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Can a Nexus 6P be factory reset when screen cannot be used and phone off?
I broke my Nexus 6P screen, so am replacing it - usually I would factory the phone. However, I can't as the screen is completely black.
I power cycled the phone, but I am unable to enter the pattern to unlock the phone (fingerprint scanner only works after you enter the pattern after restart).
I used Android Device Manager to wipe it, but as I can't decrypt it through entering my pattern, it isn't online, so can't be wiped.
However, does any of this matter if the pattern can't be entered after power cycling? Surely the device is encrypted so my data is secure. And if anyone manages to guess my pattern, the device will be online and ADB will wipe it.
Should I do anything else?

Take a look at our locked-out tag-wiki. I remember there was a way via ADB to "reset" the pattern (to "none"), which might work in your case as well. Apart from which, it could be possible utilizing fastboot to do the wipe. Not sure concerning encryption here, but might be worth considering.

If you enter the password wrong too many times on your nexus device, it will factory reset your data (by default). It is also possible to factory reset through recovery mode by turning phone off, holding power and down volume simultaneously, clicking volume buttons until hitting recovery mode, then clicking factory reset.

Thanks - I can't enter anything on the screen though, and I am unable to see when the option for factory reset is highlighted in recovery mode.

OK it is a bit tricky but then you have to just click volume button and enter recovery mode by guessing. See this video: https://youtu.be/0nDLvy8F5qk and click buttons exactly as he says.


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How do I change my wifi cycle in moto g?
I had the same problem with data usage but that got solved. The drop down button in the wifi tab does not have the change cycle option. Please help with that.

The drop down button in the wifi tab does not have the change cycle
  option

That is very much expected. The data usage and monthly billing cycle of internet that you are using through Wi-Fi is provided via Router and is not controlled through Mobile device.
Since SIM-based Mobile internet is very much tied to the mobile itself, Android provides Setting to adjust the billing cycle to view/control data usage.
So, you cannot control your Wi-Fi Cycle via Android Settings. You may need to connect with your Internet Service Provider to check for change in Wi-Fi Billing cycle.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to send a special keyboard sequence using Microsoft Remote Desktop
I use official Microsoft client and I need to "press" Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Alt+End. How do I do that?

Scenario: Your PC (node_1) and Remote PC (node_2).
Open the onscreen keyboard Start -> All Programs -> Accesories -> Ease of Access -> On-Screen Keyboard on node_2.
When you want to send ctrl+alt+del, press Ctrl+Alt in node_1 and click del in node_2. (Worked for me in node_1=XP and node_2=Win7)

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


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Google Play Games doesn't restore highscores?
Maybe this question is totally dumb, but I was always under the assumption that if I connect a game with my Google Play account (if that's offered), my highscores, progress in games, etc. will be saved and restored if I connect it on another device or re-flash the phone's ROM?
However, with many games (like HexaBlast, Lara Croft, Temple Run etc.), no game stats and levels seem to get saved, I'm starting from point zero.
If Google Play Games isn't good for that, what's the actual point of connecting a game to Google Play Games at all?

Google Play Games Services support saving game progress since the beginning, and it's upgraded on November 2014. From Android Developer blogs,

[...], when Google Play Games launched, one of the very first features we included was the ability for users to save their game to the cloud [...]
[...] this past year (ed. 2014) at Google I/O, we launched an entirely new Saved Games feature, powered by Google Drive.

However, being able to save doesn't mean it will automatically save your game progress: the developer has to implement the logic that uses this service.
Anecdotally, I have played some (rhythm) games that use this service and worked properly when I replaced my Nexus 4 with Nexus 5. On your case, unfortunately, I have to say that this is fully the developers' fault.
As for why they use Google Play Games service, its features are not only for saving games: achievements, global highscores, etc.


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Nexus 4 disable vibrate
I am using a Google Nexus 4, running Android 5.1.1.
I am trying to disable vibrations when I use the unlock pattern, or the main button panel home, back, and open apps tray.
All of these buttons cause a vibration. I just did a factory reset and this problem arised. Before factory reset they did not vibrate. Factory reset did not change android version.
I have already disabled vibrate in the keyboard options. Where else can I disable it?

Here's what needs to be done:
Launch Settings app → go to Sound & notification → tap Other sounds and slide leftwards the switch for Vibrate on touch to disable the latter.
(Click an image to enlarge it)


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accidentally deleted my gallery app can you help me
i accidentally deleted my gallery app. mine phone is rooted and its micromax a120. so can u help me to recover the app or u can provide me a link so i could download from that link. plz help me. plz

Download your phone's stock gallery app then move it to system/app change the owner

Owner 0 - root
Group 1013 - media

Then install apk and restart then you're good to go

But dude the substitute doesn't have gallery with it n not every camera can do what ur inbuilt camera can do.

I'm so sorry I tought what you're missing is a camera app. You can do the same method above with a stock or generic gallery app

Ya but u know why I m asking for that camera n gallery cuz they were best, as far as i m concerned

you can download any gallery app you like

Your answer is prone to malfunction, if OP'S SELinux is set on Enforcing. Please perform further research, and add a way to change the new app's context.

well maybe but this method works for me


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Changing Default Homescreen on MIUI 7
This is for an Mi Pad running MIUI 7. The default home screen is the first one which allows only widgets & not apps. Googling around, several sites say that you can change the def home screen - i.e. make the 2nd or any other screen the home screen by doing the 3 finger swipe and pinch. I even found videos which show this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7QGDQTYbGw
But when I do this, it shows up other options -> Move App, Widgets, Wallpaper, Effects (this is supposed to shown for the 2 finger pinch). For me both 2 finger and 3 finger pinch brings this up.
What am I doing wrong?

I am not experienced in the MIUI device but one alternate method could be to download an android launcher. Launchers like Google now or nova work really well in my opinion. I know this doesn't really fix the issue but, chances are you'll like these launchers better than the default one.

Do launchers change the default screen? The first screen in MIUI is a widget screen where I cannot have any icons which did not come with the tablet.

Yes almost all of them do

The 3 finger swipe and pinch shows your pages(all screens). And the default home screen will be in orange color at home icon. If you need to change it just tap over the home icon of the page that you needed. Then, it will be set as default home screen. Here, also you can drag and arrange your screens.

Did you read my question?

I am using redmi 1s, miui 7. In my device, 2 finger pinch shows, move apps, widgets,wallpaper,effects. And, 3 or 4 finger pinch shows all of your screens on screen.

Or just do a wipe cache. Goto Updater > Select 'Reboot to Recovery mode'(from 3 dots on top-right). Your device will boot into recovery, select language, select 'wipe &reset' and select 'wipe cache'. after that 'reboot to system'. And try again

Looks like changing home screen is not supported in Mi Pad only in Mi Phones.

Is this your post @user93353 :   http://en.miui.com/thread-270332-1-1.html

Not sure if you still have this problem but I just experienced it today. My solution:
3 finger swipe isn't actually a swipe. I just touched 3 fingers on the screen at the same time and hold and then instead of swiping, do a closing motion towards the center. Then the screen to edit pages appears.

Do you have a Xaomi Phone or Tablet?


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Sound stops in mid-call (incoming sound only, outgoing sound is fine)
I have a bizarre problem and I don't know whether it's my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4), my Bluetooth headset (Plantronics Voyager Legend), my carrier (T-mobile) or our corporate conference call system (AT&T).
In the middle of a conference call, the sound I hear on my end will just stop. The call is still active, however, and other people on the phone call can still hear me. This has happened four or five times now. It has never happened with any of the personal phone calls on the same setup.
When it happens, if I turn off my headset and go to use the phone itself, the problem still occurs. So it makes me think that it's not related to the headset.
No one else on the conference call seems to have this problem, so maybe it's my phone rather than the conference call system. Update 4/29/2016: Just confirmed it's not the conference call system, it happened on a long call (90 minutes) direct from another phone, without involving AT&T conference calling.
I don't know what to search for on the internet. Has anyone heard of something like this happening, either to Android or to Samsung phones?


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Spell check without auto-correct?
I find more often than not auto correct makes incorrect suggestions.
Is it possible to get a spell check similar to that on desktop where it underlines mistakes in red?

What keyboard are you using? Google Keyboard? If not, please also specify the device model and Android version.

Cm13 standard android keyboard


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Custom ROM installation without PC
I have downloaded many ROMs for my Android device (Micromax A120) but can't flash them. Can someone tell me how to flash those ROMs without any PC.

