samsung galaxy s 3 - When I send or receive a call, the person on the other side can't hear me

When I make a phone call, people on the other tell me that my sound is like I am speaking in a huge water pot or something like a pot.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3.

What is the offical name of the third on-screen button?

I am searching for the official name of the third (right) android on-screen button.

The left and middle button are clear:

• Left: Back button


• Middle: Home button


• Right: ???

Android 1 - 4.4 Android 5.0 - ?

Please include a reference where the name of the third/right button is stated in your answer.

Answer

It's called Overview button. I originally came to know about this from the Screen Pinning settings' description.

Google on Get around on your device (see Get around with navigation buttons) has noted:

Overview: Opens a list of thumbnail images of apps and Chrome tabs you’ve worked with recently. To open an app, touch it. To remove a thumbnail from the list, swipe it left or right.

• 
  

  It looks like this

  
  

  

  
  


• 
  

  If your device is running Android 4.4 or lower, your Overview button looks like this

  
  

  

  
  

Something is secretly eating up my Acer Iconia A500 internal memory and I need help finding it

I've been a happy owner of an Acer Iconia A500 for a bit over a year now but a couple of weeks ago it started to complain about its internal memory being full. I was a bit surprised as I keep movies, and such on the external SD card but I assumed is was some browser cache, Maps or so which had eaten up a fair chunk of the 32G memory it has internally.

However, that doesn't seem to be the case. I have cleared the data of almost every single App I have installed but still if I look at the Storage tab of the settings I see the following (a couple of hours ago):

I get the feeling that the rightmost grey part of the bar should be a bit more than 379MB(the Available part)... (SD Card at the bottom of the picture is the external one, never mind that one).

I've tried almost every disk usage app available out there and they all show similar results, the following is DiskView (picture taken after I removed a few apps):

(in this picture "SD Card" is the internal one...)

One thing all the disk usage apps seems to have in common is that unless the device is rooted, they cannot see what is in some directories (like /data) which makes me think it is either Android itself (4.0.3 on this device) which has some kind of cache which is misbehaving or that some process is producing extreme amounts of logs somewhere.

Sorry for this long intro, but the basic question is: How do I proceed?

I guess one alternative is to find what is worth backing up and do a factory reset or something but I wold really like to find out what happened first.

Rooting it is an alternative which would probably help me find out more but I sort of like it as it is (except for this issue). If it is needed to resolve it I could of course do it but it feels like you shouldn't have to with an appliance like this.

Is there another way forward? I have this naive hope that there is a button somewhere I haven't seen that clears all logs or reduce the log level from debug to info.

Edit: One thing I've been considering but cannot investigate is if it could be cores. I've had a lot of crashes lately (presumably because it has been running low on disk).
In response to Izzy's comment below. Apps adds up to more or less exactly the 700MB listed as "Apps" (seems to be the total of data and the apps themselves).

Answer

This looks like the Acer GPS-log leak we had on an Acer Iconia A200:

The bottom line is that when the GPS is used, the GPS driver for ICS 4.0.3 on the Acer A-series tablets apparently writes numerous gl-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.txt files into the /data/gps directory. The files are apparently not automatically deleted, and so over time will consume most of the internal storage space.

Users can not delete these files without root access. However, there is a patch to clear the GPS log data (no root access needed, so no warranty voided).

• download the patch from the Acer drivers site (to your desktop)


• unzip and copy the contained Update.zip from it to an empty, FAT32 formatted microSD card. (We uploaded it to an already present card in the connected tablet, which wasn't empty, but it still worked.)


• (Re)start the tablet with the microSD card in it, while holding the “Volume Down” key until a message appears in the upper left corner of the screen.
  (Something like Erasing cache before SD update...; I interpret this message as: "erase and update", so it should cure the symptom and the cause.)
  The tablet will continue to start up afterwards (less than a minute), and you will be good to go.

There is a nice .pdf in the download, describing the above steps in detail with (screen)shots. (It also talks about an accompanying user_cleanGPSlog text file, but we didn't have it and did not seem to need it.)

Where can I find the Xposed Framework for Nougat and Oreo?

I have a OnePlus 5 running stock Android 7.1.1. I'm planning to upgrade to 8.0 when it's available.

However I'm a huge Xposed fan and I use a lot of modules, so the availability of Xposed Framework is a great concern to me.

applications - Why are some apps hidden and how to unhide them

For example, on my Galaxy Tab 7.7 Plus (SC-01E) running Android ICS, the Phone app APK is installed but does not show up in my app drawer.

It will actually show up if it is called by a widget, but there is no launched icon for it anywhere. In the system settings it shows as running.

This tablet is not rooted but I did buy it off from Yahoo! auction.

Answer

Android has many apps that run either in background (such as Accuweather daemon) or only appear as widgets (for example TypoClock). Since these two apps don't need the user to open them from the launcher, they don't add an icon to it.

The same happens with Live Wallpapers. If you use a root explorer or another root app that will let you see all the installed apps, you will see that the list is higher than the apps that appear in the launcher.

applications - How to use two whatsapp accounts on one phone

I have a Samsung galaxy Duos and want to use my two whatsapp accounts at the same device. Is it for example possible to run dual two whatsapp client apps on one phone?

notifications - Red Star And Green Cross Icons?

This question already has answers here:

Closed 7 years ago.

Possible Duplicate:
Is this red star icon malware? How to get rid of it?

I have a Motorola Defy and in the notifications bar I am always getting red stars and bright green crosses. The Red Star is advertising 'dating' and 'meet hot couples' and the green cross is advertising 'get free apps now' 'win an ipad' and stupid things like that. The apps I have on my phone are Wheres my water, a flashlight map my run, picsart and two live wallpapes i got for free. Please help me get rid of these.

touchscreen - Semi-Dead Zone on Touch Screen On Droid 1

I'm on a Droid 1 running the latest build of GPA (15) and have recently had problems with my touch screen.

This issue started long after GPA15 was flashed, so I'm not blaming the ROM at all. It actually appears to be a hardware issue.

Here is the actual issue. When held portrait with the home/options/back buttons at the bottom, about an inch or so up from those buttons there is a "dead" strip that runs horizontally across the entire touch screen. Of course, the keyboard pops up under this strip.

So what do I mean by dead? Well, sometimes choosing an option/box/item that's in this zone, flat out isn't being registered. When typing, it actually causes the touch detection to go haywire. When I tap a key, it usually registers me tapping that key AND one or two of the surrounding keys. Sometimes it doesn't register the intended key just the surround keys.

So, pressing i might return i, might return ui, might return iu, might return u. This behavior happens with most of the keyboard and is incredibly frustrating.

On very rare occasions when I press a letter, it also registers me pressing a key on the completely otherside of the keyboard. The worst example of this is when i hit backspace and it's also registering 'c' and/or 'v' with the click.

As to further demonstrate the issue, I downloaded a drawing app (Draw! if any one's curious) and drew a bunch of lines. It works perfectly when drawing straight lines (well, I'm human so they aren't PERFECTLY straight) up and down, and left and right on the screen.. except when I get to the deadzone. When I'm drawing down (perpendicular) through the dead zone, it works fine with no abnormalities.

But when I draw in a parallel (left to right) direction, when i'm inside the zone it basically draws my straight line has harsh zig-zag lines (ever seen a heart rate monitor?). Additionally some spots in the zone won't be drawn on at all.

Another note to further show that it's a consistent hardware issue: this zone stays in the same place, no matter if I'm holding it portrait or landscape. I'm forced to type on my phone with it being held upside down so the deadzone doesn't go through my keyboard.

I know (well, pretty certain) this is a hardware issue and there's probably no real solution for this phone. But is there any documentation, known issues, reasoning behind this issue? It just started recently and I've had this phone (it's a 'like-new' replacement) for just over a year now.

