update the files in the driver or the power profile appropriately for the used battery, which in return causes the different values.
Form a developers perspective the second method is more attractive and easier to implement (again, see this answer). The first method needs access to the Android file system and root privileges.

I updated my answer. I think you need to get your power_profile.xml for further information

Ok I'll try to rephrase my answer. To your comments: a) As I sayed, I will try to rephrase my answer but I think at some point you have to sort of trust me :-) b) Thats ok c) That should be doable d) I wrote 'think' because it is difficult to exactly know how they did it, their could be different ways. I describe one (very likely) possibilty e)? rephrasing my answer should help to clarify that :-)

can you please join me here

@beeshyams Ok, I have basically created a new answer. What do you think?


text:
How to color status bar and navigation bar
I really like that my status bar and navigation bar have the same colour with a running software without rooting, because I don't like black navigation bar, is there any way? If it's impossible without rooting, how about through accessibility service?
My smartphone: Huawei Ascend G7- L11
Please reply
Yours truly

As far as I can remember, there's an app that can change status bar color without root (from Settings->Accessibility permission), but I don't think you can change nav bar's color without rooting.

Tanks for your answer, what is its name

You can use this app to set the color of status bar through Accessibility Service :Color Status Bar
(Note: This app runs in background to enable the color.
And, this app will work only on devices running Android 5 or above..)
But to change the color of navigation bar, you need root access.
If your device is rooted, do the following to change navbar color:

Install Xposed Framework and Xposed Installer app.
Install "GravityBox" module (varies for different Android versions) and reboot.
Open GravityBox app, goto Navigation Bar Tweaks
Under Colors section, Enable Navbar Colors and set your desired color.

Thanks a lot but my android version is 4.4.4 Kitkat, is there any ship like that or ifs there any other way

Oh, is your phone rooted? Only then it's possible


text:
Keyboard emoji not available in some apps
Google updated their keyboard app yesterday, a few welcome tweaks, but something seems to have broken for me.
In some apps that are badly built, I've no longer got access to emojis. If I long press the enter key, I should be presented with 3 (teal circle) options here above the enter key - instead I see only two. Emojis are missing.
They're in the bottom left key section I hear you cry! Nope, these are just plain text smileys, full image emojis are nowhere to be seen in this case.

Most other apps I've used do indeed appear to work properly and have the full functionality present.
It's worth noting that the emojis in the app I'm seeing this did work before the update.
Is there anyway to fix this, like forcing the same layout for any app?
And no, I don't want to download another keyboard, I really like the Google stock keyboard, this is it's only flaw right now.

Why don't you search for a previous version of the same keyboard?

I was hoping there would be some setting to override this behaviour. The new update apart from this, is quite nice.


text:
Generate all gallery thumbnails 'at one time', not 'on demand'
Context:
Hello, I am an amateur photographer and I recently moved from an old iPad to a Galaxy Tab S 10.5 with custom rom, Android 6.
On the iPad the thumbnails were created while importing photos from iTunes, and even at the first time I opened the gallery everything was there.
Now I just copy a Photo folder into the root of my microSD card and I use QuickPic Gallery (but any other gallery is the same) to view the photos. I have 2-3k pictures and every time I open a gallery for the first time i see only black squares and they slowly appear, same story when I open a photo full-screen.
Short story:
Pictures that I copy into the microSD card have no thumbnails.
I don't want to wait for the creation on-the-fly when I open a folder or manually open everything after copying so the next time will be cached!
How can I trigger the creation of all necessary thumbnails just after I copied my photos?
Thanks

How are you copying the files onto the SD card? Through MTP (on a USB connection to your PC), or by taking the SD card out, or something else?

I take the SD card out, and copy a 'photos' folder into the root of the SD. Inside the photos folder there are other 2 leves, like: F:\photos\2015\France\0001.jpg


text:
Does using Android Instant Apps count as installation on Play store?
As I saw yesterday, Google I/O 2016 Keynotes with an awesome release of many new features.
One of the best feature which I like most as an Android Developer that is Android Instant Apps.

