text:
How to disable unread group notifications in Whatsapp?
The "mute" option allows you to stop receiving notifications. However, I can still see the number of unread messages for a group that has been previously muted.
In addition, this group keeps coming at the top of the list of groups every time a new message is sent to it.
Is there a way to disable this without having to leave a group?

Sadly, you cannot.

It is now possible if your device is rooted, check out ShutApp below.

@EladNava Not working for Android 6.0+.

You need a rooted device. It does work on Android 6.0+.

@EladNava  I have a rooted device. Its not working. I have Lineage OS 14.1 based on Android 7.1.1.

This issue has been bugging me for ages. It is very disappointing that the whatsapp team refuses to address it.

This issue has been plaguing Whatsapp since its inception. I have had long email conversations with their support team on multiple occasions. Even uploaded a detailed video explaining the bug:
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bldIuA-OjU
This was their reply after about about 20 emails explaining the issue.
I gave up after that. To anyone reading this, please see the video to understand the problem. If someone influential can publicise it, maybe the will fix it then.

The developers left this annoyance open deliberately to keep users returning to Whatsapp, disabling it would reduce the user traffic dramatically (More active users = more $). Hopefully enough people will demand for a fix or someone will be able to make a workaround externally.

I developed an external workaround, see the ShutApp answer below.

ShutApp
ShutApp is an Android app I developed for rooted devices that will automatically mark your muted WhatsApp chats as read and prevent them from jumping to the top of the chat list, so that you don't have to leave those annoying groups.
You do need a rooted android device to use the app, though. That's because the app needs to be able to modify WhatsApp's internal database which is not accessible to other apps without granting root access.
ShutApp is completely free and open source, and if your phone isn't rooted yet, I think it's definitely worth rooting in order to use this app!
https://github.com/eladnava/shutapp-android

How to download?

Check out usage docs: https://github.com/eladnava/shutapp-android#usage

App not working for me (Lineage OS 14.1).

You need a rooted device. It does work on Android 6.0+.

I have a rooted device. Its not working. I have Lineage OS 14.1 based on Android 7.1.1.

Open an issue in the project page: https://github.com/eladnava/shutapp-android/issues

I have opened an issue now.

It doesn't work on Rooted Moto G1 Nougat, I installed your App directly on the phone (without the USB commands), checked all permissions and messages keep pilling up on the top. Are you still updating it?

Open an issue in the project page: github.com/eladnava/shutapp-android/issues

You can mute a group for a specified period of time. You will still
  receive the messages sent to the group, but your phone will not
  vibrate or make noise you when they are received. To mute a group:
Go to the group in WhatsApp.
      Tap Menu Button > Mute Group.
      Select how long you would like notifications to be muted.
      Optionally, uncheck Show notifications to stop notifications from being shown in your notification slider.

From whatsapp.com
Your group will go on top because it has the newest message. That's how it works.

But should you SEE those messages in the notification shade once you receive a new message?? I guess not. That's unexpected behaviour.

The inquiry is about a disabling muted group notifications. Posting how to "mute" and reaffirming what was previously stated is hardly an answer.

authors: عبداللطيف الهادي احمد الهادي


text:
Need to recover android system for soft bricked Onda v919 4G
I have an Onda v919 4G that I messed with and broke. I changed a line in the /system/etc/parameters file. I wanted the system to use my SD card (256 Gb) as the primary storage device for my apps and data.  That change caused my droid to refuse to boot up. If I could mount the file system and just edit that file things would be just fine. But no.......
I can't just mount the file system and edit the file. Now I have to burn the blood of a virgin or something so that I can fix this thing.
I tried using fastboot but apparently my tablet doesn't support flashing from fastboot which begs the question 'what the hell is fastboot for?' I've got no clue.
Can I mount the file system at all? I'm using an ubuntu 14 laptop as my primary work machine. Unfortunately I've looked everywhere on the net I can think. But I haven't found anything useful/understandable. Anyone able to teach a fool how to recover from his mess up? My tablet runs on an MTK8572 chip if that helps matters. An 'lsusb' command in terminal identifies my tablet as HTC (High Tech Computer Corp.) Dream / ADP1 / G1 / Magic / Tattoo. Again, I hope this is helpful.
Peace to you and yours.

I am not familiar with the system/etc/parameters directory. What you have done is altered the system configurations that appear to be used at boot. You would have needed to install a custom recovery when you rooted your device. Fastboot is ,in essence ,the equivalent of that recovery except it is included in the Android SDK(Software Development Kit).Most custom recoveries also include a fastboot option.  You will have to scour the web to find a version of the stock firmware for your tablet.
For future reference, be very careful when accessing or dealing with the system directory and especially the /etc directory as it contains configuration files for your Android system.

If you are modifying the system directory you have root.
If you have root, the device came pre-rooted or you used a one click method or you have a custom recovery installed.
If you have a custom recovery installed the approach is to boot to recovery and connect the device to pc.

Open a terminal and run adb shell mount /system.
Then run adb pull /system/the/file/you/porked.
Correct/revert the changes you made.
Then run adb push the-file-you-unporked /system/wherever/it-goes.
Lastly, run adb shell chmod 644 /system/wherever/the-filed-you-unporked-is/name-of-file.

You may need to establish some udev rules for your device however.
See this http://hackaday.com/2009/09/18/how-to-write-udev-rules/
You will also need to install android-tools-adb if you have not done so already. If they are not in your current known repository for Ubuntu, you will need to add the correct repos to etc/apt/sources.list or goto github or ubuntu source download page and get the source and compile it for your OS. You can also acquire the source by running apt-get source android-tools followed by apt-get build-dep android-tools to satisfy any build dependency issues. May the schwartz be with you.

When you changed the SD-card to your primary directory that made Android wanna boot from the SD-card because he thinks all of his files are there now. But ofc there are none of his files cuz they are all in /system on the internal storage. The only way to access the files is over adb (which probably isn't turned on if you always turn it off after finishing using it like everyone else who is concerned about his phone security) or a custom recovery.
Btw NEVER, NEVER tamper with major system files without having a backup/ knowing 200% what the effects are.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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

sort: votes


text:
What is ProwlerAgent?
Like the asker of this SO question, I'm receiving crash reports that mention something called ProwlerAgent.  Whatever ProwlerAgent is, it appears to have insinuated itself into my app's classpath:
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.myapp.BootReceiver in loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader@/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar:/system/app/ProwlerAgent234.apk:/data/app/com.myapp-1.apk
I'm not asking how to fix the crash.  I'm sure it's a problem with my app's manifest.  I'm just curious if anyone knows what ProwlerAgent is, because it seems suspicious.

Well prowleragant application is a norton symantec application. Haven't seen it myself and couldn't find a download link of it. This app was removed from market, and the word market suggests that it was an old application. But a part of norton it may be present in the norton antivirus for android, haven't decompiled it will do later, as soon as my pc gets in a working state. And yes you answered it correctly, and it's not a personal or other antivirus or sandbox agent. And and antivirus can implement it's structure to get activity data of the app, that suggests for the application to be checked for it's reputation, it's internet activity and data structure, so as to recognize a potential malware or a virus. Here check some links about it :
http://www.bestappsmarket.com/p/app?appId=961494&title=com-symantec-starmobile-prowler-sample
https://plus.google.com/+LitrikDeRoy/posts/cfsKZC1oCa4
https://github.com/codlab/cypherapp/issues/20

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


text:
How can I take a high-resolution screenshot?
I'm using a Nexus 5 running on Lollipop 5.1, and I can take a screenshot by holding POWER and VOLUME-DOWN. However, screenshots appear to be limited by the resolution of the device's screen. Specifically, it's 1080x1920 for the Nexus 5.

Is there a way (through the use of developer tools, a specialised app, or otherwise) to take a screenshot of higher resolution?

if the screen only prints out 1080x1920 pixels then where do you get the extended pixels?

By simulating a larger screen size and taking a screenshot of that

Even with development tools, screenshots are only of the pixel size of the device. You could try running the app in a emulator with higher resolution but all of those pixels may cause the emulator to lag. Or get a device like a Nexus 10 which runs at the higher resolutions.


text:
Why does the youtube offline videos get expired
Weird behavior of offline videos. I had downloaded a lot videos from office for offline viewing at home. But when i went home they were showing expired and when i clicked on them it showed connect to internet to update. So i went online but even then it was showing connect to update, but after long hours of searching over the internet i couldn't find any solutions. So i first removed them from offline and re-downloaded them.
That was okay, but the same thing happened today hence i am frustrated. My questions are like this:
1)Why are they getting expired
2)Solution for the above question.
Screenshot:

Screenshot - (click to enlarge)

This is related to YouTube Offline Videos deleted/removed

no i tried the above link, but its a different issue. I will add a screenshot..

I guess you can re-download the videos by clicking the 3dots near the expired video.

Ya i have mentioned that also, that if i click on that it will show connect to internet and even if i connect it will repeatedly show the same. So i finally had to remove it from my offline and re-download it again.

Apparently YouTube videos downloaded for offline viewing get expired after a certain amount of time. I haven't heard anything official about though.
The downloaded  videos are stored in the internal storage but they are saved as .exo file format which only the YouTube app can open (you can't play them with any other media player app)
The best advice I can give you is to use a YouTube downloader like Tube mate to download the videos.

Ya but why arent they trying to fix this and i have not uninstalled youtube.. And reinstalled, its like it remains there and ur right apparently they get expired

I don't think it's a bug, the devs probably intended to make it like this. Try using TubeMate app instead

It seems that YouTube Offline feature is expected to work that way, in specific regions/countries.
In India, those offline videos are not removed at all(unless YOU remove them or uninstall updates of YouTube app or if you connect the device to internet even once during the 48-hour window, the YouTube app will be able to verify the status and will refresh the 48-hour deadline.)
Read more at:  Here is the link which confirm this.
But in some specific regions/countries videos are removed after 48-hr expiry time.
Below is the relevant quote from article in http://www.engadget.com/

Anything you save will be accessible for 48 hours in the offline
  section on the left-hand sliding menu.