Should I just bite the bullet and pay for the upgrade to Droid 3 next week?

applications - Wiping dalvik cache - Dalvik cache of uninstalled apps

I just came across the folder dalvik-cache having size of about 750MB.

I searched for dalvik cache on google, and came to know that it is builded during boot up, and wiping this will make the next boot slower.

So whether wiping dalvik cache is not at all useful?

My doubt is that whether Dalvik cache has some files related to only the uninstalled apps?

If so, how we can find that files?

Or Dalvik cache components get deleted when we uninstall an app?

EDIT: My phone is rooted.

Answer

Thanks @RossC and @filoxo for your comments.

Adding these as answer:

If you are rooted there is an option in Titanium Backup Pro to remove anything from the Dalvik Cache not linked to an app. This orphan data suggests that data may remain in the cache after the app is no longer using it or even uninstalled.

There's also nothing wrong with periodically wiping your device's Dalvik cache using a custom recover like TWRP. It might take a little bit longer to start up some apps, but that would be almost unnoticeable on most modern devices.

camera - How can I make my photos automatically geo-tagged?

Is there a way I can make photos taken by Camera be automatically and reliably geo-tagged, so that the location is recognised when I upload them to Flickr?

I have 'GPS' enabled in the camera, but it seems that if the GPS is not enabled or not 'ready', it isn't recorded (when I check the photo's details in Gallery, the location is 'Unknown').

Alternatively, is there a way I can geo-tag a photo after I've taken it? (edit: made this a separate question)

If it's relevant, my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S.

Answer

As long as you have GPS switched on on your phone (on a Galaxy S the easiest way to do this is from the buttons that appear when you pull the notification bar down from the top of the screen) and have GPS switched on in the camera, you should see the "satellite receiver" GPS icon appear and start flashing when you open the camera app. As long as you see this then your phone is trying to geo-tag your pictures.

Be aware that even in the best of conditions your phone can take 30 seconds or more to get a decent GPS position locked, so wait a bit after you open the camera app before you take the picture.

You can also speed up the GPS lock by making sure that you have the assisted GPS features switched on, see this previous question for details on how to switch those features on.

adb - Wondering if i can debloat some google apps from unrooted lg phone for my father?

My father being older does not want to modify his phone, however he has a LG L70 and no sd card, and doesn't use some unnecessary Google apps, such as play, books, and whatever else. My question is can i boot it into fastboot and run a custom written shell script(i run linux ubuntu), which would run something like fastboot oem append-cmdline "androidboot.unlocked_kernel=true"? Which i found on amazon fire 5.1.1 thread on xda-developers forums, then fasboot continue, and in turn, at least on the fire, allows to access the adb shell as root without running su. Then from there run adb shell "pm uninstall {app_name}"?

4.1 jelly bean - What time does Google Play update apps when it is set to auto-update?

I'm not getting on what basis Google Play will update apps when auto-update is enabled.

Is it time-specific, or something else?

wi fi - Is there a way to access the phone filesystem from computer, wireless?

Known solutions:

• 
  

  USB Mass Storage (sadly, mostly deprecated on Android 4, 5, etc.).

  
  


• 
  

  MTP, and I know its benefits (a lot) and its weaknesses (browsing on a MTP drive with Windows Explorer has poor integration of usual features: try to right click on a file on a MTP drive, you don't have the usual UI things like Open with etc.)

  
  
  


• 
  

  Samba

  
  


• 
  

  FTP server solutions (good solution, but 1) how to use this if I'm on the road, with no Wifi router like at home? then I cannot link computer <---> phone? 2) it seems that such an app doesn't offer access to external sd card)

  
  


• 
  

  AirDroid, etc.

  
  

But with all these methods, you don't really have access on your computer to the phone's filesystem like if it was a local folder.

Question:

Isn't there no solution in 2017 that makes it possible to browse the phone's filesystem as if it was a computer local folder, easily?

root access - /system cannot be remounted as RW, even when rooted (Sony Xperia E3)

I rooted my Sony Xperia E3 (D2203) a while ago using Kingroot, which worked flawlessly. Before rooting my device, /system could be accessed, which is how root was installed in the first place.

However after rebooting the phone, I now cannot mount /system as rw, as the kernel mounts it as Read-Only and gives me a Operation not permitted error whenever I try to remount it as rw. Apparently the kernel on Sony devices detects root and mounts /system as Read-Only.

I cannot flash a new recovery as the bootloader is permanently locked.

What can I do to mount /system at startup as rw, or mount /system when the device is online?

A non-destructive method would be great.

Here is the command I'm using to try and mount /system:

mount -o remount,rw /system

Yes, the terminal is in root mode.

Answer

Using Total Commander to remount the / directory as RW also remounted /system as RW.

Howto:

1. Enable Root Functions Everywhere in TC settings.


2. Proceed to add a new button to the toolbar with Function Type Internal Command.


3. Press on the >> button, and select the 119 Remount option.


4. Press OK/Apply


5. Navigate to root (/) directory.


6. Press newly created Remount button and accept any prompts.

Edit: I've found that when I'm using Kingroot to manage root, mounting works correctly. When I migrated over to SuperSU however, I could not remount / or /system as RW. If the above steps don't work for you, Kingroot might be worth a shot.

Another edit: While I do recommend Kingroot as an option to allow access to your /system folder, you should exercise caution with Kingroot, as it is known to gather information about your device. I would save Kingroot to be a last resort, should you cannot find any other method of remounting /system as rw successfully.

"Local calendar cannot sync with Google calendar..." but it can? What?

On my totally stock Bell Samsung Galaxy S2 I have my main GMail account synced to it, it is also synced to my iPod using Exchange ActiveSync.

My phone's default calendar has all the events from my Google Calendar that I had been organizing and creating events from my iPod calendar with. However, when I create a new event I get this error. I tried going to the Account and Sync settings, then syncing the calendar, but the wheel stops spinning after a little bit, then just disappears and the problem remains.

I tried creating a test event, then checking Google Calendar on the website from my laptop and the event was there. Even today, I made an event on the phone and it's on the web page. In fact, I just corrected the time of the event from the web page and the change was reflected almost instantly on my phone.

I tried unchecking the account sync and then deleting local calendar data, then rebooting and resyncing. But the problem persists.

What's wrong? Is there anything I can do? (besides factory reset please!) Or should I just check the "Do not show again" box? Or would that cause a problem later on?

As a side note Samsung Kies popped up first saying it couldn't sync, but I couldn't care less about that since I only made a Samsung account for the find my phone feature and the developer stuff.

Answer

If you go into the Calendar app and press the Menu button, then select Settings you should see an options at the top for Calendars this should show all of the individual calendars on your device that are being merged together into the Calendar displayed.

The top one is probably My Calendar then below that should be an entry for your GMail calendar, then maybe Facebook, or Contacts' Birthdays, and any other calendars you may have access to. The My Calendar calendar is purely held locally on the phone, it doesn't sync to GMail at all.

If you don't want to use that, then take the tick out to stop showing it as it sounds like you'd rather have everything syncing to the GMail calendar. Next time you create a new appointment in your calendar scroll down the Create screen to where it says Calendar with a right poiting arrow, select that to make sure that it is saving to your GMail calendar. If so, then you can safely tick the "Do not show again" box on your warning, as you don't care about the phone's local calendar you're saving straight to your GMail calendar anyway.

system error - Can't use Foursquare because it needs Google Play Services, which "is not supported by your device"

I've installed Foursquare, but it does not start, instead I get the following error:

Google Play Services, which some of your applications rely on, is not supported by your device.

I don't know what does this mean and how can I solve this issue to use the application. I'm using Chinese phone AMOI N 821 android 4.1.1. I live in Russia.

