text:
My busybox gets corrupted?
Recently I just downgraded my busybox to 1.18.2 version using the jRummy's BusyBox Installer. I was previously having busybox preinstalled by CM7.2 custom ROM.
Then I immediately tried to install the latest, 1.19.4 version using the same app..
It could have shown some error message, but I wasn't sure. Maybe the download didn't proceed fully. But now onwards, I am getting "No root" message when I try to launch the BusyBox Installer. I tried everything, forgetting the app from SuperUser (by chainsfire) app and reauthorizing root for it, clearing data, rebooting the phone etc.
Apps like link2sd also cannot get "root" privileges all of a sudden!!
Strange thing is, z4root app detects my phone as already rooted. And when I try to click "re-root", the process goes on and on and nothing happens.
Why has this happened? Is this because JRummy's busybox overwrites the CM7.2 build one? Should I never try updating busybox when I'm on CM7.2?  or is it because I have to specify correct path? /system/xbin in that busybox installer?
Now all I need is to make busybox and more importantly, get my root back to work properly hopefully without having to reinstall my ROM. Any ideas?
Huawei IDEOS u8150 running Cyanogenmod 7.2-RC1
Update : I tried rooting/unrooting etc using SuperOneClick v 2.3.3.0. It doesn't work either. Here's its log (apparently there are lots of "illegal instruction" errors where it shouldn't be):-
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
export PS1=""

# export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.release > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=31336

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

2.3.7

END:31336export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.manufacturer > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=93231

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Huawei

END:93231export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.model > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=48975

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

U8150

END:48975export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.incremental > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=38960

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

eng.aorth.20120306.105455

END:38960export PS1=""

ls -l /system/xbin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        ls -l /system/xbin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=96369

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     ls -l /system/xbin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:96369export PS1=""

ls -l /system/bin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        ls -l /system/bin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=35669

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     ls -l /system/bin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:35669export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=40902

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:40902export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=40829

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied

END:40829export PS1=""

busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=31488

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:31488export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=65795

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:65795export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/sh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=78056

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:78056export PS1=""

chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=86427

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:86427export PS1=""

cd /data/local/tmp/ > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=46214

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:46214export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=23335;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;./zergRush

./zergRush: permission denied

END:23335export PS1=""

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
export PS1=""

# export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.release > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=81716

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

2.3.7

END:81716export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.manufacturer > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=13472

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Huawei

END:13472export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.model > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=98688

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

U8150

END:98688export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.incremental > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=22140

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

eng.aorth.20120306.105455

END:22140export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=82615

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:82615export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=43597

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied

END:43597export PS1=""

busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=15262

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:15262export PS1=""

ls -l /system/xbin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        ls -l /system/xbin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=64824

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     ls -l /system/xbin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:64824export PS1=""

ls -l /system/bin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        ls -l /system/bin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=74020

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     ls -l /system/bin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:74020export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=74614

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:74614export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/sh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=16835

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:16835export PS1=""

chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=27596

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:27596export PS1=""

cd /data/local/tmp/ > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=49127

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:49127export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=29618;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;./zergRush

./zergRush: permission denied

END:29618export PS1=""

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
export PS1=""

# export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=12726

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:12726export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=54207

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied

END:54207export PS1=""

busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=21168

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:21168export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.manufacturer > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=95174

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Huawei

END:95174export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.model > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=36720

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

U8150

END:36720export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.incremental > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=21915

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

eng.aorth.20120306.105455

END:21915export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.release > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=37315

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

2.3.7

END:37315export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=54134

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:54134export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/sh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=90391

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:90391export PS1=""

chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=35822

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:35822export PS1=""

cd /data/local/tmp/ > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=58244

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:58244export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=61534;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;./zergRush

./zergRush: permission denied

END:61534export PS1=""

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
export PS1=""

# export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.manufacturer > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=32756

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Huawei

END:32756export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.model > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=45540

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

U8150

END:45540export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.incremental > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=53091

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

eng.aorth.20120306.105455

END:53091export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/sqlite3 > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/sqlite3 >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=38213

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/sqlite3 >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:38213export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=66171

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:66171export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=57497

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied

END:57497export PS1=""

busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=13769

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:13769export PS1=""

# export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/sqlite3 /data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied "update secure set value = 1 where name = 'install_non_market_apps';" > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=60939

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/data/local/tmp/sqlite3: permission denied

END:60939* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
export PS1=""

# export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.release > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=14443

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

2.3.7

END:14443export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.manufacturer > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=20422

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

Huawei

END:20422export PS1=""

getprop ro.product.model > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=70730

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

U8150

END:70730export PS1=""

getprop ro.build.version.incremental > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=78056

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

eng.aorth.20120306.105455

END:78056export PS1=""

ls -l /system/xbin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        ls -l /system/xbin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=37836

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     ls -l /system/xbin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:37836export PS1=""

ls -l /system/bin/su > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        ls -l /system/bin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=86202

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     ls -l /system/bin/su >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:86202export PS1=""

chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=53011

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/busybox >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:53011export PS1=""

/data/local/tmp/busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=68114

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

/data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied

END:68114export PS1=""

busybox whoami > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=82093

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     busybox whoami >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:82093export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=45163

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:45163export PS1=""

rm /data/local/tmp/sh > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=26553

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

[1]   Illegal instruction     rm /data/local/tmp/sh >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

END:26553export PS1=""

chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

[1] + Stopped (signal)        chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=62881

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:62881export PS1=""

[1]   Illegal instruction     chmod 700 /data/local/tmp/zergRush >/data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

cd /data/local/tmp/ > /data/local/tmp/output 2>&1

export TEMPRANDOM=37090

export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;cat /data/local/tmp/output

END:37090export PS1=""

export TEMPRANDOM=66693;export PS1=END:$TEMPRANDOM;./zergRush

./zergRush: permission denied

END:66693export PS1=""

Why would you upgrade your busybox? Do you spend so much time in shell?

@RichardBorcsik I was trying out the SuperCharger V6 Script from the XDA and this tutorial said 1.18.3 or newer busybox would cause trouble.. hence I downgraded from my 1.19.x CM7 build. No, I don't spend much time in shell. :)

You should never mess with the system without having a backup.
To get root back you can just re-flash the rom that you're using without wiping anything. This will remove whatever happened with your busybox.

This is what I am doing right now.. lets see if it solves the problem hopefully.I am not very concerned which is why I don't bother about backups in the first place; here I was just asking if there was some other easier way to solve this problem and perhaps that would give me more insight into the android system.Personally I believe upgrading/downgrading busybox shouldn't cause corruption like I encountered.

@Power-Inside No it shouldn't cause, but it shouldn't be updated while it's running either. These xda script warriors who instead of bundling their own busybox for their 'fixes' make you modify your system when it's unnecessary cause a lot of bricked phones and trouble.

I guess this is the best solution.. re installing took a little bit of time which included the time to download the ROM, lol. But it fixed everything neatly quite well.


text:
Install Android OS To Other Mobile Phones is Possible?

Possible Duplicate:
Can I install Android on my non-Android device?

I want to install android os to other mobile phones like nokia and other non branded china mobiles....!
if it is Possible? or not Possible?
Thanks...!

Generally speaking, not possible.  It would require someone to do a lot of development work.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to VPN only a single application?
Say, you only want to route the traffic of a single application through a VPN because the application lacks proper encryption support or the remote service is only available on a cooperating network. Other stuff like web browsing should go through the normal data connection.
Unfortunately, quite a few VoIP gateway providers do not provide encryption of data (voice and signaling) - thus using a VPN is necessary (at least when connected via WLAN). One provider (sipgate.de) even provides its own VPN (and no other SIP/RTP encryption methods).
How to configure this on a recent Android device (>= Android 4.0)?

More information about which apps you are specifically trying to tunnel may help.  Do they support SOCK5 Proxy? SSH Tunnel may be a good start.

@earthmeLon, VoIP apps, VoIP apps which support SIP - cf. the last paragraph of the question - e.g. CSimple.

The free and open-source OpenVPN for Android app supports this.
In the profile configuration dialog, there is an 'allowed apps' tab that allows you to select a list of apps that is either excluded or excluded from using the established VPN:

'VPN is used for all apps but exclude selected'
'VPN is used for only for selected apps' (sic)

The list then contains all available apps that can be selected/deselected.
This doesn't require a rooted device. For example, it works fine on a Nexus 5x device with stock Android 8.1.
A simple test is to install another broswer like Firefox, include just one of Chrome and Firefox in the list and then switch around browsers and visit https://wtfismyip.com in both.
One pitfall is when you are on a dual-stack IPv4+IPv6 network but the VPN is IPv4 only. In that case, the 'Bypass VPN for local networks' in the 'Routing' tab needs to be disabled. Otherwise, IPv6 traffic travels unencrypted besides the VPN.