I don't recommend flashing ROM's without PC (Or other device).
Because think about it, if you want to flash it using a program or something else, then you are changing the system while the system is running, which is definitely not good (Some files might corrupt).
But if you are using the SD card method, then that might be good enough..
But still, PC flashes ROM without the actual android to work anything.
For flashing with PC, I would recommend this Link: XDA-Developers. Tho you might find an easier way with some research, or someone else might know an easier way for your device.
If you are really determined, you can use those links to get the general sense of it; (Btw, most of the methods to flash it self requires Root)
Warning: You will void your warranty if you Root or Flash custom ROM.
AndroidPit: Samsung devices to flash custom ROM w/o PC
TechnoWorm: Flash custom ROM w/o PC
AndroidForums: Flash ROM w/o PC
Skyneel: Root Micromax A120


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File transfer with linux pc through mobile hotspot
How do I  transfer files with a PC running Linux (Ubuntu) via the mobile hotspot (not through wifi)? (Perhaps with another third-party application)

Does the pc have wifi functionality? Then yes, just connect to your Hotspot and transfer with any networking app. I suggest FTP or SMB.

The set up of file transfer between Android device and Linux PC is similar to  Windows and can be achieved in a variety of ways.
I created  simple tutorial illustrating the simplest way to do it (without need for extra tricky terminal commands in Linux, or installing additional packages)
Requirements:

Mobile hotspot
Linux PC (running any linux distro eg Ubuntu, Mint, Kali etc but for this tutorial I used Zorin OS)
with Wi-Fi functionality
Android file explorer capable of FTP/SMB/SFTP protocols (I used ES explorer for this task)

Instructions

Connect Linux PC to hotpsot.
Open ES File explorer and go to Networks >> Remote Manager (FTP protocol) and turn on service. See screenshot.

Open terminal Ctrl+Alt+T and type ifconfig (just to be sure the PC was assigned a correct IP by the DHCP) The dhcp range is  192.168.43.xxx

Using File manager from Unity Launcher head to Connect to server under Other Locations and input FTP server details and port number (ftp//192.168.43.1:3721/)

Enter login details or leave as anonymous:

From now you can access files in your android device on Linux PC, and can perform various actions e.g copy,paste etc (some names hidden for other reasons)

Will this method let me write on the SD card from the PC?

@becko Sure it does! the user has rw permissions by default, to prevent unathourised access you may set password authentication

There are many FTP clients for android in play store, you can use that to create a FTP serever on phone, and access the server from computer,


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app2sd via android terminal emulator?
ok so ik this has been asked 1,000,000 times...but not like this, i have a rooted plum z550 running stock kitkat 4.4.2, i dont have a pc, this phones default internal storage is 0.89 gigs...which is shit, phone storage is like 5 gigs and i have a 16 gig external sd...by default app and app data gets stored to internal storage and these days most new apps dont have option for move to sd...how can i change default download storage without a computer or another app ie...android terminal emulator or even root browser? please help thx

You cannot change the default file system of either and how they are able to function.

Maybe changing the default write memory could solve your problem, see the last entry in the Storage and Memory menu:

Settings->Storage and memory (click image for larger variant)


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How to use my voice instead of default voice in text-to-speech Android?
I want to use my voice instead of default voice for the text-to-speech in Android. Any idea?

You can not replace the voice in default TTS, but you can use external engine and add your voice there.
For example, you can use Flite TTS with your own voice. To add your voice, record voice samples from the existing database (500 samples) and build your voice with the build scripts, then add your voice into TTS. That will take some time though.

"You can not replace the voice in default TTS, but you can use external engine and add your voice there." Doesn't work. No matter which engine I choose, the phone will use the default, on-board voice.

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


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Why Do I Have .APK Files in Every App Folder?
I have noticed .APK files in /Apps/[app name]/ directories and while I thought it supposed to be in /System/Apps/[app name]/ directory would it cause errors if I delete .APK files?

I am also wondering if Android no longer unpacks apps and reads straight from .APK files. According to screenshot below and comparing WeChat's .APK size with size shown in properties it seems like to be the case:

The APK files you mentioned are the very core of an app: if you delete them, the app will no longer result as installed, and will therefore be unable to be launched. This applies to system apps too.

Keep in mind that deleting those APK files will cause massive issues with reinstalling the apps. Always do a proper uninstall and delete the respective folders in /data/data as well as the records of the app in /data/system/packages.list.

@GiantTree It isn't necessary to manually delete the folder corresponding to the app in /data/data/. That's usually handled by Android itself after a reboot.


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System apps location on Android Jelly Bean
I chose to pose this question here, since I don't have any Jelly Bean device nearby.
On Android KitKat, system apps are located at /system/priv-app/. On Lollipop and Marshmallow, instead, they're placed under /system/priv-app/name-of-the-app/.
Following a similar fashion, I would like to know the path of those apps which are installed as system apps, on Android devices in a version range going from 4.1.x to 4.3.x (namely, all of the Jelly Bean builds).
Are their APKs located under the /system/app/ folder directly, are they placed in a folder of the same name of the corresponding app, or are they present in a completely different folder?
Thanks in advance.

Have you tried Android-x86? It can solve the query. BTW, in Android 5+, system apps are scattered in /system/app and /system/priv-app.

@Firelord Sadly, the quality of my Internet connection is not even good enough to allow me to download an ISO.

Have you read this: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/ccbf84f?

On my JDQ39 SDK 17 Jellybean 4.2.2 version all system files are in directly /system/app.

To my knowledge, before Kitkat .apk files of system apps all went to /system/app. Kitkat added the /system/priv-app directory. The structure having an additional directory level came later (LP or MM).
References:

AOSP Privileged vs System app
What's the difference of /system/app/ and /system/priv-app
Android 5.0/Lollipop: Force rescan of /system/priv-app


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How can I use phone speaker while headphones in
How can I output the audio through the normal phone speaker while plugging my headphones?
I'd searched a lot, but seems to find nothing except this answer and it didn't work on Nexus 6 nor Note 3.
Actually I need to use my headphone as mic pnly and the normal phone speaker to output sound.

Asking as a developer or an end user? Have you tried SoundAbout app?

Asking as a developer, but I want to verify it works as a user first.

@Firelord , beeshyams The app doesn't work for me! I must be doing something wrong.

Works fine in my Nexus 6. Can you explain the steps you took with that app? All I did in that app was set Media audio to Speaker, connected the headphones, increased the volume since that app muted it and there we go.

I did the same steps. I'll try another headphone and will get back to you in minutes.

It doesn't work with me on either headphones. How is that possible? I have marshmalleow. I think you have the same version too.

I'm using build MMB29Q of Android M. Can you try this app on your Note 3?

I have do it now it doesn't work at first ,but it does now and returned to my nexus and it works there too. Now. Thanks ;)

So, could you post an answer mentioning how you made it work somehow?

There is something weired here though. The mic got that is recording is the one that is built in not the headphones one.

@Firelord I have write the answer. you might wanna review it.


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What do the terms root, bootloader unlock, custom recovery and ROM installation mean?
I'm trying to root my Galaxy Note 4 and I see the above terms being used everywhere. What do each of them mean? I have a vague idea about each of them, but I'm still confused about some of them.
A brief description about each would be enough. Thanks in advance.

Use search function of this site

The answers to such a question reminds me of bike-shed effect.

The Term Rooting in android means to  gain super user access(Administrator access) for which root access is requires as the su binary should be installed to /system partition.
This is usually done via a Recovery.Every android phone have a in-built recovery which can generally only flash OTA updates and ROM's provided by the device’s manufacturer. So a custom recovery like CWM,TWRP etc is installed.A custom recovery has more features and allows you to flash any suppoerted file.
Each android device has a bootloader which is something like BIOS in PC.And many phones comes with locked bootloader which prevents users from installing any other ROM. Hence unlocking bootloader is a common term related to rooted devices.
ROM stands for Read Only Memory. A custom ROM replaces your device's Android operating system normally stored in read-only memory with a Different OS. Installation of Custom Rom is the process of flashing a Custom ROM usually using a Custom Recovery/ADB

Root - means having "superuser" or administrator access to the OS.
Bootloader unlock - means allowing the device to boot a custom OS.
Custom recovery - allows you to make a complete backup of the internal storage as well as flash ZIPs.
ROM installation - is actual process of installing a custom OS.


