text:
Installing applications with larger size on S DUOS
I am using Galaxy-S-Duos
Android 4.0
Internal memory 1.8 GB !
What if I want to install application like Modern Combat-4 (1.9 GB)
These applications require to be installed in phone memory for their 1st run.
After that the can be moved to SD card..
Is it possible to install them directly to SD card?

Installing apps from Google Play will first download the .apk file to /data/local, which is in the device's internal memory – so you're already lost before the installation itself even had begun. And that's only the first hurdle to be taken:
Though one could set the "default installation location" (using adb set-install-location, see adb help), the app must explicitly support to be installed on anything other than internal storage. If it does not support this, it cannot be installed there (though you might be able to move it there lateron with some special apps enforcing it).

use foldermount to mount the specific data and obb folder to mount it as external storage.You will need root for this.Alternatively,you can use link2sd and/or gltosd for the same.I have nova 3 installed that way

Welcome to the site, and thanks for helping other visitors. This answer could be a lot more helpful if you described the process in more detail. Assume the questioner doesn't know what foldermount is or how to find the data and obb folders.


text:
How do I manually enter Clockwork ROM Recovery?
I have Droid 2 Global (droid2we) and I've tried Power + Volume Up, but that doesn't load any recovery mode. I've also tried Power + X but that loads the standard Android System Recovery <3e>, which won't install unsigned zip files.
I can load the Bootstrap Recovery app which will let you reboot into Clockwork Recovery mode, which does work. However, that requires a functioning system which makes it a pointless way to launch a recovery mode!

I found that the following sequence works:

While on, run adb reboot recovery from command line. This will restart into standard Android recovery. (If your device is not seen, start at #2 and come back.)
Take battery out.
Unplug USB.
Hold power down for 10 seconds. (Someone theorized it discharges the capictors.)
Plug USB cable in.
Put battery in. This starts the phone up automatically for some reason. It then loads Clockwork Recovery automatically.

I don't know why this works and Clockwork Recovery didn't provide a standard method to start. This would work in the middle of a failed install of Cyanogenmod. After a flash to a stock SBF ROM, it no longer worked.

I've since found that when everything is working, (the phone is not bricked), then Power + Home will start ClockworkMOD Recovery. I'm glad I wrote this answer down because I was trying different ROMs and sure enough, it bricked again! This worked perfectly.

These are the steps to boot your Droid 2 phone into Recovery Mode should you need to.

Turn Droid 2 Off
Press 'X' on the physical keyboard and then Press and HOLD Power button until the Exclamation Point/Android picture shows(after motorola symbol).
To access menu options Press the "Search" button depicted by the Magnifying glass on the Keyboard and the menu items will show up.
Browse options with the Volume Up and Volume Down keys and select option with the Camera button all on side.
Select first option of "Reboot phone" or risk messing up your brand new Droid 2!

EDIT:- the link to XDA forum that explains you problems
And one more thing if its android recovery that is loading then it means that the CWM recovery is yet not installed
Hence this is the video link on how to install it(CWM)

This doesn't work. 1. It's Droid 2 Global. 2. I'm asking how to enter Clockwork Recovery, not standard Android Recovery. 3. Search key doesn't enter menu from standard Android Recovery, but both Volume Up + Volume Down at the same time does. Nevertheless, I need the Clockwork recovery, not standard Android recovery.

@Chloe please check my answer I have edited it.
And droid2 or droid2 global are same so.
although you can visit http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26625025 it states the problem you are facing.

That still didn't help. I already know how to get into standard Android recovery with the volume buttons. Clockwork Recover IS installed - I can reboot into it from the app. The video seemed promising with Power + R, but that didn't work either.

I think you device is temporary flashed I insist you to install CWM in the device again.

Perhaps, but I don't know what you mean by temporary. I reset it many, many time and took the battery out and unplugged it.

I insist to install ROMManager
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager&hl=en
and then install CWM again.

Sorry, I already have ROMManager installed but it doesn't work. It says it installs version 5 of recovery, but only version 2 comes up.

Here's one more experience for anyone looking this up:  I can get CWM recovery to boot from ROM manager, but attempting to boot it manually by holding down x didn't seem to work.  I got the exclamation mark mentioned here, but the search button did nothing to bring up a menu.  However, doing all of this with a USB cable plugged it, then getting all the way to the exclamation mark, I pulled the battery while still plugged in, just for a second or two, then put the battery back in.  It automatically rebooted correctly into recovery without the exclamation mark.  This is on a Droid 2 Global running various different versions of CWM recovery.
EDIT:or of course, from the link in another answer here, try up and down volume at the same time instead of search button.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Migrate contacts from iOS WITHOUT using Gmail
I am new to Android and have been an iOS user for a long time. I've seen a lot of tutorials to migrate my contacts from my iPhone to Android however all of them say I have to use gmail.
I take privacy very seriously and don't like the idea of have to upload all of my contact details into google's database especially after all of the leaks in the media as to how they are used.
I've never used Apple's cloud service for the same reason.
Question: How can I add my contacts from my iPhone as a flat file or perhaps via my Apple Address Book (on my mac) directly to my Android (Galaxy Nexus) WITHOUT having to give all of the data to Gmail (which I seldom use).
Thanks very much

A couple of cloud-free solutions can be found in answers to How do I transfer iPhone contacts to an Android phone?, How can I transfer my contacts from an iPhone to an Android device?, and How to transfer iPhone contacts to Android Samsung without using iTunes?. Additional sources here can be obtained via an easy search for contacts iphone :)

thanks for this sorry it was so simple to answer, I googled and just came up with repetitive results about using gmail or cloud services

You don't need to apologize for an easy to answer questions :) And as a new user, you might not have known about our excellent search facility. So now you've got two answers in one (limited offer for new users :D)

Sadly no solutions there for taking contacts from my Mac or my iPhone WITHOUT some kind of disclosure to google. I adamantly do NOT want to share my address book with any kind of gmail or cloud syncing service... seems like google managed to make this impossible

Just a guess: You probably can export your contacts in VCard (*.vcf) format? If so, you can import that file directly into the contacts app on Android. Keep its sync off to be on the safe side, in case you cannot select the target contacts book ("Phone" wouldn't be synchronized at all).

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


text:
Is it safe to update my devices?
I'm using two Samsung mobiles: Samsung Young and Samsung Ace Duos. I am getting software upgrade messages. Is it safe to upgrade software and will it harm my data, contacts, messages and important details saved in phone memory? Please help me out. Do tell me the entire procedure to save my data while updating.

Usually OTA / Kies updates do not wipe your data, but they MIGHT. Try backing up with MyBackup on the Play store. There is a version for root and a version for NON rooted phones. It will back up contacts (possibly already on google), SMS, MMS etc etc, on to your SD card. To be totally sure there is no harm in copying the backup onto your PC just incase the worst happens.
If you are rooted get Titanium backup and you can backup all your apps and data just in case. It is often recommended to do a factory reset after an OS update, but personally I've never needed to do that.
And read up on what to do when updating, make sure you have your battery over 50% at the very least. Some manufacturers recommend NOT having the phone charging while updating but AFAIK that's mainly HTC's recommendation.

Just to add to RossC's excellent answer - you can do a full backup via Kies first to make sure you're safe: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00029017&fm_seq=29185
There have been reports of the restore failing, although it seems there is a workaround: Cannot restore Kies backup after firmware upgrade


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Music playback stops when the phone sleeps
I got a new Sony Xperia V (LT25i). When listening to music on the phone it stops playing music as soon as the phone goes into sleep. I have tried both Walkman player and 3 and both give the same problem.
Clarifications:

I play from SD card and internal storage.
It is a new phone, there is no app killers running that I know of.

do you have any task killer app running on ur phone?

or any app like CPU tuner? If yes, apps like these have settings that force closes applications when put to sleep.

If you're streaming music via your WiFi connection, you might wish to check your WiFi settings, and there go to "Advanced settings". Here is defined how WiFi should behave when the phone goes to "standby". The default usually is to disable WiFi, so you might want to set it to be kept alive:

WiFi advanced settings and sleep policy
While screens might look a little different depending on the device being used, these screenshots should help you identifying the settings :)

I realise this is an older thread, but have had the problem using WiFi to stream from Huawei phone to wireless speakers. Music stops when phone goes to sleep, but little you can do to phone except in developer mode turn stay awake on while charging. Finally solved problems by installing "Insomnia" a free simple app that switches between sleep on or off. Other stay awake apps just didn't work.... Happy days!

Thanks for your answer! Can you provide a link to the app within your answer?

I was having a similar problem but was playing mp3s from my SD card. I used the vlc player instead and the problem was resolved :)

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


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how do I get rid of this google searchbar?
I have a Google searchbar in a tablet I have borrowed

For me it's in a very inconvenient location and I keep on pressing it accidentally.
It looks like I can't click and drag on it to move it to another location either.
How do I hide this toolbar? I need to be able to get it back as well, since the tablet isn't mine, but I want to hide or disable this search bar while I use it (or at least move it to another location)

The search bar is a built-in part of the default launcher and can't be moved or disabled. The least invasive way to get rid of it is to install a new launcher of your choice and use that instead of the default one. The old launcher is still installed, and will come back when you uninstall the new one, so the question is just whether you ought to install software on this device you've borrowed.

I have no idea how to install a launcher and I don't want to do anything that may trash the system. So am I stuck with it? Is there any way I can disable it? I don't mind it being there, I just don't want it to be clicked accidentally

if it can be moved to another location on the screen that would be fine as well

Is it possible to do something like pass a command line parameter for this launcher to disable this toolbar then restart the launcher, using adb?

@user17915 Installing a launcher won't trash the system: it's just like installing any other app.

Go to Google Play and install, say, Nova Launcher. Then just disable the search bar.  Simple as that.