Every app on Android runs on a different user, so iptables should be able to recognize the given app using -m owner --uid-owner, BUT. Like many things in Android, there may be no user frontend to do this easily. (like there is no option to this day to use ext4 as a format for external SD card). If you have some knowledge about routing tables and iptables, You may try going this way.
Another way is to set up a VPN to route through it only the IP address of your SIP provider (not the default route). There is though another unrelated problem - SIP doesn't like NAT, so you may need to set up some traffic forwarding on your VPN server.

Use ExpressVPN. Go to Settings, select the app for which you want to use VPN and there you go.

ExpressVPN is one of the most trusted, secure brands in the virtual private network industry, and that’s for good reason. It’s super fast and extremely safe, boasting an SSL-secured network with 256-bit encryption and, get this, unlimited bandwidth and speed.

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

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


text:
How To Install Froyo on HTC Bravo
I have an HTC Bravo. Some time ago I installed Gingerbread on it and started to have trouble. If I connect to the Internet or do some memory intensive work it resets itself. Now I want to install Froyo again on my Bravo.
Can somebody guide me in the right direction, or did I burn too many bridges to go back?

Perhaps you can install Revolutionary, and choose the option to install the Clockwork Recovery Mod, look for a copy of the original Froyo rom from somewhere and then use Recovery to put it back on your phone?
Of course, while you're doing that you could check out CyanogenMod v7.1 and see if that gives you what you need.

I'll second trying CM-7.1 for bravo (HTC Desire). It has >100k CM  users and is probably still the most stable device for CM7.


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How to fix a force close loop on Android with phone access?
I have a problem with my Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100) running Android 2.3.5 stock version.
I'm normal user who used the phone for basic function like making phone calls and using the Google, Facebook apps with some installed apps from the play store.
Today, 2 hours ago logsprovider initiated out of nowhere an endless loop of "force close" alerts, between them most of the running apps were closed too (including some weird z7... app).
Because of the interval (about half a second) between alerts I can goto settings -> apps -> and "clear data" in the logsprovider config.
This stops the "force close" alerts loop until the next restart of the phone. in this state I basically don't have access to the phone features and all the home screens are empty, including the phone's apps menu.
I can run any app by adding it to the home screen and then executing it, if the app has system operation like the play store that require it to install something, the app will crash and no new programs will install.
I can also connect the phone to a computer and get access to all the files (I think it's just those on storage), I might try to get an apk of an antivirus there and try to install it - hope it doesn't crash
These are desperate times... thats why I'm contacting the experts:

Can I fix this, this might have been caused by an app, what to do?
If the only solution is factory reset how do I backup the data, apps, or contact lists?

Have you tried doing a factory reset?

Issue solved

Boot in recovery mode > Choose "Wipe cache partition" and reboot.

No need to Factory reset and lose all data.
Long description
I also suddenly had my Samsung Galaxy SII (SGS2 GT-i9100) running Android 2.3.4 with a rush of continuous force close pop up windows, a lot of apps that seemed to try to connect to internet would trigger a popup force close window, many apps crashed. I hardly managed to quickly close the popups and turn off the phone, removed the battery and turned it on again but the problem persisted and got worse so in the end I got this popup again and again:
"The application LogsProvider (process com.sec.android.provider.logsprovider) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. Force Close."
And really had to try hard to close all those popups quickly to switch off the phone.
I found the solution here
Which is:

Turn off the phone (hold the power button if the power-off menu won't appear).
Boot in recovery mode (holding volume up key + home key + power button at same time).
Choose the fourth option "wipe cache partition" (using the volume keys to select option and then Home button to excecute).
Allow to reboot normally and problem solved.

wow man, cheers for this, fixed it perfectly. i've gone through countless XDA threads on the topic and was just about to factory reset my galaxy s2.

If you know the app causing the loop, you can boot to "safe mode" and delete its cache. If it's still force-closing, do the same with its data, or even uninstall the app. For details, please refer to:

What is safe mode?
How do I boot my Samsung Nexus S into safe mode?
How would you uninstall a rogue Home (Launcher) application?

Further to what Izzy answered, if you cannot isolate the problem and want to factory reset, here's what you can do:

Use Google account to sync contact, settings and wifi passwords etc.
Use SMS backup app to save SMS to your SD card.
Save a list of apps using AppBrain app. If you need full backup including app data, root your phone and install Titanium Backup. You'll have to root it again after reset, but rooting for Galaxy S2 is easy. Here's a guide.


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What is the downside of using GO SMS Pro and / or Handcent?
All I've been seeing about these apps are the positives. I want to know the negatives of using them, apart from me having to install an additional app to do something that the phone can already do by default. I'm looking to using one of the two because of the built in support for backing up SMS and MMS, something that will come in very handy especially since I text often.

for what it's worth, there are apps to backup text messages, without relying on a third-party messaging app. That being said, there are still advantages to third-party messaging apps.

I can only comment on  GoSMS which, while being a great app, has a few obvious issues.

Texting via GoChat is, at best, unreliable. With both parties connected to hi-speed broadband, texts take their own sweet time to deliver. These texts shouldn't expire but they do. Given a certain amount of time, texts stay undelivered.
If you have root access and are thinking of uninstalling the stock SMS app (which would be the logical thing to do), bear in mind that GoSMS notifications don't work hand in hand with the app's UI. Meaning, if you see a notification in the status bar and press on it, it will lead you to the main app interface but you may or may not see the actual message. This happens often when you receive more than one or two texts at the same time. Strangely, even though you can't read the texts (I assumed they were lost), you will have an irritating notification indicating that you have unread texts (that you obviously can't read because they don't show up). Having the stock app ensures that GoSMS shows all texts, unread or otherwise. Also, when you have read the text in the stock app, the notification from GoSMS disappears.
Local backup only works when you aren't connected, either via Wi-fi or mobile data. With the latest version of the app, everything gets backed up to GoCloud. This happens only if you have signed up with GoChat.

Hope this helps.

Although no one writes about this, the downsize of installing one of those apps is the fact of consuming more resources than the built in app.
Cons:

More disk space used
More RAM used

But the increase is so irrelevant that it doesn't even count as a downsize by most reviewers.

it's more important on very old devices with 256 MB internal space; most newer devices ships with gigabytes for internal spaces and so the couple extra megabytes needed for installing third party SMS apps are not worth talking about. The only reason for installing third party SMS/Phone/Launcher/Keyboard/Browser/Mail apps are purely a matter of free choices and preferences; some apps implemented things in different ways which some people liked better compared to the stock versions which others just can't stand.

I advise against Go SMS Pro. A major vulnerability was discovered in November 2020 that shares content to a publicly available unencrypted and chronological order URL.

You will have to experiment with the apps to see if they play nice with your keyboard and spell-check behavior.  I don't know if this is still the case, but previously, when I used Go SMS Pro, I didn't have desirable spell-correct behavior with my keyboard (which was, ironically, Go Keyboard).  My keyboard would display corrections if I went back to a word I already typed in applications such as Gmail, Facebook, etc... But this was NOT the case inside the Go SMS app.

lack of badge notifications.  the little 1 in a circle that indicates you have one message waiting.  I know there are other third party apps that let you do this.. but now you have 2 third party apps and besides.. i have a Samsung Note 2 and the third party notificaion badge apps do not work with touchwiz

The app v7.77 (latest as on date) is having the facilities similar to MIUI messaging app but with additional private box. It is very aggressive and uses cpu in background  but not fast in starting (it takes 7 sec when it is already not in memory,   stock needs less than 0.5 sec and  Textra needs 1.5 sec under similar conditions) it is slow in retrieving messages. It consumes excessive battery unnecessarily accessing cpu, data / internet on foreground as well as background (the battery consumption is as high as 10 to 25 % . Surprisingly it consumes 5% of battery  even when it is not the default app, whereas the stock or textra consume less than 1% under similar usage conditions ). I have never seen such poorly designed app in recent times that too with such costly subscription.

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


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Can you overclock an unrooted Galaxy Tab?
Can you increase the speed of an unrooted the Galaxy Tab, like an app for example?

Almost certainly not.  Unless Samsung has provided a way for you to do this — highly unlikely due to warranty and user experience issues — you'll need root and probably a custom kernel that supports overclocking.


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How can I digitally merge two sides of stereo into mono sound?
I'm deaf in one ear, which means I can't use earbuds as I can only hear one side. I've tried an adaptor that mixes both analogue signals electrically, but the sound quality is noticibly reduced.
What I'd really like for the software inside the phone to digitally mix both sides before it becomes an analogue signal. Is there a setting or a downloadable add-on to do this?
(I use the built-in music player and 'Google Listen' podcast player on a Samsung Galaxy S2.)

I don't know about apps to do this system-wide, but a music player (poweramp) has this feature IIRC.

Voodoo Sound can do this for the original SGS, but doesn't look like it supports the S2.  Just to note, if you want to do it for all audio then any solution will need root; single apps are different as Richard notes.

If you root/flash your phone, I believe DSP Manager (included in most Cyanogen ROMs and probably some others) can do this.