What should I do?

adb - Ota images for nexus 5

I want to update my nexus 5 with an ota image because it freezes after I unlock it with the sign code and I can't access the os.So I want to update my system with adb sideload and an ota image that I download directly from Google to see if the problem will be solved.I don't want to erase my data so my question is:Does a flash of an ota image through adb sideload wipe my data?

browser - How can I flush the DNS Cache?

How can I clear my DNS cache on my android phone? (Droid3, Gingerbread, rooted to be specific)

Ideally I'm looking for a command to run through a terminal emulator, something similar to

ipconfig /flushdns

On a windows machine.

What's the Linux version of this?

Answer

On a typical Linux system the cache is cleared by running /etc/init.d/nscd restart, but at least my ROM doesn't use nscd to cache DNS. You can check if yours does, but I doubt it. I've seen suggestions that clearing the brower cache would clear DNS cache too, but one sure way is to do a hard reboot (shutdown, remove battery for 30s, reattach battery and boot).

2.2 froyo - How to reset Nexus One to Android 2.2.1 or 2.3?

This question already has answers here:

Closed 8 years ago.

Possible Duplicate:

Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I have a Nexus One (with the radios for the AT&T network) which has an old beta version of 2.2 on it. It doesn't receive over the air updates, and I'd like to get it running something more recent.

Where can I find a download for Android 2.2.1 or 2.3? There's a link to an updater on Google's site that's given by numerous blogs but it's always broken. It's kind of bizarre to me that this phone is stuck in an OS limbo since it won't receive updates and there's no place to download the latest.

Send fax directly to or from phone without going through a web-based service?

Is there a way to send or receive faxes directly to/from the phone without routing through a web-based service?

There are times when I've needed to send or receive a document image without going through e-mail or a third-party service. It may be a recipient without an e-mail option for a document I need to submit (e.g., a particular government agency) or it may contain sensitive information that I do not want going through other hands. When I checked the app store, everything I found seemed to involve a web-based service (I could've missed one, though).

With a device that can take images and make phone calls, it seems like a natural extension of the capabilities to be able to communicate with a fax machine directly.

Removing files from & repackaging CyanogenMod ROM zip files

The current CM10 + GApps experience on Motorola Xoom is plagued by the size of the CM10 ROM -- there isn't enough space left after flashing the CM10 zip to fully flash the GApps zip. This results in gtalk force-closing while trying to video chat and some other issues.

I've been following a discussion about this on the XDA development forum for Xoom. Here's someone mentioning that he 'removed' some files from the CM10 ROM zip file to reduce it's size: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34462283#post34462283

Could someone guide me how to do this?
Is it simply unzipping the file, deleting certain files and re-zipping?
or is there more ? (like signing the file)
To remove apps from the ROM, should the .apk file simply be removed or do apps also have associated files that need to be removed as well?

In the same discussion some people talk about moving certain files from the system partition to the data partition? How could this symlinks information be stored in the ROM zip file? or are they talking about creating the symlinks after flashing the zip?

Thanks

Answer

There are multiple solutions available:

Re-Zip the Image

Advantage: You do it once, and can use the resulting image for multiple devices. That's what I did with CM7.2 for my Milestone 2. Easy enough to do:

1. create a temporary (empty) folder


2. unzip the zip file to it


3. remove unwanted *.apk files from /system/apps (be careful of what you remove, of course)


4. zip up the directory contents again

Using a graphical ZIP manager (like WinZip or the like), steps would be even easier:

1. open the zip file with the archive manager


2. remove the unwanted .apk files


3. if the ZIP manager requires it, save the manipulated zip

Manually cleanup after flashing, using the shell

This is what ce4 recommended in the comments. It requires you using a terminal emulator on your device:

1. Flash the image as-is


2. remove superfluous stuff from the system partition by hand (like rm /system/big/junk/example.mp4)

Manually cleanup after flashing, using other tools

Almost the same as the previous method, but a bit more user-friendly. Disadvantage: this won't do for superflous ringtones and the like:

1. Flash the image as-is


2. Use a tool like Titanium Backup or Root Uninstaller to remove unwanted system apps

Couldn't communicate with Google servers

Does anybody know how to fix this error? My Android device is a tablet running 4.4 KitKat. I have Google Play Services but for some reason I still can't login or even add a new account. The app giving the error is Google Account Manager, and this all started when I deleted Chrome.Here is what the problem looks like... Except I don't know how to add images....

applications - How can I tell the Android Market that I'm running an updated version of Android?

This question already has an answer here:

Closed 8 years ago.

Possible Duplicate:
Why are some apps on the market incompatible with my device?

My phone (Orange San Francisco) came with Android 2.1 and has not been officially updated in the UK so I'm now running a nightly beta of Cyanogen 7 (Android 2.3.3) which works pretty well.

I'm trying to install an app from the Android Market that requires 2.2 (Froyo) and up but the Market insists that the app is incompatible with my phone and greys it out in the install dialog box.

Is it possible to either update the Market with my details (couldn't find this option in 'My Market Account' settings) or to spoof another phone/android version so that I can download apps?

adb - Where to find description of all "/system/bin/service" calls?

In one answer I was adviced to use service call phone 2 s16 "$number". It works, but in service list I see other useful things I don't know how to use and can't easily find the information on the Internet.

I don't see any introspection in service apart from service list to findout myself...

Where to find more complete description of "service" calls and their parameters?

Answer

In Short

Code related to service call command are just the arguments of the function and order at which the function occur in the aidl file of that service.Here is a syntax

service call    

In Detail
I faced a lot of problems to know about it and hence I will share the solution with the help of clipboard service.
First you need to know about the service you are interested in -
For that you need to look for all the service that is there for particular android system by typing

adb shell service list

Here is what you will get -

.
.
.
59  ethernet: [android.net.IEthernetManager]
60  wifip2p: [android.net.wifi.p2p.IWifiP2pManager]
61  rttmanager: [android.net.wifi.IRttManager]
62  wifiscanner: [android.net.wifi.IWifiScanner]
63  wifi: [android.net.wifi.IWifiManager]
64  overlay: [android.content.om.IOverlayManager]

65  netpolicy: [android.net.INetworkPolicyManager]
66  netstats: [android.net.INetworkStatsService]
67  network_score: [android.net.INetworkScoreService]
68  textservices: [com.android.internal.textservice.ITextServicesManager]
69  network_management: [android.os.INetworkManagementService]
70  clipboard: [android.content.IClipboard]
71  statusbar: [com.android.internal.statusbar.IStatusBarService]
.
.
.

As I am interested in clipboard service, here is how it look

70  clipboard: [android.content.IClipboard]

So from here we can summarise that the service name is clipboard service and the package path is android.content.IClipboard

Then you need to know the complete path where the IClipboard.aidl is.
To know that you need to search on google for IClipboard.aidl.
You need to look for something from android.googlesource.com website in the results, like in my case-

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base.git/+/android-4.2.2_r1/core/java/android/content/IClipboard.aidl

So after +/android-4.2.2_r1 is where your path lies.Let that path be path_of_clipboard.aidl=

/core/java/android/content/IClipboard.aidl

As these service call codes are dependent on the android system, hence you need to know your android os name- In my case it is 8.1.0
So I will go to the following website where google puts there code and select my os version from the left hand side for the page -

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/

In my case it is android-8.1.0_r50.I will click on it and then after that my url will look like this

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/android-8.1.0_r51

And then after adding path_of_clipboard.aidl, my complete url will look like

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/android-8.1.0_r51/core/java/android/content/IClipboard.aidl

Here there will be many methods in the interface.Like in my case

    void setPrimaryClip(in ClipData clip, String callingPackage);
    ClipData getPrimaryClip(String pkg);
    ClipDescription getPrimaryClipDescription(String callingPackage);
    boolean hasPrimaryClip(String callingPackage);
    void addPrimaryClipChangedListener(in IOnPrimaryClipChangedListener listener,
            String callingPackage);
    void removePrimaryClipChangedListener(in IOnPrimaryClipChangedListener listener);

    /**
     * Returns true if the clipboard contains text; false otherwise.
     */
    boolean hasClipboardText(String callingPackage);

So the code for the first method i.e. setPrimaryClip will be 1 as it occured at first place and that for the last method i.e hasClipboardText will be 7 as it occured at seventh place in the aidl file. Similarly for the other methods.
So if I want to call the seventh method I will type

adb shell service call clipboard 7 

As you might have seen that I have not put the callingPackage name as it is not required.