A launcer like Nova has an option called 'Persistant Search Bar' that can be disabled if you want it gone. There MAY be a setting in display on your device, try having a look around for that in the settings. A launcher is just an app from the Play Store and Apex and Nova (as exapmples) are excellent! They're simple, light, easy to customise and 100% trustworthy. You won't trash anything with it and you can always uninstall it if you don't like it. They are free apps.

You cannot deactivate that, not to my knowledge anyway. You can install something like Smart Launcher, Next Launcher or Go Launcher which have extreme flexibility in what you can do. It's just like installing any other app, and the next time you hit your "Home" button you select that launcher "Just Once" to test it out.

Press it, hold your finger over it, then a red trash can will appear. Drag it to the trash can.
Press & hold to start the drag & drop.
Press & hold on an empty space to bring up a menu to add widgets. Then select the search widget to bring it back.

It's not a widget, so that won't work.

Google Search can be deactivated in the system settings, in the apps. It then appears at the bottom of the apps in the system settings, where it can be activated. It cannot be deinstalled. (If it were able to be deinstalled, you can back it up using Astro File Explorer, and using any file exporer re-install it).


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"Save Image" doesn't work
Using Android 4.0.4 on the LG Optiomus P970 I cannot save images from browsers.
When using the preinstalled browser (not Chrome on this device) tap-and-hold brings up a context menu including "save image". Pressing that option closes the menu but otherwise has no effect.
When using Chrome choosing "save image" brings up a list of apps to use including Gallery, Dropbox and Google Drive (all three allow selecting an existing file only, but doing so doesn't change that file) and a couple of non-senical options like Camera, Camcorder, Audio and voice memo.
Any idea what might be going wrong or how I can troubleshoot it?

Are you sure it has no effect in the default browser? Once you've pressed Save image, it's done, so you shouldn't expect to see anything further. Go into the Gallery and look in the Downloads album.

Sadly no. Nothing there.


text:
Photos directly to dropbox, discarding local copies automatically
Is there a possibility to take photos directly to dropbox?
Currently Dropbox offers the Camera-Upload option, but it doesn't move, but copies files to Dropbox. This still leaves me to delete the local files by hand, hoping that the photos have already been uploaded.
Similiarily there are solutions like FolderSync, but general purpose synchronization software is liable to misconfiguration and increased maintenance requirements compared to special-purpose software.
Ideally I'd like to have a photo app, that doesn't keep local copies of the image, e.g. something like Cambox but for Android instead of iOS.

I believe what you're referring to is covered by http://www.uploadcamapp.com/
They accept upload to Google Drive and Dropbox. Sadly, as of writing this, not OneDrive/365
I also don't know what happens if the service is down / no internet (does it sync later etc)


text:
How to disable vibration when typing on HTC One X?
I have HTC One X. Each time I'm texting on WhatsApp, it's always vibrating. Since it's using too much battery and it's really annoying, I want to disable it.
Under "Settings", there's no "Sound" setting or "Language and Keyboard", there is only "Language & Input".
How do I disable vibration when typing?

Go to Settings > Language & keyboard > HTC Sense Input and turn off the option of Vibration feedback. It is present in both HTC Sense 4 and 5. It is even described in this YouTube video.


text:
Enable tamil font without rooting the phone
I have Micromax a87 android phone,in my phone doesn't support the Tamil font in browsers and Facebook,YouTube. I searched for solution but shows that its possible only by rooting the mobile.I don't want to root my phone. Is it possible to display the Tamil font in Facebook and browsers without rooting the phone?

Check the answers to http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/25359/how-to-make-an-android-device-to-display-complex-rendering-of-indic-characters which include suggestions for rooted and non-rooted phones.

I try without rooting use the Tamil Unicode Font only but still browser and facebook doesn't support the tamil font


text:
How to connect android device to projector?
I have galaxy note 2 ( N7100). I want to know is there any way I can give phone output to the projector.
I don't know even, if it is possible.

prefer this Q. For details
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8756450/androidhow-do-i-connect-my-android-phone-to-projector-thru-usb-hdmi

I know to display by making use of laptop. But I don't want to carry extra burden of laptop.

Depends on the projector and the Android device: HDMI/MHL could be used if supported.

Yes. As the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 supports MHL for video output, this is possible (with a special cable) if the projector supports MHL input, or with a bigger adaptor if it doesn't. See my answer on How does MHL work? for more details.

Do you any affordable projector which support mhl input

I'm afraid I can't offer a recommendation. Please don't post a new question to ask this, as shopping recommendations are off-topic on this site.

I can't upvote as my reputation is low.


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adb shell ls giving strange results
Environment:
running adb in command window on Windows XP PC
running adbKonnect on Nook Simple Touch (rooted; running Android 2.1)
When I type
adb shell ls \sys

I get a list of the folders there.
When I type
adb shell ls \sys\module

I get an error that there is no such file or directory, even though it is listed in the first step. What's going on?

Try adb shell ls -l /sys and check the output. Most likely, access to the /sys/module directory has limited access.
It doesn't matter that your device is rooted, when you're not using your root powers. To view the contents of "restircted directories":
# open a shell
adb shell
# obtain root permission
su -
# now access your target
ls -l /sys/module

When issuing the su -, you will have to approve a popup to confirm superuser access − at least on the first try. You then can tell your superuser/superSU app to remember your choice.


text:
Lost internal storage
I am using a spice Mi 502 android phone with 4.0.4 ICS. It has a internal storage of 141 MB but 120 MBs is utilized by preinstalled apps and only 21MB free space is available.
I have rooted my device and deleted some unwanted preinstalled apps from my phone using RootAppDelet app. Now, the space utilized by preinstalled apps is 100 MB and the available free space is still showing 21 MB. I wonder where did the 20MB space go?
I am not a pro androider and have learnt only through helpful forums like these.
Please help me get my lost space back.

With this little internal storage maybe it would be better to move /data to your sd-card.
You can accomplish this with a second partition, which is formatted with ext2, ext3 or ext4 file system and a int2ext-script (source), if your ROM is compatible.

Please first take a look at Android Folder Hiearchy for some background. Pre-installed apps reside on a partition mounted as /system, which in "normal mode" is read-only. User-space is a different partition, /data, which you didn't really touch when deleting system apps (only the data from those apps, if they had any, would be stored on and thus deleted from /data). So you didn't really free any space you could use.
The only ways to gain some space on /data are:

uninstall (user-) apps you no longer need
move apps supporting this to SD (see: app2sd)
clean caches, browser history, etc (only temporary relief)
buy a device with more memory (in practice, the most promising variant)

Further suggestions: Check the insufficient-memory tag and its tag-wiki for some remedy.


text:
Connecting android device with PC using HDMI (video recording)
I am android game developer, really wanted to capture nice quality video preview of my game for promotion purposes. And my question is, If I would connect by android device (Samsung Galaxy S3 or Nexus 7 tablet: using micro USB HDMI adapter with my PC, like this one for example:

I know I would be able to see what on my PC what I do on my device, but the point is, would I be able to turn on software responsible for capturing my desktop like Camtasia studio meanwhile to be able to record it?
Thank you.

This is only any use to you if your PC has an HDMI input, which is very unusual. You'll only have such a thing if you deliberately bought video capture hardware and attached it to your PC. If you have such hardware, you should use the video capture software that came with it. Trying to use Camtasia to capture it would be like trying to use Camtasia to capture from a webcam.
In addition, depending on what adaptor you use, your video capture hardware may also need to support MHL (the wire protocol used to send video data over the micro-USB and HDMI connectors). See my answer on How does MHL work? for more details.

Well I have got laptop with HDMI port, so I believe that`s what you meant, right?

@Matim Are you sure that's not an HDMI output, for plugging the laptop into a monitor or TV? As I say, it's very unusual to have an HDMI input on a PC.


text:
Is There A Keyboard Layout Creator for Android?
I have created a keyboard layout for the language I speak on windows using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.
I want to port the same layout to Phones.
Before the cursing starts, I have done a quick research.:)
according to which:

all keyboard layouts are located at \system\usr\keylayout
all keyboard character map files are located at \system\usr\keychars
I went through the official documentation on Key Layout Files

Where Do I Stand Now?
Well, as I said in the start I have worked with a MS based app for creating keyboard layouts on Windows (obviously), The whole thing in Linux world is a bit gibberish to me at the moment because of lots of manual text file editing I guess.
So, my ultimate question is,
Is there such a tool which can help me create a new layout or import the existing layout which I created for windows to Android?
Update 2
I couldn't update my answer before because I didn't get the time.
I finally found a tool which helped me a lot. It's called Keyboard Layout Editor. Please don't forget to star this guys repo. KLE is really easy to use and functional and I could achieve my goal easily. Oh by the way this one is for Ubuntu(Linux).
For Android though, I cloned the Sample SoftKeybord  from Android source. You can download tar here. It's not a layout editor but the actual keyboard. You just edit it to suit your needs.

Does this help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2497237

There is developer documentation found within the Android SDK that shows the basics of creating your own keyboard input method.
The actual sample of the touchscreen keyboard is part of the SDK sample, based off the documentation. Download the sample code, and look for the SoftKeyboard sources, there's a XML layout under the res/layout folder that represents the on-screen keyboard.
All that aside, let's look at the question objectively, using a custom layout that was developed on the Windows platform, may not be easy to "translate" to the Android version, as there is strings attached, you do need the pre-requisite knowledge of Android SDK, Java in order to achieve a custom layout, unfortunately.
As per @geffcheng's comment above the OP's question containing the linky that pointed to the appropriate thread on XDA, the blog entry highlighting how to come up with your own version, is more or less the same as the official developer documentation.
Other keyboard packages such as Swiftkey, Go Keyboard, SlideIT to name but a few, would have a feature to customize the layout appropriately using an add-on or third party to suit one's need, effectively tied to that keyboard. Using the SDK and documentation relating to the keyboard is the effective way to go about in rolling your own custom layout that is independent of Android version in use provided that the decision to support older versions is warranted.
If the decision to focus on Android v4.x upwards, the actual app is on the Google Play Store, the source code to the AOSP keyboard is available to download and play with from here.