I would think that one of the one-ear bluetooth headsets would do this automatically.

Generally those will only support Bluetooth 1.x audio and not A2DP, meaning that they'll be at a ridiculously low bitrate that isn't suitable for music.

I just bought myself a bluetooth headset and now I find I can only route phone calls through it. Oh well.


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Cannot install or update apps on LG G2x
My signficant other and I each have a T-Mobile-branded LG G2X P999.  An over-the-air update was recently released that upgrades the OS from 2.3.3 to 2.3.4.  She got the OTA update; I have not received it yet (and, given this problem, will refuse it until a solution is found).  Since the update, she can no longer install or update apps.  She gets the error (when updating Google Maps, for instance):

Error downloading "Maps".  There is insufficient space on the device.

This is happening even after uninstalling some apps (which can no longer be reinstalled due to the error.)  Internal storage has 248 MB used and 1.2 GB free.  The SD card has 603 MB used and 4.6 GB free.
Some people on the T-Mobile support discussion board discuss a hard reset being a solution for this issue.  I would prefer to avoid that solution if possible, simply because it is a hassle and because we do not know what data she might end up losing.
How can she fix this issue?  Is there a way to fix it besides a hard reset?

I had the same problem with my wife's phone (LG G2x P999). Unfortunately you're going to have to master reset....
If it doesn't work from the settings, then reset manually (hold power button and volume down till you see the Android guy then let go) after that your phone will be reset and the downloading issue will stop. Read through these steps prior to resetting to ensure you don't lose anything you don't wanna....hope this helped you
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2521
should be the 5th link down where it says preparing for master reset


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Enabling geolocation in web browser
I'm partially unable to get geolocation within a web browser.  When the phone-wide "use wifi for location" box is unchecked, going to a new website the requires geolocation fails.  For example, maps.google.com gives the the error "Your location could not be determined."  When I check the box, I get the permission request dialog, and after that, I can get geolocation regardless of the "wifi geolocation" option.

The GPS works fine, and the Maps app works fine.
I have enabled geolocation in the browser settings.
I have tried this with the stock browser, Dolphin, and a custom app with a WebView (with the appropriate permissions set up).  I get the same result on all three.  I also got the same result using the Android emulator on my PC.
The phone does not have a cellular plan.
Android 2.2 on a Motorola Droid

At this point, I have a workaround, but does anyone have clues about what's going on?

Have you installed Permission Fix app?

No, I have not.


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Phone is too flat to charge
My phone died today, and now it won't charge at all on the charger it came with. I don't think the battery has failed, as it still gives me just as much charge on a full charge as always. The phone is an LG P500 running CM7.
My battery charged perfectly in another model of the same phone. Does this suggest there is an actual problem with my phone?
What can I do to get my phone to start charging?

What do you mean by phone died?

Battery went flat.

But, you don't believe your battery has failed. Is your phone working?

Have you tried charging with another charger?

The phone was working perfectly fine. It had been on for about 3 days without needing a charge but as I away from home last night I didn't get a chance to charge it before it went flat this morning. I did try my brothers charger as he has the same phone, but it's not working.

Its possible that your charging interface went flat. To test it, insert your battery in your bros phone and try charging.

It seems like you are correct. Upon putting my battery in his phone and plugging the charger in, it immediately started charging correctly, giving me a charge indicator.

The phone should always charge, no matter how empty the battery is. You imply that the empty battery is the reason why it wouldn't charge, but I think that this is not true.
It is more likely that you are dealing with a hardware issue here. But first make sure that you connect the charger for at least an hour to your phone, just to make sure that it is really not charging. Even if there is no visual feedback of the charge process, there is still a chance that it does so. You could also try swapping the battery with the one from your brother, to see if the failure is the battery or with the phone.

To start with, my brothers battery worked perfectly. I've had the phone on charge for approximately 30 minutes and all it seems to do is try and boot, briefly showing the LG logo before it flicks off, repeating itself a few minutes later.

Answer seems to be what Sachin suggested in the above comments. Battery is now charging in my brothers phone.

The same happened to me, try plugging it in to a laptop with a usb cable. for some reason that was the only way the phone would charge while it was turned off or compleatly flat.


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Is back up to a network folder possible?
Is there a Backup App that would allow me to backup apps and application data to a network folder?  I don't mean to backup to the cloud (e.g. Dropbox) but to a shared folder on my PC or a NAS.
Over Wi-Fi would be cool, but I don't mind if that is via USB. I'm open to both.

If you combine two apps, this is possible. Of course, root is required on your device to backup app data, as you certainly know.
Now the first app you will need is Titanium Backup. This app not only creates a backup of all apps, app data, and even system data on your SD-Card, contains several useful tools for maintenance, and can schedule its actions -- it also allows pushing the backups to Dropbox.
But yes, I read you didn't target the Cloud, so here comes number two: FolderSync can sync your files/directories (and thus also your backup folder on the SD card) with several cloud services as well as with your own servers, using e.g. FTP, FTPS, SFTP, WebDAV or Samba (Windows Share) for the latter.
While there's no real alternative to Titanium Backup, there are some to FolderSync: Titanium Media Sync from the same author as Titanium Backup supports Dropbox plus FTP, SFTP, and FTPS. And FTPSyncX supports FTP, FTPS (SSL), SFTP (SSH), Samba, and Dropbox. I use the Pro version of the latter, and so I can tell you first-hand it works nice via Wifi -- you can even tell it to only sync when connected to your home Wifi, and run in certain intervals.
I almost forgot there's a tool that could serve both purposes, backup and sync in one: rsync backup for Android. But it may be a little more complicated to setup, and it requires ssh on the remote side -- not a realy show-stopper if your PC runs Linux :)

For samba, this requires the kernel drivers for SMB/CIFS to be compiled in, it is not a de-facto stock kernel option, rather, its custom. I did at one stage try to port sshfs for network mounting over ssh and failed miserably... :(

I never heard about problems like that with Samba -- and I guess Christian (developer of FTPSyncX) would have told me about it, as we use to extensively chat/talk from time to time. I'd say it's worth a try, but to keep your warnings in mind -- so thank you for placing them! Admittedly, I run CyanoGen on my devices; but Samba worked fine for me with the stock ROM on my Motorola Droid 2 as well as HTC Buzz (used it also with ES FileExplorer).


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Samsung Galaxy Spica won't boot up fully. Just restarts over and over
My Samsung galaxy won't turn on properly. Basically it turns on, shows the 'OMG screen' which it does when it crashes, then goes to the Samsung loading bar, but then goes back to the crash screen. It keeps going in a loop forever!
I tried a hard reset, which if I understand correctly is holding down the volume down key and end call key, but this did nothing.
(Sorry I'm not good at describing, hope this is clear!)
Thanks!

Did you made any changes to the phone recently? Flashing custom OS?

Can you provide a logcat and use http://pastebin.com to get at the contents of the logcat by selecting the text in the log, copying it into clipboard, paste into the said site for others to see?

Try booting in safe mode. To do this simply press the power button while holding MENU + BACK


text:
Revive a dead phone?
I don't have any background information, but my coworker showed up today with a nonresponsive Samsung Galaxy Gio. It will not boot. When plugged into the power charger, a half-full battery displays and just stays there.
Attempting to turn it on while holding the home button has no effect.
I swapped batteries with her (this is a company phone; we all have the same model). My phone works fine with her battery, hers does not work with my battery. Tried gently brushing off the battery contacts in her phone, no go.
Anything else to try before sending to the manufacturer?

Sounds like the power button could be bad.

@RyanConrad why would that affect the phone such that the powering-up screen is inanimate?

the battery is something that samsung shows when the phone is in the off state, but charging. I may have misread when you first posted. I thought you had said "Holding the power button has no effect". have you tried to turn on normally, by pressing only the power button?

To clarify my comment: the power button does not work, but neither does the "charging battery" vid display properly when the charger is plugged in.

It could be that the phone is stuck in a boot loop at or before the OS has a chance to load. According to XDA, to get into the recovery partition, start with this: Home button + Volume button - + On button.
If you can get into fastboot mode, you can issue a command from the PC with a usb cable. After seeing if the device is there with "fastboot devices", try "fastboot erase cache" and try to boot. If that fails, "fastboot -w" will essentially do a factory data reset. Of course, your coworker will lose all her data, but at least the phone might boot.

Boot into safe mode and see if this does the trick. To do this press HOME + MENU and then while pressing then power up using POWER BUTTON


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How can I stop the bootloader unlock process?
My 4 year old turned on my phone (Nexus S, 2.3.4 I think) while pressing the volume button. Apparently, this triggers the bootloader unlock process, which I don't want.
The phone is now stuck on the "unlock bootloader" screen and I'm afraid to lose lots of unbacked-up stuff. The soft keys have disappeared, and all I see is the unlock icon and no way to back out of this process.  Any ideas?
Do I let the battery die and hope it offers me the password page next time? Do I connect to a computer and do something or yank the battery?

