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How to restore ColorNote notes after factory reset?
I forgot to backup my notes before factory reset and now apparently I have lost them all. Before doing factory reset though, Back up my data option in Settings >> Backup & Restore was checked but right after it there was no sign of restoring data and such. I am not however sure if this has backed up any of my ColorNote app data.
There is a backup folder at this address /storage/emulated/0/backup which contains backup files for some applications including one file named com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note which should be related to ColorNote app. When I double click on this file, and install it, no note gets restored. I also did not have anything synced with my Google account before doing factory reset.
I know I have probably lost my notes, but still am desperately searching for some way to restore them! Those notes where stored on Androids file system, so my only hope for now is maybe I could use some file recovery application to recover those deleted files. Any advice and help would be greatly appreciated!
(Galaxy Nexus, Android version: 4.2.1, not rooted)

No promises, without paying a lot to a forensics expert I'd say "gone is gone" (as internal storage is not easily accessible to any recovery tools). But have you checked with our data-recovery tag-wiki and the questions linked from there?

If you have the db files then the only way is to root your mobile and copy the corresponding db files to the location(data/data/com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note).

do you mean this address? /data/data/

Yes. And to view the files your ROM must be rooted.

In 2017, if you have the backup file, you dont need to root the device. Just install a file manager like this one, copy the backup file to /data/colornote/backup (or similar path) in your phone and from the app go to Backup->Device->Select the backup that you just saved, to restore

I ran into this when I purchased a new phone. SD cards were not the same. One from my old phone would not fit the new one. I used windows to copy the ColorNote files over to the new phone.  I first used a USB cable on an old phone and copied files to a folder on the Windows desktop. Next, I used a USB cable on the new phone and copied the files into the Data/colornote directory on the new phone.
When I looked at the new directory there were no files but there was a backup directory. Seems that Colornote automatically backs itself up on your SD card unless you opt not to.
I used the Android software on the phone to restore the files to the new phone. I went to the ColorNote directory and found the backup feature. I chose the restore option and the latest backup file. After that procedure, all of my files were back again.

Your notes will be automatically backed up to SD card of your device, unless you turn off 'Auto backup' option. Also you can manually back up notes to SD card. Furthermore, if you sign up for online sync service, the notes will be backed up to the cloud storage as well.

Source: http://www.colornote.com/FAQ.html#collapse6
So you can check your SD card but that is about it.  If you set up cloud sync (which I think you didn't since you mentioned you did not back up)... checking your SD card is your only hope.

i would suggest you to mount your phone and use photorec tool in Ubuntu.
last time i did that to recover photos.. and it works (assuming factory reset is as equal as formatting the device)

Next time sign in into Colournote Pad, you won't lose any notes. For now you can't do anything. I too lost my notes this way.

Follow these steps:

Open ColorNote
Click on the top right for options
Click on Backup → Device
Pick an earlier time (there should be a list) and click on the box on the right. It showed me [9] in the box.

My notes were restored immediately.

By "were back immediately" I suppose you meant "were restored immediately", though I've doubts reserved considering the third point. Feel free to edit the answer to make the required correction if I I've ended up changing the intent.

So I had to do a factory reset and did the above 1) open color note
2) click on top right for option
3) click on back up device
4) pick an earlier TIME and click box on right NO EARLIER TIME WAS THERE AND NO NOTES WHERE RESTORED

As I know: factory reset => erase all data. It is good to make a backup.. but sadly the backup is not working all the time and is not working for all applications. I'm sorry dude, you cannot recover your data. You could try at a GSM service... maybe some specialist can do something, but I don't think so.

Open ColorNote
Click on the top right for options
Click on Backup (spinning arrows) → Device
then just chose the latest date it was backup.

This should get all your notes back right away.


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How applications read /data directory on not rooted devices
To access directories like /data in file managers the device should be rooted. My phone is not rooted but I see that anti virus applications can read and scan such directories. If reading these directories need root access to the device, how this applications can read them?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Is it possible to lock the homescreen from apps moving
Is it possible to lock apps into place on the home screen? My finger keeps moving them from all over the place.

That depends on the launcher/homescreen you are using. Some offer a "lock desktop" option, which would exactly do that: lock everything in place, so you can launch things, but not move elements placed on the homescreen. What launcher are you using? And would an alternative launcher be an acceptable solution for you?

I'm using the default launcher that came with the phone. It's the newest version kit kat. I really want to stick with the default launcher. I was just wondering if it was possible with the standard version of android

In the default launcher there is no such function. And where is your second question by the way.?

@Akshat in a second post, as it's done at StackExchange sites (one question per post) ;)

possible duplicate of Can I prevent home screen shortcuts from getting deleted or moved around?

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


text:
Is it possible to foce close all open apps with a single button
Is is possible to do a mass closure of all open apps. For example if i have 10 apps open is it possible for me to press a single button that says force close all open apps right now?

I cannot tell about force-close, but a simple "kill" would be possible using a task-killer. Still, that's not really recommended (see e.g. here). Is there a specific reason why you want to do this?

Are you just trying to hide apps from the recently-used list? Being in that list doesn't mean the app is running.


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Can I downgrade to an earlier version of Android after installing an OTA update?
I installed the KitKat upgrade on my Nexus 7, but I am unhappy with it. Is it possible to roll back to an earlier version of Android (Jelly Bean)?

There are no OTA's for downgrading. However as you have a nexus 7 you can easily download the factory images of 4.3 oder 4.2 for your Nexus 7 from the following site https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images and flash your nexus 7 back to whatever version you like.

@DanHulme: indeed. I will delete my comment then ;-)

Yes, it is possible.
One of the advantages of rooting is the ability to control the operating system that resides on your phone.
With that control, you can change the version of Android. There are two ways to go about doing this:

Flash the stock image https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Install a custom ROM. If you know what an operating system is on a computer, a ROM is basically an OS for your phone. Just check XDA-developers for some great custom ROMs that offer any Android experience, with additional features!

I know for a fact Cyanogenmod still haven't released a KitKat based version and offer a close to stock (unmodified) experience with features that are actually useful. I would recommend to try them out.
Enjoy the freedom!

Trying this (4.4.2 back to 4.3.1) I get "Device version-bootloader is 'FLO-04.02'. Update requires 'FLO-03.15'."

Both of the methods I have listed require (to my knowledge) you to have an unlocked bootloader. Please note downgrading and unlocking the bootloader wipes all user data. This is why you should unlock the bootloader earlier, not later ;) To unlock the bootloader of a Nexus device just run fastboot oem unlock in the same directory on your computer that you have the fastboot binary.

Download factory image for your device from the official source
Extract image (you can use 7zip to extract *.tgz files)
Download and install ADB,    Fastboot and drivers (install system
wide). Download from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48915118
Connect your Nexus device to the computer with USB cable
Turn off your device
Boot your Nexus to bootloader mode by pressing and hold Volume
Down + Power buttons until you see bootloader menu
On your       computer open terminal (win+r -> cmd.exe -> enter) and
go to the       folder extracted in the second step (this folder
should contain       flash-all.sh file)
Run flash-all.sh command in terminal

Take this instruction from here


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Why isn't there any encryption application on GSM calling?
I just wondering the reason why there is no encryption tool for GSM calling in android.
Is it legal or technical problem?
Thank you

There are two levels of technical reason why this wouldn't work.

Not all mobile phones allow the software to control the audio that gets sent over a voice call: the microphone feeds directly into the cell radio. This is the same reason that apps to record calls or play sound over calls don't work on every phone.
GSM lossily compresses the sound signal using methods that are specifically designed to work with voice. If you were to try to send arbitrary data (such as an encrypted signal) over GSM, it would come out garbled at the other end.

If you want to make a phone call that your carrier can't eavesdrop, there are apps available to do this, but they work over wireless Internet, not over GSM (i.e. they use data not voice).


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whatsapp group ...what does the message so and so was removed mean?
In a whatsapp group, what does the message Username was removed mean?

Did the admin remove that person ?
Did that person delete the account?
"Username left" is different from "Username was removed", right?

When you see a message <User> was removed then it means two things:

The group admin removed the user from group.
The person deleted/deactivated his account. I can vouch for this one because my friend lost his mobile and on deactivation the message appeared in my group that he was removed without me taking action.

Yes, <User> was removed and <User> has left mean two different things, <User> has left comes up when user voluntarily leaves a group but keeps his WhatsApp active.

It might be the difference one one getting removed by others(group admin) and one leaving group by self.

Yes if admin of group removed a person from the group then , whatsapp will "Username was removed",
If the person in a group left the group then it will show "Username left"..
It is not means user deleted the account

It looks like Naveen has anecdotal evidence to back up his claim that this can also mean that the user deactivated his WhatsApp account. Could you be mistaken or should he reconsider his answer?

i forgot to mention the scenario what naveen mentioned .

If the admin itself goes off from the group before removing all the other members then it shows this message about the admin to the other remaining members left behind in the group.

What I have experienced in my WhatsApp groups is that

"User was removed" means he/she deleted or deactivated his/her account.
"adminuser removed user" means admin removed that particular user.
"User left" means user left the group.

This I have experienced in last 2/3 versions of Whatsapp. But I don't know exactly if it is same or not for older versions of Whatsapp.

I think it is different from what you said above.
If admin removes someone then it write "admin name" removed "username"
If user leaves groups it writes "user name left"
"user name was removed" in my group happens when someone stays too long without activity in WhatsApp. Their personal account remains available but they have been inactive for a long time.
I think there is an inbuilt program that removes these people from groups, which to me is a good thing.