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Bricked Nexus 7 in Recovery Mode
I have a Nexus 7 2012 grouper in recovery mode (TWRP). I have wiped the /system /cache and /data partitions and believe it has wiped the /boot partition. When I go to file manager, it says the /boot folder is empty. I don't want to reboot the device because it may render it unusable. What should I do?

Not every partition can be formatted. I can't remember the correct technical term though. Perhaps somebody else can remind us that. Your boot partition would remain intact unless you overwrite it. Now, keep the phone plugged in to power source, use a PC to download a flashable zip for a ROM and side load it in device. Alternatively, even if you power off the device or reboot it, it's not like it would be the end of the world for your device. You can always use magical key sequence (key combo) to boot into recovery or fastboot mode.

BTW, you can download the stock ROM from here and flash it using fastboot mode too.

I've just flashed the latest cyanogenmod grouper nightly by putting the zip on my device from my PC then installing it using twrp. I've heard something about the boot.img needing to be intact. I just want to be fully sure my device will survive a reboot.

If you flashed that ROM then it would have overwritten the boot partition with its own boot.img. So at this moment, your boot partition contains a kernel image. To satisfy yourself to the fullest, extract boot.img from that zip and flash it using Install option of TWRP. Choose Install Image in drop-down menu and select the boot image -> boot partition and done. Oh, and that boot directory is empty here as well, even though I've a perfectly running device.

OK, I've done that, and it said [IMAGE FLASH COMPLETED] . I'm going to restart it now. Shitting myself because I've already perma-bricked a phone. Not having a tablet go too lol.

It worked! Thanks :D . Never been so happy to see that smiley blue alien thing in my life!

Download the factory image for your device here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Follow the instructions at the top of the page to flash. Note that the WIFI and Mobile versions have different images. Make sure to use flash-all otherwise the bootloader and radio will remain the same and the images won't flash.
Another option if you want to keep your ROM would be to download the factory image for the version you have on the device and flash only the boot.img using fastboot flash boot boot.img instead of flash-all. That should restore your boot but you have to know which version you have on the device.


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Allow usage of SID and LSID cookies in Android browser
I have a fresh Android 5.1 phone with two separate Google accounts already configured. I just started up the Android Browser and got a confirmation dialog about whether I want to allow Google to use SID and LSID cookies. The popup also referred some kind of Terms and Services document, but wasn't too specific about it. Didn't do anything about it, just went back to the home screen.
On second browser startup, the original confirm dialog was replaced by a popup showing an hourglass animation, and some status message about Google authentication being in progress.
On third browser startup, it just navigated to the factory default homepage.
Questions:

What exact permissions did the browser / Google request on the first startup? What are the pros/cons for accepting / rejecting access? (I don't really know what a SID/LSID cookies are for, so please be verbose.)
Is there a way to change my mind later on? Where should I look for this configuration option?
Why did the confirmation dialog not show up on the second and third browser startups?

(Note: someone asked question 1. on the AndroidCentral forum 4 years ago, no answers received as of yet...)

Same here. Just rooted and installed Cyanogenmod 12.1 / Android 5.1.1 on my S III, and got this prompt when I opened the browser.

From Google Privacy & Terms - Types of cookies used by Google

Preferences
[...] Most Google users will have a preferences cookie called ‘NID’ in their browsers. A browser sends this cookie with requests to Google’s sites. The NID cookie contains a unique ID Google uses to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language (e.g. English), how many search results you wish to have shown per page (e.g. 10 or 20), and whether or not you wish to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on.
Security
We use security cookies to authenticate users, prevent fraudulent use of login credentials, and protect user data from unauthorized parties.
For example, we use cookies called ‘SID’ and ‘HSID’ which contain digitally signed and encrypted records of a user’s Google account ID and most recent sign-in time. The combination of these two cookies allows us to block many types of attack, such as attempts to steal the content of forms that you complete on web pages.

This looks like an answer to the first part of the question (1. What is SID/LSID?). Since it seems generally useful to allow SID/LSID usage, parts 2. and 3. (how to opt-out later & why did the confirmation dialog disappear after the first browser startup) is a bit less relevant, but still might be of interest.

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


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Internet not working in browsers on mobile data, but works on WiFi and in all apps. Please help!
I get the error "ERR_CONNECTION_RESET" in Chrome along with the message "This site cannot be reached" when I am on a mobile network. However, all apps, such as New York Times, The Guardian, etc. work fine and can download and display content just fine.
If I switch on the Wf-Fi, then internet works both in apps and in the browser.
I have also tried using Firefox and Opera, but I get the same issue.
Incidentally, the Gmail app behaves the same as the browsers: It cannot connect to the internet when on mobile networks.
I am using a Lenovo tablet.
Any help would be much appreciated.

I have the same problem. that happens with Google Chrome over WIFI i have internet and can use YouTube App but the Browser isn't working.
I resolved the problem by removing Chrome and installing it again.
The problem disappeared, but i noticed it happened again when i allowed " Enable data saver feature on Chrome's settings/Advanced Datsaver" Make sure you have it turned off.

You saved my day! Thank you :) So when "Data Saver" was kept ON, the Chrome browser wasn't working when phone is connected to a WiFi network.

You need to remove proxy in apn setting it will work.
Settings->Mobile data ->access point code -> click on selected option -> remove proxy it will start working...

I also faced the same issue. After tons of goggling, I found that in APN there is a proxy set option. Somehow mine was set to some value. Once I nullified it, the browser started loading, mobile data as well. Proxy shouldn't be set to any values, either in mobile data or on wifi.

Have you set your APN settings correctly? Go to your carrier's website and do some googling to find the correct APN settings for your network. Once you have found them, you should be able to enter them by going to
Settings>Mobile Networks>Access Point Names (APN) and creating one with the correct APN settings.

I had the same issue and it worked now after the APN update


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"Too many attempts. Please try later." message on first Dropbox login after install
Fresh Android 5.1 phone, just installed Dropbox app from Android Play Store. Started the app, tried to log in for the first time, got a message: "Too many attempts. Please try later"
Dropbox works OK on my other devices, including my previous Android phone.
I did some googling, and it seems that other people did face the same problem recently:
Dropbox Community Forum thread, a comments suggest that retrying after several hours may solve the problem. This workaround didn't help in my case (yet).

It appears that the current version of the app is buggy.  Nothing we can do about that.
However, a workaround was posted:

I navigated into the website login > account > security > two-step verification. Added my phone number as my 2nd step of verification (they send a code for new logins) and low and behold I got into the app first try with no problems!

Using an older version of DropBox might also work.  I'd suggest 5.2.6, from February before the issue appeared.

I enabled 2-step verification (using Google Authenticator instead SMS messages), and it actually fixed the problem.


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LG4 - Can't Find App's Data
I have a LG4 and I have installed an app being developed internally. I am trying to view the data of this app but can't find it.
Do I have to root the phone to be able to view the data? I look in both internal storage and SD card but can't find the app.
Internal Storage/SD Card
I have no data directory in the root, only Android/Data and in there it's

com.airbnb...
com.android...
com.google...
com.lge...

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

An app has private data and optionally public data. The private data  goes inside a directory with name as the package name and located inside /data/data/ - an ordinary user/app cannot read that data. The public data may either go into internal SD card or external SD card, whichever is set as default and the app having permission to write it. /sdcard/Android/data is where often the public data goes. Some apps opt to create a dedicated folder under the root of default storage as well.
Now, how do you access the private data?

Since you noted that the app is in development, it may be possible that it is marked as debuggable1 (android:debuggable="true"). If that's the case, then setup adb in PC and execute the command:
adb shell
run-as PACKAGE   # PACKAGE is the package name of your app

Note: run-as would work only for debuggable apps.
If successful, run-as would drop you into the data directory of your app where you can see whatever you intend to see.
Follow this answer from marmor as an example.
If the app hasn't explicitly declared itself not to be backed up1 (android:allowBackup="false"), you can use adb to backup the app. To do so, execute the command:
adb backup PACKAGE

This will create a file named backup.ab in the working directory from where adb is called.
In order to extract the data from the backup, follow an answer from here: How do you extract an App's data from a full backup made through "adb backup"?
Yes, if the first two methods fail, then the Android should be rooted. Once you've root, you can use a file explorer or even a terminal emulator app to read the desired data.

1 Unless there is an explicit app to tell you so, you would be required to read the manifest of the involved app in order to ascertain whether it is debuggable or disallows backup. Axel (XML Editor / Viewer) and App Browser can help you to read manifest.