Check this link for more details:
Hence, it is not a bug or issue but the Business model of YouTube.
You may or may not agree with it but that is the present situation.

Yes it is based on location/country too. But I don't agree that it will never expire. In India I still notice some videos expire after a specific time period. Reason: The video uploader can set the expiry days so once the time period exceeds you need to redownload the video by connecting to internet. In fact it was available to me for more than 48 hours. :)

@Lucky yes you are right. I am in India. Many videos are suddenly shown in my Asus Zenfone 2 as expired. They expire in India also.

Just change the date of your device and disconnec it frm internet .       Change date to the one when downloaded

would like to try it once

But what about the sync on my phone would behave.. Can i correct it back and will that effect the youtube vids again

@DJphy yes you have put a very valid point. It's too risky to change date. So, it's better not to tamper with it unless you are sure what all that can result.

Here I Cameroon it is 29 days. But I've got to connect only to a wifi network to get it refreshed.
Clearing cache never cause the videos to expired. Rather what I realize is that during download if you forcestop YouTube app or you have a shut down, you tube won't care whether you were downloading a 4GB video and you were at 99%..... Trust me.. You may have to start all over again.... That's how it works with me

Offline videos expires when you clear the cache of YouTube app.
If you dont clear, then all videos will not expire

Downloaded videos from YouTube expire after a 48-hour period. Clearing the cache might invalidate the period and cause the videos t expire immediately. More probably, since the videos themselves are considered cached, clearing the cache will delete them. Your answer is blatantly incorrect.


text:
How to reduce Apps memory After Updating
Whenever I update my apps it gets double the size. For example, the Facebook app has around 27-31 Mb of space on Android. But once I update this app it's showing 50Mb and above.
Currently my phone's Facebook app showing 115MB size. I updated this app for six times. So I want to reduce that size as app's original size. And if I uninstall the app and reinstalling it still shows 115MB Size.
Please advise me on how to reduce the app size after updating it?

I would click "clear data" under the app manager settings for this app, but kepp in mind it will rest your app back to when you very first installed it E.g Your not logged in,changed back to default settings etc.
I know this cant be your only solution, as I would hate to put everything back the way I like it but this can help reduce sizes.
Alternative: Use Links2Sd to move apps to a second partition on your SD card (Give this partition a decent size) and you wont have to worry about your phones internal memory filling up.


text:
How to hide your Wifi Hotspot from unwanted devices
Device : Galaxy S5
Version : 5.6
I have a request
How can I hotspot my 4G but I only want to select who can see the network on wi-fi
And for other people when they search wifi they don't see it
Anyone answer

Keep your ssid hidden, after creating the wifi hotspot. Just tell your friends and others the ssid. No one else would be able to see it.

This answer begs more detail: how to keep the SSID hidden on Android's hotspot setting?


text:
Mobile hotspot working but no data with lollipop 5.1
I have a Motorola e xt1528 phone on Ultra.  When I try to start the mobile hot spot app it checks if the service is allowed and then activates the WiFi.  Any device that connects gets an IP however there  appears to be no dns and I can't ping an IP address numerically either.
I tried two different APN configurations for Ultra but neither worked when the client tries to ping or fetch html.
I am using the mobile hotspot app that is preloaded for this phone for Verizon/Motorola because when I tried a couple from the app store neither seemed able to activate the WiFi.
Any ideas on what I could try to fix this connection problem?
I've tried both APN configurations from http://bestmvno.com/apn-settings/ultra-mobile-apn-settings.html if I use the proxy even the phone looses its data connection.  The second APN setting seems to work ok but the devices connecting to the hot spot have no data.
Edit
I tried using T-Mobile APN setting and it briefly worked probably because Ultra is their wholesaler.  The T-Mobile network cut off my data connection completely after about 5 minutes to both the phone and the clients. So it seems there must be a configuration issue somewhere because with Ultra the clients are the only ones with data issues.

Turns out Ultra does not allow data sharing and they block it.  Too bad they don't mention this in any of their brochures.
The work around might be to set up a local vpn network and then bridge to Ultra with something like open garden.


text:
Setting Flags in Android Chrome
I have an Android 4.2 device with the latest Chrome-Browser.
in this Browser I can set some custom flags, by browsing the URL about:flags
If I screw it up, I can go to the app-settings, delete the Chrome-Data and everything is set to default. So far so good.
My question is:
Where exactly are those custom flags saved? I guess somewhere in the /data/data/com.android.chrome directory. But unfortunately I am not able to find it. Can you guys help?

This answer by Satyam Koyani tells us that the file that keep those flags is named Local State, though the answer isn't Android specific.
It turned out to be true. The location of the file is /data/data/com.android.chrome/app_chrome/Local State. It's a JSON file but the extension is missing so your text editor may run into issues with formatting when you open it. For those who can pull the file into PC, you may try Firefox addon JSONView. Make sure to rename the file to add .json as an extension before opening it.
(Click image to enlarge; hover to know details)


text:
How to install ADB drivers on Windows 10 (OPO)
Problem: Install ADB drivers (google_usb_drivers) on a Windows 10 client in order to enable debugging for my OnePlus One (OPO).
What I have tried:
After some Googling I found several guides telling me to add the devices hardware id to googles driver "android_winusb.inf" under [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64].

;OnePlus One
%SingleAdbInterface%        = USB_Install, USB\VID_05C6&PID_6765
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_05C6&PID_6765&MI_01

After manually selecting this file as the driver using Device Manager, I get this error message: The hash for the file is not present in the specified catalog(...)

Googling this error, I found many references to similar problems with Windows 8.1. They all suggested to (scarily I might add) turn off signature checks on drivers using the command:
bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
This however, seems to have no effect - I get the same error as before. Have this feature been disabled or changed since Windows 8.1 maybe?
Question: Does anyone know how to get ADB up and running on a Windows 10 machine? If so which steps did you take? Am I completely off with what I've tried so far?

Hi efr4k! This site is not a forum but a Q&A site, so even if you've an answer for your own question, you should follow the format of the site. For now, I rolled back to the first revision because it is the only revision devoid of your answer. Please post your answer as an answer in the answer's section. For readers: here is the answer at the end of the current question.

Try the 15-seconds ADB/drivers all-in-one installer. You could also install the Samsung drivers rather than conventional OnePlus drivers.
I installed these drivers and I've had mine working since the upgrade.
You could also try following this guide on how to set it up.

The guide  pointed me to the right clue. Don't know if installing the driveres using the 15 second installer was necessary, but I'm not gonna start over with a clean slate to check. I updated the question with the clues from the guide that was relevant for solving the problem.

just a good idea to see if the upgrade to windows 10 broke something. It did for me and I assumed it may do for others...

I installed it directly on two W10 machines and it worked on both.

Both 1.4 and 1.3 versions not worked on my Win10.

I couldn't update the ADB driver on Windows 10. When I tried installing the generic Google ADB driver by clicking on "Browse my computer for driver software" and choosing the driver folder, Windows ignored the drivers, saying there were no drivers found.
I finally found the solution in this article, Manually installing Android ADB USB Driver.
The missing step is to continue guiding Windows after clicking on "Browse my computer for driver software". When selecting the folder with the driver, click on the "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer". Select "Show all devices", then "Have Disk". This defaults to drive A: --- navigate to the folder with the extracted USB drivers, probably named usb_driver. You'll then be able to choose "Android ADB Interface" and install the driver.
This allowed me to connect OnePlus One to Windows 10 for debugging. I could navigate in Chrome to chrome://inspect/#devices and see my device.

this works to get windows 10 to actually install the drivers instead of giving up early. hasn't quite fixed my connection issue with ADB, but it's a start.

I had similar problems, adb devices didn't list any devices once I'd upgraded to Windows 10. I happened to have an Intel-powered Android phone connected over USB. I ended up removing the Intel-specific Android Driver (downloaded yesterday, version 1.9 which doesn't explicitly support Windows 10) and then used the universal Android USB driver https://github.com/koush/UniversalAdbDriver following the steps described in the following article (using Device Manager and removing the previous driver). For good measure I disconnected and reconnected the USB cable after removing the previous driver and before selecting the replacement driver.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/android-wont-connect-windows-adb-fix-it-three-steps/
My computer has several possible matches in Device Manager when I selected choose the driver manually. I checked each one until I found what seemed to be the relevant one i.e. the Universal Driver, then from the list I picked the Android USB Driver. As you have a different device, you may need to pick a different device driver from the list.

Google's adb driver works fine with any Android phone. It's
   Microsoft policy to forbid class drivers so each vendor is required to
   provide same driver with different hardware ID and to pay money for Windows
   Logo® program and signing process.
As it is in Linux ))
To temporary disable integrity/signing enforcement, run as Administrator:
bcdedit /set testsigning off

reboot, install driver and then:
bcdedit /set testsigning on

and make final reboot (can be done later).
You can follow my blog post on subject Connect to Android via USB by adb in Windows


text:
Free SMS to shortcodes/Magic?
My current cellular plan does not include free SMS, so I'm trying to find an alternative way to send SMS for free from my Android phone. In particular, I'm trying to use the Magic service, which interacts via an SMS short code. I have attempted to use:

Google Hangouts/Voice - but I do not get a response from the Magic short code
TextPlus - but it does not recognize short codes as valid numbers
XFinity Voice - but it does not recognize short codes as valid numbers

Any ideas on how to get free SMS's to Magic?

I emailed Magic, and got a response that it is possible to use a regular phone number instead of the shortcode: +1 (408) 707-3077
Magic can then be used with the methods outlined in the original question (e.g. Google Hangouts/Voice, TextPlus, XFinity, etc.).

Every Android phones include
Hangouts.
When you ask people their phone number, you can also ask them their email address to send them messages via Hangouts. However, if some people hate Hangouts, you can use
Google Allo
to send messages that will be received as SMS.