The new Android Instant apps lets you access apps from anywhere without installing. It will let you run Android apps as seamlessly as loading a web page. And, it is compatible all the way back to Jelly Bean.

I have a question in my mind that, if it will be accessed without installing then will it be counted as installation on Play Store? And if it won't, then what is the meaning to use it from the developer side. What will be the benefit to the developer?
P.S. I don't oppose this feature, just want to know how it will work.

I think don't count and all functionality won't be work by this way. this my opinion. Rest Wait and Watch.

I guess it will not count installation, as its just loading single page of out application, if user likes it they can install it and then count will be increased in play store.

I guess it will be similar to app streaming from Google Search

@AndrewT. Yeah may be.

Quoting from XDA (emphasis supplied)

Android Instant Apps is an evolution to the way Android has done applications traditionally. Rather than downloading a full-blown application, Instant Apps allows users to “stream” apps to try it out (in reality, it’s a partial code download), without going through the hassle of downloading and installing it

So, if it is a partial download for users to try it out, it logically won't count as installation

If Play store will not count then what is the meaning to use it from developer side. What will be benefit to the developer?

This allows app developers to reach out to an even wider audience, as they can now project a native Android app experience to the end user with something as simple as a URL: click and you’re in the app
What makes Instant Apps good for the developer outside of the increase in app range is that they don’t need to build a whole different app. Devs do need to update their existing Android apps in order to get the advantage of the Instant Apps functionality....
Android Instant Apps extends all the way back to Android Jellybean, so you aren’t restricted to only a handful of users on the latest Android version.

From a developer perspective, I suppose that Firebase Analytics also announced yesterday, will be integrated with this. Other features of Firebase Analytics:

Instead of focusing on page views, impressions or sessions, developers can see what users are doing inside the app, how paid advertising campaigns are performing with cross-network attribution and where users are coming from
Defining audiences
Better crash reporting
Notifications and Dynamic Links to to help developers grow and re-engage app user bases
Storage- Google’s cloud-to-device push messaging service Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is being integrated into Firebase’ s backend and has been renamed as Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
Monetization- AdMob has been integrated into Firebase

Just like portable apps on windows ;D

Thank you. I am not a developer. I was keenly following conference and happened to see this question

This is ridiculous. Where are all the negative comments about this "evolution"? This truly makes me sad. Operating system catering to Malware and Viruses. Instead of user security and stability/reliability. To some degree Windows has been doing this for a long time, obscuring software's installation/file and system access/launch points etc. But this... it's truly a giant leap forward.

Streaming content has been there from day one. Games can introduce additional levels etc. Streaming code is another word for unauthorized updates and installation.

Play store will count Installation or not

Definitely won't be count an installation.

If Play store will not count then what is the meaning to use it from
  developer side. What will be benefit to the developer?

The key behind Android Instant Apps is that devs won’t have to go back and create a separate version of their app to make this work. All that’s required is a simple update to their current application — about a day’s worth of work in all, says Ficus Kirkpatrick, Engineering Director for Instant Apps
Google to make sure majority of Android users get access to the Instant Apps feature has made it compatible with Android Jelly Bean OS and later versions. This way the Android Instant Apps will reach over a billion users.


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Hiragana keyboard on Telephone Huawei P8 Lite
I have a problem and can not find the solutionn by myself.
I want to keep the language I have on my telephone, BUT would like to have an extra language only on my keyboard. Japanese language (Hiragana)
I wold like to switch easily etween these languages. Now I use English as an extra language, but Japanese is not listed on the Huawei P8 Lite.
Who can help me out, please?
Kind regards

Are you open to alternative keyboard, such as Google Keyboard and Google Japanese IME? I don't know if it will work on your device though, but on my Nexus 5 running Android 6.0.1, there's a shortcut on the keyboard to switch the language input. Otherwise, just use Google Japanese IME as the main keyboard, as it also include romaji (alphabet) input.