I'm the admin of my group and i did not remove my friend yet the message appeared "user was removed"
I think when someone deactivates their account then this message comes
but maybe there is one more possibility, if that user blocks the admin then he/she might be getting removed from all the groups where the same person is the admin whom he/she has blocked.
And yes if the admin removes that person then also 'user was removed' will show


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Can I Upgrade My Samsung Tablet From Ice Cream Sandwich To Jelly Bean & How ?
I bought a Samsung tablet with Ice cream sandwich installed, can I upgrade it to Jelly Bean & how ? Please advice.
Thanks

Please take a look at How do I update the OS on my device? / When will my device get the Android 4.1 update (Jelly Bean)? / When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)? / When will my device get the Android 4.3 update (Jelly Bean)?

Which model?
Try checking from the
Setting Menu > About Device (or your Tablet) > System Updates.
You will be prompted if there is a firmware update.
Hoped it helps.


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will gaming destroy my phone battery?
I think games probably destroyed my Note 2 battery. I often play games for hours straight while charging. Last Sunday it was dead with horrible heat. Then I borrowed friend's mpj backup battery, swapped it, and everything worked perfectly again.
Now I have ordered a new battery online. I am not sure if playing games while charging could destroy the battery, if so, i swear wont do it again.

If you operate something at its limits permanently, damage is to be expected. Imagine driving your car at full throttle, and not even stopping for fuel; that's about what you did here ;)

Charging and playing heavy games damages the battery very quickly. It is caused due to the overheating while charging, short Recharge n discharge cycles while charging n playing games and heat due to the GPU. Heat is the sole enemy of Battery. This is the same scenario in most of the mobile devices.
I recommend you to first fully charge the device n play until the charge drains out. I know it's a bit harsh.

Worth noting that staff in some of the battery makers are advised to charge their laptops to around 80% and start charging around 40%! The batteries in smart phones don't have 'memory' and as you said HEAT is a battery killer. Plugging in and running games (especially on Samsung devices) causes a LOT of heat. The CPU/GPU are made to run hot, but the battery is NOT. Charge it up and play unplugged as the poster above said!

I recommend not using your phone while charging as this can cause your phone to overheat. Also when you are using your phone while charging what actually happens is that the amount of time the battery actually requires for being fully charged increases due to simultaneous consumption. This can also cause the battery to swell and even hurt its life in longer run.

We cannot say as such anything. If u use ur phone for hours, you might probably destroy your battery. So the conclusion is:-
Not only games destroy your battery, any other app can also destroy ( Condition is that if u use it for hours and get used to)


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When extactly does the hangouts_video_call.ogg extracted from hangout.apk?
Two ringtones are extracted from Hangout.apk to /storage/ringtones folder during some system setup phase.
To analyze that,  I manually deleted the ringtone files from my_files >> Ringtone. Now, no hangout ringtone in settings->sound->ringtone.
Then, done "Factory reset" from settings. Now, hangout ringtones didn't restored.
Now, i did "Factory reset" from recovery mode.Those hangout ringtones are restored again. That is visible through MyFiles as well as RingtoneChooser.
So, it turned out that "Factory reset" is somewhat different between "recovery mode" and from "settings".
I need to know when extactly does the hangouts_video_call.ogg extracted from hangout.apk? How can i find the log ? Any clue will be highly helpful.

That does not necessarily mean the two factory reset methods are different. There are multiple reports around of "incomplete factory-resets", where the first run seems to have not done its job completely, but a second run (from the very same place) finally did.

this in not happening once. this is happening always :|

Which still is no proof the one way or the other. If it always happens when running it from Settings, but always works fine on the first run from recovery (without running it from Settings before), that would be something different.

Why do you need to know? What are you trying to achieve?


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"Ssp update received" toast keep showing from time to time
Sometimes I get a toast (a temporary popup on the screen) saying something like:

Ssp update received for package XXX

where XXX is the package of the app i'm currently running. It might not be exactly this text as it's hard to read the whole message (disappears after a short time).
It seems it is shown when an app is accessing the Internet. It also seems it started occuring when I've installed "Onavo" app, but it kept occurring even after I've uninstalled it.
my phone is rooted and has some tweaks. it's Samsung Galaxy S3 with Omega ROM 50.1 , which is based on stock samsung ROM (Android 4.1.2).
It also has the Xposed framework.
Does anybody know the reason for this message, and how to avoid getting it?

I think it has something to do with the API demos, as I've searched google for this text, and found this:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/development/+/master%5E1%5E1..master%5E1/
looking at the file it says, its name is "AppUpdateSspReceiver.java" .
It makes sense that very few know about this problem, as this app is mainly used for developers who wish to see what's new on the new version of Android, and how to use the new stuff.
I have no idea what is its purpose and what it tries to demonstrate - the comment there says "Executed when a new version of the application is is installed.", but it doesn't seem the case).
Anyway, uninstalling the API demos seems to solve the problem.
Can anyone please tell me what is this demo?


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How to show only Gmail's contacts in the Contacts app?
I have recently reinstalled Android on B63M due to some problems with the SD Card. I decided to keep all my contacts only in Gmail, as a centralized solution to avoid problems in the future. I do not want other SIM or phone contacts to show in the contacts list anymore.
However, if I try to uncheck both the SIM and phone contacts and I do check all possible Google contacts groups and the option for showing only contacts with a phone number1, no contact is shown at all. If I also show the phone contacts, then the Google contacts are shown (and thus I have some duplicates), but removing the phone contacts removes the Google contacts too.
Note that the contacts are perfectly synched and all under the My contacts group. It's not a synchronisation problem. I'm asking why I must select the show phone contacts in order to see any contact at all (from whichever source you like. Even SIM. I cannot show only the SIM contacts without the show phone contacts enabled.)
To make things clearer, here are some screenshots of the situation:
Here I have set only the phone contacts (Contatti del telefono in Italian), without Google contacts:

Here I have added the Google contacts in the options and they are shown (see red rectangles. Note the number of contacts at the top going from 116 to 156):

Now, I'd expect that removing the phone contacts I should see only the Google contacts (in this case those that above have red rectangles and the other not shown), but this is what I get:

On the right, it just says that there are no contacts to show and that I can add new contacts or import/export from other sources.
What should I do such that this last set of options does show the Google contacts?

1 Having or not this option active doesn't change anything. Even if it is not active no contact is shown.

Go for third-party contacts apps to avoid further problems...

@SachinShekhar Which one? I'd expect a good contacts App to: 1) Require less than 0.5 MB of storage, 2) Provide all functionality of the built-in application (without bugs) 3) No useless permissions/features 4) Free 5) No ads. If you know any application that fulfils these requisites then I'd consider your answer.

Try EX dialer.... Its lightweight and it provides more features than stock contacts app. But, its over 1.5MB which you can tradeoff.

@Bakuriu: Unfortunately, the stock Contact app is crappy when it comes to this sort of thing. Under Contacts to display menu option there is a cog-wheel icon at the bottom of the screen which give you some option to display your contacts based on a given Gmail email address. It may or may not be what you want. Have a look anyway...

@ChuongPham I don't see any wheel in the option menu. Maybe you are using a newer version of Android.

I'm using JellyBean, stock Android, and the cog-wheel icon is next to the Customised List option. It's the last option shown when you choose Contacts to display.

The contacts app is pretty rubbish, try downloading a few and see if any of them suit your needs.

@RossC Actually I find the contacts app quite intuitive. The only thing where it fails is what I have described here. If you know some better contact app that could suit my needs you can answer this question. By the way: downvoters: please explain since I believe I did everything possible to clarify what I'm asking.

I wouldn't recommend any particular app as I do understand your needs, but the actual execution varies wildly in these apps. I'm using the new google dialer (the one built into search) and for every good point theres a few things I really don't like. I never use any contacts app I just dial them directly so it isn't an issue for me. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/address-book-apps-dialer-apps-third-party-speed-dial,20492.html Maybe one of these will help. The best bet, to my mind, is to try a few and find what you like!

The easiest way is to get the Gmail app from the Play Store.

First, type any number(s), select the save option, then it will show you blank field options. Along with those fields, find the option (it will be on top) or drop-down like embedded menu depending on the Android phone model. The blank fields to save will change upon selecting the type of field you selected.
Second, by default, it will be in SIM or phone or your email by the time you're checking which else is there the option in that only contacts are saved.
Thirdly, for saved contacts, go to Contacts > Options. There scroll and find "Contacts to display". I hope your problem must have been solved.
Procedure is correct, but options may vary or be located in different ways by different manufacturers
Finally, coming to other handsets like Karbon, Celkon, Micromax, so-called Chinese handsets in India. Previously, it is found that they don't have any proper sync options. For example, in costlier and top-brand handsets, contacts sync with G+, FB, etc., and give users suggestions to choose contacts still in social & chat apps where else it is not that much we can expect on unknown handsets. What I mean to tell you is contacts matching nearly to your already saved.
The easiest way if possible is to add contacts directly from Gmail on a PC. But you need to log in with the email you're using and require sync in mobile check contacts after logout.
Recently, it has been seen that contacts are directly saved to Viber, Telegram, etc., and not synced with any other app or phone.

Go to Contacts > [Sitting Button] > More > Accounts.
Be sure the following are checked:

Background data.
Auto-sync.

I'd -1 this answer but unfortunately I don't have enough reputation. As I have already stated in the question contacts are synched. I have both auto-synch and background data active, and I have manually asked for a synchronization multiple times. This is not a problem about synchronisation. It's the App not displaying data that it does have available.

Contacts/People > Menu > Contacts to Display > select your gmail account to display.

I'd -1 this answer but unfortunately I don't have enough reputation. I'm asking this question exactly because what you describe does not work.

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


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Reinstall Android OS on my HTC Butterfly
I accidentally wiped all the data in the internal storage of my HTC Butterfly. Due to this incident, my smartphone is unable to connect with PC. The ROM cannot be copied into phones's internal storage. Finally, I cannot recovery my phone. It is stuck in bootloader or screen flash nothing.
Problems:

Unable to connect phone with PC
Storage card does not appear its connection with PC
Unable to copy ROM Recovery.img into storage card
Unable to install Android OS on phone
Finally, it's stuck in bootloader

Please share your knowledge and experience as well as solution to solve this matter.   Thanks.