That didn't answer the question.


text:
Hide patterns when unlocking protected apps?
(source: virtualthoughts.org)

Is there any way to hide pattern in Protected Apps App in CM11 ?

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


text:
How do I change my Gamertag in games?
I need some help or clarification on if I can change my Gamertag in the few games that I play on my Android Device.  For example, my First Name last Initial shows up along with my Picture in all the games when I log in.  However, I would like it to show the picture but have a gamertag or use a different name other then my own.
Real Racing 3 is a prime example.  There are a ton of users using Gamertags/Avatars, however, you can only login using Facebook, some chinese website and Google +.  There is no where in there to change your name.  I have looked everywhere.
Also if you look at your trophies I would like it to show my NEW USERNAME.
Does anyone have an answer or suggestion?
Can I create a second Google+ account and not lose all the points I have acquired?  I have searched everywhere for months actually as the answers to most questions are usually found with a simple search.

If you want to change your name for Google Play Games and it's related leaderboards you will have to change your Google+ name. There is no way to transfer your Google Play history and points to a different Google account.

Thanks for the fast reply!  I thought you may say that...  Kinda bummed...  So my next question would be shoud I erase all of the people connected to that Google+ Account and create another one with my real name?

That's entirely up to you.

For all games:
You can either change your Facebook or Google+ name based on the login for the specific game you play. Some games allow you to have a custom name(For ex. Bike Race). Most of the games in Play Store use Google+ signin SDK to get your profile info which includes the Profile name and Avatar. To change your Google plus name,

Open the Google+ app > touch the menu icon in the upper left corner.
Touch your name at the top of the screen.
Touch the gear icon in the upper right corner > Edit name.
Enter your preferred name > touch Save in the upper right corner.

You can logout and login with the same google plus account to see the updated name.
For Real Racing 3 game:

Backup the app data/game progress using the cloud save option under the Settings menu found at the bottom-left corner of the Real racing Home screen.
Click the "Backup to Cloud" and once your data is saved to cloud it will show "Last Uploaded seconds ago message".
Sign out of the previous account and in Settings> Cloud Save > Restore to Device. This will restore the game data back to your device from the cloud.
Now that you have all your game data, you can login with an new Facebook or Google plus id with the desired name of yours already set so that the current game progress will also be saved to your new account.

To change your Google play games username follow the steps below -

Open Google play store and search for "google play games".
It should be already installed so you have to just open it.
Now click on your avatar and you will see a pencil icon at the top right corner.
Now you can edit your Google play games username by clicking that pencil icon.

Following the above steps will change your username across all of your games. But it will not change your Google Plus profile name (the social network).


text:
How can I find out how much current/power my phone can supply via USB-OTG?
Is there a way to find out how much current or power a USB-OTG device can draw while connected to my phone? I'd be happy with something like:-

an online database like GSMArena with details for lots of phones
an app I can run on the phone to find it out e.g. from the USB host driver in the kernel
a file in /proc or /dev I can read (as root, if necessary)

I'd rather not have to test it with hardware by connecting a USB peripheral to it and increasing its current draw until it stops working.
The particular phone I'm interested in is a Nexus 5, but I'm really looking for an answer that's applicable to any phone (that supports USB-on-the-go).

You can try the Battery Historian tool(written in Python & Go programming) to analyze your battery consumption details with a graphical view. I don't have an USB OTG device to test this tool. So I'm not sure if this will surely help you. But you can give it a try. Hope this helps ;)

Did you ever find a way to know this?

I'm not sure this is entirely correct on Android, but on Linux, lsusb -v tells a lot about USB devices, including their maximum current output. If you can get usbutils on Android, that might tell you.

Wouldn't that only tell me the max current draw requested by a connected peripheral?

Hmm, oh well. @Dan Hulme You could get around that by plugging in something that you know will request a lot, like another phone or a battery pack.


text:
HD Video in Chrome Browser is not working properly
I have an Android device with Android 4.2. It's a Box with an HDMI Output, to plug in to a TV.
This box is capable of playing 1080p HD-Videos in the media-player app. However when I try to display a 720p Video (downscaled via ffmpeg) in the chrome or chromium browser, the framerate gets horribly low. (It varies between 15fps and 22fps) You can't really enjoy the video...
When the video is not fullscreen, but in a smaller div-container it gets even worse!
In the chrome://inspect-settings I have set the flags:

#ignore-cpu-blacklist
#show-fps-counter
#enable-gpu-rasterization (force enable)

When I do not set those flags, the video does not play at all.
On the video-screenshot in the top right corner you can see, that the browser almost takes none of the available GPU-memory! Why is that? Can I do something about it?
When I enter chrome://gpu it shows, that Hardware acceleration is supported. Nevertheless the output is just terrible...
Do you have any tips how to improve HD-video playback in the browser?
Best regards

Are you streaming the video from web or from your local storage?

Thank you for your comment. I am streaming it from the LAN. Streaming from the media-player works smooth. So I don't think it's related to network speed.

Okay. But, does the same happen when you play via web or from internal storage? I have no lags playing an HD 1080p video from youtube with the latest version of Chrome.


text:
Why root makes phone fast
I have heard many sites saying that  rooting makes phone faster but in technical detail it just increase process and more process = slow phone so why people say it
Example : we have phone   A  and phone  B A  is rooted and  B  is not but   A  runs without any root apps so which will be fast (according to sites A will be fast)

Just remember that root in itself cannot make a device fast. Root unlocks the potential of tuning your phone (by remove bloat etc) which can make the phone fast. This may not apply to phones which don't have a lot of bloat or apps installed in the first place.

There are several ways that having root may improve performance. But just rooting won't make a phone faster.

One common thing to do with a rooted phone is to remove "bloat" apps. These are apps that are installed by default. In recent versions of android, you can "freeze" or "Turn Off" more built-in apps, making root less of a requirement for de-bloating. Here's a guide for those without without root. With root, your best bet is to find a guide in the specific forum for your phone on XDA Developers or a similar site. These will include other users' experience about what is safe to remove or disable.
There used to be a lot of types of apps that could tune the memory management with the goal of improved performance or longer battery life, but I haven't seen them recently. Modern phones often have a lot more ram (2 or more GB) than they used to.
Another thing that a rooted phone with a specific kernel can do is overclock the processor. This is complex and potentially dangerous (could crash or cause physical damage to the phone by overheating), but may be useful for older phones with slower processors.
Installing a custom ROM may also make the phone run faster, depending on a lot of factors about the specific phone and the specific ROM.
There are also many specific fixes for individual phones that can improve performance.
Ad blockers can speed up web browsing (as well as make the phone more secure). Most of these require root as they install hosts redirects, although there are some that appear as a VPN and should work without root.

Can you point a resource on removing bloatware and useless stuff with root access? Whatever could be removed via regular user was already removed on my two devices.

Oh, you said with root. Unfortunately, it's going to depend on the specific phone.

Rooting your device does not make it "faster".
It allows you to remove pre-installed "bloatware" that is pushed by manufacturers and their partners. Adittionally rooting permits you to remove, deactivate non-essential process and functions that free up ram as well.
Rooting also allows you to tweak your device performance through init.d scripts custom kernels and dumping and modifying your boot.img to "kill" even more unecessary process and manufacturer impositions. You should absolutely do the research on your specific device to be sure of what you can get rid of, or you will end up soft bricking or hard bricking your device.
Rooting your device enables you to make your device "faster" .

Simply rooting your phone won't make it run faster. You can use root access to tweak your phone to run faster. Here I'll make a short list of how tos

By removing bloatwares
Changing and customizing CPU governors and I/O scheduler
Flashing custom roms or kernels
Editing System configuration files such as build.prop

etc. You can find many more ways to tweak your phone to make it run faster, just use Google.
A rooted phone can run faster than an unrooted one only if you tweak it properly.

Can you point a resource that describes build.prop in details? I have already changed a config in there following a tutorial, but I want to learn what those options mean.

@LucasSoares Use titanium backup

There are no detailed tutorial explaining every line in build.prop AFIK. The best you can find is what build.prop is and some good tweaks. You can find plenty articles if you search for them with Google. But be warned, you may end up soft bricking you phone if you don't know what you're doing. So keeping a nandroid backup before you do anything is very important. Good luck.

@User8989 Yeah, I'm more interested in understanding how Android works than on editing the build.prop myself. I have a good grasp on traditional OSes, but smartphones look alien to me.

@LucasSoares the build.prop contains key-value pairs which describe various core device system-level settings. No wonder it expands toBuild Properties. Individual options available differ by model, chipset, and Android version.


text:
Google Nexus 4 suddely stop even battery is not empty
My Google Nexus 4 suddenly began to stop unexpectedly at random times. After few times I could not even boot up the OS. I could recover by factory reset wipe from the recovery mode. Unfortunately sudden stop issue persisted even after factory wipe. Then I flash factory image according to this androidcentral post. Now OS is up and running, but sudden stopping is still there when disconnected from charging cable. Phone works fine when connected to main power line. Though phone stopped suddenly, battery is not empty, I can boot up again and live for few seconds still.
Is this a hardware failure or some battery cache?

If the your phone crashes even after flashing a fresh rom, It's probably a hardware issue. Does your phone heat up?

No, it does not heat up abnormally. So last option is to replace the battery?

It could be your battery but it would be odd if a damaged battery issue got temporarily fixed just by a factory reset don't you t think?

original issue never got fixed, not even temporarily. Factory reset helped to boot up os which again stopped suddenly


text:
Change LED for charging
How can I change my LED to show colour, when it is charging. More specifically, how can I change these colours? I am using a rooted Sony Xperia E C1505. I do not want to use an app, for storage reasons (I have tiny storage on '/data)

Afraid without using an app, you can't accomplish much on Android – though some things are possible using the ones already installed.. While I know there are some apps taking care for that, I'm not aware of other options. Be welcome, however, to check this page for "LED" (multiple choices); maybe one of them is small enough to be worth considering.