If the method need arguments, then you can pass it like as show in this example.
Let us assume a method whose code is 8 in clipboard and that looks like this -

getDemo(String arg1, int arg2, boolean arg3)

So I will call it like this

adb shell call clipboard 8 s16 "first_argument" i32 12 i32 1

Here i32 stands for 32 bit integer and s16 for the string. We can, even pass boolean value as an integer as shown in the example.
In boolean integer 1 stands for true and 0 for false.

TIP Keep the logcat open(like in android studio) to check for any error that occured while executing that adb command.
Source

localization - Any way to stop ridiculous translations in Google PlayStore?

Most of the translations are nonsense in Google Playstore. Looks stupid, amateurish and most of all they are annoying.

Words by words meaning nothing! My mother language is finnish and Im using finnish keyboard layout/language settings on my devices and not going to change them. I dont want to change my account info nor my language settings to english either.

I just want to see get rid of these stupid autotranslated infos in Playstore.

Most of them are just rubbish "A man has a spruce childish cat and his dock the bank a dog is letting manipulate processor and litter more green guy. Screen broken man shooting wife borrowed a child desktop. AMAZING APP! 95/100 stars!" - that sentence can be anything...

Im quessing im not wrong if I say that 99% means nothing when autotranslated. Only few infos are correct.

I cant believe that you cannot turn off the translation in Playstore!?

hardware - How does Android calculate battery consumption by apps?

How does Android measure energy used by individual hardware component? How does Android measure energy used by each individual process?

Answer

Android tracks events that affect battery usage and stores this information in batterystats.bin file. Some examples:

• length of time screen was on with a specific brithness setting


• which application (or non Android app process) and how long held a wake lock (prevents device from sleeping)


• CPU usage per process (Android app or other process)


• phone signal strength


• GPS usage


• etc.

Android computes how much power each Application or component (e.g. screen) uses based on configuration information included on the device by the manufacturer.

Not everything is measured so the statistics can be sometimes misleading, but it gets better with every Android Platform release.

Battery statistics can be dumped from the device using:

adb shell dumpsys batterystats

Here is interesting fragment of a post by Diane Hackborn with more details about wake locks power consumption:

There are two ways power from wake locks is computed.

1. 
   

   On some chipsets, simply holding a wake lock needs to prevent the CPU from going to a full deep sleep. In the reported battery usage, this extra power use will be distributed across all apps holding wake locks.

   
   


2. 
   
   

   Even if the wake lock itself doesn't cause power use, holding a wake lock in one app can allow other applications to run and CPU when they wouldn't otherwise. (For example, some app may have a { sleep(1); do something; } loop that wouldn't run if no wake locks are held.) To address this, half of the CPU usage of applications is distributed to be blamed on the ones holding wake locks.

   
   

default applications - Does Google+ client come preinstalled on Android phones?

Does Google+ come preinstalled on Android phones? Is having it a mandatory requirement on manufacturers to be certified by Google?

Answer

Google Plus is not shipped typically as an standalone app but a part of the bundle named Google Apps (GAPPS).

The core of the GAPPS package is the famous app named Google Play Services which is accessible directly by the user in the form of Google Settings.

That said, an OEM isn't allowed to ship Google Plus or any part of GAPPS package, without the consent from Google. Google on the Android Compatibility page has stated that:

Licensing Google Mobile Services (GMS)

After building an [Android compatible device], consider licensing Google Mobile Services (GMS), Google’s proprietary suite of apps (Google Play, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and more ) that run on top of Android. GMS is not part of the Android Open Source Project and is available only through a license with Google.

_{(Emphasis mine)}

See also: Android forks: Why Google can rest easy. For now

To get their hands on GMS apps, OEMs need to license them from Google; and in order for a device to get a license for the apps, it must pass the Android Compatibility Test Suite and meet the Android Compatibility Definition.

---

Is having it a mandatory requirement on manufacturers to be certified by Google?

I can't answer this part satisfactorily since I'm restricted to my opinion. However you may take a note on the info in the aforementioned link. It has mentioned that certain OEMs are contractually bound to not to produce non-Android compatible devices so as to avoid Android fragmentation which would be inimical to Google's business. The contract itself isn't released for the public view, so you're possibly on your own.

As for the part why the users are being forced to use or at the least have them in their device, you should consider asking your OEM first! :)

Also see: Why do phone makers not let me uninstall their pre-bundled apps?

---

Edit by Izzy:

^{as Firelord asked me to include it, I'll append it here:}

There's an article on Engadget on the Google Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), which describes some of the background. Simplified, if a manufacturer/OEM wants to include Google Play Store (which most want), they must not only include a bunch of additional Google apps, but also place them on the main homescreen page. So yes, this is "a mandatory requirement on manufacturers to be certified by Google" – not only for Google+.

samsung galaxy s 2 - No mobile signal after installing CyanogenMod

I have a Samsung Galaxy S 2 (GT-I9100) and baseband version I9100XXMS3. As far as I understand from this page it's a UK modem, which is where I am. When using the latest stock Android I was still able to connect to UK and Swiss mobile networks. After installing CyanogenMod 10.1.3-i9100 (but not flashing the modem as far as I know) while in Switzerland I was able to connect to phone networks, but after coming back to the UK I can no longer get a mobile signal anywhere:

1. Go to Settings → Wireless & networks → More... → Mobile networks → Network operators.


2. After some time several network operators are listed. Click "Choose automatically".

At this point, the message "Automatic registration..." displays for about a minute and then it simply says "Can't connect to this network at the moment. Try again later." The mobile signal indicator at the top of the screen stays empty and does not display an "R" for roaming.

In the Android Testing Menu (*#*#4636#*#* → Phone information) "Set preferred network type" setting is set to "WCDMA preferred" (I have no "Network mode" setting on the "Mobile networks" page). I've tried turning radio off and on again.

I have a Toggle Mobile prepaid card with plenty of credit.

Answer

Looks like Toggle Mobile just doesn't work well with my setup. I bought a £2 SIM card from Lycamobile a couple months ago, and it's been working flawlessly with no setup changes. Not much of an answer I'm afraid, but I'd rather lose my remaining Toggle credit than use several more days on this.

Error [DF-SA-01] when downloading application from the play store

Can anybody help me how can I solve this problem. I have tried options of clearing cache data, force stop google paly store/service, removing google account from accounts and reboting device but it didn't work for me.

shell - How to find out currently running user name/ID from ADB

I am having Nexus 7 running multiple users. I am trying to find out which is currently running user using ADB. The best I could get so far was to check legacy directory linking which is either linked to /mnt/shell/emulated/0 or to /mnt/shell/emulated/1.

Is there more efficient way to find out which is currently running user? Also is there a way to find out user name of current user?

Configuring USB tethering manually with root

I've exhausted the documented methods of programmatically enabling USB tethering:

• 
  

  The service method doesn't work on my phone (Samsung Note 4). It seems to be some sort of protected API, and poking it from adb has no effect.

  
  


• 
  

  The shell input method is not applicable, as it requires that the device is unlocked, and there doesn't seem to be a way to programmatically and non-destructively unlock a device locked with a fingerprint.

