Remove preinstalled apps without rooting

Is there any other way apart from rooting the device to remove preinstalled apps?

If it's relevant, the Android version is 4.4 Kitkat.

6.0 marshmallow - Remove Alarm Tone?

Last year I bought an RCA Voyager (tablet) running android 6.0.1 (marshmallow), and between now and then I have added custom tunes to my 'Alarms' folder to spice things up a bit.

My problem is that I accidentally added an alarm that I do not wish to use. I searched the whole clock app for a remove or delete option, but could not find one. I deleted the tone directly from the 'Alarms' folder, but it is still registered in the list (only it now uses the default sound). I attempted clearing the application's data, that didn't work either. I downloaded an app for removing ringtones and alarm tones, but it would not even run. I went as far as installing an app that can access the /system directory, but it was too complex in there and I did not want to break anything. My device is not rooted.

So this really boils down to: is it at all possible to remove custom alarm tones?

sim card - How to bypass "enter SIM PIN" screen on Android Marshmallow?

The phone can't be accessed before PIN code is entered, the only alternative method is to remove the SIM card entirely. I haven't found a key combination that works on this version of Android.
Enter SIM PIN screen on Android 6.0.1:

tethering - Can't bluetooth tether between sprint galaxy s6 and nexus 7

On my galaxy s6, I activate the Bluetooth server. I've confirmed that Bluetooth tethering works with my laptop.

On My Nexus 7, the s6 shows up in the paired devices list. I click on settings, and check "use for internet access".

"Connecting..." Flashes, and then goes away. Check box becomes unchecked.

How do I tether my Nexus 7 to my s6?

I'm open to a different app if it will work.

I've read that there are issues withe Bluetooth on the Nexus 7. Could this be the cause?

**edit: I'm using PDANET on my s6 **

HTC Desire crashed, deleted all SMS/MMS. Can I recover?

Been a reader of SO/SE for a while as am getting into Android development. Just wanted to ask a quick question. Hope someone can help. :)

I have a HTC desire (2.2 with HTC sense, as per stock), never rooted and little used (basic apps installed, not used for any dev) I use as just a phone really. Hence I was very surprised when it crashed the other day and all my SMS/MMS were deleted (the stock HTC Messages app was empty)!

I know I should not have rebooted the device (as file recovery may be easier as it reduces chances of file space being overwritten), but was told to do so by T-Mobile advisor.

Upon reboot, found the stock HTC Messages app used for SMS/MMS was was now populated by SMS that was saved on the SIM. Hence I think, the Desire recreated the SMS/MMS content using the saved SIM messages as a start.

What I would like to know is can the older SMS/MMS be recovered? I assume they are stored in... /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/smsmms.db ...and that this file (originally with 500+ messages) has been overwritten by a new smsmms.db (now containing ~5 messages), but as I am new to Android/Linux am not sure if this assumption is right e.g. the new smsmms.db file could be written to a different disk location (as is common on FAT32/NTFS file systems in Windows) and hence with the right know-how the original file can be recovered (I've recvered many files like this in Windows without issue).

Does anyone know how to recover SMS/MMS messages like that, or how to recover/undelete files from these devices in general (I don't mind if it is only a partial file and I have to rebuild/extract messages).

Missing space/Storage space running out Galaxy S2 [tried almost every solution I can find!]

This question already has answers here:

Closed 4 years ago.

I periodically get this error on my phone. It will say the internal storage is running out but when I check the storage use it will say:

Total space 1.97 GB Available: 182MB Apps: 622 MB Cached 11.70 MB

This time, I checked my android/data folder and it said Spotify was using 1GB of space (in addition to all the space it is using in my other storage), so I deleted the Spotify cache and uninstalled it, then wiped my cache in recovery, but I didn't end up with any extra space afterwards.

I've deleted the log and LOST.DIR folders.

I can't seem to free up any more space. Every time this happens I have to factory reset and reinstall cyanogen (I'm running CM 10.1.3 now) to recover storage space, but each time it happens again eventually. I tried updating to a newer version of CM 10.1.3 but that doesn't help either.

UPDATE: I went through my apps to see if there was data I could get rid of there. I found 268MB in my Twitter app cache, but when I tried to clear the cache it wouldn't move. I uninstalled twitter but it didn't free up any storage space...

What am I doing wrong?

(Thanks!)

rooting - "sendmsg: Connection refused" trying to root a Nexus One

Following the link taken from this question, I got the following error.

$ ./freenexus
[*] Android local root exploid (C) The Android Exploid Crew
[*] Modified by ak for HTC Nexus One
[+] Using basedir=/data/local/tmp, path=/data/local/tmp/freenexus
[+] opening NETLINK_KOBJECT_UEVENT socket

[+] sending add message ...
[-] sendmsg: Connection refused

Does this mean that method is now outdated?

Answer

As far as I know, a fully updated N1 won't have any exploitable vulnerabilities to allow you to root the device. Most of the older "one click" and similar methods used things like Gingerbreak, which were holes in Android that eventually got patched. I have not seen a root exploit on vanilla Android since Gingerbreak.

XDA's wiki has a couple of different options regarding the N1 which work but require unlocking the bootloader, and unlocking will perform a factory reset automatically. They can be found here and basically amount to:

1. Unlock the bootloader from fastboot mode with fastboot oem unlock


2. Flash a custom recovery (usually ClockworkMod)



3. Flash a zip file from recovery that will install su and Superuser for you


4. Reboot

"Connect USB Data Cable" message on fastboot screen preventing recovery/reset of Nexus 6

I have a Nexus 6 that doesn't boot after a failed Android M developer preview install (worked perfectly on my Nexus 5).

Booting into fastboot via power + volume down shows the device is unlocked but says "connect USB data cable". I believe "connect USB data cable" is the critical problem preventing any kind of recovery.

It is connected via the cable that I used to reboot it into fastboot successfully (and I've tried unplugging and re-plugging it in) so I think the cable is not the problem.

I'm guessing it's permanently bricked?

Can Android devices access an iOS file system via USB-OTG?

Using an OTG cable, Stickmount, and Root Explorer, I can view files on my USB flash drives with my Android device.

On Windows, it's possible to view an iOS device's filesystem using programs such as iFunBox or iExplorer.

When I plug my iPhone to my Android device using an OTG cable, it's recognised as a camera instead of a mass storage device.

Is there a way to view an iOS device's filesystem using an Android device and an OTG cable?

Answer

No as mentioned in the above comment it's not possible.

In android only some part of Linux is used on the architecture whereas in iOS the complete os is built on it.

Android is hard coded in Java whereas in IOS you will find most of the file in XML format so as the format is different you will end up with an unrecognised file on your Android Device

internal storage - How can I deal with "Low on Space" messages on my Android?

I keep getting the "Low on Space: Application data space is low. To free up" [the rest is cut off] message.

I've moved every app I can over to the SD card, cleared the cache, compacted my K9 mail cache.

Advanced Task Killer (ouch!) says I have 98M Available Memory

File Manager says I have 223M/748M (29%) free.

That's not so bad -- but I'm stuck in the no-updates scenario. The market downloads won't really start, gmail won't update, etc. I've rebooted several times, and nothing changes. Aaaargh.

What can be done, other than uninstalling everything ?

Answer

This timely post from Lifehacker may help... Were you the one who emailed them? ;)

What Should I Do When My Android Runs Out of App Space?

Here's the summary, in order of easy to hard:

1. 
   

   Move Bigger Apps to SD Storage - currently requires Froyo (2.2). Navigate to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications (or something similar). View the All Tab, sort by size. You can't do anything about the big hitters, namely Gmail, Browser and Maps will always be pretty big.

   
   


2. 
   

   Clear the Cache, and Maybe Data, on Some Apps Similar to #1, navigate to Settings > Applications.

   
   



3. 
   

   Clear Out Apps You Don't Actually Use Shouldn't this be #1? ;)

   
   


4. 
   

   Android 2.2: Set Your SD Card as the Default Installation Location LifeHacker points to the Androinica blog how-to here.

   
   


5. 
   