Some phones(Nexus I think) does give options to change LED notification color for different tasks. IDK, if your phone support the options, do check for it.

@Izzy ok. I may manage a small app.

I've never used any of those (my LG P880 has no LED). I'd recommend starting with Lucky's advice (maybe you can do without installing an additional app); if that doesn't work out, please pick from the list I've linked. When you've solved your issue yourself, please don't forget to answer your own question :) Good luck!

@Izzy I don't have these options. I tried an app that supports my phone, but it has not worked.

@Lucky do not have them options.

No more ideas from my end then, Dan – sorry.

@Izzy alright then.

Good luck still – even if it's calm right now. Remember the weather and the holidays, people might return :)

@Izzy will do.  I've got a holiday booked for a few weeks from now.


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ADB Interface driver for Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
I have Sony Xperia M4 Aqua. I'm trying to connect it through data cable with my HP laptop having Vista OS. When I connect like this, laptop search for ADB Interface but is not able to find. I tried searching all around google bur couldn't find anywhere. Please help me locate the site from where I can download exact driver.

The google search for "xperia m4 aqua adb drivers" shows this XDA forums page as the first result, and it has download links to ADB driver packages for your phone.

Windows Update may download them automatically
Use Google's own ADB drivers
Use Universal ADB Drivers
Use Sony's ADB Drivers (see XDA post for attachment)
Use Flashtool to install ADB, fastboot and flashtool All-In-One

None is working for me (On Windows 10)

By the way, with viruses in the provided files moreover

@Hithredin Could you specify which files, so I can edit the link out of the answer?

Not sure, but it seems to be the flashtool. It had configured a local proxy to capture all the network request, redirect sometimes to advert pages and blocked antivirus update.

@Hithredin I scanned them all with VirusTotal, no real detections. Haven't heard about that kind of malware, but some root exploits are detected as false positives occasionally.


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Delete a path too long
An unstable version of Android 5.1.1 caused a bootloop on my phone. I fixed things, but after the incident the 0 directory located inside /storage/emulated/0 dived DEEPLY DOWN. Now I can't delete anything inside.
I guess it's because the path is too long. I successfully used 7zip once I had that problem in Windows, I wonder if something like robocopy or subst method is possible on Android. Here's a screenshot of me gaining root access and then trying to wipe things out which was not successfull.

Screenshot - (Click to enlarge image)

Wow, that looks crazy! storage/emulated/0 isn't "real"
and you shouldn't be deleting 0,
if you are trying to clean out /data/media/0 pass a wildcard
rm -fr /data/media/0/*
that will flush out your internal "sdcard"

@moonbutt74 Man, I am so grateful to you for clarifying things about paths. I though that if any FM with root-access opens /storage/emulated/0 when you choose "internal memory", it's what I need. Everything worked out awesome because I was able to delete only the mentioned directory w/o "formatting" internal memory

@moonbutt74 looks like your comment helped OP! Consider reposting it as an answer.

Wow, that looks crazy! /storage/emulated/0 isn't "real" and you shouldn't be deleting 0, if you are trying to clean out /data/media/0 pass a wildcard rm -fr /data/media/0/* that will flush out your internal "sdcard"


text:
Xperia SP looks like it's charging, but it doesn't charge
My phone is Xperia SP, it's on CM 12.1, unofficial build (because the official one is buggy due to bad kernel). It has been bought second-hand, so I'm not sure about its history (the phone was in a good state).
So, the problems started gradually, but the symptom is this: when I connect the phone to the charger, the phone goes into it's charging state, the battery icon shows the charging symbol, the LED shines red, but the phone doesn't actually charge, and the battery percent actually actually descends. I would usually just detach the phone, and reconnect it, and it would actually start charging. However, this happened more often as the time passed, to the point where it is completely empty, and it cannot be turned turned on, or charged. When I connect it, the LED goes red (the usual charging behaviour), but then it goes into booting the system, instead of going into "offline charging" mode. It fails to boot the system, because the battery is empty. It then turns off, returns to the red LED state, and from time to time it boots into recovery, which is quite unusual, since by default one has to press volume buttons to enter recovery. While in recovery, usually it would display the battery percentage, but now the place which should show the battery percent is empty.
Are these the symptoms of an faulty battery, or a more severe issue? Did anyone experience anything similar?

I had a similar problem a few years ago with my old HTC EVO 3D which was also running cyanogenmod at this time. I tried flashing different roms and kernels but the problem was persistent. Because my battery was empty as yours is at the moment, I charged it by cutting a USB Cable and applying "+" and "-" to the battery directly. It looked really bad to be honest but it worked and I was able to go back to stock. But that didn't help. The point is - I could make sure that the battery is not defective because I was able to charge it. In the end the problem was the usb port of my phone which had to be replaced. It worked but to make sure my phone does not turn into a torch I also replaced the battery.
What you describe could be the usb charging port - there might be a faulty contact which prevents the battery from charging but this is just guessing. Bottomline: Try to charge your phone by a usb cable (please be very careful while doing this) or visit a service center.

Did your phone react to being plugged in? My recognizes it in an instant, and doesn't disconnect when I move it around, so I wasn't quite convinced that the port is the issue...

Yes it was working fine most of the time, like I mentioned: I was able to copy rom zip files from my computer to the phone - there were occasional problems but at that time I didn't think that the USB port was the error cause. The charging LED was also working but I wasn't able to charge the battery in the end

Just an update, (I know it's late but I want to help people that have the same issue). It was indeed the USB port, I got it replaced for about €10, and now it's working fine.

@AleksandarStefanović Good to hear - thanks for the update!

Battery Check

Visual Inspection  If the battery of your phone is removable, simply take it out with caution (after turning the phone off, of course) and look for symptoms like bulging, corrosion near the metal terminals, and green or white-ish stains
Spin test  Your battery shouldn't spin like this
Battery diagnostics  Try entering the code *#*#4636#*#* in your dialer –this should take you to a service menu where battery details are shown

Charger

Right Charger
Charge your phone with Sony provided charger

If anything is not fine, it is time for battery replacement

I had the same problem I.e. It physically looked like it was charging but the percentage was going down
The solution was to remove the back cover and press the little off button with a pen hold it down until it vibrates and all should be cool and groovy...
Hope this helps you....
Primeval


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What happens if I clear data in download manager?
What happens if I clear data in download manager? Will it delete all of my downloads?

Not entirely sure what it does. Never really looked into it. But I just cleared data/cache for my download manager on my Nexus 6 and all my downloaded files are still there. Edit Just to clarify, the downloads are still there if you navigate to the folder with a file manager. However they no longer show up in the "Downloads" app.
Device: Nexus 6
Android Version: 5.1.1

Clearing data in "Download Manager" is safe and does not have any affect on performance or anything related to android operating system. Clearing data just deletes extra files which were used once while updating your android system. Secondly, it will not delete all your downloads.

this is an old question but the answer is no clear data from download manager will not delete any of your downloads


text:
Cannot find SDK or point to it, both programs installed
Cannot make this work...Windows 7, have installed DE and Android SDK...
I can go to this path using regedit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DroidExplorer\InstallPath
BUT I see no "sdkpath". I've tried pointing the DE to the Android SDK directory in hopes of finding SDK anything...NOTHING. What am I missing ?

are you on a 64bit machine? if so take a look at HLKM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\DroidExplorer\InstallPath. On 64bit, this node still resides in the 32bit hive.

@RyanConrad that registry key points to C:\Program Files\Droid Explorer - it doesn't point to SDK.  He's asking about the sdk path.  I'm having the same problem.  I've installed the SDK, but when I try to install DroidExplorer, the installer gets hung up at the Specify Path to the Android SDK window - which is horrible because it only lets you browse there; you can't just paste the path - but it won't accept any path you put in the box and so you are forced to push the cancel button.

If you have a 64-bit machine check in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\DroidExplorer\InstallPath@SdkPath - I know, a registry cluster... I have it on my backlog to clean it up.

After you install the Android SDK, you have to run the studio.exe or studio64.exe before you install DroidExplorer.  This might install a bunch of platform updates.
Check this post of Ryan's for a full explanation of what to do.

Right. I saw the other page where Ryan explained the procedure in detail. What some of us forget, even people like me who have installed SDK at various times in the past, but don't use it much, is that after downloading SDK, or Android Studio as it is called now, you have to actually run SDK Manager or Android Studio before the tools will actually be downloaded and the paths created for Droid Explorer to use.
I should know because I've gone through this before, but having been years since the last install, I had forgotten this detail, which is not really explained anywhere. I notice Ryan's tutorial on this site did show screenshots of SDK Manager, and said you have to actually run it and install some tools, and that's what triggered my memory.
It doesn't help that documentation talks about SDK and SDK Manager when these products are no longer available for download, and the Android Studio download site hides the SDK tools only download at the bottom of the page, and then incorrectly states that SDK Manager is included, which it no longer is.
So I lost a lot of time looking all over the internet for an old Android SDK download before I realized what Ryan was talking about. After actually running Android Studio and letting it download and install the components, Droid Explorer successfully ran and finished installation. It still doesn't automatically detect the path. I had to manually browse to the SDK folder. Note you have to select the SDK folder itself. Selecting Android alone is not sufficient.
droidexplorer

authors: Владимир Нестеров


text:
How much disk space (GB) does Android 5.0 OS take up? Is "System memory" the OS? Is 5.5GB typical? Can I free any of it?
I've been a proud owner of an Android for all of ~6 hours now. I just upgraded from my dumb phone, to a smart phone, for the first time ever, this afternoon. I know, a little later than most...
I have a 16GB Samsung Galaxy S5 from Verizon.
Phone Name: SAMSUNG-SM-G900V
Model Number: SM-G900V
Android Version: 5.0
Kernel Version: 3.4.0
etc etc...
I put in a 16GB micro SD card, turned it on, configured it, installed a half-dozen apps, took two pictures, moved over all eligible apps to the SD card (via Settings --> Applications --> Application manager --> SD card menu), then I looked at the memory usage.
Settings --> Storage shows only 7.13GB free on the internal memory, out of 16GB. This seems pretty shocking to me. The only things that stand out are: Applications, 2.45GB (ok, I suppose I understand that...), and "Miscellaneous Files", 5.47GB. Of the Misc. Files, 5.46GB is "System memory."
What exactly is "System memory?" Is this the Android 5.0 OS? Is it normal to be this large? (I would have expected the OS to be more like ~2GB, and certainly < 4GB). Is any of it space I can free up?
With normal usage, installing another couple dozen apps over the next couple yrs, and trying to store all photos externally on the SD card, do any of you foresee me running out of memory really soon?
Thanks for any insight.
PS. Here is the info exported from the DiskInfo App, per the request in the comments.