Got there - thank you very much. Could one take apart the APK, build it, sign it, with the necessary backup/debuggable features enabled?

@pee2pee : that is doable and quite a chunk of users do edit the manifest of apps for one reason or another. However, I've never edited the manifest of an app so I don't think I can offer any help in that regard. Moreover, if you intend to know about it, it would be nice if you ask it as a separate question.

pen-testing.sans.org/blog/pen-testing/2015/06/30/modifying-android-apps-a-sec575-hands-on-exercise-part-1


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How can I transfer photos from my Android Jelly Bean device to laptop while preserving the original timestamp?
I want to transfer my photos from Samsung galaxy Pocket Neo gt-s5312(4.1.2,Jelly Bean) to Laptop with out changing Time Stamp (File creation date and modified date).I tried MTP,Bluetooth,wifi,mail attachment,adb pull and GoodSync  but no use.Please help me.Thanks.

How about zipping them on your device and mailing then to yourself?

The easiest way to get your photos transferred to your laptop is directly using USB cable to copy and paste them there.

The questioner said he already tried using MTP (i.e. the protocol it uses when you plug it in with a USB cable), and that doesn't work to preserve the timestamp.


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.com.google.chrome files in my Downloads
I have a bunch of files in my "Downloads" folder with names that start with ".com.google.chrome".
What are these files?  Is it possible that they are failed downloads?

If they are  downloads (failed or not), then you can find out what initiated those downloads and from what URL were they supposed to fetch their remaining parts. /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/databases/downloads.db can tell you that. Related: Export list of Downloads (no root)


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Nexus 7 2012 Not waking from sleep
Often, when I try to wake my nexus, the screen stays completely blank and the tablet refuses to do anything. To get my device working again I have to hold the power button for about 10 seconds, which hard resets the device. I unlocked my bootloader and installed cyanogenmod to see if that helped, but it didn't. This is extremely annoying as well as time wasting, driving me to the point where I just don't use my tablet anymore.
I have tried:

Factory resetting the device
Installing a new rom (A bunch of different cyanogenmod nightlies and snapshots)
Waiting for the device to become responsive again

A quick Google search shows I'm definitely not the only person with this issue. I'll be happy to provide more information if need be.

So you're saying that the problem persist with stock kernel as well?

Yes. The reason I moved to cyanogenmod was because stock was acting up.

For the purpose of troubleshooting, can you backup your current ROM (optional) then flash stock ROM and see if the issue persist? I want to make sure that the kernel is not the problem here.

If possible, I would prefer to not flash any more ROMs unless absolutely necessary. I know for a fact this happens on stock because as I said in the post, I only switched to unofficial firmware because I was having the issue.

I'm in the process of trying to reproduce the problem and do a logcat. Hopefully that will help.

OK, so I've reproduced the problem and the nexus isn't wake-able. I've plugged the device into my PC to do a logcat, but doesn't show up in the terminal when I type adb devices like it would when wake-able.


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cannot restrict telephone background data specifically for google playstore without restricting all other apps as well
Lately I noticed in data settings that google playstore is transfering a ton of data in the background while I am connected to telephone network. This costs me money. If I go to playstore's settings there is an option to restrict background data but then it says I must set a data limit to let it work. The problem is that the data limit limits all apps I don't want to limit all apps. I just want to turn off background data only for playstore.

You could set the limit to an imaginary value (e.g. 10GB), that does the job. Also see: Google Play updates on mobile connection despite setting / Can you limit data for a number of apps and leave others unlimited? / Is it possible to selectively limit background data usage?


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Measuring temperature using built-in laser in Nexus 5x
I know it's possible to measure temperature using a laser, and Nexus 5x phone has laser-based focus. So it might be possible to use reading of the laser input and output to gauge temperature at what your camera is focusing on maybe via root access.
However, is it really possible to do that, perhaps using some apps?

I'm not an expert in this field, but reading the explanation of infrared thermometer on Wikipedia, I don't think general Android pdevice has sufficient component to do the reading. Here's the explanation from Wikipedia:

By knowing the amount of infrared energy emitted by the object and its emissivity, the object's temperature can often be determined....
...
The design essentially consists of a lens to focus the infrared thermal radiation on to a detector, which converts the radiant power to an electrical signal that can be displayed in units of temperature after being compensated for ambient temperature.
(Emphasis added)

Even if the Android device has IR laser, I don't think it has a thermal radiation detector installed.
There's an app called IR Thermometer by Sensorcon on Play Store which needs their Sensordrone product to do the reading. Other product, like RYOBI Phone Works also claim that it can do infrared themometer, but again, you have to buy their sensor to do the reading.


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Is it possible to get the password from a wps wifi connection?
At school we have two wifi networks, one for teaches and one students, but the teacher network is much faster and is available everywhere in the building. I could connect to it by pressing the wps button on a repeater, but some of my classmates could not because they have iphones (iphones don't have wps). I would like to help them by telling the password, but i don't know if there is a way to retrieve it from this kind of connection. And this is what i'm asking your help for: Can i get the password somehow?
Thanks for your time.

Yes, WPS is insecure and the WPS PIN can be used to recover the password.
This app and this app claim to be able to do so if you have root.
However, as pointed out by Izzy the password should also be available as plain text in the file /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf after you have successfully connected to the network once.

How can i get the wps pin? I just pressed the button at the back of the router and on my phone and they connected. I didn't type in any pin.  Could you suggest a programe for rooting my phone?

@LeventeKovács See http://android.stackexchange.com/q/1184/1465 and feel free to post a new question about rooting your device if it does not appear in that list.


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Windows 10 PC cannot play MP3 files from android LG G3 with 0 bytes
I was trying to edit one of my sound files on my phone in audacity eariler today, when I discovered that the files held "0 bytes" and were inaccessible by any players on hand.
Info:

LG G3 does not charge using stock charger
Windows 10's windows media player fails to play MP3s
MP3s are playable using stock android player
Windows explorer shows problem files as "0 bytes"
MP3s are stored on SD Card

Attempted fixes:

Restarting phone/PC
Replacing USB cable

Cable from Amazon Fire tablet opens on windows but no consistent MP3 file access

Switching PCs
Cleaning Parts
Removing and reinserting SD card
Using VLC to play files
Using Audacity to play files
Moving/Copying files to desktop
Uninstalling/Reinstalling Android driver
Enabling USB Debugging

EDIT 4/29/2016: Tried using Windows 8.1 and a Chromebook, but former came up as zero and no Internal/SD card detected on the latter.
EDIT 5/2/2016: Just realized that the problem MP3s are also listed as "Size: Unknown" in the default android music app. However, they still play normally.

Does copying using card reader make a difference?

Was you phone unlocked as you did this, or sitting on the side with the screen off?

Also, if files are in SDCARD, did you SD Adapter to view files in PC?

I tried using two SD card adapters and my laptop's card reader. No files were shown and no windows opened even after reinstalling the drivers for it. So basically nothing happened
I did have to leave the screen on so that I could press allow on the USB permission prompt on the LG G3, but I don't remember any sort of change because of the screen being on.

Try this...go to and File-Upload website from your phone, and try to upload one of your songs. Now go to your PC and download it.
Check what happens...

Strange. That worked. I uploaded a song from my phone to Google Drive and it played in both the browser and in WMP after download. Still doesn't work over a cable, however.


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Block 4g when WiFi is available, and limit access to programs
What's the best way to config it? If WiFi is available, 4g remains locked.
When WiFi isn't available, use 4g, but only for Watsupp and no video.

If your device is rooted, you could try Smart Network or have a look at [tag:automation] tag for other means

Thanks, but Google play said that Smart Network isn't available in my country :/


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Custom shutdown animation
first post here...
So I'm attempting to utilize a custom shutdown animation on my LG K7 that I use for dev purposes..
Ive made backups of the original shutdownanimation.zip, and using custom pictures (same .png format, resolution,color depth, etc) I've replaced the original picture files within the zip with the new ones.
Shutdown only displays a black screen.
So I push backup back to phone, displays LG logo again.
Deciding to experiment, I took my stock bootanimation.zip, renamed it to shutdownanimation.zip and overwrote the shutdownanimation.zip on my phone.
As expected, this gave me the stock boot up animation during shut down.
So I decided I would take a copy of the original shutdownanimation.zip file, and simply edit the existing pictures within it using an image editor.  I just opened each of the two original picture files within the zip and used a drawing tool to write 'custom' over the lg logo, then overwrote the new picture files back into shutdowanimation.zip and pushed to phone.
I though for sure I would see the altered LG logo, but instead I got a black screen.
Any ideas?
Update: Im wondering if some mechanism is in place to prevent alteration of the bootanimation or shutdown animation?  At first I was thinking it was some file format issue, so I took picture #150 from part0 in bootanimation.zip and replaced every odd picture with picture #150... i.e. part0 pic # 101,103,105... = pic #150 So that this way I didn't even alter any images.  Upon moving to phone and rebooting, the boot animation ignores part0 completely where I made the changes and only plays part1.