Thank you for your quick reply. It is not a problem to install an app, but I avoid installing ones who ask information  and access to photo's and such things, also in-app. I have seen google Japanese language including writing in signs (yay!), but the problem is they want access to pictures and so. This is why I did not install. WHen you find me a better option, I am happy! Thank you!

Which Android version is running on your device? If it's Android 6+, you could revoke those unwanted permissions with the integrated permission manager. With 4.3+ that could be done using AppOps as well, there are AppOps FrontEnds available.


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Nexus 5 unable to reflash
I have a nexus 5 which has ubuntu touch on it. The OS is broken and won't boot. I am trying to flash CyanogenMod to it, i've hooked it up to my ubuntu server, and am following this: https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_hammerhead
However when i get to the point of adb push to get the firmware onto the phones local storage i get:
error: device unauthorized.
This adb server's $ADB_VENDOR_KEYS is not set
And on adb devices it says unauthorised. Since i have no booting OS on this phone, how can i get around this shit so i might complete my flashing process?
I've installed the Cyanogenmod recovery environment successfully and am able to boot into this.

Download TWRP for your N5 and use the Fastboot install method described there. Boot into TWRP. You should have a working ADB available then.

Issues like this this are often corrected by returning to a "known good configuration" before processing additional changes.
I would suggest returning to the current official Google firmware via fastboot, then verify the device is booting and operating properly, then you can flash custom recovery and install a third party ROM such as CyanogenMod.
Instructions and factory images with flashing scripts are available directly from Google at their Factory Images for Nexus Devices page.

I ran the flash_all.sh script from that google link and it just hung (fastboot on phone just showed downloading...) and now anytime i run a fastboot command other than devices, it just hangs forever. Any idea what could be causing this? It does show up on devices, and shows itself as unlocked on the phone with secureboot on.

@user3407675 Since you said your running the sh script,  I assume Linux... Are you running it with root permissions as su?

Yeah, i've logged into the box as root. I found if i do oem lock then unlock it did something useful. I guess it formatted a corrupted or incomplete image which was flashed, as now this has brought it back to working android. Thanks, i'll mark it as solution.


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YouTube app comments
I've got the YouTube Android app. Several videos endwith the youtuber asking to leave comments below. Where is this? All I see is an expand arrow, a like button, a dislike button, a share button, and a subscribe button. Thanks.

Scroll down, below the suggested videos are the comments.

Thanks, I thought that was an infinite list. Is there also a way to send a private comment rather than a public comment? P.S. You may want to make your post an answer rather than a comment.

comments section, has been made a pop-up instead of a permanent part of the UI, now has an icon alongside the 'like' and 'dislike' functions.

Scroll down to find the comment field. Your comment will be public.


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Deleted play store accidently form my rooted Sony Xperia C2305 using lucky patcher
I've already read the answer of this similar question here but in the first answer in step-6 it is not asking for replace the application because I've deleted it from my phone and it is not disabled. And the second Answer is for non-rooted devices. So this is not duplicate of that question.
I've also tried to factory reset my device but it is not working.
I've also tried to download play store from the browser. But when I installed it and tried to update it, it shows Google Play Store Stopped Unfortunately.
When I try to open apps like YouTube, It shows the message YouTube relays on Google Play Services, Which is not supported by your device. Contact the manufacturer for assistance.
How can I install it again? Is there any solution for this? My device is SONY XPERIA C 2305, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

Providing that you have a custom recovery, visit opengapps.org and find the appropriate GApps package for your Android version (if any). Then, flash it from recovery.