 Internal Storage (MMC)

System [mmcblk0p23] (/system) [ext4]
Used: 2.5 GB, Free: 455 MB, Total space: 2.9 GB
Cache [mmcblk0p24] (/cache) [ext4]
Used: 32.6 MB, Free: 991 MB, Total space: 1 GB
Data (userdata) [mmcblk0p26] (/data) [ext4]
Used: 4.6 GB, Free: 5.9 GB, Total space: 10.6 GB

 SD Card

External SD [mmcblk1p1] (/mnt/media_rw/extSdCard, /storage/extSdCard) [vfat]
Used: 204 MB, Free: 14.5 GB, Total space: 14.7 GB

 Memory

RAM
Used: 1.3 GB, Free: 421 MB, Total space: 1.7 GB
Swap
Used: 966 MB, Free: 313 MB, Total space: 1.2 GB

Give us the output of DiskInfo as a screenshot.

Although, not a "screenshot" per se, I exported the DiskInfo and pasted it here.

A lot of devices from Verizon seem to have bloatwares of around 6GB under Miscellaneous Files.There seems to be no solution found yet.

Firelord gave me the tools to answer my own question, by asking me to post a screenshot of DiskInfo, which I have now added below my question. Corrections (if any) to my answer here are welcome.
Looking at my DiskInfo, according to my understanding of Linux, I'll make the following deductions:
Android 5.0 (ignoring the SD card) consists of the following 4 partitions:
1. mmcblk0p23, for System, 2.9GB
2. mmcblk0p24, for Cache, 1.0GB
3. mmcblk0p26, for Data (userdata, incl Apps), 10.6GB
4. Swap, 1.2GB (equivalent to the Windows "virtual memory" file, for instance)
Partitions 1, 2, and 4 must be what comprise "System Memory," which is what I asked about in my question. Their sum is 2.9 + 1.0 + 1.2 = 5.1GB
My "System Memory" however is 5.46GB. Why the 0.36GB difference?* I'm not exactly sure, but I've answered my question essentially: Android 5.0 is 5.1GB if you use these "default" partition sizes.
*Answer (thanks to @user1958698 below): Android uses true, base-2 memory size, where 1 GB = 1024^3 = 1073741824 bytes, whereas DiskInfo uses the rounded off base-10 memory size, where 1 GB = 1000000000 bytes. The ratio is 1073741824/1000000000 = 1.074. DiskInfo's sum (base 10) is 5.1, so multiply by 1.074 to get the base-2 equivalent, and we have 5.1 GB x 1.074 = ~5.48 GB, which is almost the same as the 5.46GB of "System memory" reported by the Android Storage settings. Now, the minor discrepancy between 5.46GB and 5.48GB must certainly be due to some rounding error in the initial 5.1GB value reported by DiskInfo.
Can it be shrunk? Sure, you could shrink Swap, and and shrink System by <455mB, but it's prob. not worth it. Shrinking Swap could reduce performance, and shrinking System could require expanding it again the first time there's an upgrade.
Update, 13 May 2016:
FYI, I've now run out of internal storage memory for apps, and I have cleared all the cache. It turns out the 16GB version of the phone is NOT big enough for my needs. I will now figure out how to get apps to install onto the SD card by default, so I can free up internal space. This will probably require repartitioning the SD card, using gparted on a Linux computer, and/or rooting the phone. We shall see.
Nevertheless, here is a key piece of information for Android 5.0 users: once you get down to <~600MB free space on internal storage, you will no longer be able to sync gmail, update apps, or install new apps. You will instead consistently get an error that says, "Insufficient storage available." Therefore, ~600MB seems to be the magic amount of free internal storage that must be available for stable operation of the phone. Note: for some small apps, I was able to get down to 200~300MB free and still update them, but to update my bigger apps, like Facebook, gmail, Google Photos, etc, I had to free up to ~640MB or so before they would update.

I know this is a bit old, but I thought I would add my 2 cents on the discrepancy between what DiskInfo says and what Android says (the 0.36 GB)
but my guess is that DiskInfo is representing sizes in Base 2 GB notation (1073741824 bytes/GB) and the Android UI is displaying in Base 10 notation (1000000000 bytes/GB)
5.1 * 1.073741824 ~= 5.476.  With rounding errors factored in it should put you right at the 5.46 Android shows

Looking at my 32gb Nexus 5, it says that I have 26.8gb total space, so about 5gb sounds right. Samsung is also know for having a lot of bloatware on their OS which could be taking up some space.
To my knowledge the only ways to free up space from the Samsung apps would require you to root your phone.
In terms of running out of memory, it really depends how much you use it. If you keep all your media (music, photos etc.) on your SD card and download a modest amount of apps, 7gb should be plenty. If not I usually find I have a lot of apps on my phone that I never use anyway so you could delete those if it comes to that.


text:
Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread: Sort and do a cloud backup of photos
I have a Samsung Galaxy Y and I want to sort camera pictures and do a cloud backup. Is it possible using the standard Gallery app and any other of it's factory resources?
I know Google Photos would do this in very simple and stylish way, but there is no version for Gingerbread devices (AFAIK, there is no way to upgrade this phone beyond 2.3.6).

You can backup using Google Drive if that's available in your phone. And Why do you want to sort the photos and in what criteria(Name,Size etc) you want to sort those photos?

I want to sort them by date and to separate them into private collections. I haven't really fooled around much on the Galaxy Y, but my other phone is in maintenance (parts will take months to arrive) and I must do some work on this one.

Well, As I already pointed you can use your preinstaled Google drive or Goolge Plus app for backing up your photos. Or you can use other cloud photo backup apps like G Cloud Backup, CM Backup or Dropbox etc. Also look for other cloud photo backup apps in google play store. Later you can do the sorting after backup.

It actually didn't come with Plus nor Drive (customizing by my local phone operator, I think), but I will give it a try, thanks.
Make this an aswer and I will upvote it.

I really wish StackOverflow had a "follow person" feature like Quora does. Where can I suggest that?

Lucas Soares You can use @Username to mention me in your comments to notify me. If you want a new feature in the SE site then you can make a request in our meta site http://meta.stackexchange.com. ;)

But please use our search functionality or google to find out the question you are going to ask has already been asked by someone else. In your case the question has already been asked by someone else. Please look at Is there a way to follow a user on Stack Overflow?

@Lucky I was trying different searches on meta right now, but your comment arrived faster than the searches. For this photo backup question I looked it up, and there were no answers useful on a Galaxy Y.

Great. Now I got notified about your last reply since you mentioned my name prefixed with @. ;) Please have a look at this answer to know about the difference on meta and main site. You need to search for the Galaxy Y issues on the main site(http://android.stackexchange.com). But since you were searching that on the meta site you din't get any relevant results. The meta site for Android Enthusiasts is http://meta.android.stackexchange.com

Quoting from my commnets,

Well, As I already pointed you can use your preinstaled Google Drive
  or Goolge Plus app for backing up your photos. Or you can use other
  cloud photo backup apps from the Play Store like G Cloud Backup, CM Backup or Dropbox etc.
  Also look for other cloud photo backup apps in google play store.
  Later you can do the sorting after backup.

Once you have stored your photos backed up in the cloud storage, the uploaded images will also have properties stored with them for each image file. So once you restore it to your phone or download it to your computer you can sort the photos based on the Date and Time filter from the file property.


text:
Launch google now into listen mode by holding home button like in iOS
I just switched from iOS to android 5.0. With Siri, you are able to hold the home button (from the lock screen or otherwise) and it will immediately start listening for a command. I would like this same behavior with Google Now.
I realize you can set your phone to be listen for the "OK Google" initiation command. That is not what I want. I hate having to do that. I want to activate voice commands by holding the home button.
Is this possible?
Please any help would be appreciated!


text:
SSHDroid allows access into a subdirectory by default. How do I access other directories?
When I ssh into my phone via SSHDroid, it sets me at the following path by default.
/data/data/berserker.android.apps.sshdroid/home/
I can use cd to maneuver around but it causes problems when I try to use scp because files are obviously not stored in this directory. It there anyway to change this setting?

try pushd and popd, [not exactly an answer to your settings question but, it might work] assuming you have root privilege.
Okay for this example i am starting in /storage/extSdCard and need to copy target tass.txt from /sdcard/tess
extSdCard # HERE=$PWD
extSdCard # echo $HERE
/storage/extSdCard
extSdCard # pushd /sdcard/tess
~/tess /storage/extSdCard
tess # pwd
/sdcard/tess
tess # ls $PWD
tass.txt
tess # cp * $HERE
tess # popd
/storage/extSdCard
extSdCard # ls tass.txt
tass.txt
extSdCard # popd
tmp-mksh: popd: directory stack empty
extSdCard #


text:
How to manually remove wifi connection details
I have a problem with my rom where it does not successfully "forget" wifi connection details and so I find myself connected to the wrong unwanted network.
I had a look at this thread which showed the location of the setting but I'm unsure if it's just safe to delete it, or I need to edit it.
I do not mind having to remove all wifi settings if that's the case.
Thanks.

Could you mention your device model, Android version, and whether you're using custom ROM?