To fix this you will need the android sdk, your recovery, and your rom.
First, go to [your sdk]> sdk> platform-tools. Then put your recovery in the platfotm-tools folder. Next open a terminal there (shift + right click and it will appear in right click menu (Be carful of doing it on a folder)) then connect your device to your computer, then (Drivers may be needed) type in to terminal
fastboot update [Your rom.zip]

to flash your rom
 (if it comes in a .tar then get 7-zip and open it). Finally use
fastboot flash [your recovery .img]

to flash your recovery, then it should boot and be fixed !


text:
Google play website shows all Apps under "My Apps" as "Installed" even uninstalled ones
I am looking at "My Apps" in Google Play Store and Google Play website.
In Google Play Store, it marks properly the apps that are currently installed as "installed" and the apps which have tried earlier and uninstalled shows up with a "x" mark that deletes the selected app from "My Apps" list.
But in Google Play website, it shows "installed" for all apps under "My Apps".
Is there any option to see the uninstalled apps in google play store?

Encountered the same here. From my limited research it seems that it has to do with 'syncing' to Google Play when an app is uninstalled.
Your device just looks at which apps it has in the internal memory. Google Play website needs this info being synced to it.
So when you install an app it shows correctly on both platform. When you uninstall it and have a working internet connection on your phone, it also shows correctly on both platforms.
Now if you install an app and for example hard reset your device (or your device is by other means unable to sent to the server that an app is no longer on your device), then it still shows as installed in Google Play website. As far as I know, there is no way to make your device 'resync' the installed apps. Only way would be to install the app again and uninstall.

I have seen google play website doesn't mark apps as uninstalled even having a working internet connection while uninstalling the app. And feel it's not worth to install and uninstall just for resync to google play website.

Wow, that makes it work even worse than I thought. And totally agree that re-installing and uninstalling just for this status to show up correctly isn't by any means worth the effort... :(

This a list of ALL the apps that you have installed since the beginning of time. including the uninstalled ones.


text:
Samsung Galaxy Note 1 /sdcard/ folder tree
Hi I am searching for the factory folder tree for Samsung Galaxy Note 1.
I want the folder tree, so I can perform adb shell commands to access these directories. In a quest of recovering data.
e.g. cd /sdcard/music/
QtADB hangs. On ADB cmd prompt, there's nothing happening after following command.

Android commander needs root access too..

May I ask why you can't just get the tree using adb shell? Perhaps using something like ls -R | grep ":$" | sed -e 's/:$//' -e 's/[^-][^\/]*\//--/g' -e 's/^/   /' -e 's/-/|/' (Hang on, I'll get a cleaner command for you in a sec lol)

find . -type d also works. It's a lot simpler to put in, but its output isn't quite as readable. But yes, is there any reason why something like this wouldn't work for you?

As you either want to use ADB, you might wish to take a look at QtADB, and use its integrated file manager.

@dotVezz my phone is softbricked. So the best I had managed so far is to access sdcard using shell function. Phone is only detected in adb via recovery mode. find doens't work. It says not found. I guess it's because phone is not entirely rooted. Seeming unbelievable case... Su is not found either.

@Izzy I am happy to use ADB. But as mentioned all I manage was going in $ mode into shell via adb shell and then trying to do cd /sdcard/. I can try out QtADB if it can recognize my phone or any similar workaround. Because I unable to find Su still

Is ls not found?

If your device is found by ADB, it is found by QtADB as well. And while root gives you additional possibilities, it's not a requirement for QtADB (at least not as far as I know). So just give it a try :) // Of course, you can also go the way dotVezz is just pointing: ls will always show you available files and directories in your current location, and pwd will tell you where you are.

@dotVezz the ls command is not denied. But no hierarchy is shown to me...I am trying to install QtADB and see if it works.. It's really strange, because device seemed to be rooted "PARTIALLY"....certain commands that should only work for root, it works...but certain ones don't work...

@Izzy I installed QtADB. But it too can't help much due to the fact I can't go in as Su.... can you help here please...

As my devices are all rooted, it's hard for me to check. You might want to take a look into the QtADB FAQ – I just did, and it seems it requires busybox on the Android device (which AFAIK, requires root). Sorry for that. Alternatives: ADB Browser, maybe Android Master (if it doesn't require root as well), Android Commander.

There are several ADB GUIs available which might help you out. All of them have in common that you can browse the Android device's directory tree using a graphical frontend, and also execute "stuff" from a command-line interface ("console"). They might offer additional features as well:

Android Commander

root optional (and only needed for Applications Manager and flashing options), Windows only. Offers an ADB shell (console) and a graphical file manager.
ADB Browser

a GUI based file and application browser, Windows & Linux
QtADB

seems to require root & Busybox. Multi-platform, multi-purpose GUI, including shell (console), file browser, app manager, system info, and much more.

I downloaded ADB browser, but I don't see anything when I ran the .exe....I dont think it can detect my device.


text:
How can I upload photos from an external HD to Google+?
I have 40K photos on my desktop that I'd like to archive/upload on Google+ Photos or flickr. The desktop uploaders don't make this easy, i.e. 999 photo limit to Picasa Album uploads or 200 photo limit in Flickr WebUploader.
Is there any way to "mount" the HD as an external/network drive to an Android device, "sym link" the camera roll, and let the mobile app do it's 'autobackup' thing?

It depends on whether the device you're using supports USB host mode. To tell you whether that will work, we need to know what Android device you're using.

Why don't you just add them to Google Drive from your desktop? https://support.google.com/plus/answer/3259546?p=photos_drive&hl=en&authuser=0&rd=1

Will I get unlimited 2048px photos from uploading from Drive this way? Its 80GB in full res.

In this case, its a galaxy nexus.


text:
Error code (ERR_ACCESS_DENIED) Local HTML file on SD card with Chrome
I cannot access local HTML files at external SD card on my Lenovo S6000 within Chrome. It is mounted at /mnt/extSdCard. Browsing to file:///mnt/extSdCard does show this message:

The file at file:///storage/sdcard0/foo/bar.html is not readable. It may have been removed, moved, or file permissions may be preventing access.
  Error code (ERR_ACCESS_DENIED)

I've tried multiple browsers. Some show the app and doesn't work, some show the app and does work, some show the above error. Interestingly, I have 2 tablets. The one with updated firmware is the one that doesn't work. I held off on the update on the 2nd and Chrome works with local HTML files.
From comments:
$ls -l index.html
-rw-rw-r-- root  sdcard_rw  8097  2013-11-20 10:40 index.html

Just to add, file path etc is all correct. Permissions are there. Even added the permission group 'Everyone' with full permissions just to make sure.

Welcome to the site! Just to be sure, (if you have a Terminal app or ADB Shell) could you please edit your question and give us the output of ls -l /path/to/foo/bar.html?

I'm not familiar with what your trying to find out. I'd be happy to let you know. Do I need to enter a certain 'command' in a terminal app?

Yep. Enter the command ls -l /mnt/extSdCard/foo/bar.html (Make sure you use the actual path and name of the .html file in question). It will output some information, including permissions and owner data.

How do I enter a space? %? _?

If your file path or filename has a space in it, you can just put a backslash (\ ) before the space. For example: ls -l /mnt/extSdCard/foo/html\ file.html.

What if /foo bar/index.html

result is "-rw-rw-r-- root   sdcard_rw  8097 2013-11-20 10:40 index.html"

I doubt it is a permission problem: SDcard uses FAT, which does not support permissions this way. The culprit is more likely the "space" character in your path, which some app handles correctly while another one fails. Have you tried using a different path which does not contain any spaces or special chars? One more thing to try is replacing the space by %20 in your URL, e.g. file:///mnt/sdcard/space%20path/index.html.

@Izzy the file path is correct and fine. It works in the same browser/same tablet but without the firmware update. If the file path was incorrect I believe it would give a different error...something like file not found etc. Just for good measure I changed the file itself to make it one word.

Check in settings -> development options and see if "protect SD card" is enabled.

@Compro01 Settings on tablet/in Chrome? I don't see any development options in either.

@JohnSampson - Tablet settings.  If you don't see it, try looking at Where are the developer options in Android 4.2?

@Compro01 Is in fact turned off.

In case some one else comes across this. I did not completely figure out why 1 updated firmware tablet works and 1 non updated tablet does not with the same file path from sdcard0. I did notice on the updated firmware tablet in storage I have folders emulated(read only), sdcard0(read/write), and sdcard1(neither). What I understand these are android 4.2 multiuser folders.
Using the html file from either legacy/0 folders within the emulated folder turns out to work fine with Chrome. Both those folders are read and write. So that is my solution for now.
Side note, the emulated folder is not on the non updated firmware tablet.


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Where are TWRP backups stored on SD card? Had to un-root
I had to un-root my LG G2 Verizon because recovery got corrupted. I created a TWRP backup some time ago from within its recovery and it was stored on the internal drive. I did a system reset, and then un-rooted by going back to stock image. Did the system reset delete that backup file from my SD card? If not, what location is it under?

Flashing the stock image may have erased your backup. However, since the G2 supports an External SD card, I don't think it would have.
From the SD Card's root, it should be at ./TWRP/BACKUPS/. Restoring a backup from here using TWRP will re-root your device (If your device was rooted when you made the backup). You can also use apps like Titanium Backup to selectively restore parts of it... but Titanium Backup requires root.
You may, however, be able to selectively pull files from the backups - a full backup of your phone's filesystems.