One slightly low code option is to use Keyman Developer. It allows to create layouts for Desktop, web as well as mobile devices.


text:
Cannot mount internal SD card in Semaphore CWM Recovery v5.0.2.7
I Installed CyanogenMod 10.1.2 in my Galaxy S I9000 using Semaphore CWM Recovery v5.0.2.7  following this guide: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_galaxysmtd
Before flashing the new ROM I made a backup using Semaphore CWM.
After installing CyanongenMod I've noticed that I didn't saved my contacts inside my Google Acount so I tried to restore the backup I've made using CWM Recovery. An error occured while restoring and after that I can't boot in normal mode (I didn't remember the error message).
When tried entering in the recovery mode to reinstall the CyanogenMod I got the following error messages:

E:failed to open /etc/recovery.fstab (No such file or directory)
E:unknown volume for path [/cache/recovery/command]
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/command
E:unknown volume for path [/cache/recovery/log]
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E:unknown volume for path [/cache/recovery/last_log]
E:Can't mount /cache/recovery/last_log
E:Can't open /cache/recovery/last_log
E:unknown volume for path [/cache/recovery/command]

And when I try to install CyanogenMod from the SD card I got the following errors:

E:unknown volume for path [/sdcard/]
E:Can't mount /sdcard/

I tried reinstalling CWM Recovery but nothing changed. Do you have any ideas on how to fix this issue and flash a new ROM?
Thank you.

I've followed the guide in this page and reinstalled a stock version of Android: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1196179
Then I reinstalled CWM Recovery and flashed CyanogenMod.


text:
How can I rename a removable SD card, or create a folder on it. Permission Denied
I am not a programmer, I am a 'user'. I have bought a FonePad and added a 32GB SDHC card, naively thinking I could use it to store the maps I will need on a storage-hungry navigation software.
However, I find I cannot rename the device from Removable, I get the message 'Permission Denied'.  Same result when I try to create a subfolder. Same result if I try using a utility like SDCard Manager or Card Manager HD.
Coming from a Windows world, I am just completely lost.
Take SDCard Manager for example: when running it says that it has *Storage -- Modify or delete the contents of your SD card. I note that SD card is the 'built-in' device.

Is this "SD card" built in or removable? The title suggests its removable but at the end of your question you say its the "built in device"?

It sounds like you formatted the card using your computer, or another device. It seems like now your Android device doesn't have proper permissions to write to the card. You can fix this by formatting the card. If you don't want to format the card, just run this on Ubuntu or another linux based system:
sudo chmod -r o+w /path/to/sdcard

This will recursively give everyone permission to write to the card. If the card is empty, you probably just need to apply this to the root directory, with no recursion:
sudo chmod o+w /sdcard/root

Thanks. I have not formatted the card, just put it straight in. I cannot find any formatting utility on the fonepad. Can I format on a Windows or Apple desktop? I do not have access to Linux based system. Supplement: I note a lot of stuff about rooted systems, how do I find out if my system has an accessible root?

The device you mentioned runs Android JellyBean. A terrible feature was added to JellyBean that stopped apps being able to write/modify data on an SD card, except for folders they owned on the SD Card. When an app is installed, a folder is automatically created on the SD card for it. So, your app should be able to save the maps to its own folder on the SD card, however you cannot use a third party app to create folders and such on the card. You'll either have to use a built in file manager or create folders and edit data from a PC.


text:
Galaxy Note 2 screen problems
I'm experiencing a spot of trouble with my N7105 Samsung Galaxy Note 2 device. It boots up just fine, the screen works absolutely flawlessly for a few minutes, but then the problems start to appear. The screen progressively develops black bars, it stops refreshing in places, beginning from the bottom of the screen and moving upwards, and before too long the entire screen is covered in random noise.
Now, since this problem only manifests after the device has been turned on for some time, it makes sense to me if it were an overheating problem. I've pulled the phone apart and have thoroughly cleaned the cables and connectors to the motherboard with ethanol, but it doesn't seem to have improved the situation much.
If anyone has any kind of experience with this kind of problem, please report back.

Just because it happens when your phone has been active for a while doesn't necessarily mean it has to be an overheating problem, is your phone running a custom ROM?

Nope, and one of the first things I did was to reset the phone to factory default.

It sounds like a defective screen to me, are the cables intact for the screen and the digitizer?

As far as I can see, the cables and connections are swell, but I have no idea what the story is after they disappear down into the innards of the phone, since you need to break out a heat gun and a razorblade to get at the actual back of the screen.


text:
Unable to install on USB storage or SD card?
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Y (GT-S5360L),  which I recently factory reset. Now I have a problem: whenever I try to install most apps it gives the error " Unable to install on USB storage or SD card."  I Googled and found 2 solutions: one to delete a cache file, and the other to unmount the sd card while installing. The cache file was sm2dltmp or something like that located in either /sdcard/.android_secure or /mnt/secure/asec. I used rooted terminal emulator to look in both and I did not find the file. I did however, find a bunch of .asec files for apps I used to have before I reset my phone. I moved those to a backup directory, but still installing apps gave me the same error. So far I have only been able to install apps using the second method, unmounting the sd card. All help would be greatly appreciated.

Your "working method" shows the trouble must have to do with your SDCard. You could try with a new/blank card, which then should work. Investigate your current card using a card reader on your PC, and transfer your media files (and stuff you can identify and need) over to the new card, and skip content you cannot identify. If afterwards you don't miss anything, you should be fine.

I backed up my sd card data and reformatted (without restoring the data yet) and the Play Store STILL gives me the same error.

Woah... that's really strange. I've no idea what that might be then. Wait: With the SDCard mounted, can you write to it from the Galaxy Y? Maybe there's some strange problem preventing it being mounted r/w.

Yes I can still write to it

And with a different card it does not work either? -- Well, not really a solution, but maybe a work-around: You could try setting the preferred install location to either phone storage (0) or internal SD (1) using adb shell pm set-Install-Location 0 (resp. 1). Then Playstore should install most apps there even if the card is present.

I have not tried a different card but I suspect it will not work. Installing everything on internal storage isn't really working out as my phone has 200MB internal storage total.

Well, suspicion is one thing. But you won't know for sure before you've tried. If the problem persists with a different card, it's clearly a case for service.


text:
Improving HTC Sensation XE somehow
I have an HTC Sensation XE and the smartphone is becoming slower and worse every day, expecially compared to my Nexus 7 and Samsung Tab 2.
Android on the phone is slow and lagged ( I have to wait even 6-7 second after clicking somewhere), the battery depletes very fast and the phone itself becomes very hot if I do something "intensive" like using google maps.
the Android version on the phone is 4.0.3 and as far as I know, there is no update.
What can I do to improve the phone? It's market value makes it not worth to sell and it is still working, so I would like to find a way to fix it somehow, what can i do?
I like a lot the vanilla Android of the Nexus 7, there is any way that I can put a plain android on the HTC, keeping all the functionalities? I dont care of Htc Sense, but I want to be able to use the camera, 3g, wifi, GPS and so on.
Maybe some kind of reset would be enough to bring it bask to it's best days?

Have you checked with our performance tag-wiki for some first aid? Especially interesting in your case might be: My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?

I didn't know about those pages, I will check them carefully, thank you!

You're welcome! If any of them solves your issue, don't forget to let us know ;)

Any progress made so far? Maybe you even could answer your own question meanwhile? ;)

I've taken out most of the apps and the performance is slightly improved, but it is still too slow. I will wipe it out ad a last resort and then check if there is any improvement on the performance.

Do a system wipe and reinstall. This significantly sped up my Sensation.

I've done it and it's like new now!


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CyanogenMod: Low volume parts of songs are not played (muted)
I have troubles with playing music on Samsung Galaxy S2 with CyanogenMod 10.
When I play music to headphones with low volume, playing music is really influent. It seems like playing is being stopped in quiet parts of song.
I tried a lot of music players and it's always the same. Is there any help? It isn't very much comfortable to listen music in such situation.

I have exactly the same problem for a long time now. It's really annoying. Updated and reinstalled the ROM several times in between - doesn't change anything.

Seems to be a common hardware problem on Samsung devices.
Easiest solution is to just install the newest Dorimanx kernel for Samsung Galaxy SII. Works for me now.
Source: This thread here.

You have to flash a volume driver. You will get from the link where you downloaded the custom rom.
Your new custom rom is not supporting the default driver. You can flash the zip file from the app you got by default in a new rom like cmw.

Never heard about such thing. Can you give a reference for this "something"?

It would be helpful if you provided a link to a forum or other page that explains this problem and the solution. As it stands, your answer is too vague.


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Restrictions of Play Store on custom ROMs
Please could someone correct my understanding? I read that once a phone has a custom ROM loaded, the play store can not be used on it again. However after more reading I'm not sure if this is the case?
I'm sure the answer is complicated so to simplify it, all I want to do is convert an old phone (HTC wildfire) into a dedicated device for my toddler that will just be used for offline games.
I don't need to remove features as he will be supervised, but I don't mind if the barest of ROMs is loaded as long as I can load games from the play store: I just want to speed the phone up, as at the moment it is awfully slow. (I have already tried restoring to factory settings and installing updates.)
Help would be appreciated!

There is no such restriction. I use custom ROMs on two of my devices, and the Playstore is acting normal.
The only problem you might face is that the Google Play App won't come pre-installed. You need to flash a package called "GApps", which must match the Android version used by your custom ROM. Usually, the corresponding links are pointed out on the page where you download your ROM from.