Your phone is basically waiting for input from you, not really doing anything under the hood, on the "Unlock Bootloader" screen. It should be safe to simply pull the battery and then reboot the phone normally (one corroborating source: Google's help forums).

This worked for me just now.


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Drive letter for MTP connection under Windows
In Android 3.0, the connection to the PC as a Mass Storage Controller feature was removed.
Is there a way to access the MTP-mounted phone as a drive letter? I want standard file manager programs (e.g. Total Commander) to work.

Related: http://superuser.com/questions/369959/how-do-i-access-mtp-devices-on-the-command-line-in-windows

@Basj I think you're using wireless network to access the device, which comparatively causes slow performance for obvious reasons. If you switch to USB tethering the performance would be on the same lines  of MTP OR USB mass storage connection. Related: Is there a viable alternative to MTP for file transfer? (works like a charm from Android 4.2.1-6.0.1)

@Firelord : I don't understand your remark. I'm not using wireless connection. I'm using USB Media Storage on my Android 2.3 device, and now with my new Android 4.2.2 device, I would like to still have USB connection with a drive letter (to be able to run file tools such as backup tools, etc.). I'm not interested in wireless solutions for now. My question is : are there solutions available in 2016 that allow to have a drive letter when connecting an Android 4.2 device to PC via USB?

@Basj : my solution works for Android 4.2.1 and above perfectly fine.

Ok @Firelord but this seems to be incredibly more complex than good old Mass Storage from Android 2 etc.? Does this mean the data go through some sort of networking layer (over USB by tethering)? How does it compare with Media Storage in terms of transfer rate? Have you been able to run a backup PC <-> phone's SD card with this technique? (I use a 128 GB SD card...)

@Basj You get the drive letter (proof) and transfer rate is similar to USB mass storage (proof).

Thanks a lot @Firelord for all these informations, it will help! The transfer rate seems perfect, but I don't see the drive letter in the link you mentionned. I personnally have lots of scripts made with xxcopy etc. that run in a .bat file that I'd like to keep, that's why I really want a drive letter. (Or maybe can xxcopy work with MTP?)

@Basj I'd be formally posting an answer shortly to put all of your queries at rest.

Duplicate question and answer here: https://superuser.com/a/1724634

In theory, there is not a way to access your phone's memory card with a drive letter, because, as you said, Android now connects it as an MTP device, and not as a Mass Storage device. But, there are two solutions:

Root phone and get a "Mass Storage" enabler application that will work on your phone.
Without rooting phone: as long as both the computer are on the same network, run an FTP server on the phone, and access it on the computer.

There are applications like FTPUse and NetDrive that will map that FTP address to a drive letter. I used NetDrive on Windows XP, but couldn't get it to work on Windows 7 64-bits, so now I use FTPUse, and it's working fine.
So, it's not exactly the same, and it's a bit slower, but it works, and I am able to browse folders, erase files, etc, and even use applications like WinDirStat to analyze folder sizes etc.

Unfortunately, With 4.4, apps can no longer write to external SD cards... So uploading via FTP is no longer possible

Do you have a link for how to have Mass Storage enabled with a rooted Android 4.2 phone?

@Basj http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-universal-mass-storage-enabler-beta-t3240097

@GokulNC Will this be an "automount" as Media Storage when you plug the USB cable (I'd love that), similar to "automount as MTP" that is the current situation in Android 4?

@Basj No, you have to connect to USB, then go into that app and enable UMS

Isn't there another app @GokulNC that would enable Media Storage automatically ?

My method is based on the answer suggesting WebDAV.  It could be replicated by an FTP, Samba, or other networked file server.  Essentially, you start a WebDAV server on your Android device and mount it as a network drive.  Your phone's IP must be visible to the computer you want to browse the files on.  Generally, this means you must be on the same local network.  This solution exposes your phone's filesystem to your local network and could cause some security issues.  I do not recommend it for untrusted networks.
First, get and install a WebDAV server app on your Android device.  I used WebDAV Server because the interface is simple, it was the first app in my search and the price is right (free!).  Start your WebDAV server app and get its address.  This should be something like http:\\198.162.1.101:8080.
Next, open Computer in Windows Explorer.  In the toolbar, under the address bar, click "Map Network Drive."  Enter the address in the box labeled folder.  Click finish.  If the mapping fails, make sure you can ping the IP address of your phone.
Boom! Your device should now show up in Computer as the drive letter you selected (Z: by default).
References:
d0bon - How do I Map a Drive Letter to my MTP or PTP Android Device?

I cannot test it myself as I have no ICS or JB device, but it might be worth a try to check the following apps, which claim to give you back UMS (as long as the kernel permits it):

USB Mass Storage Watcher OTG
USB Mass Storage Watcher
Usb Host Controller (some user claimed this did it)

This answer is backwards; the question is how to mount the phone with a drive letter... not how to mount a drive onto the phone.

Exactly that's what the answer is about: how to make UMS available again, so you can mount the phone to your computer. Read e.g. the description of USB Mass Storage Watcher and take a look at its last screenshot: Clearly the Android device mounted to the PC in UMS mode: "as an added feature now you can automatically mount your sd card. Just plug your device in and up comes the file window on your computer."

You can try this plugin for TotalCommander: Windows Media Audio v2. Haven't actually tried it, as using FAR Manager instead, and for it there is own plugin PortaDev.

As far as I know, there is only a (commercial) PTP and MTP drive letter mapping solution for Microsoft Windows available:

PTP Drive and MTPdrive by Cranking Pixels.

Those drivers are not perfect, slow at times, and not free, but, I think, they do what you want.

I've created a program called AndroidDrive that detects Android devices connected by USB and creates a drive containing the Android device's internal storage. It's free and open-source and does not require rooting (though it requires USB debugging to be enabled, see below). You can download a ZIP file with the program and its dependencies here. For it to work, you also need to install Dokan (I have no association with the people who made Dokan).
For it to be able to detect and interact with your Android device, you need to enable USB debugging. To do so, follow these steps:

Open Settings on your Android device.
Go to "About phone".
Scroll down to the bottom and tap "Build Number" seven times until you get a message saying that you're a developer.
Go back to the main settings screen, then go to System > Advanced > Developer Settings and enable USB debugging.

When AndroidDrive is running, it will automatically detect any Android devices that are connected by USB with USB debugging enabled, and create a drive for each of those devices. Here is a screenshot:

If you're interested in the source code, you can find it here. If you find a bug, you can report it here.

You can try to install a WebDAV server to the android device, then mount the WebDAV server as a drive on Windows 7.
Here is a free WebDAV server from Google Play (Of course, there are many other WebDAV servers in Google Play). And the steps to mount the WebDAV server as a drive on Windows 7.

TotalAndDroid 4.0 - this plugin for Total Commander does not give you a drive letter, but besides this - does the job. You can see all files of your Android device on the TC panel and do all regular operations.

I have an Android device ASUS Zenfone and I can view my devices through Total Commander. Here is how I did this:

In Explorer, I right-clicked the MTP device and then choose Create shortcut.
From Total Commander, I open the shortcut and I can explore my device.

Hope it helps.

You can simply use TeamViewer to connect your phone and your PC. This way you can access all the features of your phone on your PC. Then, use any FTP server to send and receive files. In this way, you do not need to switch between your phone and PC while sharing files.


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How to force google reader app to download mp3s
When I subscribe to podcast RSS feeds with the google reader app then click the link to the mp3 Google reader starts streaming it with the selected media player rather than downloading the mp3 file to the sdcard like the webbrowser does.
Is there anyway to force it to download the actual mp3 file?

I'd try clearing the defaults for either/both Google Reader and the media player under Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications, then see if it will prompt you how you want to handle the link.

For listening to podcasts, Google has a separate application, called Google Listen, which will sync feeds under the Listen Subscriptions category. Unfortunately, new features are not being actively added, but does provide enough functionality to be useful.

Why would you say it's not well maintained, it's had a number of updates with bug-fixes and compatility fixes this year, and I've never had issues with it?

You're right, @GAThrawn, it's not that they are not maintaining it, but new features are not being actively added. It hasn't been even been updated for the ICS look. I'll update the answers.

Ah, fair enough then. Personally the fact that it hasn't turned into a bloated, do-everything app is what I like about it. It does one thing and does just what I need. If you want a complicated, bloated app with a million settings and features, they're out there, but luckily Listen isn't trying to be one of them.

Something as simple as lock-screen controls is missing. That's unfortunate.

I ended up buying an app called doggcatcher it has a ton of great features and for podcasts it works much better than Google reader, I highly recommend it.

I'm glad you found a solution to your issue, but this isn't an answer to the original question.