   Root Your Phone and Set Up Apps2SD Disclaimer: rooting may not be fun for non-geeks. LifeHacker how-to-root and custom firmware CyanogenMOD (also supplied by LifeHacker).

   
   

Of course some of the comments on the post are helpful as well. Hope it helps.

Export telegram and whatsapp contacts to vcf?

I have lost most of my contacts on the phone account, but they still exist in my telegram account. How can i move them to phone or export them?

Mouse to touch?

Currently, I have successfully installed androidx86 to my netbook(that really saved the netbook,android run at light speed!),however, I noticed a problem, when I play some app in it, the mouse don't work!(I only can control android with mouse with keyboard)I can move the curser,but clicks don't work. Later, i done some reasearch and found that the mouse do not have size! But touch have.That's why I cannot use mouse in some games. Is there any way to use mouse as touch? Or any app to simulate touch?

rooting - What sepolicy context will allow any other context to access it?

I am on a bootloader locked Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7, eng boot.img flashed to phone with SELinux permissive, which gives root adb shell from where I can change system partitions, debloat, install Xposed etc. But the kernel is very bad and has RAM leak, and eventually, the phone slows to a crawl. So I unrooted by installing the stock kernel and disabling DM verity to allow a modified system to boot up.

Now, SELinux is enforcing, but I want it to be permissive which will never happen with the stock kernel. I realize that secontext is defined at kernel build times and allows certain things to run.

Another option is to have a higher context to do things like supolicy --live to patch SELinux policy and get full root access with stock kernel. I'm trying to execute a script in the data directory created by my app, but unless seenforcing=false, it doesn't get executed.

I know by using root you can chcon a file/directory. So what is the (source) context that will allow to:

• Set mode to permissive, or


• Modify the SELinux policy, or


• Execute a script on boot without avc denials

Or what is the (target) context that will allow any other (source) context to execute the script?

Always use desktop mode for specific websites on Chrome

When I tap one of my favourite site, Chrome suggests me the link to mobile version, but I do not want it. I want to disable it only for my favourites.

I want to set the desktop mode only for some selected website, not for all

I use Chrome with Lollipop on Nexus 4. How can I disable this feature?

applications - Can I install an app directly to my SD card?

I'm trying to install a large application (EA games' Scrabble free), but I have insufficient space on my phone, so I can't complete the installation. I have plenty of space on my SD card though, but I don't see any option to install the app directly there without passing through the phone. What can I do about this?

Answer

You are out of luck sorry!

The only way to do so, is to install to internal space on Phone, then:

• Tap on Settings


• Tap on Applications


• Then tap on Manage Applications


• Scroll down looking for the appropriate game, then tap on it



• Finally, tap on Move to SD Card...

You will have to free up space temporarily in order to do this.

privacy - Can the RECEIVE_SMS permission be used to intercept SMS messages?

I've noticed quite a few apps requesting the RECEIVE_SMS permission. Two things are clear to me here:

• RECEIVE_SMS enables an app to "snap" incoming SMS


• READ_SMS just applies to SMS already stored

As some of the apps just were asking for RECEIVE_SMS, but not for READ_SMS, I got curious: this seems to imply RECEIVE_SMS is not only targeted at the receiving part, but the app can also do what it wants with the received message – e.g. read it, then throw it away silently (so the user doesn't even notice there was an SMS – which might be the way TAN Trojans act to snap identifiers for online banking transactions).

But would it also be possible for such an app to "intercept" the message, i.e. receive it, read it (and process its content in any way, e.g. forwarding it by other means such as via IP), and then pass it on as if nothing had happened? In other words: Can it spy on the user this way?

Answer

Yes, it can, but only on Android 4.3 and lower. This is used for example in Whatsapp. When you activate the app, Whatsapp sends an SMS to the number you reported, and the app intercepts it quietly and reports to the servers that it has received the SMS. This is how the account is tied to your number.

Of course, this can be used in harmful apps also. If an app registers as an SMS receiver with the highest priority, the app can listen for incoming SMSs, process them and either dismiss them without the user ever noticing, or forward to the next SMS listener with the second-highest priority.

This has been redone in Android 4.4, and if I understood correctly, only the default SMS app has access to all incoming SMS (SMS_DELIVER_ACTION), and the other apps with correct permissions will only receive a notification of the incoming message (SMS_RECEIVED_ACTION). In addition, the SMS_RECEIVED intent is non-abortable, it can't be stopped. I assume that in Android 4.4, this is done to allow the user to see all incoming SMS messages in the default app.

Edit: Found some more useful info on the Android Developers Blog. I'd test this further, but my only Android phone is currently WiFi-only, so no SMS :/

root access - Does data reset wipe batterystatus.bin?

Does data reset delete batterystats.bin?

Location of batterystats.bin file is /data/system/batterystats.bin.

Note: NVRAM also remains in data partition but data reset does not wipe IMEI.

Can I calibrate the battery without rooting the new custom ROM?

bluetooth - Can Tasker/Locale tell me what BT device is connected?

I want to change the phone's state dependent on which specific bluetooth device is connected -- can Tasker or Locale do that? Thanks!

Answer

Yes. Tasker will do this. When you're setting up the state, choose "bluetooth connected", then click the magnifying glass next to the "name" field. It will search for paired bluetooth devices. Choose the one you want and configure states/actions. Then do it again for the other BT device.

battery life - How do I set a lock screen wallpaper on the OnePlus One with the latest Android Update?

Okay so previously on the home screen ,I'd press the menu button- wallpapers- lock screen wallpaper and select my image to set as the lockscreen wallpaper.I can't do that anymore after the lollipop update. And also battery has been draining out like crazy after I updated it. This needs to be fixed.

6.0 marshmallow - Why is my phone ignoring OTG USB?

I have 2 phones.
1. Android 4.4.4 - When OTG USB is connected, it automatically mounts with no problems and I can manage files, watch movies from it, etc.
2. Android 6.0 - when OTG USB is connected, phone fully ignores it (does nothing).

Why can't second phone mount it exactly like a first does? Do I have to install some application that takes care of it? First phone is rooted, second is not. Can that be a problem?

Answer

Its not the android version describes that it can connect OTG(On-The-Go), its the capability of the device. Huawei P8 Lite has no OTG connectivity as described here : P8 lite review

What's really 'third party applications'?

I would like to know what's really third party applications in android.While I was referring Android development it says that application layer consist of:

1. Native apps


2. Third party apps


3. Developer Apps

I know that third party applications are those which are not developed by the first party(provider of the operating system) as mentioned in third party applications.But I think when it comes to android third party apps and developer apps are same isn't it?Could anyone help me.

Answer

Short version

Every app other than "OS and manufacturer apps" means "third party apps".

TL;DR

Third party apps are those provided by a, hrm, third party. Though the following terms are non-existent, you can visualize this as follows: First party is the one providing the OS (AOSP/Google), second party the manufacturer (adding his own apps).

Basically, this can be read as: Everything that didn't come pre-installed. This is what the term "third party" normally is used for¹.

Technical background

You find some technical background in Android's permission system. If you browse the related pages on Android Developers or see my App permissions explained, for some permissions you will encounter the phrase "not for use by third party apps" (or similar). How does the system decide what makes a "third party app"? It looks at its signature and compares that to the OS and manufacturers' signatures. If the app's signature doesn't match any of the two, it's a "third party app".

"Developer Apps"

In your question, the focus was to decide between "third party" and "developer" apps. Basically, in practice developer apps are rather a "sub-group" of "third party" apps. As the corresponding developer page states, to make debugging an app during development easier³, it can be signed "in debug mode":

You can sign an app in debug or release mode. You sign your app in debug mode during development and in release mode when you are ready to distribute your app. The Android SDK generates a certificate to sign apps in debug mode. To sign apps in release mode, you need to generate your own certificate.

[…]

You can run and debug an app signed in debug mode on the emulator and on devices connected to your development manchine through USB, but you cannot distribute an app signed in debug mode.

Thus "developer apps" can be told by using a known "debug certificate". As the quoted source states, this should not be used with "released apps" (e.g. a developer shouldn't publish any app signed this way)².