Some apps like Google Music would not install on certain custom ROMS. However, I have found this unpredictable. CyanogenMod no issue, tried another ROM and had an issue. It is down, as far as I understand, to the fact that you COULD pirate music, books etc easier with an unlocked device with SU.
From my own anecdotal useage every app I need has installed fine. Google's restrictions seem to have been lifted (or loosened) and searching around the last time someone encountered this aws 2011 http://www.androidcentral.com/google-movies-blocked-rooted-devices
As the above poster said you may not get GApps but that can be flashed as part of the ROM installation anayways.

Install gApps. You will get that from the same link where you downloaded the custom ROM. Due some authority rights and exception,  the custom ROM will now support the Play Store you installed externally.


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Media Player stuck on 00:00 (randomly) when opened
My usual listening habits are to listen to podcasts with Doggcatcher sometimes followed by listening to some music (currently using PlayerPro) (on my Samsung Galaxy S4) while driving. Periodically, when I close Doggcatcher and open PlayerPro, and I select a track to play, the track looks like it is going to start to play.
However, although the timer starts at 00:00, and the Play button changes to the Pause button, there is no sound. Often the timer will tick over to 00:01 after a few seconds but it gets not further.
Similarly, if I switch to the Google Play Music app, the timer happily ticks away, but no sound comes out. Switching again to, say, N7, we are back to the same PlayerPro behaviour.
It appears not to depend on the media player, though I usually use PlayerPro. It usually happens after using DoggCatcher, but then again, it is the only app I use for podcasts.
The only solution I have so far, is to restart the device - a bit inconvenient, particularly when driving.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Any idea what is cause these media players to 'pause'? Any tips on investigating this issue?

I had to rebuild my phone after a firmware update; in doing so, I skipped over a lot of the Junk that I'd previously installed. The upshot is that I no longer suffer this problem (nor several others that had crept in). While it could be the software update that was the solution, I suspect that it was more likely that the clean install that did the trick.
On the plus side, the problem has disappeared; on the negative side, we don't know what the solution is.


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What happens when a country changes its DST schedule?
What happens when a country changes its DST schedule? For example, Israel has just lengthened its Daylight Savings Time by a month. It seems like no firmware update was issued by Google for this. How does Android update its timezones and times?

Time is updated using specific protocols. The information exchanged might include a DST flag (at least I would have done that if I'd made the specs), together with a TZ and the unix time stamp. But given that not even NTP does that (neither TZ nor DST), it might be doubtful.
So far the thoughts. However, GSM devices such as many Android smartphones rather use NITZ (Network Identity and Time Zone), which a.o. specifies (according to Wikipedia):

This standard allows the network to "transfer its current identity, universal time, DST and LTZ"1 but each is optional, and support across RAN vendor and operator varies. This presents a problem for device manufactures which are required to maintain a complex timezone database, rather than rely on the network operator.

From this we can learn: It might be this information is provided via NITZ, as the specs allow for it. But network providers also might include additional sources to ensure this.
One other point is that not all carriers support NITZ (see Wikipedia). I'm not sure what they use instead (a good guess might be the Reference Broadcast Time Synchronization); but different carriers might use different methods. So to me it looks like there's no "general answer" − as you can also see in this discussion: Sometimes (or rather "some places") it works, in others not.
If you want to dig deeper:

Time Synchronization in Telecom Networks
Deployment of Precision Time Protocol for Synchronization of GSM and UMTS Basestations (PDF)
Frequency and Time Synchronization In Packet Based Networks (PDF)


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Cant restore stock rom in galaxy y and format failure
I installed Hyperion custom ROM. Before installing it I made a complete backup. Then now I thought to switch back to my original OS − but it is saying some error like format failure, cant unmount system etc.
What could be the problem here?
Device name: Galaxy Y
Recovery tool: CWM
Custom ROM used: Hyperion
Error Report:
Checking MD5 sum
E:format_volume failed to unmount/system
error while formatting/ system

We can only help you if you describe exactly what steps you took, and at what stage you got the error message you describe.

more clear i wiped data and cache then using CWM i went backup and restore and gave restore but i got error what i mentioned before

You can switch to stock ROM for Galaxy Y by using the latest version of Odin and downloading the stock ROM. You can find these files in other forums.

need kies??? r zip file enough


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Party Mode or guest Access for Google Play Music?
I wonder if there is a way to use "Google Play Music" with something like a "Party Mode".
I just want to give my friends the possibility to browse and play my music library without giving them access to my entire Google Account.
They clould use the Web app with my laptop or the Android app on my MK808.
Maybe I'm using the wrong terms for searching but I coldn't find a thread with a similar problem. I can't imagine that no one else wants to do that...
Do anybody know a solution for this problem?

I doubt there is anything like that. GPlay uses DRM for articles you've bought, so they are licensed to you. Giving "free access" would undermine that DRM restriction.

Hmm, it's not really correct that Google Play Music is using DRM. Purchased music can be downloaded as DRM-free MP3 from Google Play Music. As for an answer: The official Google Play Music app has no such feature as Party Mode. But there are inofficial APIs for it, that may allow to build such an app. But  I am not aware that such an app exists yet.

I don't want to give free Access to other accounts
or allow to download tracks to other devices.
I'm just talking about some kind of restricted access for people at my place with physical access to my PC.
I thought of something like a Button which locks all Google Services except Google Music. If you want to unlock it again you have to provide your password.
edit:
Thanks Flow, I think this is the answer I was looking for. Unfortunately it isn't the answer I wanted to get ;)

A party mode allowing different people to play music from the Play Store on one device is something that the (now cancelled) Nexus Q was designed to do, so it is something that Google have thought about. Might also be worth asking whether there's any web options for this on http://webapps.stackexchange.com/

OP did so in http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/49297/party-mode-for-google-play-music

How about a simple webserver? There are several on Google Play, like WebDAV Server. You select a port and a folder.

Thanks for your answers.
I found a solution for my problem.
There is a project named "Google Musik Desktop Player"
That's almost what I wanted
I just let the player run on my PC and friends in my room have only access to my music library so they can choose a song or create a playlist.

There is a way to share songs and albums with friends and family. This is not quite the same as a "party mode," but is the closest thing I have found to it.
Pros:
1. Don't need to give anyone your account information.
2. Friends can listen to shared music on any device they want.
Cons:
1. Only works with Google+ (for now) so your friend must have a device which can access Google+.
2. Can listen to the entire song only once for free.
3. Only works with limited number of songs (many more are being added though).
Setting up a type of "guest account" may be a viable option but this opens up a whole hose of security concerns - I doubt Google would implement this officially. Sharing music has a long history of abuse.
So much music can be found for free these days, sharing a listing of your favorite songs may be all that is necessary.


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how to install stock rom from recovery?
first I saw my phone is off and then I tried to turn it on but it hanged on Galaxy note welcome page, so I do Factory reset ,wipe cache and Dalvik cache and System, but while I want to reboot from Team Win Recovery Project I saw No OS installed, Are you sure you wish reboot?
after rebooting it hanged again in same page
I think I need to install stock rom but I don't find any stock that i can install from recovery, all of them need Odin
downloading mode doesn't work and I had installed 4.1.2 and vAlliance custom rom v3

It got stuck in boot loop due to reset where the bootloader is not getting the correct file to load. The only way to fix it is to use Odin to get a stock ROM. Any deodexed ROM (stock ROM) can also be used from recovery mode, if it is able to start in recovery mode.


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creating new folder hangs current window on pc?
As all of you might know the galaxy note 2 (n7100) doesn't provide the usb mass storage option when connecting to pc.
It connects to the pc as a media storage or camera storage option. Upon clicking on it, I am able to access my card and internal memory.
But when I try to create new folder in the card or internal memory, the current working window freezes.
Also reading writing everything works just fine. And I can create the new folder on windows desktop and then copy to card or internal memory it works just fine. But not able to create folder directly in the card or internal memory, as every time working window hangs and I need to re connect the phone to pc.

It sounds like you've found a bug in Windows, and you've cleverly come up with a workaround for that bug. What's your Android question?

@DanHulme But if there is a way to get usb mass storage working, Then this can be resolved. So how to enable usb mass storage for note 2?

I was having a similar problem. Just wait for a minute or so and that folder does get created eventually. Of course the workaround is to either:

Create Folder on a local Windows Drive and then copy it onto the phone
OR
Install Custom Recovery and reboot into it and activate USB Mass Storage


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How can I unlock my HTC One V locked by 3 (UK Carrier, www.three.co.uk)?
I have a HTC One V which is provided by 3 (www.three.co.uk) under contract.
I recently bought a Nexus 4 from Google Play because of the price drop, and I'm using my 3 SIM in the Nexus which is working fine.
I want to sell my old One V and know that I can do it a lot easier if the device is unlocked so it can be used on any network.
After looking around online, cellunlocker.net quotes me $14.99 for an unlock code and Three themselves quotes me £15. I've heard from some friends that they were able to get their phones unlocked for free, if so, how would I go about doing this?
I'd rather not fall victim to a marketing scam to get a code that I could get for free.

Your local independent phone repair shop or market trader will probably SIM-unlock your phone for around a fiver, or you can probably negotiate it as a free service if you're buying something else there. It's not quite free, but if you value your time at all, it's probably cheaper than faffing around trying to do it yourself.


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Not able to login to Gmail from browser
I have my android phone connected to Wifi. When I open youtube in browser it opens perfectly and other sites as well but I can't open Gmail, facebook etc "in browser". The message says that the requested page might be temporarily down or moved to a new web address. Google play also isn't working. I  cleared data and cache from the browser but it didn't work. Then I went on to factory reset the phone but still no hope. If anybody could help..please.

Does the Wi-Fi network that you use block social media sites and Email? Have you tried another (home) Wi-Fi connection?