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What does the "O2 Menu" app do?
My Samsung Galaxy Mini has an app on it called "O2 Menu".  I did not install it, so I can only assume it was installed by the vendor prior to selling it to me (the phone is on Tesco Mobile PAYG, which appears to be provided by O2, so this seems plausible).  This app does not have any user interface as far as I can see (it certainly doesn't have an icon in the launcher), yet it runs on my phone constantly, restarting instantly if I "force close" it. It has a very liberal set of permissions.
What does this app do?
Is there any way I can stop it (my phone is rooted)?

Obviously, it "enhances customer value".

If your device is rooted, use Titanium Backup Pro to freeze that app. Use your device as usual. If problem arises, defrost that app. If not, go ahead to permanently delete it.


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IMEI number publicly displayed whenever connected to Wifi
I connected to Wifi (using a HTC Desire using Android 2.3) and a friend used an app (I think it was on an iPhone) to display information about devices connected to the Wifi hotspot.  I can accept the MAC address being available but isn't having your IMEI number publicly available make it easy for people to do negative stuff like clone it, then fake a phone on the same network with the same MAC address etc?  Or just report the phone stolen by phoning a network and giving the IMEI number?  Why is it visible anyway?  Can I change that field for the purposes of Wifi connectivity?
Note: I am in no way asking here for information on how to change the IMEI number of my phone - I know it's illegal in many places, and I agree with the law.  I just don't see why the IMEI number is relevant in this situation.
Update - to answer your questions/comments:
The Apple app is called Fing.
I saw the app running; my friend is not teasing/lying.
I'm 99% sure I was running the latest version of stock Android on the Desire, and not Cyanogenmod (which I later switched to).
I can't see that it's possible to turn a MAC address into an IMEI address.
The network uses WPA2. He wouldn't have had time to crack it.  I'm not aware Fing has a live, free, online WPA2 cracking capability.

We can't tell you why the IMEI number is "relevant", since this is a site for end-users rather than manufacturers/Google developers.  That said, you need to be more specific for us to help you prevent your IMEI from being shown.  What app did your friend use, and how did it see the IMEI?  (I.e., is it in the name of your device, or does the app ping devices and see if they respond with information, etc.)

Is it possible that MAC and IMEI are related and the app infered the IMEI from the MAC address? Manufactures could employ a scheme allowing to effectively guess the IMEI address from publicly availabe data.

I would be very concerned that your IMEI is being displayed whenever on Wifi - it does resemble or sound like the Wifi code within your ROM is broken and for some obscure reason picking up the IMEI perhaps due to failure in detecting the MAC's address within your wifi chipset? (BTW what ROM are you using, can be found within Settings > About Phone > Android Version and Build Version)

Maybe you both were logged in to an unsecured Wifi network, and your friend was running some exploit? Your details concerning this are quite unspecific, so I'm not willing to panic :-^

Did you confirm that it was actually your IMEI number or not just something which locked liked your IMEI?

I don't know how one would garnish the IMEI information over WiFi but what I would suggest is ask your friend what application they were using and then try to find an Android version of it. The developer that makes the iOS application might make an Android one, too.

Your friend was pulling your leg. Fing on iDevices is for network analysis. You cannot get an IMEI number via Wifi. He was more than likely showing you your MAC address of the wifi adapter built into the phone.
An IMEI is located under the battery on your phone and is usually a 15 digit number. Its used to authenticate the phone with your cell phone provider. Its not an easy task to clone it, if possible at all. A MAC address is a hardware address for network adapters, its 12 digits in HEX, and usually separated with a colon ever 2 digits (eg. 00:01:4F:6D:E9:A1)
A full description of Fing is available here: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fing-network-scanner/id430921107?mt=8
It states nothing about IMEI, only MAC.

Your friend is teasing you. My guess: He has got IMEI from your device and said that he has got that from Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi adapters don't broadcast IMEI number.
If he is still saying it confidently, just ask him the app name and tell me. I'll investigate.
Update:
I was expecting app name here in comment of the answer. You've put that in question which didn't ping me. Anyway, now I'd ask you to show screenshot. Fing doesn't show IMEI no. (even if Wi-Fi adapter is broadcasting it). Its available for Android too. You can try.


text:
How can I prevent my media library from disappearing when I unmount the SD card?
I have a rooted stock HTC Rezound and frequently connect it to the computer as a USB mass storage device.   After each time I do this, once I'm disconnected and my SD card is mounted, my media library disappears and I have to rescan my card. This appears to be related to the mounting and unmounting of the card. This has never happened under the same circumstances with other phones. Having to rescan the card is not a big deal but I have several alarms set to use mp3s and I have to rest then every time and that is a pain.
Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

Media rescanning should occur automatically after a re-mount. Very odd behaviour. Is putting the relevant mp3s for your alarm on your internal memory not a feasible option?

Even if it doesn't rescan shouldn't the media library stay the same until it actually Trans and confirms that it's different. I could put them on the internal memory but I feel like I shouldn't have to.

It doesn't know it's different - the scanning process is how it actually checks that.  I have to say on all the Android devices I have come across (Sony Ericsson Xperia X10i, HTC Explorer, Samsung Galaxy Tab, HTC Desire, HTC Desire S, T-Mobile Rapport, Acer E210 - all with either stock ROM or the T-Mobile UK one) this process is automatic - provided you use the handset to "Turn Off USB Storage" and don't just yank the USB cable.  As it's been used in USB mass storage mode potentially any, all, or no files on the card could have been changed.
For my alarms and notifications I have created some lower quality Ogg files (e.g. making sure they are mono and at low bit rate) and added those to internal storage so they are always available while using the minimal amount of storage space on the internal memory of the device.
The rescanning does annoy me a bit though as I listen to music on my handset, so I tend to use SWIFTP (in the Android Market) which runs an FTP server on my phone - this means I can transfer files to/from my handset without having to unmount and mount the storage card and wait ten minutes while it performs a rescan.  For most purposes this is fast enough.


text:
How to download and open PDF files?
I am a university student that has most of the lectures online as pdf files. How can I get them on my Android phone and read them through Adobe Reader? This is the first time that I have used Android. The version that I have is 2.2 "Froyo".

Download and install Adobe Reader on your phone.  You can find it by the link or by opening up Google Play / Market on your phone and searching for "Adobe Reader".  There are lots of other pdf readers out there too, btw.
Either download the PDFs from whatever website they are on using your browser (the built in browser is fine), or download them on your computer, connect your Android phone by USB cable & mount the SD card, copy the PDF files to the SD card, disconnect your phone from the computer, and finally use the file manager (usually called "Files" in the app drawer) to navigate to the PDF file you want to read.  Tap it's icon once and it should open in your PDF reader.

Store PDFs in your Dropbox account and download them on Android using Dropbox app.
When it comes to download from web, I never faced any problem with that, but if your default downloader suck at downloading PDFs, download them using Opera Mobile web browser. Opera Mobile has in-built downloader. It doesn't hand over downloading to system-wide download handler. If you don't like Opera Mobile like me, there are many dedicated download managers in Play Store... Just, search.

Just for your information: We don't normally thank each other here :-) Instead, you should accept the answer that you think answered your question best by clicking the green checkmark left to it. You can also useful answers and questions as soon as you have the necessary reputation.


text:
How do I root Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro (MK16a/i)?
I am kind of new to Android and smartphones.
Phone: Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
Model number: MK16a
Android version: 2.3.4

So far, I have been able to find the following sources:

I first saw this XDA-Developers thread. It seems relatively complicated. (And I haven't had much experience with the Linux shell either, so I shy away from this...)
The previous thread linked to this thread, which was 'easier'.

However, reading the instructions, I need ADB drivers or something. No clue how to get these.
Also, avast has blocked parts of the file from downloading. (Zerg rush...?) I can disable avast's web shield temporarily, if you guys recommend this method.

This article which mentions a thread similar to the previous one.
Android Forums - Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro: All Things Root Guide.

I would rather do this using as foolproof, easy, and unlikely-to-brick method as possible.

Enable USB debugging from Settings->Applications->Development.
Install SuperOneClick on your PC.
Connect the phone to the PC via USB.
Run SuperOneClick and click Root.


text:
Android 2.2 : How add device admin
I can't figure out how to add / remove device admins from my HTC Desire running Android 2.2
Where in the settings screen is this feature located ?
Any help would be highly appreciated.

It should be located under Android Settings > Location & Security.
But you need apps that support this feature in order to make full use of it. If you have a Google Apps or an exchange account your admin will be able to use the corresponding features like password reset etc.
Certain apps (examples: Llama / WidgetLocker / WaveSecure) when made as device administrators are then allowed a higher level of access to system features.

Yes I saw this in certain posts... but the issue is.. i have not such menu option. I have Security and Location separately, and neither of those options expose device admin to me.


text:
How can I open Instagram links inside my Twitter app?
I'm looking for a way to open Instagram photos inside my Twitter app. I'm using Plume now, and it can open almost all the photos inside the app. When press and hold on the link the photo expands to the actual size, so Plume doesn't open the browser for every photo, and it's very convenient and quick. However, this technique doesn't work with Instagram links. When you select those, Plume opens the browser and redirects to the Instagram site, which takes several seconds. Twitter for Android is worse - it opens every photo link in the browser.
Is there a way for me to open photo links inside either of these apps quickly? If not, are there any alternative Twitter clients that support this?