Further readings

---

^{1: though technically it might be not fully correct (example: in this context, what would an app be called which you manually installed, when it were signed with the same key as the ROM itself – i.e. was coming from the manufacturer?)}

^{2: This is for security reasons. Apps might be able to access other apps' resources when using the same signature – a fact used e.g. by "addons" for specific apps written by the same developer (as the already named source e.g. puts it: Android allows apps signed by the same certificate to run in the same process, if the applications so requests, so that the system treats them as a single application. And: Android provides signature-based permissions enforcement, so that an app can expose functionality to another app that is signed with a specified certificate. By signing multiple apps with the same certificate and using signature-based permissions checks, your apps can share code and data in a secure manner). Using "your own" certificate protects "your" app from being accessed by "other developers' apps".}

^{3: AFAIK you cannot install an "unsigned app", so signing it is a must. When "signing" an app, one usually needs to provide two passwords (one for the keystore holding your signatures, and one for the signature itself). Using "debug mode" signing, this can be avoided, as this uses an internal signature of the SDK with a password known by the development tools. This makes debugging a lot easier, as you don't have to type the two passwords over and over during the "compile › test › compile › test again › .." process.}

Change Facebook (and others) photo saving folder

I'd like to ask a question about the facebook app (but it is not only one that does this). Currently, when I save any photo from facebook, it saves into /DCIM/Facebook.

Now I would not normally care where the photos are stored as long as Gallery app sorts them right, but the fact it goes into DCIM folder makes it behave wrongly with the Google Photos app.

Google Photos treat all those Facebook saved posts as "Camera photos" and tries to synchronize them to server, which I obviously do not want (I store photo albums on GPh, I do not need meme pics among them) and I cannot refine the synchronize options any more (only "Camera" is chosen to sync).

Is there a way to exclude those downloaded pictures from sync? Or make Facebook save its downloads to, say, /Pictures/Facebook ?

Same as above also happens in DCIM/Screenshots while clipping parts of screen.

Phone is Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Android 6.0.1

Thanks in advance

Why is custom recovery a prerequisite for flashing a custom ROM?

I have read in many guides that before flashing, we need to have a custom recovery like CWM installed. I am not able to understand why is this a prerequisite for flashing a custom ROM. Can I flash a ROM without custom recovery?

Answer

Stock recoveries usually check the update.zip file being flashed for a specific signature that is only known by device's manufacturer and/or carrier. You cannot therefore flash custom ROMs on stock recoveries, hence the need for a custom recovery which bypasses said check.

Get offline maps in new Google Maps

Google Maps was updated last night (9-July-2013 v7.0.0). While there's a lot they added, one thing they removed was the ability to cache maps offline.

I relied on that functionality in poor-coverage areas. Is there anything I can do?

Answer

Update: Apparently there was enough of a hue and cry about it that they've added a button, although "ok maps" will still work.

Not the same as the old offline maps, but better than nothing I suppose.

Having come under fire for (mostly) removing the option to save offline maps in its new Android app, Google has pushed a new update that makes it easier for users to save local areas to their device. In a post on Google+, the company notes that its "engineering team has been working around the clock" to add a "Make this map area available offline" card inside the app, mimicking the functionality of the 'OK maps" command.

(source: The Verge)

---

At least I'm not the only one who regrets the removal of this feature.

The other problem with the redesign is that Google (mostly) removed the option to save offline maps — a feature that was only a year old to begin with. Power users still have a way to cache maps locally, however. Daniel Graf, director for Google Maps, tells us that the company's engineers were just as unhappy with the loss of the feature as we were, so they built an Easter egg. When you type in "OK maps" (or "okay maps") into the search box, it will save a cached version of the visible map area locally. It's not as convenient or manageable as proper offline maps, but at least it's an option — assuming you remember it's there.

(source: The Verge)

video - Android Software or Device to present Application on Screen

Well this is something that came to my mind, Does anyone know if there is a Device or a cable that i can plug to a DataShow so it is possible to present an Android Application live and fullscreen, doing all the tap and swipe events?

If not at least is there is something that its able to record a Screencast of an android application for presentation purpose of course?

PD. BTW i did not found right tag for this question, so if someone can retag it it would be nice too :D

Answer

I happened to found that the best way to do this is with a project call androidscreenscast, which is really easy and great:

• just plug your phone.


• Downloads the jnl on the site


• And enjoy your screen

I wrote a post about my experience Present your android application on a Datashow.

rooting - How to root Acer Z630s?

I'm trying to root my new phone, it's an Acer Liquid Z630s (T04) running Android 5.1.

I can't find anything useful online, Google is filled with auto-generated pages that just give a link to some one-click-root app. I've tried a couple of them (Kingroot, Kingoroot and OneClickRoot) and they all say "no root available at this time".

keyboard - Stock dialer app on Andorid Kit Kat does not like to bring up the num pad

Device: Note 2 (Verizon i605)

Rom: CyanogenMod 11 (Kit Kat 4.4.2)

App; ASOP dialer

Whenever I fire up my phone app to call someone, and click on the keyboard, a white box (1/5 of the screen) pops up. I have to click on it again to make it go away, then click on the dial button and the buttons show up. Does anyone have any thoughts and suggestions how to go about fixing this?

Screenshots (click images for larger variants):

^{dialer / phone app // pressing the num pad on the bottom gives me this little box}

^{pressing BACK (or tapping anywhere else) shrinks the little box, and then I can hit the num pad to get the numbers back up}

Answer

I had the same issue, not with Cyanogen, but stock android in Nexus 5 phone. I solved the issue temporarily as follows :

Go to Settings > Developer Options

Change Animator Duration Scale to 0.5x (may be more. At first I set it in None, so it didn't work. Changing to 0.5x solved my problem. I didn't check other options like 1x etc).

This method solved me in Nexus 5. (Not sure about Note 2, try it and let's know)

6.0 marshmallow - How can I prevent apps from going full screen and hiding the notification bar?

The notification bar takes only a few pixels yet contains so much useful information. Unfortunately, there are some apps (that I otherwise love) that insist on being in full screen, and therefore remove the notification bar from sight.

Is there any way I can force the notification bar to remain while running these apps?

I run rooted Marshmallow with Xposed Framework on a Samsung SM-G900F.

The apps can run on all types of display sizes and aspect ratios, so technically they should be able to do without those pixels on top.

Answer

There is an app for your required feature Status bar in full screen

You can use it with any launcher and it is compatible with Android 2.2+

In the app, you can toggle status bar on/off in fullscreen mode.

Chrome's Development Tools on Android

Is it possible to open Chrome's Development Tools in Android? Is it possible to do so with Java?

I tried going into the settings and such, but is it possible to access the console and create cookie for the browser?

Droid Explorer permission denied when accessing root-only folders

I have been trying to get Droid Explorer (a windows app) working with my 2013 Moto X and am having trouble. A previous question was answered (I needed busybox!) but now I have a new one.

The file manager part of the app isn't getting root privileges for some reason. I also use JRummy's ROM Toolbox and it's root browser works fine. I just want to use mouse/keyboard for file managing :)

Droid Explorer Debug Console
[CommandRunner] Checking for adb.exe
[CommandRunner] adb.exe -s T065001AK4 shell busybox ls -lFa --color=never "/data/"
[CommandRunner] ls: can't open '/data/': Permission denied

edit: context :)

Answer

After researching this, it comes down to this:

When Droid Explorer launches, it attempts to start ADB in root mode by running adb root. If adb cannot run as root, you will have limited access to some paths.

Found this question here, which is related: Why can't I get root access from shell?

---

Update: This should work with Rooted devices running Stock (or somewhat stock) ROMs

There is an app on Google Play called ADBD Insecure by Chainfire. This app lets you run adbd in root mode if your device is rooted when running the devices Stock ROM.

adbd Insecure lets you run adbd in root mode if your device is rooted. (Note that if you are running a custom kernel, it is likely that it already implements this functionality)

If you are running a stock (made by the phone manufacturer) kernel on your device, chances are adbd is running in "secure" mode, even if you are rooted. This app lets you run adbd in "insecure" mode, which gives you root access in "adb shell", allows access to system files and directories through "adb push/pull", and lets you run the "adb remount" command to make your /system partition writable.