The issue is not the browser or anything else, if you try to connect via the gprs (mobile network) it won't block. And to make it pretty sure, you can try to download Opera Mini v7. Then you will be able to see that it will load pages even when they are blocked.
ISPs block site, as per orders of govt. or on their own. The issue is mainly because of that! But still, you might try out Opera Mini, and check if the site is working for you or not. If Opera Mini is working, then their is some issue with the connection.
If the problem persists, you might try to use some VPN. That's the only way to get around when the ISP is blocking some sites.


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Control of apps while driving. (Macros?)
I want to create a few simple macros which I can activate while driving. At the moment, for safety I would need to park the car in order to use the GUI.
What I'm after (if it's possible) is to assign to a trigger (such as shaking the phone, which I can do while driving without taking my eyes off the road) to a series of taps or the clicking of a button etc.
Can one app control another in this way? And can macros be recorded which would for example, click on an item in a list, and then when a new screen pops up, click a GUI button in it?
Specifically, I listen to a number of di.fm radio station streams in the car and want to be able to change between them. DI.fm has a custom app for this, but their stations are also available as standards-compliant streams (mp3, aac) for 3rd party programs like WinAmp (which might have more accessible controls for switching between streams which could be managed by an additional 3rd party app)

Tasker can do that (and a lot more things), as long as the app in question supports it (a list of apps with Tasker support can e.g. be found here − never mind the German, if you're just after the list). As you've described, it supports "Shake gestures", and if your device has a camera button, you could utilize that as well. "Flip gestures" might also come in handy (flip the device to face down, then face up, etc.)
I know it's a paid app. But to try it out, visit the app's project site and get a 7-day trial (remember to export all your configuration and profiles before "day 7", then you can simply uninstall, re-install, and re-import your settings for another 7 days period − this hint comes from the dev himself, so it's nothing bad ;)
The app needs some time to get warm with it. But once you did, you don't want to miss it anymore :)

Thanks - I've actually been using Tasker for some time now! But as you say, Tasker requires that the app to be controlled supports Tasker. I've just realised, however, that perhaps I could use tasker to launch an audio URL, which would then open that radio station in whatever music app is registered as the default - which in my case would be Winamp (which does not support Tasker afaik). If/when I manage this I will post how I did it.

Good idea -- I'm looking forward to that! Btw: If the device is rooted, you could also play with injecting key-events to control apps which don't openly support Tasker. Will be tricky, but should be possible ;)


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How to backup protected apps for later use?
I there any way i can backup the protected apps as apks as it is possible to backup free apps using the avilable backups apps for later use.
why i want this: I don't want to download the apps again to save bandwidth as i have other devices too(with same email).

No chance without root I'm afraid. This was one feature ThinkAndroid wanted to put into AppMonsterPro, and they finally had to use SUPERUSER permission for that. So I doubt it's (currently) possible without root.


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screen not working properly on my tablet
I have a brand new 10.1 inch tablet, made in china. The screen doesn't respond to touch as much as it should, a few other little things and I can't work out some of the onscreen operating icon/button things. The resellers suggested I start with Android Central Forums, as this is the only Android devise they sell so they don't know the answers. I joined up with A.C.Forums, but can't work out how to post. Help and/or advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange! The question-and-answer format of this site works best if you ask a single, specific question in each question post. I've taken the liberty of answering the question from your title; if you have further questions about particular icons or buttons, ask a new question for each one, explaining what you have trouble with.

So, your question for the Android Enthusiests Stack Exchange forum is "How do I post a question on Android Central Forums"? I think that is out of scope on this site.

Thanks Stephen. I think wot yr saying is that asking how to operate within the ac forums, isn't a question for the android site. I agree, didn't think of it at the time. Was too stressed at the time, feeling that I can't get any help if I can't post. I'll have a look around to see wot I can find. Ta

There's an easy way to check if the tablet has a faulty touchscreen. Go into Google Play and install a painting app. There are many free painting apps to choose from: just pick a simple one. Run the app and try to paint the whole screen. If the painting doesn't follow your finger, or any parts of the screen can't be painted, you can see the screen is faulty, and you should return it to the seller for a refund or exchange. Faulty touchscreens are quite common on cheap Chinese imports because they use cheaper components and don't test them thoroughly.
The other possibility is that, being a cheap tablet, it has an old-fashioned resistive touchscreen instead of a proper capacitive one. You can tell by using a pointy plastic stylus (such as the handle end of a toothbrush, or the non-writing end of a ballpoint pen) to click on something on the screen. If that works, it's a resistive screen, not a capacitive one.
You'll find any swipe gestures a lot harder to perform on a resistive screen, and multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom are not possible at all. You'll find a resistive touchscreen is a lot more responsive to being pressed with your fingernail instead of the flat 'pad' of your finger.

Thanks Dan for that. I'll check that out. And good point, one question per post  :-\

Thanks Dan, I checked both suggestions. The painting covered the entire screen. I checked the screen with a pen end and (as I thought) it definately has the capacitive screen (thank goodness). Also by the time I had done that, the screen has worked perfectly lol.

OK, I'm glad it's working for you now. If you're still having trouble working out what any icons or buttons do, you know where the Ask Question button is!


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Symbol LS2208 running on Android
I try to use Symbol LS2208 (Barcode Scanner) with USB OTG on my Xperia Ray and nothing happen. I think my Xperia can use LS2208 because I using Logitect B100 (mouse) and work perfectly.
When I connect LS2208 into my Laptop with Windows 7 and UBuntu, LS2208 work perfect marked with beep.
Is there any driver for running LS2208 with Android?

What kind of USB device is this? Does it pretend to be a keyboard and type the barcode you scan, or is it a special purpose device?

I think that device like keyboard

If this device acts as a USB keyboard, then you don't need a special driver. Just be sure to set everything up before you start scanning: start an app that has some text input, and make sure you focus the text input field as if you're about to type in it.


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Contact details showing up for sources that have sync turned off
I am new to Android, and I am trying to learn, (sometimes unlearn) and work around "issues". So please bear with me for my naïveté.
I have multiple accounts (multiple Google accounts, Skype, WhatsApp etc) configured on my phone. I want to sync contacts only from one Google account (let us say x.y@gmail.com). I have turned off Sync for all other accounts (let us say a.b@gmail.com and p.q@gmail.com) in the Accounts settings page.
I see that only contacts from x.y@gmail.com getting displayed by default, but if the same contact exists in another account as well, when I see the details from the other account also when I open it.
Say I have two accounts, x.y@gmail.com and a.b@gmail.com.
I have a contact named "Test Sync" in both these accounts. I don't use a.b@gmail.com for contacts any more but it has a older copy of Test Sync with a older number. x.y@gmail.com has the latest details and this is the account I intend to use for contacts.
x.y@gmail.com has 9876543210 which is the latest number
a.b@gmail.com has 12345678900 which is an older number.

Sync is off for contacts from a.b@gmail.com.
In the contacts app, in the "Contacts to Display" section, only x.y@gmail.com is selected (a.b@gmail.com is not selected)
When I see the list of contacts, Test Sync is listed, which is expected as this contact is present in x.y@gmail.com.
When I tap this contact to open it, I expect to see the number 12345678900 but I do not expect to see the number 9876543210.
But I see both:

I don't want my phone to use a.b@gmail.com at all, in any way, for contacts. This is what I would expect when I turn off contacts Sync for an account and when I leave it unselected in the "Contacts to Display". Is this possible without removing the account altogether or deleting all contacts from the account?
(I have a HTC one)

If you have all those accounts configured on your device, and have the contact data entered there: why should they not be shown? Or did I get something wrong?

The Sync option only controls whether changes are synchronized to and from that device: that is, if you add or delete a contact on the device, this change is reflected on other devices, and vice-versa. Disabling sync just means the contacts that have already been synced to the device will get out of date when you change them.
To control which contacts are shown, you need to go into the People app, then choose Contacts to display from the overflow menu (the three-dots in the top-right corner). Then choose Customise from the Contacts to display dialog, and you can choose which groups of contacts from which accounts to show.
When you create a new contact, you can choose from the menu at the top which Google account to create it in (or to keep it on the phone only). It remembers your previous selection, so if you only want to use one account, you only need to set it once.

In the Contacts to Display part, only x.y@gmail.com is selected. Contact 'Temp Sync' is present in this account and is shown. When I tap that contact to open it, I see the details not only from that account but from other accounts as well (even when the other accounts are not selected in Contacts to Display).

I have reworded/updated my question to make it more clear (hopefully)


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In Android 4, does disabling "Show notifications" have an effect on the process priority with regards to low memory?
Android 4 has a feature where you can disable notifications for an app by going to that app's properties and unchecking a checkbox. Both temporary and ongoing notifications will be hidden.
My question relates to low memory situations. If your device is low on memory, it will selectively kill processes to regain memory. Apps not in the foreground will go first. Apps that have a persistent notification have higher priority (though they, too, may be killed in extreme cases).
Many utility apps, like tasker, llama, Juice Defender, and others have an in-app ability to disable the ongoing notification icon. They all stress, however, that hiding the icon will cause their respective app to be more likely to be killed if there is low memory.
If I select to hide the notifications within the app properties, the app (presumably) doesn't know that it is being silenced.
If I hide the notifications via app properties, does the app therefore get pushed to a lower priority when memory is low? Or does the persistent notification simply get hidden, but is still running and giving the app the higher memory priority?


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How do you skip the PIN to go directly to the camera from the lock screen?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.1.2 (standard, not rooted). I previously had an iPhone, and the feature I miss the most is the ability to go directly to the camera from the lock screen without having to type in my PIN. How do I do this on Android?
I know that there are at least two or three questions asking pretty much the same question. Unfortunately, I don't have the reputation to comment on those answers to explain why they don't help me:

Is it possible to use the camera without unlocking first?:
How to enable a PIN but allow quick access to camera?