Twitter for Android should show the image if you click on the tweet itself and view it, rather than clicking the link.  I don't know if it handles Instagram links though.

Well, it doesn't


text:
Can you upgrade the RAM of an Android device?
I'm sure many people like me are aware and annoyed by the extremely limited amount of RAM in Nexus S (512MB but only 300+ is usable), I have searched all over google for a solution to increase the amount of RAM available and came up empty (I tried swap file applications but they just broke my system's SD card partitions causing a complete reset).
I wonder if there is any hardware solution to this problem. Is it possible to swap the chip out for a bigger capacity one? I realize that it is not as simple as swapping out PC RAM from a dimm but I haven't seen any schematics for the chip layout on the ARM boards in the smartphones so I really hope that it is somewhat possible to increase the amount of RAM on the board.

It may be possible to add swap space, see Adding Swap Space Ram to G1

The rest of your RAM is used by the OS, "not usable" isn't exactly true.

I can only wish :(

You can't. Most smart phones are designed as a System-on-Chip; which means that the CPU, RAM, GPU, device controllers, etc are all in a single chip. Updating RAM in such system means replacing a whole lot of other stuffs. Not to mention that you probably would have a hard time finding a chip with different specification which fits perfectly into the hole that was left behind after you dismounted the chip; due to size restrictions, the components around the chip are designed to fit tightly into the available space.

In addition, having changed the hardware, it is highly unlikely that the existing drivers will work with that hardware. You would have to recompile Android with your new drivers! This is harder than it sounds.

And, you may ask, "why don't the designers make it possible to perform upgrades?" It basically comes down to size. Supporting upgradable RAM greatly increases the amount of space the internals take up which increases the size of the phone, the weight, etc.

Project Ara from Google might be able to bring this concept to reality!

@chromozonex Google announced that Project Ara won't allow you to change the CPU , RAM , Storage or even the battery

Note that RAM is rarely on the same chip as CPU and GPU. It's on a different chip that's packaged together.

The actual hardware: No. It is System on Chip (SOC) and cannot be upgraded.
However:
You can use Swap for this purpose. However, the performace will take a large hit, even on a class 10 SD card.
Swap is, in short, virtual RAM. With swap, a small portion of the hard drive is set aside and used like RAM. The computer will attempt to keep as much information as possible in RAM until the RAM is full. At that point, the computer will begin moving inactive blocks of memory (called pages) to the hard disk, freeing up RAM for active processes. If one of the pages on the hard disk needs to be accessed again, it will be moved back into RAM, and a different inactive page in RAM will be moved onto the hard disk ('swapped'). The trade off is disks and SD cards are considerably slower than physical RAM, so when something needs to be swapped, there is a noticeable performance hit.
Unlike traditional swap, Android's Memory Manager kills inactive processes to free up memory. Android signals to the process, then the process will usually write out a small bit of specific information about its state (for example, Google Maps may write out the map view coordinates; Browser might write the URL of the page being viewed) and then the process exits. When you next access that application, it is restarted: the application is loaded from storage, and retrieves the state information that it saved when it last closed. In some applications, this makes it seem as if the application never closed at all. This is not much different from traditional swap, except that Android apps are specially programmed to write out very specific information, making Android's Memory Manager more efficient that swap.
There are also other pitfalls with this method:
You need to turn off swap before you mount SD via USB, if you don't you will not be able to mount sd as swapfile is active and set to read only which will deny request to mount USB Storage.
TL;DR: Yes in theory, in practice it's not good!
As an alternative KitKat has a smaller memory footprint and is supposed to be optimised for 512 RAM devices, look around XDA for a ROM for your device maybe and see if that would help!

Is there any thing such as a RAM SDCard which is a RAMDISK SDCard

@SuiciDoga no, there is no such thing.

Maybe someone could make them

zRAM replaced swap. Swap is harmful to flash storage.

No it isn't. At least if you have to ask about it. Replacing any chip would require several thousand dollars worth of equipment and experience. Not to mention obtaining the correct replacement.

??? Replacing component chips is not something that requires thousands of dollars worth of anything. You need a compatible replacement chip which you’re trying to swap out and then you need a decent rework station, some solder balls (or paste) a proper chip stencil to line up the pins, flux and some kind of camera or trinocular in order to see the chip.
You can get all that for under $100! Soldering tiny components doesn’t require lasers, it’s a hot air tool. When you place solder properly and use enough flux, the solder literally will attract right into the metal points all on its own.

An Android device? Sure.
Hear me out.
Android is an operating system like any Linux distribution, or Windows.
Android can run on x86 hardware, or ARM boards too. (Well, usually it runs on ARM CPUs.)
You can put Android-x86 on your laptop/desktop. Or a virtual machine. Whatever.
The thing is, that you also mentioned that you want to upgrade a phone hardware.
That's a no go, since they use "SoC"s. (System-on-chip.)
Like a blackbox. Yeah, you can spot the components, disassemble it, but you cannot expand / repair it.
But for the original question... the main question, the answer is: Yes.

The answer is 'NO' you cannot upgrade the RAM of a smartphone yourself! Probably you are comparing it to the computer, as we can change the RAM in a computer but you're stuck with the size shipped with your smart phone (:

You can, use swap files and partitions on the external SD card to mimic RAM thus increasing what the device thinks it has as RAM. It won't be as fast, it's messy and inelegant though. "This kind of question made me laugh" is why I have downvoted this. Let's keep the tone polite. @Deepak.pm realistically you can swap, see the answer here: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/22997/can-you-upgrade-the-ram-of-an-android-device

I wasn't being harsh by saying it made me laugh.

It looks rude to be honest, and it isn't fully correct either. You CAN upgrade the RAM on your device, just not in a way that would be of use to most people. Link2SD causes a big hit at times let alone using Swap for RAM usage.

Yea well you're right, i was thinking more as a lay person.

You definitely can upgrade your RAM on your Android device. (I've done it before). It is, however, a lot of work and very expensive. It isn't as easy to replace as it is on a laptop. You need to be very specific when ordering new parts and for some devices, RAM isn't the only thing you'd need to replace. So of course you can, if the manufacturer does it, obviously so can you. You can do anything, you just need the money, knowledge and sources. But for most people it's just worth buying a new phone. But yes, you can -- I've done it for my Blu Studio 6.0 and a Nexus  device.

How did you do it?

This is possible but not even remotely easy to do by yourself (unless you are experienced repairman or electronics hobbyist). Unfortunately, device manufacturers are interested in quickest possible technical obsolescence of products so it's unlikely that they will agree to install some standard RAM slot so hardware solution to this problem requires soldering.
For example this site explains how to replace RAM chips on a HTC Universal which is Windows Mobile phone but it can be considered Android device too ;)
Basically it is enough replace RAM chips. To find compatible RAM chip you should first find out which chips are inside your device and teardown reports may help with that. Then you can try to find usual computer RAM modules with bigger compatible chips (datasheets about your RAM chip may help with that). If compatible RAM chips are accessible and you have good soldering skills  you can replace them using rework station, heat gun, soldering iron or of course you may ask some repairman to do this for you.
If you have any questions about RAM replacement process you can ask them on electronics.stackexchange.com

Even if you were to replace the RAM you'd also have to patch the BSP software to change the memory map visible to the CPU, so that it can use the extra RAM. Without access to the internal specifications that the manufacturer has, you'd probably brick the device trying to do that. The site that "explains how to replace RAM chips" is a dead link.

Use RAM Expander expanding to SD card

That doesn't add more RAM. Could you also provide a link?

The OP already stated that they've tried swap file apps.


text:
Are contacts from the Google account also stored on the phone?
Are contacts stored in Google Contacts also stored on the phone or are they only accessible if the phone has a data connection?

Why don't you try putting the phone into Airplane mode and seeing if the contacts are still there?

A copy is locally stored, so these contacts are also available when there is no current data connection.


text:
How to fix bad sector on NAND Flash Memory
A week ago, I flashed my Nexus S 4g with a custom kernel (Matrix) and ROM (CWM9). On reboot, my NS4G always bootloops, stuck on bootloader loading screen, and never gets to the Android System. It had the same result when I tried to flash it back to a stock ROM.
I removed the battery, put it again and tried to boot into recovery to use adb to check my SD card content with parted (I think there was a problem on partition). In parted I can reformat it using adb or recovery, but its content couldn't be changed. I think there was a problem with NAND flash.
Is there any way that I could Reformat NAND flash to fresh state?