---

Now, I run CyanogenMod 12 (this should also work with CM11), but I don't know if this can be accomplished with stock rooted ROMs.

These settings are for CyanogenMod
In order to allow ADB root access, I go in to Settings => Developer Options. There you will see Root Access:

This needs to be set to either ADB only or Apps and ADB.

If this is not set, Droid Explorer will not be able to launch as root. When it tries to get the folders and files of certain directories, it will be denied.

If you can, try running adb root from a Windows Console window and see what it returns. It may add some insight to if it is possible to have non-CyanogenMod devices run adb as root.

applications - Transfer root to SDcard with switch_root didn't work

I'm trying to install Debian on the Android 4.4 (modded with cyanogenmod) that's installed on my nexus 10 to one external sd card. I'm reading this tutorial :

http://whiteboard.ping.se/Android/Debian

I've attached the Leef microSD microUSB Connector with a 64GB sd card inside to the mini usb port of my nexus 10 as you can see here :

The tutorial talks about the The ASUS Transformer TF101 and the instructions are based on this tablet. Instead I have a tablet nexus 10,that's equipped with an internal sd card where I have installed android 4.4 + cyanogenmod. For this reason I need to know how to change some part of the tutorial to adapt it to my situation. Anyway on my desktop computer I have partitioned the sd card in this way :

Disk /dev/sdf: 64.0 GB, 64021856256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders, total 125042688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004504c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1            2048    32767999    16382976    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdf2        32768000   125042687    46137344   83  Linux

My nexus 10 recognizes the sd card as sda2. According with the tutorial I have issued the following commands,but something did not work :

mount -o rw,remount / 

mkdir /mnt/deb
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/sda2 /mnt/deb
/mnt/deb/busybox sh
/mnt/deb/busybox mount -t proc none /mnt/deb/proc
/mnt/deb/busybox mount -t sysfs none /mnt/deb/sys
/mnt/deb/busybox mount -t tmpfs none /mnt/deb/dev
/mnt/deb/busybox mdev -s
exec /mnt/deb/busybox switch_root /mnt/deb /init



BusyBox v1.21.1 (2013-07-08 10:07:37 CDT) multi-call binary.

Usage: switch_root [-c /dev/console] NEW_ROOT NEW_INIT [ARGS]

Free initramfs and switch to another root fs:
chroot to NEW_ROOT, delete all in /, move NEW_ROOT to /,
execute NEW_INIT. PID must be 1. NEW_ROOT must be a mountpoint.

        -c DEV  Reopen stdio to DEV after switch

but where is the mistake ?

Restore specific items using Titanium Backup without root?

I regularly backup my entire phone using Titanium Backup.

For the next two weeks or so, im going to be using my friends phone. Id like to restore a few things from the backup (contacts, some app data etc.) without rooting it. Is there any way?

Answer

Titanium stores the .apk's in /sdcard/TitaniumBackup/ and the data in the same folder in zip files. You can click the .apk to install it when viewing in a file manager.

To restore the data, you can extract the zip file on a PC and copy the contents of the data folder (another folder named something like com.domain.appname) to /data/data/ on the device using adb:

adb push com.domain.appname /data/data/

terminal - I'd like to run Termux as root: possible?

I'd like to have an SSH, HTTP and SMB server on standard ports on my phone.

There's a way to run Termux as root and have the servers run on privileged ports?

Running rooted Android 7.1 on an unlocked device.

4.1 jelly bean - How can I access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?

Since aLogcat now no longer works with Jelly Bean, how can I access the system log files on my device without either root access or attaching it to a computer?

I have tried using adb logcat from my PC and that worked fine, so I know that plenty of messages are being logged.

Using logcat from Android Terminal Emulator on my Nexus 7 shows almost no output though and adb logcat from Android Terminal Emulator, starts the daemon but then just says - waiting for device - and nothing more appears.

So, is it possible to access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?

Answer

No, for security reasons it is not possible to access android log files on the Nexus 7 (or any other device running Jelly Bean or higher) without root access. Google changed that with Jelly Bean.

I'd suggest you wait until logcat readers like aLogCat and such get fixed (i.e. they will require root access to show all logs then).

From AISEC-TR-2012-001-Android-OS-Security.pdf - 3.3 Android Permission Model:

The READ_LOGS permission can substitute the following on many devices, depending on the Android version and thus the standard apps’ versions installed:

• 
  
  

  READ_CONTACTS

  
  


• 
  

  GET_TASKS – every started Activity is listed in the system’s logs

  
  


• 
  

  READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS – opening new web pages is a browser Activity and thus logged

  
  


• 
  

  READ_SMS

  
  
  

All solutions below require root access:

You need to either run logcat as root in a shell or manually grant it via the shell pm command (root required) works also (see XDA, exchange org.jtb.alogcat.donate with the app's pkg name):

pm grant org.jtb.alogcat.donate android.permission.READ_LOGS

This is for the lazy ones and not suggested: If you're desperate, careless and lazy, you can fix it by giving every app the READ_LOGS permission by applying this ugly and insecure hack (Chainfire via twitter):

chmod 04755 /system/bin/logcat

To quote CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta's G+ post:

Did the Android Log permissions/behavior change in JellyBean?

It seems that if an application runs "logcat" now, it can see only the log entries created by its UID. Log lines from other UIDs are not shown. Basically, it seems to be filtered now.

I have the same permissions as usual. Also confirmed the same thing is happening in other log collector apps.

tasker - Play songs randomly and endlessly

I made a profile in Tasker (it runs on boot) for my (rooted) Android box. The tasks are:

1. screen always ON



2. play randomly all the songs from a dedicated folder.

It works. But I need to play endlessly the songs in the folder when Tasker ends playing the last song.

What I'm looking for is to loop the action "play songs from folder" when it's ended but I don't know how.

I tried a "Goto" but Tasker runs the task even if the playback runs. My Android box starts to slow down very fast because I think Tasker repeats the task endlessly and plays the first song repeatedly at the same time.

This is how it looks like at the moment (very simple) :

Profile : "On start up" -> Task "Music"

"Music":

1. 
   
   

   Event action : "Stay awake"

   
   


2. 
   

   Media action : Play media from folder / random

   
   

   only tested :

   
   


3. 
   

   Task action : Go to "2"

   
   

How do I achieve the goal?

Does rooting mean I will always run my device as root?

This question already has an answer here:

Closed 7 years ago.

Possible Duplicate:
How exactly does “root” user access/account works? Do all applications run as root on my phone after rooting?

I understand the root user under Linux and the goal of rooting an Android device. Though, when people say "rooting", does it mean I will always use my device as root? Or just while I apply my changes?

Answer

No. Rooting in that case means that apps are able to request root. If they do so, then usually a pop-up appears asking for your permission.

Spell Check app or setting while using drop down keyboard

This question already has an answer here:

Closed 8 years ago.

Possible Duplicate:
How can I get word completion with physical keyboard?

Is there anyway to get spell check functionality while using the drop down keyboard?

fastboot - Oppo find 7: bootloader re-lock impossible?

I tried to relock the bootloader on my Find 7 (which I'm pretty sure was unlocked since I installed a custom rom).

fastboot oem lock
...

After that nothing. Windows console is "stuck". Any clue?

storage - ''insufficient space on the device'' – but my sd card has plenty space?

I bought my Android phone a month ago (a Prestigio 3350 Duo) and installed maybe 5 apps on it, so according to the memory card I have almost 2 gb of free space, and 28 mb on internal storage. But when I try to install some apps it keeps showing off that message.

I don't know why, tried to clear cache (which helped a little) – but still I can't install an app of about 34 mb.

Can someone help me fix this problem? I know there're similar posts but I appreciate any help. Thanks :)

5.0 lollipop - How can I lock my phone with a swipe lockscreen along with a fingerprint/PIN?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 running Android 5.0 on Verizon and would like to have my phone lock for 2-5 minutes with a swipe lockscreen after I sign in with my fingerprint or PIN. After the 2-5 minutes, I'd like the fingerprint or PIN prompt again.