ANSWER:
So this took me some troubleshooting to fix.
During this process I was using the Linux Archive Manager GUI to work with my animation files.  This was my mistake.
At one point, as a test, I deleted folder part0 from the archive, and then added it right back in and pushed it back to the phone.
Black screen.  This was my "A-Ha!" moment.
My archive manager was automatically compressing everything I added to it.  Thus, after adding part0 back into the archive I noticed the compression ratio changed from 0.99 to 1.34...
Easy fix:  I created an uncompressed new bootanimation.zip file
zip -r -0 bootanimation.zip part0 part1 desc.txt
worked flawlessly. Custom animations now work.


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Internal Storage Memory reduced after installing custom ROM
I just installed Cyanogenmod 12 into my HTC Desire 816 , for flashing I used TWRP. So the whole proccess was as follows:

Install CM via TWRP
Reinstall CM and GAAPS

Everything works fine and dandy but I have one big problem. My internal storage only shows 4gb of total space, from which I have only like 1GB of free space available. The phone originally came with 8gb of internal storage, and is just after I did this that it was reduced. I did clean up all the Dalvik cache, I also tried doing a new factory reset, but still it's showing only 4gb.

"and is just after I did this that it was reduced": I very much doubt that (no offense meant), but according to specs at GSMArena the device shipped with 8GB altogether. Now guess where the ROM would go to (and where your "original ROM" was)? One usually has to substract a few GB from the specs which are reserved for the system. 2-3 GB are not unusual. So your "internal storage memory" available to you never was 8G, but most likely something about 4-6 GB.

Unfortunately, devices with small ROM are prone to quick "runout", as correctly pointed out by previous comment. It is indeed true that the "actual" ROM size is not the one stated from the vendor but the one dictated by the Android OS itself. As an example, try to insert an SD card to your computer then right click and get to the properties. You will see that although empty , the available memory is less than the total memory reported. This is because also the SD card host some hidden files necessary for the proper functioning of the card itself.
Hopefully you will have a slot for a microSD card on your phone so that you can save all your media and transfer most of the apps to it thus keeping your internal ROM as free as possible.


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Android logcat which app spams logcat
On my Oneplus Two android phone I recently updated to android 6.0. Since then my battery life has decreased drastically. Plugged into my computer I saw that a app is spamming the logcat even when the screen is tured off and the device should sleep.
04-23 22:49:48.278 666-666/? W/ipacm: type=1400 audit(0.0:19622): avc: denied { sendto } for path="/dev/socket/ipacm_log_file" scontext=u:r:ipacm:s0 tcontext=u:r:ipacm-diag:s0 tclass=unix_dgram_socket permissive=0

This message is spamed four times every ~5 seconds. Now my question is: How can I figure out which app is responsible for that message?
UPDATE:
I have done a factory reset and the waring still appears. So I guess it's a system app / service.
Note: The waring only appears while being connected to a wifi network. It could also be the case that the warning only appears while charging.

I don't think it's from a specific app, but W/ipacm seems indicates a Warning log from ipacm process. However, I don't know what IPACM is. (IP ACM?)

@AndrewT. sounds like a good guess: Multipath TCP - ACM Queue (really just a wild guess, didn't research it in-depth – but the page title sounds convincing somehow ;)


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Why does clearing cache fix Snapdragon 820 overheating issues?
I was researching whether Snapdragon 820 has overheating issues like 810, and found numerous advice on both LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 that says "yes, overheating can happen, and to fix it, clear the cache, possibly followed by factory reset".
Example, example.
However, none of the articles had any explanation on how clearing the cache would help.
Is there a reason it would help fix overheating? How?

Before wiping cache (if you did), did you make a copy of it for forensics? It would possibly be having something that could lead to understanding of solution.

@Firelord - I don't own the phone. I want to understand why this proposed solution would work, before deciding to get 820 based device.

I see no reason to believe this would work, but it's certainly possible if some poor coding within Android does intensive operations on old cache files for strange reasons.


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Possible .obb virus?
I have a strange problem. I've been searching for a possible solution for a long time, finding nothing, so here am I.
So, I was trying to transfer an .obb file from the Pc into my Android phone directory  (Phone/Android/Data/),
. I managed to transfer this  file, but changed my mind and I tried to delete it . The fact is that since then nothing has been able to remove it. I tried all kinda of removal programs, command prompt related deleting solutions, ecc.  The file does not allow me to change  security from "only read" to "write", the options are like frozen. Plus, the file is visible from the Pc but not from the phone . I even tried cut and paste, but nothing. Last thing : if I copy the file from the pc I am able to delete the copy, but not the original one .
In conclusion : This seems to me some kind Android virus , and the fact that I can't delete it makes me mad. Does any of you here have an idea on what's going on here?
Thanks for helping.

It is easy to drop an .obb onto your phone, but android detects it as a possible system file and CAN make it undeleteable under certain circumstances (citation needed)

From your Android's command line, issue lsattr /path/to/your/file.obb, and tell us the output, if possible.

Most android file mangers won't show files starting with a period (.) By default. But you can view them by Settings > Display Settings > Show hidden files. (In ES file explorer).
When the file is visible in phone try to delete it from there.

Try to login into your PC as an administrator, (windows), rename the file by changing the extension es:
From file.obb to file.txt and see if after  you can delete it.
Make sure the folder where the file reside or the file itself is not opened by any other apps other than your file explorer.


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No entries in Amazon App Store on new (refurbished) Fire phone
I got a refurbished Fire phone. When accessing the Amazon App Store, I get an empty page. Searching the App Store delivers zero results for every query. Looking at the Amazon App Store on the web shows that the Fire phone cannot be selected as a device.
On the internet, I cannot find any information that Amazon has stopped to support the discontinued Fire phone in the App Store.
How can I fix this issue?

Pointer: Our alternative-markets tag-wiki. F-Droid would be a good choice (all FOSS, and additional repositories available).

The Amazon app store should work fine on that device... try clearing the data on the app and trying again, or manually update the Amazon App Store from http://www.amazon.com/getappstore You can also install the Google Play Store with info from http://spinyourfire.com/fire-phone-tips-and-tricks/turn-fire-phone-into-android-phone/

@acejavelin tried all, but it doesn't help. if i use getappstore, i get directed to the installed appstore and that does display an empty screen. i cleared the cache, deactivated the appstore, reset the app store and activated it again, but stll get an empty screen on the appstore. i cannot try any other solution, as all require the installation of some software from the app store. i am a customer with amazon.de, but with kindle-us (because some years ago i purchased a kindledx with international delivery) i don't want to change this setting, but maybe it is the cause of my problem??

@dnz I am not sure, but all Amazon accounts are connected somehow... I can use my US credentials on Amazon Japan and UK. Full factory reset?

well, i was able to install f-droid, now i have a file manager and will be able to install google play. i don't like to do a factory reset, so i will simply forget the amazon app store and hope that i still get updates for the preinstalled amazon apps.

The problem is caused by the Kindle account belonging to Amazon US (amazon.com) and the Amazon account belonging to Amazon Germany (amazon.de).
With a new Amazon account, all works fine.


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"system_server" - BluetoothPhoneService Causes High CPU Usage
I am using Android 5.1 on Nexus 4 and noticed battery drain faster than usual a few months ago. Thinking I need to update Android to newer version I decided to check CPU usage first and found that process "system_server" - BluetoothPhoneService causes high CPU usage:

Researched on other forums and other have same issue but I have not found solution. Anyone is familiar with this issue and thinks updating to Android 5.1.1 would fix it?

Do you have a Bluetooth headset connected or Bluetooth turned on, though I think the icon would show up in that case?

No. I do not have  this.

How do you fix it?
I have same issue.

Post number 36 here - would this help?

Do you have any downloaded apps which haven't been updated in about a year or more? One of them may be the cause. You could try uninstalling old, no-longer-updated apps to see if it fixes the problem. Or, you could start over with a [tag:factory-reset], which can take care of any downloaded app issues. If all else fails, I guess a manual flash of 5.1.1 (even an OTA update might work) will probably help.