Can you try restoring stock firmware & see if the problem persists? If so, turn the phone in for warranty. If not, it's an issue with the ROM.

since I dont bought it on my country, they wouldn't check/fix my phone. :(
no, I can't restoring stock firmware... :(

Stock firmware is available from Google: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

also, make sure you wipe the cache and system between flashing ROMS.

it's been a while. Since I dont know what happen here, I sold it to a friend. Case Closed... :)


text:
Revert contact ringtone to default
After selecting a non-default ringtone for a contact I apparently cannot revert it to the default ringtone anymore. Of course I can select the same ringtone but when changing the default ringtone that contact will still have the old one.
Is there a way to remove the custom ringtone from the contact and make it use the global default ringtone again? In case it matters, the phone is a HTC One V

Don't you have something called "Default" or something? Here's mine. http://i.imgur.com/cxUsP.png

Nope, I just have the "Default 1"..."Default 8" ringtones in the list next to the other ones which were already on the phone and none of them is the actual "default ringtone".

Bleh, looks like a bug: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=30193

Ouch, bummer. How could they something like that slide through.

And the HTC support is helpful like always. It's an obvious bug. So why do they ask me for my device serial number etc.?


text:
"Insufficient storage" when trying to install new app
Every time I go to install a new app, I get the message "Insufficient storage", and an unable to install anything!
I am using Samsung GT19060 my internal memory is 8GB. I have not downloaded anything but anytime I try to download something it will tell me low memory space.

Clearing the data of Google Play or the Android Market may free up some space. You could also check with the DiskUsage app to find out how data is structured on the internal memory and then delete any unused data.

how do I clear the data on the android market?

Should be something like Settings | Applications | Play Store | Clear data. Might help to "Force Stop" the app first.

This problem is related or even identical to the one described here: Something is secretly eating up my tablet memory and I need help finding it, so the list of possible steps to take described there might help you as well.

Possible duplicate of Google Play: Error downloading app - insufficient space

In short: 25 MB free internal storage is minimum requirement (source: TechniPages, AndroidCentral). If free space falls below that, the "insufficient storage" error is triggered.
For details, see:

Why does my phone keep telling me it has low storage?
Not enough storage on android device
Android “Internal Storage” used but not reported
I keep getting storage errors but I have plenty of free space, what is safe to remove from internal storage?
HTC Desire low on internal storage, I'm clueless — Any help?
Message Memory Full, Incoming message rejected

And many more -- this is a quite "frequent question". For more results, simply follow the internal-storage tag.

On a lot of devices it's set to 10% of the partition size rather than 25 MB, which is pretty absurd on devices with lots of storage.

Full ack to both: Yes, some have the 10% rule (which was not clear to me at the time I wrote the answer) – and yes, with today's devices mostly having at least 4, 8 or even 16 GB internal storage, that's an absurd rule at least for the latter two. But nothing we can do about that, unfortunately (except for installing a custom ROM maybe) …

Neither of your source links contains the info about 25MB

@MaksimDmitriev content of the linked pages changed meanwhile. My answer is from 1/2013, TechniPage has renewed its contents in 7/2015. I wouldn't have mentioned sources not backing my claim :) As for the 10% rule, see here, and also see our insufficient-memory tag-wiki.

The other 200 MB is reserved for future purposes
e.g.
1.Saving cache onto disk to free up RAM
2.File System
3.Moving some processes data to SD/ Flash Memory
It is recommended that you have at least 300 MB free space in case you want to install apps. And I'd recommend using a cleaning tool such as ccleaner because android is not good at memory management.

I had this problem with my galaxy tablet and what I did was basically go to app info on all of my apps and tap move to sd card if it let me. It seems to do it automatically  on its own now.

It seems the OP already has done that: I have spent quite a long time moving every possible app to the SD card

Not all internal memory can be used for installing apps. I think android allot a part of your internal memory for installation of apps. When that allotted space is over, you start receiving that error message. You can try following:

Uninstall Apps
Move apps to external storage or money card. You can do that by going to app settings. You may be able to move some apps by app settings option.
If you're still getting low memory issue, then you use This app. This is only app I found on play store which can move those apps to SD card which android app settings couldn't. But to use this, you need to be rooted.


text:
App to External SD on Samsung I9003
How can i install apps on Samsung Galaxy SL's external SD card?
2 GB Internal memory
2 GB Internal SD card
16 GB External SD card
Samsung Galaxy SL=I9003

You'll need to root and use something like link2sd. I'm unsure of the details though.

You can use App2SD for this. Keep in mind that not all apps can be moved to the SD card this way, also part of them will always remain in the internal storage. This does not require rooting.
You don't actually need the app but you can also do this via the application section of the settings menu. App2SD offers a nicer interface and hides those applications you cannot move to the card, though.
One alternative is Link2SD. This application is able to move all apps completely to the card. The downside is that it is more difficult to set up as it requires root and a separate partition on the SD card.

Upvoted but Link2SD doesn't move the data part of the app :D.


text:
Flashing radio to European G1 via Amon_Ra process: which version of radio 2.22.19.26i is safe for DangerSPL?
Cyanogenmod's wiki says to use dream_magic.radio-2.22.19.26i-signed.zip
But this revision says to use ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip
These files differ. My question is: which of them (or both?) is safe to use before flashing DangerSPL for the first time?
NB. The main difference between them seems to be that their META-INF/com/google/android/update-script files differ thus:

dream_magic.radio-2.22.19.26i-signed.zip:
assert getprop("ro.product.device") == "dream" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "dream" || getprop("ro.product.device") == "sapphire" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "sapphire"

ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip:
assert getprop("ro.product.device") == "dream" || getprop("ro.build.product") == "dream"

Any radio v2 or greater should be safe, but no reason not to flash the latest - that is known to be safe.

Those are the same radio. the file name is just different. notice the version number in both is: 2.22.19.26i. The first update-script was modified a bit so it supports both the dream (adp1/g1), and the magic (adp2). The OTA radio looks like it was specifically for the dream.
I, myself, would use the one that is for both the dream & magic, but really, it shouldn't matter.

The Dream & Magic/Sapphire are basically the same hardware as far as the radio is concerned.


text:
ICS Bluetooth Losing Connectivity
I have a Galaxy S2 Skyrocket on AT&T that is currently running Nexus ICS Zero Build 2 Rev.12.
I've been trying to pair the phone with my car. It will initially connect, but when I try to either use the phone or a music player, the bluetooth disconnects quickly. I've read about this happening to many people using ICS, but haven't found a solution.
Is there another ICS ROM that would work better for Bluetooth? Am I better off going back to GB?
Let me know if you need more info.


text:
What audio file formats does Android support?
What audio file formats does Android (ICS in particular) support? If this depends on the device, how can I find out?

The Supported Media Formats page of the Android SDK documentation (under the "Core Media Formats" subsection) outlines all of the formats that vanilla Android supports. Audio codecs specifically noted are:

AAC LC/LTP
HE-ACCv1
HE-ACCv2
AMR-NB
AMR-WB
FLAC
MP3
MIDI
Vorbis
PCM/WAVE

As the documentation also notes, manufacturers can provided decoders for additional media formats, meaning that this can potentially vary by device a bit. I'm not aware of any simple way to determine which extra formats are supported by a device aside from simply copying a sample over and attempting to play it with the stock music player.
Similarly, specific apps can potentially provide software decoding for additional codecs. MX Player provides codecs in the Play Store, for example.

The MOTODEV Site has the internal specs for every Motorola Android device. If you scroll to the "Media" section, you'll see the list of supported formats. Usually it's the Core Media Formats plus any extras.
For example, the RAZR...
http://developer.motorola.com/products/razr_maxx_xt910/


text:
How can you enable "Use secure credentials" from the shell
On the ICS ROM I'm using, the option to enable the secure credentials is missing from the menu, but the sub system seems to be there since Keystore Locker can communicate with it.
So does anybody know how I can enable/initialize secure credential storage from an adb shell?


text:
How do I merge SMS threads?
I sent an SMS to several contacts, so Android put it in one thread as "Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dylan, Ed, and 5 more". Then Bob and Ed replied, each having their own threads.
Can I merge Bob's and Ed's threads with the multi-contact thread? How do I do that?

What device do you have?

@Matthew, it's a Samsung Galaxy S Advanced that came with 2.3.6. I think it should be similar to the S, R, and S2.

From http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1227352 :

I successfully merged SMS threads by creating a backup using SMS Backup & Restore.
Just open the created .xml file in e.g. Notepad++, then replace your
  contact's old number in the "address" field with the new one. Now load
  the altered backup file back onto your phone, delete your messages
  from within the app, and restore your newly created backup file.
  Although it worked fine for me on the first try, I recommend keeping
  your initial backup file, and save your editing to a copy - just in
  case.
Using this method, I also fixed some splitted threads, where one
  contact with one number got split up in several threads, because of an
  incorrect number restore from backups when switching phones.
Hope this helps. :)

Here's SMS Backup & Restore

As far as I know this is not possible in the current Messages app for any of the Android releases.
Maybe you can consider third party SMS apps which handle multi-messages different.


text:
Is it safe to swap SIM cards when the phone is turned on?
On my Galaxy Nexus, I can remove the SIM card without removing the battery. I'm travelling abroad and will find a need to swap SIM cards several times in my phone. I would like to know if it is safe to simply pull one SIM card and put a different one instead, without shutting down the phone?
Safe = without damaging/locking/corrupting either the SIM card or the phone.