I tend to bump my phone while it's in my pocket and the swipe lock screen prevents unintended actions, but I'd rather not like to put in my PIN or fingerprint multiple times in a short duration.

I had this feature with another S5 on AT&T running 5.1, but it seems that this is not the case on my current phone.

Is there anyway I can do this without using any lockscreen apps?

gmail - Google Apps crashing, Play services crashing

On my Kyocera Hydra phone (model number c6725) running Android 4.4.2 on Virgin Mobile. When I start Gmail (although notifications from gmail work) I'll get the message "Unfortuantely, Gmail has stopped". If I click "report" I then get the message "Unfortuantely, Google Play services has stopped" with only an "OK" option.

When this first happened, I cleared the cache and data for both Gmail and Play services and I was able to open Gmail again, but now that doesn't seem to work. Worse, I noticed the problem also happens with the YouTube app, Play Music and Play Games.

Any idea what the root cause might be and how to fix it?

Edit: This seems to be getting worse and has now started effecting maps making it crash when I try to do turn-by-turn directions. This moves it from annoyance to a real problem. It seems if I uninstall updates to everything Google related (play services, gmail, play music, play games, play whatever) and go back to factory versions it'll work for a while (until it forces it's updates back on and starts acting up again).

Update: According to this on Android Forums, Kyocera are now testing a long overdue fix. Tweet them and you might be able to get it for testing. For my phone, maps has completely stopped working altogether now and I had to install an alternative mapping app (I'm trying out Here Maps right now). Gmail is only not broken by virtue of an update needing more permissions, so it's blocked from updating for the time being (and still works).

Answer

Ryan Radford found a fix for this. Kyocera forgot to include libpredtm.so in system/lib, which causes these crashes. Ryan took the time to upload his copy and another user posted his fix on Android Forums. You need to root your phone then add Ryan's libpredtm.so to system/lib. That's it.

sms - Import SMSes from Nokia 6300

I want to transfer all SMSes from my old phone Nokia 6300 to Philips W626. I have tried several tools but all of them failed. Does anybody know tested way to do it?

Answer

Finally I was able to import SMSes using SMS Importer Lite. This post was very helpful to make it work. It was required to configure SMS Importer this way:

• Source type: Custom

in Advanced preferences:

• Seperator: ,


• Sender position: 3



• Date position: 6


• Body position: 8

Otherwise it always failed with "unexpected error" message.

Google Play deducted extra Rupee 50 after first-time Play Store purchase of an App/Game. Why is that?

Today I bought Temple Run: Oz from Google Play. When I filled all the credentials in to pay rupee 53.18 for this application then it automatically deducted rupee 50.00 from my credit card and after submitting it again deducted rupee 53.18 from the credit card. But the original price of this game is rupee 53.18, why did the extra rupee 50.00 deduction happen?

How can I get this money back?

Is buying an application on Google Play not secure?

Answer

Don't worry Vinit, one of the standard way for payment gateways (including Google Checkout and PayPal, PaisaPay etc) to validate your account is by deducting a small amount (typically 1 USD or an approximate equivalent 50 INR) and returning it in next few days.

Please wait for few days and while doing so, please observe for any reversal of 50 INR. If you see a credit to your payment account then all fall in order.

security - How can I disable the screen lock password in lollipop?

I have enabled password protection on the lock screen on my Nexus 5 Lollipop device:

After enabling password, I can't seem to be able to cancel it. Any idea how to go back to None or Swipe?

Answer

This works at my device:

Settings -> Security -> Deactivate Administrators. Deactivate anything listed.

Settings -> Security -> Clear credentials.

Is there a way to disable access to certain Settings components?

The Settings app is common to all Android devices, some have more features than others, but most of them are common, such as "Wireless and networks", "Sound", "Screen" and so on.

However, I am faced with the desire of disabling access to some of these components, while keeping access to some others. Using apps such as "SmartAppProtector", I am able to lock access to the entire Settings application, but can't configure access on a deeper level.

Is there a way to do so? How can I, for example, enable access to the "Wireless and networks" component and disable access to the "Screen" component?

Rooting is no problem, thank you.

wi fi - Copy data from phone to wifi network

USB port on my phone broke (can't transfer data). My phone uses built-in memory, no memory card.

It works, I connect to wifi, etc. Is there any software or easy way to copy all my files from phone to network? Mostly I need to get pictures and videos out. Using email will be tooo slow.

Answer

You can use an app such as WiFi Tiles transfer. All you have to do is to download the app and clicking the start button. Then you can go to the server page you're given (on the app screen) and you can access all the files and folders of your phone memory.

charging - Why does the screen flicker when connecting to a third party wall mounted USB charger

After going through this post(Why does my phone have erroneous input when connected to a non-OEM power source?) I am asking this question the above post does not solve my question up to the mark.

I was at a convenience store where I found a wall mounted charge station. The unit has several types of pins for various brands(Lg , Nokia, Blackberry etc.) When I connected the USB to my device the screen started to flicker and the device started vibrating for some reason for which I had to withdraw the USB Cable from the device.

Specs- Operating system-Android 4.1.2

Manufacturer-Samsung

The unit was perfectly normal as beside there was another blackberry device getting its charge normally. Then why did my device show this behaviour

cyanogenmod - How dangerous is the fact that SELinux is in "Permissive" mode? What should I be wary of?

I have installed a certain ROM which comes with SELinux in "Permissive" mode. This is the only (good) ROM that properly fits my device and there is no way to change the state of SELinux.

Now I'm not really sure what are the consequences of such a decision and would be happy if someone could explain it to me (I have googled it and know what it is theoretically... just not in practice). Said ROM has its root on "disabled" so the device is supposedly unrooted but how does that fits with the SELinux I'm not sure.

Answer

TL;DR: Feel free to jump directly to the conclusion at the bottom if you like :) !

SELinux goal is to prevent privilege escalation by enforcing a mandatory policy which restricts possible actions from both unprivileged and privileged users.

The term "users" here also includes any process running on the device, no matter if it is directly related to the physical user actions (the human, you ;) ), since every process is running using some system "user" account.

Historically, permissions on Unix-based systems are handled using what is called a Discretionary Access Control (DAC) system. In this model:

• Resources like files have owners who can define access rights on the resources they own: this allows them to decide whether a particular resource should be private (only the owner can access it) or if it should be shared with some other users.


• On top of this you have the super-user (called root on Unix-based systems) which is the administrative user and has access to everything on the system. This account can be used interactively by a human (typically a system administrator) to maintain or repair the device, but usually this account will mostly be used by background or low level services which require such privilege level: device drivers, network configuration services, services needing to access files from every users or handling internal inter-users communication.

This is very nice and already provides a good security. However, what about circumstances such as these:

1. What would happen if a bug in a service running as root is found which would allow an attacker to trick such service into running some arbitrary code? Such attacker would gain a complete access to the device. To give some concrete examples, such bug could be triggered by sending specially crafted network configuration information (DHCP) or a MMS to the phone.


2. What would happen if some user does not protect private resources correctly? Then these resources could be maliciously accessed (read, maybe even modified or deleted) by other unprivileged users. This is typically what you have when a malicious application is running on your phone (no matter if you have been tricked into installing it, or if it came here by-itself by using a bug in another unprivileged application, a browser or mail client for instance), and this malicious application tries to directly access other applications data or storage locations (it can do so to access normally unreachable data or to install itself in several places in order to make its removal harder).

Here comes SELinux.

SELinux is a Mandatory Access Control (MAC) system. While in the previously described DAC system users were responsible of setting appropriate right on their own resources, with a MAC system a system-wide policy (provided with the operating system) is enforced to both privileged and unprivileged users.

This solves the two issues mentioned above in the following ways:

1. As I said, this policy also applies to privileged users. This means that, with a properly designed policy, a service designed to handle the device's network configuration will be unable to do anything else: it will have no access to SMS for instance, and a service handling SMS will have no access to the network configuration, and neither of them will have access to the user's data, despite the fact that both are running using the super-user account.