Sure Oppo Find 7, Android 5.1, Rom: ColorOS 2.1.3

Is the device rooted? The SSIDs of the Wi-Fi that show up in the phone are logged in a file which you cannot access without root access.

Yes I'm rooted.

You cannot manually clear Wi-Fi connection details in a non-rooted device other than going to Wi-Fi settings and clearing all the connections and general settings or doing a factory reset which would bring everything to default factory state.
The reason is simple. You, a non-root user, are not privileged to delete the files holding the Wi-Fi connection details and settings.
As for the link you mentioned (a post and not a thread), the files settings.db and wpa_supplicant.conf are inaccessible to a non-root user. You would observe  permission denied error if you try to enter their parent directory.
However, if the device is rooted, then there is no restriction on you to access them. Simply download a root file explorer, access those file's parent directory, and delete those files. Of course, copy them in PC before deleting, to be on safe side.
And before you even attempt to copy them  into PC, make sure a custom Recovery is installed already so that you could save yourself from a mess if things go south after deleting those two files.

DIdn't work. That file mentioned within that thread as the accepted answer is the wrong database. I'm going to try and remove the other one.

settings.db manages the "Settings Storage" app. I mentioned it because you linked that post.


text:
How to make alternative app markets perform automatic updates?
I have tried F-Droid and the Amazon App Store, but I had to confirm every update manually. Is there a way to make any alternative app markets (i.e. not Google Play Store) auto-update in the background, without prompting me?

Have you tried the Amazon app store? It's focused on normal users, not power users (who are more likely to want to control their updates), so it might have the options you seek.

As I wrote in the question I tried the Amazon store and it doesn't support auto updates.

Not sure if you can do it (maybe by side loading and even then might not be compatible) but the native "app stores" for both my Samsung device and LG support auto updating. If you can get one of them installed, they might run and have most apps available in Play Store on them.

None of them other stores will be able to auto-update your apps unless you are rooted.
Other apps cannot install new apps without root access.
If you do have root access,
1Mobile(1mobile.com) store has this feature. Mobogenie is out there, too, but it has more ads.

Good points with the install-permission implication (+1). As at least the F-Droid app also offers a "root-mode": have you tested/hear-of whether it supports auto-updates when "converted into a system app" (see: What is the advantage of making f-droid a system app?) At least there's an issue open for that on GitLab.


text:
Wi fi linking broadband to my android
i am using bsnl broad band for my pc iwant to use it for my android data connection for my   lenova S5000-H MODEL, What network mode Ihave to select eighther GSM or WCDMA TO GET  WLAN?

Is your PC Wi-Fi enabled? If yes, then create a hotspot on it. If no,  then look for "Reverse tethering".

BSNL providing routers with WIFI connections.
You don't need to TURN ON DATA for wifi connection OR not required network modes, Try to access data by turning on wifi of your device.


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How to unbrick my motorola moto g if it does not power on?
I use motorola moto g xt1033. I tried to root it and upgrade it to lollipop 5.0, while rooting it suddenly stopped and then i unpluged the data cable in between and tried to power on it but it does not do any thing. So i even pluged it on charge but only a led white light blinks continuesly and do nothing no response same i also tried connecting again it on pc but it does the same thing.. i also tried to bring the boot option with pressing power button along with volume down button for like 5mins but it was of no use nothing responded. But when i plug it with a datacable on my pc on the pc screen it shows conected and it stays conected just for 1min and again the led starts flashing on and off anc in pc it shows connected again disconected. Please help me with this problem..

same problem here...did u resolve this ?


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VPN to an android TV box via a MikroTik routerboard
I have a threefold question:

Is it possible to control an android TV box over the internet at a remote location?
What program is suggest by the community.
And if this is possible how does one set it up?

Keep in mind that this is for a remote site that cannot accept user input and has a MikroTik RB that I will be using to port forward to the devices in question.


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CWM only boots right after flashing, won't boot afterwards
I have a rooted GSM Galaxy Nexus running CM 12.1.
Trying to boot into recovery gets stuck on the Google logo. The logo will appear while starting to boot, then the screen will briefly flash black, and then stay stuck indefinitely on the Google logo. Holding the power button powers the device down just fine.
However, if I re-flash CWM, it will boot just fine into recovery. Once. The next time I try, it will get stuck again.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a known issue with a possible solution?

Have you tried a different recovery like TWRP? Does the issue persist?

If I had to just guess from the discribed simptoms I'd say it's the kernal or hang-time during normal boot of loading the SD card.
The state you're discribing is known as a "soft brick" and "boot loop" among seasoned Android SuperUsers; try the quoted terms along with your device's name in a google search to find other users of your device model that have solved or worked around these issues. There are many forums dedicated to helping with spicific devices but I always go back to XDA-developers and thier forum's members to truble shoot my rooted Android devices. For many devices there's an online resource for flashing ROMs, Kernals and others that goes by the name of C.A.S.U.A.L. a perpious built scripting tool written by a developer I've watched for many years (in a totaly non creepy way) for hacking nearly every device I've owned. The author also provides tools such as jOden which easiy flashes Samsung devices with your PC's browser.

Additinal hint on searching with Google

Search a site site:somewebsite.domain
Search similar sites similar:somewebsite.domain

The above can be added to the end of your search quaries to nerrow down the results considerably.
Here's one link I pulled from using the above tricks mixed with your device's specs;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/development/gnex-toolkit-v11-1-0-drivers-backup-t1392310

You've stated that you can get back into CWM, this means you're not the owner of a "brick", so long as your device can be booted into either "Download Mode" or the "Recovery" screens you're device can be salvaged.
To re-flash your device with a PC you'll need to be in "Download Mode" and flash with a PC via USB, however, before trying these options you should first attempt to re-boot into "Custom Recovery" and restore from a known working backup. Often these bootloops can happen after messing with a "build.prop" setting or if you have moved an app over to SD that wasn't designed for it. The SD card takes a bit of time to load so if you've soft-linked a system asset from it, the asset could be loading during CWM booting process (ie loading the SD card to look for backups) and thus able to be loaded during the rest of the boot but otherwise called before loading the SD card.
** Download Mode is a differant button combo than CWM **
Best bet to keep from losing anything is make a backup now! or the next time you can boot into CWM. Even your non-working setup is usefull if you need to recover a text message or debug the differaces between working and non-working setups. Also it is really easy to do something dumb {I've been close} when frustrated, so give a gift to your future self, on the off chance that it is needed.
Then backup your SD card compleatly to another drive. Then;

reformat the SD card with Android's settings menu
re-download CM12 & copy back only needed data from the backup of SD card back to the SD card

reboot into CWM

flush the cache
flush the delvak cache
whipe userdata
then try re-flashing CM12

These are the steps I follow for the many Android devices I work with and similar steps are preformed for the even older devices. Ocasionally I will have to flash back to stock and re-root a device but this is rare; more often than not it is a bad kernal or bad download of a ROM that does this to my devices.
Oh and bootloops that don't let you get back into CWM without a cold start or PC flash is usually from TWRP to CWM backup/restor or flashing from one over the other in properly; similarly this sometimes happen when moving from stock to Super User; look up BML vs MTD for more info on that. But this is why most root methods have what is usually called "clean"-keral to flash just before going to CM or why when using Oden you have to un-check 'auto reboot' for certain operations. The stock recovery will attmept to overwrite your newer recovery.
Oh and before I forget here is the link to C.A.S.U.A.L. Google code page
https://android-casual.googlecode.com/
The author has also made some really fantastic YouTube terdown & repair videos and has posted some really interesting articals.

I feel terrible after reading your excellent answer, but I can boot Android just fine. It's CWM Recovery that won't boot. I probably should have chosen my wording better.

Are you moving from stock Rom to CM? If so then you're likely skipping a step in the flashing process.

Didn't know that carige returnes sent in these bubles :-: Link to jOden anouncement this'll let you flash most Samsung devices from your browser. The trick I found with my Samsung Epic : flash CWM and boot to it emediatly to CWM, then flash a modifide kernal (or ROM with kernal) that isn't stock, then flash SuperUser zip if neaded. If you have Root but are loosing CWM try ROM manager or ROM Toolbox to re-flash CWM. Loseing CWM should only happen when moving to CM from non-CM ROMs... mostly...

No, I've had CM installed for years. CWM just started acting up recently.

Well in that case definatly try re-flashing CWM with ROM toolbox or ROM manager. Oh and don't use a Samsung USB cable for PC to Android flashing, I and others have much hate for the cables that come stock with Samsung, but HTC and BlackBerry USB cables are great. To be on the safe side you may also wish to try flashing using a differant SD card too; they can go bad without much warning and Androids running root are not always kind to them.

One more thing I found while searching around for my own hack'n'mod progects that relates to your device. While the news is a bit old and CM may have patched it you can check for yourself what options are availabe to your devices' modum with strings /system/lib/libsec-ril<revision>.so | grep -E 'IPC' this'll expose backdoors that can leave your device vurnable to remote code exicution; read/writes too of protected storage... Not related to your CWM issues but something to be awair of...


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Unlock different Apps from lock screen
I just got the Galaxy S6 and am new to Android.  Is there any way to have the phone open a different app/program, depending on how I swipe open the lock screen?
I.e. if I go up, right, up - open Music.  If I go left, down, left, open Chrome, etc.

Is there a problem in adding shortcuts on the Lock Screen?

@Firelord - how do you add shortcuts (Google didn't really help)? I'd like to keep my lock screen as "clean" as possible, so instead of having a bunch of icons on it (would that be a shortcut?), I'd rather choose to launch apps via predetermined swipe pattern.

I've mentioned below some use-cases tested on Android 5.0.2. Choose the one which suits your need.
GMD GestureControl
It needs root access. It can launch an action (say music app) using gesture from any app opened on the screen including lock-screen.
Usage instructions

Install and launch the app.
Tap Menu key and select Settings. Choose Device Setup at the very end of instructions if the gesture doesn't work.
Enable Start on boot to get rid of the need of launching this app manually to activate gestures on lock-screen or system-wide.
Create a gesture by tapping Select Gesture.
Choose which type of gesture you want, be it curvy (select Record Gestures) or the simple straight directional ones.
Unless you chose Record Gestures, the step would be to tap the direction icons to record gesture.