  
  

So, I'm looking into achieving this goal "the hard way", i.e. do everything that the Android userspace does when you tap the USB tether checkbox.

As far as I can tell, this involves the following steps (most of which would be similar to how you'd do it on a Linux machine):

1. 
   

   Establish an IP connection to the host computer through USB. This involves putting USB in rndis mode, setting up routes, assigning an IP, etc.

   
   

   I've already figured out how to achieve this and posted the answer here.

   
   


2. 
   

   Launch a dnsmasq instance, to assign an IP to the connected PC via DHCP, and forward DNS requests.

   
   

   This step shouldn't be necessary if you don't need DNS server detection and assign static IPs on the USB interfaces yourself.

   
   
   


3. 
   

   Enable IP forwarding (/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward).

   
   


4. 
   

   Set up iptables to enable forwarding/masquerading.

   
   


5. 
   

   Update routing tables for traffic accounting.

   
   

I managed to write a bunch of scripts which replicate exactly the visible effects (described above) as performed by the Android OS when enabling USB tethering through its UI. To create the scripts, I recorded the system state (iptables -S, ip route show table all) with and without tethering, then converted the differences into shell commands to apply the changes to the system. However, my replicas are still not enough; some part of the system remains unconfigured which prevents traffic from going through.

Does anyone have a clue as to what I might be missing, or how I can narrow down / debug the problem?

Answer

A buddy let me know that there is more than one sysctl setting for forwarding (a global one and one per interface, then more for IPv6).

On my phone, the relevant settings are:

vars=(
    net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects=0
    net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding=1

    net.ipv4.conf.ip6tnl0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.lo.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.p2p0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet1.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet2.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet3.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rmnet4.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.rndis0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.conf.sit0.forwarding=1

    net.ipv4.conf.wlan0.forwarding=1
    net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
    net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.all.proxy_ndp=2
    net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.ip6tnl0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.lo.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.p2p0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet1.forwarding=2

    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet2.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet3.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rmnet4.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.rndis0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.sit0.forwarding=2
    net.ipv6.conf.wlan0.forwarding=2
) ; sysctl "${vars[@]}"

With these and the other ones, forwarding and tethering works!

rom flashing - Nexus 7 stuck on google's logo after flashed the building of AOSP

This is my first time to flash the AOSP build on the device. I just followed Google's instructions to download and build the Android source code. Since I have a Nexus 7 (2013), so I chose the target to "aosp_flo-userdebug" before starting to build. Then I ran "make" to build, and the building was successful.

After that I rebooted the device and went into the bootloader, flashed the device by the command:

$ fastboot -w flashall

The flash succeeded. Then after the device rebooted, it just got stuck on the Google's logo screen and never continued. If I flash it back to the factory image, it can continue booting. So I think maybe there are some mistakes I made during the building or flashing that causes the problem. But I don't know how to find the problem.

I also tried to flash only system.img by:

$ fastboot flash system system.img

But it's still the same result. Hope someone can give me some suggestions. Thanks.

PS: the build version is 5.1

Answer

Thanks to @Tamoghna Chowdhury for linking this to a similar question i had posted. I had similar issues and struggled with it for a while. You need to check some things. Did you flash the device specific binaries ?

In my case there was a version mismatch with the device specific binary and the device. FLO should always have FLO binaries. Otherwise it wont start. Check this post

https://code.google.com/p/aosp4nexus5/wiki/AOSPforNexus5#Automatic_Installatin_of_GApps

I did this long ago, so I don't remember exact step i had take, If you post details of what you have done, maybe i'll remember something.

EDIT :Updating answer based on below comment from OP

Use the second link you mentioned https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/drivers#flolrx22g

Your device is flo. That is the first step. Now, your AOSP build should match with the binaries version. So you cant use 5.1.51 along with binaries of version LMY48G since that is for 5.1.1 . SO checkout AOSP with the same version, i.e 5.1.1 in your case and build again with the LMY48G binaries. I remember i had the same issue but with version 5.0.1 i.e LRX22G. It worked when i checkedout an older source code.

I dont know why this happens, ideally any new version should work. Perhaps another quirks of android. I did not update android later on when the tablet booted correctly. Too big a risk to take :)

gboard - Switch Keyboard Automatically

I am using Nexus 10 with android 5.0.1

I recently purchased a bluetooth keyboard to go along with the tablet. The keyboard I was using (soft) beforehand was O Beta keyboard, which does not function very well with bluetooth hard keyboard.

Is it possible to switch keyboard to the Google Keyboard automatically when the physical keyboard is paired and revert to O Beta keyboard when I don't use the physical keyboard anymore?

Answer

The free Android automation app Automate can change the input method (soft keyboard) using its Input method set building block. But changing input method will require a rooted device.

How to block ads in Android applications?

Are there ways that attempt to block ads in applications? It seems that it should be theoretically possible, by blocking web requests to certain sites, for example.

Answer

The most popular method is replacing the built-in hosts files with one that forces DNS queries to well-known ad servers to result in 127.0.0.1 (localhost). This effectively blocks most common ads, and most of the Google Ads in applications.

The downside is that applications can tell that ads are being blocked, and can either refuse to run or otherwise degrade their usefulness while the ad blocking is in effect.

Also, root access is required to replace the hosts file.

Beyond that, I haven't seen anything that can selectively block web requests for arbitrary apps. For some programs that only use internet access for ads, you could use a firewall app to prevent them from accessing the internet or -- if your ROM supports it (like the latest CyanogenMod) -- revoke the internet access permission from the app.

Again, root access is generally required to set up a system-wide app-level firewall or replace your ROM.

external sd - How to partition SD card in HTC One X?

I was trying to create ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions on the SD card. I tried ClockworkMod recovery and it didn't work. Nothing seems to have happened.

I also tried using MiniTool and that also failed. I tried both Disk Utility and GParted in Ubuntu and it still didn't work. For MiniTool, Disk Utility, and GParted, after I finished partitioning the partitions showed up on the computer OK, but when USB's disconnected the One X says that the SD card's corrupted.

Has anybody done this? Or is there some other way to solve this?

Or maybe it's not possible because the SD card is built-in?

Thanks!

---

After some more playing around, it seems that the problem might be something related to a partition table.

When there's no partition table, it works fine, but after I add a partition table it seems that the phone can't recognize the SD card anymore.

Answer

I think this post provides some information about it. It also seems to be consistent with what I've tried.

Instead of partitioning the SD card, mounting an .img with a ext4 filesystem is a simple workaround.

Bluetooth keeps getting turned on

This question already has answers here:

Closed 3 years ago.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 with Android 5.0 and since about 2 weeks or so my Bluetooth keeps getting turned on.

Until now I only used Bluetooth for connecting with my Bluetooth speakers.

I already tried: rebooting the phone and checking for viruses with Kaspersky Mobile.

Maybe there's an app that shows me all apps that have the permission to turn on Bluetooth so that I can deinstall those to see if that helps? Or any idea what the issue could be here?

Answer

The solution was to deinstall FireChat.

lock screens - changing the "hi galaxy" phrase. is it even possible?

Every once in a while, my note 3 wakes up on its own thinking somebody said "Hi Galaxy" and gets itself into the listening mode to start capturing what it hears from that moment on, then submits to Google for a search!

Boy! I had a few situations and eventually I had to turn off that awesome feature.

Is there a way to change this "hi galaxy" phrase to something less likely to be confused?
Can I personalize it?

Something like "ok Samsung, wake up now!" or "ok note 3, wake up now" etc... the longer the phrase, the less likelyhood for an unintentional match, I assume.

Also, being able to personalize this phrase will prevent other people's getting your way... Imagine, the guy in the bus says "Hi galaxy" to his phone and all the galaxy devices in the bus within reach wakes up. LOL!