Also, edit in a screenshot of your battery info screen from Settings. It might be the case that the app causing high CPU usage is not the app causing the battery drain.

@TamoghnaChowdhury In the forum thread link that "blueren" posted there is one post that states apps is not an issue and that factory reset did not help. It's a spread problem.

By using top command I observe that when Quick System Info is launched, system_server starts consuming CPU via Binder threads. So probably your BuetoothPhoneService is not the cause.

@Denisigo After doing Factory Reset it occurs again. So maybe it's tied to Quick System Info due to how it monitors.

I have this problem on 2x totally unrelated devices (Note II, Transformer TF300T), though they are both rooted on custom ROMs on Android 5 and have Quick System info Pro in them.


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CyanogenMod 13 Cellular Data Problem
I have problem with anything working through HTTP/HTTP (i guess) when I'm connected to cellular data (it's ok on WiFi), like apps like Instagram, Google Play, Shazam, i can't surf the web too.
But apps like Telegram and Spotify which is working through socket (i guess) is working well.
I thought that problem is from DNS settings and tried an DNS Changer app but it didn't solve the problem.
Problem appeared after few weeks since installing CyanogenMod 13 on my phone (Nexus 5x in this case) and after it i've tried different ROMs/SIM Cards/Kernels/Tweaks to fix it it was not effective.
I had the same problem on my S4 Mini since installing CyanogenMod 13, and it still has.

Have you checked your APN settings? Sounds like there is something wrong with them - not sure why spotify would work though...

@benjaminS It's all okay about APNs.

If it helps, I had this problem as well, and it started at exactly midnight at the beginning of my billing cycle.


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How to sync deleted photos with google photos/drive?
Have in mind that when I take photos I might take 2 shots of same instance. I arrive home, start wi-fi. All photos are synced with photos.
Now - looking into gallery I delete some of them - they were bad photos.
How can I make sure that when I delete an image it is also removed from photos application?

Try using folder sync. One of the reviews has your use case (by Anssi)

Do not use Gallery to manage your photos. Use the Google Photos app to manage your photos on your device, when you delete a photo in the Photo app it is deleted from all attached devices as well, including locally and the Google Photo storage.

but still then the photos from gallery(so real files on device) won't be removed, right?

@AlexaAdrian Not on my Moto G3 with Marshmallow... If I delete a picture in the Photo app, it deletes it from the device (thus Gallery as well), Drive/Photo account, and all linked/synced devices. Tested and verified.


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Error installing Xposed Framework
I have a completely successfully rooted Nexus 6p running the tawin project. I checked many tutorials on how to flash the xposed file via recovery, but every time it comes up with an error stating that the updater process has ended with an error installing zip file. I have no idea why this occurs and am pretty sure the correct file was installed. How can I be able do do it?

install error / device details (click images for larger variants)

Why are you not using the official ZIP? http://dl-xda.xposed.info/framework/sdk23/arm64/ Edit: Oh, there's the error: no space left on the device. I had this problem in Nexus 6. It had only 14.xx MB space in system partition, so Xposed didn't install (though it was enough BTW). I removed some unnecessary stuff (APKs) and everything went smooth. Make sure you make backup before removing anything from system partition.

See the last line before the red block: cp: write error: no space left on device. Looks like your /system partition is full.

i don't know why it says that since I still have a lot of space on my device. I tried putting the file into a different location and it said the same thing.

You need space in system partition, not in any other partition. Check the status yourself using df command.

ok so how do I delete the files in the system partition?

That's your homework. Perhaps others can help in that. Begin with a search of this site. There are definite full-blown solutions.

@DevinErsoy How did you solve it?

@RobinWinslow I solved it by deleting some files in the /system partition. I used an app called root browser(https://goo.gl/06aacc) to navigate there and cleaned up some files. You need very little space so no need to delete huge files but I had a large 1gig titanium backup file there so that's what caused the problem.

Based on the screenshot, there's an error saying cp: write error: no space left on device. It seems there's no space in /system partition of the device.

Flashing Xposed Framework would make use of the device's /system partition.
In case there are apps or anything bloating up the /system partition, try removing them and freeing some space from unused apps, and then re-flash it again with a recovery program like TWRP or ClockworkMod.
Before reflashing, do wipe the cache/Dalvik cache first. Whenever the errors appear after flashing, wipe the cache/Dalvik to be sure it's clean before flashing again.

I downloaded 'system app uninstaller' from Play Store, and then uninstalled some Google's apps, it solved it!

Even without system app uninstaller, only uninstalling some "bloatware" apps would do just to make room for some free space.


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Enabling Mass Storage instead of MTP/PTP
Is there any way to enable the old Mass Storage Mode in Android 4.4.2? Right now I can only see MTP or PTP modes, but not the Mass Storage mode that was used to be around in old versions(2.3, I guess).
The old Mass Storage Mode allowed me to play audio in my car when connected via USB, but ever since with the MTP, my music player doesn't recognize my device. Also when connected to PC, it enabled me to modify partitions directly.
Any ROM hacks or tweaks probably?
P.S. I have a rooted At&T Galaxy Note 2(Android 4.4.2)

Unfortunately, Android has switched to the newer MTP/PTP protocols, so no, regular "mass storage mode" can't be enabled. (That is unless there's a ROM hack I haven't found.)
Source: A post from 2013 confirming it's not a thing anymore.

I can say it's possible because I have a Tornado 348 Play in which you have the "USB Storage" option enabled, in addition to the other options:

Built-in CR-ROM
Media device (MTP)
Camera(PTP)
Charge only

P.S: This response should be a comment, but the 50 points reputation didn't allow me to post it as a comment. :)


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Is an android 5.1 adb backup incompatible with android 6.0?
I recently loaded Cyanogenmod 13 on my nexus 4.  Prior to flashing, I did a full adb backup and an app data backup for com.king.candycrushsaga.  The only thing that seems to need restoring is the candycrush data, but adb restore doesn't seem to do the job.  It simply creates an empty folder in /sdcard/Android/data.
I used the abe.jar expander app to extract the .ab contents to a backup.tar file to see what was really in the backup, and there's an extensive set of files there, but they are all relative to apps/com.king.candycrushsaga.  I can't find any apps/com... structure on my phone now.  And since there's no 'data' component to file paths in the adb backup, it would seem that Android 6 stores app data in a different location than 5.1 did.  Is that true?  And if so, can I just use my .tar backup to restore the data to the correct location?  Or rebuild the .ab with a new top level directory?

Unless your device is rooted, you won't be able to access that "apps" folder (which resides inside /data on your device; usually app data are stored inside the /data/data/<package_name> directory, which normally is only accessible to the app itself (and of course root)).

Thanks.  I didn't know you needed root for adb restore to work.  I just enabled root in Estrongs file manager, and can now see /data/data.  I'll retry my restore later.

You don't need root for adb restore to work – but you need root to manually check/access directories below /data ;)

Oh.  Hey, wait.  Restore did work the last time I tried it - before granting it root.  I swear I had tried it several times before and it didn't.  Hmmm.  I hope I'm not so stupid as to not only restored before the app was loaded.  I do think I did that once, but tried again after loading the app. Anyway, thanks for putting up with me.  Nice to know ADV doesn't need root.

ADB backups usually do not contain system apps, unless explicitly specified by you while performing the backup process. If this is the case, you can certainly restore safely without any problem. But some apps may be incompatible with 6.0 as such. So they may not work after the restore.


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Why doesn't Android compass react to magnet?
I downloaded Compass program for Android and tried to bring strong magnet close to it. The pointed remained stable, as if there was no magnet nearby.
Here is the video proof on YouTube.
I have checked other devices, including iPad Air 2 and they showed similar behavior. This is drastically differs from conventional compass behavior. Also, neither device show correct cardinal directions, except conventional compass.
Why doesn't Android compass react to magnet?
UPDATE
Note, that magnetic field value definitely increasing when magnet is approaching.
So, the actual question is how do they try to distinguish between Earth magnetic field and magnet's magnetic field?
Also, note, that direction shown by compass is INCORRECT relatively to conventional compass.