If you are running a custom ROM, you will need to re-flash it along with the corresponding GApps package.
If your phone is unmodified stock (beyond rooting) you will need to re-flash the original phone firmware as described in this guide, and optionally re-root it.
Quote of the guide from the above mentioned post:

*Download wmshua
  *Download ftf file of 16.0.B.2.13 or ftf file of 16.0.B.2.16(preferred)  (these files are specifically for Sony Xperia C C2305), If you have any other deivce, download their firmware files.
  *Install Sony PC Companion
  *Switch Off your mobile phone and get the Original USB Cable pf your device
  *Open Wmshua and then Connect your device to PC pressing the Volume Down Key
  *As Soon as connected Wmshua will install device drivers (taking about a minute), then go to "Flash" option and select the ftf file from
  there. And click on Start. It will take about 10 minutes or maybe more
  to flash the file. Wait Till It Completes.
  *Now your device is ready on 16.0.B.2.13 or 16.0.B.2.16 whichever you selected


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How to provision an Android phone automatically?
tl;dr: How can I write a short declarative description of the state I want my phone to be in, and then apply it to a phone?
After a factory reset or hardware change it's always a pain to get my phone back to a usable state. At the same time I don't trust any random third party service to store my settings:

I don't have fine grained control over what they actually store. They may sell or leak that information without my knowledge or consent.
They may be incompatible with future hardware/software, and I won't know until I try to restore.
They may be incompatible with my configuration (try updating Android after rooting your phone, for example).
They may at any time be shut down.
I'll bet none of them allow me to retrieve the data in such a way that I can migrate to another service.

Setting up this sort of thing for your own PC requires very little technical skill and a little time - I've already set up a repository to provision my own desktop and laptop. However, I've no idea how to do something similar on Android. I can't see any mention of a Puppet client, and I don't know if it's possible to provision a device in any sensible way without installing a custom kernel or rooting it.

I think the best you can do is manually using adb backup.  http://android.stackexchange.com/q/69567/1465

@MatthewRead I wouldn't do a full backup (single file) – and even if, I'm not sure that really covers everything. Like the OP, I want to have control and know what's in there. On the same road and coming close (but not close enough yet) is what I created Adebar for. But AFAIK ADB backups (even if full) miss parts like SMS and some other stuff. If the device is rooted, Xposed, and BackupAllApps module active one gets quite a lot, but not all.


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Message: Unfortunately Google Play Store has stopped
The problem is happening on a very old HTC Sensation running Android 4.0.3, and all the help found online refers to more modern versions.
In Apps -> Google Play Store, I forced stop, cleared data and cache, rebooted but it didn't cure the problem. I also performed a factory reset without success.
Someone in the Google Play Help Forum advised me to call the Play support team which I did.  They sent me an email, I followed the procedure but it didn't fix anything. They told me to contact HTC if the bug still persisted, which I did a while ago but no reply, so far.

I have solved this problem and I am posting the solution here in case someone else would have the same problem.
I downloaded, installed and ran Lucky Patcher apk file V6.4, for Android 4.0.3, 4.0.4 from here and it did the trick.

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


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Can not change outgoing email server
I recently upgraded to android 6 on my Galaxy S6, now I noticed that I cannot send emails from one of my email accounts. It's an imap server, and I need to use another subdomain than the incoming uses for outgoing emails. They are the same now, hence the error, but any changes I attempt are completely and silently ignored.
It seems to accept my changes, but when I go back into the settings again, the same old wrong server settings for outgoing emails glares me right in the face like I've done nothing.
What kind of black magic is this?

I could not resolve this, so I removed the email account and added it again with the correct credentials. Then it worked.


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Exporting Chrome bookmarks from Android to PC to import to IE11
Here's the scenario.
I have a Google Nexus 6 with build MOB30D and Android version 6.0.1. I am at work with a desktop PC that only uses Internet Explorer 11. Therefore, I cannot access my Google Chrome bookmarks using Google Chrome brower.
To resolve this, I would like to export my Google Chrome bookmarks from my Google Nexus 6 to an .html file. I would like to e-mail the .html file to my GMail e-mail account, and then I would like to download the .html file from my GMail e-mail account to my work desktop PC. I would then like to import the .html file to my Internet Explorer 11 bookmarks so that I can have access to the same bookmarks that I had on Google Chrome.
When I exported my Chrome bookmarks at home last night to a CD, it was in an .html file, as seen below. And, IE 11 has never had an issue before when I imported bookmarks from an .html file, so I know its a patent file type to import bookmarks to IE 11.