Answer

Open the S Voice app, and open its settings. You should be able to change it via Set wake-up command.

Here's the setting from my Samsung Galaxy S4:

ads - Is it possible to know if an app has advertisements by analyzing permissions?

Or if not, how to see if an app has advertisements or not?

adb - Why do Linux commands not work properly on Android?

> adb shell
sh-4.1$ ls -F
-F: No such file or directory

-F switch works fine on my Ubuntu.

Why doesn't it work on Android? Is there a way to make it work?

Answer

Most shell commands in Android are not GNU versions or a POSIX-compliant implementation, they are either from Toolbox or Busybox and mostly stripped down versions.

A lot of commands in /system/bin are symlinks to /system/toolbox. I haven't found much documentation about it, just the source at https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/jb-mr1-release/toolbox/

Busybox is another implementation of several common shell commands, with more commands and features than the default Toolbox. It's used on other embedded systems too, and some bootable GNU/Linux CDs, so you may already be familiar with it. Because it's open-source, there are several installers available on Google Play: just search for "Busybox".

How can I do development on my Android device?

I have a pretty long commute to work and own an android phone. I figure it would be nice to do some simple programming on the way. I'm not picky on which language to code on. I usually have an internet connection on the train.

I've been looking through the android market but haven't found any apps that offer a "development environment" or an editor with a compiler. Is any development ON the Android possible? Does an app for this exist?

Answer

Two years on: I use AIDE, their brief summary of features states:

Edit-compile-run cycle:

• Create a sample App with a single click


• Run your App with a single click


• No root access required



• Incremental compilation for fast build times


• Uses Eclipse .classpath project format for compatibility


• Integrated LogCat viewer

Real-time error checking:

• Real time error analyis throughout the whole project as you type


• Automatic Quick-Fixes for many errors

Refactoring:

• Rename


• Inline variable


• Introduce variable


• Extract method

Code:

• Code formatter


• Organize imports



• Out-comment code


• Create setters/getters/constructors from fields

Code navigation:

• Goto defintion


• Find usages


• Goto symbol


• Goto class

Editor:

• Very fast editor even with large files


• Code completion for Java and Android XML


• Android online help directly from the code


• Syntax highlighting for Java and XML


• Unlimited Undo/Redo


• Pinch zoom


• Smart expand selection


• Keyboard support with configurable keybindings



• UI optimized for small screens to show as much code/content as possible

Filebrowser:

• Built-in file manager with the most common features: Rename, delete, create file or folder


• Dropbox integration


• Git integration with Commit/Dicard/Push/Pull and SSH support.

encryption - Decrypt my Micro SD Card

I have been looking every where for an answer to this. I had a Razor MAX with an encrypted card in it. Well I dropped that phone and it died on the spot. I now have a SG3 and the micro sd card works fine but the files that were encrypted are still that way and I can't open them. Any ideas on how to decrypt just those files??

6.0 marshmallow - My adoptable storage is full. How can I move the data to a bigger MicroSD card?

I've got a Moto G 2014 LTE running CM13. When I found out about the whole 'adopt SD card as internal storage' thing, I was quite excited, as the actual internal storage on this phone is tiny. I set up a 16gb micro SD, the biggest I had at the time, and have been using it with minimal problems.

Fast-forward to this day, and I now have a 64gb micro SD that I want to use instead of the 16gb one. However, I'm at a loss as to the best way to copy the data over onto the new one, or if it's even possible. The ideas I've got so far include:

• Titanium Backup all [system] apps, factory reset, format new SD and then restore (should work, but a massive pain)


• NANDroid the SD card onto a USB OTG stick, then restore to the new one (pretty sure this is a bad idea and won't work, but...)


• Copy all the stuff onto my computer via my phone through a file manager of some sort (I have a linux/linux/windows triple boot, so file format isn't a problem), format the new SD into phone, and copy back (can't be that simple, can it? Hidden/inaccessible files?)



• Copy the files onto USB OTG with a root file explorer app, reformat the SD as portable, format the new one as adopted, and then copy them back (could work, except for the point below)


• Format the 64gb SD card as internal through an OTG card reader with the command adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true, use a root browser to copy all the data over from the old SD, format the old SD as external and remove it, and take the new SD and put it in the SD card slot (seems overly complicated, and also suffers the below pitfall)

The other thing that worries me is mount points: will the apps with externally-stored data know to look at the new SD card for it? Will I have to remount it in a specific location with the shell each boot (or use an init.d script perhaps)? I suppose that it can always be accessed through /sdcard or /storage/emulated/0, but I'm not 100% sure what goes on behind the scenes.

I've got recent NANDroid backups, so if anyone can eliminate the options that definitely won't work (or say which one[s] probably will), I can try them and report back in case someone stumbles across this question in the future.

EDIT: So, my phone further bit the dust and got to the point where it got into a pretty major bootloop. Ended up having to flash a whole new ROM. As such, I probably won't be able to test the full image/decryption/etc. method that I was originally planning. However, I will write up what I've discovered so far in case anyone wants to take up this particular method in the future:

1. Image the old SD with dd as follows: sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=~/SDCardBackup.img, where /dev/mmcblk0 is the location of the sd card as obtainable through lsblk


2. Restore the image you just made to the NEW sd card : sudo dd bs=4M if=~/SDCardBackup.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 (you may have to unmount it first)


3. From here on in, I was following this (thanks @beeshyams!) tutorial, which explains the next steps way better than I ever could have done. The plan was to decrypt the storage and resize the main partition with gparted. I had no idea whether it would work or not, but I felt it was worth a try. However, when I came to run the actual decryption command using the key I'd extracted, I got an error (which I believe was my shoddy linux skills more than anything).

As I say, I have no idea if the above method would work or not even if everything did go to plan. Also, feel free to correct any of my commands above if I mis-typed them (I'm on Windows currently, so this is all from memory.) If this info helps anyone, then good. But until then, @faidherbard's comment should work fine.

Thanks, Jackdafish

Answer

Having a similar issue, I read through the comments to your question and ended up doing the following based on a hint suggested by Barleyman:

• Go to Settings > Storage & USB › Internal Storage, click on "Migrate data" to move your data back to internal

In case you do not have enough space left on internal to move everything back (which was my case), here are some additionnal steps:

1. Connect the phone to a PC via USB and back-up the contents of the old "adopted" SD Card


2. Manually delete enough data from the old SD Card to be able to do the move: typically pictures and videos that you can easily restore afterwards


3. Click on "Migrate data" in Settings > Storage & USB › Internal Storage


4. Check that the old "adopted" SD Card is now empty (or even format it back to "Portable") then eject it


5. Insert the new SD Card and set it up as "Internal storage" and agree to move the data to it


6. Eventually reconnect the phone to the PC via USB to restore manually deleted data

---

Reference: Answer to "How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+?":

2. You can reverse the process by opening "internal storage" from storage settings and there's "migrate data" that will copy everything back to internal nvram.

Nougat: How to use Full Disk Encryption instead of File Based Encryption?

Nougat comes with File Based Encryption (FBE) and Direct Boot.

I would like to return to Full Disk Encryption (FDE) instead (or in addition to FBE) and make sure the data partition is fully encrypted when the phone is turned off.

For security reasons, I actually want the phone to be a complete brick until I type-in the Full Disk Encryption password.

This should be possible since my Nexus 5x (upgrade from Marshmallow to Nougat) could do this.

I expect this to involve a factory reset and maybe even rooting, and I'm fine with that.

My reason is that File Based Encryption is inherently much less secure since it gives a choice to app developers what to encrypt and what not. Sooner or later people will store sensitive data unencrypted (for "user experience" reasons), because it's now possible.

I am aware of this question, but the author seemed confused whether his device is encrypted or not, and it doesn't answer how to use FDE instead of FBE.