Touch Point: Mention the  number of touch or fingers you would be using to make the gesture
Anywhere: Location on screen where the gesture would work
Action: Choose the action to be performed like launch of an app, once you're done making the gesture
Per App Action: Mention where do you want your gesture to be activated. Default is everywhere

Go to Action.
Choose Application if you want an app to be launched.
Choose your app.
Go to Advanced options.
Enable Activate on Lock Screen.
Save and apply the changes.

(Click image to enlarge; hover to know details)

I tried this app with CM12's default screen lock and third-party SlideLock Locker. The result is that the gesture would execute the action if you perform the gesture on lock-screen but you can't see anything unless you unlock the screen if Password/PIN/Pattern or any security measure is set.
Nevertheless, it is a very powerful, intuitive and useful app.
GestureLocker
It doesn't need root access. Last updated in 2013, yet surprisingly, it worked on my device without hitches. Also, it seems that unlike traditional lock-screens it simply creates an overlay on the screen (with a lock icon) and your opened app  would continue to be visible but non-interactive unless you perform the unlock or other user defined gesture.
Usage Instructions

Install and launch the app, and uncheck Show LockScreen Gesture (it hints your gesture on lock-screen).
Uncheck default gestures and tap Add Gesture.
Name and record your gesture, then tap the newly created entry.
Select the app which you want to be launched using the gesture.

(Click image to enlarge; hover to know details)

Notable mentions

Gestos - Gestures -- last update an year ago, so it didn't work satisfactorily on Lollipop. But it may work nicely on Kitkat or prior Android versions.
Pi Locker -- it is a regularly updated lock-screen app and has some inbuilt gestures with no support to add user gestures as of now. I noticed some glitches during usage but that may be device specific.
Locker Master- Fun, DIY Themes -- you can create your own custom lock-screen without any programming I believe. It required internet connection to work satisfactorily and I dropped this idea considering its hunger for app permissions.

I've compiled two videos (ripped) to show the two main apps in action, both of size ~6MB:

GMD GestureControl
GestureLocker

Cheers!

Oh wow, that's great! Thanks, I'll start looking through these!


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my mobile is not showing memory card?
I have samsung pocket GTS-5300,  suddenly it's showing a message of not enough space. 4 gb memory card inserted in it. But it's not showing the card's space. no messages are coming nd everytime my phone is showing message of not enough space.
so tell me how this problem be sovled.

Share the screenshot of the message or quote it exactly. Also, see similar and possibly helpful [tag:insufficient-memory] tagged Q/A.


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What is an android ROM?
I know this question is answered all over the web however I don't understand why its called a custom ROM.
Isn't the android OS partition stored in read/write memory? but just classed as read only memory by android so you cannot modify it with regular user permissions.
If so, a custom rom isn't actually modifying read only memory, so why isn't this referred to as flashing a custom os?

possible duplicate of What is the difference between: Rooting, Jailbreak, ROM, Mod, etc.?. Also see https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/97528/rom-on-android-phones-isnt-really-read-only-right?rq=1

As mentioned on Android Police,

By the way, the word ROM means Read Only Memory, but has migrated in the modding community to mean an actual custom OS image that you install into the ROM area of your phone.

For me, the reason I still use the word ROM is that the image you flash contains the entire contents of the read-only system partition which would be called the ROM.


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How to turn on app notification badges in Aviate launcher?
I have a Galaxy S3,  and I just installed the Aviate launcher. For the most part, I really like it, but I have one quibble - I can't work out how to turn on app notification badges. I've found this page but the solution there doesn't work for me - pressing and holding on the home screen doesn't bring up a settings button.


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My Nexus 6 turns itself off randomly; How can I fix this?
TL;DR: Nexus 6 shuts itself off randomly, seems to be connected to the camera, wifi, and cellular. Internet is full of placebo solutions and "me-too" posts. Logcat output below.

I've been having this problem for months now, but it wasn't there when the phone was new. Here's what happens.

I will be on a phone call, using a headset, and when I open the camera app, WhatsApp, or - sometimes - when I'm doing nothing at all, the phone will just shut itself off instantly.
Sometimes it'll shut itself off when I leave the house and look for a Car on DriveNow. My house has Edge coverage, my street has LTE.
A few times the phone would shut off again after I've switched it back on. This can happen a few times in a row. Waiting before I do anything after switching it back on seems to help.

Note:

I am nearly always on a phone call when this happens.
I think the display is always on when it turns itself off.

Searching the internet, I have found tons and tons of complains of the same or similar problems, and I've been reading the Google product forums, with hundreds of me-too type posts and placebo solutions.
People will claim that uninstalling an app I and the other posters have never heard of fixed the problem for them. Some claim what wiping the phone will help, others say that that doesn't work.
The problem occurs very sporadically. It's very hard to find out whether doing anything has fixed it or not.
This is what I've tried so far:

I've uninstalled all apps I can live without. Making sure I only use apps that I have been using when the thing was working properly.
I've deleted the cache partition (one of these placebo solutions)

I would try a factory reset, but the data inside of WhatsApp is extremely important to me and I don't have a spare phone to load my WhatsApp backup before wiping the Nexus 6 (you need your SIM for WhatsApp to work, so the emulator doesn't help me). I don't want to bring the phone back to the store or send it to Motorola for the same reason. If I can help it at all.
For the last two days, I've been keeping my phone connected to my computer with a shell open and watching the output of logcat, and a few minutes ago it did indeed shut itself of with the shell connected. Here's the logcat output from shortly before the crash
I wouldn't be posting this Question, I'd just live with it until I get a spare phone and send the Nexus 6 in for repair, except for the fact that I now have the output from logcat, and that might make sense to someone here.

The phone is running Android 5.1.1 (LMY47Z LMY48I)
I have a german T-Mobile SIM
Here's a list of apps I have installed

Update
I did a factory reset. It went fine. :) Of course I have no idea whether that fixed it or not.
Update the second
It didn't :-(
The problem also happens (just happened) in safe mode.
Update the third
It also happens on the Android M developer preview. I've since bought a Moto E (lovely) and I will send the Nexus 6 in for repair. Hoping I won't get it back with a message saying there's no fault.

I suspect the device is not rooted. Is it so? Considering a non-rooted device, have you looked at How do I use Google Drive backup? and How do I save my chat history? -- both from FAQ at WhatsApp's website. // By "I don't have a spare phone to load my WhatsApp backup before wiping the Nexus 6' -- do you intend to mean that you want to verify if the backup is good or not if you've had a spare phone (since emulator doesn't work here)?

Not rooted. Yes that's exactly what I meant. The Google Drive backup sounds more promising than what I've read (backing up to your devices sd card, which the n6 doesn't have obviously).

Looking at logcat, don't do anything drastic.

might be a hardware problem
try this

It's not the physical button I don't think. If the phone turned itself off because the  sleep/wake button is shorted, I'd notice the vibration and the popup that appears when you hold it down.

My Nexus 6 had this problem before, but after updating to the newest Android OS it seems to not have happened again for a very long time.

Okay so i guess what's done on the bounty is done, but i would like to see your logcat, if your device repeats the issue after you get it back.

This is a partial answer based on the output of logs provided.
Okay, after looking at the logcat, my guess would be a buffer overrun error originating/stemming from mm-camera and connected services/processes and ion memory allocation.
Snippets,
08-11 17:51:19.504 E/libaprpmem( 1539):  Ion allocation success virtaddr : ret=2996989952 fd=48 heapid=33554432
08-11 17:51:19.507 E/libaprpmem( 1539):

08-11 17:51:19.332 E/mm-camera( 1539): mct_stream_destroy_buffers: Exit

08-11 17:51:19.337 E/mm-camera-isp2( 1539): isp_port_check_caps_unreserve:807 ide 3000f port 0xb6749d60
08-11 17:51:19.337 E/mm-camera-isp2( 1539): isp_handler_destroy_stream_param:1616 num_streams 0

Okay so don't be ready to quote me on that but dig this article discussing buffer underrun/overrun http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/computers/buffer-underrun-and-overrun-scenarios.html
I can't pin it to a specific specific cause but try setting your camera resolution to as low a setting that you can get it, and if you can, disable your proximity sensor. Either when the camera crashes it takes your phone with it or even though it crashes , seemingly repeatedly, it keeps gobbling up your ram till your phone tanks and shuts off. Hit some development sites and see what devs have to say or are doing with respect to this subject if it's common. It could be "fixed" by a decent/corrected kernel build. Unless you are under contract or tied down by the knox/enterprise-ability thing.
You may need to go pirate/commando and break your contract to save your data though. Meaning rooting and ripping all your data off the device.
OH! and i forgot this,
08-11 17:49:33.932 W/ResourcesManager(29010): Asset path '/system/framework/com.google.android.media.effects.jar' does not exist or contains no resources.

That one is a genuine WTF.run ls -al /system/framework/ and look for zero length *.jar files.
More- missing lib
08-11 17:51:10.373 E/mm-camera( 1539): Tuning lib open failed: dlopen failed: library "libmmcamera_tuning.so" not found

Edit- Rerun your logcat "live" as logcat |grep F/ as before with phone connected till crash.

Backup data
Flash Original file or another ROM , this will definitely solve your problem.
Enjoy.

Flashing the factory image didn't solve my problem.

Install a different ROM , if that doesn't solve your problem , then Power IC or battery may be the problem.

You can do an adb backup or use Titanium Backup to back up your Whatsapp data. Then you should do a factory reset, if that does not help, you should reflash the original firmware.

WhatsApp doesn't allow backup from ADB and we're yet to confirm whether OP's device is rooted. Besides, what merit lies in re-flashing firmware? Consider explaining the reasoning behind it.