I see no way to export bookmarks from my Android phone. Any solutions?
P.S. My phone is rooted.
FYI: I did export Google Chrome bookmarks to .html file and save to a CD at home which I brought to work, but when I imported the bookmarks from CD to IE 11 on my work PC, it turns out that it did not import them all, for some bizarre reason. Hence my current predicament. I'm not sure if the fault occurred when I initially exported Chrome bookmarks to the CD, or if it occurred when I imported them to IE 11. In any case, at some point in the process, not all Chrome bookmarks are importing to IE 11 from the CD, so the CD is useless at this point.

How did you export them from Chrome?  I was inclined to say that it's an Ie issue, but .html isn't an appropriate format for bookmarks.

@MatthewRead: This page has the process I used. I saved the .html file to a CD to bring to work, but I guess during the process, not all my bookmarks were saved to the CD (so I can't use the CD).

I have just answered something similar... since I was looking for a way to export my history and bookmarks from Chrome on a Nexus 5X (Android 6.0).
You can use Google Takeout to download  json file of your Android Chrome history and Chrome Bookmarks.


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Is there an android app that turns off sound certain times of the week (like at work)?
I know very little about android.  Is there a widget, app or other way to configure so the sound is off while I am at work (or at night).  Essentially trying to turn down the ringer while I am at work.
My wife an I both have 5.1 Android phones.  We would both like this feature.

Have you tried Interruption mode  or any automation app so far? Related: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/6111295?hl=en

I have not tried any automation app.  Please recommend one.  I like the idea of not having to take any action on certain times for certain days.  The info above about for 5.0 is great.  I didn't know about selecting the volume button and selecting none.  Thank you.

What you can do is tap the volume down button a couple of times so your phone goes into do-not-disturb mode
You can also do this by pulling down to the quick settings and tapping the do-not-disturb button there

Android Lollipop doesn't have Do not Disturb mode.

@Firelord It depends: CM12.1 does have it.

I prefer an automated system.  But the do-not-disturb button will work in the mean time.    I just didn't realize "None" button would do that.  Thank you.


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Android Marshmallow usb problem moto g2
My moto g2 is not being detected via USB when I connect it to my PC. It still charges however. Its not getting recognized since i have done marshmallow update. i have even enabled MTP in developer options. but still its not showing any notifications when connected. Please help me.

Does it show up in Device Manager (Windows) or in lsusb (Linux)?  (See this for Mac.)

My moto g3 had similar problem.  After connecting the USB cable the device would appear within windows explorer but no file structure would appear.  This is because the phone was in USB charge only mode.  I double tap the very top status bar and a USB notification appears as shown below.

After selecting the USB for file transfer notification the following display appears:

Select the MTP protocol (or PTP) and you should see the media of the phone appear in the explorer window.
Every time the phone is connected to USB it will default to charging mode.
I hope this was a useful tip!

This is a good tip, but the questioner said his phone doesn't show the notification when connected, so it's unlikely to be the issue here. I'm sure some other visitors will find it helpful, though. Welcome to our community!


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How to minimize apps/games without restart?
Recently i playing a games called Clash of kings.
But when i minimize this game and opean again.
This game is automatically restart.
So, Is there any way to minimize this game and open again without restart?
note:i face the same problem in clash of clans.

If the app is not coded strangely then this should happen automatically.  (Otherwise, you'll need to contact the developers.)
However, it seems likely that your device is running out of free RAM and is either terminating the app or telling it to release memory.  You can try running fewer apps/services at the same and see if it helps; otherwise, you'll need a device with more RAM.
One more option is (if you have a rooted device) to convert the app into a System app.  They are given higher priority and not killed as frequently; I just did this with tTorrent last night because it was being instantly killed in the background, and now it's working fine.

But i see not all apps or games restart.
Is there any apps available those solve this problem?