So, how to use Full Disk Encryption instead of File Based Encryption?

permissions - Check if app uses in-app purchase

What is the easiest way to check whether an app uses in-app purchase? Is there a mark in the Play store or a permission to look for after I installed the app?

Answer

There is a special permission for Google Billing (technical name: com.android.vending.BILLING), which is required if the app wants to use Google's billing system. So if this permission is requested by an app, it most likely uses some in-app-payment (why else should it request this permission).

However: the absence of this permission does not necessarily mean there is no in-app-payment used with an app, as there are other means of accomplishing the like (e.g. premium SMS, or calls to some premium numbers). But if an app requests neither to send SMS, make calls, access the Internet, nor Google Billing, I know of no way it could accomplish in-app-billing without the user really actively doing something, like buying a gift-card and entering the code.

backup - What does Settings->Privacy Settings->Back up my data do?

I'm Running 2.3 Gingerbread. There is a setting Settings->Privacy Settings->Back up my data

If checked, what data does this back up? Where is it backed up? How do I restore it?

Answer

This setting backs your data up to Google's magic cloud. It includes what apps you have installed, and some apps' settings (if they are written to take advantage of it) which are restored when you first sign in to a new phone.

Relevant quote from the Android 2.3 user guide, pg 18:

You can choose to back up some of your data, such as your bookmarks, your user dictionary, your Wi-Fi passwords, and many other settings, to your Google Account, on Google servers. Some third-party applications may also take advantage of this feature. That way, when you need to replace your phone (when you upgrade or replace a lost phone), or if you reinstall an application, you can restore your settings and other data. For information about changing this setting later, see “Privacy settings” on page 370.

That setting controls apps' ability to use this API, which includes Google's apps such as Market.

Is there an App or Widget that can replace my Screen On and Off Button on my Moto Droid?

The button is broken and I'm waiting for my replacement phone. I can turn it on by sliding open the keyboard but I have to wait for it to sleep to turn the screen off. Is there an app or a shortcut that I can put on the home screen to do this? Or maybe a hack to change my camera button to a screen off button? It's an un-rooted Motorola Droid 1 running 2.2.

Answer

I ended up using this free app: http://code.google.com/p/lockenabler/ and with smart bar I was able to set the camera button as a shortcut. My cam button now turns off the screen on a long press.

4.4 kitkat - Is Asus Memo Pad 8 limited to 2 users?

Asus Memo Pad 8 tablet, running KitKat 4.4.2, doesn't allow me to create a third user. Is this an undocumented 2 user limit or is there a bug in the Settings app? Is there any workaround?

Which modem firmware for Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) works best with the mobile networks in Russia?

Trying to use a Samsung Galaxy S device coming from China or Korea in Russia lead to the observation that the quality of the connection to the mobile network is much worse than on Samsung Galaxy S we used previously (which was bought in Russia).

I have installed CyanogenMod 10.0 on the device in the hope that the mobile network connection quality would improve. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Now I see information that there are different firmware available for the modem; one should try to flash them to get modem working well in a specific region --https://android.stackexchange.com/a/44021/13117:

Well, I guess you should flash another modem file, which is working well for your region/carrier (use google . A modem file defines how the radio part of your phone works, it has an influence on signal strenght/network speed (and might have influence on battery life, too).

and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1158783 lists a lot various modem firmware for the device.

Which one to choose for Russia, Moscow (Megafon mobile network)?

(The one that was working bad for us is XXJPK, and--on another device from China or Korea--SPJG2, which also has bad/unstable signal, but not as bad as XXJPK. After the installation of CM10, XXJPK on that device was replaced with XXJVT, which again has very bad signal.)

Is there any way to disable/enable the back button?

The back button annoys me in some apps so I want to disable it in certain time and will enable it later. Is there any way to do it ?

p/s : I use Galaxy Note 2 N7100 with Android 4.1.2, rooted.

rooting - How can I root my General Mobile e-Tab 7b tablet?

How can I root the General Mobile e-Tab 7b tablet? It's currently running Android 4.1.1, kernel version 3.0.8.

security - Remotely brick a stolen phone

If my phone is lost or stolen, can I remotely and permanently brick my phone. This way, not only is my data secure, but the resale value of the phone plummets to zero.

Tangential question: can apps like Lookout or Prey be disabled by phone thieves?

fastboot - Problem with unlocking the HTC Wildfire bootloader with HTC unlocker

I tried to unlock HTC bootloader by the official tool but I get to the stage when I issue the command:

fastboot oem get_identifier_token

Unfortunatly I get error

...

(bootloader) [ERR] Command error !!!
OKAY [  0.007s]
finished. total time: 0.007s

Version of firmware matches the one listed for H3G UK. The HBoot is 1.01.0002.

Answer

I think your HBoot needs to be upgraded, and it sounds like perhaps you didn't run the RUU to do so. The HTCdev site notes that phones with an asterisk (*) next to them in the list must run an RUU before unlocking because the bootloader on the device did not originally ship with unlocking capabilities. So first you need to make sure your firmware is up to date (which it sounds like it is), and then you also need to download and run the RUU:

BEFORE beginning the Unlock Bootloader process your product requires that you update the ROM to the version listed in the table below first, then download the RUU next to it to enable the unlocking capability.

The RUU's filename itself also seems to confirm this. It is listed as PC4910000_Buzz_Froyo_hboot_1.02.0000_R3.exe, indicating (to me, anyway) that you need HBoot v1.02.0000 in order to perform the unlock.

charging - Computing when on charger - long term effects on battery life

Donating your computational power for scientific projects is, in some cases, available for Android. One of them, the World Community Grid, states that "Using the application will not significantly reduce your battery life or your recharge time." (source)

On the short term, I'm sure this is true. However, I was wondering about the long term. On my Nexus 5, I have experienced that, even when the device is fully charged and still plugged in, if I use power-hungry applications, battery level may drop to 99 or 98 percents. This indicates that the battery is still used when the device is plugged in.

For this reason, I was wondering if the battery can actually be bypassed at all, or if the device is just permanently charging. Notebooks with removable batteries can obviously do this as they still work without the battery, but as I can't remove the battery on my Nexus 5, I can't check this there.

I'd be interested in an answer regarding my specific phone, but general information about how most Android devices operate there would also interest me a lot.

Do task killers actually work?

This question already has answers here:

Closed 7 years ago.

Possible Duplicate:

Do I really need to install a task manager?

I am using ASUS Transformer. I think it uses Ice Cream sandwich, from the UI. I tried many task killers but wonder if they actually work. When I kill tasks, I still see them when I click the "Window selector" 3rd button of the bottom left screen (the 2 boxes). They do appear to take a while to load, so I suppose the tasks were killed but the thumbnails are still there?

Is it possible to change the LED notification color on Galaxy S3?

I want to be able to select which colors show up for different notifications such as sms email facebook and phone calls. I know the led for the s3 is capable of showing multiple colors but don't know if these are changeable, I've seen it on other phones tho (my old bb curve) I figured android has something similar.

thanks,

rooting - How to root my ASUS Eee Pad Transformer?

I need to root my Eee Pad Transformer. But how?

4.3 jelly bean - self-signed certificate install claims success, but android acts as if cert isn't there

I am trying to install the self-signed certificate for my web server in Android 4.3. I have the .crt file in the root of the SD card (which is actually emulated as I have no SD card in the slot).

To install the certificate I go to Setting -> General -> Security -> Credential Storage -> Install from device storage.

I get a dialog box showing the name of the certificate (the filename minus the .crt extension) which I can modify (but don't), a "used for" pull down with "VPN and apps" selected and text at the bottom of the dialog which informs "Package contains: one user certificate". Everything looks okay, so I click "Ok". The dialog goes away and a toast message pops up with "[name] installed".