On my LG G2 (Verizon model), the TWRP backup is located in root/data/media/0/TWRP/BACKUPS/ (folder with a bunch of letters and numbers / folder with date and numbers, etc. this is your backup)
Now this is using TWRP version 2.8.6.1
You won't be able to see it by hooking up to your computer. You will need to use a root explorer file manager and then copy that folder (one with the date) to your SD card partition (I put mine in the downloads folder to find it easier) then hook up to your computer and copy it somewhere safe.

Use Droid Explorer to access those system files and folders on PC.

Go to Droid Explorer's Official website
Download the program.
Run it and grant USB debugging permission.
You can find the TWRP backup under /data/media/0/TWRP/(backups folder)

That's it, take a copy of that and you are safe.

The location depends on what mode is the Android currently running in. When you use adb while running recovery, the location is like /data/media/TWRP (or /data/media/0/TWRP). When you have the system running, the location is /sdcard/TWRP.
If you do not want to install Droid Explorer as advised by Hariharan G, you can use adb from command line to copy the files:
While running recovery:
adb pull /data/media/TWRP/BACKUPS BACKUPS

While running normally:
adb pull /sdcard/TWRP/BACKUPS BACKUPS

(Those are paths I see for backups with TWRP 2.7.1.0 on rooted Motorola Xoom with Android 4.1 and 4.4.4 - TWRP prints the path valid while running in recovery when performing backup, you can check it in the log)

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


text:
Can't delete file in download folder
A few days ago, I downloaded a file of 1.9gb to my phone using the utorrent app. Utorrent downloaded the file automatically to my internal storage, and since I only had 2 gigs of free space, the download did stop after a while. when I saw it I deleted some files, and the download went on. When the download was finished, I decided to take a look in my folder but the folder which did have the name of the file that I downloaded was empty. So I checked my internal storage, but it was almost full, so the file must be somewhere on my device.
Furthermore can't I delete that empty folder. By the way: my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) is not rooted.
How can I find that file, and how can I delete that folder?

Thanks everyone especially you geffcheng! I finally found a way to delete the file. I thought that it might work if I downloaded the same file on my pc, and then transfered it to the same folder(downloads) on the internal storage on my phone. I thought that my pc would ask if I wanted to overwrite the existing folder, but my pc didn't and I had 2 exactly the same folders in my download folder. Then I turned on the SDmaid app on my phone(while it was still plugged in my pc), and I deleated the whole download folder. It actually worked!!
So thanks again to everyone who helped!
P.S. I'm sorry if you could't understand everything. I'm Dutch;)

You could try SD Maid, and see if it can find the file. It has a feature that lets you search for the BIGGEST files. If that file was cached somewhere before it was put into the correct folder, chances are SD Maid might be able to find it.
I can't remember though if you need the Pro version to use the feature, but do check it out.

Thanks but it didn't work. I found the folder with the files within, but I am unable to delete the folder, and I can't see the files when I open the folder. When I try to delete the folder, the app says that my phone is in need of root acces. That's quite strage since my phone has never been rooted. Do you have any other ideas?

@user47066 It means you need to be rooted to delete that folder / file. This is understandable, since it is most likely a temporary file. Have you tried deleting the torrent and data from utorrent itself?

Yes I have tried that, but it didn't work either. I even downloaded the same torrent again, and the torrent started checking the file. when the check was complete Utorrent showed the following error: Invalid download state, try resuming.

@zwadde03 What happens if you resume it?

@zwadde03 How did you solve the problem? Is it using my answer? If yes, please upvote and accept my answer. If it's using your own solution, please post a separate answer and accept it in 2 days. :)

You could try using File Manager (Rhythm Software) to find and delete it.

As the user's already found the file, but can't delete it without root, how would using a different file manager help?

Same problem as before: I can find the map, but I am unable to edit the map in any way

Go into to your settings on android. Then to storage, then wait for it to load phone file. Then tap on it. Then, used space, then, select audio or whatever file you are looking for, but for this question select audio...You will then see different folders there. Tap on each until you find what you are looking for. Press and hold one file then from there to delete more files after holding down one file the trash can comes up then you can select each folder from there then tap trash can. All done


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What's the relationship between a custom recovery and rooting?
So I want to make sure I understand everything.
If I want a Recovery, I need to root my phone. I have an LG G2. Clockwork is a recovery; If I download ClockworkMod recovery and use Flashify without rooting my phone, will that eventually root my phone through ClockworkMod flashing? Or should I root my phone with ioroot.zip first, and then flash a recovery?

Also, welcome to Android Enthusiasts! And congratulations: You've already mastered the one-post/one-question format that we follow here! Feel free to register and stick around.

You don't need to root your phone in order to use a custom recovery like TWRP or ClockWorkMod.
It will only root your phone if you use it to...

flash a rooted image
flash a su binary
restore a rooted backup

It is common for recoveries to offer to root when you restart, but you can just say "No" if you don't want to root.

So if I get Flashify, unrooted phone, I can take the Clockwork Image file and flash my phone successfully? And does Clockwork then afterwards ask to root? Doesn't Clockwork recovery come with the Superuser app (hence automatically rooting)?

ClockworkMod is just that: a recovery mod. So it installs to /recovery, while the su binary and the SuperUser / SuperSU app reside in /system. Both are completely independend partitions. So when flashing the recover image, it should only go to /recovery – and might offer you to root your device when starting it (i.e. "booting to recovery"). I never noticed the latter, though – but that might well be because I've always rooted first ;)

what rooting would you recommend? ioroot.zip?

We don't usually offer recommendations around here because it's based on opinion. Personally, I use SuperSU. You should also check out this question.


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Phone won't boot after Cyanogenmod 10.2 update
I just updated my HTC One X from Cyanogenmod 10.1.13 to 10.2 RC1, which seemed to go smoothly.
It completed the "Checking apps" stage, and when it rebooted, it got stuck on the boot screen (the spinning concentric circles) for about 15 minutes, at which point I held the power button to turn off the phone, but it just restarted and it's stuck in the same place.
What are my options? The problem I have at the moment is I can't turn on or off the phone (just restart) and I also can't get adb to work when I connect it to my PC.
(oh, and no...I didn't backup before updating - because that would have been a smart thing to do)
Thanks for any help.

Could it be that the upgrade from 10.1 to 10.2 also requires a factory reset?

Nope, according to here, "You can safely flash this on top of CM 10.1 (any version) without wiping data IF you also manually update your third party add-on zips (kernels, mods, packs, etc)." Is there something else I need to update?

As long as you also flashed any new kernels, you it looks like that's not the problem.

That's what I'm unsure about! All I did was used the built-in updater function in the settings, to download the update and install it automatically. Do I also need to download the new kernel and flash it?

Perhaps, but I actually don't think so. That said, I'm not particularly familiar with CM practices lately - and I'm even more disconnected with the kernel/ROM scene for HTC phones. I scanned a few XDA threads trying to find information for you, but wasn't able to find anything.

OK, fair enough. Yeah, I've been looking on XDA too but I can't find anything. Thanks anyway.

I managed to fix the problem myself in the end.
The solution: I had to flash the boot.img file.
To do this:

Download the CM update from here that matches the update you installed. Make sure you choose the correct device as well. (HTC One X is "Endeavoru")
Unzip the file, and copy the boot.img file to C:\Android\android-sdk\tools (or wherever you have the Android dev stuff installed).
Boot your phone into the bootloader (power button + volume down for HTC One X) and choose Fastboot from the menu, using the volume buttons to go up and down the list and the power button to choose.
Connect your phone to your PC via USB. It will install Fastboot drivers.
Open a command prompt window and cd to the \tools directory mentioned above. Run the command fastboot devices to make sure your phone is connected.
If it shows, run fastboot flash boot boot.img to flash the boot.img file to your phone.
Finally run fastboot reboot to restart the phone. Your phone will go through the "Android is upgrading" process and you should be back in business once that finishes.

You will also need to flash gapps or any other custom mods/addons you had installed before upgrading. There are plenty of guides online explaining how to do this.

Have you tried to wipe data/factory reset and wipe cache partition? This worked for me when I flashed the ROM on my Galaxy S3.

a faster way odo it is download the cm rom to yu micro sd card  and istall the update (by the waythis only works if you have a clowckwokod or teamwin recovery ) then install then go to installupdatefromsdcard1>downloads(or whatever folder it may be in)>yes and let it insall, the n re-root the device after update is installed then after root file is complete reboot into recovery and reset device and reboot after that it works

Can you add some punctuation and capitalization to remove the stream of consciousness aspect to this answer? I'm also not sure about your correct spelling of the products you mention in the (parentheses).


text:
Disable browser prompt when using ADB to open an URL
I'm trying to open an URL using the ADB command:
  ./adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d URL

When I have multiple browser support applications, I'm trying to open this using google play store. Is there a way I can set this to open this URL by google play store app and nothing else? The URL is a app store app url. Its an automation where there might be apps installed back to back. In case I download a firefox for android app, I don't want the device to prompt me to open the URL using the available apps but stick to google play store app. Is this possible?