@deven due to how Android is developed (having only 1 active Activity), I don't think there's a way to intercept and replace an application lifecycle when the developer decides to do restart it. You don't know what happens, and you also don't know if preventing it to restart will break the app or not (let's say for example, the network session you currently use in the game is discarded when you minimize).

@deven It's probably the apps that use less memory which are not restarting.  I've also added one more solution to my answer.


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Do apps need to be started once to receive background data
I just recently bought my first Android based phone (Samsung Galaxy A3).
One thing I noticed (or maybe imagined noticing?) is that I appear to only receive notifications (like a new message in WhatsApp or a new email) if that app was previously started (and thereby listed in the "Running Apps" screen).
Is that true? Would that not defeat the purpose of notifications? I tried searching for settings that would imply such a behaviour, but couldn't find any.

Restrict background data is turned off
WhatsApp/Gmail, etc. all have background data enabled
Sync (from the top shortcut menu) is enabled
Accounts/Sync settings for WhatsApp and Google Accounts are enabled
I have a DataUsage warning at 400MB (reached) and a limit at 500MB (not yet reached)
Network connection is set to LTE/3G/2G (automatic) and I am in 4G currently

Thats about all I could think off / find... Is there more to check?

Yes and no. Such apps usually start a "service" as soon as the device has its boot_completed, so they should be "started" automatically (not the entire app with its GUI etc, but the corresponding service to listen for and show notifications).

I can see those services, yes. I assumed that would be enough. But e.g. the GMail App only ever synchronizes when I open it, which is annoying to say the least. Did I disable some basic "background sync / pull" service maybe?

That could be the case indeed. Maybe you [edit] your question and include what you've disabled that sounds at least remotely related? Then we could say more.

Specific to gmail, you may have disabled sync in Google settings

I added some more information on what settings I checked / believed to be relevant.


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No fingerprint reader after adding self signed certificate
Cyanogen OS 12.1 running on a ZUK z1. I added a self signed CA certificate to the "trusted credentials". Since then android doesn't allow me to use the fingerprint scanner to unlock the screen anymore. Is there any workaround to this security feature?

Is the device rooted? Otherwise AFAIK the answer is 2-letters: No.

Ouch. It is not rooted unfortunately

Shall I place a "root solution" as answer nevertheless, so you can see whether it's worth it? On a rooted device, the solution is trivial (even if you're not familiar with shell/command-line). I do that on my devices all the time.

Yes please, post it. I just don't like tools like kingroot and success rate of rooting my device through other ways is still pretty low.

I'd rather avoid those tools as well if possible, because of their side-effects (at least from what I've read about them). Will check with the answer, but must postpone it to when I'm back home – there are some subtle details I cannot reconstruct reliably without my notes :)

Step 1: Make the certs compatible (if they are not already)
At the very beginning we need to figure the file name of our the cert file. The name of the cert file is a hash one can obtain from the certificate itself. For this, one needs the openssl tools. On Unix/Linux the steps are then as follows:
# Obtain the hash – in my case that returned d6a2705a – so we have the file name
openssl x509 -inform PEM -subject_hash_old -in root.crt | head -1
# Copy the original file
cat root.crt > d6a2705a.0
# Append additional data
openssl x509 -inform PEM -text -in root.crt -out /dev/null >> d6a2705a.0

Step 2: Get the cert into our system cert chain
If your device is rooted, a solution to this is importing the certificate as system cert (not user-cert). You will need the command line for that, using either adb shell or a terminal app on-device. The following snippet assumes your certificate was already pushed to the SD card, saved as /sdcard/d6a2705a.0 (adjust that to your cert name), and you're at the command prompt of your device.
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp d6a2705a.0 /system/etc/security/cacerts/d6a2705a.0
chown root:root /system/etc/security/cacerts/d6a2705a.0
chmod 0644 /system/etc/security/cacerts/d6a2705a.0
mount -o remount,ro /system

Done. Now you should be able to use the cert – and as you do not have any "unsafe user certs", you're free to use whatever unlock mechanism you prefer.

A quick check shows all these steps are also described in the CaCert Wiki on how to create Android compatible certificate files from their original files. So my personal notes I took the above from might well originate here, at least partly.