However if I immediately go to "Trusted credentials and select "User" there is nothing there! The new cert is also not under "System" but I would not expect it there. If I go to a browser after this and try going to my web site, I still get the warning that the site's certificate is not trusted. I have also tried rebooting, but it doesn't make a difference.

What am I doing wrong? The complete lack of error messages isn't helpful. Is it possible my certificate is in the wrong format? I have tried using the .crt file in the server's ssl directory and I have tried converting it to DER format.

Update: I read somewhere that Android requires certificates to be in p12 format, so I converted the Apache2 certificate to p12 using the following command:

openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey server.key -in server.crt -out ~/server.p12

I then repeated the above steps, got the same success message, and then proceeded to still not see the certificate in the user credentials and I still get the untrusted certificate error from the mobile browser.

Answer

I had the same problem getting Android to really install the certificate, until I found this site which describes a method that worked for me. It boils down to the following steps:

1. 
   
   

   Create a private key and public x509 certificate with v3_req extensions and enabled as a CA:

   
   

   sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/my_site.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/my_site.crt -reqexts v3_req -extensions v3_ca

   
   


2. 
   

   Convert the certificate to DER format, which is understood by Android:

   
   

   sudo openssl x509 -in /etc/ssl/certs/my_site.crt -outform der -out my_site.der.crt

   
   


3. 
   

   Use any method to get the my_site.der.crt to your Android device - I found it easy to just have the file hosted by my web server and download it via the Android browser, which then automatically lets you install it.

   
   

Although I would've liked step 1 to be broken into two (1a. generation of private key and 1b. generation of public certificate), I didn't invest too much time investigating how to do that. Please let me know in a comment if you found a way that works, thanks.

(Rather than add a comment, I feel this really belongs as part of the answer for future reference, so I am editing it in. --Michael)

Instead of creating a certificate enabled as a CA, I created a self-signed CA and then re-signed my existing key/csr with the new CA. Then I added the self-signed CA to Android and voila! It worked!

Generating the self-signed CA:

openssl genrsa -out rootCA.key 4096
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key rootCA.key -days 3650 -out rootCA.pem

Re-signing an existing CSR I had from creation of the key from the

openssl x509 -req -in existing.csr -CA rootCA.pem -CAkey rootCA.key -CAcreateserial -out existing.crt -days 3649

Now using a modified form of your second command I converted the CA certificate to DER form:

openssl x509 -in /etc/apache2/ssl/rootCA.pem -outform der -out ~/rootCA.der.crt

The great thing about this is, any additional untrusted certificates that are now re-signed with the new self-signed CA will now be trusted on any device than has the new CA installed without needing to install anything else. This doesn't exactly solve the problem of trusting sites you have no control over, but it might make it easier if you have any influence over (say) your IT department for an internal server or something.

boot - ADB can discover devices but not fastboot

I've searched on the web about this problem and it's usually solved by installing the appropriate drivers. Problem is I'm on a Mac.

When I plug in my device, it can be discovered when I run adb devices. I run adb reload bootloader and it goes into download mode (the mode you get when you hold Volume Down + Home button when powering up). Is this correct? I assume it is.

Anyway, when it is in this stage, adb devices or fastboot devices yields nothing.

I have tested this on i9100 and i9505.

wi fi - How exchange messages between 2 android devices through wifi and bluetooth without internet?

I am currently working on the creation of an application for mobile devices with Android which should be capable of sending and receiving messages through local means like wifi and bluetooth. After making a research about it I found out that Android doesn't have a native wifi ad hoc functionality and that the only way to achieve that is through rooting your device and patching the wpa_suplicant and some other similiar methods which are not generic for every device.

Synopsis of what I am trying to achieve:

An application for Android that scans for devices nearby and tries to connect to them automatically. If the other device also got this application isntalled then it automatically accepts any connection request it receives and when the connection is established it sends back a message which ensures that it has this app installed so that both can start exchanging messages automatically and the users don't have to allow/deny any of the sending/receiving in real time.

My questions are:

1. 
   

   Is there any way of sending messages through wifi between 2 android devices without the use of internet?

   
   


2. 
   

   Since Ad Hoc is not supported, is there any alternative?

   
   



3. 
   

   In case the answer to 2 is no , then is it possible to make one of the devices to be an access point so the other can connect to it and vice versa.

   
   


4. 
   

   As for bluetooth, is it possible to skip or automate the allow/deny pop up of an incoming connection and the pairing procedure?

   
   

I'll be glad if you could give me an answer to those and/or any suggestions.

sony xperia - Where is the default ringtone stored?

I recently brought a Sony Xperia C. One of my friends like a few default ringtones of the phone. I tried to search in the internal as well as sd card memory but couldn't find the ringtone.

Where exactly they are stored? Can I send it to my friends using another android phone?

Answer

Default ringtones are usually stored in /system/media/audio/ringtones. You might be able to access this location using a file manager.

Keep in mind that, residing on /system, this place is read-only at best without root-access: so while you should be able to copy from here, you cannot place any files into this directory. If you want to manually add ringtones to your device, rather create a similar directory on your SDcard (/sdcard/media/audio, with sub-directories for ringtones, alarms, notifications, etc.). This location should be recognized automatically by the Android system.

What is CyanogenMod and how is it different from Android?

I have been listening a lot of chatter about CyanogenMod and it only seems to be growing louder by the day. But what exactly is CyanogenMod and how is it different from Android? If CyanogenMod is a fork of Android then how can it (aim to) become third major mobile ecosystem. Aren't they both same?

Also, how safe is CyanogenMod, in the sense, can I trust it with my Contacts, Google, Facebook, Twitter and social account information?

Some time back I read an interesting article on Ars Technica - Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary - which details out how Google is creating closed source equivalents of Android Open Source Project (AOSP) apps for e.g. Search, Keyboard and so on. If that's the case will Google's proprietary apps be available on CyanogenMod?

The same article details out how Amazon's fork of Android is not Google approved and because of that it faces many issues. Is CyanogenMod Google approved?

Answer

CyanogenMod versus Android

To ask how CyanogenMod is different from Android is comparable to ask How is a cat different from an animal. CyanogenMod is an Android custom-rom. See:

Quoting the latter, which quotes from the CyanogenMod website:

CyanogenMod is an aftermarket firmware for a number of cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system. It offers features not found in the official Android based firmwares of vendors of these cell phones.

As you're asking about Ecosystems: CyanogenMod meanwhile is a company. There might be multiple Ecosystems using the same resources. As will be shown below:

Google versus Android versus CyanogenMod

Android is not Google, and Google is not Android. Behind Android stands the AOSP team. So Android is Open source, which is why other groups like CyanogenMod can use it. The "iron grip" of your question doesn't go to Android itself, it's rather the additions Google puts on top, the so-called Google Apps (see: google-apps and its tag-wiki). Those apps are not open-source, but closed-source. CyanogenMod started shipping their own counter-parts for several of the Google-Apps (and features), and here you've got your ecosystem: Apps and Services.

CyanogenMod is not permitted to ship the Google-Apps with their ROMs, you have to install them manually (if you want them), or leave them out. There are many substitutes available, so you can use Android without Google:

Can I trust X with my data?

Google earns its money with advertisements. If you can trust them with your data, IMHO you can trust CyanogenMod even more. If you don't want to trust either of them, there are alternatives such as OwnCloud, Funambol, and more, which you can use with any ROM, CyanogenMod included – setting up your own cloud, as one of the names suggests.

Concerning the google-play-store and "where to get my apps from": As with the other google-apps, custom ROMs are not permitted to bundle them with their distributions. But there are a lot of alternative and open-source markets, like F-Droid etc. (see our alternative-markets tag-wiki). There have been rumours about a CyanogenMod app market, but I must have missed that taking off.