I disagree with Michael that there will "likely be trouble", but I'd guess it's likely not to work.  I've only got by Galaxy S to accept a SIM hot-swap once, and I have no idea how.  Every other time I've had to reboot.

I can't imagine how hot-swapping could even work as long as the cellphone system is turned on. Maybe hot-swapping works in airplane mode?

According to this guy it's not good to do it: XDA post

Why do iPhones and iPods allow for this behavior?  You can use a small tool to remove the SIM card try and then replace the tray with a new SIM card.  The OS seems to pick up the new SIM and carry on with no problems, unlike most of my Android devices which require battery removal and hence a default restart/power-up.

I know I'm late to the party, but I just arrived here from google, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents. I just did this with an SII on accident, didn't destroy the sim card or the phone. I had to restart the phone, but it recognized the new one.

According to Verizon, at least, you should not install/remove the SIM with the battery in. Also, every picture I've seen of a SIM card has the text 'do not install with battery in phone' or similar.
I think that the SIM card standard wasn't built with hot-swap in mind. This may be one of those things that you can get away with, but if it wasn't made for hot-swapping, then it's likely that there's going to be trouble if you try it. The question is - does phone off and battery in count as hot swapping?
Edit - I had been thinking that one should remove the battery because I don't know if the SIM gets any standby power. But Eric's comment below reminds us that some phones have fixed batteries, and therefore it MUST be safe to insert/remove the SIM in at least these phones with the battery installed.
I'm still going to pull the battery whenever possible for doing SIM swaps, but since I only swap SIMs once every never, it's hardly a hardship for me.

With the RAZR, you have no choice but to leave the battery in. I've removed the micro SIM many times in RAZR/MAXX while testing apps and upgrades with no harm. That's not the same as saying it's a safe practice, but I haven't had any ill effects (yet).

@EricCloninger - great point. Logically it must be safe to remove/install the SIM from a phone with a fixed battery (presumably with phone turned off), because we do it all the time. I've edited my answer.

Also the phone will never recognize the new sim until it is rebooted, so you might as well turn it of before swapping sims.

For a lot of phones, the SIM slot is even located behind the battery to make it physically impossible to remove the SIM card with the battery in place. There is possibly a reason for this...

My ZTE Blade s6 has a setup procedure where the phone is turned on with no sim in then in step three it says insert sim card and the phone is on at this time, it then walks you through the rest of the setup, so I think phones with a removable sim tray and fixed battery are OK to do this.

Hot swapping with the airplane mode enabled did not work and did not harm my google nexus

See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1486893&postcount=4 for more info, enabling 'airplane mode' before is seemingly necessary.


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Go Sms Pro: "Too many unsent multimedia messages" error
Every time I try to send a Multimedia message using Go Sms Pro, I get a
toast message saying: "Can't send message right now. There are too many unsent multimedia messages"

This doesn't happen when I send something through gomms (which is really only good for sending to other people with smartphones), and it doesn't happen when I use any other sms/mms client (like handcent or the default sms client). It only happens when trying to send an MMS message with Go SMS pro.
How can I get this to work? I would have thought that if this was a global bug issue, that it would have been fixed by now, so I am guessing that there is something I need to set/reset. What do I do to fix this?

I figured it out myself. Here's how I fixed it:
As it turns out, the message that says "Too many unsent multimedia messages" actually means that there are too many unset multimedia messages (who would have thought it!).
I went into the stock message client (the one that came with the phone), clicked the menu button, and selected the "unsent" menu tab. Then I clicked the menu button again, and selected the "delete" tab. Then I just deleted all of the unsent messages.
Now it works fine. Not sure why there was a limit on how many unsent messages there could be, and I'm still not sure why it worked with the stock client, and handcent, but not go sms, but, now it works!

This has happened to me at least once before. Very annoying. In my case I had to check every thread, and scroll up to look for failed mms messages in the thread(red !). Once one fails, apparently nothing else except regular txt will go through until the offender is deleted for some reason. I think I narrowed it down to a message I sent from my garage. With the doors shut and if I'm in the back, I get one signal bar if I don't move. I think I attached a pic, hit send, then stuck it in my pocket while it was trying to send. Why it doesn't send later when i get a better signal is beyond me. But, by checking all my threads, and deleteing each one the had a red ! eventually I was able to send the one I really needed to send. If it happens again, I'll update the post with more solid information.
Phone is G'zOne Commando, Android version 2.3.3 hope this helps someone.

This works for the Samsung Galaxy S8.

In GO SMS you can also:

Click the menu button
Click folders
Go the the outbox folder
Delete all the failed messages there

Worked for me - this was driving me crazy!

None of the explanations above worked for me with my LG G5, particularly because I was having trouble finding an app which allowed me to pull up my failed messages and drafts. Latest versions just seem to show the drafts inside the message threads.
Eventually I discovered that Handcent Next SMS comes with a delivery report showing failed messages and a button to pull up drafts. So I cleared all those out and everything is working nicely.

I have a note 3 and had the same issues.

Go in your settings and check to make sure sms is your default.
Under the sms program is a setting to make sms your default as well.
Your default notification on your phone system needs to be turned off so that you don't have multiple notifications.

Hope this helps.


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How to upgrade Galaxy Nexus from 4.0.1 to 4.0.4
I would like to know how to manually upgrade my Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Android version 4.0.1 to the latest 4.0.4.
I got this phone in Australia and it is currently running the "yakjudv" build rather than the standard "yakju" build. My understanding it that the "yakju" build is the standard one produced by Google and that the "yakjudv" build is one produced by my carrier and hence why I am not getting the standard Google updates.
I am prepared to move to the standard Google build if it is easier.

If you use CyanogenMod, you can see this tutorial.
Hope it can help you. http://thesuperusersguide.weebly.com/how-to-flash-a-rom.html

I think to move to the standard Google build, you have to root your Nexus to bypass the signature verification. Otherwise you can't go to the Google build.
I have a Nexus One and it's the same thing. Before, i can get the Google OTA, i had to root my phone.


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LG P500 Not Starting After Full Discharge
My LG P500, with FroYo, doesn't seem to be working. I let my battery completely die and now, even while plugged in, it won't turn on. Is this normal and should I just wait the battery to be charged out of the critical zone? Or is there something wrong?

I have the same issue. What I do is charge the phone for around 20 minutes, then I remove the battery and insert it again. After that it will turn on normally.

As Avio's answer says this is normal, but I assume you're wondering why.  It's because the battery doesn't have enough charge to keep the voltage level up.  The hardware will only work within a certain voltage range, just like PC hardware for example.  Most (all?) phones don't have the redundant circuitry and so on to allow them to be powered directly from the USB port while the battery charges, so you have to wait till the battery charges to the minmum required level.
As an aside, Android normally shuts down with about 5% of battery left, avoiding this problem.  Unless you turned it back on after this point, it might be that your version doesn't do this or that the battery stats are messed up and need to be wiped.

You're right, the device can't work properly if the voltage provided by the battery is under a given threshold. However I have a Samsung Galaxy S with ZDBox and the device works properly in the full range [0, 100] of battery charge. I also know of bump charging etc. so I suspect that hardware-to-software interactions are becoming more and more complex even for what concerns display/recharge of phone batteries.

@Avio That's the thing, when it displays 0 it's not really 0 ;)

Ahah you're again right, but only from a hardware point of view! :) What ZDBox displays, is a "software zero" that is not a "hardware zero" because at the "hardware zero" the li-ion battery would already have been damaged!

If the discharge hasn't been too deep, this should be normal. I use my iPod rarely and often I have to wait half an hour to have it boot up again.
Conversely, if the discharge has been too deep, it may be a problem. Quoting Wikipedia:

Deep discharge may short-circuit the cell, in which case recharging would be unsafe.

and

Overdischarge supersaturates lithium cobalt oxide, leading to the production of lithium oxide, [36] possibly by the following irreversible reaction [...]


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How can I change my Asus Eee Pad's language from Taiwanese to English?
I bought a Asus Eee Pad and when I did a factory reset the language was in Taiwanese.
How do I change it back to English? It looks like it only has Taiwanese on it.
I called Asus and they couldn't help me as they said that it had been converted into English by a Jail Broken Flash. I have no idea what that is.

Use the icons.
First look for the settings app or icon (looks like cog wheels). Scroll through the list of apps in your launcher. You can also press the menu button while on your main homescreen and choose the settings from there (same idea - look for the cog-wheel icon).
Once you're in settings, look for the menu option with a little 'A' icon on the side - that's the one for Language settings. Press that.
Now press the very FIRST menu option to get a list of languages.

Press the Shift button. It will change it back. That's what I did.