This is what I'm getting at. Adb backup sound wonderful, but if that skips some of these files, which it sound like it might, that'd be so annoying. This is why I would like to test restoring my backup to another device.

I see no evidence why flashing the device would solve my problem. The system image would be identical (it's read-only), and everything else would be restored from a backup, surely? Happy to try it though if I can figure out how to back up my stuff.

@StefanoPalazzo Here: Full Backup of non-rooted devices is the way to backup non-rooted devices before flashing. Note that it has limitations and as said, WhatsApp wouldn't be backed up by ADB.

There is a tool over on XDA that might help you. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2770982 But on the ADB issue. One thing you can try to do is to pull the data instead of using backup. Then once you factory reset the device. You can reinstall the app then use ADB to push the database back on to the device. In theory... I know devs can set the allow_backup flag to no, but that shouldn't stop you from pulling the data instead. Edit Also, Not sure if you tried this. But this is from the whatsapp website. https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/android/20902622

@StefanoPalazzo Also on the whole flashing thing. From time to time there are bits of old code that get left behind and can cause problems. That's why most of the time when you have problems people suggest a flashing factory images and sometimes a factory reset will suffice. I know you said its been happening for a few months now. Did it start after you took an OTA?

authors: هزاع الغامدي


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Adaptation of ROMS for other devices
Could I install certain custom ROMS for other devices e.g. Samsung tab 3 Stock on Samsung Galaxy tab 2? If so, how, and what should I do?

Shortly: You can't, all those devices are somewhat different in hardware (CPU, GPU, storage controller etc.)  and storage (partition layout, storage size etc.). Sometimes ROMs are ported from one device over to another if most of the hardware is the same or uses the same drivers. Other than that it's close to impossible to install ROMs designed for other devices. You can (given enough knowledge on the process) build your own custom ROM from sources (CM for instance).

@GiantTree aww. Well,  I could I rebuild CM to make it a later version of Android?

If you can get your hands on kernel sources and drivers for at least your chipset (CPU+mainboard) you could get a working ROM in some sort of pre-alpha state.

@GiantTree Well,  I have the whole system stored on a server (literally created a copy of / and stored it online) and I believe I am using the Samsung piranha chipset.

You are lucky, Samsung usually hosts the kernel sources public on their servers, sorted by device and firmware revision: http://opensource.samsung.com/

@GiantTree talk about convenient, eh?


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Access Android System Partition from Linux
What is the best way to access the Android system partition
via USB of any device with Linux (not rooted device)
Need to change some files in the system folders...

As I said in my other comment: Try adb.

If you're not rooted you can't do this. /system is read only and you can't remount without root.

The best way is relative and dependant on not just hardware but also your desire to modify and or automate. For one-shot tasks I'd suggest adb & for special projects and automation I'd suggest Casual or Xposed. For messing with stuff I probably shouldn't, I'd definitely start with Xposed if I were you because the settings can be non-permanent.
To help future answer attempts try giving us a bit more info on your setup; Linux distro & CPU 32/64 bit, Android model & OS/Kernel versions if added to your OP will help better narrow down the best answer quickly. Additionally while looking into ADB you may wish to also look to the C.A.S.U.A.L. project as the tools there may allow for shortcutting lots of the driver and SDK installation hunting time down as well as enabling custom scripts that fire when you plugin your Android; very simple to understand language and very powerful under the hood.
ADB The Android Debugging Bridge will be the command line interpreter that you'll want to become familiar with. Commands are not hard to understand; push and pull files or directories is fairly straightforward. Mounting the directory as read/write and remembering to reset those permissions correctly can sometimes lead to trouble; make backups first with pull & try not to push where you shouldn't.
'Android SDK Tools' is the software suite that you'll usually need running on Linux to make use of push & pull commands.
Be sure in your Android's settings that you've got USB debugging enabled; sometimes this needs to be revealed by repeatedly tapping 'Build number' within the 'About device' section and then pressing the back button and the 'Developer options' should have become visible in your Android's settings screen.
Installing the necessary drivers and software packages is Android device and Linux distro specific. Some Android's drivers are not available online for Linux and require much work, others are happy enough to talk to a PC that your distribution may already be capable of basic file read/copy operations of protected file systems but unable to push without the Android SDK.
Installing the Android SDK Tools is a whole different can'o'worms when both Linux distro and Android version has to be taken into account. The route I would take would be booting a pentesting distro and installing to that anything missing for Android USB hacking as the tools that these distros offer may give you options to make full backups any time an Android device is plugged into it as well as run tailored exploits that keeps your Android's system synced with the wishes you have.
Depending on the files you're trying to modify you may run into issues with checks run by other apps or you may need a special compiler to be sure you don't brick it by killing your radio's firmware... backups don't really help there or if you mess with the bits that read your power button such that... most call that a 'brick' I call it 'spare parts' when I get a device that really doesn't respond. As stated in the beginning of this response best is relative to what you're trying to accomplish and on what hardware you're rocking. Lastly when embarking on a Modding expedition it's a good idea to know how much a refurbished model will cost, two Android devices that I've come to really enjoy boot-looping is less than $40 to have shipped (even less for ones that work but don't have a screen) and the refurbished devices I use during testing phases of development while my main device holds the most stable modifications only after I've repeatedly boot-looped the refurbs. This method has allowed me to mess with parts of the Android system, locally at times, without to much fear of perma-bricking something that I've invested data into.

All of the above being stated if you're not opposed to root then the Xposed module loader and their documentation on how to make your own module for Xposed may be useful for making modifications on the fly that automatically revert (ie not load mods on boot) settings if a bad shutdown happened last. The framework allows for modification of nearly every process of your device, often without the need to reboot to see settings take effect, so it is not for the faint of heart... used correctly though you can hide root (SU) permissions access from the rest of the Android system, root? what root? and used incorrectly it can hide it's own presence while slurping a victim's dastructrueta. Though the same feature also allows for covert data collection after device theft as well as faking the shutdown so really this yet again comes down to user's wishes for their device's features or functions and what syntax structure you feel comfortable tackling first.


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NFC occasionally stops working. Fixed by battery removal.
I have written an app utilising the NFC radio running on Android 4.4. The NFC radio stops working on 2 occasions :

After an APK update.
Occasionally at other times.

The NFC function is still turned on and the system says it is working.
Interestingly the only thing that seems to fix it is *taking the battery out
*
Powering on/off doesn't work and neither does switching NFC function off then on.
It's very hard to even find where the bug is occurring but given that battery removal works, my question is :
What does battery removal do to an android system that powering off completely doesn't do. Does it wipe a cache or reset something?

What phone is this?  If the NFC antenna is embedded in the battery, then removal and re-insertion may just be reseating the connection.


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Group Messenging with 5.1 LG4
Question 1: I recently purchased the LG4 with 5.1. I noticed that when group messaging using the LG 5.1 stock messaging app. I don't see the name of the person replying. I only see a color bubble. In order to see who is responding, I have to click on the bubble. How can I see the name of the person w/out having to click on the bubble.
Question 2: How can I receive replies in one conversation? I am receiving responses individually. It makes it hard to follow the conversation.

That it does! Feel free to edit your question to include that information - I'll delete my old comment since it's no longer relevant. There are tons of messaging apps for Android - thus why I asked you to be specific. I don't know if LG's stock app is different from ASOP - I'll look into it to see what I can find.

Thanks for looking into it. In the meantime, I downloaded textra. It seems to be working fine but I'd rather use the default messaging app.

Is it LG G4? Please mention the product link. I'm getting Google results for LG G4 only.


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which browser can display all unicode charecters on Android os?
Iam looking for a browser, which can display all unicode charecters?

It seems to be a case of adding a Unicode font to the browser. Instructions for UCBrowser involve creating a font folder inside the UCDownloads folder, then copying the Unicode font file into it. There isn't actually any 'install' program to run as such. A font that seems to work is the Unifoundry standard TTF suggested by Shawn Redmond - tested on http://www.alanflavell.org.uk/unicode/unidata07.html.


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Where are music files downloaded from the Google Play Store stored on an Android device?
I am wondering how music files, downloaded from the Google Play Store, are stored on an Android device.
In other forums on this site, I found that they are located in the /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music directory. However, I am wondering how the files are named, or organized.
Are they named based on the song name, so for example, would the song "Style" be named under "style.mp3"? Also, are the files organized in a certain file based on a playlist, etc?

I suppose by music files organized in Google Music you meant the music files downloaded from Play Store. Right?

Yay for DRM, if you do find them, I would expect them to be encrypted, and disorganized.

Yes, I am referring to music files downloaded from the Play Store. Thanks everyone for your replies.

If you are downloading something you have physically purchased from the Play Store, it should be under /sdcard/Music in MP3 files, unless Google has changed their policy recently.
If you have downloaded it with All Access, then it is not available for you to copy. It would be saved in the app's data encrypted, so it would be completely useless to you.

If you set in the settings of Google Play Music, if you have set to cache on the external SD card, your songs can be found in,
/external_sd/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music/
If you have used the internal storage or do not have any sd card inserted the songs can be found in /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/files/music


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Complete action to open a file using different application "always"
I'm running a Galaxy Note 3 with stock Android Lollipop. I'm aware how it has worked for years with Android when one can choose an application for a certain type of action or file type, and also choosing to just use it this once it always. And if choosing as always this can then be reverted by clearing the defaults of that app. However the case as in the following image is new to me.
In this case I'd like to use the native "create contact" always. How would I do that?
(Click image to enlarge)

As you can see I can't choose it together with always.

You have to choose the native contact app once, and the next time Android ask you, you will be able to set it as default

That was my first thought, so I tried it right away but I only keep getting the screen I posted no matter which app I choose.

Can you tell me what app you are using?

I retried this today and this time it worked the way you stated. I'm positive I tried that multiple times before asking this question. Must have been a bug. Anyway, thank you.

authors: Ольга Барабаш