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Can the Chrome logo icon in the notifications bar be changed to reflect the site delivering the push notification?
I've heard plenty about the power-draining properties of Facebook's app - I'm obviously as keen as the next smartphone user to find ways to save battery power. Of course, others have concerns about the app's all-consuming permission set.
One popular solution to these little issues for a lot of Android users seems to be to bin the app entirely, and set up push notifications from Facebook's mobile site using Chrome for Android. So, I'm giving that a go.
The notifications work like a dream, but - as I could have expected, really - it's the Chrome icon that's displayed in the notifications bar, not the Facebook one. It's pernickety of me, but I'd really like it to be the Facebook icon that appears in the notifications bar.
Through reading this question, I've already found out about the Notification Toggle app, which supposedly lets you change notification icons. I've yet to download and play around with it, but in theory this will be a good enough solution for my needs - I've no plans to receive push notifications from any other sites, so superimposing the Facebook icon onto Chrome notifications will do the job just fine.
However, it doesn't strike me as unreasonable for a user to receive push notifications from two or more different sites - in which case, it would be useful for notification icons to reflect the site for which notifications are being received. Maybe by pulling through the site's favicon for use in the notifications tab? Or failing that, it would be good to be able to change icons manually by targeting the site, and not just any and all Chrome notifications.
Does anyone know if something like this is possible? I don't know if being rooted or not would make a difference in this case, but for what it's worth my personal setup is an unrooted Honor 7 using Nova Launcher.

Interesting question. Maybe it can be done using [tag:automation] apps, but I haven't researched the method...

That was my idea too, @AndrewT. – I could imagine Tasker being capable of that: keyword-scan on the notification, match the icon, delete the old notification, send the modified one, done.


text:
Apps updated, now I get an unknown lock screen with ads
After finally doing a bunch of updates, suddenly every now and then some random lock screen with ads showed.

Which app is causing this?

Agreed, as long as no one marks this one as a duplicate.. The above one points to ES Explorer being the culprit, and is older. This is a (slightly) newer phenomenon.


text:
How to Make Android phone Slave Display Raspberry Pi 3b?
I would like to have an extra display always with me. The only thing which I have most often with me is my Phone with CM13.
Phone

Oneplus 3 and its USB Type C connection may be suitable for the task.
Software: make CM13 software understand that I want to use it as a slave for other microprocessor.

Client RP3b

There is HDMI signal from RP3b. I can use usbC-to-HDMI adapter but not sure if it is needed because the data rate is sufficient in USB-C itself.

Phone: Oneplus 3
System: Cyanogenmod 13 Stable
Phones failed: Samsung Galaxy S4 gt-i9506
Phone: Oneplus 3T
OS: Oreo 8.0

You could check the Raspberry Pi section of my remote-control-app lists for one. Maybe there's already a fitting app for it. Not sure if a "native solution" (not requiring a specific app) does exist.

@Izzy I got today a new phone, Oneplus 3. Can you use Usb-C connection for the task now?

No idea, sorry – first, I have no USB-C device, and second no Raspi.

This feature needs to be supported by the phone manufacturer.
The software is not a challenge after that.
I know no phone which has such a feature at the moment.


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Charging during filetransfer
I have recently upgraded my phone from Android 4.3 to 6.0 in my Sony Xperia M.
I'm pretty confused by the new behavior.
Whenever I plug the phone to the USB cable, it is detected in the computer as new connected MTP device but without access to the files (the phone is in the "charging mode".
When I change the connection type in the phone to "file transfer", the charging stops and the file transfer mode hungs somehow after a while of not using the file transfer.

Why it is not possible to transfer files during charging?
The hung seem to be some kind of error.

I'm thinking that it would be much better to use adb or some kind of ftp/ssh/whatever server installed inside the phone for file transfers instead of this crappy UI-friendly functionality.
Is there some better way how to work with the phone?