For both of these posts, the accepted answers recommend WidgetLocker, but the persons who gave the answers had apparently never tried it themselves. I've tried at least five different free lock screen apps, but none of them solve my problem--they all still require a PIN to use the camera. I haven't tried WidgetLocker, but I'm not going to pay for an app that I'm not sure will work, especially when all the others I've tried don't work. Does anyone know for sure that WidgetLocker resolves this problem? I also bought and tried WidgetLocker, but it doesn't support PINs at all, and so it is not a solution to this problem.

How to use camera without unlocking phone? (Jelly Bean on S3):

This answer suggests using Samsung's built in motion. I tried this, and it still requires the PIN to access the camera. This answer doesn't resolve the issue. I'm certainly willing to pay for an app that solves this issue, but I don't need any other lock screen features--I just want rapid access to my camera. Also, I would prefer not to root my phone just for this, but if there is a solution via rooting, I would seriously consider it.
Can anyone please suggest an answer that really works?

For what it's worth, you can get a refund in the Play Store up to 15 minutes after your purchase.

Do you have any Device Administrators enabled?   I wonder if it's possible for them to force the PIN requirement.

@TomG Even if you have Device Administrators, you CAN bypass the PIN entry on some configurations. For example, my lockscreen on Sony Xperia Z shows a camera shortcut above the PIN entry keypad.

@TomG, I have no idea what Device Administrators are. Could you please explain what they are and how they could resolve this issue? Thanks.

@Ochado, Device Administrators can impose security policies on a device; I was thinking that it's possible that a policy requiring a PIN may make it impossible to launch any app without the PIN.   If you have a device administrator enabled (System Settings->Security & Screen Lock -> Device Administrators on my phone), you may be stuck if (for example) your corporate email access requires the policy.  More info on device admins is on the Android Developer Site

Thanks, @TomG. I looked into it, and I confirmed that there is no device administrator restricting my device.

Thanks, @Al Everett, for the tip on the 15-minute reimbursement window. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough time for me to test and verify that WidgetLocker does not work :-(. I've edited my question to mention that I unsuccessfully tried WidgetLocker.

@Ochado: That is one of the features I miss from iPhone. I really thought there will be some way to get this, but so far I haven't found any.

Update: I now use an LG G3 with Android 5 (now upgrade to Android 6) which has the iPhone-like feature I requested built in, so the problem is moot for me now. However, the answers to this question would probably still be helpful to people with systems that don't have this functionality built in.

There is no way in Android to access to the standard Android camera from a password-protected device. However this little application allows to access to a simple camera with a triple press on the power button even when the device is password locked...
Camera Unlock (free)

Disclosure: I am the developer of this app

I've installed the app and I'm currently trying it out. It is rather rough in a number of ways, but based on my extensive searches, it is definitely the closest I've ever seen to what I'm looking for. Thanks! I'll post support issues through the normal support channels for the app.

Thanks Ochado, I'll try to improve the app. I know it is by now a bit limited, but it starts doing the job ;-)

@aeropic two things would make your app perfect: (1) use slide screen (like in kitkat) or a buton (like in iphone) to open it. (2) let it simply allow us launch our own camera app instead.

You can do it by following these steps...   I just did it I have an S3 Rooted, running 4.1.2

Root your phone
Install Xposed Framework
Install the Enable Camera on Lockscreen Module

Thanks for the root suggestion, but I'm still avoiding rooting for now.

i hav android 4.4.2,just swipe from right to left on screen..u will directly go to camera app without entering the pin.

There is an app called "HI screen lock"
This basically turn ur lock scren to iphone lock screen.
So it allows you to use camera without putting password. And also it allows you to use calculator and flashlights witout unlocking it.
Only bad part is that you have to buy full version to change the background to how you want and that it only allows 4 number password.

Could you please include a link to that app? I cannot find any app with this name at GPlay. Thanks!

Thanks for your response, but have you actually used the app and confirmed that it really does let you use the camera on a password-protected lock screen, but without entering the password? In my question description, I explained that I have tried many apps that supposedly did this but in fact did not. Please edit your question to say explicity whether or not you have tried it and it really works for this purpose.

HI screen lock works sort of.  It can be defeated by resetting the point. This is need because there is no way to clear the register if you type in a wrong pin digit (ie no back/clear button).  To get around this, I have set a Android pin with a 1/2 hour time out.  this pin is functional at boot up.  The downside is that occasionally I have type enter the pin twice.  Acceptable for the time being as a workaround.

GSmart Saga 3 just slide right in lock mode to turn on camera

I've just tried that on my device after setting up a lockscreen PIN: it still requires the user to enter the PIN in order to access the camera. Have you checked that?


text:
Wrong reply-to header in emails (tine20)
I have two different servers with two different user names

foo@mailserver.example (valid mail address)
bar@tine-server.example (not a valid mail, just for tine20 login)

I created an Exchange-Connector on the android device and if I send mails the message is from "foo@mailserver.example" but has a reply-to "bar@tine-server.example" set.
This is broken, since bar@tine-server.example is just a login for the tine20 server. It is not a valid email address.
Sending mails with the tine20 GUI works and there is no reply-to header set.
I use the default mail application on my android 4.1.2 (Samsung S2)
How can I tell the android mail app to stop adding the reply-to header?

Glad you've found the answer yourself! You might wish to make it an answer (currently, it's just a comment and might be overlooked). It's absolutely OK here to answer your own question ;)

I found the solution:
If you use two different servers for mail and tine20, you need to use the mail address if you create the Exchange Connection on the android device. The automatic set up will fail, and in the advanced settings you can enter the name of the tine20 server.
If you use the tine20 login on the first screen, the stock mail app will add a reply-to header to the tine20 server. And that's not valid, if you run two servers.


text:
How can I transfer my all contacts from old HTC Wildfifre android 2.1 to LG Optimus Vu
I just want to transfer all contacts from old HTC Wildfire with android version 2.1 to new LG Optimus Vu with android version 4.0. I have used different apps but still I am unable to transfer contacts and an unexpected error occures. Another issue is that I can't move contacts to SD card because LG Optimus Vu does not supports SD card. Please recommend a simple and easy way or an app which is helpful to transfer contacts to the new LG optimus Vu from HTC Wildfire.

Just a few steps:

Open the contacts app on the Wildfire
Tap the menu button, select to "Export" your contacts to SDCard. This will result in a 00001.vcf file on your SDCard.
Now use any way you like to get the exported file to the Optimus:

Mail/GMail it to your account
Send it via Bluetooth
Copy to your computer, and then to the new device's internal SDCard
...

On the Optimus, open the contacts app
As above, use the Export/Import feature to import the .vcf file

If in step 3 you chose to Mail/GMail the .vcf file, you most likely will be able to open it directly from the attachment, which should cause it to be offered for import into your contacts app (I never tried that variant, so I'm not sure about it).

I installed Contact Sync and exported all my contact data and groups to a single .vcf file, afterwards I mailed it to my mail account and then downloaded it on my new phone and there imported it with the same app which I used for the export. This did the trick for me.

The simplest way would be exporting all contacts to Google account and then Sync it in a new device.


text:
Why does my Samsung galaxy blaze randomly shut off and won't reboot until it is plugged into the wall?
My galaxy blaze phone randomly shuts off (even though I have plenty of battery life left) while using it and then tries to reboot itself but never fully starts up. Therefore, it constantly keeps shutting off and on until I charge it.  While it is turning off and on I take out the battery for several minutes but nothing seems to work.  Once it plugs into the wall it starts to work again but lately this is happening more and more often, up to 5 times a day.
Would a new battery or update fix this or is it something malfunctioning within the the phone itself?

open setting choose backup and reset. Once that is done turn the phone on It should be as good a s new. I took this off T-mobile help thanks Tmobile

You should mention that this removes all installed applications and user data from the internal memory and should be used with caution!


text:
How to Move App's Data

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)
As you can see here, i have already move the app to sd storage.
the problem is, my app data still using my root directory.
How to move my data to SD Storage Data???

You might want to take a look at our app2sd tag-wiki, which gives some hints. A warning in advance: you cannot move your apps' data unless your device is rooted (or the app itself offers this).


text:
How can I easily deny other apps from accessing my personal data?
If I use the standard Android contacts, sms and phone app all these data are endangered to be read by other apps.
Is there a solution without rooting the phone that every simple user could easily install?
Sure,you could conceal your contacts by renaming them to something cryptic. But that is not very handy.
Maybe there are alternative apps for contacts, sms and phone app? So there would be no data in the standard apps.
Or some simple solution that prevents access?

"all these data are endangered to be read by other apps": only apps you've given permission to read your contacts, messages, and phone logs. The simple solution that prevents access is not to install an app that asks for these permissions.

Short answer with two letters: No.
TL;DR
Whatever app you use to work with your contacts, SMS, and phone – they will need to access your contacts, SMS, and phone (how else should that work?), so alternative apps for that won't be much help. With the exception of those few which use own databases (I know of some calendar apps that do this, but did not yet encounter any such contacts/dialer/SMS app), which would not work with contacts (how shall the dialer or messages app then access them, except it's built into the very same app?).
Let's assume you find such an all-in-one contacts app using its own storage: you had to trust it as well that it doesn't initiate calls to some premium numbers (or send SMS there) in the background, and (in case it has the INTERNET permission) send all your private data "to some cloud".
So as Dan pointed out in his comment on your question: If you have concerns about an app that asks for permission to access something, don't install it.
With root
If, on the other hand, you decide to root your device, there are several solutions available to restrict apps. Just to name some: LBE, PDroid, XPrivacy. for details, please check with What information does stock Android send to Google by default, and how do I opt-out? and how to fake my personal information.


text:
How to stop my phone from auto-correcting my writing?
I have several Android phones, with different Android versions. I am writing short messages in several languages (Spanish, Catalan, English, German, Italian, ...) and I am really fed up with Android trying to outsmart me. A simple message takes me ages to write because I need to fight the auto-correction mechanism, or change the language, or whatever.
But if I disable all languages in the auto-correction settings, it still tries to auto-correct in English. Why?
Auto-correction is not for me. I do not want auto-correction, period. Not in English, not in any language. Is this possible?