Great question!  I've never considered or looked into it.  My "guess" is there is no compass, just accelerometers and gyroscope and GPS and it uses a combination of those that are not succeptable to nearby magnetism

I'm leaning towards you need to leave the magnet in place for a while before the digital compass starts showing the effect. The digital compass in a device is quite noisy so developers tend to smooth out the data to make it less jittery (and look pretty). The immediate results of a physical compass aren't the same as what the developer did in software. Also digital compass has a field strength limit, rare-earth magnets may peg the sensor at the max which may trigger software to ignore as it is in a extreme state.

Interesting question. While I was researching about this, I stumbled upon a discussion on Quora where it explains how Android compass works using earth magnetic field. However, I can't take any conclusion whether it's stronger/weaker than magnetic field around magnet stone, or whether it affects anything.

Incomplete question, we need to know which phone and which compass app. Probably you had a low end phone which doesn't have a built in magnetometer. Other factors around how the app calculates direction from the 3 axes of the sensor and also the automatic calibration of the phone. Best way to measure fields rahter than find direction is use something like 'Sensor Logger' by irealitysoft which shows all 3 axes against time.

The sensor algorithm people worked hard to make sure that the "compass sensor" is not affected by stray ambient magnetic field. If you want to see magnetic field data, use the magnetic field sensor instead.
The common way to know that the device is subjected to an external magnetic disturbance is by comparing the magnetic sensor data with motion sensors (accelerometer and more importantly the gyroscope), if there is no motion, the algorithm will suppress any change to compass heading, because it is trying to reflect reality that compass heading did not change. For more details, look under the subject of "sensor fusion."

Oh, any by the way, GPS does NOT show heading (perhaps the bearing of a movement trajectory) but not which way the device is pointing. Any answer involving GPS is simply wrong.

Please link sources for "sensor fusion" to enhance value of your answer +1

Many android phones have a magnetometer, which measure magnetic field in microtesla. e.g. Samsung S6 has a yamaha chip which can measure up to 2000uT.
If you want to see the effect of magnets and electromagnetism install an app like sensor logger by iReality soft or 'gaussmeter'.

In my tests the magnet did affect the compass on the Galaxy S2 Active.  I could drag North right round 360 degrees.

Android compass works using phones sensors and gps not magnet or any kind of compass integered inside your phone. So, it is not possible to make any kind of deflection using magnets.

this answer is only correct for low spec phones which don't have an actual magnetometer and rely on other sensors like GPS. If you run the irealitysoft app 'Sensory Logger' you can detect the field from magnets like the clasp on a wallet style phone case. I've tried this on an S6 and M4 it definitely works.


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How to make Google Play services and other default white-listed system apps Doze?
Assume that I'm a user who doesn't like some system apps being automatically white-listed under Battery optimization settings and immune from battery optimization or is fed up with Play services consuming more than its fair share of battery. I'm looking for a solution which would revoke this privilege enjoyed by those apps and add them into the line where the rest of the ordinary comrade apps are waiting for the user to mark them with Don't optimize.
(Click image to enlarge)

I've already seen this answer and as noted in a comment it doesn't work for apps white-listed  by system.
As of now, these are the apps white-listed by Android 6.0.1 in my rooted Nexus 6:

I'm most interested in removing com.google.android.gms.

Requisites

A rooted Android

Optional:

A full ROM backup made through a custom recovery. It is for your own convenience. If something suggested in the next section causes boot issues or system/app crashes, you would have something good to fallback to earlier state.

Optimizing Play services may cause unforeseen consequences (including Android Device Manager or device tracking apps not functioning appropriately). You are advised to calculate the number of installed apps which depends upon Google Cloud Messaging and would be affected by this move. The answers here may help: Is there a way to see which apps are using GCM?
I preferred my own answer for simplicity.

FOR AVOIDING THE HASSLE
If you are targeting only Google Play Services and wants to avoid the hassle of editing system files, you can use Enable Doze for GMS or SysConfig Patcher Magisk Module. You would be needing Magisk framework and Magisk Manager.

As I noted here, Google Play services is white-listed by Google through the file google.xml located under /system/etc/sysconfig/. Among other things, the file notes:

<!-- GmsCore must always have network access for GCM and other things. -->
<allow-in-power-save package="com.google.android.gms" />

Comment out the highlighted line using <!-- at the start and --> at the end. The line should now look like:

<!-- <allow-in-power-save package="com.google.android.gms" /> -->

(Click an image to enlarge it)

Reboot the device and behold Google Play services now not available under Not optimized tab but available for optimization.
(Click an image to enlarge it)

I observed that the list of apps decreased too:

Note: I used ES File Explorer to browse to the directory /system/etc/sysconfig and used QuickEdit to edit google.xml. It is not mandatory to use these tools. You can use whatsoever you find convenient.
Now, for the rest of the names in the list, refer to corresponding files noted below:

com.android.providers.downloads : /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml
com.android.vending: /system/etc/sysconfig/google.xml -- I noticed that dealing with Google Play services automatically removed Play Store from the list
com.google.android.apps.tycho : /system/etc/sysconfig/google_build.xml
com.android.omadm.service : /system/etc/sysconfig/whitelist_com.android.omadm.service.xml.

Comment out the appropriate line, reboot and your tweak should work.
Note: I've extrapolated my findings with Google Play services here.
SystemConfig.java is used to read configuration from the directory /system/etc/permissions and /system/etc/sysconfig. So, if you have a white-listed system app not manually added and not covered in this answer, then focus your search into those two directories at first.

Hi @Firelord. I tried this solution of in Android 7.1.1 to the point of me ultimately deleting the line for GMS to no avail. Any ideas on what changed in Android Nougat regarding on how this is implemented? Thanks.

@user42850. I'm sorry to hear that. But I do not have Android Nougat at my disposal, so I'm not in a position to help you in this case. :(

I have taken care of your concern in this edit: https://android.stackexchange.com/posts/143248/revisions (I'm late by an year though).

adb shell dumpsys deviceidle whitelist -"com.yourcompany.yourapp"

Using this command in adb you can remove apps from power saving exclusions, tested in Oreo ,non rooted
And using a plus (+) sign instead of minus- you can add apps into the exclusion list.
Editing again. There's an error. It's not working always

It cannot remove the default set of apps whitelisted. Can it remove Google Play Services? Please provide evidence to support your claim. BTW, my question was asked with reference to Android 6.0, though I wouldn't mind if your answer works for Android Oreo for every app.


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No operative System and twrp
recently i installed a custom rom on my phone, then i decided to expand my phone memory on a trick i saw on youtube, where i had to go into twrp, unfortunately i clicked on delete system. afterwise when i then tried to boot my phone it was stucked on the logo screen and somehow the twrp is replaced with the android one, when try to open the recovery mode. I was wondering if there's any possible ways to fix this?
EDIT: Curently i'm using a chinese phone called "Cubot S308"

What phone?  You're going to need to flash a ROM.

You need to find a stock ROM that fits your device, and flash it with fastboot or TWRP if supported. If there is no ROM for download, I recommend turning to support

@TheBro21 i took your advice, and it took me a week, but yeah my phone works again :D thank you

The obvious solution to having no operating system is to add one. That's why what you can do, is to re-flash the custom ROM you are having, or a different one (maybe even a stock ROM). You can go on their page, and find your build there.
Once you download the ZIP, you put it on your SD, through the computer, and flash the ZIP from there, or you can use ADB to transfer the ZIP and flash.


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How does voLTE and Band 12 work for T-Mobile and can Cyanogen/AOSP allow us any control over this?
How does voLTE Certification work? My understanding is that only phones on this approved list by T-mobile are supported on Band 12. Band 12 is the new Extended Range LTE band and T-Mobile is investing heavily in. My understanding is that voLTE Certification is something that T-Mobile does to ensure that a phone connected to Band 12 but out of range of other T-Mobile services to fall-back on (ex. 2G, GSM, and 3G HSPA+) can still dial 911.. If the phone lacked this ability, when they went to dial out on Band 12 they'd find they couldn't. Even if I'm wrong, VoLTE seems to have something to do with data and voice integration.

VoLTE calls already go through faster (twice as fast as other calls), and while on VoLTE, customers can enjoy wicked-fast LTE data while they’re on a call. Customers on the old carriers’ CDMA networks still can’t do that. Today, 27 million T-Mobile customers on 40 models of VoLTE-enabled phones are making over 300 million calls a day— well over half of all calls on T-Mobile’s network.

The voLTE process is expensive for the OEM and almost sounds like a shake-down by T-mobile:

Speaking off the record to one major smartphone vendor, we have learned that there are very real costs and complexities associated with obtaining that certification, and it must be done on a device-by-device basis.