2. Android recently included a multi-user feature which is enforced by SELinux, preventing any user from accessing other user's data. But beyond that, SELinux policy is also responsible from describing permitted applications behavior, and most likely even if some resources are not properly protected using the DAC system SELinux will come at the rescue and still prevent the malicious application from directly access them.

The DAC and MAC systems are not mutually exclusive, on the contrary the MAC system (SELinux) acts as a second layer of defense behind the DAC system (the traditional Unix-like permissions). The job of SELinux is to block any activity contrary to the policy which, given only the DAC system, would otherwise be accepted.

The tricky thing is that such policy can be very complex to write: it must indeed cover every device's components for every possible usage in every situation. In fact, no matter if some action may be legitimate in your situation: if it is not in the policy, it is forbidden. Poorly designed policies can therefore have random consequences, like application crashes, unusable functionality, and so on.

That's why the first versions of Android shipping SELinux included it in "Permissive" mode by default. In this mode, SELinux will log policy violations, but it will not attempt to block the associated activity. By analyzing the resulting log files, it becomes possible to correct and enhance the policy up to the point when the only remaining policy violation are indeed malicious or undesired behaviors. At this point, SELinux can be turned into "Enforcing" mode: it will now not only log but also block every offending action.

SELinux is a mitigation technique. It does not prevent attackers from entering into your phone, but it ensures that once there they can do as few things as possible, ideally nothing useful thus removing any interest of attacking the phone in the first place.

The older the ROM, the larger the number of security bugs which would open such access. SELinux would be an efficient way to keep a minimum of safety despite these known vulnerabilities, however to function properly SELinux relies on a complex policy.

If your ROM is provided with SELinux in "Permissive" mode by default, this likely means that the policy it contains is not reliable enough to be safely switched into "Enforcing" mode.

If you are techie enough and have access to the phone log (dmesg at least, but usually they are also copied into logcat: there are applications allowing to see the latter one but depending on your Android version they may require root access), you can check if you find "avc" entries: these are messages telling you that SELinux has just detected an action going against the policy.

Here is an example of such entry taken from CyanogenMod's website:

type=AVC msg=audit(1363289005.532:184): avc: denied { read } for pid=29199 comm="Trace" 
name="online" dev="sysfs" ino=30 scontext=staff_u:staff_r:googletalk_plugin_t 
tcontext=system_u:object_r:sysfs_t tclass=file

If there is none, just a few of them or for any reason you think they may not keep you from using the phone, you may try to switch SELinux into "Enforcing" mode. In older CyanogenMod ROMs, this was easy and possible simply using an hidden option in the GUI (no need to root the phone or install any specific application), I don't know if other ROMs offered the same feature but since you used the CyanogenMod tag I suppose you may be lucky ;).

Force fullscreen mode in Chrome for Android

I want to put my Chrome browser in fullscreen mode without having to scroll down first.

Is it possible? Alternatively, are there any browsers that have this feature?

If it matters, my device is a Samsung Galaxy Tab E, Android 4.4.2. Not rooted.

How can I find out which app is putting ads in my notification bar?

This question already has answers here:

Closed 8 years ago.

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

Recently advertisements have started appearing as notifications in my phone's notification bar. The icon on the ad are either a green plus sign or a white star with a red circle inside it. There is no indication in the notification as to which app it came from.

I haven't installed any new applications, so I assume that some application updated to include this intrusive new ad system. Ads only show up at irregular intervals once every few hours, so removing all my apps one by one until the ads stop is not really a viable option, since I would have to wait several hours in between each uninstall to see if another ad appears. (I'm sure this is by design.)

So is there any way to figure out the source application of these notification ads?

My phone is a rooted/unlocked/whatever HTC Droid Incredible running MIUI.

Pattern lock screen on Froyo, what should I do if I forget the pass?

What should I do if I forget the standard pattern lock screen order/pass (the one that you need to join 4 or more points between the 3x3 matrix screen) on my android phone?

Answer

If you have linked a gmail account on your android, dont worry.. just follow these steps:-

1. Input the wrong pattern 3 or more times till "forgot password" button appears


2. Click on forgot password button and check your inbox

File from Ubuntu to phone?

I am looking for an app that works similar to "Chrome to Phone", but for file transfer from a desktop. With a right click on a file you can choose "Send to phone" and an application on your Android phone will see it and receive the file. Does anyone know a solution? And does it work on Ubuntu Desktop? And if it doesn't exist; What is the best alternative to send a file to my phone through the internet and without Bluetooth or a USB cable?

Answer

You could also use a browser based remote desktop tool like Airdroid or Remote Web Desktop

rooting - How to root Acer Iconia A100?

I am having trouble trying to root my Acer Iconia A100 with Android 4.0.3. I have tried several rooting methods and they always fail.

I have the USB debugging enabled, and all the adblock or antivirus apps are off.

I've tried all of these:

Am I just missing a step somewhere?

Here is the report from the SRSroot app:

---= SRS One-Click-Root v5.1 =---

11:29:11 AM - Starting ADB Server..
11:29:16 AM - Manufacturer: Acer
11:29:16 AM - Model: A100
11:29:16 AM - Android Version: 4.0.3
11:29:16 AM - Build ID: Acer_AV041_A100_1.049.00_PA_CUS1

11:29:16 AM - Board ID: vangogh
11:29:16 AM - Chipset Platform: tegra
11:29:16 AM - Getting OffSets.. : 0xd9f0 0xaf47 (True) 
11:29:17 AM - Query Server for Best Method.. Found Rootkit: 4

    ----= Start Rooting Process.. Please Wait =----

11:29:17 AM [+] Testing exploit: root8 (please wait..)
11:29:39 AM [+] Executing root8 exploit Failed. 


11:29:39 AM Auto Root Failed on this device. :( 

11:29:39 AM Rebooting Device and try again... 

On the Kingo, when I run the Windows application to root the Android it always says that rooting was successful, but when I try to do anything that requires root (like installing busybox) on the Android, it always fails. Then when I restart the android the rooting is gone.

So, I can root it with Kingo, and if I use SRSRoot after that, it says the android is, indeed rooted, but it doesn't persist. When I reboot the Android then run the SRSrootkit then it sees that the Android is not rooted (even though it seemed to be before reboot) and it cannot root it itself.

Using the unlockr method, I find that the batch file reports mkdir failed for /data/local/tools, permission denied with subsequent permissions errors. And so that method is not able to get root either.

Answer

Well, I think I found a viable solution: Full root for A10x and A5xx ICS. Simple method.

They have a link to a tablet driver for the Acer Iconia A100. I think that is what I needed all along. I installed that on my PC and ran the script and it worked just fine.

I rebooted the Android and ran the Root Checker application and it reports that the Android is, indeed, rooted.

The solution was simple and it persisted after a reboot!

wi fi - Share WIFI from PC over USB

All the questions with similar titles are the inverse of what I want. I would like to connect my tablet (that is "blocked" on the Wifi) to my Windows 10 computer over a USB cable and have the computer "share" the Wifi. Is this possible?

EX: My tablet is blocked from the internet (home policy) but you can get Wifi by asking and staying in the main rooms, I want to have my tablet access the internet by having the computer "share" the internet with the tablet. I don't know if this is possible and if it is would like to know how.

I have a Nexus 7 2013 32GB Wifi on 6.0

Answer

Different ways of sharing interet connection from Windows to other devices

Nowadays there is a lot of ways to share internet connection to other devices and each method has its pros and cons.

Here is a breakdown of methods:

1. Using Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot Feature:

Newer editions of windows 10 (after 1607 anniversary update) have a built in mobile hotspot feature which allows internet sharing to other devices

pros

• 
  

  easy to use as its built-in

  
  



• 
  

  no extra tools needed

  
  


• 
  

  internet is shared over Wi-Fi (no need for cables)

  
  

cons

• some network types are not recognised e.g 3g dongles.

---

2. 
   