Which device/keybroard are you using? Check also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2252/how-do-i-turn-off-auto-complete-when-texting

It depends on what keyboard app you're using. If you're using Google Keyboard (the default on Nexus devices), go into its settings. Go to the Text correction section and click Auto-correction. Choose Off from the list.
If you prefer, you could install a keyboard that supports using multiple languages at the same time, such as SwiftKey.


text:
Performance impact of device encryption
As far as I know, most or all Android devices don't have any hardware cryptography accelerators, so the block-level storage encryption happens on the CPU.
How high is the impact of encrypting and decrypting on the CPU with regards to read/write performance and battery consumption?
This will probably depend on the CPU and the storage used (I can imagine that on newer devices, the bottleneck is not the AES algorithm on the CPU, but the NAND write rate); some benchmark numbers from different devices would be very useful.

You are absolutely correct in stating that the bottleneck is actually not the encryption/decryption but NAND write rate. In fact, the performance observed for read/write of encrypted v/s non-encrypted does not vary significantly owing to high cpu speeds. What you might look at though is the rate at which block level encryption happens for the first time. Once the device is block encrypted, the performance numbers are pretty close.
You can use AndroBench to profile your device pre and post encryption.


text:
Cannot turn on wifi on Galaxy SIII
For the last month, I am unable to turn on my WiFi. It gets stuck on the message "turning on..." .
I did a factory reset but it didn't help. I have tried to reboot a number of times and also I have enabled/disabled flight mode, but nothing works out for me.

Are you running a factory ROM, or using a custom ROM and/or kernel? If you're running a custom ROM and/or kernel, the module/firmware may be incorrect. Have you checked the system log? Look at the results from 'dmesg' (run via ADB or a terminal app), specifically the log entries that relate to the wifi adapter.

I had this same problem when I rooted my device and messed up with some stuffs in Busybox. Hope you didn't try to do some things that could cause that. If you did. Try reloading a new stock rom of your device.

Might very well be a hardware problem as doing a factory reset also hasn't helped. It's best to get your phone checked by an authorized technician.


text:
How to stop Message memory full Internal phone storage is getting low?
I have been trying to get rid of this but nothing is working, and its super annoying please help! I've tried clearing cache but it didn't work.

Did you try deleting messages ?

I've just added the `insufficient-memory' tag to your question. Please follow up to its tag-wiki for some first aid. Let us know what solved your issue, or where you're stuck then.

Go to settings-> Applications -> Manage Applications and remove some unwanted apps.
That is the best solution.


text:
Does installing CyanogenMod lock device's network?
today after almost one year using the stock Android version on my Xperia Mini (ST15i, I was on Gingerbread) I decided to flash an official CyanogenMod ROM (CM7).
So I first unlocked the bootloader of the phone following the procedure detailed by Sony and then flashed the ROM following the default procedure explained in the CyanogenMod wiki page of the Xperia Mini.
Everything went alright but now when I turn my phone on after I input the SIM password I'm asked for a network lock, when I wasn't before.
I tried reverting back to the stock Gingerbread and things worked properly again. Trying a different version (CM9, also official) got me the same problem.
Am I doing something wrong? Or is there any step not documented in that wiki page I should know about?
Thanks for everything in advance.

always unlock device from your carrier's network first prior to flashing custom ROMs.. ;)

No you are not doing anything wrong. Also it is not cyanogen's mod fault. The problem is, I think that you bought your phone on a contract witch usually have a network lock aka you can only use it on the network from where you got your contract from.
The problem is that when you change your ROM, you are installing something different then what your operator's rom had on it and the phone doesn't know that rom and he think you want to use it in different networks so he will only give access if you unlock it.
May by you can find some tutorials to unlock your phone or you can go to your contract provider(if the contract expired) to give you the network key to unlock the phone.


text:
How do I troubleshoot the touch screen on an HTC Evo Shift?
My husband's HTC Evo Shift took a swim in some iced coffee and the touch screen doesn't work at all anymore. I did a full factory reset, which didn't accomplish anything. The screen doesn't respond at all. I can flip it open and use the keyboard, but that's not hardly convenient.
So ... what do I try next?  I'm game to experiment -- he got a new phone. I just can't accept that this one is kaput.

I realized I thought the phone was an HTC Sense. It isn't, it's an HTC Evo Shift.

Try Settings->Developer Options->Show touchscreen touches.  Unfortunately, HTC likes to move these settings around between versions so I don't know if it will work for you.
Replacing the digitizer is possible on many HTCs, I did it on my EVO 3D.  But that's probably what has failed.  Condensation will confuse it and make it stop functioning .

There's probably moisture in the device. If so, you need to take it apart and clean it (and maybe replace some parts): https://www.google.com/search?q=teardown+htc+evo+shift

Oh? Will try that.


text:
Can I override page buddy's recommended applications settings?
When I plug in my headphones, an Earphones page appears on my device with the title "Enjoy listening to your device", which is part of page buddy. I have a music widget and a video widget, which is fine.
My first two applications are fine, Firefox and YouTube, but my last two applications are Messaging and Email. Apparently it's supposed to be frequency of use, but I never use the Email app, and neither the Messaging app nor the Email app are aural.
When I try to change these two apps, it says "Cannot edit recommended apps". Can I fix this to stop displaying non-aural apps?

it's the most frequently used apps while the earphones are plugged in. just open the app you want to show up 4 or 5 times in a row while the page buddy is active (earphones plugged in) and it will show up in the recommended apps. repeat for the next 3 apps you want to show. There's usually 4 recommended apps. This goes for all of the page buddy pages, earphones, docking, roaming, and spen (on supported devices).

Wow, that is terrible development.


text:
Synchronizing signature from desktop GMail to Android GMail app
I need to send email from road and want my professional signature to appear. Our company policy requires use of "real" signature when using mobile email and I can't adhere to my own policy.
How do I sync my desktop GMail signature in Android? It works on my employees' iPhones, but I couldn't figure it out how to do that in Android. I know I can type a signature in, but it's just not the same as what appears on our desktops.

any updates in 2021?

The feature you are looking for is not available with the Gmail app (yet). (source). You can't even add any type of rich-text signature to your mobile app. Devs say that this feature is still being worked on. The only option available to you is to add a simple text signature through the app.

Wow! That's amazing; I thought I just couldn't figure it out.  Thanks for the answer.  Seems like such a simple feature.  I thought for sure that since it works on the iphones it must work on a google phone....hope they fix it soon.  Thanks again.

any updates in 2021?

The workaround I use is one of the Labs features: Canned responses.
On my Android device I then use an app called "Responses" that takes your canned responses from the associated Gmail account and copies it to your clipboard.
You then just paste it into your email. You can even have images, etc., in the canned responses.


text:
How do I make the apps/widgets view the default view?
I just got my first Android device (a tablet). I noticed there's two views. One with a wallpaper and some apps, and another view similar to Launchpad on the Mac (shown below):

I want to get rid of the view with the wallpaper in it and just have the "launchpad" view as my default. Is that possible?

That's called the "App Drawer", by the way.

You would need to install a custom Launcher.
A launcher is the application that you use to launch other applications. It is both the home screen (view with wallpaper) and launcher draw ("launchpad").
With Android you can install different launchers via the Play Store to suit your own needs.
For example AppDrawer (MIUI App Drawer) might be what you're looking for.


text:
What is rooting? How to root an android phone?
Explain what is rooting? How to do it? Does rooting affect the phone's performance? Can samsung galaxy fit be updated to present android version?
can anyone refer sites that explains the inside of android?

You could check out the rooting tag info page. Most of the tags have good, general information about them if you click them and go to Learn more.... For updating, we have lists of upgrades for various devices under questions such as "When will my device get the Android 4.3 upgrade", you can find the if you open the page for update tag and sort by votes.

How do I root my Android device?

What is the difference between: Rooting, Jailbreak, ROM, Mod, etc.?

Did you tried Google Android rooting?
Is there something in the articles that your don't understand?
Rooting means allowing an application to gain root privilege. This is usually done by hacking the existing kernel or flashing a new kernel.
Some devices locked the bootloader, you have to "unlock the bootloader" first in order to flash a new kernel.
As for updates, enthusiasts port the latest AOSP to various devices. Xda forum is a great source for these custom ROMs (and rooting/flashing info).
WARNING: Rooting, unlocking bootloader and flashing custom ROMs may void your warranty.


text:
Should I update those pre-installed programs that I never use?
There are quite a number of applications that came pre-installed onto my phone when I bought it. I am unable to uninstall any of these without rooting my phone. Every now and then, Google Play will send me notifications of new updates for these software. Some of these, such as Gmail, YouTube and Hangouts belong to Google, others belong to third parties linked to my telco.
Whenever I perform an update on an application, I have to go through a list of App permissions and decide whether to grant those permissions. Some of these may request permission to access my address book, others may request certain controls on my Android system. These are privacy issues as well as security issues that I supposed many people will be facing.
In any case, how should one deal with these "unwanted" programs?

You can turn off auto update!!

What version of Android are you using? Recent versions allow you to disable system apps, so among other things you won't get update notifications.

You might consider disabling those apps (starting with ICS, that's possible for some but not all) and "delete their updates". This way you'd solve multiple of your issues:

no more update reminders
app becomes unavailable, so it's no longer shown in the app drawer
being disabled, they should also no longer provide an "attack vector"
plus, the updates deleted, you save precious internal storage :)

If that's not possible for some apps via Settings → Applications (check the "All" tab there to see pre-installed apps), and rooting is an option, you can still freeze them with apps like Titanium Backup to achieve the same.
Update: Starting with Lollipop, you can use the pm hide command without root via adb. So in case disabling an app the common way (see previous paragraph) fails, that is still worth a try.

Thanks. I guess it is time to update my OS to disable some apps.