And, one of the OnePlus developers said this

In terms of technical specs, supporting VoLTE is actually not so hard, but there's still a long way to go for users can actually use it. Why? Because VoLTE is carrier-specific, we needs to meet the carrier's requirements firstly then our users will be able to actually use it.

As if to say, we're only waiting on testing and certification.. Further, because T-Mobile had to ask Motorola to remove Band 12, I take it that the OEM (client side) has to disable B12 and not the carrier (server side).
Does that mean Cyanogen or other AOSP's can re-enable B12? I would think so, but even small OEM's selling unlocked universal phones like OnePlus have commented that they're having problems with voLTE Certification, so I guess it's not entirely software?
I understand T-Mobile's concern, but I simply don't care. Give me LTE if Band 12 is available and if my phone can't connect, well at least I've got decent data and I can use Google Hangout Dialer.

What happens with a phone that has Band 12 but not voLTE?
Can a rooted phone running AOSP influence this, or give me control over it?

So I'm going to answer as someone who has a non-VoLTE phone in a market that has T-Mobile LTE, but no 2G or 3G coverage.
With an alternate ROM (OR a way of editing the modem settings or keeping an older ROM installed) on your Android device, enabling Band12 will be no issue. It's possible with a bunch of Android devices already to enable bands that are available, but disabled by the OS.
What you'll have happen is exactly as described. You phone will get data service, but you will be unable to send or receive calls. You will get SMS and MMS messages just fine. My phone (Nokia Lumia 830 RM985) doesn't support all of T-Mobile's LTE bands, and HSPA bands. This means that in the market I'm in right now, I can't make or get calls as long as my phone is connected to a t-mobile tower. I can see when a call is trying to come in because my service will drop and my phone will roam, but the process takes longer than t-mobile's system allows and it times out first time.
Same with placing a call. First attempt times out and is registered as a dropped call. Second attempt drops to roaming and the call is placed.


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I lost my Andriod, can i recover the data from my Google account?
I have lost my Android device. Is it possible for me to recover the data in the phone using my Google account?

Not if you haven't backed up when you still had it.

Which data? Not all data is stored by Google, especially if it is 3rd-party apps.

If you had your phone settings set so they back up your stuff. For examples, settings, Google Photos,etc. Then it's highly likely that it would. Plus something Google have been doing for a while is noting the apps you have installed and give you the option to redownload them when you do a fresh install onto a new device, or a fresh install.

Yes, you can recover your data. It just depends on what you want.

If you're looking to recover your photos, go to Google Photos, log in, and check to see if your photos are backed up. You can download your photos from here or keep them in Google Photos and restore them from the cloud when you get a new Android phone.
If you're concerned about your apps, the Google Play store should remember the apps you had installed (unless if they weren't downloaded on the Play Store), and you should be given the option to reinstall your apps for free on another phone. As for the data on third-party apps, it will likely depend on the developer.
If you want anything else on your Google Account, go to Google Takeout.


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SSHFS from Android to NAS
I'm trying to get any folder on the internal storage of a HTC M7 to be mounted via sshfs to a folder on my NAS. The goal would be to have for example the /sdcard/My Documents/My Recordings folder setup like this so it has almost unlimited storage. I've installed EasySSHFS and connected via adb shell. In /data/data/ru.nsu.bobrofon.easysshfs/files are the ssh and sshfs binaries. I exported this folder to $PATH and started trying.
I tried mounting through the following symlinks:
/sdcard
/storage/emulated/0
/storage/emulated/legacy
/mnt/shell/emulated/0
/mnt/shell/emulated/legacy

always trying to get to the My Documents/My Recordings folder.
Depending on whether or not I used su some folder paths worked others don't.
But even if they where mounted the app (I tried with Smart Voice Recorder as it allows you to set the path of your recordings, HTC's builtin Voice Recorder doesn't) wouldn't place its files onto the NAS but instead into the folder. Using a different path I was able to see the files locally.
Without su though I can't sshfs because of a permission problem with /dev/fuse.
I think the problem must be with the way android mounts the sdcard (fuse) but I can't figure out what exactly it is. I also tried mounting something not on the sdcard and symlinking to it but that didn't work either. Im suspecting the fuse mount to prohibit that as well.
Any Ideas?

I had to disable "Mount namespace separation" in SuperSU to get this to work.


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Update software will also update the OS
I have Samsung Galaxy S-Duos with Android Version 4.0.4.
I always get Software Update Popup.
If I will confirm the update then it will update the Android Version Also or just update all the system software's only?

Galaxy S-Duos only supports up to Android 4.0 officially, so I doubt it will upgrade the Android OS to 4.1 or later.

@AndrewT. Thanks. So Should I try to update it or not?

Well... it's up to you, as the user and owner of the device. If you're still in doubt, you may try to find some info about the particular update (is there any size? date?), but generally, an update should improve something (even though it might break others...)

It only updates the apps. How ever you can update the OS by Going to Settings > (More) > About device > Software update > update.


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GPS is not working in Samsung SM-J320F device
I have tested with 3-4 GPS location apps in my Samsung SM-J320F device but still not getting location by using GPS. It's working fine to get Network based location. But i don't understand why it's failed with GPS? My device running with Android 5.1.1
Apps i tested with

GPS Logger
GPS Status & Toolbox
GPS Essentials

Is there any setting that i missed? Is the issue in GPS Hardware chip?

Well, arguing by the screenshot (especially the second and the last item in the list of notifications): Are you sitting in your room? That is, with walls around and a roof on top of you? Then that's the most likely explanation why the second-to-last notification tells you GPS found no satellites. GPS doesn't work indoors.

Yes i know that and also go outside with my device and make one trip but still no satellites fixed.

You could check the logs if they give some hints.


text:
xPosed Installer on HTC One M8
I have rooted my HTC One M8 running Android 4.4.3 (using this method). The process went fine and I did not have any hiccups. One of the main reasons I rooted my phone was I wanted to utilize AppOps, however have been quite unsuccessful on this front.
I have installed xPosed Framework Installer (this is the correct version for Android 4.4.3), however when I load the application I encounter the error:

app_process version "58" has been installed previously but version "--" was found now. If you did not expect an old file to be restored, you may want to try installing via recovery (auto or manual)

Now according to few threads, for the use of the HTC One you need to proceed through this in recovery mode (Reddit) - I have not tested this method yet as I want to investigate.
Are there any other methods we need to try, that we're aware of? The only concern I have is not to soft-brick my phone as I am unsure how to perform a recovery (I could learn but would prefer to do this with a working phone!)
Update
I uninstalled Xposed and attempted a re-install, and now it appears as though I have lost ROOT access on my HTC One M8. I will reattempt to root my device to see what happens and if this in fact was the cause of my issue with Xposded.

After performing a full backup of my phone, I went through and re-rooted (not too sure the actual steps taken as I used the same method), and then reinstalled Xposed.
After validating root access via SuperSU and that the default setting for updating applications was retain root access I went ahead and used the "install via recovery" method, which succeed (I used the .zip for Android 5.0). Then lastly I ensured I performed a soft reboot rather than a normal reboot (although I would have assumed the default reboot option would be that of a soft reboot to ensure Xposed started).
So there we have it, another PEBCAK move by me - ensure you soft reboot and do not let the default reboot take course


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Stock Android 6 (Motorola Moto G 3rd gen) has no 'Exchange ActiveSync' account option
I own a Motorola Moto G 3rd generation that's running Android 6 Marshmallow.
I'm trying to do two way contacts/calendar syncing with my outlook.com account.
By using the Microsoft Outlook app, one way syncing is working, but that's not good enough.
Most tutorials I find talk about adding a 'Exchange ActiveSync' account to 'Accounts' under 'Settings'. However, I don't have this choice.
Why is this? What should I use instead?

I have a stock Moto G 3rd Gen, a few actually... You don't need a 3rd party app at all, if you to Settings - Accounts the first option is the Gmail icon with the word Exchange next to add, just add the account there, this gives mail, calendar, and contact sync. If you have a 3rd party app installed, you may have to remove it and the account first. If it doesn't show up, something is missing or disabled and I would consider a factory default.

http://vodafone.intelliresponse.com/index.jsp?id=1593&question=Set+up+Hotmail%2FOutlook+as+an+Exchange+account+on+your+Android+device&requestType=NormalRequest&source=100
The trick is picking manual and then Exchange. The link above walks you through the screens. Won't be exact but close enough.
Ken