   Using 3rd party tools

   
   

   Nifty tools such as mhotspot, or Connectify provide the ability to share internet to other devices by making use of Microsoft Virtual Wi-Fi Adapters

   
   

pros

• 
  

  provide many additional tools to monitor and customising created networks

  
  


• 
  

  improved encryption

  
  


• 
  

  internet shared over Wi-Fi

  
  

cons

• some of these are commercial softwares and are relatively expensive

---

3a. USB Reverse tethering

Reverse tetherng is a relatively newer method of sharing internet especially from devices that do not have a wireless adapter. It uses the USB cable to share internet from the computer to the target device and oftern requires 3rd party tools and drivers as well as system modification of target devices.

• 
  
  

  Reverse Tethering (root) Requires the target devices to be rooted prior to connection and a USB server application or server to be installed on android. For better coverage this method often requires another Xposed module Hack connectivity service to increase internet coverage to most apps if not all.

  
  
  
  
  • Reverse tethering (no root) Similar to root based method but requires extra programs to be installed on windows
  
  
  
  

Specific requirements of reverse tethering no root:

pros - can provide faster connections usually with low latency - reverse tethering (no root) works on windows, linux and mac

cons

• requires usb cable


• installs additional apps on PC and phone


• connections can be difficult to establish


• some of these workarounds only work for some apps and not every app is guaranteed to have internet access, but from my experience browser, Gmail, google play were working just fine

---

Update

3b. Using adb to reverse tether

Using bash script

alias t='r && sz $tether && r && sz $n'
tether='am start -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.TetherSettings && input keyevent 66 && input keyevent 66'
n='netcfg rndis0 dhcp'
alias sz='ad shell'
alias de='ad devices -l'
alias r='ad kill-server && ad start-server'
alias ad='adb'
alias pu='adb push'

Special thanks to user42276 for this script

Pros

• One good thing about scripting is that it eliminates the need for third party apps which may bloat the device/PC

Cons

• Pretty much similar to method 3a above

---

4. Using Windows ICS

Another way is to just use ICS in Windows with no third party software involved:

Requirements:

• 
  

  Terminal Emulator on your Android

  
  


• 
  
  

  Alternatively using adb shell commands (to use adb, you need to enable "USB debugging" on your Android).

  
  


• 
  

  Optional, BusyBox on your Android.

  
  

Instructions

• Connect your Android to PC by USB cable and enable "USB tethering". You are still allowed to enable this option even when your 3g/wifi on your Android is off.


• Windows will automatically search Windows Update and install driver for you.



• 
  

  Open "Network Connections" in Control Panel. Right click on an Internet connection that you have i.e WiFi connection (other connections like LAN also work), so right click on WLAN connection with Internet, and select "Properties".

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  • In tab "Sharing" click "Allow other network users to connect through...", then select the USB connection in dropdown list below.
  
  
  
  

• Click OK. Windows will automatically setup your USB network connection and assign to it an IP address (usually 192.168.xxx.xxx or similar; for Win 7 and later its 192.168.137.1)


• Your Internet connection is now "Shared" and your USB connection is now "Unidentified network".

Type the following command in Terminal Emulator:

netcfg rndis0 dhcp

The name for usb interface inside Android may vary. It is usually rndis0 or usb0. Type busybox ifconfig to identify the name.

It can happen that automatic dhcp method does not work. In this case we have to do it manually:

Type these following commands in Terminal Emulator:

ifconfig rndis0 192.168.137.2 netmask 255.255.2 route add default gw 192.168.137.1 dev rndis0

If route fails, try: busybox route add default gw 192.168.137.1 dev

Some applications (download in Google Play, Gmail, Facebook...) don't recognize the internet connection. You can try this way:

• 
  

  Enable temporarily 3G connection on your Android

  
  


• 
  

  Type: ifconfig rmnet0 0.0.0.0 The name for 3G interface inside Android may vary: ppp0, rmnet0... (Type busybox ifconfig to identify the name).

  
  

This will make applications see your Internet connection via USB as 3G/4G

Well its up to user to know which method suites them best. Hope it helps

settings - Silencing a Whatsapp group

I would like to stop receiving new message notifications from a certain Whatsapp group. Is it possible?

Clarifications:

• I don't want to leave the group.


• I don't want to turn off all Whatsapp notifications. There are other groups from which I still want to get notifications.


• I don't want to just mute the notification sound. What I want is to get rid of the group's notifications entirely.

Why does "Google Services" take up increasing RAM and spawn new services over time?

I have a rooted OG Droid which I install custom ROMs to frequently. I've noticed in all builds of Froyo and Gingerbread that I've tried, over time of being on, certain services will take up more RAM and spawn new processes.

Specifically I've noticed that Google Services does this consistently. Initially it'll take maybe 7MB of RAM and only have 1 process (com.google.process.gapps). But after a good 10+ hours it'll spawn Android Core Apps (android.process.acore) and Calendar Storage (com.android.providers.calendar). Currently it's sitting at 21MB of usage.

This memory is never reclaimed and the phone will bog down as the internal Android task killer has to kill tasks more frequently. I eventually have to reboot.

Why does this happen and can I fix it?

mount - Why Android can't be just mounted?

I read a lot about rooting android, that it is risky, that I can mess all and get my device completely dead and nothing can be done about it. So my question -- why all these phones can't be just mounted? If I mess up my system with root, I always can boot with live-cd or write disk image directly to /dev/sda. After all, I can just mount broken system and repair it.

Why android to not support it? Is it some real technical restriction, related to flash memory or something, that differs between phone and PC/Notebook?

Answer

The only reason you need to root phones in the first place is that the manufacturer has tried to prevent software choice on the phone platform. The PC design is pretty unique in that it has had a choice of software platform for so long that it's an ingrained feature, although with Secure Boot on Windows 8 devices this is likely on the way out.

uninstallation - How can I deal with unwanted system applications without rooting?

There are a lot of system apps in my mobile that I do not use, and have no intention of ever using. I know that is is possible to uninstall system apps and bloatware with root, but is it possible without root?

Are there any non-root options that will help me to deal with unwanted system applications?

Answer

No, that is impossible -- as only root can make the system partition writable (which is required to delete a system app, which is stored there). However, using ICS (Android 4.0) or above, you can at least "freeze" them (make it "invisible and unusable") -- and, if you later decide otherwise, also unfreeze them again (see e.g. How to Remove / Disable the Bloatware Apps in the HTC One X or Bye-bye, bloatware: Disable system apps in Android Ice Cream Sandwich).

4.0 ice cream sandwich - Can I connect my Android device to a laptop via WiFi to use file sharing?

How can I connect my Sony Xperia U to my laptop using WiFi to use file sharing? I tried normal connectivity by sharing my laptop WiFi and connect my Xperia U to the laptop -- but it only accesses the internet, not the file sharing.

What should I do to access file sharing and managing my laptop using my phone? Is there any application, setting, or procedure that can help me connect my laptop and my phone?

google play games - How to get cheap In app purchases

Does anyone know where it is cheapest in the work to buy in app purchases from?

I've seen people try Brazil, Russia, etc..

Well on android, if you change your local settings to a different country in your google wallet as well, for example Mexico you can buy things slightly cheaper than say in the U.S.

A lot of games have packs that you can purchase and they are very expensive especially for Things like Game of War or Mobile Strike.

A lot of people get things for cheaper. But when their gold reaches 50 k, the pack price changes and for some reason it no longer works.. so they can't get cheaper packs..

I was wondering if anyone knows a way around this?

samsung galaxy s - How to restart an Android device?

Is there a way to restart an Android device? Now I have to shut it down and manually turn it on again, but I'm looking for a solution where the whole process happens automatically.

This might be device specific, mine is Samsung Galaxy S.

Answer

The menu you get when you press the power button should give you a list of options including Shutdown, Restart etc. If it doesn't, your phone's manufacturer might have left it out of the ROM.

audio - Can't hear people unless switched to speaker phone

I cannot hear callers unless my speaker phone is on...how can I fix this? I have gone to all the settings but it does not change anything. The caller can hear me ok but there is only a very faint which is inaudible sound back.

ringtone - How to stop a phone from ringing without rejecting the call?