There are two ways.
The simpler one is to use a legacy market://details?id=com.shadowburst.showr URL instead of https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shadowburst.showr. No browser will offer to open a market:// URL, but it's still possible that another installed app will do so.
The more complex way is to explicitly specify what activity you want the intent to open. This way, there's no possibility of another app responding to the intent. However, it's possible that a future Play Store update will change what activity you need to name: very old devices that only have Android Market won't work with this command.
You can find the package and activity name using an app such as Stanley. (In this case, you need to go to Stanley's settings to let it show system apps.)
The command to do what you want is
adb shell am start -n com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.activities.LaunchUrlHandlerActivity https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shadowburst.showr

The second option using com.android.vending/... works perfect. When I used the first option I was prompted to open with play store or mobgenie app. Thanks a lot


text:
Is there a way to have pattern lock that doesn't prompt for X minutes yet still requires some action other than pushing a button (e.g. like iOS)?
I want the lock screen for my Android (currently running a CyanogenMod 10.2 nightly) to behave more like that of iOS, where I can have a delay on when I need to re-enter the pattern/pass-code, but still require a swipe every time screen is turned off.  The existing "Automatic Lock [after X time]" feature lacks this additional swipe I describe.
My goal is to have the phone locked down after X minutes (e.g. 15), yet not be susceptible to easy unlocking during this time (e.g. power or home button getting pressed accidentally while in my pocket).
I would prefer to not use a 3rd party app, but I suppose that can't be avoided unless there's an existing setting that I'm not seeing.  If there is a reputable 3rd party lock screen app with this functionality, I'll take that as well.


text:
Is it possible to do DNS resolution based on connection?
On my Galaxy Note 2 phone (Android of course), is it possible to edit the hosts file so that it resolves example.com to a public IP BUT resolves it to a local private IP if connected to WiFi with a specific SSID? That is when connected to home WiFi, it should resolve a domain name to a local server on the LAN, but anyplace else it should resolve it to the public IP.
I'm guessing it'd be hard at the very least, if it's even possible, but do I have any options here (either hosts, or some other way)? I've got shell access, and root access, so I can edit pretty much anything that needs to be.

Are you able to run a DNS server at home with "example.com" coded "specially", and then to feed your phone those DNS servers via DHCP when on your home WIFI ?

I can put bind9 on my linux box, but I'm not sure how to set it up to resolve from that and not the ISP's servers via the router

Run bind as a forwarder /recursive server along with your zone of interest.  In the DHCP device (on your router), specify the IP address of your Linux box rather then your ISP's dns server.

I'll dig up how to do that, and see if I can get it working, thanks!

DNS resolver always consults local /etc/hosts file before sending DNS query to configured name server (see details in How does Android OS do DNS name resolution?). So this approach cannot work based on connection.
The possible method is to run a DNS server on that specific network and configure DHCP server (mostly your router) to send local DNS server's IP address in response to DHCP requests. Configure DNS server to always resolve a domain name to a fixed IP. Or you may resolve the domain name to required IP using a VPN app temporarily (it's less hassle than editing hosts file every time). See linked answer for details.


text:
Can I use an external GPS receiver by connecting both GPS and Android device to a PC?
I have an HTC One X which I like and carry everywhere, but the GPS is atrocious.  It takes tens of minutes to get a position, loses it easily and it's not even very accurate when it has a signal.  However, I also have a Garmin GPS which is fantastic at gaining and holding a steady and accurate GPS location.  I'd like to use the Garmin as an external GPS in combination with android's mock-location feature, in my car.
It is definitely possible to drive gpsd on a pc with the garmin - but I don't know how to use that to provide location data to android.  The phone is already rooted and I'm not averse to hacking it a bit more, but of course simpler solutions are preferred.  Initially I would be happy plugging the Garmin and HTC into a laptop but I'll move to a Raspberry Pi as soon as I know it works.  Not really bothered about using USB OTG to connect as this is for in-car use.
So: Can I use gpsd running on a PC to control a mock-location on Android?  If so, how?

Does your Garmin support Bluetooth, so you could use it as BT GPS mouse? If so, there are easier methods than fiddling with cables and a PC, plus running around with a big rucksack to carry it all.

No - it's a ForeRunner 205. https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/sports/discontinued/forerunner-205/prod348.html  Very basic but extremely lightweight, good accuracy and battery life.  BT GPS mice cost, and seeing as I carry the Garmin all the time anyway, seem a bit pointless.

Besides, I'm really talking about in-car use and I already use the phone's BT to connect to the stereo :)  Not sure if the phone could connect to both stereo and GPS mouse.  To be honest it's pretty flakey with just the stereo.

I don't know if you can do this with your PC. Likely the easiest way would be to hack up a custom script on your PC to respond to new positions coming from gpsd, and use the following command to mock those locations on the phone:
adb shell setLatLon latitude longitude
You need to have previously turned on USB debugging and mock locations in the phone's settings.
However, this seems unnecessarily complicated. If you search for external gps on Google Play, you'll see a zillion apps that allow you to connect your Android device directly to an external GPS receiver. There's no need to involve your PC at all. Try a few and report back which one works best for you.

Sounds good.  To keep them charged up I usually have the Garmin and phone plugged into a laptop when I'm driving anyway.  So a simple script to scrape GPS data from the Garmin and send it to the phone would really suit my needs perfectly.  I'll see what I can hack up...

If I search for external GPS on google play, I don't really see anything helpful.  Can you suggest a specific app to check out?

A tenner will buy you a USB charger that plugs into a lighter socket. If you're looking for an excuse to buy yourself a raspi, find a better one!

Thanks for your update and indulging me :)  setLatLon: not found though :(  This person had the same idea though: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11729767/setting-android-mock-locations-in-a-script

While most "external GPS" apps seem to be specifically for BT mice, I've just found RtkGPS: high rated, and the desc says USB is supported as well. A second candidate would be You are here.


text:
Tethering with locked boot loader
A recent OTA update to KitKat removed the ability to tether my phone. I feel very frustrated by this bait and switch since I bought the phone for its ability to tether. The workaround is apparently to unlock the boot loader, gain root access, and then change a flag in a SQLite database. I'm aware that this introduces certain security risks. Is there a good way to have tethering without the security risks? E.g. could I unlock, become root, change the flag, and then relock? Most of the information regarding unlocking is in the context of installing custom ROMs and maintaining root access, which I don't have any particular desire to do. I really just want to change this one setting. Would this procedure enable future OTA updates to work? Are those updates likely to revert the value of the tethering flag?

The post you link says that a more recent OTA update fixes the problem. If you're not comfortable rooting the phone, I suggest you wait a few days and apply that update when your phone offers.
To answer your other queries about rooting: yes, you can unroot again (and lock the bootloader) once you've changed whatever settings you like. While the phone is unrooted, OTA updates will not apply. Applying an OTA update afterwards may undo the settings you've change: we can only guess whether they will or not. In this case, since the next OTA update fixes the problem, it probably will change the tethering flag.
FWIW, the problem you're seeing isn't that the phone doesn't have the ability to tether any more. KitKat adds new tethering features, and it seems (from the descriptions online) that the update had the accidental side-effect of making T-Mobile (and some other carriers) think that your plan doesn't allow tethering when it should.
Whether tethering is allowed is a matter between you and your carrier, not Android. If tethering is disallowed in your contract with the carrier, and you try to do it anyway, they have every right to stop you. Many carriers have other means to detect and block it that don't rely on the phone. It seems to be an accident that users on some carriers are being blocked when they shouldn't be, and that's what the work-around (and the official update) avoids.

I have the build KRT16S mentioned in the post and tethering still does not work for me and some of the other posters.

Did you update your APN settings as described? They seem to be the source of the problem.

It does not work with either APN setting.


text:
Why does the new Gmail address not show on the Samsung tab 2 version 7.0?
A friend forgot her primary Gmail address so I created a new one for her. The reason she could not find it was her surname was wrong. The problem is that when I press the Gmail icon on her Samsung tab 2 version 7.0 only the primary email inbox is shown. I have found no way to view the new Gmail address which she needs to open to confirm something she did on the internet.
Is there any solution given on the web, perhaps from Google? I completely fail to understand why Google will not allow us to change what the primary address is. We shall never use the one Google has decided upon against our wishes. The only inbox we are interested in opening is that of the new Gmail address I have just created.

I want to access the inbox of the new email address so we can read the emails that have been sent there in connection with applications for membership cards we have made on the web. Should I copy this question and paste it on Android Enthusiasts instead? I am totally incompetent regarding technical matters and things like tags and did not know there was any other place to ask my question than this one.

Go to your phone's Settings. Under Accounts, add the existing Google account. After you go through the wizard (and making sure email is synced), go back to the GMail app. When you trigger/click the hamburger menu, you should be able to select between your different GMail accounts.


text:
Netbook with Android 4.1 freezes on load screen
I'm using a brand new Craig 10-inch netbook. It came with Android 4.1 jelly bean by default. I've made no changes at all but on boot, the initial splash screen appears, the jelly beans seem to appear inside of the Andrew character, but then it just freezes. No mouse icon, no menus, nothing.
I've tried:

long-press of the power button (both on to off and off to on).
Holding F2 and/or F8 during power on or power off or just the load phase.
Pushing the factory reset button on the bottom of the device.

None of these have any effect, unfortunately.
I've also noticed some posts saying to hold the volume buttons during boot to get safe mode. This seems only for phones as this netbook has no volume buttons at all.
Are there any known remedies for this load screen freezing? I cannot access any menus or options that require the computer to actually be booted. How can I access safe mode or some other boot mode to try to restore?

Did it ever work?  If not, then it probably faulty. Best to return it.

It did work without a problem for the first five or so days (maybe 10 on/off power cycles before the problem started).

Can you remove the battery? It could be like my original (rev 1) Nexus 7, where the device flips out if it ever goes to 0% battery. The fix is to do a special key sequence to do a reset (not factory reset, though). Android doesn't have a safe mode.

In fact, the battery cannot be removed and the instruction manual says it is not user-replaceable. It was working fine for several uses in a row. There are many posts about booting into Android safe-mode (for example, this link.

Also, the battery had never gone close to 0% when this started. Since that, I've tried draining and recharging the battery, which seems to go fine, but the same frozen loading screen persists on startup.

press "Fn" button and "F2" and "home"

Some explanation on what this will do would be appreciated.


text:
Default music app for bluetooth audio
Situation: Connected to BT audio device, listening to Spotify app.  Press pause on the BT device (car stereo), then press play.
Expected behaviour:  The music being played by Spotify pauses, then resumes
Actual behaviour: The music being played by Spotify pauses, then the Apollo music player launches and starts playing.  Most likely to be completely different music.
Extra information: Apollo is the OEM music player which I occasionally use and don't want to uninstall.  HTC One X runnning Android 4.2.2 CyanogenMod 10.1
Can I fix this annoying behaviour?