Hmm, that's weird, my S6 Edge charges while transferring files. Seems like software issue on the manufacturer's side.

Quoting from Google Product Forums solution posted by M Power, marked as best answer - this may help solve the hung problem but can't say about not charging during file transfer, but going by your description both seem to be related

.... Secondly, when doing a transfer, the phone must be unlocked. This was the problem I was experiencing. I would start a large transfer of photos, then during that time my screen would lock and I would get an error. My screen timeout is typically set to 30 secs so this happened quickly for me. Changing the lock to 30 minutes and checking the phone on occasion solved my problem.

Well, this means that the phone is not the right gadget to be used for storing data/media. adb is the right choice for me then.

The post says that it is a security measure- I don't have marshmallow but did this fix help? Curiosity


text:
Is there a way I could listen to FM radio with my laptop but the radio comes from my android smartphone's built-in FM radio app?
Is there a way I could listen to FM radio with my laptop but the radio comes from my android smartphone's built-in FM radio app (which doesn't require internet)?
Something like a linking thing so that the sound of radio app from my phone will come out on my laptop instead.

Just run a 3.5 mm audio cable from the headphone output of your phone to the microphone input of your laptop, then set up your laptop to play that audio (e.g. with the "Listen to this device" checkbox in Windows' sound device properties page). You need to have the cable there anyway, because it uses it for an antenna, so you might as well use the same cable for both purposes.

That easy I didn't think of it! My first thought went DLNA #D +1 for the obvious but invisible!


text:
How am I supposed to know if my smartphone is ARM or 86x?
I have a Sony Xperia M and installed CyanogenMod a couple of times. When ever I want to download GAPPS, I wonder, if my Smartphone is ARM or x86, and when ever I google it and don't find an answer, I have a deja vú  and I just go with ARM since it is most common and my phone is probably ARM.
But shouldn't there be a way to find out?

Related: How can I tell if my installed Android version, not CPU, is a 64 bit or 32 bit one?

Did you read How to identify the android device is 32-bit or 64-bit? BTW, at least OpenGApps employs a check for compatibility before installation, so even if you end up downloading incorrect GApps version you would still be safe.

adb shell getprop ro.product.cpu.abi gives you the hardware answer (e.g. "arm64-v8a" for my Wileyfox Swift).
adb shell uname -m tells you what the kernel is running (e.g. "aarch64" for the same device)

If you do not have ADB setup (and don't plan to), you can run the same commands in a terminal app. Just skip the preceding adb shell then:
$ getprop ro.product.cpu.abi
arm64-v8a
$ uname -m
aarch64
$

saved us thank you


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Nothing shows in all mail on the Galaxy Note 5
I just purchased the Galaxy Note 5 and I'm using the Gmail app. All of the labels work fine except the all mail.  When I go to all labels I see that next to the name "All Mail" I have 99+ messages but when I click on "all mail" I get a message that says "there is no mail here".  I use this folder quite often so this is discouraging.  I can see it on my laptop and iPhone just fine. It also worked fine on my Galaxy Note 4.  Any suggestions?
When I go to 'manage label' the all mail says "sync:all, which says all messages will download when connected.  Any advice?


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How to unset ROM Toolbox set device density
I pretty much bricked the UI now with the build property editor's ro.sf.lcd_density setting. I first set it to mdpi (160) which made my UI elements tiny (should have made them bigger) and the keypad's back button was missing for whatever reason, so the only change I could make is to add a letter to make it high density (1160) - now it is totally unusable:

How can I rid of this setting and get back to normal?

Do you've USB debugging enabled or a custom recovery installed or original build.prop file available or stock ROM's zip? Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/131556/96277

What's your default DPI?

480dpi; @Firelord - thanks for the nice link, I upvoted you even though I ended up flashing a new ROM

Can you access the device via ADB and get a root shell? If so, try setprop ro.sf.lcd_density 480. If it works out, make sure to fix up your build.prop before booting the next time. If not, you could try booting into recovery and fix it from there: the build.prop is a plain text file, so you can edit it with e.g. vi.