If you don't use them, there is no point in updating them.
The only benefit of updating would be that they will stop giving annoying reminders to update - at least until their next update.
Many of these bloatware/crapware additions can't be removed without rooting the phone.  However, many of them will respond to a Force Stop after which they won't prompt you to update until you reboot your phone.  The really annoying ones are those that restart after a Force Stop.
Most updates increase the amount of memory used by the app.  Leave them alone if you don't want them.
In terms of security updates, if the app isn't running then it isn't a risk.

I can not generally agree, that apps that don't run are no risk. A potential attacker could still use exploits with these in genera. As reference see the everlasting Java threat on desktop PC's, even when the user does not explicitly use Java. It's exploitable from web browser when installed.

It is possible to set the default opening app to be something other than the manufacturer's installed version.  In which case the un-updated app will not open.  This is different to the Java issue on PCs, although the comparison is well made.  I'm not suggesting that anyone neglect security.  The best answer is to update to the latest version of Android and disable system apps from within.

Most of the bloatware I want to remove either have the "Force Stop" button disabled or are not listed. Thanks for your suggestion. I think I will upgrade my OS and disable them thereafter.


text:
Fail in restoring WhatsApp chats
I followed the steps below to restore WhatsApp chats:

On my old phone, I backed up my chats to an SD card
Insert the SD card into the new phone
Moved the whole WhatsApp folder to the new phone from the SD card
Install WhatsApp on a new phone and register and then it said there is a backup file found, asked if I would like to restore it.
I clicked restore, so WhatsApp processes.... for around 1-2 minutes, WhatsApp quits itself, prompt "Unfortunately, WhatsApp has stopped"

The WhatsApp version on both my old and new phone is the same.
So how can I restore my chat history?

I have the same problem except that WhatsApp doesn't even detect my backed up messages! No restore option is shown when I install WhatsApp.

Make sure that your phone is in airplane mode. Sometimes that will work.

Try this, from the Whatsapp FAQ.

To restore from a backup, follow these steps:

Uninstall WhatsApp.
Decide which backup file you want to restore.
Rename that file from "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt" to
  "msgstore.db.crypt"
Install WhatsApp
When asked to restore, tap [Restore]

thanks for the answer... but nope... didn't help...

When you put the backup file onto your new phone, make sure you put it in the WhatsApp folder that is located on your phone and not the SD card in your new phone. There are 2 WhatsApp folders, one on your phone and one on the SD card, so make sure you put the backup onto your new phone because I kept putting it in the SD card folder and it didn't work.

This worked as well for me. No idea why WhatsApp does not consider the SD card folder anymore.

The file name in the Whatsapp/Database/ folder should be msgstore.db.crypt. If it has a date, etc. then rename it to msgstore.db.crypt only. In my case, it was msgstore.db.crypt8. I rename it msgstore.db.crypt and it worked.

Apparently, there are issues with the restore when you use a different phone number. I could not completely figure out what caused the problems in my case, but I was finally able to restore my data when I used the same cell phone number for activation (I have a dual SIM phone) as I used on my old phone.
So, I guess the bottom line is:

Use the same Google account ("@gmail" vs "@googlemail")
Use the same cell phone number

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


text:
Galaxy S3 Wifi no internet on Comcast/xfinity router
Brand new stock Samsung Galaxy S3 will connect to Comcast-provided wireless router (Arris brand), but cannot get out of local network - I can ping other devices on the network, and I can even browse the admin page of the router, but cannot get on the internet.  Other devices work fine. I've tried turning off security.  I don't seem to have the disconnect problems others have reported - the connection is consistent.  Oddly, I don't see the S3 listed in the "connected devices".
If I run ifconfig wlan0, it shows the IP address, netmask but no gateway.
I can set a static IP, but I still am unable to get internet.
I can connect to other wireless networks without problems.
Any ideas?
Yes, other devices can connect - couple of laptops, kindle, wife's phone, my old phone (both androids) and ipad..

Can you get out into the internet with a different device? It may be your router that is not correctly configured.

Often times, when the Arris routers already have multiple devices connected, these routers have trouble, well, routing new devices. What ends up happening is all the currently connected devices keep their routes and the new one is blocked off from the outside world. The best way to resolve this is to let the router completely restart by unplugging it for 10 seconds and then plugging it back in. Then, as each device connects during the start-up, routes will be given to each device accordingly with no trouble. I have this problem all the time with the router we have at work.

Here's what I wound up doing - I reset the router to defaults, and I was able to get conected - I gradually restored everything back to the way I had it (ssid, security etc), and never lost connectivity, so I'm not sure what, if anything is different.

I had the same problem with various newer Samsung mobile devices.  I restarted my device, went to settings after booting back up, turned off my wireless on the device, then turned it back on. Was able to connect after keying in the security password.
Don't know if this helps. I monkeyed around with this for about an hour. before I got it to work.


text:
Transfering contacts from one Android smartphone (with smashed screen) to another
So my mother in law used to have an Huawei ideos X3 (U8510) and due to an unfortunate event the screen of her smartphone got smashed. That wouln't be a big issue if it wasn't for the fact that she wasn't saving her contacts in the cloud on google servers, she was saving them only on the phone.
Since her screen is unresponsible to touches, I can't get her contacts into the google cloud.
I gave her my old Samsung Galaxy S with CyanogenMod but I can't get her contacts over there.
What I did so far is, root the Huawei phone through adk to gain access to all files and databases. So far so good. I extracted the database with the contacts (contacts2.db) and overwrote the contacts2.db from the Galaxy S, which resulted into major force closes when opening the contacts app.
Any other suggestions? She needs her contacts badly.

I think http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12266374/backup-full-sms-mms-contents-via-adb this is what you want...

@Tirath My question was not, how to pull the contacts from the phone using adb :-) because thats what I accomplished already. What I need to do is, transfer them to the new phone and make the contacts accessible to the same phone.

If you have already done then just put the file in SD and use this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netqin.contactbackup&hl=en

Have you tried using a third party app to get the contacts to PC?
Here is an example https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snappea, but there are more, pick one. Install it using adb and then access your phone from PC.
Hope it helps.

Do you have instructions for installing an app via adb? How would they download the app from the play store so it could be installed via adb? Wouldn't they need to launch the app as well?

sounds like a plan, I will try that today in the evening when I am at home.

First of all, you can find apps to download online, and it gets you the apk file.
Here is an example of how to run it from adb http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6109234/how-to-run-not-only-install-an-android-application-using-apk-file


text:
R2Mail2 - GnuPG encrypting email to a different email address than in the public key
I have a friend's public key with the associated email address bla@bla.com. I would like to use the key to send an encrypted email to the email address not@not.com.
Is this possible in R2Mail2 for Android? I can in Thunderbird/Enigmail, but it doesn't seem possible in R2Mail2.
Thanks.

Here's an idea for your problem. Had the same as well. Searched a long time to get my Keys to the Android phone.
I work with OSX. There is a tutorial how to Export the keys it seems to be a matter of  Key and Certificate conversion. Hope that helps:
http://hackonadime.blogspot.de/2012/03/securing-your-mobile-email-thunderbird.html

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference (please [edit] your question and do so). Otherwise your question ceases to be helpful in case the link dies.

Encrypt your message to any public key(s). I also recommend encrypt-to-self. Then send it as an attachment to any address.

No thats not possible within R2Mail2 at the moment. As soon I have time I will implement an option where you can link additional email addressee to an public key.
regards
stefan


text:
Can the new Galaxy Note 10.1 make and receive phone calls?
I know that Galaxy Note 10.1 has multiple editions (one of them is LTE chip).
Can it make and receive ordinary phone calls? Like using ordinary signals, instead of the Internet ones.
I couldn't find any information on this.

No. Only skype or other voip options. It does not have a GSM module on it, it just has a small chip for data transfers.

Nope! As this phone doesnot have any support for GSM, or what you can say the SIM cards that would provide you a functionality to send and recieve messages or phone calls on the go, this phone doesnot allow you to make or recieve phone calls.
However, you can use VOIP, such as Google Voice, or Skype by Microsoft. To make phone calls, however if you want to make a phone call such as one you would make by any GSM supporting phone, it won't be happening here! You need to get 24x7 WiFi connection, to make sure you are alive. Otherwise just download Angry birds and play it in the meantime.
Cheers.

This phablet most certainly can make and receive calls, this depends  on which model you own The p601 and p605 work on GSM, LTE. If you own the P600 you need WiFi for calls or a blue toothed  head set.
Please do your research. .
http://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_10_1_(2014_edition)-5677.php

Yes. Use a Bluetooth headset and the phone app.


text:
Can I use a keyboard for Apple?
I want to buy a mobile Bluetooth keyboard.  It seems Apple ones are easier to find.
Does it make much difference?
(I assume the connection is the same for similar models, and the issue is layout)

Do you have an Apple Store or Kiosk near you? If so, they likely have the BT keyboards on display and you could test them directly to see if it'll work. Otherwise you could check out the specific sub-forum for your phone at XDA Forums and ask about the mac keyboards there...Unfortunately different phones can use different Bluetooth stacks so a Mac keyboard that works with one Android phone, doesn't necessarily mean it will work with another.

I was thinking of similar models, like "Logitech Tablet Keyboard (Keyboard-and-Stand Combo) for iPad, iPad 2, iPad (3rd/4th generation), and iPad mini (920-003241)" and "Logitech 920-003390 Tablet Keyboard for Android 3.0 Plus".
Android version above.

(Regarding holding).  If I think Apple layout can be annoying, I am less likely to buy a keyboard for Apple, but its not really purchasing advice.

I have used a couple of different BlueTooth keyboards and they all work pretty well on Android. I would assume the Apple keyboards would work just as well. I am a fan of Logitech keyboards just because I've always used them and they have always worked. You can always just buy an Apple keyboard and if it doesn't work you can just return it.