If you want a specific app to react to bluetooth commands, you have to set it to high priority. I know PowerAmp has such a setting. Check the spotify settings for a high priority option.

I could not find any priority option in spotify settings.


text:
Android 4.4 (Kitkat) and volume problem on a Nexus 7
I've got a Nexus 7 tablet and it has just got updated to Android 4.4 - Kitkat automatically (I just approved the installation). Having done that, the sound volume of my tablet is acting weird. Once I push higher or lower volume buttons (on the case) it shows up the volume indicator and the volume handler moves one step in the requested direction (to this point it is normal).
From this point on the volume acts weird. If I keep pressing the volume buttons the volume indicator on the screen won't move anymore but the sound volume will be changed. And worse than that, the volume can not be adjusted using the on screen handler (you can not adjust volume with on screen touches).
Has anyone faced any similar problem? And more importantly is there any cure for it?

Which Nexus 7 do you have? The original one, or the newer one with two cameras?

The old one with just one front camera.

I have the same one and I don't see this behaviour after updating to KitKat.

Then it makes one of us. Do you have any suggestions what might have gone wrong? Or how can I resolve it?

If I did I'd already have answered your question! Just be patient and I'm sure someone who knows will answer.

I reproduced the exact same issue on my Nexus 10 after upgrading to KitKat. Cycling power on the device after the update resolved the problem for me.

@Peanut Why not? To me, the second sentence seems to be a valid solution, if it works.

@Izzy I... I'm not sure. I don't even remember reviewing this an hour ago :/ Apologies to the answerer. Removed the comment.


text:
A lot of storage space used by 'system files'
I have a problem of huge storage space missing in my newly bought Galaxy Tab 2 tablet.
It is the 16 GB version, but even after resetting twice to factory settings, the available storage space remains at about 5 GB, with the remaining 11 GB inaccessible, because it is "used for Android system files".
I suspect that there may be back-up or batch files from the previous installations that Android does not remove when I restore to factory settings.
Does anybody know in which directories I should look, and how I can delete the relevant folders to free the expected 6-7 GB of remaining storage space that I need for my applications?

Samsung devices are 'known' for their excessive use of internal memory for Android system files and Samsung's own programs (bloatware?). To free this space you'll need to root the device and put a slimmer ROM on it.
Rooting is a practice which requires some knowledge what you're doing and it will void your warranty. If you have no idea what rooting is, I would recommend you to stay away from this practice since it can not only void your warranty, but also render you device useless (so-called 'brick' it). If you do know what rooting is, then you'll also know which sites to use for this, so I won't tell them here.  Hope you'll understand I'm trying to avoid inexperienced readers from doing things to their devices which they regret. Good luck! :)

As for what rooting is, and important related questions, we have a nice rooting tag-wiki – so you're correct to not going into details on that. Besides, there's also one for "rom" :) And yes, Samsung reserves quite much for /system: about a 3rd would suffice. They just want to make sure to have enough reserve for future updates...

Hi, there. Thanks for your reply. However, I find difficult to believe that Android ate 6 - 7 GB of space for system files. As this tablet was bought second hand, I think here there must be something else, like a hidden partition, or something like this. Anyway, I hope the tablet is still under Samsung warranty, as I'm not going to root it. If not, it will be sent back to the seller.

@Izzy Thanks, pretty new here, so didn't think of it myself to include the tags! :)

No problem, that's what we "seniors" can do for you to get you started :) @user47108 It's not Android ate the space for system files, it's Samsung reserving it. And yes, they do that; it's not the first time I've read this.

@user47108 Since it is second hand, you could try and factory reset it:
Settings > Personal - Backup & reset > Factory data reset
Be sure to copy the photos and other files you want to keep to a computer first, because it will erase all data. Mind you that the chance of this freeing up space is kinda small, since Samsung is known for taking up lots of space.


text:
Use Tasker with "OK Google" on Nexus 5
OK guys, I have searched and searched but cannot find an answer to this question.
I want to link the "OK Google" phrase that starts a Google Now search on the Nexus 5 to Tasker, or more specifically the AutoVoice plugin for Tasker.
I can attach the swipe up from the bottom to use AutoVoice rather than Google Now , but I cannot figure out how to make the phrase "OK Google" use AutoVoice.
I read that on the Moto X you can use Tasker to watch for the "Touchless Control" App to become active, and then kill it and start AutoVoice. But the Nexus 5 doesn't have the Touchless Control App, In fact I don't know what process or App is actually listening for the "OK Google" phrase on the Nexus 5.
Can anyone shed any light on how I might make this work.
Thanks in advance

Here is a video tutorial on how to get it setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Woh20ullI
Explanation of Video
This requires the Xposed Framework and the Google Now API for it. You will need to be rooted to install the Xposed Framework.
First you need to do this:

Open Google Now API
Click plugin (example AutoVoice)
Check "Enable" for Google Now integration

In Tasker you will need to setup something similar to task for task:

Create a new Action
Create If (for action category)
For condition select (or type if you cant find) avsource
Make sure condition is set to matches
type in googlenow for what the condition matches
Create whatever action you want for the If (need to be familiar with Tasker)
Create End If

moto x has 2 chips a bit like the M7 chip in iphone 5S which also uses the A7 as its main processor.  The nexus 5 has 1 chip which is why it cant replicate all the goodies of the moto X, although its a much more powerful phone.
This chip uses very little power and has dedicated tasks like geo positioning.  So when you pick up the moto X it knows it is moving, because the 2nd chip is always on, and shows the messages etc.  If the nexus 5 chip was always "listening" for movement, the battery would die in a few hours. So the 2nd chip basically runs on very little power and thus can run constantly.
So the voice commands in moto x will work all the time and you dont need to be in the screen launcher for ok google to work, which cant happen on the N5 without the aforementioned killing of the battery.  So thus there is no touchless control on the N5.
Not sure if that answers your question exactly, but in part - you wont be able to do the Moto X trick on your N5

Ok google does work on the nexus 5 from the home screens and google now without touching the phone. My question was how to connect it to the AutoVoice/Tasker App. The nexus 5 also has the snap dragon processor with the second low power core, it's just not used in the same way...


text:
Why can't a keyboard on the Samsung Galaxy S3 collect passwords?
When I enable an input method (a keyboard app) on a Nexus device, I see the following confirmation message:

This input method may be able to collect all the text that you type, including personal data like passwords and credit card numbers. It comes from the app Highway. Use this input method?

I understand this warning. Because of the way an input method works, it has the ability to collect everything I type, and I have to trust the author not to abuse this ability. But when I enable an input method on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (and maybe other Samsung devices; I haven't tried), I get a different message (my emphasis):

This method can collect all of the text you enter, except passwords, including personal data and credit card numbers. It comes from the app Highway. Use anyway?

I've checked entering a password into a web form, and setting the device password. In both cases, it still uses the (3rd-party) input method I choose to enter the password. So why does Samsung claim that the input method can't collect passwords? Are they doing something incredibly clever in their version of Android, or are they just talking nonsense?

I guess it's the latter, or a variant of it: rewrite their statement to "it will not collect passwords" might be believable. It can not is a lie IMHO, though hard to prove (except counting the example of the user writing a text like "my password is foobar", as how shall the app recognize that?). How can Samsung be that sure to always know where a password is entered?

TBH, my guess is that it means you can't use a 3rd-party keyboard to enter the lock screen password when unlocking the screen. But if it still uses the selected keyboard to set the password, that's no security benefit.

It's simply not honest to suggest a keyboard has no access to passwords you type using it. That's a contradiction in itself. The keyboard app has access to everything you type (if that would exclude passwords, you couldn't type them), and thus can collect everything. If it does do so, is a different issue not fitting the phrasing. I don't say they intentionally placed a "false claim", but it simply cannot be true. Correct would be "can collect all of the text you enter, but will possibly/hopefully/... exclude...". For 3rd party apps, they cannot be sure. Write one, blame them :)

As a programmer I find this interesting.  Password fields can be (and usually are) treated differently than normal text boxes.  Given that Android is open source I guess it's possible that Samsung has at least attempted to include code that prevents a password field from passing information typed in it back to the keyboard application, but like others have stated I am skeptical.
In order for a keyboard application to collect your data it has to include the extra step of capturing your input, storing it somewhere, even if it's just temporarily in an instance variable, and then sending it on to a third party.  I would be interested to hear what Samsung says about this and how they supposedly prevent it, but I'm guessing that's an answer we aren't likely to get.


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How do I refresh/rescan the SD memory in Android 4.4 KitKat
I received the official OTA KitKat update for my Nexus 4 last week and since then I have been unable to rescan the SD card.  I have tried a number of different apps for this task but all of them crash when being opened.  A bit of research shows a handful of users with the same issue.
These are the apps I've tried:

Rescan Media (Aditya Talpade)
Rescan SD Card! (sTOOPIDfiG)
Rescan SD Media Card (RADEFFFACTORY)
SDrescan (Benjamin Rosseaux) my old standby on Jelly Bean

Each app crashes when launched.  Is anyone able to refresh their SD memory on KitKat?

It won't work to detect deleted files, but I just put an app up on the Play Store that will work on new and updated files: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmail.jerickson314.sdscanner
It uses a workaround inspired by Dan Hulme's answer: by using the API that is only for a specific file, but manually generating a recursive list of files on the card.  This requires only the read permission on the SD card, not root, and has the nice side effect of allowing a reliable progress indicator.