Sometimes I don't want to take a call, but I don't want him to know that. So I left the phone be until it stops, so it would appear that I'm away from phone or something and I miss the call. Can I silence the ringing tone and the vibration while doing that?

Info: My phone is Galaxy S

Answer

I suspect this is very much device dependent, but on the HTC Desire HD, you can press the physical volume down button to silence the ringtone whilst allowing the call to continue.

Hide applications from Apps menu

I don't want to root my phone to delete some applications installed by the provider, but I would like to hide them from the menu, since I know that I won't use them often. I know that it is possible to do that with the alternative launcher, but I'm using the original one. Is there an application that can do that?

If it matters, I'm using a HTC Desire.

application autoupdate - Google Play updates on mobile connection despite setting

Even though I have set the option not to update apps on mobile connection, it still updates them and Google Play app is the number one in my mobile connection usage. How to fix it?

Answer

AFAIR that setting is only applied to apps installed thereafter, so you've got to disable it for each app separately in addition. I've made that back then right when the autoupdate feature was introduced, so I don't remember anymore where exactly this has to be done (Playstore app or playstore website).

Doing a little Google Search brings up e.g. this article: How to Disable Automatic App Updates on Android, which in short describes the required procedure as follows:

1. Globally disable/enable auto-updates (applies as default to apps installed after changing this setting):
   
   
   
   
   1. Open the Google Playstore app
   
   
   2. Head to Menu→Settings
   
   
   3. Toogle the Auto-Update Apps setting to the wanted value
   
   
   
   


2. Adjust it for apps already installed:
   
   
   
   1. Open the Google Playstore app
   
   
   2. Head to the list of your installed apps ("My Apps")
   
   
   
   3. Open each app separately, hit the Menu again, and toggle the Auto-Update checkbox
   
   
   
   


3. Restricting Google Play to WiFi: (also see my answer here, with screenshots)
   
   
   
   1. From your homescreen, go to Settings→Data Usage
   
   
   2. Enable a "global limit" (can be pretty fake, e.g. "5 TB" – it just needs any value, which one doesn't matter for this case)
   
   
   3. In the list of apps below, scroll to the Google Play Store app
   
   
   4. Open its entry, scroll to the end of the page
   
   
   5. tick the checkbox to "restrict background data"
   
   
   
   
   

Above order (1 & 2) applies to "I want auto-updates globally, just not for certain apps". If I understood correctly, the "Auto-Update" checkbox on the apps' pages only becomes visible when auto-updates are enabled globally. So if you want to deactivate that for all apps, you might have to reverse this order:

1. Enable auto-updates globally


2. Disable it for each installed app separately


3. Disable it again in the global settings (so it will automatically be applied to apps you install from now on)

Not very user-friendly, especially with many apps installed – but it at least should work.

Item #3 will stop Google Play Store from working while on mobile data. While usually, this just affects background data, Play Store will most likely refuse to work altogether, as it relies on GCM (Google Cloud Messaging), which relies on background data to receive messages.

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More references:

There are many more links, not all fitting in this answer :)

google play store - Download issues with Android Marketplace: "Download unsuccessful"

Archos 43 Internet Tablet owner here.

I've been happily using the Google Android Marketplace since purchasing this device, but recently, my application downloads and updates are not working. Either the download attempts to start and nothing happens, or I immediately get a "Download unsuccessful" message. I'm not sure what changed to make this happen.

Today, I also got a PowerAMP error indicating that they can't verify my PowerAMP license (Cause: Android Market response- ERROR CONTACTING SERVER).

Maybe this is a firmware issue? Currently using Firmware 2.3.26 (Android 2.2.1).

No issues with AppsLib or Amazon App Store, but some apps are only on the Android Marketplace, and I want to use them!

Any help troubleshooting this is appreciated.

Answer

Try going to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> All and clearing the data for the Market (you may need to Force Close it first), then reboot your phone. This has fixed a similar issue for me before.

I think the PowerAMP issue is unrelated, their server is probably down temporarily.

input methods - How can I get word completion with physical keyboard?

Is there any app or method that provides word completion when using a physical keyboard?

Answer

I believe Better Keyboard and Smart Keyboard Pro offer suggestions even with the use of the hardware keyboard. This is a user configurable feature available in the app settings.

4.1 jelly bean - Install CA without having to activate screen lock

I have a Nexus 7 (Android 4.1.1) and I want to add a CA (Certificate Authority) to my device to use it for the ssl-connection to my mail server. The CA is self-signed. The Certificate does only contain the public key of the CA (of course!).

I also want to keep my screenlock disabled because on a tablet not leaving my house it does not make sense to have a screen lock.

Now the problem arises: Whenever I want to import the CA, Android wants me to change my screenlock to digits/password which I want to avoid.

Can this behaviour somehow be prevented? There is nothing security critical at a public key of a CA.

I know that when the phone is rooted one can add a CA, but I want to avoid rooting my phone.

external sd - Should i do the factory reset? If yes, what will i lose?

My android ( htc desire s ) phone is working fine when i don't put my micro sd card in it ( this card was free with the phone ). But my phone keeps restarting every few minutes if i keep the memory card in it. By that i could say that the phone is fine but issue can be with either the memory card or my phone no more support any memory card.

The thing is if the same memory card is inserted in any other mobile, be it android or any other smartphone, that phone will not start and the data is completely readable too. So, memory card is fine. When I insert some other memory card in my phone then my phone too do not restart.

So that means the issue is with the phone + that particular mem card combo.

I am ready to uninstall each and every app from my phone, but will that solve my problem? Should I perform the factory reset? Will it solve my issue ? What will i lose if will do the factory reset? Like: contacts, sms, call logs, APN settings etc . Any free software to backup all these.

But may be i am going in the wrong direction. May be there is some easy way to get the phone and memory card working. Please help.

FYI The phone and memory card worked completely fine for 8 months

Answer

Doing a factory reset WILL NOT modify the sdcard in any way. Only the data on the phone will be deleted. Contacts that are set up to sync with your google account will restore, but everything else will be gone.

If you have applications installed on the sdcard, I would start there. Uninstall them, or move them back to the device storage. You say that it only crashes when it is in the desire, and not any other android phone. This would make me think there is probably an app installed on the sdcard for the desire. You also said that it doesn't reboot when a different card is in the desire, again leading me to believe that there could be an app that is installed to the sdcard that is causing problems.

If you think there is something in your data that is causing the issue, then backing up the data with Titanium will just restore any "issue" that there is.

If you think the problem is with the data on the sdcard, then you can format it under storage in settings.

I would also consider the sdcard itself could have issues. The sdcards that come with the devices are very cheap cards and usually one of the slower class type of sdcard. I have had a few of them last only a couple months before. I suggest getting a better sdcard, one that is at least a class 6. If you have a slower class card, this could also potentially cause issues with some applications.

2.3 gingerbread - Rooting the HTC Desire Z

Just received one of these (SIM Free, UK Version, Android 2.3 with Sense UI).

Can anybody point me towards the simplest and most easiest way to root this handset?

rooting - What does "to root a phone" mean?

I heard this phrase or the variants (rooted phone, rooting, etc.) in android forums but I don't know what it means. Can you explain it in simple terms?

Answer

To 'root' your phone means to gain administrative rights on the file system of your phone (in linux, root is the username of the master admin). With root access, you can install and uninstall anything you want on the phone.

Most phones come with limited access regarding what you can and can't do on it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it can keep users from accidentally breaking something they shouldn't mess with on the phone, especially in regards to the operating system. However, many manufacturers limit your rights to things that aren't really so mission critical, too, and rooting the phone gets around this.

If you have a few unnecessary applications (bloatware) pre-installed on your phone that you cannot uninstall, rooting will give you this ability. It will also allow you to upgrade to newer versions of Android before your phone's manufacturer and/or cell provider make the updates available to you. Be warned, though, that rooting may void your warranty.

For more info on what rooting enables you to do with your phone, check out this question.