This ought to be the accepted answer; Dan's answer doesn't solve the problem. The other half of the problem - getting rid of deleted files - is solved by manually clearing the Media Service's cache and data.
It's easy to get into the situation where you are forced to do a rescan - e.g. when you rename a folder.

Since writing this answer, I've implemented functionality to read the media database.  As far as I can tell, it's working to detect deleted files.  Sometimes deleted files aren't showing up in the media database at all, which I suspect means they're getting cleaned out by Google Play Music or something before SD Scanner gets to them.

Annoyingly, I had to copy the default ringtones, alarms, notification sounds etc. to locations under /sdcard to get them to be found again by Settings.

Sadly, the app seems to no longer be on the store

You can't use any apps like this any more. Because lots of apps abused the MEDIA_MOUNTED broadcast intent to cause a rescan of the whole filesystem (draining battery) after they only changed one file, KitKat has a new restriction that only system apps can broadcast this intent. Apps that try will get a SecurityException, which by default causes the "... has stopped" dialog.
There's an alternative mechanism for an app to say that it's changed a particular file, and cause that file to be rescanned (not recursively), but (a) there's no replacement that scans a whole filesystem, because that would be abused in the same way; and (b) it's up to the app to call this. It's not something you can change as a user.
An app that used root would be able to make this work in the same way as 4.3 and earlier, but again, it would need to be specifically written to request root. Rooting the device wouldn't make your old apps start working again.
For more technical details, see How to trigger MediaScan on Nexus 7? on Stack Overflow, our sister site for programming questions.

This isn't an answer to the question. My media is completely inaccessible on KitKat simply because I renamed a folder. Removing the functionality without providing an alternative is completely broken.

This is a very good question and I see it is already answered. I wrote a small application to solve this problem specifically for Kit Kit(Android 4.4+). My application works on all phones.
Here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=burrows.apps.sdcard
This works on the Nexus 5!
Please let me know if this helps you!
Disclaimer: I wrote this app.


text:
WiFi network not accessible with modified MAC address
I've recently bought a Nexus 7 to use as a demo client for a system I am currently developing. For the time being, the system requires the client to have a particular MAC address in order to work. I've rooted the Nexus (still with the Android 4.4 stock ROM), and am using ip link to change the hardware address of wlan0. I am aware that this will be reset on reboot, but as I'd rather not recompile my Android kernel right now, that's okay.
The issue I am seeing is that I am unable to get an IP address from my (open) WiFi network with a modified MAC address. If I set a static IP, I can connect successfully with the modified address, but no packets are getting through.
Hopefully the below transcript will shed some light on exactly what isn't working and what I've tried.
First, I "forget" my WiFi connection and reboot my device just to start from scratch. Then:
$ adb shell
shell@flo:/ $ su
root@flo:/ # ip link | grep -A1 wlan0
22: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT qlen 100
    link/ether ac:22:0b:9f:37:f7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
root@flo:/ # ip link set dev wlan0 addr ac:22:0b:9f:37:f0

Here, I connect to the wireless network. If DHCP is selected, I am simply shown "Obtaining IP address" until the connection fails. If I set a static IP, the network is shown as connected, but:
root@flo:/ # ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.1.113: icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.113: icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 0 received, +2 errors, 100% packet loss, time 1004ms
pipe 2
1|root@flo:/ # ip route
default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.1.113
192.168.1.1 dev wlan0  scope link
1|root@flo:/ # ip n
192.168.1.1 dev wlan0  INCOMPLETE
255|root@flo:/ # ip n change 192.168.1.1 lladdr 10:0D:7F:4D:1C:D0 dev wlan0
root@flo:/ # ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 6006ms

So, still no connection.
Let's see what happens if I change my MAC address back to the real one without even disconnecting from the wireless network:
root@flo:/ # ip link set dev wlan0 addr ac:22:0b:9f:37:f7
root@flo:/ # ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=13.0 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=9.82 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=9.49 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 9.491/10.793/13.061/1.609 ms

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here?
For what it's worth, I am running DD-WRT on my router, no MAC filtering is enabled, and there should be no other "weird" rules set.
UPDATE:
After some further investigation, I have noticed that it seems like the Nexus 7 isn't using the spoofed address at all when talking to my AP. I have enabled MAC filtering and only allowed the spoofed address, and then adb logcat shows a CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT message. I'm wondering whether this might somehow be related to this wpa_supplicant question, but there weren't any answers to be had there either...

Do you have a possibility to check that from the routers side (logs or the like)? Have you tried whether adb logcat sheds some light? That's the only two things coming to my mind immediately (though there might be more, as e.g. using some analytic apps).

adb logcat only says DHCP timeout with The spoofed MAC. The router gives very limited information unfortunately,

Do you see the spoofed MAC in the ARP table?

No, the router's ARP table is not showing the spoofed MAC. In the "wireless clients" list, the device is also listed with its stock MAC when I force a connection with static IP. This seems to imply that the MAC isn't actually changing, but if that were the case, why is it not connecting?

Is the static lease assigned to the stock MAC or spoof MAC? Does the arp table look the same if you clear the static lease, spoof the MAC on your device again, then reconnect? I don't think your device is building frames correctly after trying to spoof the MAC - if your router receives frames from your device with an incorrect or missing source MAC then it won't know how to talk back. That could explain why you see your device "connect" to the router (when it tries to claim the IP address) but you can't actually pass traffic.

@Mr.Buster The static IP is set on the device when connecting, not on the access point. Since I connect with the spoofed IP, if anything, the frames sent with the stock IP are the ones that should be incorrect, no?

Your router is running DHCP, right? Does your device pass traffic in the "normal" condition: no static IP, stock MAC? What about no static IP, spoofed MAC? Can you spoof your MAC and then successfully connect to a different WAP, again without a static IP? Answering those questions will help tell you if you're looking at a layer 2 or 3 problem. Remember that if layer 2 frames aren't being built correctly then IP addresses don't matter. It's possible, though, that you just forgot to reserve that IP on your router (using a static lease).

As explained in the question, yes, everything works correctly with stock MAC. With a spoofed MAC, I have to set the IP statically on the device to be able to connect, which seems to imply a L2 problem. The part I can't figure out is why I would lose L2 connectivity by changing the MAC before I connect to the network.

After some further investigation, I have noticed that it seems like the Nexus 7 isn't using the spoofed address at all when talking to my AP. I have enabled MAC filtering and only allowed the spoofed address, and then adb logcat shows a CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT...

After much searching, I came across this thread on the xda-developers forum where people seem to be having much of the same issue with a Nexus 4. After trying several of the proposed solutions in that thread, I came across one that worked!
It turns out that Android keeps a permanent record of the MAC in /persist/wifi/.macaddr. For some reason, it insists on using the MAC in that file whenever connecting to a wireless network. If you're on a rooted device, however, you can overwrite it with whatever MAC you want. Interestingly, this change will also persist across reboots!
So, without further ado, here's how you change the MAC permanently on an Android device (substitute 112233445566 with the MAC you want):
computer $ adb shell
android $ su
android # cd /persist/wifi
android # echo -n "112233445566" > .macaddr
android # ^D
android $ ^D
computer $ adb reboot

The .macaddr file does not contain characters. It contains 6 bytes that represent the MAC address. For example, if you want to change the MAC address you need to write the bytes 0x00 0x11 0x22 0x33 0x44 0x55 to the .macaddr file. You can do this in bash using:
echo -e "\x00\x11\x22\x33\x44\x55" > /persist/wifi/.macaddr

That's interesting... On my device, it was necessary to use the ascii representation, not the hex...

don't know why this answer is down voted,  but it works actually, my phone is nexus 4 which is rooted.

Jon's answer about the hidden .macaddr gave me enough hint to temporarily change the mac address on my rooted LG VS450PP (it has Software version of VS450PP1).
The mac address for wlan is hardcoded in a file (make a note of the file's ownership and permission info)
/data/misc/wifi/WCNSS_qcom_wlan_nv.bin

It will be obvious once you do a hexdump.  I scp the file to a regular linux machine and used xxd to generate the hex dump in text, changed the mac address, and generated the new bin file.  You just need to scp it back to the phone and make sure you have the right ownership/permission, disable/re-enable WiFi, and you should be good to go.
If you restart the phone, the change will be reverted.  I haven't figured out how to permanently change the mac.

I don't think your device is actually changing the MAC. Static coding an IP on your router won't do you much good if you don't have L2 connectivity.
I had worked out a way to change the MAC on my 2012 N7 by using busybox and the ifconfig command. Try installing busybox, disconnecting from the WLAN, then running the following as root (substituting your MAC, of course).
busybox ifconfig wlan0 hw ether 00:00:00:00:00:00

busybox iplink show wlan0

Does that work for you?

Using ip link is effectively the same as using ifconfig, so I don't think that's what's doing it...

Still, worth a shot. Worked for me.

Tried it now. Setting the MAC with ifconfig wlan0 hw ether produces the exact same behaviour unfortunately.


text:
Is there a way to see app feedback I've sent on Android?
Yesterday I sent some feedback for an app (Google Hangouts) through Android's system-wide Send Feedback function. This is the same dialog box that is triggered when you choose to report a Force Close. See screenshots below.
I realised later that I had no internet connection at the time, and so the feedback may not have been sent. This made me wonder: is there any way to see every feedback item and crash report that I've sent to specific apps?
For the record, I'm running CyanogenMod 10.1 (Jelly Bean 4.2.2) on an HTC Sensation.

actually this is not the exact same dialog of reporting about crashes, since the bottom part( just above the buttons) isn't there. however, it's a good question and as a developer i didn't even find out how to show it like this, and i've posted about it here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20528809/how-to-show-the-send-feedback-to-x-dialog

It looks like you can't send Google Feedback reports to specific apps (although, as Dan Hulme commented, Google does forward them to the developers of the app on which you are reporting) - as you said, it's a system-wide option. You can visit https://www.google.com/tools/feedback/reports?hl=en to view feedback reports that you have submitted while logged into a certain Google account. However, I have not been able to find anything on viewing crash reports themselves that you or your device have sent, automatically or otherwise.

That's not true: the reports get shown to the developer of the faulty app.

Yes, but you don't send it to them directly or specifically. Google and its Developer Console handle that, as far as I am aware.

No, as of November 16th, 2014, Google has not provided a method of reviewing and/or checking past crash reports. While this may be available in future references, reports are sent solely to development teams.


text:
How do I prevent KitKat from showing two alarm icons in the notification bar?
I have Nexus 5 with KitKat. When I set an alarm with Google Now, I see this:

Why is there two icons? How can I fix this?

I think the one on the right is the icon that shows you have an alarm on (always shows when you have an alarm). The one on the left is a notification and should disappear if you dismiss the notification.

Close. The one on the left shows up when the alarm is close to ring apparently. Thanks!

If you are ROOTED then use tool called "Xposed Framework"
Install it and download module named "Gravitybox KK"
Install and Reboot.
Finally go to Gravitybox KK>> StatusBar Tweaks >> Clock Settings >> There will be an option called "Hide Alarm icon"  (Check it, Done)
Hope it ll help you.

Under settings for the Alarms uncheck "Show Icon"
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3xuk7cmipf98da/Screenshot_2013-12-21-08-25-23.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rs4mx2elwi5npk/Screenshot_2013-12-21-08-25-33.png

This is to enable and disable the icon on the right, not the one on the left.

Question doesn't specify which icon to remove.

Settings - apps - all, select the clock app and uncheck show notifications


text:
How to connect your Nexus phone to a VGA projector?
I would like to connect my Nexus 5 to an external projector or monitor. I know that there is a SlimPort to HDMI adapter (I have it), however, projectors and standard monitors still have VGA (and no HDMI) output.
In addition to the SlimPort HDMI adapter by Analogix, I also bought the deleyCON HDMI to VGA adapter. The problem is that the external displays do not display any content (the SlimPort to HDMI cable is working, though). I also saw an SlimPort to VGA adapter from Analogix, but three customers say that it did not work either; see here for such a case.
Has anyone succeeded in connecting the Nexus 4 or 5 to a VGA display?
I note that How to use an Android phone or tablet to make a projector presentation? also addresses the problem. However, using a HDMI to VGA adapter (mentioned there as a possible solution) is not working. I am not sure if a real HDMI to VGA converter would be working, but they are typically bulky and I am wondering if there is a specific adapter to solve this problem.

This is at best a partial answer, but I believe I have collected some pertinent information. I'm the author of that other question you link to, and my goal is exactly the same as yours: use the Nexus 5 with a projector with VGA input only.
You distinguish between VGA adapter and converter, which is part of what I was asking for in my question, and from the answer I got I thought there is no such distinction. Especially after I noticed that this HDMI-to-VGA product, which in the description claims not to need an extra power supply, actually does have a Micro-USB port to get power, and many customers comment that it only works with extra power, I assumed that the difference is a matter of marketing. In the (German) product description it says at some point "Adapter" and at another point "Konverterkabel" (converter cable). I still don't know whether there is such a difference. If there is, I'd assume that an "adapter" merely makes an analog signal which is somehow hidden (?) in the HDMI available, while a "converter" actually contains D/A circuitry.
I had a look at the "SlimPort to VGA adapter" from Analogix but didn't buy it for the same reason you give; moreover, the description mentions "LG G2" and "LG Optimus G Pro", but not the Nexus 5. The Analogix website also shows an "HDMI/VGA Combo Adapter", which appears not be for sale yet. I sent an Email to Analogix requesting clarification, but they did not reply.
In the end I decided to buy the "HDMI Adapter" from Analogix and the HDMI-to-VGA thingy linked to above. The first works perfectly, but the second doesn't work at all, at least not in combination with the first. I tested it using a projector and two different monitors, and in all cases there wasn't even a sign that a signal was received – with or without extra power. I'll send it back, but I don't know which other product to try next.
A possible explanation why it doesn't work would be that the native resolution of the Nexus 5 of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) is too high for a VGA connection, or for the respective device. Since the Nexus 5 has no HDMI output settings, I used the app "Screen Settings" (needs root!) to change the resolution. This appears to work on the device screen (apparently scaled up again to the screen's size), but doesn't change the fact that VGA output isn't recognized. Strangely, if I connect to a monitor via HDMI, the monitor still reports an 1080p input signal. This might be a quirk of my monitor, but it might also indicate that the changed resolution only affects the software side but not the signal. I'm not sure whether HDMI supports arbitrary resolutions, but I think there should be at least 1080p and 720p.
Another possible explanation is that the HDMI output is "protected" by HDCP, and a "legal" HDMI-to-VGA converter won't simply strip the HDCP, thus just disabling output for an encrypted input. According to this thread on xda-developers, HDCP is activated by default and for all content on the Nexus 10, and the only way around it is to install a custom ROM. I suppose the same holds for the Nexus 5.
I made a post on Google's product forums about this, the chances for getting an answer might be slightly larger if more people favorite this and/or chime in.

Some additional information:
– CM11 allows to disable HDCP for HDMI output, but still many HDMI-to-VGA products don't work, so this does no longer appear to be a main obstacle.
– With CM11 on Nexus 5 on the one side and my Eizo FS2333, I tested six different "adapters" and "converters", and found that only one worked, namely the rather bulky Ligawo 6526619. I did not find any advertised features of these products that would have allowed to foretell whether one was going to work or not.
– CM11 on Nexus 5 does not provide any options to change the output signal resolution.
– "Screen resolution" apps do not allow to change the output signal resolution either, but only the "software resolution" – at least on Nexus 5 / CM11. If I set the resolution e.g. to 800x600, I get a 1080p signal in which the now lores screen content is scaled up. If a beamer or other presentation device cannot handle this signal resolution, the only solution is to buy extra expensive hardware that not just converts HDMI to VGA, but also scales down.

Hi, sure let's stay in touch! I did exactly the same as you: Write to Analogix and ask whether it works for the Nexus 5 -- and also did not receive an answer. Given your experience with the Analogix HDMI to VGA adapter, it's clear why they refuse to answer -- the device is not working (as in fact several people have reported on Amazon). This is sad. To me (as a standard user), the short answer at the moment is: HDMI works, but VGA doesn't. All projectors I know from conferences, lecture rooms etc. provide VGA cables, but not HDMI... so it is not (easily) possible to connect the Nexus 5 now.

Thanks for supporting my post on the Google product forums, but I don't expect this to help – Google is great in ignoring customers. I've decided to give up for now. My feeling is that the HDCP answer is the correct one, so I'll give it another try as soon as Cyanogenmod 11 has a stable release for the Nexus 5, where hopefully HDCP can be switched off. The only alternative I see is to buy an HDFURY converter which strips encryption, but at $99 its a bit too pricey for my taste.

If you collect any more information or manage to make this work, please update this question or write an answer! I'll do the same.

Yes, I'll update if I find anything. Please let me know, too, if you figure out a solution. I completely agree with your comment about Google. I reported more than 10 (real) bugfixes now, but they were acted upon.

@MariusHofert, I updated my answer with some new information, but forgot to notify you back then.


text:
Pause download on Google Play Store
I'm a Nexus 4 user. I tried to download Injustice from Google Play Store last night and it got cancelled a couple of times due to poor speed of my connection. Is there a way to pause the download so that I could later complete the download?

There is no direct switch to do so. As @r4d1um says, you may deactivate your data, and once you want to resume, restart your data and the store will start download from where you had left off.

You may deactivate your mobile data, activate again when the download has stopped and set Google Play for not updating Apps automatically then you can set this option again when youre connected through wifi again or set that Apps can be updated via WiFi only.

Thanks that was useful. But is there a way that i could  resume download if it got cancelled or automatically pause the download when it gets a networ error....??

There is no direct switch to do so.

Custom ROMs like "Liquid Smooth" allow pausing and resuming explicitly.
I have tried it personally, I had Nexus 4. Google Play downloads are managed by media download manager, so they've added pause/resume functionality to that.

How do these ROMs add features to the Play Store?

I  have tried personally, I  had nexus 4 b4, now broken. Google play downloads are managed by media download manager, so they've added pause resume functionality to that.


text:
Cannot see installed user certificate
I have installed 2 user certificates to be used for wifi but when connecting the certificate is not showing up in the drop down . The CA certificate is showing though .

I am having the same problem. Did you find a solution? On my phone, it just randomly stops showing in the dropdown, and I have to re-install it and it disappears again in a few daus/hours...


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Message (SMS) contain text from other messages in Android
Has anyone experienced this issue where the content of an SMS is not complete and some other content (from different message) is added to that at the end.
I have experienced this problem many times. And now, when I am receiving tweets as SMS via Twitter functionality, I can see this problem occurring very frequently.
Below are the H/w and S/w details, if it helps.
OS: Android 4.0.3
Made: HTC One X (AT&T)
Let me know if more info is required.

Tweets as SMS is due to your request to Twitter to send them as sms to your phone number. Make sure that option is disabled here

I do not want to turn the tweets as sms function. The problem is that one sms contains the text from other sms as well.


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Re-install Google Play after it was removed / uninstalled
I have deleted Google Play from my HTC One X Plus. I have also deleted Google Play from system/app. After that, I re-installed it, but it didn't work. Whenever I ppb it, it says Google play stoped working.
How do I re-install Google Play? My device is rooted.

Re-flashing the GApps package fitting for your Android version should fix it. You can find them at goo.im. Make sure the archive you pick is for your Android version; according to the tag you've used, it should be gapps-jb-*.